KRCB

The oldest surviving brick mansion in Sonoma County has had its seismic stabilization work completed, and is ready for public visitors again.

The Hood mansion was built in 1858, by William Hood for his wife, Eliza. Below is a similar view of the home as it looks today, along with an interior photo of the dining room, which was "updated" with some colorful wallpaper for a fundraising event back in the 1970s.

The public is invited to join in celebrating the hood House’s 150^th birthday on Saturday, Aug. 23, 2008. The party will include presentations from 10-11 am, and an open house with grounds tours from 11 am to 1 pm. Cake and lemonade will be served. The Hood House is located at 7501 Sonoma Highway.
There's a map to Hood House location here .

Palm Oil

First the ethanol boom created a surge in corn prices; now bio-diesel made from palm oil is threatening tropical rain forests.

To view a continually growing list of products that use palm oil, click here.

 The product list was used in a 

To see the website for the Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign, click here.

The North Bay is generally well connected when it comes to the Internet, but overall access speeds nationwide are falling behind other parts of the world.

Dane Jasper of Sonic.net

Click here to test the speed of your internet connection.

Even in Marin County, environmentalists see a need to preserve more lands in open space, and have formed a new organization to do just that.

Visit the MOST website here .

To view the Marin County Open Space District website as well as a map of current open space land, click here .

Plastic shopping bags have been banned in cities as big as San Francisco and as small as Healdsburg, but Marin county attorney Stephen Joseph says they’re getting a bum rap.

Tiburon Attorney Stephen Joseph has created the SaveThePlasticBag.org website.

His campaign was also recently profiled in TIME magazine.

Below, Joseph talks about the few photos that purport to show wildlife being harmed by plastic bags in their natural environment.

Plastic bags should be reused whenever possible, and those not being used can be recycled.