As part of the 11 Days Of Peace celebration put on by the Antioch-based Interfaith Peace Project the Islamic Center of the East Bay sponsored an Open House on September 16th with dialogue, a tour and refreshments. Part of the several score in attendance are, standing left to right, Rev. Tom Bonacci, Walter Ruehlig, Sukhdev Singh, Ashraf Chaudry, Susan Batterton, Lesley Eubanks, M.D. Jalal Atmar.

On September 19 at 9:12 p.m. Antioch Police Department’s dispatch center received a call of a collision involving a vehicle and a pedestrian in the eastbound lanes of Lone Tree Way near the intersection of Lone Tree Landing.

When officers and emergency medical personnel arrived on scene the 68-year-old male victim was found on the roadway of eastbound Lone Tree Way. He was pronounced deceased at the scene by medical personnel.

He had been walking southbound across Lone Tree Way and was struck by a vehicle travelling in the eastbound lanes. At this point the investigation is ongoing and there is no indication that alcohol is a factor. Any witnesses should contact Officer Martin of the Antioch Police Department at 925-779-6900.

By Amy Claire

While the Antioch School Board recognized improvements in the alternative education program at their September 14 meeting, not everyone was smiling. One teacher from Prospects High School, which is part of the alternative education program, raised concerns about the school’s lack of a vice-principal or a counselor for its students.

Because alternative education students are often those who have struggled with traditional education settings, he saw the removal of the counselor and administrative support as potentially harmful to student development.

Three parents also expressed their disappointment with the district.

The first, angered by the release of private information to an individual who did not have custody over her children, was also upset by the lack of district response to her repeated complaints about the matter.

The second parent, mother of three students who are high achievers and involved in many extracurricular activities, voiced her irritation about an ongoing absence of textbooks in her son’s advanced world history course in high school. She stated that this was an unacceptable state of affairs, particularly now that the school year is four weeks into session.

The third parent was also frustrated by apparent apathy from the district. The day after her son broke his hand at school and failed to complete an assignment, his teacher demanded to know why he had not brought his homework to the hospital in order to finish it. The parent was very upset by this response, but felt further scorned when, after repeatedly contacting administrators and district employees, the issue remained unaddressed.

The board stated that it would look into her situation, as well as those of the other two parents.

The alternative education program, in contrast, projected high spirits. This program, which includes Live Oak, Prospects and Bidwell as well as the adult education program, has recently seen significant increases in student achievement scores, and has helped to raise the graduation rate in the district by 5.2 percent.

Program Principal Amy Farias expressed gratitude to the teachers and staff on her team, and Superintendent Donald Gill agreed. “They make this program proud,” he said.

The board also recognized change order committee member Fred Ehler for his service to the district. They then gave special recognition to two donations from the Antioch High School Alumni Association to the AHS football team and the performing arts program. After the special recognitions, the board was presented with the budget actuals for the 2010 – 2011 school year, which were largely positive.

The next regular school board meeting will be on Wednesday, September 28 at 7 p.m. at the district office, 510 G Street in Antioch.

October 19, 2011  8 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Los Medanos College, Community Room, L-109, 2700 East Leland Road, Pittsburg. Admission is free. Pre-registration is required on Supervisor Glover’s webpage at www.cccounty.us/supervisorglover.  For more information, call Lynn at 925-427-8138.

To the editor:

Businesses and organizations from all over California strongly support AB 361 (Huffman) Benefit Corporation legislation.

Benefit Corporation Legislation enables the development of a growing sector of the economy comprised of innovative businesses that seek to create benefit for society in addition to profit for shareholders. Business leaders in this new economy want the legal protection, currently not afforded under the California corporate code, to pursue a higher corporate purpose than simply maximizing shareholder value.

Importantly, companies seek to do far more than simply pick a single charity or environmental task to improve their image (often called “green washing”), but rather seek to improve the world we work in by creating high quality jobs that improve quality of life in our communities. Benefit Corporation Legislation contains the general public benefit provisions that ensure that consumers, investors, and policy makers can clearly distinguish companies who are pursuing a higher corporate purpose from those that are doing something more narrow for marketing purposes.

Benefit Corporation Legislation also provides additional accountability to shareholders by redefining the fiduciary duty of directors, requiring them to consider the impact of their decisions on the long term interests of society, not just the short term interests of shareholders, even when considering a sale of the business. To ensure increased transparency to shareholders and the public, Benefit Corporations are also required to assess their overall social and environmental performance against a third party standard.

By doing so, the company and all its stakeholders are made aware of how well the Benefit Corporation is doing relative to independent, credible, transparent, and comparable standards. Markets thrive on clarity and transparency, and these third party standards provisions create a level playing field and a more efficient and effective marketplace. They prevent the bad actors from simply cherry picking a few facts that are favorable for their image.

Benefit Corporation Legislation is now law in Maryland, Vermont, Virginia and New Jersey. Benefit Corporation Legislation has been introduced and is progressing rapidly in New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, and Hawaii. It has attracted strong bipartisan support in every state, because it is entirely voluntary and has no budget impact
for more information and a short list of some companies supporting AB361 visit http://www.hansonbridgett.com/docs/practices_industries/Support_CA_Benefit_Corp_Legislation.pdf.

Join me and my friends. Let Gov. Jerry Brown and your Ca. Senator know you are in favor of AB361. I’m not often involved in state politics on this level. but this could bring about a paradigm shift in all of our quality of life. I believe in this!

Bob Driskell

The Board of Directors of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) invites you to attend a public meeting to provide input and comments regarding the redistricting of the BART Election District on Wednesday, October 5th from noon – 1:30 pm in the Pittsburg Senior Center, 300 Presidio Lane.

Following each federal census, the BART Board of Directors is required to adjust the boundaries of the election districts so the districts shall be as equal in population as practicable. Attend a public meeting to view maps of the current election districts, learn where population changes have occurred, and let BART know what you think!

For questions you may contact the Board of Directors by email at boardofdirectors@bart.gov or by phone at 510.464.6095. Translation services available if requested 3 days (72 hours) before the meeting by calling BART Language Assistance Services at 510-464-6752.

To the editor:

The media is to be commended for continuing coverage of the thefts at St. Ignatius of Antioch Church. The church now suffers the dubious distinction of four copper-related incidents in two months. The irony is that the Parochial Administrator is the Chaplain for the Antioch P.D.

As is, the cameras have been stolen and thousands of dollars have been lost to air conditioners being cannibalized for copper residuals. Twice now, 500 feet of wire surrounding the building were taken; surge detectors and computer equipment damaged, this indignity on top of the wiring replacement If this were war, and it seems like it is, we’d call it collateral damage.

The rub of this all is that though St. Ignatius has taken more than its share of criminal abuse, there is a regional, if not national, epidemic of this thieving malady. Before we proceed, it must be noted that the first two quarter crime statistics were presented to the Antioch City Council last week by Police Chief Allan Cantando.

To everyone but the dregs of society, we are happy to see Antioch went down in homicides, armed robbery, aggravated assaults, auto thefts, etc. Every barometer, save one, burglary, showed progress. Some measures declined double-digit, despite a 30% drop in uniformed manpower. The Chief and our men and women in blue are doing extraordinary work. That good news and kudos needs to resound as well as a thank you to Antioch citizens who have risen to the occasion and been better eyes and ears of suspicious activity.

Burglary, then, is our current nemesis. It is clear that we live in tough times with extraordinarily desperate people in abundance. It is also clear that we are living in a brave new world with a moral landscape where schools and even churches are no longer sacrosanct.

Witness this: in just my informal comings and goings about town I have personally heard of four other Antioch churches that have been hit recently, three for copper, one, repeatedly, for their van battery and, lately, even for siphoned gas. This is not to mention the rash of churches that have been getting cars broken into during service, or the possible stories of scores of other churches I have not talked to.

As for schools, the Antioch suffered $78,000 in total loss and damage this summer due to copper thefts. That’s lost funding for a guidance counselor. Our deductible is $5,000 per incident so we generally eat the bill. Pittsburg Adult School, the site of my day job, lost three air conditioner units and had their security cameras ripped out – so this is becoming a broken record.

Frankly, it’s beginning to remind me of a third world country, When I lived in the Philippines you would pay someone to watch your parked car. That was a double insurance policy; covering for theft and insuring not getting keyed by the watcher themselves.

Talking about insurance, maybe we should follow what they do in the Philippines. Chinese Filipinos were so often victims of kidnapping that many paid an insurance policy of sorts where they would pay gangs NOT to be kidnapped, sort of a pre-abduction plan. Here, the thieves get a measly few hundred dollars, at best, of copper while destroying costly air conditioners and wreaking electrical havoc. Maybe we should just pre-pay them, but excuse my jest. It’s gallows humor in a grisly situation where you gotta laugh or you’re gonna cry.

So what are we doing for prevention? Well at St. Ignatius, where I am a parishioner, we have been going through the permit cycle for an electric gated fence. Hopefully, the regulatory red tape quickly moves along. Now there are those who argue does a church want to look like a prison? I, for one, am not sure that if we choose an ornamental fence we’re talking prison aesthetics but, at this point, who cares? Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs puts security first.

We, as others, are considering the full range of options: caged air conditioner units to slow the thieves down; increased patrols, alarmed cameras, recessed equipment, more sophisticated videoing devices, recording redundancy, camcorders hooking to home monitoring computers, underground cable.

As to the community; we need your help. Parents need to teach their kids good from bad. Neighbors need to be vigilant. If you live next to someone who is going out at strange hours and recycling, it’s worth a friendly call to the police. Most of these robberies occur between 3 to 5 a.m, so beware of strange occurrences. And as for recycling and salvage plants, shame on you if for the almighty dollar you are not checking sources.

If I weren’t such an eternal optimist I’d think America had gone to hell in a hand basket. Certainly, it has hit new moral lows as these acts are despicable. Not that robbery is ever excusable, but this is not General Motors the thugs are hitting. The damage done to houses of worship and to our kids’ schools for the measly return is sickening.

We know crime doesn’t pay. Eventually, the law of averages results in hooligans getting caught. I, for one, think, though, there is a worse reckoning coming that is not temporal, but divine. Science tells us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Good returns good, evil returns evil. Call it the eastern concept of karma or the western Judaic-Christian dictum that as you sow so shall you reap.

Biblical verse says “the wicked have no peace.” Evil-doers are always looking over their shoulder for the inevitable consequence, the cosmic boomerang. Thieves, recompense is inevitable. How foolish to sell your soul for gold– and to think, in this case, you are bartering your salvation for trivial copper.

By Walter Ruehlig
Antioch

Come join the Antioch Band Backer’s Association for the 28th annual Delta Band Review on Saturday, Sept. 24th from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The competition area is in front of Antioch Middle School on D street. The awards ceremony is at 1 p.m. in Eells Stadium at Antioch High School.

16 bands from Northern and Central California will be judged on music and showmanship. Bands attending include Deer Valley High School, Freedom High School, California High School, Northgate High School, Concord High School as well as many others.

This is a free event, no charge for the parade or awards ceremony. Food will be available for purchase at Antioch High from Sticky Chicken and Ribs, Straw Hat, Cold Stone Creamery and Jamba Juice.