Dear Dr. Forsythe: I read your weekly column and always find it interesting and informative. But wow, your column last Friday really blew me away. I felt incredibly sorry for “Will visiting from Oakland”. You were extremely harsh and sarcastic towards him and I felt... Continue
What’s Happening
Local Sonoma Valley News:
The Carolyn J. Stone Center for Women’s Health was just the start. Sonoma Valley Hospital and other care providers in the Valley are looking at a number of ways to improve health care for local women and children – from the technical to the educational.... Continue
It will be years before the SMART train zips from Healdsburg to the Bay, but freight trains may be rumbling their way across Sonoma County much sooner, thanks to SMART. Work is now underway to get the 62 miles of track running from Windsor to... Continue
This week’s grape quarantine brings more unwelcome news to the local wine industry, which has been pounded recently by the excise tax threat and the danger of drought. This latest cause for alarm comes in the form of a tiny invasive pest called the Light... Continue
The Sonoma City Council voted against changing the “City of Sonoma” to the “Town of Sonoma” at Wednesday’s meeting. Councilmember August Sebastiani had proposed the name change several months ago and city staff conducted an informal, on-line poll. In total, 485 people voted, with 60... Continue
Tuesday night’s special school district board meeting was called to discuss the effects the state’s budget cuts could have on the Valley’s schools. Instead, supporters of Dunbar teacher Dawn McIntyre turned out in force to lay siege to board members about her recent receipt of... Continue
Next week will be a tense week for local teachers. So-called “Pink Friday,” March 13 is the last day that Sonoma Valley Unified School District can send out pink slips to certificated employees. That’s the date in the teachers’ union contract after which the district... Continue
Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) revenues have steadily grown countywide for the past eight years, but in 2008, they started leveling off and even dropping in some cases, according to the Sonoma County Economic Development Board report. For most of 2008, the City of Sonoma posted... Continue
Laura Chenel's Chèvre has outgrown the historic Stornetta dairy after 16 years and will be moving gradually into a new facility on Eighth Street East. The 30,000-square-foot production facility should be fully operational by the first quarter of 2011. The company purchased land in Carneros... Continue
This year, only five of the 75 students in freshman honors English class at Sonoma Valley High School are Latino. The high school student population is 37 percent Latino, but that ratio doesn’t hold in the Advanced Placement (AP) and honors classes that are critical... Continue