Government
The announcement this week of the approximately $11 million in losses Chevron sustained in fines and claims related to the August 6 Richmond refinery fire was dwarfed by its fourth-quarter earnings. Although Chevron’s total earnings for the entire year fell by three percent in 2012, the corporation brought in $7.2 billion in the final three months of the year, a 41 percent increase from the same period of the previous year. News of its earnings ended a mixed week for…
Twelve people have submitted their names for consideration by the Richmond City Council to fill the vacant seat left open when councilmember-elect Gary Bell—who is in a coma after suffering a bacterial sinus infections—was unable to be sworn in earlier this month. Among the twelve are former councilmembers, unsuccessful candidates from November’s race and a handful of new-to-the-scene political hopefuls. On Monday, February 4, the public and the council will have a chance to hear from each of the applicants…
Tuesday night’s Richmond City Council meeting was short on substance but long on drama. Despite an agenda that included few controversial items, councilmembers and the public traded barbs and accusations deep into the night. In the nearly six-hour meeting, the council’s only decision was to choose a vice-mayor. Councilmember Corky Booze and Mayor Gayle McLaughlin sat on either side of an empty seat, left open by councilmember-elect Gary Bell, who remains in a coma. Last week the council held a…
The Richmond Police Department held its first annual Foster Youth Conference on Saturday at the LaVonya Dejean Middle School on Macdonald Avenue. About 100 foster youth, foster parents, Richmond police officers, staff from West County Children and Family Services and community members filled the multipurpose room early in the morning for a day full of workshops to promote community involvement and provide resources needed by children and teens in foster care. “There are caring adults here who understand that it…
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.
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….
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…
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 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,…