Safeway is now taking donations as part of its Help Us End Hunger (Every Bag Counts) food drive.

Food will go to help families that rely on the assistance of food banks during holidays.

Safeway is partnering with Kraft Foods, customers and local food banks to collect food donations at all Safeway stores through Dec. 24. On Saturday, the Community Assistance Network (CAN), will have community and youth volunteers at Safeway from 1 to 4 p.m. to greet donors.

Three taken to hospital after melee

A riot involving 63 inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison broke out on Sunday morning.

Inmates began attacking each other at about 9:15 a.m. in general population yard A, said Lt. Christopher Acosta, prison public information officer.

Numerous correctional officers responded to quell the outbreak using pepper spray, pepper spray grenades, and guns that shoot 40mm rubber balls, Acosta said.

Del Norte County sheriff’s deputies made four burglary-related arrests in the past couple of days.

On Saturday, authorities apprehended two people at the Scenic Creek Apartment complex whom they had been seeking for over a month, sheriff’s Commander Bill Steven said.

Stephanie Croan, 29, and Manuel Munoz, 30, both of Crescent City, are suspected in an Oct. 6 burglary of a house on the 1900 block of Elk Valley Road, Steven said.

The burglary netted several thousands of dollars worth of stolen property, including six guns, a generator, a chain saw and a power washer, he said.

The Del Norte County Unified School District has been awarded a $3 million grant to implement district-wide a method of using data to raise student achievement.

The district was one of 23 to win an Investing in Innovation (i3) grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

“This is truly an amazing thing,” said Superintendent Don Olson. “Del Norte County is one of 23 (winning) national applicants.”

With the i3 grant, the school district will create teams at every school to analyze students’ data and then target instruction based on what they’ve demonstrated they know and don’t know.

“They will really examine student achievement and use the information to inform instruction,” said Steve Godla, assistant superintendent of instruction and educational services.

Bookcomber bookstore to close up shop

Patti Pearcey is the owner of the Bookcomber bookstore downtown. Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

After 18 years in business, Crescent City’s only bookstore, The Bookcomber, will close by the end of the year.

“It’s goodbye to an era,” said Patti Pearcey, owner of Bookcomber. Competition from online retail and big-box stores like Walmart, along with digital piracy, have significantly hurt business over the years, Pearcey said.

“Walmart sells big, leading books for less than wholesale,” Pearcey said. “I can’t even get them for as cheap as they can sell them.”

Says event reminds him of importance of early education

Tsinte Steinruck places a necklace made by the children over the head of Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro.Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

Wesley Chesbro read a story to children at the Howonquet Head Start and Early Learning Center.

“One of my favorite things to do is read, and I hope you grow up to be the same way,” Chesbro told the group of 3–5-year-olds.

The youngsters welcomed Chesbro with a gift: a necklace they made that looks like the dentalium shells that Tolowa people used as currency in the past.

$3.3 million grant awarded by VA

The Yurok Tribe on Thursday celebrated a veteran’s cemetery slated to be built on the reservation in Klamath for all native people who have served in the miliary.

“It was a very festive affair,” said Matt Mais, a spokesperson for the Yurok Tribe.

The tribe was recently awarded $3.3 million from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to construct the cemetery.

Bookcomber bookstore to close up shop

Patti Pearcey is the owner of the Bookcomber bookstore downtown. Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

After 18 years in business, Crescent City’s only bookstore, The Bookcomber, will close by the end of the year.

“It’s goodbye to an era,” said Patti Pearcey, owner of Bookcomber. Competition from online retail and big-box stores like Walmart, along with digital piracy, have significantly hurt business over the years, Pearcey said.

“Walmart sells big, leading books for less than wholesale,” Pearcey said. “I can’t even get them for as cheap as they can sell them.”

Another factor pushing the closure is an impending rent hike, coming at the end of the year to reflect the cost paid by other tenants in the same building, she said.

A bomb threat alert at the Del Norte County Courthouse has been called off.

The alert was reported at approximately 1 p.m. and called off at 1:50 p.m.

While law enforcement officers searched for a potential bomb, the building was evacuated and the immediate area around the courthouse was blocked to traffic.