The Little Casino That Could?
Blue Lake Rancheria hopes laptop gambling will lure younger players
Cover Story
The Little Casino That Could?
Maryann Six and Treg Combs leaned back against a cushioned divan at the Blue Lake Casino Saturday night to try their luck at a new software package that turned the iPad on their laps into the gambling equivalent of a 300-pound slot machine. This new system, dubbed iSino, was recently approved by state regulators, making…
Snow Alert
Here’s the Caltrans traffic-cam image of Hwy. 101 north of the new bridges at Confusion Hill, at 1:45 this afternoon. Below, Route 299 at Berry Summit around 2:30 p.m. Needless to say, road conditions are nasty out there, and two recent road fatalities highlight the danger. First there was the death of 24-year-old Fortuna CHP…
Humboldt’s ‘Million $ Man?’
Actually, technically and professionally speaking, Dean Christensen, CEO and president of Coast Central Credit Union, is Humboldt, Trinity and Del Norte counties’ man. As for the million dollars (or almost million dollars), that’s what a report last week by the Orange County Register said Christensen made in compensation — which is more than just salary…
CR Prez Disses the Journal in Job Interview
In a community forum down in Stockton Tuesday, College of the Redwoods President Jeff Marsee (right) sought to convince the public that he should be hired as the next president of San Joaquin Delta College, and his pitch included a dig at the North Coast Journal. Marsee suggested that last year’s cover story on the turmoil…
Queer Kissing Flashmob
It started with a Facebook invite, “Queer Kissing Flashmob,” sent out by some HSU students: “Come meet us on the HSU quad to kiss your partner(s) at noon on Valentine’s Day! Please wait until the clock starts to strike noon to start kissing your partner(s), kiss for between 5 to 10 minutes and then go…
olives @ the market this morning
Went yard saleing this morning. The car was low on gas so we stopped at the 76 by the Plaza, where they still actually pump your gas. While the car was filling, I dashed across the street to the mini-farmers’ market at Café Brio. Picked up some Brussels sprouts from Willow Creek Farms (we’ll try…
Egypt – Rise to Freedom Mix1.5
In the wake of the events in Egypt, Natacha Atlas, who brought her band to the Arcata Theatre Lounge late last year, worked with her producer/arranger Samy Bishai to create a new remix and a video in solidarity with the Egyptian people. (Her heritage is part Egyptian.) “Egypt – Rise to Freedom Mix1.5” is a…
$2.5 Million For Hansen’s Truck Stop
On Wednesday, a jury awarded Hansen’s Truck Stop $2.5 million in the eminent domain case between the truck stop and Caltrans. (We wrote about the Caltrans-Hansens case in December; you can read that story here.) The Hansens, who’ve long operated a multi-faceted empire just south of Fortuna, have had notorious battles with the state agency…
For Last Minute Romeos
Being romantic is exhausting. Yes, this Valentine’s Day you could try and be a hero and display your devotion by coming up with some unique, orginal way to make all your loved one’s friends jealous. But c’mon. Are you really going to have the energy to pull that off? On a Monday, no less? Fear…
Radio pain
Radio pain Editor: I am writing in response to the painful experience of the botched KSLG interview (Joel Mielke, Feb. 3). I have never seen someone so utterly destroy goodwill. It was amazing to hear someone disrespect not only his new boss and previous friend but alienate the entire community he plans to work in…
Mind Your Data
Editor: Your statement that the “average proprietor” of a Humboldt business earned just over $21,000 and that, given what public employees earn, “no wonder the Tea Party has a local following” missed the mark. (“Boomerangers,” Feb. 3) First: It’s inaccurate to say that the “average proprietor” earns that. In this context, “average” suggests “typical.” While…
The Gleeful Resister
Editor: Thank you for reprinting the piece on John Ross in your last issue (“Can’t win for losing,” Feb. 3). John was a friend to many at the NEC (Northcoast Environmental Center) in the late ’70s and early ’80s and a frequent contributor to the Econews. He walked his talk and also knew how to…
Power Down
Editor: Of course the businesses and residents of Jacobs Avenue don’t want to pull up stakes and leave. (“Behind the Levee,” Jan. 27) Rising sea levels make their predicament all the more poignant because we’re all going to face “tough choices” in the foreseeable future. We’ve been in denial about the greenhouse effect on the…
Well, Arcata?
Editor: Did you hear about the Arcata police action to intimidate the gentleman outside the grounds of Arcata High? For a couple days Brian has stood quietly holding a sign that says, “High schools are a prison.” Oh, the humanity! Some apparently don’t like the truth. Twice the police had nothing better to do than…
Secrets Go Postal
Secrets. Everyone has ’em. Sometimes they’re kept close; sometimes they’re revealed, as in PostSecret. It began with an invitation printed on a postcard: “You are invited to anonymously contribute a secret to a group art project. Your secret can be a regret, fear, betrayal, desire, confession or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything — as long as…
The Voice
Bluesman Tab Benoit was born and raised on the Gulf Coast in a Louisiana town called Houda, about an hour’s drive from New Orleans. When he’s not out playing his guitar, he flies small planes, a hobby that gives him a bird’s eye view of the Mississippi Delta environment. He’s not trained in environmental science,…
Realignment
On Monday, the effort to halt the California Department of Transportation’s Richardson Grove Improvement Project took on a new tone, one that resembled the impassioned protests of the Maxxam days. Handbills announced the noon rally at Caltrans’ District 1 office in Eureka with an illustration of tanks rolling through the redwoods on a narrow highway.…
Sunset Park: A Novel
Paul Auster has been the most literary and most New York-centric of the prominent novelists of his generation. His new novel, still set mostly in New York, is considered a departure: more linear, more story-oriented, less “postmodern,” whatever that may mean anymore. Perhaps, like Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, it is responding to what lit critic Chad…
Past: Tense
Previews: JUST GO WITH IT. Adam Sandler teams up with long-time collaborator director Dennis Dugan (Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy) in a rom-com co-starring Jennifer Aniston. Sandler plays a bachelor plastic surgeon whose method of bedding girls is to pretend to be unhappily married. When he meets a schoolteacher who seems to be “the one” (Brooklyn…
The Party Ain’t Over
Recently inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the pioneering female rockabilly star Wanda Jackson deserves better. Teaming up with White Stripes leader Jack White, one might think that White, as a producer, would take a more reverent route, as he did with Loretta Lynn on her fine comeback record, Van Lear Rose…
Much Ado about Zero
No simpler concept exists in arithmetic than the “number line,” which stretches from minus infinity through (-3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3) to infinity, and contains every “regular” number. Even or odd, positive or negative, prime (divisible only by itself and one) or composite, rational (2/3) or irrational (?, ?2) — the diagram says…
Feb. 15-31, 2011
Feb. 15. In either the Heavy Industrial or Agriculture-Exclusive zones of the city of Ferndale, it is permitted to operate a hog farm, turkey farm, fur farm or frog farm. No definition of “frog farm” is given. The children of that city are advised to consider seriously the career of frog farmer and to undertake…
When the inspector comes
You can tell a happy operation when you see one. At least, that’s how it seemed last Friday mid-morning inside Fish Brothers, in Blue Lake’s industrial park, where hair-netted Codey Summerfield spun, a blur, with a roll of clear plastic around a fat pallet stacked with boxes of smoked fish, driven by the relentless happy-defiant…
Chocolate Creations for Valentine’s Day
Toward the end of the 19th century, Richard Cadbury, under the pseudonym of “Historicus,” wrote a book titled Cocoa: All About It. Richard was the second son of John Cadbury, founder of the English cocoa and chocolate company Cadbury. At the very beginning of the book, there is an illustration that shows a crowned character…
On Visions and Hybrid Journalism
As you read in this column two weeks ago, we have a new editor, Tom Abate, who has been busy getting to know Humboldt County all over again. Tom was in Blue Lake last week, Fortuna over the weekend and we both spoke at the Rotary Club of Eureka on Monday. At a Journal staff…
The Women
sitting four rows ahead are large …
Arts! Arcata
AMPT Skate Shop 1040 H St. Benefit for the McKinleyville skatepark; Lucian Moon. Arcata Artisans Cooperative 883 H St. Barbara Wright, mosaics and fused glass jewelry; Terri Tinkham, scarves, horsehair jewelry; Zak Shea, woodworker and painter. Arcata City Hall 736 F St. Marcella Beth Bice, colored pencil drawings. Arcata Exchange 813 H St. Jay Brown,…
Two Guys Each $10 Shy of a Tea Party
My Saturday night hit a bump when the Humboldt County Tea Party Patriots refused to let me hear former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack argue for a strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution at a well-attended fundraiser at the Fortuna Veterans Memorial Building. Truthfully, I could have gained entry by paying the $10 suggested donation, but…
Clif is in
Editor: Reading Heidi Walters’ article of Jan. 20, “Southern Discomfort,” I was reminded that it’s not always easy for constituents to reach me. I’ve always recognized the difficulty in getting services, funding and attention to the southern part of the 2nd District, especially in the remote rural areas. I seize every possible opportunity to attend…
