Blog Jammin’
www.northcoastjournal.com/blogthing READ FULL POSTS AND SEE PHOTOS AT
ELECTIONS / BY CARRIE PEYTON DAHLBERG / OCT. 16, 9:48 A.M.
received similar letters. These federal crackdowns on state lawabiding dispensaries run counter to public statements by President Barack Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder. But, as noted by The Huffington Post, the judge wouldn’t allow Sandusky to use those statements in his defense. Sandusky’s sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 7.
Give Us the Slime, the Lies …
REDWOOD ACRES
FLEA MARKET Sunday, October 21 8am-3pm
Redwood Acres Fairground
... the wretched masses from your election-teeming mailbox. Because we’re hunting for the most scurrilous, most distorted campaign material making the rounds in Humboldt. It’s a contest! When you see a campaign whopper, drop it off at our office at 310 F. St. in Old Town Eureka, with a little note about what you think is misleading or downright false. You’ll get extra points if you cite sources and include URLs where we can research the truth. And we’ll need your real name, address and phone number so we can contact the winners. Or fax the ad(s) and your note to us at 442-1401. Or take a picture of the offending material, with good enough resolution that we can read all the fine print, and email it with your comments to editor@northcoastjournal.com. Put “election ad contest” in the subject line. We’ll post some of the worst offenders on our blog between now and Election Day. (Don’t worry, we won’t put up your address or phone number — just your name and the city you live in.) And we’ll crown the grand prize winner, the Supreme Spotter of Sleaze, soon after the election. The fine print: Just keep it Humboldt. We’re looking for the worst of the worst that’s being circulated here, in our community. But the topic can be any issue on the November ballot — local, state or national — as long as the campaign material lands here. Mostly we’re expecting mailers, but if you want to send us locally aired audio or video or other media, go right ahead.
Admission Fee: 50¢ After 9am Kids 12 & Under FREE Early Birds $2
OBITS / BY ANDREW GOFF / OCT. 15, 3:22 P.M.
For Reservations Call Dayton (707) 822.5292
A memorial sprang up in front of the Clarke Musuem soon after Eureka resident John Tutuska died on Sunday. The endearing, highly visible Old Town character could often be seen shirtless and deep in meditation in front of the museum. Here is what the Journal’s Heidi Walters wrote when she declared him “Best Old Town Sunbather” in our 2010 Best Of Humboldt issue: The sun comes out — when it comes out, oh, praise the sun! — and out comes John Tutuska. Skinny legs in baggy jeans cinched tight. Sandaled feet smoothbrown. Bare torso, creased arms and serene face baked to madrone. Tutuska sits in a chair or stands beside it — a dark,
northcoastjournal
@ncj_of_humboldt
Old Town Sunbather John Tutuska Has Died
10 NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, OCT. 18, 2012 • northcoastjournal.com
COMMERCE, ECONOMY, HOUSING / BY RYAN BURNS / OCT. 12, 5:22 P.M.
In August, Homebuyers Won JOHN TUTUSKA IN 2010 PHOTO BY HEIDI WALTERS
still exclamation against the white, white, eye-shattering white wall of the Clarke Museum. Ah, but he does not worship the sun. He is not here to work on his tan. “My primary purpose is to meditate,” says the gentle Tutuska. “The sun serves as a jump start to the light within.” You understand, don’t you? The light glowing in the closed eyelids? “And once you find the light within, that’s all you have to do. That’s where your social questions get answered. That’s where all your questions get answered. And that’s a place of true healing.” But why this place, this wall? Well, says he, when the wind is blowing off the water, this is the warmest spot. Shop owners and workers in Old Town remembered Tutuska fondly on Monday, telling stories of his thoughtfulness and spirit. His cremation is being handled by Humboldt Cremation and Funeral Service. Update: His friends are planning a memorial for 11 a.m. Nov. 2 at Clarke Plaza, on E Street right across from the museum. COURTS, LAW, MARIJUANA / BY RYAN BURNS / OCT. 15, 1:41 P.M.
SoCal Dispensary Owner Could Face Life in Prison That’s correct: A cannabis dispensary owner could wind up serving the kind of prison term that’s typically reserved for society’s most heinous and violent criminals. Aaron Sandusky was operating three medical marijuana dispensaries in compliance with state law, but over the weekend a federal jury convicted him of a handful of drug-related charges that carry a minimum sentence of 10 years to life in prison, according to the L.A. Weekly. Last October, Sandusky received threatening letters from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, as did many other dispensaries across the state, as the Journal noted at the time. Local dispensary owners and their landlords have
“Now is a great time to buy a house,” a Realtor said every single day since the dawn of Realtors. And until The Great American Housing Bubble, they were usually right. Houses were good investments … until Wall Street started using them as tokens in its rigged casino games. The housing market has been out of whack for roughly a decade now (see chart below), but the latest numbers from the Humboldt Association of Realtors suggest that prices are settling back down to historical norms. And so, like broken clocks that waited patiently for the return of the hour hand, Realtors may once again be correct: Now just might be a great time to buy a house. Yesterday, the Humboldt Association of Realtors released its countywide stats for August home sales. Here’s where we stand: The median price of homes sold in Humboldt County was $220,390, which is where they seem to have plateaued. (The median has been within $20,000 of that mark for almost a year now.) Combine that value with a median household income of $45,409, plus a record-low mortgage rate of just 3.7 percent, and you get the most affordable monthly house payments in more than a decade. Let’s get specific: Say you purchased this hypothetical median-priced home in August, with the standard 20 percent down. Your monthly payment, including principal, interest, taxes and insurance, would be $1,048.45. And say that, by some remarkable coincidence, your household also happened to earn the county’s median household income. Your mortgage payments would eat up 28 percent of your income. When’s the last time house payments took such a small bite of local incomes? Go ahead and guess; we’ll wait. It was April 1999 — 13 years and four months ago. Between then and now, the local bubble peaked (in March 2006) with median-priced home selling for $349,500. The monthly payment on that home would have consumed more than two-thirds (67 percent) of the county’s median income. If you bought a house back then, condolences. But the rest of us can be grateful