Cover Story

Arcata resident Michael Furniss traces his aspiration for a natural burial back to a rainy afternoon four decades ago when he was a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley studying soil science and forestry. Watching swirls of water from the downpour absorb into the ground while sitting near a creek on campus, […]

We’re taught in school about checks and balances between the various branches of government, but those lessons tend to leave out the role that civilians play in holding officials accountable. We’re not just talking about the ballot box, but the everyday power we all have to demand government agencies make their records and data available […]

After spending some 18 months on edge, the local cannabis cultivation industry exhaled on Election Night, as Humboldt County voters overwhelmingly rejected Measure A, a ballot initiative that sought to overhaul local cultivation regulations and farms warned could have catastrophic consequences. Sitting down with the Journal about a week after the election, and just a […]

When appellate attorney Richard Braucher agreed to take on Steven Dinsmore’s case, he says two things were immediately clear to him: It was the right thing to do and he would lose. Reading through a transcript of Dinsmore’s May 20, 2022, re-sentencing hearing, Braucher says he was struck first by how Dinsmore’s sincerity jumped off […]

From fundraising emails to debate speeches, it’s everywhere: The “No Corporate PAC money” pledge is front and center in the campaign for California’s next U.S. Senator. It is a promise shared by all three top Democrats, who hold largely similar voting records in Congress on a wide range of issues and who are trying to finish in the […]

On Jan. 25, a group of Humboldt County residents participating in a guaranteed income pilot program received their first installment of $920. Known as the Humboldt Income Program and administered through the McKinleyville Family Resource Center, the monthly payments will continue for a year and a half to those enrolled after meeting certain requirements, including […]

As word spread of the abrupt closure of the Arcata Mazzotti’s, there were the usual responses: laments and nostalgia, criticism and speculation. Longtime patrons shared memories of dinners and celebrations going back decades, lamenting the loss of a Humboldt institution, echoing the response that followed the 2019 shutdown of the restaurant’s 42-year-old Eureka location. Conversations […]

While Behren’s and Oregon silverspots aren’t found in Humboldt County, there are still ways to lend a helping hand to the endangered butterflies on the local level. With another banner batch of Behren’s caterpillars waiting in the wings for their spring awakening in just a few months, Sequoia Park Zoo Butterfly Conservation Director Christine Damiani […]

Inside a nondescript concrete building at the Sequoia Park Zoo, hundreds of rare caterpillars are settled down for a long winter’s nap. So small their black, spikey forms only come into focus under the lens of a microscope, the Behren’s silverspot butterflies-to-be are housed in specially outfitted jars kept on shelves of a regular kitchen […]

Providence Health blindsided patients, employees and providers last week, announcing that it would no longer offer outpatient laboratory services at its California hospitals — including St. Joseph and Redwood Memorial — beginning March 18. Local providers reportedly first received a text message Jan. 10 informing them that outpatient lab services would no longer be provided […]