Divided Supreme Court ruling delivers victory to Grants Pass ‘Either stay awake or be arrested’

photo by Karen Laslo
The City-sanctioned campground in north Chico that was opened to meet a court requirement.

by Natalie Hanson
posted June 28

The country’s highest court dropped a landmark decision on the question of civil rights for America’s unhoused people today.

In a decision that many attorneys and activists had predicted, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that cities enforcing anti-camping laws are not committing cruel and unusual punishment during evictions of unhoused people. It remanded the City of Grants Pass v. Johnson case back to the lower courts with a ruling that could affect policy in cities like Chico. read more

California Local News Fellow placed at ChicoSol Reporter begins work in September

Yucheng Tang

by Leslie Layton
posted June 27

ChicoSol will welcome a new, Chico-based full-time reporter in September, Yucheng Tang, after being selected to participate in the California Local News Fellowship program.

Tang is one of 39 early-career journalists in this news fellows cohort who will work for two years at an outlet that has a focus on local and underserved communities. The program is in its second year, placing reporters in selected outlets from Shasta to Orange County. read more

Juneteenth celebration draws community members to DeGarmo

photo by Karen Laslo
Juneteenth at DeGarmo Park in Chico.

by Karen Laslo & Leslie Layton
posted June 19

A Juneteenth celebration, with food, music and speeches, drew a cross-section of the community to DeGarmo Park today to celebrate the federal holiday that commemorates the end of slavery.

“We’re really going for a family-reunion type vibe,” said Christina Archie, an organizer with the group, Building Leaders, Advocates & Community Connections (BLACC) late in the afternoon. “We’re just wanting people to feel the love within the community. We’re working on that connection piece, community connection. It’s been really cool.” read more

Protect free speech rights for Israel’s critics Legislation likely to produce "dangerous overreach"

Emily Alma

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. read more

Chico mom appeals gender identity lawsuit

Aurora Regino

by Natalie Hanson
posted May 31

A Chico mother has appealed her case against Chico Unified School District (CUSD), accusing it of inappropriate conduct and secrecy in a gender identity case.

Aurora Regino has argued that the district must out students who are trans or exploring their gender identity to their parents and that a federal judge denied her right as a parent to control the upbringing of her child. But a panel of Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judges questioned whether Regino changed her case substantially – enough to send it back to the federal judge for reconsideration. read more

Say their names: honoring the “deportees” Highway 99

photo by Lindajoy Fenley
The grave marker now has the names of all who perished in the crash.

by Lindajoy Fenley
posted May 31

In folk music circles, most people know Woody Guthrie’s song “Plane Crash at Los Gatos.”

But few ever visit Fresno’s Holy Cross Cemetery where a mass grave holds the remains of 28 farmworkers who died in the fiery 1948 plane crash that the song is about.

The song bemoans the fact that the farmworkers who were being deported to Mexico had no names in either news reports at the time of the crash or on a diminutive stone that marked their common grave at the edge of the little graveyard. The media reported only the names of the plane’s crew and the immigration officer who died in the crash with them. In protest, Guthrie made up generic names for the migrants and his 1948 words were put to music 10 years later by Martin Hoffman. read more