Where There’s Smoke
Cal Poly Humboldt at center of feud between CSU, community college systems over fire management degree
Cover Story
Where There’s Smoke
As two California higher education systems continue to feud, lawmakers have entered the equation using a route usually reserved for irate retirees: a strongly worded letter. The matter at hand — the 1,300-student Feather River College in rural Plumas County offering a bachelor’s degree in applied fire management — has become a lightning rod issue, sparking…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, May 10
The world of 1970s Jamaican sound system DJs was every bit as complex and groundbreaking as early punk rock or hip hop, and a volume could be written about the various scenes and artists contained therein, which I am clearly not going to compose here. With that in mind, the singer and MC Eek-A-Mouse stands…
Movie Tonight: Tuesday, May 9
Humboldt Bay Social Club continues its free, weekly adult movie night tonight at 6 p.m. This evening’s offering is the 2021 Ryan Reynolds comedy Free Guy, set in a video game world that is apparently nothing like the landscape of Tron. If nothing else, the venue is very charming and the drinks well made.
Music Tonight: Monday, May 8
There are certain musical ley lines that curl around the world and contain within their mysterious pathways certain regions that are of great importance in the Promethean creation of music. Prime among those areas is West Africa, where the DNA of much of our best contemporary music can first be found. Burkina Faso is a…
Music Tonight: Sunday, May 7
The Chamber Players of the Redwoods are putting on a free show at 5 p.m. at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka. A cursory scan of the program had my ears pricked up, as one of the composers whose music is on the menu is Astor Piazzolla, the Argentine master of the tango and a man…
Music Tonight: Saturday, May 6
Houston rapper Devin the Dude has built his 25-year career around the oddball, back-alley by the mainstream style of hip hop that has made that city an artistic haven and spiritual twin of its cultural sister city of New Orleans. I’m talking about cool, idiosyncratic shit that is too real to be esoteric and far…
Music Tonight: Friday, May 5, Cinco de Mayo
Having never traveled to Mexico, I’m not too hip to this holiday, in the sense of how widespread its celebration is outside of my native state of California. However, my general aim in this column is to learn and share. One thing I do know is that Makenu is a fantastic local cumbia band playing…
Year of the Rabbit Celebration this Saturday
While you’re out enjoying Arts Alive this weekend, be sure to hop over to the Eureka Chinatown Lunar New Year of the Rabbit Celebration, Saturday, May 6, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Clarke Plaza (free). The celebration is a street festival with performances by Lion Dancers, Humboldt Taiko drumming and more. And on Sunday,…
Theater Tonight: Thursday, May 4
The Dell’Arte school is presenting the first night of its three-night run of Clown at 8 p.m. What is Clown? Why, it’s a student-cast performance of the sort of stuff that Dell’Arte does best: theatrical, clown-based capering. This show has been quite popular in the past, so if this is of interest to you, snag…
Happy Condorversary! Today Marks the Return of Prey-Go-Neesh to Local Skies
What a difference a year makes. On this date one year ago, A3 and A2 took their first flights into the wild, marking the historic return of California condors to North Coast skies after a more than 130 year absence. Now eight of the birds known to the Yurok Tribe as prey-go-neesh are flying free,…
Lawmakers Want More Social Media Regulation. Here are the Legal Hurdles They Could Face
When Sophie Szew first downloaded Instagram at her 10th birthday party, she was exposed to a flurry of information that “promoted eating disorders,” she told California lawmakers. By 15, she said, she was following “every starvation regimen recommended” by Instagram’s “explore” page. Szew, now 20, spoke in Sacramento at a Senate hearing in April in…
California’s Next Housing Crackdown Could Force Cities to Plan More Homeless Shelters
All over California, cities are falling far short when it comes to providing enough shelter for their homeless communities. More than 69,000 homeless residents live in Los Angeles County, for instance, but that county has just over 21,000 beds in shelters and temporary housing programs. It’s a similar story in Sacramento County, which counted nearly…
State Parks, Trinidad Rancheria Sign Agreement on Tribal Access to Ancestral Lands
The Trinidad Rancheria and California State Parks signed an agreement this week that allows tribal members to access and gather on their ancestral lands and “recognizes that a collaborative approach will better facilitate managing and preserving cultural and natural resources in the North Coast Redwoods District,” according to a joint announcement. The five-year memorandum of…
NCJ Preview: CPH’s Fire Fight, Police Shooting, Spiked Drinks and Oyster Fest Beer
This week’s cover story dives into the tug of war over wildfire training degrees and whether Cal Poly Humboldt has the right to call dibs on them. We’re updating on the police shooting in Eureka stemming from an alleged armed robbery and assault, and a high-speed chase, as well. We’ve got what you need to…
‘Entitlement’
Editor: How interesting! Entitlement behaviors exposed on both ends of the spectrum. This has become The American Plague: entitlement. A monied developer/contractor/business man indignantly claiming innocence and victimhood, schmoozes and lies and brazenly flauts adhering to any rules previously agreed to and then threatens to leave Humboldt County because he has been so poorly treated (“Poke the Bear,”…
The Rosetta Stone
When Napoleon Bonaparte set his sights on clearing the British out of Egypt in 1798, he took with him 160 savants in his 400-ship invasion fleet. These worthies were scientists, artists and historians who, supposedly, would bring the lost civilization of the Egyptian pharaohs to light, thus ensuring Napoleon’s legacy not only as a conqueror,…
Snow Geese
run to see beyond the trees five hundred or so snow geese in their vees – telling travelers’ tales to the island below. and here, down here, a thousand robins sing their nest-building song – so soon? and the long-tailed ducks? will they leave tonight? on the fifth of march we saw eight, maybe…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): According to a study by Newsweek magazine, 58 percent of us yearn to experience spiritual growth; 33 percent report having had a mystical or spiritual experience; 20 percent of us say we have had a revelation from God in the last year; and 13 percent have been in the presence of…
Community Brings Attention to Drink Spiking in Arcata
While a spate of recent social media posts on Facebook, Instagram and Reddit have warned of increased drink spiking at Arcata bars, the North Coast Rape Crisis Team says it has not seen an increase in such reports, though it fields 20 or so monthly, on average. Late last month, a post circulated on Instagram…
Police Shooting Investigation
Four Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office officers remain on paid administrative leave following an April 18 police shooting at a busy Eureka intersection after two suspects in an armed robbery and pedestrian hit-and-run crashed into another vehicle while fleeing a deputy. The suspects, identified by law enforcement as brothers Brandon Widmark, 27, and Jesse Widmark, 18,…
God’s Eyes
“Every love story is a ghost story” was a favorite quote of the late author David Foster Wallace, which he attributed to the later author Virginia Woolf. This wasn’t the case, however, as the quote has been traced to the Australian author Christina Stead, who was referring to writing after the death of her husband.…
Oyster Fest’s Beer Choice is Shuck It
After virtual Oyster Fests with online entertainment and curbside pickup of oysters and beer, and an in-person tangle of food and drink lines by the Creamery District, the June return to the Arcata Plaza feels nostalgic. No entry fees, no fences. Just the old ouroboros of people circling the lawn and the bands and lining…
Trinidad Art Night
THE LIGHTHOUSE GRILL 355 Main St. Antoinette “Toni” Magyar, acrylic on canvas; prints, note cards. Susan Mayclin Stephenson and Jeff Stanley, books. SAUNDERS PLAZA EAST 355 Main St. Music by Band o’ Loko. Face painting by Jade Bamboo. HEADIES PIZZA AND POUR 359 Main St. Ceran Walker, mixed media abstract. TRINIDAD MUSEUM 400 Janis Court.…
The Timing’s the Thing
Timing and rhythm can turn a 90-minute masterpiece into a 120-minute dental experience. They make comedy gut-busting or obligatorily chuckling. They set up style, and era, and can even relate to culture. The context of what an audience experiences in a given day — the death of a political figure, the birthday of rock star,…
A Walk Among the Spotted Owls
After four decades of hiking in Humboldt County forests, I’d never spotted a wild northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis) until Saturday during a Godwit Days tour, thanks to help from a tour guide and an assist from a white mouse. My wife and I did see a barred owl (Strix varia) a couple years ago…
Pacific Halibut Season Kicks Off Monday
May 1 marks day one of our abbreviated ocean sport fishing season on the North Coast as Pacific halibut will open Monday. Our rockfish season will follow, opening on May 15, but will also be shorter than previous years. Without an ocean salmon season this year, these two fisheries will be more popular and will…
The B List
Because this is an era defined in part by unearned nostalgia, we still frequently refer to a certain type of cinema as “B movies” or, if our geekiness tends to anachronism, “programmers.” This calls back to a time when the movie industry was more siloed but also more disparate, when studios diverted resources and talent…
‘The Damage is Real’
On April 19, my work site had a lockdown drill during the afternoon portion of the day. Schools have a minimum of two lockdown drills a year, in addition to monthly fire drills and less frequent earthquake drills. Drills have extremely loud alarms and flashing lights. It is very negatively stimulating. Many of my students…
