Tag: Gridley

California to flex muscle in favor of immigrants

Bills to be introduced to Legislature that would place limitations on ICE
by Lindajoy Fenley | Posted June 29, 2025
Antonio Villaraigosa. photo by Angela George, courtesy of Wikimedia.

The state attorney general, a former Los Angeles mayor, and an immigration lawyer, at a June 27 panel, vowed to continue the challenge to the Trump Administration’s unlawful assault on California immigrants.  

“You can’t physically stop [the Administration]. That’s not possible. But we need to challenge them in every possible way,” Antonio Villaraigosa, a former Los Angeles mayor, told dozens of journalists attending an American Community Media panel. Villaraigosa said that “every way possible” means suing the federal government as well as engaging the public to push back through peaceful protest.

University of California Professor Henry Brady, who also spoke at the panel “California leads resistance to immigrant crackdown,” underscored the importance of immigrants to California’s economy. read more

Chip Chao’s love of the land produces strawberries

Highway 99
by Leslie Layton | Posted May 29, 2025

Fresh fruit and vegetables from highway stands can be one of the joys of travel, particularly in spring and summer. I recognized Chip Chao’s Chip Strawberry Farm stand when I saw him the other day south of Gridley next to Highway 99 — but I thought he was in the wrong place.

Chao once sold his fruit from a stand north of Chico, but when I stopped to sample a strawberry — which oozed juicy sweet — he explained that he lost his lease and moved to this 3-acre parcel north of Live Oak.

“I work hard to take care of them good,” Chao said of his strawberries. Chao drives to his little farm from Sacramento, arriving every morning at 5:30 a.m. to water and pick. The stand opens at 9:30 a.m., and from there Chao sells the strawberries, a strawberry jam his wife makes and cherries that he hauls from the Central Valley. read more