While expanding on one of the answers on the 2008 news quiz - it was one group's concern about the safety of WiFi that caused a controversy in Sebastopol - I wrote that the City Council "backed down" from its opposition to WiFi.But I was incorrect. It turns out the [...]

In the 17th annual Press Democrat Quiz for News Junkies, the questions were posted earlier today. Now come the answers. Don't worry about your score. We're all friends here. 1 - On Nov. 4, 93.4 percent of Sonoma County voters, the highest percentage in the state, cast ballots. Democrat Barack [...]

How do we make sense of the highs and lows of 2008? It will be a year remembered for the exhilaration of a presidential campaign that made history and for the anxiety associated with an economic contraction that left us to worry about what the new year will bring.In three [...]

At Christmastime, no one should have to think about the misadventures of the California Legislature, but there is this problem: The state budget deficit over the next 18 months is $42 billion - which is more than the combined annual spending on criminal justice ($13 billion), higher education ($12 billion), [...]

The Press Democrat Editorial Board today speaks out on the promises associated with the creation of a regional park in southern Sonoma County. You can read the editorial here.Six years and $18 million ago, county officials offered assurances that the Tolay Lake regional park would be open to the public [...]

Charlie Cooke lived an extraordinary life - Annapolis graduate, military analyst in Vietnam, Pentagon and White House official, target of Richard Nixon's venom - and, finally, father of Sonoma County's landmark efforts to protect open space and farm land.Cooke died Sunday at his Sonoma Valley ranch. He was 77. Chris [...]

If you lived in the Bay Area in the 1970s, you know the story of Harvey Milk, the martyred San Francisco supervisor.Still, the movie about his life offers new insights into the spirit, energy and courage that made him a champion for the rights of gay people. Gus Van Sant's [...]

Sea Ranch, the landmark seaside development in the northwest corner of Sonoma County, gets star treatment today in the New York Times. Architectural writer Patricia Leigh Brown shares her love of the land and of the radical architecture that defined the place. But she also warns that some areas are [...]

Today's page one story - click here - testifies to how much Bodega Bay has changed in the past 40 years. This seaside enclave remains a fishing town - but not necessarily a town where fishermen can afford to live.In case you missed it, Business Week magazine listed this picturesque [...]

You wouldn't think the California Legislature would need additional incentive to respond to the current budget crisis. Without a solution, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer warns, $5 billion in state construction projects will be shuttered in less than two weeks, shoving thousands of people into the unemployment lines. State Controller John [...]