An Op-Ed Piece on a Critical Issue That May Change Richmond Forever. Because this is a complicated issue, this Op-Ed is broken into multiple chapters. Chapter 1 was published on Sunday evening and Chapter on Monday morning. ATTORNEY SCOTT J. RAFFERTY FROM WALNUT CREEK IS THREATENING TO SUE RICHMOND IF THE RICHMOND CITY COUNCIL ON TUESDAY NIGHT DOES NOT AGREE TO AMEND HOW RICHMOND ELECTS MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL.  CLAIMING THAT A MINORITY CANNOT GET ELECTED TO THE COUNCIL, HE’S DEMANDING THAT RICHMOND NO LONGER BE ALLOWED TO ELECT COUNCILMEMBERS AT LARGE (SO THEY REPRESENT THE ENTIRE CITY).  HE IS DEMANDING THAT RICHMOND BE SEGREGATED INTO DISTRICTS THAT WILL HELP ENSURE THAT MINORITIES CAN GET ELECTED. Agenda Item I-1 on Tuesday’s Richmond City Council Agenda   Continue reading

An Op-Ed Piece on a Critical Issue That May Change Richmond Forever. Because this is a complicated issue, this Op-Ed is broken into multiple chapters. Chapter 1 was published on Sunday evening. ATTORNEY SCOTT J. RAFFERTY FROM WALNUT CREEK IS THREATENING TO SUE RICHMOND IF THE RICHMOND CITY COUNCIL ON TUESDAY NIGHT DOES NOT AGREE TO AMEND HOW RICHMOND ELECTS MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL.  CLAIMING THAT A MINORITY CANNOT GET ELECTED TO THE COUNCIL, HE’S DEMANDING THAT RICHMOND NO LONGER BE ALLOWED TO ELECT COUNCILMEMBERS AT LARGE (SO THEY REPRESENT THE ENTIRE CITY).  HE IS DEMANDING THAT RICHMOND BE SEGREGATED INTO DISTRICTS THAT WILL HELP ENSURE THAT MINORITIES CAN GET ELECTED. Agenda Item I-1 on Tuesday’s Richmond City Council Agenda   Continue reading

An Op-Ed Piece on a Critical Issue That May Change Richmond Forever. Because this is a complicated issue, this Op-Ed is broken into multiple chapters. Continue reading

Living in a city with an oil refinery dominating the landscape evokes a lot of emotions with many of the residents.  Some residents may hate the refinery, others may love it and others—usually the majority—give the refinery no thought whatsoever until there’s a problem.  Such is the case with the Chevron refinery and the people of Richmond. Continue reading

The West Contra Costa Unified School District is considering a parcel tax and/or a school bond for either the March Primary election or the November General Election. Parcel taxes can ONLY be used for people related expenses such as wages, fringes, programs, libraries, sports programs, counselors and such. Bonds can ONLY be used for facilities (buildings and such). The District is looking at a massive $47.8 million budget deficit which will negatively affect every facet of our District. The District still has 21 schools needing work on the facilities.  Schools like Fairmont and Stege are literally falling down around our kids.  We owe it to our youth to provide them with a first rate school to spend their days while we teach them what they need to succeed in life. Before spending funds on a ballot measure, it’s critical to know whether the public might support the measures. The District solicited an online poll this morning to gauge the interest of the voters. Here are the questions asked.  Keep in mind, please, that some of these questions tell you what the benefits might be while others are the kinds of comments you might hear from people trying to kill the bond. What are your thoughts?   Continue reading

The newsfeed these days seems solely focused on the possible impeachment of President Donald Trump as a result of, among many things, his intervention in the internal actions of Ukraine by pressuring them to investigate a political rival.  Will they impeach or won’t they?  The next few months will tell. Continue reading

RICHMOND—In response to violence at or near athletic events in recent weeks, the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) has implemented several changes in its football operations, officials announced this week. Continue reading

If you want to stir the masses, try censoring someone.  Even though we weren’t there, we all remember when the Nazis had their mass book burnings because they disagreed with the content. Victor Arnautoff took great pride in being a controversial muralist during the Depression years.  The San Francisco Unified School District’s Board of Trustees has been trying to find a way to ‘protect’ the students at Washington High from seeing the subject matter of The Life of George Washington—a set of thirteen murals that show parts of history that the SF school board have taken exception to. What is ironic is that while the San Francisco School Board initially voted to destroy the mural but has recently revised their vote to simply cover it up (at a cost of more than $800,000), the Richmond Museum of History recently recovered their own Arnautoff mural and are working diligently to preserve it. Melinda McCrary, Executive Director of the Richmond Museum of History, has offered the following about Richmond’s Mural: Continue reading

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From Wikipedia: “During World War II, Richmond built more ships than any other shipyard, turning out as many as three ships in a single day. The shipyards are part of the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park, whose the Rosie the Riveter memorial sits on the former grounds of Shipyard #2.” Continue reading