Good morning, Santa Rosa.

Residents at a community meeting last night urged the district to explore alternatives to closing the local school—citing budget issues and the poor state of facilities.

The school board will review the community's feedback at a special meeting this Thursday.

Zoe Rosenberg remains on trial in Petaluma for storming into a local slaughterhouse and rescuing four chickens—she is accused of making unauthorized visits and attaching GPS devices to vehicles while supporters rallied this past weekend, and she faces up to five years in prison.

At a meeting this week, parents pressed the Sebastopol school board to set clear consequences for racial slurs in its anti-racism efforts after a student faced repeated racist incidents.

The board president said trustees are committed to engaging with the community—promising a review of the initiatives.

Santa Rosa Junior College librarian Canon Crawford led a workshop on Sept.15 at Doyle Library—he explained that AI-driven disinformation has grown and advised using lateral reading to verify sources as social media makes fake news easier to spread.

Santa Rosa City Schools must cut ten to fifteen million dollars by early next year to avoid running out of cash—Interim Superintendent Lisa August said the reductions come after earlier layoffs and closures.

County schools chief Amie Carter warned the district risks losing control of its 13,500-student system, noting that six schools will close by next June and about 150 staff were laid off this past spring.

Sonoma County officials released a new cannabis proposal after three years of revising the rules, but residents say the plan does not protect rural communities enough—neighbors want stricter limits on farm locations while growers argue that current restrictions hurt legal operations. The Board of Supervisors will vote on the ordinance in October.

California has passed a bill that adds $18 billion to the state’s wildfire fund—aimed at paying victims of utility-caused fires while splitting funds between ratepayers and utility shareholders.

Many fire survivors from the 2017 and 2018 fires say the law ignores their unpaid losses and focuses on future incidents.