Photos by Antioch Police.

By Antioch Police Department

Early this morning, Saturday, October 12, 2019, the Antioch Police Department received a call about a Mercedes Benz that they were tracking as a stolen vehicle taken from Lafayette and it was showing to be in our city. Officer Mayer and his K9 partner Dex located the vehicle, occupied by a 25-year-old male out of Antioch. The driver attempted to resist being arrested and K9 Dex was able to help Officer Mayer safely apprehend him.

The vehicle was towed from the scene and will be returned to its owner as soon as possible, and the driver was later sent to the county jail on a variety of charges related to the vehicle theft and resisting arrest.

An Elderly Wish Foundation’s Executive Director, Mary Chapman prepares to draw the $1,000 prize winner’s name in the annual Fund-A-Wish fundraiser.

An Elderly Wish Foundation Board of Directors.

By Allen Payton

Thursday evening, at TreVista-Antioch Senior Living, the leaders and supporters of An Elderly Wish Foundation gathered for the drawing of the three winners in their fifth annual Fund-A-Wish fundraiser.

Tickets were sold for $100 each and “all 100 tickets were sold,” said Executive Director Mary Chapman.

Winner of the $1,000 prize was Max Tellez. He bought the ticket from foundation Board Member Nora Von Ubin.

“Wow, You’re kidding?” Tellez said when he was called with the good news.

The $500 winner was Carol Thibodeaux, who was in attendance. The ticket was sold by foundation Board Member Tracy Brown. The $250 winner was Marguerite Bloomfield, who was also in attendance. Mary Chapman sold her the ticket.

“The biggest thank you goes to our sponsors for this evening, TreVista-Antioch, Oakridge Winery, Black Bear Diner, CalBay Realty, East County Insurance, Homestar Real Estate, Summit Funding and The Print Club,” Chapman stated.

Mary Chapman presented TreVista-Antioch’s Senior Living Consultant Tamsen Meierdierck and Executive Director Sonya Smith with thank you gifts for being helping sponsor the fundraiser and hosting the evening’s event.

“The biggest thing is your support, all of you tonight,” she continued. “You’re the ones who make the elderly wishes come true. All of you have brought such joy to many, many seniors.”

Chapman shared about the latest wish the organization granted, which was for a lady with cancer, to enable her to travel to attend her son’s wedding.

Another wish was to replace another lady’s 40-year-old mattress with a mattress that moves up and down, and back and forth.

“She got seasick the first time she used it,” one of the attendees said with a laugh.

“Your support makes a wish come true,” Chapman stated. “You’re all invited to our 19th Heart to Heart Gala, Feb. 21, 2020 at Lone Tree Golf & Event Center.”

The theme, entitled “Putting on the Wish” and they’re asking attendees to dress in roaring twenties style black and white. For more information about the organization, visit www.elderlywish.org.

By Greg Palast

OCTOBER 11, 2019

The PG&E Blackout Con is all about threatening the judge in the PG&E bankruptcy case. The victims have joined with the bondholders to eliminate the equity of the stockholders who deserve nothing. So in desperation, the power company pigs are turning off your lights. Hopefully, the judge will not be intimidated.

Leaving hospitals, schools and 1 million homes without power — and that means without water — in California is the endgame of deregulation mania.

Jerry Brown, Bill Clinton and other deregulation snake-oil salesmen, and the PG&E greedster bosses, should be imprisoned for the people already burned to death.

Where is the California utility commission?

I’ve written a book published by the United Nations called, Democracy and Regulation, about how to avoid such piggery. When I wrote the book, it was meant only for Third World nations — apparently, Northern California is the third world of electricity.

Public utilities must be publicly owned. Decades back, I investigated power company racketeering for the Justice Department.

As an expert, I can tell you, PG&E is a criminal enterprise parading as a power company. Shut them down — not us.

Palast, a Puffin Foundation fellow in investigative reporting, is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a feature documentary. www.GregPalast.com

By Sergeant James Stenger, Antioch Police Investigations Bureau

Members of the Antioch Police Department’s Investigations Bureau have diligently been working on this case since its occurrence. During the course of this investigation two suspects were identified, a 25-year-old male and 24-year-old female. It is believed the suspects fled the Bay Area after the September 1st murder of 57-year-old Raul Garcia. On Thursday, October 10, 2019, APD Detectives, with the assistance of Tulare Police Department’s SWAT Team, served a search warrant in the City of Tulare, at a residence in the 1500 block of Karen Avenue. (See related articles, here and here.)

During the service of the search warrant, two suspects were taken into custody for the murder of 57-year-old Raul Garcia and critical evidence was located. The investigation is on-going, and an additional press update with the arrested subjects’ information will be released once the case is reviewed by the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office.

On Sunday, September 1, 2019, at approximately 9:20 PM, an argument between several subjects started in the east driveway of the Chevron Gas Station located at 1235 California Avenue in Pittsburg. The argument appears to be over a road rage incident. The road rage incident continued into Antioch. At approximately 9:36 PM, Antioch police officers were called to St. Christopher Court for a subject who had been shot in the 3400 Block of Rio Grande Drive. When police arrived, they located a 57-year-old male victim suffering from a gunshot wound. Officers immediately began providing first aid and called for Contra Costa Fire Department and ambulance paramedics.

The victim was transported to a local area trauma center where he ultimately succumbed to his injuries.

Detectives from the Antioch Police Department’s Investigations Bureau responded to the scene. During the preliminary investigation officers learned that the shooting happened in the roadway, at the 3400 block of Rio Grande Drive, after some sort of confrontation between the victim and an unknown suspect. Afterwards, the victim fled to St. Christopher Court where the police were called.

No further information will be released regarding this case at this time. Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Gonzalez at (925) 779-6923, or the Antioch Police Department non-emergency line at (925) 778-2441. You may also text-a-tip to 274637 (CRIMES) using the key word ANTIOCH.

Only 5 customers in Antioch affected; Efforts to Begin in Many Areas; Continues to Monitor Weather Conditions in Many Areas including Bay Area; Restoration Progress Continues: 126,000 Customers Restored

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Pacific Gas and Electric Company reported that improving weather conditions in some parts of the areas affected by the Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) have allowed for an “all clear” to be issued for safety inspections, repair and restoration efforts to begin in many areas.

Updates

• As of 3 p.m. Thursday, the following additional counties were added to the “all clear” list for inspection, repair and restoration to begin: Alameda, Colusa, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Placer, San Benito, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo, and in portions of Yuba.
• In a 2:43 p.m. email, PG&E Spokesperson, Tamar Sarkissian shared that “Antioch has approximately five customers impacted by PSPS.”
• As of 2 p.m. all clears have been declared in the following areas to begin inspections and assess if equipment is safe to resume electric delivery services.

• PG&E crews will visually inspect power lines to look for potential weather-related damage to the lines, poles and towers. This is done by vehicle, foot and air.
• More than 30 PG&E Community Resource Centers remain open throughout the service area to provide water, phone charging stations and air-conditioned seating for customers. To view the full list, visit here.
• Resources supporting the restoration include more than 6,300 on-the-ground field personnel and 44 helicopters. Crews will conduct visual inspections and will make repairs as necessary if any damage is found.

Kern Update

Power was turned off for safety to approximately 4,000 customers in Kern County this morning.

Weather updates

Dangerous weather conditions are expected to continue in some parts of the Sierra Foothills and Bay Area until midday Thursday. Similar conditions in Kern County are beginning late morning Thursday and lasting through midday Friday.

See the Swingin’est Band in the world at The California Theatre, 4:00 PM

Born into an undeniable musical legacy, Louis Prima Jr. picks up the torch lit by his iconic father and leads his incarnation of The Witnesses headfirst into the future. Their seamless blend of hard driving big band jazz, insanely danceable swing and, at its core, real rock and roll has been wowing crowds worldwide for over a decade.

Make no mistake, this is no tribute act. Although the band most certainly Jumps, Jives, an’ Wails “Prima-style,” they are their own musical beast — thoroughly modern, laying down a blueprint for the future on the foundations of the past. Audiences will be treated to an evening of classics from the Louis Prima catalog, selections from LPJ & Co.’s two CDs (Return of the Wildest! and BLOW) and a healthy dose of sure-to-please surprises.

Equal parts bandleader and ringmaster, Prima Jr. brilliantly distills the finest elements of his father’s five-decade career through a contemporary filter, adding his own indelible stamp. “This is the happiest music on Earth!” he enthuses. “My father was rock n’ roll; Mozart was rock n’ roll. It’s a state of mind; I don’t think it’s a genre of music. It’s how aggressively do you play and do you play it like you mean it.” And The Witnesses mean it. From Passaic to Palermo and Seattle to Sicily, they’re bringing Prima music into the 21st century with new energy and attitude to match. It’s The Wildest Show this side of the ’60s!

126,000 Customers Restored; Current Impacted Count is 600,000

PG&E Continues to Monitor Weather Conditions; No Equipment-Related Fires Reported

Executes Final Wave of Safety Turnoffs in Kern County, Impacting Approximately 4,000 Customers

By Tamar Sarkissian, PG&E Spokesperson

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. 1:22 PM, Thurs., Oct. 10, 2019 — On Thursday morning, October 10, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) reported that improving weather conditions in some parts of the areas affected by the Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) have allowed for safety inspections, repairs and restoration in some areas to begin. Approximately 126,000 customers were restored by 6 a.m. Thursday.

There are still currently approximately 600,000 customers without power as a result of the PSPS event, which began on early Wednesday.

Updates

• There were no reported fires related to PG&E equipment in the PSPS impact zone.
• As of 6 a.m. Thursday, peak wind gusts — a major factor in the decision to implement a PSPS — have been recorded at 77 mph at Mt. St. Helena West in Sonoma County and 75 mph at Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County since midnight. Both of these areas were de-energized in the PSPS action.
• The company has received many preliminary reports of vegetation-related damage to its equipment in these areas.
• A third phase for portions of Kern County is scheduled for late morning Thursday. Due to changing weather forecasts, PG&E now expects this event to impact approximately 4,000 customers. Earlier forecasts predicted impacts to 40,000 customers in this area.
• Safety inspections, repairs and power restoration will begin in specific areas once a weather “all clear” is given.
• Customers not impacted by the PSPS may experience power outages due to PG&E equipment damaged during this major event.
• Resources standing by to support the restoration include more than 6,300 on-the-ground field personnel and 45 helicopters. Crews will conduct visual inspections and will make repairs as necessary if any damage is found.
• The number of circuit-miles requiring inspection includes nearly 25,000 miles of distribution lines and 2,500 miles of transmission lines, a combined distance measuring longer than a trip around the circumference of the Earth.

“We faced a choice between hardship or safety, and we chose safety. We deeply apologize for the inconvenience and the hardship, but we stand by the decision because the safety of our customers and communities must come first,” said Michael Lewis, Senior Vice President, Electric Operations.

Weather Updates

Dangerous weather conditions are expected to continue in parts of the Sierra Foothills and Bay Area until midday Thursday. Similar conditions in Kern County are beginning late morning Thursday and lasting through midday Friday.

For restoration to begin, the company must inspect its affected equipment to ensure no damage has occurred to its equipment. As of 10 a.m., the company has not issued an “all clear” for the Bay Area. Inspection patrols take place during daytime hours.