SECOND UPDATE: Arcata Police Chief Tom Chapman confirmed this afternoon that the two remaining suspects in the Saturday night homicide of Trevor Mark Harrison were arrested recently. Robert Louis Huntzinger, 34, was arrested last night around midnight in Blue Lake, Chapman said, and Billy Joe Giddings, 35, was arrested today around 3:45 p.m. in Loleta. […]
marijuana
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Everyone’s on Board with Regulation
“If you put marijuana on the agenda, they will come,” whispered the ghosts of old policy makers. And, lo, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board listened. At a packed meeting this afternoon, the board discussed its proposed regulations for Northern California cannabis cultivators. It was the second time this week, following the board […]
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Hoopa Tribe Just Says No
The attempt to legalize marijuana growing on Hoopa tribal lands has been defeated. Unofficial results of yesterday’s Hoopa Valley Tribe election show the measure, which would have repealed a ban on any marijuana cultivation — medical or otherwise — that’s been in effect since 1999, failed by a wide margin (63-36). The movement was launched […]
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McGuire Proposes Comprehensive Medical Marijuana Bill
Pot’s on a lot of minds in Sacramento these days. Our own state senator, Mike McGuire, announced on 4/20 that his proposed medical marijuana bill was approved unanimously by the Senate Business and Professions Committee. The bill would create a Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation under the state’s consumer affairs department, which would “license and […]
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4/20’s Back!
“This is lame,” murmured one of Arcata’s few hardcore stoners around 4:23 p.m. this afternoon. A couple of young men had stepped off the concrete slab at Redwood Park, the small piece of public property that the Humboldt Center for Constitutional Rights had wrested from the control of a zealous city staff over the course […]
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Jury Convicts Wilde of Murder, Five Other Charges
After deliberating for about five hours, a federal jury today convicted Mikal Xylon Wilde of six charges, including the murder of one of the men working his Kneeland marijuana farm in 2010. Wilde faces life in federal prison when sentenced in the case on June 3. Wilde’s trial began last month with prosecutors alleging that […]
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Jury Selection Underway in Kneeland Murder Case
Jury selection began this morning in the federal trial of Mikal Wilde, who stands accused of killing a worker at the scene of his Kneeland marijuana farm in 2010. Wilde faces a total of six charges, including cultivation of more than 1,000 marijuana plants with intent to distribute and murder in the commission of a […]
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Judge Denies ‘Unseemly’ Motion in Kneeland Murder Case
The federal case against a Kneeland man accused of murdering a worker on his marijuana farm will continue to trial, a judge ruled this week. Through his attorney, J. Tony Serra, Mikal Xylon Wilde had argued that the six-count indictment charging him with cultivating more than 1,000 marijuana plants with intent to distribute and murder […]
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DA Candidates Covered in Weed
A savvy Fortuna merchant is peddling some of last year’s great green crop for what, by his/her account, is a swinging deal. Yup, for “200 a unit” you can pick up some year-old, untrimmed, seeded trainwreck via Craigslist. The seller, apparently aware that pictures = clicks on Craigslist postings, carefully piled the “good bud” on […]
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Possible Insanity Defense in Marijuana Murder Case
A 32-year-old Kneeland man appears to be exploring an insanity defense in the face of federal charges that he murdered one of the workers tending his marijuana farm in 2010. Mikal Xylon Wilde’s attorney, the eccentric powerhouse J. Tony Serra, recently filed a motion advising the federal government that he “intends to introduce expert evidence […]
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Pot Regulation Bill Goes up in Smoke
A bill seeking to create a regulatory framework for California’s multi-billion dollar medical marijuana industry died quietly in an Assembly committee today, the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting. Hailed by supporters as an attempt to bring order to the current void of state regulations and vilified by opponents as a brain child of narcotics officers […]
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Operation Yurok Wraps With No Arrests
A three-day law enforcement sweep of marijuana grow sites on Yurok Tribal lands last week yielded 13,000 plants, 300 pounds, seven guns, zero arrests and a very short press release. The Sheriff’s Office identified suspects and will seek arrest warrants, according to a press release: From 07-21-2014 to 07-24-2014, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office joined […]