The Wall
Cpl. Crystal Landry and the effort to get more women policing Humboldt County
Cover Story
The Wall
Cpl. Crystal Landry has a cold. It’s just a sinus thing, she says, something she picked up from one of the other officers on last week’s shift. She blots her nose with a tissue and pecks at the keyboard of her computer, typing a Be On the Lookout for a stolen dirt bike. “They took…
PlanCo Chair Worked at Controversial Project Site, Raising Questions of Bias
Humboldt County Planning Commission Chair Alan Bongio did some concrete work on the construction of local developer Travis Schneider’s family home, which Bongio failed to disclose publicly during two commission meetings concerning permit violations associated with the increasingly controversial project. The revelation comes as Bongio reportedly plans to resign as chair of the commission at…
Humboldt Confirms Two More COVID-19 Deaths
Humboldt County Public Health reported today that the county has confirmed two new COVID-19 deaths, a resident in their 60s and another in their 70s, since its last report Sept. 28. Three new hospitalizations were also reported and, according to a state database, six people are currently hospitalized with the virus locally. The deaths reported…
Flash Fiction Returneth!
Crack your neck, crack your knuckles, and crack open that laptop or notebook. The Journal’s annual 99-word Flash Fiction Contest is on. Share your original stories of 99 words or fewer (not including title) for a chance at small-scale literary greatness and publishing your brief and beautiful work in a special issue of the Journal.…
Opening Acts for the Sara Bareilles Concert Announced
With the countdown on to Grammy award winner Sara Bareilles’ hometown concert in Halvorsen Park on Oct. 16, the city of Eureka announced today that she has selected two opening acts with local ties for the free show. Sharing the stage will be Mario Matteoli — a singer, songwriter and music producer who also grew…
Jay Aubrey Lewis: 1972 to 2022
Jay Aubrey Lewis, born Dec. 3, 1972, in Fort Bragg, California, was a gift from God, a reward from Heaven. (Psalm 127:3) Heaven sent. Born to Michael Jay Lewis and Belinda (Crook) Lewis. A blessing from God. Survived by his parents, stepmother, Anita Lewis, half-brother Michael Lewis, half-sister Natasha Lewis; his aunts Nancy (Crook) and…
Photos: Pastels on the Plaza’s Fleeting Beauty
More than a few of the 180-plus pastel-chalk artists participating in this year’s Pastels on the Plaza in Arcata started showing up by 7 a.m. under a foggy sky on Saturday, Oct. 1. The creative social event with its ephemeral art began back in 1987 as a major fundraiser for Northcoast Children’s Services. NCS serves…
Notorious Eureka Landlord Floyd Squires Dies
Floyd Squires, who gained a Teflon reputation for his ability to evade decades of legal attempts by the city of Eureka, his tenants and neighbors to hold him responsible for unsafe conditions and pervasive problems at many of his properties, has died. He was 76. The cause of his death on Sept. 18 was cardiac…
NCJ Preview: Women in Policing, Fall Food and More
This week we’ve got a profile of Cpl. Crystal Landry of the Rio Dell Police Department and the recruitment effort to get more women in local policing. And since it’s officially fall, we’ve got seasonal garden clean-up advice and a dumpling recipe for young green pumpkins. Finally, we’ve got a little satire about reproductive freedom…
Pamela Walsh Olson: 1946 to 2022
We are sad to announce the death of Pamela Walsh Olson who passed away at home in Eureka on Sunday, Sept. 25 after a short battle with cancer. Pam was born July 27, 1946. There will be a private memorial gathering for family members only at a later date. Pam’s family requests that donations be…
PlanCo to Consider Formal Letter of Apology to Wiyot Area Tribes
The Humboldt County Planning Commission will consider Thursday sending a letter of apology to three Wiyot area tribes after Commission Chair Alan Bongio’s comments during its Aug. 18 meeting, which tribal officials found deeply offensive. After a representative for local developer Travis Schneider accused the Wiyot Tribe and Blue Lake Rancheria representatives of lying during…
Fact Checking Ads for California’s Sports Betting Propositions
Odds are, one of the many ads for legalizing sports betting has snagged your attention, given their ubiquity on TV, websites and billboards across California. You’d be forgiven, though, for still not having a clear sense of what either of the initiatives do. Some of the ads don’t mention sports betting at all, potentially leaving…
Teen Arrested After Threat Locks Down Fortuna High
A 13 year old was taken into custody on suspicion of making criminal threats for allegedly sending a skull emoji with the message, “Gonna light up the school at 12:10,” to a group of Fortuna High School students, leading to a full campus lockdown Thursday afternoon. According to the Fortuna Police Department, the image was…
Campus Advocates Provide Key Support to Sexual Assault Survivors — but ‘Superheroes’ are in Short Supply
When Laura Swartzen saw the email from Sacramento State University’s Title IX office, it felt like her heart skipped a beat. Swartzen, the Sac State confidential campus advocate, had spent the past nine months supporting a student who reported being sexually assaulted. Swartzen had listened to the student’s wrenching account, offered to connect them with…
Young Pumpkin, Little Jewel of Fall
Fall, my favorite season of all — the abundance of fresh vegetables and fruits, the joy of celebrating the Harvest Moon, and the brilliant sunsets in the still warm evenings. This fall, I’m extra happy because my parents have come to visit. I have been busy in the kitchen with my mom experimenting with few…
Tips for Throwing a Forced Birth Shower®
Who doesn’t love a baby shower, sitting around with a bunch of ladies playing guess the baby food flavor and griping about who came up with the idea to name their son Carbon first? But these days, as our bodily sovereignty is dwindling faster than a flat pitcher of mimosas in a room full of…
Saturday Night Arts Alive
Eureka Main Street presents First Saturday Night Arts Alive on Oct. 1 from 6 to 9 p.m. Our galleries, museums, theaters, bars and restaurants are open. Some businesses continue to require everyone to wear masks and follow other COVID safety precautions to keep patrons and staff safe. Please respect the standards set by individual businesses,…
Chetco Estuary Pumping Out Big Kings
If you’re looking to catch big, ocean-bright kings, you’ll want to keep an eye on the Chetco estuary. Salmon have been staging in the tidewater since the beginning of September and they’ll be there until rain allows them to make their way upriver. And according to Andy Martin of Wild Rivers Fishing, the season at…
‘Never, Ever, Ever’ Again
It appears Travis Schneider’s permit problems may have just doubled in size and gotten decidedly dirtier. The local developer’s efforts to get a permit and permit amendments necessary to lift a county stop work order and resume construction of his family home on Walker Point Road south of the Indianola Cutoff had already been complicated…
Cleaning Up the Garden
Even though we live in a temperate climate, I’ve been noticing some subtle changes in the weather and critters here on the coast. I’ve been seeing wooly banded bears — a caterpillar that has some bizarre obsession with crossing roads, at least down in my neck of the woods. Their fuzzy black and orange presence…
Jazz in the Bardo
I have been trying to find a way to tie the works of the author Hilary Mantel with the music of Pharoah Sanders, and have been coming up bare, I’m afraid. Last week both died, leaving this land of plangent weeping, fallen violence, and occasional delicious meals and orgasms, in favor of the fields in…
Confess, Fletch and Pearl
CONFESS, FLETCH. To a vast, often problematic swath of the population (read: Gen X white guys, to whom I am only generationally adjacent, thanks very much), Chevy Chase is as a god. This is due in part, of course, to his SNL antics, Clark Griswold and his, in hindsight, surprisingly minor, world-devouring turn in Caddyshack…
Taxing Tribal Lands Adds Insult to Injury
News feeds are being flooded with pro and con arguments about whether federally recognized tribes and licensed gambling companies should be allowed to offer online sports betting in California. Instead, #LandBack should be trending. The #LandBack movement seeks to return lands to tribal nations. These lands, with few exceptions, are subject to state property taxes.…
Americans Defending Dictators
Editor: Throughout the past 100 years, there have always been Americans who offered excuses and/or support for murderous dictators (Mailbox, Sept. 22). Tens of thousands of Americans were enamored with Joseph Stalin’s “communist utopia” before they discovered that his actions led to the deaths of millions of his fellow Russians via murder, death camps and…
‘All Happy Now’ Beneath the Milky Way
Peter Santino completed his “All Happy Now” earth sculpture in 2008 but I only became aware of it last semester, when one of my College of the Redwoods students shared a photograph of it in class after an afternoon hike in the Humboldt Botanical Garden. I was mesmerized at the scale of the art piece,…
Storytelling
A good story is woven From finest ingredients Maidenhair fern ribs Lichen dyed beargrass Cedar bark, cedar root Spruce root, cattail leaves Sour grass and straw grass And tule, woven tight So tight you can boil water And cook a tangled plot So intricate, intimate And lovingly patterned Seemingly simply but Specifically complex The narrative…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Poet Susan Howe describes poetry as an “amorous search under the sign of love for a remembered time at the pitch-dark fringes of evening when we gathered together to bless and believe.” I’d like to use that lyrical assessment to describe your life in the coming days—or at least what I…
