The Congressional banking bailout bill that failed yesterday, also failed the thousands of California homeowners already facing foreclosure.

Kimberly Jones, Policy Advocate for the California Reinvestment Corporation, contends that the banking industry is attempting to deflect its own complicity  in the "mortgage meltdown" by blaming the borrowers who signed up for loans they could not repay.  But she says targeting the handful of industry executives who got gaudy salaries and payouts is also a distraction.

 The CRC has produced this short video about the causes of the foreclosure crisis now sweeping California.

 The future of passenger service on the rail line through Sonoma County depends on North Bay voters next month, while the resumption of freight trains should happen sooner, regardless of the election's outcome.

   NCRA Exective Director Mitch Stogner

While the prospect of renewed freight service on the southern portion of the NCWA tracks is drawing close, Mitch Stogner says the process for moving forward with the rail line north of Willits will involve an entirely separate series of studies and hearings.

The North Coast Railroad Authority (NCRA) was created in 1989 under the North Coast Railroad Authority Act with the purpose of developing and ensuring a railroad transportation system for Northwestern California. You can read their full history here .

There's a map of the full NCRA rail line below.

A unique affordable housing project in Sebastopol is combining a new co-housing community with the self-help or "sweat equity" approach to building it.

Tom Kuhn, the Sequoia Village project manager for Burbank Housing, explains the co-housing aspect of the development.

As future Sequoia Village homeowner Lee Logan sees it, this co-housing process has been different than most.

Sequoia Village in Sebastopol, a new family co-housing development offered through Burbank Housing Development Corp, was facilitatied by the late Michael Black (left)   who was the architect for the Two Acre Wood co-housing project in Sebastopol (pictured below). 

To learn more about co-housing, visit  Planning for Sustainable Communities here.

Proposition Five on the November ballot would make widespread changes in the ways that drug users are treated by California's prison system.

The Yes on Prop 5 website is here.

The No on Prop 5 website is here .

There's an impartial analysis of the measure here. And you can read the actual text of Proposition 5 here. (pdf, 61 pages)

The September 24th forum on Proposition 5, to be held at 7 pm in the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors' chambers (575 Administration Drive, Suite 100A, Santa Rosa), is hosted and sponsored by the Sonoma County Advisory Board on Drug and Alcohol Problems.

French filmmaker, Laurent Le Gall , focused his work on Petaluma artist David Best,who is known worldwide for the temples he has designed and built at Burning Man. Voyage to Utopia tracks the creation and response to Best's Temple of Honor at the 2003 Burning Man. See two different views of the Temple below.

 To see more of David Best's creations, click here.

For more information about filmmaker Laurent Le Gall, click here .

 Burning Man: Voyage In Utopia premieres in Sebastopol on September 18^th. To purchase tickets, click here .