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Perenna Fleming is psychic, but she’s not a psychic. That’s what she says.
A new resource center for homeless veterans to call home opened last week on the corner of Maine Avenue and Harbour Way South. Established by Rhonda Harris, the four bedroom two-story house with a white picket fence around it sits directly across the street from Nystrom Elementary School and can accommodate six veterans. The opening ceremony was attended by more than 25 people and included Secretary of the California Department of Veteran Affairs Peter J. Gravett, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and…
In late March 2013, a group of about 25 attended a “Toxic Tour” of Richmond led by Communities for a Better Environment organizer Andres Soto.
This weekend, the West Contra Costa Unified School District held the first of a series of public meetings to encourage residents to discuss how the next five years might look for public schools. On Saturday, about 130 people arrived at Ford Elementary School to participate in the first of six town hall meetings organized by the school district and Capitol Impact, the consulting company hired to develop the district’s five-year strategic plan. Jay Schenirer, the founder of Capitol Impact, who…
When former Staff Sergeant Starlyn Lara joined the Army fresh out of high school in Roswell, New Mexico, it was a time of peace for those who were serving in the military. Then came September 11. Suddenly, for many who joined the armed forces in search of serving their country—what Lara calls a desire to “be a bigger person than I was”—that peacetime was no more. “I sat there for about an hour, just dazed and confused, in awe of…
Contra Costa County child advocates, teachers, nonprofit groups, medical professionals and community members gathered at the Richmond Civic Center Auditorium on Wednesday and Thursday to talk about the status of children’s health at the state and county levels. The fourth annual California Summit on Children and Youth is “an annual opportunity for the best minds in the country to come to Richmond, meet with people who are active in youth issues, and really talk about and learn from each other…
Chevron failed to properly document a thinning pipe in the Richmond refinery’s crude unit back in 2002, the company admitted Friday, when the oil giant released its findings from its own investigation into the cause of last August’s refinery fire. The company concluded sulfur corrosion, accelerated by low silicon content, caused the five-foot carbon steel pipe to spring a leak and eventually ignite. “We have identified what went wrong and are taking steps to prevent a similar incident in the future,” said…
A crowd gathered in mourning on a street corner in Richmond on Wednesday evening to honor the life of Dimarea Young, a 19-year-old man who was shot and killed on this block the day before. Friends and neighbors, pastors and politicians, police officers and violence disrupters stood side by side, heads bowed. “We place him up,” said Reverend Alvin Bernstein, who was leading the group in a prayer. “We pray for the mother. We lift them up.” A woman from…
Curator Melinda McCrary stands next to a clunky antique radio that’s perched on a classic wooden stand in the Seaver Gallery at the Richmond Museum of History. She signals for me to shut up and listen, then flips on a switch. Immediately the room fills with the voice of a sports commentator, and I am transported to the 1950s, listening to blow-by-blow accounts of the ups, downs and heartbreaks in a classic baseball game. This subtle but powerful use of…