Cover Story

It’s a sunny Monday morning and Humboldt Bay Fire Chief Sean Robertson and Fire Capt. Brandon Harlander are sitting in a nondescript conference room at the department’s main station on C Street, talking to the Journal as a part of a media outreach campaign to spread the word about what they’re describing as a “staffing […]

After investigating Eureka City Schools’ decision to offload its former Jacobs Middle School site in a property exchange agreement with a mystery developer, the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury has issued a report criticizing the district for a lack of transparency and due diligence. “The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury concludes that the Eureka City […]

Michael Peterson and his son Nicolas are unloading pillowcase-sized bags of purple Brussels sprouts from their Willow Creek Farm truck. There are boxes of pale green bok choy and sacks of rainbow carrots, too, stacked up outside the entrance to the Harvest Hub run by the North Coast Growers Association (NCGA) on West End Road […]

It’s a morning in early January and Arcata House Partnership Executive Director Darlene Spoor is addressing the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors at the invitation of Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson. The board is holding a public hearing to consider extending a temporary ordinance making it easier for organizations to open so-called sanctuary parking shelters […]

Ron Samuels is walking through Marimba One’s sprawling shop off O Street in Arcata. The place is filled with the whir of industrial fans and a constant pinging from five separate tuning stations spread through the facility, where tuners are hitting rosewood keys with custom mallets and grinding layers from their undersides until they find […]

It’s a sunny, cloudless afternoon the day before commencement and Mark Johnson is sitting in a nondescript conference room, its windows shuttered, talking to the North Coast Journal in the Student and Business Services Building at Cal Poly Humboldt. The campus remains quiet and largely vacant two weeks into a “hard closure” instituted in response […]

Summer break is nearly here, and with it the sunshine and long days that seem infinitely longer when the kids have nothing to do. Pour yourself a tall lemonade and peruse this year’s Summer of Fun listings, where you’ll surely find the right camp, class or summer excursion for your youngster, whether they’re into stages, […]

When a group of several dozen protesters entered Siemens Hall on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus shortly before 5 p.m. on April 22, they say they had no intention of grinding the university’s operations to a halt. Standing on the campus quad, which was barricaded on all sides with makeshift blockades crafted out of segments […]

As the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that could shift the legal landscape underpinning how governments can treat homeless residents, local officials watched with mixed emotions and hopes. Since 2018, a decision known as Martin v. Boise out of the U.S. Court of Appeals’ Ninth Circuit determining that governments cannot […]

In a case that could drastically alter how cities in California and beyond deal with homeless encampments, U.S. Supreme Court justices on April 22 weighed whether to allow broader punishment for people camping in public spaces.  “Laws like ours, they really do serve an essential purpose,” said Theane Evangelis, arguing on behalf of the city […]

Patrick Harvey, speaking to the Journal from the California Medical Facility, a state prison in Stockton, falls silent for a moment, considering the question about hope. Harvey, who has served 25 years of a 25-to-life sentence, reportedly the first under California’s three-strikes law handed down in Humboldt County, has a tendency to speak quickly over […]