Council forum on Chico police draws packed house Organizers claim distortions by one candidate, Chico E-R

photo by Karen Laslo

City Council candidate Rich Ober

by Dave Waddell

The four Chico City Council candidates speaking at a forum Monday night agreed on the need for fundamental change at Chico PD, including increased crisis intervention training, greater citizen oversight, and more cops out walking and on bicycles.

Those candidates – Alex Brown, Scott Huber, Rich Ober and Ken Rensink – for two hours answered questions from Concerned Citizens for Justice (CC4J), which sponsored the forum, as well as from members of an audience that filled a meeting room at the Chico branch of the Butte County Library. read more

Injustice supersedes civility, activist says Guest commentary says Council meeting disruption was necessary

photo by Leslie Layton

by Dan Everhart

On Sept. 4, a group of local human rights advocates, organizing under the name “Housing Not Handcuffs,” expressed their outrage over Chico City Council’s consistent and enduring ineptitude on the matter of homelessness by disrupting the meeting in protest over conservative enthusiasm for criminalizing our unhoused neighbors even further.

The rich enjoy more polite means of gaining Council’s attention, the rest of us must purchase it with speech amplified enough to be heard above the deafening roar of their wealth. read more

ChicoSol alleges Brown Act violation Journalists wrongfully barred from closed Council meeting

by Dave Waddell

ChicoSol Editor Leslie Layton sent a letter Tuesday demanding that Chico city officials “cease and desist” from barring ChicoSol journalists from covering City Council meetings and all other city government business.

Layton alleges in the letter, dated Sept. 11, that city officials violated the Brown Act, California’s open-meeting law, when Chico police officers barred ChicoSol News Director Dave Waddell from entering the Sept. 4 City Council meeting to which all other news media had been admitted. In addition, City Clerk Debbie Presson asked Karen Laslo, a freelance photographer on assignment for ChicoSol, to leave the council chamber, which Laslo did. read more

Butte County represented at SF march Chicoans join call for action on climate change

by Guillermo Mash

“Sustainability is not stealing from our children’s future” — Ali Meders-Knight

Before heading home from the Peoples Climate March in San Francisco, about 40 Chico-area residents gathered at their mural for a group photo in blue T-shirts designed by the Chico 350 organization. The T-shirts featured an outline of the state of California on fire, overlaid with the caption, “California is burning – vote out climate deniers.”

(video by Guillermo Mash)

“It was an amazing experience — a once in a lifetime experience,” said Chico organizer Dave Garcia of the march. “People united here in solidarity hoping that our leaders and political officials would take note and really start doing something about climate change. It’s happening right now and it’s only going to get worse.” read more

Protesters oppose policy that hurts children People line the Skyway to call for migrant family unification

photo by Leslie Layton

by Leslie Layton

Almost 50 people showed up for a protest Thursday in Paradise to oppose the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Many of the people passing by on the Skyway honked in support of the protesters.

“I never thought I would be a person outside with a sign,” said one of the organizers, John Tackitt (pictured above behind the banner.) “But even if it’s just doing a little something, it’s something.” read more

Chico resurrects Sit and Lie Ordinance Sidewalk rules divide the City Council at a tense meeting

photo by Karen Laslo

Audience members begin series of chants.

by Dave Waddell and Leslie Layton

The Chico City Council, after closing the council chamber to the public and ChicoSol, voted 4-3 in a tense and emotional meeting Tuesday to resurrect the expired Sit and Lie Ordinance.

The conservative council majority voted — after an audience disruption prompted the chamber closure — to bring back an ordinance aimed at people who they say are obstructing sidewalks and business entrances. City Attorney Vince Ewing said that under a California statute, the council could close the chamber to a disruptive audience — but not to members of the press. read more