Commentary: Cultivating cannabis in Sonoma County
The Sonoma County Supervisors are considering an update to the county cannabis cultivation ordinance. It would allow for ministerial permits for cultivation through the agricultural commissioner, if one qualifies, instead of a 3-5-year public hearing process. Staff has come up with very restrictive policy, and documented no significant environmental impacts due to the limited amount of potential available acreage.
Youth and alcohol
As an educator who has always lived in the town where I work, I’ve often struggled with being associated with any sort of alcohol consumption and the perception it might give to my students.
Start with our parks
Our editorial last week about saving for a rainy day must have had an impact on Gov. Jerry Brown when he proposed his $164.7 billion budget calling for “restraint” and warning against “exuberant overkill on our budget spending.’’
Recalls past and present
History has proven that recall elections are one of the worst facets of our representative democracy. They are almost always misdirected, often full of vengeful emotions, very costly, and, almost always ineffective. It may be a very good thing that most recall election attempts never make it to a ballot. California has had 179 attempted recall elections in the last 100 years. Only 11 have qualified for a ballot and, of those, only six have been successful, the last one notably in 2003 when Gray Davis was recalled from his governor’s post.
Tax facts and fiction
Tax Day is looming, the deadline we all over complain about, deal with anyway and somehow always survive — often ending with a nice refund check from the IRS. How much of our complaining is justified and how much is just an inbred response to anything made mandatory by the big, bad government?
The next adventure
Matthew Hall was hired as a reporter for the Healdsburg Tribune in 2006. He has been the editor of the Windsor Times for seven years, and during that time also served as the Tribune’s editor during vacations and maternity leaves.
Arts & Entertainment
Mexican hero becomes a family legend
Local drama takes another step forward with the next play at the Raven, "Who Will Dance with Pancho Villa?" But the production, which opens on Jan. 22 for an eight-performance run, is hardly new. Gabriel Fraire and his brother John wrote it over 30 years ago and it had its first off-Broadway performance in New York in 1994.















