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    Sonoma County's Public Health Officer Promotes Agenda of Special Interests While Collecting Salary from Taxpayers 

    by
    lilypads
    Published on 06-04-2013 06:32 PM
    1. Categories:
    2. Sonoma County
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    Sonoma County's Public Health Officer Promotes Agenda of Special Interests
    While Collecting Salary from Taxpayers

    By Marlene Lily
    WaccoBB.net


    Lynn Silver Chalfin
    Sonoma County’s Public Health Officer
    On Monday, June 3, Lynn Silver Chalfin, Sonoma County’s Public Health Officer, gave her Power Point presentation about the benefits of fluoridation to the members of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Sonoma County Water Agency.

    It was my third time seeing this 5th-grade level Power Point, and this time I fully realized how insulting it is to the intelligence of an adult audience. Chalfin dodges many questions with the     ...
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    Mothers and Allies Challenge Wine Industrialist 

    by
    Shepherd
    Published on 05-08-2013 02:04 PM
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    By Shepherd Bliss
    WaccoBB.net

    Half a dozen mothers from Sebastopol and its countryside quickly rallied hundreds of people to their side to challenge Sonoma County’s Paul Hobbs Winery. He wants to convert a 40-acre apple orchard into a vineyard that would use pesticides; it borders five schools on Watertrough Road, including Apple Blossom and Orchard View. Together they have around 700 children.


    Photo: Amber Risucci

    The mothers only found out ...
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    Article: The Gospel According to Dixon #16: Eyewitness to Bad Memory 

    by
    Dixon
    Published on 04-09-2013 11:48 PM
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    by Dixon Wragg
    WaccoBB.net

    Column #16: Eyewitness to Bad Memory

    In my last three columns (1), I discussed limitations on certainty. Now let's look at two more, related sources of "certainty" that nearly all of us trust too much: memory and eyewitness testimony.

    Like just about everyone else, I grew up thinking memory is sort of like video recording. We might lose parts of a "data file", or even whole files, and what images we have may be out of focus so that details are obscured, and we may have difficulty retrieving data, but memory is supposedly a fundamentally faithful reproduction of our experience.

    It wasn't until the "Satanic Ritual Abuse" (SRA) scare of the 1980s-90s, which was based largely on claims of "recovered memories", that I noticed much controversy about the nature of memory. One result of that moral panic was research showing that false memories could be implanted (2), and     ...
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    The Grand Bargain on Sonoma County Waste. 

    by
    Ernieman
    Published on 04-16-2013 11:15 AM
    1. Categories:
    2. Sonoma County
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    by Ernie Carpenter
    WaccoBB.net

    Six years ago the Board of Supervisors decided to sell the Sonoma County Central Landfill (CLF) and the transfer stations to Republic Services, a large multi-national waste corporation. This sell off was called “Divestiture”. The reasons were numerous but the landfill was full and about 400 tons per day were being trucked out of the County to other landfills. Costs were escalating, there was an eleven million dollar shortfall in the funds required ...
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    Sonoma Clean Power is coming! 

    by
    Barry
    Published on 03-12-2013 08:39 PM
    1. Categories:
    2. Energy Policy
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    Here's an interview I did with Woody Hastings of the Climate Protection Campaign and Sonoma Clean Power discussing the major change coming relatively soon that will allow you to choose where you get your power from!

    This is good news for you, good news for the local economy and good news for the environment!

    Please watch the video and reply publicly with any comments or questions.

    ...
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    Marijuana, Let’s Get Real! 

    by
    Ernieman
    Published on 02-28-2013 10:36 AM
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    By Ernieman
    WaccoBB.net

    People have asked “Killed over marijuana?” Recently, there has been little good news with home invasions, grow fires, transport stops on the 101 corridor and the triple homicide in my neighborhood in an apparent pot sale gone badly. Three people killed by a driver who saw an opportunity to cash in on a million dollars. A big deal with maybe 200 pounds of pot as well as $500,000 cash rumored to be involved. Rumor yes, but probably ball park. As I write this the Sonoma County’s Sheriff’s Department has made an arrest. We all hope the shooter is brought to justice, but tears and fears will linger. Illegal drugs have always ...
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    The Gospel According to Dixon #15: Are You Certain? 

    by
    Dixon
    Published on 02-01-2013 01:53 AM
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    by Dixon Wragg
    WaccoBB.net
    Column #15: Are You Certain?

    The demand for certainty is one which is natural to man,
    but is nevertheless an intellectual vice.
    ~ Bertrand Russell

    Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
    ~ Voltaire

    The minute one utters a certainty, the opposite comes to mind.
    ~ May Sarton

    In my last couple of columns (1), we've been looking at various forms of misinformation and fallacy that render dubious so much of what we think we're certain ...
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    Love at First Sight 

    by
    Shepherd
    Published on 02-10-2013 07:23 PM
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    By Shepherd Bliss
    WaccoBB.net

    I’ve never believed much in that old saw “love at first sight.” But that is the way it happened when I met Winnie at the Sebastopol Farmers’ Market on Jan. 27. Our eyes met. She came toward me. So I opened my arms and held her. After a few hours of walking around and introducing this Cazadero resident to my small town friends, I took a risk and invited her to my place.

    I bought her favorite food along the way, as well as a few special treats. She was glad to be well-fed and well-provided for. After a few hours, I bedded Winnie. We both fell asleep soon and easily, without any fuss, after an active day together, mainly walking and talking.

    In the middle of the night, I noticed a strong smell, which woke me up. I had been     ...
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    What's your vision for the Sebastopol of 2034? 

    by
    tashabeauchamp
    Published on 01-27-2013 03:51 PM
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    Tasha Beauchamp
    WaccoBB.net

    How do you want your grown children to describe our town twenty years from now? This is essentially the question being asked at the

    Community Identity Meeting
    sponsored by the Planning Commission
    Thursday, Jan 31
    6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
    Veterans Building
    (282 S. High St.)

    In 2034, I would hope that "Local Flavor, Global Vision" would still be our motto. (Okay, maybe "Local Flavor. Galactic     ...
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    One Billion Rising Dance Rehearsal 

    by
    Shepherd
    Published on 01-26-2013 08:20 AM
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    By Shepherd Bliss
    WaccoBB.net

    La Tierra community’s warm barn in the Sebastopol countryside in Sonoma County, Northern California, heated up on Jan. 24. It became the hot site of an exciting dance rehearsal for One Billion Rising, which is scheduled to build and climax in 182 countries around the world on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day.


    That number was selected to name the event because it is the amount of women on the planet that are raped, beaten or sexually abused during their lifetimes.     The huge global gathering seeks to give artistic voice to anger, rage, and wrath and transform them into unifying, uplifting, and healing public events in order to “Break the Chain” of violence against women and children. “Strike | Dance | Rise!” is the invitation.

    Sebastopol ...
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    Help Prevent Homelessness 

    by
    JimG
    Published on 01-23-2013 06:28 PM
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    Sometimes I wonder why people and foundations are more apt to support homeless shelters than homeless prevention services.

    Is it because they can see the shelters and clients streaming in and out?

    Homeless prevention is cheaper to provide than room and board and involves simple solutions:

    • Paying the PG&E bill for a family teetering on homelessness.
    • Underwriting a family’s rent for one month to help them stabilize their finances.
    • Counseling families on a range of issues to help them become self-sufficient in the future.
    • Helping a formerly homeless family pay its first rent deposit.

    In Rohnert Park, Sonoma County Adult & Youth Development’s     ...
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    SSU’s New Ethics Center Compromised 

    by
    Shepherd
    Published on 01-21-2013 02:49 PM
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    By Shepherd Bliss
    WaccoBB.net

    Sonoma State University’s new Center for Ethics, Law, and Society has caused quite a stir among my colleagues and students during the first week of classes, as well as from others in Sonoma County.

    The notorious AIG gave two-thirds of the Ethics Center’s $16,000 first year budget. What might AIG’s intentions have been for funding the Center? AIG     has not been known for its ethics. In fact, the insurer’s risky bets on derivatives were
    ...
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    Gun Hearing in Santa Rosa with Mike Thompson 

    by
    Ernieman
    Published on 01-13-2013 10:52 AM
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    by Ernie Carpenter
    WaccoBB.net

    Congressman Mike Thompson, newly appointed Chair of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, held a Hearing in Santa Rosa at the Board of Supervisor Chambers on Thursday night 10 January. Good grief, you couldn’t get into the building. I knew my way around enough to wind up in the Board caucus room where there was a televised account of the hearing. Along with twenty some other people my friend Marc

    U.S. Rep
    ...
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    CVS Pharmacy Embattled Coast-to-Coast 

    by
    Shepherd
    Published on 01-11-2013 09:07 PM
    1. Categories:
    2. CVS/Chase Project
    Article Preview

    By Shepherd Bliss
    WaccoBB.net

    Cities from coast-to-coast continue to resist the country-wide expansionist plans of the largest pharmacy in the United States, CVS. In a recent victory for activists, CVS abandoned plans to open a store in Nantucket, Massachusetts, bowing to pressure from a petition with over 4500 signatures.

    Family physician Greg Hinson, M.D., started that petition, according to the Boston Business Journal, Nov. 21, 2012. “CVS to Homogenize Nantucket:     ...
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