Doug Bosco & His Phantom Railroad

Help Support Important Local Reporting, Subscribe Today http://theava.com/ by Will Parrish on Apr 27th, 2011 Across recent years, a State of California agency called the the North Coast Railroad Authority (NCRA) has been plodding ahead in its campaign to make freight chug-a-chug down the tracks from the Port of Eureka on down to the San Francisco … Read more

Grist Creek Open Pit Gravel Mine

On April 21,  2011  over fifty Round Valley residents made the trek down to Ukiah to appear at 9am to speak before the Planning Commission against the Planning Department Staff recommendation that the Grist Creek Open Pit Mining Project proceed without an EIR (Environmental Impact Report). They patiently waited for over two hours to be … Read more

Eel River rail line tough to build, and tough to kill

By GAYE LeBARON FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT  Published: Saturday, April 30, 2011 at 3:00 a.m.   The rail line through the Eel River Canyon hasn’t carried a train for 13 years. “Oh, we’ll all go out to meet her when she comes…We’ll be shoutin’ ‘Hallelujah!’ when she comes.” Or, perhaps, the variation on the old campfire … Read more

Human Right to Water Bills Pass Key Assembly Committees

Grassroots Advocates Created Momentum in Packed Hearings by Dan Bacher Tuesday, April 26 was a great day for the future of safe drinking water in California, where many rural and urban communities lack drinkable water. Safe water advocates from across the state hailed the passage of AB685, the Human Right to Water bill, by an … Read more

What BoxCo Does Best

Help Support Important Local Reporting, Subscribe Today http://theava.com/   by Will Parrish on Apr 17th, 2011   For most of the past 150 years, the California North Coast has had a clearly defined role in the state’s political economy.  The region was blessed with vast, nearly impenetrable forests of huge redwood trees and accompanying great stands … Read more

Marin Voice: Lopsided freight train lease

By Bernard Meyers Guest op-ed column Posted: 03/24/2011 02:00:00 AM PDT TWO TRAINS share the tracks running through Marin to Humboldt Bay — one for commuter service (SMART) and one for freight (North Coast Railroad Authority). No trains have run for a decade, but freight trains could soon be if the last hurdles are cleared. NCRA’s … Read more

Bosco: The Curse That Keeps On Giving

Help Support Important Local Reporting, Subscribe Today http://theava.com/ by Will Parrish on Mar 23rd, 2011 In the more than a third of a century since Douglas H. Bosco first carved himself out as a fixture of the California North Coast’s power structure, one of the surest guides to locating systemic corruption across the region’s dominant business … Read more

Take Action to Protect California’s Premiere Environmental Law Ask Gov. Brown to stop the GOP Five from gutting CEQA TODAY

March 24, 2011   Exploiting the hardships caused by the economic climate and the state budget crisis, special interests are redoubling their efforts to pass legislation that would dismantle the Golden State’s premiere environmental law, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).  Developers and business groups are spinning California’s high rates of unemployment to claim an inherent conflict between job … Read more

Will Parrish: Goldeneye — Anderson Valley’s Mercenary Vineyard?

Help Support Important Local Reporting, Subscribe Today http://theava.com/ From WILL PARRISH Laytonville If you want to mark a point-of-no-return in the Anderson Valley’s transformation into a full-on satellite of the Napa-Sonoma industrial viticulture complex, as good a choice as any is Duckhorn Vineyards’ takeover of three properties outside of Philo and Boonville in the late-’90s. Founded … Read more