Public Citizen

Larry Barnett lives in Sonoma where he was elected to three terms on the City Council and served twice as Mayor. A thirty-five-year resident, he currently serves on Sonoma's Planning Commission, where he recently was Chair for two years. Until her passing, he was married to his wife Norma for 50 years, has two daughters and three grandchildren.

Health and science denial

“We see that in modern times many stones lack the virtues formerly attributed to them.” - Petrus Garsias Episcopus, 1639 I was struck by the irony of learning that Representative Steve Scalise, a conservative Republican, is being treated for cancer with stem cells,... Continue

What would you regret not doing?

Pondering this question, slurping a long noodle, eking out a couple of vegetables tossed in the soup, I had to laugh. Gladys McCarey, MD, 102-year-old author of The Well Lived Life, suggests asking “When life is truly flowing, what gives us juice? Juice – the... Continue

Sonoma Valley homeless – action and reaction

These are the words of Annie Falandes, the founder of Homeless Action Sonoma (H.A.S.) from her December newsletter. “People ask me, why spend so much money? Someday I will have time to pull up the statistics, but as I have known from other studies, what we... Continue

Good news amongst the bad

These days The News is certainly bad if not downright terrible and terrifying. To cheer our spirits, it might help to apply the adage “Follow the Money,” but do so in reverse. For the clinically old, “follow the money” evokes visions of Dick Tracy, Sam... Continue

Mom sick again

Chapter 67: 1950 • Sonora ~ Larry’s diary (age 16) My brother wrote daily about the usual. A few highlights: Sep 3 Cleaned up room it needed it. Stayed open by myself all day. Heat wave finally broke a little. Sep 4 Copied Wildcat book. Dad... Continue

Freedom, first and last

At the subatomic, quantum level upon which all physical matter appears to be built is freedom, probabilistic indeterminacy that manifests to us as choice or even purposefulness. Although ultimately subject to the physical laws of the universe, only a fraction of which we fully understand,... Continue

Systems of self-propagation

Does the universe self-organize into self-propagating systems? Are systems created by human beings self-propagating? The answers to these two questions might explain why things are as they are, and how they will continue to be. First, let’s settle on some definitions, beginning with what a... Continue

Woe is democracy

There’s a lot of talk nowadays about democracy. The threat of authoritarian government is rising, even in the good ole’ U.S. of A. Much can be said in favor of democracy, but it’s not perfect. While all people may have been created equal, in capabilities... Continue

Sonoma Council re-opens door for hotel developer fee waiver

So what exactly happened at the Sonoma City Council meeting of December 6, to hear Kenwood Investment’s appeal to not pay the required housing impact fees for its downtown hotel project? A lot of complicated talk happened, resulting in city staff going off to work... Continue

Schmoozing for Climate Change

Scientists say that in order to keep global warming to no more than 1.5°C, as called for in the 2005 Paris Agreement, humanity's global carbon emissions must be reduced 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050; otherwise, global warming will be irreversible. Yet after... Continue

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