Blog Jammin’ COMMUNITY / BY GRANT SCOTTGOFORTH / TUESDAY, SEPT. 3 AT 11:12 A.M.
Dog Abandoned on Samoa Beach Dies
One of three dogs found abandoned on Samoa beach last month died Friday. A veterinarian euthanized “Becky,” a black Labrador retriever, after discovering she was bleeding internally from invasive nasal cancer, the Sheriff’s Office reported. Veterinary records gathered by Animal Control indicate Becky had been experiencing symptoms since at least May 2012. “Angel” and “Ginger” — the other two dogs found near Fairhaven on Aug. 21, are healthy and awaiting adoption. Visit www.northcoastjournal.com/blogjammin for details on how to donate to the Friends for Life Emergency Medical Fund, which supplemented vet costs for Becky and other shelter dogs. ● EDUCATION / BY CARRIE PEYTON DAHLBERG / MONDAY, SEPT. 2 AT 12:05 P.M.
Illegal, Secret e-Meetings by School Trustees?
School district trustees may have broken the state’s public meeting law by exchanging emails about how to handle a plagiarized graduation speech by one of their own, the Arcata Eye and McKinleyville Press reported last week. The emails reveal a group of school board members eager to make the problem go away as quickly as possible, and some who suggested that fellow board member Dan Johnson’s speech at Arcata High wasn’t really all that bad, even though it lifted passages from a well-known speech that some students sitting in his audience had studied. The article by the Eye’s Kevin Hoover, based on public records requests for the emails, is full of fascinating nuggets and raises more questions about how the Northern Humboldt Union High School District conducts its business. References are made to Johnson consulting a lawyer and to communications that were not released. Interestingly, the trustees’ long silence during public complaints about Johnson’s speech appears to have been endorsed or encouraged by Humboldt County Superintendent of Schools Garry Eagles. When board member Colleen Toste wrote him on June 28 asking how to handle media coverage, he replied that “absolutely no statement from anyone is appropriate under the circumstances” except from Johnson, if he chooses. Some of the exchanges included enough board members or were passed along to
enough board members to constitute “a virtual quorum,” Hoover wrote, which could run afoul of the Brown Act’s ban on most secret meetings by school boards and other public bodies. Through the entire affair, school board members emailed a lot about damage control but nothing about what Hoover called “the glaring double standard in the way Johnson has been coddled and excused for his plagiarism, undermining teachers’ ability to credibly teach students that cheating is unacceptable and punishable.” ● GOVERNMENT / BY GRANT SCOTTGOFORTH / FRIDAY, AUG. 30 AT 5:08 P.M.
Liberate Your Growler
Freedom to enjoy your favorite beer — that’s Wes Chesbro’s (D — North Coast) vision of California. He’s calling for Gov. Jerry Brown to end the persecution against owners of growlers — those 64-ounce beer bottles — who just want a refill. Growlers are an increasingly popular way to get fresh-brewed craft beer home. Even in the North Coast’s burgeoning brewery market, some beermakers decline to bottle their specialty beers (or any of it), meaning the only way to enjoy it is in a glass, on the town. Resealable growlers give tipplers the ability to bring those suds home, or to the neighbor’s barbecue. Growlers have been around, but confusing alcohol laws prohibited a brewery from filling a growler unless it was permanently branded with that brewery’s label. The legislation Chesbro is championing (beer, apparently, is a unifying force, as the bill was co-authored by Republican State Senator Steve Knight) would make it OK for brewers to fill any growler, as long as the now-laden vessel was properly labeled and showed no signs of its former contents. ● COMMUNITY / BY GRANT SCOTTGOFORTH / FRIDAY, AUG. 30 AT 11:16 A.M.
Un-occupy the Courthouse
Crews from Humboldt Bay Fire evacuated the courthouse this morning when an elevator motor apparently started spewing smoke into the building. A few Sheriff’s Office deputies waiting outside said they smelled strong smoke on the first floor of the courthouse before the building was emptied. Firefighters found the source of the smoke and were preparing to use fans and the building’s exhaust system to clear the elevator shaft around 10:45 a.m. ●
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PHOTO BY JAMIE ASHDON
FRIVOLITY / BY GRANT SCOTT-GOFORTH / TUESDAY, AUG. 27 AT 6:53 P.M.
Have Horse, Will Travel
Friend of the Journal Jamie Ashdon snapped this photo of two urban ungulates chillin’ near Ampt Skate Shop in Arcata today. Jamie succinctly captioned the scene on his own Facebook page: “Umm...” Not sure how the fuel economy stacks up against Arcata’s bevy of alterna-transport like buses, electric cars, bikes and skateboards — or if it’s worth facing that slew of traffic on horseback. Emissions are a whole ’nother story. ● COMMUNITY / BY EMILY HAMANN / WEDNESDAY, AUG. 28 AT 12:11 P.M.
Power Outage at CR
Class was cancelled from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the main campus of College of the Redwoods today, due to an electrical problem that occurred this morning. Power went out in several buildings, and in order to correct the problem, power was turned off throughout the campus. The power went back on at 1:45 p.m. ● ENVIRONMENT / NATURAL RESOURCES / POSTED BY GRANT SCOTT-GOFORTH / WEDNESDAY, AUG. 28 AT 4:47 P.M.
EPIC Pooh-poohs Poisons
Following on the heels of the somewhat high-profile report this week that poisonlaced hot dogs killed a fisher at a Humboldt County grow in July, the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) says it’s campaigning to get rat poison off of local shelves. EPIC says it’s trying to convince retailers to voluntarily ban the sale of “second generation anticoagulant rodenticides” like d-CON. County supes passed a resolution in May urging the same, to the consternation of one poison-industrial-complex rep. It’s not just irresponsible growers using these toxins that put people at risk, EPIC says, though it cites a study in its press release that says 80 percent of fishers found dead by researchers between 2006 and 2011 had been exposed to rodenticides. (The July fisher — the first confirmed intentional
poisoning of a fisher — was determined to have died from insecticides, though rodenticides were also found in its system.) Residences and businesses should also seek alternatives, EPIC says. “We don’t have to poison our families and wildlife to live and work in rural Northwest California.” Read the full release at www.northcoastjournal.com/blogjammin. ● MARIJUANA / BY GRANT SCOTTGOFORTH / WEDNESDAY, AUG. 28 AT 11:47 A.M.
Stream-sucking Grows Busted
Two busts east of Garberville yesterday turned up just the kind of ecological havoc that’s been infuriating environmentalists and getting the attention of our Congressman. Along with the usual guns, greenhouses and greenbacks ($198,000 at one property) Fish and Wildlife say they found pumps draining Mattole Canyon Creek, sucking up salmon and steelhead smolt, and leaking oil on the riverbed. When officers arrived at one bust, on the 1800 block of Dutyville Road, “they located two people at the residence, Bruce Wayne Turner, 63 years old and his 56-year-old girlfriend. Officers located a pump in Mattole Canyon Creek which was being used to pump water to the marijuana plants the couple was growing,” the Sheriff’s Office reported. “Officers located 877 growing marijuana plants located in two greenhouses on the property. The plants ranged in size from approximately 8 inches to 6 feet. They also located approximately $198,000 in cash, scales and evidence the marijuana was being sold for profit. Turner was arrested for cultivation and possession for sale of marijuana, allowing a place for drugs to be stored (all felonies) and Fish and Wildlife code violations for altering a streambed without a permit and polluting a streambed (both misdemeanors). He was transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility where he was booked and his bail was set at $50,000. Turner’s girlfriend was not arrested due to health issues. Charges are being sought against her through the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office.” Read the full press release at www.northcoastjournal.com/blogjammin. ●
northcoastjournal.com • NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, SEPT. 5, 2013
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