THE 'EYE' HAS IT: The "San Francisco Chronicle" has a profile of Kevin Hooper, the genius behind the "Arcata Eye" police blotter. Here's part of his bio:

A graduate of Canyon High School in Castro Valley, Hoover was inspired to quit his job at a Radio Shack in Fremont and move to this old logging town 16 years ago after reading an item in National Lampoon. The item was about the statue of President William McKinley that dominates the town's main square, and how somebody had stuffed cheese up its nose.

Of course, there's always a member of the Compassionate & Concerned Class around to spoil the fun:

And that's the problem, according to Shunka Wakan, an activist for Earth First. He said Hoover's police log trivializes the plight of the lower classes. "He makes up little poems and little sarcastic remarks about the common folks, street people and traveling kids who are the most common targets of the Arcata police state," Wakan said. "Hoover . . . encourages the people of Arcata to laugh off oppression as they go about their middle- to upper-class day." Hoover's irreverence has so infuriated some people that they even started a Web site called Arcatalie.com, dedicated to exposing the "dirty bile" written by "the unscrupulous editor of Arcata's travesty, The Arcata Eye."

If "The Man" ever busts Shunka Wakan for mushroom possession, I hope Kevin Hooper is right there to record it for posterity.