Swen Raulfs, left, surveys the damage to his tattoo parlor on U.S. Highway 101 on Tuesday. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

Every day, he places a flag at the front corner of his business near the intersection of U.S. Highway 101 and Ninth Street to advertise that he’s open.

Tuesday morning he kept the same routine, except this time a car that was involved in a high-speed chase barreled into his tattoo parlor about 20 seconds after he walked into the building.

“All of a sudden I hear these screeching tires,” he said, and then the building started to shake. “I thought literally the car was coming through.”

Raulfs hit the ground as shelves, swords and frames rattled on his walls. When he opened the door, the cement steps leading into his business were gone and a green car mangled from the crash was motionless in the middle of the highway.

He also noticed that his 1999 Harley Davidson that was parked next to the building had been hit. As Raulfs looked back to the car, he saw a man leap from the driver’s side and start running.

Raulfs, perturbed about the added insult to his bike, started chasing the man, but the parlor owner didn’t quite make it across the street before authorities told him to stop.

“It was total madness,” he said.

Sheriff’s deputies and city police officers chased the suspect through the Walgreens parking lot and apprehended him in the wooded area north of Ray’s Food Place. He was identified as Derrick Norris, a 21-year-old Klamath resident who had several warrants out for his arrest.

According to sheriff’s Commander Tim Athey, deputies started looking for Norris after a man called authorities Tuesday morning to tell them that his 16-year-old daughter’s fugitive boyfriend was at his house.

The area has seen a noticeable increase in visitors this past summer, according to local tourism officials.

This could be partially due to advertising efforts by the local Visitors Bureau, officials said, or that people simply chose to save money by traveling closer to home.

An indicator that Del Norte County had a better tourism season this year over last is the number of people who came into visitor centers looking for information.

Almost 50 percent more people came into the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce’s visitor center at the Cultural Center this summer, said Gina Zottola, executive director for the chamber.

Between June and September, more than 12,000 people stopped in for information about the area, Zottola said.

Redwood National and State Parks visitor centers saw 12 percent more people walk through its doors this year, said Debbie Savage, a supervising park ranger.

From July to September, 27,000 people stopped at the parks’ visitor center in Crescent City, and 28,000 came into the one in Hiouchi.

Spouts like these have been common sights since Sunday. File photo

And, if you’re lucky, you might have seen a glistening back or a tail.

What are most likely gray whales have been hanging out just offshore of Crescent City. Why they are here this time of year is not clear.

“They come there regularly,” said Dawn Goley, a professor of zoology and director of the Marine Mammals Education and Research Program at Humboldt State Uni­versity. “We’re not sure of the purpose.”

Gray whales’ lives are split into “two really different parts of their lives,” Goley said: feeding during the summer months and then breeding and giving birth in the winter.

The whales haven’t yet started their migration from Alaska to the lagoons of Baja to give birth, so they are  between those two phases.

The Daily Triplicate/Rick Postal

The Daily Triplicate/Rick Postal

Costumed kids, pets and grown­ups all march together in the Hal­lo­ween Parade, above, held in down­town Crescent City on Sat­ur­day afternoon. After the parade, awards were given in several categories for the best costumes (clockwise from right): ‘Monkey’ Blake Owen, age 1, wins the 0–2 year-old category for best costume as he is held by his mother, Deanna Owen; Darvin Davis wins the age 3–5 category with a laboratory rat costume; Princess Mya Armstead, 7, wins the age
6–9 costume contest; Anthony Ellery, 11, dressed as Jack Frost, wins the costume contest for ages 10–13; Khailee Gosha’s ‘Angel Bunny’ wins for best pet costume.

The Daily Triplicate/Rick Postal

Click here to see more photos from the parade. 

It will be free to all, organizers said, and will include a traditional Thanks­giving menu of turkey, green beans, dressing, yams with marshmallows, gravy, rolls, mashed potatoes and a variety of desserts.

Organizers are seeking donations of canned yams, green beans, pickles, olives, marshmallows, cubed bread stuffing and desserts.

People can call their favorite bakery and order a dessert that organizers will pick up prior to Thanksgiving. Mon­etary donations can be sent to Del Norte Ambulance c/o Thanksgiving Dinner, P.O. Box 306, Crescent City, CA 95531.

Safeway will again cook half of the turkeys, organizers said.

For more information, call 464-5591.

Dungeness crab fishing is one of the most dangerous fisheries, especially off the coast of California, and it’s also extremely important for local economies.

And while the start of commercial crab season may be up in the air due to early tests falling short of the required meat-to-shell ratio, U.S. Coast Guard representatives will still be dockside Thursday for commercial crab vessel safety checks.

Each year the DFG’s Marine Invert­ebrate Project tests the ratio of meat to shell because by law commercial crab season can’t start until that ratio is 25 percent.

If the season were to be delayed, local fishermen would have to once again tighten their belts after recent years of low crab harvests and no salmon fishing.

The first round of testing happened last week with crab traps set off Crescent City, Trinidad, Eureka and Fort Bragg.

The average percentage of meat to shell was 22.4 percent among the four areas, with Trinidad and Eureka crabs at 21.2 percent and 21.5 percent.

Crescent City crabs were 24.2 percent.

The Crescent City Council voted unanimously Monday to keep Kelly Schellong as its mayor until next year’s November general election.

Schellong is in her first term on the City Council and as mayor has attempted to herald in a new era for the municipality after several years of high turnover in important positions, such as city manager and finance director, that led to financial disarray and disorganized leadership.

Within the past year, Schellong has pushed to get an accurate accounting of Crescent City’s coffers, held a well-attended town hall meeting for community goal-setting and worked with city staff to get three new council members acclimated to their first terms in public office.

“This has been a process for all of us,” Schellong said.

Her colleagues, including Council member Donna Westfall — who attempted earlier in the year to recall Schellong — said they were pleased with the job she has done as mayor and cited a need to keep her in her position to maintain positive momentum in the coming year.

“Once you get it down, I think it almost requires a second year before you realize your full potential,” said Council member Dennis Burns, who has previously served as mayor.

Though she learned to walk as a child in Blythe, Calif., 54-year-old Mari Tardiff took her first steps at Fred Endert Municipal Pool in Crescent City.

Mari Tardiff prepares to take a walk between parallel bars at Del Norte Physical Therapy during a recent session. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

Mari hadn’t walked in nearly a year, ever since she drank raw milk and became paralyzed by a rare neurological disorder.

For Peter Tardiff, the tears have been frequent. He was lying in bed next to his wife the night she lost the use of her legs. For the three months she was on life support, he stayed by her side, not knowing if she would ever breathe on her own again.

The sounds of the pool, the splashes of skin slapping water and echoes of conversations are now familiar to Peter. So, too, are some of the faces. They are a welcome part of the routine.

On an overcast morning in June, Peter watched from the water’s edge as his wife struggled to rise to her feet. She’d only done it once before, a week earlier when Peter wasn't there.

Mari stared straight ahead with the determination of an athlete while one of her caregivers attempted to pull her body upright. She gritted her teeth as she tried to set her feet on the bottom of the pool, willing herself to stand.

It was a clumsy dance,  each failure greeted with laughter and encouragement followed by furrowed brows and serious looks.

Physical therapist John Knox helps lift Mari into a standing position, left, and guides her feet as she steps forward. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

“Peter, I’m up!” she yelled, beaming as she unsteadily turned toward him.

Like a proud father, Peter smiled back. But behind his glasses, where Mari couldn’t see, sadness and doubt were etched into the corners of his eyes.

Peter realized this was fleeting. A glimpse of what was and what might never be again.

Soon, a lift would take Mari out of the pool, and he’d have to pick her up and put her back in a wheelchair. He’d then push her down a ramp to their specially equipped van waiting in the parking lot to take them home.

A longtime Crescent City business owner was sentenced to 18 months in prison this week for illegal firearms sales.

Donald E. Nuss, 69, admitted to selling five machine guns and converting two semi-automatic rifles into machine guns, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Nuss opened Redwood Welding at 1020 U.S. Hwy. 101 in 1969. It will be closed before he begins his sentence, he said Friday.

Nuss pleaded guilty in June after being indicted in federal court last October of last year, according to the Department of Justice.

The DOJ stated Nuss was also sentenced to a supervised release of three years, after serving his 18-month sentence.

The federal indictment stated that during the period from March 2006 to May 2007, Nuss sold several machine guns, including an AK-47, Sten machine guns, a 1928 Thompson machine gun and several high-capacity magazines.