Weed Chat Today

Radio alert: Friend o’ the Journal Jennifer Savage sent this along this morning:

Thursday, Feb. 12 at 1 p.m., Jen Savage will conduct a conversation with bloggers Kym Kemp, Eric Sligh and “Sohumborn” in the KSLG studio. Kemp’s blog, “Redheaded Blackbelt,” covers issues inherent to living in the Southern Humboldt hills. Sligh’s blog, “Humboldt Grow,” details the nuts and bolts of marijuana growing. “Sohumborn” shares fictionalized stories revolving around the culture of growing pot in SoHum – stories that are real enough that she must remain anonymous. On Thursday, the three of them will discuss the ways in which growing pot has evolved and subsequently continues to affect the people, businesses and culture in Humboldt County. Additionally, they’ll talk about why they blog, the response they’ve received and related issues with law enforcement. Listeners can tune in on the FM dial at 94.1 or on the stream at kslg.com

 

New fiber hope?

Proposed fiber path along Hwy. 299

The fiber scramble continues.

The strangest thing about the various efforts to bring a redundant broadband fiber to Humboldt County is how new plans just seem to pop up out of nowhere. Virtually everyone is in agreement these days that a second fiber optic cable is vital to our community’s ability to function in the 21st Century. Coming up with a viable business model, however,  has proved elusive.

A company by the name of Broadband Associates International, Inc. is the latest player on the field, having just landed approval for almost $8 mil in state funding via the California Advanced Services Fund. That’s 40 percent of the total price tag of the project — $19.5 million — and local players are already questioning how Broadband Associates plan to come up with the other $12 mil.

If their plan proves viable (and for now that “if” remains large), not only would it provide a broadband safety net to those North Coasters who subscribe to their service (in addition to AT&T’s existing line — gotta have both!), it may also allow for “last mile” broadband access in such un- or under-served communities as Willow Creek, Salyer, Burnt Ranch, Big Bar and Weaverville.

According to Broadband Associates’ Web site,  the company was “founded by a team of highly experienced education professionals and telecom experts from AT&T Broadband.” Could that explain why AT&T seemed hesitant to sign on to another approach? Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Willits Online also received CASF funding approval — $54,000 to bring broadband to Laytonville. Again, this amount is 40 percent of the total project cost — in this case, $135,000.

CORRECTION: While virtually everyone is in agreement that redundant broadband is needed on the North Coast, not everyone agrees that the method must be a second fiber. Microwave technology could provide an alternative.

 

How Anonymous Are You?

There was some talk over at Heraldo’s the other day about Internet anonymity and the law. (Can’t find the link, sorry.) If I remember correctly, the nut of it was: Under what circumstances can a court force out the identity of an anonymous Internet blogger/commenter? Heraldo’s answer was that anonymous blogging has been ruled to be free speech, protected by the First Amendment. (UPDATE: Here we are.)

That’s true as far, as it goes. But it doesn’t go far enough. The First Amendment prevents the government from muzzling your speech. It doesn’t immunize you against the consequences of that speech. A civil lawsuit for libel or defamation could, in fact, move a court to demand identifying information from an ISP and/or a Web service like WordPress. In practice, of course, such a suit would be costly and time-consuming. But it’s not impossible.

Last January I was lucky enough to hear First Amendment attorney Thomas Burke, of the San Francisco firm Davis Wright Tremaine, address this issue at an industry convention. My big takeaway from Burke’s talk was that due to a quirk in the law, newspaper Web sites are uniquely immune when it comes to libelous and/or defamatory user-generated content.

As the law currently stands, Web site owners cannot be held liable for content that someone else has posted to the site. That goes for Yahoo, Heraldo, the Journal — everyone. But unlike Yahoo — and, I believe, unlike pure new-media outlets such as blogs — newspapers can use shield laws to fight subpoenas demanding identifying information about its site’s users.

That immunity is being challenged all over — with little success, so far — according to a recent article Thomas Burke wrote for the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, which the author and the association have given us permission to reprint here. The article is written for newspaper people, but just about anyone interested in these issues will find something to ponder therein.

And as a special bonus, Burke has offered to take questions. This is your chance to get some free guidance from a very smart attorney at the forefront of this area of law. Anonymously, no less!

Handling Subpoenas Seeking The Identity of Anonymous Bloggers

By Thomas R. Burke

A new breed of subpoenas is hitting newsrooms these days – subpoenas seeking the identity of anonymous bloggers who post comments on news websites. Though handling subpoenas is nothing new for most publishers, this particular subpoena trend raises unique legal issues and should prompt newsrooms to carefully consider the circumstances in which they will fight to protect information.

 

Live Blogging from Blogger’s Picnic!

We’re down here in Rio Dell at the Blogger’s Picnic, and since the city is famously wireless, we’ve managed to find a hot spot for live blogging.

Heraldo showed up in full chef regalia and has fired up his very cool grill to cook up some gourmet dogs:

Heraldo's hemi-powered grill

 

Programming Note: Broadband

If you’re interested, we’ll be broadcasting today’s Rural Broadband Forum down in Fortuna starting at about 9 a.m. It’s be live at northcoastjournal.com. As always, thanks to The Venue Project.

UPDATE: Yes, the seemingly inevitable technical difficulties. We should be with you shortly.

UPDATE 2: The sound in the room is pretty much useless, so we’re giving this one a bye. If you still want to check it, cruise on over to thevenueproject.com.

Click through below for a schedule.

 

Humboldt: Street View’d!

We’ve been waiting for a year; now it’s finally here! From Rio Dell to Patrick’s Point, Humboldt County has been added to Google Street View!

Now’s when the fun starts. We’re going to give some kind of prize — TBA, but awesome — to the Street View sightseer who finds the best Humboldt County Street View sight and posts it here.

Get searching!

UPDATE: Helpful hint — to acquire the link to the specific Street View you have found, use the “Link” button, as seen in the top-right corner of the screenshot on this page. Copy the link (control-C or command-C). Then paste it in your comment inside a HTML link tag, like thus:

<a href=”[STUFF YOU COPIED]“>Here’s a rad cool Street View! Prominent Ferndalian caught leaving downtown motel with female ‘friend’!</a>

Your rad cool Street View will be thus linked.

 

Order Up!

A quarter of crow

First of all, it must be said: Massive props to our new info-overlord, Heraldo, for scooping everyone with the tip that a massive federal drug bust was coming to town this week. Respect is due.

However, let me take a moment to play the boring old-school pedant, here. A massive federal drug bust came to town. Was it the DEA? It was not. Is the bust targeting 300 homes? We’ll know for sure by the end of the week, but the answer now is fairly clear: It is not. There’s a total of 29 warrants being served, unless someone is serving up some spectacular lies. Was the list of homes to be targeted gathered by looking at people’s PG&E records? Clearly: No.

The editor in me sees: Awesome scoop, mixed up inseparably with a great big pile of off-the-top rumor and speculation. And generally speaking, rumor and speculation, promulgated as fact, can affect harm people and fuck up society in all kinds of awful ways.

However, I come not to bury Heraldo but to praise him/her. This time. Luckily, the T-shirt currently on sale in the North Coast Journal’s online Cafepress store works as both ridicule and tribute, whichever way you want to take it. Buy now.

 

T-Shirt Update!

The runaway hit T-shirt of late June 2008 has been updated!

Now, on the back side, you get the full text of the eye-popping piece of reporting that confirmed the great Arcata DEA raids of late June 2008. Relive the memories every time you do laundry. Three bucks extra, but well worth it.

Detail below. Click through to purchase.

—–

 

… And All I Got Was This Awesome T-Shirt!

For the record: No, there weren’t 50 black SUVs parked at the Red Lion yesterday morning. No, there weren’t nine DEA helicopters armed with infrared detectors at Eureka-Arcata airport. No, DEA agents did not storm the pot doc’s place off Giuntoli to pull paperwork.

Thanks for the phonecalls, though!

The week that Humboldt County’s paranoia meter went from red to ultra-infra-red is now over, alas. It was a lot of fun while it lasted. And to remember the good times, why not purchase this commemorative shirt? It pays tribute to the Humboldt Herald blog, which kept us up to date with all the advance info — precisely how many DEA agents were coming, where they were staying, how many grow houses they would be targeting, how the agency pinpointed those homes. Also: The fact that “Up to 60 FBI agents may have recently rented houses in Eureka.” Hey, they may have! Or maybe not!

This is the must-have shirt of June 2008. Detail below. Click through to purchase.

UPDATED: See here.

—–

 

MEGA EXCLUSIVE WEB EXTRA: The Unexpurgated Heraldo-Dandy Papers

Sock! Wham! Pow!

This week’s “Town Dandy” column — it’ll go live here at the stroke of midnight — contains some musings and ruminations about Heraldo, proprietor of the popular Humboldt Herald blog. It also identifies Scott Greacen, executive director of the Environmental Protection Information Center, as member of that elite circle who know the undercover blogger’s true identity. Greacen has some interesting non-answers about Heraldo’s ties (or non-ties) to the organization he heads.

What may not be immediately apparent from the column is that it was prompted, entirely and pettily, by Heraldo’s refusal to give the Journal an early exclusive on his/her alleged coming-out party this September.

Now, for the first time, the Journal is publishing a rare, behind-the-scenes look at a powerful gossip columnist at the height of his powers, using all the tools in his formidable arsenal to wrestle a recalcitrant subject to the ground. That the exercise was ultimately a failure — or a draw, perhaps — matters little in the end. They’ll be teaching this text in the J-schools next year.

Brew up some popcorn and follow along. Then pick a winner — the irresistible force or the immovable object?

—–

from Hank Sims
to Humboldt Herald
date Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 7:58 PM

Coming out of the closet?
You owe me, you know.

—–

from Humboldt Herald
to Hank Sims
date Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 8:58 PM

You lost me.