Remember those cartoons during the Covid Era where people from the expiring year would look in terror around the corner at the arriving year, saying, “What now?” It’s sort of like that all over again, as so much has changed since January it doesn’t seem possible that there’s more to come. We take a look here at the local scene for the first six months of the year … but there is much more to come.
Last New Year’s Day, Jan. 1, 2025, we were immersed in coverage of the required separation of Healdsburg into five districts, with a council-selected mayor. The squabbling got rather heated between December 2024 and April 2025 when the maps were finally settled. But not till this new year, 2026, will we see our first election by district of new council members. Districts 2 and 4 will hold elections this year for their representative; the odd-numbered districts will do so in 2028.
Casinos and Gyms
Our Jan. 16 issue, headlined “Feds Greenlight Windsor Casino,” referred to one of the last acts of the Biden administration and one which was quite unpopular locally. The Koi Pomo band of Lake County wanted to build a casino in Sonoma County, but the Sonoma Pomo fought it every step of the way. In September, a federal judge reversed the decision and took the 69-acre property on East Shiloh road back from the Koi, seen as a big win for the local Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria…