A couple dozen individuals gathered in the Market Square parking lot in downtown Richmond on Friday to join the “Occupy” movement that’s been sweeping the country since individuals began staking out Liberty Square in Manhattan in mid-September.
Richmond residents, business owners and conservationists showed up in droves at the City Council chambers Thursday night to give the Planning Commission an earful regarding the fourth draft of the city’s major planning document and its accompanying final environmental analysis. In all, 59 speaker cards were submitted, and most residents expressed concerns about air quality, job growth, transportation, development and especially land use. “You can imagine that in such a city there is going to be quite a bit of…
The Richmond Oilers took one on the chin Friday night, when the Hercules Titans consistently ran the ball, scoring early and often in a game the Titans took 50 to 14. Both teams scored running touchdowns in the first quarter, and the score was even until Hercules snagged its second touchdown in the second quarter. Richmond tried an onside kick, but their plans backfired, and the ball consistently bounced Hercules’ way on several occasions. The Oilers’ defense was no match…
Corey Tufts and his best friend, Wayne Pierson, founded the produce-delivery service Golden Gate Organics earlier this year. The two Coast Guard members source pesticide-free fruits and vegetables…
A 49-year-old East Contra Costa County woman is recovering after being hospitalized from the first confirmed case of West Nile Virus in the county this year. And although no cases have been reported in Richmond, the weekend’s rainfall has likely created additional breeding areas for the insects, and residents should be on alert, according to health officials. “Every year is different, and we can’t predict West Nile activity because of weather, because of how much water we get—it’s just very…
Dozens of Kaiser employees from the National Union of Healthcare Workers and the California Nurses Association hit the streets Thursday in front of Richmond’s Kaiser location to picket proposed cuts to NUHW employees’ healthcare and retirement benefits.
If a natural disaster were to strike, there’s a good chance West Contra Costa County residents—like those in any place around the nation—could be left waiting. Waiting for food, waiting for water, waiting for basic needs as emergency personnel scramble to find survivors and assess the immediate damage. The threat of disaster is especially real in coastal Richmond and its surrounding towns, which are located on the Hayward Fault and are at risk of tsunami, industrial disasters and especially earthquakes….
Forty Richmond Kaiser employees plan to join more than 20,000 Kaiser workers statewide in picketing Thursday to protest administrators’ proposed plan to reduce healthcare and retirement benefits for union workers. About 4,000 Kaiser caregivers represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers — including 1,500 psychologists, social workers and optical workers in Northern California — face benefit cuts under the proposed contract, said Leighton Woodhouse, NUHW’s director of communications. The crowds are expected to be largest at Kaiser headquarters in…
Vieng Say Lasey Song Kham was stoic as he pulled up his T-shirt sleeve at the last community Tdap clinic in San Pablo last week. A Contra Costa County registered nurse gently swabbed his shoulder before flicking the syringe and poking the small needle into his upper arm, a process that took only a second but could make a big difference when it comes to protecting Lasey Song Kham and others from contracting pertussis, a contagious disease that killed ten…
On any given Friday, Victoria Williams serves up to 100 people at the McGlothen Temple Church of God in Christ. They leave with full bellies and a bag loaded with groceries. The 86 year old, known as “Mother Williams,” has spent every Thursday in the temple’s North Richmond kitchen for nine years, prepping food she collects from the food bank and wherever else she can. But the temple is busier than usual this week, as Williams has 1,000 bags of food to…
Graddye Mae Payne, a longtime matriarch of North Richmond Missionary Baptist Church, went by many names in her 97 years: Mrs. Payne, Dr. G.M. Payne and Auntie Graddye among them. But even though she had no children, she was known to most simply as Mother Payne. Scores of church members and Payne’s loved ones came together Tuesday to remember a woman marked by wisdom, a passion for teaching, and getting deep-down into her Bible. Payne, a former Berkeley resident and…