Border-crossing journalism from the Sacramento Valley
by Yucheng Tang
posted Nov. 13
How can a day that’s about death feel like a huge party?
When I joined the crowd at The Barn at Meriam Park for a Nov. 2 celebration of Day of the Dead — a Mexican tradition called Día de los Muertos in Spanish — I didn’t expect it to lead me to reconsideration of a Chinese festival, Tomb Sweeping Day, that was part of my own childhood.
by Danielle Alexich
guest contribution posted Nov. 6
I would give myself an A plus.
Nobody has done what I’ve been able to do.
–Donald Trump
Grade school mornings
we faced the flag,
hands over hearts,
pride of a nation pulsing inside us.
We compared report cards,
took cuts in line at recess,
played dodgeball in the thin Oakland fog.
Across town and on TV,
dark people got dragged away in handcuffs.
If we saw a drunk collapsed on the street,
we were told not to stare.
People dreamed of getting rich.
by Dave Waddell
news analysis posted Oct. 29
The pain of the taser was “searing … like a baseball bat swung hard and squarely into the small of your back. That sensation, which is actually two sharp steel barbs piercing your skin and shooting electricity into your central nervous system, is followed by the harshest, most violent spasm you can imagine coursing through your entire body.” – Journalist Matt Stroud in his book “Thin Blue Lie.”
by Emily Alma
guest commentary posted June 18
Israel’s cruel and disproportionate response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks has elicited world-wide outcry, public horror at their actions, eclipsing our horror at the cruel Hamas actions against Israelis.
On the home front, popular uprisings continue unabated, spreading from action in the streets to union halls to university campuses to government employees resigning, to elected representatives in Congress – all demanding an end to hostilities, demanding an end to Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war, demanding an end to the flow of U.S. arms to Israel, demanding divestment from companies profiting from Israel’s war, demanding a permanent ceasefire and justice for Palestine.
by Kim Weir
guest commentary posted March 18
Retired Superior Court Judge Ann Rutherford, the first female judge in Butte County, served 40 years on the California bench. She died Feb. 16.
The people who Judge Ann Rutherford left behind are now sharing their verities about her. Groundbreaking, she was, and trailblazing. Remarkable. Highly regarded, sharp-minded, and quick-witted, too. She was all that.
by Natalie Hanson
commentary posted March 2
(ChicoSol coverage of the nationwide local news crisis has received support from an Ethnic Media Services fellowship.)
The rapid erosion of local news across the country is nothing short of a five-alarm emergency for democracy — and it will take creativity and commitment to keep democracy’s fourth pillar standing.
