2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

London Olympic Stadium holds 80,000 people. This blog was viewed about 900,000 times in 2011. If it were competing at London Olympic Stadium, it would take about 11 sold-out events for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Pee in this cup, says WalMart

Future workers at the Eureka WalMart must submit a urine sample and agree to future piss tests in order to keep their job.

Not only will you get the displeasure of serving the worst of the 1% for poverty wages, after-hours tokes are off-limits.

[h/t @rockhousejones]

Lovelace to face Tea Partier in 2012

Humboldt County Supervisor Mark Lovelace will face Republican Karen Brooks in his race for re-election next year, reports the Lost Coast Outpost.

Brooks ran (and lost) against Wesley Chesbro in the 2010 election for the California Assembly.

Looking back through press releases and emails received during that campaign it’s clear Brooks would like to see Humboldt County bent over a barrel when it comes to control over our water. She seems to believe water from the Klamath and Trinity rivers should be sent to the Central Valley without delay.

“California needs a water policy that does not focus on conservation only,” she said on her campaign website. “Conservation only prolongs the inevitable.”

Translation? Humboldt is going to lose any fight over its richest resource, so let’s give up as quickly as possible.

Sounds like a leader. Not.

Shell Wind Project 3D model

Schatz Energy Research Center posted a video model of the proposed Shell Wind Project on Bear River Ridge and what it would look like from nearby vantage points including Ferndale, Loleta, Rio Dell and the Wildcat.

Original:

This tour was created with Google Earth by staff at the Schatz Energy Research Center. The contents of this video depict an approximation of the proposed Shell Wind project on Bear River Ridge. The animation and 3D model of the wind farm were created by SERC staff and are for educational purposes only. Images of the 25 wind turbines and their locations are based on publicly available infromation from the Humboldt County Bear River Wind Project website and were created without any input from Shell Wind.

To you and yours

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Kwanzaa!

Ho ho ho!

Feliz Navidad!

Happy Solstice!

So long, Hurricane Kate’s

Friday dinner marked the last night of Hurricane Kate’s, the Old Town Eureka restaurant that hosted good food, nice ambiance, and an occasional public outburst by local bigwig Rob Arkley.

Hurricane Arkley was most likely to strike the Thursday lunch rush, according to legend.  It was one such Thursday that then City Councilman Jeff Leonard’s mid-day meal was peppered with spittle as Arkley screamed “you’re worthless!” while scolding him for failing to be a pawn to a greater extent than he already was (by killing the master plan for the Balloon Track, for example).  Some local figures even avoided the restaurant on the day of Thor to bypass potential tantrums.

Kate’s was also where Arkley’s blogging aspirations were launched when he whipped out his cell phone one afternoon to snap a pic of his arch rival Bill Pierson lunching with Peter Douglas of the Coastal Commission.  “A-ha!” thought he.  “Now everyone will know the people I hate dare talk with each other in a civilized manner.”  The blurry image later made its way to the Humboldt blogosphere and angels rained from the heavens.

But back to the episode with Leonard, it’s a wonder how far we’ve come since the days when Arkley had assaulted — verbally or otherwise — a majority of sitting Eureka City Council members.  Now, with last year’s election of the Arkleyville slate, he has a fawning bunch of fan boys (and girls) at his disposal and look how much Eureka has improved!  No Balloon Track clean-up, another empty store front in Old Town, and nothing on the horizon but WalMart.

Fundamentalist Republican hugs!

’64 Flood victims remembered with scholarship

[From the Humboldt Herald inbox.]

To Whom It May Concern,

Today is the 47th anniversary of the loss of my father and his crewmates while ferrying Ferndale residents out of harm’s way from flood waters on Dec. 22, 1964. My dad, AE2 Jimmy Nininger Jr. was the rescue mechanic onboard the Coast Guard HH52A whose crew also included Donald Prince and Allen Alltree.  They were dispatched from the USCG Air Station San Francisco the morning of 12/22/64 to render aid to victims of that year’s devastating flood in Humboldt County. After arriving they took onboard local farmer Bud Hansen, who volunteered to act as spotter, and went to work out of Arcata Airport.  The crew ran sorties all day, picking up farmers and their families from rooftops in the vicinity of Ferndale, and dropping them in safety at the Humboldt County Fairgrounds. Dozens of lives were saved thanks to their tireless efforts.

Tragically, their last sortie went awry. The storm had continued unabated throughout the day, and as the sun sank, the high winds, heavy rain and poor visibility combined to make their final extraction long and arduous. They collected two women and a baby from the last farmhouse despite the harsh conditions, but this time, rather than stopping at the fairgrounds they made straight for the Arcata airport. Unfortunately the storm had taken out the power at Arcata, hence the navigational beacon was out of service. They headed toward what they believed was the light beacon only to find it was the Trinidad lighthouse. After receiving radar vectors from the airport, they turned back toward Arcata, but never made it.  All aboard were lost in forest so thick that it took days for the rescue parties to locate the wreckage.  To this day that wreckage still sits undisturbed on timber company land outside Arcata, and a memorial remains at the USCG McKinleyville Air Station.

Breast milk murder charge tossed

A prosecutors attempt to send message of warning to breast-feeding mothers who use methamphetamine has been thrown out of Humboldt County Superior Court.

Deputy District Attorney Ben McLaughlin had hoped the charge and prosecution would give a “meth-addicted mother pause before she breast-feeds.”

But Judge Bruce Watson found that “no evidence was presented at the case’s preliminary hearing to establish that [Maggie Jean] Wortman knew she was endangering her infant son’s life when she breastfed him after allegedly smoking methamphetamine,” according to the Times-Standard.

Wortman’s 6-week old son died of “methamphetamine toxicity.”

McLaughlin told the T-S he may decide re-file the murder charge.

Railroadies revive East-West line idea

Die-hard supporters of rail-port development are calling for a feasibility study on a rail line from Eureka to Red Bluff.

“We’re not saying it should happen, we just want to take a look,” said attorney Bill Barnum.  He said the idea was originally hatched 140 years ago but lost out to rail construction that connected Eureka south to the San Francisco bay area where the demand for timber spiked after the 1906 earthquake.

Barnum said it hasn’t been determined who would do the study — or who would pay for it — but he wants to get people talking about whether they support the study.

Councilwoman Linda Atkins said she supports the idea of a study but wants private funds to pay for it.

Barnum was joined by members of RAPIT (Rail and Port Infrastructure Taskforce), Bill Bertain and Pete Oringer, who said the need for jobs and infrastructure would be boosted by an East-West line.

No action was taken by the Council, but Councilman Mike Newman said he wants to see it back on the agenda in January so they can vote on a resolution.

More at the Lost Coast Outpost: Eureka CC to Mull Great East-West Railroad Phantasm

Defending dirty deeds

A Sonoma County judge ruled in favor of a child molesting priest Monday, finding that allegations of sexual abuse at St. Bernard in Eureka came too long after the incidents occurred.

The accused Irish priest had been sent to Eureka after similar allegations led the church to relocate him rather than defrock his ass.

Attorney Adrienne Moran defended the Diocese of Santa Rosa in court and touted the decision.

“The court completely agreed with our position that claims are time-barred no matter what label you put on them,” she told the Press Democrat.

In other words, Rev. Patrick McCabe may be a rapist but the statute of limitations gives him a Get Out of Jail Free card.

That defense may be legally bullet proof but Moran’s quote must have left a foul coating as it crossed her tongue.

Moran is the same attorney who defended the city of Eureka and its manager David Tyson in a harassment lawsuit brought by a former employee in 2009 in which the city settled for $200,000.

There may be good money in defending bad priests — and the City of Eureka — but it’s a dirty job.