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Matt LaFever

@mattlafever.bsky.social

North Coast Contributing Editor @SFGATE | Publisher @MendoFever | Freelance @KymKemp & @KMUDNews | Digging deep in NorCal’s wildlands—where stories take root.

273 Followers  |  61 Following  |  103 Posts  |  Joined: 15.11.2024  |  1.6167

Latest posts by mattlafever.bsky.social on Bluesky

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At Bay Area concert, the 2010s' most cerebral songwriter grows up Plus, memorable Bay Area events from last week.

My first ever published concert review from this week’s edition of @sfgate.com’s Fogcutter column, a round up of events and happening around the Bay Area.

‘The indie scene’s psychedelic troubadour seems to be getting his head straight.’

05.08.2025 01:11 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Crescent City — one of California’s northernmost towns and Del Norte County’s lone city — took a close-to-$1 million hit to its harbor after tsunami waves battered the North Coast earlier this week.

✍️ @mattlafever.bsky.social/SFGATE

31.07.2025 23:55 — 👍 5    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0
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California harbor suffers close to $1 million in damage from tsunami waves California's tsunami magnet just lived up to its name.

Crescent City's harbor sustained major damage after tsunami waves battered California's North Coast

31.07.2025 22:45 — 👍 2    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

Appreciate the comment — but the article never says the mantle is made of serpentinite. It clearly describes exposed upper mantle and oceanic crust. Serpentine’s mentioned once, about erosion. If you’re gonna correct someone, try not to misread the thing you’re correcting.

31.07.2025 14:24 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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The remote California road hiding a global geological marvel You're not just driving through the mountains. You're driving through ancient Earth.

Del Norte County's Josephine Ophiolite reveals a cross section of Earth usually buried miles below

31.07.2025 13:46 — 👍 9    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 0
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Letting a Northern California river run free comes at a cost A dam is coming down. And Northern California is tearing itself apart.

PG&E's Potter Valley plan fuels clash between Eel River restoration and Russian River crisis

29.07.2025 20:28 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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A California city tried to triple in size. Then came the rebellion. The city calls it planning. Residents call it a power grab.

As Ukiah eyes expansion, a battle over land use ignites in small-town Northern California

28.07.2025 12:44 — 👍 8    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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The voice of California's redwood country is under attack Deep in the California redwoods, one radio station is fighting to stay on the air.

In California's Emerald Triangle, KMUD's rebel radio signal faces its greatest threat yet

23.07.2025 21:13 — 👍 12    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0
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California's most ambitious trail project has a policing problem When pressed for answers, the agency cut ties and rushed to shift strategy fast.

The Great Redwood Trail hired controversial guards to move homeless people. Now it's making an abrupt about-face.

17.07.2025 15:53 — 👍 5    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 0
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An iconic California landmark is for sale, and locals are livid One local fears "we're becoming kind of a Disneyland for rich people."

For $7 million, you can buy the Mendocino Coast view that locals were denied

15.07.2025 14:53 — 👍 6    🔁 6    💬 2    📌 0
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A California town of just over 15,000 residents in Lassen County is lamenting the loss of its 78-year-old baseball grandstand.

Read the full story below.

✍️ Matt LaFever

08.07.2025 23:02 — 👍 4    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0
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Rural Calif. town devastated after fire destroys landmark When a local coach saw the grandstand engulfed in flames, he "burst into tears."

Frank Ernaga Field was the center of Susanville's baseball cosmos

08.07.2025 21:52 — 👍 3    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0
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San Francisco Thai food titans land in tiny Northern California town One of the owners said, "This is the quickest I've ever acquired a restaurant."

Why did a Thai food icon choose Mendocino County? The owner said because 'it's special'

08.07.2025 14:59 — 👍 16    🔁 5    💬 2    📌 0
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With 6,000-foot tunnel and $2.1B, California set to save remote region Yosemite will no longer have the longest tunnel in California.

A 6,000-foot tunnel could give Crescent City the 'safe and reliable' infrastructure it needs

06.07.2025 17:11 — 👍 6    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0
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California is full of hidden reservoirs. These mystics find them. A professor said the practice is "a religion of sorts."

A professor said the practice is 'a religion of sorts'

02.07.2025 13:19 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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'That place is incredible': A stop at NorCal's ideal road trip burger stand After 28 years of serving burgers, the owner said, "I'm very lucky."

After 28 years of serving burgers in the Mendocino County town of Willits, the owner said, 'I'm very lucky'

30.06.2025 14:01 — 👍 9    🔁 3    💬 2    📌 0
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'Appalling': DoorDash bans California driver after alleged sexual assault A spokesperson called the allegations "unacceptable."

A spokesperson called the allegations 'unacceptable’

29.06.2025 21:45 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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They voted red in California. Now the land they love is in danger. NorCal's rural right is pushing back on a GOP plan to privatize public land.

“I’m not blindly following Mr. Trump’s administration,” said Allan Schrange, a Trump voter and president of the Mendocino 4x4 Club. “If he does something that’s not right in there, I’m going to be the first to raise a stink about it."

via @mattlafever.bsky.social
www.sfgate.com/northcoast/a...

20.06.2025 19:03 — 👍 12    🔁 7    💬 1    📌 2
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One of California's oddest missing person cases is getting stranger Lesner Noe Velasquez Cardenas's case is full of contradictions.

Lesner Noe Velasquez Cardenas has disappeared, and his case is full of contradictions

19.06.2025 17:20 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The wild story of a Russian who hid for years under the California redwoods The Hendy Hermit's last known address was a "hollowed out tree stump."

The Hendy Hermit's last known address was a 'hollowed out tree stump' in a Mendocino County redwood grove.

07.06.2025 14:16 — 👍 3    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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'He could have bled out': How a California day hike became life-or-death The wife of the hiker who fell at Camp Creek Falls recounted the dramatic rescue.

Despite everything, the husband and wife say their love for the outdoors remains intact. While they don’t plan to return to waterfall hiking anytime soon, Shea added: “We’re not scared. We’ll do it again.”

06.06.2025 21:37 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0
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Stunning 20-acre Northern Calif. estate with private island lists for $7.5M Sea Arches is a $7.5 million oceanfront Elk estate with sea stacks, private trails, beach access and a Michelin-starred spot next door.

The real estate agent said properties like this 'don't come around very often'

05.06.2025 01:01 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Landslide kills road worker in Northern California A contractor's employee was killed in a landslide on remote Highway 36 in Humboldt County, where slide activity has plagued the area for months.

Slide activity has been impacting the highway for several months

31.05.2025 20:54 — 👍 5    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 1
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Unexplained California plane crash exposes flaw in aviation oversight Did a safety oversight from the FAA lead to a deadly plane crash in remote California?

After a fatal plane crash in October 2023 claimed the lives of two Utah residents, investigators were left with a haunting question: How could a seasoned commercial pilot fly straight into a remote Northern California mountainside?

30.05.2025 16:44 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Thanks for connecting @ianjames.bsky.social and I Kimery!

30.05.2025 01:40 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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PG&E customers face $532M bill for dam removal some don't want PG&E's $500M plan to dismantle the Potter Valley Project could cut water to 600,000 in Northern California.

A half-billion-dollar teardown of a century-old hydroelectric facility will be funded by PG&E customers, many of whom also risk losing the year-round water supply the system delivers to 600,000 people across Northern California.

via @mattlafever.bsky.social
www.sfgate.com/northcoast/a...

29.05.2025 15:14 — 👍 6    🔁 4    💬 2    📌 0
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Man falls 30 feet while snapping waterfall photo in Northern California A man was severely injured after falling 30 feet near a Northern California waterfall, sparking a dramatic helicopter rescue.

The fall resulted in 'traumatic injuries,' according to a spokesperson

29.05.2025 02:55 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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SF Giants owner Buster Posey boots kids camp from $10.4M NorCal ranch After Buster Posey's $10.4 million purchase of Six Point Ranch in July 2024, a kids hunting camp in Northern California is being forced to relocate.

This isn’t what I had in mind when Buster bought Mendocino County's Six Point Ranch.

21.05.2025 13:49 — 👍 4    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0
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Johnny Pinches remembered as Mendocino County’s straight-shooting supervisor - MendoFever – Mendocino County News “We won’t see another Johnny Pinches in our lifetimes.”

John Pinches, a legendary Mendocino County rancher, budget hawk, and three-term county supervisor remembered for his folksy wisdom and fierce advocacy for rural residents, has died. He was 73.

19.05.2025 15:29 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Sprawling Calif. ranch with viral waterfall for sale for less than $1M A 277-acre ranch with 3 homes and access to an Instagram-famous Northern California waterfall hits the market, just 3 hours from the Bay Area.

'It was magic,' guests said of their visit to the ranch near Phantom Falls

18.05.2025 15:54 — 👍 5    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

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