Free Republic

SANTA ROSA — A North Bay county with California’s strictest shelter in place rules is singling out specific demographic groups in its restrictions of public gatherings. Earlier this week, Sonoma County health authorities announced it would limit indoor public gatherings to 50 people. However, should one of those people be overweight, the maximum number drops to 12. “Please read the Sonoma County shelter in place order… You can’t make this stuff up,” conceded one incredulous pro-vaccine Twitterer, @bigal_0. Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase (see photo, with purple scarf) issued the decree, which is in effect January 12 to...

Sonoma County is the first Bay Area county to restrict gatherings in response to the spread of the omicron variant in the region. On Monday, the county banned indoor gatherings of more than 50 people and outdoor gatherings of more than 100 people while asking residents to "stay home as much as possible for the next 30 days and limit interactions with those outside of their immediate household." “Our case rates are at their highest level since the pandemic began and our hospitalizations are climbing at an alarming rate as well,” health officer Dr. Sundari Mase said in a statement....

The cabernet sauvignon, enough to fill eight large tanker trucks, spilled at the Rodney Strong Vineyards in Healdsburg Wednesday after a door near the bottom of a large blending tank popped open, spilling all of the wine it was holding into a sanitary sewer system on the property, the Press Democrat reported. The wine spilled into a drainage ditch that feeds into Reiman Creek and eventually made its way to the Russian River. According to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, which was notified of the accident on Wednesday, about 20% of the 97,112 gallons spilled were contained. Estimates showed...

The fire is spreading to the SW and East. The map updates if you refresh, and can be zoomed in and out. Many areas have been evacuated and others are under Evacuation Warnings. Many areas are in power outages and planed outage areas. https://sonomacounty.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=2cb4401e1fc0494dbf9d9e22aa794617

**SNIP** That’s where you’re wrong, say the creators of the Sonoma Climate Challenge, a new website - sonomaclimatechallenge.org - designed to show how you can fight climate change by changing how you live your daily life. “Forty percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from actions at the household level, and that’s what this new tool was created to address,” said Brant Arthur, community affairs specialist with the Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Authority (RCPA). **SNIP** In July 2016, it produced a regional plan called “Climate Action 2020 and Beyond,” which called for greenhouse gas emissions reductions of 25% below 1990...

Williams-Sonoma CEO Laura Alber said Monday that the company shuffled its operations over the past year in anticipation of high tariffs on imports from China. The home goods retailer made adjustments over the past year believing that tariffs on Chinese imports could reach 25%. “I think that you’re better off preparing for the worst,” she said in a one-on-one interview with “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer Monday in San Francisco. “Unfortunately that pessimism has come true, and we are more prepared.” Williams-Sonoma shifted some furniture production to Vietnam, Indonesia and the United States after President Donald Trump slapped 10% duties...

A judge ordered a Northern California couple this week to pay nearly $600,000 for uprooting an almost 200-year-old oak tree from their property that was protected under a conservation easement. Peter and Toni Thompson removed the 180-year-old heritage oak tree to move it to another home they built adjacent to the property. More than 3,000 cubic yards of dirt was also removed in the process. The tree, two others they removed and a dozen others along a previously undisturbed path they bulldozed died, along with surrounding vegetation. The Sonoma County Superior Judge sided with the Sonoma Land Trust, saying the...

A California city councilwoman, Rachel Hundley, a former mayor of the Sonoma city where she’s running for the position on the city council, fired back against critics who released photos of her engaging in “lascivious, drunk and drug-addled behavior” at the Burning Man festival and slammed 'slut shaming' attackers.

For the past two weeks, Santa Rosa streets have been lined with Pliny pilgrims eagerly awaiting a sip on Russian River’s most coveted brew. While this February frenzy has become a cherished annual event for many, standing in line for five plus hours is not for everyone. If you lack the patience necessary to taste Pliny the Younger or didn’t get a chance to try the famous beer this year, we have picked out five Sonoma County brews you may not have heard (as much) about but that are just as good and definitely worth seeking out. Click through the...

A man suspected of arson was arrested at Maxwell Farms Regional Park in Sonoma on Sunday afternoon after he was seen leaving a creek bed where a fire was burning, authorities said. Three Sonoma County Probation officers patrolling the area because of ongoing fires in the region noticed Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, 29, walking out of the creek area and a plume of smoke behind him, Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Crum said. Sheriff’s Deputy John Grohl was called to the scene and extinguished the fire, which was then completely doused by Sonoma Valley Fire Protection District personnel. Gonzalez was wearing a trench...

The U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) issued a detainer request on the Sonoma County Jail for Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, who was arrested Sunday on suspicion of arson in Wine Country fires that have killed at least 40 residents.Breitbart News reported earlier this week that Sonoma County Sheriffs had arrested Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, 29, at Maxwell Regional Park in Sonoma County after a series of reports of ongoing fires in the region. Mr. Gonzalez was observed around 3:00 p.m. PDT wearing a jacket and walking “out of the creek area and a plume of smoke behind him,” according to the Santa Rosa...

Two places to donate money to help the California fire victims! All of your money will go to that effort! The family that owns Hall’s Winery has started a matching fund drive to help the people in the fire areas needing financial aid. Every $ donated will be matched and will go to help those in need and not line some rich liberal so called charity’s pockets! Many of the evacuees left their homes at night with minimal clothing and basically what money they might have had at home. Many will have no homes to return to and maybe no...

In the early hours of the blaze, officials at the Sonoma County Fire and Emergency Services Department discussed sending something similar to an Amber Alert to cell phones in the area, but chose not to since it would have gone to tens of thousands of people not in immediate danger. The type of warning, called a Wireless Emergency Alert, can only target phones in large geographic areas, according to Sonoma County Fire and Emergency Services Coordinator Zachary Hamill, who made the decision not to send the wireless alert together with the county’s emergency manager, Christopher Helgren. “If I had done...

Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency in Napa, Sonoma and Yuba counties, where wind-whipped fires have destroyed at least 1,500 structures, including many homes and businesses in Santa Rosa, and forced more than 20,000 people to evacuate their neighborhoods. In Mendocino County, one person was killed when the Redwood Complex Fire rushed up 4,500 acres from Redwood Valley toward Willits, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection assistant deputy director Daniel Berlant said. California’s fire chief says numerous people have been injured and a number of residents are also missing as 14 large fires burn. Cal Fire...

NAPA (CBS SF) — Wind-whipped wildfires roared to life Sunday night and early Monday across Wine Country, burning building, forcing evacuations and injuring several people. The Atlas Peak fire was the largest of several wildfires, quickly growing to more than 200 acres near Napa. Meanwhile, the fire near Calistoga had burned several building and sent several people to the hospital to be treated for burns. Cal Fire said firefighters were battling several blazes in Sonoma County. The largest was in the area of Porter Creek Road and Petrified Forest Road near Calistoga where mandatory evacuations were ordered for residents along...

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — Multiple wildfires were burning early Monday in Sonoma and Napa counties, threatening homes and businesses and prompting mass evacuations as well as school cancellations and power outages. A fire in Santa Rosa crossed Highway 101 at about 2 a.m. and ignited structures west of the freeway in the area of Kohl's Department Store on Hopper Avenue, according to the Santa Rosa Police Department.

Ishara Sweeney couldn’t put her finger on it, but something was odd about the gas pump at the Santa Rosa Chevron station. The hose seemed out of place and the numbers began moving before she squeezed the handle. They stopped suddenly at $36.36 but she didn’t hear a click sound. Sweeney was further baffled when she got back into her Toyota Corolla after believing she had fueled up and saw the needle hadn’t moved on her gas gauge. It wasn’t until a knowing attendant arrived that she learned she was the victim of a scam. “I felt pretty dumb,” said...

Sonoma County authorities say local residents would be alerted if officials thought there was a threat following last weekend's shooting death of a 15-year-old boy. Sheriff Freitas would release a suspect “pictures, everything,” if his investigators believed residents needed to be on the lookout. Absent such an imperative, Sheriff (will continue to withhold) all details... could tip their hand or "jeopardize efforts to recover untainted information...We release what we think won't hurt the investigation", sheriff's Lt. Carlos Basurto.. Nate Torres, a High School sophomore, was gunned down and three other kids wounded shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday outside a birthday...

Gabe Luddy, fourth-generation cheesemaker at Vella Cheese Co. in Sonoma, makes his Dry Jack the same way his grandfather and great-grandfather did - he rolls and presses curds into large wheels of cheese, then brines and coats the wheels before sliding them onto wooden racks. There they age, from seven months to several years. A U.S. Food & Drug Administration statement which became public last week puts this 83-year-old practice in doubt. In what the agency is calling a clarification, the FDA has declared that the wooden surfaces that cheesemakers around the world age cheeses on "cannot be adequately cleaned...

CAMP MEEKER (CBS SF) — A Sonoma County man battling more than a dozen tumors in his body is fighting a new battle with his insurance carrier, who has denied coverage for his treatments. Jeffrey Rusch of Camp Meeker knew the news was bad when an MRI found 20 tumors in his brain. Two days later, a C-T scan at Sutter medical center in Santa Rosa brought another devastating blow, discovering a large tumor in his lungs, and more in his liver and bones. Doctors told Jeffrey he would need to be hospitalized immediately. “My husband was having a lot...