OK, I admit it. I’m one of the people hauling groceries to my car in plastic and, occasionally, paper bags. I don’t feel especially guilty about it, either.

Petaluma City Council members will be asked Monday whether the city should urge North Bay legislators to reject the governor’s gaming agreement with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, who plan a huge casino near Rohnert Park. What do you think the council should do?

Sonoma County grape growers aiming to convert forested hillsides with neat rows of vineyards will have to prove their projects won’t damage local waterways under draft regulations released Thursday. The new rules, proposed by Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner Tony Linegar, would prohibit tree removal on the steepest of slopes.

Facing some vocal opposition and a hearing before Sonoma County supervisors, a Marin County land management firm has agreed to conduct a full environmental review of its plans for a ranch near the mouth of the Petaluma River. The project, which would elevate farmland near the bay, is a potential windfall for the company headed by Marin investor Skip Berg, which is paid to dispose of the soil that is dredged from the bay each year to maintain shipping channels.

Opponents and supporters of the proposed Dutra Materials asphalt plant south of Petaluma are set to have their date in court Friday. A lawsuit challenging approval of the project, one of the most controversial land-use issues in Sonoma County, will be the focus of a civil court hearing. What should the judge do?

The county Water Agency has a responsibility to assure the Russian River remains healthy and sustainable, says Brenda Adelman, chairwoman of the Russian River Watershed Protection Committee. She says there are many questions about its plan to manage the estuary, where the river meets the Pacific Ocean.

Some people would have you believe that the Sonoma County Water Agency is going to build a dam made of sand at the mouth of the Russian River while polluting river water and preventing visitors from using beautiful Goat Rock State Beach. Supervisor Efren Carrillo says nothing could be further from the truth.

Efren Carrillo, chairman of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, has come out swinging against a winemaker with a recent history of controversial tree removals. The winemaker, Paul Hobbs, in turn says he’s being unfairly pilloried, but he’s facing complications beyond Carrillo’s withering words.

More than 200 privately owned travel trailers at Lawson’s Landing must be removed within five years, the California Coastal Commission decided on a split vote Wednesday in San Rafael. The plan will allow the Lawson family, which has owned the property south of Dillon Beach at the mouth of Tomales Bay since the 1920s, to continue their business, under specific conditions.

Lawson’s Landing, a blue-collar resort owned by the Lawson family since the 1920s, is a rarity in two regards: an unpermitted development in an environmentally sensitive area of sand dunes and wetlands and a low-cost recreational site on a glorious coastline.The state Coastal Commission is considering a plan that would Lawson’s Landing to remain in business, but in a way that preserves open space and limits when and how people can use their own year-around trailers.