All clips written by Roger Coryell, owned by their publishers
One of the concerns about taking out the two dams of the Potter Valley Project — Scott and Cape Horn — is the loss of water downstream for agriculture, recreation…
There's a new turn in the fight over AT&T's plan to shut off its old copper phone lines.
Sonoma County’s official homeless count held nearly steady this year — 1,951 people tallied on a single night in January, one fewer than in 2025. But a
The Santa Rosa City Council voted unanimously to adopt a $575.9 million budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, eliminating 27 positions and tapping reserves to close an…
On June 12, Sonoma County supervisors adopted a $2.9 billion budget built around a single bet: that Washington is about to push the cost of the safety net onto the…
Sonoma County supervisors have dropped plans to ask voters this November to strengthen Measure P, the 2020 initiative that expanded the powers of the county's independent police watchdog — a…
Some guy at the end of the bar swears it’s gotten hotter out by the Narrows since they widened U.S. Highway 101. Normally you let that kind of thing slide,…
There’s a window most mornings in June when Coleman Valley Road goes from full sun to soft gray inside a quarter mile, and the air gets so wet your bumpers…
LEE MARTINELLI SR. IS 87, and he can read his family on the trunks of his vineyard the way other people read a photo album. On the 60-degree slope of…
LAST SUMMER, paddlers who pulled their boats onto a wet strip of sand near Forestville in Sonoma County were met by private security guards and signs telling them to leave.…
A Sonoma County Civil Grand Jury report released Sunday May 10 says the agency that has spent 35 years buying up farmland and open space across the county is, by and large, doing the job voters paid it to do. The report’s title — “It’s On Their Website!” — is the jury’s broad answer to citizens w...
A 1916 Saxon roadster painted suffrage yellow rolled up to the Saturday Afternoon Club in Santa Rosa on Thursday afternoon, carrying two of the best-known names in the modern women’s…
A slough borders the western fence line where state Highway 37 meets Interstate Highway 80 in Vallejo, with egrets working the marsh. On the dry side, 160 acres contain grass…
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 over those twelve years has climbed roughly with inflation. The minimum has clim...
Robledo Family Winery, founded by a man whose father was a Bracero, joins the worst quarter California wine has seen in years.
The agenda for the April 21 Sebastopol City Council meeting seemed rather blasé, but the council chambers were packed with neighbors from some of the town’s worst-maintained streets come to…
A 1916 Saxon roadster painted suffrage yellow rolled up to the Saturday Afternoon Club in Santa Rosa on Thursday afternoon, carrying two of the best-known names in the modern women's…
Cloverdale Vice Mayor Todd Lands has spent the better part of this month working the phones with the Trump administration, lobbying USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins and her staff to derail PG&E’s plan to tear down the Potter Valley dams. He told the Press Democrat last week that 750,000 people in th...
A 1st District ruling sets statewide precedent on California’s price-gouging law and clears the way for hundreds of Santa Rosa residents to keep their post-emergency rents intact. A California appellate court has barred Santa Rosa mobilehome park owners from raising rents to make up for annual increases they couldn’t impose during the multi-year wildfire state…
Residents from three Petaluma parks flooded Monday’s city council meeting to defend Jody Johnson, who has led their fight against major rent increases for three years On Friday afternoon, residents of Youngstown Mobile Home Park found an unusual document on their doorsteps. Hand-delivered — reportedly by the park’s own manager — the packet appeared to…
Wildfire preparedness in Sonoma County centers on evacuation routes and ember threats—spot fires ignited far ahead of main blazes—which Israeli startup FireDome claims to address through detection and rapid response.
March in Sonoma County has a particular mood: longer light, cooler nights that still mean business, and gardens that look like they're thinking about what comes next. It's also a…
Sonoma County just dropped a document that reads like a warning label — and it’s weirdly easy to miss because it’s not a crime, a fire, or a lawsuit. It’s…
At North Bay Science Discovery Day oin Santa Rosa, n March 7, Alyssa Huang plans to do more than run a booth. She wants to change the way kids —…
If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a young person in Sonoma County gets court-ordered into the juvenile justice system, here’s one answer: Sometimes, they don’t go to Juvenile Hall.
If you have spent any time around wine people, you have heard the phrase: It starts in the vineyard. DaVero Farms and Winery is taking that one step further, straight…
Ticks collected along Umbrella Tree Trail at North Sonoma Regional Park came back positive in pooled tests for Borrelia burgdorferi — the bacterium that causes Lyme disease — at a…
Petaluma’s school board hit the brakes Tuesday night after parents discovered — and then read aloud — safety plan language telling staff to “collect intelligence” on student walkouts, including monitoring…
The morning starts the way county meetings often do — polite, almost ceremonial.
If you sat through Tuesday night’s Sonoma City Council meeting (Feb. 4), you heard two very different kinds of local truth in the same room.
At Tuesday night’s Sonoma City Council meeting (Feb. 4), the first public comment was about something most people would walk past without a second thought: a patch of Himalayan blackberry…
If you’ve ever run a business that gets reviewed online, you know how this usually goes. The more people you serve, the more likely it is that someone has an…
On a winter morning in west county, you can still find places where the loudest thing is a shovel bite and a creek moving under the willows. That’s the mood…
A 16-pound mountain lion cub from Southern California spent Thursday night in Sonoma County under close watch after state biologists couldn’t locate her mother.
Rohnert Park’s network of license-plate reader cameras isn’t going away. But after a long, uneasy public debate, city leaders agreed to put some limits on how much data police can…
John Burgess / The Press Democrat The Medlock Ames estate vineyard in Healdsburg received the first Sonoma County Regenerative Organic Certification for practices including no tilling of the rows and…
The Pride flag at Sonoma Valley High School was only down for a few hours. But for the students who spoke at the Jan. 26 Sonoma City Council meeting, the…
Getty Images Close up of a man looking and touching on phone over laptop with coffee atop book aside sitting at cafe’s white table. Study or Working, Going Outside.
It was 1987. Vermont. I was young, dumb, and living with a woman whose Rottweiler was very pregnant.
You see them at the mouth of the Estero Americano, gliding low over the water with wings locked, skimming inches above the surface. Farther upstream, there is sometimes a flash…
One of Sonoma County’s most familiar farm names received statewide recognition this winter. Lee and Wayne James of Tierra Vegetables in Santa Rosa were named Legacy Farmers of the Year…
When the Russian River flooded in early January, the wastewater treatment plant outside Guerneville flooded with it. Millions of gallons of untreated sewage spilled into the river over two days.…
Sonoma County has always had a quiet side hustle economy. You just didn’t used to be able to taste it.
It is small on paper but enormous in practice. It can turn an ordinary day into something you remember. It can make hard days survivable. It can loosen the grip…
Roll north out of Marin County on Highway 1 and the energy shifts the second you cross the county line. Development thins out, the wind picks up, and you get…
Look, I appreciate the thought. I do. I know you care, I know you’re busy, and I know you bravely entered a HomeGoods during peak Mariah Carey season and survived.…
Not the normal ones. Not snow and holly and “ugh, relatives.” The weird ones. The words that sound like they’ve already had three hot toddies and are reading obscure poetry…
Word junkie: the bull market in buzzwords, with boots on the ground
Built for balance and flavor, this vegetarian spread leans on roasted roots, bright citrus, and make-ahead ease. From carrot–ginger soup to red-wine poached pears, each dish layers comfort with polish—a…
There’s a special someone padding down the halls of Forestville School — and she’s got four paws, a wagging tail and a talent for making everyone smile. Gretel, the school’s…