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THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2019 • SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA • PRESSDEMOCRAT.COM WINNER OF THE 2018 PULITZER PRIZE SANTA ROSA High 74, Low 53 THE WEATHER, C8 Advice B7 Business B8 Comics B6 Crossword B7 Editorial A6 Horoscopes B5 Lotto A2 Movies B5 Nation-World B1 Obituaries B3 Smith A3 Sports C1 ©2019 The Press Democrat INSIDE COMMEMORATIVE POSTER: Show your support for the Golden State Warriors as they compete for the title in the 2019 NBA Playoffs. / C1 ARE WARRIORS READY FOR LEONARD? » Barber says Toronto’s forward is NBA gold standard Golden State has to match. C3 WINERY WAREHOUSE BURNS IN WINDSOR » Officials say blaze at Notre Vue Estate facility likely sparked by staining rags. A3 NEW OWNERS, NEW DIRECTION » SR’s Third Street Aleworks partners hope to make most of brand’s roots in city’s beer scene . B3 Mueller: Trump not in clear Cannabis Cup giving county economic boost Thousands of marijuana en- thusiasts are returning to the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa this weekend for the two-day Cannabis Cup NorCal festival held by counterculture media company High Times. Expected to draw about 4,000 people attending each day, the event is among four large cannabis festivals and trade shows at the fairgrounds this year expected to bring thou- sands of visitors to the area. They’re paying sales taxes, staying in hotel rooms, eating in restaurants and otherwise spending money here. Joining events like the Iron- man triathlon race, the Gran- fondo bicycle ride and the Rus- sian River Brewing Co.’s Pliny the Younger special beer re- lease, these events are increas- ingly providing economic boosts to the region, highlighting the potential for tourism focused on Sonoma County’s place with- in California’s newly legalized cannabis industry. “Cannabis events became a revenue driver of us,” said Raissa de la Rosa, Santa Rosa’s economic development manag- er. “The sales tax revenue from these events is really good.” The 2018 Emerald Cup, WASHINGTON — Special coun- sel Robert Mueller said Wednesday that his office could neither clear nor accuse President Donald Trump of obstructing justice, leaving room for Congress to make a call where he would not and fueling impeachment demands among some Democrats. In his first public remarks on the case since he concluded his investi- gation, Mueller said that if his office “had had confidence that the presi- dent clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” and noted that the Constitution “requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing.” But if Mueller was trying to sug- gest that Democrats could initiate impeachment proceedings, he also seemed to dash any hopes they might have had that he would be their star witness, ready and willing to detail new and unflattering information his office had uncovered about Trump. The special counsel — who noted he was closing up shop and formally re- signing from the Justice Department — said that he hoped the news con- ference would be his last public com- ments and that if he were compelled to testify before Congress, he would not speak beyond what he wrote in his SPECIAL COUNSEL » Remarks on obstruction stokes partisan infighting, impeachment calls By MATT ZAPOTOSKY, DEVLIN BARRETT AND FELICIA SONMEZ WASHINGTON POST TURN TO MUELLER » PAGE A5 By JULIE JOHNSON THE PRESS DEMOCRAT TURN TO CANNABIS » PAGE A5 CAROLYN KASTER / ASSOCIATED PRESS Special counsel Robert Mueller speaks Wednesday at the Department of Justice in Washington. BIG EVENTS THAT BRING IN BIG BUCKS FOR COUNTY Three annual events in Sonoma Coun- ty generate a major economic windfall. $20 MILLION 2 Ironman triathlons $17 MILLION Emerald Cup $4 MILLION Russian River Brewing Co.’s Pliny the Younger annual craſt beer release PHOTOS BY BETH SCHLANKER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT “We’re picking up where we left off,” says Willi’s Wine Bar owner Mark Stark, who dices ahi tuna while helping his staff prepare for the restaurant’s grand opening in its new location on Terrace Way in Santa Rosa. The restaurant’s original location burned down in the 2017 Tubbs fire. Willi’s beginning anew BELOVED WINE BAR RETURNS » Restaurant lost in 2017 fire comes back to life in new SR location with owners’ original mission in mind W hen Santa Rosa’s iconic Willi’s Wine Bar opened in 2002, owners Mark and Terri Stark described it as a place for “foie gras in flip-flops.” A year and a half after the flagship restaurant burned in the Tubbs fire, the restaurant reopens Thursday without the foie gras. Flip-flops, however, are still welcome. “We’re picking up where we left off,” Mark Stark said on Wednesday as on- lookers pressed their faces against the restaurant’s windows for a peek at the new 3,000-square-foot space in the Town and Country shopping center, less than 4 miles from their old location near Luther Burbank Center for the Arts. It was the most prominent Sonoma County restaurant destroyed in the fires and for the Starks had served as the road- house that launched their restaurant em- pire, which now includes six restaurants stretching from Santa Rosa to Healdsburg. Willi’s reopening stands as another benchmark in the fire recovery, a now 19-month period punctuated by loss, grief and persistence for thousands of fire sur- vivors — the Starks, as business owners, among them. On Wednesday, less than 24 hours left before opening day for Willi’s, Mark Stark Willi’s Wine Bar is reopeing in a redesigned 3,000-square- foot space, once occupied by Carmen’s Burger Bar and another store, in the Town and Country shopping center off Pacific Avenue in Santa Rosa. By HEATHER IRWIN THE PRESS DEMOCRAT TURN TO WILLI’S » PAGE A2 Insurers urged to extend coverage To pressure insurers and al- lay fears of 2017 wildfire sur- vivors, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara urged insurance companies to provide a third year of tempo- rary living expenses for them, as they contin- ue to rebuild houses amid construction delays. Lara on Tuesday night announced his request of home insur- ers during a closed-door meeting in Santa Rosa with a group of about 40 Sonoma County fire survivors, includ- ing block captains from local neighborhoods devastated by the fierce Tubbs fire in Octo- ber 2017. That fire, the worst in state history at the time, destroyed 5,334 homes county- wide. As of April 30, only 393 of those homes, or less than 10%, have been rebuilt. 2017 WILDFIRES » State official asks for extra year to close home policy gap By BILL SWINDELL THE PRESS DEMOCRAT TURN TO INSURERS » PAGE A2 Ricardo Lara
