On December 6 at approximately 10 a.m. Antioch police officers responded to 2950 Delta Fair Blvd. on the report of a woman who had just been stabbed. Officers located a female victim with stab wounds.

They also located the person believed to have stabbed her, Roy Crites, 56, of Antioch, a short distance away. The victim was transported to the hospital where she was pronounced deceased. The victim was not immediately identified.

The early stages of the investigation have revealed that Crites and the victim were involved in a dispute in the parking lot and Crites assaulted her with a knife, according to police. The knife was recovered in the parking lot. Anyone with information regarding this investigation should contact Antioch Police Detective Castillo at (925) 779-6933.

AUSD Superintendent Don Gill speaking at a forum entitled "The New Economy: Changing the Way Education Works."

The following are Antioch Unified School District Superintendent Don Gill’s opening remarks at the East County Business/Education Roundtable Luncheon on Friday at Lone Tree Event Center. He discussed the effectiveness of the district’s learning academies, which include Dozier-Libbey Medical High School, Deer Valley Law Academy, Delta Academy for the Performing Arts and the Academy of Engineering and Designing a Green Environment. The deadline to apply for enrollment in an academy is Dec. 10 at the school district office.

If you look at the film “Did You Know,” it’s sort of shocking to realize the extent of energy and resources that are put into education around the world on a global scale. I had a chance to have been not long ago with a group of international educational leaders through a Youth Intervention Network dinner. It was startling to hear from them first-hand the amount of resources, economic and human resources that are invested in education.

They look at education reform on a long-term basis. They are not looking at it as we do with 2-, 3-, 5-year bites of time where our funding is so cyclical and so tumultuous. You look at the sheer number of students in India. 25% of their students are honor students, and they outnumber the entire student population of our country. It’s a little bit startling.

Look at kids today. Go to a restaurant or a movie, watch them interact with technology. You will see kids involved in technology, able to multitask five different ways. Kids learn differently and are learning around the clock. So looking at school as a separate activity that happens at school hours and all of a sudden it stops at the end of the school day, is not a realistic look at education today.

(more…)

On December 2 at 11:33 a.m. Antioch Police responded to the report of a child who had suffered a gunshot wound at a residence at 2405 Lemontree Court. Upon arrival they found a two-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the head. Life-saving measures were taken and the child was transported to the hospital where he was eventually pronounced deceased. A handgun was recovered from the bedroom.

The preliminary investigation into this incident has determined the child was in his parents’ bedroom with his 4-year-old brother, according to police. Their paternal grandmother was caring for them at that time and was in the living room area of the apartment. She heard a gunshot and the 4-year-old brother exited the room. The grandmother found the two year old boy in the bedroom with the gunshot wound. A neighbor who was outside the apartment heard the grandmother saying a child was shot and called the police.

(more…)

 Council members discuss cutting the city budget by $700,000 – likely with more to follow.

By Dave Roberts 

What a difference an election makes.

After Antioch voters rejected Measure P, a half-cent sales tax that promised to put an additional $4 million/year in city coffers, on Tuesday night the City Council with two new members firmly wielded the budget-cutting axe, unanimously authorizing $700,000 in immediate cuts to the General Fund. Council members said they did not want to kick the can down the road in dealing with the city’s ongoing budget crisis.

The city needs to cut spending by nearly $700,000 in the current fiscal year in order to not be spending more than it’s taking in, according to City Finance Director Dawn Merchant. An additional $2.2 million in budget cuts will need to be made in the fiscal year beginning next July to keep the city afloat financially and avoid bankruptcy.

As bad as that looks, those numbers might be optimistic because they are based upon city employee unions agreeing to continue deferring or reducing salary and benefit increases that had been previously agreed to. Many of those deferred-compensation agreements have expired or are due to expire at the end of the year.

(more…)

Agopian, Motts Widened their Leads

County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Steve Weir has announced that the November election has been certified and provided the final numbers in the two close races in Antioch.

Gary Agopian came in second, winning one of the two seats up for grabs in the Antioch City Council race. His 7,795 votes beat third place finisher (and former Councilman) Arne Simonsen by 157 votes, who ended with 7,638. The first place finisher was Wade Harper, who had 9,228 votes (or 24 percent of the vote).

Councilman Reggie Moore lost his bid for re-election to a second term, coming in fourth with 18 percent of the vote. He was followed by Councilwoman Martha Parsons, who was appointed to the council two years ago and received just under 17 percent.

In the Antioch School Board race, Joy Motts won one of the two available seats, expanding her winning margin to 252 votes over John “Jack” Yeager. Motts had 6,525 votes to 6,273 for Yeager (Motts had led by only four votes on election night). Coming in first in the crowded, eight-candidate field is Gary Hack with 6,853 votes. Teri Lynn Shaw failed to win re-election to a second term, finishing fourth with 13 percent of the vote.

The City Council is expected to accept the election results and seat Agopian and Harper as new Council members at tonight’s meeting. Ceremonies begin at 6 p.m. in the council chambers, 300 H Street, Antioch.

For final details on all candidates and races in the county visit www.CoCoVote.us.

Final Results Expected Today 

As of 12:30 p.m. today “the county has 18,000 provisional ballots left to count, and Antioch will have a fair number of those,” said County Clerk/Registrar of Voters Steve Weir.

Weir was asked if the outstanding ballots could have an effect on the outcome of the City Council election, which currently shows a spread of 153 votes between second-place finisher Gary Agopian and third-place Arne Simonsen.

He replied, “They can’t overcome that. Simonsen was doing better in the mail-in ballots. It will help whoever was doing better on Election Day.”

When asked if he would request a recount, Simonsen, who is vacationing in Scotland, gave this statement, “True that the race between Gary Agopian and I is probably the closest in the county. I trust the work of the County Elections office and will live with the results, as we accomplished the goal of replacing the two incumbents.”

He added, “I’d be shocked if the final results changed anything.”

Weir said, “We hope to have the final update posted this afternoon. So look for it.”

To see the election results, please visit www.CoCoVote.us.