With the clock ticking toward the April 28th closure date for Sebastopol’s Palm Drive Hospital, board members are scrambling to solicit and assess new operating models, while staff members worry what their futures will hold.

The closure of Palm Drive Hospital may have come as a shock to the community at large, but physician Greg Rosa, who has worked there for years, says it was apparent on the inside that the current business model was failing.

  The conservative leadership in Canada is pushing for greater extraction of that country’s oil and natural gas resources, and has taken steps to curtail the rights of native tribes in the process. As you might expect, those actions are getting some push-back from the indigenous people. Today we hear from a leader of one of those groups, the woman-led grassroots movement called Idle No More.

Nina Wilson and Jess Gordon,  two co-founders of  Idle No More, will explain more about the issues they’re working on in a fund-raising appearance this evening at 7 pm at the Arlene Francis Center in Santa Rosa. Find further event details here.

Using structures of woven willow, rather than tons of rock, is a more natural—and less costly-- way to repair eroding riverbanks. One recent example on the lower Russian River just won a national award.

Even before they received the award, Oddfellows Recreation Club Executive Director Jack Davies says their alternative approach to the repair work had yielded multiple advantages.

  One of the many challenges in the restoration project, says project manager Cam Parry, involved working around the redwoods on the site, both standing and fallen.

Evan Engber, President of Bioengineering Associates, described the willow “baffles” that were planted at 50-75 intervals along the riverbed, to aid in the restoration effort.

  A first-time event debuts on the Sonoma State campus today. It’s  a showcase for student-developed products, services and businesses, called Market Day. KRCB’s Bruce Robinson talks with the man behind the event.

Market Day is being held in the Student Recreation Center on the Sonoma State campus, 10 am to 2 pm today.