KEET to ignore analog extension

image ganked from popsci.com

If you’ve been following the news this week you know that there’s been a lot of discussion about postponing the end of analog television and the coming switch to the digital age. It turns out that despite a lot of advance warning to get digital converter boxes before the big switcheroo on Feb. 17, which you’ve been warned about with those annoying banner ads, and despite a coupon program to help people pay for them, a fair number of TV watchers, particularly poor folks and the elderly, are still operating with the old 20th century analog technology.

So, on Wednesday the House of Reps voted to extend the deadline until June 12. The Senate passed similar legislation last week; President Obama said he’ll sign it, and through a spokesperson promised to “continue to work with Congress to improve the information and assistance available to American consumers in advance of June 12, especially those in the most vulnerable communities.”

If you think old school TV people are breathing a sigh of relief and thinking maybe they’ll have more time to finally figure out that new-fangled box, well, that’s not exactly the case, not locally anyway. If you live in Humboldt County sans cable, and were watching the few stations still available with a TV antennae (and no digital TV or converter box) you know that the Eureka Television Group’s CBS 6 and Fox 29 made the switch on Nov. 28 last year, which is to say they switched off their analog signal and — no more Simpsons (now on 28, not 29).

Today we learned that despite the reprieve from Washington D.C. the local PBS affiliate KEET-TV will follow the original February date to shut down its analog signal, basically because it costs too much money to run both digital and analog feeds and it’s up to them to decide when to switch.  As noted in a Friday press release:

After 40 years of broadcasting on analog Channel 13, KEET-TV, public television for the North Coast, will cease transmission of its over-the-air analog signal after 11:59 p.m. on February 17, 2009. The analog shut-off will only affect viewers that receive their programming with an indoor or outdoor antenna. Cable subscribers will have no interruption of service.

Ron Schoenherr, KEET-TV’s Executive Director said, “There is some understandable confusion over the current legislation moving through Congress dealing with the possibility to continue analog broadcasting until June 12, 2009. KEET-TV’s staff and board of directors made the decision to stick with the originally mandated shut-off date and stop broadcasting our analog signal on February 17. The main consideration was a financial one. To date, KEET-TV has spent almost $2 million to comply with the federally mandated digital conversion, and we are still seeking funds for its completion. The average monthly PG&E bill for operating KEET’s 23-year-old analog transmitter is between $3,000 to $4,000. We simply do not have the funds to continue analog broadcast for another four months.”

In compliance with the federal mandate KEET began broadcasting a digital signal in 2003. In 2007, KEET began broadcasting a high-power digital signal on digital channel 13-1, and added their second channel KEET WORLD, which airs PBS news, public affairs and documentary programming on 13-2. In January of this year, KEET applied to the FCC for permission to terminate analog broadcasting on the originally mandated date of February 17, and has been running public service announcements giving viewers advance notice of the analog cut-off date.

Viewers that receive an over-the-air signal will need to install a converter box that connects to an antenna and television set. In many cases, “rabbit ear” antennas may not work well with digital broadcasting. New digital set-top antennas may also need to be purchased. There is viewer information available on KEET’s website www.keet.org, and questions about the digital conversion may also be directed to dtv@keet-tv.org. Information is also available at www.dtv2009.gov. A good site for antenna information is www.tvfool.com.

That leaves only KIEM Channel 3 for the analoggers post Feb. 17. The NBC affiliate decided to go with Obama’s pushed back June date. And they have an all new set of annoying messages ready to tell you as much.

 

State of California

(Click on the thumbnails to read the signs.)

Today is the first day of the  Governor’s imposed furlough for many state workers. Some of the “Closed” signs posted on the doors of state offices in Eureka explained the closure — fiscal crisis, big boss’ orders — and some apologized for the inconvenience. Some didn’t, including possibly one of the busiest state offices in town, the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Around 10:30 this morning, cars and pickups were trickling into the DMV’s abnormally empty parking lot; their drivers parked, got out, walked to the window and stood before it — or sat befiore it, in the case of the guy in the wheelchair who levered himself from his car into his chair and rolled to the closed door to read the sign. They scratched their chins, re-read the notice, in Spanish or English, that the DMV would be closed the first and third Fridays of the month (and that there were some services available on the Web), turned around and moseyed back to their cars.

 

‘No Socialized Hobbies!’

That was the word today from Craig Tucker, Klamath Campaign Coordinator for the Karuk Tribe, as he explained why he, the Karuk Tribe’s Vice Chair Leaf Hillman and commercial fisherman Dave Bitts, of Eureka, are suing the California Department of Fish and Game.

They filed suit in Alameda County Superior Court this morning. The complaint alleges that the DFG is illegally using taxpayer’s money to run its suction dredge mining program — which litigants say allows hobby miners to dredge in places “known to be critical habitat for endangered and at-risk species such as Coho salmon, Pacific lamprey, and green sturgeon,” according to a news release.

DFG was court-ordered to rewrite its suction dredge rules to reflect knowledge of species that were listed for protection after the current rules were written — and it was supposed to have completed the California Environmental Quality Act review process and changed its regulations by June 20 of last year.

That didn’t happen. DFG said it hadn’t the money to do the review. The tribe and others tried legislating change; the governor wouldn’t sign it. Two weeks ago, the Karuk Tribe and a commercial fishermen’s group and others petitioned DFG Director Don Koch to write emergency regulations restricting dredging. They wanted that to be contingent upon the State Water Resources Control Board’s granting half a million bucks to the DFG to do the CEQA review. The money was granted but the petition was rejected.

Thursday evening, DFG spokesperson Jordan Traverso said that, legally, the DFG couldn’t impose emergency regulations based on the criteria the petitioners offered.

So now there’s the lawsuit.  Said Craig Tucker on Thursday by phone:

We’re seeking whatever remedy we can now. If we have to file lawsuits we’ll file lawsuits. This is phenomenally important to the Karuk Tribe. And for those guys not to step up and protect these fish, I just can’t tell you how disappointed we are.

He added that, with all the talk of cuts in state government, the program for “3,000 hobby miners” might be a good place to start.

By 5 p.m. today, DFG Director Koch’s office hadn’t been served with the lawsuit, said Traverso, and so they weren’t ready to comment on it yet.

 

Nuke Fears Close Dump

Concerned about the potential of radioactive waste leeching into Humboldt Bay, county government has temporarily shut down the old Table Bluff Landfill outside of Loleta, the Journal has learned.

Table Bluff landfill was open to the public between the late 1960s and late 1970s. Since closing, the county has continued to use it as a space to dump “road spoils,” or dirt that washes onto county roads during floods.

The close-down, which happened a couple of weeks ago, was taken out of an abundance of caution, said Humboldt County Environmental Services Director Hank Seeman. There is no evidence that the site is contaminated with radioactive material, Seeman said — however, there’s no way to be sure that it isn’t.

Seeman said that the issue came up a couple of months ago, when the Sheriff’s Office considered using the location for bomb squad training. When the proposal arose, county personnel started to do some standard-issue assessment about the risks of planting people at a dump site for extended periods of time. That’s when someone noted that the dump was located in the vicinity of PG & E’s old Humboldt Bay Nucleaer Power Plant and the naval training facility at Centerville Beach, both of which have housed nuclear materials.

“Given the uncertainty about waste management activities at that point [in time], it’s conceivable that some radioactive material made it into Table Bluff Landfill,” said Humboldt County Environmental Services Director Hank Seeman yesterday. “And we realized that we didn’t have any info on residual radioactivity that might be coming out of that landfill.”

The county, in consultation with the California Integrated Waste Management Board, decided to shutter the facility until such time as specialized tests can be performed. A crew from the Waste Management Board is scheduled to test the site at the end of February, Seeman said.

PG&E certainly operated in a loosey-goosey manner back in the day, and it wouldn’t at all be surprising to find that nasty materials made their way out of the power plant and into the landfill. For more, see last year’s cover story “The Not-So-Peaceful Atom” (Mar. 20), in which one of the plant’s first employees recalls what happened when he blew the whistle on hazardous practices there.

 

Avast, Ye Miners!

Aye, ye gravel grovelers, ye watery wastrels, ye ramblin’ rogues of the deep! I’ll sink yer dredges and steal yer gold, ye dirty river rats! Ye say yer dredges don’t hurt the fishes? Excuse me, but I think yer arguments are bullshit! Aaarghhh!

And thus spake Sen. Pat Wiggins, although it’s true that we may have garbled her words a bit as we struggled to hear her speak over the roar of her trusty pirate ship as it sped up the Klamath River last fall toward battle.

But Wiggins’ displeasure with the California Department of Fish and Game came across quite clearly this week as she reacted to the agency’s rejection of an emergency petition to halt suction dredge gold mining on various rivers and streams, including some on the Klamath River Basin, in order to protect vulnerable species of fish. The petition was filed by the Karuk and other tribes, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and several conservation groups. Wiggins said:

California’s once-thriving salmon populations have plummeted to the point that they face extinction unless we take immediate action. It will take courage and bold action on all our parts to bring the fisheries back to healthy levels …

[I]t’s time for our government to step up. If the Department of Fish and Game is unwilling to place the burden of rebuilding fisheries fairly upon all users, I will continue to take legislative action to get government to do its job.

Here’s how the petitioners reacted on Monday to the rejection.

The Sacramento Bee also chided the DFG  in an editorial yesterday, saying in part:

No doubt global warming, dams, logging, pesticides and other human activities kill fish and destroy habitat, but the bulk of the science strongly suggests that suction dredge mining harms fish, too.

As salmon populations dwindle, the state agency charged with protecting them protects gold miners instead.

Need a refresher on the petition?

And, uh, it was Dan Bacher at IndyBay who cleverly used the pirate photo first.

 

Rep. Mike hits ground running

This just in from Mike Thompson’s office:

Congressman Thompson Introduces Bill to Permanently Ban Drilling on North Coast

WASHINGTON – On the first day in the 111th Congress, North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA) introduced a bill that would permanently prohibit oil and gas drilling off the coasts of Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. The Northern California Ocean and Coastal Protection Act provides protection to the unique and productive marine environment along Northern California’s outer continental shelf (OCS).

“For the economic and biological health of our country, it’s critical that we permanently protect this unique area from the environmental hazards of off-shore drilling,” said Congressman Thompson.  “Unfortunately in the last Congress drilling became a political drama, rather than a policy debate.  My legislation is one aspect of a broader campaign to restore sensible, science based policy and ensure the health of our oceans for generations.”

During the last Congress, the ban on OCS drilling expired, which leaves the North Coast susceptible to drilling in as little as three years. The moratorium on OCS drilling had been a bipartisan agreement in Congress since 1982, but came under regular attack, and was not renewed in 2008.  In order to make sure that the North Coast of California is permanently protected, Congressman Thompson introduced his legislation today.

“Our coastline is home to one of the four most important upwellings in the world, which together support 20 percent of the ocean’s fish.  Drilling on the North Coast doesn’t make sense, either from an economic standpoint or an environmental perspective.  By permanently banning drilling, we can provide our coast with the protection it needs, regardless of who is in charge in Washington,” said Congressman Thompson.

Upwelling regions are coastal areas that support extremely abundant and productive marine life. This is because an upwelling brings cold, nutrient-rich waters up from the ocean depths that, when combined with sunlight, enhance seaweed and phytoplankton growth. The seaweed and phytoplankton provide energy for some of the most productive ecosystems in the world, including many of the world’s most important fisheries, such as the North Coast fisheries.

Drilling for gas and oil off the Northern Coast of California could cause serious harm to the unique and productive ecosystem and abundant marine life found off the coast, including the fish many local North Coast economies depend on.

Thoughts?

 

Thanks in advance!!

Associated Press

Joining the cacophony of wants bouncing at Prez-Elect Obama’s ear is a request from the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy to consider the pedestrian, and the cyclist, when he puts together that economic recovery package during his first days in office.

The package, says the RTC, is expected to devote vast funds to car-centric road projects. Well, howzabout throwing some of that scootie the wheeled/tennied folks’ way? Eh?

RTC is circulating a petition, which says:

I support explicit funding for trails, walking and biking in the upcoming economic recovery package. Funding active transportation is a cost-effective investment that creates jobs and leads to healthier people, stronger communities, decreased oil dependency, and reduced climate change emissions.

Thanks Tim Daniels with the Bigfoot Bicycle Club.

 

Second District Election Maps

Here’s a sneak preview of next week’s Journal, offered by way of contribution to a discussion over at Eric’s place. We know that Fortuna apple farmer Clif Clendenen won last month’s runoff election for Second District Supervisor. But where did he win, and how big were his gains (and his competitors’) from the June primary?

Here’s a few visualization tools. First, a results map from the whole Second District and a Fortuna inset. Clendenen is green, Johanna Rodoni is red, Estelle Fennell is blue. (The red actually shows votes for a write-in candidate; Rodoni, the only official write-in candidate, won virtually all of those votes). The shade indicates the winner’s margin of victory over the runner-up.

After the jump, maps of the gains made by each candidate since the June primary.

 

Election Results: Wrong

The results from the Nov. 4 election that were certified by the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Monday were incorrect, according to County Clerk-Recorder Carolyn Crnich in a phone call this morning. Over 200 absentee ballots were not included in the officially certified totals, most of them from one particular precinct in Eureka.

The error was apparently the result of a flaw in the Diebold-manufactured GEMS software used by the county to tabulate votes. Crnich said that she has verified this flaw with Diebold, and has reported the error to the California Secretary of State. Crnich said that she has proof that the ballots were, in fact, run through the machine. The software simply dropped the data.

Most of the uncounted ballots have now been recounted, Crnich said. The final outcome of relevant races remains unchanged.

However, around 20 ballots dropped from Diebold’s tabulation remain unidentified.

The error, which appears to be a longstanding flaw in the Diebold software, was discovered by the all-volunteer, open-source Humboldt Transparency Project. This election was the Transparency Project’s first full run-through.

Crnich and Transparency Project volunteers will have more to say about the discovery later this afternoon. Updates to follow.

 

Gans Responds

Yesterday Security National’s Randy Gans wrote a letter in response to last week’s story, “Arkley v. Humboldt.” Unfortunately the letter arrived too late to make it into this week’s paper, but we’ll put it up here and run it next week:

Editor,

Your article “Arkley .v. Humboldt” (November 26, 2008) implies that our companies that own the Loleta area land in question intend to develop it as a subdivision. Had your reporter contacted us before writing the article, he would have learned that we have no intention of doing so. Nevertheless, ascertaining the correct number of legal parcels on a particular property is only prudent land management.

Since July 2007 we have sought from the County Planning Department Certificates of Compliance. Inasmuch as the land is made up of a number of small parcels, the Certificates would clarify the status of each. The process begins with a “Determination of Status.” The county’s instruction sheets states, “The purpose of the Determination of Status is to assist applicants in obtaining quick and accurate information of the legal status of parcels.” I do not know how the planning department defines “quick,” but I think almost no one would consider 18 months “quick”. That is the length of time we have been waiting for the Certificates. We are aware of other land owners who have had similar experiences. We finally filed suit for the purpose of bringing the issue to a conclusion.

Meanwhile, all of the land in question is under lease for cattle ranching, have been planted with more than 100,000 redwood seedlings and are managed for future Arkley family generations which is hardly indicative of a “pending subdivision”.

Sincerely,

Randy Gans

Vice President of Real Estate

 

Arcata Council passes new pot guidelines

marijuana growing in an Arcata dispensary

After a long discussion and some resistance on a couple things — the definition of caregiver, and whether the words “total canopy” should be included as part of the definition of square footage — the council voted unanimously to adopt new land use guidelines covering how medical marijuana works in the city.

To be specific, they adopted Ordinance No. 1382 to Amend the Arcata Municipal Code, Title IX, the Land Use Code by Adding Section 9.42.105 – Medical Marijuana: Cultivation and Dispensing as a New Standard for Specific Land Use; and Associated Revisions to: Allowable Land Uses and Permit Requirement Tables 2-1, 2-4, and 2-10; Add Associated Definitions to Article 10 – Glossary; Revise Text to Section 9.42.040 – Accessory Uses, and Section 9.42.090 – Home Occupations.

An important change is that receiving any compensation for growing dope at home for someone other than yourself is now considered a home occupation and is not allowed. What was once a grey market is now black market.

The only firm resistance came from  Paul Pitino and Harmony Groves, two current councilmembers who opted not to run for re-election. When they realized that they were out voted, they went with the plan. Mayor Mark Wheetley suggested that anything that did not work out could be reviewed in six months — by then there will be three new people on the council.

Here’s the new code in pdf form.

Side note to the city employee who makes the PDFs attached to agendas: It’s great that you’re supplying this information on the web, but you should know that anything that’s typed up on a computer can be turned into a PDF digitally. There’s no need to print the document and scan it. Time to adopt real 21st century technology.

 

Guv signs budget – finally

After an 85 day delay and many compromises Governor Schwarzenegger has signed a budget and California can resume business. Here’s the official announcement from Da Schwarz’ office:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today signed the 2008-09 state budget, concluding a very difficult budget year and delivering a real win for Californians with a proposal to achieve meaningful budget reform. It addresses California’s $15.2 billion budget shortfall with a combination of cuts and increased revenues. It fully funds education’s Proposition 98 guarantee and does not borrow funding from voter-approved local government or transportation funds. The historic budget reform package includes a strong rainy-day fund aimed at helping smooth out the unpredictable highs and lows in revenues that plague our state and create massive deficits.

“While California is certain to face a difficult budget situation again next year, this budget does not take money out of people’s paychecks or borrow from voter-approved local government or transportation funds, and it includes real budget reform with teeth,” Governor Schwarzenegger said. “These budget reforms, when approved by voters, will finally put California’s budget on a path toward long-term fiscal stability.”

Throughout California’s history, numerous attempts have been made to reform our state’s broken budget system. When the Governor was elected, he committed to finally end California’s feast and famine budget cycle. In 2004, the Governor worked with the legislature to pass Proposition 58, which took the first step toward budget reform. In 2005, the Governor attempted the next step in budget reform with Proposition 76, and while it was defeated, the Governor remained committed to reform.

Today, the Governor delivered on his commitment with reforms to address two major flaws in the state budget system-wildly volatile revenues and over spending. In fact, had these reforms been in place over the past decade, this year’s budget problem would have been approximately $10 billion smaller and California would have benefited from $8 billion in additional funding available for infrastructure and other one-time purposes. The proposal will now go before voters on the next statewide election ballot.

Over the weekend, the Governor used his veto pen to make an additional $510 million in General Fund reductions, reflecting the Governor’s determination to reduce spending to the maximum extent possible. The state also captured $340 million in savings due to the delay in enacting the budget and the effect of the Governor’s executive order.

The rest of the Governor’s official statement is here.

 

Such As…

When the Arcata City Council met tonight to consider putting a 3/4 cent sales tax on the November ballot, they shifted gears considerably from the tax they’d previously been discussing.

A new plan, put forward by Mayor Mark Wheetley and Vice Mayor Alex Stillman (and news to some on the council) changed what had been a specifically ear-marked sales tax that would have put 1/2 cent towards public works (road repairs and such) and 1/4 cent to help pay for increased police staffing. Instead they proposed a “general” tax, which would put the money collected into the general fund.

The big difference is in the majority required for passage.  While a 2/3 “super” majority is required to pass a special use tax (the one they’d been talking about), a general tax only requires a simple majority: 50 percent plus 1. They did not come right out and say it, but Alex seemed to be hinting that results of a recent survey commissioned by the council show that the special tax may not get the votes to pass.

The trick here, if you want to call it that, is wording in the measure that specifies “such as” this and that. Where the special use tax is specific, the language in the general tax measure will include a number of “such as” items that basically boil down to police and potholes.

Councilmember Harmony Groves took a minority position, pointing out several things: that the original purpose was to cover a $14 million shortfall in public works and that police services were added later, that by its nature, a sales tax in a regressive tax, and that the proposed term of the tax, 20 years, means the money collected will be controlled by a number of different councils down the line, who might have a different idea on how to spend the taxpayers’ money.

Councilmember Michael Machi made a good point noting, “Obviously there are people who will be unhappy with any tax.” (Fred, would you care to chime in here?)

Harmony was the sole nay vote on the various changes put forward.

The shift in the tax means that language in the motion has to be rewritten. City Attorney Nancy Diamond will be up either late or early to do so, since the council will be meeting to vote on the final motion tomorrow morning (Thursday, July 3) at 9 a.m. They have to have the whole thing done by noon tomorrow to met an elections office deadline, so time is of the essence.

Incidentally, a little later in the meeting Harmony dropped a bombshell by announcing that she will not be running for council again. She encouraged anyone who wants to serve the community to step forward. Any takers?

 

Tsk, tsk DMV

Assemblywoman Patty Berg called Monday to say that she’d prodded the Department of Motor of Vehicles into reinstating Salyer Volunteer Fire Department’s Dave Murphy as the guy who gives fire fighters their driving tests so they can drive the fire engines and water tender trucks.

We wrote about this in the June 19 Journal.

To recap: Murphy’s been testing firefighters up and down the mountains of Humboldt and Del Norte counties, from Orleans out to Weaverville, for 10 years under an employee testing program set up by the DMV. The set-up streamlined things for firefighters in the sticks, making it more convenient and efficient for them to get firefighter driver’s licenses. But suddenly the DMV shut down Murphy’s program, because of a law change. Some firefighters, who’d been scheduled to take the driving test, had to make new arrangements to go to Eureka — the ridiculous logistics that would entail meant some couldn’t get it done in time before their permits expired.

Berg wrote to DMV Director George Valverde asking him to reverse the decision, but she never heard back. “So then I phoned him,” she said. And she got Valverde to reinstate Murphy as the employee tester for his region.

No doubt the fires consuming acreage out there in the hills helped with the decision.

“We depend on these firefighters,” Berg said. “And Salyer has been doing [these tests] for nearly 20 rural fire departments.”

So Murphy can test for now. But Berg said likely there’ll need to be some legislative action in the future to fix the law that caused the whole problem in the first place.

Meanwhile, however, Willow Creek VFD firefighter Tom Smithey called us to say that the window of opportunity for Murphy to conduct the tests has, alas, probably closed for this season. Murphy leads convict fire crews, which travel all over the state to fight fires.

“He could be anywhere now,” said Smithey.

 

Ain’t it Grand part 2 (police, jails and Martin)

Some law enforcement factoids courtesy of the 2007-’08 Grand Jury Report:

The Fortuna Police Dept. is housed in a “well maintained” city building. “It has a well-stocked first aid kit,” and “three fire exits are clearly marked and accessible.”

The Hoopa Station “does not have adequate janitorial services,” and their garage is a mess.

The Trinidad Police Dept. is housed in a remodeled home, which is “spacious and suitable for police operations,” but they have no holding cells, so perps are locked in police cars until taken to jail.

The building housing the Eureka Police Dept. is showing its age and needs to expand.

Inmates housed in the Eel River #31 and High Rock #32 Conservation Camps earn $1.45 a day until they are “skilled,” and potentially get a raise to $3.90 a day. When they risk their lives fighting fires that get $1 an hour. Half of that money is earmarked for “any required restitution.”
It costs $14,000-$16,000 a year to keep an inmate at a camp, as opposed to around $45,000 a year for prison.
The inmates provide around $500,000 a year in community service. Public agencies including schools, citys, the county and the state can hire crews for $160-$200 bucks a day, but sometimes they work for nothing.

Major findings re: the County Jail: “Video images of sobering cells may not always be clear.” Camera housings should be cleaned more often. Also: “There is no procedure to routinely monitor computer use of on-duty correctional officers.” Periodic and random monitoring is recommended.

The 18 kids in the well run juvenile hall ( aged 12 to 18 ) get points for “positive behavior,” and can earn “extra privileges.” “The staff expressed that the point system is very effective in behavior modification.” (I wonder if they ring a bell at mealitime.)

Would you be surprised to hear that citizen complaints at the Blue Lake Police Dept. weren’t handled all that well? Probably not since it’s been disbanded and the former chief is in the slammer, so that’s not exactly a revelation. The GJ notes that, “The city manager apparently has not fulfilled his responsibilities concerning the police,” particularly in supervising the chief.  Hmm, maybe he should be dismissed. Oh, he was? The chief too? Well, nevermind.

OK. let’s get serious for a minute. The Grand Jury looked into the death of Martin Frederick Cotton II, who died while in police custody, and, according to a tox screen, under the influence of LSD.

While they could not say for sure how he died, their investigation “uncovered possible police procedural violations,” specifically witnesses reported that police punched Cotton in the head and kicked him in the lower back and/or kidney area.