Sonoma County is on the clock once again concerning garbage. The landfill’s current capacity is scheduled to reach its limit in September — unless the county can come to an agreement on a complex, long-term deal.

Last week, we encouraged the Santa Rosa City Council to make the annexation of Roseland one of its top priorities for the year. We weren’t alone

City officials are claiming that they can keep the names of the candidates secret under the “deliberative process exemption.” What possible deliberations will be occurring between now and Wednesday morning?

Here’s a copy of the Public Records Act request that we filed on Thursday afternoon. I’ll let you know what the response is. We hope to be able to report later today on who has filed to fill this vacancy on the Santa Rosa City Council.

Apparently city officials believe that keeping the candidates a secret will somehow protect the integrity of the process. Baloney. How is this not a violation of the California Public Records Act?

Let’s just say that when you’re already in the far right-hand lane, you don’t expect to see another car outside the passenger window.

Given how much is riding on this, why isn’t the county giving the public more of a chance to find out whether this new three-year labor contract provides the savings the county needs to get out of its pension/budget problems?

The answer to that question may hinge on the vote of newcomer Erin Carlstrom. Wysocky did not endorse Carlstrom during the election and clearly was not happy with her decision to forge an alliance with Ernesto Olivares during the campaign.

As of 7:30 p.m., CNN has Gov. Mitt Romney ahead in electoral votes 158 to 147. And he is leading in the national popular vote 51 percent to 48 percent. But overall it does not look good for the GOP candidate.

The first results from California show strong support for President Obama and education funding. But it should come as no surprise. These are the votes of students.