Chico voters rejecting planned community Valley’s Edge Environmental costs and traffic influenced voters

photo by Leslie Layton
The Valley’s Edge houses would be built on lava cap.

by Natalie Hanson
posted March 7

Editor’s note: The Butte County Clerk-Recorder’s office updated the ballot count on March 14, reporting that almost 63% voted NO on Measure O and 62% voted NO on Measure P.

Preliminary results in the primary election show Chico voters rejecting the controversial Valley’s Edge project that would produce a planned community east of City limits.

As of March 8, the preliminary count showed the number of “NO” votes on measures O and P at 62% of some 19,000 ballots that had been counted. Those measures would amend the General Plan and the Valley’s Edge Specific Plan to allow the development. read more

Local news coverage crisis hits home 17-year-old ChicoSol "well-positioned" to thrive

Rebuild Local News Founder Steven Waldman

by Natalie Hanson
commentary posted March 2

(ChicoSol coverage of the nationwide local news crisis has received support from an Ethnic Media Services fellowship.)

The rapid erosion of local news across the country is nothing short of a five-alarm emergency for democracy — and it will take creativity and commitment to keep democracy’s fourth pillar standing.

Butte County affairs are covered by only a few news outlets that employ a handful of journalists. Research shows reduced local news coverage is linked to less government transparency and reduced civic engagement. Most citizens do not have time to carefully monitor the use of their tax dollars and attend public meetings that reporters once watched closely. read more

Unsheltered, Tom Covington faces hostility and sometimes violence Unhoused are not protected under hate crime law in California

photo by Leslie Layton
Tom Covington was struck by a flaming bag as he slept in a doorway.

by Natalie Hanson & Leslie Layton
posted Feb. 21

Tom Covington curled up to sleep in a downtown Chico doorway on a January night near another unsheltered man. Both men were awakened around 2 a.m. by a flaming bag that was tossed on them and that burned Covington’s sleeping bag, hand and his right side.

Covington was able to slap the fire out, but the men were disgusted and angry to find that the bag was full of feces. Covington’s wheelchair had been taken by one of the two men who had been lurking around them when they bedded down. read more

State agencies, psychologists support Chico Unified Anti-discrimination policy needed to protect LGBTQ student privacy, they say

photo by Karen Laslo
CUSD offices

by Natalie Hanson
posted Jan. 24

Educators and experts have joined California’s leaders in urging an appeals court to uphold a ruling that supports Chico Unified School District’s (CUSD’s) anti-discrimination policy.

California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta filed Jan. 9 in support of the district, along with representatives of 15 other states, arguing that the policy is designed to be flexible on a case-by-case basis to support transgender and gender-nonconforming students, and to withhold parental notice when a student does not consent. The only exception for parental notification, against a student’s wishes, is if the student’s well-being is at risk. read more

Chico State professors strike, joining a CFA statewide action Aguilar-McKay's sign: "Si se puede"

photo by Karen Laslo
Nora Aguilar-McKay from the School of Education faculty prepares bilingual teachers who will teach multilingual students.

by Leslie Layton
posted Jan. 22

About 150 faculty and their supporters joined the picket line today as Chico State University employees participated in the statewide, five-day action that cancelled many classes in the semester’s first week.

CSU faculty unions statewide — that includes instructors, librarians, coaches and counselors — are asking for a 12 percent salary increase after years of small increases that fail to keep up with inflation, said Associate Professor Lindsay Briggs. read more

Emergency meeting violates Brown Act "Urgency" and "emergency" different things, attorney says

Emergency meeting agenda

by Leslie Layton
posted Jan. 11

A Jan. 6 emergency meeting held by Chico City Council appears to have been illegal – in other words, a violation of the Ralph M. Brown Act that governs meeting access in California.

The Saturday meeting was called on short notice to consider matters “involving the disruption or threatened disruption of public facilities” after the winter sheltering program, Safe Space, held intake at The Hands sculpture near the Municipal Center on Jan. 5.

An attorney consulted by ChicoSol indicated he doesn’t think the nature of the disruption justified an emergency meeting under state law. “The bottom line is, I don’t think this rises to the level of emergency under the Brown Act,” said David Loy, legal director for the San Rafael-based First Amendment Coalition (FAC) that works to defend open-government laws. read more