A Butte County political action committee – under state investigation for more than a year and counting – has become increasingly vague in reporting its spending activities targeting Chico liberals.
The state Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) announced on Aug. 15, 2016, that it had opened an investigation into Butte County Awareness and Accountability and its treasurer, Tom Kozik, as a result of information uncovered in this ChicoSol exclusive.
“It’s still an open and ongoing investigation,” Jay Wierenga, the FPPC’s communications director in Sacramento, said last week.read more
Siana Sonoquie and Paul Alvarez were among about 100 Chico residents who gathered Sunday morning at the corner of 20th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway to protest white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Va. Sonoquie said the Chico rally was both comforting and empowering. "As a person of color, it's very scary and triggering to see groups of racist white men chanting and holding torches," she said of the white-nationalist marches in Charlottesville. A "Unite the Right" rally there on Saturday drew neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan and others and a counter-protester was killed.
In the last three years alone, the financially strapped city of Chico has paid out nearly $25,000 to buy at least 40 guns of undisclosed types for the personal ownership of its police officers, according to a search of online records by ChicoSol.
Such gun transactions – made possible by a $900 per year “uniform allowance” afforded to all of the Chico Police Department’s more than 90 “sworn personnel” – skyrocketed with the advent of the Down Range Indoor Training Center three years ago.read more
When Chico State third-year student Jaclyn Soller arrives in Ukraine, she will not just help manage an event. She’ll also travel in a new country and meet other students from a total of 20 nations.
“Learning their different cultures and traditions is just so cool,” Soller said. “Especially the cultures I haven’t been able to encounter yet in my life. I mean, you’re in one place and can experience all of these cultures.”
Soller is one of 10 Chico State student mentors who will help run the World Championship event for Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship program (SAGE) in Odessa, Ukraine.read more
Art lovers came out in force Thursday evening for the ribbon-cutting opening of Chico’s Museum of Northern California Art (MONCA).
About 270 people attended the hour-long event at the museum, housed in the sprawling, historic Veterans Memorial Hall at 900 Esplanade, said Pat Macias, MONCA president.
“We signed up seven new members and also made many new friends,” Macias said.
Through Aug. 27, MONCA is displaying “paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures and photography from nearly 100 artists in Northern California,” says the museum’s website. Artists whose work is included in the collection include Ann Pierce, Claudia Steel, James Kuiper, Salvatore Casa and Richard Hornaday.read more
ChicoSol Editor Leslie Layton will speak Thursday in Phoenix at a panel discussion on covering bigotry, with journalists from publications that rank among the nation’s biggest names in investigative reporting.
Joining Layton to discuss “Investigating Hate” at the 2017 Investigative Reporters and Editors Conference will be Josh Harkinson, a senior reporter at Mother Jones; AC Thompson, a reporter for ProPublica; and Carlos Martinez de la Serna, director of innovation at Univision.read more
