Columns

It goes without saying that plants are some of the most beautiful and important organisms we have on our planet. As a child I was always interested in the world of plants. A world seemingly so familiar yet so estranged from common understanding. As kids we run barefoot and play on the soft grass, take refuge under the shade a tree provides amidst a hot California day, and take a deep breath of the fresh air the leaves so selflessly gift to us. All while the plants remain sessile, unassuming and ask nothing of us. 

District 2 Assemblymember Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) was on hand at the July 20 meeting of the Windsor Democratic Club to discuss his 2017 legislative activities. He outlined highlights of the recently passed $183 billion budget with expanded support for K-12 education and additional funding for pre-schools. Wood reported that gas taxes have been increased to pay for repairs to our highways, the condition of which is costing motorists approximately $700 per year in repair costs to their individual vehicles. He touched on other legislation in which he is engaged, including Assembly Bill 1433, which proposes using funds from the recently passed Cap and Trade Extension for carbon sequestration through better management of our forests and natural and working lands.

The worth of any endeavor or establishment should be measured with a triple bottom line of social, economic and environmental outcomes. And, if the year 2017 was to be measured as such, how might we rank its contributions in both a global and very local picture?

It’s not just newspapers or internet giants like Twitter or Facebook; we are all in the communications business. We’re not the talking naked apes we once were. Now we are a species with interconnected tongues and brains, linked by clouds of computers and thinking machines. The same primate thumbs that enabled us to become toolmakers have now become our primary language devices. No thumbs means no phone, no communication.

We have many regular and faithful readers of these weekly editorials. We know this because we are told so in the grocery store checkout line, on errands to the hardware store and in impromptu sidewalk critique sessions. We receive lots of encouragement and are gently told sometimes to tone down the sermonizing. These conversations are our best rewards.

The following snippets of history are drawn from the pages of the Healdsburg Tribune, the Healdsburg Enterprise and the Sotoyome Scimitar, and are prepared by the volunteers at the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society. Admission is always free at the museum, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Community members in some of the county’s more fire-threatened areas are getting organized to prepare for future disasters and they’re working with local government and fire officials to become more resilient.

The longest day of the year is June 21 and we celebrate the summer solstice with everything fresh and delicious. Peach season has started, berries are bright and beautiful, summer vegetables are in abundance, salmon season is on and did I see my first...

July might as well be the official Dennis Agnos month. Last week, the Healdsburg resident and LGBTQ activist was the subject of a feature article about foster parents and the benefits of building a family through foster care. This week, Agnos is in the spotlight again — for his work as president of the volunteer board of directors at the Healdsburg Education Foundation (HEF).