NEWS ARTICLE ARCHIVE — in chronological order, with pagination below
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Tough times will test volunteers” spirits, safety network
Jerry Smith hates to see good stuff thrown into the trash. That”s one reason the big man loves his volunteer jobs at the Fort Bragg Food Bank and State of the Ark, the thrift shop of the Mendocino Coast Humane Society. Both non-profits convert the leavings of society into life-giving help for humans and pets.…
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FERC official to explain hydrokinetics
A top official from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will appear in Fort Bragg on Tuesday, Jan. 13 to explain the agency”s strategy on developing what it calls “hydrokinetic” power as an alterative energy source. Ann F. Miles, FERC”s director of the Division of Hydropower Licensing, will meet with county and city officials before…
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Season of Sharing: Many homeless put pets” well-being first
Recently, a man walked into the real estate office where I was working the desk, to look for rental housing. Under one arm was an airline carry-on cage. Inside, his cat crouched. He was furious that another real estate office had told him he was unlikely to qualify to pay any of the rent on…
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No bailout for Heritage House: Doors close after 59 years
It”s more than simply ironic that just as the national economy was hitting a new bottom last week, Little River”s Heritage House was having the worst days in its 60-year history. World renown as the romantic site for the movie “Same Time Next Year,” the Heritage House closed Thursday, Dec. 4, laying off all workers…
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SoCal developer granted wave energy permit off Mendocino
On Tuesday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted a Southern California development company exclusive rights to 17 square miles off the town of Mendocino for a wave energy study. GreenWave LLC”s intent is to eventually produce a 100 megawatt wave energy power plant, more than twice as big as the 40 megawatt project Pacific…
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Season of Sharing fund drive nears the $7,000 mark
Jacob Whalen wasn”t looking forward to a Christmas beneath a plastic tree. So he was thrilled to get a real tree from the Fort Bragg Food Bank, picking out a 6-foot pine that was the same size as the big Fort Bragg man. “This is great. A plastic tree just doesn”t do it for me.…
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Season of Sharing: Vitamin conspiracy punishment funding brings good food to Food Bank
I knew getting names wouldn”t be easy but I didn”t want anonymous sources in this week”s story on how the Fort Bragg Food Bank impacts nutrition in our community. On Monday, I saw a former real estate listing client and another prominent community member-pal on my way into the Food Bank. Quotes? No way. It…
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Season of Sharing: U.S. economic turmoil brings new clients to Food Bank
The smiling Latina woman told me how the Wall Street crisis is being felt by people who never had stock or any real money to lose. “I have a set amount of money every month from Social Security. Now some things I need cost a lot more. Prices go up and down, and I don”t…
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Season of Sharing: Reporter returns for second year in Food Bank line
I chose to sit next to the diminutive well-dressed brunette because she was alone in a Fort Bragg Food Bank waiting room full of talkative people. It turned out, that was by design. “Many of these people have been coming here for years. Did you know that?” The middle-aged woman promptly recited the lineage of…
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Ocean dead zones multiplying, fertilizers one cause
Two recent studies blame farm runoff for separately causing problems in rivers and the ocean that have injured fishing around the world. Last week, the prestigious journal Science reported that there are now more than 400 dead zones in the ocean, double the number the United Nations reported just two years ago. Scientists Robert Diaz…
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Fort Bragg is ground zero in wave energy fight
Like a Golden Age explorer staking a flag into a remote beachhead, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, has chosen Fort Bragg to claim all regulation of alternative energy from water power. FERC used a Fort Bragg ruling last week to raise the stakes in its national showdown with a fellow federal agency. But…
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Heritage House foreclosure sale postponed
Little River”s Heritage House has won another last minute reprieve from a foreclosure sale on the courthouse steps. The sale, set for Wednesday, has now been postponed until Nov. 18. The request was made by the German bank that is seeking to foreclose on more than $20 million in loans to Lantana Mendocino LLC. The…
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State expresses doubts about wave energy viability in rejecting Eureka funding
The California Public Utilities Commission plans to reject funding for the first-ever wave energy contract in the United States — a test project off Eureka proposed by PG&E and the Canadian Corporation Finavera . The CPUC has circulated its plan to reject the contract ahead of its Friday meeting, with PG&E and Finavera circulating protests…
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This Just In … U.S. candidates ignore wave energy global news
Wave energy is making a splash around the world from Tasmania to Ireland. The biggest news was in Portugal on Sept. 30 when a Pelamis unit was towed into the ocean, connected to an underwater cable and moored to the sea floor, at a site where it will stay for the next 15 years. Portugal…
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This Just In … U.S. candidates ignore wave energy global news
Wave energy is making a splash around the world from Tasmania to Ireland. The biggest news was in Portugal on Sept. 30 when a Pelamis unit was towed into the ocean, connected to an underwater cable and moored to the sea floor, at a site where it will stay for the next 15 years. Portugal…
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Wall Street crisis hits WaMu, Wachovia but impact is less locally
Like many middle class Americans, Anna Marie Stenberg of Fort Bragg suffers with an adjustable rate mortgage and still hates the idea of a bailout of Wall Street”s mega lenders. Stenberg has been seeking refinancing on her home but the credit crunch has prevented her — and many others from doing so. The bailout was…
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Wall Street crisis hits WaMu, Wachovia but impact is less locally
Like many middle class Americans, Anna Marie Stenberg of Fort Bragg suffers with an adjustable rate mortgage and still hates the idea of a bailout of Wall Street”s mega lenders. Stenberg has been seeking refinancing on her home but the credit crunch has prevented her — and many others from doing so. The bailout was…
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Local advisers comment on Wall Street crisis
With the stock market in turbulence and a baffling federal bailout package on the table, the newspaper asked two busy and prominent local investment firms serious questions about the situation. Michael Gibson, an owner of Redwood Investments on Main Street, and Joshua Richardson, who runs one of the three Edward Jones offices in Fort Bragg,…
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Fishermen get financial relief, launch study of disaster impacts
For Telstar Charters owner Randy Thornton, federal salmon disaster relief money will literally be salvation for his charter boat business. But as part of a new committee on salmon closure impacts, he hopes to help show how the catching of the tasty pink fish impacts the entire coastal economy. The North Coast Fishing Association is…
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PG&E gets $1.2 million for local wave energy study
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company expects to be granted $1.2 million this week by the U.S. Department of Energy to study wave energy off Fort Bragg and Eureka. PG&E sought the new money earlier this summer to move its local wave energy study under a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) preliminary permit to the…
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