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Five Richmond police officers promoted

Five Richmond police officers were promoted in a ceremony Thursday morning, and Code Enforcement Officer Dave Ragowski received a Lifesaving Award for successfully negotiating with a Richmond resident who had threatened to commit suicide.

Richmond High girls fall 3-1, but look forward to playoffs next week

For a team struggling to win soccer games, the smallest successes can become highlights of a season. For the Richmond High School girls’ soccer team, the week provided two of those highlights. On Thursday night, in the Oilers’ final match of the regular season, the girls did something they had not done all season: They had a lead. In the ninth minute of the Richmond High Oilers’ match against the St. Joseph-Notre Dame Pilots at the College of Alameda, junior…

It’s official: Richmond City Council seeks new member

During Richmond City Council’s special meeting on Thursday, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin formally announced councilmember-elect Gary Bell’s seat as vacant—despite the opposition of absent Councilmembers Corky Booze and Nat Bates—and the council set a quick timetable for filling it, either by appointment in early February or by a special election in June. The meeting was in many ways both a return to November’s contentious election and a preview of the fight to come. Even the timing of the meeting was controversial….

Richmond Art Center features artists abroad and close to home

Striking block prints illustrating scenes from the Cuban Revolution, pastel canvases full of memories from a childhood in Philadelphia, and a medley of photographs, sculptures and paintings from black artists throughout the Bay Area – in its first exhibitions of the year, the Richmond Art Center covers a lot of ground but keeps the connections local. The Art Center opened its three newest exhibitions on Jan. 12. Its main gallery is host to The Art of Living Black, the 17th…

Oilers fire all cylinders, race past De Anza 68-40

For 15 seconds after a Richmond Oilers basketball win, there’s no happier place in the world than in the boys’ locker room. That’s when head coach Rob Collins shows his players the Saturday Night Fever dance moves. And on Wednesday night it happened again. After thumping the De Anza Dons by 28 points, Coach Collins did his best John Travolta impersonation. Players went nuts and jockeyed for position to see their head coach lose himself in disco bliss. Before the…

Housing plan sparks arguments on rent control, just cause evictions

After several hours of confusion and bickering, last week the Richmond City Council approved a housing element—a part of the general plan that will address land use and housing development throughout the city—just in time to meet a deadline to be eligible for a state-issued $44 million grant. But although the entire housing element contains more than fifty sub-sections, there are still four sections of the plan the council left undecided, which could affect rent control, eviction laws and low-income…

A Richmond volunteer works to help Hurricane Sandy victims recover their homes

A middle-aged Laotian-American man walked up to the doorstep of a Russian business in a wealthy suburb in New York’s Rockaway Peninsula a few days after Hurricane Sandy made her catastrophic landfall. He rang the doorbell—one of more than a dozen doorbells he had rung that day—and waited. Widespread blackouts triggered by Sandy had left many homes without heating and lights, and the streets were deserted, sparking a spate of burglaries in some parts of this stretch of Long Island,…

Richmond boys look to build off of Saturday’s loss to De La Salle

A 2-1 road loss to De La Salle High School in Concord ended a 13-game unbeaten streak for the Richmond High boys’ soccer team on Saturday night, but the players and coaches viewed the match as an opportunity to build for the end of the regular season and the playoffs. Early on in the season, the Oilers seemed to have trouble jelling and working together on the field. Coaches stressed the importance of playing as one, and players cited the…