Economy
The House of Prayer Ministries, located near Nevin and 2nd Street in the Iron Triangle, only has about 20 church members. It’s a small parish, but lead Pastor Kenneth E. Wilkerson says it’s a strong one with deep love for people in the area. “We have a heart for this community, for Richmond,” said Wilkerson, while sitting in the church’s small back room and watching his “worker bees” buzz around clearing plates from people who stopped in for a hot…
When the official returns came in on Wednesday morning, Richmond voters had decided that after the most expensive campaign in city history, what they wanted was familiar faces. Incumbents Nat Bates and Tom Butt were re-elected to the City Council, and Gary Bell, who will return to the dais after an eight-year hiatus, will take the seat vacated by retiring Councilmember Jeff Ritterman. The city’s proposed tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, Measure N, was defeated. Money was a major talking point…
Chevron will replace all piping in the damaged sections of the Richmond refinery with chrome alloy, the company said in a letter Wednesday to the city of Richmond and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The move comes six weeks after Chevron announced that it believed the Aug. 6 fire may have occurred because of thinning and corrosion in a piping component that may have had low silicon content. “Before the restart of the crude unit, Chevron will complete…
On the day after the election, as folks were picking themselves up after a night spent celebrating or grieving, Nutiva CEO John Roulac, a major financial supporter of the failed genetically-modified-food-labeling Prop. 37, was putting his best GMO-free foot forward. “Obviously, I would have loved to have won, but 47 percent is respectable and demonstrates that 47 percent of Californians want the right to know what’s in their food,” Roulac said, referring to the 4.3 million Californians who voted yes…
West County voters came out strong for education Tuesday — both on a local and state level. Measure E, Measure G and Prop 30 passed. Todd Groves and Randy Enos will join the West Contra Costa School Board.
Measure N was defeated in Tuesday’s election with an overwhelming two-thirds of voters saying no to the one-cent-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. Of the roughly 25,000 votes cast, more than 16,000 went against the measure. Championed by the Richmond Progressive Alliance, the proposed tax attracted national media attention, and drew the ire of local pro-business groups and the national soda industry, which spent more than $2.6 million to defeat the measure. A victory would have made Richmond the first city…
Richmond residents erupted into gleeful cheers as they watched CNN call three states in a row for President Barack Obama, before finally handing him the presidency. “Four more years! Four more years!” chanted people watching the results at Salute restaurant, throwing their fists into the air, hugging, and crying before toasting their champagne glasses. Anxiety turned into relief as Iowa a swing state, was called for the president. “I was biting my nails – I was too scared to watch…
As managers at Richmond’s Walmart Supercenter prepared to launch a grand re-opening this morning, a handful of workers who have spent the last four months renovating the store walked out to protest what they said were ongoing cases of mistreatment by management. Shoppers were greeted by placard-wielding protesters, carrying signs reading “Stand Up, Live Better, Stop Retaliation” and “Stop Trying to Silence Us.” The protesters were a combination of Walmart associates and members of the United Food and Commercial Workers…
Families from Richmond’s African American community testified Monday night to the fight against the health effects of poor diets at a town hall meeting to discuss the city’s proposed tax on sugar sweetened beverages. The town hall, held in the eastern corner of the Iron Triangle neighborhood at the Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church, attracted at least 80 residents and city officials who came to listen to keynote speaker Maya Rockeymoore, a leading public policy scholar based in Washington D.C. Rockeymoore…