Two burned-out downtown Sonora buildings, eyesores for more than a year, are finally coming down.

The City of Sonora issued demolition permits this month to property owners of Bombay Indian Cuisine on Washington Street and an apartment complex on Stewart Street. 

After focusing its efforts on retaining and helping local businesses, the Tuolumne County Economic Development Authority is shifting some focus. 

TCEDA Executive Director Larry Cope told the Tuolumne County 

Years-old discontent about a policy long chided as Calaveras’ “40 acres and a mule” and planning for the Valley Springs area were voiced at a public hearing Tuesday on the latest draft land use map in the ongoing update of the county’s General Plan land use guide document.

In 2007, the county Board of Supervisors voted to enact a policy strongly disfavoring subdivisions leaving parcels of less than 40 acres without public water and sewer connections.

The county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved contracts for design or environmental work on projects to replace vehicle bridges that county officials say are not up to standard.

The projects are primarily funded with federal dollars, with some local matches, according to the county’s Community Resources Agency.

Chemotherapy patients throughout Calaveras County can receive care closer to home with the opening of the Mark Twain Medical Center’s new cancer center.

Up and running for about two months, the 3,000-square-foot office adjacent to the main hospital building in San Andreas, hosted a grand opening ceremony Tuesday.

PUBLIC MEETING: Summerville Union High School District Board of Education, 5:30 p.m. Thursday, school library, 17555 Tuolumne Road, Tuolumne. 

A Summerville High School parent will address the school board Thursday on what he describes as “extremely severe” bullying that drove his son to the brink of suicide. 

Sonora resident Al Dieste said his son, Beto Dieste, a Summerville High School freshman, has endured aggressive harassment on campus for several months and was the target of a “Hate Beto” club devoted to bullying him. 

A Sonora woman was arrested Monday on a felony warrant and drug charges.

Sonora police were patrolling near Highway 49 and Pesce Way when they saw Roxann Tracy, 30, sitting along the side of a business.

Fewer monarch butterflies have been spotted in California over the past decade, possibly due to habitat destruction and climate warming, entomologists say.

The Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count showed 1 million fewer butterflies at counting sites across the western United States in 2011 than 1997. 

PUBLIC MEETING: Merced Wild and Scenic River Plan meeting, 5-8 p.m. Wednesday, Tuolumne County Library Groveland branch.

Yosemite National Park on Wednesday will hold its sole Tuolumne County public-input meeting on the Merced Wild and Scenic River Plan, which would rework many Yosemite National Park operations in an effort to protect the Merced River.

The Groveland event, at the Tuolumne County branch library, is one of the last of 10 public meetings scheduled around the state by the National Park Service to gather input.

The Tuolumne Utilities District is trying to collect on a wholesale water company that has racked up a six-figure debt in unpaid fees.

The utility district has agreed to a settlement and payment plan through which the Sonora Water Company will pay off $106,585.49 in past-due water charges with interest. The small company purchases water from TUD at a wholesale rate to serve residents between Sonora and Jamestown in Mill VIlla Estates, Mill Villa Manor and other subdivisions.