4) Friends and family members of Sky Daniel O’Banion, a well-known and loved local blues musician and father of two from the Lower Russian River area, say he’s been missing for nearly a month now. His sister Valerie posted a “MISSING” poster on Facebook last week, and says she’s been handing out physical flyers around town as well. “He has graying blonde hair and blue eyes, is 6’2″, 225 lbs,” the flyer says. “He was last seen in Guerneville 1/21/24.” And the mother of Sky’s children, Rhiannon Guerrero, said in her own post: “He has not been seen or heard from in over three weeks. He is… a hard person to miss. He was last seen in Guerneville but is known to frequent many spots in Sonoma County. Please keep a look out for him.” (Rhiannon tells me that a missing person’s report has been filed, but I haven’t seen anything official from police yet.) One of Sonoma County’s most famous blues musicians, Charlie Musselwhite, commented on Facebook: “We used to communicate regularly and then he just disappeared and I’ve been wondering what happened and haven’t heard a thing.” Sky’s sister Valerie is asking anyone with information about his possible whereabouts to call her at (707) 703-0084. For decades, Sky has been a regular gigger at music venues across the county, oftentimes playing blues harmonica and singing alongside guitarist Derek Irving. But friends say online that he’s been “struggling” for a while. For what it’s worth, a few years ago, Sky set up a GoFundMe to help make ends meet. “I’ve got the blues because I done went n’ injured my harmonica holdin’ hand!” he wrote on the fundraising page. “The Doc told me it’ll probably be around 6-8 weeks of squeellin’ and healin’ until I can put it back to work again. That also means that now I’m outa work until then too. See it aint just my harmonica holdin’ hand that I done messed up, but it’s my nail holdin’ while I hammer-it-in hand, my ladder holdin’ while I’m climbin’ it hand, my bolt holdin’ while I’m wrenchin’ it hand.. You get the idea. So I’m pretty much outa work and outa luck until my hand gets aaall healed up. And I guess that also means I’m pretty much outa dough ’till then too. Now if it weren’t for me  tearin’ up my mic & harmonica holdin’ hand, I’d probly be workin’ on settin’ up a live gig right this very minute.  But I can’t even play my way outa the blues this time. If you’re the kinda person who’d buy me a cuppa joe when I was feelin’ down and out, well, here’s your chance..” (Source: Facebook Groups & Nic Alberico & Valerie Bird via Facebook & Sonny Lowe via Facebook & Rhiannon Guerrero via Facebook & North Bay Live Music & GoFundMe)

3) Another popular summer festival in the wine country has been canceled for 2024. (The first being the three-decade-old Bodega Seafood, Art & Wine Festival.) This time, the organizers of Napa Porchfest — a music festival that takes place on the porches of historic buildings across the City of Napa, beloved by locals and tourists alike — are reportedly calling off the event because they want to focus on other priorities, and the festival is a huge suck of bandwidth. Unlike the Bodega festival, though, there are pretty solid plans to bring Porchfest back in 2025. Here’s the whole deal, courtesy of the Napa Valley Register: “Napa County Landmarks said the group is looking to hand over the work to some of its longtime organizers, giving the festival new life in 2025. Architect Juliana Inman, a then board-member of the nonprofit, was the driving force behind its 2011 debut. The group has been the main sponsor of the event every year since, except for a pandemic-related pause in 2020. The 2023 event, held on the last Sunday in July, drew more than 10,000 people to downtown Napa and areas surrounding Fuller Park. Hundreds of musicians performed outside 73 homes that year, the largest grouping in its history, Micah Malan, the festival’s music director, said at the time. The cost of admission is zero, similar to dozens of similar ones that happen across the country — each taking its inspiration from the one that started in Ithaca, New York in 2007. Putting it on, though, is not free. Napa County Landmarks Executive Director Christine Madrid French said the group decided to move away from the event to better focus on its core mission of ‘historic preservation advocacy, policy and education.’ She said she was tasked with focusing and reinvigorating the group’s mission when she took over in August of last year — and moving away from Porchfest was necessary to do just that.” So now, the Landmarks group is trying to set up a separate nonprofit to run Porchfest in the future. Anyone with interest in donating or sponsoring “can send a note to in**@***********st.org,” the Register reports. “And, for those who don’t want to wait for 2025, San Rafael is having its Porchfest in September.” (Source: North Bay Bohemian & Napa Porchfest & San Rafael Porchfest & Napa Valley Register; paywall)

2) And then, over in the City of Napa, we have the mysterious case of the sick kids in the choir room at Vintage High School. Investigators still don’t know why this happened, but during first period on Thursday, around 25 choir students found themselves struck by a sudden nausea, all at once. One Vintage High kid, the town crier of the situation, told TV news reporters: “A couple students had passed out and one was throwing up and everyone just came inside and started getting people out and putting them into a different room to test everyone.” Five of the students reportedly had to be taken to the hospital — they’re all OK now, reports say — and the rest of the student body had to shelter in place for a spell. The remainder of the school day at Vintage High was obviously shot. “We heard that there was like a SWAT team, police and firefighters were there and so everyone was just kind of chaotic really,” that same town-crier student tells ABC7, “and people were calling their parents wanting to go home because we didn’t know what was going on.” Originally the leading theory was a possible gas or carbon monoxide leak, but local fire officials and PG&E inspectors have ruled that out. “The fire department, police department and PG&E have deemed not only the choir room but the band room that is adjacent to it and the entire building as safe for use,” Julie Bordes, a spokesperson for the Napa Valley Unified School District told reporters Friday. So the coast is clear, but the case of the mass mystery illness at Vintage High goes unsolved for now… (Source: ABC7)

1) The community saga of the fishing boat stuck in the shallows at South Salmon Creek Beach off the Sonoma County coast has taken a tragic turn. A full week after the 57-foot boat from San Francisco, named Aleutian Storm, ran aground on the way to the Bodega Bay harbor during a crabbing mission — despite repeated attempts to pull it back out to sea, and glimmers of hope along the way — our local Coast Guard station called off the operation Friday, ahead of the incoming storm. And last night, “the boat was torn apart” in the wild waves, says Bodega-based photographer Jerry Dodrill, who’s been hanging around and helping for days — meanwhile documenting the whole ordeal. The Press Democrat reported Friday: “Listing toward the ocean and battered so repeatedly by waves that a large gash has appeared on its starboard side, in the wheelhouse and through the deck, the 57-ton fishing vessel is now so weighted down with water and sand, and its structural integrity so compromised, that federal officials determined it no longer could be moved. The incident now shifts out of federal jurisdiction and becomes the responsibility of vessel Capt. Chris Fox, his insurers and their contractors to arrange for salvage operations under the oversight of California State Parks, which owns the beach.” To facilitate that, state park officials decided to close the beach to the public. “The operation will require the use of heavy equipment and will require a large safety buffer for the operators,” park officials said. “The closure will include all State Park lands from Salmon Creek extending south to Mussel Point.” The mission to save the boat over the past week became a real community affair, involving dozens of local volunteers — including photographers drawn by the spectacle, crews sent by response agencies, environmentalists concerned about the 1,500 pounds of diesel fuel reported to be on board, and local fishermen whose hearts went out to this San Francisco fishing crew watching their livelihood viscerally beaten down by ocean waves. In the words of Dick Ogg, a “veteran fisherman who is president of the Bodega Bay Fishermen’s Marketing Association” and spoke to the PD: “If you lost your house, if you lost your means of making a living, all of that is similar to what’s happening. Chris works so hard. He’s such a good person and it’s just devastating to see something like this happen.” And photographer Jerry Dodrill wrote on Facebook last Wednesday: “There are so many moving parts to this story, beyond the simple circumstances how the boat ended up on the beach, or that it is in a marine protected area that is also a much loved state park, in a spot that is critical habitat for endangered Snowy Plover that is currently in nesting season. There are politics, agencies, fishing communities, loss of property, livelihoods, and the human tragedy of watching a beautiful dream come unraveled.” As for the environmental aspect: Crews and volunteers have reportedly been combing the beach for debris, and the government agencies involved say they’ve been monitoring the potential hazmat situation throughout. According to the PD, a small amount of the boat’s fuel “leaked from a compromised tank” at one point, and crews were able to extract another small amount. “A biologist with State Parks monitored the beach throughout the week and checked several birds but found none fouled by oil,” the paper reported. But it seems like it’s been an ongoing struggle — and I’m not sure what happened to the fuel when the boat tore apart last night. I’ll keep you posted. (Source: Cal Spill Watch & KRON4 & Jerry Dodrill Photography & Jerry Dodrill Photography via Facebook & Sonoma Sheriff via Facebook & North Bay Bohemian & Press Democrat; paywall)

Who even is Sebastopol without any big apple-squishing warehouses? We’re about to find out. The last remaining “commercial apple processing facility” left in town — the last in the whole county, in fact — is moving up to the City of Sunnyside in Washington state next year, where it’s cheaper to do business, KRCB news radio and the Sonoma County Gazette are reporting. The apple company we’re losing is century-old Manzana Products, whose giant brick plant you may have spotted along Green Valley Road. “For Manzana, the company that’s helped keep Sebastopol’s famous Gravenstein apple alive, their 103rd year in business will be their last in Graton,” KRCB reports. More from the Gazette: “The company cited dwindling local apple production and the high cost of transporting apples from Washington state to produce its apple cider, apple sauce and apple cider vinegar. According to Manzana Products CEO Andy Kay, the company currently trucks the majority of its apples from Washington. ‘We can no longer bear the costs to transport 80 percent of our apples,’ Kay said, adding that one-fourth of what the company currently pays for apples is purely for transportation cost. In addition, Kay noted the high cost of doing business in California is eating into the company’s bottom line. ‘Business in California, especially in Sebastopol, is expensive,’ Kay said. ‘The cost of inflation and labor availability is making it difficult to stay here.'” All logistics aside, the Gazette reports, company leaders also recognizes the “lasting impact” their move will have on the community. Kay tells the paper: “Manzana is part of Sonoma County’s rich agricultural history. Many of our employees are descendants of or related to multiple generations of family members who worked at Manzana.” To soften the blow, Manzana’s owners have reportedly offered their 180 employees the option to move to Washington and work for them there instead. They’ve also agreed to keep buying apples from local growers through 2029, so they have time to find other buyers. (Source: KRCB & Sonoma County Gazette)

Judging by three fat subpoenas that federal investigators just handed to Napa County government officials, the feds seem to suspect something majorly fishy has been going on within the county. TBH I’m having trouble parsing through all the legal jargon, but from what I can tell, the FBI and federal prosecutors are looking for inside info on the Upper Valley Waste Management Agency, which handles trash disposal for most of the upper Napa Valley and oversees the beleaguered Clover Flat landfill outside Calistoga (long plagued by accusations of crappy working conditions and bad environmental practices); a plan to revamp the county’s airport for private planes; and dozens of other county dealings with powerful local businesses, people and entities — including top wineries, sports moguls and a mysterious LLC reportedly involved in making a controversial land deal for one county supervisor’s family. Local wine-industry reporter W. Blake Gray, who has some great insight into this whole thing on his “wine-searcher” blog, writes: “The subpoena about the dump is the most detailed and, unlike the other two, it was sent to the Napa County Public Works Department. It appears to be more about the process of awarding the contract than about the dump itself. The contract was reviewed in 2020 by the county after a series of mishaps, including the dump catching fire 13 times in eight years, the release of contaminated water into a Napa River tributary, and mishandling of radioactive waste leading to a worker being hospitalized.” And the San Francisco Chronicle reports: “The reason for the federal action is not known, but many of the wineries and vintners named in the subpoena have links to or have donated money to Alfredo Pedroza, an embattled politician who was at the center of a vineyard development controversy. The subpoena orders a representative of the county to appear before a federal grand jury in San Francisco Wednesday, and demands that it produce ‘any and all documents’ related to 40 individuals, businesses and entities — a list that includes some of the most elite names in the Napa Valley wine world.” The Napa Valley Register notes that “all three subpoenas mention federal grand juries,” and explains that a grand jury’s “principal function is to determine whether or not there is probable cause to believe that one or more persons committed a certain federal offense within the venue of the district court.” Also: “A federal grand jury decides whether a person or persons should be indicted for an alleged federal crime and stand trial. It doesn’t determine guilt or innocence, but rather probable cause.” When a reporter from the Register asked a county spokeswoman whether the county has “reason to think it is the subject of federal investigations,” she answered: “Napa County is only the holder of information regarding the three federal subpoenas.” So take all that for what you will! (Source: Wine-Searcher & North Bay Bohemian & Napa Valley Register & SF Chronicle & Press Democrat & Press Democrat; paywall)

In the last issue of the newsletter, you might have seen a photo of the large fishing boat that got stuck on the beach at Salmon Creek, along the Sonoma County coast, in the wee hours Saturday morning. The whole crew was rescued in a huge operation involving three agencies — the California Highway Patrol air division, the Sonoma County Fire District and the U.S. Coast Guard — before the sun even had a chance to rise. But dealing with the boat itself has turned into a much longer-term ordeal — one that may also now be threatening the local ecosystem, given that around 1,500 gallons of diesel fuel are on board. As of last night, the “58-foot, 57-ton steel vessel” was still stranded, according to the Press Democrat. Enhancing all this nautical drama is the fact that the boat’s name is literally “Aleutian Storm.” Jonny Jackson, that Indigenous crab fisherman in Bodega Bay who I mentioned few newsletters ago, posted on social media Saturday night: “Help is needed to get this boat back in the ocean where it belongs. Anyone that can meet at 6-730 in Bodega with a shovel to help dig out a channel so boats can pull her back out, please help. To be clear, this is not our boat, but This is someone’s livelihood and appreciation will be shown in some free crab to anyone that can help.” The next afternoon, he gave a defeated update: “Unfortunately no glory today even with 60 people coming out to help, the tow line broke twice. It was hard to see it happen as you can tell before the line broke it was coming.” A rep for the Coast Guard tells the Press Democrat that crews made three attempts to tow the Aleutian out to open water on Sunday and Monday — all of which failed. So by yesterday, they instead started focusing on pumping the fuel out of the beached boat during low tide. It’s now “listing profoundly to one side, with waves crashing over the side, making it dangerous to board,” the PD reports — but the boat “moves less at low tide, offering an opportunity for salvage crews to locate the fuel tanks and begin vacuuming diesel to receptacles on the beach.” Coast Guard officials say they’re planning on heading back out first thing again Wednesday to remove more fuel. Then, once “the risk of pollution is resolved,” they can finally start talking about how to get the actual boat out of there. (Source: Sonoma County Fire District via Facebook & Pacific Native Fisheries via Facebook & Mike McGuire via Facebook & Sonoma Magazine & Press Democrat; paywall)

We’ve got some more local mountain lion content for you today, cause let’s be honest — it’s irresistible. In what I cannot 100 percent guarantee is not a sneaky guerrilla ad for the Ring home-security camera, a new Ring video provided to the Sonoma Index-Tribune shows a well-known local cat strolling confidently through a front yard in the Sonoma Valley neighborhood of Boyes Hill, early on the morning of Super Bowl Sunday. The Tribune reports that Phil Jensen, the guy who lives there and owns the Ring camera, is calling the lion “Queen of Boyes Hill.” More from the paper: “In the video, two bulbs of light come eerily closer toward Jensen’s door until light from his home reveals them to be the eyes of a large mountain lion. The mountain lion then turns right and saunters off into the night. The mountain lion was identified as P4 from the Living with Lions project by Audubon Canyon Ranch. The Sonoma Valley feline is a 12- to-13-year-old female that lives in the rugged hill east of Highway 12.” (Source: Sonoma Index-Tribune; paywall)