A meeting was held Thursday, August 4th at the Mateel Community Center in Redway to discuss issues relating to homelessness in our community. John Shelter, Executive Director of the North Coast Resource Center, used a PowerPoint presentation to help describe his program, called New Directions, in Arcata, and offered to create a similar program in Southern Humboldt. Dozens of people were in attendance, including members of Vet's for Peace, homeless people of all ages, John Casali and members of the Eel River Clean-up Crew (themselves homeless workers), and Chamber of Commerce Members.

The photos below were taken by Felix Omai. Additional photos by Felix, including shots of Shelter's PowerPoint presentation, can be viewed here. KMUD News Coordinator, Terri Klemetson, covered the meeting and an archived audio of the newscast which aired this story can be found here.

John Sheltor can be reached at: (707) 822-5008 Ext 305 or by e-mail at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Use the players below to hear or download the audio from the meeting:

John Shelter Presentation-Part 1:

John Shelter plus Q&A with audience-Part 2:

Continue John Shelter plus Q&A with audience-Part 3:

John Shelter Presenting at the Mateel

Audience at the Mateel Homelessness Meeting

Critics of the Richardson Grove realignment project rallied in Sacramento, against the project, on June 22, 2011.

Richardson Grove State Park is located in Northern California seven miles south of Garberville on Highway 101 and was established in 1922 and named after Friend W. Richardson, the 25th governor of California. The park is bisected by Hwy. 101 and the south fork of the Eel River.

Click here to view photos of the protest posted on the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters Flickr photostream and click here to view the "Save Richardson Grove" website.

According to a News Release from Center for Biological Diversity, dated May 25, 2011:
A coalition of conservation groups and local residents today asked (click here to see the preliminary injunction) a federal judge to stop California transportation officials from moving ahead with a controversial highway project that would jeopardize ancient stands of redwood trees in northern California’s Richardson Grove State Park.The coalition seeks to halt plans by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to realign a section of Highway 101 that winds through old-growth redwoods in the park. The work would require crews to dig into the roots of towering redwoods that stand along the highway within park boundaries. Today’s filing asks a judge to stop the project until legal proceedings are complete.

The threat of possibly fatal damage to the prized ancient trees, as well as harm to sensitive wildlife posed by the controversial project, is driving today’s legal challenge, which is the second filed by the coalition. Caltrans has failed to evaluate impacts of the project in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. “The importance of this old-growth redwood stand, in view of the important heritage of the redwood forest, requires special consideration before projects that would impact the stand are allowed to go forward,” Joe McBride, a professor of forestry and landscape architecture at the University of California at Berkeley, said in today's filing. “Substantial, irreparable damage would occur to the trees in the project area. This would, in turn, cause negative impacts to the overall health of the forest.” (click here to see the McBride Declaration)

McBride’s finding is based on his scientific review of the potential of impacts to each tree along the project route — a review plaintiffs show Caltrans failed to undertake.“This project will cause major damage to one of our most prized state parks,” said Gary Hughes of the Environmental Protection Information Center, one of the plaintiff groups and spokesman for the coalition. “For Caltrans to railroad this multimillion-dollar project by grossly understating its impacts is a violation of the public's trust and a wasteful use of taxpayer money.”

“With less than 3 percent of our ancient redwood trees remaining, we cannot allow Caltrans to injure and kill the precious giant trees of Richardson Grove State Park,” said Peter Galvin, conservation director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We will fight this project to the end, no matter how long it takes.”

Plaintiffs are Trisha Lee Lotus, Bess Bair, Bruce Edwards, Jeffrey Hedin, Loreen Eliason, Environmental Protection Information Center, Californians for Alternatives to Toxics and the Center for Biological Diversity. They are represented by a team that includes Philip Gregory and former congressman “Pete” McCloskey of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, a law firm in San Francisco.

The following story was aired on KMUD News Thurs., May 12:
For decades, southern Humboldt residents have expressed frustration over the political process, many say incorporation of the Garberville/Redway area would give residents more local control, more influence in the general plan process, more assured law enforcement services & access to local tax money. The Humboldt Emerald City Organizers Group, a core group supporting creation of an incorporated city in Southern Humboldt, will hold an event at Beginnings on Sunday, May 15, to inform the public and raise funds for a fiscal feasibility study as the first step toward incorporation.

The Humboldt Local Agency Formation Commission, a state-mandated agency that must approve new incorporations, presented THECOG founders Jim Lamport and Dan Glaser with a proposal describing the scope of an Initial Fiscal Feasibility Study, which will help determine whether SoHum could meet the fiscal obligations of an incorporated city.

Use the player below to hear Dan Glaser describe the upcoming event…

Click here to see incorporation map.

On Sunday, March 20 from 3 pm to 5:30 pm a locally produced, special KMUD Program on Nuclear Power Issues was aired. The audio from this program can be found in the KMUD audio archive or accessed by clicking here for the first part and then here for the second part.

A second program on the topic of Nuclear Power Issues was aired on KMUD on Thur., March 31 at 7 pm. The archived program may be accessed here.

Important websites provided by the special program producers are linked below:

http://www.nirs.org/
http://www.nukefree.org/news
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/
http://www.mothersforpeace.org/
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/
http://a4nr.org/
http://www.ieer.org/
http://www.wise-uranium.org/
http://www.avaaz.org/en
http://www.fairewinds.com/