ALAMEDA — Inside one classroom at Chipman Middle School, eighth-graders look for word clues and make plot predictions as the teacher reads a novel aloud. Just a few classroom doors away, another group of students chant vocabulary words — bite, bit, spark, and wait.

“Next row, what word?” says literacy coach Katherine Crawford as she snaps her fingers to keep the class in rhythm.

In yet another classroom, seventh-graders are working on a project about the culture of Chipman, an ethnically and economically diverse school of about 600 students.
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Adults and toddlers participated in a Sing-Along at the UC Village in Albany.
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Encinal High welcomed alumni during its annual homecoming.
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Find out what’s happening on The Richmond Beat

RICHMOND — On November 9, 2004, a utility pipeline exploded in Walnut Creek and killed five people, injured four, destroyed a nearby residence and forced neighboring Las Lomas High School to evacuate. In September, the pipeline operator responsible for the explosion, a subsidiary of the corporate giant Kinder Morgan called KMGP Services Company, was convicted of neglecting safety rules and fined $15 million in damages.

Kinder Morgan operates pipelines transporting gas and hazardous materials under the surface of Richmond city streets. And now some city officials are demanding that the company and other pipeline operators start abiding by a federal law that requires them to educate the public about potential dangers and safety precautions needed to prevent disasters like the one in Walnut Creek.
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Get the latest news in the Alameda Observer

ALAMEDA — Paul Richard Martinetti stood on the front patio of his bungalow-style house with a glass of water in one hand, a cigarette in another. He took long drags while looking out on Garfield Avenue, a quiet street with well-maintained lawns where a mailman makes his rounds.

Dressed in a worn gray sweater, his white hair covered by a black baseball cap, the 73-year-old Alameda man does not have much to say about his arrest Oct. 4 after police found 233 marijuana plants in his home.

“I’ve been told that the less I talk about it, the better I’m off,” said Martinetti, who is originally from New York.
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EMERYVILLE — Paty, a 32-year-old single mom and hotel housekeeper, says she is owed $600 in back pay from Woodfin Suites Hotel — enough to pay for one month’s rent at the Fremont room she shares with her 17-year-old son.

Another housekeeper says she is owed $12,000.

The city says they are right. Continue reading →

Stay up to date with Albany Today

ALBANY — After operating for 10 years under vague board policy that no one used, the Albany Unified School District is drafting specific rules for screening school volunteers in the wake of problems with two long-time volunteers who were dismissed for inappropriate and even criminal behavior.
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Arraignment for Robert O. Brown, 61, the Richmond Tent City organizer who was accused last week of molesting a young relative, was postponed in Santa Clara County Superior Court Monday to allow Brown to find a private attorney.

Brown faces two felony charges, one of sexual intercourse with a child of 10 years of age or younger and the other of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 years of age. If convicted, he could face 25 years to life in prison for the first charge and up to 16 years for the second. He is currently in custody without bail in San Jose and is scheduled to return to court on Nov. 7 to enter his plea.
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HERCULES—For years, the city’s front against brush fires has been 600 goats that munch weeds wherever houses nudge up against open spaces too steep for mechanized mowers. Residents can see the herd grazing on the dry, oak-studded hill across Refugio Creek from Hercules High School, but few notice the man who cares for them. Continue reading →

RICHMOND — Starting this fall, Richmond high school students no longer have to go far from school grounds to look for health services. That’s because last spring the West Contra Costa School District agreed to hire six new health coordinators who are working together to improve—and in some cases initiate—health centers in all of the public high schools.

“The district decided that since they don’t have a lot of money to make health clinics for every public high school in West Contra Costa County, they should start with hiring a coordinator for each one of the schools to strengthen the existing services offered by the school, and also bring in new services to the schools,” said Debbie Espinoza, health service coordinator at De Anza High School.

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RICHMOND – Shots rang out once again in central Richmond Monday morning, hitting a 15-year-old John F. Kennedy High School student as he walked with a friend to school.

The boy, who has no criminal record, was hit in the foot by shots fired from a moving van near the corner of 25th Street and Virginia Avenue, according to Lt. Mark Gagan of the Richmond Police Department.
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The cost of ignoring climate change is greater than the cost of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, a leading climate change expert and economist who heads the United Nations’ panel on global warming told a Stanford symposium Monday. Continue reading →

On the football field of John F. Kennedy High School, the Richmond Steelers jive and jog before crashing helmets and pads.

But the usual drills and horseplay hide the fact that this year someone major is missing from the youth football program team—Coach Fred Harris, a role model and for 27 years the Steelers’ coach, who died of cancer last March. Throughout his tenure, Harris helped kids in a city short on after-school activities.
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ALBANY—The sight of bulldozers rolling into the Albany Bulb on Monday had many park users worried that the city has, once again, launched a campaign to clear out the park’s homeless encampments and unofficial art installations. But city officials say the clean-up work over the next two weeks will simply widen trails, get rid of trash and remove unoccupied shelters. Continue reading →

RICHMOND – Rthwan Dobashi, owner of the First Stop Market in the Iron Triangle neighborhood, says he knows first-hand the havoc that one liquor store can fuel in a low-income neighborhood.

From 1993 until it closed in August last year, his family’s store drew crime, loitering and even a fire set by rowdy patrons.

Now that Dobashi has reopened First Stop as an alcohol-free grocery store, he says his business has been growing steadily, and there have been far fewer incidents of crime and disruption on and around his property.

“I don’t even have to keep a weapon on me anymore,” he said. Continue reading →

LAFAYETTE–In a packed meeting last night, the Lafayette City Council took up the hotly debated issue of an Iraq Memorial planted along Highway 24, next to the city’s BART station. The memorial consists of crosses and a sign that shows the number of service men and women who have died in Iraq.
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RICHMOND – On a desolate stretch of MacDonald Avenue in Richmond’s Iron Triangle, where storefront churches and well-armored liquor stores are the only businesses for blocks around, an empty parking lot will become a Thanksgiving banquet hall for several hours Wednesday afternoon.
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CONCORD – Forget that the De La Salle High School football team won by a margin of at least 30 points tonight for the fifth time this season. Or that the Spartans’ unblemished record remained perfect at 11-0. Or that it was a playoff win during the opening round of the North Coast Section Championships. The look on coach Bob Ladouceur’s face made one thing very clear – none of that mattered.
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