AP
Chevron Corp. invested $1 million in seven nonprofits focused on improving science and math education and enhancing economic development in Richmond. On Wednesday, about more than 100 people came to the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts to hear leaders from the seven organizations report on what they accomplished with the money over the last year. Leaders from each group presented short videos highlighting what they did with the money and provided statistics demonstrating everything from improved high school…
For Gene Deshawn Grisby-Bell, a toxic mixture of neighborhood feuds, searing juvenile emotions, a small-caliber handgun and bad luck led to the end of his promising young life on a January afternoon in 2011. Grisby-Bell, a 16-year-old El Cerrito High School student and football player, was walking from his grandmother’s Crescent Park apartment when a white sedan packed with five teenagers stopped in the street. According to both the prosecution and defense in a murder trial that started Monday in…
A midday shooting in front of a North Richmond corner market left two people shot Tuesday. Contra Costa County Sheriff’s deputies and detectives cordoned off the corner of Market Avenue and Fifth Street minutes after the shooting. More than two-dozen shell casings were strewn about the sidewalk and street, and a large bloodstain stretched from Rancho Market’s front door to the gutter. The identity of the victims is not yet known. Two high-ranking Richmond Police officials said one of the…
In an effort to build better a more amicable relationship with the community, Veolia, the company that manages the wastewater treatment plant in Richmond, has instituted an internship program geared at employing local residents. The company is already through the first stages of selecting two interns, said Jamal Muhammad, the Community Outreach Coordinator for Veolia.
Now that a jury has cleared the city and police Chief Chris Magnus of racial discrimination and harassment charges—after five years of legal wrangling and three months of trial—it’s time to tally up the costs. And they are substantial. Richmond has spent about $4.5 million since 2006 to defend the city, Magnus and former Deputy Chief Lori Ritter against discrimination charges brought by seven high-ranking black police officers, according to Assistant City Manager Leslie Knight. Of that, $1.9 million was…
If you live in the Bay Area, there’s one question you’ve probably asked at some point: why on earth doesn’t BART run past midnight? Over Presidents Day Weekend, it did. When construction shut down parts of the Bay Bridge, BART ran around the clock between San Francisco and the East Bay. We head underground to find out what happens when the trains don’t stop — and why it can’t be like this all the time. Produced by Rachel Waldholz. Camera by…
Where do you go to protest wealth inequality? For about 30 people, many Richmond residents, the answer was simple on Tuesday: Go to the million-dollar-plus Lafayette estate of Chevron Corp. CEO John Watson. About 30 protesters stood in the rain in front of Watson’s home, criticizing the CEO as an example of what they called “corporate welfare” and undue influence of the richest Californians on the state’s tax code. “In the city of Richmond where I live, where most of…
Police Chief Chris Magnus, retired Deputy Chief Lori Ritter and the city of Richmond were cleared by a Contra Costa County jury on Tuesday of racial discrimination and harassment charges. Seven high-ranking African American police officials had sought damages of around $18 million for what they alleged were a series of racial digs as well as systemic discrimination by Magnus and Ritter, both of whom are white. The jury ruled that the plaintiffs were entitled to nothing. “I’ve been overwhelmed…
Representative George Miller is an unabashedly left-leaning Democrat and Richmond’s congressional representative, who is currently focused on the national healthcare and budget debates.