Reporter's Notebook published Dec. 31, 2011

The owner of both locations is Romesh Japra, a prominent cardiologist and Indo-American cultural activist based in Fremont, who could not be reached for comment this week.

Corporate Jack in the Box spokesperson Brian Luscomb said the company has been in communication with Japra since the closings.

“I can’t say why they closed, nor can I speculate on when the restaurants might reopen,” Luscomb said.

This isn’t our local Jack in the Box’s first brush with uncertainty.

Japra bought the two franchises in 2010 after the previous owner, Abe Alizadeh, went bankrupt and his string of 70 locations across the state were temporarily closed, Crescent City and Eureka among them. Alizadeh was arrested in 2011 on charges he deliberately failed to pay more than $7 million in sales and payroll taxes, money he had collected from restaurant customers and withheld from employees’ paychecks, according to the Sacramento Bee.

—Emily Jo Cureton

USA: Business as usual

Uncharted Shores Academy will be open to students in January.

The California Charter Schools Association recently recommend that USA be closed due to low test scores, but it does not have the authority to enforce immediate closure.

Some parents of USA students were concerned the school was closed after the article, “Shut down Uncharted Shores?” appeared in the Dec. 20 edition of The Triplicate.

The Del Norte County Office of Education School Board will discuss renewing USA’s charter, which expires later in 2012.

USA Director Margie Rouge said there will be a meeting Jan. 11 at 6:30 p.m. at the school, 212 E. Washington Blvd., to discuss plans for charter renewal.

The petition for renewal to the COE will be presented to the School Board at its meeting Jan. 19 and a public hearing will follow in February, Rouge said.

—Kelley Atherton

Authorities out in force

A lot of people celebrate the new year’s arrival by drinking to excess. Local law enforcement will ring in 2012 on the job.

This weekend will be a maximum enforcement period for California Highway Patrol, meaning all available officers will be out on the road, all weekend.

The Del Norte Sheriff’s Office is also increasing enforcement, especially tonight on New Year’s Eve. The Crescent City Police Department will have officers working overtime, including volunteer reservists. They’ll focus partially on drunk driving prevention — doing bar checks and keeping an eye on house parties.

A DUI can cost $6,600, according to a conservative estimate from the California Department of Justice. More than 10,000 people die in alcohol-related car crashes every year, says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

—Emily Jo Cureton

The doughnut policy

I’ve come to learn through conversations with certain Del Norte County and Crescent City employees of an informal policy: If they’re quoted in the newspaper, they have to buy doughnuts for the office.

Due to this custom, some public employees are sometimes reluctant to share information with myself or other Triplicate reporters. I’ve even had a public employee give me a different name.  I later found out she attributed her quotes to her co-worker so she could avoid the purchase of punitive pastries.

Plenty of public employees do not uphold the doughnut practice, because they are accustomed to frequent conversations with the press.

Thomas Jefferson once said, “An informed citizenry is the bulwark of a democracy.” It’s our job as Del Norte’s main news source to keep the community informed. When public employees are concerned about buying doughnuts if they’re quoted in the paper, it makes our job more difficult, and in turn makes the public less informed.

How about people buy doughnuts if they’re late to a meeting or something? I’d rather have public employees be punctual than tight-lipped.

—Adam Spencer