On June 20 at 2:23 p.m. police responded to an accident in the 3700 block of Gentrytown Drive involving a vehicle that had been parked on an incline and in neutral.

A 68-year-old Antioch man had pulled the emergency brake release thinking it was the hood release, and the vehicle began rolling backwards. While trying to stop the vehicle’s movement the victim fell and was run over by the front tire of the vehicle. He sustained life-threatening injuries and was airlifted to a local hospital where he was later pronounced deceased.

Police are withholding his name at this time.

You probably didn’t spot the Notice of Public Hearing published by the East Bay Regional Park District on June 15th. Let me enlighten you.

Qualified senior citizens (62 years or older) who own property in the East Bay Regional Park District’s East Contra Costa Landscape and Lighting District can obtain an annual assessment discount of 50% for the 2011-12 fiscal year; basic assessment rate is $19.70.

Income qualifications are as follows:
Household: Annual Income:
1-2 persons $31,800
3 persons 37,400
4 persons 45,100

Frankly, I’m disgusted that EBRPD only ran a inexpensive teensy tiny public notice 2 weeks before deadline to advise low income senior citizens how to save a few bucks. The district doesn’t hesitate to continue to raise our parcel taxes, publish an expensive semi monthly Activity Guide and pay their administrators high salaries and large pension/health benefit packages See below for the total cost of employment figures for some of the district’s administrators.

Retiree – General Manager Patrick O’Brien $346,209
Asst. General Mgr John Escobar 300, 208
Asst. General Mgr. Ted Radosevich 287,222
Asst. General Manager Robert Doyle 278,429
Asst. General Manager David Collins 269,360
Asst General Manager Timothy Anderson 265,914
Human Resources Manager Susan Gonzales 249,813
Assistant General Manager Richard Anderson 243,145
Retiree-Assistant Gen. Mgr. Rosemary Cameron 238,891
Police Captain Mark Ruppenthal 222,381

Qualified senior citizens must apply by June 30th for the discount. To obtain an application write to NBS, 32605 Temecula Parkway Ste 100, Temecula, CA 92591 or call NBS (800) 676-7516. (Be sure to have your parcel number.) When I phoned, the person on the other hand seemed surprised and asked how I found out. Well, I always read the public notices, that’s how!

By Susan Bonilla
Assemblywoman, 11th District

Wednesday, the Democratic members of the Legislature passed the State’s budget. This budget was on-time, it was balanced, and we were able to exercise a majority vote to pass the budget for the first time since the 1930s. The voters of California made this possible by removing the 2/3 budget vote requirements when they passed proposition 25 last November.

Governor Brown vetoed the budget plan, saying that without additional revenue, he would pursue more cuts to education and public safety, putting us on the road to a dangerously uncertain future. Our educators and teachers cannot adequately plan for the coming school year without a stable budget plan put in place immediately. After multiple years of severe budget cuts we cannot expect our schools to absorb billions more in reductions without unacceptable impacts upon the children and young people of California.

We can’t fix a $25 billion deficit in one year without doing irreparable harm to our children in California. To solve all the structural issues, we need a multi-year plan that does not continue to catch education in the middle. The budget the Democrats submitted may not contain all the elements the Governor seeks, but it is the best solution to protect our children and public safety.

The on-time budget, while not the path we preferred, solves the remaining deficit for this budget year. It includes a $600 million reserve, and puts California on a path toward eliminating the structural deficit with continued commitment to corrective budget actions in the next few years. The on-time budget is balanced through the use of one-time solutions, including deferrals and realistic assumptions regarding already higher revenues.

It completes the work we began in March when the Democratic legislature voted to enact 9 billion dollars of very difficult cuts primarily to Health and Human Services and Higher Education, disproportionally impacting California’s children.

Assembly Democrats have agreed all along with the Governor that a balanced approach of cuts and voter-approved tax extensions was the best way to address this year’s and the state’s long-term budget deficit. California voters should be allowed to extend existing revenues. The repeated refusal of Legislative Republicans to support the Governor’s original budget plan has left Democrats with few options.

THIS FRIDAY @ Bases Loaded! June 17th, 9pm: The Billy Martini Show – 70’s Musical Tribute BEACH BASH!

We desperately need to establish some cell phone etiquette in this country. I am so tired of standing in line behind someone at the checkout stand at Safeway who is talking on the phone about something terribly earth-shattering, like what she was wearing last night at the party, and completely ignoring the poor checker trying to do her job.

This happened to me just today. The checker asked for the woman’s Club Card, a question the woman would not have missed had she been paying any attention. But since she was talking non-stop on the phone, she did not scan her card. When the bill was totaled, the woman was then very irate that the total was more than she expected, and it took another 5 minutes for her to check out because the checker had to re-ring some items to show their prices to her.

Well, OK. If you’re not going to pay attention to what’s going on around you, you might miss some important stuff.

And don’t even get me started on texting. You’ve probably seen the woman on YouTube who is texting while walking, and texts herself right into a fountain. I call that swift justice.

Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I think people should be respectful and courteous when conducting transactions in a store, at the doctor’s office, at the bank, or pretty much anywhere people are engaged in business-related communications. For that matter, what can be so all-fired important that you have to either have a phone in your ear yakking while you are shopping or you have to be texting while you’re walking down the street?

What did these people do before cell phones? How did they cope? Was life so completely bereft of joy and happiness because they couldn’t broadcast their most trivial thought every moment of the day?

In this 21st century of Facebook, Twitter, cell phone conversations, texting and other non-contact sports, maybe it’s time to return to some 20th century social interaction that doesn’t require any technology.

So here’s what I propose: let’s try talking to each other face-to-face. When you’re in the grocery store, at the gas station, in the bank, at the mall, hang up the phone, stop texting and smile at the person next to you. Strike up a conversation with someone in line with you. Talk to the nice checker as she’s ringing up your purchases. Wish her a nice day for a change.

Hey – at least it’s a start.

Shelley Daley

On June 15 at 1:40 p.m. a two-year-old boy was upstairs watching TV with two of his older siblings, one of whom is 18 years old, in a home in the 5600 block of Plumbridge Way.

At some point the toddler leaned against an open window/screen and fell to the driveway below. The child was flown to Children’s Hospital in Oakland and was in surgery at the time of this writing. His condition is very serious. This appears to be a tragic accident and is currently under investigation.

As of 8 a.m. on June 16 the child was in stable condition with a fractured skull. No foul play is suspected.