By Acting Lt. Gary Lowther #4032, Antioch Police Field Services Division
On Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at around 11:22 p.m, Antioch Police Officers responded to reports of gunshots and a man down in the parking lot on the 600 block of Wilbur Avenue.
Officers immediately rendered first aid to an 18-year-old man suffering from two gunshot wounds until the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District arrived. He was transported to a local trauma center, where he remains in critical condition.
Antioch Police Officers secured the scene and collected evidence related to the incident.
2025 Antioch Youth of the Year and Deer Valley High School junior Amanda Brown. Photo: AUSD
Also, congratulates Citizen of the Year Allison Norris who works with students
By Antioch Unified School District
Big congrats to Amanda Brown, who has been named Antioch Youth of the Year.
The Deer Valley High student has a long list of titles and accomplishments, including Senior Class President, Leadership team member, and community volunteer – all while balancing a full course load at DV and dual-enrollment at Los Medanos College.
Amanda gained an even bigger group of admirers during last year’s Special Olympics, where as emcee she showcased her energy, compassion, and natural stage presence. She went on take the lead role of many district events, including the Day of Empowering Girls day-long workshop last fall.
Her influence and commitment to positive change led the DV administrative team to unanimously select her for the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council.
Said DV’s Mike Green: “Before becoming a vice principal, I had the privilege of teaching Amanda. Even then, it was clear she was a student who stood out. You know when a young person is truly different; someone destined to make an impact. Amanda has always been that student. She represents our school with honesty, insight, and a willingness to celebrate successes while addressing areas for improvement — qualities that embody true youth leadership.”
Also in the winners’ circle is Allison Norris, founder of Snug as a Bug foundation. She has partnered with many AUSD students, including Antioch High and Bidwell, to provide handmade items for youth in distress.
The annual Chamber Gala and Awards dinner is set for March 27 at Lone Tree Golf and Events Center. For ticket info, visit https://antiochchamber.com.
Allison Norris (Herald file photo) and Joanne Bilbo (photo courtesy of Antioch Sports Legends) will be honored as Antioch’s 2025 Citizens of the Year at the annual Chamber Gala & Dinner on March 27th.
Antioch Chamber of Commerce announces other community award winnersincluding Businesses, Non-Profit, Youth and Veterans of the Year
To be honored at 2026 Gala & Awards Dinner
By Allen D. Payton
The Antioch Chamber of Commerce has announced Allison Norris and Joanne Bilbo as the 2025 Antioch Citizens of the Year as well as other winners of the annual community awards. Honorees will be celebrated at the 2026 Gala & Awards Dinner, Friday, March 27th.
CITIZEN OF THE YEAR 2025
Most Impact 2025
Allison Norris
Lifetime Achievement
Joanne Bilbo
BUSINESS OF THE YEAR 2025
Small Business
Almost There Travel Agency
Large Corporation
US Bank
NON-PROFIT OF THE YEAR 2025
SHARE Community – Homelessness Resources
YOUTH OF THE YEAR 2025
Amanda Brown – Deer Valley High School
ANTIOCH LIFETIME VETERAN OF THE YEAR 2025-2026
U.S. Army Veteran Bob Franchetto
ANTIOCH VETERAN OF THE YEAR 2025-2026
U.S. Army Veteran Ricky Diaz
The Veterans of the Year winners were announced, previously, during the Antioch Veterans Day ceremony on Nov. 11, 2025.
Annual Gala & Awards Dinner
The Annual Gala will include the Awards Ceremony, Silent Auction, Golden Tickets, 50/50 Raffle, No-host bar, Music by DJ GBaby and Dinner Buffet:
Fresh baked garlic rolls & garlic butter
Italian green salad with vinaigrette
Lone Tree Caesar salad with marinated tomatoes, croutons & shaved parmesan cheese
Co-founded by NFL running back Najee Harris and his mother, Tianna Hicks, Da Bigger Picture Foundation is a reflection of family, perseverance and giving back. What started as a vision between mother and son has grown into a mission focused on service, youth empowerment and creating real impact where it’s needed most.
Donations fuel every foundation program — from Get Fitted to youth camps, fun events like the Bay Rideout and community drives.
Da Bigger Picture Foundation – Where Confidence Meets Opportunity! Creating access and opportunity for youth through community programs, school partnerships and events that build confidence. For more information or to donate visit https://dabiggerpicture.com
Con Fire personnel attend to a Park Middle School student who was struck by a car while walking home in the cross walk of the Lone Tree Way and Putnam Drive intersection, Thursday afternoon, Feb. 12, 2026. Photo courtesy of Ronn Carter, Emergency Spotlight
One near Antioch High, the second near Park Middle
By Allen D. Payton
Traffic accidents injured two minors near two different schools in Antioch Thursday, February 12, 2026. According to Con Fire, a call came in at 7:26 AM about a minor who was struck in front of Antioch High School at 700 W. 18th Street. The second occurred at 2:43 PM in the Lone Tree Way and Putnam Street intersection not far from Park Middle School.
The call for the accident near Antioch High was cleared at 8:56 AM. According to Con Fire PIO Lauren Ono, “we were called for a vehicle accident and transported one person” to a local hospital. Antioch Police Sgt. Rob Green of the Antioch Police Traffic Division, who was not on the scene but in training, today, said the victim “complained of pain and was transported out of precaution.” But he had “no names of involved drivers or pedestrians.”
According to a report by Ronn Carter of the Emergency Spotlight OnScene Team, “No additional details about the circumstances of the collision were immediately released. The driver involved remained at the scene.”
Asked about the incident and if the victim was a boy or girl, for their age and if they’re a student at Antioch High or elsewhere, Police Lt. Mike Mellone responded, “All I know is it was a minor and a vehicle hit the minor, but the injuries aren’t critical.” He said he would ask the officer for additional details.
Source: PulsePoint
SecondCollision
Then Thursday afternoon at 2:47 PM, Carter shared with the Herald, “Another student was just hit at Park Middle School.”
According to Con Fire, the call for that incident came in at 2:43 PM.
About the collision, Carter reported on the Spotlight Facebook page, “a Park Middle School student was struck while crossing Lone Tree Way on her way home from school. The driver involved remained at the scene.”
“The student was transported to a hospital with injuries. The extent of those injuries has not been disclosed,” he added.
The call was cleared at 4:03 PM.
Please check back later for any updates to this report.
The Antioch Water Park is hiring for the summer season!
Apply to become a lifeguard, swim instructor, facility maintenance team member, building attendant or cashier and help create fun, engaging experiences for our community!
We’re looking for positive, hardworking individuals who enjoy being part of a team and contributing to a fun, and safe water park experience.
Apply today: Scan the QR code and visit antiochca.gov/recreation or stop by the front desk at the Antioch Community Center for a physical application.
The Antioch Water Park is located in Prewett Family Park at 4701 Lone Tree Way.
Female athletes and others listen as speakers share their opinions during the California Family Council press conference before the CIF’s Federated Council meeting last Friday morning, Feb. 6, 2026. Source: Screenshot of video by CA Family Council.
By Greg Burt, Vice President, California Family Council
LONG BEACH, CA — Outside a Long Beach hotel where the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) convened its Federated Council meeting last Friday morning, female athletes stood shoulder to shoulder with parents, advocates, and state lawmakers to deliver a clear and urgent message: girls’ sports are for girls.
The 111-year old CIF, according to Wikipedia, is the governing body for public and private high school sports in California.
The February 6 press conference, organized by California Family Council’s Outreach Director Sophia Lorey, ahead of the CIF meeting, marked a significant moment in California’s ongoing debate over fairness and safety in women’s athletics. For the first time, two members of the California State Assembly publicly joined female athletes to confront CIF leadership over policies that allow males who identify as transgender to compete in girls’ sports and access female locker rooms, policies critics argue violate the original intent of Title IX. (Watch the press conference here…)
But the peaceful gathering also revealed the deep political divide surrounding the issue, as a prominent Democrat legislator representing the Long Beach area publicly criticized the presence of Republican lawmakers and dismissed concerns raised by female athletes.
Athletes Speak: “This Isn’t Fair. This Isn’t Safe.”
At the heart of the press conference were the voices of young women whose athletic careers have been directly impacted by CIF policies.
Reese Hogan, a varsity tri-sport athlete in track and field at Crean Lutheran High School, described the toll of repeatedly competing, and losing, against a male athlete in girls’ events.
“Track is not just something I do. It’s who I am,” Hogan said. “I train to push my limits, to compete fairly, and to earn every achievement through hard work. But over the past two years, that fairness has been taken away from me.”
Hogan detailed five separate competitions, spanning from May 2024 to January 2026, in which she lost to a male athlete competing in the girls’ division. One moment, she said, still stands out.
“At CIF finals, I broke my school record in the triple jump,” Hogan explained. “I jumped 37.2, earning a new personal record and breaking my school record. It was one of the proudest moments of my athletic career. That jump should have earned me first place.” Instead, a male athlete who jumped 4 feet farther placed first.
Hogan said the experience was devastating.
“CIF, why won’t you do anything?” she asked. “You are protecting males competing in women’s sports more than you are protecting the women the sport was created for.”
Hogan warned that allowing males into girls’ sports is not merely unfair, but dangerous.
“There is a reason sports are divided by sex,” she said. “It is not a matter of opinion; it’s a matter of fact.”
Locker Rooms and Lost Privacy
Another athlete, Audrey Vanherweg, a senior and four-year varsity athlete at Arroyo Grande High School, spoke about the consequences of CIF policies beyond the field of play.
Two years ago, Vanherweg said, she began hearing rumors that a boy was using the girls’ locker room. At first, she tried to ignore it. But when she learned that the same male student would also compete in girls’ track and field, the issue became unavoidable.
“I wasn’t going to go into a locker room and change in front of a boy,” Vanherweg said. Especially since he “wasn’t changing himself, but simply just watching all of us girls undress.”
Rather than risk her privacy, Vanherweg made a painful decision.
“I decided to go change in my car,” she said. “I’m more comfortable changing in my own car than in my own school locker room, where boys are welcomed to watch girls undress.”
As a thrower, she explained, competing against males also undermines fairness.
“Boys have a strength advantage,” she said, explaining that boys compete with the heavier implements in track and field competitions. “So, if a boy decides to throw as a girl, he not only has the strength advantage, but also a lighter implement.”
Vanherweg said she is speaking out not just for herself, but for future generations of girls.
“I’m speaking out against CIF policy, not only for myself, but for all other girls, girls who are too afraid to speak out, girls who don’t know what’s going on, and girls who haven’t been born yet,” she said.
Lawmakers Step In
Standing with the athletes were Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez (R–Murrieta) and Assemblyman David Tangipa (R–Fresno), the first time multiple Republican legislators have publicly joined female CIF athletes at such an event.
Assemblywoman Sanchez, author of AB 89, the Protect Girls’ Sports Act, said the rejection of her bill in committee last year did not end the fight.
“Politicians killed the bill, but they didn’t kill this movement,” Sanchez said. “And they didn’t silence these athletes.”
Sanchez emphasized that Title IX was designed to guarantee fairness and opportunity for women.
It was “never meant to be controversial,” she said. “It was meant to guarantee girls a fair shot, a fair race, a fair roster, and a fair opportunity to win.”
She warned that those protections are being eroded across California.
Girls “are losing podium spots, losing championships, losing scholarships… and some are even losing the basic right to privacy and safety in their own locker rooms.” Sanchez said. “That is not equality. That is not progress, and we will not pretend it is.”
Assemblyman Tangipa, a former Division I football player at Fresno State, challenged fellow lawmakers to stop referring to those who want female-only sports as Nazis. He also urged fathers to confront the reality facing young women.
“Why or how is it somehow believed [that it’s] Nazi ideology when you just wanna place to dress freely, and why and how is it Nazi ideology when you want to play in your sport freely?” Tangipa asked. “Why do we ignore safeguards and disregard biology and reality, which is insanity?
He urged fathers to step up.
“There are boys in your daughter’s locker room. There are boys in your daughter’s sports,” he said. “Where are you?”
Tangipa pledged continued action, including potential ballot initiatives, to restore protections for female athletes.
A Democrat Arrives—Then Attacks
In an unexpected development, Assemblyman Josh Lowenthal (D–Long Beach), the Speaker pro Tempore and representative of the district where the CIF meeting was held, appeared near the protestors, but not to support their cause.
Instead, Lowenthal criticized the presence of Republican legislators in his district, accusing them of staging a press conference “about trans kids in sports” without notifying him.
“We all know they don’t actually care about women,” Lowenthal said, adding that an upcoming budget vote funding $90 million for “women’s reproductive health, [abortion]” specifically for Planned Parenthood, would prove his point.
Assemblywoman Sanchez later responded by posting a video of Lowenthal’s remarks on X. (Watch this post here…)
“Respectfully,” Sanchez wrote, “I will stand up to protect girls’ sports in any city, and I’ll always stand with these brave women… No man, especially not you, will ever tell me otherwise.”
Sophia Lorey Challenges CIF
After the press conference, Sophia Lorey, Outreach Director for California Family Council and a former four-year CIF varsity athlete herself, addressed the CIF Federated Council directly, issuing a pointed challenge to its leadership. Lorey rejected the claim that CIF’s hands are tied by state law, arguing that the federation has the authority to act now if it chooses to do so.
“You have a policy in place,” Lorey told the board. “Until you remove the policy that allows males to be in female locker rooms and sports, you can’t say your hands are tied by the state. Remove that policy and stand up for these girls.” Lorey emphasized that female athletes should never have to resort to lawsuits to secure basic protections, adding that CIF leaders have a limited window to act. “Silence is no longer neutrality,” she warned, calling on CIF officials to work with advocates and restore fairness and safety in girls’ sports.
Many of the female athletes also went inside to address CIF leadership directly during the public comment period.
For them, the issue is not partisan.
“This isn’t about politics,” Sanchez said. “It’s about principle.” And as the athletes made clear, they are no longer willing to be silent.
“When you sideline girls,” Sanchez warned CIF leaders, “we will stand up. When you ignore them, we will amplify them. And we will not stop fighting.”
About California Family Council
California Family Council works to advance God’s design for life, family, and liberty through California’s Church, Capitol, and Culture. By advocating for policies that reinforce the sanctity of life, the strength of traditional marriages, and the essential freedoms of religion, CFC is dedicated to preserving California’s moral and social foundation.
Show us how the Contra Costa Canal brings water to your home, school, or community, and why having reliable water every day matters. Your artwork could appear in the 2027 Contra Costa water District wall calendar — and winning entries earn a $75 gift card!
Entries due May 9.
Submit artwork by mail or in person the original, unfolded artwork and the completed consent form on the flyer to: CCWD Calendar Contest. 1331 Concord Avenue, Concord, CA 94520
Contra Costa Water District delivers safe, clean water to communities across central and eastern Contra Costa County in Northern California.
Formed in 1936 to provide water for irrigation and industry, we are now one of the largest urban water districts in California and a leader in drinking-water treatment technology and source water protection.
As a public water agency, we are committed to transparency and sharing information about our public services with many and varied audiences.
