Sonoma County Ca

'Course you know the standing joke about Healdsburg," Bruce Campbell is deadpanning. We are rumbling through Sonoma County in a livestock truck. Behind us, his tiny hometown, the new star of wine country destinations, is a study in privileged leisure: bird song, pink sky, dew in the vineyards, executives in line at the artisan bakeries muttering into cell phones. Campbell is a study in something else entirely: plaid shirt, red beard, thick belly, work boots that reek of--how to put it?

An upstart union challenging the giant Service Employees International Union won a plurality Friday in a disputed and closely watched union vote at a Sonoma County Hospital. But the National Labor Relations Board, which oversaw the vote at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, said it could not declare a winner because the final margin was close and 17 ballots were challenged. "At this point, we don't have a determinative result," said Tim Peck, assistant to the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board.

Judges have asked the state Commission on Judicial Performance to investigate one of their colleagues who has been at work only a few hours since losing a June election while continuing to collect a $74,432 annual salary. Municipal Judge Raymond Byrne, whose term ends at midnight Sunday, has refused to comment about his absence. "As a public official in a democracy, he should have fulfilled his term in office," said Mark Tansil, who defeated Byrne at the polls. "You don't just walk off the job."

A submerged body recovered off the coast of Sonoma County was tentatively identified Tuesday as that of missing diver Jonathon Su of Sunnyvale, the eighth abalone hunter to die off the North Coast this year. Su, 29, was hunting for abalone with a cousin near Fort Ross State Historic Park on Nov. 9 when he dove underwater and apparently drowned.

Now that the shock has worn off -- and people have had a chance to absorb the idea of a circus tent-shaped casino on a hill overlooking the Alexander Valley's celebrated vineyards -- Sonoma County officials are coming to terms with the power of Indian sovereignty. Take county Fire Chief Vern Losh, who has been trying to inspect the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians' River Rock Casino since October 2002, when one of his deputy chiefs discovered a faulty fire pump on the property.

Fights and unruly crowds forced officials to close the Sonoma County Fair early on its last night. Dozens of Santa Rosa police officers moved in to shut down the fairgrounds after officials became concerned about the crowds Monday night. Rocks and bottles were thrown at officers, although none were injured, Lt. Brian Davis said. Two people were taken to the hospital with injuries.

Sonoma County narcotics agents have recovered a bumper crop of marijuana plants so far this year, mirroring a statewide trend that officials attribute to increased investment by Mexican drug cartels. The 102,000 plants destroyed in Sonoma County -- five times as many as were uprooted in all of 2004 -- sets a record for seizures, according to the Sheriff's Department. About half of them came from two clandestine pot farms found in the Austin Creek State Recreation Area in July.

Sonoma County Sheriff Bill Cogbill is bracing for an unprecedented 21 retirements this year by scaling back some programs and shifting more deputies to patrol. The changes could affect everything from gang intervention to abandoned-vehicle programs.

Following a law requiring wines sporting "Napa" on the label be made with grapes from that region, winemakers and growers in next-door neighbor Sonoma County are supporting similar legislation. The proposed legislation, carried by state Sen. Wes Chesbro (D-Arcata), would extend protections to Sonoma County as well as the counties of Mendocino, Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara, where growers have expressed an interest in name protection.

Sonoma County authorities Saturday were still investigating the fatal shootings of a young couple whose bodies were found on a remote beach near here last week. "There are no new developments," said David Huber, spokesman for the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department. Ohio residents Lindsay Cutshall, 23, and Jason Allen, 26, were camping on the beach when they were each shot in the head while tucked into their sleeping bags, police said. Authorities have no suspects or motives.

This place must be hell for the lactose intolerant, I think, as I watch John Raymond tempting Chris, my Very Significant Other, with a piece of pecorino. Raymond, who is dressed in a blindingly white chef's jacket, is a missionary of fermented dairy products, and his cheese shop stocks a full assortment of artisanal cheese. It's obvious he considers a visit to his shop an opportunity for browsers to binge. Sometimes, even tasting isn't enough.

For man is born for trouble, and sparks fly upward. -- Job 5:7 -- This goes back 35 years. Yet what happened on Radar Beach that summer reverberates even today -- kept alive by detectives who came up empty, by living ghosts left behind and, more than anything, by the possibility that three summers ago, on a distant beach in Northern California, it happened again. The story begins in that tumultuous epoch known collectively as the Sixties.

A 50-year-old man drowned while scuba diving in rough waters north of Jenner, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department said. Victor Smith of Petaluma got stuck Sunday in a crack of a rock at Stillwater Cove Regional Park, said Sheriff's Sgt. Eric Thomson. Large waves hampered efforts by a friend, a lifeguard and a helicopter crew to rescue him, Thomson said. Smith was the fifth diver to die in April on the North Coast. Four others died earlier in the month while hunting for abalone.

A 10-month-old heifer broke loose from her enclosure Tuesday afternoon at the Sonoma County Fair and tore through the fairgrounds, slightly injuring one would-be wrangler. The cow's owner and others chased her past a sports bar and the grandstand. "The more they chased her, the more the cow wanted to get away," exhibits coordinator Sheila Quince said. A young man lunged for the calf, got knocked over and made a trip to the first-aid station for his troubles.

Murder charges against a man accused of drowning his wife during a daylong excursion on San Pablo Bay were dismissed Thursday. Sonoma County Dist. Atty. Stephan Passalacqua said a third forensic pathologist reviewed the case this week and could not determine whether Jennifer Easterling's death Oct. 11, 2004, was an accident or homicide. Corbin Easterling, 36, had pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and spousal abuse.

Following a law requiring wines sporting "Napa" on the label be made with grapes from that region, winemakers and growers in next-door neighbor Sonoma County are supporting similar legislation. The proposed legislation, carried by state Sen. Wes Chesbro (D-Arcata), would extend protections to Sonoma County as well as the counties of Mendocino, Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara, where growers have expressed an interest in name protection.

A minor earthquake rattled northern Sonoma County Saturday morning, but there were no reports of damage or injuries. Residents as far away as Santa Rosa, about 25 miles south, felt the magnitude 3.5 quake, which struck at 8:21 a.m. The quake was centered two miles east of The Geysers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There were no reports of damage or injuries from Santa Rosa and Cloverdale police, or the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department.

Sonoma County officials said they will know within a week whether spraying Laguna de Santa Rosa was effective in eliminating mosquitoes that can carry the West Nile virus. "The whole idea is keeping ahead of the mosquitoes, so the potential for disease is down," said Jim Wanderscheid, director of the Marin-Sonoma Mosquito Vector and Control District. On Tuesday, Lodi-based crop duster Joel Dozier made passes over the water between Occidental and Guerneville, spraying what looked like black sand.

A mother and daughter face felony charges stemming from their dog's April 6 attack on a woman whose nose was bitten off. The dog was destroyed. The Sonoma County district attorney's office filed felony charges this week of allowing a vicious animal to be at large against Emmelia Dale-Pincus, 20, and her mother, Jessie Dale-Pincus, 41. "It is being charged as a felony because of the seriousness of the injury," Assistant Dist. Atty. Larry Scoufos said.

Sonoma County Sheriff Bill Cogbill is bracing for an unprecedented 21 retirements this year by scaling back some programs and shifting more deputies to patrol. The changes could affect everything from gang intervention to abandoned-vehicle programs.