The Solar Sonoma County program, which got its official kick-off last night, may make our area a model for other rural regions that want to expand their use of solar power.

Click here to see a detailed 2-page fact sheet on Solar Sonoma County. (pdf)

John Lushetsky from the federal Department of Energy, where he is the manager of the Solar Energy Technologies Program. As more and more solar panels collect electricity, there will be increasing demand for batteries to store and save that power. John Lushetshy says his agency will soon turn its attention to that aspect of energy independence as well.

Ives Pool in Sebastopol is an example of a local public facility that has installed solar panels to hold down energy costs.

The Geneva Conventions are not a conference, but an international treaty signed by every established nation in the world. And there are four of them.

Miller talks about the Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that applied the Geneva Conventions to the U.S. detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.

Tim Miller

The local Red Cross offers a free class to educate the public about the Geneva Conventions four times a year. Upcoming classes will be held September 20, and November 15, 9 to1 each day . For further information call (707) 577-7600, or to register online, click here .

For the direct link to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, about the Geneva Convention, click here.

Job training, social work and gourmet food all converge in chef Evelyn Cheatham's unique Worth Our Weight culinary apprentice program.

Chef Cheatham explains the origin of her program's name.

Luke, one of the current students in the WOW program, talks about what he hopes to get out of it.

 Worth Our Weight is currently open Fridays and Saturdays from 9 to 4, and serving Sunday Brunch from 9 to 1.They also have a catering service and a tent at the Santa Rosa Farmers Market on Saturday mornings.

The new location is at 1021 Hahman Drive, next to the Boys and Girls Club, between Montgomery Village anMontgomery High School.

The dining area at Worth Our Weight includes this long, single plank table for shared meals.

If you haven't heard of plans being made for a North American Union, an economic and political consolidation of Canada, Mexico and the United States, it may be because the powers behind those plans want them kept quiet.

Constance Fogal, a leader of the Canadian Action Party , speaks out against the North American Union.

The Amero, a new currency which would cover all of the Americas, could be introduced as a future step into the North American Union.  Here's what Fogal says about that.

You can read a U.S.  government fact sheet about NAFTA here.