KSLG “Warm & Fuzzy Clothing Drive” Friday Dec. 9th

[Press release] Friday December 9th, local radio station 94.1 KSLG-FM plans to help a local philanthropist warm the lives of those most in need. KSLG announced that it will broadcast live from a winter “warm and fuzzy” clothing drive from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Eureka Co-op, Fourth and B streets.

All the clothing collected will be given to Betty Chinn’s group “Betty’s Blue Angels”. Last year, Chinn received the Presidential Citizen’s Medal from President Barack Obama, and will oversee the donation.

“This is our 4th Warm and Fuzzy Winter Clothing Drive..and we would love to have it be our most successful yet.” said KSLG afternoon host Dr. Syd Reagan.

KSLG is encouraging everyone in the community to donate whatever they can.

“Really, we’ll take anything. I suppose there is something we won’t accept, but it hasn’t happened yet,” said KSLG morning host John Matthews.

General Manager Patrick Cleary added, “This year, more than ever, there is a great need to help those in need. We’re pleased we can help Betty Chinn with her good work.” More information about the Warm and Fuzzy Clothing drive can be found at www.kslg.com.

Monday T-S goes the way of the Eureka Reporter

The Times-Standard announced yesterday that it will cease publication of its Monday paper, and that the Humboldt Beacon will cease to exist altogether.

Print journalism has been in a downward spiral since the day the internet was born.  In Humboldt County, the spiral is beginning to look more like a nose dive.

When the Humboldt Herald started in the spring of 2006, a rich local media environment appeared to be thriving — but then again, so did the housing market. Eureka had two newspapers, the T-S and Rob Arkley’s Eureka Reporter.  Competition gave the T-S a badly needed kick in the keester, and for a while there seemed to be reporters on every little story.

But the Reporter was supported almost entirely by Arkley’s pocket book and therefore doomed to fail. ER reporters have gone back to bar tending or left the area in search of journalism jobs.

Is the loss of the Beacon and the Monday Times-Standard another step toward total annihilation of newspapers as we know them? It seems unlikely that these changes will right the listing boat.

Or perhaps these cutbacks in addition to the T-S paywall will spare us from a paperless future. But don’t hold your breath.

OCCUPY HUMBOLDT: The Next Move

[From the Occupy Humboldt Facebook page.]

The Occupy movement has awakened us to something we all knew, but hardly anybody was saying: WE HAVE BEEN OCCUPIED.  Not by people in tents, but by Wall Street banks and corporations. Our elected representatives scurry to do their business. Our police are made to serve them, and treat ordinary citizens like insurgents. Our County Courthouse looks like the Green Zone because the Occupy people tried to take back a patch of lawn to say to us: wake up.

Now that we’re awake, let’s broaden the issue beyond illegal camping and biohazards. The homeless among the Occupy groups deserve our strongest support and recognition of their basic human rights. People wrongly arrested and falsely imprisoned should have legal defense. [see humrights.org] Charges should be filed against those responsible for violence against persons and property.

And now that we’re awake, take a look around. It’s true: we are an occupied country. Corporate dollars are protected speech and they have the dollars. We are out-gunned, out-spent, and out-voted even when we win elections.

Now that people are awake, it’s time to find the common cause in all our causes. To find a common voice and speak common sense. Health is wealth. Ecology is economy. To restore those basic values, to re-occupy our work places and our homes and our lives, will require all of us. Young and old, working and jobless and retired, nurses and secretaries, farmers and waitresses and vets, teachers and trades people: WE ARE THE 99%.

All are invited to a General Assembly in front of the Humboldt County Courthouse, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. There will be speakers and music and conversation. There will be opportunities to form alliances.

Let’s be thankful for what we’ve managed to hang on to, and celebrate what we’ve accomplished. Then let’s talk about the next move. Bring the family. Bring a friend.

SATURDAY
NOVEMBER 26, 2011
1-3 PM
FIFTH AND I STREETS
EUREKA

[Image source.]

Shopping season officially underway

Happy Thanksgiving

Cheers, readers, and thank you for visiting, posting comments and emailing tips to the Humboldt Herald. We hope your day is full of friends, family, food and festivity.

For those who would like to Occupy Thanksgiving, Arcata’s Dave Meserve offers the following:

People will be gathering for a Thanksgiving Feast at the Humboldt County Courthouse, between noon and 4pm. Please come sometime between noon and 2pm. Dinner will be served at about two, and everyone is welcome. We will be barbecuing turkey on site and bringing dishes to share. Tables and extra chairs would help.

Come to support Occupy Eureka, Occupy Arcata and Occupy Humboldt, and come if you’re hungry, or come just to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal together.

Humboldt’s history of pepper spray recalled

Donna Tam's article in today's Times-Standard reminds readers that activists in Humboldt County were occupying before the Occupy movement, and police unjustifiably used pepper spray on them despite their passive, peaceful protests.

In 1997, forest activists occupied the offices of Pacific Lumber (RIP) and Congressman Frank Riggs to protest Maxxam Corporation’s appalling laws-be-damned logging of ancient redwoods.

Humboldt County Sheriffs gleefully assumed the role of Maxxam’s personal police agency and invented a new kind of torture to punish the protesters — by dipping Q-tips in Dixie cups of pepper spray and swabbing the burning stuff directly into the eyes of non-violent activists.

But even here in Humboldt County, where abuse of power by police against activists who pose no threat to them or anyone else is part of contemporary history, the images coming out of UC Davis, Oakland and elsewhere are shocking to behold.

And that is why such tactics by police will fail. The highest ideals of what it means to be a United States American are at the heart of the Occupy movement, because that is what is under attack by corporations, banks, the Supreme Court and the politicians who serve the 1%. Police repression against people peacefully assembled is offensive at the deepest of levels and will not succeed in keeping down those whose freedoms and opportunities are swirling down the golden toilet of the super rich.

Solomon campaign event tonight

Media Critic Jeff Cohen to Speak in Support of Democratic congressional candidate Norman Solomon

Nationally respected media critic and TV news commentator Jeff Cohen will make a campaign stop in Eureka this Tuesday in support of Democratic congressional candidate Norman Solomon. The event will run from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Labor Temple, 840 E Street, Eureka. Cohen will speak about corporate power, media bias, and the need for principled political leadership.

Cohen has appeared regularly on national TV and radio. He was a daily commentator on MSNBC in 2002, a weekly panelist on the Fox News Channel’s “News Watch” from 1997–2002, and a co-host of CNN’s “Crossfire” in 1996. He was senior producer of MSNBC’s Phil Donahue show until it was terminated on the eve of the Iraq war.

As founder of the media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), Cohen has worked closely with Solomon. In the 1990s, they co-wrote the nationally-syndicated column “Media Beat.” They have also co-authored three books on media bias and politics.

Pepper Spray Cop Art

Among a string of disturbing pictures and video that came out of Occupy protests last week is the image of Lt. John Pike who casually pepper sprayed a row of UC Davis college students sitting on a sidewalk. If you missed it, watch Pike’s spray of shame here.  See also the students silent protest of UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi who ordered the attack on students.

Pike’s overzealous use of pepper spray has now become an internet meme, with people inserting his despicable act into a variety of images. A dedicated website is at peppersprayingcop.tumblr.com. More here.

In other Occupy news, Occupy Oakland is calling for a total West Coast port shut down on December 12th.

WSJ plugs Eureka for outdoorsy retirees

The cost of living in California is more expensive on average than other states, but the Wall Street Journal names a few affordable spots for retirees. Eureka makes the list.

WSJ: Forget Santa Barbara. Here are four more affordable Golden State gems

KIEM claims copyright on poop and pee footage

It appears that KIEM (Channel 3 TV Nooze) would like you to forget about that whole “who pooped and peed on the bank” incident as shown by the message in place of where the footage shot by its reporters used to be (see Gawker, Lost Coast Outpost).

KIEM was soooo sure of its reporters’ professionalism that raw footage of an attempt to pin a pile of sidewalk poop on Occupy Eureka protesters was posted to the station website.  Reporter Betsy Lambert also uploaded it to YouTube.

But when people far and wide began criticizing Lambert’s infamous refrain, she un-YouTubed it.

Now KIEM appears to be moving to scrub all evidence of the incident from the internets.  Good luck with that.  A quick search of YouTube shows several other people grabbed the footage and reposted it for all their friends to see.

The whole world is watching.