Editorial

Firefighters need a new name but the word lifesavers is already

The City Council decided Monday night to ask the voters in November to modify the Growth Management Ordinance, removing the cap of 30 permits per year and allowing allocations to be determined by a new Housing Plan. I hope Healdsburg voters see the light and approve this referendum. The current GMO is a solution in search of a problem; we have never had a runaway growth problem in Healdsburg.

A fascinating new rationale is going around to explain why wineries have to throw so many big parties. It has to do with a relatively new social force called “wine club pressure.”

Driving up the Oregon coast we heard a radio interview with a woman, someone who lived in the far-off troubled Arab world, I think she was Lebanese, saying she takes her family to the beach because people don’t usually bomb beaches. That’s something I never thought about. But here I was imagining a mother grabbing sunhats and sand buckets to take time off from war.

As the weather heats up, our thoughts turn to water. As in, where can I hang out on the Russian River? How can I save water in my garden, while still keeping it beautiful? And where can I volunteer to help keep the river and other local waterways clean?

Some people with Medicare are asking lately if their Medicare coverage is affected by the new the Health Insurance Marketplace that starts in 2014.

Last year, I was lucky enough to have been selected as Corp Member for Teach for America, a non-profit organization that places teachers in high need schools throughout the United States. My placement is in the Mississippi Delta, a region that has experienced long-standing high poverty, low graduation, and very poor college admission rates. Here, I have taught English to some wonderful students at Amanda Elzy High School in Greenwood, Mississippi. Unfortunately, many of these students are years behind grade level in a variety of subjects and often do not have the resources or opportunities that I was fortunate enough to receive in Healdsburg.

What do Hollywood’s Charlie Sheen, Sebastopol’s leaf blowers and

The farther the SMART train project moves down the line, the

I request that the city council reconsider their action to prohibit short-term vacation rentals. I understand that there are valid concerns about loss of low cost housing and the impact vacation rentals could have on our residential neighborhoods.