Category: Far North

Editor: The older Journal archives are not easily searchable. The “local newspaper” that labeled Patty Berg “the Energizer Bunny?” It was the Journal in a July 10, 2003, cover story (“Eye of the Storm.”) I didn’t know her well in those days but later I was honored to become one of Patty’s girlfriends — once I became old enough. (We are all late-70s and up, except for one newbie.) Until recently we did meet monthly to try to solve the world’s problems and our own. Patty once said she wanted her tombstone to read, “She tried!” And boy, did she. Judy Hodgson, Fieldbrook…

Editor: By all measures, the United States was hit hard by the COVID pandemic. It was real. Unemployment, scarcity of essential parts and consumer products, medical overwhelm, reduced education for children, anxiety, fear, distrust of masks and shots, and polarized actions. All of these factors collectively caused economic and societal pain and anguish. All in all, a difficult time for an incoming administration to seek remedies on many fronts. By all measures, over four years, the current administration did an excellent job addressing these ails. Regrettably the news seemed to focus on decisions in Afghanistan that quickly became a metaphor for four entire years of progress. Today, employment is at a 50-year low, the stock market is at an all-time high, the economy is making a soft landing from the COVID crisis, average wages are 5 percent higher than before the pandemic. Much of the material needed to rebuild bridges, fix roads, upgrade wastewater treatment plants and other infrastructure projects is now produced in this country. A deliberate move by the administration to move manufacturing jobs back home, 16 million new jobs were added during

North Coast Congressmember Jared Huffman has been named the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee after a weeks-long campaign for the post. “It is the honor of my lifetime to win this election and be named ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee,” Huffman said in a press release of his new role as Democratic leader of the committee. “My entire career has been centered around natural resources – from my time as an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council to the past 12 years serving on this committee.” In the release, Huffman noted his district gives him a “unique perspective and comprehensive insight” on the issues tackled by the committee, noting specifically that his Second District has more Indigenous tribes than any outside of Alaska, includes an array of public lands and waters, faces some of the worst impacts of the climate crisis and is “at the forefront of innovative climate solutions.” As Huffman campaigned for the post, he announced having received the support of current and former committee members, other members of Congress, a coalition of 32 tribes and tribal

In the runup to the November election, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Ferndale violated federal rules prohibiting nonprofit entities from engaging in electioneering activities in favor or opposition to any candidate for public office, a pair of experts tell The Journal. St. Mark’s pastor Tyrel Bramwell’s election-related conduct began raising questions among some Ferndale residents in October, when he put up a Trump campaign sign on the lawn outside his personal residence, which is owned by the church, posted a video to his YouTube channel urging people not to vote for a Ferndale City Council candidate he labeled an “idiot” (though he insisted he wasn’t using the term in a pejorative sense) and St. Mark’s changed its marquee to urge people to vote against Proposition 3, which, passed by 63 percent of voters, enshrined marriage equality in the state Constitution. Experts, however, say none of these things violated tax code language prohibiting nonprofits with tax-exempt status from engaging in certain campaign activity. While the Trump sign was technically on church-owned property, they said it was a political statement made by Bramwell as an individual, unlikely

Speaking of Savage Henry Comedy Club, tonight at 9 p.m. you can enjoy True Kult, a show created and hosted by comedian Patrick Redmond, where comedians explore all things paranormal, from little gray men to cryptids to xenomorphs. Just $5 gets you a spot inside, with an online fee that once again produces an odd price, this time $7.18. Spooky.

Low brow, low budget, painfully bad films are an itch to tickle for some of you out there. If you are in that number, you can’t get any closer to the rancid wet shit of terrible, sub-cult films than Feeders 2: Slay Bells . It’s the 1998 sequel to the original Feeders, a Blockbuster Video Chain VHS release that is every bit as cheap and awful as this Christmas-themed sequel. I will admit to not having it in me to make it through the first act. However, for those into laughing at the tragically bad, Savage Henry Comedy Club is the place to find this stinker being exhumed, where for $10 or $12.51 online, you can settle in at 6 p.m. for the spectacle.

Rising star Bay Area comedian Paul Conyers brings his stand-up chops to the Basement tonight for two sets, at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., so you have options if you are more or less of a Sunday nighthawk. The $20 admission is not a bad deal for a headlining comedian who fills larger venues in the more populated parts of the country…

The Miniplex is putting on the kind of gig it does best, with cosmic folk musician Julie Beth Napolin, who will be joined by local heroes Ethan Miller of Howlin’ Rain and Comets on Fire fame, and Anthony Taibi, a sound maker, breaker and recorder who has been in too many amazing psyche projects to name. The fabulous Meg Baird from Winter Band opens with a solo set. Music at 8 p.m., and a mere $10 gets you past the Unicorn Door and into the palace of goodies.

Here’s an unusually and fittingly outré gig for the final Friday the 13th of 2024. Visiting from Spain, the enigmatic, masked (and possibly haunted doll) LA NEUTRA is presenting a DJ-curated, mixtape trip called “March of the Trolls, Dance Exorcism.” Expect a wide range of globe-spanning music, including remixes of Indian and Arabic music, as well as reggae, dub, dubstep, and deep and heavy meditation dance trax. This one-of-a-kind sonic carnival will be going down at the Ocean Grove Lounge, providing an extra edge of deep woods, remote highway eeriness to the wham-a-lam. Music kicks off at 10 p.m. until late and it’s a mere $5 to get inside. Viva…

It might not be Monday, but it’s still a metal night over at Savage Henry Comedy Club, where at 9 p.m., you can enjoy a line-up of bands from both here and abroad. The road dogs are represented by blackened thrash band Oxygen Destroyer from a scattering of cities further north in the Pacific Northwest, along with New Jersey’s Kontusion. Local psychos Bloodspire and Image Pit round out the bill nicely ($5). …

You moved through like high tide in heavy rain—muddied, filled with beer cans, broken limbs, dangerous against the banks— your fast moving, your hard beauty, the high-water mark I stare at with disbelief and fear— the three inches of rusty water I carry everywhere. Jason Marak…

Editor: As the stable genius, President-elect Donald Trump, nonchalantly stated right smack dab in the middle of a horrifyingly deadly global pandemic, “It is what it is.” To him, it was the “kung flu” and it would soon go away. And now he’s slated to run this country of 345 million people … again (Mailbox, Dec. 5). So, when the workplace raids for mass deportations begin and the grocery prices do not fall … and durable goods become more costly due to tariffs, who should we blame?  When the tax cuts continue for the wealthiest of the wealthy and our allies are thrown to the Russian bear, who will be to blame? When the EPA is dismantled and current climate-initiative programs are tossed aside due to climate change denialism, who should we be listening to? As the ugly vulgarity of right-wing conspiracies continue and “retribution” begins against judges and other perceived enemies of The Great Leader, will it just be another day in the White House?   The popular vote has spoken and declared a winner. Over half of the electorate has decided this guy is of sound mind and the right stuff. So

Editor: The democrat regime in Sacramento plans to use their super majority to “Trump-proof” California again (“Top Dems Say They Won’t Just ‘Trump-proof’ CA, They’ll Make it Affordable Again,” Dec. 5), rather than help the citizens of California. They convened a special session this month to earn more per-diem payments on top of their already lucrative salary and benefits. They announced they would make California “affordable” as well by spending more taxpayer money on housing, energy, homeless and improving public infrastructure. How any of that makes California more “affordable” is a mystery to me. One item they aren’t interested in is making our great state safer by addressing crime. Our own Sen. McGuire worked with Gov. Newsom to keep Proposition 36 off the ballot. Fortunately, voters passed it overwhelmingly. The article focuses on Sen. President Pro Tem McGuire and Assembly Speaker Rivas as the drivers in the Legislature of the effort to improve the lives of citizens hit hard with the most expensive electricity outside of Hawaii, the most expensive gasoline and diesel, the most homeless, the highest taxes and regulations in America. It fails

This election has left many of us a bit shaken in our beliefs and buffeted by fear and doubt. The yammering and hammering are unrelenting. Never has a bird that smashes its head into wood up to 20 times a second been more relatable. We all could use thicker skulls these days. If only we were more like Picidae, the woodpecker family — they actually have thicker skulls, built to withstand forces 1,000 times that of gravity. How useful would that be right about now? Woodpecker physiology has long been scrutinized by scientists hoping to discover how the bird avoids brain injury given its tree-bashing lifestyle. For years it was assumed that the tough, spongy bone of a woodpecker’s skull acted as a sort of shock absorber, cushioning its birdy brain from repeated percussion. However, recent studies have shown that a woodpecker’s brain moves in near-perfect tandem with its bill as it hammers away but, because of the brain’s small size — 700 times smaller than a human brain — plus its snug fit inside the brain case, it doesn’t slosh around and sustain damage

SUBSERVIENCE. I want to be a better person but I evidently don’t want it enough to scroll past the schlockier movies and series cranked out by streaming platforms as Gladiator II and Wicked pull in everyone willing to leave the house. And yes, if a domestic horror/thriller or a creepy AI robot movie pops up, I’ll at least look at it. If it’s a combination of the two, the popcorn is already in the microwave. Subservience is another sci-fi thriller in which a family lets too-powerful tech into its lives for convenience, this time starring Megan Fox, whose demonic teen performance in Jennifer’s Body (2009) will forever have me rooting for her to return to the comedy-horror genre. I knew this wouldn’t be it, but irrational hope wouldn’t let me abandon the possibility. But director S.K. Dale, who has helmed only one other feature, Till Death (2021), also starring Fox, can’t find the fun here, schlocky, thoughtful or otherwise. Every era has its boogeyman and at least one of ours is definitely AI when paired with human shortsightedness. While a handful of smart movies have

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death of Eureka resident Krystal Shinka, whose body was found in Humboldt Bay on Tuesday morning. According to a news release, the 43 year old was reported missing Dec. 9, with the person making the report telling the Eureka Police Department that Shinka had not been seen since Dec. 5. The sheriff’s office responded to the scene at Comet Street near Samoa around 9:30 a.m. after receiving a report of a person who appeared to be deceased floating near a dock, the release states. “A Special Services Division deputy arrived at the scene, moved the body to the shore, and confirmed that the body was a deceased female,” the release states. “The deputy coroner was then called to the scene and the Major Crimes Division also sent personnel as a precaution.” An autopsy has been scheduled for later in the week, according to the sheriff’s office, and the cause and manner of Shinka’s death remain under investigation. “Shinka’s manner of death has not been determined at this time and the case is still under investigation,” the release states.

The Hoopa Valley Tribe was recently awarded a $4.5 million grant for the removal of barred owls from local forests as part of an ongoing effort to stave off the extinction of the native northern spotted owl by killing their invasive cousins. The funding comes from the America the Beautiful Challenge program launched by President Joe Biden in 2021 with the goal of conserving “at least 30 percent of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030 and lifting “efforts to conserve, connect and restore the lands, waters and wildlife upon which we all depend,” according to an announcement. This month, the public-private grant program, with federal partners including the Department of the Interior through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, introduced 61 new grants with $122 million going to conservation projects in 42 states, 19 Tribal nations and three U.S. territories. According to the Department of the Interior, around 42 percent of the program’s funding this year is supporting “projects implemented by Indigenous communities and organizations.” “President Biden’s America the Beautiful initiative has been truly transformative. By working together across the federal family, and through

Pat Merrill died peacefully in the early hours of Sunday, Sept. 22 this year. She had managed to spend time with all of her children and most of her grandchildren in the previous two weeks so she passed surrounded by loving family. Pat had been doing battle with a neuroendocrine tumor on her pancreas since her diagnosis in the summer of 2018. She was the beneficiary of some of the remarkable new treatments being developed in the war against cancer and was able to live almost symptom free until her last round of chemotherapy began late in 2023. The youngest child of a career Army officer, Pat was born in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and grew up in London, England, Grafenwoehr, Germany, Florence, Alabama and Indianapolis, Indiana, finally settling in West Lafayette, Indiana, where she attended high school and Purdue University where she majored in Theater. She made another trip to Europe after college with a girl friend starting in Milan where she picked up a Lambretta scooter at the factory. They then drove it over the Italian Alps and across the continent finishing in London.

Sundays are always nice for matinee performances and the CPH Department of Dance, Music and Theatre is putting on a nice one at 2 p.m. today at Fulkerson Hall. The Mad River Transit Singers are presenting a jazzy, Afro-Brazilian program with a range of tunes written by the likes of Artie Shaw, Jorge Ben and an Afro-Cuban version of Cole Porter’s signature classic “I Get a Kick Out of You.” Tickets are $15 for the general publica, $5 for children and free-ninety-free for any CPH students…

Carl Dean Boyd was born June 2, 1938, to James Earl “Babe” Boyd and Ruth Frances Walker on the Old Boyd Farm in the town of Elba in McLean County, Kentucky. Carl was the second oldest of six boys. His family worked hard for what they had and lived a simple life. When Carl was two years old the family moved to Owensboro in Daviess County, Kentucky. Carl’s first job was delivering newspapers in Owensboro, Kentucky, and he used to ride his bike after school to deliver the local paper to subscribers. Carl was twelve years old when he trusted Christ as his savior, and he was baptized and joined the Crabtree Avenue Baptist Church in Owensboro. He attended Tech High in Owensboro and graduated in 1956. Carl told the story that one day he was in high school working on a project when he heard God’s voice speak to him, telling him that he was going to be a preacher. Right after high school Carl joined the army reserves and was on active duty for six months at Fort Knox, Kentucky. His regiment was

Long time Fortuna businessman, Del Westman has died at 86. Born in Washington State, Del settled in Humboldt County with his family as a young boy. He graduated from Eureka High School, then Humboldt State College, where he obtained a business degree. He owned several businesses in Fortuna, first with his family, then with his wife Elsie, but is known best for his store — Del’s Liquors & Deli — where he made many long lasting friendships. Del loved the outdoors and was an avid hunter and fisherman, and enjoyed taking friends and family out on the ocean in one of his many boats to catch “the big one.” He was a member of the Rotary Club of Fortuna where he was active for many years. He was a member of Ducks Unlimited and also helped found the Peaked Prairie Gun Club. He was preceeded in death by his mother Virginia Longhi, father Vern Westman, brother Dick Westman, sister-in-law Carol Westman, sister-in-law Mary Antongiovanni, nephew Brian Westman and granddaughter Gretchen O’Neil. He is survived by his wife of 49 years, Elsie Westman, son Kurt Westman