The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: Humboldt

  • Spooky times come early at HHM East

    Spooky times come early at HHM East

    By Sadie Shields

    Laughter and excitement filled the air as classic Halloween music kicked off the first ever Hinarr Hu Moulik East housing Trick or Treat event Oct. 25 from 6-8 p.m. The first stop? A trip down the tunnel to other mother’s abode as the Coraline themed candy banquet began!

    Residents of the Hinarr Hu Moulik (HHM) building and students from all around campus traveled to HHM on Sunday to get an early start on celebrating Halloween. This spooky event was organized by the Resident Advisors (RAs) who had the idea to bring Halloween early to HHM East. Each study room was decorated with their own themes of the RA’s choosing and students gathered around the mocktail table on the second floor while learning to be aware of alcohol and spiking.

    Because the event was held inside a residence hall building, the housing department shared the information for this event a week in advance so that the students in HHM East were able to prepare for the possible foot traffic this event could cause.

    Kai Frimodig, a junior and the HHM East lead RA, was excited to bring the event together and share how each residential building will be doing one major event per semester this year.

    “We just wanted to be festive,” Frimodig said. “We decided that for our big event for HHM East, we would do something during Halloween and this seemed very fitting.”

    RAs were stationed in separate study rooms throughout the floors of the residential area, some dressed in costume while other RAs dressed in fall sweaters and t-shirts. Residents participated in the trick-or-treating experience while exploring the different themed study rooms.
    Floor seven’s decorations involved red balloons heading towards the direction of the origami boat stream, with a clown decorated door and a projector playing It, with templates for people to create their own boats to add to the stream. Floor five brought Charlie Brown and The Great Pumpkin’s pumpkin patch to life as visitors learned all about the Do’s and Don’ts of having a pumpkin.

    Aside from floor five’s candy, the educational information about pumpkins and their environmental impact helped students to understand the importance of safely disposing of the festive decorations that come with the fall season. Abraham Orozco, a junior marine biology major, shared how learning about invasive pumpkin species and reading the recipes was his favorite part of the event.

    From origami boats, to slime, to ofrenda decoration making, the hands-on activities drew a crowd of students and filled up the halls which spurred long lines for the elevators. The treats and the mocktails ran out before the event was over.

    Lincoln Hester, a junior forest soils major, enjoyed how the event truly allowed you to fall into the interactive chaos of the evening, with many decoration stations and music to dance to.

    “I really enjoyed the engagement, just interacting with the people hosting,” Hester said. “They had a lot of helpful info, and I found that to be pretty valuable.”

    By the end of the event, the bowls were empty, the floors were quiet and the feeling that Halloween is nearly here could be felt throughout the resident halls.

    Sadie is a reporter with an interest in covering and taking photos for sports and science. Reach her at sls331@humboldt.edu.

  • The haunting of Founders Hall

    The haunting of Founders Hall

    by Taea Seigler

    With over 100 years of history behind its walls, Founder’s Hall is bound to carry the stories, secrets and perhaps even the spirits of students, staff and faculty that have roamed its halls throughout the decades. Rumors of supernatural activity have spread amongst students and alumni, both through the grapevine and online.

    One user of the Cal Poly Humboldt Reddit thread by the username Vivid_Ranger_2915, shared their paranormal encounter in the basement of Founder’s Hall one night in the late 2010s.

    “We could hear the seismograph ticks from the hallway. We heard a sound from the hallway but due to the tall lab desks couldn’t hear [where] the scurrying noises came from,” user Vivid_Ranger_2915 said. “We got up, looked around and it was a black cat! There was no collar, and the cat proceeded to hop up on one of the tall lab chairs and hang out with us well into the evening and take a nap. For the day, that cat was our mascot. We made sure to bring it back outside and it was never seen again.”

    Humboldt State University alumni Robyn Friedman O’Leary, who graduated with an English degree in 1989, also shared her experience with Founders Hall during her time here. She recalled hearing about strange noises within those halls heard by her fellow classmates who studied late into the evening, usually on stormy nights.

    “There were always rumours of things that went bump in the dark there,” O’Leary said. “It is such an old building with such a storied history that I don’t think anyone would be surprised by stories of hauntings or paranormal experiences there.” During her time as a student, O’Leary had the opportunity to spend time in the now closed-off section of the building, Kerr Tower. The topmost part of Founder’s Hall, rounded with windows, was refurbished for student use in 1971 thanks to an $8,000 donation from Maple Creek residents, the Kerr family. According to a 1972 HSU press release, Kerr Tower was created “…to provide a place on campus where students could contemplate, meditate, think and pray in an atmosphere of peace and seclusion.”

    Like many students who had once visited Kerr Tower, O’Leary described the room as warm, cozy, quiet and more than anything, peaceful.

    The tower has since been quietly closed for no publicly available reason, leaving students to speculate why that might’ve been.

    To this day, Kerr Tower remains empty and unused, but if you go into the courtyard of Founder’s Hall at night and catch it at the right angle, you’d find there is a light up there that remains on to this day, and a curtain that sways slowly back and forth, concealing whatever secrets may hide behind those windows.

  • Wildwood, an Artistic and Technological Marvel

    by Winter Music

    In a world full of AI-generated slop created by machines, original stories crafted by hand with immense attention to detail truly feel like a breath of fresh air. Wildwood, directed by Travis Knight, is the latest film released by Laika Studios and the longest stop-motion film to ever grace the silver screen. Wildwood took 16 years to complete with a budget estimated to be near $400 million.

    Anyone who’s seen the film can easily tell that that time was well spent since this film has some of the smoothest, busiest and most action-packed animation that stop motion can offer. It’s easy to forget the film is stop motion at all with how crisp it feels in comparison to Laika’s previous films, but if you watch it, you’ll probably have a similar question to the one I had — how the hell did they do that? Laika is known as one of the best stop-motion animation studios in the world, however, the complexity and technological prowess shown in this film, combined with raw, human artistry, can be felt through every second, marking this as a true masterpiece.

    This isn’t just a movie for animation nerds like myself, it’s an adaptation of the novel Wildwood, written by Colin Meloy, lead singer of The Decemberists. The story follows Prue McKeel, who finds herself in the middle of a major conflict between several factions of intelligent talking animals while trying to find her brother in the magical woods she was told to stay away from. Each faction is fleshed out and well executed, with an impressive roster of characters who each feel real in their motivations and character traits.

    In spite of the fantasy concept, this movie is PG-13 with violent, emotional and sometimes bloody scenes. The film grabs your attention from the beginning and isn’t afraid of death or intense imagery, which may be surprising since many stop-motion fantasy films are seen as being made for kids. This isn’t a child’s story, but instead a fairytale for adults who need to reconnect with their inner child and remember that magic is real, and that it’s in all of us.

    Winter Music is a junior English major and copy editor for the Lumberjack. You can reach her at wlm38@humboldt.edu.

  • Indigenous Fashion with local flare

    Indigenous Fashion with local flare

    Sadie Shields

    Color fills the Goudi’ni Native American Arts Gallery as a story of culture is told through the threads of clothing and adornments inside. Root, Thread, Stitch | Fashion and Adornment, is the current exhibit at the gallery located inside the Behavior and Social Science Building (BSS) and running from Oct. 13 to Nov. 21. From past materials to present, the exhibit brings visitors through years of cultural fashion within indigenous tribes.

    Brittany Britton is the director of the gallery, and said the exhibition represents Indigenous fashion through designers bringing traditional materials and cultural designs into contemporary fashion.

    “We’re seeing what other designers from different tribes are doing,” Britton said. “And then how we can look at our local area and see what’s here.”

    The exhibition features approximately 110 pieces, including jewelry, clothing and other forms of adornment. One of Britton’s favorite pieces can be seen on the flyers around campus advertising the event. A beaded cap created by Jaimoe Kibby, a Yurok Tribe member, which proved far more detailed in person.

    “It looks good in photos,” Britton said. “But it’s even better up close.”

    The cap reinterprets the Yurok tribes local woven caps through intricate beadwork. Kibby recently won second place for the beaded work he did on the cap at the Santa Fe Indian Market.
    Putting the exhibition together required careful planning and creative display methods. Students in the Museum Gallery Practices Certificate program helped install the show while also learning how to properly handle and care for the artwork, Native American jewelry and regalia. The team worked to create displays that felt dynamic and not just like a jewelry story or museum, as many of the pieces are earrings or necklaces. Students even worked on making the mannequins and custom wall mounts for certain pieces.

    Since the gallery is on campus, students have the opportunity to learn about the Indigenous culture and community as well as see how it has changed over the years.

    For students who create their own work, the exhibit provides an opportunity to discover other artists with whom they can exchange ideas, and for visitors to gain inspiration from local creators.

    The opening reception drew approximately 120 people over three hours. Some of the artists attending even wore their own creations for visitors to see the fashion outside of their gallery displays.

    “It’s an opportunity for Native students and non-native students to see representation of particular styles and materials from other tribes,” Britton said.

    The pieces donated not only tell the story of local indigenous wear, but also the future of where it’s going to be.

    The gallery is free and open to the public Wednesday and Thursday 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

    Sadie is a reporter with an interest in covering and taking photos for sports and science. Reach her at sls331@humboldt.edu.

  • If you’re afraid to be alone, I ask you, why?

    If you’re afraid to be alone, I ask you, why?

    By Alba Galvan

    As I go through life, it feels like I’m being shoved into a reality where time moves too fast to be spent waiting on others. I’ve learned to love the little things in life, the comfort of being alone and enjoying the process of learning new things about myself.

    Lately, it feels like there is an unwritten rule that happiness matters most when it’s shared with other people, but that is far from the truth. Having friends and falling in love are beautiful parts of life that we as humans crave to experience, but an equally important part that is not talked about much is being able to enjoy life alone. It’s okay to try new things alone, why hold yourself back waiting for someone?

    I chose to value my time alone in my early 20s, not in a lonely way, rather I choose to find joy in taking myself to Sequoia Park Zoo, walking on the sand at Clam Beach or looking at the stars on a cool, clear night. You should be able to do things alone and find joy in them. I like to remember an old saying,“At the end of the day, you only have yourself.”

    In prioritizing making plans with others, have you ever missed out on an experience because you were waiting on someone else?

    Our early 20s should be used as a time to find out what kind of people we want to be. What we want to learn, do and experience, not to feel the fear of time running out before you even had the chance to do what you wanted to do.

    “I decided instead of running away from the idea of a life alone,” Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City said. “I’d better sit down and take that fear to lunch.”

    Alba is a reporter and opinion editor for the Lumberjack. She enjoys listening to people’s opinions with an open mind. You can reach her at agg83@humboldt.edu.

  • Tensions rise at title IX Town Hall

    Tensions rise at title IX Town Hall

    Tatiana Moore

    Roughly 40 students gathered in Siemens Hall on Oct. 14 to question Cal Poly Humboldt officials about sexual violence, campus safety and the university’s response to students’ concerns.

    The hour-and-a-half event began at 6 p.m. and consisted of a panel made up of university representatives.

    Students shared stories of feeling unsafe on campus, struggling to get help and having to repeatedly contact university staff to get answers. Many questioned whether the university was doing enough to protect students and prevent sexual violence.

    One major point of tension in the night was the university’s use of confidentiality to explain away why they could not answer campus safety concerns.

    “I acknowledge you,” Title IX Coordinator David Hickcox said. “But perps have the right to due process, sorry.” Then shrugged his shoulders.

    This remark was interpreted by students not only as dismissive, but patronizing to a student who had just detailed the sexual violence they had experienced while at this school.

    Students pushed back, saying they weren’t asking for private case details. They wanted to know what the university was doing to prevent future hardship and protect students who already felt unsafe.

    Several students described how the process of seeking help is exhausting. One student said they had to keep emailing and following up to get help. Another student said the experiences shared at the meeting reflected a bigger problem that was affecting general student mental health and academics.

    Tensions grew as students and panelists spoke over one another. One student called on the audience to raise their hand if they didn’t feel protected by school administration and about every hand shot up while a student pleaded, “Look at us!” Another student called the panelists chuds before leaving the room.

    Students continued to press for direct answers about campus safety, housing and Title IX. They questioned what happened when a report was made, what consequences followed confirmed violations and why students were often responsible for pushing the process forward themselves.

    Panelists discussed possible housing changes, no-contact orders and campus support services. They also described prevention efforts that included training for resident advisers. Students asked how those measures helped people who were already feeling unsafe.

    Late-night transportation was another concern. Students said cuts to bus services make it harder to get around campus safely. Panelists said the university was working to maintain the services. Notes from the meeting did not establish a final decision or timeline.

    As the meeting neared its end and the panel wanted to wind down the conversation, a student yelled, “You should be here all night.” Not everyone had the chance to speak. Chelsey Castiglione with the Recreation and Wellness Center said they would compile student feedback and prepare a report for the University Senate. Students asked to see the notes and wanted information about when the University Senate would discuss their concerns.

    For the upcoming Ssenate meeting Castiglione will be proposing a Violence Prevention Community Advisory Board made up of eight to twelve paid students. The board would give students a role in shaping prevention efforts and holding the university accountable.

    The meeting gave students a chance to share their concerns but did not establish what specific changes the university would make in response.
    Students left having raised questions about safety, communication and accountability. Whether those concerns lead to changes remains to be seen.

  • Lithium-ion sparks new vape ban

    Lithium-ion sparks new vape ban

    Bodhi Haugen

    As California prepares to eliminate disposable nicotine vapes, the topic goes beyond just people’s health. The state’s new law surrounding vapes raises questions centering on addiction, sustainability and safety.

    According to Assembly Bill No. 762 (AB 762) posted on California Legislative Information, “This bill would prohibit, beginning January 1, 2027, a person from importing or manufacturing for sale in this state a new or refurbished disposable, battery-embedded vapor inhalation device, and, beginning January 1, 2028, prohibits a person from selling, distributing, or offering for sale a new or refurbished disposable, battery-embedded vapor inhalation device in this state.”

    The ban does not apply to marijuana vapes, while both devices use the same lithium-ion battery to function.

    A California Assembly committee analysis of AB 762 states that lithium-ion batteries in vapes are “highly flammable, cannot be removed and post costly safety issues at every point of the waste stream. These devices are thrown in the trash, and sent to material recovery facilities where they can ignite, posing safety risks to workers.”

    According to the Department of Cannabis Control’s Monthly Sales Report, vape sales in California have exceeded flower sales in 2025 and are projected to surpass them again in 2026. Although nicotine vape sales in California do not provide similar statistics, the California Tobacco Facts and Figures from the California Department of Public Health state that vaping has increased since 2020, with 1.5 million Californians reporting current vape use.

    Cassidy Faye, a wildlife conservation and management senior, didn’t know about the ban but thinks it’s ethical for California to ban nicotine vapes without weed vapes for addictive reasons.

    “I think that it’s fair if they only ban nicotine vapes because it’s more addictive chemically,” Faye said. “With weed you don’t really; like some people sit around and hit the dab pen all day but it’s not as common I feel like and that would get you high as f[uck].”

    Faye also considers previous concerns with nicotine vapes, and recalls their original purpose when initially released to help smokers quit.

    “I feel like the main issue with it was that they had these really, like what’s this, Juicy Peach Ice, like that’s a child. That’s like—that’s—it’s like a lollipop, it tastes like a lollipop. And so a big issue is that kids were getting into it because it tasted good and it was cool or whatever,” Faye said. “And I think that vapes do have a purpose, because some people who are super addicted to cigarettes, they switch to vapes and that actually does help them cut down. So, I feel like it should still be an option.”

    As California moves toward phasing out disposable nicotine vapes, the challenge goes beyond passing a new law. The ban’s long-term impact remains uncertain, but the changes in safety risks of disposable vaping devices will become clear in the following years.

    Bodhi is a reporter and news editor for the Lumberjack. You can reach him at bgh27@humboldt.edu

  • Standing in solidarity with the National Day of Act Against Sexual Violence

    Standing in solidarity with the National Day of Act Against Sexual Violence

    By Tatiana H Moore

    As the Lumberjack Weekend kickoff event began in the SAC Quad at Cal Poly Humboldt on Oct. 8, a group of concerned students simultaneously gathered to stand in solidarity with the National Day of Action Against Sexual Violence.

    CPH’s response to a recently reported sexual assault on Aug. 29 at Hinarr Hu Moulik (HHM) East dorms brought outrage after numerous news outlets across the state reported on the arrest of Delos Moore.

    This all comes amidst growing national scrutiny surrounding universities’ responses to sexual violence. With universities’ current handling of allegations, people are calling for institutional accountability. The Cornell Seven case is but one of many high-profile instances where men alleged to have committed sexual violence were allowed to continue their education with the privilege of privacy.

    Katerina Gaines, wildlife ecology student and organizer of the gathering, called on university administration to do more in addressing the recent public campus safety concern.

    “We’re concerned because the perpetrator of sexual assault at the HHM dorms is now back on campus, there’s been no communication from the school regarding this, no clear outline on how they’re keeping students safe,” Gaines said. “We’re here because we deserve a safe campus. And we want perpetrators to be expelled from the school.”

    Chelsey Castiglione with Student Health and Wellbeing Services was in attendance to offer support and resources.

    “We want to support our students who are protesting,” Castiglione said. “And we want them to know this is the avenue where they can have a voice.”

    Castiglione was providing information about related existing programs at CPH, including the Act to End Sexualized Violence course and Check It.

    “Act to End Sexualized Violence is a class that myself and Dr. Schnurer do every semester,” Castiglione said. “It is all about advocacy and action surrounding sexual assault prevention.”

    Castiglione emphasized the power that student advocacy and activism has had on the campus in the past.

    “That class came out of a student protest back in the day, it came out of students saying, why don’t we have a class on this?” Castiglione said. “Our Check It program also came out of student advocacy saying, what is going on with this? We need to have a program on campus, and their advocacy is what pushed it stateside.”

    While these resources provide students with support and community, they aren’t answering the questions that students are asking. Confidentiality requirements limit what university officials can disclose about individual cases, but students feel this is a matter of safety.

    “We just have to trust what they say,” Sid Spahn, a biochemistry student said.

    “That makes me feel uncomfortable because the only information I have about Delos Moore is that he sexually assaulted somebody and falsely imprisoned them,” Spahn said. “The fact that the administration, all they have to say, is trust us, we dealt with it. I don’t trust them and I think that they aren’t doing anything to actually protect people on campus.”

    Title IX has no public registry, unlike criminal sex offenders who are mandated to report to a central public database. Students who have been disciplined under a school’s Title IX process are protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

    Nicki Viso, deputy Title IX coordinator, was also in attendance Oct. 8th. Stuck between respecting students’ privacy and students’ desire for information, Visoi was unable to provide students with any new information.

    “I don’t have a satisfactory answer. We can point you towards publicly available information,” Visoi said. “Outside of those sources, as far as what is contained in an arrest report, what’s contained in the Title IX report, that’s information that we’re not really able to share as our office or as a campus.”

    This is not a Humboldt issue alone; this is just yet another case of people feeling that their university is systematically protecting perpetrators of sexual violence. To address students’ concerns, a town hall meeting will be held in Siemens Hall on Oct. 14.

    Tatiana is a reporter. Contact at thm18@humboldt.edu

  • AI Literacy and Resistance

    AI Literacy and Resistance

    By Tatiana H Moore

    John Warner invited students of Cal Poly Humboldt to not only question the growing role of AI on college campuses, but to resist it.

    Warner, author of “More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI,” spoke Oct. 6 in the Kate Buchanan Room on the relationship between humanity, writing, education and AI.

    Warner called on students to begin by organizing, resisting and protesting the university’s own AI involvement. CPH is one of the 23 campuses included in a rollout of ChatGPT Edu, granting premium ChatGPT licenses to students, faculty and staff. In May 2026, the California State University system renewed its agreement with OpenAI for $13 million annually for an additional three years.

    ChatGPT Edu became a point of discussion where many in the audience appeared completely unfamiliar with the arrangement.

    Dr. Lisa Tremain, associate professor and director of the First-year Composition Program at CPH who facilitated the lecture, responded with sarcasm about students’ awareness of the agreement with a remark about university communications.

    “What? You mean you guys don’t do the surveys in your emails?” Tremain said. “No way!”

    The debate over AI in education isn’t about whether or not AI can produce writing, but whether producing writing is the same as learning to think. Warner’s main argument is that AI is boring — generative AI cannot replace human writing because writing is an essential cognitive process used for thinking and discovering ideas.

    “LLMs [Large Language Models], they cannot think, they cannot feel, they cannot communicate with intention,” Warner said. “They generate text untethered from meaning.”

    If writing can be looked at as a process of discovery rather than simply amassing information, then evaluating students solely on the quality of the final work risks losing all the critical thinking that happens along the way.

    “When we write, the act of writing alters our communication. How what we’re doing, the process of it, and how we discover things as we write,” Warner said. “The fundamental way that I learn about the world is by writing about what is happening within it. Writing is also feeling — it’s not a purely intellectual exercise. It shapes our values and worldviews. It connects us to ourselves and others.”

    While Warner is a man concerned with collegiate matters, students were eager to push the conversation beyond the classroom. They raised concerns such as environmental impact, training models founded in euro-centric ideology and the growing power of the tech billionaire oligarchy.

    Steven Ochoa, a graduate student and public sociology major, asked Warner if he was considering whose knowledge has historically been excluded from academic institutions.

    “You’ve spoken to the ways in which resistance to AI is required by the embodied writing practice, but are you also contending with whose written words haven’t been uplifted?” Ochoa said. “Are you also speaking to what resistance looks like coming from those whose communities whose words have been erased?”

    For Warner, resisting AI is within the recognition of writing as an essential part of humanity, but Ochoa’s question raised a point of contention. Resisting AI is not only about protecting the process of writing, but it’s also about considering whose knowledge is going to be the basis. While AI is trained on global datasets, mainstream models — ChatGPT, Claude, Grok — do have heavy bias skewed toward Western reinforcement learning, creating a situation that leads into the further erasure of communities.

    As universities continue to embed AI in the classrooms, students have to question not only how they learn, but who gets to shape that future model of their education.

    Tatiana H Moore is a reporter for LJ. Contact thm18@humboldt.edu

  • Fund current students first, alumni second

    Fund current students first, alumni second

    By Barley Lewis-McCabe

    Dead-eyed administrators hovered over the open bar, just beer and wine — a big distinction. Drinking until their monologues about student success were as slurred as they were callous. Indentured student workers wandered the Kate Buchanan Room, waiting on their every desire, filling wine glasses nearly to the brim, bringing steaks, salads, cider-brined chicken breasts and of course a dessert. In the wake of the dinner, one thing was clear, it’s just unreasonable to assume the university could continue to fund bus lines or any program we’d offer, we’re in a budget crisis after all. Some sacrifices will have to be made.

    I recently had the honor of being one of a handful of students invited to the distinguished alumni awards dinner on Thursday, Oct. 8. The most impactful administrators in our school and guests of the celebrated alumni gathered together to honor graduates who made an impact on their communities and to preach the accomplishments of our university. The room was decorated with flower pots, each table had a gilded H, golden plates and cardstock brochures depicting the honorees were placed atop long white tablecloths that went down to the floor. It was awfully tone deaf.

    Alumni Relations footed the bill using funds allocated by the Cal Poly Humboldt Foundation. The Foundation receives charitable donations and invests in a series of mutual funds in order to fund a variety of student and campus services. It wasn’t money that was earmarked to go towards a certain program, It was up to Forever Humboldt to decide the most impactful way to spend it. Celebrations for alumni are hollow if current students are unable to have saturating meals or even get to school reliably.

    At a school with obvious financial problems, I have to ask if this is the best use of our endowment. Should this money have been given to Forever Humboldt in the first place, or would it have been better spent keeping struggling departments afloat and uplifting current students? I wonder if people who donated to the foundation under the assumption that their donation would help fund scholarships knew what their money was spent on.

    I’m not against celebrating distinguished alumni — the four honorees more than deserved to be there and be celebrated by their peers. In my mind, the problem is the dissonance between the ornate celebration and the average student experience at CPH.

    I understand the limitations of our university’s budget and I know that there are plenty of good-hearted administrators who want nothing more than for each and every student to be successful, but what good did this dinner do for the students waiting in line for OhSNAP! to open? What good does it do for a student who feels powerless to stop the mold growing in their dorm? What’s the point in these patriotic celebrations of school spirit if so many of our students aren’t having their basic needs met?

    The dinner was a far sight from tacos on the Quad or the stale tofu and tomato sandwiches we’ve become accustomed to from university catering. I dined on a sage butter steak over delicious garlic mashed potatoes, with a pan sauce and brown rice on a bed of eggplant. It was incredible — the best meal I’ve ever had at CPH — but it was poisoned with the knowledge that the average student would never be fed like this on campus until they graduated, if then.

    Barley is the good-timing Editor In Chief of The Lumberjack, as well as a jack of all trades news writer. Contact him for any reason at bl258@humboldt.edu

  • Travel days from hell

    Travel days from hell

    By Jacqueline Zuniga

    I recently went on a trip to North Carolina, and it made me realize how unpleasant it is to fly now. If you’ve ever flown out of the Arcata-Eureka Airport, you know there are limited options. This time I was stuck with United Airlines. Tickets and baggage were expensive, so if I wanted anything other than a middle seat, I had to pay an additional 60 bucks. No, thank you.

    I flew from Arcata to San Francisco, and that’s where it started to go downhill, I spent $50 on four snacks. I sat near my gate laughing out loud at Reels, not knowing it would be the last time I laughed for a while.

    When it was time to board, the lady I was sitting next to decided it was Piss Off Jacky Day. It took her forever to empty her backpack and finally sit down. Over the next four hours, she woke me and the guy next to me five times so she could get up to use the restroom. I was so bothered ‘cause how many times does someone need to use the restroom on a four-hour flight? There we were, standing in the middle of the aisle waiting for our seat buddy to get back from the restroom. Oh, and she had her brightness all the way up on her iPad, and kept coughing in our shared space.

    After that magnificent experience, I made it to my second connection in Chicago at 5 a.m. I thought I would treat myself to a coffee after that flight. Worst coffee ever. I was so upset because I spent a whole lotta money I shouldn’t have. The next flight was super chill, no one sat next to me and I finally got to rest. Once I touched down in North Carolina, I still had an hour and a half commute to my aunt’s house.

    After hearing all the family gossip, my commute back to Arcata started. Woke up at 4 a.m. and headed to the airport, where the nightmare started again. When boarding, the flight attendant had sat someone in my seat and told me I was in the wrong seat. Where was I supposed to sit — the cockpit? It was shortly resolved. The man who sat next to me used his huge leather jacket as a blanket, which spilled into my seat and took over my armrest. I felt like a sardine in a can.

    On my last flight, the United app said I had 54 minutes to get to my gate. Chill. Unfortunately, that was actually how long it was going to take me to arrive at my gate — I had 14 minutes until boarding. I needed to get from A23 to B58; the Denver Airport is so big for no reason. I had to phone a friend, my sister, for help navigating this maze. After hopping on a train and walking for what felt like forever, I finally got there.

    The whole flight was noisy — no shade to them — but the people in front of me were yelling and laughing. Why are we being so loud on a flight? Have we forgotten airplane etiquette? Two hours of chatter and laughter at an absurd noise level was not fun. Their joy of making absurd plans at such a loud level made me miserable.

    May we not forget, not everyone wants to hear your loud conversations. If you need to get up 15 times during a flight, buy an aisle seat. What was supposed to be a relaxing journey through the clouds became a flight straight from hell.

    Jacqueline is the super duper cool sports editor,social media manger for LJ and news manager for KRFH.

  • Raccoon Run Club

    Raccoon Run Club

    By Keziah Rutschow

    At 6:30 p.m. every Wednesday, participants gather at Jogg’n Shop for the weekly Raccoon Run Club Ladies’ Night. Gradually, runners arrive, greeting each other and catching up before the run. Olivia Black, one of the founders of Ladies’ Night, welcomes everyone and begins leading the group towards the Arcata Community Forest to complete a five-mile loop.

    The Raccoon Run Club was started in Arcata by two locals, Thomas and Wes, who wanted a space for younger runners to get together in a fun yet casual environment. After a few months of the 6:30 p.m. Monday runs, Black and her friend Lily decided to come together and start a second session with a ladies’ night on Wednesdays.

    “It’s super chill, there’s never pressure to run a certain pace, look a certain way — anything like that,” Black said. “Most of the time people show up in Hawaiian shirts and it’s just silly and it’s just fun.”

    Moving from West Virginia to Humboldt for work, she continued to build and find her own community through running.

    Beyond being friendly to all running levels, many runners at the club come from different backgrounds, experiences and abilities.

    “We all come from a different sports background or lack sports background,” Black said.  “But we’re all out here doing the same thing every night, having fun together.”

    Runners often introduce each other to different sports, such as surfing or biking. Not only have they shared interests with each other, but they have also created a space of support and strength for one another.

    Dana Merrill grew up in Humboldt and began attending Ladies’ Night six months postpartum with her second child, eventually running an ultramarathon a year after joining the group.

    “Running is super social. And I think people think of it as, ‘Oh, I, like, have to grind on the treadmill,’ or ‘you’re always miserable.’ And, starting, running is not easy.” Merril said. “I wouldn’t sugarcoat that, but once you’re in it, so many runners just want people to run with. They don’t care about your pace.”

    This run club not only inspires those who join, but provides a social scene. For some, running is a solo personal journey.

    Sol Fernandez kept running after spending just a year on the Cal Poly Humboldt cross country team during COVID before leaving, but she found herself missing that social side

    “It allowed me to fall in love with running. For a personal love for it, versus I have to be at practice after school every day. Like the way it was before,” Fernandez said. “It just allowed me to actually find peace in running rather than punishment.”

    Whether someone is new to running or a seasoned athlete, the Raccoon Run Club Ladies’ Night offers an inclusive and supportive space for community, personal growth and fun. The group demonstrates that running can be about connection, encouragement and enjoyment — making it more than just a workout.

    Keziah is the science editor with an interest in crime & justice and politics

  • Lumbersnack – Barbecue Mushroom Sandwich

    Lumbersnack – Barbecue Mushroom Sandwich

    By Winter Music

    Autumn brings the start of mushroom season. Whether you’re buying them from the store or foraging in the woods — it’s a great time to learn how to cook these weird, meaty, not-a-vegetable, not-a-fruit gifts from the ground.

    This is a simple method you can use to cook almost any edible mushroom that’s fast, delicious, affordable and filling.

    I created this recipe when I needed a filling vegetarian meal to eat while my friends ate meat at barbecues. Since then — through trial and error — with little more equipment than a knife and a frying pan, this has become a staple of college survival for me. I can throw it together in 20 minutes, it’s cheap and mushrooms are high in protein, which I’m usually trying to get more of as a vegetarian.

    Ingredients:

    • 4-6 small mushrooms — I use baby portobellos
    • 2 Tbsp butter
    • 1/4 of an onion
    • 2-3 Tbsp barbecue sauce
    • 2 slices of bread
    • 4 tsp mayonnaise
    • 1-2 slices cheese of your choice — optional

    Step 1:

    Start by cutting your mushrooms and onions into 1/4 inch-thick slices, then put the mushrooms directly into your cold pan and spread evenly.

    Step 2:

    Heat on medium-low, beginning to stir when the mushrooms start to sizzle. Cook for a total of 7 minutes or until the mushrooms become flexible, aromatic and have expelled most of their juice — this method is called a dry fry, and will improve the texture of your mushrooms.

    Step 3:

    Add your butter and onions, then cook until the onions become translucent.

    Step 4:

    Add barbecue sauce and cut the heat, mix well and let rest on the stove while putting mayo on each slice of bread — toasting bread is optional.

    Step 5:

    Transfer the contents of the pan onto one slice, then layer on cheese and the second piece of bread.

    Step 6:

    Enjoy!

    Winter Music is a junior English major and copy editor for the Lumberjack. You can reach her at wlm38@humboldt.edu.

  • Don’t touch the bats, they bite

    Don’t touch the bats, they bite

    By Sadie Shields

    On Sept. 23 around 7 p.m., Avi Kaplan, a junior botany student, stumbled upon quite a strange sight. Four freshmen gathered around a bat that was crawling its way across the library circle roads.

    “I scooped it up with a sock and used it like a hammock so it couldn’t bite me,” Kaplan said. “I moved it off the road near the tree, but figured someone might come and pick it up so it would be better to bring it to the wildlife sanctuary.”

    This bat — which turned out to be a Mexican free-tailed bat, a medium-sized bat that tends to travel in large colonies — was solo, crawling on the floor. It was quite an uncommon sighting. It turned out that the bat Kaplan was carefully taking care of was carrying rabies, an almost always fatal disease to humans carried by wildlife.

    “Finding out the bat had rabies really freaked me out for a bit,” Kaplan said. “But because California doesn’t want a rabies epidemic, they completely cover all costs related to treating the disease, so I wasn’t too worried,”

    According to Monica Sheffer, an assistant professor of Entomology, bat bites are easy to miss.

    “If you come into contact with bats, it’s better to get treated for rabies than not,” Sheffer said. “Even though the likelihood of that particular bat biting you and having rabies is very low.”

    One of the main culprits behind their danger is their teeth, with their body being only 3.5 to 4.5 inches long, Mexican free-tailed bats’ teeth are in the millimeters.

    “Their teeth are very small,” Sheffer said. “So you might not know that you were bitten.

    In terms of safety, what Kaplan did is not recommended.

    If a bat infected with rabies were to bite you, once the bite reaches the central nervous system, it has a 100% fatality rate according to the World Health Organization.

    According to Dr. Joseph Szewczak, a professor at Cal Poly Humboldt,  mammals present one of two forms of end-stage infection of rabies, which is either furious or dumb. Usually bats present with dumb rabies in which they become weak and lethargic. They will become too weak to fly and if away from their roost they end up on the ground. Only about 10% of bats found on the ground test positive for rabies. If people find a grounded bat it will most often appear docile and in need of help and this has led to human exposure when they attempt to pick up the bat to help it. A bat in such a situation will bite in defense of what they likely interpret as a predator.

    Silvia Pava, an assistant professor in the Biological Sciences Department, noticed many red flags just in terms of the location of the bat.

    “I would not handle a bat, you’re not supposed to handle bats. If you see one, especially on the sidewalk, that is per se already a red flag that the bat is probably not fine,” Pava said. “I would not handle bats at all. If you see a bat that is just hanging out in some really accessible area, I would think that the bat may be sick.”

    “That’s the first advice, keep the distance,” Pava said. “If you keep the distance, you’re going to be fine.”

    If you are to find a bat, or any other animal walking around campus exhibiting highly unusual behavior, it’s best to leave it alone and stay as far away as possible.

    Feel free to call 911 or call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department Environmental Health Division at (707)-445-6215.

    Sadie is a reporter with an interest in covering and taking photos for sports and science. Reach her at sls331@humboldt.edu.

  • Students still stand with Gaza

    Students still stand with Gaza

    By Barley Lewis-McCabe

    On Oct. 7, roughly 60 irate Cal Poly Humboldt students gathered on the steps of Art B to protest the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Under the watchful eye of the Free Speech Response Team, student activists passed flyers and scrawled calls for peace on cardboard until the speakers passed around the megaphone and kicked off the speeches.

    “As you heard before, today marks three years of the most blatant, obvious genocide that we have seen in the 21st century,” Dakota Hirschensohn, Humboldt Youth Democratic Socialists of America president said. “Resistance against Israel, inside and outside of Palestine, is growing. It is our job as Americans to support them in their struggle.”

    The conversation quickly shifted to focus on the history of Palestinian resistance. The next speaker, student activist Jarrett Whitlow, placed the devastation of Gaza in the perspective of an 80-year settler colonial campaign waged by Israel.

    “In 1948, the first war for the preservation of Palestinian independence began,” Whitlow said. “Laid by the advances of nationalist, Israeli militias and the Zionists behind them that planned from the beginning to conquer all of Palestine for themselves.”

    An event organizer gave the safety talk as the crowd spilled from the Art Quad into the streets of Arcata. Organizers pointed out designated police and media representatives, made sure people knew who to get water from and, most importantly, that they wouldn’t let anyone fall behind. They ensured the crowd wasn’t loose, but a dense brigade marching through campus and into the city, meeting fellow protesters and speakers in the Arcata Plaza.

    “We will be visible and we will be loud,” Sally, an event organizer who requested their last name be omitted for safety reasons, said. “We have safety in numbers.”

    Ear-piercing chants echoed through Arcata, underscored by the ever-reliable car horn.

    “You hear honking and you don’t know if it’s in support or against us,” a marcher turned to his friend and said. “So we just assume it’s pro.”

    Hirschensohn discussed the goals for that day’s action, hoping that they can help kick off change that goes beyond the Redwood Curtain.

    “We don’t think — from Humboldt — we can end the genocide,” Hirschensohn said. “But if we put enough pressure on the CSU system, Cal State admin, we can push things in the right direction.”

    Barley is the good-timing Editor In Chief of The Lumberjack, as well as a jack of all trades news writer. Contact him for any reason at bl258@humboldt.edu

  • Avenue of the Marathoners

    Avenue of the Marathoners

    By: Keziah Rutschow & Marielle Winuk

    In the early morning of Oct. 11, roughly 1,600 people gathered along the Eel River in the heart of Avenue of the Giants to race a 5K, half marathon or full marathon through the Redwoods. This was the 46th annual Humboldt Redwood Marathon, hosted by Six River Run Club. Many participants are local to Humboldt, but the event attracts runners from across the country. Some Cal Poly Humboldt students ran for the first time, while others have gone these distances before.

    For Kate Pringle, an environmental science & management major, working through the crowd at the start line was rough but once she wove her way through everyone, she was able to really immerse herself in the course.

    “It’s honestly like a fever dream,” Pringle said. “This was my second time running on the course, and it’s just magical. Every time I’ve run it, it’s absolutely beautiful.”

    Pringle won first overall in the women’s category for the half marathon race with a time of 1 hour and 33 minutes. It was not an easy feat, she had to work through internal struggles to get there.

    “I would say like mile 8 to 12 is the most mentally challenging because you’re kind of just at the end,” Pringle said. “You’re holding on to your pace for your dear life.”

    No matter who you are, or what place you get, there are always hurdles to overcome when doing any race whether it’s physical or mental.

    Skylar Rawitch, psychology major, ran her very first 5K running race. She expressed how high the energy and vibes were from everyone there. But in the end it’s between you, your mind and your body.

    “Mentally, self-talk was definitely my hardest challenge,” Raywitch said. “I kept having to change my mindset.”

    Working through mental obstacles, she was able to push herself to a new personal record in the 5K.

    One of the special things about Humboldt and its close-knit community is how many people here know each other. For Orion Knowler, a mechanical engineering major, seeing familiar faces made his first-ever marathon experience unique.

    “It was fun,” Knowler said. “Definitely, I saw a lot of people I knew that I didn’t know were going to be running it.”

    Whether it’s a 5K or a full marathon, this event gave the community a space to come together, connect and support one another.

    Keziah is the science editor with an interest in crime, justice and politics

  • Bigfoot found in arcata community forrest

    Bigfoot found in arcata community forrest

    By Nico Patakidis

    When you’re walking around campus, particularly the BSS building or the Arcata Community Forest, you may stumble upon a sort of otherworldly, mythical kind of creature. It could be in the bushes, stalking you on your way to class or watching your every move from the treetops. But what this cryptid really wants is a scratch on the chin or a pat on the head.

    Three average sized paws and one big foot gave this cat his name. Often does Bigfoot the cat wander the outdoors, exploring nature and looking for a stranger to indulge him in a few strokes across his marbled coat. Yet for the unassuming passerby who happens to see a rather beautiful and well taken care of bengal cat, it appears that Bigfoot is most certainly lost.

    Bigfoot’s owner is Cal Poly Humboldt biological anthropology major Miriam Cima, who adopted Bigfoot while living in Burlingame, CA and brought him with her when she moved up to Humboldt. Bigfoot grew up on the busy streets of San Mateo county, living the outdoor-cat life since he was a kitten.

    “We tried the indoor life, I’ve got him like a cat wheel and like tons of cat trees and toys and stuff,” Cima said. “Being an outdoor cat, he always wanted to be outside. It didn’t matter if it’s raining or anything, he wants to be outdoors.”

    Cima and Bigfoot currently live right near campus and the Arcata community forest – his usual stomping grounds. For the past three years, many people have had encounters with Bigfoot and of course called the phone number hanging off his collar. Cima said that although she’s gotten plenty of calls letting her know Bigfoot is lost, she’s also received many photos and videos of Bigfoot rolling around in the grass or chillaxing in the sun.

    Despite all the love Bigfoot has gotten, Cima does face some criticisms about allowing Bigfoot to be out and about. Free-roaming cats have been shown to disrupt local ecosystems due to being non-native predators, hunting birds and other small animals. Because of this factor, Cima did begin to limit Bigfoot’s outdoor time and stop him from roaming quite as freely.

    “I’m definitely learning about being a responsible pet parent, I have changed my ways for sure with like the criticism and stuff,” Cima said. “But, the cat just wants to be outside man.”

    As of now, Bigfoot’s roaming has been limited to just one hour a day. This is in part due to the recent mountain lion sighting on campus, as well as the rising cases of rabies in Humboldt County. Part of taking care of a semi-outdoor cat means bringing Bigfoot in for frequent vet visits to check for fleas and keeping him updated on vaccinations – both for Bigfoot’s health and her own. Equipped with a tracker, Cima is always aware of Bigfoot’s whereabouts.

    During his time in Humboldt, Bigfoot has lived up to his name and become a local legend.

    “I think it’s a cool little part of Humboldt,” Cima said. “That people will get to look back on and be like, oh remember that cute bengal with five paws named Bigfoot that roamed around campus?”

    Nico is a reporter with an interest in covering local government and political affairs. Reach him at np211@humboldt.edu.

  • Graffiti persists after pricey cover-ups 

    Graffiti persists after pricey cover-ups 

    Bodhi Haugen

    A few strokes of a paintbrush can erase someone’s tag from a campus wall, but not without a financial toll. Last year, across Cal Poly Humboldt those cleanups totaled 360 hours of labor and $33,209 in costs.

    Graffiti on campus, as well as cover-up jobs from Facilities Management (FM), can be seen in bathroom stalls, under bridges and on walls inside and outside buildings. From small doodles to larger pieces, the relationship between artists and FM has been a source of frustration for each other. 

    FM received 245 work orders and requests related to graffiti removal in 2025 according to the department. Mike Fisher, associate vice president of FM said staff encounters graffiti on a nearly daily basis. Removing it can require pressure washing, sanding, repainting or replacing the affected surface.

    When asked what was most commonly seen written around campus — whether it be political statements, people’s tags or gibberish. Fisher said, “It runs the gamut.” 

    Graffiti has been an issue for FM, but some students enjoy the extra color seen around school. Caden Tablada, a junior accounting major, sees a difference between graffiti and vandalism — even when it’s on campus though he rarely sees it around. 

    “Graffiti is definitely not vandalism. Vandalism is like actively trying to worsen something and not try to add any artistic value with your piece,” Tablada said. “Say if it’s on some blank wall, then that’s not vandalism. You know, that’s just adding a little bit more color to campus.”

    Robby Bennett, a senior theater arts major, grew up in San Francisco seeing a lot of graffiti and understands how graffiti as an art can go both ways.

    “I think all graffiti is vandalism,” Bennett said. “Obviously, some vandalism is crude and some is more artistic, but graffiti is definitely vandalism. Sometimes I see it and I think it’s a shame someone has to clean drawings of penises off the wall. Sometimes I see it and I think it’s nice art or a message.”

    When asked whether or not artists consider this relationship between FM and graffiti, Bennett was skeptical. 

    “Probably not or if they do they probably look at it with an us vs. them,” Bennett said. 

    He also described why vandalism could be an outlet for a lot of students, explaining its recurring practice.

    “I think a lot of people who do it just do it to break the conventions of society without being punished,” Bennett said. “Let out some steam.”

    The relationship with artists and FM will continue to be an uphill battle on campus. According to Fisher, FM views graffiti as vandalism regardless of what is written or drawn. The department would rather direct their energy towards issues that could better campus rather than addressing the writing on walls and stalls.

    “Our FM employees take a lot of pride in their work and pride in this University,” Fisher said in an email on Sept. 29. “Anytime vandalism occurs, it takes away from other positive things we could be doing.”

    Bodhi is a reporter and news editor for the Lumberjack. You can reach him at bgh27@humboldt.edu

  • Women’s tie, Men’s heartbreaking loss

    Women’s tie, Men’s heartbreaking loss

    Sadie Shields

    Cal Poly Humboldt’s women’s soccer team fought hard against Cal Poly Pomana ending in a 0-0 draw Sunday morning, while the men’s team fell short to the Broncos 3-2 after giving up two goals in the final 11 minutes of the game at College Creek Field.

    Both games were part of the Senior Day Cal Poly Clash, with Humboldt having recognized Breauna Mello, Kylie Elliano, Edwin Monterrosa, Seth Uson, Elijah Espinoza and Robert Somerville who will be graduating at the end of this school year. 

    While the women’s game ended in a tie of 0-0, Ari Beddoes recorded six saves which kept the score the same throughout gameplay. Cal Poly Pomona applied pressure throughout the opening half, but Beddoes was able to stop all five shots aimed at the goal to keep the match scoreless. After the first half Humboldt put the pressure on Pomona having attempted seven shots in the second half to no avail. Lucy Al-Chokhachy, Hayden Anderson and Nicole Beauchemin each placed an attempt on the target, while the Lumberjacks were able to generate three corner kicks during the second half. 

    The Jacks’ defense remained steady even at the opposite end of the field. As Beddoes made her sixth save, she was able to complete her second shutout after keeping the score tied during the Cal State LA match on Friday. Pomona was able to finish with a 20-8 advantage in shots on the goal, with the Broncos only able to place six attempts on the goal compared to the three for Humboldt. This draw moved Humboldt Women’s soccer to 5-3-4 overall and 3-1-2 in CCAA play. 

    The men’s team fared worse on Sunday after losing a 2-1 lead late into the game. Pomona first scored in the first half with Hector Arellanes scoring to give the Broncos a 1-0 lead going into halftime. The Jacks’ responded quickly with Shota Lam scoring with 42  minutes left in the game to tie 1-1. The Lumberjacks then took the lead soon after when Ethan Gyenis scored off a bombastic assist from Luke Gomes. This allowed Humboldt to hold the lead 2-1 until the Broncos tied the game with 10 minutes left. The Jacks stayed unlucky when the Broncos scored again with 3 minutes remaining, earning a 3-2 win. Humboldt men’s soccer finished with nine shots, having put seven of those nine on target. Goalkeeper Edwin Monterrosa recorded five saves during the game. 

    Sadie is a reporter with an interest in covering and taking photos for sports and science. Reach her at sls331@humboldt.edu.

  • Bonded by uniforms

    Bonded by uniforms

    By Jacqueline Zuniga

    For Humboldt’s men’s soccer alumni, watching the current team brings back memories of muddy fields, long road trips and friendships that have lasted decades post-graduation. 

    David Hurley was part of Humboldt’s first recruiting class in 1974. During his time, players practiced on patchy fields, played on a small baseball diamond and traveled in personal cars or a 12-seater van. On away games, they sometimes stayed in people’s homes or slept on gym floors to save money. 

    “We had some really tough conditions,” Hurley said. “We really pretty much bonded with each other around it.”

    Today, the program has a turf field, locker rooms, quality uniforms, assistant coaches and hotel accommodations. Hurley said alumni are proud to see those changes. 

    “We’re just really happy that that’s occurred. It makes us feel fulfilled, you know, ’cause we were the foundation of that,” Hurley said.

    But better facilities have not made the competition easier — Humboldt still competes against schools with larger recruiting pools in large cities. It’s a struggle to get players out to Humboldt.

    Mark Wheatley, who played from 1977 to 1981, has watched the program’s skill level and facilities develop. He said the skill level of soccer has grown across the board. Noting that players have spent years honing their game. 

    “You can tell these are guys that have been doing nothing but soccer their whole lives,” Wheatley said.

    Though some people think Humboldt’s team doesn’t have the best record, Chuck Huntington sees it differently.

    “A lot of folks focus on, you know, what the record is, but it’s really not about that. It’s about the different things that you accomplish as a team, whether or not it’s a lot of wins or a few wins or whatever,” Huntington said.

    For Huntington, the connections created through the program when he first got here were what helped him adjust to being away from home for the first time. 

    “You get a lot more out of the sport than just winning games,” Huntington said.

    That sense of connection continues through the Bob Kelly Award, named after the first men’s soccer coach, created by alumni to recognize a player for academics, character and commitment to the program. “[we wanted the award] to sort of connect the alumni a little more strongly with the current players, and then to acknowledge sort of the program’s history, that emphasized a lot more than just wins and losses.” Huntington said, “team spirit, grit, academics, Bob Kelly, who was our coach… emphasized the academics a lot more than he emphasized the soccer”

     Lyle Wilks knows what it means to be a player and athlete. He played at Humboldt in the late 70s before returning to the program years later as an assistant coach, where he spent 28 years around generations of players and won Humboldt’s only championship in 1994.

    For the alumni, the program’s ultimate success is measured beyond the field.

    “We still get together…,” Hurley said. “There’s a bond that exists between guys who put this uniform on.”

    Jacqueline is the super duper cool sports editor, social media manager for LJ and news manager for KRFH.

  • Miranda’s rescue suspended again, questions still unanswered

    Miranda’s rescue suspended again, questions still unanswered

    By Jacqueline Zuniga

    Angry protesters stood outside the Humboldt County Courthouse Oct. 3 following last week’s action, calling for Humboldt County officials to remove remaining animals from Miranda’s Rescue. Founder Shannon Miranda posted a statement on his website on Oct. 2, stating that the rescue was temporarily closed while it updates its operating permits. 

    The conditional use permit and coastal development permit were suspended on Oct. 1 because the rescue failed to meet the terms of a compliance agreement with Planning and Building. A county letter from Planning and Building quoted by the Lost Coast Outpost said that Miranda failed to submit the grading permit required to deposit enough dirt to raise dog kennels at least a foot above flood elevations. The letter offered county assistance with relocating the remaining animals. 

    Marianna Mullins, a protestor at the courthouse and an independent Sacramento animal rescuer, has been raising concerns since May 2013. She first went to social media to voice her concerns. She later hired a private investigator and they both interviewed witnesses in 2013 and 2014. They alleged that dogs were being shot and buried under the radar. She acknowledged that the investigation lacked physical evidence at the time.

    “I told Shannon in 2013 that it didn’t matter how long it took, the truth would come to light,” Mullins said. “Now it’s here, but at what cost? How many lives were lost? How many people are devastated? And how broken is the community?”

    Mullins continued documenting her concerns through a Facebook page established in Jan. 2014 called Truth Behind the Lies Miranda’s Rescue 2013. She said she received a cease-and-desist letter that year.

    “I wasn’t believed,” Mullins said. “The community was convinced that I was vindictive and that I was a liar.”

    Mullins said stories were written about her by the Lost Coast Outpost that said she was running a “smear campaign,” but 12 years later those stories have been corrected and the publication has apologized. More recent discoveries of mass dog graves appeared to support concerns she could not prove in 2013.

    Hilary Mosher, a protester at the courthouse said she was advocating for the animals and families who couldn’t be there.

    “We want Shannon Miranda stopped, we want him to lose his 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, because he’s in violation of his mission,” Mosher said. “This mission, according to the Attorney General’s Office of charitable organizations, is to have a no-kill shelter where animals are adopted, and he is doing almost the opposite of that.” 

    A 501(c)(3) organization is a U.S. nonprofit organization that is recognized by the IRS to be federally tax-exempt and eligible to receive tax-deductible charitable contributions. 

    Rick Kircher, another protester at the courthouse, stated that in 2003 a conditional use permit was written for the shelter and contained eight requirements — five of which remained incomplete in 2026. For the last 23 years, the shelter had been operating in noncompliance according to the Eureka Times Standard. 

    “The sheriff’s department is in charge of the cruelty complaints,” Kircher said. “So this has been an ongoing issue, and they’ve just been kicking the can down the road. Nobody’s addressing it.” 

     Mullins described reports of dogs found with visible bullet wounds and blood coming from their ears. Some graves were also left uncovered due to the state of decomposition the animals were in. This left her in shock.

    “What really caught me when I read this, and I also heard it in the press release, is that they are in the final resting place. They’re not,” Mullins said.“This is not the resting place. This is a mass grave.”

    Jacqueline is the super duper cool sports editor, social media manger for LJ and news manager for KRFH.

  • Flying is not fun

    Flying is not fun

    By Jacqueline Zuniga

    I left the Arcata-Eureka Airport, in Mckinleyville, at 6:30 p.m. — it was the easiest flight I had. Arriving at the San Francisco International Airport, I spent nearly $50 on food because I was not going to starve. That was the first sign of how poorly my trip was going to go. I sat near my gate laughing out loud at reels, not knowing it would be the last time I laughed until I reached my family days later.

    Getting on my flight, the lady next to me decided it was annual Piss Off Jackyday. She took forever removing everything from her bag when boarding and woke me up five times going to use the restroom during our four-hour flight. 

    My connecting flight had a two-hour layover in Chicago O’Hare. It was 5 a.m. and the airport was packed, so I documented my experience on my close friend’s story about how many people there were during that time. As a college student, I care what I spend money on, so when I treated myself to a coffee that damn near drained my bank account I wasn’t expecting it to make my already awful morning worse with the worst coffee ever. On the bright side, it’s like United Airlines knew my experience with them was going bad – no one was assigned to sit next to me. I was able to finally read and relax. After more than 12 hours of traveling, I finally landed on the other side of the country, where an hour-and-a-half commute waited for me. After all that, I arrived at my aunt’s house at 1 p.m., saw my mom and ate real food.

    After a chill family reunion, I woke up at 4 a.m. to relive the nightmare one last time. After briefly believing my flight was double booked, the flight attendants solved my issue. Sadly. The problem didn’t end there. I got seated next to a man who used his huge leather jacket as a blanket, which spilled into my seat taking over my armrest. I felt like a sardine in a can, making me uncomfortable the whole flight. 

    On my last United Airlines flight the app confused me, saying I had 54 minutes to get to my gate. Unfortunately, that was actually the time it was going to take me to arrive at my gate — my next flight was boarding in 14 minutes. I had to get from A23 to B58, so I took the airport train and walked what felt like miles to board my flight. 

    Everyone on that flight decided to talk to the person next to them. No shade to them, but the people in front of me were yelling and laughing, which pissed me off. Why are we being so loud on a flight? Have we forgotten airplane etiquette? Two hours of chatter and laughter at an absurd noise level was not fun. Their joy of making absurd plans at such a loud level made me miserable. 

    May we not forget: not everyone wants to hear your loud conversations. If you need to get up 15 times during a flight, buy an aisle seat. And United, as a broke college student, I don’t want to pay an extra $60 not to sit in the middle. What was supposed to be a relaxing journey through the clouds became a red-eye flight straight from hell. 

    Jacqueline is the super duper cool sports editor,social media manger for LJ and news manager for KRFH.

  •  Show Me the Body bring heavy music with a heavy message

     Show Me the Body bring heavy music with a heavy message

    By Will Bishop

    The campus lit up the fog overhead like a soft orange signal pulsing in a hazy gray. A lighthouse drawing in 16 new bodies from all across the world. From Montréal to Bangkok, four bands hailing from the furthest reaches of the world had found themselves here. Show Me the Body’s national tour was well underway when they decided to add one more date, Sept. 29, Kate Buchanan Room, Cal Poly Humboldt. 

    The crowd was thin amid the opening set from Canadian band Truck Violence. Still, they spared no quarter, filling the negative space with a maelstrom of negative-minded post-hardcore sludge that fits rather neatly into the incredible and actually real genre descriptor “pigfuck.” A lone jersey-clad mosher carried the anemic audience — windmilling and donkey kicking with energy and ferocity equivalent to around 40 people.

    Following a brisk 20-minute set, Brooklyn-based digital hardcore outfit Lip Critic took the stage and proceeded to stomp it into the ground with a pummeling synth-driven performance. The most gonzo and colorful of the night’s performers, the quartet executed sample-driven synth-freakout mayhem on the back of a dual drummer percussion section. At one point frontman Bret Kaser strode out into the crowd, bisected it with a mic cord, then proceeded to swing the cord like a jumprope — audience members gleefully accepted the challenge.

    Now, if you were starting to tire of all of the “post” and “digital” prefixes being assigned to your beloved hardcore, if you just wanted that straight-ahead no-caveats hardcore, Bangkok-based outfit Whispers was the band for you. It was certainly the band for our beloved Jersey Guy, who was throwing roundhouse kicks like he was fighting for his life in a Bruce Lee movie. A rather one-to-one vibe match for the large projection of kickboxing matches which backdropped the group. The crowd reached a fever pitch during this set, swelling and metastasizing into a grotesque mosh hivemind. In the words of lead singer Nitisart “Mike” Chaiburi, “This is a hardcore show who gives a fuck!”

    Headliner Show Me the Body took the stage, met with rapturous applause and the aroma of countless very sweaty people. Frontman Julian Cashwan Pratt tore through the set with minimal banter, electing instead to focus on the screaming and the rapping and the distorted banjo playing. His intensity grew as the sheen of sweat on his face accumulated, stepping away from the mic and hulking around the stage like a glistening bald ape. Crowd members near the front sang along to nearly every word — barking out “Radical left, it compels me to fight!” on the bruising “Eat For Peace,” then chanting along to the mesmerizing alienation anthem “Arcanum.” This full-throated devotion proved that the band had indeed made the correct choice in making a little pit stop on the long road from Seattle to San Francisco.

    Kaser, in a post-show interview, reminisced on the nostalgic qualities of playing college shows — Lip Critic having formed in 2018 during their time at the State University of New York at Purchase.

    “I love playing colleges still because it’s like — it feels a little bit back to our DIYish roots where we used to just pull up to house shows, blow the PA and leave,” Kaser said. “So, as close as I can get to that. It’s always got some sentimental value.”

    Kaser went on to espouse the importance of unity through music.

    “Live music is all about being surrounded by a group of people that you feel like you identify with and you feel safe around and supported by,” Kaser said. “That’s kind of what we aim to do is like, have a space for catharsis and celebration. A place where we can kind of all unify against some real nasty bullshit that’s going on outside of the music venues where we have fun.”

    Towards the end of Show Me the Body’s set, Pratt delivered something of a retroactive thesis statement for all that came before. Summarizing the night’s blistering atmosphere with one simple phrase.

    “It’s all love.”

    Bio: Will Bishop is a reporter and copy editor. He can be reached at wmb84@humboldt.edu or via dynamic encounter in the wild.