Columns

A ghost town?

Cal Trans awesome

Mike Benziger grows some of the best marijuana in Northern California. He grows it biodynamically at “Glentucky Family Farm.”

You’re invited to stop in soon to meet Aleta Dimas, our library’s new branch manager. As a memory aid, I told her that I would simply remember that A-Leader is here. She appreciated the jest, and said that when she was little, her dad’s friend had said: “She’s not a litre, she’s a half gallon.”

Ding, ding, ding. It’s a familiar sound that now goes off in my head every time I am about to square off with one of my teenagers. I don’t know what it is of late that is bringing out the angst in them.

I was raised during the Joe McCarthy era “Red Scare” times. Growing up in an ethnically mixed, working class community I remember very well the fear of that time. If you weren’t a “real” American you were suspect. If you supported unions you were a communist. We had people in our neighborhood disappear. Sound familiar?

Maybe after almost 50 years of Earth Day celebrations and actions we can admit to what EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt and others are trying to tell the rest of us. Pruitt, the former Oklahoma attorney general who is being accused of trying to dismantle his Environmental Protection Agency, says we are overregulated.

Want to make your yard a haven for bees and butterflies? Two tips: don’t use pesticides containing neonicotinoids, and be careful where you buy your plants.

Most places that you travel to, Sonoma County included, have something called a hazard mitigation plan. It’s required by federal law, and local governments won’t qualify federal and state funds if they don’t have a hazard mitigation plan.

Bruised by divisiveness