Government
The Aug. 6 refinery fire was caused by corroded pipes and that Chevron technical experts were aware of the potential danger.
Richmond’s auto dealerships are being revived from what managers in Richmond are calling the worst few years of sales they’ve ever seen. The city has reported a 35 percent increase in auto sales tax revenue for the first quarter of 2012. From January to March of 2012, new and used auto sales brought in $418,308 for the city in sales tax, up from $307,947 in the same period in 2011. Jim Totah, the director of sales operation for companies such…
After the Contra Costa Superior Court decided last month to adopt a plan that cuts $7 million from its annual budget, it will no longer pay for interpreters in domestic violence cases beyond this fall.
As Richmond Fire Department and Chevron firefighters complete joint search-and-rescue training operations at the Chevron refinery this week — a sign of cooperation between the two agencies at a time when residents and regulators are demanding answers about refinery safety — Contra Costa County is taking steps to tighten its industrial safety standards. The county’s Board of Supervisors last week appointed Supervisor John Gioia and District 5 Supervisor Federal D. Glover to consider amendments to its Industrial Safety Ordinance and…
A music video recorded by a coalition of Richmond-based artists, featuring an inmate and a parolee in support of President Barack Obama’s campaign for reelection, has gone viral on YouTube, attracting more than 80,000 views with at least 60,000 people having watched it in the past week. The song, titled “Change,” features the vocals of R&B singer Waymond “Suave” Anderson, who is serving a life sentence at the California State Prison in Lancaster following a 1997 conviction for murder. In…
You won’t find a pair of shoes hanging from the power lines high above 8th and Lincoln in Central Richmond. Instead, orange and red cough syrup bottles dangle from ropes flung across the wires, a signal that hits of codeine are sold on this street.
The bushes rustle as Herb Warren emerges toting a trash picker and plastic bucket. The 65-year-old retiree ambles through the plants, snatching up the pieces of littered plastic, food wrappers and bottles along the stretch of Baxter Creek running through Booker T. Anderson Park.
Nat Bates was elected for a record seventh time in 2008 and one of his campaign signs featured his face next to the face of another man looking to make history in the same election. This year, Bates’ reelection signs once again link him to the same man. A blue sign in the window of the West Contra Costa County United Democratic Campaign office shows Barack Obama, Nat Bates, and a message: “Let’s do it again.” Jeff Ritterman was also…
The city’s campaign disclosure law—which a federal judge suggested was unconstitutional earlier this month— was amended by the City Council Tuesday night. In a special meeting five days earlier to read through the amendments, Councilmember Jim Rogers said the revisions toned down the ordinance’s aggressiveness. “I guess you could look at [the original ordinance] as a Cadillac,” Rogers said. “And this one here, I guess you could look at it as a Ford.” The revisions to the ordinance addressed several…