On Febtuary 22 at 3:30 p.m. officers were dispatched to a report of gun shots being fired near Antioch Middle School. It was later discovered that the gun shots had been fired in the 200 Block of W. 18th Street, closer to A Street.

Witnesses reported hearing multiple gun shots (possibly 3 to 6) and described the suspects as Black or Hispanic males wearing baggy white T-shirts. The suspects fled the area on foot. Officers recovered 3 expended shell casings from the area of the shooting and later learned that a passing vehicle may have been grazed by a bullet while driving through the area.

At this time no shooting victims have been located. There is no indication that any students were involved in this shooting. This case is still being investigated.

The Bay Area’s 511 traveler information system is now offering its first smartphone app for transit users. The free 511 Transit App is a multiple-agency public transit trip planner using GPS-based location tools for smartphones. Ideal for a daily commute, weekend errand or occasional trip, the app serves both residents and visitors who are planning transit trips within the nine-county region.

“We are pleased to offer this unique and powerful tool for transit riders in the Bay Area,” said Adrienne J. Tissier, chair of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). “Now you can use one app to plan trips on more than 30 public transit agencies, accessing the most complete coverage for the San Francisco Bay Area.”

The free 511 Transit App can be downloaded through the Android Market (search for: 511 Transit). A version for iPhone 4 will be released soon. The new app provides door-to-door transit trip planning and scheduled departure times for transit routes near your location or from a location you specify. It includes information for 720 routes and more than 23,700 transit stops throughout the region. An interactive, dynamic map shows routes and stops along the way, as well as your current position while on the move. Walking directions to and from stops and fares (including transfers) are also displayed.

“Smartphones and on-the-go trip planning are becoming increasingly common, and 511 is now extending its Bay Area transit planning tools to these faster, more compact platforms,” said Tom Spiekerman, 511 Transit project manager. “Currently, 511 customers plan more than one million transit trips per month using the popular website version of the 511 Trip Planner. The new app brings core features of this tool to customers on the go.”

Additional app features include:
• Recently viewed locations and trips are saved automatically, as well as favorites.
• GPS positioning enables users to set their current location as a starting point for a trip, or to find nearby stops and transit routes with scheduled departure times.
• The app incorporates transit agency announcements that may affect a trip’s itinerary.
511 Transit App customers are able to provide feedback on the new app by clicking on the “Help/Info” button to send an email to the 511 Team.

The new app complements numerous options people already have to access 511 traveler information. Smartphone and other mobile phone users may access many of 511’s most popular features through the mobile 511 site (m.511.org), by calling 511 from any Bay Area phone, or by receiving real-time transit Departure Times texts (SMS). Desktop users can access the information from 511.org.

The 511 Transit App includes data from SF Muni, BART, AC Transit, VTA, SamTrans, Caltrain, Golden Gate Transit, County Connection, Vallejo Transit, LAVTA, Sonoma County Transit, VINE (Napa County) and more than a dozen additional agencies. For a complete list of all transit agencies included in the 511 Transit app, please visit the trip planning page at 511.org.

511 is a one-stop phone and web source for up-to-the-minute Bay Area traffic, transit, rideshare and bicycling information. It’s free of charge and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from anywhere in the nine-county Bay Area. Call 511 or visit 511.org. 511 is managed by a partnership of public agencies led by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the California Highway Patrol, Public Transit Agencies, and the California Department of Transportation.

Enjoy dinner before the band starts – seafood, steak and more while overlooking the river! Humphrey’s on the Delta is located at 1 Marina Plaza, at the foot of L Street, in Antioch. For reservations call 778-5800. For more information visit www.HumphreysontheDelta.com. For more information about the PhD’s visit their Facebook by clicking here.

On February 14th, staff recommended that the Antioch City Council adopt a resolution in support of the City filing an application under the State’s “Sustainable Communities Planning Grant and Incentive Program” in order to fund the preparation of a Specific Plan for the City’s Downtown Area.

The City is requesting a grant from the state in the amount of $500,000 in order to retain consultants to prepare the specific plan, as well as to offset staff costs to administer the Specific Plan effort, estimated to take approximately 18 months.

First a little background. As of 2005, the City’s Waterfront Development Plan had been stalled for more than a decade. Insufficient funds were supposedly the reason for the delay, which may have been true due to past councils making a number of unwise decisions.

These include lending developers millions of dollars, contributing over $1 million for the construction of Humphrey’s Restaurant, miscalculating and delaying state Department of Boating and Waterways loan repayments for the Marina, and allowing the infamous Roger Moore to misappropriate more than $3 million of the city’s money for the failed San Diego ferryboat project.

In 2005, however, the Council decided that in order to move ahead on the revitalization of downtown they would put the ball in the hands of one master developer and solicited interest from 10 major developers, later narrowing the field down to four: Arcadia G&M, D.R. Horton, Lennar Bay Area Urban Division, and Reynolds and Brown.

Firms were anxious to compete because Rivertown was in a redevelopment district, allowing the City to use eminent domain powers to underwrite affluent firms seeking to build major projects. But once again plans stalled.

In April of 2007 Guy Bjerke, the City’s Economic Development Director, Concord City councilmember and CEO of the Home Builders Association of Northern California, presented the City’s Economic Development Commission with an update on downtown revitalization efforts.

Discussed was the need to amend the city’s general plan and zoning ordinance in the Rivertown Focus Area to allow mixed-use development and conduct a baseline parking study to determine the existing amount of parking downtown, a study useful in planning for a ferry terminal and future revitalization projects.

If the City does get the grant money, will the plans come to fruition this time around? Will we really get ferry service, a cleaned up waterfront and businesses that will lure us to visit what was once a vital part of our city? Or will developers just build “stack and pack,” high-density, mixed-use projects like they plan to do around Antioch’s new eBART station?

Antioch High School will be having career fair on March 9th and PASS workshops on Saturday March 10th.

For those who are able to return on March 10th and participate in the PASS workshop they are starting to prepare the program and need a brief description of your occupation to include (2-4 sentences is all that we require).

They are still in need of volunteers in many other professions if you would be willing to participate please contact Nicole Hunt at NicoleHunt@antioch.k12.ca.us or call (925) 756-5736. They are shooting for 75 professions to be represented.

The following is a list of professions that have yet to be represented: 1. Actor 2. Buyer from a clothing store 3. Chef 4. Child Development 5. Computer Graphics 6. Cosmetology 7. Dentist 8. Dental Assistant/Hygienist 9. Designer 10. EKG Technician 11. Electrician 12. EMT 13. Environmental Compliance 14. Flight Attendant15. Hospitality Worker 16. Hotel Management 17. HVAC 18. Journalist 19. Laboratory Technician 20. Landscaper 21. Lawyer 22. Mechanic 23. Medical Administration 24. Paralegal 25. Parks and Recreation 26. Phlebotomist 27. Photographer 28. Physical Therapist 29. Plumber 30. Restaurant Owner 31. Secretary 32. Sports Medicine 33. Stenographer 34. Vet 35. Vet Technician 36. Welder 37. X-Ray Technician

Download the AHS Career Day Flyer here: http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1102742453013-152/ANTIOCH+HIGH+SCHOOL+CAREER+FAIR.pdf. For more information, contact NicoleHunt@antioch.k12.ca.us or call (925) 756-5736.

El Campanil Theatre and the International Film Showcase Present the film “The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner” on Friday February 24 at 7:30 pm and Sunday February 26 at 2:00 pm.

After surviving a horrific car accident a young man can’t even remember his own name. In an attempt to cure him from his amnesia, his quirky grandfather (Miki Manojlovic) travels to Germany and organizes a spiritual journey for his grandson, back to the country of his birth.

While traveling with his grandfather across time and place on a tandem bicycle, the young man begins to reconnect with his forgotten past. Based on Ilija Trojanow¹s autobiography, this touching crowd-pleaser explores such powerful themes as family, loyalty and cultural identity. Beautifully directed by Stephan Komandarev.

Rated: NR (Not Rated), Country: Bulgaria, Runtime: 110 minutes, Languages: Bulgarian, German, Italian, Slovenian, Hungarian. Subtitles: English

Tickets: General Admission: $8, Seniors (62 and Older): $7, Students: $7. Tickets are available by phone: (925) 757-9500, online: www.ElCampanilTheatre.com or at the box office.

About The International Film Showcase
For those who enjoy extraordinary movies not usually available to the general public, the INTERNATIONAL FILM SHOWCASE is what you are looking for.

This project is the brainchild of Efi Lubliner and JoAlice Canterbury. For years Efi and JoAlice have been screeners/attendees at festivals around the country and have compiled a list of films which they believe deserve wider distribution and recognition throughout the United States. After repeatedly recommending their favorite films to friends, they were frustrated to discover that these gems were neither screened in local theaters nor released on DVD. Thus, the birth of the INTERNATIONAL FILM SHOWCASE at the Orinda Theatre.

El Campanil Theatre has scheduled three movies over the next three months to gauge interest in East County.