NEWS ARTICLE ARCHIVE — in chronological order, with pagination below
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City uses grants to restore Otis Johnson Park
The City of Fort Bragg has now lined up three grants to pay for repairs and restoration needed at Otis Johnson Wilderness Park. Caltrans has announced signing of a cooperative agreement that will help the state transportation agency fulfill environmental mitigation required for construction of the new Ten Mile River Bridge. Caltrans will provide $226,059…
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The Marine Life Protection Act: Ocean preservation vs. privatization
As I prepared to write this third installment of the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative series, I decided to take a twilight walk along the ocean for inspiration. Instead I found apparent abalone poachers at Jughandle, two big country boys working with duffel bags at dusk on July 30. My dogs had alerted and pulled…
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Former gang member: Fight gangs with art, not handcuffs
Remember all those gang summits and truces in cities where smiling gang members posed with rivals, cops and community leaders? And whatever became of all those police crackdowns and zero-tolerance policies for red or blue clothes that were supposed to stop gang problems? Noted author and former Los Angeles gang member Luis Rodriguez pointed the…
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Locals demand more from public-private ocean preserve plan
Editor”s Note: In part two of an ongoing series on the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, this article looks at how the public process works and where the organizers are listening — and where they are not. Next week, the influence and history of the private foundations that are paying for the MLPA, along with…
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Officials explain MLPA process to skeptical locals
Editor”s Note: This is the first of a two-part series on the MLPA process. In part 2 next week, sources of funding, scientific basis and local efforts to create a local plan will be further detailed. Dreading possible impacts from Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) implementation, local fishermen hope to propose their own option for…
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Officials explain MLPA process to skeptical locals
Editor”s Note: This is the first of a two-part series on the MLPA process. In part 2 next week, sources of funding, scientific basis and local efforts to create a local plan will be further detailed. Dreading possible impacts from Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) implementation, local fishermen hope to propose their own option for…
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City wins statewide competition for newest member of police force
The Fort Bragg Police Department beat out two dozen other police forces to recruit its newest member, who is leaving Colma despite the tears of separation from her “partner” on the force there. McKeba, a 5-year-old Czech Shepherd, will be the first police dog in Fort Bragg since Attos retired four years ago. The Mendocino…
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Dioxin dirt removal from McGuire Ranch set for September
Tom Lanphar, the new Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) program manager for both the Georgia Pacific Mill Site and the McGuire Ranch, sought to put the amount of dioxin contamination found at the ranch with an analogy based on the federal stimulus plan. “If the bailout is $1 trillion, this [highest reading] of 91.7…
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EcoMotion may move to October
Nicole Kench”s vision of closing downtown for a free hip-hop, reggae, funk and food downtown celebration of sustainability was rejected by the Fort Bragg City Council Monday night. The denial came despite impassioned pleas from a dozen supporters. The council, by a 4-1 vote, upheld staff”s rejection of a permit that would have allowed the…
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Salmon Barbecue raises $20,000
Like the wild salmon themselves, the 2009 World”s Largest Salmon Barbecue suffered from a combination of weather, timing and inland human politics. Cold lunchtime temperatures, an even chillier economy locally and in the primary draw areas of Sacramento and Santa Rosa, along with the date of this year”s event, all played a role in that…
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Restoring our salmon: Kids restore city park, watershed, community in new joint program
America has been full of pleasant surprises for Fort Bragg Middle School student Frances Fontavilla — none bigger than the redwood trees in Otis Johnson Wilderness Park. “I lived in a city in the Philippines, and until I came here I had never seen anything like this, the big redwoods. It”s beautiful. I could stay…
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Local ocean lovers oppose new state protection plan
A privately-funded state program could turn one quarter of the offshore coasts of Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties into underwater parks. Not surprisingly, the creation of Marine Life Protection Areas is controversial among many consistent foes of offshore oil drilling and other ocean development. But in this case, the usual ocean protectors are so…
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Another developer dumps wave energy, Obama shifts funds
The developer of a wave energy project proposed off Cape Mendocino has surrendered its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) preliminary permit, making two major companies that have abandoned the area in the past two weeks. The moves come at a time when President Obama”s energy policy has cut funding for wave energy in favor of…
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PG&E drops local wave power plans
After four years of meetings and three years of controversy in Fort Bragg, Pacific Gas and Electric Company has announced it will abandon its local plans for an offshore wave energy power plant. Instead, the utility will continue WaveConnect only off Eureka, having claimed both areas with simultaneous Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, permits…
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Feds issue wave energy study permit
A Southern California alternative energy startup has been granted a three-year preliminary permit to study wave energy off Mendocino. It”s locals” first look at action by a newly recast Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which is tasked by the Obama Administration to make a greater push to develop alternative energy. On May 1, FERC issued…
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Lumber industry faces worst summer ever
The remaining lumber industry on the Mendocino Coast faces widespread job losses as chainsaws fall silent and lumber mills close across the nation. “In the past, redwood lumber has been insulated from the ups and downs of the housing market,” said Mike Jani, spokesman for Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC). “That is not the case this…
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Signature gatherers pull back as Ukiah mall opposition builds
Coast resident Mitch Clogg supports the right of the people to demand decisions that are made by government be put to a popular vote. So, he wasn”t deterred when a pushy paid signature gatherer approached him two weeks ago and encouraged him to take a stand against big development in Ukiah. He signed. “I talked…
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Teacher cuts left in FBUSD”s foggiest budget
Fort Bragg Unified School District was presented with a state and local budget picture last week that contained a few facts, but a whole lot more “ifs,” “ands,” “maybes” and “buts.” Uncertainty isn”t new. Every year, local schools have to wait for the state budget picture to clear before making final hiring and work plans.…
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Obama energy plan blowing in offshore winds
Mendocino and Humboldt counties” ocean waters are once again identified as a world-class spot for offshore energy development. This time, it”s wind energy. A new report from the Obama Administration shows Northern California and Southern Oregon as the best offshore spot for wind power and wind speed in the nation. The report states that while…
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Obama energy plan blowing in offshore winds
Mendocino and Humboldt counties” ocean waters are once again identified as a world-class spot for offshore energy development. This time, it”s wind energy. A new report from the Obama Administration shows Northern California and Southern Oregon as the best offshore spot for wind power and wind speed in the nation. The report states that while…
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