ChicoSol

Hundreds of #Enough students pour into City Plaza Walkouts protest gun violence on school campuses

by Dave Waddell

Hundreds of students of assorted ages poured into Chico’s City Plaza this morning, joining in a loud chant that didn’t let up for several minutes: “No More Silence, End Gun Violence.”

The students came from different campuses, ranging from Chico State to junior highs and charter schools, to participate in #Enough National School Walkout. The protest was inspired by the shooting deaths of 17 staff members and students Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Empower, the youth branch of Women’s March that helped in organizing events nationwide, had counted 3,136 walkouts at the time this story was posted. read more

Chico students plan walkout over gun violence #Enough National Student Walkout set for March 14

Chico High schoolers Makayla Sharkey and Lucinda Law make signs for the Wednesday march.

by Leslie Layton

Students from two Chico high schools and Chico State will participate in the #Enough National School Walkout Wednesday to protest gun violence and to call for congressional action.

The Chico students say they want school campuses to be gun-free zones, they want more background checks at the time of purchases and they want bans on the sale of assault rifles.

“We’re trying to create awareness about gun violence in America and how (gun violence here) compares to other countries,” said Lucinda Law, a 15-year-old Chico High School sophomore who is one of a half-dozen CHS students planning the school’s walkout. “Not much (legislation) has happened since Columbine and Sandy Hook.” read more

Rushing shooting under review by state AG Two Chico police killings in 2017 focus of inquiries

by Dave Waddell

Over Mike Ramsey’s 30-plus-year tenure as Butte County district attorney, outside reviews of his rulings in officer-involved shootings have been, to use his word, “rare.” That dramatically changed in recent months as the office of state Attorney General Xavier Becerra is examining the facts and findings from two deadly Chico Police Department shootings in 2017.

A letter announcing a review of the July 23 shooting of Tyler Rushing has been made available to ChicoSol by his father, Scott Rushing of Ventura. read more

Tiny House Club helps shelter homeless Chico's first tiny house underway

by Karen Laslo

On this past Sunday morning, Charles Withuhn of the Chico Housing Action Team (CHAT), along with a retired contractor and nine Chico State students from the Tiny House Club, showed up behind the university’s Langdon Hall to get to work on the first tiny house in Chico. (Click on arrows to see slideshow below.)

Their goal for the day: To put up the framed walls they’d previously hammered together at another work session.

Withuhn said they were building the tiny house because of the many “unsheltered” people in our community. The goal is to house for the least amount of money as many people as possible and as soon as possible. read more

Art lovers turn out for Amick’s last show Chico artist's work on display all month

Scores of friends, family, acquaintances and art aficionados gathered at Beatnik’s Coffee House in Chico Sunday afternoon for Molly Amick’s Paper Collage Art Opening, consisting of 23 pieces of art ranging from originals to prints down to postcard size. A steady stream of people visited with Amick, who is in the late stages of inoperable breast cancer, exchanging their love for the person and her art in smooches and kind words.

Amick’s art will be on display for purchase the entire month of March at Beatnik’s Coffee House and Breakfast Joint, 1387 E. Eighth St., Chico — video feature by Guillermo Mash. read more

Intern wins Freedom of Information award In-depth stories for The Orion and ChicoSol recognized

photo by Jason Halley, CSUC photographer

Gabriel Sandoval

by Dave Waddell

ChicoSol intern Gabriel Sandoval is being honored by the Society of Professional Journalists of Northern California for his investigative reporting.

The SPJ chapter will present Sandoval with its 2018 James Madison Freedom of Information Award, Student Journalist category, at a banquet March 27 in San Francisco. The award is intended to honor freedom-of-information and First Amendment champions, according to SPJ NorCal.

The accolade recognizes Sandoval for two investigative stories about a deal that kept a former top administrator, Lori Hoffman, on Chico State’s payroll for 16 months and paid her hundreds of thousands of dollars after she left the university. First for a story for The Orion, Chico State’s student newspaper, and later in a second in-depth piece for ChicoSol, Sandoval used documents he obtained through public records requests to delve into Hoffman’s contractual and work arrangements. read more

Officers shoot Chico man

A Chico man was hospitalized after being pursued and shot by local law enforcement officers early April 15.
A Chico Police Department press release says that an officer and a Butte County Sheriff’s deputy
shot “an armed subject in the area of Hegan Lane and Huss Drive.”
None of the parties involved have yet been identified. Chico PD says the 41-year-old man was “wanted in connection with a Domestic Violence incident” and was entering an “unlocked police vehicle” when the officers fired.

Four confirmed deaths of unhoused residents this year

ChicoSol has confirmed the following deaths, all taking place on streets or in encampments in 2024:

River Chase Bernreuter, 25. His body was found Feb. 2 on Business Lane.

Kenneth James Corbitt, 44, whose body was found Feb. 5 on Fair Street.

Francisco Franco, 61, of Chico. His body was found Feb. 15 on Business Lane.

Julie Bergstrom, 41, of Oroville. Bergstrom was found dead Feb. 29 at the Alternate Site encampment approved by the City for unhoused individuals.

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City attorney: “Public take over” was an emergency

In a Jan. 17 email to ChicoSol, City Attorney John Lam said the City was not in violation of the Brown Act when it held a Jan. 6 emergency meeting.

Lam said the use of City property near The Hands sculpture in back of the Municipal Center by the nonprofit Safe Space the previous day had amounted to a “public take over.”

Safe Space, which operates an emergency winter sheltering program, ran intake in the space from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Jan. 5, an operation that it says proceeded smoothly. The group’s leadership said it believed that it was using public property as defined in the City code, and wasn’t required to get special permission.