Cover Story
The Importance of Why
Raise your hand if you think you can solve an eighth grade math problem. If you came up during the learn-and-burn era of teaching in the 1990s and 2000s in California, you are familiar with filling in bubbles and teachers encouraging you to guess if you don’t know the answer; cramming dates, vocabulary or formulas…
Updated: Sheriff Identifies Fieldbrook Victims; Suspect in Custody
2nd Update: The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office today released the booking photo of Jason Michael Arreaga, the 29-year-old Lucerne, California man arrested Thursday on suspicion of fatally shooting two people in Fieldbrook on Wednesday. The investigation into the killings of Harley Wayne Hammers and Angel Robin Tully, both 37, continues, the sheriff’s office reports, adding…
Updated: Homicide in Fieldbrook
Humboldt County Sheriff’s Lt. Steve Knight said he will be releasing additional information about last night’s shooting in Fieldbrook later this morning, after he debriefs with the detectives working the case. A portion of Fieldbrook Road remains closed this morning, as police continue to collect evidence and process the crime scene. Fieldbrook Elementary will be…
HSU Conference Focuses on Addiction, Social Change
“It’s not about quick fixes. It’s about commitment, persistence and showing up.” Virginia Belton, PhD candidate and founder of Redwood Palliative Psychology, says that our community is on the cusp of a change. With one of the highest drug-induced death rates in the state (far above the state average, according to the California Center on…
Possible Insanity Defense in Marijuana Murder Case
A 32-year-old Kneeland man appears to be exploring an insanity defense in the face of federal charges that he murdered one of the workers tending his marijuana farm in 2010. Mikal Xylon Wilde’s attorney, the eccentric powerhouse J. Tony Serra, recently filed a motion advising the federal government that he “intends to introduce expert evidence…
Tonight’s Setlist: Two Reasons to Leave the House
The sun’s going down soon and you’re wondering how to make the most of your Sunday night? You’ve two options. A listen to Austin psych-pop quartet Tele Novella inspired us to highlight the band’s Sunday gig at the Palm Lounge as Your Show of the Week. “Don’t Be A Stranger,” from new EP Cosmic Dial…
Figy’s No More
The old Figueiredo’s building in McKinleyville — once home to a video store, pizzeria and Mexican restaurant — has been reduced to rubble as a Yuba City construction crew works to transform it into a new CVS store. The plans have been in motion for a while now, since Dave and Dana Figueiredo sold the…
Accused HSU Lecturer Released After Child Porn Arrest
A Humboldt State University lecturer posted bail and was released from custody hours after his arrest on suspicion of possessing and distributing child pornography Friday. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office announced with a press release that — after a months-long investigation involving numerous federal and local agencies — detectives arrested Christopher Steven Haynes, a 64-year-old…
Where There’s Smoke
Are you still recovering from Hops in Humboldt? Try a hair of the dog that bit you over at the Mateel Community Center and its SoHum Brew Fest and Barbecue Smoke-off on Sunday, Aug. 31 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. ($25 all-inclusive ticket, $10 barbecue and music only). Instead of slaving over the coals…
Tonight’s Setlist: Get Ripped
There’s this, the slightly mysterious Watercolor Paintings and Void Boys at the Birdhouse show… …and for the less subtle, local blues favorites Buddy Reed & the Rip It Ups transform The Westhaven Center for the Arts from an art gallery to a lowdown, dirty, gut bucket blues dance hall as part of the center’s monthly jazz…
On-Duty Ranger Arrested for Suspected DUI
The California Highway Patrol is requesting that prosecutors file charges against a California State Parks law enforcement ranger arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence while on duty. CHP officer Patrick Bourassa said a citizen called police shortly before 3 p.m. on Aug. 15 to report that a ranger was possibly driving under the…
Let it Flow
Tribal leaders praised the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s decision, announced Aug. 22, to let more water out of Trinity River reservoir to improve conditions for the fall run of Chinook salmon entering the lower Klamath River, where drought-induced low flows and resulting warm water temperatures threaten a repeat of the massive 2002 fish kill. The…
Scare Tactics
Here’s my dark secret: I teach journalism but I hate reading the news. As my husband devours the two newspapers we get delivered each morning, I skim through them like they are cod liver pills I have to wash down. It wasn’t always this way. In college, I bought my own copies of the New…
Weed All Around
East: A California marijuana lobby is growing like, well … , with representatives most recently tapping growers in Willow Creek for cash and pledges upwards of $5,000 and a congratulatory to-do over the defeat of Senate Bill 1262, which sought to regulate medical mariuana in California (see “Cannabis Quagmire,” Aug. 21). In a press release,…
The Numbers Game in America’s Education Casino
The axis on which U.S. higher education turns is enrollment growth. It is a numbers game akin to Wall Street’s casino. Hence the statistic in the North Coast Journal’s “Ground Breaker” cover story last week, “Enrollment went up 78 percent.” If you are a university president and you miss your enrollment targets, the chancellor will…
Resurrections
Reviews SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR. A buddy hipped me to Frank Miller’s comics a few years before Miller and Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi, Spy Kids) teamed up to adapt some of his Basin City stories for Sin City (2005). At the time, the movie was kind of a fanboy’s dream. Rodriguez was…
Hum Plate Roundup
A good meal under $10 is a frugal find, and the legwork, trial and error it takes to find one can give you a tummy ache. Now that the students are back in town, it’s easier to just follow the crowds between classes to the dining deals. It’s not like you’re looking at someone else’s…
High on the Hog
Editor: Greatly disappointed reading Thadeus Greenson’s take on why the government needs to dig deeper into our wallets, to keep the bureaucracy functioning (“Busted,” Aug. 14). He seems to completely ignore the fact that government pensions are the cause of our plight. Calling themselves public servants has apparently worked on Thad, as they are the…
Write on
Editor: I am compelled to write after Linda’s latest piece, “Stoned Love” (Aug. 14). I have been moved so often by her compassionate journaling as she openly struggles with drug culture issues. The first piece I remember reading was the one about the tweeker shooting permit (“What We Talk About When We Talk About Meth,”…
Grow Up!
Editor: Your film reviewer Dev Richards completely missed the value of the amazing movie Boyhood (“Give and Take,” Aug. 21). Filmed over 12 years, you really see the characters grow and change over time, and it’s so much more real because the actors really are older and are changing themselves — which is of course…
Objectives
Editor: On top of the proliferation of paid marijuana industry ads, your Aug. 7 special insert states that NCJ is one of the sponsors of the “Golden Tarp Award.” Are your writers able to present objective coverage of the marijuana industry within this context? Sherry Skillwoman, McKinleyville
Humless
Editor: I just moved to Humboldt County from the Bay Area, and was astonished to read in this paper that the homeless were the runners-up in the category “Best Thing to Bitch About” (“Best Of,” Aug. 7). But my astonishment turned to horror upon reading in the Humboldt Edge (August/September, Vol.1 No.5) about an art…
Blues, Brothers
The bad news: Your live music options have been somewhat compromised by the occurrence of the third annual Savage Henry Magazine Comedy Festival. The good news: the third annual Savage Henry Magazine Comedy Festival. Please see elsewhere in the Journal for the full scoop on the funny. Friday: Get ripped Local blues favorites Buddy Reed…
Weeell, Isn’t That Special?
If you remember the heady days of ’80s stand-up (black blazer, light jeans, big sneakers), then Saturday Night Live alum Dana Carvey likely sent some kind of beverage out your nose. See him grab the mic again at the Van Duzer Theater on Thursday, Aug. 28, at 8 p.m. ($65, $25 HSU students). On SNL,…
