The nonprofit that owns Bodega’s fire station has called a special meeting Thursday night to brief local residents on lease talks with Gold Ridge Fire Protection District, the agency that staffs the station and runs calls in this rural coastal corner of Sonoma County. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. at McCaughey Hall in downtown Bodega….
Month: May 2026
Police review videos after Sonoma market fight sends two teens to hospital
SONOMA — Police are reviewing cellphone videos from a fight at Sonoma’s Tuesday Night Market after two teenagers went to the hospital and a woman was arrested during the first market night of the season. The fight broke out around 6:15 p.m. Tuesday at Sonoma Plaza, while the market was underway and a band was…
Lake County names public works director after merger and pay increase
LAKEPORT — Lake County supervisors merged two departments to save money, raised the salary range for the new director job and then appointed the man who had proposed the merger — after interviews held outside public view. County records show the Board of Supervisors changed the public works director classification from M67 to M75 on…
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Glen Ellen woman accused of $1M-plus contracting fraud across Northern California
A Glen Ellen woman who ran a residential contracting business under the names Lone Wolf Designs and LW Design Build despite never holding a state contractor’s license has been arrested and charged in Napa County in what investigators say is a scheme that has cost victims more than $1 million across Northern California. Christina Daniels…
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For Bodega Bay’s salmon fleet, the season is open. Whether the fishery is back is another question.
BODEGA BAY, CA., 5/5/26 — For the first time in three years, commercial salmon boats are pushing out of Spud Point Marina with king salmon as the target. But the season Sonoma County’s fleet returned to this month does not look much like the one it left behind in 2022. After three consecutive statewide closures,…
Opinion: A quiet scam at the dumps voters own — and pay twice to clean up after
By design, Sonoma County’s $47 dump fee is a customer-acquisition strategy for Republic and Recology When I moved to West County twelve years ago, dropping a load of yard trimmings at the Pocket Canyon transfer station cost $7. Today the minimum charge for the same vehicle, at the same gate, is $47. The per-ton rate…
Photo by Styves Exantus (Pixels)
Lake County enters fire season with its safety net already stretched
May is supposed to be the month when Lake County talks about preparedness. Clear the brush. Check the evacuation routes. Get the go bags ready. Make sure the tools work before the smoke shows up. It is practical advice, and in Lake County, it is not optional. Wildfire preparedness is not a seasonal slogan here….
Photo courtesy North Shore Fire District
State money buys trucks, but Lake County fire districts still face crunch
Lake County enters fire season with new equipment money, deeper budget worries On the first day of Wildfire Preparedness Month, Lake County fire leaders stood beside state Sen. Mike McGuire to celebrate $2 million in state money for badly needed firefighting equipment. The funding will help three local agencies replace or rebuild aging apparatus: two…
Photo courtesy Robledo Family Winery
Sonoma’s first Mexican American family winery is in bankruptcy court
Robledo Family Winery, founded by a man whose father was a Bracero, joins the worst quarter California wine has seen in years. In a glass case at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History sits a hat that belonged to Reynaldo Robledo Sr. Next to it, his tools. Next to those, a label from the…