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Checking in with SRJC's Oak Leaf newsroom
photo credit: Courtesy of the Oak Leaf/SRJCThe digital table of contents of the fall 2023 Oak Leaf Magazine. Next, a new Friday feature, at least for the rest of the current semester at the Santa Rosa Junior College. In case you're not familiar, Santa Rosa's community college has an award-winning. student-produced newsmedia program. Oak Leaf students cover SRJC news, produce The Oak Leaf magazine, and constantly add stories to theoakleafnews.com. As SRJC says, "besides writing and editing, Oak Leaf students build skills in photography, podcasting, design and layout, social media reporting, mobile journalism, audio/video production and more." For the next few weeks, KRCB News Director Greta Mart checks in with the student journalists to learn more about their stories....a handful of students are taking turns speaking with KRCB News. LISTEN ABOVE BY CLICKING ON THE PLAY BUTTON That was KRCB's Greta Mart speaking with SRJC Oak Leaf journalist Rosemary Cromwell. We'll have another check-in with our community college colleagues next Friday.
What military grade equipment does the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office have? Annual report offers details
photo credit: Noah Abrams/KRCBSonoma County Sheriff's Lenco Bearcat armored vehicle on display in Santa Rosa on April 16, 2024. Armored vehicles, grenade launchers, flashbang grenades - they’re all considered military equipment by a state law passed in 2021, called AB 481. The law gives cities and counties oversight and approval power for certain equipment purchases by local law enforcement. It also requires law enforcement agencies to make public their inventory, how the equipment will be used, and when it's been deployed. Sonoma County Sheriff Eddie Engram presented on the departments "military equipment" in mid-April. "I think it benefits not only the sheriff's office,...
Court ruling could give sardines a better chance to rebound
photo credit: Courtesy of UC DavisPacific sardines travel in huge schools. An environmental group says it has prevailed in federal court over the management of Pacific sardines. Geoff Shester is senior scientist with Oceana and lead's its California campaign. "The recent court decision was really vindicating a lot of the concerns that Oceana has been raising with fisheries managers where they were setting catch limits that basically, their own analysis showed wouldn't rebuild the sardine population," Shester said. Unlike the canned variety common at grocery stores, almost all of which originate in the Mediterranean, Shester said Pacific sardines generally wind up as bait...
Petaluma mobile home residents take their fight on the road
photo credit: Noah Abrams/KRCBLittlewoods resident Rufino Cortes speaks outside Harmony Communities offices in Stockton, CA. on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. Residents of a Petaluma mobile home park are facing the threat of large rent hikes and even possible eviction and closure. They took a protest on the road this week to Stockton. "The sprinklers are on in the middle of the day, if that gives you any kind of sign," Protestor Angeles Cruz said. "We are very much drenched, but that's not stopping any of us from our freedom of speech." The roughly two dozen residents are mainly from Petaluma’s Littlewoods Mobile...
Uncertainty, overwork and unfilled jobs dominate county budget hearings
photo credit: Marc Albert/KRCBExterior shot, County Administration building, Santa Rosa, CA. Sonoma County supervisors are spending this week hammering out a budget for the fiscal year starting July 1. Each day, supervisors are being briefed by department and division heads about progress, problems and needs. On Tuesday, officials heard from Health and Human Services, Public Health and Permit Sonoma. Looming over the discussion...the multi-billion dollar deficit in Sacramento and how it will impact the county's bottom line. That's atop expiring grant funds and the end of COVID aid. Supervisor Chris Coursey questioned Angela Struckmann, director of the department of Human Services about the...
California senate supports Berryessa Snow Mountain expansion
photo credit: Bureau of Land ManagementBerryessa Snow Mountain National Monument. The state Senate has passed a resolution encouraging the White House to expand Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument. North Bay Democratic Senator Bill Dodd wrote the legislation. He says it supports proposals before Congress to expand the monument by 3,900 acres in Lake County. "Both these measures would rename Walker Ridge to Molok Luyuk ... which means Condor Ridge in the Patwin language," Dodd said. "Additionally, they would also provide opportunities for partnerships between the tribes, Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service." Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument covers more than 330,000 acres of the Coast Ranges in Napa, Lake, Mendocino and four other counties. "By expanding this national monument, we are protecting sacred tribal lands and critical habitat for wildlife and also improving access to the outdoors and helping to contribute to California's goal of protecting 30% of land and waters by 2030," Dodd said. The land has abundant wildlife, plants and other natural resources, and is a haven for outdoor recreation. Dodd's bill heads next to the Assembly.
Sonoma County moves away from embattled homeless services provider
photo credit: Noah Abrams/KRCBThe Sonoma County Administrative Campus in Santa Rosa. Sonoma County is breaking up with its current homeless services provider. At the April 16 meeting, county supervisors voted not to award the nonprofit an extended contract to run a 44-unit interim housing site, and the county's emergency shelter site, both in Santa Rosa. DEMA is a disaster response and homeless services nonprofit formed in 2019. It has been operating the two sites - Mickey Zane Place and the emergency shelter site on the county campus - without contract since the start of April. The nonprofit played a key role in operating...
Changes coming to Sonoma County's cannabis tax code
photo credit: James St. John/flickr This week Sonoma County's elected officials addressed cannabis business taxes. According to staff analyst McCall Miller, Sonoma County’s cannabis taxes are comparable with those of our neighbors. "We're right in line with Nevada County, Monterey County, Mendocino and Lake Counties," Miller said. Currently outdoor cultivation is taxed at 75 cents per square foot. Mixed light cultivation is taxed at $3 per square foot, and indoor? $12.50 per square foot. But, county supervisors voted to change the cannabis tax rates for the next fiscal year, going with the staff recommendation Miller outlined. "[Which will] adjust outdoor cultivation tax rate to 69...
Voices urging federal disaster declaration grow; salmon restoration efforts continue
photo credit: Courtesy of the California Department of Fish & WildlifeHalf a million juvenile coho were released this week into the Klamath River. They should return in three years. More voices are urging President Joe Biden to declare a national fishery disaster in California, where salmon have largely vanished and the commercial and recreational salmon fishing seasons likely cancelled for a second year in a row. That's as a few hopeful signs appear on the horizon. This week North Bay Congressman Jared Huffman and 20 other federal lawmakers joined Governor Gavin Newsom in urging the federal declaration. Such a move would provide financial...
Sonoma County finalizes much-debated tree ordinances
photo credit: Flickr/HollywataOak trees on Sonoma County hills. Removing most types of native trees in unincorporated areas of Sonoma County now requires a permit after the county Board of Supervisors finalized a pair of tree ordinances that were in the planning stages for three years. Fees for removing protected trees increased to a maximum of $3,500 per tree. New trees can also be planted to avoid the fees. It was the first time the county's tree protection law had been updated since 1989. The new law is meant to increase climate resiliency by enhancing carbon sequestration and bring fees up to date to mitigate...
Reorganization of Sonoma County bureacracy approved by supervisors
photo credit: County of SonomaM.Christina Rivera, current county administrator, will continue in the new county executive leadership role. The board’s request for a report on a controversial factory farming ban ballot measure wasn’t the only noteworthy decision from a full agenda on Tuesday, April 16. County supervisors fully approved the reorganization of executive leadership within the county government. It's shifting from a county administrator model to an executive model. Now a re-christened "county executive" will have daily oversight of the Agricultural Commissioner and the head of the county's Economic Development Board. Same goes for the directors of Health services, Public Infrastructure, Office of...
Supervisors ask for closer look at possible impacts of animal ag ballot measure
photo credit: Michelle Del CuetoCoaltion to End Factory Farming volunteers Sarah Van Mantgem of Windsor and Kristina Garfinkel of Santa Rosa turn in signatures on March 4, 2024. This week, Sonoma County Supervisors took a first look at a ballot initiative that would ban so-called factory farms in unincorporated areas of Sonoma County. The ballot text alleges that large CAFO’s - concentrated animal feeding operations - are a leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions, along with a host of other detriments to people, animals and the environment. With the initiative collecting the needed signatures to qualify for the ballot, county...
Ire among activists as Sebastopol punts Gaza cease-fire resolution yet again
photo credit: Marc Albert/KRCBFile photo of weekly peace vigil as Sebastopol's peace wall. It may be entirely symbolic, but symbols can have real power. That's the takeaway in Sebastopol where for the forth time in two months, city leaders Tuesday again opted out of discussing a resolution demanding a cease-fire in Gaza. While bomb and drone strikes continue, despite demands three weeks ago for an immediate cease-fire by the United Nations Security Council, frustration is growing in some circles that the Sebastopol City Council hasn't followed suit. Activist Susan Lamont, whose name is inscribed on the city's "Peace Wall," called the...
Remote public comment will continue, despite racist, antisemitic outbursts
photo credit: Courtesy of GoogleMaps Sebastopol's town square In Sebastopol....you'll still be able to 'zoom" into a council meeting and air your views. A proposal that would have stopped the public's ability to sound off during council meetings from home, or essentially anywhere via the web-app Zoom, failed on a 3-2 vote Tuesday. The measure was proposed by Sebastopol Mayor Diana Rich after an apparently organized effort by neo-Nazis to share anti-Jewish conspiracies via Zoom during public comment periods of recent city meetings. City officials say they have consulted with the company and instituted every available strategy to sideline disruptive callers, to little avail. Local resident Linda,...
A lack of parking counters goal of more middle-income housing in Healdsburg
photo credit: Courtesy of City of HealdsburgA Rite-Aid and its parking lot could become 189 apartments, though parking concerns could blunt bold plans. The prospect of drivers circling blocks, searching for a spot, appeared to sap support for bringing more apartments to Healdsburg. After hours of testimony and hundreds of pages of reports on how to encourage so-called 'missing middle' housing---support appeared to weaken. Jeff Kay, Healdsburg's city manager reiterated the conclusions of a number of earlier studies, finding that while a good amount of affordable and luxury housing units are going up, there remains a big hole. "We've done a pretty...
Why tortillas sold in California may be forced to add a new ingredient
photo credit: Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight LocalCalifornia lawmakers are considering a bill that would require tortillas and other foods made with corn masa flour to include the ingredient folic acid. The vitamin reduces the likelihood of birth defects.Here, tortilla packages are stacked at a supermarket in Fresno on April 9, 2024 Corn chips, tortillas, tamales and pupusas — while all delicious may be missing a key vitamin for women of reproductive age. Folic acid has long been used to prevent serious birth defects and help babies develop. Medical and public health experts advise daily consumption during pregnancy, but also in the months before becoming pregnant. This...
California requires new homes to have solar panels. Should wildfire victims get a break?
photo credit: Noah Berger, AP PhotoJose Villanueva carries siding while building a home in Paradise on Oct. 25, 2023. The project is partly funded by ReCoverCA, a state program providing money to rebuild homes in disaster areas Hundreds of homes in Joe Patterson’s Northern California Assembly district burned to the ground in the Caldor Fire. In the three years since that devastating summer, many of those rebuilding homeowners have ended up on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars, thanks to state laws that require solar panels on new homes — even on those that didn’t have them before they burned down. “Trust...
A bounty of healthy produce for all at heart of Petaluma's volunteer urban farm
photo credit: Noah Abrams/KRCBThe Unity Garden at Petaluma Bounty on Shasta Avenue in Petaluma. Agricultural heritage is a big part of Sonoma County’s identity - and especially Petaluma’s. One farm remains committed to growing to growing bountiful produce in the city itself. One pair of hands behind it are those of Paul Martin."And that's the cover crop ahead of you," Martin said. "And that just basically puts nutrients back into the soil. We end up cutting it down." That cover crop of beans, greens, grass, and rye, Martin is describing, grows full and thick over what will soon be rows of summer...
Sebastopol may cease virtual public comments to thwart neo-Nazis
photo credit: Courtesy of KQEDNeo-Nazis have taken to hanging banners from overpasses, calling in to public meetings. Next Tuesday, elected officials in Sebastopol are again scheduled to consider restricting public comment during council meetings to those physically present. That's after a series of speakers at multiple recent meetings, joining via Zoom, voiced anti-Semitic conspiracies during public comment periods. Sebastopol Mayor Diana Rich said the city is being forced into a tough choice. "Public engagement is super important to me. Reducing that opportunity at all is very troubling," Rich said. In recent meetings, people have called in, denigrating Jewish people as both powerful billionaire...
Water contamination by PFAS chemicals a growing local concern; additional tests scheduled
As we reported last week, Santa Rosa Water...the city's public water utility--declined a national, multi-billion dollar settlement with manufacturer 3M over contamination by so-called forever chemicals....called PFAS PFAS are chemicals added to certain products to make them non-stick, repel water...or protect against stains and wrinkles. They are allegedly hazardous because they don’t degrade in the environment and are linked to health issues such as low birth weight and liver disease, along with certain cancers. So... why did Santa Rosa's public water utility decline to settle? and should local residents be worried? For answers, KRCB reached out to Jennifer Burke, director of Santa Rosa Water, who said the deal would have come with too many unknowns... photo credit: Courtesy of the Sierra Club Infographic showing how minute amounts of PFAS chemicals, from everything from firefighting foam to non-stick pans move through the environment.
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