A story in today’s San Francisco Chronicle reveals that Patrick Joseph McCabe, a former Catholic priest who led Eureka’s St. Joseph Parish in the early 1980s, has been charged with sexually assaulting boys in his native Ireland. McCabe, now 74, was assigned to the Eureka church in 1983 by now-deceased Bishop Mark Hurley of Santa […]
Courts
Posted inNews
Prop 8 Overturned, Rally Planned
Federal Judge Vaughn Walker today overturned the narrowly voter-approved Proposition 8, finding that the anti-gay marriage ballot measure was unconstitutional under both the due process and equal protection clauses. The ruling is expected to be appealed and will likely end up in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court. The local chapter of PFLAG, Parents, […]
Posted inNews
Palco Severance Comes Through!
Feel-good story of the week: 51-year-old Eureka resident Brian Connors, a friend of the Journal, has been one of the unluckiest people in Humboldt County in recent years. Back in December 2006 he was laid off from his job at Pacific Lumber. Then company’s then-parent corporation, the infamous Maxxam, promised him and 89 other laid-off […]
Posted inNews
EKA/ARC Recruiting Measures Overturned
EKA/ARC Recruiting Measures Overturned: The Associated Press reports that Judge Saundra Armstrong has overturned the two citizens’ initiatives that last year banned military recruiters from targeting
Posted inNews
Supreme Court Prop. 8 Ruling Near
clue.Supreme Court Prop. 8 Ruling Near: The state Supreme Court’s ruling on Proposition 8 will be released Tuesday at 10 a.m., according to the L.A. Times. Prop. 8 is the state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage passed by voters in November; the state Supremes could either uphold or overturn it. Big news, whichever way it
Posted inNews
Hurwitz Fraud Case Settled
Defense attorney James Brosnahan (center, bald) and Maxxam chief Charles Hurwitz (behind Brosnahan) leave the Oakland federal courthouse Monday, which turned out to be the last day of the trial. Photo: John Geluardi. This just in from Oakland: Parties in the fraud suit against Charles Hurwitz , former owner of the Pacific Lumber Company, have […]
Posted inNews
Privacy shmivacy
Imagine this: You’re out in your yard, watering the lawn, and because it’s a nice warm day, and because you live a mile-and-a-half down a private road festooned with “No Trespassing” signs, you’re wearing nothing but your favorite underwear, which have these cute little pigs on ’em and are so totally comfy. Suddenly you hear […]
Posted inNews
Arcata Whoops Feds
Well, all of you sniggerers who like to put down Arcata for meddling in distant world affairs when it ought to be attending to its own potholes, here’s your comeuppance: Our favorite anklebiter city may have just helped shape future world energy development. Two settlement agreements were filed last Friday in the U.S. District Court […]
Posted inNews
Highway Robbery
The Eureka-based construction firm Mercer Fraser, well known for its work on roads and highways locally and around the north state, last week agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle a lawsuit charging that the company defrauded the federal government while bidding on several highway projects dating back to at least 2005. The suit, which […]
Posted inNews
Prop 8 court date
March 5. That’s the day Prop 8 will be challenged in court, according to this story in today’s Sacramento Bee . The controversial state ban on gay marraige, approved by a slim margin on Nov. 4, has been legally challenged by three parties as unconstitutional. Seating’s limited in the San Francisco courtroom, so you may […]
Posted inNews
Viola? (+ Hobart estate update)
The current edition of the Ferndale Enterprise takes note of the story from last week, ” Hobart’s Children ,” and takes issue with what is deemed misinformation regarding the painting above by Viola McBride. The tangled story of the disposition of Hobart’s estate included a brief description of the tours of Hobart’s Galleries led by […]
Posted inNews
Alleged cockfight kingpin arraigned
Local landowner Ray Christie was arraigned at the county courthouse today on six misdemeanor charges stemming from last month’s raid on his McKinleyville farm, where animal control officers found heaps of evidence suggesting a massive gamecock breeding operation. Christie, who looks like this — — appeared in street clothes (blue flannel shirt, Carhartt jeans, workboots) […]