Just about everyone agrees that preserving California's productive agricultural lands is a good idea, even if there have been some highly charged disagreements over the best means to accomplish that objective. Sidestepping these policy debates, California FarmLink is working directly with farming and ranching families to help them decide what they want to do with their lands from one generation to the next, as reported on today's North Bay Report:Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!
Shrinking real estate values in California are prompting some ag families to re-evaluate their plans for their land. But Steve Schwartz, Executive Director of California FarmLink, says the shifting economic climate also holds some unexpected opportunities for new farmers to get established.Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!
California Farmlink is hosting a series of regional conferences in Sonoma, Humboldt and San Luis Obispo counties titled Sowing the Seeds of Farm Succession: Planning the Transition to the Next Generation of Family Farmers. the next session in Sonoma county will be held on Saturday, Feb. 21 at SRJC's Shone Farm, 6225 Eastside Road, Forestville. Click here for registration information.
Shepherd Bliss, a Sebastopol farmer and writer, and part-time instructor in the psychology department at Sonoma State University talks about his experience in Chile just before the 1973 coup and how it felt to return to that country34 years later, as part of an inquest into the police state execution of his close friend Frank Teruggi. It wasn't easy, but even after three and a half decades, Bliss believes that confronting government-sanctioned brutality and torture is difficult, painful and necessary.
The campaign to curtail or ban taser use has gained considerably support across Canada, where the RCMP is being pressured to change its policies with marches, such as this one, and legislative inquiries. 
Candlelight Vigil for Male Victims of Domestic Violence
Today has long been identified as the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, but the documents that would verify that don't really exist.
Former Sebastopol resident John McKinsey, author of The Lincoln Secret, has been writing fiction, and non-fiction alike nearly his entire life. He is the co-author of an undergraduate textbook, Understanding the Law, that teaches college students the basic legal workings of life in the United States. McKinsey is a graduate of Analy High School, California State University, Sacramento and the School of Law at U.C. Davis. He lives in Northern California with his wife and has done extensive travel and research to gather information for this piece of historical fiction. 
