Alexander Valley residents hoping against hope that they had seen the worst that River Rock Casino has to offer in terms of visual impacts and traffic haven't seen anything yet. Last week, the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians announced plans for a 260-room resort hotel to go along [...]

In Sunday's column, "Actually, there are young leaders in Sonoma County," I profiled three political up-and-comers, Healdsburg Councilman Mike McGuire West County High School Board Trustee Kellie Noe and Santa Rosa Planning Commissioner Nick Caston.As predicted (and hoped for) I received several e-mails providing names of other young-ish leaders.Sebastopol Councilman [...]

In Sunday's column, I asked where the next generation of political leaders would come from, noting that most of the folks mentioned as potential supervisorial candidates were 50 or older. Several readers wrote in, letting me know that the future is much more hopeful than my column suggested.Cloverdale Councilman Bob [...]

We published an editorial Saturday about the "Food Stamp Challenge," how some Congressional representatives had tried - and failed - to live off $3 a day for food, which is equivalent of the benefits received by the average food stamp recipient.We got word today that state Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San [...]