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School Board Election 2012: Robert Studdiford

In eight years on the Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee, seven on the Citizens’ Budget Oversight Committee, and years on PTAs and coaching soccer, Robert Studdiford taught himself how the West Contra Costa County Unified School District system works.

Richmond rabbits hop to new homes

The House Rabbit Society is a no-kill shelter in Richmond. They save rabbits from around the area from being euthanized. When you walk in, it neither smells like a shelter, nor looks like one. With carpeted floors and bright open enclosures, it looks more like a rabbit hotel.

Oilers Win

On a cloudy, misty evening in Albany, nearly two years of waiting—and losing—finally ended. The Richmond Oilers bolted to a decisive win over the Albany Cougars — 38-18. The Oilers have long been plagued with a small varsity team, which gets smaller as the season wears on and players are sidelined due to injuries and grade problems. This night there were only 18 suited up to play, many of them took turns on offense and defense—making the long awaited victory…

Kennedy Eagles soar into first place

The Kennedy Eagles soared into first place in the league at their Homecoming game on Friday night, crushing the John Swett Indians 30-7. Late in the first quarter, the Eagles’ Takkarist Mckinley scored on a short run, putting Kennedy on the board. They failed to make the two point conversion, but they were up, 6-0. It stayed that way through much of the second quarter as each team failed to make third down conversions. A small but spirited Kennedy crowd…

City Council Election 2012: Tom Butt

In March 1970, Tom Butt, fresh out of serving in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Vietnam, chose to be discharged there. He mainly wanted to visit Angkor Wat, an architectural wonder in nearby Cambodia. Butt then continued a long “odyssey” back to the United States through Southeast Asia, across the Trans-Siberian Railway in the former Soviet Union, and through Europe. “The people you meet and the people you travel with are some of the things you remember the…

City Council Election 2012: Gary Bell

Gary Bell was the first person in his family to go to college, a star football player, and the youngest city council member ever elected in his hometown of Wichita, Kansas. But don’t ask the Richmond City Council candidate about his defeats. “Did you just use the defeated word with me?” he asks, his eyebrows arched incredulously. “Well, you lost the election, right?” I say, referring to his Richmond run in 2005. “Lost?” “Isn’t that what you just told me?…

Ortega sentenced for 32 years in Richmond High rape case

The first of six defendants in the Richmond High gang rape of 2009 was sentenced in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez today to 32 years in prison. The sentencing was a formality after Manuel Ortega, 22, plead guilty last month to counts of rape, rape by a foreign object, forced oral copulation resulting in great bodily injury and robbery. The Contra Costa County District Attorney was about to start jury selection earlier this year when Ortega approached Senior…