There’s a lot more to a successful invention than just a good idea.

Steve Schneider, (left) the coordinator and sole staff of the Sawyer Center in Santa Rosa has had a hand in a growing list of success stories with clients there. Currently, he's enthusiastic about an idea concieved by a pair of local nurses.

As you might expect, the Sawyer Center itself was the creation of an individual inventor. Steve Schneider recounts its history.

Just over the past 10 years, according to their website, the Sawyer Center has helped over 2,300 clients by providing in excess of 8,900 hours of individual, one-on-one, free counseling. In addition, over 2,570 business owners have attended 108 workshops for close to 13,100 hours of training. This counseling and training has resulted in:

• 114 patents received
• 151 trademarks filed
• 113 copyright applications

What is it like growing up in the areas of Africa that have been ravaged by the AIDS epidemic? A traveling exhibit visiting Santa Rosa this week supplies some first-hand answers.

To reserve times and tickets for the free exhibit while it is in Santa Rosa, click here. Reservations are not required, but they are strongly encouraged. Mike Griffin explains that’s for more than one reason.

The organization behind the exhibit, World Vision, is hardly a household name, but Griffin believes that they do good work.

Use this link for more background information on the  the Experience AIDS tour. The phorograph below is an overhead view of the walk-through display area.

The opposition campaign to PG&E’s big-budget backing for Proposition 16 took to the streets—well, actually the sidewalks—of downtown Santa Rosa yesterday (above, with Lady Liberty joined by Santa Rosa Mayor Susan Gorin and Healdsburg City Councilman Gary Plass), blasting the measure as “another bailout” for the utility.

The Yes on 16 campaign may have a much bigger budget, but the list of local governments and other groups who have lined up against it is impressive and growing. Ann Hancock, Executive Director of the Climate Protection Campaign, offered a sampling of that roster of opponents at the midday rally on Tuesday.

Healdsburg was among the founding members of the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA), a coalition of 17 cities that act as their own electric utility for their residents. ( Read their  statement opposing Prop 16 here.)  There are numerous other such operations elsewhere in the state. Expanding the service areas for any of them would be subject to the 2/3s vote requirement in Proposition 16, as would the creation of any additional local power purchasing entities, says Healdsburg City Council member Gary Plass. But while many cities oppose the measure, there is little they can do to directly combat it.

The lion’s share of the electricity used by the residents and businesses of municipal Healdsburg now comes from an array of renewable sources. Councilman Plass breaks it down for us.

Want to find our more about this measure? You can read an impartial analysis of Proposition 16  or to see the video ads against Prop 16 that won't be shown on television (due to no budget, not topical censorship), go here.

The last days of the Rialto Cinemas Lakeside in Santa Rosa are ticking away, but owner Ky Boyd is looking ahead to creating a new venue to take its place.

It’s now looking likely that there will be no active Rialto venue in Santa Rosa for a year or more, but owner Ky Boyd says he’s confident that the film distributors who are critical to his business, will be ready to work with him again as soon as he is able to resume bookings.

One unexpected aspect in the current Rialto situation has been the outpouring of public support the theaters and their owner have received, including, Boyd notes, a heavily trafficked Facebook page.

For an extensive account of the back story and the history of movie theater ownership in Santa Rosa, read this.