NEWS ARTICLE ARCHIVE — in chronological order, with pagination below
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Teachers protest proposed state budget cuts
More than 60 local teachers, students and school employees joined statewide protests of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger”s “May Revise” budget, saying compromises made by the governor for education don”t go far enough. The governor”s budget still seeks more than $1 billion in cuts to education, according to the Associated Press. Gathered outside Fort Bragg Town Hall…
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Top state official asks feds for better wave energy process
California”s top environmental official has told the two federal agencies that are contending to regulate wave energy they need to slow down and get their acts together. Mike Chrisman, Secretary of Resources in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger”s administration, sent a letter to the heads of the Minerals Management Service, or MMS, and the Federal Energy Regulatory…
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Thompson challengers line up to lead 1st Congressional District
(This week: Mitch Clogg and Mike Thompson) Five candidates in the 1st Congressional District will appear on the June 3, primary ballot, with three to survive to run in the November general election. Two Republicans, Davis businessman Zane Starkewold and Napa attorney Douglas Pharr, face off for the chance to run against the Democrat from…
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Limited salmon river fishing OK
Sacramento River salmon won”t dodge fishers entirely this year, after a ruling last Friday that allows limited river fishing on California”s most important salmon river. Ocean fishers got some good news too, with the word that disaster funding has moved closer to approval by Congress. The Sacramento River will be open for limited freshwater salmon…
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Bothered by school roofing, students pulled from class
The pungent stench of roofing tar being applied to new classrooms had kids gagging and calling their parents at Dana Gray Elementary School last Thursday. Seventy kids were pulled out of school that day by their parents, the district said. Several parents contacted the Advocate-News about the incident. This reporter contacted Anna Russell, who has…
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Fishing closure declared disaster
The end of all ocean salmon fishing in California has once again caused the fishery to be declared a federal disaster, opening the way for Congress to allocate aid to the industry and communities like Fort Bragg. California is seeking $208 million in disaster aid, Oregon $45 million and Washington $36 million. Secretary of Commerce…
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PG&E gets $2 million for wave energy
The California Public Utilities Commission should authorize $30 million for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company to create an Emerging Renewable Resource Program, or ERRP, over the next two years, an administrative law judge ruled on April 29. On a green power project list that includes technologies ranging from solar to biomethane, the most controversial…
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Wave energy backer booed at meeting
A retired commercial fisherman surprised the audience at Pacific Gas and Electric”s Fort Bragg Town Hall forum on April 15 by supporting the concept of wave energy. While this wouldn”t be big news elsewhere, it marked the first time a proponent has spoken at a public forum in favor of PG&E, much less in outspoken…
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Usal Redwood Forest group looks to state for forestry project funding
A new kind of logging company has arrived on the Mendocino County scene, promising to help bring back goliath trees and king salmon, eventually providing jobs, food, good quality lumber and help with global warming. Three huge tracts of timber have sold in the past three years to two logging entities that sound like environmental…
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Feds pick Fort Bragg for test of wave energy lease
The Minerals Management Service (MMS) has chosen Fort Bragg and Eureka as priority sites over Oregon and Washington for its new wave energy study process. The MMS is asking for public input on its plan to lease blocks of the outer continental shelf for study of wave, wind and current energy. Locally, this novel process…
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Council irked at PG&E over lack of wave energy facts
A hostile crowd and bemused Fort Bragg City Council greeted the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, whose two spokesmen arrived at Monday night”s regular meeting without any new details about their wave energy plans. Those details were to be released by the end of the week, Project Manager Bill Toman told the council. “We are…
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Salmon season closes after 90 percent drop
In 2005, local salmon fishing was the best anyone could remember. Almost any boat that left Noyo Harbor could catch a limit of adult Sacramento River salmon by noon. Even this reporter managed to catch fish, which leaped seemingly everywhere in the ocean and hit hard as soon as local fisherman Brad Clark helped me…
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New superintendent has been educator more than half his life
New Fort Bragg Unified School District Superintendent Donald Armstrong said good local financial planning was one of the factors that attracted him to move north. Armstrong, 54, will start on July 1, replacing the retiring Steve Lund. He has spent the last 30 years as an educator, from a stint driving a school bus to…
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Council irked at PG&E over lack of wave energy facts
A hostile crowd and bemused Fort Bragg City Council greeted the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, whose two spokesmen arrived at Monday night”s regular meeting without any new details about their wave energy plans. Those details were to be released by the end of the week, Project Manager Bill Toman told the council. “We are…
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House passes offshore oil drilling ban for Point Arena-south to the Bay Area
A bill that would double marine sanctuary areas north of San Francisco passed the House of Representatives on March 31. HR 1187, a bill sponsored by Democratic Reps. Lynn Woolsey and Mike Thompson, would expand the boundaries of the Gulf of the Farallons and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries from the present location at Bodega…
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Council to see wave PG&E”s energy plan
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company will give the Fort Bragg City Council the first peek at its three-year wave energy plans at next Monday”s meeting. At a Mendocino County Supervisors meeting in Fort Bragg on Tuesday, PG&E Spokesman Ian Caliendo announced the utility will offer separate presentations about WaveConnect to the council, supervisors and…
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Wave energy blogger plans local march
Laurel Krause, who has been blogging about wave energy for more than a year from her Fort Bragg home, is getting out from behind the computer screen to try to make a splash on the streets this Saturday. Krause, 53, wants locals to support a moratorium on wave energy permits until a process for local…
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WaveConnect”s project manager Toman speaks
With Pacific Gas & Electric having been issued last week a preliminary permit that gives exclusive right to study energy off the Mendocino Coast for three years, the newspaper asked William Toman, 52, project manager for WaveConnect, to tell us about himself and the vision for the project. His responses follow in question and answer…
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PG&E gets preliminary permit for wave study
After more than a year of contemplation, the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission has issued preliminary permits to Pacific Gas and Electric Company for studies off Eureka and Fort Bragg. The permits give PG&E exclusive rights to study large areas of the ocean for three years. At the end of that time, the non-transferrable permit now…
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Surprise salmon shutdown hits party boats hard
An unexpected 2008 salmon disaster, combined with cuts to angling for bottom fish, is likely to put the Noyo Harbor sport fishing boat the Telestar out of business, said owner Randy Thorton. The Pacific Fishery Management Council has announced three options, two of which will mean no salmon season whatsoever in Northern California and Southern…
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