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New platform for wine industry professionals

Three staff members at the Healdsburg Unified School District have been recognized as Educators of the Year at the district level and will find out in January whether or not they will go on to represent their region.

OLLI program through SSU ready to launch winter classes Jan. 22

Like every parent, I struggled to cope after hearing about the mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut last week.

It felt a little, I don’t know, discomfiting reading about the Santa Rosa Press Democrat’s recent coverage of its change of ownership. It was like stumbling into someone’s private party that I wasn’t invited to and wondering “What am I doing here?”

After Thanksgiving dinner at my brother-in-law’s, the conversation turned to politics. It had been proposed earlier in the day by someone who doesn’t particularly like a ruckus that this year we avoid talking about politics. It’s not as if someone says, OK, we are now going to talk about politics. Around the table were extended families members from Amador County (where we gathered), Sonoma County, Kern County, and Shasta County. We were talking about how disparate parts of California see themselves and each, about sports, schools, the environment, agriculture, jobs, churches. Having gotten that far down the road, the next step into politics was probably inevitable. My brother-in-law said, “No offense, Marvin, but the religious right scare the bleep out of me.” Someone else said, “Marvin’s not that conservative.” He said, “He is about some things.” The other person said, “He’s liberal about some things.” I didn’t have to say anything, and so I didn’t. The conversation continued on its way without me.