Safety
With the April 15 tax deadline looming, the Federal Trade Commission’s Tax Identity Theft Awareness program has a stark warning for taxpayers: “Protect personal information at home like you would cash or jewelry.” Tax identity theft is the largest category of identity theft cases in the country. Most common criminal activities include filing a fraudulent tax return using another person’s Social Security number, claiming someone else’s children as dependents, claiming a tax refund using a deceased taxpayer’s information, and earning…
Richmond’s new mayor Tom Butt made his first State of the City address on Tuesday night, announcing that “Richmond is open for business” and saying that his office is checking on the Hacienda public housing complex resident relocation every day. Butt started his address by thanking former Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, City Manager Bill Lindsay and all city employees for the “8 great years” when McLaughlin served as the mayor. “Richmond has clearly changed for the better and we want to…
On Tuesday mayor Tom Butt called the new city council to order for the first time. On the agenda: electing a vice mayor, disbanding the Public Safety and Finance standing committees, and removing the time limits on debate for council members. Butt, a long-time council member, started out on a light note. “Nobody is to call me Madam Mayor,” he said to laughs from the dais and the crowd. Despite his warning, a few people stuttered, used to referring to…
Long after the billboards come down, the campaign mailers rest in landfills and the New Year’s toasts come and go, 2014 may be remembered as Richmond’s big election year. We are honored to have been in Richmond’s streets and chambers, its homes and schools and everywhere else, helping write the first drafts of history in an important time and place. Chevron Corp. poured an unprecedented $3.1 million into the municipal races only to lose the open mayoral and city council seats to a progressive coalition on every…
Reporter Brett Murphy spent time covering the protests against police violence in Berkeley and Oakland. He shares his thoughts along with a video of the protests. Viewer warning: contains offensive language.
Terrell Ruben, 42, became the third person shot and killed in an attempted burglary in Richmond this year. A Richmond homeowner shot Ruben in the chest after he discovered Ruben and another man attempting to steal property from his backyard last Saturday.
Working the graveyard shift that September night, Officer Wallace Jensen pulled his police cruiser over on Stege Avenue and parked out of sight of Uncle Sam’s Liquors. He’d heard reports that locals hung around Uncle Sam’s drinking after dark. His lieutenant had asked him to pass by and disburse crowds. Jensen left his car around the corner to catch potential loiterers off-guard. He never expected what would come next. In the shop, he encountered 24-year-old Richard “Pedie” Perez III, who…
Things were looking up for Rusamie Ashly Phongphoumy, who had long dreamed of a better life. On the night of Nov. 29, her boyfriend proposed to her. She accepted. The couple made plans for the future. But all that ended the next day, when she was killed in a West Oakland market, allegedly by a jealous ex-boyfriend. The 19-year-old Kennedy High graduate, who answered to her middle name, had been trying for the past few months to end the relationship…
A Richmond man taking part in protests against police force in Oakland recently was assaulted by masked men who took issue with his attempts to put out a dumpster fire in the street.