Supporting survivors of sexual violence
April was Sexual Assault Awareness Month and in Sonoma County the topic was front page news for all the wrong reasons. Various local government agencies adopted resolutions affirming their support for survivors and increased awareness. But the positive proclamations were blunted by breaking news where the current town of Windsor mayor and a recent Sebastopol mayor were accused of multiple sexual assaults. One was arrested and booked into jail and the other incident has torn the town of Windsor into bitter and upsetting divides. Hundreds of past sexual assault victims have had to relive their horrors and pains through days other communities might have been celebrating positive educational and awareness programs and events.
Flashbacks
The following snippets of history are drawn from the pages of the Healdsburg Tribune, the Healdsburg Enterprise and the Sotoyome Scimitar, and are prepared by the volunteers at the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society. Admission is always free at the museum, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Letters to the Editor: May 6, 2021
A proclamation condemning violence and hate toward the AAPI community
Misleading claims about cannabis
There are several misleading claims in Ron Ferraro’s April 28 op-ed, Cultivating Cannabis in Sonoma County. The public hearing process is not normally a three to five year process. If the county and the industry had not brazenly decided on cannabis regulations without listening to or responding to neighborhood concerns, cannabis applications would have moved much more quickly through the system.
Cityscape: Drought requires 20% water conservation
It’s as dry as a bone out there. Our region has received less than one-third the normal amount of rainfall to date – 13 inches of rain compared to an average of 38 inches. As a result, on April 21, the day before Earth Day, the State of California declared a drought emergency in the Russian River watershed, which spans Sonoma and Mendocino counties.
Our overlapping droughts
It’s official: Sonoma County is now suffering through multiple droughts, all at the same time. Some are related to one another and some are not. Some are being worsened by the coronavirus pandemic and its related economic impacts. One of the droughts we can mostly blame on Mother Nature, but the others are totally on us.
