The Crabbies finished out their regular home season big last night, not only sweeping the Solano Mudcats but setting a huge attendance record. Writes board member Jerry Nutter:

The 2011 Humboldt Crabs regular season ends with a BIG bang: 2,259 loyal fans flowed through the gate for last night’s final regular season double header with the Solano Mudcats (and the Crabs swept ‘em both in well-played contests 4-0, 4-2).

YTD is now 32,681 fans for 2011 - just a bit shy of a season record, but with at least two more games to go (Thursday and Friday, August 4 & 5) we may break through the 34,000+ record of about 5 years back!

Congrats and thanks to fans, the outstanding ballpark staff, our media buddies and the 2011 Crabs baseball team.

Previous single date record was about 5 years back at 1810.

Next up: An away series at the disturbingly named Redding Colt .45’s this weekend, then – as M. Nutter alludes – the four-day Far West League Playoffs right here at the Arcata Ball Park. Godspeed, Crabs!

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While everyone was busy watching the Richardson Grove Improvement Project sputtering out, Humboldt County’s other longstanding highway priority – improvements to Highway 299’s Buckhorn Summit – is back on track. ANewsCafe.com reports that Eureka construction company Mercer Fraser was recently awarded a contract to realign one section of the highway, with work to begin in September. Writer Paul Shigley quotes a Caltrans official as saying that the entire project is expected to be complete by 2017, thus opening up an STAA-friendly corridor to the east.

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LoCO superfriend Kym Kemp has been all massive and mysterious pot raids in the Mendo National Forest, and today – the day before the Ukiah press conference that is supposed to shine light on all this – she has posted a tally. There have been 88 people arrested through the investigation so far, and almost 400,000 pot plants yanked. Word is that former Humboldter Dave Brooksher, who recently took over as head of news at Mendocino County’s KZYX-FM, has been doing great work on this story as well, though we have yet to download his reports. (Sorry, Dave!)

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It’s a shame how few people know about Private Eye, the greatest publication in the English language. But let me tell you: If you gourmandize on the Murdoch scandal, as so many of us do, then now’s a good time to get acquainted.

Most of the current issue’s blowout content isn’t available on-line (piss off, ligger!) but you can still get a decent-sized “Street of Shame” excerpt and pay a visit to Chipping Norton with “Dave Snooty and His New Pals.”

Oh, there is so much more. I pity you.