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Every holiday season Nancy DeWeese and her husband, Gary, host a Christmas party. But it’s not your average family gathering, because this is not your average family. At these parties, three dozen children from all walks of life, including the couple’s four biological kids, gather to share in a common experience: Each child has spent part of their lives growing up at the DeWeese family home in Moraga. “They see each other and they’re like, ‘Oh, we started out as…
After a month of arguing over how best to fill the seat left empty by Gary Bell’s illness, the Richmond City Council met on February 4 for a one-item agenda. The council could either choose to wait for a special election in June, or it could appoint one of the 12 people who applied for the position. Two factions had emerged—councilmembers Corky Booze and Nat Bates were publicly in favor of a special election, while Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and councilmembers Jovanka Beckles…
With frantic little-kid energy, the Panthers under-10 boys basketball team races around the pavement lot next to the Shields-Reid Park in North Richmond. The kids are fresh from a 42-0 victory over the El Cerrito team, their third straight victory in their youth league. Some of the kids play a pick-up game against their coaches—older boys, brothers, cousins, neighbors—who shout directions and jokes. Around the edges of the court, kids drift in and out of the game, jousting with each…
While the San Francisco Giants are in balmy Scottsdale, Ariz., reminiscing and shaking the dust off their recent World Series trophy, the Kennedy Eagles baseball team has been under Bay Area clouds working hard on shagging fly balls and fielding grounders. First-year head coach Tim Logan said for the past two weeks his team has been practicing nothing but defensive fundamentals. But the ABCs of a 6-4-3 double play have turned into rocket science for Kennedy the past few years….
Hundreds of Bay Area residents flocked to the Craneway Pavilion on Saturday for a delicious end to SF Beer Week. Attendees sampled beer of all hues from nine different breweries and chocolates and other sweets from twenty confectioners. The event also featured live music, raffles, beer pong, a bouncy castle, and unseasonably warm afternoon sunshine. Proceeds benefited Richmond’s Police Activities League, which offers athletic, artistic and academic activities for local youth.
Forty-five minutes after the North Coast Section quarterfinal playoff game ended, and they had lost, the boys from the Richmond High School soccer team came out of their locker room and walked back toward the field. Still wearing their jerseys, under their red team jackets, they looked like they might be trying to play another match. Instead, the players slowly trickled to the center of the field and waited for their other teammates to catch up. Family and friends, who…
When Carlos Martinez, an undocumented college student who lives in Contra Costa County, checked his bank account last Sunday he could not believe what he saw. Like at the start of most college semesters, he logged on to his account expecting to see a bill for close to $500, payment for his courses at the City College of San Francisco. But this time, the account showed a bill for only $23. “I logged out and logged back in again, and…
Tears came early for the Kennedy Lady Eagles Thursday night. As teammates practiced free throw shooting during halftime, senior shooting guard Susan Valiphone sat on the bench and kept to herself. Down only three points with two quarters to go, tears trickled down her cheeks. On paper Kennedy and Salesian looked like a good boxing match. Both teams were nearly 20 games over .500. But in person the Lady Eagles looked like a high school team, and Salesian, with their…
On Valentine’s Day, health professionals at Doctor’s Medical Center focused on the most important organ of the day—the heart—by presenting several free sessions to an audience on how to better care for their own. Doctors Medical Center is the only hospital in Western Contra Costa County—which has a population of close to 200,000 people—that receives patients who are suffering from a kind of acute heart attack called a STEMI (or ST-elevation myocardial infarction). It occurs when a clot blocks the…