In Michael Ondaatje's wonderful novel “Divisadero” — a most memorable part of which is set in Sonoma County — the jazz of Thelonious Monk is likened to “imprisoned birdsongs.” Leave it to a superb novelist…
Posts published in “Features”
Forget about kicking back and enjoying an American beer; a massive wave of consolidation is transforming the industry. According to a recent report by the Marin Institute, a California-based alcohol industry watchdog, a rush of…
GIMME SHELTER (MONEY) Dear Friends, The Housing Association seeks your help because it needs your help. Operating costs for the Rays Road farm labor camp in Philo have surged. We have just installed an on-site…
THE BOONVILLE LODGE and its 13 jobs are being killed by an absentee landlord, a Sebastopol man named Johnson. The Lodge will be dead by January the first. Johnson has more than doubled the lease…
Dear AVA:
My name is Glenn Scott. I am serving time in Soledad’s Level 1 South Yard prison largely for crimes which I did not commit. My wife and three children live in Carmel Valley California and I am stuck in prison. With the bad economy, my wife is having a hard time out there raising our three beautiful children alone. Needless to say, I have no money on my books and my family can't afford to send me quarterly packages.
To The Editor: This concerns the EZcard money machines in the lobby of the County jail. I had $20 put on my account. After the $3.49 “convenience fee” I got $16.51. That is a fee…
A COUPLE of phone calls to Fort Bragg officials were not returned, silent confirmation that an outside investigator based in Danville has been hired by Fort Bragg to evaluate the job performance of Fort Bragg…
AS STATE PARKS cut back access hours they're also closing many park restrooms as additional cost saving measures. I say privatize all public toilets! Of course the free enterpriser winning the contract would have to…
THE MENDOCINO HEADLANDS claimed another life when a young woman named Sussana Longman, 22, visiting the area from Ontario, Canada, died when she apparently “slipped into a crevice, then fell some 75 feet to the…