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ED. NOTE: Today the Outpost is delighted to kick off its first maybe-annual “San Marino Week” of programming, in which we seek to strengthen the bonds between Humboldt County and the tiny European country.

All this week, if everything goes according to plan, our John Kennedy O’Connor will be filing dispatches — or “despatches,” as he might call them — from San Marino’s rocky slopes, in between his duties as the country’s official vote-reader for this week’s Eurovision Song Contest, of which he is a world-renowned expert. 

Speaking of which: Tuning in for the Contest this year? O’Connor has prepared the following precis of this year’s festivities, aimed at the novice American viewer. Please enjoy.

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‘This Saturday, the global TV audience will have all eyes on the former industrial port city of Liverpool on England’s Western coast as the UK hosts the 67th Eurovision Song Contest — an annual competition inaugurated in 1956 to find Europe’s best new popular song by the national TV broadcasters across the continent. Two hundred million viewers across the globe are expected to tune in.

For most Americans, if they’ve heard of it all, they certainly will have little interest in sitting down for what is now a four-hour-plus live broadcast that encompasses nations from well beyond Europe’s borders and is regarded with much disdain and loathing by the millions who’ll tune in. Many freely admit they will be watching just to see how bad it’s going to be this year, and despite the winner being chosen mainly by the viewers watching, almost nobody will agree with the result.

However, yet again, NBC will be carrying the live broadcast on their Peacock platform, and for the very first time American viewers will be able to vote by phone for the songs. This year, a “rest of the world” vote will be added to those of the competing 37 nations.

NBC’s involvement in the contest began in 2006, when one of their star presenters, Maria Menounous, was parachuted into the show as the co-hostess of the edition staged at the Olympic stadium in Athens.

Despite purchasing the rights to the format for American viewers, Maria’s star turn did nothing to get the concept of an interstate American version of the show off the ground and NBC shelved plans to get it going.

All that changed in the last decade, when NBC started airing the contest on the fledgling Peacock platform, complete with an American commentator explaining for the small number of viewers exactly what was going on.

The attempts to get an American version of the show at long last came to fruition in the spring of 2022, when The American Song Contest finally made a much heralded appearance in the NBC schedules.

In fact, what NBC imported was not so much the Eurovision Contest itself, but the Swedish domestic competition that is used annually to select Sweden’s entry. The multi-week interstate contest hosted by Kelly Clarkson and Snoop Dogg turned out to be of little interest to American viewers … and the show is widely reported to be the worst-performing entertainment show NBC have ever broadcast and indeed, the most expensive. The second season was postponed until 2024, although most industry insiders doubt it will return even then.

Whether the American viewers will take any interest in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest is yet to be seen, despite the added allure of viewers getting a say in the result. It is hard to imagine folks tuning in for an international contest with no American involvement at all if they weren’t interested at all in watching an interstate U.S. competition. Doubtless, the network is encouraged by the success of recent winners Duncan Laurence and Måneskin in the US charts, scoring considerable hits despite the lack of viewers or interest in the competition.

The scoring of the contest is notoriously complex and may leave US viewers baffled. The European Broadcasting Union, which is in charge of the competition, has provided a video guide to how it all works… but even that may still leave those familiar with the contest hopelessly confused.

Normally, the broadcaster that wins the contest hosts the next edition, but with the war in Ukraine still raging, the idea that Ukraine would host this year’s show following their victory in Turin last spring was a non-starter.

As the UK had earned their record 16th second-place in the show’s history, the BBC stepped in as the runners-up to bring the show back to the UK for the first time since 1998. It is in fact the first time since 1980 that the winning nation was unable to host the following contest.

A bidding war between multiple British cities took place to decide which venue would end up with the multi-million pound poisoned chalice, and in the final reckoning, Liverpool beat out Glasgow for the dubious honor.

Liverpool city council were beside themselves with joy to get the gig and estimate that fifty million pounds will be flowing into cash registers across the city this week as the world’s media and those lucky enough to have scored tickets for the shows descend. A week-long festival of events is taking place outside of the competition itself for all those visitors to enjoy.

The tap to the American audience is also clear in the BBC’ choice of presenters for the show, as Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham is one of the four celebrities selected to compère the finals.

The contest kicks off on Tuesday at noon on the West Coast with the first of two semifinals, when ten songs will be chosen to appear in Saturday’s final. A second semifinal selects the next ten on Thursday. These qualifiers then join the six nations that automatically qualify for the final (the previous year’s winner and the big five nations of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom). All three shows will be live on Peacock, with live tele-voting for the US viewers to have their say.

For who that would like to see the shows but don’t have a Peacock subscription, some of the European nations participating provide international live feeds, but their commentaries provided in their own language may be too much for US viewers.

San Marino RTV will be providing a free telecast, with commentators Lia Fioro and Gigi Restivo whipping their domestic audience into an excited frenzy in Italian.

For any potential viewers who’d like to know what they’ll be in for, the BBC have put together a guide for the uninitiated, which can be found here. If you’d like to see and hear all 37 entries, a full guide is available at this link.

If you’d just like a quick skim through all 37 songs… there’s a compilation of about 20 seconds of each song here:

There will be a brief moment in the contest on Saturday that Lost Coast readers may be marginally interested in catching. Each of the participating nations contributes a jury vote to the proceedings and a local celebrity gets to read out that score for the millions of viewers. The tiny enclave of San Marino is light on celebrity, so they have imported one for the purpose, although the term “celebrity” is stretching credibility thin, for sure. The 30-second appearance may be worth tuning in for, but if you blink… you may be disappointed.

Regardless, Humboldt Today will be presenting the newscasts from the tiny Republic in the run-up to the contest, and the Outpost will be having Humboldt Conversations with local dignitaries illuminating life in the microstate for the Lost Coast audience, including the former San Marino ambassador to the USA.

The TV competition that gave the world ABBA, Céline Dion and Måneskin — and made embarrassed losers out of Julio Iglesias, Engelbert Humperdinck, Bonnie Tyler, Olivia Newton John and t.A.T.u., seriously impairing their credibility and previous hit making status in the USA — is upon us. You have been warned.

HUMBOLDT TODAY: Hopefully that’s the last li’l storm of the season, yeah? We have a quick roundup of the minor carnage; the California Reparations Task Force has approved their recommendations which could amount to millions of dollars for eligible Black Californians; plus, don’t even think of leaving your couch on Arcata’s streets, kids! Those stories and more in today’s online newscast with John Kennedy O’Connor.

FURTHER READING: 

• PLEASE DON’T DUMP YOUR SH*T: With Cal Poly Humboldt Graduation Approaching, The City of Arcata Reminds Folks to Dispose of Their Unwanted Stuff Legally and Responsibly
• Two Arrested on Drugs, Weapons Charges After ‘High-Risk’ Traffic Stop Near Blue Lake Yesterday, Sheriff’s Office Says
• Eureka City Government Moves to Acquire Still Another Piece of Land for Proposed Bay-to-Zoo Trail
• Reparations Panel Recommends Possible Millions for Eligible Black Californians

HUMBOLDT TODAY can be viewed on LoCO’s homepage each night starting at 6 p.m.

Want to LISTEN to HUMBOLDT TODAY? Subscribe to the podcast version here.

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Look out, Beverly Hills: Here come the Lumberjacks.

Graduation weekend is nearly upon us, and for the first time in Cal Poly Humboldt State University history, students who are walking this semester can choose to receive their diplomas at the traditional on-campus ceremony, in scenic Redwood Bowl, or at a SoCal celebration next Monday in Beverly Hills. Or both!

The Saban Theatre (formerly the Fox Wilshire Theatre) | Public Domain

The “regional commencement ceremony” will be held in the historic Saban Theatre, a 93-year-old Art Deco landmark that previously hosted Hollywood film premiers and such musical luminaries as Stevie Nicks, David Crosby and Art Garfunkel.

“By offering a ceremony in Southern California where many students come from, the University is bringing a piece of Humboldt directly to families so they can watch their student walk across the stage in person as they reach a major milestone in their lives,” Cal Poly Humboldt Communications Specialist Grant Scott-Goforth said in an email to the Outpost.

The ceremony will also make commencement accessible to full-time online students who live in SoCal, he added. 

The university is striving to provide all the usual pomp and circumstance at the regional ceremony: students walking across the stage when their names are announced, parents and friends in attendance, shouting their approval. The Associated Students president, an alumni speaker and some faculty members will be in attendance at the Saban. 

Not everyone is excited by this new ceremony, though. Wildberries Marketplace Manager Aaron Gottschalk told the Outpost that he’s worried about the potential for lost revenues to local businesses.

“Commencement weekend brings families and visitors into Humboldt to enjoy all that we have to offer as well as pump up sales for every business related to the tourism industry,” Gottschalk wrote in an email. “To hear that Cal Poly Humboldt has initiated a new program to hold commencement exercises down in SoCal is a real bummer. In these challenging economic times we are looking for every advantage possible to maintain business flow and profitability. The decision to hold some of the commencement exercises out of the area is certainly not a business-friendly decision.”

Emails and phone messages left with several other Arcata businesses Friday and Monday were not returned by the time of publication.

Asked about such concerns from the business community, Scott-Goforth noted that the university now holds commencement ceremonies twice a year — in May and in December — to “provide more opportunities for students and their families to celebrate this milestone achievement.”

Of the nearly 1,200 graduates participating in commencement this spring, just 55 have signed on to attend the Beverly Hills ceremony, according to Scott-Goforth. 

“Some students are doing both [Arcata and Beverly Hills] and some students are opting out of the on-campus ceremonies for various reasons,” he said. As for supporting local businesses, Scott-Goforth noted that “the University hosts many other events throughout the year, including Fall and Spring Previews and Green & Gold Homecoming week, and move-in and orientation weekend that bring students and their families to the region.”

Regardless of where they’ll be, the Outpost congratulates this year’s graduates. And for those who can’t attend, we invite you to have a look around the Saban Theatre, courtesy of Google:

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As we near the end of Cal Poly Humboldt’s school year and many students  prepare to return home for the summer or bid a final farewell to their temporary Arcata homes, the City of Arcata would like to remind all those who are moving away that dumping your sh*t on the street is totally not cool, bro.

Though illegal dumping is an ongoing issue in many parts of Humboldt, those who have live in Arcata for a long time know that in the month of May free boxes and piles take over nearly every neighborhood, the curbs are lined with college house couches and the dumpsters overflow with deserted furniture and housewares. Locals even dubbed the time of year “Hippie Christmas” (does anyone still say that?) — for the fact that one can “shop” the local dumpsters and free piles for all sorts of reusable goods. 

But even though it can be a fun time for Arcata residents to refurnish their homes, a lot of unwanted stuff gets left on the street and the City ends up having to clean up the mess. So, if you are moving this month, please help Arcata by getting rid of your stuff in a responsible way, like selling it online (might we suggest posting it to LoCO Classyfieds?), donating it to one of our local thrift stores, or taking it to the dump. 

So, congratulations to Humboldt’s graduating class! Thank you for staying with us for the time you did, and remember: you are an adult now and should be able to take care of properly disposing of your own crap! (But if you do have any good stuff, feel free to let us know, cuz this reporter needs some new dining room chairs. Thanks!)

There is more information on how to properly dispose of your unwanted items in this City of Arcata press release:

The City of Arcata needs the community’s help to eliminate illegal dumping and unsightly littering in our streets, alleys and other public right-of-ways. As school is coming to an end, now is the perfect time to properly dispose of unwanted items from a dorm, apartment or house.

Around this time of year, a lot of unwanted furniture, dishes, books, clothes and other items are left on street corners and sidewalks. The City of Arcata is required to keep streets and sidewalks clean and safe, and City crews must often stop other work to pick up the unwanted mattresses, sofas and clothes for transport to the landfill.

When no longer in want or need of something, the best thing to do is donate it. This ensures that your unwanted item does not end up in the landfill and that the person on the receiving end will save money and resources by not buying it new. There are various local thrift stores that will accept gently used items that are in good condition. A list of local thrift stores and non-profits can be found at cityofarcata.org/275/Zero-Waste and on the City’s “Don’t Dump and Run” brochure, available at City Hall or online at tinyurl.com/DDR-Brochure. Please make sure that all items are clean, dry and in good working condition. Please call before donating to confirm items accepted and hours!

If thrift stores and non-profits do not or cannot take items, make sure to take it to the appropriate disposal site. Check the Materials Management Guide at tinyurl.com/Materials-Management to learn how to properly dispose of everything from a light bulb to appliances and furniture.

Have furniture or appliances that need transportation to the dump? Residential Recology account holders are entitled to two bulky item pick-ups a year at no extra cost. Call Recology Arcata at (707) 683-4853 to schedule a pick-up.

To report illegal dumping, please call Arcata Police Dispatch at (707) 822-2424. For more information on zero waste practices visit cityofarcata.org or call the Environmental Services Department at (707) 822-8184.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

Moon.

On May 7, 2023, at about 2:08 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the report of a vehicle driven by a subject suspected to be armed and transporting narcotics from the Hoopa area to the Loleta area.  At approximately 2:24 deputies on patrol in the Blue Lake area spotted a vehicle matching the description traveling at a high rate of speed westbound on Highway 299 and conducted a high-risk traffic stop on westbound Highway 299 just West of Blue Lake.

Smith.

Deputies contacted two occupants of the vehicle, the driver, 34-year-old William Carl Moon and passenger 23-year-old Anaiah Amber Smith. During the stop deputies viewed a “billy club” protruding from underneath the front passenger seat.  During the stop HCSO K9 Deputy Yahztee was deployed to conduct a free air sniff of the vehicle and alerted to the odor of narcotics inside.  During a search of the vehicle, deputies located metal knuckles, approximately 15 grams of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.

Moon was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of possession of metal knuckles (PC 21810), possession of leaded cane or baton (PC 22210), possession of unlawful paraphernalia (HS 11364(a)), and possession of a controlled substance (HS 11377(a)).    Moon was also booked for a bench warrant for failing to appear on a felony charge (PC 978.5). 

Smith was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of possession of metal knuckles (PC 21810), possession of leaded cane or baton (PC 22210), possession of unlawful paraphernalia (HS 11364(a)), and possession of a controlled substance (HS 11377(a)).

Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539. 

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The California Reparations Task Force approved economic models for calculating reparations which could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars owed to eligible Black residents to address past racial inequities.

The models tell the state what is owed. The Legislature would have to adopt the recommendations and decide how much to pay, task force members said.

The state-appointed task force also unanimously voted to recommend California formally apologize “for the perpetration of gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity and African slaves and their descendants.”

After 15 public hearings, two years of deliberations and input from more than 100 expert witnesses and the public, the task force on Saturday voted to finalize its proposals in an Oakland meeting. The nine-member panel has a deadline to submit it all to the Legislature by July 1.

The historic effort could become a model for a national program of reparations, some observers have said. Rep. Barbara Lee, a Democrat from Oakland, said at the beginning of the task force meeting that the United States must repair the damage done to Black Americans.

“Reparations are not a luxury, but a human right long overdue for millions of Americans,” she said. “We are demanding that the government pay their tax.”

A bill by former state assembly member Shirley Weber created the reparations task force in 2020, in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd. The panel has since examined the history of slavery and racism in the state and developed detailed plans for how the state can begin to undo certain types of racial harm, such as housing discrimination, mass incarceration, devaluation of Black-owned businesses, the unjust taking of property and unequal access to health care.

The recommendations include policy changes and financial payouts. The task force’s final report and documents, numbering thousands of pages, don’t contain an overall price tag for reparations. They do include ways the state could calculate how much money eligible African Americans in California have lost since the state’s founding in 1850. The loss calculations vary depending on type of racial harm and how long a person has lived in California.

→ Try the CalMatters reparations calculator at this link.

For instance, the loss estimates are $2,300 per person per year of residence for the over-policing of Black communities, and they are $77,000 total per person, regardless of length of residence, for Black-owned business losses and devaluations over the years.

The task force voted in March 2022 that African American descendents from enslaved Americans were eligible, but other Black residents, such as more recent immigrants, are not. Nearly 80% of California’s 2.6 million Black residents would be eligible, said William Darity, an economist who consulted with the task force.

Task force members said elderly people should have priority for payment.

CalMatters created an interactive tool for calculating how much a person is owed, using formulas in the task force’s final reports and how long a person lived in California during the periods of racial harm.

For instance, a 19-year-old who moved to California in 2018 would be owed at least $149,799 based on the calculations, but a 71-year-old who has lived in California all their life could be owed about $1.2 million. On the other hand, an eligible 28-year-old Californian who moved out of state in 2012 and just moved back could be due around $348,507, according to the calculator.

Hundreds of millions of dollars

If all of the eligible African American residents lived in the state only two years, it could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in potential reparations.

Eligible Black residents should not expect cash payments anytime soon.

The state Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom will decide on reparations. It’s unclear what they will do with the task force recommendations. The task force was not told to identify funding sources.

“Reparations are not a luxury, but a human right long overdue for millions of Americans.”
— U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, Democrat from Oakland

Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a task force member and Democrat from Los Angeles, stressed that the process will take time.

“Giving the impression that funds will become readily available — or that cash payments are recommended by the task force to rectify marginalization caused by generations of reckless policies and laws — is not focusing on the real work of the task force or the report itself,” he said in an interview Sunday. “There is a process by which the legislature will look at and discuss all recommendations, and that will take some time.”

Task force members voted to recommend the Legislature consider “down payments” of varying amounts to eligible African American residents, saying direct cash payments are part of other reparations programs around the world.

“The initial down payment is the beginning of a process of addressing historical injustices; not the end of it,” the task force report states.

The task force also is recommending a variety of policy changes to counteract discrimination. For example, the task force has recommended the state end the practice of forced labor in prisons and adopt a K-12 Black studies curriculum.

Freedman’s bureau

The group finalized plans to establish a centralized state agency similar to the national Freedmen’s Bureau, a federal agency created in 1865 to assist previously enslaved Black people. The state agency would provide oversight and implement the task force’s proposals.

“The agency will be doing the work that we weren’t able to finish in two years,” said Kamilah Moore, chairperson of the task force.

Saturday’s meeting was one of the more rowdy hearings by the task force. It included a brief shouting match between a regular meeting attendee and Amos Brown, the task force’s vice chairperson. Also the California Highway Patrol escorted a disruptive group out of Lisser Hall at Mills College, where the meeting was held.

During this nearly final task force meeting, debate continued over who is eligible for reparations. Some task force members also voiced concerns that the Legislature might not honor the task force’s vote to consider lineage for eligibility.

By a 5-4 vote last year, the task force narrowly defined an eligible person as an “individual being an African American descendant of a chattel enslaved person or the descendant of a free Black person living in the US prior to the end of the 19th century.”

That vote was contentious and emotional.

Reparations vote

The task force voted 6-3 Saturday to approve the recommendations for financial compensation. The three members who voted against it did so after changes they wanted failed.

Moore on Saturday made several attempts to further codify the lineage-based definition in the task force’s final reports by adding a new chapter. That failed to garner majority support from the rest of the task force.

When Moore requested a section of the final report move from one part to another, members of the Department of Justice staff who put the report together balked, saying the panel would have to rescind its prior vote and convene an additional meeting to redo the report’s structure.

Monica Montgomery Steppe, a task force member and San Diego City councilmember, disagreed with them. But a majority of the task force went on to approve the final documents as presented with slight tweaks.

Speaking on Sunday in Twitter Spaces, Moore said that meeting “procedure can be weaponized.” She declined to say more publicly about issues from the meeting. “Stay tuned for the ‘tell-all’ book, though,” she joked.

The task force tentatively set its final meeting for June 29 in Sacramento. Members said they plan to hand the documents to members of Legislature.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Nancy Blair Cringle passed away on February 26, 2023. Nancy was born in Arcata and lived in McKinleyville for her entire life. She worked as a preschool teacher at Noah’s Ark Preschool when her sons were young. She then worked for the Jalisco Cafe as a waitress until she went to work at the United States Postal Service as a city letter carrier in Eureka. She worked there for more than 25 years until she retired.

Nancy loved to travel, her favorite places to go were New Orleans and Sacramento. She also loved spending time with her grandchildren. She had many friends, coworkers and relatives. She loved her four dogs — Max, Ony, Bolt and Izzie — and they miss her immensely.

She was a kind and positive influence on everyone she met. She will be sorely missed by all that loved and knew her.

She was preceded in death by her parents John and Gladys Blair. She is survived by her husband of 45 years, John Cringle; her sons Jeremy Cringle and Nicholas Cringle; her six grandchildren, Alysa Cringle, Alex Cringle, Brayden Cringle, Savannah Cringle, Favan Champion, Arthur Frost; her brother John Blair and his wife Letha; her nieces Katie Blair, Kristin Kuxhausen and her nephew Michael Blair.

A memorial service will be held at Azalea Hall in McKinleyville on May 20 from noon to 2 p.m.

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