Butte County Archives - ChicoSol News

Viewing the world with empathy

A first-hand experience with Point-in-Time

by Yucheng Tang | Posted February 4, 2025

photo by Yucheng Tang

Elvert Richardson checks for homeless people or encampments under a bridge near the Chico State campus.

It was not a normal stroll.

“We need to check the lower part of the slope next to the creek. The homeless always set up their camps there,” Elvert Richardson said to me on a recent sunny Wednesday morning, while we were walking along Big Chico Creek on the north side of Chico State campus.

I was one of the 280 registered volunteers for the Point-in-Time count in Butte County on Jan. 29, there to learn about homelessness as a reporter. Every team, usually consisting of three to four people, was sent out by the Butte County Homeless Continuum of Care (CoC), a local planning body, to count unsheltered people and conduct the survey in an assigned area. read more

Hmong elders may face isolation, animosity

California hotline and Oroville's cultural center offer assistance

by Yucheng Tang | Posted January 21, 2025

photo by Yucheng Tang

Seng Yang, director of Butte County’s Hmong Cultural Center.

Among more than a thousand reports received by the California vs Hate hotline in the first year, the most commonly cited form of hate was based on race and ethnicity.

Anti-Black bias was the most common, followed by anti-Latino and anti-Asian, said Kevin Kish, director of the California Civil Rights Department, during a Jan. 17 briefing organized by Ethnic Media Services (EMS).

The Civil Rights Department launched the hotline in May 2023, and connects victims and witnesses of hate incidents and hate crimes with the resources they may need, including legal services, counseling, mental health services and financial assistance. People can report online in 15 languages, including English, Spanish, Hmong, Filipino and Chinese, or by phone in 200 languages. read more

Controversial Tuscan Ridge rolls forward

County supes vote in favor of Skyway housing project

by Yucheng Tang | Posted January 3, 2025

photo by Yucheng Tang

Butte County’s Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to move forward with Tuscan Ridge, but developer Mark West still has to meet conditions of approval.

Butte County’s supervisors have approved the controversial Tuscan Ridge housing project on the south side of Skyway, but the developer must still jump hurdles related to water, sewer and drainage.

The supervisors voted 4-1 Dec. 10 to move a project forward that will plant 165 single-family homes where the Tuscan Ridge Golf Course was once located between Chico and Paradise. After the Camp Fire, the site housed the PG&E base camp. The entire 163-acre project area will include six commercial lots and houses that are between 3,000 and 20,000 square feet in size.

Almost 16 acres of commercial lots will house facilities including a gas station, convenience store and a mini-storage facility. read more

Election campaigning targets the vulnerable

Some candidates rely on racist tropes or discriminatory language

by Natalie Hanson | Posted September 4, 2024

photo courtesy of Yee campaign

District 1 candidate Rose Yee attending the Democratic National Convention.

As racist and discriminatory speech become commonplace in electoral campaigns, candidates and campaign organizers are calling for a response. In Butte County and elsewhere, some would like elected officials to speak against discrimination and in favor of protecting marginalized Californians.

On a recent panel convened by Ethnic Media Services, organizers said that anti-immigrant rhetoric from the Republican Party is growing. Panelists said that many incumbents and GOP candidates use slurs against migrants, which fuels fear and anger against people who seek a better life in America.

Hateful speech has been on the rise since 2016, said David Welch, secretary of the Butte County Democratic Party and chairperson for the Democratic Action Club of Chico. Welch said that “free floating anger” came to the surface with Donald Trump’s rise to power and the presidency. read more

Ex-cop’s domestic violence charges dropped

Former Gridley officer convicted of animal cruelty for abusing dachshund

by Dave Waddell | Posted August 19, 2024

Felony domestic violence charges resulting from disturbing allegations against a former Gridley police officer were dropped because the alleged victim, herself a police officer, refused to testify.

However, the defendant, 31-year-old Devin Pasley, was convicted Aug. 7 of misdemeanor animal cruelty after a three-day trial in Butte County Superior Court. He is scheduled to be sentenced at 1:30 p.m. Aug. 29. Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said the judge is expected to put Pasley on probation for three years.

At sentencing, “we will be asking that the current temporary domestic violence restraining order be extended through the three-year probationary period that we expect to be ordered,” Ramsey said. “Such a restraining order will prevent him from possessing firearms.” read more

Park Fire rages; thousands evacuate

Vice mayor: Evacuation planning for homeless encampment underway

by Leslie Layton | Posted July 25, 2024

12:30 p.m. update July 26: Cal Fire says the Park Fire has burned 178,000 acres and 134 structures. Evacuation orders have been expanded and can be checked here.

by Leslie Layton
posted July 25

The Park Fire in Upper Bidwell Park east of Chico city limits reached almost 71,500 acres by midday today with only 3% containment.

It continues to be hot and windy, thousands of people are under evacuation order or warning and air quality for most city residents has slid from good to moderate.

Vice Mayor Kasey Reynolds said today that she confirmed, at 1 a.m. this morning, that the Butte County Association of Governments (BCAG) has buses on standby if the residents of the Alternate Site homeless encampment at Eaton and Cohasset roads have to be evacuated. read more