More national exposure of Humboldt County marijuana

UPDATE: Here’s  The KSLG interview of Jason Robo and Kevin Hoover.

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National Public Radio aired the first of a 2-part series today on marijuana in Humboldt County today.  The transcript and audio is online.  Part 2 airs tomorrow.

There’s even some extra fun Humboldt “facts” in the story.  Did you know the local timber and fishing industries died way back in the 60′s?  Apparently Houston didn’t get the memo.

And for more marijuana mania, tune into KSLG at 9am sharp to hear about this local tussle:

Humboldt County resident Jason Robo is currently encouraging people to boycott the Arcata Eye. He has created a Facebook group and operates another website hoping people will “Say Goodbye To The Arcata Eye.” Robo believes that the editor of the Eye, Kevin Hoover “threatens the existence of our local culture.”

Find out why tomorrow morning at 9:00 when John Matthews will speak with both Jason Robo and Kevin Hoover.

Ad begs Coastal Commission to rubber stamp Marina Center

Humboldt Herald readers report that Rob Arkley, owner of the polluted Balloon Track on Humboldt Bay, is running ads on cable TV to pressure the Coastal Commission into turning a blind eye to his Marina Center/Home Depot project.

Coastal Commission staff penned a pointed 82-page report outlining “substantial issues” with the project and its so-called interim clean-up plan in preparation for its December 10th meeting.

Arkley stand-in Randy Gans has voiced hopes that the Commission will be influenced by the Marina Center sweatshirt army who read from Arkley’s list of talking points at city council meetings rather than fulfill its mission to protect, restore and enhance California’s coast.

MARIJUANA: A bigger threat to kids than obesity

Republicans say the darnedest things.

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This jewel of wisdom was delivered on November 18 to Attorney General Eric Holder who, remarkably, kept a straight face.

[h/t Crooks and Liars]

Another murder music show axed

UPDATE II: The show at Red Fox Tavern has been canceled.

UPDATE: The show will go on — in Eureka.  At the Red Fox Tavern.

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Local gay rights activists got a rude awakening Thanksgiving morning upon waking to find another reggae performer with murderous lyrics against gay men was scheduled to play the Arcata Lounge this weekend.

The artist, Bounty Killer, sings lyrics similar to those of Buju Banton which encourage listeners to burn, shoot and murder homosexuals.

The Arcata Lounge canceled the show after notification by the gay community.

Bounty Killer show canceled:

In support of the community who have expressed great concerns over the message and lyrics of this performer, we will be canceling the Bounty Killer Nov. 28th show.

We have in the past shown our support for the gay community and anti violence with events such as the Benefit for Marriage Equality, the Multi-cultural Queer Film Fest and Veterans for Peace: Speak Out Film Fest and hope both the gay and straight community will consider this and show their support for future events.

In closing, we would like to mention that for future shows we will make more effort to research potential artists who may represent violence against others.

Lara & Brian Cox
Arcata Theatre Lounge

A Eureka show by Banton was canceled in October following community outrage over the scheduled event.

Thanksgiving open thread

Brought to you by Balloon Track turkey.

Growing up hippie

Menlo College students studying digital storytelling uploaded their work to YouTube.  The collection includes Humboldt local Ben Brothers’ story of growing up off the grid in Humboldt County.

Another lawsuit hits City of Eureka

Suzie Owsley

For the second time in two weeks, the City of Eureka was slapped with a lawsuit by a police department employee. This time the Plaintiff is Officer Suzie Owsley, who is also suing Eureka Police Chief Garr Nielsen and Erin McBride, a supervisor at EPD.

Owsley alleges a string of complaints, most of which she first aired in April 2008.  Multiple investigations — including one by the Humboldt County Grand Jury — found a similar laundry list of allegations against Nielsen were “without merit.”

The lawsuit is lobbed from the other side of the rift as the one filed by former EPD dispatcher Tawnie Hansen on November 10th.  Owsley bases her claims in part on the alleged affair between Hansen and Nielsen — which Hansen and Nielsen both deny. This workplace rumor is also at the heart of Hansen’s lawsuit, and the settlement she won against co-worker DeeDee Wilson in August.

Owsley alleges discrimination based on sex and age but fails to state any facts to support the claim. Her main beef is that she was the victim of retaliation, which she claims happened after she allegedly received a text message from Nielsen. Owsley and other Nielsen haters made much hay with the text, including on the now defunct Above the Law blog presumably run by Wilson. But the anti-Nielsen crowd has yet to form a coherent narrative about the incident.

And here’s some irony: Owsley told the Times-Standard that people should ignore “anonymous blogs.”  Yet her story about the text message and the salacious insinuations about same first appeared — anonymously — on Above the Law.  Owsley’s lawyer, Bradford Floyd, represented the presumed anonymous blogger Wilson in the Hansen case.

Owsley appears to be one of the “small group of employees” noted by the Humboldt County Grand Jury,” who may never come to terms with some of the changes our municipal leaders are seeking within the Police Department.”

Perhaps the biggest difference between the Hansen and Owsley suits is the events that preceded their filing. Hansen’s suit appears formidable, bolstered by the settlement she already won against Wilson which appears to support her claims.

Owsley, on the other hand, has only multiple investigations which turned up nada, and a Grand Jury report which points the finger at her and those who will testify on her behalf.

Arkley’s Alaska getaway for sale

Times must be tough!

Eureka developer Rob Arkley is giving up the life of luxury and selling his prized fishing lodge on the banks of Alaska’s Naknek River.

The sprawling property also offers moose, bear and caribou hunting.  Think he ever hosted the Palins?

From the listing:

This is the “Finest” Alaska has to offer.  A play ground for the Rich and Famous.  It has been used in the past years truly as a Rich’s Man Toy.  You can leave in the morning with your private jet anywhere in the USA and be landing in the all weather airport of King Salmon (ILS equipped) and be fishing that afternoon.

Swanky!

The realtor says the $3.2 million price tag is a steal. “One could not even begin to replace it for this price.”

Unemployed Humboldt: City by city

A breakdown of unemployment rates by city in Humboldt County hit the internet last week — but somehow didn’t make the local paper.

The county’s rate stood at 11.1% on Oct. 31, below the state average of 12.5%.  Rio Dell is the only Humboldt town above the state average.

Check out the analysis on Humboldt Online from whence we swiped this data table:

The Journal posted some other notable numbers, including the 2,600 jobs lost between Oct. 2008 – Oct. 2009.

LARRY GLASS: Vindicated

When Eureka City Councilman Larry Glass voted against a coastal development permit for the Home Depot-based Marina Center project, he said in a few short words what the California Coastal Commission staff detailed in an 82-page report.

The interim cleanup plan is “bogus,” said Glass.  “Moving soil around before you’ve characterized it is not how you clean the site up.”

The CCC staff agrees.

[T]he unearthing of heretofore subsurface material in an area that has been generally documented as contaminated with elevated levels of petroleum distillates, metals, and polychlorinated dibenzo-dioxins and furans, initiating the wetland reserve component before full characterization of the site has been undertaken, could result in exposing the aquatic resources within the slough and, in turn, Humboldt Bay, to toxics which could have deleterious impacts on the biological productivity of water quality of areas and species of special biological or economic significance.

While project proponents say their interim cleanup plan has nothing to do with development of the Marina Center, CCC staff aren’t so gullible.

[C]onsidering that the authorized interim remediation work is but an initial phase of a larger … mixed-use development project envisioned for construction directly atop the areas graded and filled for stormwater management purposes, the assertion that the filling and grading is for “restoration purposes” is questionable.

When Councilman Jeff Leonard voted “yes” on the permit, he said no other alternatives had been suggested.  But Coastal Commission staff strongly disagree.

[T]he City findings provide no substantive analysis of project alternatives that address other feasible options to the grading and filling of nearly 2/3 of the roughly 40-acre site that would achieved the same water quality objectives.

In rejecting all other alternatives to the wetlands filling and grading, the City concluded that no other legally feasible option to the approved remedial actions exists. The rationale for this determination was based on the City conflating the “concurrence” received from the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board staff for the subject “Supplemental Interim Remedial Action Plan” with the directive within the Regional Board’s 2001 Cleanup and Abatement Order No. R1-2001-26, erroneously recasting the tentative approval the SIRAP into a firm mandate of the one and only acceptable remedial action that the agency would consider as being consistent with the cleanup order.

[T]he decision to approve such development without rigorous consideration of other feasible, less environmentally damaging alternatives could set a troublesome precedent.

So much for Leonard’s claim that the Environmental Impact Report for the project was the greatest ever.