Blog Jammin’ HINTERLANDS, SHOW BIZ / BY HEIDI WALTERS / APRIL 23, 12:23 P.M.
Reality TV Goes Off the Grid There’s no rule that says just because you’re living off the grid taming emus and stuff, you can’t be On Television. Now’s your chance to show off your superior living style — or share it with us generously. Red Varden Studios has issued a casting call for participants in a reality show: “We are now casting a large community, family or romantic couple that resides anywhere in the United States and lives OFF THE GRID.” Details are on our website. ●
STEWART STREET RESERVOIR. PHOTO BY FRANK RAMOS.
COMMUNITY, CONSTRUCTION / BY HEIDI WALTERS / APRIL 23, 10:32 A.M.
Goodbye, Sweet Reservoir Residents of the pretty little hilltop dead end of Stewart Street, in Fortuna, are bracing themselves for a prolonged construction disruption: Preparations for the demolition of the two 500,000 gallon reservoirs on their street, to be followed by construction of a new, 2 million gallon tank , may begin as soon as this Friday. Stewart Street resident Steve Brackenbury — a frequent contributor to the Journal‘s poetry page, btw — said the city had told neighbors that they’d get a month’s notice before demolition begins. However, a notice posted on the city of Fortuna’s website Friday notes the schedule has been sped up so the work can be finished in the allotted construction period. Neighbors, who were told the news Saturday, can attend a meeting at 6
Day, the Annenberg Foundation has launched a live HD video feed of panda cubs frolicking at the Bifengxia Panda Reserve in China. So full screen that bizness! It makes folding laundry way more bearable. UPDATE 11:03 a.m.: Oh snap! Two baby pandas are rolling around! Ahh!!! UPDATE 11:09 a.m.: Ack! That littlest one is using its paws to hold the piece of bamboo it’s eating! My gawd! UPDATE 11:15 a.m.: Holy Moses, one climbed a tree! This is insane!
p.m. Wednesday in the council chambers to talk about the project. The tanks’ demise has been in the works for years. The project was part of a lengthy, multifaceted battle over where a new water tank should go, and whether a new tank was even needed. First the city staff wanted to put the new tank in the city’s forest, a secondgrowth redwood retreat in the city’s lush Rohner Park. Dismayed residents wrestled that one down. So then the city said it could tear down the two old reservoirs on Stewart Street — a leaking 100-year-old rectangular boringness, and an architecturally warm and pleasing 75-year-old conical reservoir that makes one think that Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk has lost his hat. It’s cute on the outside. It’s pretty inside with its soaring wood latticework. It works. The city reasons it needs new storage to replace the leaking rectangular tank and to meet the fire suppression and build-out needs of Fortuna. At least one resident — thorn-in-the-city’sside Janelle Egger (who famously sued the city for public records, ran for city council and lost, and these days has been seen hanging out with Occupy Eureka in front of the Courthouse) — says another tank on Vancil, plus the conical tank, should more than cover the city’s needs. The city’s engineers won that one. So now: the pending death of the conical wonder on Stewart Street, and its replacement with one of those functional modern flattops.
Surely it’s been a wonderful Godwit Days so far — rare larkspur sightings, perhaps a Scroobius Pip spotted lurking in the marsh. But there’s been grave talk, as well, among the bird folk. Did you hear? As many as 20,000 waterfowl may have died in the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge since February, victims of avian cholera. The tragedy has been in the news for weeks. Most reports note how the bird deaths heighten the already contentious atmosphere surrounding negotiations between farmers, fishermen, tribes and environmentalists over Klamath River water rights and plans to take out four dams to restore the river. As the Capitol Press put it, the bird deaths “have fueled the latest round of posturing over a landmark water-sharing agreement.” Today’s S.F. Chronicle continues the narrative, quoting U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Matt Braun as saying that more birds than normal migrated through this spring at a time when only about half the refuge had water. The birds crowded into the wet places where they more easily spread the disease.
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● BIRDS/ BY HEIDI WALTERS / APRIL 21, 11:11 P.M.
Cry, Godwitters
ANIMALS / BY ANDREW GOFF / APRIL 22, 11:02 A.M.
BUSINESS / BY RYAN BURNS / APRIL 21, 1:55 P.M.
Adorable Earth Day!
Wal-Mart Accused of Bribery Cover-up in Mexico
Happy Earth Day, HumCo! If you’re just bumming around your domicile on this fine Sunday morning like I am, you might as well enhance it by throwing on the most pukingly, snuggly screen saver in the cosmos: Baby Panda Cam! That’s right! To commemorate Earth
As opening day approaches for Eureka’s Wal-Mart, a story in today’s New York Times shows just how far the biggest of big box retailers will go in its “relentless pursuit of growth.” The exhaustive story (this sucker clocks
in at nearly 8,000 words) reports widespread bribery of government officials by executives of Wal-Mart de Mexico. A whistleblower says that the company engaged in an orchestrated bribery campaign “to obtain permits in virtually every corner of the country.” When Wal-Mart’s U.S. leaders were informed that Mexican and U.S. laws had likely been broken, they took a willfully blind, half-assed approach to an internal investigation, the story reports. A former executive of Wal-Mart de Mexico says the bribes “targeted mayors and city council members, obscure urban planners, low-level bureaucrats who issued permits — anyone with the power to thwart Wal-Mart’s growth.” In 1999, Wal-Mart tried and failed to convince Eureka voters to support a zoning change on the so-called Balloon Track property. Its entry to the Bayshore Mall required no such zoning change or voter approval. ● MARIJUANA / BY HEIDI WALTERS / APRIL 20, 4:39 P.M.
Locally Nuglicious Featured today in Nug Magazine, under the title “Eat Your Medicine! ‘The Cannabis Gourmet Cookbook,’” is a review by local scribe Sharon Letts of a new cookbook by chef Cheri Sicard. Letts tried a recipe herself (“Mini Pineapple Upside-Down Cakes”). She also got local chef Lauren Sarabia to perform some of the recipes and comment. Sarabia is owner of Comfort of Home Catering and co-author of the cookbook “Locally Delicious: Recipes and Resources for Eating on the North Coast.” (Disclosure: Sarabia puts on a fine wedding banquet — nug-free, in my case.) Writes Letts: “Using all local and organic ingredients, [Sarabia] prepared ‘Cornish Game Hens with Peach, Sausage, and Rice Stuffing,’ with a side dish of ‘Over-Stuffed TwiceBaked Potatoes.’” Letts quotes Sarabia saying the recipes are easy to prepare and designed to hide the yucky green flavor (OK, she doesn’t say “yucky”), and that the ingredients are a cinch to obtain. And afterward, says Sarabia according to Letts: “That night sleep came easily.” ●
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northcoastjournal.com • NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2012
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