The Sonoma County Human Services Department and local nonprofits have launched a resource hub that quickly connects older adults and people with disabilities to an array of critical services. The Aging & Disability Resource Hub simplifies access to health, transportation and nutrition services offered by federal, state and local government agencies and their nonprofit partners. To access the hub, call (707) 565-INFO (4636) or go to www.socoadrh.org and click on the chat icon to start a conversation with a social worker. Assistance is available for older adults, people with disabilities, their family members, caregivers, social workers and direct service providers who need help identifying and accessing support services. The Aging & Disability Resource Hub is a collaboration of the county Human Services Department and the Disability Services & Legal Center, a Santa Rosa-based nonprofit. In Sonoma County, 28% of residents are 60 years and older and 25% have a disability. Many need similar types of support services to help them remain in their homes and live independently. To aid this population and their caregivers, the county and partner agencies provide a host of services, including food assistance, case management, transportation coordination, caregiver support and more. Trained staff at the new hub will help connect residents and their caregivers with resources they are eligible for. Sonoma County was just designated an Aging and Disability Resource Center by the California Department of Aging. This designation comes with $348,102 in state support this year to fund four core services offered by the hub: Enhanced Information and Referral Services: Comprehensive information and referrals to services that support older adults and people with disabilities. Options Counseling: Assistance in identifying an individual’s goals and unique needs, then connecting them to public and private-funded long-term services and supports. Short-Term Service Coordination: Assistance gaining access to public services and supports for individuals at risk of placement in a nursing home. Transition Services: Assistance for people who are currently in a licensed care facility and wish to return home or move into a community-based setting. The Aging & Disability Resource Hub has developed partnerships with local organizations including Petaluma People Services Center and Earle Baum Center of the Blind. The hub will be expanding its network by partnering with many other community organizations this year.

Today is National Manatee Appreciation Day! the cute, huge 1,200 pound sea cows spend their days munching on sea grass, they have no natural enemies, other than man. Manatee Appreciation Day was started by the world’s leading manatee conservation organization, Save the Manatee Club, founded in 1981 by singer Jimmy Buffet and former U.S. senator Bob Graham.

Elon Musk is making news again, but not about Tesla. Musk and the singer Grimes welcomed a baby girl via surrogate in December, and originally named her EXA DARK SIDERAEL MUSK.... but have now decided to change the 4 month old girls name to Y. Yes, just the letter Y, or Why. They wanted to use a question mark, but the government, thankfully, would not recognize that.

Pepsi is turning 125 years old this year, and to celebrate, they are changing their logo. The current red, white and blue logo has been in place since 2008. The new one harkens back to the classic 1970's and 1980's, with stacked red white and blue with the word PEPSI in the center written over the white stripe. The new logo will start appearing by this fall. {photo courtesy of CNN}

The Federal Reserve’s bank supervisors warned Silicon Valley Bank’s management as early as the fall of 2021 of risks stemming from its unusual business model. A Fed official said the interest rate model the bank used “was not at all aligned with reality.”

Actress Melissa Joan Hart says she was near Nashville’s Covenant School during Monday’s deadly shooting of six people, including three children, and helped some students get away from the scene. She says her kids go to a school right next door. She helped a class of kindergartners across a busy highway that were climbing out of the woods, that were trying to escape the shooter situation at their school. Hart is best known for her role as Sabrina the Teenage Witch. {photo courtesy of Variety}

He was just trying to guarantee he would get a final paycheck, that is what Jose Humberto Martinez told Napa County Sheriff's Deputies when they arrested him with $10,000 worth of wine in his van. He was a delivery driver, and the van and the wine belonged to his employer. Now he has no van, no wine and no paycheck.. .but he does have a jail cell to sit in after he was arrested for Grand Theft.

Some sad news to report... the body of Larry Atchison, the 64-year old missing man from Santa Rosa has been found. A woman walking along Fawn Hollow Lane in Bennett Valley discovered him Monday afternoon. He had been missing since February 27th. Foul play is not suspected.

The Graton Fire Protection District, in collaboration with the Sonoma County Department of Emergency Management and Jody James, L.Ac., will host a disaster preparedness fair with interactive activities for adults, seniors and children on April 1 at the Graton Fire Department, 3750 Gravenstein Highway North, in Sebastopol. The fair will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will feature activities including household fire safety lessons, CPR skills, trauma relief techniques and tips on preparing for a disaster. There will be a bouncy house for kids, preparedness games and crafts, giveaways for a go bag, displays of emergency vehicles and the Henry 1 helicopter. The disaster preparedness fair is free to attend and will have emergency kit items and demonstrations available at no cost. First aid and emergency kit resources will be available for purchase. This is a family friendly event and will feature booths from sponsoring organizations including the Sonoma County Department of Emergency Management, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, Graton and Sonoma County Fire Districts, California Highway Patrol, Cal Fire, American Red Cross, HALTER Project animal rescue and more. Information and demonstrations will be provided in English and Spanish. Attendees are encouraged to bring a friend or neighbor and carpool if possible as on-site parking is limited. For more information about disaster preparedness, visit SoCoEmergency.org or view the Graton Fire Department informational handbook at https://www.gratonfire.com/preparation.html.

Walt Disney Co. this week begins its plan to cut 7,000 jobs as part of a wider effort to rejuvenate the Burbank entertainment giant's finances and reach profitability at its streaming business. The layoffs are spread throughout the company, affecting roles in the units formerly known as Disney General Entertainment and Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, as well as corporate positions and jobs in the theme parks, experiences and consumer products business.

92-year old Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch as about to get married for the firth time...to a Petaluma Native. Ann Lesley Smith, who is 66, graduated from Petaluma High School in 1975 as Ann Lesley Krohn. She previously married lawyer John B. Huntington, a scion of the Huntington railroad family, , and in 2005 she married country singer Chester Smith. She and Murdoch apparently share conservative views and look forward to spending the second half of their lives together. {photo courtesy of GH Gossip}

California lawmakers on Monday approved the nation's first penalty for price gouging at the pump, voting to give regulators the power to punish oil companies for profiting from gas price spikes like we saw last summer. The California Energy Commission will now decide whether to penalize oil companies for price gouging.

There has been an arrest in the shooting at a party in Santa Rosa Saturday night that left one person dead and one person injured. Sonoma County Sheriff's deputies arrested 20-year old David Morlaes of Vallejo on murder and attempted murder charges. About 100 people attended the party in a warehouse on Hall Road where the shooting took place.

There are more details coming out this morning about the killing of six people in Nashville at a Christian School. Police identified the attacker as 28- year old Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a transgender man who was assigned female at birth. Hale entered the Covenant school with an AR-style rifle, and AR-style pistol, and another handgun. Three nine year old students and three 60 year old adults were killed. Police say Hale had a map of the school and potentially planned to attack a second site, but abandon those plans.

California’s jobless rate nudged 0.1% higher in the first month of the year, despite adding 96,700 non-farm payroll jobs in January. The statewide unemployment rate in January was 4.2%, according to data released this month by the California Employment Development Department. Despite the slight increase, the rate is a full percentage point lower than a year ago this time when it was 5.2%. EDD officials chalked the increase up to the state reaching its full jobs recovery from the pandemic earlier than expected—in June 2022 rather than October 2022—and now the employment rate is settling into more marginal ups and downs. Also affecting the numbers were a decrease in 2,400 jobs in the agriculture industry, bringing those statewide totals down to 434,400 for the month. Sonoma County’s unemployment rate is at 3.6%, out of a labor force of 248,600; Napa County is at 3.9% out of 70,700 workers. Marin County’s rate is among the lowest in the North Bay at 3.1%, with a labor force of 130,800. The industries that saw the biggest month-over employment additions across the state were in government (46,000), hospitality and leisure (20,800), trade/transportation/utilities (19,900), education and health (11,000) and business services (9,500). The full report can be viewed at edd.ca.gov.

Seven people are dead and several others are injured after an explosion at a chocolate factory Friday in West Reading, Pennsylvania, one person was found alive inside what was left of the destroyed building. Authorities are trying to figure out what caused the massive explosion but currently have no idea of the cause. {photo courtesy of NPR}

Elon Musk said Twitter is now worth about $20 billion, according to an email he sent the company’s employees Friday, a huge drop from the $44 billion that he paid to buy the company in October. Musk warned workers that Twitter remained in a precarious financial position and, at one point, had been four months away from running out of money. However, Musk also said in the email that he believed that Twitter could someday be worth $250 billion.

North Carolina-based First Citizens has purchased Silicon Valley Bank, the tech industry-focused financial institution that collapsed earlier this month. Customers of Silicon Valley will automatically become customers of First Citizens, which is headquartered in Raleigh.

The Healdsburg City Council will continue to mull over a proposed three unit reduction to the North Village Housing Project by delaying a vote until it's April 17th session. The development is mixed use with four parcels that include senior living, 108 room hotel, commercial and 80 apartments. Developer Comstock Housing wants to reduce the number of low income housing units.

[CLIP] Stand back indeed... if you have tickets to tonight's Stevie Nick's concert at the Chace Center in San Francisco or the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento on Sunday.... your concerts have been postponed. One of her band members has COVID-19, so those two shows are off. No date yet has been announced for the rescheduled shows. {photo courtesy of Fox40}