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.
Down Range, which is outside city limits along Highway 99 on the northern entrance to Chico, is known for boldly advertising the sale of assault rifles, especially around some holidays. The business is co-owned by Chico police officer Steve Dyke and has been gaining a bigger slice of Chico PD’s gun-buying pie each year.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.
Every year, CSUC students mentor teams of high schoolers participating in SAGE, an organization that was founded by Chico State business professor Curt DeBerg. The SAGE World Championship takes place in a different host country each year, and this year will be held Aug. 10-14.read more
For the second time in four months, a man has been shot dead by Chico police.
An officer fired his weapon at the unidentified white man inside Mid Valley Title and Escrow in the 600 block of Main Street in downtown Chico shortly after 10:30 p.m. Sunday.
According to Chico police Lt. Billy Aldridge, a man had wounded two police officers and a private security guard with an undisclosed weapon. The officers were treated and released at Enloe Medical Center, while the guard received a “significant” wound.
In the Police Department’s initial statement released this morning, the names of the man killed, the security guard and the officers involved were not divulged. Aldridge said that an investigation of the incident that was started by Chico PD had been turned over to the Butte County Officer-Involved Shooting Investigation Team headed up by District Attorney Mike Ramsey.read more
The Chico police sergeant who gave the green light to sending two relatively inexperienced cops after mentally ill Desmond Phillips with their guns drawn was nowhere near the Phillips residence at the time.
According to computer-assisted dispatch reports obtained by David Phillips, Desmond’s father, and made available to ChicoSol, Sgt. Todd Lefkowitz did not get to the scene until 14 minutes after he was first dispatched and eight minutes after Desmond, a 25-year-old black man, was gunned down by police. Lefkowitz arrived at 7:41 p.m. on March 17, or at approximately the same time the mortally wounded Desmond was carted out of his home and taken to Enloe Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead with a grievous heart wound.
ChicoSol earlier reported just 21 minutes elapsed between David Phillips’ first of three 9-1-1 calls and Desmond’s killing. However, dispatch records show there was even less time — only 19 minutes — from David Phillips’ initial call for medical help for his son at 7:14 p.m. to a barrage of police bullets at 7:33.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.
Beginning Aug. 31, MONCA will open a new exhibition titled “Affinity.” The admission price is $5 per person, with children and students admitted free.read more
