News & Features, North Bay Bohemian

Long Overdue

Jonathan Greenberg — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 04:00:00 -0700

Sonoma County's libraries will remain closed on Mondays and evenings for the third year in a row. Why hasn't anybody stepped up to restore hours? by Jonathan Greenberg Dr. Carmen Finley, a retired research scientist and genealogist, still remembers the "Juvenile Hall" of the Santa Rosa public library. During the 1930s, her mother worked at a shop near the library, dropping her off every day before work.…

Speaking Up

Leilani Clark — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 04:00:00 -0700

by Leilani Clark Jesus Guzman, chair of the North Bay Organizing Project's immigration task force, has just flown back from a busy week in Washington, D.C. There in connection with the opening debates on the bipartisan immigration reform bill that would overhaul U.S. immigration laws, Guzman's week included leadership trainings, a direct action outside of Speaker of the House John Boehner's office, meetings with pepresentatives Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson and a press event with President Obama. Attendees were told they'd be able to ask questions at the event, says Guzman, but it turned out to be much more scripted than expected.…

Beaver Fever

James Knight — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 04:00:00 -0700

In Glen Ellen, a colony of beavers arrives—and this time, they're a little more welcome by James Knight In the mid-1990s, a family of beavers found their way up Sonoma Creek and settled in Glen Ellen. Although they were the first beavers that had been seen here since the animals were extirpated decades earlier, they got the same welcome that is traditionally offered to beavers: they were trapped and killed.…

Old Sport

Jonah Raskin — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 04:00:00 -0700

by Jonah Raskin Jack London failed miserably as a father. He abandoned his first wife, Bessie, and their two daughters, Joan and Becky, but as a writer, farmer and adventurer, he's been a father figure for generations.…

Highway Blues

Rachel Dovey — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 04:00:00 -0700

As Ghilotti Construction cuts down and sells state-owned redwoods for a profit, let's look at how it's going in Willits by Rachel Dovey The spoils of a bitter war between Caltrans and Mendocino County environmental advocates—5.9 miles of oak, fir and ash trees that will be leveled and chipped to make way for the Willits bypass—have again been ceded to the contractors clearing them. But unlike redwoods that previously sat on public land in Sonoma County, these trees won't turn a private profit.…

Charged Up

Leilani Clark — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 04:00:00 -0700

The Post Carbon Institute's Richard Heinberg on the so-called petro-boom, the folly of fracking and the ways we can get back on track by Leilani Clark Richard Heinberg is surprisingly chipper for a man who, if projections by the U.S. government and global-energy analysts are to be believed, might just have seen the basis for his career virtually debunked. The Post Carbon Institute senior fellow smiles easily in the art- and book-filled living room of the Santa Rosa home he shares with his wife, Janet, even as he talks about the implications of a fracking-fueled petro-boom from North Dakota to Pennsylvania that's got U.S. energy executives crowing about abundant fossil-fuel-derived energy to last the next century or two.…

Je ne sais whaaaaat?

Nicolas Grizzle — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 04:00:00 -0700

by Nicolas Grizzle Adios, Doyle Park; bonjour, Santa Rosa French-American Charter School. When the mostly Latino Doyle Park Elementary School in Santa Rosa officially closed last year, the unexpected uproar caused the school board to strike a deal keeping it open for one more year.…

Direct Deposit

Leilani Clark — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 04:00:00 -0700

The Public Banking Institute says there's a way to build a stronger and more resilient local economy by Leilani Clark With a price tag of $6 billion, the Bay Bridge retrofit is one of most expensive engineering projects in California's history. And in the end, taxpayers will pay nearly double that cost—an amount that won't be paid off until at least 2049—with a huge chunk of interest paid to the banks funding the project.…

Farm-to-Closet Fashion

Leilani Clark — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 04:00:00 -0700

Fibershed brings together farmers, weavers and knitters for clothes made locally and ethically by Leilani Clark and Nicolas Grizzle You know the drill. You go to a store, maybe Forever 21 or Target, only to be confronted with a hundred different T-shirts, in every shape and color.…

Wrung Dry

Rachel Dovey — Wed, 29 May 2013 04:00:00 -0700

How can a private water utility charge four times the going rate and get away with it? (Hint: PG&E's regulators are involved) by Rachel Dovey During her one weekly shower, Dillon Beach resident Theresa Byrne crams her bathtub with empty peanut butter jars. When they're full of runoff water, she carries them into her kitchen and places them on the windowsill above her sink.…

Kids: Stoked!

Nicolas Grizzle — Wed, 29 May 2013 04:00:00 -0700

by Nicolas Grizzle Pipedreams sometimes take a while to develop, but the first metaphorical pipe of the Children's Museum of Sonoma County is being laid this weekend with a groundbreaking ceremony. For years, the idea existed as a traveling van called Museum-on-the-Go that popped up at various functions around Sonoma County.…

Tourist Trap?

Leilani Clark — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 -0700

by Leilani Clark A grant application by the Sonoma County Regional Parks that envisions the Occidental Community Center as an "adventure day lodge" for tourists, complete with small shuttles to Jenner, Bodega Bay and Willow Creek, has stirred up concern among some residents. A June 4 meeting has been organized to raise awareness about the "Gateway to West Sonoma County Project," says Jacques Levy, one of the meeting's organizers.…

Safety Net

Patrick M. Klenz — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 -0700

Assembly bill aims to keep state hospital patients who commit assault out of county jails by Patrick M. Klenz Judges and juries, not police officers or state hospital orderlies, decide whether or not a defendant's mental disorder excuses the crime that person committed. Until their day in court, the mentally ill are treated by the system like any others suspected of the same crime.…

Hot Summer Guide 2013

Taylor May — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 -0700

Every which way to spend your time in the summertime months by Taylor May and Nicolas Grizzle Summertime memories are best made casually—the late-night walks, the impromptu skinny-dipping sessions, the boozy kisses and the houses full of friends. But planning your summer is key also, if only to make sure you don't miss the best that the North Bay has to offer.…

Steep Climb

Nicolas Grizzle — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:00:00 -0700

Will the doping scandal affect public interest in America's biggest bike race? by Nicolas Grizzle By now, we all know about the wreckage. In January, Lance Armstrong sat down and told Oprah Winfrey, and thereby the world, that he used illegal performance-enhancing substances to win a record seven consecutive Tour de France titles.…

Fists of Glory

Leilani Clark — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:00:00 -0700

by Leilani Clark More than 40 years after John Carlos and Tommie Smith—the U.S. bronze and gold medal winners in the 200-meter sprint at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City—raised their fists in a black power salute on the Olympic podium, the iconic image still induces goose bumps. Carlos and Smith planned the statement in solidarity with the Civil Rights movement as a way to protest the racism and poverty afflicting so many African Americans in the United States, and they paid dearly for having a political conscience in a supposedly apolitical and commercialized sports world.…

The Final Four

Rachel Dovey — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:00:00 -0700

So just how 'clean' are the companies vying for the Sonoma Clean Power job? by Rachel Dovey With the tentative approval of Sonoma Clean Power by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, each of the county's municipalities has a choice to make. With a short-list of four potential energy suppliers, the county's Community Choice Aggregation—which would break with PG&E to buy power on the open market—is poised to go forward pending each city's yea or nay.…

Much Ado

David Templeton — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:00:00 -0700

While BottleRock takes over this week, something 'Funny' opens at the Opera House by David Templeton 'This is a role I've dreamed of playing my entire life," says actress Taylor Bartolucci of Napa, describing her lifelong goal of playing Fanny Brice in the 1964 musical Funny Girl. "When I was a little girl," reveals Bartolucci, "I'd walk around my house belting like Barbara Streisand, singing 'Don't Rain on My Parade.'"…

Start of Something Big

Gabe Meline — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:00:00 -0700

BottleRock descends upon the tiny town of Napa by Gabe Meline Gabe Meyers walks the empty grounds of the Napa Valley Expo, imagining how it's going to go off. Some workers assemble scaffolding down the way.…

Political Prisoners

Leilani Clark — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:00:00 -0700

by Leilani Clark It's no secret that the FBI has targeted the Black Panthers since the establishment of COINTELPRO in the 1960s. Just last week, Assata Shakur (née JoAnne Chesimard), the former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army activist accused of being an accomplice to the murder of a New Jersey state trooper in 1973—and who famously escaped from prison in 1979 to live an exiled life in Cuba—was reclassified as a "domestic terrorist" by the FBI and added to its Most Wanted List.…

Fiesta Grande

Gabe Meline — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:00:00 -0700

by Gabe Meline Roseland is a 100-year-old neighborhood that's only a mile from city hall, and yet it is not included in, though surrounded by, the city limits of Santa Rosa. Officially, the city's reasons for failing to welcome the neighborhood into the city involve sales tax and redevelopment; coincidentally, it is home to the highest concentrated Latino population in the Santa Rosa area.…

No More Risk

Rachel Dovey — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:00:00 -0700

The DREAM Alliance of Sonoma County works to keep families together by Rachel Dovey They came with their entire lives in a folder. That's how Jesús Guzmán, one of the founders of the DREAM Alliance of Sonoma County, describes the 160-plus undocumented youth who came to the Deferred Action Application Fair on Aug. 18, 2012.…

Voices of Dreamers

Estefany Gonzalez — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:00:00 -0700

With Obama's Deferred Action program, more and more immigrant youth are telling their stories by Estefany Gonzalez "But they choose to come here." It's a common argument one hears in the ongoing debate about immigration—that because immigrants choose to come to the United States, they deserve to deal with the results of that choice.…

Art and Soul

Gretchen Giles — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0700

The Doyle Collection finds a permanent home at SRJC by Gretchen Giles Oh, to return to college! To again experience that heady time of exploration and inundation when the aged young freewheel to philosophy class, actually enjoy math class and rip eagerly through a novel a week in English class.…

Fit to Print

Jenna Loceff — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0700

Separating credible news from the muck by Jenna Loceff The recent release of Project Censored: The Movie, which encourages media consumers to pay attention to what they're being fed and by whom, is well-timed for readers in Sonoma County and beyond. This past month, five radio stations—KSRO, the Mix, Hot 101.7, the River and Froggy—were sold by East Coast corporate parent Maverick Media back to the local ownership of Sonoma Media Group, helmed by Lawrence Amaturo.…