Can you name the California communities where voters agreed to pay a sales tax that can only be used for the protection of scenic landscapes, farmland, recreation areas, streams and wildlife habitat? There is only one: Sonoma County. For people who believe in stopping the rush of sprawl development and [...]

Another 539,000 Americans lost their jobs last month, the U.S Labor Department reported this morning. That's 2.7 million jobs lost since the beginning of the year and 5.7 million jobs lost since the economy began to slide in late 2007. And California state government continues to live in its alternate [...]

What's with the rain? A week after I write a column on the great drought of 2009, Sonoma County gets the second wettest day in May since folks started keeping records (it was during the Hoover administration). You're welcome.And Bob Norberg just reported - here - that there's more rain [...]

Yes, I know that marriage is supposed to be a partnership, but was it really necessary to discuss the front lawn?It's a postage stamp of a lawn, I reminded her, hardly big enough to notice. And don't forget that our children played on that very grass. I brushed away a [...]

Can you name the last Republican elected to represent Sonoma County in the state Legislature or Congress?Time's up.Bev Hansen was last elected to the state Assembly in 1990. She was the kind of moderate Republican who wouldn't be very comfortable among the conservatives who dominate the state GOP today. After [...]