Manjula Varghese

Locally Richmond: Move Around Fitness

Locally Richmond is an occasional series of profiles that highlights the small businesses that contribute to making Richmond a unique community.  The dark and treacherous battle with cancer leaves some people helpless and weak. For Sarita Evans, it put things into perspective. It reinforced in her the importance of her relationship with her daughter as well as the importance of her health. “I was very scared and I was a single parent and became very focused on trying to build a future for…

City forced to increase debt, rethink its finances

Last week, Richmond’s City Council faced a painful choice between paying a $30 million bond termination fee or taking on an extra $10 million in debt over the life of the bond. Neither of these options help the city handle its deficit, but council members opted for continuing payment through the life of the bond.

Fed up with gun violence, event encourages community change

All too often, gunfire and police sirens have formed the soundtrack at Richmond’s John F. Kennedy Park. It sounded different Saturday afternoon. When hip-hop blared through loudspeakers, and friends and family of veteran community organizer Elana Bolds celebrated “Put Down the Guns.” Bolds and community allies have organized the annual event for the last eight years. After singing at too many funerals and witnessing the suffering gun violence caused, Bolds said she decided to do something. “I was tired of…

Chevron legal skirmish shows no sign of ending

In the 22-year-old battle between members of the Ecuadorian Secoya tribe and Chevron Corp., both sides are claiming important victories within the past few weeks. But independent analysts say there is still no real end in sight. On Aug. 28, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled the Ecuadorian indigenous group has the legal right to sue Chevron’s subsidiary in Ontario involving decades of pollution in an area where Chevron formerly operated an oil field. One week later, H5, a California-based litigation…