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March 24, 2005
EUREKA EMPLOYEES
GET CONTRACTS: The Eureka City
Council approved three-year contracts with the three unions representing
its employees last week. Susan Christie, the city's personnel
director, said that it is unusual to negotiate all three contracts
-- one each with the police, fire and other municipal employees
-- at the same time, but that everyone felt good that they were
able to get a new deal inked without too much strife. "It's
nice for the city and it's nice for the employees -- we both
know what's going to happen over the next three years,"
Christie said. There had been some debate over who would pick
up the tab for recent increases in the police officers' and firefighters'
health insurance plan; in the end, Christie said, the city ended
up paying for the hiked rates.
SEIDNER WOMAN OF THE YEAR: Wiyot Tribal
Chairwoman Cheryl Seidner was named Woman of the Year of the
1st Assembly District by state Assemblywoman Patty Berg (D-Eureka)
this month. Seidner may be best known for spearheading efforts
to reacquire a portion of Indian Island, a sacred ceremonial
site where dozens of Wiyot people were massacred by white settlers
in 1860. In a written statement, Patty Berg called Seidner "a
wonderful role model for any young woman who wants to help make
the world a better place," and lauded the chairwoman's endeavors
to preserve Wiyot language and culture, and for her 25 years
of work with Humboldt State's Educational Opportunity Program.
"I was totally surprised [to be nominated]", Seidner
said. "I do what I do because I like doing it. I never thought
of myself as an advocate. But I have always stood up and said
something when I felt like things weren't right." Seidner,
55, was honored during a ceremony at the state capitol last Monday,
and again locally at the Table Bluff Community Center on Friday.
SUICIDE NOTE CLOSES CASE: The case of a Eureka prostitute killed in 1995
was officially closed earlier this month when the primary suspect
in the murder took his own life and left behind a written confession.
In a suicide note, Timothy Ray Withem, 51, said he was sorry
for beating his girlfriend, 35-year-old Leslie Jean Deines, to
death in the spring of 1995, Eureka police said. Before killing
himself sometime in February at his home in the 1200 block of
F Street, the same house where Deines was found dead, Withem
wrote in the note that he should have "come clean"
about her death, and that he was "sorry for what [he] did,"
according to the Eureka Police Detective Neil Hubbard. Withem
was found earlier this month, two to three weeks after he died
from a prescription drug overdose, police said. The doors and
windows of the home were locked from the inside, Hubbard said,
adding that there was "nothing suspicious" about the
man's death. Withem was the primary suspect in Deines' murder
10 years ago, but he blamed a john who had been with her on the
night of her death, Hubbard said. Police were unable to gather
enough evidence to prove that Withem caused the head injuries
that killed Deines, and he was never arrested. (Deines already
had a brain hemorrhage; the blows Withem inflicted to her head
worsened her condition, resulting in her death.) The case is
now officially closed, Hubbard said.
EDILITH ECKART DAY IN
ARCATA: Humboldt County may have
lost veteran peace activist and all-around wonder woman Edilith
Eckart last year, but her memory continues to inspire. On Saturday,
the Arcata Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Commission will host a "Community
Involvement Day" at the Arcata Community Center in Eckart's
honor. A number of community service organizations -- from Amnesty
International to the Open Heart Quilters -- will be on hand,
seeking volunteers. There will be music, workshops and films
throughout the day. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission
is free.
SALMONID CONFERENCE: Next weekend the
Salmonid Restoration Federation holds its 23rd annual restoration
conference, entitled "Thinking Like a Watershed: From the
Headwaters to the Sea." From March 30 through April 2 at
the Fortuna River Lodge, more than 100 presenters will hold full-day
workshops on water conservation planning, instream flow requirements,
estuary restoration and "regulatory ecology." Tours
of restoration projects in Humboldt Bay estuaries, road decommissioning
projects in the Headwaters Forest, restoration sites in Freshwater
Creek, and other salmon education projects will be held. For
a complete listing of conference events and costs visit www.calsalmon.org
or call 923-7501.
NO LAUGHING MATTER: Fortuna Police
are warning residents about the effects of inhalant abuse after
dozens of empty nitrous oxide canisters were found in a Fortuna
parking lot recently. Nitrous oxide, aka laughing gas, which
is commonly used in dental procedures, can be found in whipped
cream cans and can also be purchased in canisters called "chargers"
or "whippits." Inhaling spray paint or gasoline fumes
-- something referred to as "huffing" -- is another
all-too-common pastime among teenagers. Inhalant abuse results
in disorientation, fixated vision, pulsating auditory hallucinations
and an increased threshold of pain, according to police. But
the high times come at a cost, including limb spasms, nausea,
brain damage or death. FPD says that telltale signs of inhalant
abuse include chemical odors on the breath and clothing, paint
stains on face and hands, drunk or disoriented appearance, slurred
speech, loss of appetite, inattentiveness, irritability and depression.
Using nitrous oxide for the purpose of "elation, euphoria,
stupefaction, or dulling the senses," among other altered
states, is a violation of the California Penal Code.
FELT THE EARTH MOVE?: A string of
six small offshore earthquakes rumbled west of Eureka last week,
although only two were strong enough to be felt here. On March
17, at 3:21 p.m. a 3.8-magnitude quake with an epicenter 15 miles
southwest of Humboldt Hill in Eureka shook the ground. More than
300 people from Orick to Rio Dell filed online reports of their
earthquake experience with the U.S. Geological Survey. Later
that evening a 4.7-magnitude quake hit, this time with an epicenter
55 miles southwest of Eureka at 11:23 p.m. Though it was the
larger of the two St. Paddy's day quakes, the latter only drummed
up 32 USGS online responses, which came in from Petrolia to McKinleyville.
Other weak offshore seismic action occurred between March 16
and March 18 ranging in magnitude from 2.1 to 2.9. Bayside resident
Catherine Puckett, the USGS's deputy communications chief for
the western region, said that the recent rumblings are not unusual.
"We get little earthquakes here all the time," she
said.
NOW THAT'S DIFFERENT:
After running a red light, a drunk
driver led Fortuna Police on an erratic, slow-speed pursuit through
the sunny city earlier this month, according to police. Jeffrey
Crawley, 50, of Loleta, was chased -- if you can call it that
-- by an FPD officer at speeds of 10 to 25 mph through Fortuna
on the afternoon of March 11, before he finally stopped at the
intersection of 12th and Main streets. The officer ran up to
Crawley's Chevy S-10 pickup and pulled the keys from the ignition.
Crawley was booked at the Humboldt County Jail for evading police,
driving under the influence, resisting arrest, driving on a suspended
license, possession of an illegal weapon (a billy club was found
in his vehicle) and for an outstanding warrant.
CHILD CARE ASSESSMENT: The draft
of the Local Child Care Planning Council's Child Care Needs Assessment
is available for public viewing online at www.humboldt.k12.ca.us/lccpc.
The document is also available at the Humboldt County Library
and the Humboldt County Office of Education. The public can offer
feedback online or by attending the March 30 input session at
the county Office of Education, 901 Myrtle Ave., Eureka, 5:30-6:30
p.m. Call 445-7006 for more information.
A
wet Peace March in Eureka
It was a cold, rainy day Saturday,
March 19, but a dedicated crowd of protesters, estimated by event
organizers at more than 2,000, donned rain gear or brought out
their umbrellas to march through Eureka, marking the second anniversary
of the beginning of the armed conflict in Iraq.
Above, marchers carried a faux
flag-draped casket commemorating more than 1,500 American military
personnel lost in the war.
The rain stopped briefly as
the march returned to Halvorson Park on Eureka's waterfront.
The umbrellas came out again
and a peace flag became a shawl as the rain returned, drowning
plans for an activist recruitment fair following the march.
Palco posts
giant losses
Water board's approval
of 75 percent of harvests
not enough, company says
by HANK
SIMS
Despite selling nearly 300 million
board feet of timber in 2004, the Pacific Lumber Co. lost $49.3
million last year and may soon face a serious financial crisis,
according to two annual securities reports filed by the timber
giant's parent company, the Houston-based Maxxam, Inc., last
week.
The reports, filed with the
federal Securities and Exchange Commission, state that Palco
actually made a profit of $5.4 million on its operations last
year, which included the sale of timber and generation of electricity
at its Scotia cogeneration plant.
However, that small profit does
not take into account around $55 million in payments made last
year on the company's long-term debt. Through its subsidiary,
Scotia Pacific, Pacific Lumber owes around $750 million to bondholders.
The majority of that debt stems from Maxxam's takeover of the
company in 1985.
In the reports the company states
that its high debt load makes it more seriously threatened by
changing external conditions, including increased environmental
regulation of the type that the North Coast Regional Water Quality
Control Board seeks to impose on its operations in the Freshwater
and Elk River watersheds.
"Due to its highly leveraged
condition, the Company is more sensitive than less leveraged
companies to factors affecting its operations, including low
log prices, governmental regulation and litigation affecting
timber harvesting practices on the Company Timberlands, and general
economic conditions," states Scotia Pacific's annual report
to bondholders.
The reports show the company's
financial losses are starting to have serious, on-the-ground
effects on its ability to operate. The company defaulted on a
short-term line of credit at the beginning of the year and has
seen its credit rating plummet to CCC+. The company openly expresses
concern about its ability to meet an upcoming debt service payment
in June, and fears that it may be forced into large layoffs,
bankruptcy or other extreme measures.
On Feb. 28, the company's attorneys
informed four regulatory agencies that it did not have the funds
to comply with terms of its Habitat Conservation Plan, the environmental
protection agreement that it has operated under since 1999.
The annual reports were submitted
to the SEC on March 16, the same day that Pacific Lumber officials
appeared in Santa Rosa at a meeting of the Water Quality Control
Board. The officials, including Palco CEO Robert Manne and chief
counsel Jared Carter, warned at the meeting that the company
would soon go broke unless the board allowed more logging in
Freshwater and Elk.
On a 5-3 vote, the board passed
McKinleyville attorney John Corbett's motion to allow Pacific
Lumber to log up to 75 percent of its California Department of
Forestry-approved timber harvest plans in the two sediment-impaired
watersheds. New board member Lyle Marshall, chairman of the Hoopa
Valley Tribe, voted against Corbett's motion.
The action overturned a decision
by the water board's scientific staff. In February, Catherine
Kuhlman, the water board's executive officer, issued an order
that allowed the company to harvest up to 50 percent of the CDF
limits in the two watersheds, saying that the science showed
that only 50 percent of the timber harvest plans could be harvested
if the watersheds were to be placed on the road to recovery.
The Humboldt Watershed Council
and the Environmental Protection Information Center have appealed
the Water Quality Control Board's decision to the State Water
Resources Control Board. EPIC attorney Sharon Duggan said Tuesday
the regional board exceeded its mandate by making a decision
based on the company's economic condition, not environmental
science.
"The science as we understand
at this point clearly indicates that 50 percent would be the
maximum," she said. "That's the staff's position, and
the regional board exceeded that without having a basis in science
-- in fact -- for doing so."
Manne, in a press release, stated
that Palco was "very disappointed" the board had approved
only 75 percent of the harvests, and that it was not sure if
the amount of timber released by the board last week would be
enough for the company to avoid layoffs and bankruptcy.
A Story
Never Told Before, told in Arcata
Indie film wraps
shooting
by BOB
DORAN
You may have seen the film crew
for A Story Never Told Before at work last week on the
Arcata Plaza, which they used to represent the town square in
Auschwitz, Germany.
Or perhaps you came across them
while they were shooting an elevator full of dreadlocked locals,
in Jacoby's Storehouse, along with the film's protagonist, Gregory
Goodwin, played by Jackson Kuehn, an actor from San Diego. Gregory,
a fictional Arcata resident on a spiritual journey, also showed
up in a final scene filmed last Thursday evening at the Arcata
Theatre, where the action involved his purchase of a ticket to
the film A Story Never Told Before, the movie that he
stars in.
"There's a film within the film," explained
Karl Langer, co-editor and one of the film's producers, who recently
moved from San Diego to Arcata to attend Humboldt State. "He's
in a film but not aware that he is."
The convoluted story, written
by Jon Poznanter, gets even more complicated when you know that
the production, funded by shares in the film sold here and in
San Diego, is also tangentially connected to a museum of world
religions envisioned by the screenwriter.
One of the sequences was shot
earlier that day in Arcata's Redwood Park, where a large, burned-out
stump festooned with candles provided a backdrop for a conversation
between Leonardo Da Vinci (played by ASNTB director Glen
Quaranta) and one of Leonardo's muses, Ginevra (played by Erica
Gabrielle), regarding the manipulation of Gregory's consciousness
through psychedelic drugs. Gabrielle also plays the driver of
the bus to Auschwitz; and her character is the faux director
of the film within the film about Gregory's journey.
"What we're doing right
now is a short," said Langer in a conversation on the Redwood
Park set. "We're going to pump it into a lot of festivals
when it's done. What we want to do eventually is produce a full-length
feature. What we're doing [for financing] is selling shares in
the film. We have 10,000 shares and we're selling 3,000 to the
general public. The first 1,000 are $20 apiece. We'll use that
for the short."
So far the company has sold
"around 300 shares" said Langer, most of them in the
San Diego area, but some in Arcata, where the crew set up shop
on the plaza during Arts! Arcata, March 11.
Needless to say, the production
is operating on a shoestring budget, made possible in part because
everything is shot digitally, which means there is no costly
film processing involved.
Another cost-saver is the fact
that most of the crew is being paid in shares. Langer sees the
shares as an investment that will grow with the film. "After
1,000 shares the price goes up to $100 a share," he explained.
"That comes after the short is done, from people who want
to see it become a full-length feature. You get in early and
it's more valuable in the end. Of course it's more of a risk
in the beginning but don't forget, you get a free T-shirt."
According to Langer ASNTB
will premiere at the San Diego Film Festival in September. He
noted that "it's a shoe-in," in part because the film's
director of photography/cameraman Karl Kozak co-founded the festival.
To learn more about A Story
Never Told Before go to the production company Web site:
www.dorothytours.com.
Photo above right:
Karl Langer on the set for a Story Never Told Before, a scene
in which actor Jackson Kuehn purchases a ticket from Erica Gabrielle.
Photo by Bob Doran
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