MAYOR BASS: “Where am I?”

The question was raised here on the Humboldt Herald, and it’s reportedly causing a headache for Eureka Mayor Virginia Bass.

Rumor has it Bass is preparing to run against Humboldt County Supervisor Bonnie Neely in 2010 — but there’s just one problem:  The Bass HQ is smack on the dividing line of the 1st and 4th supervisorial Districts.

Apparently, Bass has been casting ballots — without complaint — in the 1st District, which is currently represented by Jimmy Smith.  Neely represents the 4th.

As the story goes, Bass never bothered to complain about the issue — until Neely’s eighty-some thousand dollar annual salary started looking like a better gig than the mayor’s current job pushing drugs for Eli Lilly.

Bass recently visited the elections office to work out the issue, according to sources.

Advice to the White House on internet trolls

It isn’t a service offered on WordPress or blogger.com, but Wired Magazine has some insight on how the whitehouse.gov blog could successfully handle the toxic sludge that would inevitably clog comment traffic.

The world’s top discussion moderators have developed successful tools for keeping online miscreants from disrupting conversation. All are rooted in one psychological insight: If you simply ban trolls—kicking them off your board—you nurture their curdled sense of being an oppressed truth-speaker. Instead, the moderators rely on making the comments less prominent.

Basically, the method involves a voting system by readers on relevancy and usefulness of comments, which allows other readers to filter what they see. The nasties are still there, but most people won’t have to be bothered to “keep scrolling.”

Maybe the Times-Standard should try it.

SUNK: Princess Taiping goes down

The Princess Taiping docked in Humboldt Bay in October 2008.

Remember the Chinese junk that visited Eureka last fall?  It’s now a wreck on the ocean floor.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The adventure came to a sad end Sunday morning in the ocean off Taiwan when the 54-foot Princess Taiping was run down and sunk by a large freighter. All 11 crew members on the Princess Taiping survived, but the large ship, identified by the Taiwan coast guard as the Liberian flag tanker Champion Express, did not stop or render assistance.

The Princess Taiping was only hours away from completing an epic 14,000-mile voyage. Nelson Liu, the captain of the junk and organizer of the voyage, said he felt “more than regret.

“We were less than 30 miles from the end of the voyage,” he said by phone from Taipei. “But I still feel lucky that everyone survived. It was a miracle. God or Buddha kept us alive. It must have some meaning.”

Full story.

Healthy Humboldt wants YOU!

(Below is an alert from the Healthy Humboldt Coalition.)

CRITICAL LAND USE HEARING THIS THURSDAY
The Planning Commission must hear from us on April 30th

A massive turn out of our constituents for this hearing will be needed to generate the political support to protect Humboldt’s agricultural and timber lands from development.

We’re asking our members who:

• support Alternative A’s “Community Forest Acquisition and Management Program” that could protect the McKay Tract and create a Community Forest for Eureka
• would choose a smaller urban footprint over sprawling residential development on Humboldt’s prime agricultural lands
• would like to prevent subdivision and development on industrial timber land

to join us at the Planning Commission this Thursday, April 30th

The County is expecting people from all over Humboldt to make a point of being at this Town Hall style meeting, and it will likely be moved from the Supervisors’ Chambers to the Eureka High School Gym to ensure that there will be space for everyone. So it really is critical that our constituents come out in force and stand in solidarity for the most ecologically sound and community strengthening land-use policies.

Again, the details:

• 6:00pm this Thursday, April 30th
• Supervisors’ Chambers (825 5th St) or EHS Gym (1915 J St)

Please check our website for talking points and the logistical information once confirmed. In the meantime, please feel free to call 682-5292 or visit www.healthyhumboldt.org to learn more about these issues.

SUNSHINE FOR HUMBOLDT: Strapped

Eureka powerhouse Rob Arkley has launched a number of nearly identical developer lobbyist groups over the years.  The latest incarnation, Sunshine for Humboldt, is running ads on radio KINS and now has a home on the world wide web.

But despite sponsorship by Humboldt County’s biggest fish, the website claims the group is constrained by a “small and tight budget.”  Perhaps pennies are being pinched for some sort of lawsuit against the county.

Sunshine for Humboldt is based in Sacramento, of course.

Fighting the Feds

The Eureka-Arcata fight against military recruitment is the focus of an 1,800-word article in the latest SF Chronicle.  And just like yesterday, the Bay Area paper pounds the hippie meme.

Now Arcata is at it again, with a law blocking the military from recruiting anybody in town under the age of 18. And this time, the law has the backing not of a few City Council activists, but of thousands of voters who went to the polls in November.

On the same day, voters in Eureka, a historically politically staid city a dozen miles away, surprised everybody by approving an identical measure.

“The idea that Humboldt County can fight the federal government is as ridiculous as hell, but goddamn it, we’re gonna try,” said Winfield “Win” Sample, a World War II veteran turned Orwell-quoting pacifist who brought Arcata’s measure to Eureka.

In the past, Arcata’s quirky pokes at Washington have been shrugged off as the antics of pot-drenched students and patchouli-scented hippies for whom the ’60s never quite died. Passionate, but largely irrelevant.

Full article.

HUMBOLDT: A place for hippies

The San Francisco Chronicle reinforces a dominant Humboldt stereotype for potential North Coast travelers in an article called Delight your inner hippie in Arcata:

Face it. The weather in Arcata is never going to be ideal for sunbathing. Redwood trees require moisture, fog, wind, and even cold. But that shouldn’t deter you from a jaunt up to this artsy college town, where, unlike in surrounding cities, dreadlocks outnumber mullets; there are more bookshops than gun stores; locally farmed cuisine rates high on the priority lists of eating places; and you can explore a redwood grove in the heart of downtown.

Full article.

GRINDING HALT: Cell tower hits the skids

The Eureka City Council issued a stop-work order for the Verizon cell tower planned for Henderson Center’s Apostolic Church at a special meeting Thursday afternoon.

The Council voted 3-2 to squash the tower, with Councilmembers Mike Jones and Jeff Leonard dissenting as predicted.

The Council stopped short of revoking the Conditional Use Permit, and will take up that issue at its next regularly scheduled meeting on May 5th.

During public comment one speaker used her three minutes at the mic to play the old protest song, “Eve of Destruction.”  Sources say the room had an uncomfortable silence for the first 30 seconds of the song, but quickly turned into giggles and laughter when Jones began mouthing the words and playing “air harmonica.”

And it was indeed just air.  The proposed tower site is in Jones’ ward and he has supported Verizon — rather than his constituents — at every turn.

UPDATE:  Read more from Richard Marks.

Kohl’s selling slot at Bayshore mall?

Kohl’s appears to be selling its lease at the Bayshore Mall., which has over 10 years of retail bliss remaining on the contract.

The real estate site at the link says there’s a “lack of competing retailers” in this location.  Perhaps it’s because they filed for bankruptcy.  And with the mall owner itself in bankruptcy this must look like a really attractive deal!

Professional blog warriors

Thanks to whoever posted the link to this ad for an apparently militaristic “blog attack.”

For a (presumably hefty) price, these shmoes will spread favorable “talking points” on local blogs.

Be prepared to “flood the zone” with comments from professionals who are ready to put your talking points on the blogosphere 24/7. Whether it’s defense or offense, Advantage Consultants has a dedicated team of experienced blog warriors to advance your candidate or campaign.

Among other things, these clearly patriotic souls will “train, motivate and activate your volunteers to augment your blog warrior base” and “monitor all blogs and media websites in your district on a 24/7 basis.”

Does Verizon know about these guys?