Alliance for Ethical Business

My Word by Richard Salzman
Eureka Times Standard

In response to Kay Backer's My Word of March 22, “Getting Humboldt leaders
to lead”: Kay Backer is a paid professional spin doctor from Sacramento.
Hired by local developers, she is paid to badger county government and
bamboozle the public. She feigns concern for our families by shedding
crocodile tears about so-called affordable housing here in Humboldt
County.

It's ridiculous that Kay Backer is even treated as a legitimate voice in
our local affairs just because Rob Arkley and HELP summon her to town for

My Word by Richard Salzman
Eureka Times Standard

I want to thank my friend Cletus Isbell for furthering the discussion on big-box stores in his My Word of Dec. 23. I do, however, want to respectfully disagree with three points he makes.

First, I disagree that those consumers now comfortably buying items off the Internet (and getting them home-delivered) will switch to the big boxes. Instead, the big box's customers will mainly be those of us who now frequent locally owned and operated brick-and-mortar stores.

May 5, 2005

Responding to Pacific Lumber Company’s claims of financial crisis, the State Water Resources Control Board has released what is quite likely the most thorough and authoritative analysis of the PL’s finances ever made public, finding that the company’s dire predicatment “is the result of the risky business model that (parent company)MAXXAM has chosen to follow.”

By Tim Reiterman
Times Staff Writer

February 21, 2005

REDCREST, Calif. — Whenever Pacific Lumber Co. planned to dispatch helicopters to log its nearby redwood groves, the company would phone Christine Rising at her vine-draped bungalow above the Eel River.

My Word by Michael Twombly

Times Standard - February 8, 2005

The Los Angeles Times reported last week on a closed-door meeting between Charles Hurwitz, CEO of Maxxam (parent of Pacific Lumber) and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. They conferred on the likelihood of Pacific Lumber’s impending bankruptcy. The meeting included Undersecretary of CAL-EPA James Branham, formerly of PL and “broker of the Headwaters deal.� The Times editorialized “Californians may get to see up close how well or ill the revolving door of public service/private industry serves the public’s purpose.�

Letters to the Editor - L.A. Times

Pacific Lumber Tries to Cut It Both Ways

January 29, 2005

Re "Bankruptcy Threat With an Edge," Jan. 25: Perhaps Pacific Lumber Co. is "running out of logs" because timber companies such as Pacific Lumber have already deforested the vast majority of virgin forest in the United States.

Sunday, February 13, 2005 -

The Times-Standard

The Pacific Lumber Co. has on many occasions warned courts, critics and boards that it rests on the verge of bankruptcy if things don't go its way. In this latest round, it offers what seems to be its most desperate cry.

Everyone is taking the company seriously this time. Employees are worried. Businesses are worried. Contractors are worried. Bondholders are worried. Standard and Poors is worried enough to put Palco's $750 million worth of timber notes on watch for another decline in rating.

ONE OF CALIFORNIA'S biggest environmental deals is near a breaking point. A giant redwood lumber company wants speeded-up timber-cutting approvals -- or it may go out of business.

In 1999, the Pacific Lumber Co. sold 6,000 acres of primeval redwoods to the government in a landmark transaction that averted logging and saved cathedral-like stands of the world's largest trees. Now the company claims that restrictions on timber cutting are putting it in jeopardy of bankruptcy.

Two questions: Why did Pacific Lumber Co. sign on to a deal with California six years ago if it was not going to be able to honor the agreement? And is it too late to get our $480 million back?

Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - Eureka Times-Standard
My Word
by Richard Salzman

As the county updates its General Plan, a small vocal group of developers (HELP) say their Plan H would make housing more affordable in Humboldt. While all proposals deserve careful consideration, the Alliance for Ethical Business finds HELP's claim overly optimistic at best -- and perhaps outright dishonest.