Columns

A modest proposal

In 2008, the folks behind SMART told us that if voters approved the quarter-percent 20 year sales tax they would build 71 miles of train and a 71-mile bike path and that annual operating costs would be $16.5 million per year. They also claimed SMART would alleviate traffic on 101 and help fight climate change. The problem is none of these promises ever materialized and now SMART is asking voters to approve an additional $2.4 billion on a 30-year tax extension nine years before the current tax expires. 

High school graduation ceremonies are when our young scholars get pinned down to hear lofty and last minute advice on what to do as they go forth into the adult world. Some of the guidance is more wise and sage than others. Face it,...

The month of pumpkins. Those globes of orange and gold fill the farms around us now, and provide endless goodies for consumption or decoration. From pies to pumpkin spiced drinks, tiny ones used as table décor to huge ones filling the back of a pickup, the pumpkin is celebrated throughout the country as a squash everyone can love.

This newspaper publisher has long been predisposed to remind his readers that there is no such thing as a free press. It takes money, lots of it, to hire dedicated journalists and buy newsprint, ink and computers to produce news. It cost Sonoma West Publishers just over $1.2 million last year to provide a steady stream of vital and reliable news for the four communities we serve in north and west Sonoma County. And, even with all that, we still lost almost $200,000 at the end of the year. Now, during the pandemic-caused economic shutdown, our financial challenge looks nearly impossible some days. But that’s another story for another day.

"Your fraudulent letter confirms you don’t intend to do the job the American people have given you. That job can only be done by someone with thorough expertise in the field, and a passion to serve and protect our fellow Americans. You have neither. You only have the competence to do the job you’ve really been assigned: destroy Social Security."

I have been responding to spills in the city of Santa Rosa for the last 17 years.

Nominated for a documentary Oscar, I urge you to see I Am Not Your Negro on the big screen. For it is that rarest of films—one which I want to see with a multi-ethnic, multi-age audience and talk about at the end.