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Why elections matter

It’s not just newspapers or internet giants like Twitter or Facebook; we are all in the communications business. We’re not the talking naked apes we once were. Now we are a species with interconnected tongues and brains, linked by clouds of computers and thinking machines. The same primate thumbs that enabled us to become toolmakers have now become our primary language devices. No thumbs means no phone, no communication.

I was sitting at my desk at the county on Thursday when I found out about the shooting at The Capital Gazette, a newspaper in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, an area similar in population and size to Sonoma County. I exclaimed, “Oh no!”

Mike Benziger grows some of the best marijuana in Northern California. He grows it biodynamically at “Glentucky Family Farm.”

I have been responding to spills in the city of Santa Rosa for the last 17 years.

If you grow tomatoes, consider growing marijuana. Skill is required, but it’s not rocket science. The legal limit varies from city to city. It’s best to check with the authorities, or go to sonomacounty.ca.gov/Cannabis/Personal-Use-and-Cultivation/ for information. The site states that, “Permits are not required for personal cultivation” on land outside city limits.

The longest day of the year is June 21 and we celebrate the summer solstice with everything fresh and delicious. Peach season has started, berries are bright and beautiful, summer vegetables are in abundance, salmon season is on and did I see my first...

The shooter has mental health issues. Duh, I think anyone who perpetrates a mass shooting has mental health issues.  I also believe most of us have mental health issues. The rest of us work at keeping ours under control. The problem is that it is getting harder and harder to do that.