Articles by Melissa Daugherty

About Melissa Daugherty
Melissa Daugherty is an award-winning columnist and editorial writer who started her career as a higher education reporter at a daily newspaper. Daugherty spent 17 years at the CN&R, eight of them as editor-in-chief. Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable is her super power.
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COVID-19

Holding pattern

The city of Chico will be appointing an interim police chief in the coming weeks, an outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recruitment for the position—held for the past five years by Chief Mike O’Brien—is on […]

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Second & Flume

Body counts and rodeo clowns

Memorize these figures: 62,000 and 83,019. The first is the high-end estimate of U.S. deaths attributed to influenza during an entire annual flu season. The second is the number of Americans who have died of […]

CN&R and Giving Newsday
Second & Flume

Helping the Fourth Estate

In many ways, March 27 feels like years ago. That’s the day I was forced to publish my column exclusively online, and life just hasn’t been the same. Since stopping the print presses nearly six […]

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Second & Flume

Humbled

Those who’ve read my column or editorials in the CN&R over the years know that I’ve been a fierce defender of programs designed to help people who are struggling. I’ve written many times about perennially […]

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Second & Flume

Bittersweet

I may have been in the middle of feeling sorry for myself when former CN&R staff writer Ashiah Scharaga called to tell me the California News Publishers Association had revealed the results of its annual […]

Local Government

Economic Armageddon?

Members of Chico’s City Council sounded alarms about an oncoming recession Tuesday evening (April 7), hitting the brakes on several initiatives and questioning whether to pause or reduce the sales tax measure slated for November’s […]

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Letters to the Editor

About your son

Re “Regarding Henry” (Cover story, by Melissa Daugherty, March 19): The CN&R’s cover story presents profound and deeply personal insights into the experience of being a parent of a child with Down syndrome. It’s a […]

Second & Flume

Leave the light on

Each Thursday for the past 13 years, I’ve walked into the CN&R’s office and grabbed a freshly printed issue of Chico’s trusty alternative weekly. Yesterday was different. As I swung around the roundabout at Second […]

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Camp Fire

One at a time

Photo by Ken Smith CN&R Editor Melissa Daugherty and one of the cats she befriended in Magalia while the Ridge was closed to the public. Everyone on the Ridge had a job to do in […]

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Camp Fire

Milestone

“Just get past Nov. 8.” That’s what I’ve been telling myself for the past month. Amid the buildup of the Camp Fire one-year mark—my anxiety growing with each day lacking rain—that refrain has kept me […]