Category: Point of View

An iconic downtown Chico store calls it quits

Collier, Chico's first hardware store, to close at end of month
by Karen Laslo | Posted March 8, 2025

photo by Karen Laslo
Matt Lucena, one of the brother owners, behind the Collier Hardware counter.

As I crossed the street to park my bike in its usual spot in front of the store on a recent afternoon, I saw the big sign in the window: “Store Closing Sale.”

From our house in the Avenues, Collier Hardware was just a short bike ride downtown. I looked forward to my jaunt to the venerable 154-year-old store. My routine was I’d park my bike conveniently in front of the store, go in and look around to see what was new, find the item I needed, make my purchase and ride home. I confess that I felt a little smug knowing that I hadn’t contributed to the climate crisis by driving my car downtown. read more

Day of the Dead festivity leads to cultural rediscovery

Understanding better the Chinese tradition that was part of my childhood
by Yucheng Tang | Posted November 13, 2024

photo by Yucheng Tang
Folkloric dancers recently celebrated a lively and colorful Day of the Dead at Meriam Park.

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.

Latin music played loudly in the background. On stage, children whose faces were painted like skeletons danced and sang joyfully. Next to the stage stood a community altar, adorned with photos of deceased loved ones, candles, and marigolds — the flower that is believed to guide spirits back home. read more

For Which it Stands

by Danielle Alexich | Posted November 6, 2024

photo by Tania Flores
Graffiti in Oakland, Calif.

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.

Years later, we heard about other countries.
Epidemics, famine, hospitals bombed.
Our kids pleaded for Happy Meals
while foreign children covered with flies
slumped in the dirt.
Thank God we lived in America. read more

Taser pain minimized at Rushing trial

Testimony from ‘cottage industry of exoneration’ aided Chico police
by Dave Waddell | Posted October 29, 2024

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.”

SACRAMENTO — Three years ago, the New York Times published a deeply reported story on how paid experts help exonerate police in killing cases. This month, that “cottage industry of exoneration,” including one expert who has made a fortune minimizing the dangers of tasers, operated at full gear on the 15th floor of the Robert T. Matsui Federal Courthouse. read more

Protect free speech rights for Israel’s critics

Legislation likely to produce "dangerous overreach"
by Emily Alma | Posted June 18, 2024

Emily Alma

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. read more

Thank You, Judge Ann: A Remembrance

by Kim Weir | Posted March 19, 2024

photo courtesy of Butte County Superior Court
Judge Ann Rutherford

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.

But no words capture her depth of commitment to justice, or the fierceness of her intelligence and character. Anyone who mistook her decency and fairness for gullibility would regret it. She took no prisoners.

Once, an acquaintance of mine came before Judge Ann in a contentious divorce — one so nasty it led to criminal contempt charges against her ex-husband. His continuing harassment and defiance landed him in jail. Twice. The third time, Judge Ann told the bailiff to lock him up, with only a legal pad and pen, until he wrote his ex-wife a sincere letter of apology. And if, at the end of court that day, Judge Ann wasn’t happy with the letter’s content or tone, she would then send him to prison. read more