Two weeks ago, Sonoma County experienced its sixth power shutoff of the year after the area was expected to be affected by winds nearing 30 mph and low humidity. After power was initially shut off Wednesday morning and restored to nearly all on Thursday, there were just under 6,000 in Sonoma County who had lost power.
Fire season has taken its toll on the Bay Area after over 186,000 residents were under evacuation warnings last month. Sonoma State University announced the closure of the campus on Oct. 25 due to a planned outage beginning the following day as part of a public safety power shutoff.
Facebook’s Chief Financial Officer David Wehner announced the company’s $1 billion investment to improve housing affordability in the next ten years in a Facebook Newsroom blog post on Oct. 22. The contribution follows Microsoft’s $500 million pledge to the Seattle area in January and Google’s $1 billion commitment to the bay area in June.
Signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on October 11, the College Student Right to Access Act (SB 24) will require 34 university student health centers to provide abortion medication to students at little to no cost. It will be in the form of RU-486, also known as mifepristone (or its brand name Mifeprex).
City and county officials broke ground on the Petaluma leg of Highway 101 widening this month, reported by the Argus-Courier. The 3-year process will cover Corona Road to Lakeville Highway, a stretch just over 3 miles.
Of the estimated $155 million of destruction wrought by the February flood, $1.5 million in state aid will go towards helping the residents of communities along the Russian River. Late September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a budget trailer bill after the area was deemed ineligible for FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, funding as only 151 homes sustained damage, according to the Press Democrat.
Seven years ago, James Eagan Holmes took the lives of 12 and injured 70 during a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” in an Aurora, Colorado theater. Leading up to the release of “Joker” on October 3, military officials have released a warning after an Oklahoma U.S. Army base received intelligence from the FBI that there have been “‘disturbing and very specific’ chatter of alleged extremists on the dark web,” according to ABC News.
Sixty percent of Americans oppose the expansion of the U.S. and Mexico border wall according to an early 2019 Gallup poll, and yet President Trump remains determined to accelerate construction even at the expense of the destruction of 22 archeological sites within the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona.
The price of convenience is not free despite what Amazon’s free two-day, one-day, or same day delivery services may lead consumers to believe. Ordering that twelve-pack of bamboo straws to help save the turtles may help you sleep at night, but many are left unaware of the major consequences e-commerce continues to threaten the environment with.
Incarcerated women have long been overlooked by broader scope statistics regarding local jails, state prisons, and federal prison. Over 60% of women jailed are awaiting trial and haven’t yet been convicted of a crime, typically because they are less likely to be able to afford bail. Those who belong to this group live below the poverty threshold with an annual income of $11,071, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. A majority of women both jailed and in the prison system are mothers and are often the primary caregivers for their children -- the group that’s largely forgotten, though, are the expectant mothers.
In an age where we care more about the ethics behind the products we use, we’re also forced to navigate the growing number of online marketplaces full of deals and dupes that stand in opposition to safe, clean makeup and skincare. Fake palettes and lipstick have been found to contain four to 15 times the amount of lead as their actual counterparts, according to a CBS News investigation. That $2 Kylie Lip Kit is guaranteed to do more harm than good for your health, in addition to “cost[ing] the industry about $75 million dollars,” as reported to Refinery 29 by Deborah Parker, Deputy Special Agent In Charge for Homeland Security.
Plan B One-Step is said to work for around 90 percent of women — as long as you don’t fit the description of the average American woman. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average woman in the US weighs in at just over 170 pounds, meaning their BMI is likely too high for morning-after pills to be as effective as advertised for an emergency contraceptive.
![[Both photos courtesy of sonoma.edu]
Ming-Ting Mike Lee stepped in as the new SSU president following Sakakis resignation in July 2022](https://sonomastatestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CC4520AB-22A7-41B2-9F6F-2A2D5F76A28C-1200x1200.jpeg)
