Police combat rise in prescription drug abuse

Bottles of codine hanging from power lines

You won’t find a pair of shoes hanging from the power lines high above 8th and Lincoln in Central Richmond. Instead, orange and red cough syrup bottles dangle from ropes flung across the wires, a signal that hits of codeine are sold on this street.

Read More

Amendments to campaign disclosure law pass through first stage

Nearly a week after a judge criticized its campaign disclosure law, City Council considered making amendments Thursday to dial down what Councilmember Jim Rogers called the law’s aggressiveness. “I guess you could look at [the original ordinance] as a Cadillac,” Rogers said. “And this one here, I guess you could look at it as a…

Read More

Scientists announce research focus for LBNL

Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Richmond Bay Campus will focus on biosciences that affect energy production, environment, and human health scientists from the lab and the University of California said Thursday. The scientists explained the highlights of research projects to come for an audience of more than 100 people at the Memorial Auditorium.…

Read More

City defends campaign law in federal court

[Editor’s note: this story has been corrected from a previous version to note that the the ordinance requires the text reading “major funding from out-of-city contributors” to take up one-third of the disclosure section of the front page of a mailer. The disclosure section itself takes up one-quarter of the front page.] An anti-soda tax…

Read More

Ritterman hopes to raise money for soda tax campaign

In a country where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate roughly 90 million people are considered obese, some Richmond residents say that taxing soft drinks is an effective way to reverse the trend. On May 15, city council leaders In Richmond voted 5-2 to put a special tax on sodas on the November…

Read More

A Richmond council hopeful who dances to a different drum

mike raccoon eyes kinney

Mike “Raccoon Eyes” Kinney is not a typical candidate for Richmond city council. He wears 17 medicine bags around his neck and a beret on his head. Ask the lifelong Richmond resident why he’s running for office for the first time, and expect an impassioned soliloquy, with pitched intonations and kinetic gestures that cut through…

Read More

Men and Women of Purpose draw Richmond leaders to open house event

men and women of purpose

More than 120 people crowded into the parking lot of the Neighborhood House of North Richmond around noon Friday for music and food. They also learned more about the Men and Women of Purpose, the new community-based nonprofit a that offers programs aimed at reducing violence, recidivism, homelessness, drug abuse and chronic unemployment. “The turnout,…

Read More

Soda tax voted on to Richmond ballot

City council leaders In Richmond voted 5-2 on Tuesday night to put a special soda tax proposal on the November 6 ballot. The soda tax would add a one cent per ounce surcharge to soda and other sugary fruit drinks that contain less than ten percent juice.

Read More

Richmond City Council to consider soda tax ballot measure

A version of this story first appeared in the Contra Costa Times Richmond leaders hope to reduce consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in the city, and they want voters to approve a fee on local businesses’ sales of those products. The city council on Tuesday will consider placing a measure on the November 6 ballot asking…

Read More

Ritterman to step aside, field open for candidates for Richmond City Council

jeff ritterman marilyn langlois

Jeff Ritterman is out. Marilyn Langlois and Eduardo Martinez want in. The campaign kickoff event at the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA) downtown offices Sunday drew more than 120 people and featured speeches from this fall’s candidates for city office about platforms and accomplishments. But the biggest news was Councilman Ritterman’s public proclamation that he will…

Read More