RICHMOND -- A new safety evaluation of the General Chemical Works facility here released tonight by an independent consultant reports that workers may have under-reported "near-misses," or hazardous incidents that could have resulted in catastrophe over the past year. The county-funded evaluation also criticizes the plant for following lax safety procedures.
RICHMOND -- When the City of Richmond overwhelmingly approved an ordinance last winter making it illegal to camp in public, Terry Messman was hardly surprised.
Messman, the editor of Street Spirit, a homeless rights newspaper, has seen anti-camping legislation emerge in several cities in the Bay Area. Gentrification, he said, fuels the need to displace the homeless.
RICHMOND -- Deputy Public Defender Patrick Cannon spends his days here defending accused traffic violators, drug addicts, wife beaters and killers. At night, the UC Berkeley graduate says he sleeps soundly. "I'm an advocate," he told a group of visitors at his office here recently. "It's not my job or the DA's job to decide who's guilty."
It is his job, however, to make sure his clients receive every right they are entitled to under the U.S. Constitution. And it's that point that nettles him most, Cannon says, insisting that Contra Costa County falls far short on this important score when it comes to African-Americans.
MEMO from RICHMOND -- I met Taz the drug dog at the beginning of my ride along, which began at 5pm in the parking lot of the Richmond Police Station on 27th Street. Toward the end of the night I realized the cop I had been shadowing all evening was something a canine, too.
MEMO from RICHMOND -- Grand Theft Auto 3 is a relatively recent video game for most home platforms, meaning you can enjoy it from a Lay-z-Boy at home or on the floor of your empty bachelor pad. It's the third installment (they're up to four now) in a violent series that has attracted heavy criticism from parents, politicians and gun control advocates.
RICHMOND -- Lars, a one-year-old little white cutie, was happily jumping back and forth, celebrating an impending significant moment of his life. This Saturday, he will be adopted and move into a new home. Abandoned as he was, Lars is one of the 1,500 fortunate rabbits that are rescued every year in the Bay Area. Many of them are found in the vicinity of San Pablo Avenue, and each has a unique story.
RICHMOND —Richmond’s rate of auto theft – already one of the highest in the region – grew by 15 percent last month, a figure corresponding with similar increases in Sonoma and Contra Costa Counties and in many parts of the rest of the state. Police attribute the rise to an increasing street demand for stylish auto accessories found in sporty car models manufactured in the late 1980s.
RICHMOND — The Richmond Police Department presented its four newest officers to the City Council last night, amid stinging citizen complaints of police brutality stemming from this year’s Cinco de Mayo celebration.
RICHMOND -- Richmond Police are investigating a house robbery that took place Friday in the 5000 block of Esmond Ave.
RICHMOND -- Richmond moviegoers who caught rapper Ice Cube's new comedy "Barbershop" weren't laughing after two fights broke out at the Hilltop Mall on Saturday night.
MEMO from RICHMOND -- It was 20 minutes past five on Friday evening when Officer Dan Wellhausen drove his squad car in front of the visitor's entrance of the Richmond Police Station, where I sat rewinding tape and anticipating his arrival.
While we had arranged to meet at 4:45 p.m., the 33-year old veteran cop had been dispatched to patrol North Richmond, where he searched without luck for a man suspected of kidnapping his girlfriend. Now, he was bringing his cruiser to a grinding halt, peering through black wraparound shades and beckoning for me to join him.
