General
Since July, the city has been trying to use more than $400,000 in federal stimulus funds to provide discounted and free solar panels for Richmond homeowners. The initial goal of the R3 program was to install the panels on a hundred homes, but so far only eight people have signed up. The city is beefing up its outreach program, though, and officials say they believe at least 40 low-income homeowners will choose to have free panels installed by November 2012….
The California prison population has increased more than 500 percent in the past three decades. Since 1980, spending on prisons has risen from 3 percent of the state’s budget to more than 11 percent. As legislators scramble to mend the increasingly costly and problematic prison system, the federal government has demanded change. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court, citing inhumane conditions, ordered for the release of thousands of state inmates. Here is a brief look at some of the factors…
Continued overcrowding in California’s state prisons brought about a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that the state’s efforts to cram in more prisoners constituted cruel and unusual punishment, a violation of the Eighth Amendment. The state responded with legislation that shifts responsibility for state parolees to counties and redefines what constitutes a prison-worthy offense. That realignment started Saturday. It continues for the next two years as the state tries to reduce its prison population by about 110,000 prisoners to 137.5 percent…
Summer Brenner sits quietly at a coffee shop table amid the rumbling of the city outside and smiles as she gently thumbs through a copy of her 2009 children’s book Richmond Tales: Lost Secrets of the Iron Triangle, a story featuring an array of young characters who journey through time to discover the lost history of the industrial city. “I believe it gives insight into children’s lives growing up there, especially those that feel disconnected from their homeland,” Brenner said….
Corey Tufts and his best friend, Wayne Pierson, founded the produce-delivery service Golden Gate Organics earlier this year. The two Coast Guard members source pesticide-free fruits and vegetables…
Through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, Monday night passersby on Macdonald Avenue peer in curiously at a whirl of dance. Fingers snap. Feet slide. Hands swoosh a horsehair prop through the air, slapping the knees at intervals. The bright pastels of Victoria Secret sweatpants flash across the room in a blur of pink, yellow and turquoise. The dancers chant a call and response in a West African language: “Wadapo!” Drums pound in a…
After a series of foul odors released from its sewage treatment plant over the last year, the multinational company Veolia may only have 90 days left in Richmond. Although the City Council had considered terminating the contract immediately at the council meeting Tuesday, council members opted to consider the arguments and the possibility of alternatives, and set a decision on the contract for Dec. 6. Mark Russell, a lawyer who is providing the city with outside legal counsel, said Tuesday…
The Richmond track squad did their best and has never run faster, but it just wasn’t quite good enough on the national stage.
Day two of the Junior Olympics competition at Tad Gormley Stadium in New Orleans was a roller coaster of sorts for the Richmond Half-Steppers’ coaches and parents. They witnessed two of their runners come in first and second place in their respective races with lifetime and personal bests, but no one on the team has yet to qualify for the next round. Robert Freeman, and Wayne Corbin were the days’s two big winners for the Half-Steppers. Freeman, 7, and Corbin,…