Government
2011 was quite a year, to borrow a favorite phrase from longtime resident Sims Thompson, in “our fair city.” I know that’s vague, but it’s tough to turn a pithy phrase that sums up a year in a vibrant, bustling and changing city. We had tragedy and triumph, tumult and harmony. Alliances and rivalries. Echoes of the past and glimmers from the future.
It’s common for vendors to sell animals on the roadside or at weekend flea markets in Richmond, but that may change next month. Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation this summer that bans unregulated pet sales. The two-part law goes into effect on Jan. 1 and prohibits the sale of animals on roads, street corners, parking lots, flea markets, boardwalks and other public venues. The legislation also stiffens the penalties for animal neglect, raising fines and maximum jail time for those…
Richmond leaders were on hand to oppose the imminent firings of more than 200 undocumented workers in Berkeley who were flagged in a work eligibility audit conducted by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
City Manager Bill Lindsay said late Wednesday he’ll order an investigation into who leaked information to the press and a councilmember about a non-criminal Sheriff’s stop involving an Office of Neighborhood Safety staff member. The move is aimed in part at easing the concerns of ONS staff, who have complained publicly and privately about what they regard as a breach of trust in their relationship with Richmond police officials. Lingering tension between personnel in the ONS and the Police Department…
For Men and Women of Purpose, the model aspires to be: Work now, and the support will come.
About 40 local kids took home $110 worth of toys each from Target Saturday as part of the Richmond Police Department’s annual Shop with a Cop Christmas event.
For more than a decade, Santa Claus and his natural white beard regaled the children at Verde Elementary in North Richmond every December.
About 50 protesters, including some top Richmond elected officials, demonstrated outside county government buildings in Martinez Thursday before filing into a hearing aimed at resolving a tax dispute between Chevron and the Contra Costa County Assessor’s office.
Eric Peterson, a Richmond resident and the principal at Dover Elementary School in San Pablo, was honored at the White House for achieving National Board Certification last Wednesday. Peterson and about 100 other educators took part in the daylong celebration, attended by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and White House Domestic Policy Director Melody Barnes. The National Board Certification is an advanced teaching credential that takes between one to three years to obtain. “As the nation focuses on building the…