Editorial

When the annual “state of the county” economic report and forecast focuses on the 3,600 lost hospitality service jobs instead of the interrupted travels of wine country tourists, we will find ourselves living in a better Sonoma County.

When California voters legalized marijuana for recreational use in November 2016, it was also a victory for Gavin Newsom, who spent months traveling the state as the face of the campaign. At an election night party at a San Francisco nightclub, the then-lieutenant governor celebrated this “point of pride,”telling attendees that California had sent a “message powerfully to the rest of the nation.”

​​While COVID-19’s omicron wave appears to have crested, it leaves in its wake sick nurses and burnt out bus drivers,short-staffed hospitals and canceled surgeries, school districts scrambling for substitute teachers and grocery store cashiers forced to choose between their health and their finances.

Guess what time it is? It’s time to dig out that shoebox full of crumbled paper receipts, mysterious and unopened forms from the bank and mortgage companies and also retrieve those annual W-2 statements and other miscellaneous pieces of paper labeled “Important Tax Documents Enclosed.” Hot diggity, it’s tax preparation season again.

Like everyone else, library staff are currently pushing back some in-person programming plans and making adjustments in order to meet the moment and help “bend the curve” of the pandemic. We’re really looking forward to storytimes, meetings, and other community programming inside soon, but in the meantime, we are pushing forward with virtual programs as well as items you can take with you outside. This month, we want to let you know about engaging opportunities on the way for 2022.

Wishing all Healdsburgers a happy and healthy 2022. The recent rain, followed by sunshine has a few, early blades of mustard grass already popping up. In case you didn’t know, “IDlewood 3” (433) was the town’s original telephone exchange and now “Hedda Healdsburg” wants to know all! Please send your newsy items to me in care of The Healdsburg Tribune.

Look no further than your favorite restaurant, your kid’s school or your local hospital to see the effect of California’s latest bout of infections.

A new cough. The beginnings of a fever. A note from your boss about a COVID case at work. 

There are lots of big topics dominating the news these days. We’re getting pretty darn tired of most of them, like the omicron variant of the coronavirus, the open-shut door carousel at our local schools, renewed sheltering-in-place orders, a drought that comes with a tsunami warning and muddy feet and distant drumbeats about what’s being called “existential threats” to our democracy. But the biggest — and most real — current news topic is probably inflation, an economic menace we haven’t had to face for almost 40 years.