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April 1, 2004
CDF LOSING GRIP: A state appeals
court issued a ruling last week that says state water officials
can protect rivers threatened by logging operations independent
of regulation by the California Department of Forestry. The decision
overturns a ruling by Humboldt County Judge J. Michael Brown,
who, at Pacific Lumber's behest, barred the North Coast Regional
Water Quality Control Board from requiring monitoring of water
quality in the Elk River. Palco contended that that amounted
to double regulation, but the appeals court said that was precisely
what the Legislature intended: "The Legislature has established
one statutory scheme for the regulation of timber harvesting
and another for the maintenance of water quality," wrote
Justice Linda M. Gemello of the 1st District Court of Appeals
in San Francisco. The appeals court ruling comes several months
after Gray Davis, in one of his last acts as governor, gave regional
water quality boards veto power over timber harvest permits issued
by the forestry department.
BIG BUCKS FOR BUCKHORN: Rep. Mike
Thompson announced last week that a House of Representatives
committee had earmarked $8 million in transportation funding
for the Buckhorn Summit project. Humboldt County officials and
business leaders have been touting the rebuilding of the Buckhorn
stretch of Highway 299, between Redding and Weaverville, as a
key to economic development; currently, the treacherous section
of road is the only thing keeping large, industry-standard big
rigs from coming into the county from the east. The full House
is expected to approve the transportation bill on Thursday or
Friday, after hammering out details with the Senate and the White
House.
CORONADO STRIKES AGAIN:
Rod Coronado -- the Earth First!
activist who last year touched down on the North Coast long enough
for Pacific Lumber to brand him as an "eco-terrorist"
-- was arrested last week in Arizona. Coronado was in the Tucson
area opposing a plan to relocate mountain lions from Sabino Canyon
National Recreation Area to a "rehabilitation facility."
"We will risk arrest if necessary, because six months' imprisonment
is nothing compared to the life imprisonment that these lions
face," Coronado told a Tucson reporter. He ended up getting
arrested, for trespassing -- video camera in hand -- into a part
of the canyon that rangers had temporarily closed off to the
public. Coronado's efforts were not in vain, as rangers announced
on Monday that the relocation effort would be suspended. A writer
for Esquire magazine who is preparing an article on the
swashbuckling environmentalist was arrested along with him.
HITCHING A RIDE? Former federal
counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke dominated newspaper headlines
nationwide last week, with the near-simultaneous publication
of his book -- a scathing attack on the Bush White House -- and
his appearance before the independent commission investigating
the Sept. 11 attacks. For Humboldt County residents, one disclosure
in Clarke's book, Against All Enemies, may be of particular
interest. Clarke writes that in 1999, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
learned that suspected Al Qaeda operatives were being smuggled
into the United States aboard tankers carrying liquefied natural
gas from Algeria to Boston. Last week, FBI officials responded
to the charge by saying that Clarke was only familiar with the
preliminary stages of the investigation, and that further inquiry
revealed that although several people did illegally enter the
United States aboard the tankers, they were not believed to have
Al Qaeda ties.
FINAL TALLY: Although it
was obvious on election night that DA Paul Gallegos had beaten
back the recall effort against him, the final, official tally
of results from the March 2 vote were not released until Monday,
almost a month later. In the interim, county elections staff
had to sort through and count some 3,100 absentee and provisional
ballots that were not included in the election night count. Monday's
final results showed that the recall's margin of defeat was a
tiny bit wider than everyone had thought -- it turns out that
61.43 percent of voters said no to the recall, as opposed to
the 61.21 percent that was reported on election night. And all
Humboldt County citizens, regardless of their stand on the recall,
can take pride in the fact the final calculations show that over
two-thirds of the county's registered voters turned out for the
election.
NEW LING COD LIMITS: New regulations
governing the recreational fishing of ling cod were issued by
the state Department of Fish and Game last week. Starting Thursday,
sport fishers will be allowed to take only one ling cod per day.
The minimum size for harvestable fish will increase from 24 to
30 inches, and the season will close for the months of November
and December. The new regulations are in response to continual
over-harvesting of the ling cod stock. According to Marci Yaremko,
senior biologist for the agency's Marine Regulatory Unit, there
was a federal catch target of 651 tons of ling cod for the entire
West Coast in 2003, but recreational fishermen in California
alone took in 1,000 tons of the fish. There is some good news
on the cod front. A federal assessment showed that stocks are
on the rebound, keeping up with and even exceeding their recovery
targets. "It's recovering quite well, and we will achieve
the level of rebuilding we have desired," Yaremko said.
"However, the portion of the stock that's in the southern
portion of the West Coast [off California] is still in an over-fished
condition." The new regulations do not affect commercial
fishing.
NEW POT BILL: There's a
new medical marijuana bill working its way through the state
Legislature. Senate Bill 1494, sponsored by medical marijuana
champion Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-San Jose), would amend last
year's medical marijuana legislation (SB 420) to ensure that
patients who choose not to sign up for a voluntary statewide
patient ID card program may still use marijuana for medical purposes.
SB 420 required patients to choose "primary caregivers"
-- people who provide them with marijuana -- that live within
the same city or county; the new bill would also allow caregivers
that live within 25 miles of the patient, which may be helpful
to those living near a county line.
HAMMOND TRAIL GRANT: The California
Coastal Conservancy has approved a $100,000 grant aimed at finally
completing the Hammond Trail. The money will pay for the Redwood
Community Action Agency to coordinate the planning and engineering
work necessary to close the 2,200-foot gap in the coastal trail
in McKinleyville. Another $500,000 is anticipated from the Coastal
Conservancy to complete the construction, said a representative
from State Sen. Wes Chesbro's office. The trail, which will be
5.5 miles upon completion, currently consists of two segments:
one from Clam Beach park to Letz Avenue, the other from Murray
Road to the Mad River.
KVIQ-TV BOUGHT: Chester Smith
started out picking cotton with his family in the Central Valley
of California and later became a successful guitar-playing country
western singer, performing with the likes of Buck Owens and Merle
Haggard, before turning his attention to business. He opened
his first television station in his home town of Modesto and
today owns stations in Sacramento, Chico, Redding and Bakersfield
in addition to Fox 29 and the Eureka affiliate for Spanish language
station, Univision. It was confirmed last week that Smith's company,
Sainte Partners, is also purchasing Eureka CBS affiliate KVIQ-TV
from the media giant Clear Channel Communications. Will the sale
mean the revival of KVIQ's local news department? KBVU Fox 29
General Manager Don Smullin said Tuesday he's under orders from
Clear Channel to say nothing more than, "We're in escrow,
pending FCC approval." In a related news item, escrow is
expected to close soon on the purchase of Eureka's ABC affiliate
station KAEF by BlueStone Television LLC of Wichita, Kan., from
Lamco Communications.
HELP! Faced with
a problem all too common in California these days, the directors
of the Arcata and Rooney-McKinleyville Children's Centers last
week sent out a plea for help. "Like so many small businesses
and nonprofits in the state, we are faced with an astronomical
increase in our workers' compensation rate -- over 87.5 percent
in one year!" read a letter from the directors to supporters
of the program. "We have been serving families for 27 years
and must continue to do so. Without the community's support,
however, we may not succeed." Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
and the state Legislature participated in marathon sessions last
week in an attempt to devise a compromise solution to the workers'
comp crisis. If they fail, Schwarzenegger has promised to take
an initiative to the voters in the fall. Meanwhile, the children's
center is conducting a fund-raising raffle to help ease their
financial plight, with more than 100 prizes donated by local
businesses and individuals up for grabs. For tickets, call 822-1423.
ANOTHER SCAM? A Fortuna
resident told police last week that someone from a company identified
as "CBI" had called to say the resident had won $200
in gasoline. The catch? The caller needed the "winner's"
bank account information. The wise resident refused. Police remind
residents never to give out personal or financial information
over the phone unless they initiate the call, and never to send
money to someone alleging they won a prize. Interestingly, Fortuna
Police Officer Matt Eberhardt said many of the telephone scams
come out of Canada. "They use the borders to their advantage,"
he said.
Tenants'
supporters rally against landlord
Once again, the focus is on Floyd
Squires III
by
EMILY GURNON
Humboldt County doesn't have
the rent control laws of a county like San Francisco, but it
does have one thing that has gotten tenants organized: Floyd
Squires III.
Squires -- and his allegedly
substandard rental buildings -- was to be the focus of a Tenants
Union of Humboldt County protest scheduled for Wednesday outside
the 211 Fifth St. offices of Humboldt Bay Properties, the landlord's
Eureka company.
His tenants and their supporters
have complained that Squires' buildings, which number two dozen
in Eureka, are plagued with roaches and rodents, broken heaters
and stoves, leaking water heaters, electrical hazards, and rotting
porches and stairs. The city's building department has a long
list of code violations against Squires.
"We've gotten more complaints
about Squires than any other landlord, about the substandard
conditions in his buildings," said Sarah Sherburn-Zimmer
of the Tenants Union.
The April 25, 2002 cover story
of the Journal, "A tenant's nightmare," documented
numerous allegations of problems and complaints at Squires' properties.
Reached at his office on Tuesday,
Squires said he knew nothing about the planned protest and called
the complaints "baloney."
"There are no health and
safety issues. Last year I spent $400,000 taking care of things."
He abruptly ended the conversation with a reporter, saying, "I
don't need to get into this any more. I have a business to run."
The conditions in Squires' apartments,
often inhabited by families with children, low income people,
the elderly and the disabled, are just one aspect of tenants'
concerns. The other problem, Sherburn-Zimmer said, is how the
landlord responds to complaints.
"Either he ignores it,
or, if you step it up, talk to your neighbors and all write a
letter together [for instance], that's when they're evicted or
harassed," she said. "Floyd and Betty Squires [his
wife] rent to people who are either low income or have a really
hard time finding something else," such as those with Section
8 low-income housing certificates.
That in itself is good, Sherburn-Zimmer
said. "But the reality is [the Squires'] take advantage
of that."
Though it is illegal to evict
someone just because they've asked for repairs, complained or
called the building department, such evictions are commonplace
and hard to fight in court, Sherburn-Zimmer said. "The burden
of proof is on the tenant to prove that they were retaliated
against. And it's really hard to prove you've been retaliated
against.
"You supposedly get your
day in court, but it's hard, because we can't get a lawyer to
represent you. There's not really anyone who will take on a tenant's
case locally."
The threat of retaliation is
so real, Sherburn-Zimmer continued, that Tenants Union organizers
have advised those living in Squires buildings to stay away from
the protest.
In letters to the building department,
responding to code violations, Squires has blamed the problems
on the tenants themselves.
"It is not dilapidation,"
he wrote in response to one city notice that cited roaches, broken
windows, rotted flooring and "general dilapidation."
"It is TENANT ABUSE."
Jan Turner, staff attorney with
Legal Services of Northern California, said that Squires is well
known in her office. "I have lots and lots of complaints
about him, for a lot of different things, and it's not only habitability,"
she said. She declined to elaborate, citing attorney-client privilege.
The Wednesday protest was an
effort, Sherburn-Zimmer said, to let tenants know they're not
alone. It was also intended to send a message to landlords to
let them know that they can't retaliate against tenants without
people noticing.
"You can't do this in secret
anymore," she said. "Tenants are organizing, and we're
not going to put up with it anymore."
The Tenants Union meets at 4:30
p.m. each Thursday at the Peace and Justice Center in Arcata,
and maintains a hotline for tenants: 476-1919.
A community forum for tenants
only is scheduled for 7 p.m. on April 15 at the Labor Temple,
840 E St., Eureka.
![[photo of State of California refund check for $1.00]](news0401-DMVcheck.jpg)
Thanks, Arnold
Gov. Schwarzenegger's first
act upon coming to power last fall was to sign Executive Order
No. 1, fulfilling a campaign promise to reverse an automatic
increase in the state's car tax. Now, a few months later, refund
checks made out to those who had already paid their registration
fees are beginning to show up in the mail. The owners of relatively
valuable vehicles, like say a $60,000 Humvee, may be receiving
sizeable refunds, but if your rig is a little on the old and
tired side the checks are decidedly unimpressive. The one here
is the overpayment due a Journal staffer, the proud owner
of a 1979 Volvo.
Jack
Hitt, co-founder of Northtown Books, dies
by BOB
DORAN
Jack Hitt, former owner of Northtown
Books, died March 25 at Mad River Hospital of liver failure.
He was 63.
Hitt was born Sept. 14, 1940
at Trinity Hospital in Arcata and raised in a house next door
to his father's shop on I Street, Humboldt Machine. After graduating
from Arcata High in 1958, he attended Humboldt State College,
as it was then called, before he and his sister Mary founded
The Lemon Tree, a short-lived combination coffee house, art gallery
and bookstore in Arcata. He left the area between 1964 and 1967
to work in a variety of jobs, including stints as an emergency
medical technician on ambulance crews in New York City and Kansas
City.
Upon his return to the North
Coast, he entered into another business partnership, this one
with Jerry Gorsline running The Bookstore in Northtown, later
re-named Northtown Books. In 1970 he became the sole owner of
the store, which by then had become a popular spot for discourse,
not to mention impressive literary events. Raymond Carver, Lawrence
Ferlinghetti and David Rains Wallace all gave readings, as did
just about any Humboldt County author who published a novel,
a chapbook, or even a broadsheet. He eventually moved the business
to a larger space in downtown Arcata and settled into an apartment
upstairs. In 1992 he sold the operation to two of his employees:
Art Burton and Barbara Turner.
The late artist Morris Graves,
left, talks with Jack Hitt at a booksigning at Northtown Books.
Date unknown.
"He was probably the first
person to bring books to Humboldt County," Turner said.
"He just had a ton of integrity. That guy, if he took on
a project, he was so thorough. He would spend time with people.
He really cared that they got the books they were looking for."
Hitt served his community in
other ways in addition to his dedication to the printed word.
When he was younger he was a volunteer fireman; from 1997 until
last September, he was a member of the Arcata Planning Commission.
Hitt is survived by his father,
George Hitt, of Bayside; his sisters Mary Anderson, of Arcata,
and Anne Hitt, of Trinidad; his brother Don Hitt, of Poughkeepsie,
N.Y.; and numerous nieces and nephews. A memorial service is
scheduled April 3 at Arcata Veteran's Hall, 1425 J St., from
2 to 5 p.m.
Watersheds,
burnt manzanita and 30,000 Salmon
story & photos by BOB DORAN
ENTERING
THE FIRST STREET GALLERY in Old Town on a drizzling grey afternoon,
I'm greeted by artist Becky Evans, a warm, smiling woman clad
in black, with a red vest that sets off a mass of red curls.
On display in the gallery's front room are a number of her recent
paintings and sculptures, part of a dual show in the process
of being mounted.
At first glance there's no apparent
reason to see the work as an environmental statement, or to see
Evans as some sort of environmentalist artist, but she is quick
to explain that the pieces all revolve around a common theme
- watersheds, or as Evans puts it in the show's title, "Water
/ Shed."
"Watershed, as in the place
where we live, how we respond to it, the history of places and
what we do to the watershed but literally, what the water sheds,"
she begins.
[LEFT: Environmental
artist Becky Evans holding an oversized paper fish, made by the
students of Zane Middle School art teacher Lee Roscoe-Bragg.]
We start our conversation in
front of a large painting, most of it a creamy color, but inscribed
with parallel grooves revealing cool colors, the effect akin
to a contour map. A blue strip at the top seems to represent
a night sky; another at the bottom is dappled like a mountain
stream, and studded with individual salmon vertebrae, which,
Evans explains, she collected on the banks of the Klamath.
"The title is `Klamath
River, Sky, Land and Water,'" says Evans. "The painting
is my response to the fish kill on the Klamath River; I went
out there after the first headline hit. I felt the need to respond,
because all of my work deals with direct experience with the
landscape. The center section represents a topographical map
of the area [on the river] I was able to get to at the fish kill.
The layers of paint are encaustic, layered in colors to remind
people of the layers of time it takes to build a watershed. It's
a direct response to a place - and an event - and my being in
that place."
Encaustic painting is a technique
where beeswax is heated along with pine resin and pigment. "It
goes all the way back to Greek and Roman times," Evans explains.
"It's a very ancient way of painting."
Spread around the room are several
spiraling towers constructed of sticks and mud, organic sculptures
that Evans describes as vortexes. "That's a universal form
in the natural world. When you look at weather maps, you'll see
weather forming spirals; when you look at the eddies in water
on a river or creek, you'll see spirals; you see them in pine
cones, in a sunflower, the currents of the ocean, the solar system,
the galaxies. They're all around us."
One particular piece is constructed of fire-blackened
manzanita branches. "The Friday Ridge Fire out in Willow
Creek last year burnt through an area that's important to my
husband's family and his tribal ancestors. He belongs to the
Tsnungwe Tribe from the south fork of the Trinity River. The
fire burned through [the area included in his] family's water
rights. In some ways [the piece] is a commentary on fire, on
the cycle of flood and fire, and how some of our current forest
practices can interfere with the natural cycles. [RIGHT: "Friday Ridge Fire,"
2004, manzanita, river stones by Becky Evans]
"There's social commentary,
there's definitely some politics involved, but they're also about
the beauty of the natural world, and the impact of man's presence.
I try to include my response to that."
Originally from Whittier, Evans
moved to Humboldt County in 1967 to attend Humboldt State. "I
was not an art major at first, but I took a few art classes and
my eyes opened to a new world around me," she recalls. Among
those eye-opening courses was a watercolor class where she met
her husband, the highly respected painter, Bob Benson. "We
went out on location together to paint landscapes, and that's
been an ongoing pattern in our life, going out painting together,
or for me sometimes bringing back objects and kind of letting
them talk to me."
The pieces of salmon skeleton
she gathered along the Klamath spoke to her loudly. Her experience
as a witness to the fish kill inspired "30,000 Salmon: a
concurrence," part two of her double show.
As we pass into the back half
of the building, we are engulfed by oversized paper fish, patterned
after Japanese koi kites, hanging by the dozens from a maze of
fishing line. "These came from Lee Roscoe-Bragg, an art
teacher at Zane Middle School; her students have been making
these for the past several months. There are 179 of their kites,"
Evans says as she weaves her way past a student from Humboldt
State on a ladder suspending more fish, moving to the back of
the room where community volunteers are stringing a myriad of
fish on more fishing line. Every available surface is covered
with boxes of fish art, contributions for the installation.
"Altogether there will
be at least 30,000 salmon images, in many different forms,"
Evans continues, explaining that the objects were created by
hundreds of elementary, middle school, high school and college
students from all over Humboldt and Trinity counties and by numerous
area artists.
Evans sees these objects as
a creative offering memorializing the fish's struggle, and as
a way to promote awareness and respect for our environment by
reminding us of the salmon's importance.
"The loss of all those
fish is very much a layered topic, one that affects Native Americans,
farmers, commercial fishermen, water rights. There are so many
political parts to the puzzle, but I didn't feel like that was
where I wanted to go. I wanted to make a creative response, hence
the subtitle, `a concurrence.' What you see here is a coming
together of hundreds of people, all different ages and abilities,
all working to do something positive." n
An opening and reception for
"30,000 Salmon" and "Water / Shed" takes
place during Arts Alive! Saturday, April 3, from 6 to 9 p.m.
at First Street Gallery, 422 First Street, Eureka. Both shows
run through May 16. Becky Evans presents a talk at the gallery
Saturday, April 10, at 2 p.m., free to the public. There will
also be a special reception for children, teachers and families
who contributed to the project on Saturday, April 17, from 2
to 4 p.m.
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