Live Radio
Showy Indian CloverThe number of plants and animals listed as threatened or endangered is almost constantly growing. But only rarely does a species that was thought to be extinct make a come-back to join the endangered list. This is the story of just such a recovery, in the coastal hills of the North Bay.
It's now been a little more than 18 years since Connors made that first surprising discovery, but he clearly remembers the surprise and concern that accompanied that moment.Finding that single specimen in the first place was an enormous stroke of good fortune, Connors readily admits, and the fact that it survived to bear seeds seems nothing short of miraculous. Because even after he surrounded it with an improvised wire cage to protect the clover from hungry herbivores, it still narrowly escaped two nearly fatal encounters with inattentive humans, just in a mater of days. Connors recalls thatfortunatley it was his practice to stop by and check on the plant every other morning that late summer.
Three years after the election that authorized Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit, the commuter train is close to making more visible progress—and creating some of those long-promised jobs.
Debora FudgeThe economic downturn has cut deeply into the sales tax revenues that are funding the train, explains Windsor Town Council member Deborah Fudge, who is currently vice president of the SMART Board of Directors. But it has also pushed down some of the anticipated costs for the project, including the construction work to be done in the coming year.
SMART has undergone a change in leadership since midyear, with former Marin County Public Works Director Farhad Mansouria taking on the job of Executive Director. After working with him for the past couple of months, Fudge says she's impressed with that choice.
Recently, the group that is organizing an effort to repeal the SMART train's authorizing initiative has gotten more attention than the rail project itself. Fudge is a bit annoyed by their campaign, but does not see it as a serious threat.
Opium dens may be a relic of centuries past, but modern prescription opiates are a large and growing part of contemporary drug abuse problems.
Established in 1969, the Drug Abuse Alternative Center offers a range of education and treatment programs. Executive Director Michael Speilman lists the main ones.
Particularly for opiates, Speilman observes, substitution therapies remain a widely used method with good success rates.
Conquering addiction is never easy, but you might be surprised to learn that heroin is not the hardest drug to kick. And maybe even more surprised to hear what is.
The biggest threat to sustaining life as we know it on planet Earth could be humankind's still-burgeoning birthrates.
Our planetary population has climbed by a billion people in just 14 years, and the growth rate continues to accelerate. That's only going to make existing problem worse, cautions William Ryerson, President of the Population Media Center.
William RyersonBirth and fertility rates are higher in many parts of the world than they are in the United States. But Ryerson points out, that does not mean population growth is not a cause for concern in this country.
So, what does all this have to do with Halloween? Nothing, really, Ryerson explains. But it did help get your attention, right?
Healdsburg Museum curator Holly Hoods (she's the one on the right) with the recreated effigy of reviled newspaper editor "Nowlin the Knocker."From strange clowns to unsolved murders, even a low profile role in a high profile act of vigilantism, the sordid and unseemly side of Healdsburg's history is on display in their local museum.
The Twisted History exhibit opened at the Healdsburg Museum in September and continues through November 9th. But Museum Curator Holly Hoods says the idea had been germinating for years.
The strange and vaguely threatening Squeedunks, seen here in 1908, were among the colorful groups whose doings are documented in the Twisted History exhibit.One section of the exhibit is dedicated to "Colorful Characters," including the brawling hookers whose antics inspired the whole concept. Also featured in that display is the story of Cordellia Botkin, who became known as "the Chocolate Killer" for her efforts to extract her lover from his marriage. When the object of her affections did not secure the divorce she desired, Hoods recounts, Botkin took direct action herself.
The three actual nooses from the 1920 triple lynching are on display, along with an enlarged copy of the newspaper headline trumpeting the verdict of the legal inquiry into the deaths.The December, 1920 lynching of three San Francisco gangsters who had killed three lawmen, including Sonoma County Sheriff Jim Petrie, is probably the most notorious "unsolved" crime in Santa Rosa's history. Although an inquest at the time returned a verdict of "death by persons unknown," the true identities of those vigilantes was an open secret in Healdsburg. Elizabeth Holmes relates the details in an excerpt from the audio tour for exhibit.
Not everything on display is grotesque or criminal. One wall holds examples of the mourning customs that were widely practiced a century or more ago, as explained here by Holmes.
