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Where there's fire there's smoke, and on Spare The Air days that's not a good thing.

 

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has adopted new rules that prohibit district residents from using wood burning stoves or fireplaces on specified Spare the Air Days during the winter months.

 

You can subscribe to an automated email notification system for "no burn: days here. There is also an automated telephone notification system. The Spare the Air Winter alerts are also available by calling 1-877-4-NOBURN (1-877-466-2876).

Most of Sonoma County is part of the Bay Area Air Quality District, and subject to the new rules.The coastal and northern parts of the county which lie outside the  District are not covered by its regulations, and compliance in these areas is voluntary..To see a list of cities and counties covered by the Spare The Air no-burn rules, click here .

 

 

The holidays are a peak travel time for the airlines, so knowing your rights as a passenger can help ensure a more satisfactory travel experience.

Former realtor Kate Hanni is the founder and president of the Napa-based Coalition for an Airline Passengers Bill of Rights. Her Organization maintains a tool-free telephone number for travelers to report standings and other problems, which she says are promptly verified and compiled into a national database.

Flyersrights Hotline: 877-FLYERS6 (877-359-3776)

The Coalition has also prepared a  Stranded Flyer's Survival Guide with a combination of practical and somewhat tongue-in-cheek items to use if you should happen to wind up on a grounded plane.

The New York state legislature was the first in the country to adopt a flyers bill of rights in August, 2007. But the measure was struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals which ruled it interferred with federal regulatory authority over the airlines.

 

 

 

 

Northern California representative Mike Thompson has been a leader in the effort to win Congressional passage of a nationwide airline Passengers Bill of Rights. You can read the draft bill here.

Mixed news on the health care front:  stem cell research is spurring advances in what's being called regenerative medicine, but California's budget crisis threatens the ability of community clinics to provide many basic services.

 

Dr. David Greenberg, Vice President of Special Research Projects for the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato.

In addition to embryonic stem cells, Dr. Greenberg says current research is also studying adult stem cells.

 

Beatrice Bostick, Executive Director of Clinic Ole in  Napa County warns that reducing health care coverage through Medi-Cal will inevitably result in greater demands for hospital emergency rooms, with no funds available for that care.

 

 

stem cells

Playing soccer isn't a well-traveled path out of homelessness. But for one formerly troubled Santa Rosa man, it's working.

Cornelius Bracy, a formerly homeless  soccer player from Sonoma County, will be  part of the American team at the Homeless World Cup that takes place in Australia next month. The Homeless World Cup began in 2003 as a "catalyst for lasting change through the development of street soccer worldwide in a way that creates maximum social impact for the players involved--the socially excluded, homeless people and people living in poverty."

 

Julius Ujeh, a soccer coach from Nigeria, began a Street Soccer league for homeless young adults in Sonoma County. The program, originally started in Australia, has given young adults a purpose that teaches discipline and self-motivation. 

Street soccer is a mini-version of the traditional game of soccer, which can be played on any hard, flat rectangular surface, roughly the size of a tennis court. The new "traveling field" (shown below) gives the U.S. team an attractive, safe surface on which to play, and a sense of identity for the players.

Four players compete on each side (one of them is a goalie) and games last for 14 minutes each. While games are short, they are very fast-paced. The name of the event was coined in 2003 during the first Homeless World Cup.