Humboldt Sentinel

California in Fiscal Crisis: Half a Billion Dollars Removed From State Judiciary On Monday

‘Day of Reckoning’ for California Courts

By Maria Dinzeo
Courthouse News Service

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) – In what he termed a “day of reckoning” for California, Governor Jerry Brown slashed the state’s court budget by more than a half-billion dollars on Monday. Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye reacted, “The proposed cuts to the judicial branch are both devastating and disheartening.”

An immediate target for the ax was the central administrative office for the California courts which has been criticized as wasteful, bloated and arrogant.

“The Administrative Office of the Courts must immediately slash its own budget to free up any available monies for the trial courts,” said Sacramento trial judge Steve White.

Governor Brown’s May revised budget cuts a total of $544 million from the state court budget but also comes on top of huge, cumulative cuts over the last two years.

Brown calls for the courts to use $300 million of their reserves instead of getting money from the state. The rest of the $544 million will be offset by taking $240 million out of the courts’ construction fund and $4 million will be gained by increasing court employees’ retirement contributions.

In addressing reporters Monday, Brown indicated that funding for the courts is not the state’s top priority.

“The money is not in a piggy bank,” said Brown. “It comes from the people. Just like everybody else, nothing in government is an absolute, unconditioned good. Every good is relative to all the other goods, in the context of what’s available.”

“As the courts make their arguments,” he added, “the Legislature will listen and weigh that against childcare, against CalWORKs, against a lot of other things. We’ve got three branches of government and they’re all going to have some of their branches trimmed.”

California Department of Finance Director Ana Matosantos said Monday that a fundamental reorganization of the court structure carried out under former chief justice Ron George had exacerbated the financial difficulty for the courts.

“Before, we used to have local funding for the courts,” said Matosantos. “The state has now transitioned it to a state-funded court system. The May revision is asking should the state be making reductions to child care, to CalWORKs?  It basically changes the structure and uses those available reserves to avoid cuts to other areas.”

“The state will direct the Judicial Council to offset the allocation that the courts would otherwise receive with the available reserves,” she said with authority.

“The general fund share for the courts has gone down about 20 percent,” added Matosantos. “What’s happened in the past is the Legislature, the Governor and the Judicial Council have looked at other funds to backfill those reductions,” she said.

 ”Last year, trial courts had roughly $562 million in available reserves,” Matosantos explained. “The May revision says $300 million in reserves will be used to offset the allocation that the state would otherwise be providing for the courts. $240 million in additional savings come from delaying and suspending projects that were going to be moving forward next year.”

After the budget was unveiled, some trial judges said the courts’ reserves should not be used as the solution to the judiciary’s budget crisis, calling instead for severe cuts to the central bureaucracy of the Administrative Office of the Courts.

In the last nine years, the AOC lost a half-billion dollars on an IT project called the Court Case Management System, that was recently shut down. The project was widely criticized for its lack of cost controls.

 ”What the AOC needs to do is cut its staff and spending. That is what the really significant cut has to be,” said Judge Susan Lopez-Giss in Los Angeles. “It’s been clear for a while that the Legislature wasn’t going to be giving us money, not because they don’t recognize the courts but because the AOC has misspent so much of the money.”

Lopez-Giss said Los Angeles still plans to cut 300 jobs in June, and its $27 million in reserves will not even keep the court open for a month.

In Sacramento, Judge White said the AOC should cut its own budget before looking to the courts’ reserves, and was not surprised by the staggering cuts to the judiciary in the May revised budget.

“There’s no question that the judicial branch performs a critical function, and it has to continue to function. At the same time, when budget straits are as desperate as they are overall, the branch itself has to make all conceivable cuts and reductions in non court functions that it can in order to keep the courts open,” said White.

White added that the courts’ reserves were not meant to backfill funding reductions from the state, but are intended to keep courts going.

“The reserves are what the courts are living on day to day right now,” he said. “When I was presiding judge, we set aside about $14 million in reserves that we were spending every single day to keep our courthouse open. It is part of the budget that supports the court. If the AOC were to reach into the reserves rather than shutting down its own marginal operations and reducing its own staffing, it would be doing a great disservice to the courts of California. Certainly the courts would fight any effort to take those funds.”     

The Chief Justice said the burden of the cuts will fall heaviest on people trying to use court services. “They will seriously compromise the public’s access to their courts and our ability to provide equal access to justice throughout the state.” She has called for an emergency Judicial Council meeting Thursday to deliberate over how to best implement them.

The Alliance of California Judges, a reform group calling for legislation to increase local court funding issued a statement Monday saying, “Quite frankly, the day of reckoning has come to the judiciary. Years of mismanagement and misplaced priorities by the Judicial Council and the Administrative Office of the Courts have caused not only a budget crisis, but a crisis in confidence.”

The Alliance is sponsoring a bill, AB 1208, that is intended to give a hundred percent of the money allocated for the courts by the Legislature, directly to the courts. It currently goes to the Judicial Council, which decides how the money is distributed among the courts.

“The money allocated to the courts should be spent on the courts,” said Lopez-Giss in Los Angeles. “Unfortunately I think AB 1208 was justified before the May revise, when we had furloughs, when they said there would be cuts initially to the courts.”

White said, “There isn’t a single court in California that isn’t suffering mightily. Courts have made cuts right and left. The Administrative Office of the Courts has not, and simply has to now.”

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Article by Maria Dinzeo courtesy of the Courthouse News Service

‘Legislative Action on Courts Now Needed‘ by Kern County Superior Court Judge David R. Lampe details more about the fiscal reforms targeting the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)

Additional news on the Governor’s proposed May revise budget cutbacks can be found in William Dotinga’s ‘California’s Revised Budget Confronts Grim Realities‘

(Posted by Skippy Massey for the Humboldt Sentinel)

Vice Mayor questions whether Mainstreet can feed on General Fund teet

By Charles Douglas
Humboldt Sentinel

The Eureka Chamber of Commerce will continue to be subsidized by the City of Eureka — but not necessarily so for Eureka Mainstreet.

In another in a long line of split decisions with Second Ward Councilmember Linda Atkins casting the lone ‘no,’ the City Council passed on a 4-1 vote the approximately $135,000 subsidy for the Greater Eureka Chamber of Commerce. Third Ward Councilmember Mike Newman, who made the prevailing motion, was the chair of the CoC when he ran for office in 2010.

The amount is equivalent to 7.5% of the transient occupancy tax charged on hotel room bills in Eureka — a standard level of funding, according to CoC executive director Jay Hockaday.

“Our primary function is to attract and engage visitors from our of the area and convince them to stay that one day longer,” he said.

Jeff Lamoree of the Sequoia Park Zoo Foundation also spoke up for the Chamber’s work, but Atkins remained unconvinced due to conflict of interest concerns.

“I won’t be able to support this because of the political nature of the Chamber of Commerce, and I don’t believe public money should be used to support their programs,” she said.

When it came to the concept of subsidizing Eureka Mainstreet directly out of the General Fund, the Council sang a different tune — led once more by Vice Mayor and Fourth Ward Councilmember Melinda Ciarabellini, who cast the deciding vote to kill the Waterfront Drive extension project last month.

She said it made sense to fund the tourism and business improvement program for Old Town and Downtown out of Redevelopment funds; but with the state-mandated dissolution of the agency earlier this year, Ciarabellini suggested increasing the Mainstreet assessment on businesses within its district as a more appropriate funding source.

“Without Redevelopment funding, this program is now competing for General Fund dollars, and we have to pay for essential services,” she said. “I don’t think we should in our discussions just assume that we’re going to assume the full cost.”

Eureka Mainstreet sought the same $90,600 from the General Fund as used to be provided by the former Eureka Redevelopment Agency, which covers about 60% of their operating budget. While the Council technically voted 5-0 to allow their request to enter the 2012-13 budget cycle, the motion by Ciarabellini and Fifth Ward Councilmember Lance Madsen mandated that city staff and Mainstreet explore other funding sources such as grants and a hike in the Business Improvement District assessment. They also requested that Mainstreet executive director Charlotte McDonald submit a detailed budget for the program, which she promptly agreed to do.

“I think this is the finest program that we have ever had,” Eureka Mainstreet president Barbara Maxon said. “This would be a terrible thing that this would not be able to continue.”

First Ward Councilmember Marian Brady took exception to any attempt to restrict city funding to McDonald, who’s “almost doing five jobs,” and said Mainstreet was always on top of problems in Old Town.

“What’s going into the General Fund is millions of dollars in transient occupancy taxes…it’s kind of disingenuous to say we’re just taking it out of the General Fund,” Brady said.

Atkins retorted by recalling the days before the Measure O sales tax hike passed when the Council was cutting basic services.

“$90,000 is a huge amount of money when you don’t have any,” she said just before the vote.

CISPA decried by civil libertarians and White House for lacking limits on info sharing

By Charles Douglas
Humboldt Sentinel

After beating back threats to online privacy late last year such as SOPA and PIPA, Internet activists were appalled by a sudden vote in the House of Representatives to adopt the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act.

Passed on a 248-168 vote, CISPA — which amends the National Security Act to subject the private communications of every American to sharing with the military and the National Security Agency — sailed through the House with the support of 42 Democrats, including Congressman Mike Thompson (Dem. – St. Helena), who also co-sponsored HR 3523. Their vote ignored the signatures of over 1 million Americans rapidly collected by the American Civil Liberties Union, Avaaz.org, Demand Progress, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Free Press.

“CISPA is a dangerous piece of legislation and it’s worrisome that the House has passed such an overreaching bill,” Free Press Action Fund policy director Matt Wood stated. “The bill still lacks effective oversight and accountability for companies and government agencies collecting massive amounts of our personal data.”

President Barack Obama has already threatened to veto the bill due to its treatment of domestic cybersecurity as an intelligence matter and its lack of safeguards on personally identifying information. CISPA now heads to the United States Senate, where its companion legislation, S.2105, is spearheaded by Senator Joseph Lieberman (Ind. – Connecticut) and Susan Collins (Rep. – Maine).

“It would curtail Internet openness and freedom by stripping away crucial privacy protections, and without providing any guarantee of protection for critical infrastructure,” Woods went on to state. “If the Senate chooses to move forward with cybersecurity legislation, we urge senators to make the changes necessary to protect civil liberties and Internet freedom.”

The Washington-based Constitution Project was more blunt with its criticisms, characterizing CISPA as enabling the use of information completely unrelated to security concerns. A constellation of business interests are backing the bill, including AT&T, Facebook, IBM, Intel, Oracle, Verizon and corporate lobby groups like the United States Chamber of Commerce and the National Defense Industrial Association — leading Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul to call CISPA “an alarming form of corporatism, as it further intertwines government with companies…”

“It permits them to hand over your private communications to government officials without a warrant, circumventing well-established federal laws like the Wiretap Act and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act,” Rep. Paul went on to say. “It also grants them broad immunity from lawsuits for doing so, leaving you without recourse for invasions of privacy.  Simply put, CISPA encourages some of our most successful internet companies to act as government spies, sowing distrust of social media and chilling communication in one segment of the world economy where America still leads.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation of San Francisco claimed CISPA would lead to the censorship of any speech presumed to degrade a network, not to mention provide private corporations and the feds with a powerful weapon to target whistleblowers.

“It is a long-held American value that the military doesn’t operate on U.S. soil against Americans, and allowing the NSA and [Department of Defense] to collect information on average Americans turns that value on its head,” ACLU legislative counsel Michelle Richardson stated. “All domestic programs must be run by civilian agencies. And finally, CISPA offers few limitations on what can be done with the information that the government ultimately collects.”

Thompson, the North Coast’s representative in the House for nearly 14 years, is running for Congress in the new 5th District, which stretches from southern Lake County to Vallejo and the northern tip of Contra Costa County. He has raised over $38,000 from proponents of CISPA in this election cycle, including $6,000 from Comcast. His office declined to comment on his support for CISPA, which he co-sponsored on Nov. 30 of last year.

The Senate version of CISPA is also co-sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein of California.

How long Humboldt County’s top administrator will stick around is anyone’s guess

By Skippy Massey
Humboldt Sentinel

Chosen as one of 11 semi-finalists from a pool of 80 applicants vying to be the next city manager of Florida’s Key West, Humboldt County Administrative Officer Phillip Smith-Hanes has decided to opt out of the running by withdrawing his name for the city’s top municipal position, according to the Florida Keys Keynoter on Saturday.

Current Key West City Manager Jim Scholl, who earns $180,000 annually, is leaving after five years.

Phillip Smith-Hanes notified Key West’s search consultant in an April 21 e-mail that he would no longer be continuing in the application process for the city’s top municipal position.  He was the second semi-finalist withdrawing from applying for the city manager position after the field narrowed down to the final 11 candidates for selection.

“After our conversation on Tuesday, conversations with other managers, additional research into the community, and review of the background materials, I have decided not to pursue the opportunity in Key West at this time. I am withdrawing from the process….” Smith-Hanes wrote.

Mr. Smith-Hanes earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Kansas State University, a law degree from Washburn University Law School and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Kansas.  Following 13 years of experience in local government in both cities and counties of two states, he was appointed County Administrative Officer for Humboldt County in 2009.  Prior to that, Mr. Smith-Hanes served two years as Assistant County Administrative Officer.

The salary level for the Humboldt CAO is $14,083 monthly, or approximately $169,000 per year.

Regarded for his meticulous and thorough knowledge of County government and his calm and well prepared demeanor, Mr. Smith-Hanes has handled a myriad of complex issues and problems as Humboldt County’s CAO during the past two and a half years.

Mr. Smith-Hanes’ potential departure for positions elsewhere could represent a significant loss of both institutional experience and administrative guidance for the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors as they face continual challenges regarding land use, the General Plan Update, litigation and budgetary woes. The retirement of Jimmy Smith, the longest-serving Supervisor, along with the strong campaigns being waged against incumbents Clif Clendenen and Mark Lovelace, might also result in a new set of bosses for Smith-Hanes come 2013.

One arrest and little else to do for over a dozen cops

By Gabriele Fellows
Humboldt Sentinel

Clouds of smoke, whimsical drumbeats and the echo of playful laughter was absent this year at Redwood Park in Arcata.

In years past, the 4/20 celebration has regularly taken place in this spot. The annual celebration usually draws large crowds to the grassy knoll tucked between the trees in the Arcata Community Forest. But this year, the party was a bust.

“When it was sunny, there was like…the whole field was people, and they had like little barbeque pits,” one local woman said. “That was nice.”

A few people hung out underneath the trees, and some parents brought their children to play, but there was no one to pass the bowl to.

Despite the minimal stoner turnout, police officers were on hand, ready to make arrests if a crime was committed.

“Oppression” was one man’s reply when asked about the police presence.

The City of Arcata issued a press release four days prior informing the community that agencies would be increasing their enforcement of laws governing the park — especially pertaining to the ban on smoking.

Arcata Police Chief Tom Chapman stated that previous gatherings had damaged the park, and that they intended to protect citizens and public property this year.

Although the turnout was skimpy at best, a minor was arrested for smoking pot just after 4:20 p.m. For this lone arrest, multiple agencies deployed over a dozen officers, along with roadblocks, traffic signs and even a mobile command center.

The Critical Incident Response Vehicle cost $370,000. The vehicle is to be used for public safety during natural disasters, emergencies and critical incidents — how the events at Redwood Park could be classified as a critical incident remain unclear (Chapman refused to answer questions from Sentinel).

Redwood ACLU also to hear about state of the free press

Staff Report
Humboldt Sentinel

Local civil rights leaders gather in Bayside tonight to celebrate the work of a longtime champion of the local homeless community.

John Shelter, formerly the Executive Director of the North Coast Resource Center and current director of New Directions, is the latest recipient of the Patriot Award, a recognition of local work done to defend and preserve the Constitutional rights and liberties of us all. The Redwood Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union gives out the Patriot Award every year during its annual meeting.

“It is said that a person’s home is her or his castle,” Redwood ACLU Vice Chair Jack Munsee stated in a release. “When you do not have a castle of your own, no matter how small it might be, you are at a significant disadvantage. John Shelter’s work is inspiring because he has assembled a diverse community of local organizations to help many homeless people overcome that disadvantage and better their own lives.”

Previous recipients of the Patriot Award include the librarians of Humboldt County for refusing to cooperate with the Feds in disclosing the reading habits of local residents, as well as political activist Jack Nounnan, Registrar of Voters Carolyn Crnich and the Critical Incident Response Team.

Shelter’s current work at New Directions, where homeless people are provided with employment opportunities and helped to clean up their campsites, grew out of his years-long work with the North Coast Resource Center, formerly known as the Arcata Endeavor, which provided basic services for poor and homeless people in Downtown Arcata before shutting down late last year.

“I believe it’s about making people whole, feeding their mind, their heart and their soul,” Shelter stated. “As people, we generally want to help homeless individuals. Sometimes we feel we have all the answers.However, people cannot be fixed from a case of homelessness, they need to be given the opportunity to honestly help themselves on their own terms.”

“Political climates change and community leaders move on. Community views on poverty and homelessness change whenever election time rolls around.  We will forever be required to continue community education on homelessness, and on possible solutions to address negative impacts associated with it.  It will also require positive communication and pressure on our community leaders to look at alternative emergency transitional housing options.  We cannot allow the continued criminalization of people that seem to be surviving in third world conditions without many options, without knowing who they are.”

His work with homeless issues is a personal one, as Shelter himself was homeless in Arcata and Eureka in the 1980s. Whether as a public speaker in front of the Arcata City Council or as a member of the Humboldt County Human Rights Commission, Shelter has sought to build bridges between the faith community, businesses and local governments to create pathways out of homelessness that respect individual rights.

“People who are homeless, whether for a day or for weeks or months, are at greater risk of having their rights and civil liberties violated,” Redwood ACLU Chair Greg Allen said. “Their personal safety, personal property, their ability to find work, to find places to sleep, to eat a nutritious diet, to maintain personal hygiene, to vote, their ability to navigate the criminal justice system should they run afoul of the law, all of these are impacted by their lack of a fixed, secure residence.”

The award will follow a keynote speech by Sean McLaughlin, the Executive Director of Access Humboldt, who will address local free speech and free press issues. Access Humboldt maintains four local cable television channels dedicated to local education, government and public access uses. McLaughlin has most recently called attention to California Senate Bill 1161, which would wipe out local and state government oversight over Internet Protocol-enabled communications services.

The Redwood Chapter ACLU represents over 600 dues-paying local residents in Del Norte, Humboldt, Western Trinity and Northern Mendocino Counties. Their annual meeting will also see an election of about half of their Board of Directors for new two-year terms and reflect on local civil liberties victories over the past year. Their meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. on Apr. 23 at the Unitarian Universalist Hall off of Jacoby Creek Road, preceded by a potluck at 6 p.m. For more information, visit redwoodaclu.blogspot.com.

Car-Bombed Activist Can View Evidence

By JONNY BONNER
Courthouse News Service

The FBI must hand over evidence tied to a decades-old car bombing in the Bay Area in which two Earth First activists were injured, a federal judge ruled.

On May 24, 1990, a pipe bomb wrapped with nails exploded under the Subaru wagon of environmentalist Judi Bari in Oakland, California. Bari and a fellow activist, Darryl Cherney, were seriously injured in the blast.

The pair had been traveling to college campuses, rallying against the logging of old-growth redwood.

In a federal lawsuit, Bari and Cherney said the Oakland Police Department and FBI framed them, and that the FBI withheld evidence crucial to solving the bombing.

Though Bari died of breast cancer in 1997, a jury ruled in favor of her and Cherney five years later. The parties then spent two years in protracted settlement negotiations.

Bari’s estate and Cherney were awarded $4.4 million in damages, but the FBI failed to release a host of evidence related to the bombing, claiming the evidence was “contraband.”

The withheld evidence includes “the fragments of the device which exploded in Bari’s car, a partially-exploded pipe bomb that was found at a Louisiana Pacific lumber mill in Cloverdale, California.; a hand-lettered sign found near the Cloverdale device reading ‘LP screws mill workers’; a fingerprint obtained from the sign; an analysis of the fingerprint; and a letter to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat newspaper, known as the ‘Lord’s Avenger’ letter, by an individual claiming responsibility for the Cloverdale device and the bombing of Bari’s car,” according to the court.

Cherney objected to the destruction of the evidence, which the FBI was obligated to announce, in 2010, and asked that it be sent to an independent forensic lab for testing.

The government objected to a declaration by attorney James Wheaton that Cherney used to support his motion. Wheaton’s declaration addressed the understanding of the parties at the time of the settlement agreement regarding the disposition of the evidence.

A year later, U.S. Magistrate Judge James Larson upheld Cherney’s objection and Wheaton’s declaration.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken affirmed the magistrate’s order.

“Having considered all of the papers filed by the parties, the court grants the United States’ motion for de novo review, denies Cherney’s renewed motion to strike, overrules the United States’ objection to the magistrate judge’s order, and grants Cherney’s request for action and motion to implement,” according to the opinion dated Saturday. “The court affirms Magistrate Judge Larson’s order.”

Cherney must propose a test for the evidence, and the United States has 14 days to object to that plan.

Cherney recently released a documentary, “ “Who Bombed Judi Bari?” chronicling the events.

The 14-page court document and order by United States District Judge Claudia Wilken of March 31, 2012, can be found here.

This article was reprinted by permission from the Courthouse News Service and forwarded to the Humboldt Sentinel by Skippy Massey. Photographs courtesy of the Humboldt Sentinel.

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Additional articles can be found in the Los Angeles Times’ “Judge Orders Testing of Evidence in Judi Bari Bombing” by Dean Kuipers and the San Francisco Chronicle’s ”Earth First Bomb Evidence Won’t be Destroyed” by Bob Egelko.

Articles and reader comments by the local Humboldt Herald regarding the Judi Bari car bombing can be found here, here, and here.

Eureka Council votes 5-0 to rezone cemetery-side “weed-filled lot”

By Thomas Bradshaw
Humboldt Sentinel

Lost Coast Brewery may well continue brewing their craft ales in Eureka after all.

A packed house at Eureka City Hall tonight encouraged a unanimous vote by Councilmembers to approve a zoning change in LCBs favor.

The property on the south side of a cemetery along Highway 101 was zoned public, and a few of the neighbors wished to keep it that way — along with the ocean views they enjoyed over the fallow parcel.

Their views were overwhelmed by in-person appearances from a who’s who of local business people, economic development gurus and even a letter from Humboldt County Supervisors Jimmy Smith and Virginia Bass, all of whom were enthusiastic about the proposal.

“The cemetery properties have been in discussion for years,” Peter Oringer, Marketing Committee chair for the Humboldt County Convention and Visitors Bureau, told the Council. “Most of us know Barbara and know how much she invests her time and efforts in the community.”

Oringer was referring to Barbara Groom, the owner of LCB and applicant for the zone reclassification and General Plan amendment. She was in the audience for the vote, but let her project managers and numerous supporters do the talking; LACO Associates, the consulting firm leading the design for the project along with architect Julian Berg, re-drafted their plans after an earlier version was shot down by the Eureka Planning Commission last year.

While the LCB brewpup downtown will be unaffected by the project, the actual brewing facility on the west end of Third Street has outgrown its facility, and bureaucratic opposition from the Coastal Commission has precluded any expansion there. The new spot will grow from a simple industrial brewing plant to also include tours, a gift shop and a tasting room designed to appeal to out-of-county visitors.

Tim and Donna Dougherty pleaded with the Council to make the LCB move to the northern part of the parcel, which would dramatically increase the site design expenses due to the steep and hilly nature of the area. Tim Dougherty said he’d developed nearby affordable housing and would see “devastating” losses to his property values, even threatening legal action against the developer if the city moved forward.

“We are the ones who are totally affected by this,” he said. “They are getting the benefit and we are paying the entire cost.”

Yet this point was parried by Larry Doss, who is a neighboring land owner to the LCB parcel. He claimed that property values would stay level or even increase due to the infrastructure improvements brought about by the project, including increased connectivity to the sewer system.

“I am concerned about a few choices, but I’m more concerned about the jobs,” Doss said.

The new project promises to create 30 jobs directly, which would translate into the indirect creation of 100 more according to Humboldt County Economic Development Coordinator Jacqueline Debets. This point alone tipped the balance for most of the elected representatives on the dias.

“I’m convinced that the staff has done a tremendous and thorough job in reviewing his project,” Vice Mayor Melinda Ciarabellini said.

Councilmember Marian Brady went further, dismissing the complaints of neighbors having a view of a “weed-filled lot” taken away.

“I think some of those claims get a little bit exaggerated,” she said.

The Council voted 5-0 in favor of a motion made by Mike Newman and seconded by Linda Atkins to rezone the property, formerly belonging to the Catholic Church, from Public to Service Commercial.

The Planning Commission’s approval of a Conditional Use Permit for the actual construction of the brewery will not come to the Council unless appealed by a local resident. The LCB building will also have to undergo Design Review Commission hearings on the site specifics.

Increased bed tax might fund installation of facility near the Plaza

By Eric Black
Humboldt Sentinel

A public toilet could be coming to downtown Arcata in the near future. City staff is currently conducting a cost and logistic analysis for construction of the restroom.

At a city council meeting on March 24th, the council directed staff to perform the analysis for a number of locations, all within a block of the plaza. Rough estimates for toilet construction run between $100,000 and $125,000. The primary proposed location, 8th street between F and G, already hosts temporary ‘B and B’ toilets Saturday mornings during the Farmers’ Market season.

“We came to the conclusion that it’s for everyone,” said Arcata Vice Mayor Shane Brinton, who served on the public restroom subcommittee along with Council Member Susan Orenlas. “It needs to meet the needs of tourists in the downtown, visiting parents, and there will be homeless folks using it.”

The city council won’t vote on whether to go ahead with the project until it receives the report from city staff.

Patricia Kanzler busted for hanging a sign

Staff Report
Humboldt Sentinel

Hang a sign, get booked into jail!

That’s the new law at the Humboldt County Courthouse, as enforced by Sheriff Mike Downey yesterday.

According to a release from his office, he met with protestors from Occupy Eureka in front of the courthouse at 10 a.m. on Mar. 28 to notify them of their peril if they continued to spread their message via sheets and cardboard affixed to the chain link fence — the same one cordoning off the long-since repaired vegetation of the courthouse lawn after the Occupy encampment was expelled late last year.

Downey’s actions were based on the now officially numbered Urgency Ordinance #2477, passed by a 4-1 vote of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday with only three days of public notice and without a second reading. A new section of county code makes it a crime “to secure any object to county property…including use of any weighted or self-stabilized object.” Not only would this appear to make camera tripods used by the media illegal, but this also specifically targets the use of signs at the moment that they aren’t being held up by a person.

After passing out copies of the ordinance Wednesday, Downey gave Occupy Eureka until 4 p.m. to remove their belongings from courthouse property, including the signs on the fence. After the deadline passed, HCSO deputies and investigators from the Humboldt County District Attorney’s office descended on the protestors.

When they arrived, however, they found a group of protestors who had mostly adjusted to the new rules by moving their table and chairs to the sidewalk, which is technically off of the courthouse property and thus not covered by Ordinance #2477. The signs, however, were still on the fence, and some tarps and other personal property items were still over the line. The cops proceeded to tell the group that the property would be confiscated as abandoned if left unclaimed.

Once the deputies started to remove signs, 59-year-old Patricia Ann Kanzler of Eureka (pictured at right, courtesy James Decker) allegedly put a sign back on the fence. After being told to remove the sign and refusing to do so, she was arrested and booked into county jail for violating the ordinance, a misdemeanor offense carrying a $5,000 bail levy. She was released later that evening.

Ordinance #2477 also bans camping at the courthouse and prohibits the storage of personal property on the grounds, including camp facilities and camp paraphernalia, construction materials, tools, lumber, paint, tarps, tables, luggage and clothing. Occupy Eureka participants and other demonstrators are also not allowed to have any awning or windbreak no matter what the weather conditions.

Proposed county decree against Occupy Eureka incites resistance

Staff Report
Humboldt Sentinel

Recent moves by the Board of Supervisors towards an ordinance restricting protests on county property may end up forging a broad coalition on civil rights issues.

While the rest of Eureka boogies down at the 22nd annual Jazz Festival this Saturday, civil libertarian-minded folks are gathering at the Eureka Woman’s Club to ‘Stand Up & Shout Out’ at ‘A Forum to Protect and Restore Our First Amendment Rights.’

Featuring a panel discussion, along with some inspirational interludes from the Raging Grannies singers and distinguished local poet Jerry Martien, the event is organized by the Occupy Civil Liberties Working Group, a spin-off of Occupy Humboldt County. They claim that the emergency decree on public safety at the county courthouse proposed by Supervisor Jimmy Smith would be the latest attack on the free assembly rights of Occupy Eureka, as well as reflecting a chain of dangerous developments at the federal level.

“Bit-by-bit, piece-by-piece, our precious First Amendment rights are being whittled away,” reads the group’s manifesto, penned by spokespersons Jack Nounnan of Eureka, Janelle Egger of Fortuna and David Boyd of Arcata.

“The Patriot Act, the National Defense Authorization Act, the militarization of our police by the Department of Homeland Security, the coordinated nationwide crackdown on Occupy protests, the unrestrained excesses of local law enforcement, and much, much more: the cumulative effects of these actions has resulted in an America very different than the one we experienced a decade ago.”

Boyd, Egger and Nounnan further warn that the undermining of First Amendment rights on the local level would undercut the ability of the area’s progressive organizations to succeed.

“It is urgent that we form a broad coalition of local organizations who rely upon our First Amendment, and we need you at the table,” the manifesto states.

Moderating the forum is Dan Faulk, former Sacramento political insider and later-day activist rabble-rouser who serves as a lecturer at Humboldt State University. Notable locals speaking include Peter Martin, a former deputy district attorney who now runs his own private practice, which includes a lawsuit against the City of Arcata over their anti-panhandling ordinance which bans the holding of a sign on a street corner.

Other panelists include John Hockett of the Southern Humboldt-based Civil Liberties Monitoring Project, radio news producer Tom Sebourn, attorney and homeless advocate Tracy Rain, and Occupy Eureka activists James Decker and Kimberly “Verbena Lea” Starr.

Organizers have amassed a hefty list of co-sponsors of this event, including CLMP, Eureka Progressive Democratic Club, Humboldt Civil Liberties Defense Fund, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship’s Social Action Committee and the local chapters of Veterans for Peace and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

Some late maneuvering has added the Redwood Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union to the coalition of sponsors following a confusing interlude.

According to one participant in the meetings of the working group, the lack of organization, defined roles and tasks and the use of the consensus process resulted in a merry-go-round of panelists and co-sponsors added and removed. This included New Directions founder and former North Coast Resource Center director John Shelter, whose work to aid the poor and clean up homeless camp sites has been publicly assailed by Starr as that of a “poverty pimp.” When Shelter was disinvited by Verbena’s allies, the disinvitation apparently included Greg Allen, an Arcata lawyer who chairs the Redwood ACLU.

The working group’s Egger reached out to the ACLU and clarified that these moves were not an indication that the rest of the working group were looking to exclude anyone in the local civil rights movement.

“It was a scramble and obviously somewhere there was a miscommunication,” Egger stated on the Redwood ACLU Facebook page. “On behalf of the working group I apologize and invite all to attend next Saturday.”

As of the latest release this evening, the Redwood ACLU is on board as a co-sponsor of the forum, along with Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County, which is co-sponsoring another event, Wake Up Humboldt, taking place simultaneously in Arcata. Disappearing from the panel were Arcata power couple Jeffrey Schwartz, a civil rights attorney, and Marcy Burstiner, a journalism professor at HSU, and taking their place was Peter Martin, who also serves as treasurer of the Redwood ACLU.

This First Amendment Forum will start at 1 p.m. at the Eureka Woman’s Club, located at 1531 J Street in midtown Eureka.

Humboldt County native Fred Van Vleck to be appointed Mar. 21

Staff Report
Humboldt Sentinel

After nearly a year without a permanent leader, Eureka City Schools is set to bring in a new superintendent for Humboldt County’s largest school district.

Dr. Fred Van Vleck, the assistant superintendent of business services for Ceres Unified School District in Stanislaus County, has been identified as the finalist in a statement today by ECS school board president John Fullerton. Negotiations for a final contract are in progress and Fullerton anticipates that the appointment will be made at the next regular Eureka School Board meeting on Mar 21.

“I am honored that the Board of Trustees has selected me to be Superintendent, and I am excited to move my family of five back home,” Van Vleck stated in a release. “I am especially proud to be part of this district that has maintained a high quality of education for all students.”

As a Humboldt County native, Van Vleck is excited at the prospect of returning to his roots — and school board members were particularly interested in choosing a candidate who is familiar with the mission, vision and core values of ECS. In a split decision late last year, the board voted 3-2 to hire Leadership Associates to conduct a full search for Superintendent candidates; consultants Jim Brown and Don Iglesias worked with elected representatives, parents, staff and community members to garner input as to the qualities sought in the person who would succeed Gregg Haulk, who served for over four years in the position before leaving last summer for a new superintendent gig in Huntington Beach.

The release did not mention what would become of Lee Ann Lanning, who served as interim superintendent since Haulk’s departure. She was obviously considered as a candidate, along with other internal and external contenders, although the choice became clearer after a team from ECS visited Van Vleck in Ceres.

“Dr. Van Vleck is an innovative leader and a proven team builder who honors all members of the educational community,” screening team member and music teacher David Demant said in a release. “When making the tough decisions that the future will surely present, we can count on him to hold our children’s best interests as his compass. The teachers in Eureka are thrilled to welcome him into our educational family.”

In his time at Ceres, Van Vleck also served as the founding principal of a new high school and the director of curriculum and instruction; prior to that, he served as an assistant principal and a teacher.

“I look forward to working with Eureka City Schools’ students, staff, and community as we strive to provide a high level of instruction where each child can learn and achieve his or her fullest potential,” Van Vleck stated.

As part of it’s continuing series entering its second year next month, the Sentinel produced gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Eureka School Board meeting on Nov. 2 when the Board decided to enter into the superintendent search process.

The participants speak for themselves…

By Gabriele Fellows
Humboldt Sentinel

American Airlines given clearance to bring services to Humboldt

By Gabriele Fellows and Charles Douglas
Humboldt Sentinel

Supervisors voted unanimously this morning to identify funding for a $1 million revenue guarantee over two years to establish direct flight service to Los Angeles.

The money will not come out of the county’s General Fund, and county staff will still have to provide assurances that this guarantee will be consistent with Federal Aviation Administration regulations. Final adoption will still have to come back to the Board at a later date — and no money will be spent before then.

Third District Supervisor Mark Lovelace and Fifth District Supervisor Ryan Sundberg were directed by their colleagues this morning to form a subcommittee and coordinate efforts with Public Works and the county’s airport consultant to finalize negotiations with American Airlines; the carrier has expressed interest in sending its smaller-scale subsidiary, American Eagle, on two daily flights between Humboldt County and LAX. This revenue guarantee was required by American Airlines representatives, who said they were making decisions this week as to what new routes would be added to their summer schedule.

A monthly reconciliation of the carrier’s flight loads would be provided to county staff under the draft plan, and the flights were not filled to 80% capacity in each month of service, taxpayer dollars would be handed to the company to ensure the profitability of the new route.

For the curiously aware of Humboldt County…

By Skippy Massey
Humboldt Sentinel

NEWS, SNIPPETS, HEARSAY RUMORS, AND THE LINKS

SIGNS OF THE OCCUPY TIMES:   Humboldt County Sheriff Mike Downey was informed that District Attorney Paul Gallegos won’t prosecute Eureka’s Occupy protesters for hanging signs on the courthouse barrier fence.  Consequently, Eureka Police Department Interim Chief Murl  Harpham said that EPD officers will no longer be enforcing Penal Code section 602(f) per the DA’s suggestion, a misdemeanor offense that includes “putting up, affixing, fastening, printing or painting upon any property belonging to the state, or to any city, county, town, or village, or dedicated to the public.”

According to the Times-Standard, Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos said the cited penal code doesn’t apply to Occupy signs because the code is meant to prevent commercial signs on government property. Gallegos said the focus needs to be on “the criminal conduct that takes place — such as smoking marijuana on the courthouse steps and disruptive behavior — instead of the signs.”

Chief Harpham said the courthouse is a mess and that his officers are responding only when there are emergency calls for assistance, which is about two or three times a day. He said his officers can’t easily enforce a law and cite a code that Gallegos doesn’t agree with.

Sheriff Downey said he hopes members of the public fed up with the activities in front of the courthouse will go to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors with their concerns.  Downey also took it a step further and raised the ante with his tersely worded letter directed to DA Paul Gallegos on the issue:

“So with this I am suspending all efforts to do anything with the continued assault on the courthouse, the employees and the general public due to the immunity given to them by your (the District Attorney’s) office,” Downey said.

Ouch. 

Ms. Kym files her own startling report in  ‘Bitch, Tie Your Shoes’.  Double ouch.

YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE from the long arm of the claw.  From the Eureka Police Nefarious Scoundrels and Skullduggery Press Release Department:

On 3/08/12, at around 11:00 AM, investigators with the Eureka Police Department’s Problem Oriented Policing Unit responded to a residence in the 3300 block of G Street, Eureka to look for a wanted fugitive.  POP had received information that a parolee-at-large, Michael Wayne Brissette (age 37), was staying there.  Brissette had a felony warrant for his arrest alleging violation of his parole and considered to be a high risk offender.  He’d been on the run for approximately 10 months after cutting off his GPS ankle monitoring bracelet and has had a prior history of resisting officers.

Upon arrival at the house, Detectives contacted an adult female resident who was on searchable probation along with two small children and two adult male visitors.  The children and adult males were sent away while detectives searched the residence. Detectives found drug use paraphernalia along with a small quantity of methamphetamine in the residence.  However, initially they could not locate Brissette.  When the detectives started to check the attic they heard movement above the ceiling and someone tossed down a hypodermic syringe and other items through the closet attic access hole.

Detectives confirmed Brissette was hiding in the attic and attempted to talk him down.  However, Brissette refused to communicate with the detectives– or exit the attic.  Officers repeatedly deployed chemical agents into the attic with no effect.  At one point, Brissette broke a hole through the ceiling.  Additional EPD officers and detectives were called to the scene.  An approximately 4 hour stand-off ensued.  An EPD police K-9 team was also called, along with the Eureka Fire Department.  Apart from yelling “run mother f–ers run” at officers on one occasion, Brissette would not speak with negotiators.

Deputies deployed a small robot with a camera into the attic.  However, the robot was unable to locate Brissette who remained hidden in the insulation and rafters.  As the stand-off progressed, EFD shut off gas and power to the residence as a precaution.  City Ambulance paramedics were also staged nearby. At approximately 3:00 PM, officers breached another opening into the attic through the ceiling of an adjacent bedroom in preparation for deploying more significant chemical agents into the attic.

Prior to deploying the chemical agents, an EPD negotiator again attempted to communicate with Brissette and he agreed to surrender.  At approximately 3:12 PM, Brissette exited the attic through the breached hole in the ceiling.  He was taken into custody without further incident, booked on his felony warrant and on several fresh charges including possession of a controlled substance, resisting arrest, and parole violation.

It appears Mr. Brissette’s belt doesn’t go through all the loops.  The North Coast Journal has the pictures of Mr. Brissette’s wild escapade and utter resignation.

WHY HIDE?  On 3/07/12, at about 2:50 p.m., investigators with the Eureka Police Department’s Problem Oriented Policing Unit (POP) went to a residence on the 1900 block of Harrison Avenue, in response to neighbor complaints concerning loud music, parties, and suspected drug activity there, according to another EPD press release.

Detectives contacted resident Brandon James Phelps (age 23 of Eureka) and his 33-year-old brother at the front door.  Phelps’ 4-year-old son was also present in the home.  While detectives were speaking with Phelps about the complaints, they smelled the odor of marijuana emanating from inside the residence.

A records check confirmed both adult subjects were on searchable probation. Additionally, Phelps had an outstanding warrant for his arrest for possession of a controlled substance.  Phelps was taken into custody on his warrant.  With the assistance of EPD patrol officers, investigators then conducted a probation search of the residence.

Investigators located several large plastic bags and tubs containing untrimmed dried marijuana, marijuana “shake” (dried leaves and trimmings commonly saved for hash production), and manicured/processed marijuana “bud.”  There were also several open plastic trays containing dried marijuana in the process of being “trimmed” along with marijuana packaging materials (plastic baggies).  Additionally, officers found drug use paraphernalia (two meth pipes) and evidence of a past indoor marijuana grow in the residence.  In all, a total of approximately 45 pounds of dried marijuana was located and seized from within the residence.  Neither Phelps nor his brother possessed a current, valid medical marijuana (Prop 215) waiver.

Phelps was arrested and transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility where he was booked on his warrant and for possession of marijuana for sale and probation violation.  His son was released into the care and custody of his mother.

Hmmm…  Mr. Phelps was living nearly next door to his supervising Probation Officer and the Humboldt County Probation Department located at 2002 Harrison Avenue.  We can only hope the Probation Department wasn’t snoozing, but  awake just enough to find that their absconded felon on an outstanding warrant had been under their noses for some time– as neighbor’s repeated complaints came in revealing Phelps’ noisy partying whereabouts to EPD’s POP unit, instead.  Why even hide when others can nap and nod off?

Mr. Phelps doesn’t appear to be the brightest crayon in the box making it an even pair.

FUNNY FUNDING:  Eureka’s Finance Director Paul Rodrigues presented the midyear budget review to the Eureka City Council at its Tuesday council meeting March 6.  His report shows an increased impact to the city’s funds, including a $157,413 expenditure increase “mostly due to projects that were not completed by the end of the 2010-2011 fiscal year,” he said.  The already-allotted funds for those projects will be rolled over to the 2011-2012 fiscal year.

Other expenditures for the 2011-2012 fiscal year include $228,000 for earthquake and flood insurance and $673,000 for a 2011 wastewater bond interest that wasn’t budgeted for in the past.

Revenue increased by $848,000 due to additional grant funding.

Mr. Rodrigues gave an update on Measure O funds—the .25% transaction and use tax safety measure approved by voters that increased Eureka’s state and city sales tax total to 9 percent.  Measure O has generated $3.8 million in revenue this fiscal year, Mr. Rodrigues explained.  Of that amount, $1.2 million will go towards bolstering the City’s reserves, $1.5 million will go to the police department, $700,000 goes to the fire department, and $300,000 is directed for public safety retirement plans, he said.

Mr. Rodrigues did not explain, however, why EPD’s four of five service vehicles purchased a year ago and costing over $100,000 are still sitting unused at the City’s Corporation yard.  The new Ford cruisers were mothballed so the department could buy some sexier Dodge Chargers instead.  No explanation we’re aware of has been given to the public by either the police department, the City Council, or City Manager David Tyson regarding this wasted expenditure.

Mr. Rodrigues’ presentation was enthusiastically received by the City Council.  They’re rolling in the easy tax money, even if there are some gaping holes and gaps left to fill.  Or smoothed over as if they never happened.  For example, not having citizens appointed to oversee Measure O’s spending as originally promised.  Or not mentioning the costs of defending the City against numerous lawsuits over the last several years.

Funny how money hides shortcomings like a confidence shell game.  Eureka’s streets are still a crumbling pot-holed mess.

NO LONGER OF SERVICE:  The North Coast Journal article by Heidi Walters, Fight at the Museum,  relates details of Director/Curator Pam Service’s abrupt dismissal from Eureka’s Clarke Museum after serving 12 years in the position.

Ms. Service’s resume includes an undergraduate degree from U.C. Berkeley and a master’s in history and archaeology from The University of London in England.  She worked as the director/curator of the Monroe County Historical Museum in Bloomington, Indiana, for 17 years before coming to Eureka.  Ms. Service reportedly found the museum in sad shape: much of museum’s exhibit space had been shut down, the records were still all on paper, and storage rooms were in poor condition, the NCJ says.  Tony Platt, professor emeritus at U.C. Berkeley and author of the book Grave Matters, said, “It wasn’t until Pam Service was hired that they really, under her leadership, began to make the museum an ethical and professional place. There’s been an economic crisis at the Clarke Historical Museum in Eureka for several years.  Now, there’s a crisis of leadership as well.”

The Humboldt Herald blog notes the issue of leadership hasn’t quietly gone away since the board unceremoniously fired longtime Curator Pam Service shortly before Christmas.

“While the Clarke Museum Board of Directors is entrusted with care-taking priceless artifacts of Humboldt County history — and receives money from the City of Eureka to do so — the public wasn’t welcome at its Thursday (March 8th) board meeting. When the public did attend its one annual public meeting in January, the process was anything but open according to some attendees,” the Herald opined.

According to the North Coast Journal, retired local bookseller Jere Bob Bowden said he went to the public meeting the Clarke board held in January after hearing Service had been dismissed — “a weird affair, he noted, in which the board followed no recognizable rules of order — and he let them have it.  They had been talking about how the fund-raising was down, and membership, and I said, ‘With all due respect, this board has failed. The board’s responsibility is to develop a broader membership base and to be more aggressive in raising money.’”

The Humboldt Herald noted, “Several members of the local heritage community sent a letter to the Clarke board on February 21st calling for them to reinstate Ms. Service and to be open about financial struggles facing the museum. But so far, the board is not open to being open about the storm that’s blowing at 240 E St.”

HOME-GROAN POT STOP:  Redwood Capital Bank Vice President Jennifer Budwig discussed the economic impact of Humboldt’s massive $1 billion marijuana industry to the County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. Ms. Budwig estimates 26 percent of Humboldt’s economy is directly related to marijuana– and more than $400 million dollars is spent each year in the county because of it.

She said legalizing marijuana would have a negative impact on the local economy as revenues would decrease.  She added we should be using entities like the North Coast Small Business Development Center to support other trades– and reducing the economic hit should marijuana someday become legal.

Ms. Budwig examined the impact of marijuana on Humboldt County’s economy for her graduate thesis at the Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington. Her results are a rare look into Humboldt County’s weed industry.  In December of last year, she wrote about the impact of cannabis legalization.  She noted that while marijuana has been a lucrative product with historically high margins, these margins have been decreasing over the last several years primarily due to an increase in supply, because of the following factors:

1. People who previously did not grow because of law enforcement fears obtained their 215 cards since they were approved in 1996 and now grow quasi-legally.

2. Since the passing of Proposition 215, 15 other states and Washington, D.C., have passed their own medicinal marijuana laws. These states have also followed suit of increased production, boosting overall supply nationally.

3. Since the 9/11 attacks in 2001, there has been a significant increase in border patrol. This resulted in the Mexican cartels relocating their grows directly into the United States on public lands, which has limited their risk and costs associated with transportation.

4. With Proposition 19 on the ballot in November 2010, producers were concerned that legalization would result in market saturation and further drive the prices down. Many growers felt it was their last opportunity to sell at the inflated prices, so they significantly increased their production.

5. In 2009, President Obama signed a directive to the U.S. Department of Justice for them to defer to state laws regarding medical marijuana use. This (supposedly) took the fear away that the DEA would enforce any laws as long as growers were compliant with state laws. This,coupled with the passage of Prop. 215, has resulted in little risk of being prosecuted for growing.

Ms. Budwig says that for these reasons, marijuana supply has escalated on a national level. Per numerous sources, this is her estimate as to how much prices per pound have dropped at the wholesale level over the last 10 years:

* 10 years ago: Indoor, $4,500 to $5,000; outdoor, $3,500 to $4,000

* 5 years ago: Indoor, approximately $4,000; outdoor, $2,800 to $3,500

* Current: Indoor, approximately $2,500; outdoor, $1,500 (some quoted as low as $700/pound)

This decrease in revenues has already led to an extraction of dollars in our economy, she notes, and the ‘general consensus’ is that if marijuana ever does become legalized, it would have serious economic impacts to Humboldt.  Please tell us something that we don’t know, Ms. Budwig.  Like the Feds are looking at legalization sometime in the next decade.  Not.

Ms. Budwig will be giving her presentation on the Economic Impact of Marijuana on Humboldt County on Tuesday March 27, 7-9:00p.m. at Mosgo’s Cafe,  180 Westwood Center in Arcata.

TAKING FLIGHT:  County Supervisors and Public Works Director Tom Mattson are hoping to lure American Airlines coming to Humboldt using public monies as a sweet enticement– again.  They don’t want to get burned for a second time after our previous carrier, Delta Airlines, abruptly flew the coop leaving town with half a million of our dollars last year.  County Supervisors are once again looking at Headwaters funds to secure the American Airlines contract, only this time the ante has been significantly raised.  The airline is considering starting twice-a-day service to Los Angeles from the Arcata-Eureka airport but has asked the County for an annual $500,000 revenue guarantee for two years. This means that Humboldt would be on the hook for up to $1 million if the airline doesn’t meet its capacity requirements.

This leaves us wondering why our tax monies are being considered at all for what should be a private and profitable enterprise.  It’s similar to municipalities building a sports stadium for private owners at the taxpayer’s expense, using the slush fund of the public’s piggy bank to grease the wheels.  Call it what you like:  public entitlement or corporate welfare.

We also wonder where Humboldt County Airport Manager Jacquelyn Hulsey has been in all of this mishmash.  Ms. Hulsey was on a paid leave of absence from September 2011 to January 2012, and nary has a peep been heard since returning to the job.  She was at the center of several controversial airport issues in the last few years, you’ll remember. After the county shut down the airport’s Instrument Landing System for construction work in September 2010, problems with flight delays caused frustrations for passengers. Shortly after that, two members of the citizen committee overseeing the airport resigned, saying Hulsey did not communicate with committee members.  Lately, she’s been as quiet as an Airport Manager church mouse on the pay-or-no-fly matter.

And our remaining carrier, United Airlines, seems to have come untied as of late.  United has been cancelling flights for any number of claimed reasons– and we suspect they’re doing so when all their given seats haven’t been filled.  HSU President Rollin Richmond recently directed an angry letter to United after being stiffed and miffed repeatedly by the carrier.

A RARE TOUR OPPORTUNITY:  The world famous St. George Reef Lighthouse will be relit as part of a weekend that includes restoration work and public helicopter tours of the lighthouse.

On Sunday, the St. George Reef Lighthouse will be open to the public by reservation only. Tours begin at 9 a.m. and leave from Crescent City airport. Visitors will be flown seven miles offshore in a Raven 44 helicopter, land on the light and spend over an hour touring the structure from bottom to top. According to the group’s website, the cost is $195 per person.

Sunday’s Tour guests can experience what it may have been like to live and work there during the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition to close-up aerial views of the lighthouse, visitors may spot whales and sea lions, as well as panoramic views of the Del Norte coastline. All proceeds (after costs are covered) go to finance restoration of the lighthouse.

For reservations and details, call 464-7846 or visit their website.

Planning was begun to construct the lighthouse after the coastal steamer Brother Jonathan sank on St. George Reef in 1865 with the loss of over 225 lives. St. George was America’s most expensive lighthouse, costing in excess of $700,000 when constructed during1882-1892 in these treacherous waters.

Built on a small wave washed rock 6 miles off the coast of Crescent City, The lighthouse is composed of hundreds of individually cut granite blocks which were quarried 100 miles South from Humboldt County and transported to the site by steamer. Capped by a cast iron lantern room which housed a giant First Order lens with 500 facets, the structure rises 150 feet above the sea.

Over its years of service, St. George Lighthouse has withstood storms in which waves broke glass in the lantern room.  It was considered to be one of the most dangerous stations in the lighthouse service; during its history, 4 keepers have been killed while on duty. The rock on which the lighthouse was built is only 17 feet above sea level and affords no safe landing for boats.

And now you have the very rare chance to visit the remote rock outcropping by helicopter on Sunday.  Keep one eye on your footing– and another on those sneaker waves.

CANCEROUS SODA:  Coca-Cola and Pepsi are changing the way they make the caramel coloring used in their sodas as a result of a California law that mandates drinks containing a certain level of carcinogens bear a cancer warning label. The companies said the changes will be expanded nationally to streamline their manufacturing processes and they’re already in effect to comply with the California law. Company officials and the FDA insist the products are safe and the fears overblown, saying one has to drink a thousand cans a day to reach any carcinogen level found in test animals.

Apparently labeling laws do more than merely inform you what you’re eating and drinking.  They cause companies to do things properly and not kill you.  Let’s hope the Coca-Cola and Pepsi lawyers don’t find loopholes.  Dead consumers are bad consumers.

JOB OUTLOOK BRIGHTENING:  The Labor Department said employers in the U.S. boosted payrolls more than forecast in February, capping the best six- month streak of job growth since 2006 and sending stocks higher.  Unemployment held nationally at 8.3%. More jobs are helping fuel the wage gains that drive consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy.  California’s unemployment rate in January fell below 11% for the first time in nearly three years.

Shhh. Don’t tell Wall Street.  They’ll line their own pockets and ruin the economy again if given the opportunity.  That is, if the oil industry doesn’t beat them to it.

GOLDEN HOPES:  Warren Buffett is the third wealthiest person on the planet. He’s also regarded as one of the most successful investors in the world, and has an aversion to gold.  He won’t own it and feels irrational fears are spiking an unreasonable value for it.

Mr. Buffett said that if the world’s stock of gold were melded together, it would only form a  cube 68 feet square.  Valued at $1,750 an ounce, that cube would be worth about $9.6 trillion.  For the same amount of money, Mr. Buffett claims, an investor could acquire all the cropland in the U.S. and buy Exxon Mobil Corp. 16 times, while still having $1 trillion left over. “You can fondle the cube, but it will not respond,” Buffet said.

Gold has climbed nearly 500% since January of 2000, when it was then valued at $280 per ounce. In contrast, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway fund is up 105% for the same period.

We hope Mr. Buffett won’t be cornering the market on arable land anytime soon.  He knows all that glitters isn’t gold.  It’s food.

OUR BLOG FRIENDS:  So many folks weaving the Humboldt tapestry.  Where do we start?

The always adorable Kristabel is talking tuna and predictably giggling over petcocks as Ernie and Janis beat the heat having gone commando in Cozumel while Fred thinks cell phone car accidents are a bogus item.  Out of the goodness of their hearts, Tom and Bicoastal Media raised a ton of cash for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and John dropped a humorous load on KMUD’s unwitting doorstep.  Eric, as usual, gave his fair and equal treatment for both the 2nd district political candidates, Clif and Estelle.

We take gladness in knowing Lynette’s back in the saddle again and the Mirror’s given a home to Henchie only because the Herald banned HOJ’s misunderstood thoughts from its own progressive rank and file.  Richard kneads and pleads for more softball players and teams and Bill keeps us aware of disasters, pot gleanings, and evil fascist leanings. Dave finds many colorful snippets during his morning java break while  Kym  and Hank  are up to their eyes and ears with the blog ’n bog, host ‘n post business.  This makes it easier for Rose to Just Watch Paul.  Sigh.

Josephine weaves her words, music and teaching together. Bob, please, oh please, for the love of God, Bob, turn off Obama’s broken record of “I Promise You This” before we all go nuts. The wheel is still spinning but the hamster died a long time ago. Mr. Ross is keeping an eye out on Fortuna, Mark on Arcata, and testy Joe Blows his spout while Michael the K …Fronks. As Savage Henry, Da Crows Nest, and Mr. Chiv continually work their wordsworth, we’d also like to say hello to BrendaLou and Jendelicious, and enjoy our books bought and sold from Scott and Amy’s place. We wish Tad the best …wherever he went off to. Peace be with you all.

You know we love you, too, Times-Standard, North Coast Journal, Arcata Eye, Two Rivers Tribune, the Redwood and Rio Dell Times, the Lumberjack, McKinleyville Press, and the Humboldt Beacon. And, of course,  KMUD, KHUM, KHSU, Access Humboldt, KEET-TV, and the rest of our media sources.

Did we miss anyone?  We hope not.   Our sincere apologies if we did, but you know who you are. Thank you for making the Humboldt blogosphere a unique place to be. Be home before dark, y’all, and be sure to wear your helmets when you go out and play.

TWO DOGGIE TREATS FOR THE ROAD:  Denver the Guilty Dog and the Taunting Dog Tease.

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME officially begins at 2 a.m. Sunday, March 11.  Move your clocks ahead by an hour.  You only have so much time

THE WEEKEND CALENDAR:

WHO BOMBED JUDI BARI?  Saturday and Sunday presents an unusual 93-minute documentary produced by fellow activist and eco-cohort, Darryl Cherney.

Legendary Earth First! organizer and car-bomb victim Judi Bari may have passed away in 1997, but the documentary feature, Who Bombed Judi Bari? brings her back to life, Mr. Cherney says. The Humboldt County premiere is at the Arcata Playhouse Saturday and Sunday, March 10 and 11, and at the Garberville Theater, Tuesday through Thursday, March 13 through 15.  All shows commence at 7:30 pm and admission is a sliding scale donation for the movie’s upcoming festival expenses.

RUN A SUCCESSFUL MEDIA CAMPAIGN:  Access Humboldt is presenting a workshop with Adam Klugman, media strategist, campaign consultant and radio host of Mad as Hell in America. This workshop will be geared for political candidates, campaign managers, non profits, citizen journalists and others committed to public advocacy utilizing the media resources of the 21st century.  It will touch on differences and application of messaging, branding and advertising, how to frame the problem and then “selling” the solution.

It’s in the Access Humboldt Studio, from Noon – 1:30 on Saturday, March 10, and costs $25 dollars (or $15 if you’re an Access Humboldt member—join and save the $10 bucks).  Call #476-1798 for more information.

There’s also a Community Voices dinner benefitting Access Humboldt, too.

A PRE-FAB FOUR SATURDAY:  A Beatles knockoff plays at the Arkley.  The people in the cheaper seats can clap their hands and the rest can rattle their jewelry.

A DOG-CENTRIC SUNDAY:  HumDOG’s 25th annual Dog Expo is Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Redwood Acres Fairgrounds, 3750 Harris St., Eureka. Admission is free. It’s a hoot spent with our best friends.  Dogs.

The day starts with an arctic sled dog demonstration at 10:30 a.m. (and 3:15 p.m.), the agility demonstration at 11 a.m, and Eureka Police Department canine officers showing off their special skills at 12:15 p.m. A parade of canine breeds kicks off at 1 p.m. with well known breeds from Irish Setters, Doberman Pinschers, and Jack Russells to lesser known breeds such as Cane Corsos, Keeshonds, Swedish Vallhunds and Borzois. At 2:40 p.m., there’s a dance with dogs– then an obedience demonstration.

In between the organized events, there will be vendors selling most every dog-related merchandise imaginable and booths operated by local animal groups: guide dog puppy raisers, the 4-H dog activity/care group, Sequoia Humane Society, Bones Rescue, the Humboldt County Animal Shelter, Prescription RX (a reading program involving specially trained dogs and young readers), and more. The Marine Corps League will provide refreshments for purchase.

For more information about HumDOG or Sunday’s Dog Expo, call 444-3862 or visit humdog.org.

Happenings, Events, Groups, Walks, and Other Good Stuff:

Friday, March 9

Saturday, March 10

Sunday, March 11

Other entertainment can also be found here.

Movies, reviews, times and trailers are here.

WORD

What’s the use of you learning to do right, when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?

Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

For our readers: the Weekly Roundup will be taking a short hiatus.  Happy Trails to you and yours until we meet again.

Please note that the Sentinel is accepting article submissions.  We would welcome your help and contributions, and would like to see your work being published here.  Please contact the Editor at (707) 667-3302 or e-mail editor@humboldtsentinel.com.

Nine candidates, only one seat

By Gabriele Fellows
Humboldt Sentinel

The spirit of democracy was alive and well Thursday night almost 300 miles from Sacramento.

A Congressional Candidate Forum was held at the Fortuna High School gym on March 1st where prospective office seekers spoke their peace to a zealious crowd of individuals.

A total of nine ambitious souls from all walks of life are vying for the freshly formed 2nd Congressional district which now includes Marin and parts of Sonoma County near the coast.

The California Redistricting Commission combined the 1st and 6th districts due to the retirement of Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey.

Properly aligned on stage facing a crowd of voters from all demographics, each candidate briefly introduced themselves and spoke about their diverse experience.

Four questions were posted to each candidate with a one minute window for response. Questions were provided ahead of time to help elicit succinct answers.

More than half of the candidates are from the Marin area and either hold political offices or are well healed elements of the private sector.

For the curiously aware of Humboldt County…

By Skippy Massey
Humboldt Sentinel

THE SPLIT PERSONALITY OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT SERVICES DEPARTMENT

Red Tape and Analysis Paralysis

After nearly two hours of official wrangling, semantics, negotiating timelines, and deciding what should come first—the chicken or the egg–   the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday decided to split the Humboldt County Community Development Services Department into two separate departments. Director Kirk Girard wasn’t placed into one of the two department head positions and won’t oversee his former department when it’s restructured into the Planning and Building Department and the Economic Development and Natural Resources Department, the Times-Standard’s Megan Hansen reported.

Many of the Supervisor’s concerns during Tuesday’s session were about the desire to have the actual restructuring of the two new departments thought out more than it had been.  The back and forth conversation carried out ad nauseam between County Supervisors, County Administrative Officer Phillip Smith-Hanes, County Counsel Wendy Chaitin, Personnel Director Dan Fulks, and public comments by Planning Commissioner Ralph Faust and County Clerk Carolyn Crnich was akin to a dog chasing its tail.  Or watching a ping pong game between too many players.  It was truly an exercise in bureaucratic patience for everyone concerned.

Granted, it’s a sticky wicket.  Much of the discussion centered on what would happen to Girard if he were not appointed to the new job. Girard’s position in either department remains in question.  The agenda item was pulled for discussion and 5th District Supervisor Ryan Sundberg raised concerns about Girard’s appointment, saying he didn’t expect to see it happen automatically and without taking applications. Chairwoman and 4th District Supervisor Virginia Bass agreed. The board ultimately voted to allocate the two new positions effective May 13 and to go through with the recruitment process for both department head jobs.  Girard, who is out of the office until March 13, will keep his current position until the new positions are filled.  He may– or may not– have to apply for one of the new positions.

CAO Smith-Hanes said he received a number of questions and comments from the board prior to the meeting about Girard’s salary. The two new positions have lower monthly salaries than what Girard currently makes.  If Girard is appointed as the director of either department, he would continue to make the same amount of money as he does now– currently $9,611 a month, according to the Times-Standard.  Smith-Hanes said the County is treading new ground with the restructuring and he isn’t sure what to do if the Supervisors don’t wish to put Girard into a new position.  Just because the position goes away doesn’t mean the person goes away with it, he said.

5^th District Supervisor Ryan Sundberg said he’s concerned Girard would be making the same amount of money for half as much work if he’s appointed to one of the positions.

2^nd District Supervisor Clif Clendenen said the Humboldt Taxpayer’s League has questioned the practice of spending more money by employing two department heads. Clendenen said he acknowledges the extra cost, but believes the restructuring would provide better service to the community.

3^rd District Supervisor Mark Lovelace emphasized repeatedly the move was not a ‘personnel’ matter but an ‘organizational’ one.  He motioned, but failed, to have the two new department head positions become effective July 1, aligning with the new fiscal year. He added the county will likely be working to figure out the exact organization of the new departments as appointments are discussed.

During public comment, none of the few speakers spoke out against Girard’s performance. In previous public comment sessions, numerous people have criticized Girard about his management of the department and the County’s general plan update.  During Tuesdays’ session, no one from the Humboldt Coalition for Property Rights (HumCPR), Humboldt Economic Land Plan (HELP), or the Humboldt Association of Realtors (HAR) gave public comment regarding Girard, his department, or reorganizational plans.

The Supervisors decided to clarify more details of the restructuring during their closed session, as well as discuss three pending lawsuits in Superior Court: Humboldt County vs. Robert McKee (Humboldt County Superior Court case # DR020825), Humboldt Sunshine vs. County of Humboldt and others (#CV070159), and Forster-Gill Inc. vs. County of Humboldt and others (#CV110550).

No details of these pending litigation items were made available to the public.

* * * * * * *

NEWS, SNIPPETS, HEARSAY RUMORS, AND THE LINKS:  “Plans and Planning”

MAYBE YOU CAN FLY IF YOU FLAP YOUR ARMS FAST ENOUGH:  Humboldt County is talking with American Airlines for a Los Angeles route while a smaller charter company, Boutique Air, is already scheduling March flights.  Don’t hold your breath.  Nothing’s been set in ink for American Airlines yet.  The County Supervisors are looking at funding guarantees by tapping the Headwaters Fund and using fee waivers to grease the wheels.

Boutique Air, meanwhile, employs smaller planes carrying four people at boutiquely high tariffs.  Offering four round-trip flights from the Arcata-Eureka Airport to Redding and Eugene, tickets for one-way flights will start around $220 to Redding and $400 to Eugene.

Given the present level of air service, even skateboards and pogo sticks would be an improvement for travellers.

ANOTHER CONTENDER EMERGES FOR THE 1^st DISTRICT RACE:  The Lost Coast Outpost and the Humboldt Herald confirm Cheryl Seidner of the Wiyot Tribe is stepping into the contest for First District Humboldt County Supervisor. Seidner will face Rex Bohn and the lesser known candidate, Annette De Modena in the June primary.

Hank Sims was the first in with the news:  “The Humboldt County Elections Office confirms that Cheryl Seidner — a former HSU employee and Wiyot Tribal Chair and still a very highly regarded figure in local political circles — has taken on the unenviable task of attempting to chase Rex Bohn in this season’s race to replace retiring First District Supervisor Jimmy Smith,” he said.

With three people in the running, we can plan on the race being decided in November– rather than a quick campaign ending at the June primary.  Outgoing Supervisor Jimmy Smith has yet to endorse any candidate.

THANK YOU FOR THE MONEY, NOW HERE’S YOUR PINK SLIP:  After $140 million dollars of donations, grants, loans and bonds went to complete St. Joseph’s Northeast tower project, CEO Joe Mark announced 50 local hospital employees will lose their jobs in the next two weeks.

“It’s all current economics,” Mark said. “It has nothing to do with the tower.  We’ve seen a double-digit drop in surgeries in the last six months and people are putting off operations like knee replacements because of the economy.”

One would think that after such a huge infusion of planning and capital, jobs would have been gained rather than lost.  That was their plan, you’ll remember.  In the old days, we remember when a CEO was removed from the position for making boneheaded miscalculations.  After all, that’s what a CEO is highly paid for.  We suspect, however, that Mr. Mark will not be one of those losing their job due to the ‘poor economy’ and the unforeseen lack of participants willing to be sliced and diced on the surgical table.

What folks also may not yet know is this:  Once St. Joe’s Tower opens up in June/July, they will be moving their Urgent Care services to the Emergency Room.   What does this mean for you and your family?

Their website currently says, “Because no appointment is necessary at the Urgent Care Clinic, fees may be higher than a visit to your primary care physician, but less than a visit to the Emergency Room.”  That will change.  After the proposed move, a simple visit for “minor illnesses and injuries” will cost 3-6 times more at the Emergency Room than it did in the Urgent Care Center.  Now, that’s what we call real planning.

LEAN, MEAN, AND ENERGY GREEN:  The Arcata Eye’s Daniel Mintz writes that ’energy aggregation’ could widen renewable energy choices for Arcata.  The Arcata City Council wants to expand renewable energy options and is considering joining a Marin-based Joint Powers Authority to do it. At its Feb. 15 meeting, the City Council considered the prospect of joining what’s known as a Community Choice Aggregator (CCA) – a public agency made up of communities that procure electricity from a variety of sources, including renewable energy producers.

Arcata Mayor Michael Winkler advanced the plan of joining a CCA, noting that PG&E spent $50 million on a ballot measure that would have made forming CCAs harder. “Fortunately, they were unsuccessful with that and I hope that PG&E will restrain themselves and allow competition,” Winkler said to the audience — which included representatives from PG&E in attendance.

QUICK ACQUISITIONS:  “When the public effort in support of the Arcata Ridge Trail was launched just two years ago, the City of Arcata owned just two of the seven puzzle pieces required for the four-mile trail linking Sunny Brae with West End Road. Now it has an easement through, or outright ownership of, six of the seven parcels of land through which the trail passes,”  Kevin Hoover writes in the Arcata Eye.  That’s quick.

3rd District Supervisor Mark Lovelace and his opponent, candidate Karen Brooks, however, take different viewpoints regarding Arcata’s plan of securing six of seven ridge trail parcels.  With 10 years of experience handling these acquisitions, Mr. Lovelace seems to have the upper hand of insight and information from what we can see.

WEED AND GREED:  According to a press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, the Humboldt County Drug Task Force and the Sheriff’s Drug Enforcement Unit assisted in serving a pair of search warrants Wednesday at two properties on Greenwood Heights Road near Kneeland. Acting on a tip from an informant, the warrants uncovered about $420,000 in cash, 3,800 plants and 110 one-pound bags of processed marijuana bud, worth an estimated $220,000. As a result of the warrants, officers cited John Eaton Cromwell, 46 and Elisabeth Nergaard Olsen, 42, and arrested Charles Bruzza, 34, on suspicion of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale. Cromwell and Olsen were cited and released because small children reside in their residence.

During a search of the residence,in the closet of an upstairs bedroom, officers found a suitcase and a small safe containing approximately $387,000 in cash — primarily in $20, $50 and $100 bills — and another $10,000 in money orders.

Officers then turned their attention to a property in the 4500 block of Greenwood Heights Road — also owned by Olsen and Cromwell — and served a search warrant there, according to the press release. Officers found a “sophisticated” indoor cultivation operation, containing 3,880 marijuana plants growing under 20 1,000-watt lights. Also on the premises, officers reported finding 110 one-pound bags of processed marijuana buds and another $33,000 in cash. They arrested Charles Bruzza, 34, of Portland, at the scene and apparently living at the residence.

The Times-Standard’s Thadeus Greenson reported Humboldt County Superintendent of Schools Garry Eagles confirmed that Cromwell is employed as a teacher at Maple Creek Elementary School, and served as the school’s principal for about a year on an interim basis in 2006.

The Department of Justice-led investigation is continuing, Sheriff’s Officer Sgt. Wayne Hanson said.

No weed, no cash, no job, and criminal charges pending.  This was a bad plan and a poor decision right from the start.  Funny how those qualities often go hand in hand leading to disastrous consequences.  See more below.

MORE WEED, GREED, AND MURDER:  A federal grand jury in San Francisco Thursday  indicted Mikal Xylon Wilde, of Humboldt County, with murder during narcotics offense, conspiracy to manufacture and distribute 1000 or more marijuana plants, manufacture and possession with intent to distribute 1000 or more marijuana plants, use of a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking offense and crime of violence, use of a firearm causing death in the form of murder, and possession of ammunition by a convicted felon, United States Attorney Melinda Haag announced.

Wilde is alleged to have operated a marijuana farm with approximately 1500 marijuana plants in Humboldt County.  He’s also charged with having used a firearm during the course of the narcotics offense to kill Mario Roberto Juarez-Madrid, originally from Guatemala, who was working on the marijuana farm at the time of the murder on Aug. 25, 2010. Mr. Wilde now faces a sentence of 20 years to life in federal prison or the death penalty as well as a fine of up to $10 million.

Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos thanked United States Attorney Melinda Haag and her office for “their commitment to the safety and security of the people of Humboldt County, and her partnership and collaboration in this and many other cases involving allegations of violence in our communities.”

If Humboldt County can’t clean up it’s weed ‘n greed problems, the Department of Justice and Feds will.  And the Utah Highway Patrol.

BOMBS AWAY:  The U.S. Navy invites you to participate in the Northwest Training and Testing Environmental Impact Statement and “Open House Information Session” happening on Thursday, March 22 from 5-6 p.m., at the Wharfinger Building in Eureka.  The information session is to assess environmental impacts from military readiness training and testing activities, including “those resulting from the development, testing, and introduction of new vessels, aircraft and weapon system(s)” in the Northwest Training Area.

We expect to see quite a large turnout from the different groups representing Humboldt County’s diverse interests, as there was the last time the Navy came to the Wharfinger.

Expect the best, plan for the worse, and prepare to be surprised.  We wonder if the Navy will mention their plans of developing a super-powerful electromagnetic railgun for warships that quickly shoots rounds more than 100 miles away– at several times the speed of sound.  Marine mammals and environmentalists are gonna love that one.

STAYING CONNECTED:  The Humboldt County Blue Lake branch library now has free, high-speed wireless Internet service, thanks to the combined efforts of Blue Lake Mayor Sherman Shapiro, County Supervisor Mark Lovelace, Library Director Victor Zazueta, and Access Humboldt Executive Director Sean McLaughlin.

Because the library hotspot has the capacity of up to 50 users, it should be more than adequate to serve everyone. Also, any community member with a device capable of connecting to wi-fi (laptop, smartphone, Nook, iPad and the like) can get online for free during business hours simply by requesting a password from branch staff. The connection was installed by Tsunami-Wireless, a wireless Internet service provider based in Eureka. Tsnumai-Wireless delivers broadband Internet to communities lacking significant broadband infrastructure along the Highway 299 corridor in the Blue Lake, Chezem Road, Berry Summit, Horse Mountain and Willow Creek areas.

We welcome these cooperative planning efforts making broadband internet accessible for Humboldt’s more rural communities.  They need it.

DON’T GO THE WAY OF STOCKTON: Thank goodness Humboldt County’s 7 incorporated municipalities are solvent. Or so we hope.   Stockton, facing a budget deficit of $20 million to $38 million for the fiscal year ending June 2013, is considering bankruptcy—while several other struggling California cities warn they could eventually face the same predicament, the Wall Street Journal reported.  Confronted by declining tax revenue and rising employee costs, Stockton officials voted Tuesday night to take the initial step toward bankruptcy.  Their decision launches the first test of a new state law that requires cities to negotiate with employees, creditors and others to try to stave off a filing before making the move.

Two other Northern California cities, Hercules and Lincoln, are also heading in that direction, attempting to restructure their debt and cut employee costs to forestall insolvency.  Last year, Hercules voted to lay off 37% of its work force, including three police officers, to close a $6 million shortfall for the current fiscal year. The city of Vallejo filed for bankruptcy in 2008.

Plan wisely, Humboldt County.  California’s treasurer, Bill Lockyer, said he is concerned the “reputational stain” from any further municipal bankruptcies in the state might harm the ability of other cities, and perhaps the state, to raise funds in the bond market.

HARD TIMES HIT WALL STREET:  Brother, can you spare a dime?  Securities industry workers who work on Wall Street can plan to see their financial bonuses for 2011 shrink by 14 percent from the previous year, according to a report by by New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.  New York securities firms will pay employees $19.7 billion in cash bonuses, down sharply from $22.8 billion in 2010.

The average salary (including cash bonuses) in New York City’s securities industry grew by 16 percent to $361,180 in 2010, 5.5 times higher than the average $66,110 salary in the rest of the private sector. The average cash bonus, though, declined by 13 percent– to only $121,150 in 2011—compared to nearly $139,000 a year earlier.  Sigh.  Even the best laid schemes of mice and men often go astray.

WARM AND FUZZY FRIDAY:  Have you rummaged around in your closet lately to see if there’s any clothing you don’t want?  If you haven’t worn it in a year you probably don’t need it.  Bring it down to the Eureka Co-op Friday, 6 a.m.-8 p.m., where Betty Chinn and KSLG radio have plans of putting to good use.  It’s the right thing to do.

SELF DRIVING CARS may be coming at you the very near future.  Using video cameras, radar sensors, a laser range-finder and detailed maps, Google is pioneering cars that don’t need drivers, Bloomberg reports.  They’re here, they’ve been tested, they work,and we need laws to accomodate them, company officials insist.  No, silly, they’re not testing them on race tracks.  They’ve been driving themselves on  regular streets and highways, right beside you, all this time.  Didn’t you know?

And you thought drivers using cell phones were innattentive?  Try not having a driver whatsoever.  Now Google Maps can provide us with every street view possibly available– without paying its drivers.  And taxi cabs could be the next thrill ride for adrenaline junkies.

THE WEEKEND CALENDAR:

The forecast calls for clear and mostly sunny days this weekend.

The Black and Red Ball is happening Friday, March 2, at The Mateel Community Center in Redway.  Expect J Boog (reggae from Hawaii), Hot Rain (reggae from Hawaii), and Bayonics (funk, hip-hop from SF) while digging out your finest and funkiest black and red attire. This all-ages event will also feature a Hawaiian dinner and a bar for patrons 21 and over.  Sounds like hella fun.

The 10th Annual Aleutian Goose Fly-off & Family Fun Weekend takes flight at the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Loleta Saturday and Sunday, March 3rd & 4th, whether it rains or shines doesn’t matter.  The refuge opens early at 6:00AM both days to witness 30,000 Aleutian Cackling Geese leaving at sunrise.  It’s quite  a sight to behold.  It’s free, there’s plenty of coffee and food, and there’ll be a few hundred folks just like you witnessing a spectacular party at the crack of dawn while most folks are still slumbering away in warm beds with sugar plum fairies dancing in their heads.  Come and see the real thing, instead.  You won’t be disappointed.  And dress very, very warmly.

Eureka’s Arts Alive is Saturday evening.  Art, food, music, wine, and the usual pleasant and eccentric arty folks will be there.  Kym Kemp, Sharon Letts, and Curtis Otto will also be there.  They’ll be throwing a party and showing their beautiful marijuana themed photographs and ”The 420 Quilt’ at the Hobart Galleries/Kinetic Sculpture Race Museum at 437 F St.  Ms. Kym says the evening will include St John’s Bossanova Baby entertaining from 6 to 9 p.m., Street Beats Dance Company having a break dance performance by the REGULATORS, Rocky and Dan the Man Valdez at 7:30. Stay for the Kinetic After-Party with rock band, Scotch Wiggly, performing from 9:30 to midnight, she says.  Nice.  But will they have the munchies?

On another note, tickets for Reggae on the River at Benbow will now be available April 1^st.  No, that’s not an April Fool’s joke.  It just turned out that way following last month’s delay.  Get off the bong, guys.  You know we love you.  Reggae on the River will be happening Saturday and Sunday, July 21 and 22, we believe.

Happenings, Events, Groups, Walks, and Other Good Stuff:

Friday, March 2

Saturday, March 3

Sunday, March 4

Other entertainment can also be found here.

Movies, reviews, times and trailers are here.

WORD

John Lennon gently said,

Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.

 

General George S. Patton bluntly said,

A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week.

For the curiously aware of Humboldt County…

By Skippy Massey
Humboldt Sentinel

SNIPPETS, RUMORS, HEARSAY MURMURS, AND THE LINKS:

MISSING MONEY: After being alerted by the Yurok Tribe, the Del Norte District Attorney’s office issued warrants Thursday for two Eureka biologists and a former Yurok tribal forestry employee suspected of embezzling over $900,000. It’s alleged the trio submitted false invoices related to spotted owl research following the tribe’s discovery of missing items during an inventory search. 

The Times-Standard has updates by Megan Hansen and Thadeus Greenson this weekend:

Saturday, February 25: Court documents outline how three biologists allegedly used an elaborate system of fake invoices, false purchase requests and electronic bank transfers to embezzle more than $900,000 from the Yurok Tribe during a three-year period in ’Court Documents Outline Alleged Embezzlement from Yurok Tribe- Former Yurok Tribe Forestry Director Still Wanted on $1 Million Warrant’

Sunday, February 26: When news spread Thursday that a pair of respected Eureka biologists were arrested for their alleged roles in an elaborate embezzlement scheme, the reaction was stunned disbelief: ’Shock, Disbelief Follow Arrests- Biology Community Has Trouble Digesting Embezzlement Allegations’

Moral principle is a looser bond than a large stack of easy cash.

EPIC SETTLEMENT for attorneys and steelworkers. The California State Assembly approved a $5.5 million dollar payout Thursday to the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) settling legal fees for their 2008 landmark victory against the Pacific Lumber Company and the California Department of Forestry. $3.5 million will go to attorneys who worked on the case and $2 million goes to the United Steelworkers union as plaintiffs. The bill awaits the Governor’s signature.

Pacific Lumber, MAXXAM, and Charles Hurwitz were unavailable for comment.  They were nowhere to be found after skipping town, evidently.

LAND GRAB GRANTS: The North Coast Journal reports the state Wildlife Conservation Board approved two major grants of nearly $2 million acquiring lands protecting riparian habitat. The City of Arcata received a $650,000 grant to acquire 22 acres expanding the 793-acre Arcata Community Forest and the Northcoast Regional Land Trust nabbed $1,228,750 for 1,622 acres just east of Willow Creek.  They’re just not making land like they used to.

HUMBOLDT, WASHINGTON, AND WEED: Daniel Mintz of The Arcata Eye reports that County supervisors Lovelace and Sundberg met with federal Department of Justice (DOJ) officials on their recent trip to Washington DC.  No doubt tired of being stonewalled locally by Northern California’s U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag, Mr. Lovelace and Sundberg reportedly ‘established an ongoing dialogue’ with her Washington boss about the locally unpopular enforcement actions against medical marijuana.  If you haven’t noticed, Humboldt’s got a good business thing going on.  Mr. Mintz has more to say in his article, ‘Supes Give Cannabis Gripes to Feds’.

MORE CITY MONEY: The Eureka City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to direct staff to draft applications for $2 million in California Community Development block grants. The applications request funds for an east-to-west railroad feasibility study, formulation of a business-friendly plan for the City, a first-time home buyers program, and over a million dollars for the new Open Door Community Health Center on Tydd Street. The applications will be brought back to the council for final approval at a future meeting, the Times-Standard reports.  With redevelopment monies dead in the water, Community Development block grants are looking better all the time.

IN ‘N OUT: The Eureka Police Department is accepting applications for the Chief of Police position while interim Chief Murl Harpham considers retirement after 55 years of service. Egads. We’re not sure we’d want to do anything that even feels good for that long.  The City fired Police Chief Garr Nielsen after four years on the job in a controversial move that sparked a public outcry from some sectors. Since his firing, Nielsen has filed a claim against the city seeking damages in excess of $10,000, alleging it violated his contract by failing to give him annual performance reviews, merit pay increases and other benefits.

MEAN STREETS: Death and kidney damage by a thousand ruts, cracks, and crevices.  It may not be sexy or exciting or interesting, but we hope the City of Eureka finds the time and money in their busy day for a basic priority: repairing the deteriorating streets. Calked, cobbled, and patched over the years, they are a complete and disgusting mess, with potholes, chuckholes, sinkholes, crack holes and black holes abounding throughout the Fair City.  The roads are so poor the City can’t even pay attention.  Don’t defer any longer from properly fixing and maintaining them.  That’s what our taxes pay for.  Or so they say.

MEANER STREETS: “One hundred pounds soaking wet, Felix Omai (age 57) doesn’t strike terror into most people. But last fall during a solo Occupy Movement protest she frightened a CHP officer so badly, she says, that he ‘just about punched’ the camera she was trying to photograph him with back into her face.  She says her cheekbone was sore for weeks afterward. By the end of the encounter, Omai had broken ribs and was transported to Eureka jail,” writes Redheaded Blackbelt’s Kym Kemp.

While cooler heads could have prevailed on both sides, no one deserves to be treated or injured this way from what we read.  We can also appreciate the fact that Felix is refusing to be bruised and battered, shanghaied and fried any further by the legal wheels of justice that are turning.

Ms. Kemp asks what society is gaining by having law enforcement respond so forcefully to a 57 year old, 100 pound woman hanging bedsheets on a bridge in her article, ‘Bedsheets on a Bridge: Protests Meet Police in an Occupied America’. 

Ernie gives his take, too, in ’Omai, Felix, What Have You Wrought?’

THE GALL OF IT ALL: The Bayshore Mall has a new owner. After emerging from bankruptcy in 2010, General Growth Properties , the second-largest mall owner in the United States, announced it would “spin off” 30 of its malls under the ownership of a new company, Rouse Properties. Eureka’s Bayshore Mall made the list. General Growth chose the selected 30 properties because they have similar “opportunities,” company officials insist. A high vacancy rate has plagued the mall in recent years but the coming of Wal-Mart to Eureka is a marriage made in heaven, many believe.  When the going gets tough, the obese will go shopping for cheap stuff.

We still haven’t forgotten that City officials blatantly omitted the very existence of WalMart to citizens until the cat was finally let out of the bag, as first reported here in the Sentinel.  The City Manager and Council still haven’t explained why they were so silently mum on the matter, pretending it didn’t exist, they didn’t know, or you simply don’t need to know.  It sets a terrible precedent.  Public officials and city managers may be wise to keep a secret, but not half as wise as those with no secrets to keep.

Let’s run the People of WalMart one more time.  You know it’s got a catchy tune that rings home.

CR STANDS FOR  Continuously Reprimanded:   The problems at College of the Redwoods have been going on for years but the longstanding CR Board of Trustees doesn’t seem to get it. CR may lose its accreditation in January of next year. What does that mean? Ryan Burns cuts to the chase in his North Coast Journal article, ‘Edge of Oblivion’, saying that unless CR gets it’s act together:

“…Chaos would ensue. Class credits from CR would no longer be transferable to four-year universities; attendance would plummet; government funding would evaporate. It would be the doomsday scenario, and for a college that serves more than 9,000 students across a district the size of Maryland, the fallout would be devastating.”

Perhaps it’s better to have loafed and lost than never having loafed at all?

FLAKE AND BAKE:  The Arcata Eye reports 69 jobs and millions of dollars were lost with the recent closure of Arcata’s Humboldt Flakeboard manufacturing plant.  This leaves the City of Arcata with two challenges – recovering the money it loaned and preventing the plant from falling into prolonged disuse.

BENBOW LAKE ENDANGERED: California State Parks officials are considering the permanent removal of Benbow Dam because the cost of maintaining the aging structure and complying with environmental regulations has become prohibitive. The removal of the dam means the loss of Benbow Lake, a popular tourist attraction and recreational site for 80 years. To re-install the seasonal dam, State Parks must renew its permit every five years.  But the cost of the permit and required studies are estimated at $6 million dollars — and with no guarantee it would be approved.

At the same time, the Benbow Lake State Recreational Area is slated for closure July 1. The trick for finding solutions, we believe, is what Sacramento legislators have been telling us for years. Stop thinking of it as “your” money.

WE’RE IN THE MONEY: The U.S. Highway 101 bypass around Willits received its final permit last week, paving the way for construction of the $200 million bypass project on 1,670 acres of right-of-way– as soon as the California Transportation Commission designates funding. The project will ease Highway 101 traffic around the town of Willits avoiding congestion and stoplights, reducing delays, and improving safety. Merchants are looking forward to having Main Street return back to normal, according to the Willits Economic and Development Department.

Life is too short for traffic and the longest journey begins with a turn of the ignition key.

HOME SWEET HOME: Home prices fell to their lowest point in more than 10 years in January but that helped to lift the pace of home sales, according the National Association of Realtors report. Home sales jumped 4.3% in January. The median home price in January fell 2% from December to $154,700. That’s the lowest price reading since November 2001, before the run-up in home prices that became known as the housing bubble. New home starts by builders have been rising, according to an industry survey. A large inventory of home in foreclosure still hangs over the market, serving as a drag on the price of existing homes.

HOME SWEET CRUDE: Have you noticed the price of gas lately?  Bloomberg reports oil prices are fluctuating near a nine-month high, due in part to the geopolitical tensions with Iran that continue to simmer. In contrast, Wednesday’s Energy Department report shows that U.S. crude supplies rose 1.35 million barrels, or 0.4 percent, since Feb. 17. The addition would leave supplies at their highest level over the last 5 months.

Curiously enough, Humboldt County leads the way by sporting the highest gas prices in the nation, prompting County Supervisors sending a letter pleading for petroleum relief to none other than the President of the United States. Might as well start at the top, they believe. Some old-timers will remember officials and citizens asking the State Attorney General to investigate high gas prices 25 years ago– which went suspiciously nowhere and remain unanswered to this day.

Tom Sebourn opines in his blog,

They used to tell us that demand was too high and domestic refining capacity was too low, and that was what was driving the cost of gas and diesel fuel here in the US. The fact is, today’s domestic demand is at a 15 year low for gas and diesel, and due to expanded exploration during the Bush and Obama administrations the country has too much oil and too much refined fuels…

…There is no domestic shortage of oil, gas or diesel. There is no shortage of refinery capacity and there is no shortage of manipulation by the main stream media trying to manipulate the US public into thinking that we need to drill in sensitive coastal waters and national parks to avoid $5-dollar a gallon gas. If we stopped the exports, prices would go down– but we can’t because we are not a democracy, we are a republic that favors international free trade over our own financial and physical well being.

Tell that to the Renner Company.  With analysts believing we’ll hit $5 a gallon gas by summer, it will be cheaper to mail your car on vacation.

IF YOU THOUGHT 3-D MOVIES WERE THE COOLEST THING, wait until you see this demonstration:  3-D printers can replicate physical objects on demand. Future uses, aside from space tools, include medical applications making custom fitted artificial joints, teeth, and ears for your soon-to-be bionic body.

THE WEEKEND CALENDAR:

SATURDAY’S INDIAN ISLAND CANDLELIGHT VIGIL:  Please join members of Table Bluff Reservaton-Wiyot Tribe for the Annual Indian Island Candlelight Vigil held the last weekend every February to remember those who lost their lives in the 1860 Indian Island Massacre and help heal the community.

This event will be held rain or shine on Saturday, February 25 at 6 p.m., on the West End of Woodley Island. The first vigil was held on the last Saturday of February in 1992 and has been held each year since. A fire is lit, a Wiyot elder lights their candle from the fire and from that candle all candles are lighted. A moment of silence is observed, a prayer is given remembering all who have gone before us, songs are sung, poems are read, and one leaves with a feeling of accomplishment.

This may be the first memorial for the lives lost where the Wiyot, other Indian nations, and the non-Indian communities have come together to create a process that helps heal the whole community.

Indian Island was and is the center of the Wiyot world. On the island a ceremonial dance would be held to start the new year. The ceremony may have been called the World Renewal ceremony. All people were welcomed, no one was turned away. The ceremony would continue for at least seven to ten days. It was held at the village site of Tutulwat on the northern part of the island. Traditionally the men would leave the island and return the next day with the day’s supplies. The elders, women and children were left to rest on the island along with a few men.

The massacre took place at such a ceremony on February 26, 1860.

THE HISTORY OF INDIAN ISLAND:

Indian Island has always been a sacred site to the Wiyot people, given to them by the Creator as the center of our world. It is the resting place of centuries of Wiyot ancestors and where other Indians of the area were invited for the World Renewal Dance.

The 1860 massacre of Indian Island’s inhabitants and visitors abruptly ended Wiyot occupation and centuries of ceremonial dancing and celebration. Most of the men among the Wiyot celebrants had traveled to the mainland during the night in order to replenish supplies when, during the early morning hours, a group of settlers paddled their boats over to the island and massacred as many as 100 women, children and elders. Only one newborn child survived. This was coordinated with massacres at two other village sites around the bay and dealt a crushing blow to the Wiyot people.

Indian Island, with its ancient shell mounds and rich history, remains an important symbol for many Northern California Native Americans. The Wiyot Tribe returned to the Island in 2000 with the purchase of a 1.5-acre parcel. In May of 2004, The Eureka City Council made history when they unanimously approved a resolution to return 40 acres, comprising the northeastern tip of Indian Island to the Wiyot Tribe.

After 140 years, the tribe has begun clean up and restoration of the land, and are seeking to re-establish its cultural connection to the island by once again hosting the World Renewal Ceremony on original locations with plans to build a place where traditional ceremonies can be restored to the island.

The 500 enrolled Wiyot tribal members hold an annual Candelight Vigil of remembrance and healing, and the entire community is welcome.

DIRECTIONS:

Located in Humboldt Bay between Eureka and Samoa, the vigil is at the West end of Woodley Island. To reach the view point and historic marker, take the Samoa Bridge (Hwy. 255)  and exit at Woodley Island. Drive all the way and park at the west end, then walk a few yards north of the Fisherman’s Memorial Statue.

Happenings, Events, Groups, Walks, and Other Good Stuff:

Friday, February 24

Saturday, February 25

Sunday, February 26

Other entertainment can also be found here.

Movies, reviews, times and trailers are here.

WORD

Americans are motivated by money, not ideals. Washington is the home of despicable trickery at elections, under-handed tamperings with public officers, and cowardly attacks upon opponents, with scurrilous newspapers for shields and hired pens for daggers. I am disappointed. This is not the republic of my imagination.

- Charles Dickens, 1842

For the curiously aware of Humboldt County…

By Skippy Massey
Humboldt Sentinel

SNIPPETS, RUMORS, HEARSAY MURMURS, AND THE LINKS:

THE MEDICAL POT BUSINESS CO-OP:  There have been so many marijuana busts lately one doesn’t know what to think. Does Humboldt County supply half the country in weed? It seems that way.  Having more than its fair share of problems with arrests, massive seizures, structure fires, diesel spills, rip-offs and home invasions, one wonders if the entire county is criminally going to pot.

Too many people, too many problems.  Which is why we can appreciate the Tea House marijuana growers collective. Originally called the Thanksgiving House, their name was shortened to T-House, and then to Tea House. What a long journey they’ve had from the past to the present day.

From the Tea House Collective history:

As The Back to the Land Movement of the late 1960s brought young idealistic people to Humboldt, they dug in to grow their own food, build their own shelters, and begin an experiment in self-sufficiency and sustainability. As part of their self-sufficiency they grew their own medicine, healing herbs that included cannabis as a medicine for both body and mind. Their challenge to themselves led to one of the longest lasting experiments in civil disobedience in American history. With the passage of Proposition 215, Humboldt’s persistence and creativity created the foundation for the emerging medical cannabis industry. What a long, strange trip it’s been!

Indeed. But we called it pot, not medicine, back then.

Using family farms, organic and sustainable methods, and a better than average business conscience, the Tea House grows medical marijuana the right way: legally. Complying with the law, filling out the forms, and paying their taxes, they’re bringing agricultural ‘farm revenues’ to Humboldt. Staying above the illicit fray, the Tea House Collective represents the new breed of American farmer toiling in the open sunshine and working the land.

A far cry from the moonshiners of yore and the clandestine black market growers of today, you can see for yourself the Tea House webpage and their astounding collective of 21 Humboldt farms producing an equal number of exotic strains for sale.  During the past 40 years Humboldt’s horticultural breeders and growers developed the region’s most notorious and famous export–marijuana–  that is known throughout the world. The Tea House represents a cooperatively unique and different way of doing that business today.

In the Collective’s own words,

Our cannabis is grown naturally and slowly in the sun, with a loving, conscious attention to our environment. It is never artificially manufactured in warehouses….

Sustainable cannabis is grown outdoors, strictly avoiding energy intensive, high carbon footprint methods. We care about the health of Humboldt’s precious watersheds, and avoid fertilization techniques that affect ground and stream water, and conserve every drop we can for salmon and wildlife.

We unite small family farmers of Humboldt’s best medical cannabis with patients concerned about the safety and purity of their medicine as well as the health of their environment. We actively support education and incentives for sustainable farming.

Humboldt is internationally famous for breeding and cultivating the finest herbal medicine in the world. Expert growers in our unique micro climate have created heirloom seed strains and innovative cross breeds, bred for potency and efficacy. As medical cannabis ‘comes out of the closet’, we are proud to say our growers represent the best of Humboldt’s long history of both cannabis and environmental activism.

The Tea House growers have chosen to do things properly by staying statutorily within California law while using environmentally sound methods.  Looking after business, the environment, and their families, the Tea House Collective may very well be Humboldt and the nation’s model for marijuana’s future. Just keep it away from the kids.

It has been a long, strange trip from 1969 to 2012. This is for you, Tea House families.

MORE WEED:  Now let’s take a journey to the Emerald Triangle seeing another side. When Humboldt County Sheriff Officer Hansen resignedly says marijuana should just be legalized, you know something’s got to give.

WHY WE LOVE HUMBOLDT: Hippie child Ben, strange people and their melodies, space cadets, and, of course, the outdoor scenery. Only 120 days until summer, folks.

AN AMAZING PLANET STILL HAS ITS DISCOVERIES:  A species of chameleon amazingly small enough to easily perch on a match head has recently been discovered on a tiny island off Madagascar.  It’s a beautiful planet and small wonders never cease to amaze us.

LOOSE NUKES AND MORE WAR?  John Hardin’s blog brings us some whacked out, far-fetched conclusions with a good dose of humor that only he can pull off. OK, Ketchup-flavored potato chips is one a few could stomach and ‘The Founding Fascists’ was a bit of a stretch.

But come on now, John. Pakistan carting around its nukes in unsecured Econoline delivery vans? To safeguard them from being stolen by… us? That’s quite a wild story, don’t you think? So, somewhere on a highway, around, say, Karachi, is the world’s most dangerous 1-800-FLOWERS delivery van filled with a nuclear bomb or two or three and driving merrily down the road, John?

Quit pulling our leg. You know we’re smarter than that.  What would you have us believe next?

Oops, uh-oh, and d’oh. There’s a problem. A big one, Dear Reader.

Looking into this nuke-doom wild flight of a fancy tale a bit more, we discovered Mr. Hardin was right. Not only once, but twice. Good Lord, it was even reported by the Atlantic Monthly. That’s it; we’re simply doomed as a species– there’s no hope. But, hey,  thanks for bringing the Ford ‘Econolines of Doom’ to our attention, John, and brightening our day as you usually do. We’re sure Harvey Harper and Henry Ford would have been amused. ‘Built Ford Tough’ brings on a whole new meaning for the nuclear age.

Now, let’s move on from Pakistan to… oh say,  bombing Iran. Iran has been a sore point lately, in case you hadn’t noticed.  Conservative war hawks, politicos, and presidential candidates have been hammering on us to bomb Iran for some time now. We’ll have to put that on our to-do list.  There’s just no end to the military and foreign interventions we can have when we put our mind and businesses to it.

All Along the Watchtower is for those who’ve forgotten our past.  We have this one, too,  if you really need to remember. Need more? Paint it Black, friends, and remember our not-so-long-ago history of such affairs.

BRIGHT LIGHTS AND APPS: Kids grow up fast and smart these days. We told you in our last piece on GMOs about 11-year old Birke Baehr’s presentation …and then we found another smart kid to tell you about.

Thomas Suarez is a 6th grade student at a middle school in the South Bay of Los Angeles. Fascinated by computers and technology since kindergarten, Thomas developed two applications for the iPhone and started his own company, Carrot Corporation. Don’t ask us why, we don’t know. We guess he really likes carrots.

When Apple released the Software Development Kit (SDK), Thomas began to create and sell his own applications. He pointed out it’s hard to learn how to make an app on your own.

“For soccer you could go to a soccer team … but what if you want to make an app?  How do you learn that?  Teachers only know so much, ” Thomas said. So he started a club at school for fellow students where he shares his knowledge of programming.  The students, in turn, teach the teachers.

Thomas explained that students are a valuable new technology resource for teachers– and students should be empowered not only to offer assistance in developing the technology curriculum but to help in delivering the lessons. Learning programming was good, his apps were kinda cool, but Thomas’s idea of developing apps for his school district to freely use– and then selling them to other districts– is brilliant, we believe, especially for an 11-year old.  After all, what were you doing when you were 11?

Can Thomas Suarez’s bright idea transfer over to Humboldt County schools? Decide for yourself after watching his short and articulate presentation here.

Check your kid. Sometimes they grow up just fine without problems, like Thomas. Sometimes they don’t.  Sometimes, like this video, The Kids Aren’t Alright.

HUMBOLDT HISTORY:  February marks the expulsion of the Chinese from Humboldt County in 1885. Eureka’s entire Chinese population of 300 men and 20 women were rounded up after a gunfight between rival Chinese gangs that resulted in the wounding of a 12 year old boy and the death of a Eureka City Councilman. After the shooting, an angry mob of 600 Eurekans met and then informed the Chinese that they were no longer wanted in Eureka and would be hanged if they were to stay in town longer than 3 p.m. the next day.

Chinese residents were told they had 24 hours to leave town and to assemble at a warehouse near the Eureka wharf for transport to San Francisco by steamship. A makeshift gallows was erected on Fourth Street at the edge of Eureka’s Chinatown.

Eureka’s Reverend C.A. Huntington gave this startling account of Charley Lum, one of his parishioners, on that infamous day:

In the afternoon about two o’clock Charley called at the parsonage on his way to the wharf. I was absent at the time but my wife and two daughters were there. Immediately our backyard was filled with an excited crowd of men and boys.

They gave a loud rap at the back door which was opened by Mrs. Huntington, and with a loud voice they inquired, “Where’s that Chinaman?” She said, “Charley is here on his way to the wharf; he barely called to say goodbye and ask the prayers of the family in his exile.”

“We want him now!” And they rushed in and seized him by his queue. Mrs. Huntington meanwhile pleading with them, “don’t hurt him; he’s a good boy and on his way to the warehouse.”

But they dragged him to the gallows, a hundred hoodlums following with jeers and insults.

Mr. Huntington continued:

They took him to the gallows and put the noose around his neck in the presence of hundreds of people without a word of remonstrance from the police or anybody else until Rev. Mr. Rich of the Methodist church approached the scaffold and with stentorian voice said, “Boys, take that rope off that boy’s neck! If you hang him you’ll hang him over my dead body!”

The effect was like a clap of thunder. They dropped the rope, seized him by his queue and hauled him five blocks to the warehouse and herded him with the rest of his countrymen under guard.

I set off for the warehouse. As I passed the crowd near the gallows, a loud voice out of the crowd said, “Any man that sympathizes with a Chinaman ought to be hung, and I would like to hold the rope and help draw him up.”

I went to the warehouse and after a long parley with the guard I was allowed to pass in. I found Charley in a remote corner of the room crying, with his classmates around him.

As I gave him his things, he said, “ They scared me almost to death, Mr. Huntington.” I comforted him as best as I could… and left him with my prayers and benedictions.

The next morning they all embarked to San Francisco.

And for nearly 70 years with few exceptions, Humboldt County and its white citizenry kept all Asians out of the county. 

The Chinese expulsion from Eureka occurred 25 years after the Indian Island massacre in 1860– also in the month of February– when a small group of men sailed into Humboldt Bay, landed on Indian Island, and attacked an encampment of Wiyots. Many were killed, mostly women and children, butchered with knives and axes within earshot of Eureka’s residents.  Later, citizens expressed outrage but did nothing; the Indian Island massacre and other massacres carried out in nearby communities virtually exterminated the Wiyot tribe in the space of 48 hours.

GIVE PEAS A CHANCE:  War is like love, it always finds a way.  Antoine De Saint-Exupery, author of The Little Prince, said, “War is not an adventure.  It is a disease.  It is like typhus.” On that final note, keep it away from the kids. We said back in the day that war is not healthy for children and other living things. It’s still true.

We have so much more to offer.

THE WEEKEND CALENDAR:

Happenings, events, groups, walks, hip or rad stuff

Friday, February 17

Saturday, February 18

Sunday, February 19

Other entertainment can also be found here.

Movies, reviews, times and trailers are here.

Mark Your Calendars and Help:

Southern and Northern Humboldt County organizers will be joining the statewide coalition of 150 groups gathering 800,000 signatures for the ‘Right to Know’ GMO labeling effort starting February 21. Community members are invited to join together, meet other volunteers, watch a short film about the importance of labeling GMO foods, and receive signature gathering training, instructions, and petitions.

The Southern Humboldt branch will have a signature gathering workshop on Tuesday, Feb. 21, from 5 to 6 p.m. at Calico’s restaurant in Garberville. Call Rosa Rashall at #986-7469 for more information.

The Northern Humboldt group is hosting their signature gathering orientation at the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT) on the Humboldt State University campus, 1 Harpst Street, in Arcata on Friday, February 25, at 5 p.m. The Northern Humboldt group also holds campaign initiative meetings every Sunday at 4 p.m. at Sun Yi’s Academy of Tae Kwon Do in Arcata. Call #707-223-0424 for more information.

For more details on the local campaign and how to participate, visit http://www.labelgmos.org/humboldt or find them on Facebook.

WORD

Jon Stewart said,

“We spend so much money on the military, yet we’re slashing education budgets throughout the country. No wonder we’ve got smart bombs and stupid children.”

Armed suspects attempt robbery, driven off by armed resident

Staff Report
Humboldt Sentinel

An attempted robbery in rural northern Humboldt County was foiled by a resident this morning.

At about 7 a.m., the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office received word of an attempted home invasion robbery at a residence on the 100 block of Robinson Road in Orick.

Upon their arrival, deputies met with the residents, a 26-year-old female and a 35-year-old male who lived with their three-year-old child. They were awakened by two male suspects, described as 5’10″ tall and wearing all black, who forced their way into the home and the victims’ bedroom.

Armed with a handgun and a larger weapon described as either a rifle or a shotgun, the attackers demanded money and the key to the residents’ car, firing off two rounds from a weapon to make their point. What they didn’t count on, however, is that their prospective victims were also armed — the male victim obtained a handgun during the robbery, which he fired several times at the suspects. The attackers immediately fled the home and weren’t able to rob the home of any items.

The victims were unharmed in the robbery attempt and according to their testimony, the attackers were not injured either, according to HSCO lieutenant Steve Knight. He also stated in a release that the cops found spent shell casings and damage to the residence, including bullet holes consistent with the victims account as to what occurred.

Members of the public with information for the HCSO regarding this case or criminal related activity are asked to call them at (707) 445-7251 or their Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.

New developments loom on the horizon for 2012

By Skippy Massey
Humboldt Sentinel

NO SURPRISE HERE: The United States lead the world in GMO (genetically modified organism) plantings with 170 million acres in 2012 that produced 95% of the nation’s sugar beets, 94% of the soybeans, 90% of the cotton and 88% of the feed corn, according to The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) and USA Today.

Worldwide, 395 million acres of farmland were planted in biotech crops in 2011, 30 million more than 2010.

The ISAAA report released February 7, 2012, said a record 16.7 million farmers in 29 countries growing biotech crops on 395 million acres represents a 94-fold increase planted since 1996, making “biotech crops the fastest adopted crop technology in recent history.”

The amount of land devoted to genetically engineered crops grew 8% last year, down from 10% growth in 2010. Nearly 90% of the global area planted to these crops was in just four countries – the US, Canada, Argentina, and Brazil. In contrast, less than 3% of cropland in India and China is planted almost exclusively in one crop – genetically modified cotton. Only two biotech crops are grown in the European Union: a tiny amount of its feed corn and just 245 acres of potatoes.

U.S. farmers and those in developing countries increased plantings of genetically modified crops around the globe in 2011, despite resistance from Europe and those who think such crops should carry special labels.

Genetically engineered food has had its DNA artificially altered with genes from other plants, animals, viruses, or bacteria, in order to produce foreign compounds creating desired traits in that food. Different than selective breeding or cloning, this genetic alteration is performed through experimental biotechnology and not found in nature.

BIOTECHNOLOGY’S GMO DEFENDERS AND DETRACTORS

AN INDUSTRY ADVOCATE and GMO supporter, Dr. Cathleen Enright is the Executive Vice President of Food and Agriculture for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).  In response to Tuesday’s ISAAA’s findings, Enright gave the company’s corporate line stating in a press release:

“This year’s ISAAA report further confirms what we have known all along:  that agricultural biotechnology is a key component in sustainable crop production. Biotechnology provides solutions for today’s farmers in the form of plants that yield more per acre, resist diseases and insect pests, and reduce farmers’ production costs, pesticide applications and on-farm fuel use.  History has taught us that embracing innovation and modern science can help us solve the world’s most pressing problems.  People who really want to combat hunger, to keep food costs affordable, to protect the environment and to mitigate climate change are adopting agricultural biotechnology and embracing the solutions that it provides.”

GMO advocates like Dr. Enright claim that genetic engineering boosts crop production and lowers costs. Currently the plants are often genetically modified to resist weed killers, diseases, or to generate their own insect repellent. Proponents such as Monsanto, the largest producer of GMO seeds, maintain fruits and vegetables last longer if they are genetically modified, can be stored longer and shipped farther without waste or spoilage, and be manipulated to be ‘more nutritious.’ Certain genetic modifications make plants less susceptible to common pests while drought, salt, frost and heat resistance are improved.

GMO critics, however, maintain companies like Monsanto merely desire to boost their own bottom line profits by developing these so-called ‘Frankenfoods’. Monsanto can sell more of the company’s products such as Roundup (an herbicide used in conjunction with, and specifically complementing, its ‘Roundup Ready’ GMO seeds) and control the global food supply using proprietary patents and selling its ‘terminator seeds’. Like hybrid seeds, terminator seeds saved by the farmer from a year’s previous crop will not reproduce or grow properly, forcing new seed sales from Monsanto every year. Monsanto has sued farmers who have complained that their fields were contaminated from cross-pollination by the company’s GMO plants.

Some believe GMO crops on the whole are systematically destroying food and seed biodiversity throughout the globe– and that Monsanto has been trying to monopolize the global seed market through its practices. Fears over these crops also include possible health concerns, worries about damage to traditional agricultural practices, and strong feelings that these bio-engineered foods are simply “unnatural.”

Critics point out  that government scientists have found the artificial insertion of DNA into host plants can increase the levels of known toxicants in foods, introduce new toxicants or allergens, and reduce the nutritional value of foods. The level of uncertainty surrounding the safety of genetically engineered foods has led the American Academy of Environmental Medicine to recommend that physicians prescribe a GMO-free diet to all their patients. Foods grown from genetically modified seeds have been observed to cause toxic and allergic reactions in animals consuming them, and longer term feeding studies found infertility, stunted growth, and high infant mortality in lab animals.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS: Salmon, Alfalfa, and More

TWO CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES for genetically engineered food loom on the horizon: the possibility that the Food and Drug Administration will approve in the coming year a farmed, engineered salmon species genetically designed to grow faster, and the re-introduction of genetically engineered alfalfa.

Massachusetts-based AquaBounty is seeking U.S. approval to market its engineered Atlantic salmon which contains a gene from another fish species, the Chinook salmon, to help it grow twice as fast as normal.  If approved by the FDA, it would be the first genetically altered animal for human consumption in the United States. Seeing genetically modified salmon as a potential solution to environmental concerns associated with salmon aquaculture, AquaBounty discounts fears the gene-altered salmon might accidentally escape into the wild and affect other fish because they will be sterile, all-female fish raised in land-based facilities.  AquaBounty is also developing “trout and tilapia designed to grow faster than their conventional siblings,” according to the company’s website.

Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter and two other consumer groups petitioned the Food and Drug Administration Tuesday to subject the new genetically engineered salmon to a more rigorous review process than is now in place before the fish can be approved as safe to eat.  They point out the way these salmon are created substantially alters their composition and nutritional value. AquaBounty’s own study showed that genetically engineered salmon may contain increased levels of a hormone linked to breast, colon, prostate and lung cancer.

Genetically engineered salmon is a new development. “Animals are different from plants. A genetically engineered animal is a whole different thing. Not having them labeled is disturbing,“ says Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives for Consumers Union in Yonkers, N.Y.

Genetically modified alfalfa was banned after a lawsuit in 2007, but the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the ban in 2010. Opposition came in part from organic farmers, fearing that genetically modified alfalfa pollen could contaminate organic alfalfa fields, making it impossible for that alfalfa to be sold as organic and marketed as organic cow feed. “That will really threaten one of the core organic products, which is organic milk,” Halloran said. 

Mark McCaslin of Forage Genetics, which helped create the alfalfa seed with Monsanto, is looking towards the future. “About 10 to 20 percent of the seed planted this year will be Roundup Ready—probably about 5 million acres. If we look out five years ahead, it’s reasonable to expect that one third to one half of all alfalfa fields could be Roundup Ready,” McCaslin said.

Future GMO crops likely to be commercialized by 2015 include rice, eggplant, potatoes, and wheat. While industry advocates say drought resistant, nutritionally enhanced, and higher yield crops are expected in the near future, critics insist the industry has fallen short of these promises in the past.

Companies are also developing genetically modified farm animals, although none have been approved by the FDA. Proponents argue that faster growing, healthier, more nutritious and disease-resistant animals would help feed the world’s growing population, but many ethical, environmental and health questions remain unanswered.

SAVING AN INDUSTRY

MEANWHILE, genetically-engineered papayas recently went on sale in Japan, according to the Voice of America news. The newly introduced “Rainbow” papayas are the only gene-altered fruit on the market today in Japan, a country with strict laws regarding GMOs including a requirement that they be labeled as such – a rule that does not exist in the United States. The papaya’s arrival in Japan comes as advocates in the United States press the government to require labels on all GMO foods.

Released in 1998, the Rainbow papaya was developed by U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist Dennis Gonsalves and colleagues who claim the Hawaii-grown papaya is the best in the world. “Go and taste it,” Gonsalves said.

But taste wasn’t the only reason Gonsalves developed it. In the 1990s, a ring spot virus ravaged Hawaii’s papaya groves leaving the industry bordering on collapse. They engineered the papaya’s genetic makeup to produce a small piece of the virus’s outer shell in its cells, triggering the plant’s immune system.

“It’s almost like a vaccination,” Gonsalves noted, “and just like vaccinated people, the genetically-engineered plants do not get sick with the virus,” he said. Gonsalves added the piece of virus won’t harm people because tests showed it breaks down in three seconds in the harsh environment of the human stomach.

“It virtually saved the papaya industry in Hawaii,” Gonsalves said, “So now, Rainbow papaya accounts for 80 percent of Hawaii’s papaya.”

According to Gonsalves and his colleagues, fighting the virus was only half the battle. They had to convince their biggest customer – Japan – that the fruit was safe to eat. It took more than a decade of tests before Japanese regulators were satisfied. The last hurdle was labeling. Japan requires that all GMOs be labeled. That’s also the law in the European Union and many other countries, but not in the United States.

Or in California, for that matter.  But that may change.

THE 2012 CALIFORNIA LABELING INITIATIVE

AN INITITIATIVE for the November 2012 ballot called the ‘California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act’ seeks to require labeling.

Not all Californian are convinced GMOs are either safe or ethical. While the debate over GMOs and their impacts rages on, polls indicate 80% of Californians want products with GMOs labeled as such.

Initiative supporters and consumers alike believe they have the right to know what’s in their food– and whether or not they want to eat it.

In the 150 countries around the world where labeling is required–including the European Union, Japan, Australia, Brazil, and China—GMO products are in less than 5% of the food in grocery stores. In the United States, a conservative estimate by the Grocery Manufacturers Association is that GMOs are in 80% or more of the processed food eaten every day. Currently, the only way to avoid GMOs is to buy exclusively organic products. Labeling would change this.

No matter where you are in California, initiative organizers say if you want to make labeling GMOs become a reality, you should visit the state organization’s website at labelgmos.org. and contact your local group about gathering signatures.

LOCAL EFFORTS IN HUMBOLDT

LOCALLY, Southern and Northern Humboldt County organizers will be joining the statewide coalition of 150 groups gathering 800,000 signatures for the ‘Right to Know’ GMO labeling effort starting February 21.  Community members are invited to join together, meet other volunteers, watch a short film about the importance of labeling GMO foods, and receive signature gathering training, instructions, and petitions.

The Southern Humboldt branch will have a signature gathering workshop on Tuesday, Feb. 21, from 5 to 6 p.m. at Calico’s restaurant in Garberville. Call Rosa Rashall at #986-7469 for more information.

The Northern Humboldt group is hosting their signature gathering orientation at the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT) on the Humboldt State University campus, 1 Harpst Street, in Arcata on Friday, February 25, at 5 p.m. The Northern Humboldt group also holds campaign initiative meetings every Sunday at 4 p.m. at Sun Yi’s Academy of Tae Kwon Do in Arcata. Call #707-223-0424 for more information.

For more details on the local campaign and how to participate, visit http://www.labelgmos.org/humboldt or find them on Facebook.

THE POSSIBILITIES of better living through science and technology are as endless as they are controversial. Perhaps many genetically modified foods introduced in the near future will prove to be safe. Will most or all of them be safe? Nobody knows.  A 2011 Canadian study indicated the blood of 93% of pregnant women sampled and 80% of their umbilical-cord blood contained a pesticide put into GMO corn by Monsanto.  Further studies are necessary  to validate these controversial and non-peer reviewed findings.

“We’ll see in 20 years, after the guinea pigs”—consumers—”have all used these products,” says George Siemon, CEO of Organic Valley, the nation’s largest organic-farming cooperative. “I’m really disillusioned.”

Scientists and FDA regulators have concluded time and time again that labeling is unnecessary and bioengineered foods are perfectly safe. “The FDA has no basis for concluding that bioengineered foods differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way, or that, as a class, foods developed by the new techniques present any different or greater safety concern than foods developed by traditional plant breeding,” the agency said in their 2001 guidance document.

One thing is for certain, however. The GMO advocates, their lobbyists, and food manufacturers will fight tooth and nail against California’s labeling efforts. The industry knows that if foods are labeled “genetically engineered,” the public will shy away and won’t take them. The industry’s not stupid.

They already know what Birke Baehr, an 11-year old homeschooled kid from North Carolina, thinks.

Additional Reading and Sources for this Report:

YouTube Primer: ‘What is Genetically Modified Food?‘
Why We Don’t Need GM Food
Latest GMO News, Articles, and Information
Facts About GMOs
Fun Facts About GMOs
California Initiative to Label GMOs
USA Today: ‘Genetically Modified Foods Had Bumper Year for 2011’
Voice of America: ‘Genetically-Modified Papaya Hits Shelves in Japan’
GM Crops: Top Ten Figures and Facts (a GMO pro-industry piece)
Huffington Post: ‘GMO Salmon: US Consumer Groups Petition FDA for Tougher Probe of Engineered Salmon’
Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) press release: ‘More Farmers Favor Biotech Crops’
The Daily Beast: ‘Obama’s Organic Game’
NPR: ‘Politics Heating Up Over Labeling GMO Foods’
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Bioengineering Draft Guidance Report, 2001 (updated 2009)
ISAAA Executive Summary released February 7, 2012: Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops, 2011

See for yourself the future of plant and animal biotechnology: here’s the Monsanto website and the biotech seeds they sell, AquaBounty’s GM Salmon page, and ISAAA’s Genetically Modified Plant Approval Database. Looking safely from a distance is good.

For the curiously aware of Humboldt County…

By Skippy Massey
Humboldt Sentinel

SNIPPETS, RUMORS, HEARSAY MURMURS, AND THE LINKS:

WARM AND DRY and the cotton is high.  The weather has been unusually pleasant.  Now is the time to prepare your garden soil for planting next month.  Don’t put your plants in too early.  You can give them all the care and love you want, but the garden simply won’t grow until conditions become warmer.  There’s still a few frost days left.

REEFER MADNESS HOME INVASION:  From the HCSO Press Release Bureau and Bad Karma Division:

On Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 5:53 AM, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center received a 911 call from a male victim reporting a home invasion robbery that just occurred at his residence, 3000 block of Thomas Road, Salmon Creek.

Deputies were dispatched to the residence and arrived at the remote home at about 6:15 AM. Deputies interviewed the victim and discovered the following: At about 4:30 AM, the male victim was sleeping in his bed beside his wife. They both were awaked when their dog began barking and noticed four (4) men had entered the residence. The men were all wearing combinations of ski masks and hoods, each wearing latex type gloves.

As the suspects entered the home, they were yelling, “It’s the police, get up!” One of the suspects removed the male victim from the bed and forced him to the floor. The suspect “zip tied” the male victim’s hands behind his back. The suspects then began demanding to know where the marijuana and money was located. The male victim led the suspects to approximately thirty (30) pounds of dried marijuana.

The suspects continued to demand money from the victim, who led them to a small security safe. When the victim could not remember the combination to the safe, he was struck in the face with an unknown object or fist, causing a moderate injury near his eye. Ultimately the safe was opened and no cash was found. During the entire event, the suspects threatened to kill the victims and/or burn down the house. The suspects were estimated to be in the home for about an hour. During that time, they rummaged the house and took an estimated $3,000 to $4,000 in cash.

Prior to leaving the residence, the suspects used duct tape to bind the female victim. They next used duct tape and bound the male victim. The two victims were then bound together (back to back) in a seated position on the floor with duct tape. The suspects then entered the victim’s newly purchased Subaru and drove approximately 1.5 miles to the locked gate on the victim’s property. The suspects were not able to get the stolen vehicle through the gate and left it abandoned in the roadway.

The male victim was able to unbind himself within minutes of the suspects leaving his home and call 911 for assistance. There is no description of the suspects or description of a vehicle that may have been used to travel to the victim’s residence.

At this time there are no evidentiary leads to the identity of the suspects, but the case remains under investigation. The Sheriff’s Office is reaching out to the residents of the Thomas Road area to contact the Sheriff’s Office with any information regarding this robbery (707-445-7251).

BUSTED IN RENO AGAIN.  At least you weren’t stuck in Lodi.  The HSU Lumberjack and Kaci Poor fills us in with their student  pot piece du jour. That bust paled in comparison, however, to the one in Mendo County. A hundred pounds and a hundred grand just doesn’t seem like very much nowadays.  Some people got to have it.  Some people really need it. What we do for the love of Money on the dark side of the moon. 

HOW LOW WOULD YOU GO?  Scoundrels and skullduggery know no limits, especially when it comes to stealing garbage,  Mr. Sims reports.  Share the love but take out the trash. Too many have become another brick in the wall,  Comfortably Numb and not giving a whit about others or themselves.

THE BIG LITTLE COMMUNITY we’re impressed with. The Willow Creek Community Services District tackled many issues in their first meeting of the year, as this extensive article by Kay Heitkamp shows. The complexity and issues taken on by the members was nothing less than astounding. One citizen remarked, “The WCCSD accomplished more in one meeting than Humboldt County planners do in three or four meetings.”

Many things caught our eye: notice that Redwood Region Economic Development Commission Director Gregg Foster is retiring; ambulance services from Hoopa to Mad River Hospital costing the Hoopa Valley $500,000 annually, resolving complaints of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s reportedly slow response times (or was it the lack of communication? Opinions vary), infrastructure upgrades and repair monies needed, and a wide variety of other issues. One trait consistently illustrated in Ms. Heitkamp’s article is that this community pulls together. Everyone chips in what they can offer.

Humboldt County 5th District Supervisor Ryan Sundberg should be proud of the Valley, the WCCSD, and the community’s efforts getting more things done with less. More self sufficiency and less bureaucracy, that is.

A CENTURY OF BUSINESS:  The Times-Standard articles by Donna Tam and Grant Scott-Goforth report that Harper Motors and the Minor Theatre have hit 100 years of being in business.  To curiously note, there are others who have done the same thing:  the hardworking dairy families of the Eel River Valley.  Why is Ferndale the second wealthiest region per capita in Humboldt County, behind Trinidad?  Their farms, houses, mortgages and herds were paid off long ago– and they’ve enjoyed 120 years of steady milk money coming in.

HELPING HOOPA: Two Rivers Tribune’s Allie Hostler penned a thoughtful memoriam for Dr. Karl Fisher, who passed away January 24. Well known in Humboldt County’s counseling and mental health circles, Dr. Fisher loved Hoopa Valley and everyone he met along the way.

Ms. Hostler wrote, “Because of the hundreds of lives he touched in the Hoopa community, the Human Services Division has arranged a remembrance get-together to be held on Friday, February 24 at noon at the Community Center (formerly Church of the Mountains) on Loop Road in Hoopa.”

Ms. Hostler also included a reprint of Dr. Fisher’s article, “12 Steps to Take If Your Child Has Problems at School, “ aside with her column regarding bullying issues.

ONE MODEL FOR ENDING HUNGER: Dr. Josh Strange, in his article for the Two Rivers Tribune, wrote:

Being able to keep food cheap and accessible for the poor while increasing the income of farmers, especially small scale family farmers, appears to be opposing goals.

But what if I told you that a city with over four million people had found answers and achieved these opposing goals? What if such a city made chronic hunger a thing of the past and allowed small family run farms to thrive like never before?

Hard to imagine right, especially when you can see lots of destitute people in modern, wealthy cities like San Francisco, or heck even here in Humboldt County. And yet it’s true—such a place really exists—it’s called Belo Horizonte, the fourth largest city in Brazil.

You can catch his story—and that of Belo Horizonte—in his article here. Ending hunger at a penny per day per resident seems like a good return and a worthy investment.

It’s a Beautiful Day and a Beautiful World if we make it so.  Don’t let it get away.

TIME TO START RUNNING: Eric Kirk’s SoHum Parlance II site reminds us that Yes, Rex Bohn Does have an Opponent for the race of 1st District Supervisor. Her name is Annette De Modena. She has a website.

Mr. Kirk suggests, “If she wants to win this race, she had better start running. Or walking. Kerrigan beat Rex by walking to every home in Eureka. If you don’t have the money, that’s a pretty good way to meet people.”

Well said, Mr. Kirk. And we thank you for adding the Sentinel to your site.

THIN MINTS, SAMOAS, AND TAGALONGS: Expect the Girl Scouts and their cookies coming by to a location near you, starting on February 13 and continuing through March.

ONE LOVE, ONE HEART: Let’s get together and feel all right.

Reggae on the River tickets go on sale March 1st.

The Mateel Community Center organizers say, “This year’s festival will take place on Saturday & Sunday July 21st and 22nd, 2012 at the Benbow Lake State Recreation Area. Advanced tickets go on sale March 1st, and prices and artists will be announced soon.

Set before a backdrop of ancient redwoods on the banks of the majestic Eel River, this 2-day celebration of the best in reggae and world music has been a favorite festival tradition for over a quarter century and offers attendees an opportunity to soak up the irie northern Cali vibes while enjoying a diverse array of top-class international artists, vendors, and kids activities in a family friendly environment. We look forward to seeing you at the 28th annual Reggae On The River!”

Right on. Yah Mon. We suggest reserving/making your lodging/camping accommodations now and getting your tickets March 1st while they last. Folks, we have two kinds of people: the quick and irie-less. One love and all. Peace, Humboldt.

ONE LOVE, AGAIN: Love has been showered by the Ambrosini School and the Cuddeback Kids Care Club. Nice. Sudents taking flight,  Learning to Fly with their own wings.

MORE LOVE AND NOTE TO SELF: don’t forget Valentine’s day like you almost did last year.  Get your garden ready, sign the GMO ballot initiative, don’t jeopardize your family or get ripped off, lock up your garbage if you must, buy girl scout cookies, look after your business, help the poor and your community, and remember your loved ones.

Yeah, that’s about it.  The moral of the story?  Easy.  One world, one love, and do the right thing.

You only have so much Time.
 

THE WEEKEND CALENDAR:

Happenings, events, groups, walks, other hip or rad stuff

Friday, February 10

Saturday, February 11

Sunday, February 12

Other entertainment can also be found here

Movies, reviews, times and trailers are here.

WORD

Woody Allen said,

“To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer. To suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy then is to suffer. But suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you’re getting this down.”

For the Curiously Aware of Humboldt County…

By Skippy Massey
Humboldt Sentinel

THREE SIDES OF THE SAME COIN:

Investigators are continuing to investigate an explosion and fire Tuesday night that burned a Church Street apartment building in Eureka leaving an 18-year-old in critical condition with severe burns on 60 percent of his body and a female inhabitant suffering from inhalation burns, the Times-Standard reported. They were transported by helicopter to a medical burn unit at UC Davis Medical Center. Much of the building burned, leaving 8-10 individuals homeless and damages of nearly $500,000. Humboldt Bay Firefighters fighting the blaze came upon several butane canisters and a device for extracting concentrated THC from marijuana inside the residence.

Fire investigators don’t think the hashish extractor was the source of the actual fire but noted any spark or flame could have ignited exposed gas within the apartment. A hashish extractor device is filled with marijuana and butane is forced through it removing the THC. The substance that drips out of the device is the concentrated THC, or hashish. Individuals using these extraction devices often work in areas with poor ventilation, and the butane fumes can pose very dangerous hazards.

The source of the blaze is under investigation.

* * * * * * *

$2.9 million in drug asset seizures for the past three years has the Humboldt County Drug Task Force basking in some serious money. Where does all the confiscated drug dough go? Perhaps the $170 per night poolside hotel accommodations for Drug Task Force members and their families near the Happiest Place on Earth—Disneyland– was a reasonable bon voyage training venture. Or the $400 custom-made boots? How did the DTF spend the rest of the $1.5 million in seized funds over the past five years anyway?

The North Coast Journal’s Zach St. George looked into the spending records and the expensive highlife of Humboldt’s drug cops in his article, Drug Money. Humboldt County seized 12 times more money per capita in forfeiture than California does as a whole. Two-thirds of that money goes to local law enforcement agencies in the County, St. George says.

“Last year the Sheriff’s Office took home $200,000, the District Attorney’s office $100,000, and The Drug Task Force got $500,000,” St. George reported.  The North Coast Journal also kindly listed the names and amounts of Humboldt County’s 25 largest seizures  for you to know.

* * * * * * *

On a similar note, exactly how large is the impact of marijuana on Humboldt County’s economy? How much money does a marijuana grower make? What’s life like for “trimmers” – the itinerant farm workers of the marijuana world? A lot of figures have been bandied about.  Humboldt’s readers and listeners demand answers for their enquiring minds.

These questions and supposedly more are explored in “The Humboldt Chronicles,” a radio documentary series from Lost Coast Communications starting February 2. Hosted by Southern Humboldt journalist Kym Kemp and produced by Mike Dronkers and Chuck Rogers, the series explores how marijuana cultivation plays a role in Humboldt County life – as economic driver, a touchstone of culture, an environmental burden (or boon), a source of violent crime, and a medical cure-all, depending on your point of view.

If you missed the Humboldt Chronicles debut, you can catch the interviews with a banker, grower, business owner, and economist in the podcast replay here.

* * * * * * *

SNIPPETS, RUMORS, HEARSAY MURMURS, AND THE LINKS: “Money”

Money doesn’t talk. Talk is cheap. Money screams.

OCCUPY THE OCCUPY: Time for a counter-revolution? According to the Times-Standard, “A rally is being held Friday afternoon, February from 4 to 6 p.m., at the Humboldt County Courthouse by community members who want the front of the courthouse cleaned up and unfenced. Organizer Julie Salminen said the purpose of the rally is to show the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors and Eureka City Council that people want the area restored. ‘We want it cleaned up over there,’ Salminen said.”

“More than 250 people are anticipated to attend the rally. Salminen said people are tired of the occupiers that have taken over the courthouse entrance. She said courthouse workers have been accosted and some have even been assaulted. She said people should be allowed to protest but that things have gotten out of control. ‘It’s costing a lot of money with everything that’s going on,’ Salminen said about the fencing and law enforcement patrols.”

We hope protesters and counter-protesters keep a safe distance from one another and cooler heads will prevail. Protesting, like politics, has become the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.

WHO KNOWS WHAT’S GOING ON: KINS radio’s Brian Papstein sat down and interviewed Eureka citizen and business magnate Robin Arkley. You can listen to it here . According to the Humboldt Herald’s take of the talk shop interview, Mr. Arkley says the Marina Center will see Coastal Commission progress by fall and Security National will be hiring 100 more employees over the next 18 months. He also offers his view on unions, the Keystone pipeline project, Mitt Romney, and liberals taking advantage (though the words ‘rape’ and ‘nailing’ were reportedly used) of today’s youth. We suggest listening to the interview and making up one’s own informed assumptions.

A big mountain of sugar is too much for one man. We can see now why God portions it out in those little packets for the rest of us.

ERNIE’S Place gives readers a brief progress report for restoring some portion of Southern Humboldt’s $450,000 in school bus transportation funding following last week’s road rage protest by residents, students, and staff at the State Capitol. Don’t mess with the SoHum parents. They’re not about to let schooling interfere with an education.

RAIL RECALL: Fred’s Humboldt Blog thinks “Governor Brown should face a recall over his continued fiscal support of the High Speed Rail project. The state has a continuing large deficit and supposedly can’t pay for what many consider essential government services, yet he steadfastly supports HSR,” Fred says. Originally voter approved to the tune of $9 billion, the High Speed Rail project could skyrocket upwards of $133 billion if it gathers traction. Meg Whitman will undoubtedly foist another media blitz of obnoxiously expensive radio and television ads upon us again should Fred’s recall efforts succeed. Thank you, Fred.

JUST SAY NO to unincorporated kids. The McKinleyville Community Services District voted Wednesday not to designate Pierson Park as the site of a skate park for kids, much to the consternation of supporters. The MCSD said it’s simply keeping all of its options available for a skate park site to be located anywhere the District deems worthy. Skate enthusiasts who raised almost $100,000 in donations are understandably confused by the adult’s setback. You can be young without money, but you can’t be old without it. Where’s major domo skate park politico Jeff Leonard when you need him most?

CO-OPTED: The North Coast Co-op General Manager David Lippmann reported the Eureka and Arcata stores have been experiencing annual losses of $275,000. He reports there’s still nearly $1 million in long-term debt from the construction of the Arcata store “ten or twelve years ago.” Payroll expenses, taxes, and benefits consume almost $4 million per year, or 26% of operating expenses. Profit margins on food are a slim 2 percent at best after the bills have been paid, Mr. Lippmann reports. The good news is the Co-op is a $30 million a year business. The bad news is sales are $600,000 below target. Their 2011-12 year-to-date earnings—profit—amounted to a paltry $59,000.

Relax, Co-op members, it’s much worse than you think. Given the consistently exorbitant price of the Co-op’s food and worker’s benefits, they’ll do what they’ve always reliably done:  stay cool, calm, …and collect. Money flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana.

OUCH, THAT SMARTS: Forgoing your PG&E smart meter may cost you up to $195. And that’s just for starters. The California Public Utilities Commission approved a proposal Wednesday to charge residential customers an initial fee of $75 plus $10 each month if they don’t want to have the wireless ‘smart meters’ installed in their homes. Low income customers would pay $70, an initial fee of $10 plus an extra $5 per month to avoid installation of the wireless devices.

Money is not the most important thing in the world. Love is. Fortunately, PG&E loves your money and their smart meters.

BETTER NEWS FOR JOB SEEKERS IN 2012:  Companies are saying the job market is getting better and workers are saying it’s already kicked into high gear.  Friday’s jobs report showed a national gain of 243,000 jobs and a separate survey using households to determine the unemployment rate showed far stronger job gains.  2 million jobs have been added in the past six months, the best job gain since August 2005 and preceding the Great Recession beginning in late 2007.  The unemployment rate has dropped for the past five consecutive months.  Friday’s Dow Jones Industrial Average roared to 12,862 making it the highest close since May of 2008.

When pressed, Newt Gingrinch begrudgingly told reporters, “If it makes you happy, give him (Obama) some credit.”  Misery loves company.

SPANK THE BANK AND STASH YOUR CA$H: In response to November’s call for a nationwide “Bank Transfer Day,” about 610,000 consumers switched from a big bank to a credit union or smaller community bank. According to a recent research survey, roughly 11 percent of the 5.6 million people switching banks during the three-month period cited “Bank Transfer Day” as their reason. While it certainly didn’t produce the mass exodus of customers that many banks may have feared, it was nonetheless significant. The number of “angry bank-switchers” leaving their bank was nearly triple for those walking out for similar reasons in 2010.

Although one credit union reporting the November publicity prompted a jump in inquiries and customers opening 1,500 new accounts– a 30 percent increase compared to 2010– it’s not clear exactly how big banks were affected by Bank Transfer Day. None are releasing figures. Wells Fargo reported a 3.2 percent net increase in consumer checking deposits for the fourth quarter last year, compared with 2010. Bank of America didn’t even bother to report transfer details for consumer checking accounts and declined to comment.

Analysts say banks are still set to raise fees increasing their bottom line. Banks will still loan you money if you can prove you don’t need it. Raises and bonuses for everyone– except you.

FOLLOW THE MONEY:  The City of Eureka was awarded a $26,000 judgement from notorious slumlords  Floyd and Betty Squires. We hope they don’t raise the rent.  From the City’s press release: 

The Humboldt County Superior Court has granted the City of Eureka’s motion for Attorneys’ Fees against Floyd and Betty Squires. The City was awarded the entire amount requested of $26,521.26. The City requested reimbursement of the fees it had incurred when it was forced to defend a lawsuit filed by the Squires against the City claiming that the City had no basis to enforce code violations for substandard housing at numerous properties owned by the Squires.

The City continues to move forward in its lawsuit against the Squires for substandard housing at numerous properties within the City of Eureka.

ABOVE IT ALL: Fortuna’s local blog, Above the Fold has come up with their ‘possible solution’ for dealing with the unsightly houseless issue in the Friendly City: “Send the building inspector out to the houseless camps on Fortuna Boulevard and levee fines for the many rule infractions–including improper tent installation and lack of plumbing.” Yup. Fees, fines, and money will certainly do the trick for those tentees not having any. We pine for the good old days when tar paper shacks and real wood shanties were in vogue.

A SLUMBER TO REMEMBER: Don’t snooze overnight in your vehicle in Arcata. Not only is it a crime, it’s a business, too.  An expensive proposition for snoring scofflaws who’ve had it too good for too long, it’s time to wake up, smell the coffee, and pay up for drowsy misdeeds and sleepytime misbehavior. Just ante up like these visitors did, posting their Humboldt forty-wink memories on the Ollie blog site. Their $35 fine—each—mushroomed to $155 after the gratuitous fees were tacked on shamelessly by the scales of justice:

The Criminal Justice Business

As we mentioned in a previous post, we recently got tickets (one each) for sleeping in our vehicle in Arcata. $155 each. We called the phone number on the ticket immediately, and were told that our information wouldn’t be uploaded into their computer system for at least two weeks — we’d have to stay in Arcata and try again. Two weeks passed, and we called back. We scheduled a date to appear in court, hoping to have the fine reduced.

We appeared at the Superior Court in Eureka yesterday, and the clerk (who was friendly, at least) informed us that we’d be able to meet with a court-appointed attorney before seeing a judge. Upon entering the courtroom, however, the judge told everyone– about 10 people with different infractions– that we did not have the right to a court-appointed attorney, and that we each had two, and only two, choices:

1) plead guilty and pay the fine in full, or,

2) plead not guilty and schedule another court appearance in a month or so.

We were, needless to say, really ready to leave Humboldt County, so we pled guilty and were charged $155 each.

Oddly, when we spoke with the judge, he told us that the fine for “camping in a vehicle- first offense” was no more than $50. Why are we being charged $155, then? Court fees. What court fees? Well the friendly clerk broke it down for us, and because I’m pissed, I’m going to type it all out for you:

$4.00 Surcharge

$1.76 County general fund

$3.92 DNA Add’l (?)

$3.92 St Crt Facility

$3.92 EMS Add’l

$1.96 DNA Add’l

$1.96 DNA Funding

$5.88 SB1732 Penalties

$13.72 State Penalty Fund

$5.88 County Penalty Assessment

$3.92 Courthouse Construction Fund

$5.88 Criminal Justice Facilities Fund

$3.92 Emergency Med Services

$17.84 Arcata General Fund

$1.52 State Automation Fund

$40.00 Court Security

$35.00 Criminal Infraction (the actual fine for sleeping in a vehicle)

I was last on the judge’s list, so by the time I was done speaking with him (which took about 30 seconds), the room had totally cleared out. As I joined Max and we walked toward the doors, the judge leaned over his desk and said cheerily to his staff, “Well, that went well!” Yeah, in about 10 minutes those jerks made several thousand dollars.

In case you are curious, we have never had this problem before. Ollie (the bus) was parked on a busy public street on Capitol Hill in Seattle for two weeks, and cops never bothered us; our only night-time callers in that spot were two drunk neighbors who thought Max and I were the coooolest people they’d ever met — they cooked up a whole dinner in their apartment across the street and delivered it to the bus, where we ate with them and drank wine and exchanged gifts and stories.

-Rachel

LET’S PUT MONEY ASIDE, FORGET OUR WORRIES, AND LEAVE YOU ON A HAPPIER NOTE

Proof positive that pets do love and  remember you.  Christian the lion does.  Whether you’re rich or poor, it doesn’t matter.

Outside of a dog, a book is probably Man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read anyway. The great pleasure of a dog is that you can make a fool of yourself and not only will he not scold you, he’ll make  a fool of himself, too.

THE WEEKEND CALENDAR:

Friday, February 3

Saturday, February 4

Sunday, February 5

Movies, reviews, times and trailers are here.

WORD

Reminiscing on his early Vaudeville days traveling with family, Groucho Marx said,

“We had a budget. That’s a way of going broke methodically. Because we were a kid act, we traveled at half-fare to save money, despite the fact that we were all around twenty. Minnie insisted we were thirteen. ‘That kid of yours is in the dining car smoking a cigar,’ the conductor told her. ‘One is in the washroom shaving. And another is drinking whiskey at the bar.’ Minnie shook her head sadly. ‘They grow up so fast.’”

For the Curiously Aware of Humboldt County…

By Skippy Massey
Humboldt Sentinel

SNIPPETS, RUMORS, HEARSAY MURMURS, AND THE LINKS:

THE BIG BUS OR BUST :  Nearly 400 students, parents, staff, and Ernie from Southern Humboldt Unified School District carried signs and marched on the State Capitol Tuesday persuading legislators to restore $450,000 in transportation funding for school buses.  Senator Noreen Evans and Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro said, “It was the largest crowd of community members they’ve ever seen in the building that weren’t lobbyists.”  500 of the district’s 700 students use the bus to get to school— costing $900 per student.

Rural SoHum students need the buses. California is going broke.  Richard Marks had to ask the touchy question on everyone’s mind of whether Southern Humboldt’s wealthy marijuana growers should pony up for their community– and his readers responded with equally tangy commentary.

CASUALTIES OF COST CUTTING:  Further fiscal cuts to the tune of $1.6 million for College of the Redwoods may mean layoff notices in March for tenured faculty due to statewide trigger measures.  CR’s Board of Trustees will meet again Monday in a special meeting to discuss the matter further.   California is reaching new lows tightening the community college money belt.  Parents, however, should encourage their children to become better educated so they can get into a good college that they can’t afford.

SUICIDE IS FOREVER:  Following the tragic suicidal leap off Eureka’s Masonic Lodge building Tuesday by a 35-year old man, both the Times-Standard and Highboltage report that over the past 90 days the coroner’s office has responded to 15 suicides compared to only five in the previous quarter.  “It’s just an eye-opener to us to see that amount of suicides happening,” Humboldt County Coroner Dave Parris said.

If you know someone who needs help, suicide prevention services are available through Humboldt County Mental Health Crisis Services (#445-7715), Redwood Community Action Agency (#444-2273) and 24-hour suicide crisis lifelines (#800-273-8255, 888-849-5728).

COLD-HEARTED ABUSE:  Being aware of events as they relate to social justice is important and that’s why we’re linking to Highboltage’s Something is Rotten in Eureka and Verbena’s letter. We also want to know why Charlie, the dog, was shot and what happened.

DANNY RAY’S LAST DAYS an obit by the Journal’s Heidi Walters. Sigh.

BUILDING COMMUNITY DIGNITY:  Green Diamond Resource Company just sold 15.3 acres and gave $25,000 to Hospice of Humboldt for their planned inpatient hospice health care facility, a 12-bed, 14,560 square-foot project near the Redwood Acres Fairgrounds.  The new Hospice House will provide end-of-life care, grief counseling, and enable patients and families to spend time together in a home-like setting of private bedrooms and bathrooms, communal living and dining rooms, a chapel, and a children’s play room.  “It will be a home away from home when home is no longer an option,” said Executive Director Marylee Bytheriver.

Hospice of Humboldt has been serving families locally for over 33 years with a staff of 80 and 125 volunteers.  The organization provided end-of-life care to 584 patients last year who, as a result, were able to die with dignity and in comfort.  Hospice is ramping up a capital fundraising campaign towards breaking ground of the $10 million project in 2013.

WAITING ON THE WATERFRONT:  What’s been happening with Eureka’s new Fisherman’s Terminal project? On the Waterfront by Jennifer Fumiko Cahill explains whether the newly finished Redevelpment project is going forward– or drowning in the water.  With redevelopment funds going the way of the dodo, a bird in the hand is safer than one that’s flying directly overhead.  More money and several more years will make the Fisherman’s Terminal an overnight success, some believe.

NO MORE WEED:  The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to abolish their medical marijuana program allowing collectives to grow 99 plants at a time with County approval.  Under the permit program the Mendocino Sheriff’s Office monitored marijuana farms and tagged plants with zip ties for compliance.  Apparently the Board of Supervisors felt the heat coming from U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag warning they were in conflict with the Fed’s position that growing marijuana is patently illegal.  The Mendo Board of Supervisors were advised by their legal counsel to drop the program like a cold stone.   Ms. Haag has been striking fear into the hearts of many and killing the buzz of most.

RETREAT:  Meanwhile back at the ranch, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to extend a temporary moratorium on new medical dispensaries for an additional 10 months– and will discuss the future of outdoor medical marijuana growing in the County.  That is, unless Ms. Haag sends another sharply worded letter implying that all who participate get thrown in the pokey.  In that case, all bets are off as we run away.

THE EEL DEALS:  Not the most exciting news unless one is headlong into community policy wonkiness. Nonetheless, Virginia Graziani reports four Southern Humboldt volunteer fire departments cleared another hurdle to become full-fledged Fire Protection Districts with the ability to stabilize their revenue through special parcel taxes.  Mary Bullwinkel updates us on “State of the City: Fortuna Residents Hear Updates on Projects and School District Consolidation.”  Wonk away.

CRAB GRAB ‘N GO:  These Rotarians are smart people.  Sure, you’ll hear more about the Fortuna Sunrise Rotary Club’s Crab Fest happening in February: you know, all the crab, drinks, band, and silent auction that you can stomach under one roof.  But whoever came up with their uniquely crabby  idea of “Eat In, OR Drive Thru and Take Out” deserves a medal and standing promotion. What will these Rotarians think of next?   Their motto is Building Communities and Bridging Continents.   Crab take out and home delivery to China?   Sorry, but Wild Planet Foods’ Bill Carvalho already thought of that.  The Rotary gears of ingenuity grind on.

STATISTICS LIE:  14% of people know that.  But has it really been that dry?  The Fortuna monthly rain report states we’ve had 8.18 inches of January rain compared to 1.35 inches last year.  We’re also 2 inches over the year-to-date average.  Well, that’s what it claims.  We don’t make this stuff up, we just report it.  68% of everyone knows that.

SONIC BOOM : Conservationists and Native American tribes are suing over the Navy’s use of sonar in training exercises on the Pacific coast, saying the noise can harass and kill marine mammals such as whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions.  The Navy has been conducting exercises in the training range for 60 years but increased weapons testing and submarine training has raised the environmental ire to a whole new level and, conservationists claim, the National Marine Fisheries Service has failed its mission in protecting marine life from going belly up due to the harmful effects of sonar use.

GMO REALLY MEANS ‘Get Me Out.’  150 groups throughout California are working on a landmark 2012 initiative identifying what’s in the Frankenfood you eat.  The petition’s release date calling for the labeling of GMOs (genetically engineered food) has been pushed back to the middle of February for the gathering of signatures.  We can’t get to the top by sitting on our bottom.

Southern Humboldt folks wanting to see the GMO labeling initiative on the 2012 ballot can help by learning how to gather signatures.  The Humboldt County Signature Gathering Workshop for the California GMO Labeling Initiative is happening on Thursday, February 2nd, at 5 p.m.-6 p.m.at Calico’s restaurant, 808 Redwood Drive in Garberville.  For more information call Rosa at # 707-986-7469.

Northern Humboldt folks should link to the Northern Humboldt Label GMOs Facebook site for getting involved.

BLAST FROM THE PAST pictures of yesteryear, Humboldt, and places beyond.  We like Shorpy.com  for their high-end resolution work, and that of a Rio Dell local known as The Old Photo Guy  for his vintage historical pieces.

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER:  Who lives where, what do they do and eat, and why do they live so long?  Contributing writer Dr. Jerry DeCapua and the Two Rivers Tribune have an intriguing article regarding the Who, Where, and How of health longevity.  The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly and lie about your age.

FAR AWAY PLACES flung on the face of the earth.  We always wondered what goes on at Orlean’s Sandy Bar Ranch and in Orick.  Now we know.

FACT CHECK:  We like facts.  All sorts of them.  Banal and inane and everything in between.  But oh my word and Heavens to Betsy what did we let loose here?  OK, pull our finger.

THE WEEKEND CALENDAR:

Friday, January 27

Saturday, January 28

Sunday, January 29

Movies, reviews, times and trailers are here.

WORD

Will Rogers said,

There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

Everything is funny as long as it’s happening to someone else.

Renewed public engagement process to be headed up by insiders

By Charles Douglas
Humboldt Sentinel

Humboldt County has enjoyed for the last thirteen years the fruits of Prosperity!

At least, prosperity in terms of grant funding from a plan titled “Prosperity!” which furthered the prosperity of county government and allied non-profits, to the tune of $55 million in federal, state and local funds managed by the Economic Development Division of Community Development Services.

Supervisors voted unanimously this morning with little fanfare and even less critical analysis on a staff proposal to re-write the Prosperity! plan for a new decade — the punchline being a grant application for more federal funding to be sent to the Economic Development Division and affiliated agencies to do so.

The $65,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration is supposed to construct a plan which brings together the public and private sectors to analyze the regional economy, establish goals and plans of action, and identify investment priorities and funding sources. Yet part of the federal guidelines stated that such a process must be developed with broad-based and diverse participation, and so far, such outreach has been mostly to insiders in local banking, real estate and financial interests — the so-called listening tour by Headwaters Fund Board coordinator Dawn Elsbree which the Sentinel broke down in October.

Maintaining an upbeat stance despite the dire economic numbers emerging out of the last few years, Jacqueline Debets, Humboldt County’s Economic Development Coordinator, told Supervisors that a new economy was continuing to emerge out of the targets of opportunity (diversified health care, investment support services, building and systems construction and maintenance, management and innovation services, specialty food, flowers and beverages and niche manufacturing)  identified by Prosperity! in 1999.

“There’s been a sustained, structural shift in our economy from the one our parents grew up in,” she said.

Debets pointed to the growth in the number of jobs, the number of firms and the growth of wages in the six major industry clusters in her initial 1990-2004 report — but when the 15-year span shifted to the years 1995-2009, an 8.8% decline in the number of firms was revealed. Tourism remained the second largest employment sector in the region, but with annual average wages of $13,685, these jobs are often part-time in nature and usually do not pay a living wage. The timber industry went from 5,700 to 2,100 jobs, shrinking from 10.6% to 4.3% of the region’s employment.

The only public comment came from Bob Judevine, who works as an associate director with the Northern California Small Business Development Center Network (the SBDC works hand in glove with the Economic Development Division and has received numerous grants from the Headwaters Fund). Unsurprisingly, he enthusiastically endorsed Debets’ presentation and said he was worried that his kids would be able to find work in Humboldt County.

Third District Supervisor Mark Lovelace defended the public resources expended on these sorts of planning processes as well — he claimed that College of the Redwoods had modified their course offerings based on the targets of opportunity study.

“It really shows that this isn’t just some abstract planning process, it’s something we can actually use that can be of benefit in the community,” Lovelace said. “This is valuable work.”

Supervisor Virginia Bass of the Fourth District was thankful that there was at least some effort to study the actual job impact of economic development planning, given the past public critiques that such undertakings mainly employed the people conducting the planning.

“It’s hard to quantify, but I’m glad that’s a focus because that’s a question we get a lot,” she said. “With the Headwaters Fund, how many jobs does that really result in?”

In an e-mail to the Sentinel later this afternoon, Elsbree underlined that the public, beyond the 100 handpicked for the initial listening tour, would be welcomed into the series of drafting meetings on the new Prosperity! document.

The first of these will be the convening of an Industry Leader Council, which will take place on Monday, Jan. 30 at 1 p.m. at the North Coast SBDC office, located at 520 E Street in Downtown Eureka. The next will be a joint meeting of her Headwaters Board along with the Workforce Investment Board (the “official strategy committee” in the grant proposal) and the Redwood Region Economic Development Commission, to take place on Friday, Feb. 17 at the Annex of the Humboldt County Office of Education, located at 901 Myrtle Avenue in Eureka.

“We are still designing the year long process but are also hoping that members of the participating boards and interested community members will help spread the word about what we are doing and invite others into the process,” Elsbree stated.

She also suggested the public keep track of the Prosperity! website (www.northcoastprosperity.com) where documents related to the update would be regularly posted, starting with a list of “Action Teams” intended to brainstorm projects “related to specific issues,” as yet unspecified.

Debets invited Supervisors to a Gallery Walk hosted by HFB, RREDC and WIB, to take place at the former Cin Cin restaurant in Old Town Eureka during the Feb. 4 Arts Alive!

EPD claims property was “trashed” in a similar fashion to O Street residence

By Gabriele Fellows
Humboldt Sentinel

Another property manager found his vacant rental home broken into and vandalized early Saturday morning on the 3000 block of I Street.

Significant damage to the doorframe was found along with piles of trash harboring junk food and alcohol. The bathroom and heater had been used along with electricity.

Personal belongings were discovered in the home indicating the return of its owners. “The gear had been left in the house as if someone was planning on staying a while,” EPD sergeant Adam Laird said in an interview with the Sentinel today.

Although the actual “squatters” of the empty dwelling are unknown, the EPD thinks they were members of the Occupy movement because of anarchistic graffiti found on the walls similar to the spray painted images found at the O Street home.

“The graffiti also included anti ‘Nazi’ graffiti, which could be a reference to law enforcement,” Laird said.

There was no other evidence of the latest break-in’s connection to Occupy Eureka aside from the similarity of the graffiti.

Six individuals associated with Occupy Eureka were arrested at their O Street squat earlier this week, although they’ve all been released pending further court proceedings – with the exception of Martin Katz.

Members of the Occupy movement are being suspected as culprits because other house squatting episodes are “dissimilar.”  Trespassers rarely damage anything other than doorways into a home and don’t spray paint on walls. They also rarely leave belongings behind: “In general, the people who break into houses and sleep in them leave the next day and take their gear with them,” Laird claimed.

Laura Cutler, a local attorney and member of the Occupy Humboldt movement, proposed a resolution for tomorrow night’s countywide General Assembly (to take place at 6 p.m. in the Green and Gold Room at Humboldt State University) that dissociates the group from participants’ actions at O Street:

“We, the members of the Occupy Humboldt County General Assembly do proclaim that the afore-mentioned events were never considered, nor ever approved in any way, by the Occupy Humboldt County General Assembly.”

Occupy Eureka activist Talvi Fried thought tensions might be exacerbated by the resolution, but also didn’t want the public image of her cause tarnished by these incidents.

“[It is] just dim acting and obviously against Occupy Humboldt as a whole since it’s only caused a lot of bad press and hurts the good that is trying to be done elsewhere within the movement,” she stated in a post on the Facebook page of Occupy Humboldt.

For the Curiously Aware of Humboldt County…

By Skippy Massey
Humboldt Sentinel

RAIL FEASIBILITY STUDY GATHERS STEAM AFTER EUREKA CITY COUNCIL APPROVAL

Hank Sims correctly predicted Eureka’s Fantasy Pacific railroad proposal would be off and running after the Humboldt Bay Alternative Rail Route Feasibility Study was endorsed by the Eureka City Council Tuesday.

The Council not only approved the feasibility proposal after the 4-0 vote (Councilmember Lance Madsen was absent) but directed city staff to locate funding sources and technical support. Attorney and rail advocate Bill Barnum pointed out it’s a preliminary request looking at connecting Humboldt Bay’s shipping to a proposed rail corridor reaching Red Bluff.

The Sentinel will report more of Tuesday’s Council actions with the back story here.

Mr. Barnum believes the idea of a rail corridor should not be discredited before all the facts are in and given a fair consideration. He indicated there’s been misinformation circulating in the community.  The idea, as bold as it seems, requires careful evaluation, vision, and leadership.

Responding to Hank Sims at the Lost Coast Outpost last week, Mr. Barnum clarified a few points for readers:

Hi Hank,

I am curious why you feel a need to disparage this idea? Really, it sort of mystifies me.

To be helpful about a few details:

1. Nobody is ready to break ground just yet. The request is to investigate alternatives. This is what CEQA is all about. The map you copied above is merely to depict the route proposed in 1909 by local surveyor Jess Lentell. It may not be the route that is built – indeed a railroad may never be built.

2. The railroad is not proposed for public ownership and operation. No one is suggesting a publicly-owned-and-operated rail line. If rail is developed, the rail would be privately owned. The City of Eureka owns substantial land that could be developed and leased to the public’s benefit. I guess that is why the City may be interested in at least studying the matter.

3. I am certain the private railroad will not be financed by you. We will take you off the list of potential investors. If you should change your mind, let us know. To be clear, I will not be an owner either, so I guess we have that in common, Hank.

4. Most (but certainly not all) people living in Humboldt County would like to see some new source of employment sometime in our lifetimes. The government job hey-day is over. The state grant gravy-train (a different sort of train), is off the tracks and not likely to return. The State of California has resorted to eating its own by disallowing Redevelopment Agencies. The hand-writing is on the wall. Before Humboldt County becomes another Greece, it might be prudent to search out some private employment possibilities, huh?

5. Some people disparage the idea, other people have their hair on fire. I just don’t get that.

So, Hank, have your fun. Hell, you might be the smartest guy around. But if you don’t mind, when it comes to railroad engineering, I would rather get a feasibility study out of a railroad engineering firm. They do exist.
The beat goes on. It will be interesting to see who shows up Tuesday night to fight the idea of a feasibility study. See you then, Hank?

Mr. Barnum replied to another post:

In reply to Guest above, you are incorrect. I do not want to sell the future railroad any land, and none of its possible course would run through property I own. You are not the first person to suggest this; but you should stop it. It is not true.

My interest in this idea of rail to the valley goes back more than 20 years when I helped found the Humboldt Bay Alliance for Economic Development. My hope is to see a rail connection that helps with goods movement using Humboldt Bay as a connector between ships and the National Rail System. We are closest to Asia and a rail connection in the valley makes sense for bridging rail outside the busy San Francisco Bay Area transportation bottle-neck. Some of the freight stream could be opened here and value added, then re-packaged into containers for shipment. A modern railroad would include double-decked containers and could operate so that trains could transit from Red Bluff to Eureka in about 3 hours. This avoids congested ports and makes sense to people in that industry.

I know that many people are dedicated to seeing no or little economic change here, and many opposing posters resort to mockery and insults. My suggestion is that if the idea is feasible we should promote it. Many will disagree. That’s politics. Fine with me.

Tonight the Eureka City Council voted 4-0 (with Lance Madsen absent) to support
the idea and promote a feasibility study for an eastern rail route from
Humboldt Bay to Red Bluff. Thanks!

Readers weighed in with their comments, too. Here were a few by the proponents of rail optimism:

“This is a feasibility concept. People on both sides are saying it can or cannot be done. Why not get a definitive answer and find out? What will it haul? Who will pay for it, if it can be built? I would think that would be part of the study. Why taxpayer funding? Why not? We study and build roads to promote commerce. Is this that different? Without taxpayer dollars to maintain highways into Humboldt, we would be isolated in less than a year.”

“This is great news. Mocking research into railroad development is just stupid and short-sighted. A rail connection to the central valley is a major infrastructure improvement, the kind that makes your region more economically viable. And a railroad is FAR preferable to increased road access. …The niche for a Humboldt Bay port is not to compete against Oakland, LA and Long Beach, obviously. Those are enormous operations that serve a different purpose. The idea is to have a smaller port where a different type of shipping can predominate. The railroad provides an outlet for goods that arrive via Humboldt Bay, but equally important it provides an outlet for goods that are produced in Humboldt County. There is really no good reason to oppose researching an Eastern rail link, which is far more promising than the Southern route.”

“Gentlepersons, unless there is a major upgrade for accessibility, we will continue to be a backwater. …All costs are high to be here. Primarily, it is the isolation from the rest of the US that is the problem…”

“Will there be a direct connection to the China-Chunnel?”

Some naysaying nabobs of doubt offered their two cents:

“Is it crazier to imagine opening the line south and fighting the terrain and washouts for a longer stretch, or to create a new line east? I think most of us would drool at the prospect of a train connecting us to Amtrak, and for shipping, but it’s hard to imagine it could really be economically feasible in this part of the state.”

“I don’t have a problem with the idea of a rail line to the East. Problem is, what would it haul? I can’t think of any cargo that would be significant enough to make it worthwhile.”

“I suggest taking a look at the NCRA file at the Regional Water Board office in Santa Rosa. One of the things you will see are decades worth of business feasibility studies, all nicely bound and printed in multiple colors. These studies look into all the myriad ways a railroad south could be made to pay… These studies were not cheap and none of them was ever acted upon. At their most innocent, they were public dollars spent on trying to provide rationale… held by people of influence in the Humboldt Bay Area.  …But at a more fundamentally corrupt level, these “studies” were just money being handed out to make work for favored consulting companies. They may have been favors to politicians or lobbyists that have connections to the consultants. They may have been a way to keep the party going at public expense for a favored segment of the community. The one thing the studies were not was a serious attempt to actually get the railroad running.”

“Is the council seriously suggesting we spend staff time and our hard-to-come-by revenues on this sort of craziness?”

While one post curiously stood out unto its own:

“I already did this “study” for you… I will repeat it (again) for free.

There is this geographic feature of the North American continent called the “Great Salt Lake” which is approximately 600 miles due east of Eureka. All east-west transcontinental rail traffic must split east of the Great Salt Lake, and the northern route proceeds to Boise and then Seattle, while the southern route goes to Reno and then Oakland. The truth is that Redding is just as far from markets as Eureka is. So even if it is true that Eureka is a half day’s sea travel closer to Asia, it is at least a day farther from markets by rail. A half day or more would actually be lost by using the Port of Eureka, even supposing that a rail car could make it from Eureka to Redding to Oakland in one day. Most likely it will be two or three days.

There is nothing that we can do about this. So there you go, by accident of geography Eureka will never be a competitive deepwater West Coast port. … Then there are other issues. Could the railway to Redding actually be built? Yes, if you want to spend enough money. …You might be able to lay a new rail line across flat prairie or desert for $5 million a mile but not through those mountains. A half dozen tunnels and a half dozen bridges will cost $500 million all on their own.

This project, technically feasible will cost anywhere from $3 to $5 billion, minimum. The line would have to be heavily taxpayer subsidized or it could not exist and it will never be profitable, because of the geographical facts above.

If in some fantasy world this line was actually completed what would it haul? Although no Asian shipper of manufactured goods would use the port (because of the geographical facts above) shippers of dangerous, explosive or hazardous materials would like to have a lightly populated port to ship through. So we would get the nuclear waste, the caustic industrial chemicals and industrial acids, petroleum distillates, and military munitions. That’s your upside…

There’s your study.”

Granted, there are many questions concerning the rail proposal.  Can it be built?  What will it cost?  What will it haul?  Where will the route traverse?  Is it economically viable?  The proposal does have merit for consideration.  It deserves further discussion.  Free from speculation, conjecture, and opinion, a feasibility study would provide accurate and forthcoming answers to these questions, and we trust, be made available to the public.

More of the 260 comments about Eureka’s East-West railroad proposal can be found at:

The Lost Coast Outpost
The Humboldt Herald

The Eureka City Council Agenda Summary on the Humboldt Bay Alternative Rail Route Feasibility Study can be found here, courtesy of Mr. Sims.

Meanwhile, far, far away from the Redwood Curtain, China recently completed a 30-story building in only 15 days.  How were they able to accomplish this so quickly?  Able to withstand a 9.0 earthquake and 5 times more energy efficient than its counterparts, China’s new skyscraper is a testament to ingenuity, speed, and planning.  With labor standards, regulations, bureaucracy and unions pushed aside, we hope they used a higher quality drywall than usual.

Joel Mielke’s ‘Feasibility Studies’

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

SNIPPETS, RUMORS, HEARSAY MURMURS, AND THE LINKS:  “Building Community”

MUMS THE WORD:  No word has been received by Supervisor Clendenen offering an explanation here or at Ernie’s Place about the giveaway of STIP (State Transportation Improvement Program) monies to the Highway 101 Safety Corridor instead of repairing Garberville’s roads, as mentioned in last week’s Sentinel Roundup . As we previously said, it’s a sticky sore point stuck between State monies, County road repairs, and 2nd District constituents. Perhaps Supervisor Clendenen feels silence is golden and doesn’t need to explain such decisions to his district’s residents or shameless blogs requesting answers. Who needs pesky voters anyway?

GIVE US YOUR POOR, YOUR SICK, YOUR HUDDLED MASSES:  St. Joseph Hospital is opening the doors and inviting the community to see its new $140 million, 100,000 square foot Northeast Tower addition. At $1,400 per square foot, that’s one heck of an improvement. The open house tours are Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 9.a.m. to 3 p.m. The open house is free; however, donations have always been readily accepted for their past, present, and future needs.  And you thought they only wanted your blood.

SHELTER HELTER SKELTER:  Heidi Walters’ article and photos in The Journal, ‘New Direction’, explains what happened regarding the North Coast Resource Center closure and former Executive Director John Shelter’s future plans. After his sudden fall, will Mr. Shelter rise from the NCRC ashes like a legendary phoenix? You can bet on it.

MORE SHELTER:  Kym Kemp kindly reminds us the Eureka Extreme Weather Shelter has opened. She reports Shelter Coordinator Steve Bell said they’ve helped a lot of different people since the shelter has been available. “We’ve had new faces and about 2 new people a day. It’s a really positive situation here,” Bell said. “I’m hoping that we provide a model of what can be done.” Mr. Bell asked everyone to please direct people to go to the Mission, 110 2nd Street in Eureka, where they will go through intake and receive food, hot showers and clean clothes. Very pleased with how the new shelter is working out, Mr. Bell thanked those who helped, including the Eureka Main St. Organization, the Chamber (of Commerce), the North Coast Veteran’s Resource Center, the Eureka Rescue Mission, and the people at Teen Challenge. Mr. Bell can be rung at (707) 498-9611.  Thank you, Mr. Bell.  You, too, are helping build a sense of community.

GREED AND WEED:  Kevin Hoover and the Arcata Eye fill us in on the 6 quick marijuana busts made over a two-day period while the Two Rivers Tribune reports related pot problems. Humboldt County Supervisors, meanwhile, discussed their environmental concerns caused by weed cultivation and unpermitted grading in the county, comparing the damage to the ‘worst of the timber industry.’

HEALTH AND WELLNESS IS BIG BUSINESS:   Arcata’s Mad River Community Hospital has big plans and an even bigger complex waiting in the wings.

REAL DEAL:   The Rio Dell City Council met in a special closed session discussing a $975,000 contract offered to the property’s owner for a proposed business plaza development.  Rio Dell’s plans call for a new supermarket, strip mall, two motels, restaurants, a gas station and retail space sitting on the 20 acre site adjacent to Highway 101.  If the contract is accepted by the property owner, the next step is for the city to get a commitment from four or five businesses to participate in the development.  (UPDATE):  Unable to reach agreement between the City Of Rio Dell and the property owner, the Rio Dell Business Plaza has stalled. Here’s the counteroffer deal breaking letter.

BUS FUSS:  Virginia Graziani of the Redwood Times reports, “The Southern Humboldt Unified School District is calling all interested students, parents, and community members to join a caravan to Sacramento next Tuesday, Jan. 24, to let our state legislators and Governor Jerry Brown know how important school bus transportation is to rural communities.” Get on the bus, Gus. Make a new plan, Stan. Ms. Graziani also reports on the lesser important ho-hum SoHum school news, too. The Times-Standard’s Jessica Cejnar reported more on Sohum’s Bus Party to Sacto, as well.

EASTERN COMMUNITY SHOP TALK: Two Rivers Tribune’s Allie Hostler and Malcolm Terence talk access, degradation, and protection of Hoopa tribal land , tanoak mushroom picking, and Willow Creek’s new playschool.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZER HEIDI BENZONELLI and the Westside Community Improvement Association invite neighbors, friends, and community partners to a BBQ and community workday this Saturday, January 21. Whether it rains or shines, it’s happening. Bring your tools if you have them. Ms. B. requests your presence “joining the community while we build our future, 10 am ‘til around 3, BBQ somewhere around noon. We’ll be at the future home of the Jefferson Community Park Gardens and Community Center, 1000 B street Eureka. It looks like rain so we will plan most activities for indoors.” This event is hosted by Westside Community Improvement Association and sponsored by First Five Better Together, Humboldt Area Foundation and Eureka First United Methodist Church. That’s quite a collaboration.  Questions? Call 498-5764.

COMMUNITY BLOG FRIENDS ODDS ‘N ENDS:  So John’s up to his old tricks and Jo-Jo’s in the can now that Kristabel’s happily hitched and Tom’s eyeing orbs again.

RAINING CATS AND DOGS:  When will it stop?  Not for awhile.  Don’t complain, you’ll see a glimpse of the sun next Wednesday.  Then hunker down for a solid week or two of rain.  You asked for it.  Maybe it’s a good time to visit your local library and settle down with a good book.

SOMEBODY THAT YOU USED TO KNOW:  32 million viral views and counting. We didn’t know a community of 5 friends could play one guitar at the same time and perform such a hauntingly beautiful melody together.

THE WEEKEND CALENDAR:

SLAMMIN’ SALMON:  ACCESS HUMBOLDT is presenting an environmental documentary by Thomas Dunklin Friday, January 27 at 7 p.m. Dunklin is a fisheries geo-videologist and producer of documentary videos surrounding salmon, restoration, and salmon culture. His work encompasses underwater views from the Smith and Klamath Rivers, watershed restorations projects, Klamath dam and other amazing underwater wildlife footage. Questions and answers will follow Dunklin’s selected work. Movie trivia, prizes, and a reception will follow at the adjacent Access Humboldt Community Media Center.

The cost is $5 and all are welcome to attend. Folks, the seats are comfortable, the people and food good, and the price is right supporting independent community media. What isn’t there to like?

Friday, January 20

Saturday, January 21

Sunday, January 22

Movies, times, trailers, and IMDb reviews are here.

WORD

When Gandhi was asked what he thought of Western civilization, he said, “It would be nice.”

Suspects told EPD they were protesting foreclosures, yet home was a vacant rental

Staff Report
Humboldt Sentinel

Several Occupy Movement protesters were busted Wednesday morning after Eureka Police officers answered a complaint from property managers that trespassers were squatting in a house on the on the 3500 block of O Street.

A graffiti 'anarchy' symbol was sprayed on the home's wall.

One of the protesters had already left at the property managers’ request, but others refused and likewise refused to follow officers’ orders to leave. As officers entered, two women later identified as Amanda Tierney, 24, and Shayanne Clark, 21, both of Eureka tried to leave through the front door and were taken into custody.

Four other protesters tried to barricade the front and back doors with their bodies or furniture as officers entered. After repeated tries officers were able to force their way in to arrest Martin Katz, 23, Ann Rian, 21 and Keelan McWayne, 21, all of Eureka; also Stanton Wood, 25, of Florida.

The group told officers that they were “occupying” the house because of homelessness issues and foreclosures, although the house is a vacant rental unit, not a foreclosed home.

After the protesters were in police cars, officers walked through the residence with the property managers and found graffiti on the walls, including anarchist symbols, as well as a small amount of marijuana. The protesters had also removed several locks and replaced them with their own. Property damage was estimated at several thousand dollars by the managers.

The protesters have been jailed in Humboldt County Correctional Facility for vandalism, forcible trespassing, conspiracy and obstructing a police officer.

The O Street rental home.

Graffiti sign on the floor of the squat.

Conditions inside the squatted home.

Inside the squatted home.

Scattered parts of a lockset used to illegally change the locks on the O Street home.

Amanda Tierney

Ann Rian

Keelan McWayne

Martin Katz

Shyanne Clark

Stanton Wood

For the Curiously Aware of Humboldt County

By Skippy Massey
Humboldt Sentinel

IT’S A MIRACLE THEIR KIDNEYS MATCHED and a great story. Kym Kemp pens a column underscoring the simple goodness of Humboldt’s people.

Kym writes, “Some people give hearts as Valentine gifts, but two days after the holiday this year, Shannon Robinson is giving a total stranger, Travis Chagolla, her kidney. The little town of Myers Flat in southern Humboldt County is the scene of a very large act of Random Kindness…”

Large it is. Read her touching story. When Kym’s passionate about something her soul flows onto the page along with the words.

Kym added:

“The operation will take several hours and (Shannon) will have to rest for 4-8 weeks afterward. She has a young daughter at home. She won’t be able to work. How will she pay the rent? Shannon’s friends have convinced her to let them hold a fundraiser to help. On February 4th, they’re throwing a benefit at Beginnings in Briceland. There is going to be a spaghetti feed, beer and wine, a raffle and music…Raffle tickets can be purchased at the Myers Flat store and cafe as well as Signature Coffee in Redway.”

KIEM-TV’s Kelly May also reported on Shannon and Travis’ story.  While we don’t solicit random acts of shill, we do acknowledge those of kindness. It’s the right thing to do.  If you’d like to help, please look at Shannon’s donation page here.

NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON:  It’s freezing outside.  Lynette’s Norcal History Blog announced that due to low temperatures the Extreme Weather Shelter will open.  Please pass this on to any who might need the information. She says,

We were ready to have a test run of Eureka’s Extreme Weather Shelter for the homeless when Mother Nature jumped the gun.   A hard freeze warning for TONIGHT prompted the opening of the Extreme Weather Shelter at the St. Vincent’s Dining Facility  at 35 West 3^rd Street, in Old Town, Eureka.

I am posting this in case someone out there sees someone who needs shelter for the night. Please send them to the Eureka Rescue Mission, 110 2nd Street in Eureka.

If the Mission is at capacity, folks will be sent to the Dining Facility–OR IF YOU FIND FOLKS WHO ARE NOT COMFORTABLE AT THE MISSION, HAVE THEM TELL THE MISSION INTAKE FOLKS AND THEY WILL SEND THEM TO ST. VINCENT’S AFTER INTAKE.

Coordinator Steve Bell is at the Dining Hall to welcome folks and between St. Vincent’s and the Rescue Mission, Eureka can provide shelter to everyone who wants to be indoors tonight. We even have donated dog kennels so folks with animals can be sure their pets are safe. Please help us to help those who need it most…

ERNIE IS ALWAYS RIGHT in his roundabout way. This time he came up with the Annoying Biggest Stories of 2011 in his column. The stories are those which have been underreported locally and without conclusive forthcoming answers. Here’s Ernie’s ‘Top 3’, in his words:

1) “‘Who pooped and peed on the bank?’ (They never did find out) I was always told that a lawyer or a news anchor-person was never supposed to ask a question unless they already knew the answer.”

2) “Sometimes I wish they would tell us things like ‘Why the Eureka officials kept the fact that Wall-Mart was coming to town such a big secret.’ That would interest the heck out of me. How does it happen that a town that knows everything and can’t keep even a small secret, keep the fact that a frickin’ Wal-Mart is coming to the Bayshore Mall. You’d think that would be important for people to know!”

3) “How many of us know that they were going to pave Garberville’s Redwood drive but our supervisor gave the money away to fix the road between Eureka and Arcata? What, you say? Garberville hasn’t been paved since the trees were planted and the power lines were under grounded. Why didn’t we know about the money giveaway until it was practically a done deal? I wouldn’t have even known about the money being given away if it weren’t for Mark Lovelace saying something like, ‘I think that we should ask the people of Garberville how they feel about this.’ Unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to scream bloody murder in time, so OUR Dist 2 Supervisor Clif Clendenen gave out road money to throw on the “Safety Corridor” between Eureka and Arcata.”

“Most people don’t have the time to decide how to spend county money. They split the county into 5 supervisor districts and then elect 5 supervisors to watch-out for our interests. How the heck does giving Garberville street money to Eureka and Arcata represent us in any way!?”

“…OUR supervisor, who has the most rural roads in the whole county, voted to give road money to the most expensive nightmare in Humboldt. Plus it is Highway 101! A state highway. The state has other means of raising money. The county doesn’t. Where is the news service that explains this to us?”

Ernie added:

Redwood Drive… is crumbling. The street looks like an unmade bed.

Before the vote was taken, Mark Lovelace said that he thought something this important should be given a little more time for public input. After the delay, Clif Clendenen broke the tie and voted to give the state the funding! Now, I would expect Eureka and Arcata to vote for it, so it was no surprise when they did. But, I did not expect the supervisor from the most rural district in Humboldt Co. to give away the funding.

The other two rural districts voted against giving away the funding. I had just assumed that OUR supervisor would vote against it. I thought that it was a no-brainer! Imagine my surprise. I probably would not have even known about the vote if it hadn’t been for Mark Lovelace.

Ernie Branscomb, a voice of reason and ever so the SoHum advocate, makes a good point. We believe this is an important issue worthy of a response.

We hope Supervisor Clendenen will offer an explanation either here or at Ernie’s Place before the upcoming election. It’s a sticky sore point stuck between State monies, County road repairs, and 2nd District constituents.

Clif, your peeps are calling. Line 1, line 2, and line 3 are on hold and blinking.

SNIPPETS, RUMORS, HEARSAY MURMURS, AND THE LINKS:

HOW MUCH CAN A DOLLAR BUY: Humboldt County has imposed a $1 fee per every vehicle registered since 1992. In the past year the County raised $133,454 to tow away 3,316 abandoned vehicles—about $40 per car/bus/camper/boat littering the roadsides and public domains. Supervisor Jimmy Smith said the fee has “helped clean up many areas and has been a practical tool literally saving a lot of neighborhoods and disputes.” Unfortunately, extending the fee supporting the abatement of these environmental eyesores requires Humboldt County to place it on the June primary ballot for voter approval– costing somewhere between $15,000 and $40,000. Ouch.

WHETHER OR NOT they appreciate the President and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Ferndale nonetheless scored a cool $8.8 million  low interest loan and grant completing their state-of-the-art wastewater treatment facility without rate increases for 1,500 customers, as Mary Bullwinkel reports. Soon you will only be smelling Cream City’s fresh dairy-air.

PUTTING THE RUMOR TO REST: Vegetarians unite. In-N-Out Burger is not preparing to move into the former Arctic Circle site in Eureka nor does the popular burger chain have any plans of coming to Humboldt County.  But, did we tell you that Walmart is already here? Yes, we did. But let’s leave you smiling on a happy note.

WE LOVE HUMBOLDT. The people and community. More than a unique place, Humboldt occupies a special presence of mind for all of us. We love the pride of ownership and our local products. We apparently love cheese and beer, too.

YES, IT’S BEEN DRY. Abnormally so. 10.29 inches of rain for a season that should be seeing nearly 20 inches this time of year. The rivers are low and this could have dire consequences for young fish. Fire officials say a continuing dry spell could create an early wildfire season. But it’s still early. The good news is that rain is on the way, perhaps as early as Wednesday, January 18. Keep your fingers crossed unless you’ve been enjoying the drought weather and sunny skies lately. Mow your grass and get your gardening done.

ALSO DANGEROUS FOR FISH is the North Coast fishing report, courtesy of the Times-Standard and Kenny Priest for angling aficionados.  Pray for rain.

WE HAVE CRABS Jack Durham tells us the commercial crabbing season opens Sunday.  “At almost exactly 1 second after midnight on Saturday, Cap’n Zach Rotwein will pull up the first pot of crabs. He’ll deliver them to Trinidad Pier Sunday morning and they should be cooked and ready to be sold by 11 a.m.,” Jack says.  They are reportedly “fat and sassy.”  Who knew?  Make it happen, Cap’n.

WATERSHED ADVOCACY GROUP TAPS FRESH FLESH: The Humboldt Beacon reports attorney Scott Greacen is the new Friends of the Eel River Executive Director.

LATEST OCCUPY EUREKA HAPS: Angered over a series of emails supporters say created an “unlawful government conspiracy to vilify and suppress” their demonstration, District Attorney Paul Gallegos says he had no intention of raising alarm about the group but was concerned about public safety. Covered well and fairly in Grant Scott-Goforth’s, article, County E-mails Outrage Occupy Eureka; D.A. Says Tents Posed Safety Risks, it’s an interesting twist of conspiracies depending upon whom you speak to.

RYAN BURNS AND THE JOURNAL report in this week’s piece, The Debt Divide, just how the economic crisis affects regular people compared to big corporations using bankruptcy to weather the storm like… Well, we can’t name names and spoil that surprise for you. You’ll have to see for yourself.

HANK SIMS PREDICTS Eureka’s Crazy Train will be riding off the rails after endorsement by the City Council this Tuesday.  Attorney and rail advocate Bill Barnum insists it’s merely a request investigating alternatives.   Mr. Sims has been following the developments of the proposed 125 mile East-West rail corridor requiring a $250,000 feasibility study and construction price tag of half a billion dollars, though no one really knows how much it will cost or who will pay for it.  Picking up steam, citizens may want to see what the Eureka City Council has in mind this Tuesday, January 17, at 6 p.m. following Councilmember Newman fast tracking the Phantom Train onto the calendar.  If you haven’t been filled in, the Sentinel has the back story here.

REMEMBER FUKUSHIMA? Dr. Josh Strange, writing for the Two Rivers Tribune newspaper, states in his informative article that disaster is still brewing:

“Serious health problems are already on the rise in Japan with numerous sewage plants in Tokyo testing positive for radioactive iodine-131 showing that people are consuming contaminated food and water. In the Fukushima area, a wave of serious health problems continue…

Closer to home, debris from the tsunami have recently been washing up in large clumps in British Columbia months earlier than anticipated… scores of ring seals and walruses have been coming ashore since July with hair loss, bleeding lesions, liver spots, and failing immune systems. Biologists have ruled out viruses and are now having samples tested for nuclear radiation from Fukushima, which is consistent with the symptoms being observed.

What does this mean for us here on the West Coast?” he writes.

You’ll have to read his stellar article to find out the rest of the story. Dr. Strange is a fisheries biologist working for the Yurok tribe. A graduate of Arcata High School, Josh earned his graduate and doctorate degrees from the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences before coming home to live and work. From his biography:  “Joshua became passionate about river restoration at the age of 16 when he also trained to become a professional river guide, subsequently guiding some of the most remote and challenging runs in the West. His step-father is a Yurok Tribal elder and Joshua is blessed to have been raised with a diverse cultural perspective. Joshua lives in Hoopa, the largest Tribal reservation in California, where he pursues the dream of sustainable community on a farmstead with his family.”

The Two Rivers Tribune never fails to amaze us with its fine reporting. Dr. Strange’s article is one of the best that we’ve combed through this week. A local boy who’s doing good for his environment and community– his work is certainly deserving a read by the wider audience of Humboldt.

THE WEEKEND CALENDAR:

Events, Happenings, Lectures, Walks, Music and Stuff:

We’re thinking the Pastime Silent Movie Orchestra– The Fortuna Concert Series– presenting a classic Buster Keaton silent film accompanied by a live combo on Saturday, January 14 at 7:20 p.m. at the Monday Club in Fortuna is gonna be a good time for the family.  After all, free popcorn is included!  Under the direction of Franklin Stover, Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman is accompanied by the live combo Pastime Silent Movie Orchestra.  If you think Buster Keaton was great, wait until you get a load of Franklin Stover.   Folks, you’re in for a real one-of-a-kind musical treat.   Franklin might play one of his unusually rare Prussian instruments.  Who knows?  His repertoire is vast.  And why 7:20 p.m.?

There’s all sorts of other things happening this weekend.

Arcata has it going on FRIDAY:  Arts! Arcata, everybody wang chunging to the 80s Dance Party at the Jambalaya, the March Fourth Marching Band at Humboldt Brews, and the movie Friday (a stoner comedy-drama-buddy film, if you didn’t know) at the Arcata Theatre Lounge.  Blue Lake has the Naive Melodies, a tribute cover to the Talking Heads over at the Blue Lake Casino.  If you’re in the mood and around SoHum there’s the Mateel Comedy Cabaret at the Community Center.

SATURDAY has Guitar Shorty singing the blues at the Riverwood Inn and more.

SUNDAY has more than a few pancake, waffles, and breakfast things cooking, Redwood Region Audubon Society sponsoring a field trip through the wildlife and landscape areas of Potawot Health Village early in the morning, the Congressional Candidate’s debate is sparring the Mateel Community Center at 2 p.m. along with a John Lennon life and musical tribute gig at Arcata’s Cafe Veritas in Westwood Center later in the evening.

MONDAY has the City of Arcata’s Bowl of Beans benefit honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and local youth.  Eureka will be hosting its own annual presentation at the Adorni Center.  We think. Here was last year’s Eureka event, mixed in with an proto-Occupy Arcata Plaza gig headed up by Jack Nounnan, courtesy of KGOE’s Tom Sebourn and the Sentinel:

You can also take in a rose pruning workshop or a tea ceremony.  So many choice, so little time.

See the listings below for more details:

Friday, January 13

Saturday, January 14

Sunday, January 15

There’s some good flicks playing out there, too.

Movies, times, trailers, and IMDb reviews are here.

COMING UP:

While it may be a pricey ticket ($47) at the Arkley Center on Thursday, January 19, comedian Gabriel Iglesias is worth every bit if you like laughing your fat bottom off.  If you’ve seen him perform, you know what we mean.  He’s good.  And getting richer.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, FILM, AFRICA AND SALMON:

ACCESS HUMBOLDT is kicking off 2012 with two film presentations. Travel Photography and More— Swaziland, Africa by local photographer, Gary Todoroff, is featured Thursday, January 19, at 6pm, in the Eureka High School Lecture Hall. Mr. Todoroff has a vast background in aerial, commercial, and fine art photography. His lecture documents an abandoned mining town transitioned into a self-supporting community for orphan care in Swaziland, Africa. Along with an inside look at a vibrant community, Gary will describe the techniques he used as the town’s resident photographer. He’ll also be teaching a 2-hour workshop series, beginning Wednesday, January 18, 6 p.m.-8 p.m. for photographers.

Also featured will be an environmental documentary by Thomas Dunklin Friday, January 27 at 7 p.m. Dunklin is a fisheries geo-videologist and producer of documentary videos surrounding salmon, restoration, and salmon culture. His work encompasses underwater views from the Smith and Klamath Rivers, watershed restorations projects, Klamath dam and other amazing underwater wildlife footage. Questions and answers will follow Dunklin’s selected work. Movie trivia, prizes, and a reception will follow at the adjacent Access Humboldt Community Media Center.

Each presentation is $5. All are welcome to attend.  The seats are comfortable, the people and food good, and the price is right for supporting Access Humboldt and independent media. What isn’t there to like?

Favorite Quote(s) of the Week:

You’re never more alive than when you’re almost dead. You recognize what’s valuable. Freshly, as if for the first time, you love what’s best in yourself and in the world, all that might be lost…. You find yourself studying the fine colors on the river, you feel wonder and awe at the setting of the sun, and you are filled with a hard, aching love for how the world could be and always should be, but now is not.

~Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried

We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons.

~Alfred E. Newman

New Human Resources Department also to be formed at Supervisors’ behest

By Charles Douglas
Humboldt Sentinel

Community Development Services director Kirk Girard’s job will no longer exist come springtime.

In a stunning move which may well rock the decade-long Humboldt County General Plan update process just as it approaches completion, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to adopt a breakup of CDS into two parts, restoring the old Department of Planning and Building which CDS succeeded in 1999, and also creating a Department of Economic and Resource Development, effective Mar. 19.

In what might be the most sweeping single motion made by a Supervisor in recent years, the Third District’s Mark Lovelace and the First District’s Jimmy Smith gave blanket approval to a plan by Phillip Smith-Hanes, the county administrative officer, which also merges the Personnel Department and the CAO Risk Management Team into a new Human Resourced Department. All county offices providing for indigent defense, or the legal services provided for poor people, are also to be merged and the position of Conflict Counsel is to be eliminated upon the retirement of the incumbent.

Smith-Hanes, who gains additional authority to directly oversee the performance evaluations of the new ERD position, the old Conflict Counsel position, the Public Defender and the Child Support Services Director, said the big changes served up weren’t about personalities, but about achieving efficiencies.

“People in the community have said various things over time about the Community Development Services Department, love him, hate him, whatever,” he said. “The reality of the situation is that Community Development Services has been very focused on very specific programs and as a result as they’ve gone through the economic crisis they have hollowed out or have not allocated positions at the middle management level…I think that stretches a person too thinly.”

Girard, who was in the audience for a General Plan Amendment dealt with in short order beforehand, sat silently as a line of public speakers thanked the Board for their move in deconstructing the department he’d spent over a decade building.

“I see what you’re doing here today as a tremendous opportunity. I think it’s an opportunity because you all know how polarized we are about this in Humboldt County…the communication hasn’t been good,” McKinleyville resident and former Supervisor candidate Ben Shepherd said. “I’m not here to assign blame but we all recognize that there’s an issue…there can be a very successful  process, I don’t get the sense that’s where we are with the General Plan Update, so where we are is an opportunity to bring people together so we can develop trust and we can end up with something that all these disparate groups can come together and support.”

Perhaps the most trenchant critic of Girard’s regime was HELP or Humboldt Economic and Land Plan, which launched a number of legal actions against the county over the last several years concerning its Housing Element and other planning matters. Registered lobbyist Kay Backer crowed that HELP had recommended splitting up CDS in 2004, and she also called for the centralization of more power and authority in the office of CAO.

“We believe there’s evidence that there needs to be a more systemic reorganization at this time,” she said.

Jim Furtado of the Northern California Association of Homebuilders was pointed in his demand that the interim DPB director not be a “current employee” of the county, voicing clearly the interests of local developers anxious to show Girard the door. Supervisors were silent on the matter, although Smith-Hanes made it clear that the directors of both new departments would go through the routine hiring process, where the Board meets in closed session, only letting the public know after the fact what their decision is.

Smith, often seen as the swing vote on the Board, was diplomatic — but left little doubt that Supervisors were looking to move on and make a fresh start.

“Ultimately, if you are elected, you go out and meet people…that pulse, that you’re a part of the public and you’re accountable to them, that’s something that as good as your dpeartment heads are, they’re not out there all night every night, so that’s the sense the Board members bring to those meetings and those evaluations,” he said. “It’s the people speaking through their elected representatives and that’s the bottom line.”

The new vacancies will be publicly noticed in the coming weeks, and it’s expected that the Planning Commission will stick to its current schedule and make its final votes on remaining General Plan elements prior to the breakup of CDS. Costs of the organizational reorganization is estimated to be under $40,000 for the remainder of fiscal year 2011-2012.

Girard sat down with the author for an episode of Sentinel Interviews in late 2011, where he defended his record in balancing public and private interests during his tenure at CDS.

Cream City’s Council weighs in with their concerns over use of roads

By Skippy Massey
Humboldt Sentinel

Residents and ranchers alike packed the Ferndale City Hall to voice their increasing disapproval of the Shell Wind Bear River Wind Turbine Project presented by staff from HSU’s Schatz Energy Lab and Shell’s WindEnergy, Inc.

The fourth such meeting held on the controversial project, Shell WindEnergy had asked the Ferndale City Council not to make any decisions at Thursday’s council meeting. Ferndale City staff, however, had previously recommended the council direct Humboldt County officials to ‘re-scope’ the project, asking for updated information from the various agencies involved due to changes made since January’s 2010 original scoping document.

Ferndale Mayor Jeff Farley asked the public to hold back any applause and address questions and issues directly to the council. After the 4-hour meeting concluded, the Ferndale City Council voted unanimously sending two ‘letters of concern’ to the County: asking County officials to reevaluate the project’s scope, and opposing the transport of turbine equipment through Ferndale’s streets.

The council, Farley said, wants the County to take another look at the project’s impact on noise, traffic, air quality, and property values, and to obtain a more detailed evaluation of the costs of decommissioning the wind farm. Farley claims Ferndale hasn’t received answers to these questions, especially how the city will be adversely affected by the large concrete, dump, and water trucks, cranes and other vehicles transporting heavy equipment through the streets of Ferndale to the project’s site on Bear Ridge, 6 miles south of town. Shell representatives visiting the council earlier provided updated information including the potential option of using helicopters to bring in components.

The Ferndale City Council ultimately decided not to oppose the wind turbine project altogether until it reviews the information contained in the environmental impact report to be released this spring.

The Times-Standard quoted Mayor Farley summing up the city councils’ recommendation this way: “We said, ‘no, we’re not going to do that’ because the EIR isn’t out yet and we want more information. At this point, we’re not getting the answers as fast as we want. This isn’t their first rodeo for wind turbines.”

Ferndale City Manager Jay Parrish said most of the council’s concerns involve the impact of transportation, but the city is open to hearing about alternatives.  “I think the council in general approves of alternative energy systems, but when it’s in your backyard, you need to look at it real close,” Parrish said.

Shell WindEnergy Response

Pana Ratana, Business Development Advisor for Shell WindEnergy, said that “the company understands the community’s concerns and the council’s wishes to have more information, (but) it’s simply too early for the council to take a position opposing any of the project’s components,” according to the Times-Standard.

“We are disappointed that the city of Ferndale has decided to take any position on the transportation plan at this time. The city council is making a premature decision based largely on incomplete information. We will continue with our plans to host an open house in the spring to provide the latest information and updates,” Ratana said.

The Proposed Project, Plans and Merits

Shell WindEnergy’s project proposes installing approximately 25 wind turbines on private property along Bear River Ridge above Ferndale and Rio Dell, producing 50-75 megawatts of generation capacity– enough renewable electricity to power over 18,000 homes. The project’s boosters claim the wind farm will bring in millions of investment dollars from Shell Wind over the next 20 years, plus 120 full time employees during construction and six to 12 full time employees to maintain the wind farm.

The project’s equipment would be barged into Humboldt Bay, unloaded at a yet-to-be determined offloading site, and trucked down Highway 101. According to the North Coast Journal article by Keith Easthouse, Shell has analyzed five different routes: three going through or near Ferndale, and two going out of Rio Dell. All have their inherent problems. Helicoptering of components to the site is a possible option—but only in part.

It’s expected that large trucks would make 850 trips to deliver components and another 2,500 trucks would be needed for construction. 3 million gallons of water would be needed. Construction vehicles would make 60 round trips daily through Ferndale, as proposed. Five miles of new road would be built for use during construction, along with three weather towers, a power-collection system, a substation and 12 miles of new power lines. The turbine blades are 150 feet long, the towers rising nearly 260 feet tall, and each of the 3 tower pieces, shipped separately, run 85 feet in length. The housing generators at the top of the towers, called nacelles, weigh 40 tons apiece—and would be undeliverable by helicopter due to their immense weight.

Humboldt County Senior Planner John Miller said the County wants Shell to do a more detailed analysis of how the turbine components will be transported to the ridge before completing the draft environmental impact report. “The trucks are fairly long, so they need to narrow down what roads need to be improved,” he said, adding that Pacific Gas and Electric is also involved working on how power will get to the regional grid.

Blight, Environment, and Energy Concerns

Some critics of the project, including residents of Ferndale, believe the project will do nothing to enhance energy availability for Ferndale citizens– and that the presence of windmills will blight the landscape.

Then there are the environmental concerns. According to the Northcoast Environmental Center article by Sarah O’Leary, while the wind turbine generators would produce electrical power with less carbon impact on the atmosphere than fossil fuels, the blades could harm imperiled species, including bats, migrating birds, spotted owls and commuting marbled murrelets.

Jim Zoellick

Just how much renewable energy will be generated by this project and where will it be delivered is another matter to be considered.  Jim Zoellick of HSU’s Schatz Energy Center said that the answer is far more complicated than turbines simply generating power for 18,000 homes.  “The power generated locally would go into the local grid,” Zoellick said, adding that a complicated accounting process allows different entities to actually receive the credit for the renewable energy.

Zoellick gave the example of the new Blue Lake Biomass Plant, which sells its power to San Diego Gas & Electric. The power is not actually shipped to San Diego, he explained, but that company receives credit to help it meet state requirements for renewable energy generation. Zoellick said that if energy generated by renewable sources – such as wind projects, biomass and even wave energy – should exceed Humboldt County’s needs then the first plant to have output turned down would be PG&E. He noted that climate change is the biggest environmental threat of all. “More than anything, we need energy efficiency and conservation. There are no easy answers and no choices that have no impacts,” Zoellick said.

Shell WindEnergy will finish studying the transportation issues raised by the Ferndale city council and determine whether to proceed with the Bear River Turbine Project—with or without Ferndale’s approval– in the last half of 2012. The project, if given the green light and not hitting further roadblocks, could possibly be finished by 2014 depending how cooperative Ferndale’s residents and city council are in warming up to Shell’s proposed plans of allowing transportation through their town.

They admit, however, that the wind project’s approval ultimately lies within the County’s larger sphere of influence and jurisdiction– and not necessarily the little Victorian village itself.

“We’ve been doing fine since 1854 without Shell,” Ferndale Councilman Ken Mierzwa noted during Thursday’s city council session, voicing his disapproval.

(The Times-Standard, Humboldt Beacon, Ferndale Enterprise, Northcoast Environmental Center, the North Coast Journal, National Wind Watch, Humboldt County Community Services Department and the Humboldt Herald contributed to this report)

*********

Comments from around the local web:

“The wind technology can’t pay for itself. The turbines are subsidized by the government green scam dollars. A natural ridge line will be forever polluted by these turbines. Bird migration will be hindered too. All for a few mags of power. It is not worth the effort. But some workers will have a job and the manufacturer will reap millions in transferred wealth.”

“The wind farm will benefit its landlords. That’s about it. The county has a brand-new gas fueled plant at King Salmon – and its own supply of gas.”

“While the new power plant supplies much of electrical needs the county has (almost) NO redundancy for our electricity and gas demands. The “all our eggs in one basket” approach to energy use seems both foolish and shortsighted. We live in far too volatile and remote an area to get away with that strategy for long.”

“Aren’t these the same people who shout ‘Drill Baby Drill’ when it comes to oil?”

“Everyone that knows anything about birds knows that wind turbines kill thousands of birds. It takes an especially heavy toll on raptors.”

“Just like Walmart: if the people don’t want it, it shouldn’t be forced on them.”

“I prefer wind turbines on a ridge to oil derricks offshore. The turbines of today don’t pose the same danger to birds as the older ones did and certainly not the level of threat posed by oil spills.”

“So where will the First District Supervisor candidates (Annette De Modena and Rex Bohn) fall on this issue? This could become a very interesting discussion.”

“Labeling industrial wind-driven Electricity Generation Installations as farms is a bit misleading. Wind isn’t “farmed”.  Corn is farmed. Wind is harnessed and electricity is generated. These installations are power plants with substations. 1-2% of electricity is created from foreign oil (Search it). And to date, coal plants remain online in order to support wind-driven plants coming online with fluctuating supply (search it).”

“The Ferndale City Council Decision was MONUMENTAL. They actually listened to the people who elected them: the people who will be impacted by this project. Thousands and thousands of vehicle trips, (10,000 plus) during the middle of the summer and tourist season traversing the streets of Ferndale. Streets that have clay infrastructure pipes. And streets that certainly were not built to handle 340,000 lb nacelles being transported upon 13 axle, 72 tire, articulated vehicles that require a 40′ clear span to transport certain parts of this project. There is absolutely no benefit to the town of Ferndale except for the bribes Shell WindEnergy offers under the name of a community investment program. But for the general population there are lots of reasons why the citizens of Ferndale overwhelmingly asked its council to say NO TRANSPORTATION thru Ferndale.”

Additional Information about the Bear River Wind Turbine project can be found here:

The Schatz Energy Research Center Turbine Project 3-D Visualization Tool and Tour
The Times-Standard
The National Wind Watch website of archived articles
The Northcoast Environmental Center
The North Coast Journal
The Humboldt Herald
The County of Humboldt Community Services Department website and related links
The BRW Project proposal, Humboldt County Planning Department pdf, 2009
The US Department of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Report of Proposed EIR and EIS

Hank Sims and the Lost Coast Outpost have an interesting take– and reader’s comments– in their September 21 column, Shell Wind Project: Ferndale Has Plenty of Hot Air

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) striking photograph of Wind Turbines Churning the Air Over the North Sea (credit  and thanks to Ponder z)

Lance Henry of Fortuna allegedly became violently resistant to cops

By Charles Douglas
Humboldt Sentinel

It’s a new year, but the same old tensions persist between the Eureka Police Department and some elements within Occupy Eureka.

Five arrests just today have reignited what law enforcement and local elected officials see as a public safety hazard at the county seat; Occupy Eureka ringleaders, on the other hand, see this as a continuing campaign to silence their protest, and have called a Monday press conference to expose an “unlawful government conspiracy.”

At about 1:42 a.m. this morning, an EPD patrolman traveling eastbound on Fifth Street was passing the Humboldt County Courthouse when he noticed the American flag and California Republic flag being lowered on the flagpole located at the front lawn near the corner of Fifth and I Street. The flagpole is also behind the chain link fence and “No Trespassing” signs erected by the County over a month ago to keep the Occupy Eureka protestors from re-establishing their encampment — an unpermitted campsite which county staff alleges to have done significant damage to the front lawn which requires restoration.

When the cop parked his patrol car and walked up to the six-foot fence to investigate, he saw on the other side a suspect, later identified as 21-year-old Lance Henry of Fortuna, standing at the base of the flagpole holding both flags, still attached to the line on the flagpole. According to a press statement by sergeant Adam Laird, the officer asked Henry what he was doing, and was told that he was putting up his own flag. After the unnamed public servant told Henry to put the flags back up, Henry refused and allegedly said “you think you can control me.”

Lance Henry

After that, according to the EPD narrative, Henry removed the flags from the line and put them on the ground, and then Henry affixed a homemade cardboard sign to the line while stepping on the American flag. As other EPD personnel arrived on scene, two of them entered the fenced off area and walked towards Henry’s location — which didn’t come unexpectedly, as several individuals from the area of the Occupy Eureka protest site began yelling warnings to Henry that the cops were approaching.

Upon contacting Henry and attempting to arrest him for trespassing, the suspect allegedly became violently resistant towards the cops, and after a short struggle in which a third EPD officer became involved, they were able to take Henry into custody. He was booked on charges of trespassing and resisting arrest using violence, and due to his violent resistance in accordance with EPD policy, Henry was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital for medical clearance before being incarcerated in county jail.

Accounts differ between the EPD and members of Occupy Eureka on what Henry’s connection was to their protest; the proprietor of Occupy Eureka’s Facebook page (who refuses to be identified) calls the suspect “a man that no one present seemed to recognize” and that his sign read “Yaweh,” a term with no apparent connection to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Occupy Eureka participate Sarah Jones-Jurado later alleged on Facebook that “someone was tazed for flying a peace flag.”

Law enforcement’s version of events claim that Henry, when interviewed after his arrest, said he was “moved” to join Occupy Eureka, and that these protestors provided him with cardboard and a marker to make his sign upon his arrival. Henry also allegedly claimed, when asked why he violently resisted arrest, that law enforcement didn’t have “any authority” over him.

All these events transpired shortly after four arrests took place for illegal camping at the Occupy Eureka protest site. EPD had visited the county courthouse at 12:46 a.m. on Friday to respond to numerous complaints of camping on county property, and the cops say they found nine subjects camping underneath the courthouse steps. According to Laird, several of the subjects stated that they were misled by undisclosed persons associated with Occupy Eureka that it was lawful to camp at the courthouse. All of these individuals were issued citations for unlawfully camping in public, and were advised that they were subject to arrest if they attempted to lodge themselves on the courthouse property.

EPD followed through on the threat, and at 12:53 a.m. on Saturday morning, law enforcement converged on the courthouse to arrest four campers who allegedly were “unlawfully lodging” at the courthouse. Laird identified the arrested as 23-year-old Daniel Mattheis of Arcata, 47-year-old James Turner of Eureka, 25-year-old Leroy Abernathy of Bremerton, Washington and 39-year-old Loyd Smith of La Crescenta.

Occupy Eureka claims the four were arrested for “being in sleeping bags” and that EPD told one occupier that they were going to start arresting people again because the camping tickets “aren’t working.”

Kim "Verbena Lea" Starr

Even though it was denied in the past that Kim Starr (who goes by the pen name ‘Verbena Lea’) was a spokesperson for Occupy Eureka, a press conference has been set for Monday at 1 p.m. where Starr will speak on behalf of Occupy Eureka. She claims in a statement posted on Facebook that she will confront a “Secret & Outrageous Premise for Police Actions Against Non-Violent Protesters” through documents she claims to have discovered.

Starr/Verbena has at various times accused virtually every local law enforcement agency, the county, the cities of Arcata and Eureka, most local media outlets (including the Sentinel) and even the Redwood Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of engaging in various conspiracies against her and her various associated groups. In a possibly related devel0pment, Occupy Eureka also claims that several of their posts on Facebook have mysteriously vanished.

Daniel Mattheis

James Turner

Leroy Abernathy

Loyd Smith

Of all people, Newt Gingrich exposes infotainment-orientation of mainstream media

Guest Column
By Mitch Trachtenberg

It’s finally happened.  An American politician has finally said something so laughable that a Sabbath gasbag from the mainstream media, well, laughed at him.

No, it wasn’t the charge that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.  Not Ron Paul’s bigoted newsletters, or Newt Gingrich’s family-values-except-for-me platform, or Mitt Romney’s attacks on what is essentially his own health care program.

No.  The media laughed because Newt Gingrich, having previously said that Mitt Romney had lied, agreed that Mitt Romney was a liar.  It was the shock of someone going off-script.

Here’s Newt Gingrich quoted on ABC yesterday: “[Romney] set the tone of the campaign … by going after me negatively and dishonestly.”

Now that’s the proper way for a candidate to call a fellow candidate a liar.  But CBS “reporter” Norah O’Donnell knew the script for American presidential campaign “interviews.”  O’Donnell knew that she was to ask whether Gingrich would call Romney a liar, and that Gingrich would not answer, instead pointing out some of Romney’s lies.  Following the script, O’Donnell gamely asked the following ‘question:’ “You said of Mitt Romney, ‘somebody who will lie to you to be President will lie to you when they are President.  I have to ask you, are you calling Mitt Romney a liar?”

Before we go back to the conversation, let’s pause and ponder this.  Someone who goes after a competitor for running ads that are “negative” and “dishonest” is saying they are lying.  Politicians are always suggesting that their competitors’ negative ads are lying.  I really can’t recall a campaign in which politicians haven’t generally said things like “I think that’s disingenuous” or “that’s just not true.”  True, the GOP has ramped it up, what with their people shouting “You lie!” (boy) at shindigs like the State of the Union.

I’d go so far as to suggest, based just on my conversations with people here in California, that some people think many politicians lie pretty often, about a wide variety of things.  Perhaps even you have suspected that some politician somewhere might be a liar.  I confess the thought has crossed my mind.

So, back to CBS. Newt Gingrich had just suggested that Mitt Romney was lying about his negative ads.  The CBS reporter read him his statement saying as much, and asked if he were calling Mitt Romney a liar.  Now, presumably, O’Donnell understood English enough to realize that Newt Gingrich had, in fact, called Mitt Romney a liar.  But, being a well-trained “reporter”, er, spokesmodel, she was aware that according to the script Gingrich would turn the conversation back to Romney’s lies, talking about his campaign ads.

Gingrich tossed away the script.  Asked, “Are you calling Mitt Romney a liar?” Gingrich said something that, for a moment, was the pure, simple, unvarnished truth.  He said “Yes.”

Back on the reporters’ side of the split-screen, we observe a moment of shocked silence.  O’Donnell says, in a tone of disbelief, “You’re calling Mitt Romney a liar?”  Then, in a petulant whine, “why are you calling him a liar?”

Gingrich responds with about a minute of, as far as I can tell, straightforward enough facts establishing that Romney, like perhaps every politician ever to be born, has said untruthful things; that is, that he’s a liar.  CBS has a gasbag on hand for those who want more gravitas than O’Donnell can deliver, and Bob Schieffer rises from his slumber to ask if Gingrich could support Romney if Romney won the nomination.  When Gingrich says, “yes,” Schieffer gets a tiny smile on his face.  That grows to shaking-head-laughter as Schieffer points out that Gingrich is saying he’d vote for a liar before he’d vote for Obama.

Gingrich, for all I can’t stand him, was speaking truth to power.  To his credit, here are his words: “Which part of what I said to you is false?  Why is it that if I’m candid in person and I wanted to be honest in person, that’s shocking?  If his PAC buys millions of dollars of attack ads to say things that are false that’s somehow part of the way Washington plays the game?  Isn’t that exactly what’s sick about this country right now?  Isn’t that what the American people are tired of?”

(Yes, Mr. Gingrich.  We’d like the press to call liars on their lies.  That would be a treat.)

More shocked petulance from O’Donnell.  This man is staying off script!  You can see the “reporters” listening to their earpieces.  Wow!  An exclusive!  Big news!

Gingrich calls Schieffer a “professional reporter,” tells Schieffer he can check for himself, and outlines the various ways in which Romney has been lying.  So Schieffer agrees, right?  No?  Schieffer disagrees?  No, not that either.  Give it a moment’s thought, and you can guess what’s on the script.  That’s right, the segment’s time is just about up.  ”Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker,” Schieffer starts.  But he can’t resist slyly thanking Gingrich for coming on and (changed tone) “answering the questions.”

And then it’s time for some ads, to tell us how much better our lives are because of the efforts of one of CBS’ corporate sponsors.

I could never vote for Gingrich, and I realize that all he’s doing is twisting a knife into a fellow Republican by accusing him of nothing more than what Gingrich and just about every other politician alive is guilty of.  But, for just a minute or so, I could hear truth on network television.  No wonder the spokesmodel was offended.  No wonder Schieffer was amused.

The United States supposedly cherishes freedom of the press.  Indeed,in some hypothetical country, a free press is capable of rooting out corruption and exposing lies from the powerful.  But in our country in recent years, the professional press is no less captured by the corporations than the government.  We are fed scripted infotainment as news.

No, I’m not some conspiracy theorist who thinks people like O’Donnell and Schieffer are told what to say.  But I am able to see that the mainstream media no longer shows any inclination to really explore policy alternatives, examine things that have worked or failed in other countries, look at serious approaches to problems.  The media is interested in the horse race, and in political strategy.  The campaign, for the media, is inexpensive entertainment that will bring in an audience.  The last thing anyone in the professional press wants to do is lose access to a candidate by actually challenging them.

It’s rare these days for things to go off script.  When they do, as with the Gingrich interview, it’s an opportunity to see exactly how worthless the mainstream media has become.  Imagine, for example, if Schieffer had chosen to acknowledge the truth of what Gingrich was saying, and asked Gingrich if he’d ever lied himself, perhaps in a campaign.  A reporter interested in such things would surely have a book-sized list of Gingrich’s lies to fall back upon.  Imagine if O’Donnell had asked Gingrich whether lying was necessary in today’s campaigns.  Gingrich was already off-script, bent more on a mission of destruction than on any campaign.  Who knows what he might have said?  Maybe the honesty would have continued.

Mitch Trachtenberg os a software developer and freelance writer living in the village of Trinidad in Humboldt County. He can be reached at mitchtrachtenberg.com.

Local contractors fill City Hall to condemn ‘anti-competitive’ proposal

By Charles Douglas
Humboldt Sentinel

Local union rep Sid Berg may have bitten off more than he could chew in trying to push a re-write of Arcata city policy to favor apprenticeship training run primarily by organized labor.

An overflow crowd in Council Chambers tonight held back little in expressing their anger at the potential loss of city public works contracts for local building firms, most of whom would not qualify under the draft regulations.

“This proposal will tip the scales heavily in favor of union contractors,” Humboldt Builders Exchange spokesperson Rob McBeth said. “It’s very discriminatory to small sole proprietor businesses…in this time of tight budgets and scarce resources, why would you want to reduce competition?”

A staff report by city manager Randy Mendosa essentially concurred with this analysis, stating that the proposed Project Labor Agreement would take local firms out of the process to bid on City construction contracts, opening the door to out-of-area companies large enough to maintain a cadre of union-approved apprentices.

Berg, the business representative for Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 290, took issue right off the bat with the tone of Mendosa’s report, claiming it wasn’t a union issue, but one of job training. He claimed to have taken 90% of the proposal from boilerplate language available on the California Division of Apprenticeship Standards’ website.

“The state’s broke, they don’t have the money for enforcement, that’s why very few contractors are using apprentices,” Berg said. “That’s why we’re bringing this to the city, for local enforcement.”

Under the proposal, 60% of the workforce on any City building contract would have to be graduates from a state certified apprenticeship program. Thing is, for a program to be state certified, it goes through a cumbersome process that critics claim to be discriminatory against non-union shops. That, and the prospect of Arcata adding another layer of bureaucratic oversight over contractors by burdening with new reporting requirements, effectively killed the idea.

“It’s not the city’s responsibility to get that stuff, it’s the responsibility of the contractor to notify the apprenticeship programs that they need people for their jobs,” city purchasing agent Harold Miller said. “We don’t want to get in between the contractor and the apprenticeship program.”

Heavy hitters from Mercer-Fraser, Wendt Construction, Danco Builders, Kernan Construction, and more turned out to hammer the same pro-local, anti-paperwork message home; they were even joined by Sue Long from the Fortuna City Council.

Les Charter of Arcata-based O & M Industries, which had the greatest turnout of the evening, summed up the feelings of many: “One of the things that makes Humboldt County unique is coming up with a small contractor, you learn how to do everything…if you mandate that workers have to go through a union-accredited or state-accredited union program, they can’t do more than one thing…I’m not anti-union but I’m pro-choice.”

Councilmember Shane Brinton, possibly due to participating via teleconference from a vacation in his girlfriend’s home state of New Mexico, was the only one apparently deaf to the public outcry, insisting that the Council move forward on the scheme.

He made no fewer than five motions, albeit as a disembodied voice through a black speaker box in front of his normal seat at the Council dais, attempting to direct a rehearing of Berg’s original proposal after some retooling. Brinton’s first motion, to form a committee with Berg, city staff and local builders to revise the policy language, was seconded by Mayor Michael Winkler, but failed 2-2, with Councilmembers Susan Ornelas and Alex Stillman opposed and Councilmember Mark Wheetley absent.

Brinton’s next few motions, all variations on the original, all failed for lack of a second, and the Council eventually moved forward 4-0 on a “feel good” statement which supported the training of apprentices to state and federal standards, while ditching Berg’s entire plan.

Dr. Donald Baird of Fortuna consulted with county jail, Redwood Memorial Hospital

Staff Report
Humboldt Sentinel

Humboldt County has a new top medical mind on the payroll.

Dr. Donald I. Baird, who’s worked for 35 years as senior physician with Humboldt Medical Group out of Fortuna and Ferndale, will take up the duties of County Health Officer next week, although he’ll keep his private practice. Although appointed by the Board of Supervisors, Baird will operate within the administrative system of the county Department of Health and Human Services.

“The health officer role is a critical one for DHHS and the community as it provides medical oversight for our services as well as secures and maintains community support for public health programs locally and at the state level,” DHHS Director Phil Crandall stated in a release. “Dr. Baird’s experience with direct care as well as his tenure in our community will serve to maintain our effective working relationships with the medical community and meeting the difficult but exciting changes ahead.”

Baird’s extensive resume includes consulting with the county jail, juvenile hall and Redwood Memorial Hospital; he’s also worked with the California Forensic Medical Group and served as medical director of the Fortuna Rehabilitation and Wellness Center, a senior living facility. Baird is certified by the state as a psychiatric quality assurance consultant.

“Dr. Donald Baird has distinguished himself with his years of experience, his familiarity with public health issues and his standing in the medical community,” Supervisor Virginia Bass stated. “Our Board looks forward to working with Dr. Baird to keep Humboldt County in the forefront of efforts to proactively address public health issues through prevention, planning and education.

Baird, a native of Portland, Maine, is a graduate of Dartmouth University and The Medical College of Virginia, located on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. He served his medical residency at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, where he worked in family practice and community health; he also received a master’s degree there in health care education.

Councilmember Marian Brady pulls unexplained disappearing act from votes

By Charles Douglas
Humboldt Sentinel

New amendments introduced to building regulations tonight will make it easier to construct, restore and rent out carriage houses and other ancillary structures as secondary dwellings, otherwise known as ‘mother-in-law’ units.

With next to zero public comment and the stamps of approval from the Historic and Design Review Commission and the Planning Commission already given late last year, the Eureka City Council wasted little time in unanimously adopting the three sequentially numbered bills.

Unanimously, that is, with 4-0 votes; First Ward Councilmember Marian Brady slipped out at the start of the first public hearing, saying she was “recusing herself” with absolutely no further explanation.

Even though it’s entirely possible that Brady, or Brady’s immediate family, has a personal investment in a historic structure and/or a property with a secondary dwelling unit, public interest legal experts tell the Sentinel that this is insufficient to create a specific personal benefit via the passage of an ordinance with city-wide implications in terms of zoning and building standards. There’s also no justification under state law for such a recusal — and any recusal due to a conflict of interest must be specifically disclosed, according to Government Code Section 18702.5:

(b) Content & Timing of Identification: The public official shall, following the announcement of the agenda item to be discussed or voted upon but before either the discussion or vote commences, do all of the following:

(1) The public official shall publicly identify:

(A) Each type of economic interest held by the public official which is involved in the decision and gives rise to the conflict of interest (i.e. investment, business position, interest in real property, personal financial effect, or the receipt or promise of income or gifts), and

(B) The following details identifying the economic interest(s):
(i) if an investment, the name of the business entity in which each investment is held;
(ii) if a business position, a general description of the business activity in which the business entity is engaged as well as the name of the business entity;
(iii) if real property, the address or another indication of the location of the property, unless the property is the public official’s principal or personal residence, in which case, identification that the property is a residence;
(iv) if income or gifts, then identification of the source; and
(v) if personal financial effect, then identification of the expense, liability, asset or income affected.

(2) Form of Identification: If the governmental decision is to be made during an open session of a public meeting, the public identification shall be made orally and shall be made part of the official public record.

The specter of a false recusal isn’t new to Humboldt County politics.

Arcata’s deposed ex-Councilmember Harmony Groves, since relocated to Marin County, staged a false recusal in her first year of office in 2005 when the subject of civilian review over the Arcata Police Department came up on a City Council agenda. Even though there was no specific ordinance being introduced and the item only carried the prospect of providing direction to the City Attorney on the development of such a law, Groves declared that she couldn’t be in the room to discuss such a proposal because she worked with one of the community members who was present to provide testimony — a claim which has no basis in the aforementioned law.

Unlike tonight’s votes in Eureka, however, Groves’ absence left the mid-2000s Arcata Council deadlocked 2-2 on the subject of police review, and they never took up the issue again. These housing ordinances provided a rare show of unity between remaining Councilmembers, as it represented their first step as a body in implementing their newly revised Strategic Visioning document for Eureka’s future.

“One small unit at a time is a nice way to add affordable housing, it doesn’t overwhelm our infrastructure,” Second Ward Councilmember Linda Atkins said, referring to the ability of owners to rent out mother-in-law units without the requirement that they live on the same property.

Eureka’s ordinances, presuming they are formally adopted in two weeks after their introduction tonight, greatly increase the number of areas in which secondary units are allowed without special permits; these include Multi-Family, Office Residential, Hospital Medical and Commercial zones. In the last three years, 11 applications for secondary units have been received — however, eight of these were from property owners caught in a code violation who were trying to legalize existing uses.

Wake planned for redevelopment

In his close-of-meeting report, city manager Dave Tyson said the Council may need to hold a special meeting later this month to have the City take up the mantle of successor to the Eureka Redevelopment Agency; all redevelopment agencies in California were eliminated by the State Legislature and Governor Jerry Brown last year, and the state Supreme Court put the final nail in the coffin last week in a ruling which also threw out an attempted work-around allowing cities and counties to fund the continuation of their agencies.

“The [California] Supreme Court didn’t just kill redevelopment, they ruled to trigger an entire funeral procession on redevelopment as we know it,” Tyson said. “Hopefully we’ll salvage something.”

Mayor Frank Jager noted that several employees in City Hall were paid for by the redevelopment agency, and asked for an update on what those positions were and how the Council might compensate for the loss of funding. Tyson replied that the General Fund could see significant impacts, as the salaries of most top city officials were partially paid through redevelopment.

If the City of Eureka took over the assets of the redevelopment agency, an oversight committee consisting of a Councilmember, two Humboldt County Supervisors, a member of the county Board of Education and a director from the largest special district in the county would form. This oversight committee would monitor the actions of the Council in regards to former agency property — and would even have veto power over these actions.

In addition

The fuzzy feelings about the Strategic Visioning plans moving forward only lasted until open public comment; Henderson Center resident Neal Latt distributed a letter from the Coastal Commission which slammed the city’s plan to extend Waterfront Drive through the PALCO Marsh as triply non-compliant with the Coastal Act.

“Any further monies spent on this would best be spent elsewhere,” Latt said. “It’s irrational and irresponsible.”

The evening’s public safety report from fire chief Ken Woods came with welcome news of a $200,002 grant awarded to install fire sprinklers and alarms in two fire houses and the Eureka Fire Department headquarters. Woods, who heads a joint Humboldt Bay Fire effort which includes Humboldt Fire District No. 1, is looking to upgrade EFD personnel training to have paramedics, instead of emergency medical technicians, on the crews of all fire engines — as is the standard already at HFD.

When Woods mentioned the formation of a committee to look at the replacement of a 35-year-old ladder truck with a new vehicle, Brady suggested he pick up surplus fire equipment to save money. The fire chief begged to differ.

“They have a lot more miles, the pumps have a lot more usage on them, you’re really buying something that has a potential for problems in a lot of areas,” Woods said.

The Council also reshuffled their appointments and alternate positions on various local joint powers authorities. Atkins’ position on the newly controversial Humboldt Waste Management Authority has been handed to Fifth Ward Councilmember Lance Madsen, who said he’d like to take on additional duties as he recovers his health after an extended hospitalization last year.