The Outlier
All nine counties in a statewide resentencing project have seen inmates’ prison sentences reduced. Except Humboldt. By Thadeus Greenson
Cover Story
The Outlier
When Humboldt was selected as one of nine California counties to participate in a prosecutor-led resentencing pilot project, it was cause for celebration in the Public Defender’s Office. Not only would a new state law give the district attorney’s office the authority to ask the court to re-sentence convicts who are either serving exorbitant prison…
Music Tonight: Friday, Dec. 22
Big 8 is playing the Basement tonight at 9 p.m. What is Big 8, you ask? Why it’s a New Orleans/Southern soul, blues and vintage country band helmed by a crew of the following local allstars: Jeff Landen, Paul DeMark, Robert Franklin and Justin Brown. No cover charge, so plenty of pocket money to spare…
Music Tonight: Thursday, Dec. 21
Thursday, Winter Solstice Time, “the school in which we learn … the fire in which we burn” — according to the poet Delmore Schwartz — has brought us more place markers to roast astride the Yule log. Not only is today the beginning of our calendar recognition of winter, but it’s also an evening of…
Local Commercial Dungeness Crab Season to Open in January
After delays due to poor meat quality and concerns about whale entanglements, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife today announced the local commercial Dungeness crab fishery will open Jan. 5. The opening zone stretches from the Oregon state line down to the Sonoma-Mendocino county line. Meanwhile, local restrictions on the use of recreational crab…
Sheriff: Suspect Identified in McKinleyville High Threats Case
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office believes it has identified a specific, single suspect responsible for each of a series of threats made in recent weeks to McKinleyville High School, disrupting classes and putting teachers, students and their families on edge. Sheriff William Honsal declined to say whether the suspect is local or how they were…
Judge Rules Voters Should Decide Cannabis Initiative
Voters will get to decide the fate of the Humboldt Cannabis Reform Initiative in March, a superior court judge has ruled. In a five-page ruling filed last week, Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Timothy Canning rejected arguments put forward by the Humboldt County Growers Alliance (HCGA) and seven cannabis farmers that proponents of Measure A…
Music Tonight: Tuesday, Dec. 19
We’re making up for two ghost days this week with yet another double-booked night of fun. First up at 7 p.m., Huckleberry Flint is putting on its popular Winter/Christmas show at the Arkley Center for the Performing Arts. As in seasons past, this one is at a very real risk of selling out, so if…
Music Tonight: Sunday, Dec. 17
The community has come together to help the struggling Dell’Arte school in Blue Lake and you can get involved today. Starting at 4:30 p.m. at the Carlo Theatre, there will be a fundraising event including hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction, a sitdown meal and a performance by the Dell’Arte Players. Food will be provided by…
Benedicts at the Burger Joint
When T’s Café North closed up shop, Arcata’s roster of brunch spots took a blow. Not to worry. Since August, the stacks of stuffed French toast and the roster of champagne cocktails served in Mason jars have migrated the few blocks to Burger Joint, run by the same owner, Halleh Paymard. Happily, you needn’t wait…
Music Tonight: Saturday, Dec. 16
Two shows tonight because things thin out a bit later on in the column, so I’m packing more options on the weekend. However, these are a toss up, happening at roughly the same time in two different cities, so you gotta pick one. At 6:30 p.m. at the Arcata Theatre Lounge, it’s Humboldt Surfrider’s fifth…
Zoo and Sky Walk All Lit Up for the Holidays
Let there be lights! About 16,000 of them. And let those lights illuminate pathways and the Sky Walk at Sequoia Park Zoo at the inaugural Zoo Lights: Holiday Extravaganza, happening Friday, Dec. 15, Saturday, Dec. 16, and Sunday, Dec. 17 from 5:15 to 7:15 p.m. (and continuing Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays until Jan. 4) for just…
Resentencing, the Earth Flag and a Market Closes
This week, we’re looking into why Humboldt County hasn’t seen any inmates’ sentences reduced under the state funded resentencing program. Also, Arcata voters chose to place the Earth flag over the stars and stripes. But can it be done legally? Finally, the Fieldbrook Market is a community hub — we’ll talk about the impact of…
Music Tonight: Friday, Dec. 15
Hot on the heels of the Hip Hop Humboldt Holiday hoedown earlier this month comes another group cypher with a lot of the same names on the marquee. This one’s at Humbrews and it comes in two stages, so listen up. 6-9 p.m. is the free all-ages Fatbol cypher. After 9:30 p.m., however, it’s $10…
Holiday Dance Magic
The season of holiday dance is upon us — a time when tutus twirl, pointe shoes pirouette and the spirit of the season comes alive on stages across the county. The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky’s timeless classic, gets some love from two outstanding local dance companies this week, plus a creative take on a holiday favorite. First…
A Question of Precedence
In the November 2022 election, voters in Arcata faced a seemingly simple question: Should the Earth flag fly at the top of city-owned flagpoles? “It’s time to recognize the primacy of the Earth over nations and states when we fly their symbols on our town square,” Measure M’s ballot text stated in part. “We cannot…
New Moon Fever
I don’t attribute much of human behavior to the far-out celestial bodies in our solar system. Credit that to a rebellious streak I’m employing against my now-deceased parents who met in the 1970s in a transcendental “community” that was somewhat active in that archetyping. I don’t worry about which planet is in retrograde. I do,…
Fieldbrook Market Closes … for Now
When Lisa Springer approached her neighbors Ross and Kelly Costa about the Fieldbrook Market & Eatery three years ago, it was to rent space for making ramen. Springer had tried the Japanese take on Chinese noodle soup in San Francisco and gotten hooked. “Every city I go to, the first thing I do is look…
Match Girl Strikes a Chord at the Playhouse
The Little Match Girl: A Warm Tale on a Cold Night, written and directed by James Peck and Sarah Peters Gonzalez, is the annual holiday show at Arcata Playhouse. It is a re-imagination of Hans Christian Andersen’s famous short story “The Little Match Girl,” with more plot, contemporary comment and a twist on the ending.…
Strange Escapes
LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND. A degree of healthy apprehension generally attends the adaptation of a very recent, very successful novel (this one published in 2020 by author Rumaan Alam). Of course, this is a formula as old as Hollywood, empowering the twinned cabals of movies and publishing to form a hydra and hopefully double their…
‘Illuminating’ Insights
Editor: I read Barry Evans column on light pollution (“Light Pollution,” Nov. 23), then I saw Ken Bates’ letter (Mailbox, Nov. 30) referring to that particular column and was so grateful for these illuminating (pun intended) insights. I live on a street just inside the Eureka city limits that was before 2008 free of street lights.…
The Cardinal
For my father A scarlet oak blazing in autumn above the woolen hats we rebirthed from a box marked ‘winter’ Chlorophyll ceding to carotenoid ending, as if to begin. In summer’s innocence I swam under the oaks and madrones fingertips gently paddling downstream among compatriot green leaves set free upriver, broken off after July rain.…
