Health
The Richmond City Council will soon consider an ordinance that would restrict the handling of coal and petcoke, a byproduct of oil refining, on port terminals in Richmond. A draft of the ordinance, introduced in December, has been approved by the city attorney, and it is expected to go to the council for a vote,…
In 2015, a measles outbreak spread across California, sickening hundreds of people. The outbreak spread across the West Coast as well as Mexico and Canada, and led the California legislature to outlaw vaccine exemptions based on personal beliefs. Removing the exemption has caused vaccination rates across the state to increase dramatically, including in the Bay…
Every January, Contra Costa Health Services takes a one-day census of people living without a home in the county. County officials say the numbers are on the rise.
As Wanda Cooper biked home through the thick haze of smoke rising from a fire at the Chevron oil refinery, her eyes began to burn and her throat to close up. “I couldn’t hardly breathe,” she says. Six years after a pipeline fire at Chevron U.S.A. Inc.’s oil refinery in Richmond sent Cooper and thousands…
Richmond is about to begin a unique process to identify a group of community leaders to work with the state and local air resources boards to determine key drivers of the city’s pollution and put together a plan to reduce it. This Wednesday, Nov. 7, leaders of community environmental organizations and other members of the…
The race for California’s 15th Assembly district is one of the most expensive in the state. More than $3.75 million has been spent to support the candidacies of Buffy Wicks and Jovanka Beckles, with spending for Wicks exceeding Beckles by a margin of 4 to 1, a Richmond Confidential analysis of the latest campaign finance…
By Betty Marquez Rosales and Ravleen Kaur The elevators inside a Richmond public housing building had been broken for about a week before city officials moved to have them fixed — an unusually rapid response for a building plagued by maintenance issues for years, where residents regularly endure long waits to have them repaired. This…
When counselor Teresa Pamintuan arrived in the West Contra Costa County Unified School District more than a decade ago, hundreds of students would be trying to get in to see her every day. She would try to squeeze in dozens of seniors a day for 20-minute one-on-one meetings to help map out their career and…
First San Pablo’s Doctors Medical Center closed in 2015. Now Sutter Health’s Alta Bates hospital in Berkeley is planning to shut its doors. This means patients in Richmond, who already have fewer hospitals to turn to for critical medical care, could see the options shrink further. Pregnant women and new mothers could be the ones…