Shirlee Zane is squaring off with former Santa Rosa mayor Chris Coursey in the district 3 Sonoma County Board of Supervisors race. Zane is hoping to win a fourth term as supervisor. She spoke with KRCB’s Steve Mencher about her record and how the board handled the encampment along the Joe Rodota Trail. Listen to the full-length interview below: read more

A new bill introduced this week would establish a statewide interagency drought and water shortage task force. It would also have counties do the same to help small communities across California deal with water issues. Story by Ezra David Romero. (Photo: via CapRadio) More California raccoons, skunks and foxes are sick with distemper this year. Wildlife officials say the animals caught the virus from domestic dogs. Story by Steve Milne. (Photo: Paxson Woelber [CC BY-SA 3.0]) A new bill would allow adjacent counties in California to create joint teams to combat homelessness by sharing information and coordinating efforts. Story by Chris Nichols. (Photo: A homeless encampment next to… read more

The California legislator who rocked the gig economy with her law defining employee status ... now has a new bill designed to protect restaurants from food delivery apps. Story by Randol White. (Photo: ahrbear – Wikimedia Commons) The U.S. Justice Department sues California over push to ban private prisons. The law signed by Governor Gavin Newsom last year blocks the state from renewing or entering into new contracts with private prisons. By 2028, the facilities will be banned altogether. Story by Scott Rodd. (Photo: This Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019, photo shows the Adelanto U.S. Immigration and Enforcement Processing Center operated by GEO Group, Inc. (GEO) a Florida-based company… read more

Mike Hilber is challenging incumbent Lynda Hopkins for the District 5 seat on the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. Hilber has a master's in electrical engineering from Stanford and worked in the defense industry in Southern California. In the early 1990’s he moved back to his childhood home in Roseland to care for his mother. KRCB’s Steve Mencher spoke with him about his priorities and previous experience in Sonoma County politics. Listen to the full-length interview below: (Image: Mike Hilber, District 5 Sonoma County Board of Supervisors candidate.) read more

The state of California is establishing new organic waste disposal rules in response to changes in the law. Story by Bob Moffitt. (Photo: OpenIDUser2 [GFDL]) Scientists in California have discovered that if you teach a person about the science behind climate change they'll be more willing to alter their everyday decision making. Story by Ezra David Romero. (Photo: This Sept. 22, 2006 file photo shows the Conoco Oil Refinery in Rodeo, Calif. - Rich Pedroncelli / AP / File) PG&E wants to raise rates on customers to reimburse money it spent on wildfire mitigation efforts and insurance payments. The utility is proposing an increase of one-point-four billion dollars over the next couple of… read more

Marin and Sonoma County voters will soon decide whether to extend a sales tax supporting the SMART train until 2059. Campaigns on both sides of the issue have each received over a million dollars in support of their positions. Reporter Will Houston from the Marin Independent Journal has been following the issue closely. KRCB’s Adia White spoke with him over the phone to find out why this measure is so controversial. (Image: The SMART train at the downtown Santa Rosa station. Credit: Wikimedia) read more

Starbucks has a new ad featuring a young trans man that has caught the attention of the trans community in the UK on social media. Here in the U.S., New York’s Governor renamed a Brooklyn City Park after famed LGBTQ icon Marsha P Johnson making it the first park in the state named after a member of the LGBTQ community. If you watched this year’s Super Bowl, you probably noticed a number of queer-themed commercials for major brands. But not everyone was excited about this ‘rainbow wave” of advertising. (Photo: Still shot from commercial – Courtesy Starbucks) read more

California voters will decide in March whether to approve a $15 billion dollar bond measure to repair schools and colleges. Story by Chris Nichols. (Photo: In this Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, photo, a student at Lake Elementary School in San Pablo, Calif., walks through a hallway where bunches of electrical wires hang from the ceiling - Jocelyn Gecker / AP Photo) California health workers will be able to test potential coronavirus cases more quickly now that the federal government has given some state labs permission to analyze samples. Story by Sammy Caiola. (Photo: A California Department of Public Health in Richmond that will soon be able to test for coronavirus - Courtesy, California… read more

Author Jeanine Cummins’ planned book talk at the Petaluma Copperfield’s Bookstore evaporated with the rest of her scheduled appearances last week when the publisher of her novel “American Dirt” canceled her book tour out of concern for her safety. Flatiron Books president Bob Miller said they shut down the tour after threats of violence against Cummins and certain booksellers. The backlash contrasts with the attention her novel received as Oprah Winfrey’s latest book club choice. On the publisher’s website, famed author Sandra Cisneros endorsed it as “the great novel of las Americas,” and since the controversy emerged, Cisneros has continued her support. But Cummins’ tale of a Mexican woman… read more

By Elizabeth Aguilera, CalMatters Milk and waters in kids’ meals. Smaller “Big Gulps.” No teens on tanning beds. Officials here pride themselves as national leaders in protecting the health of Californians —so much so that conservatives deride it as the “nanny-state.” And that’s particularly true when it comes to its youth. Yet California is behind some other states and the Trump administration when it comes to cracking down on flavored tobacco and e-cigarette use —nor has it moved to block the sale of flavored vape products containing cannabis. San Francisco-based Juul Labs Inc., maker of vape pens and nicotine pods, poured hundreds of thousands into lobbying and political campaigns —and… read more

California Governor Gavin Newsom is taking steps toward making single-payer healthcare a reality in the state. Story by Sammy Caiola. (Photo: Governor Gavin Newsom - Andrew Nixon / Capital Public Radio) California voters will decide in March whether to approve a $15 billion dollar bond measure to repair schools and colleges. The so-called ‘New Proposition 13,’ has nothing to do with the historic property tax measure of the same number. Story by Chris Nichols. (Photo: FILE - In this June 12, 2013 file photo second-grade teacher Vickie Boudouris goes over a an English work sheet with her students at the Cordova Villa Elementary School, in Rancho Cordova - Rich Pedroncelli / AP Photo) Thursday… read more

Nearly 200 people living in the hotbed of the coronavirus outbreak in China are now housed at Travis Air Force Base in Northern California Story by Bob Moffitt. (Photo: Passengers arriving from a flight from Changsha in China are screened for the new type of coronavirus, whose symptoms are similar to the cold or flu and many other illnesses, upon their arrival in Nairobi, Kenya on Jan. 29, 2020 - AP Photo/Patrick Ngugi) Thousands of California childcare providers handed in union signatures Wednesday in an important step toward organizing for the first time in state history. Story by Scott Rodd. (Photo: At Lil Nancy's Primary Schoolhouse. At left are teachers Yolanda Wilson and Kyla Kinner -… read more

The Nevada Democratic Party says it will not use an app for its caucus later this month after an app by the same developer caused major problems during the Iowa caucus on Monday. Story by Bert Johnson. (Photo: Des Moines City Councilman and a precinct chair Carl Voss shows the app that was used for caucus results reporting on his smartphone after he unsuccessfully attempted to drop off a caucus results packet from Precinct 55 at the Iowa Democratic Party headquarters on Tuesday in Des Moines, Iowa - Alex Wong / Getty Images / via CapRadio) If you work in the arts and have an idea for a project incorporating health and technology - you may be able to get up to half-a-million-dollars from the… read more