Employees at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital are one step closer to a union representation vote, something that could come within a matter of a few weeks.

Steve Sidawi, a volunteer organizer with the National Union of Healthcare Workers, traces the history of the unionization effort at Memorial Hospital.

The administration at Memorial Hospital disputes that version of past events. Katy Hillenmeyer, spokeswoman for St. Joseph’s Health System, Sonoma County, says the company has precisely lived up to their legal responsibilities.

Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane sees taking a high-profile position on labor issues such as this one as part of her job, representing the workers within her district.

Amidst budget 6contractions elsewhere, Santa Rosa Junior College has found an opportunity for growth in the city’s southwest quadrant.

SRJC’s Dean of Continuing Education, Kerry Campbell-Price, says students were quick to find the new location, and virtually all of the classes there this semester are already full.

The new location for SRJC's Southwest Center -- it's too small to be considered a satellite campus -- is well situated for students arriving from multiple directions, and enjoys a much more visible presence than the center's former site at the Santa Rosa Labor Center.

Click on the link below for a map to the center.

Southwest Santa Rosa Center
950 Wright Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95407

Matriculation Student Services Office
(707) 527-4229

Local activists are urging customers to boycott Whole Foods to protest the company ownership’s opposition to health care reform and organized labor.

With four stores in Sonoma County, one in Napa and two in Marin, Whole Foods is the dominant purveyor of organic groceries in the North Bay. Georgia Kelly says that joining the boycott has meant disruptions in her personal patterns, but she feels living out her personal values is more important.

Ben Boyce (left), director of the Living Wage Coalition, contends that while John Mackey is certainly entitled to his own personal beliefs, others who do not share those beliefs have a responsibility not to provide the financial support to perpetuate them.

"Even in countries like Canada and the U.K., there is no intrinsic right to health care. Rather, citizens in these countries are told by government bureaucrats what health-care treatments they are eligible to receive and when they can receive them. All countries with socialized medicine ration health care by forcing their citizens to wait in lines to receive scarce treatments..." wrote Whole Food CEO John Mackey (right)  in his Wall Street Journal essay, "The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare."

"Rather than increase government spending and control, we need to address the root causes of poor health. This begins with the realization that every American adult is responsible for his or her own health." Read the full article  here.

Will Shonbrun's response, an Open Letter to Whole Foods Market, was first published in the Empire Report. You can view the main Facebook page supporting the boycott here.

A new plan to bring baseball back to the North Bay envisions a short summer league with a dozen teams of mostly local players, and a rolling set-up to dress up existing ball fields in area parks.

The proposed Wine Country Old Fashioned Baseball League is the idea of Dry Creek Valley winery owner Howard Leonhardt (left), who says he developed it after he was unable to purchase an existing minor league team and relocate it to Sonoma County.