This summer could see the revival of a long-standing leftist tradition in western Sonoma County—colorful protest demonstrations against the 1% when they gather to recreate under the redwoods at Bohemian Grove.

Protest demonstrations like this were a constant and conspicuous presence outside Bohemian Grove in the 1980s and 90s.The history of staging protests outside the summer encampment at Bohemian Grove stretches back more than three decades, recounts long-time organizer Mary Moore. At that time, the galvanizing issue was nuclear proliferation.

A depiction of the strange "cremation of dull care" ceremony that marks the opening of the annual summer encampment at Bohemian GroveThe members of San Francisco's elite Bohemian Club and the friends and guests who join them at their summer encampment near the Russian River are a literal personification of the 1%, as conceptualized by Occupy Wall Street, suggests Glenn Tryon.

This year's planned one-day protest outside the Bohemian Grove gates is a significant shift from the longer actions BGAN staged in past years, acknowledges Moore. But she says there are good reasons for doing things differently this year.

The role models that young girls find in fairy tales are shifting, warns writer Peggy Orenstein. In the consumption-driven age of "princess culture," young girls are being steered to aspire less to being Cinderella, and more like her self-centered stepsisters.

If there is a single entity that can be singled out for developing and driving the princess culture that has mushroomed over the past decade, writer Peggy Orenstein says it would have to be the Disney corporation.

Peggy OrensteinOne way to deflect the influence of the Girlie-girl elements that surround young girls, Orenstein suggests is to "fight fun with fun." She offers this example from her daughter's experience.

Peggy Orenstein will speak on Tuesday evening, March 20 at 7 pm at the Sonoma State Commons. Her topic: "From Princesses to Poptarts—What the New Culture of Girlhood Means for Girls and Women Who Raise Them."

Prolonged border crossings, meager water supplies, economic privation and endless worries of violence. These are among the complications that attend the daily business of raising children and sustaining family life in present day Gaza.

Laila El-HaddadLaila El-Haddad was already working for Al-Jazeera in Gaza when she began her "Gaza Mom" blog in 2004. Although it has since attracted a wide and international readership and formed the basis for her first book, she says it began as a modest diversion while traveling, and with only a very small audience in mind.

For her next book, El-Haddad is again planning to integrate the details of daily life with their larger politicized context within Palestine. But this time the focus will be on food.

Laila El-Haddad will be one of two speakers at the event, "Palestinian Survival—A Personal Perspective." That will be held at the Glaser Center in Santa Rosa on Sunday afternoon, March 18th, from 4-6:30 pm

Electronic Health Records are a new technology that will soon be nearly universal in the United States. But a watchdog group says they need some fine tuning first.

Electronic Health Records are being strongly promoted as something every patient should have within the next few years. But as this new technology becomes widespread, there are some important ideas and functions it needs to incorporate. Some of these have been enumerated in the nine principles for electronic health information exchange that have been developed by Consumers Union and a host of other organizations concerned with patients rights, consumers rights and civil rights. Mark Savage, a senior attorney with Consumers Union, explains that one of those principles is "universal design."

Even with the shortcomings that the principles have been designed to address, Savage says that electronic medical records already represent a big advance over the analog version—paper.