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Sonoma Marin Area Transit Service (SMART) moving forward toward its long-held goal of providing commuter rail service from the San Francisco Bay to northern Sonoma County, as promised since 2002.  One of the knottiest challenges it has faced is the rail’s northward expansion, including service...

When we think of the blues, the last instrument we expect to be part of the genre is the ukulele. That is unless it’s uke master Jake Shimabukuro, whose latest project is a blues album with Mick Fleetwood...

The controversy surrounding Healdsburg’s downtown hotel ordinance, which restricted new construction to five rooms per block face and was passed late in 2018 by a 4-1 vote of the City Council, took a new and for many unwelcome turn last week. On Thursday, Sept. 7,...

The City Council made an honorary proclamation of California Native American Day at their Sept. 19 meeting, but the local culture scene is taking it further—recognizing three Indigenous poets over the next two months with readings and conversation from the stage at The 222.  “Indigenous...

Saxophone sounds filled the spacious twin Quonset hut space at 222 Healdsburg Ave. last weekend, while an audience of just under 100 listened to the jazz music from cloth-draped café tables decorated with lowlights and small bowls of chocolates, perhaps sipping a local varietal...

Occasional visitors to the Healdsburg Plaza may have been entertained during recent summer months by a casually dressed late-middle-aged man with a 12-string guitar, singing loudly from a swiveling office chair with a tip bowl in front of him. He is, by classic definition, a...

Measure J, the initiative on the November ballot to shut down a number of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations  (CAFOs) or “factory farms” in Sonoma County, has encountered widespread opposition among public governing bodies, most recently including the Healdsburg City Council...

Weight classes have a meaning, and a strategy, although judges today are pretty strict in their weight calls. The technology of measuring weights is so sophisticated these days, there are few if any ways to “nudge” the scale. “So if you go to a competition and you step on a scale, and you are a 10th of a pound over, you are disqualified” in the weight class, Scott Weidemier said. “There’s no leeway. They’re all digital scales these days, that are certified every year.”

A new, citizen-led initiative in Healdsburg will attempt to plant 500 more trees along city streets—an ambitious endeavor that will involve raising funds, rallying community members to help, mapping spots to plant, getting local landowners on board, dodging underground utility lines, caring for the...

Agave Restaurant in Healdsburg has reopened with a new 250-year-old redwood bar, a new mole menu, and a renewed focus on Oaxacan flavors and personal service.