Category: Community
‘Mobilize Chico’ opposes racism, supports community members Trump presidency propels activism
photo by Dave Waddell
Mobilize Chico demonstration
by Dave Waddell
Chris Nichols, a retired school teacher and counselor, had never gone in much for activism. That all changed with the election of President Donald Trump.
“All of a sudden, I’m upset,” she said.
On Jan. 25, Nichols was standing with seven others from the group Mobilize Chico at the intersection of Warner and West Sacramento avenues holding a pink sign with the message: “Stay Loud 4 Equality.”
Women’s March in Chico Participants Speak up for Diversity, Women, Immigrants
Chico Women’s March organizers said about 2,000 people showed up to participate in the Jan. 21 event. The march and City Plaza rally were held in solidarity with the Women’s March on Washington, D.C., and marches were underway in major U.S. cities and around the world. Many of the participants said it was the largest march they had seen in Chico.
Oil Trains Pose Threat to Lake Oroville and State’s Water Supply, SOOT Says Butte County supervisors mum on SLO rail expansion
by Leslie Layton
Chico, with its state university, valley oaks, coffee shops and bike paths, feels more collegial than industrial, a place that’s far from the contamination and accidents that plague oil country. But the people in bright orange “Stop Toxic Oil Trains” T-shirts – they sometimes appear at Saturday Farmers Market and other events – say that when oil country rolls through Butte County, it brings accident potential here.
Political action committees spend big to oust Chico liberals PAC under state investigation avoids pre-election disclosure requirement
By Dave Waddell
A political action committee, under state investigation for its 2014 activities, again produced a slew of negative advertising this election year, flooding the mails with attacks on liberal candidates for Chico City Council.
The PAC, called Butte County Awareness and Accountability, is the subject of an ongoing probe by the Fair Political Practices Commission that resulted from a ChicoSol story that can be read here. Tom Kozik, a member of the Chico Municipal Airport Commission, is the PAC’s founder and treasurer. For years, Kozik was a leader of the Tea Party in Chico.
An Election That Will Change Lives Trying to breathe again
by Natalie Charlesworth
Nov. 8, 2016: I sat in math class, frantically checking the presidential election polls every chance that I got. The numbers were so close. Hillary, Trump, Hillary again, and then back to Trump. Jumbled thoughts like ping-pong balls bounced back and forth in my mind. My palms, sweaty. My anxiety increasingly getting worse. I began to wonder, why I had even decided to attend class that day? I then put my phone down and got back to what I should have been doing –focusing on math.