Welcome to Humboldt Online!

Humboldt Online is currently a collection of blogs and other projects I am working on at the moment. Many of them deal with the area I live in near Eureka. Eureka, California is the capital of Humboldt County, situated approximately 250 miles North of San Francisco on the Northern California coast.

Humboldt Online is produced using WordPress MU publishing software and is hosted here locally. Our servers run on a combination of free software. This includes WordPress MU, the Apache web server, Ubuntu Linux Server, MySQL and a number of other GNU and free software programs. No commercial software is being used and no animals were harmed in the production of this website. :-)

William Van Hefner
President/CEO
Vantek Communications, Inc.

Carpenters Local 751 — a carpenters union out of Santa Rosa — recognized two local apprentices for their successful completion of the Hardwood Floor Layer Apprenticeship Program.

A woman who may have jumped from the Samoa Bridge was rescued on Sunday, thanks to the efforts of several local law enforcement officers and one Eureka city councilman in a kayak.

Erin Tracy/The Times-Standard The nation’s unemployment rate climbed to 6.7 percent in November, but numbers statewide and locally are even more grim.

Those having business with local city and county offices would be wise to take care of those matters on or before Wednesday. All city and county offices will be closed on Christmas Day.

Zoe Barnum High School student Kailee Olson is collecting ornaments to help decorate a local women’s and children’s shelter. Kailee will be delivering the ornaments along with a tree donated by Piersons to the shelter Saturday.

ATHENS — We arrived in Athens on Nov. 29, a few days before the start of the Global Forum for Media Development and the start of what has been described in the local press as the worst street violence in Athens in decades.

The EAST calendar for 2009, which focuses on the history of local schools, is available for sale. The calendars can be purchased for $5, and can be found in the information office or in the EAST Lab.

A stevedore and a gentleman died over the weekend. Leslie Westfall, who was instrumental in local shipping and business, and committed to youth and education, was intimate with regional history and has now earned a place in it.

Bill Davis of Eureka has donated money to the Humboldt County Junior Golf Association in memory of his wife, Betty Davis, to establish the Betty Davis Memorial Fund.

The average workday for most Caltrans workers is fairly predictable. That wasn’t the case on Aug. 7 of this year when local assistance engineer Brett Gronemeyer and local assistance planning liaison Brandon Larsen were returning from a field

Friends for Life, a local nonprofit animal rescue group, was unable to meet its fundraising goals over the weekend. But the group is still taking donations and offering memorial ornaments for now-deceased family pets.

With Humboldt County’s nights getting colder, 94.1 KSLG FM is looking to help a local philanthropist warm the lives of those most in need. KSLG announced Monday that it will be conducting a winter “warm and fuzzy” clothing drive

Since 2004, Premier Elections Solutions has known about the programming error in its software that caused almost 200 ballots to be dropped from Humboldt County’s final November election tally, but that came as news to California Secretary of

Humboldt County broke new ground on a tsunami warning test last year, and a bigger, bolder trial is being set up for March. On Friday, federal, state and local officials briefed the media and community groups on what to expect from the March

In the day and age of state money grabs from local agencies, Humboldt County municipalities may have just gotten a larger voice in the state capitol.

Local markets are selling crab, but it’s not the deluge the North Coast often sees at this time of year. ”Just getting some water boiling now,” said Mr.

The College of the Redwoods will hold its first-ever showcase of technical job education opportunities Saturday to encourage employment opportunities in the wake of recent local layoffs, the college’s spokesman said.

As visitors enjoyed the Trinidad sunshine outside Saturday, shoppers were busy inside of Trinidad City Hall perusing the local wares and crafts of local artisans at the 3rd Annual Trinidad Holiday Artisan Fair.

The economic doldrums appeared to have skipped Humboldt County merchants Friday, as shoppers kept the cash registers ringing up sales at the Bayshore Mall and in Old Town.

Visiting the Blue Ox Millworks Craftsman’s Days is like stepping back in time. Crafters donned old-fashioned clothing while spinning, blacksmithing and woodworking at the 13th annual two-day event that began Friday.

The Humboldt County AIDS Task Force has planned a weeklong observance for World AIDS Day, kicking off Monday. The task force will be partnering with local organizations, businesses and individuals to raise awareness about the epidemic and to

For the last couple of years, Donald Riece has been bringing chocolate bars to the Humboldt County Veterans Services Officer for distribution to local veterans.

Many residents are feeling the strain on their wallet as the holiday shopping season approaches. But local thrift store managers are revealing ways to shop thrifty while benefiting society as a whole.

The Eureka High School students running next month’s teen safety driving simulation — which includes driving while distracted and driving with drunk goggles — have added some local public officials to their driving line-up: Members of the

For some North Coasters, this Friday promises to be black in more ways than one. The day after Thanksgiving, while droves of shoppers are expected to fill stores around town, those who flip on their television at home may find they no longer

Local governments are well aware of the state’s ability to shift away locally generated dollars. This time, Sacramento officials have their eye on redevelopment funds.

Seventeen-year-old Nicole Denny said she isn’t too deterred by the California State University system’s plan to reduce enrollment by capping the number of students on its campuses for the next school year.