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Fate of a 200,000-acre swath owned by Pacific Lumber is in doubt SACRAMENTO — The Schwarzenegger administration on Friday sided firmly with environmentalists in a potential legal battle with Pacific Lumber Company over a huge swath of ancient redwoods in Humboldt County that could be jeopardized by the company's financial troubles. The fate of a 200,000-acre swath of redwoods owned by Pacific Lumber was thrown into doubt last week when the company filed for bankruptcy in Texas. In 1999, the state and federal governments spent $480 million combined to buy 7,400 acres of the company's redwoods, now part of Headwaters...

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo said Monday he and other congressmen weren't attempting to block a federal investigation of a prominent Texas political contributor, but were trying instead to keep a government agency from wrongly seizing the man's property. At issue were attempts by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to recover $300 million from Houston millionaire Charles Hurwitz for his role in the 1988 collapse of United Savings Association of Texas, which cost taxpayers $1.6 billion. A report in Sunday's Los Angeles Times said Pombo, R-Calif.; Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif.; and Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, sought...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - An environmental group is suing California wildlife regulators, alleging officials broke the law by giving a North Coast timber company the right to damage the habitats of two endangered species. Pacific Lumber Co. gained permission under the 1999 Headwaters deal for certain logging activities that environmentalists said would harm populations of coho salmon and marbled murrelets, a seabird that nests in old growth redwoods. A Humboldt County Superior Court judge revoked the permits in 2003, saying they violated the California Endangered Species Act. In February, the state Department of Fish and Game cleared the way for the...

ARCATA, Calif. — Jason Wilson was just 21 when a Lakota elder gave him a spirit name. Wilson, she said, was destined to carry a heavy weight. He would need the medicine of the name she offered, she told him, "to carry that weight in a good way, a strong way and as far as it needs to be carried." Three years later, on a September day in 1998, the bearded redhead from Missouri lay in a fetal curl on the floor of a Humboldt County forest, rocking and sobbing in the duff. Next to him was 24-year-old David Nathan...

SCOTIA, Calif. - Financially troubled Pacific Lumber Co. is the victim of its corporate owner's excesses, not increasing government restrictions on logging, according to a state water agency's controversial new study. The state Water Resources Control Board's 18-page report blames Texas-based Maxxam Inc. for shifting hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from Pacific Lumber in "subtle and complex ways," forcing the North Coast timber giant to cut trees "at rates that greatly exceed sustainable forest practices." The state report claims Maxxam has funneled nearly $725 million in Pacific Lumber earnings into its own Houston, Texas, coffers over the past...

After eight years and three trials, a group of protesters whose eyes were swabbed with pepper spray during a series of anti-logging demonstrations finally won their case Thursday against Humboldt County sheriff's deputies and Eureka police -- but were awarded only $1 each in damages. A federal jury deliberated for about 12 hours starting Tuesday before returning its verdict, finding that law enforcement had used excessive force while trying to break up three different protests in the fall of 1997, including one at then-Rep. Frank Riggs' Eureka office and another at the Scotia headquarters of the Pacific Lumber Co. It...

SCOTIA, Calif. (AP) - State water officials ordered Pacific Lumber Co. to temporarily halt logging in Humboldt County on Wednesday after environmentalists filed a petition questioning the validity of the company's timber harvest plans. The State Water Resources Control Board issued the stay requested by the Humboldt Watershed Council and the Environmental Protection Information Center to suspend logging in parts of the Freshwater Creek and Elk River watersheds near Eureka on California's far northern coast. In February, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board agreed to allow Pacific Lumber to cut up to 50 percent of the annual 1,100-acre...

The most expensive conservation acquisition in California history could soon prove to have been a bad deal for taxpayers, illustrating a potential weakness of public preservation efforts that rely on the good faith of private companies. Resurrection of one of the nation's most bitter, drawn-out and violent disputes over forest management also finds Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a distinctly awkward position. He campaigned as a staunch supporter of the business community, but has also pledged to fight hard to defend California's environmental interests. And now, with those interests on a collision course in the state's forests, he's being pressed to...

OAKLAND -- After working 30 years for Kaiser Aluminum, Oakland resident Karen Wessenberg retired in 2000, ready to reap the rewards of a pension and low-cost lifetime medical benefits, just like her mom, who worked 27 years for Kaiser. But the 53-year-old Wessenberg took a new job last month to help pay for her health insurance, which has skyrocketed since Kaiser Aluminum filed for bankruptcy in February 2002. It's only getting worse. Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp., a company once synonymous with Oakland that is now based in Houston and trying to emerge from bankruptcy, has reached an agreement to...

<p>In the final days before the recall election, the Davis administration is rushing through three huge land purchases totaling nearly $300 million without revealing the appraisals that justify the prices. All of the owners have contributed generously to Davis in recent years, approximately $163,000 as tallied by the San Jose Mercury News. The secrecy smells.</p>

EUREKA -- Here's yet another huge twist in the ongoing Humboldt County district attorney saga: DA Paul Gallegos' right-hand man, Tim Stoen, wants to run for U.S. Senate. Stoen, hired by Gallegos this year to be his assistant district attorney, and who is handling Gallegos' controversial lawsuit against Pacific Lumber Co., filed an intention statement with the county Elections Office on Thursday. Neither Stoen nor Gallegos could be reached for comment, but elections officials confirmed Stoen filed the statement to run against incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer. While such a run may come as a surprise -- Stoen's name...

Whose shoulder should carry the burden?The $37,000 that the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department spent the week of March 17 policing logging demonstrations in Freshwater was a snapshot of the significantly higher costs these activities have brought to bear here over the years. The tree-sitters protesting Pacific Lumber Co. logging are doing so in defiance of a court order, and are trespassing as well. This is not protected freedom of speech. It is illegal. The folks who were encouraging them on Greenwood Heights Road below the tree-sitters' perches, may have in large part been acting legally, but quite a few allegedly...

'California Connected' doing story on PL suit By James Tressler The Times-Standard EUREKA -- A crew from PBS newsmagazine "California Connected" was in Humboldt County over the weekend shooting a story about District Attorney Paul Gallegos' controversial lawsuit against Pacific Lumber Co. Producer Angela Shelley and reporter Bob Jimenez, as well as a small crew, interviewed PL representatives last Friday and attended the logging conference held in Eureka on Saturday. They also interviewed area government officials such as 2nd District Supervisor Roger Rodoni and Fortuna Mayor Mel Berti. The crew interviewed Gallegos on Monday. The lawsuit has sent shock waves...

<p>Clambering amid the foliage a hundred feet above the ground, lumber company climbers on Monday snapped a harness around a defiant anti-logging protester, cut through the metal sleeve binding her to the redwood's trunk, and lowered her to the forest floor.</p>

Clambering amid the foliage a hundred feet above the ground, lumber company climbers on Monday snapped a harness around a defiant anti-logging protester, cut through the metal sleeve binding her to the redwood's trunk, and lowered her to the forest floor.