Sonoma County

Pet videos populate Facebook all the time, but one posted during this frenzied election season stood out: A service dog named Maggie Magoo had voted by mail in Santa Cruz, its owner said. Not just that, the owner claimed Maggie was registered to vote using her microchip number as a social security number.  The story, […]

Another stay-at-home order could be in the cards for California as early as this week. Citing a record level of coronavirus hospitalizations and rapidly filling intensive-care units, Gov. Gavin Newsom warned in a Monday press conference that another lockdown may be necessary to curb the virus’ spread in counties in the most restrictive purple tier, […]

All things considered, California is faring better than expected amid the worst fire conditions of the season. Though desiccated winds topping 70 miles per hour ignited more than two dozen small fires in the northern part of the state, firefighters had fully contained all but two of them by Monday afternoon, and ongoing fires didn’t […]

   Lea este artículo en español. In August, as lightning strikes ignited fires around his Napa County home, Ian MacMillan escaped the flames with his wife, three kids and mother-in-law. A month later, when another wildfire roared through Northern California’s wine country, they had to flee their home again. “It sounded like a war zone,” MacMillan, […]

The systems that warn people about evacuations have dangerous drawbacks. Millions of Californians are relying on alerts that may never arrive. In some counties, only 1% of adults are signed up.

California’s Wine Country, one of the most famed and iconic tourist destinations in the state, is at a tipping point. Gone is the three-Michelin-starred Restaurant at Meadowood, home to the region’s most celebrated fine dining. Gone are sections of well-known wineries, including Chateau Boswell, Castello di Amorosa, Hourglass Winery and Spring Mountain Vineyard. Gone are […]

Already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, schools in rural areas like Bonny Doon must now contend with wildfires and related problems like blackouts, poor air quality and damaged internet infrastructure.

The average age of those who died in the 2018 Camp Fire was 72. The average age of those who died in the fires that burned across Sonoma and Napa a year before: 73. As wildfires grow more devastating in California, some of the most vulnerable are older people who live independently and who live […]

As coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continue to spike, California Gov. Gavin Newsom closes indoor activities at restaurants, wineries, movie theaters, museums and card rooms while also ordering breweries and bars to close all operations, indoors and out.

Lea este artículo en español. Updated June 22, 2020 Climbing over the past week, California’s numbers for statewide coronavirus-related hospitalizations this weekend exceeded the record levels set in late April, CalMatters’ hospital data tracker shows.  The tracker, which pulls from state data, shows that on Sunday, 3,702 patients who’ve tested positive for the novel coronavirus were […]