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Projects, awards, honors & media coverage

Special interest issues

Tracking Hate: We worked for several years as a media partner with ProPublica on its Documenting Hate database and reporting project. We’ve continued to produce reporting on hate crimes, hate incidents and discrimination and harassment and to produce cross-cultural features as an Ethnic Media Services (EMS) partner. That reporting is directed by Editor Layton and funded in part by an EMS fellowship.

Police conduct: We’ve been recognized for contributor Dave Waddell’s investigative reporting into killings by law enforcement agencies. See some of those honors below.

Housing & homelessness: These are crucial issues in a city that has been profoundly affected by the 2018 Camp Fire, one of the most destructive fires in history. Contributing Editor Natalie Hanson began her reporting on these issues for the daily newspaper and has continued this work for ChicoSol. read more

Chico residents again plea for a ceasefire resolution

A group of Chico residents again have called on city leaders — in a third effort — to pass a ceasefire resolution that would show support for the Palestinian community amid Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

At the meeting earlier this week (March 19), activist Rain Scher stepped to the podium to present a revised ceasefire resolution to the City Council. Scher, a member of Chico Jews in Solidarity with Palestine, pointed out that the new resolution calls for declaring that all human life is “precious.” Scher told ChicoSol that the resolution “explicity names both the Palestinian and Israeli casualties.” read more

Chico voters rejecting planned community Valley’s Edge

photo by Leslie Layton

The Valley’s Edge houses would be built on lava cap.

Editor’s note: The Butte County Clerk-Recorder’s office released official election results on March 28 that show that almost 63% voted NO on Measure O and 62% opposed Measure P.

Preliminary results in the primary election show Chico voters rejecting the controversial Valley’s Edge project that would produce a planned community east of City limits.

As of March 8, the preliminary count showed the number of “NO” votes on measures O and P at 62% of some 19,000 ballots that had been counted. Those measures would amend the General Plan and the Valley’s Edge Specific Plan to allow the development. read more

Local news coverage crisis hits home

Rebuild Local News Founder Steven Waldman

(ChicoSol coverage of the nationwide local news crisis has received support from an Ethnic Media Services fellowship.)

The rapid erosion of local news across the country is nothing short of a five-alarm emergency for democracy — and it will take creativity and commitment to keep democracy’s fourth pillar standing.

Butte County affairs are covered by only a few news outlets that employ a handful of journalists. Research shows reduced local news coverage is linked to less government transparency and reduced civic engagement. Most citizens do not have time to carefully monitor the use of their tax dollars and attend public meetings that reporters once watched closely. read more

Unsheltered, Tom Covington faces hostility and sometimes violence

photo by Leslie Layton

Tom Covington was struck by a flaming bag as he slept in a doorway.

Tom Covington curled up to sleep in a downtown Chico doorway on a January night near another unsheltered man. Both men were awakened around 2 a.m. by a flaming bag that was tossed on them and that burned Covington’s sleeping bag, hand and his right side.

Covington was able to slap the fire out, but the men were disgusted and angry to find that the bag was full of feces. Covington’s wheelchair had been taken by one of the two men who had been lurking around them when they bedded down.

Covington, a congenial man who was recently interviewed on Second Street as he sat on two slabs of cardboard on a cold sidewalk, was treated and released at the emergency room the morning of the attack. He still has four or five small skin wounds healing from the burns. read more

State agencies, psychologists support Chico Unified

Educators and experts have joined California’s leaders in urging an appeals court to uphold a ruling that supports Chico Unified School District’s (CUSD’s) anti-discrimination policy.

California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta filed Jan. 9 in support of the district, along with representatives of 15 other states, arguing that the policy is designed to be flexible on a case-by-case basis to support transgender and gender-nonconforming students, and to withhold parental notice when a student does not consent. The only exception for parental notification, against a student’s wishes, is if the student’s well-being is at risk. read more