Columns

There are lots of big topics dominating the news these days. We’re getting pretty darn tired of most of them, like the omicron variant of the coronavirus, the open-shut door carousel at our local schools, renewed sheltering-in-place orders, a drought that comes with a tsunami warning and muddy feet and distant drumbeats about what’s being called “existential threats” to our democracy. But the biggest — and most real — current news topic is probably inflation, an economic menace we haven’t had to face for almost 40 years. 

Healdsburg Library staff members are looking forward to a very busy October, with many exciting opportunities to engage with the public. Some weeks are so packed with activities that I can only offer a smattering of suggestions; for the full list, please visit our...

This newspaper publisher has long been predisposed to remind his readers that there is no such thing as a free press. It takes money, lots of it, to hire dedicated journalists and buy newsprint, ink and computers to produce news. It cost Sonoma West Publishers just over $1.2 million last year to provide a steady stream of vital and reliable news for the four communities we serve in north and west Sonoma County. And, even with all that, we still lost almost $200,000 at the end of the year. Now, during the pandemic-caused economic shutdown, our financial challenge looks nearly impossible some days. But that’s another story for another day.

100 years ago – June 27, 1918

Voices art on the Plaza

Media workers are considered essential, but since the shelter-in-place order we here at Sonoma West Publishers have been largely working from home. Each of the members of our editorial staff is sharing their work at home space with our readers as we navigate doing all of our work remotely. If you want photos of our spaces, check out our Instagram page at instagram.com/thewindsortimes.

Back up slogan with action

I write this on March 1, Saint David’s Day. Saint David is to Wales as Saint Patrick is to Ireland. Saint David, Dewi Sant in the native tongue, was born about the year 500. Like Saint Patrick in Ireland 100 years earlier, Saint David established schools and monasteries in the westward protruding belly of Britain that is Wales.

Windsor Middle School broke ground on their new culinary room on May 1.