AP

RPAL boxing program helps youth overcome fears, gain confidence

Three young Richmond boxers from the Richmond Police Activities League boxed last Saturday at an exhibition hosted by the RPAL. The exhibition, which welcomed fighters from different boxing clubs and gyms, featured 15 bouts with varying age and weight divisions. RPAL’s Anthony J. Bryant, Vonnie Davison and Delleon Brown are all local talent groomed by John Island, the head coach and coordinator of the boxing program. For some it was their first bout. “These guys were already ready, they train…

Wading with the oyster catchers

Point Pinole is perfectly silent except for the squawks of birds flying overhead and the occasional cringe-inducing crunch under foot. The low tide exposes a muddy stretch of shoreline, the rocks red and Martian-like under the setting sun. Despite its fleeting resemblance to the Red Planet, the question here isn’t whether there’s life, but whether there could be more. There’s plenty of living things at Point Pinole – just look closely at the rocks at low tide or turn over…

Maps show support for City Council winners

More than 31,300 voters in Richmond cast a ballot this year, a 10 percent decrease from the last presidential election, according to numbers updated on the Contra Costa County’s election division site on Nov. 17. In 2008, more than 35,000 voters in the city cast a ballot, which was 84 percent of registered voters. This year the voter turnout in the city was just under 72 percent. Below are maps that show where the three City Council winners– Nat Bates,…

Toll plaza shooter gets death penalty

Nathan Burris, 49, was sentenced to death Tuesday in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez for the double murder of Deborah Ann Ross, 51, and Ersie “Chuckie” Everette Jr., 58. For the families of the victims, the sentence brought to an end weeks of listening to taunts from the man who killed their loved ones in the 2009 shooting on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Burris and Ross had been living together in Richmond prior to the slaying. Ross’s family…

Scrap metal steals Richmond

Richmond has been picked over by thieves. A stump of a pipe, the tops of concrete floor boxes pried up from the sidewalk, a lonely hinge hanging from a roof. These remains, which RPD Captain Mark Gagan easily spots throughout the city, are evidence of scrap metal theft that has plagued the city for years. It’s likely that a thief took the bronze pipe, the copper wires in the floor box, and the aluminum gutter held up by the hinge….

Oilers basketball season shows promise

Can you hear it? The sharp squeaks of sneakers across the shellacked hardwood and the echoing buzz signaling the end of a period? That’s right, it’s basketball time, and the Richmond Oilers are ramping up to for a season of success that could turn the tables on their recent history.

Shooter, prosecutor make final arguments in death penalty sentencing trial

Whether Nathan Burris, who shot and killed Deborah Ann Ross and Ersie Everette Jr. at the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge toll plaza in 2009, will get the death penalty or life in prison is now in the hands of a jury. The same jury last week convicted Burris of two counts of first degree murder, with the special circumstance of lying in wait, making him eligible for Death Row. Senior Deputy District Attorney Harold Jewett delivered a closing statement for the…