Three for Fourth
The candidates for Fourth District Supervisor on jobs, land use and the Marina Center
Cover Story
Three for Fourth
If the Fifth Supervisorial District, profiled in last week’s issue, is the most rural and expansive part of the county, then the Fourth District is the most urban and compact. The district takes in part of the Samoa Peninsula (Samoa and Fairhaven) but the great bulk of its population lives in and around the city…
Video from Tonight’s 4th District Debate
Technical mishaps, a hotchpotch of topics, plenty o’ calls/questions from the listeners and a few heated moments. That was tonight’s NCJ/KHUM Fourth District Supervisor debate. Check it out.
Fiorina in Arcata Tomorrow
The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate will appear at O&M industries, of all places. U.S. Senate Candidate Carly Fiorina to Host Town Hall in Eureka Area ARCATA, CA – U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina will tomorrow host a town hall with employees, small-business owners and other community members at O & M Industries in the…
We’re Highest
In gas prices, that is. According to the San Francisco Business Times, which gets its stats from AAA: Tracy has the cheapest gas in Northern California at $3.05 a gallon. Eureka’s price of $3.29 is not only the highest in California, it’s the highest in the lower 48 states. Wailuku, Hawaii, beats Eureka with an…
Last Picture Show
Damn these times. We just got word from McKinleyville Middle School’s Fine Arts teacher, Ken Weiderman, that the art program — and his position — will likely be cut because of what he calls “unprecedented funding cuts (thanks to the state’s financial mess).” The Music program might also be cut, he said. And so, said…
Put The ‘Lake’ in Blue Lake
And now, according to a detailed press packet, the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District enters the third, and final, phase of the water resources planning process that it’s calling “Stay With the Flow,” but which is otherwise known, in the local parlance, as “Holy Crap, We Can’t Let the Waterbaggers Get Our Mad.” Just kidding…
Eureka Inn Opens Tomorrow
No freaking joke — the Eureka Inn is going to have a semi-stealth grand opening tomorrow. The Journal just spoke with owner Libo Zhu, who was answering phones at the desk when we called. Zhu said that the company didn’t wish to make a splash because they’re just starting with a few rooms at first.…
Oddity of the Day
Google News thinks that every single article in Alexander Cockburn’s radical Counterpunch newsletter is written by former Maxxam general counsel Jared Carter:
Crime Rates in Humboldt County
In his trip from debate to debate around Humboldt County this election season, District Attorney Paul Gallegos has taken credit for reducing violent crime during his eight years as the county’s chief prosecutor. To state it up front: I believe that the case the counselor is advancing here is a piece of minor campaign flummery…
Natural Selection
Ruminations and evolutionary psychology Accompanied Darwin on his…
All’s Wells
Lynne Wells plays Florence Foster Jenkins, the operatic singer who was so bad she was great, in Glorious!, the comedy that inaugurates Redwood Curtain’s new theatre in Eureka. Jenkins, who died in 1944, was a real if forgotten footnote to the New York City musical and society scene, until she became the subject of three…
Say Yes to Art
Oil spills forth in Mexico’s Gulf — Happy Earth Day! — less than a month after President Obama pitched more offshore oil drilling (Sarah Palin says, “Don’t give up on drilling! It’s akin to man’s race to the moon!”). Oklahoma’s new anti-abortion laws make Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale seem like a lark. In related…
Earth Shaker
In 1964, Bob Dylan prophetically exclaimed that “The times they are a-changin’,” and a nation of disenfranchised youth believed him and reacted. In 1991, Kurt Cobain sarcastically declared, “Here we are now, entertain us,” and birthed a sea of flanneled cynicism that still hasn’t found justification to get off the couch. Similarly, in 1976, Harry…
Acoustic Dawg
For decades master mandolinist David Grisman has been at the forefront of a fusion of Old World stringband music, Appalachian bluegrass and Django jazz known in some quarters as newgrass. In Grisman’s world, it’s “Dawg” music — Dawg being the nickname he was given by the late great Jerry Garcia, one of many storied musical…
Radio Waves
In Italy, politics and Silvio Berlusconi are inseparable. He owns the three largest television networks and dominates the book and magazine publishing business. Now that’s a conflict of interest. In comparison, Patrick Cleary’s run for Fifth District Supervisor while owning Humboldt County radio powerhouse KHUM/KSLG is small potatoes. But his Fifth District challenger Ryan Sundberg…
Jazz Time
On a sunny spring afternoon, a pair of musicians improvise in the parlor of a hundred-year-old Arcata house, the space a jumble of instruments and electronic gear. Darius Brotman sits at the upright piano, his fingers flying up and down the keyboard sending out showers of notes. His old friend Duncan Burgess, who owns the…
Notes from the Hustings
High Flyers It was a particularly warm yet partly cloudy Saturday morning at Murray Field outside Eureka. A variety of single-prop planes spread across the tarmac. If there was an award for unique fundraising events, this one would certainly make the list. The $25-per-plate gathering attracted friends of Mike Hislop, chief investigator for the District…
Hurt People
Previews Opening at midnight Thursday pretty much everywhere is Iron Man 2, sequel to the 2008 summer blockbuster, with Robert Downey Jr. returning as gazillionaire Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, the guy with the really cool suit. This time director Jon Favreau (the guy from Swingers) has him cracking one-liners, wooing a cute new assistant…
College Un-Bound?
William Lamont Robinson admits that the first time he enrolled at Humboldt State University, in Fall 1991, he didn’t care one whit about college. He was 19 and he’d come to play football — which, he also admits, was sort of a last-ditch gamble. Humboldt wasn’t exactly football central. But his football scholarship at East…
Arkley’s Word
When local blog The Humboldt Herald last week broke the news that Bank of America was suing Eureka businessman/political lightning rod Rob Arkley and his wife Cherie for $50 million, it was tempting to shrug off the item. After all, hounding Arkley is more or less the raison d’etre for Heraldo, the Herald’s fictitious author(s).…
Buffy’s Back
Jesse Pearson and his friend John McManus started The Buffy Swayze nine years ago as a two-piece with preprogrammed beats from cheesy synths providing the beat. Their best known song is probably “Rock Star,” the unofficial theme for Jensen Rufe’s documentary on the local scene circa 2005, Rural Rock & Roll. By that time Buffy…
Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
The planet Earth as it was when those famous photos were taken from the moon, doesn’t exist anymore. It has begun devastating changes, and it’s not changing back for thousands of years. It’s so different that Bill McKibben gives it a new name. He calls it Eaarth. “… it won’t be anything like the planet…
Fifth Takes
Editor: I so anticipated the Journal’s article about the Fifth District supervisor race (“Fifth and Goals,” April 29). But my high hopes were dashed. The portrait of one candidate — Ryan Sundberg — was so badly drawn I don’t know what to make of the others. One is brash, one is rich and one is…
Medicine County
British singer/songwriter Holly Golightly is a miner of songs. Often an admirer of lost, obscure melodies, she likes to leave the dirt and dust on instead of polishing them off. Welcome to Medicine County, Golightly’s mythical, gothic landscape, located somewhere in the U.S. South. This is Golightly’s third record with “The Brokeoffs,” which is essentially…
Mountain, Molehill
Editor: I have waited to make a public comment about the proposed Richardson Grove highway improvement (“Roads and Redwoods,” April 15 & 22). I just didn’t need another battle. But I have to weigh in. This issue is taking up too much energy we could be using for other things. I have lost two friends…
Nuclear Matters
Nothing threatens our future more than the existence of nuclear weapons, as documented by a free DVD you can order from the Web site Nuclear Tipping Point (www.nucleartippingpoint.org). And don’t be lulled by our agreement with Russia to reduce mutual stockpiles to 1,550 warheads. Can you even name 1,550 U.S. cities? Two Japanese cities have…
