Editorial

The solution to the county’s pension problem is simple, it’s just not easy to implement. Implementation will require political courage, a commodity often in short supply. The fact there is a serious problem with the county’s pension cost was acknowledged by the Board of Supervisors in 2011.

I appreciate your three informative November articles on the

The March 24 commentary “Housing Solutions” by Healdsburg Mayor Tom Chambers provided an incomplete picture of the City of Healdsburg’s efforts to dramatically change the Growth Management Ordinance (GMO) that voters passed in 2000.

Instead of our usual Winter Lite we have been experiencing record cold. A cold snap, they call it. Nothing as punishing as in other parts of the country. A Kansan might poo-poo how we fret over our lemon tree, tucked in like a dowager on a cruise ship. A New Englander might not share my delight in how my neighbor’s frosted roof glimmers in the dawn.

With this year’s elections fast approaching both candidates for the 4th Supervisorial District, James Gore and Deb Fudge have represented that they possess the knowledge and skills necessary to manage Sonoma County’s public sector and its problems, one of which is the gorilla in the room—unfunded pension liabilities.

It’s hard for me to imagine what it is like to be a young black man and to be the object of suspicion, fear and harassment for being myself, for being young and black. Our president says he knows what it’s like and that Trayvon Martin, the black teenager killed by a white neighborhood watch volunteer could have been him when he was a teenager. The boys assailant, George Zimmerman, was tried and acquitted and as far as I’m concerned, that is legally the end of the matter. But I can’t help wondering what it was like for Trayvon Martin, what it was like for Barack Obama, and what it was and is like for millions of young black men.