Cover Story

"There’s more people that are not in this room, who are out in the hall and spilled out into the street — I’m not saying they’ve got pitchforks, but there’s people out there who are really, really concerned about this and they’re not going to go away. … This code enforcement program is completely out […]

I’ve been here a week and a half, sitting through jury selection, and I’ve learned a few new things about our justice system. For instance, I already knew the difference between direct and circumstantial evidence, but I didn’t know, as the judge patiently explained at least four or five times, that the two are equally […]

What happens after you’re dead? The exact nature of the afterlife (if there is one) is debatable and far from certain. What is certain is that we leave behind a body, a mass of flesh and bone that someone has to deal with. Have you made plans for the disposition of your remains? Chances are […]

With the national economy in the tank and the local election season just around the corner, we thought it time to reconvene our panel of high-finance pundits to discuss the state of affairs here on the ground. Patrick Cleary, 49, spent 17 years as an investment banker on Wall Street — 10 with Chase Manhattan […]

On a half-overcast day in early spring, environmental scientists Scott Bauer and Gordon Leppig get into a big, white, double-cab pickup with the California Department of Fish and Game logo on its door. Bauer starts the engine and steers the truck out of the parking lot of the DFG’s Eureka offices in Old Town, and […]

On a summer day in 1969,Bob Rowen, a nuclear control technician at the Humboldt Bay nuclear power plant, realized that for his employer, Pacific Gas and Electric, the bottom line was everything — it was even more important than the community’s safety. It wasn’t the first time Rowen, a burly former Marine, had witnessed safety […]

This Thursday, March 20, marks the five-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. In Humboldt County, the occasion will be marked, this Saturday at 1 p.m., by the county’s annual peace march, which will start at the Eureka Municipal Auditorium. As always, the peace marchers will bring all sorts of issues to the event. Some […]

Just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, on the west side of U.S. Route 101, is an old, wooden sign that says “Redwood Highway.” The sign blends into its surroundings, and is easy to miss; it marks the beginning of the 438-mile-long stretch of road — from San Francisco to Grants Pass — that weaves […]

Down at the county courthouse there’s a file labeled The County of Humboldt v. Charles Garth and Does 1-25. It’s a code violation case — but there’s some dispute between the parties as to just exactly who’s violating whose code. On one side, there are the residents of a ferny, forested place they call Yee […]

There is no backstage at the Reggae Trial.And while it follows the same sort of rules and general form, the legal proceeding is not a traditional trial, civil or otherwise. The Hon. James Warren, a retired judge from San Francisco, presided over the first portion of the hearing, which ran from Jan. 28-Feb. 6 in […]

Last Wednesday, Hilary Mosher, director of the Strongbridge Montessori School in McKinleyville, tried to explain to her students the bind their school is in. The building she’s been operating out of for the past two years was sold recently and she has until to the end of February to relocate. Mosher sat on a short […]