Border-crossing journalism from the Sacramento Valley
by Natalie Hanson
posted June 21
Chico city officials say that after nearly a year, the City’s plan for building new housing under state law — the Housing Element — could be approved this summer. But the process is already far behind schedule, as the state just slapped the latest draft with demands for more revisions for the second time in one year.
by Leslie Layton
commentary posted June 19
The photos this past week that showed tens of thousands of dead fish washing ashore on the Texas Gulf were haunting. Then, reports surfaced that dead wild birds were washing up on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, too.
‘Haunting’ became macabre.
Temperatures around the world soared, breaking records in Mexico and producing the hottest June day on record in Mexico City that sits more than 7,000 feet high. The Canadian wildfires turned some smoke-filled skies in the Northeast an eerie orange, and ocean temperatures underwent a “sudden escalation” because of global warming combined with natural events like an El Niño.
by Natalie Hanson
June 12
At a time when hate-fueled speech, crime and violence are threatening marginalized communities nationwide, it often falls on grassroots community movements to create change and promote healing from injustice, experts say.
Chico has tragically faced numerous incidents of hate against people who have historically faced discrimination. The city’s oldest Black church, Bethel African Methodist Episcopalian Church (AME), has reported repeated vandalism since 2020. Art by indigenous organizers has been vandalized. Unhoused people face ongoing verbal harassment and death threats. Anti-Semetic flyers have been delivered to homes across the city several times this year. Stonewall Alliance Chico says it is aware of growing fears of harassment, particularly among LGBTQ youth who face calls for public schools to repeal codes protecting their privacy to avoid discrimination.
by Leslie Layton
posted May 31
Steve Eaton is still troubled by what happened to him on the last day of March as he drove down an unmarked residential street in the part of old Chico known as The Avenues.
When he was pulled over by a Chico police officer, he remembers telling himself to stay calm and be polite. Surely whatever problem there was would be resolved quickly. But Eaton says his California driver’s license and an obliging attitude didn’t satisfy Officer Juan Valencia, who contended from the start that the 44-year-old African American man had been driving “erratically.”
