Sonoma County

"You guys have dropped the ball and you haven't done your job and I'm tired of paying my taxes when you don't do your job," shouted one man, as a microphone was passed among participants at the Roseland Library.

The board in December approved spending nearly $12 million to buy or lease housing for the homeless, including dozens of the campers.

Police in Petaluma are warning residents about a potential scam in which thieves are posing as PG&E employees and are demanding customers give them immediate payment to avoid having their utility service disconnected.

The suspect was swiftly arrested, and the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department is crediting the actions of the young victims for getting him into custody. 

The break-ins have neighboring merchants concerned about safety and what can be done. 

The two-alarm blaze was first reported at 8:34 p.m. Saturday in a two-story building within the Walnut Creek Apartments complex at 2120 Jennings Ave. Firefighters said the fire started in a first-floor unit, which was fully involved. A second ground-floor apartment sustained fire damage, and the two upstairs units sustained smoke damage.

At Helen Putnam Park just west of the Petaluma city limits, a woman suffered moderate injuries in a bicycling accident. North Bay Fire and Petaluma Fire Department crews were dispatched about 10:40 a.m. Saturday, Petaluma Battalion Chief Chad Costa said.

On Friday at 10:17 p.m., officers responded to a report of a robbery at Lola's Market at 1680 Petaluma Hill Road.

Firefighters were summoned to an old silo along the Petaluma River on Friday after kayakers reported seeing a large metal tower fall and heard someone screaming for help, Petaluma Fire Battalion Chief Chad Costa told the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat.

Sonoma County officials are working on ideas for an already-approved indoor-outdoor shelter that they hope will address some of their safety concerns about a growing homeless encampment along a Santa Rosa trail.

The Petaluma man was riding northbound on the right shoulder of Ely Road, north of Corona Road, about 8:30 p.m. when he was hit by a vehicle that was also headed northbound, the CHP said. 

On Santa Rosa's Joe Rodota Trail, a mile-long homeless encampment has swelled to an estimated 200 people. Now the encampment is dealing with a series of fires that have broken out, according to the fire department and neighbors.

Two sheriffs deputies are injured after their vehicles collided in Sonoma County as they were responding to a domestic violence call.

The two men, who are now 56 and 49 years old, allege they were abused beginning at age 10 or 11 by Gary Timmons, a now-defrocked priest who served four years in prison for child molestation and who has been named in several previous lawsuits. 

A Sonoma County judge sentenced a man to 29 years to life for an attack on a barista worker.

Frere ran three companies out of Rhonert Park, north of San Francisco. They were Ameritech Financial, American Financial Benefits Center and the Financial Education Benefits Center.

On Saturday, Dec. 14 the victim left their wallet on a counter at the Petaluma Market, police said. When the victim realized the wallet was missing, the victim found several fraudulent charges had been made on two of the victim's credit cards.