Month: January 2025

Activist shops for empathy at Saturday market

Changemaker: Charles Withuhn rolls the boulder uphill
by Yucheng Tang | Posted January 28, 2025

photo by Yucheng Tang
Charles Withuhn is president of the North State Shelter Team.

Editor’s note: This is the first story in a series called “Changemakers” that ChicoSol will run monthly in an effort to highlight some of the remarkable work underway in our community.

Standing in front of his booth at the Chico Certified Farmers Market, Charles Withuhn greets passersby on this winter Saturday.

He shakes hands with some and passes out newsletters or fliers produced by the North State Shelter Team (NSST). Some people stop to listen and some barely show interest. Even though some people ignore him, Withuhn — like the mythological Sisyphus who relentlessly rolled a boulder up to a mountain top only to have the boulder roll down — just keeps making attempts at conversation. read more

Hmong elders may face isolation, animosity

California hotline and Oroville's cultural center offer assistance
by Yucheng Tang | Posted January 21, 2025

photo by Yucheng Tang
Seng Yang, director of Butte County’s Hmong Cultural Center.

Among more than a thousand reports received by the California vs Hate hotline in the first year, the most commonly cited form of hate was based on race and ethnicity.

Anti-Black bias was the most common, followed by anti-Latino and anti-Asian, said Kevin Kish, director of the California Civil Rights Department, during a Jan. 17 briefing organized by Ethnic Media Services (EMS).

The Civil Rights Department launched the hotline in May 2023, and connects victims and witnesses of hate incidents and hate crimes with the resources they may need, including legal services, counseling, mental health services and financial assistance. People can report online in 15 languages, including English, Spanish, Hmong, Filipino and Chinese, or by phone in 200 languages. read more

Saving the nation begins “inside of us”

Pastor Robert Morton reminds a Chico audience that hope is necessary
by Yucheng Tang | Posted January 20, 2025

photo by Yucheng Tang
Keynote speaker Pastor Robert Morton

Pastor Robert Morton told an audience of hundreds that “saving” the country requires “seeing value in your neighborhood” during a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., celebration held Jan. 19 at St John’s Episcopal Church in Chico.

“I’m not entirely sure how America is going to be saved,” Morton said. “But if she is, it begins in here, it begins inside of us, it begins not simply by us marching, not by us protesting, not by us arguing or fighting or being keyboard warriors in the comments section. But it begins by you seeing value in your neighborhood.”

Morton said social change work “means that we sometimes start small.”

“We start in spaces where that seems insignificant. It might be the local school board. It might be you showing up to that parent-teacher conference and saying, wait a minute, ‘I need to be a part of this school.'” read more

People’s March on Chico prepares to fight for change

Voting is important on everything from "dog-catcher to president"
by Yucheng Tang | Posted January 18, 2025

Hundreds of people joined the People’s March on Chico today, marching from City Plaza to the Women’s Club as many passing drivers honked in support, prompting cheers and screams from the protesters.

Lead coordinator of the People’s March Chico coalition and Women’s March Chico, Angela Silva, said the coalition formed in “response to Trump’s second election. We have welcomed in so many groups.” Silva said more than 500 people participated in the march and rally.

“On the national level, there is a massive list of groups that have come together across the nation, understanding that we’re going to need to work together to fight for our human rights, and to not abide by the injustices that may come out of this incoming administration,” Silva added. read more

Fear Paralyzes Tiny Town in California’s Tulare County

After Border Patrol raids, town of Poplar comes to a standstill
by Peter Schurmann | Posted January 18, 2025

photo by Manuel Ortiz
Mari Pérez Ruíz of Community Valley Empowerment Alliance discusses the recent raids with a community of indigenous farmworkers in Tulare County.

POPLAR, Ca. -– In the early 1970s, this unincorporated town in California’s agricultural heartland was designated by county officials as having “no authentic future.” That designation—entailing dramatic cuts to basic services remained until as recently as 2023.

Now, following a series of raids on immigrants that began on Jan. 7 in neighboring Kern County, residents here say the future does indeed look bleak.

“People are scared. They don’t want to come out. We’re all scared,” says Gregorio, a resident of Poplar for the past seven years and the owner of a local business that caters to the community’s farmworker population. (We are not using Gregorio’s last name to protect his identity.) read more

Teisha Hase, a “child advocate,” assumes trustee seat

"There needs to be a focus on mental health"
by Natalie Hanson | Posted January 13, 2025

photo courtesy of Teisha Hase

Editor’s note: Gayle Olsen and Teisha Hase joined the Chico Unified School District (CUSD) board this month after winning seats in the Nov. 5 General Election. Read our Q-and-A with Olsen here and our Q-and-A with Hase below. Read our sidebar on policy under the Trump Administration here.

Longtime English and reading educator Teisha Hase is taking her dedication to students to the next level as she assumes her seat on the CUSD board representing Trustee Area 3.

Hase told ChicoSol she’s excited to take on this new journey after 27 years working at Chico and Oroville high schools and tutoring students needing alternative support. Hase, who considers herself a student advocate, has also served as president of the Oroville Secondary Teachers Association (OSTA). read more