Cover Story
Tsunami Boats
It was Jan. 15, opening day of the Northern California Dungeness crab fishery, and Mike Cunningham’s boat, the Sally Kay, was stacked high with pots, ready for the 8 a.m. starting gun. The weather was good as he headed out of Woodley Island Marina. It was still dark, with the first red flush over the…
The Case of the Missing Hondas
If you have a 1990s Honda and like to spend time in central Arcata, it might be a good idea to make sure your locks are in really, really good shape. Someone, probably someone with a few altered keys, has been taking aging Hondas, driving them around for a day or two, and then leaving…
Final Votes In; No Big Surprises
Well, no one managed an electoral-death-defying reversal in those late ballots that the county elections office has been dutifully counting for the past two weeks. Estelle Fennell is still in, with 52.59 percent of the vote, Clif Clendenen is still out, with 46.94 percent, and nothing’s looking good in Humboldt for Norman Soloman’s congressional bid,…
Center Arts 2012/13 Sched: Costello, Krauss, Izzard, CSN comin’ to HumCo
Did you get your shiny new Center Arts 2012/2013 season schedule in the mail yet? We did. And it ain’t too shabby (if you don’t mind droppin’ some significant moolah.) So, without further ado, here’s who’s Humboldt-bound this year. Dibs on Eddie!: 8/28 – Brandi Carlile – $35/$17 8/29 – k.d. lang – $65/$35 9/6…
Fortuna PD: 21-Year-Old Man Arrested For Allegedly Photographing 4-Year-Old
Press release from the Fortuna Police Department: The Fortuna Police Department received a report of a male subject taking photographs of a four year old female near an apartment complex located in the 1000 block of Loni Drive (Fortuna). Officers responded and contacted the four year old as well as the possible suspect, who both…
EPD: High Speed Car Chase Ends With Meth Discovery
Press release from the Eureka Police Department: On 6/16/12, around 8:51 AM, a Eureka Police Department (EPD) officer on patrol observed a black 1997 Nissan Altima in the vicinity of ‘V” and 6th Streets. The officer recognized the Nissan’s driver, Jonas Randall Semore (age 39 of Eureka), from prior police contacts. (Semore is on Post…
About Those Bohn Mailers…
Background: Shortly before Election Day we reported on a series of slate mailers that had recently appeared in local mailboxes. Of the various endorsements printed on these mailers, the name of Rex Bohn was about the only constant. One flier looked über-lefty; another looked gun-nut conservative; and there appeared no rhyme or reason to the suggestions…
Tree-sitters Declare McKay Victory
Remember the McKay Tract tree-sitters? The straggle of folks who began ascending redwoods on Green Diamond Resource Company’s forested property near Cutten four years ago to save them from being harvested? No? Refresh your memory here — don’t worry, it’s not just a logging tale, it’s a development story, a conservation story, a horse story,…
“O” My! Oyster Fest 2012 Sights and Winners
Well, that was awesome! The 2012 “o”dition of Arcata Main Street’s Oyster Festival is in the books and, as always, was a grand shuckin’ time! The Journal was there chompin’ and gluggin’ all day, but we did find a few moments to use our greasy fingers to snap some shots. Wanna see? Head on over…
Addiction Tales From Hoopa
If you haven’t been over to the Two Rivers Tribune website lately, you’re missing out on a powerful collaboration between TRT editor/writer Allie Hostler and New America Media reporter Jacob Simas. In writing and on film, Hostler and Simas take a nuanced, poignant and tough look at addiction, especially to meth, in Hoopa country, from…
OB-Gyn turmoil at St. Joe’s
St. Joseph Hospital’s gynecologic chief of staff has resigned in protest of a near-ban on sterilizations, according to two other gynecologists who attended a meeting about the new rules yesterday. The physician, Dr. Bill Weiderman, did not return a call seeking comment. [Update, 5:05 p.m.: Weiderman confirmed that he has resigned over the policy, but…
Summer Vacay
Reviews MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE’S MOST WANTED rockets out of the gate at a seemingly unsustainable pace and manages to keep it up. Even more surprisingly, the jokes come as thick and fast as the chases, and the vast majority of them actually land. This is a sequel to a sequel to a 2005 movie with…
Blowing Smoke
Editor: I thought the article about the fantasy train idea was great; local journalism at its best. I also thought it treated Mr. Barnum, if not his plan, with rather surprising respect, since Barnum seems to be entirely in either denial or the dark about the plausibility of a project involving the expenditure of billions…
Thanks, Maven!
Editor: Thank you, Marcy Burstiner, for covering my free speech lawsuit against the City of Arcata for its (ironically named) Aggressive Panhandling Ordinance (Media Maven, June 7). I don’t see how Arcata can suggest that the simple act of holding up a sign, which is the most passive form of panhandling, can qualify as aggressive;…
Bohn Mots
Editor: It was both amusing and depressing to read your Blog Jammin’ piece in last week’s Journal (June 7) regarding Rex Bohn, the winner of the 1st District supervisor race. It appears to have been a rather slippery exercise for you in attempting to get some straight answers from him regarding the campaign mailers and…
One Size Fits All
One Size Fits All
Summer Punches
I can’t speak to the kind of summer Humboldt is having so far. I’ve been in Portland for two months for a teaching gig; by the time this column hits the streets, I’ll just be getting home for the first time. But it’s probably safe to assume that Humboldt, like Portland, has not seen much…
The End is the Beginning
Will accepts political defeat and explores new passions.
Go East, Young Man
In the early 1970s, the question of when humans first came to the Americas had been decisively answered: 13,500 years ago. At a time when sea levels were 200 feet lower than now, big-game hunters migrated east from Asia across a continent-size land bridge (“Beringia”) connecting Siberia and Alaska, then south through an ice-free tundra…
The Etiquette of Freedom: Gary Snyder, Jim Harrison, and The Practice of the Wild
Poet and eco-elder Gary Snyder grew up on a farm in Washington state. When he was a boy he asked his Sunday school teacher if he would meet a beloved and recently dead heifer in heaven. The clergyman said no. “Then I don’t want to go there!” said novelist Jim Harrison from across the dinner…
King Tuff
Vermont-reared musician and songwriter Kyle Thomas is a tall, lanky “dude,” who you could easily picture hanging out with a group of skateboarders with his T-shirt, frayed jeans and soiled Converse sneakers, his foppish, uncombed hair tucked underneath a beat-up trucker cap. Thomas is an eccentrically ambitious songwriter who plays in several bands, including J.…
I Am
I am thinking tall Growing big as a…
Crabs of Soccer
Alan Exley acts a lot like Obi-Wan Kenobi — the Alec Guinness one, not that other guy. He’s calm, speaks thoughtfully and has a hearty laugh that crinkles his whole face. Slowly pacing the sidelines at the Humboldt State Redwood Bowl, he even kinda looks like old Ben. His hair and beard are leaning toward…
Get Sandy
When I was a kid, I liked to dig. I’d dig holes in snow, dirt, sand, whatever. I was a friggin’ mole. Sadly, I never understood the artistic potential of all those pits and piles – that hole could have been a sand gorilla’s mouth, that hillock its nose. Dang! I realize now it’s…
O Oysters
You may recall Lewis Carroll’s poetic Through the Looking-Glass tale, “The Walrus and The Carpenter,” which finds the tricky pair leading a small flock of oysters on a long walk down the beach before a sad dinner of bread and, yes, oysters. “I weep for you,” the Walrus said: “I deeply sympathize.” With sobs and…
No Oysters
Yes, this weekend is Oysterfest — the biggest event on the Humboldt calendar. But as someone who’s choked down large quantities of slimy bivalves in his day (*fifth place finisher in last year’s Shuck and Swallow Contest, thank you), I can confirm that too much of a good thing, well, it can leave you slightly…
For Levon
It was hard to miss the sad news earlier this year: Levon Helm, drummer for The Band and the vocalist on classic songs such as “The Weight,” “Up on Cripple Creek” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” died after a battle with cancer. This Friday at the Jambalaya a group of local musicians…
