EUREKA REPORTER: Bogus Headlines, Spotty Details
If you rely on the Eureka Reporter to stay current on local happenings, chances are you don’t know your bum from a hole in the ground.
Consider Saturday’s headline: County’s take on state TPZ under fire. “Oooh,” you might think, “sounds serious.” Like maybe an authoritative branch of government found the County wrongly interpreted laws covering Timber Production Zones.
But the heat you feel is just a millionaire’s propaganda machine blowing smoke up your nether region.
The “fire” the county is reportedly “under” comes from lawyer Edgar Washburn, whom — the ER fails to note — is an attorney for Pacific Lumber. It was PalCo’s plan to turn forestland into “kingdoms” that made “TPZ” a household acronym in Humboldt County. Apparently reporting such basic information would squelch steam from the ER’s BS train.
Instead of informing readers of relevant relationships, reporter Wendy Butler pleases her boss by dressing up Washburn’s lawfirm as a “firm with offices based internationally.” The firm, Morrison & Foerster LLP (appropriately called “MoFo” even by its url), has defended Pacific Lumber in such high profile cases at the fraud suit brought by Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos and the Headwaters case currently before the Supreme Court.
MoFo also represents Sierra Pacific Industries, which — like Pacific Lumber — has large chunks of TPZ that would sell handsomely for no-timber-producing trophy homes. SPI has repeatedly voiced opposition to the county’s attempt to bring local TPZ laws into compliance with the state.
Is it any wonder lawyers for PL and SPI would likewise complain? Especially when two of its clients have bazillions of dollars at stake?
No.
Just like it’s no wonder the Eureka Reporter couldn’t do a straight news report on this issue if someone paid them.
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The ER story was great. Your sour grapes are sweet wine to our lips.
What an easy case to win for the County, just read the code section regarding compatible uses. Are the property rights folks and Palco that stupid?? YES!
Truth be damned! Revisionism is a time honored practice for Arkley who absolutely believes history is written by the victors.
Rare tree or puke?
It’s not only the philosophy of the Eureka Reporter, it’s their acronym.
I can’t speak to the rest of Heraldo’s claims, but the headline is completely ordinary. Methinks Heraldo has gone off the deep end on this one. Stick to plausible issues.
Your deep-end is neck-breakingly shallow. If it’s so difficult to correctly identify who has the county “under fire” than Wendy Butler’s article should be on the opinion page right next to Peter Hannaford’s “War is Great” column.
I am surprised the No. 6 was not reported to be a delicious dinner choice by the E/R.
-boy
The ER has no shame. Not identifying MoFo as representing PALCO and Sierra Pacific is dishonest to say the least. A reader not acquainted with the facts might think this big law firm is altruistically fighting our local government for property rights rather than the hefty legal fees it collects by the hour from PALCO and Sierra Pacific. Their legal opinion on TPZ isn’t worth anywhere near what they are getting for it but they are liars for hire.
Peace be with you.
Isn’t uncle Robby on our side? Didn’t he file a law suit on behalf of us little guys?
And Charlie has never done anything to run a company into the ground. That 1970 Security fraud charge he plead guilty to was just a fluke. And that 1975 bankruptcy of Summit Insurance Company of NY which he ended up with an Insurance fraud ruling which cost him $400,000 in 1979 was also a fluke. And his buddy Michael Milken who helped him leverage McCulloch Oil Corporation, Simplicity Pattern Co, Maxxam, Kaiser Aluminum and PL with junk bonds really wasn’t a crook – he was just misunderstood. And when Chuck gained control of United Savings Association of Texas after Reagan’s deregulation of the S&L industry he didn’t have any idea that changing people’s savings deposits into Junk bonds would hook the U.S. taxpayers for a 1.6 Billion dollar S&L bailout. And we can’t really blame Hurwitz for Maxxam’s 20 month lock out of it’s Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation’s employees to force a benefit cut in 1988. Or even Kaisers sell back of public electricity for a half million dollar profit from the government when Kaiser shut it’s doors in 2000.
How could even the most radical envromentalist talk bad about Hurwitz when he took over PL – what the Seattle times called “a family-owned California company that had carefully husbanded its timber supply.” I mean what with junk bonds high rate of interest massive clear-cuts were the only way to look out for the best interest of Humboldt county residents. Sure, he knew from the get-go he was going to walk away with millions while we lost our sacred old growth redwood forests, but hey, at least the silted up rivers are warmer.
Anyone who is butt buddy with Tom DeLay, Michael Milkin, and George W. Bush clearly has nothing but the best interest of the people of this county, state and nation in mind.
We should dunked Hurwitz in molasses and covered him in feathers just to show our appreciation.
love eternal
tad
I like New Tad. Holier-than-thou has been replaced with piss-and-vinegar. He could be Robin to Heraldo’s Batman.
Warm rivers are nice Tad. Those damned fish should just evolve!
Great reporting, Heraldo. Keep up the good work.
“reporting” ha ha, good one, hucktunes.
Has anyone noticed that for years Wendy Butler has been their Arts and Entertainment editor? She’s a local artist and even has an art-oriented radio show on KHSU.
You tell me exactly what in the hell this broad knows about the PalCo story. How is it that all week she covers art shows and children’s plays and local theatre and film, but whenever they need a PalCo story, she writes it.
Get with it people– it’s 100% PR written up by Arkley’s people and with a “safe” reporter’s name slapped on it.
The ER is 100% total bullshit.
Heraldo I agree with you on many points. The interesting thing to me was that the ER actually put the government code sections in about TPZ. Anyone who takes the time to read it will see that the county is definitiely in the right. The whole point of TPZ was to stop the spread of urban sprawl into our forested areas including utilities not necessary for the harvest of timber. The oppositions line about a residence being a compatible use is not in the government code section. It is a residence or other structure necessary for timber production. You cannot just pull residence out of the sentence. If that was the intent, residences would have be listed as its own bullet point with no quantifiers. Residences already on TPZ land when this went into effect are nonconforming issues. The county’s in the right and should win this one.
really, please read the law. A compatible use is any that does not significantly detract from harvesting timber. SIGNIFICANT.
Idiots, the county will lose again in court, just like PL, and Tooby.
If you turn out to be correct, 8:16, we will simply take over and change the law. California’s early spanish land-grant holders found out about property rights, just like the catholic church in the England of Henry VIII.
Now it’s time for timber companies. GIMME that land!
This is old news, old in that Heraldo is continually talking smack about Palco and Arkley. I
I think I figured it out. Arkley and Heraldo went to Jr. High together, Arkley beat H. up and took his lunch money?
8:16, if that were the case then don’t you think there would be cases on file overturning the TPZ policies in those Counties which require some kind of conditional use permit? Lassen County doesn’t allow resdences in TPZ at all. Seems like a lawsuit just waiting to happen, and yet…
Barnum and MoFo are dishing BS with a big shovel. Their ‘interpretation’ is so shallow, self-serving and flat-out wrong that it’s laughable.
Arkley didn’t beat anybody up in junior high. I don’t know if he himself got beat up, but he sure was a nerd who got disrespected plenty. That’s part of his problem. He’s never been able to overcome his feelings of inadequacy and self hate and anger toward others.
Yep, like I believe you knew Arkley in school. Stick to tangible facts, like what’s being printed in the newspaper. Today’s Thanksgiving quotes were pretty repugnant. Any non-Republicans quoted?
That’s a crock about Arkley in school. Some of us actually knew him in high school and college. You nuts will think up anything to make sense of your feelings about him.
I like how the ER trotted out Jerry Partain out to give a “fair and balanced” perspective of the TPZ issue.
The pro-spying-on-Americans editorial really takes the cake. That’s very simply un-American and spits in the face of every American who has served our country.
I never thought that I’d miss the nuanced touch of Glenn Franco Simmons in the editorial section.
Sniff.
By the way, TPZ belongs to a class of abbreviations known as initialisms. For example, snafu is a military acronym (Situation Normal All Fucked Up), and is pronounced as a word.
TPZ is an initialism, like UN, (United Nations), and consists of initial letters pronounced separately.
You’re right on both counts (Franco Simmons and initialisms).
Perhaps Arkley realized he wasn’t fooling anyone with his newsletter and decided to truly make it the Arkley Repeater.
8:35 –
Those counties were like that in the beginning, not changing in the middle. The false statement heraldo & co keeps repeating is the we need to get compliant with state law when in reality the state delegated this authority to the county, as long as the use does not “SIGNIFICANTLY DETRACT” from harvesting timber. Keep spouting the bullshit, though. The people in TPZ have a letter and handout from the county stating that a home is a compatible use. Ever heard of “Vested Rights” ? If the county changes this, it will be Tooby Ranch all over again, except it will be many, many people and not just a few. They will lose, again, only bigger this time. I have not seen any of you fools come up with a decent argument to counter these facts, only more bullshit slinging.
Well, Robash, Partain is certainly well qualified to speak on the issue, regardless of whether you agree with him or not…
Peace be with you.
Let’s see if I have an aganda and get appointed to a commitee or board to get my aganda through, then does that make me “well qualified to speak on the issue?” Does that mean Hitler was well qualified to speak on Jewish human rights?
Hmmm, this changes everything.
love eternal
tad
Yo is right. Jerry, whether you agree with him or not, was the HEAD (not appointed to a committee) of the Calif Dept of Forestry, right? So, he would have significant knowledge of the TPZ issue. Not that I agree with him on most issues, or his methods to convey his message.
What exactly did Partain say that was so enlightening?
“As to whether a house is “necessary” for timber harvest or not” he said, there is no reason why a house would interfere.”
It is odd that people are endorsing Partain’s expertise and knowledge of TPZ when he really didn’t say anything about the interpretation of the law or its intent as written. His bone of contention is, as always, the onerous regulations for timber harvests. You know, those regulations that didn’t stop harvests on slopes so steep they failed and slid into people’s houses. Those regulations that didn’t stop cutting right up to the banks of streams and rivers, removing the shade needed to keep them cool enough for fish to survive and causing silting in of creeks. We don’t need no stinkin regulations! Good old Jerry hasn’t changed a bit.
The head of CDF is an appointed position just like an appointed position to a committee only done at a higher level.
Supreme court justices are appointed as well. Many high level positions apparently are.
nice reporting, heraldo. thanks for making the ER so much more entertaining.
correct me if i am wrong, but did i not read somewhere that several other north-coast counties (mendo was named, i think) have significantly more restrictive TPZ policies than humboldt county? seeing as those have survived the test of time, it follows that any humboldt county change of policy that becomes similarly restrictive will also survive court challenge.
as far as uses that “significantly detract from timber harvesting,” i don’t know of many people that live in a house on a forested parcel that also regularly log their own parcel. people who live in the wooded hills tend to like the looks of their trees and rarely choose to log them, nor to put up with the sounds and traffic of a harvest operation.
but hey! we can put that question to the test. i am currently working on a map of all timber harvests (thps) filed in humboldt county and we’ll be able to clearly see how many are occurring on forested land with residential dwellings.
Jane Doe and Heraldo – don’t want to SIGNIFICANT argument, do you?
strike “to”, add “A”
I did not know Arkley in high school or college. But I have known him as an adult and I think he is one of weirdest and most repugnant people I have ever met.
He can also be very nice.
12:29 –
keep in mind that trees are 50 year crops, so make sure your mapping goes back far enough to consider the lands that were logged and replanted 45 years ago. As to your “other county” point, please see my 11:13 post. Those counties started out with those rules, unlike Humboldt.
Second 12:29, you misread the purpose of this blog. It serves the same purpose as press releases. A lot of reporters read this blog, so Heraldo gets his viewpoint across to a lot of people in the media. The point isn’t to host a cogent debate on the issues, but to directly influence how the public debate is framed. That’s why commenters here are so ridiculously fervent to support Heraldo’s viewpoint (even when he stretches the bounds of credulity on occasion).
Fuck Jerry Partain !
You got to love a guy who goes around constantly spewing anti-governmental rhetoric who has also made his living on the public dime his entire adult life…
When he starts mailing back his fat public pension checks then I’ll start taking him serious.
Nice, Rob…you frame the debate nicely…
You disagree with him, so, in your words, “fuck” him…
Like it or not, he has a great deal of expertise in the matter, whether or not you agree with him.
More than likely he has a great deal more expertise in it than you, from his years as a forestry professor at HSU, as well as the other boards he served on both at the local and state level…
I do share your view regarding his (and others like Leo Sears) who have destroyed the Humboldt Taxpayers League by with his hypocritical “anti-governmental rhetoric” though…
Attention Remedial English Teacher,
I made a boo boo on the my last post…it MUST therefore invalidate everything I said, right?
Of course the ER would have been totaly fair and balanced if they would have given ample space for Mark Lovelace or Greg King to spout their propaganda. How dare they go against the hallowed wisdom of the pc crowd! Unwashed mob!
Mark Lovelace and other “left” leaning authors write guest opinions to the ER and they are published. I would imagine G. King would as well if he submitted one.
So apparently the Partain cheerleaders don’t have any specifics about what he said in the article. They just want to talk in generalities about Partain as if he had endorsed their interpretation of the TPZ law which he did not. He said he didn’t think houses would interfere with timber harvests, not that they were legal under state law. He went on to state that it was regulations of timber harvests that were the real problem.
A government appointment usually means you are known to have a certain view that is favored by the entity doing the appointing. Partain’s appointments were because he has always been a timber industry puppet they could count on to make decisions in their favor. His anti-regulation view on timber harvests is a prime example.
Well, Janedoe,
If you are trying to frame me as a “partain cheerleader” you are sadly mistaken; I’ve never even commented on the TPZ issue…
What I will say, and will continue to say is that Partain more than likely has much more experience in this than you, me or Robash…
Yes, Jane, I’m sure that Partain taught Forestry up at HSU for decades had nothing to do with him being appointed…it was alllll about the politics.
Partain’s main expertise is helping himself at the public trough.
He’s perfectly happy to enrich himself on the backs of the taxpayers
He just bitterly resents it when the government might want to spend any money to help anyone else.
In his declining years, Jerry Partain reaps the fruits of collective bargaining, civil service protection and a lavish package of perks and bennies all courtesy of the California taxpayer.
Does he want anyone else to share in his good fortune?
Absolutely not,
If you think I’m being harsh on Jerry I suggest you read some of his op-eds in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to get a true gauge of his callousness , misanthropy and all around assholishness.
Really, why should little kids have to do without school books just so ol’ Jer’ can go on umpteen luxury vacations.
I’ve heard Republicans go for the stern daddy figures but Jerry Partain is the original self indulgent daddy
I don’t like paying taxes any more than anyome else But if I have to I’d rather but I’d rather see see the money go to someone who needs help rather that this parasitic old puff -o-flatulence.
I’m not at all happy about the fact that I am obligated support this prick in lavish style while he is advocating policies that are harmful to me and my family.
Fuck Jerry Partain.
Partain’s anti-regulation views were well known because of his HSU forestry position. He worked closely with the timber industry throughout his long career. His anti-regulation views were favored by the industry and certain politicians and that is why he was appointed to agencies charged with overseeing the timber industry.
Apparently his vast experience wasn’t enough to understand the end results of his anti-regulation agenda that environmentalists warned about beforehand. The timber harvest plans these people approved, along with industry fraud, allowed cutting in areas unsuitable and resulted in damage to rivers and other people’s property and secondarily to the timber supply and our economy.
Yeah, that about sums up Jerry. He can be a good guy and is kind of family-traditional oriented, but I think he is absolutely against anyone less fortunate getting a leg up. He really can get the whole neighborhood together against the local school when they need a new gym or the decrepid buildings repaired. He hates waste , which is commendable, but he really does not look at the whole picture. This is true of liberals as well.
Peace be with you.
How can anyone say that Heraldo can “influence how the public debate is framed?” If this was a paper like the Distorter, the Slanderer, the Urinal, or the Lie I could see your point. But in an open forum if you can frame it different then get on with your bad self.
Also you learn such interesting things on this blog. I never knew that “assholishness” was a word, and what a great word it is.
Love eternal
tad
do you hate all the papers, Tad?
first post is the best post. ER got it right . heraldo and crew are wrong as usual.
That really is an interesting choice for a url.
Peace be with you.
Just because something is wrong doesn’t mean I hate it! I don’t hate papers; I just don’t trust them. They lie, distort, slander, and aren’t worth pissing on. I read a lot of papers, but I don’t reread the same AP articles in the NY times and the Washington Post. I dislike Arkley’s three days of far right conservative idiotorals countered with one day of not so far right ones. I take great offence at Hoover’s bigoted “police log.” The staff editorials are written by editors who opinion leans more towards the upper 2%’s point of view, then the bottom 2%’s.
But, as to your question, I never open up a paper and believe I am getting fair, balanced and truthful information. It’s not that papers aren’t sometimes fair or balanced or truthful, it is that that is not the standard by which the press lives. Plus I know how papers lie about me. To believe I am the one special case singled out for attack seems just a little too much assholishness even for scoops.
I do kinda like the Anderson Valley Advertiser, but I still don’t trust it. Reserch the facts for yourself is my advise.
love eternal
tad
Peace be with you.
Stop! Stop! Stop! I meant research it for yourself. Reserch is Texan for ask Hurwitz, and that I don’t mean.
love eternal
tad
Rose,
Logging and fishing may be all but dead but I think we may disagree as to why. I believe they can be resusitated but not immediately.
I think that unsustainable industrial logging played a huge role in the near death of the fisheries. And I think that unsustainable logging, by nature, cannot last long. If there were no environmental protections whatsoever what would stop PL or Greendiamond from taking every tree big enough to mill? Greendiamond foresters constantly repeat that clearcutting is their preffered method of logging. Do you think they are in it for the long haul?
I equate the production of worthless sapwood with the fast growing young trees following clearcutting. If there was much more shade and the rotations were at least twice as long than the current 40 year rotation standard of Greendiamond then a higher quality product would be produced here. That’s not what GD or Maxxam wants though, they want to mow it as fast as they can.
The value of our regions Redwood forests has been plundered and it will be a long while before it can recover, especially at the rate that Greendiamond is clearcutting. I believe they are maximizing short term profits at the expense of the future.
I think we can’t give up on timber production as a means of survival. Unfortunatly those who have been running the show don’t have our best interests in mind. I think we need more local control, more NTMP’s, more PTEIRs and PTHP’s. Less expensive logging plan preparation coupled with lighter impact logging methods. More mobile mills. More value added products leaving the county and less raw log exports. Fish habitat restoration and fuel reduction projects funded with grant money that employs local people, not just people who move here specifically for restoration work. More fixing of roads and more large capacity water storage (for the sake of fish and fire safety).
Less community infighting and petty sniping on blogs. More solution oriented discussions.
More grass fed beef, more fences keeping cows out of creeks, more elk, more hunting, more eco-tourism.
I’m all for “jobs”or employment if they mean long term survival. But I’m against buisnesses like Maxxam/PL that plunder the land for short term gain with a “we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it” attitude about the future.
Peace sounds so creepy when Tad says it.
WordPress is confusing me. Why do comments sometimes appear right away and other times don’t appear for a while?
The lengthy 10:03 was for the Campbell post. oops.
That happens when you get caught up in Heraldo’s spam filter. Say too many conservative catch phrases and Mr. H embargoes your ass.
You’re half right, 1:14. Sometimes the spam filter goes on overdrive for no explicable reason. It also holds comments with three or more links since multiple links are often a sign of spam.
If I didn’t have a filter we’d be inundated with ads for viagra and Britney Spears. And turning off the filter isn’t an option. WordPress won’t let you.
Viagra and Britney Spears would be preferable to some of the political football posts we see here.
This is one of those times where it is so good to have Heraldo’s eye and keyboard (ok and brain) at the ready. Thanks for speaking up on this crappy ER reporting. It is astoundingly irresponsible for them to just quote liberally from Ned Washburn’s script without mentioning his long, well-paid history of being PL’s mouthpiece.
Be reassured though — just because Ned makes over 600 bucks an hour to keep the redwood money spigot open for Hurwitz doesn’t mean he is right or that he will win in court. In one memorable case, he did win for PL in the local courts (very capably managing to persuade a local judge that was a former PL attorney that poor PL was being mistreated), but he sure lost big time in both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. Can’t find the full opinion right now, but you can still read about it at: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/01/30/17993361.php
Thanks, Observer.
What’s even worse than the Eureka Reporter’s half-assed reporting of this situation was that KMUD regurgitated it on tonight’s news! Freakin’ word-for-word Wendy Butler bullcrap without nary a mention that Washburn represents PL and SPI.
Maybe it’s news to KMUD that the ER is a propaganda rag, especially when it comes to Arkley’s pet projects, but honestly — WTF?
it was obvious to the casual listener that SOMEone paid the lawyer to write the letter, but the reporters didn’t seem to notice that part.
Or perhaps the reporter was paid not to notice. Wendy Butler is either intentionally working to dumb down her readers, or she’s a fool who doesn’t know how to Google. And KMUD — woe is you.
From today’s ER
http://www.eurekareporter.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ArticleID=31190
Through some research, The Eureka Reporter discovered Washburn’s firm as of Oct. 11 had served as special litigation and regulatory counsel to Pacific Lumber Co., Scotia Pacific Co. LLC and Salmon Creek LLC as is evidenced on a document that is part of the files for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Corpus Christi.
Do you suppose her research included your blog?
I suspect that had something to do with it. Google would have saved the ER from having to make a correction, no matter how embarrassing.
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