Norman Wielsch, the former Contra Costa County drug czar currently under investigation for selling confiscated narcotics, is back in the news today after his former accomplice Chris Butler ratted him out for running a brothel in a Pleasant Hill business park. According to CBS5 Butler, the fame-whoring private investigator who employed a gaggle of hot moms to trap cheating husbands, has admitted to renting out the office space in Pleasant Hill and hiring working girls to staff the rubdown joint. A neighbor's complaints about scantily-clad women and shady men coming and going during the day were referred to the Central Contra Costa Narcotics Enforcement Team (C-NET) - the team under Wielsch's command. more ›

As we reported last week attorneys for the seven defendants accused of gang-raping a 16 year-old female student were still claiming sex with the victim was consensual and her severe wounds were self-inflicted. Now, with yesterday's testimony from retired Richmond Police Detective Ken Greco, that defense looks to be falling apart. more ›

More details emerge each day as the men accused of gang-raping Jane Doe at that Richmond homecoming dance last year stand trial in a preliminary hearing in Contra Costa County. According to the testimony of one of two nurses who first examined the victim that night in October, 2009, the young woman blacked out after drinking brandy with a classmate and four men outside the dance, got dizzy, and fell down. She didn't come to until she was in the hospital with a tube down her throat. She was complaining of hurting all over, and according to Anamaree Rea, nurse and sexual assault response team member at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center, the victim was begging not to go back to "that school" -- possibly because she was still drunk and remembering being bored at the dance. more ›

Apologies in advance for yet another sordid and tragic story involving the death of an outer-Bay-Area infant, but 25-year-old Livermore resident Jessica Adams has been arrested and charged in the March death of her infant son. Adams rolled over onto her 2-month-old baby while sleeping, following a four-day crystal meth binge in celebration of her birthday. more ›

The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors is preparing to vote on a proposed name change for Mt. Diablo today. The new name if they give a thumbs-up? Mt. Reagan. Huh. more ›

by Jerry James Stone

Contra Costa County has installed 20 man-made perches on land in Concord and Walnut Creek to attract hawks, falcons, and eagles. They hope the predatory birds will hunt down the exploding squirrel population and kill them.

June -- also known as the time of year when queer movies litter KQED and theater screens; lesbians come out of hiding, sporting oversized t-shirts and flip flops in an effort to remind us that they're still here; and gay men get their dealers lined up in a row for the big day -- could officially become Gay Pride Month in Contra Costa County. According to NBC Bay Area, "history could be made this morning at the Contra Costa Bounty Board of Supervisors meeting as they consider branding June as Pride Month" via some sort of resolution. CoCo County, it seems, has the 10th largest queer population in the state of California. Hence the resolution. So, yeah, there you go. In SF Pride news, the gays need volunteers to help erect the giant pink triangle in the Castro. You will most likely get a free doughnut if you help out. Probably. For more information of volunteering, visit www.thepinktriangle.com. more ›

In a meeting with the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors, CoCo DA Robert Kochly offered up a plan that would enable his office to prosecute misdemeanors. Kochly had previously said he wouldn't prosecute crimes like burglary, shoplifting, reckless driving, pot smoking, due to budget cuts—even telling police not to send cases to his office—a plan that naturally upset the Board of Supervisors. Now, through a combination of full-time prosecutors staying on and taking a 10% pay cut himself, Kochly can keep six contract attorneys for a little while. The board must now find a "long-term solution to present to the board in 120 days," according to WCBS 5. Others criticize the county for putting public safety at risk with the cuts but Kochly said, "I refuse to accept that there’s no more money anywhere. I’m hopeful that there can be funds identified.” For some interesting reading, check out Crazy in Suburbia's look at Kochly's earnings, which include his DA salary PLUS a six-figure pension from earlier work for the county. more ›

Passive-aggressive temper tantrum risking citizen safety? Deft decision to save time and money not prosecuting lesser crimes? Open invitation for anarchistic bedlam? We'll see. After a $1.9 million pruning of his budget, Costa County District Attorney Robert Kochly announced this week that "he would no longer prosecute a host of misdemeanor crimes." Said crimes he will no longer prosecute include burglary, shoplifting, reckless driving, pot smoking, and other misdemeanors. Why? Because his office no longer has the money or staff to try so many low-level cases. As a result of budget-related layoffs, according to SFGate, "there will only be 72 prosecutors in an office with an authorized strength of 100." more ›

Starting sometime in April, library books will be available at Contra Costa County BART stations via "ATM style lending machines." A new program called Library-a-Go-Go, along with the Contra Costa County Library, will allow BART riders to simply swipe a card, select a book, wait for said book choice to drop, and then return the book after the rider is finished reading their literary gem. The machines will "hold around 400 popular and best-selling titles, both fiction and nonfiction, and will be accessible during Bart hours." more ›

Oh shit. more ›

• On Friday night at around 11:30 p.m., the intersection of Leavenworth and O'Farrell played host to a shooting. It seems that shots were fired from one car into another, leaving two males seriously injured. No deaths, no arrests. Not to be outdone, Hyde and Turk set the stage for a stabbing on Sunday, 2:20 a.m. The victim was rushed to SFGH. Again: no death, no arrests.
• San Mateo saw its first homicide since 2006. A TGI Friday's employee found the dead body of their manager this morning inside the local chain. Located at 3101 El Camino Real across from the Hillsdale Shopping Center, detectives aren't exactly sure what happened. Although Marji Fields--a regular of the fine-dining establishment--tells the Gate that over the last month they have witnessed "'horrible altercations happening with a lot of the younger crowd...[t]he 20- and 21-year-olds, they come in and they get real stupid." Tell me about it, Marji.
• Speaking of rapscallions, be careful how you answer the next time one of them tries to bum a smoke off you. Over in Contra Costa County this morning, a teenager allegedly shot a Bay Point man twice after the victim refused to give the teen a cancer stick. Charming. The victim, a man in his 40s, is listed in stable condition.

While not on par with Christmas Day tsunamis, this storm is pretty nifty, huh? Golden Gate transit buses have stopped, power has been knocked out to hundreds -- yes, hundreds! - of thousands of people, and surely snow is falling really hard atop a mountain somewhere. more ›

According to CBS 5 (interrupting us right in the middle of The People's Court, no less!) "East Contra Costa County residents are being evacuated from an area near the unincorporated town of Knightsen because of a possible explosive device found inside of a residential motor home." Motor homes and explosive devices? Who could've imagined!? Anyway, that's all the info posted so far. We'll update as soon as more info becomes available. Update: Taken (again!)... more ›

Why, we've been so preoccupied with murder right down the street from SFist, we forgot that the rest of the Bay Area is also littered with shootings and bloody tomfoolery. Forgive us, won't you? Ahem: Two employees of Bill's Friendly were shot last night during a botched robbery attempt. One of the store's employees was killed, the other taken to a nearby hospital. (At right: the lone gunman's fierce image.) Another shooting in the... more ›

Harry Ramsay, a former Contra Costa County sheriff who served in the mid 1970s, went missing the other day after leaving his house on foot, and no one has heard back from the 85-year-old man. According to the the Chronicle, he has "mild dementia and vision problem" -- just like us. more ›

-- Temporary victory is ours: Giants 8, Brewers 0. [Chron, Examiner] more ›

A truck filled with 60 cows tipped over in Contra Costa County yesterday. Ha! Despite our most diligent efforts, we are unable to find any pictures from the scene, so we're going with the "Cow Crossing" sign you see to your left. more ›

Han Shin showed up in court in Contra Costa County yesterday to plead not guilty to the charges that he tried to run over an ex's roommate with his car in San Ramon. He smiled and wished the judge a good day. Meanwhile, the authorities also arrested an Oakland man who's been stalking Schwarzenegger. more ›

So we're reading this morning in the Chronicle about the "Frozen Bun Run" on Bethel Island in Contra Costa County, where fun-loving polar bears go water-skiing on the Sacramento River every New Year's Day. And here's the paragraphs that caught our eye: more ›

Two small plane crashes -- one into a tank of raw sewage in Gilroy, and another onto Highway 4 in Contra Costa County. The Highway 4 crash involved a pilot who misjudged the location of the landing runway in the low cloud cover Thursday, and tied up traffic for miles. They're still investigating the Gilroy crash; investigators got a later start because they had to drain and disinfect the tank before it was safe to go in. more ›

You know that totally obvious idea of creating some sort of general pass that works on the plethora of public transportation options? And you know how it's so obvious that you want to bang your head against the table that it hasn't happened yet. Well, it's happening, finally. Or at least a trial run of it. more ›

And for those people feeling smug about all those people who were stranded on BART this morning (not that it would be us, of course), here's something to make you feel smug back. According to a new study, traffic congestion increased by 9% over the past year, the biggest jump in congestion since 2000. Traffic congestion had decreased over the past few years due to the sucky economy, but now that the economy is somewhat (somewhat) better, it's getting worse again. It's still not as bad as it was back in the day, when it took us days to get from the city to the Peninsula and the smog from the exhaust fumes caused darkness to fall sometime in the mid afternoon and acid rain burned our skins, but it's getting there. more ›

Two places in the East Bay have decided to start thinking about the children and are proposing new rules and regulations on fast-food joints to help fight the supposed epidemic of fattie children. First up is Oakland which is thinking about taxing certain merchants a few extra bucks to help clean up the messes left by customers, something that is apparently becoming a problem. The legislation is primarily aimed at fast-food joints and conveyance stores, especially near schools, as that's where most of the mess is. Which raises the question what is wrong with the kids today? Can't they pick up after themselves or are they to fat these days to bend over and pick something up? Why, when we were kids, we'd walk three miles in the snow to pick up our KFC boxes. Merchants, of course, do not like the new legislation and think it could hurt business. That sound you hear is the sound of the world's smallest violin playing a sad symphony for McDonalds. more ›

-The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that an East Contra Costa County school can teach Islam by having the students pretend to be Muslim for three weeks. As part of a history course at Excelsior School for seventh graders, a teacher had students role-play being Muslim to help learn Islam. So the kids adopted Muslim names, read religious poetry, gave up something to simulate Ramadan, and stoned girls for not wearing burkas (kidding!). This got the school system sued by a couple of parents who thought that by "teaching" kids Islam, they were in fact "indoctrinating" them and thus violating their constitutional rights. The court, however, ruled that the school was only doing it for educational purposes and not trying to convert them. That's what science class is for. more ›

Today we questioned the very being of this column. Why do we write it again? Is it an act that improves the world or diminishes it? Should we keep doing it? You'll have your own opinions, but you get to read and we have to write, and while we love both, the reading is invariably easier. Still, what's the point in diving into the depths of off-Broadway service journalism? Why do we torment these poor people? Who gives a damn what we think? All the questions that turn one drink into six, a few chips into the whole bag and unemployment into general assistance. more ›

Bay Area crime roundup more ›