Columns

Various elected officials and area firefighting administrators have been trying for several decades to better coordinate and add more efficiencies to all of Sonoma County’s firefighting services, personnel and tax structure. It has been a history of turf battles, bookshelf studies (you know, when a study is commissioned and then immediately left on the shelf unutilized) and even a recall election or two.

Gentle Yoga • Mondays, Ongoing • 10:45 a.m. to noon • $5 Resident drop-in fee

Looking for a lost pet or a new four-legged friend? See the list of incoming strays and the slideshow of cats and dogs available for adoption from the Sonoma Humane Society, Healdsburg Center.

Vegas, Baby!

Maybe after almost 50 years of Earth Day celebrations and actions we can admit to what EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt and others are trying to tell the rest of us. Pruitt, the former Oklahoma attorney general who is being accused of trying to dismantle his Environmental Protection Agency, says we are overregulated.

By the quirk of this season’s holiday calendar, we recently made a visit to Washington, D.C., our nation’s capital, while visiting family and friends in nearby Maryland. The visit offered us a chance to affirm that our Republic, in all its manifestations of power, laws and democratic institutions was still standing in upright position and not collapsing under the weight of the current impeachment turmoil. After listening for a week as our highest elected officials ranted, raved and foamed at their mouths during the Congressional hearings, we half expected to see the U.S. Capitol’s dome smoldering in black smoke.

This Week in H’burg is a weekly column featuring photos and fun facts from local photographer Pierre Ratté. Each week we’ll feature a new photo from Ratté along with a fact about the subject matter of the photo.

Sept. 21 through 28 is Creek Week in the Russian River Watershed. Join in with this spirit of environmental conservation and community enrichment by getting educated, invested and involved.