The dire straits of the Two Rivers Tribune – the little weekly newspaper that serves the northeast of the county – made headlines around the state over the weekend, after the Associated Press picked up a Times-Standard report on the matter. On Friday, Hoopa Valley Tribal Chair Leonard Masten, whose office subsidizes the paper, ordered it closed, citing poor financial performance and the publication of controversial stories, such as the interview with fugitive Jason Hunsucker that we lauded last week.

The Hoopa Valley Tribal Council heard the matter at its meeting today, but according to Acting Editor Allie Hostler, who spoke with the LoCO a few moments ago, not much was decided. Around 40 people showed up to express support of the paper, Hostler said, including people who have taken issue with its coverage but do not want to see it go away.

At this point, Hostler and the TRT team are trying to figure out a way to take the paper independent. She said that Masten has asked her to come up with a plan to rectify the paper’s finances – which, she insists, are not really that bad – and to correct the paper’s “editorial deficiencies.” But the staff of the paper is standing by its coverage of the Hunsucker matter and other controversial matters, such as marijuana cultivation on tribal lands.

On top of everything else, the TRT‘s website is currently offline. Hostler said that she didn’t know whether this isdue to some sort of technical glitch, or whether the tribal chairman or council has ordered the site taken down. In the meantime, the best way to stay in touch is through the “I Support the Two Rivers Tribune” Facebook page.

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Crowdsourcing = awesome. Earlier today we posted a link to the State Controller’s new database of public employee salaries, and LoCO commentators started poring over the hundreds of pages of data pertaining to our corner of the world.

Commenter “Fascinating” pointed out something particularly eye-opening, and potentially Bell-worthy: Arcata apparently paid its city manager almost $250,000 in 2009. What the …?

After “Fascinating”’s catch was posted, we spent some time tracking this down. It wasn’t easy: Apparently almost everyone in Arcata city government is either on vacation or serving ice cream today. But at long last we reached Councilmember Susan Ornelas, who kindly pulled her car over in order to fill us in. Ornelas was elected in 2008, so she was privvy to the details of this big payout.

At the beginning of 2009, you will recall, the Arcata City Manager was Michael Hackett. But Hackett wasn’t around; he was struggling with the cancer that would eventually take his life. So Randy Mendosa, then the city’s police chief, stepped up and served as acting city manager. And this resulted in the city paying for the position twice: Hackett was still under contract and had to be paid, and Mendosa was also paid for serving in his stead.

Then also, the Arcata City Council finally decided to buy out Hackett’s contract, which entailed a large severance payment. Mendosa was named the permanent city manager on May 25 of that year. All told, it was a pretty bad year for that particular line item of the budget.

Commenter “JTIMMONS” notes another oddity – members of the board of directors of the Humboldt Community Services District don’t really get paid much, but they get pretty generous health benefits through the office. The Lost Coast Outpost has a call into the HCSD.