Category: Community

Views vary on aquifer management

Are the regulatory guardrails sufficient?
by Yucheng Tang | Posted January 13, 2026
The League of Women Voters and Chico AAUW sponsored a Jan. 10 forum on Butte County groundwater. Photo by Yucheng Tang

Disagreements occasionally flared, primarily over the underrepresentation of domestic well owners and small farmers within Tuscan Water District, during a groundwater forum on a recent Saturday afternoon.

Concerns about legal implications of groundwater recharge for water ownership also surfaced during the meeting hosted by the League of Women Voters of Butte County.

The panel, consisting of county officials, Tuscan Water District (TWD) leadership, a geology professor, and an environmentalist, discussed potential solutions to improve groundwater sustainability and the challenges of maintaining a balanced aquifer. Around 150 people, including city councilmembers Katie Hawley and Addison Winslow, attended the two and a half hour session.  read more

Chico joins nationwide “ICE Out for Good” protests

by Leslie Layton | Posted January 10, 2026
Alan and Diane Silver. Photo by Leslie Layton

Chico protesters showed up today — in concert with anti-ICE rallies underway across the nation — with cardboard and printed signs, with costumes and canes, with walkers and strollers, to express outrage, disgust and anguish over recent shootings.

In the wake of the shooting that killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, more than 1,000 people participated in the Chico protest that first swarmed the entrance to Children’s Park and then spread out to line the Esplanade down to East Washington Avenue. They carried signs denouncing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Trump administration and fascism. read more

Legal immigrants face threats, live with fear

As immigrants lose legal status, college officials promise to maintain programs that serve these students
by Natalie Hanson | Posted December 29, 2025
Hiroshi Motomura, co-director, UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy. Photo courtesy of American Community Media.

For students like Andrea who identify as Dreamers – young people who came to this country as children — the increasing pressure to self-deport has created an uncertain future. And like Andrea, hundreds of thousands of people now face uncertainty as the Trump administration takes steps that threaten their ability to remain in the country.

Andrea did not give her last name when she addressed a Dec. 5 panel convened by American Community Media (ACoM), but she said that she has lived in the United States since she was 5 years old. read more

Nineteen lives lost are honored

Homeless Persons' Memorial Day event in Chico honors those who died
by Yucheng Tang | Posted December 21, 2025
Grace Aita misses her friend Elijah, who passed away June 9 at the Genesis pallet shelter. Photo by Karen Laslo.

Some 19 people who died on Chico streets or in shelters in 2025 were honored Dec. 21 at the city’s fifth Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day event.

On a rainy, windy, winter solstice afternoon, about 20 people gathered at the Our Hands sculpture to honor the Chico-area residents who have died – often in public spaces — and appear to have all been unhoused.

The event was organized by Chico CA Shelter for All and the North State Shelter Team. read more