Columns

In a few weeks all of us will mark a full year of living in this COVID-19 time of a pandemic, sheltering in place and worrying about what terrible things like more wildfires, a positive virus test or loss of a job might happen next. What has this year of disease, tension, uncertainty and new daily living patterns done to us? Are we all becoming Zoombies?

This is always an exciting time of the year as we get ready to welcome our new kindergarten students. Kindergarten will be your child’s first step in school and it is a privilege to be a parat of that journey. At Mattie Washburn, we are committed to ensuring that all students receive a challenging academic program as they begin their school career. We have a balanced curriculum that combines hands-on, real life experiences with the basic skills needed for success. Our focus is on early literacy with the goal that all students will be fluent readers as they leave first grade.

In response to President Trump’s unprecedented refusal to share basic information with American public, new bill will require that all presidential candidates release tax returns in order to appear on California ballot

Near as I can figure, Arline and I arrived in Scranton, Pennsylvania, about seven years after Joe Biden, at age 10, moved to Delaware with his family. We had been married in Pasadena, California, exactly one week before, and had driven from the wedding reception to Scranton in six days. Happy honeymoon, dear.

The following snippets of history are compiled by volunteers of the Windsor Museum & Historical Society. The museum is open, free to the public, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and by appointment. The museum is located in the historic Hembree House at 9225 Foxwood Drive. Learn more about Windsor history at windsorhistory.org.

The week after the fires, when the full catastrophe was evident, I remarked to friends that this event was a game changer and that for our remaining lives, we would mark life in Sonoma County, “before the fire, and after the fire.”

Our nation was founded upon the argument that no government can be fair and just unless the people who are being governed remain forever devoted to liberty and virtue. Our Founding Fathers argued long and hard about this predicament. They neither trusted themselves to be infallible, nor did they put their faith in the rule of a pure democracy or a monarch. What they did instead was, they compromised. They authored a constitution designed to preserve the rights of individuals and protect against the tyranny of the majority. They inserted many levels of “checks and balances” and they structured a government with clear separations of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches. They awarded every man the right to vote, but only for a representative and not a direct vote in the new congress.

Sonoma West Publishers is looking to build more community engagement in our newspapers.

This Week in H’burg is a weekly column featuring photos and fun facts from local photographer Pierre Ratté. Each week we’ll feature a new photo from Ratté along with a fact about the subject matter of the photo.