Sonoma City Manager will leave post by end of year

Sonoma City Manager Cathy Capriola, the City‘s chief executive since January of 2017, will step down by the end of the year. “I care deeply about this organization and community which is my home and it is a difficult decision to leave,” said Capriola, who... Continue

A local food cooperative in Sonoma County?

Even before the recent health emergency struck, our food and farming systems were in trouble. Corporate agriculture worldwide created a range of environmental, cultural, and economic crises. Indigenous societies and complex ecosystems fell prey to industrial corporate monoculture, from India to Brazil, Sumatra to Guatemala.... Continue

How to Summer Camp, 2020

By Leslie Nicholson | Sonoma Valley Sun When the curtain comes up on this year’s Performing Arts Camp, it will not be at Sebastiani Theater. As with most events this year, the curtain will be traded in for computer screens, videos, and Zoom meetings. Over... Continue

Under the Sun: Toni Vernier, Director of Special Ed, SVUSD

Toni Vernier, new Director of Special Ed for the Sonoma Valley School District, in conversation with The Sun's Anna Pier. I know you've just come to the District as Director of Special Education. That's right. I began informally the last half of June, and officially... Continue

Building the County budget time in a difficult year

Usually, I write about the county budget in May, but like so many other things that have been turned upside down with this pandemic, so has the budget. Generally, in May the Board of Supervisors holds budget workshops, with budget hearings in June. A budget... Continue

Monumental decisions

At each major turning of the wheel of history, the symbols of the formerly powerful are destroyed. These iconoclastic urgings result in the destruction of the religious or political statues and monuments of those who subjugated others, and provide expression to the accumulated frustrations, suffering,... Continue

No more free Covid tests in Sonoma Valley

The Sonoma Valley Community Health Center will not resume Covid testing. The service was halted in mid-July because of a processing delay at the overloaded testing lab, but the SVCHC now says the program, which offered free, drive-up tests at two Sonoma Valley sites, has... Continue

County commission votes 9-0 against Amazon hub plan

That huge Amazon distribution center, at Highway 121 and Eighth Street East, was a done deal, according to County planners. But when the public was allowed to weigh in, at a virtual meeting of the Sonoma Valley Citizens Advisory Commission, the sentiment was clear: return... Continue

Valley water district will delay rate hike until 2021

The Valley of the Moon Water District (VOMWD) will delay for six months a scheduled rate increase that was to go into effect on July 1. Instead, in deference to the economic perils of Covid-19, the hike will take effect on January 1, 2021. The agency... Continue

On Globalism

We've recently celebrated another July 4th, America's independence from Great Britain. To be honest, I've never been much of a fan of nationalism. It's not that I don't appreciate the various freedoms and opportunity that living here provides; I'm well aware that life in many... Continue