Right now, the long thin strip of land from Farmers Lane to Spring Lake in Southeast Santa Rosa is bare and disused. But a shared vision for its transformation into a community Greenway is now documented and under discussion.

Some 300 interested citizens took park in the visioning meetings last summer, including a group of students from Montgomery High School, which abuts the Greenway corridor near it's western end. LInda Proux says their input was valualble in multiple ways.

Getting the visioning document done was an important first step toward actually creating a Greenway from the vacant highway corridor. Now, says Steve Rabinowitsh, the detail work to make it happen is about to begin.

Nearly two thirds of the undocumented immigrants in the United States have been here ten years or longer, according to a new study, and almost half have children under age 18. Film-maker Theo Rigby documented the story of one such family in the North Bay after immigration enforcement officials found them, literally by mistake.

In telling the Mejia family's story, Rigby decided it would not be complete without a look at what the deported adults returned to in their homeland.

Drawing on his background in still photography, Theo says he tries to apply the same sense of visual composition to his documentary film shots.

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Sin Pais will be shown in a free public screening at Congregation Shomrei Torha in Santa Rosa on Saturday, December 3 at 7:15 pm, followed by a panel discussion of related immigration issues that will include members of the Mejia family. Infomation at 887-2400.

Food For Thought, Sonoma County's AIDS Food Bank, is still struggling to compensate for losing all their federal funding last year, even as the needs of their clients are growing. But at least new HIV/AIDS diagnoses are not.

December 1, 2011, is the 14th annual World AIDS Day, and the 10th year that Dining Out For Life has been happening on the same date, which is always the first Thursday after Thanksgiving. You can find the full list of participating restaurants in Sonoma County here, and make reservations, too. Food For Thought's Ron Karp says the event enjoys remarkable support in Sonoma County.

But Dr. Mark Nethurda, Deputy Public Health Officer for Sonoma County, remains concerned that the incidence of new cases of AIDS/HIV locally remains consistent year after year.

As more effective treatments for HIV have been developed, it's possible that some people's attitudes toward the disease may have become more relaxed. Dr. Nethurda says that's a serious mistake.

Progressive journalist and media critic David Barsamian has often observed and denounced propaganda and censorship. But becoming the direct object of a government ban was something new and unexpected.

The issue of consolidated corporate ownership of American media was first raised more than 30 years ago. Since then, says Alternative Radio's David Barsamian, the situation has gotten steadily worse.

So Barsamian turns, mostly, to independent and alternative news sources to keep himself informed.

Sources such as these are virtually the only way to learn about issues such as the repression of separatists in Kashmir, a story that Barsamian continues to follow closely.

David Barsamian will give a talk on "Media, Propaganda and Censorship" at the Arlene Francis Center for Spirit, Art and Politics, 99 6th Street in Santa Rosa, on Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 7 pm.