At noon last Monday, the members of the Fortuna Chamber of Commerce packed the Monday Club for the final debate between their candidates for the Humboldt County Board of Supervisor. This would be their last chance to get a glimpse and gauge the politics of the three candidates, one of whom would become the first […]
Cover Story
Posted inNews (NCJ)
Downticket
The North Coast Journal has declared total war against the Nov. 4 election, and with this edition we initiate our massive, three-issue assault on the various issues and personalities therein. We’re going to get out there and wrestle this baby to the ground for you. We start with the most difficult assignment: Statewide and local […]
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After Hacker Creek
Here, the air above the creek bed hums with the murmur of bees. The tock-tock of dripping liquid sounds like the faint ticking of a clock. This late in the year, the water barely creeps over the rocks but the air is sweet and warm. A small shallow pool between large stones cups two foothill […]
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Pistol Packing People
We recently asked the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office for the names of all of the people holding a permit to carry a concealed weapon (CCW) in this county. Why did we ask for this list? Call it curiosity sparked by the recent Supreme Court ruling overriding Washington, D.C.’s ban on private ownership of handguns, in […]
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Our Fire, Our Fight
I don’t think I’d ever seen Jim Bennett mad before this year’s fires came through his place. And Bennett is no stranger to fire. Before he retired in 1996, he’d worked 32 years as a fireman for the U.S. Forest Service on Salmon River. Fire had burned near his place in 1977. The canyon filled […]
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The Sonoma Gang
In March 1850, the brand-new California Supreme Court, Chief Justice Serranus C. Hastings presiding, issued its first-ever decision. The ruling freed seven men who had recently been charged with arson and murder and instead placed them under a $10,000 bond. The men were released from the USS Savannah, a naval vessel anchored in San Francisco […]
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Keep Upright!
It was a bright clear sunny morning — "a beautiful day to ride," recalled Seth Griggs. The night before, Griggs, the manager of Adrenalin Motorsports in Eureka, received his first shipment of Lance scooters from China. He had been counting the days until their arrival. He put together a red Vintage 150, did an inspection, […]
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What Now, Treesitter?
An eerie dreamlight slanted in from the west, a spray of pale gold shot through a crack in the late-day cloud ceiling. It struck a small remnant of ancient redwood forest, where one sky-vanishing tree towered taller than the rest, wider, older — 2,000 years old, some say. Straight up, up, until its bulk was […]
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Dreams of Obama
Barack Obama, it is true, is a transformational leader. But he needs a transformational movement to become a transformational president. He is transformational not only by his charisma and brilliance, but by embodying the possibility of an African-American being chosen president in the generation following the civil-rights movement. Whether he wins or loses, the vast […]
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In The Green Room
For me, the story of Humboldt County the movie began back in June at the Provincetown International Film Festival. Some friends introduced me to Danny Jacobs and Darren Grodsky, and quickly they became part of my new film-fest hang-out crew. Somewhere between gala receptions and beer-doused Quentin Tarantino ogling sessions, I found out that my […]
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Who’s Your City?
Last week, we took it upon ourselves to once and for all solve the forever-niggling question: Arcata or Eureka, which is the superior specimen? The two cities have been duking it out since the 1850s when they were mere get-rich-quick settlements looking to profit off the gold rush in the mountains. And historian Jerry Rohde […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
Station Identification
Lance Hardie, a volunteer at public radio station KHSU, was upset. None of the people calling the shots at KHSU had any true love for the station, its mission, its service to the community of listeners. Humboldt State University, owner of KHSU’s broadcast license, was calling the shots from above, and without consulting the people […]