Government
Richmond has awarded three local nonprofits grants totaling around $900,000 to expand legal aid for immigrants, do community outreach and continue the “Know Your Rights” campaign. The organizations receiving the funds are: Catholic Charities of the East Bay, East Bay Sanctuary Covenant and the Multicultural Institute. In addition to funding the legal defense for people facing deportation, the grants help undocumented immigrants to apply for visas, green cards or citizenship, the city said earlier this month. East Bay Sanctuary Covenant…
Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez and five other delegates arrived in Shanghai Thursday to begin a 10-day trip in China. The delegation will also visit Zhoushan — Richmond’s sister city since 1993 — to discuss cultural and economic collaboration with local officials, including an education exchange program. That program would invite Chinese students to a community college in Contra Costa County and fund some Richmond students to visit a university in Zhoushan. “They have a university there, and they already set…
The Richmond City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to expand emergency assistance for immigrants, including funds for rent, utilities and food. More than $140,000 will be diverted for these needs from a $1 million fund approved for immigration legal aid in March. Council members said adding flexibility to the aid program will help meet urgent needs in the community. “ICE is coming and breaking families apart,” said Councilmember Claudia Jimenez, who first suggested the expansion. “We want to protect these families,…
Richmond City Council unanimously approved $1 million in March to nonprofits that provide immigrants with legal aid and other resources. But more than six months later, city officials acknowledge that not a dollar has reached its intended destination. “The need is higher than ever right now,” Marisol Cantú, a community organizer at Reimagine Richmond said with a sigh. “There’s always been a sense of urgency. And yet I don’t think the sense of urgency from the community has met the city….
More than a dozen Richmond Police Department officers, staff and supporters used the public comment period of Tuesday’s City Council meeting to ask the city to fill dozens of Police Department vacancies, saying understaffing has forced many officers to work double shifts and even sleep at the station. But when Lt. George McLoughlin used his turn at the microphone to call for the return of two officers who were put on leave last month after the fatal shooting of 27-year-old…
“The Stakes” is a UC Berkeley Journalism project on executive orders and actions affecting Californians and their communities. For months community members devoted to reducing pollution and improving the quality of life for vulnerable people in Richmond and other parts of the Bay Area have been stuck in limbo, hoping that the EPA grants they were told they won wouldn’t be taken away. On Friday, after promising these groups millions of dollars and then cutting off access to the money…
“The Stakes” is a UC Berkeley Journalism project on executive orders and actions affecting Californians and their communities. Since President Donald Trump took office in January, Jessie Papalia has felt the panic and confusion among her students and their families at Bridges Academy Elementary in Oakland, a dual-language school with many students who have recently arrived in the United States. “The first week was rough. I had kids asking me if they could sleep at school because they were too…
Update: On April 15, the case was moved from Contra Costa Superior Court to U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Richmond is suing two global banks over a $66 million financial deal it says violated California law and strapped the city for money needed to cover vital city services. Last week, the banks asked the case to be transferred from California Superior Court to federal court. The case, filed by Richmond on March 17, claims the city lost the money…
Two Richmond residents are vying to represent Area 1 on the Contra Costa County Board of Education: Area 1 covers the West Contra Costa Unified School District. Anthony Caro and Daniel Nathan-Heiss are running for the seat held by Consuelo Lara, who served one term and is not running for reelection. The board, alongside the county superintendent of schools, provides oversight of the county’s 18 school districts. Its duties include monitoring districts’ financial obligations, overseeing transfer and expulsion hearings, and…