What segment of California’s population is healthiest?  It’s probably not what you would think.

As Alameda County’s Public Health Officer, Dr. Anthony Iton (left) directed efforts to correlate data from death certificates, parole offices, income reports from the national census and other sources and see where they overlapped in his county. And he found a high correspondence to the areas where poverty is most prevalent.

Taking their cue from the social support systems that many immigrant families enjoy, Dr. Iton suggests that public health departments also instigate informal gatherings of residents in impoverished neighborhoods, as an additional tool for improving their collective well-being.

Dr.  Iton  also co-authored this report (pdf, 87 pages) detailing the relative medical and social factors that shape health outcomes among the population of Alameda County. Similar results apply in Sonoma County and much of California.

There may be a lot of beached jellyfish on the sand along the coast these days, but that’s primarily  an indicator of a productive year for the strange and ancient creatures.

Jellyfish occur in many parts of the world, from the tropics to much cooler northern waters, but there are specific types that frequent the northern California coast, such as the "sea nettles" pictured here.

Carl Menard, Director of Aquatic Resources at the U.C.Davis Bodega Bay Marine Laboratory,  says the rich upwelling of nutrients the jellies have been feeding on is not indicative of a possible El Nino in the coming winter, but because of other factors, that can’t be ruled out altogether.

Two other common types of jellyfish often found along the North Coast are the Moon jellies (below left) and the valella valella, which has a sort of "sail" that can catch the breeze on the surface of the sea to propel it. But if it happens to catch on onshore wind, it may end up stranded on a beach.

A little-known chapter of America’s wartime aviation history has been revisited by a Healdsburg writer, whose debut novel recounts the story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs.

There was an enormous pool of frustrated women pilots who rushed to join the WASP program when it was created, Jeane Sloan recounts, because the attack on Pearl Harbor had left them no other opportunities to fly.

The WASP pilots were not recognized as part of the armed forces, but were instead considered civil service employees, notes Sloan. That meant that the women were not eligible for military funeral benefits.

On July 1, 2009, President Obama signed SB 614, awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to all the WASP pilots, in most cases posthumously. Jeane Sloan says she was excited to think that her friend and mentor, Florence Wheeler, would be getting one of the medals. Wheeler, however, was not so impressed.

Healdsburg author Jeanie Sloan will bring together nine surviving WASPs from the greater Bay Area  in Santa Rosa this Saturday afternoon for a special free public event sponsored by the Sonoma County Arts Council. It's at the Santa Rosa Veteran's building from 1-4 pm.

Wave power off the Sonoma County coast is a potentially carbon-free source of electricity, but it faces big questions about environmental impacts and economic viability.

You can read more about the project on the Water Agency's website.The image at right shows one prototype of a low-profile generator which could be deployed in an array of dozens of individual units, as illustrated below, to power a sizable area.

The Sonoma County Water Agency's first informational meeting about the wave power studies was held in Gualala on September 9th. Most of the people there, reports Richard Charter, knew nothing about the project before that meeting.


Two other study projects on the Northern California coast have received permits from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), both issued before the Sonoma County Water Agency's application was approved. Cordell Stillman (left with Water Agency boss Randy Poole) says both sites were sought by PG&E, but other than that, they are quite different in status and approach.

While the entire concept of wave-generated electricity is in its very earliest stages, Richard Charter  (left) observes that it holds some benefits from an environmental perspective, but it is hardly a clear or easy solution to meeting future power needs.