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"I was so happy to see that the City of Healdsburg has given us a chance to suggest an official City flower, plant or tree as representative of Healdsburg," writes reader Mary Kelley. "I was especially pleased to see that all of the options are California Native Plants. There are five different plants from which to choose, and the sixth option is a category which encompasses a variety of species of Oak trees."

Once again Healdsburg throws itself wholeheartedly into the 4th of July holiday, starting at 10am with the Fourth of July Kids Parade and Duck Dash in the Healdsburg Plaza. Arrive on bikes, tricycles and wagons adorned with red, white and blue decorations. There will be live music and activities for all.

Wes Anderson is a genius, and whether or not one appreciates his highly mannered and idiosyncratic style is mercifully subjective. And his singular vision is one that I guarantee will be studied a hundred years from now alongside Jacques Tati, Ingmar Bergman and Jean-Luc Godard.

The June 18 game was as dramatic as it was unexpected for the home team. The previous night, in the teams’ first meeting this year, Healdsburg built a seemingly insurmountable lead of 11-3 at the end of only five innings, and it looked like another one of those Packer blowouts...

When I was younger, I used to walk to the dusty farmstand from the Prestons’ house on Dry Creek Road. We’d eat a peach on the way back, the warm, sticky juice running down our cheeks and arms marking summer’s beginning in quiet streaks of gold.

On the same day a welcome party was thrown for the commuter rail service in Windsor, a voter-led group called 'the SMART Initiative" announced it was beginning a campaign to renew the quarter-cent sales tax that funds the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit system “and secure the future of public transit in the North Bay,” according to a June 13 statement from the agency.

OPENING ‘School of Rock’ The Raven Players present the stage version of the hit Jack Black film School of Rock, with new music by Lloyd Weber and book by Julian Fellowes. Weekends from June 27-July 13, for details and tickets see raventheater.org. THURSDAY, JUNE 26 Book Release Author Alice...

The line of redwoods that created a corridor from the main entrance, Prince Avenue, to the colorfully muraled Smith Robinson Gym is now gone. One of the dozen trees toppled over in a recent windstorm—no one was hurt and there was no damage, but it made all the more clear the importance of dealing with the hazard.

The affected routes are the three earliest departures from Windsor, headed southbound to Larkspur. Morning departure times scheduled at 4:35, 4:58 and 5:30am will be temporarily discontinued starting Monday, June 23. The first morning departure on weekdays will then become 6:02am. The reason: those damn train horns wake up the residents.

To look at the scoreboard of many recent Healdsburg Prune Packers games, one might think that’s softball being played on the field. On June 14, the Stockton Pearls fell 20-1, and the Bay Area Marauders went down 24-5 on June 15. These are scores more frequently found on diamonds where the bases are 60 feet apart, not 90. In softball, at least at the high school level, the “mercy rule” ends a game early if there’s a 10-point spread. No such rule affects collegiate baseball.