On Sunday, a Petaluma man drowned at Stillwater Cove Regional Park, north of Jenner. He became the fifth diver in a month to die in the turbulent seas found along California's North Coast.What can we do to prevent further deaths? That's the question we posed in an editorial last week. [...]

Sonoma County residents understand the anxieties associated with the current health-care crisis. When one hospital is making plans to shutter its doors, and another is struggling to survive, uncertainties abound.The cost of providing care for uninsured patients is a major contributor to the financial distress of hospitals and other providers. [...]

A couple of years ago, when Windsor resident Warin Parker met with the editorial board to discuss his run for Town Council, he brought tears to our eyes when he described the death of his son, Jared.As Parker told us and as was reported in Tuesday's paper by Staff Writer [...]

If you're planning to observe Earth Day on Sunday and then fireup the gas guzzler on Monday morning, Edmund O. Wilson, the biologist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, wants a word with you. In an excerpt from his new book, "The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth," Wilson warns [...]

The main floor of the Ruth Finley Person theater at the Wells Fargo Center seats 1,000, and it was hard to find an empty chair for the memorial service this morning for Army Staff Sgt. Jesse Williams, 25, of Santa Rosa who was slain in Iraq earlier this month.And from [...]

Dan Walters was once the editor of the Humboldt Times Standard in Eureka and retains an interest in North Coast politics and politicians. This history may explain why Walters, the veteran political columnist for the Sacramento Bee, is back Wednesday with a new column about efforts to restore rail service [...]

A couple of weeks ago, Paul Gullixson reported on the editorial board's meeting with opponents of the Sonoma County Water Agency's urban water management plan. Monday, we met with representatives of the agency to hear their side of the story.The agency makes a good case, arguing that its planning and [...]

The Pew Center for the People & the Press on Sunday released a new survey that shows Americans are not as knowledgeable about current events as they used to be. Example: Only 69 percent of the 1,502 people surveyed knew Dick Cheney was the vice president of the United States. [...]

It didn't take long. Shortly after noon, we received our first e-mail concerning the horrific Virginia Tech shooting this morning that left at least 33 people dead. The message was from the head of a national security company offering his advice and, of course, his company's services."Something as simple as [...]

Among journalists, Frank McCulloch is a legendary figure. During the Vietnam War build-up, he was the Time-Life bureau chief in Saigon, celebrated for reports that cut through the deceptions being served up by the U.S. government. Later, he would manage newsrooms at major newspapers in Los Angeles, Sacramento and San [...]