Council candidate spends rainy weekend on street

Scott Huber learns about homelessness through experience
by ChicoSol staff | Posted April 9, 2018

Chico City Council candidate Scott Huber shares his experience of being without a roof the weekend of April 6-8 in this video. Huber touches on a handful of topics, including rain gear, a one-night stay at the Torres Shelter, stereotypes and surprises in this ChicoSol segment recorded prior to Chico Friends on the Street’s Sunday meal and survival-gear giveaway at Chico City Plaza.

“I respect the durability of these people because this is not easy. I can’t imagine that it is the first choice in anyone’s life, and it certainly wouldn’t be mine.”-– Scott Huber read more

Gun laws vigorously discussed at forum

NeverAgain Chico students question leaders
by Dave Waddell | Posted April 9, 2018

photo by Dave Waddell

There were two Republicans on the El Rey Theater stage for Saturday’s Chico forum on school gun violence — and only one was made of cardboard.

At center-stage throughout the program was a life-size cutout of a microphone-holding Rep. Doug LaMalfa, so real-looking that many in the audience at first thought the Richvale Republican was in attendance. Students organizing the event say LaMalfa was invited.

The one breathing Republican on stage for the Town Hall for Our Lives was congressional candidate Gregory Cheadle. He gained national notoriety when, in June 2016, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump pointed him out at a campaign rally crowd in Redding and said: “Oh, look at my African-American over here. Look at him. Are you the greatest?” read more

Chico observes killing of MLK 50 years ago

March, songs, passionate words mark anniversary
by Dave Waddell | Posted April 5, 2018

photo by Dave Waddell

Frances Mann led the singing

There were, appropriately, many passionate words Wednesday around peace and justice at Chico’s 50th anniversary observance of the killing of Martin Luther King Jr. – the soulful singing of Frances Mann quite notably among them.

A Mann-led rendition of Joan Baez’s “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around” started off a march of about 50 people, who sang their way from the Dorothy Johnson Center on 16th Street several blocks to the statue of MLK at Community Park on 20th Street. There, a ceremony sponsored by the Chico Peace & Justice Center was led by Emily Alma. read more

ChicoSol intern hired by investigative newsroom

Sandoval gets award for reporting on CSU, Chico deal
by Dave Waddell | Posted April 4, 2018

photo by Dave Waddell

Bob Butler and Gabriel Sandoval at awards banquet

Former ChicoSol intern Gabriel Sandoval, recently honored by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) for his investigative reporting, has been hired by ProPublica as he prepares to enter graduate school in New York City.

Sandoval, who received a bachelor’s degree in journalism in December from Chico State, will do reporting for ProPublica, which describes itself as a nonprofit news operation producing investigative journalism in the public interest. ProPublica won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for public service. read more

“American Totem” gets ‘sneak preview’

The film: “We are not one nation when it comes to guns”
by ChicoSol staff | Posted March 27, 2018

photo by Guillermo Mash

CSUC President Gayle E. Hutchinson introduces “American Totem” at Bell Memorial Union auditorium Monday.

“American Totem,” a film exploring the topic of guns in America, was a project three years in the making which premiered as a free “sneak preview” public showing at the Chico State Bell Memorial Union on March 26, with hundreds of movie-goers nearly filling the 800-seat auditorium.

Political Science honor society Alpha Sigma Phi hosted the event and facilitated an audience Q-and-A panel discussion after the film.

The 80-minute documentary film was co-directed by Sue Hilderbrand and Dan Carter, faculty members at Chico State and community radio personalities at KZFR 90.1 FM. read more

Teenagers fire up thousands in City Plaza

March for Our Lives speakers demand school safety
by Dave Waddell | Posted March 25, 2018

photo by Karen Laslo

At City Plaza

Chico teenagers spoke out passionately Saturday against school gun violence to a crowd of thousands at City Plaza, leaving some of their older listeners not only admiring their steely resolve but in tears at their stirring words.

“Do you know how it feels to hear the ‘all clear’ in a Code Red and say ‘Thank god I’m alive’ when across the country parents are crying ‘God, why? God, why did my baby have to die, their lives stretching out before them, withering in opportunity and promise?” asked Bailey Christiansen, a 15-year-old Chico High School sophomore. read more