Columns

The Sonoma County Fair begins its 83rd running today (Aug. 1 through 11) offering all of us a mid-summer showcase of both our agricultural roots and our more contemporary wine country trappings and pursuits. A Hall of Flowers, evening concerts, daily youth livestock judging, horse races, carnival rides, craft beers, cotton candy and fried everything — what’s not to like?

As with most parts of life in Sonoma County, now removed by one month from the Oct. 8 wildfires, our 2017 Thanksgiving gatherings will be unlike any previous ones, with extra thoughts and prayers reserved for the victims and volunteers of our region’s greatest natural disaster in history. The timing to pause and give thanks could not be better.

Last week 99 U.S. senators took an oath to “do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws.” (Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe was absent due to a family medical emergency but will be sworn in on another day). 

The other day I was catching up with my younger sister on the phone. As we were talking I found myself smiling at the absurdity of our conversation. She was rambling on about the perils of kindergarten acceptance. Been there, done that I thought. But I calmly reassured her that her 5-year-old would be fine, and in 10 years the kindergarten search would turn into a college search. That’s where I am. What a huge, monumental leap our teen son and my family will be taking in just a few years.

We were shocked

Lavender. If you’ve travelled the Mediterranean or California’s wine country, you’ve likely seen fragrant waves of it everywhere.

100 years ago – November 8, 1917

"Now that Measure O will be on the November ballot, the only fix is for the city to abandon or substantially reduce this density boost—or for the voters to reject Measure O and send the City Council back to the drawing board," writes one Tribune reader in our Letters to the Editor this week. Other readers weigh in as well...