petaluma news

• Petaluma women escape major injury after crash sends car down embankment

  By MARY CALLAHAN, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

  Saturday March 13, 2010 11:01 am

  Two Petaluma women apparently escaped major injury despite rolling 75 feet down an embankment after their car was struck on Highway 101 south of Cotati on Friday afternoon, authorities said.

• Casa Grande students reflect on shantytown

  By DAN JOHNSON, ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

  Saturday March 13, 2010 3:00 am

  

  Blankets and cardboard boxes covering the hard ground were about all that was left on Friday morning inside the shantytown-style dwelling on campus where Casa Grande High School juniors had slept the previous night.

• Petaluma groups sue city over Target center approval

  Friday March 12, 2010 2:35 pm

  Petaluma residents filed a lawsuit against the city Thursday challenging the recent approval of the East Washington Place shopping center.

• Doctor in sex case says he made 'terrible mistake'

  By PAUL PAYNE, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

  Friday March 12, 2010 5:28 pm

  

  Maurice Wolin, whose fall from acclaimed East Bay cancer doctor to child-sex predator was captured on national TV, said Friday he made a "terrible mistake" that shattered his family and cost him his career.

• Transit Authority says no to $10 vehicle registration fee

  BY BOB NORBERG, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

  Friday March 12, 2010 4:06 pm

  A proposal to put a $10 increase in vehicle registration fees on the June ballot was narrowly rejected by the Sonoma County's transit authority in a special meeting Friday.

• County hearing on Dutra asphalt plant postponed again

  By PHILIP RILEY, ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

  Friday March 12, 2010 1:00 pm

  

  Argus-Courier map by Gary Newman

  A decision on a proposed asphalt plant just south of Petaluma will come later than expected because the company's recent application is incomplete, according to the county's permit-management department.

• Man, 47, arrested after police chase

  Friday March 12, 2010 12:47 pm

  A 47-year-old Petaluma man driving under the influence of alcohol struck a PG&E power pole at the intersection of Petaluma Boulevard North and Stony Point Road on March 10, and then fled from police, but later was caught.

• Key vote Friday to determine fate of $10 car registration fee

  BY BOB NORBERG THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

  Friday March 12, 2010 7:59 am

  Sonoma County's transit authority meets Friday with only hours to decide whether or not to put a $10 car registration fee increase on the June ballot to fund buses, bike paths and a school safety program.

• Casa brain team heads to state finals

  By DAN JOHNSON, ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

  Friday March 12, 2010 3:00 am

  The Casa Grande High School Academic Decathlon team will be heading to Sacramento to compete in the California Academic Decathlon State Finals on March 12-15.

• City's legal issues become costly

  By PHILIP RILEY, ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

  Friday March 12, 2010 3:00 am

  Petaluma's legal expenses over the last 13 months have topped $600,000 due to a number of high-profile legal issues — a 9 percent increase over the previous 13-month period.

• Plane makes hard landing at Petaluma airport

  BY LORI A. CARTER, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

  Thursday March 11, 2010 3:00 am

  

  A small plane made a hard landing at the Petaluma Municipal Airport Thursday afternoon, but the pilot wasn't seriously hurt.

• Man arrested for burglary at local grocery store

  Thursday March 11, 2010 9:55 am

  A Rohnert Park man on bail was arrested on Wednesday after cutting a hole through sheet rock to enter the main office of the Whole Foods Market in Petaluma, and then stealing items and attempting to gain access to a safe.

• Phoenix Theater to boost safety measures

  By DAN JOHNSON, ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

  Thursday March 11, 2010 1:00 pm

  

  The Phoenix Theater Board of Directors is taking additional safety measures after reviewing a recent incident in which a 19-year-old man on LSD jumped from the roof of the building and broke his back.

• Rocky's recovery

  By JULIE JOHNSON, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

  Thursday March 11, 2010 8:58 am

  

  The 50-pound, Rottweiler-mix called Rocky by many of his caretakers at Sonoma County Animal Control cast a worried look at his surroundings on a walk Wednesday, perhaps partly fueled by the morphine given to him as his broken jaw, fractured skull and other head injuries heal.

• Hard times threaten Petaluma's iconic Butter & Egg Days

  By LORI A. CARTER, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

  Thursday March 11, 2010 7:56 am

  

  Last year, Petalumans dug into their pockets to save the annual Veterans' Day parade after it lost city funding, and now they are being asked to keep on digging to support the popular Butter & Egg Days celebration next month.

• Doctor caught in sex sting gets two-month jail term

  By PAUL PAYNE, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

  Thursday March 11, 2010 7:43 am

  

  The East Bay doctor caught in a nationally televised child-sex sting in Petaluma in 2006 was sentenced Wednesday to two months in jail and will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

• Old Adobe eyes closing one school

  By DAN JOHNSON, ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

  Thursday March 11, 2010 3:00 am

  

  Facing the need to cut some $1.6 million over the next three years, the Old Adobe Union School District might close one of its five elementary schools — most likely either Bernard Eldredge or Old Adobe — beginning next school year.

• Man exposes himself to girl, 12

  Wednesday March 10, 2010 1:24 pm

  The Petaluma Police Department sent out a school alert on Wednesday after a man allegedly exposed himself to a 12-year-old junior high school girl.

• Woman dies after highway crash

  Wednesday March 10, 2010 8:22 am

  A 62-year-old woman died on Tuesday after the van she was driving collided with a truck on Highway 101, near the Kastania Road exit.

• Arrests

  Wednesday March 10, 2010 3:00 am

  Petalumans arrested recently by law-enforcement officers outside the Petaluma police jurisdiction included:

• Sheriff's Calls

  Wednesday March 10, 2010 3:00 am

  The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department responded to the following calls in the south county during the last week.