The Chico City Council Tuesday rehired the law firm Alvarez-Glasman & Colvin (AGC) to take over city attorney services.

The move comes after the council decided to terminate its contract with Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley last month.

Council member Alex Brown criticized the move back to AGC, which last provided city attorney services around January 2020.

In California, confusion and botched communication has caused some eligible parents and family caregivers of people with disabilities to be turned away at covid vaccination sites.

Oscar Madrigal is one of those caregivers. His two sons are on the autism spectrum and his youngest requires almost constant care.

As the Biden administration accelerates a plan to use pharmacies to distribute COVID-19 vaccines, significant areas of the country lack brick-and-mortar pharmacies capable of administering the protective shots.

A recent analysis by the Rural Policy Research Institute found that 111 rural counties, mostly between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, have no pharmacy that can give the vaccines.

PG&E hiked its rates by 4.6%, effective March 1. The increase will add $8.73 to the average customer’s monthly bill and will bring the company about a billion dollars in revenue. Some rate-payers challenge the need for the hike; others have questions about it.

PG&E spokesperson Paul Moreno explained that the utility, the largest in the nation with about 16 billion customers, will use the additional income to harden its power transmission equipment in fire-prone areas, and for other safety enhancement measures like adding high-resolution cameras and weather stations, and for tree pruning.

Before the pandemic, Nancy Klein would spend up to seven hours a day at a nursing home in Riverside County, caring for her 53-year-old son, who was left unable to speak and move his limbs after a massive brain hemorrhage. She would suction his tracheotomy tube and massage his neck, arms and legs. 

But Klein has watched her son deteriorate in the past year. He was hospitalized with pneumonia in May as pandemic rules largely locked down most of California’s nursing homes.

A Butte County man is suing the Chico Police Department over allegations he was denied work – in part – because of his race.

Donell Thomas, a 35-year-old black man, alleges police leadership unlawfully used his expunged criminal history to ban him from working with the department.

After months of negotiating, Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders struck a deal Monday to encourage schools to bring California’s youngest students back to classrooms by April.

The plan offers $2 billion in incentives to districts that reopen classrooms for students in transitional kindergarten through second grade by March 31.

Shasta County was able to loosen some restrictions on businesses last week due to declining coronavirus cases.

The county is now in the red tier under the state’s COVID-19 reopening plan. Despite the move to a less restrictive tier, it's too soon to say how many spring and summer events will be able to take place. 

Redding’s classic car show, Kool April Nites, was canceled for the second year in a row. The Redding Rodeo on the other hand is tentatively scheduled for May 13, 14 and 15.