Free Republic

A Richmond police officer was nearly flattened during an illegal weekend sideshow Sunday, authorities said, leading to the arrest of two teens — one of whom was charged with attempted murder.

Ever since the Attorney General made it crystal clear that President Trump really wasn’t kidding when he said he would cut off DoJ funding to sanctuary cities, the response has been frantic. More than a dozen cities and counties, along with the state of California, have begun legal action challenging the right of the federal government to determine what the qualifications are to receive such grant money. Most of them will take quite a while to sort out, but the City of Richmond, California was one of the first out of the gate and managed to get their case...

RICHMOND -- A San Francisco-based group of financiers called Mortgage Resolution Partners has been calling on Sacramento and other California cities for more than a year, pitching a plan to use government powers of eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages and refinance them for the benefit of homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth. Most communities took a pass, saying the novel plan was too risky. Not Richmond, a largely working-class city in the Bay Area. There, a determined and articulate Green Party mayor has helped steer the plan through the City Council in recent months. Today, the...

RICHMOND -- Crews are responding to a large fire at the Chevron refinery in Richmond. Flames and at least two large plumes of black smoke are visible from as far away as the Bay Bridge and a shelter in place warning has been issued.

Driving south on Interstate 80, you get a tantalizing glimpse of the old greenhouses near the Richmond-El Cerrito border. Closed in 2006 when the Sakai and Oishi families sold their properties to the city of Richmond, they're the vestige of a once-thriving community of Japanese American cut-flower growers. The greenhouses will be demolished to make way for a housing development called, in the fine tradition of necronyms, Miraflores. Fortunately, several local photographers found the site before the bulldozers arrived, and the nurseries and the families who ran them star in concurrent special exhibitions at the Richmond Art Center and the...

More than 300 people marched from downtown Point Richmond to the Chevron refinery today to protest the company they say is processing crude oil imported from Iraq. Vowing to blockade the facility, about 50 people formed human chains at the entrance to the refinery on Richmond Avenue as others held banners, sang and danced.The protesters were marching against the war in Iraq as well as a proposal to upgrade the refinery's processing capability. They accused Chevron of profiteering from the oil obtained by the Iraqi invasion that has cost many thousands of lives and billions of dollars.Kayla Starr, 66, from...