ChicoSol

Long COVID causes confusion, anxiety

The lack of information and help frustrate local patients

by Natalie Hanson | Posted February 17, 2023

Kathryn Robinson, who was formerly a classical music director at Northstate Public Radio, said her music has brought her great comfort.

Kathryn Robinson never expected that when she contracted COVID-19 in 2021, she would face life-altering symptoms for more than 15 months.

The Chico resident was fully vaccinated when she experienced a mild case of the Delta variant in August 2021. Three days into her symptoms, Robinson lost all sense of taste and smell. Like many COVID patients, she did not get those senses back for several months.

After recovering, Robinson said she awoke months later on Thanksgiving Day smelling what seemed like “sewage” all around her. She said chicken prepared for the holiday dinner tasted like “something rotten dipped in cleaning fluid.” It was then that she realized her sense of taste and smell were altered, a state she learned is called a combination of “parosmia” and “dysgeusia” -– altered smell and taste. read more

Homeless people in Chico victimized

Should violent acts targeting unhoused be treated as hate crimes?

by Peter Schurmann | Posted February 7, 2023

The Eaton-Cohasset homeless encampment sits on Chico’s northern edge, a motley assortment of weathered tents, a couple of dumpsters and a port-o-potty that juts up from the muddy gravel.

With hate crimes targeting racial, religious, and sexual minorities on the rise nationwide, residents here say they’re being targeted for another reason: because they’re homeless.

“There’s some guy who drives around with a loudspeaker and a mask on saying, ‘Get out of Chico or get killed,’” says Jimbo Slice, 29. A native of Paradise, about 12 miles east of Chico, Jimbo -— he declined to give his last name -— is among the thousands who were left homeless by the 2018 Camp Fire that devastated the region. “He drove by three times yesterday.” read more

Valley’s Edge opponents worry about environmental impacts

Fight over foothill development has wracked Chico for decades

by Leslie Layton | Posted February 5, 2023

photo courtesy of Steve Evans

From left, Steve Evans, Michael McGinnis and Kelly Meagher announced the No way San Jose campaign in 1988 to stop development next to Upper Bidwell Park.

Part II in a two-part series

Thirty-five years ago, a small, progressive coalition stopped development in the lower foothills adjacent to Upper Bidwell Park with the rallying cry, “No way San Jose.”

That area has been protected under the name of Bidwell Ranch since the 1988 referendum that stopped the project. Voters in favor of stopping the Rancho Arroyo project wanted to protect northwest Chico -– not so much from inevitable population growth -– but from the kind of suburban sprawl that had come to be associated with California cities like San Jose and Fresno.

Rancho Arroyo was first planned for 5,000 houses northwest of Bidwell Park, later trimmed down to 3,000 houses to placate opponents, and then resurrected as Bidwell Ranch before it was stopped altogether. read more

Will Valley’s Edge provide the housing Chico needs?

Environmental organizations file lawsuit to stop the project

by Natalie Hanson | Posted February 3, 2023

photo by Leslie Layton

Bill Brouhard presenting the proposed Valley’s Edge housing development to the Chico City Council.

Part I in a two-part series on a project that may take more than 20 years to build out

Chico is known to be severely lacking housing most residents can reasonably afford -– and yet an ambitious project the city has approved to develop housing near the foothills has garnered significant pushback.

On Jan. 3, Chico’s City Council greenlit the Valley’s Edge project. Today, national and regional environmental organizations filed a lawsuit to stop Valley’s Edge, alleging that the environmental impact report is out of compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act. The coalition that filed suit, including AquAlliance, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club, issued a statement saying they were suing the City of Chico and Chico Land Investments LLC “for approving a development … without properly assessing or mitigating wildfire and other environmental risks.” read more

First shooter in police killing sued multiple times

Gridley PD has no record of investigating officer’s prior shooting

by Dave Waddell | Posted January 26, 2023

Anthony Lara, the Gridley police officer who fired first in the fatal shooting of a man in mental crisis, has been a defendant in at least two lawsuits claiming excessive force and civil rights violations.

Lara initiated police gunfire that on Jan. 2 killed Baltazar Rubio, 43, of Gridley, who was allegedly pointing an unloaded handgun. The barrage came to total 31 shots fired by three Gridley-Biggs Police Department officers. Police bullets sped both directions down a skinny alley in the middle of a normally peaceful neighborhood, leaving residents stunned and shaken.

In a previous shooting in 2019, Lara fired his gun six times and slightly wounded an unarmed 19-year-old driver despite the teen’s girlfriend’s screams from the backseat. Gridley settled a civil suit stemming from that shooting, paying out $150,000, said Police Chief Rodney Harr. Gridley PD has no record of anyone in law enforcement, including Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey, ever investigating the incident -– either criminally or administratively. read more

Public schools take center stage in battles over civil rights

Chico Unified School District sued by conservative group

by Natalie Hanson | Posted January 20, 2023

photo courtesy of EMS

Michaele Turnage Young

Civil rights advocates say that battles over student rights have become polarized by far-right “special interests,” and they foresee a fight ahead to protect childrens’ rights.

Those fights may involve issues ranging from protection against discrimination to materials students are allowed to access and read. And at a Jan. 18 Board of Trustees meeting for Chico Unified School District (CUSD), officials responded to concerns raised by a lawsuit filed by an organization that supports many of the political right’s causes with court fights.

At a Jan. 18 news briefing sponsored by Ethnic Media Services (EMS), experts said the battle over students’ rights starts in K-12 schools, including whether children can be protected from discriminatory bullying. read more