Humboldt County Residents gathered at the Bayside Grange in Bayside on Saturday to discuss a variety of topics ranging from medical marijuana to the impact of marijuana legalization.

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Eureka voters got their first chance to evaluate candidates for 4th District Supervisor side-by-side Monday night in a debate hosted by the League of Women Voters and the Healthy Humboldt Coalition. Focus centered mostly on the county General Plan Update.

A few things stand out:

Jeff Leonard likes to hear himself talk.  He made a point to tell the moderator to count on him always having a 30 second rebuttal.  Did he always use one?  No. But he got the chance to talk about how he can always burn up the clock with more blah blah blah.

Leonard touted his rhetoric about “putting Eureka on the map” — a non-issue that was settled in 1853 when Eureka won the spot as Humbolt County seat.  Incumbent Bonnie Neely further disposed of Jeff’s malarkey by pointing out that Eureka is represented by no less than three supervisors on the board — Mark Lovelace represents Harrison up to Harris on the East side, Jimmy Smith represents Cutten, and Bonnie represents Eureka proper.

All three said they support trails, though Virginia Bass recycled recent campaign line about keeping an open mind about a train she doesn’t believe will blow through Eureka any time soon.

Bass gave a nod to her developer base when she said she opposed Inclusionary Zoning, which was adopted by Supervisors last year.  She said the county needs to be “creative” when working with developers.  Leonard also opposes IZ, which Neely supported.

Both Leonard and Bass jumped at the chance to blame Bonnie for the slow progress of the General Plan Update. Yet somehow they’ve both missed numerous opportunities to show up to a county Planning Commission meeting and crack the whip and wave a magic wand.  Neely said the process has been slowed by the inclusion of new elements in the plan and public involvement, but said policies will be adopted this year.

When it comes to legalization of marijuana, Leonard is “not worried about it.”  Bass doesn’t want Humboldt to market the prized herb for tourism, and Neely suggested studies to determine how the county will be impacted.

Access Humboldt will upload the whole debate soon.  This post will be updated with a link.

It’s been said that Southern Humboldt radio station KMUD is the only station in the country to report the location of cops en route to a bust.

During CAMP season, when the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting is in full swing, and caravans of unmarked vehicles are seen heading up a windy SoHum road, for example, KMUD broadcasts the sighting.  The information is usually relayed to the station by the Civil Liberties Monitoring Project.

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman says such announcements put officers at risk, particularly when dealing with drug cartels growing weed in the timberlands and parks.

None of this is new — KMUD and CLMP have been reporting where large caravans of cops are for years.  But now that all things Humboldt marijuana are in the spotlight many aspects of the local culture are getting their 15 minutes.

Here’s the story from the San Francisco Chronicle, with a link to a recent California Report broadcast on the not-so-new news.

A Gasquet man will have the chance to receive the cash value of his
marijuana plants that were destroyed by authorities after a search
warrant was served three years ago on a Crescent City home he owned.

Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department narcotics detectives cracking down on marijuana clone sales on Craigslist in their area last month arrested two men in Santa Barbara that led to the discovery of a Brooktrails grow house.