Concord Art Association (CAA) presents –Wood Carver Mike Budesilich Mike Budesilich has been carving since he was 6 years old. Carving has been an integral part of his life. He received his teaching credentials from Cal State Hayward in Art and teaches at Mt. Diablo Unified School District, Woodcraft Of Dublin, and teaches privately.  Mike is a member of and past Northern California Director of the California Carvers Guild. Concord Public Library 2900 Salvio St, Concord, CA 94519 March 9, 2010 12:50pm - 3pm Members reside throughout the East Bay area. Further information available: http://concordart.wordpress.com/ or email:  ConcordArtAssociation@yahoo.com

Is Jerry Brown running for Governor of California? People have been trying to get him to answer the question for weeks. He's been dodging the question and it must be some political ploy. I Don't know if I can support a guy running for the highest State position if he can't even answer simple questions like 'are you going to run?'. I understand that he wants to announce it on his terms but it seems like he's been waiting and relishing in the spotlight of rumors as long as he can. Is it all for buzz or is this guy really going to be a leader that pulls this State out from the hole it's in? Jerry Brown, a Democrat who turns 72 in April, is expected to formally make the announcement on www.jerrybrown.org at 11 a.m. Pacific time. His candidacy, long rumored in political circles, places him in a field that includes two well-financed Republican candidates: Meg Whitman, the former chief executive of eBay, and Steve Poizner, the state insurance commissioner. Both are using parts of their fortunes on their campaigns. Hitler finds out Jerry Brown is running for California Governor

Whats really going on these days? It's bad enough that the drug problems in High School are as bad as they are but now 5th graders are getting high by eating food laced with marijuana? Is it irony that the school is called Stoneman? The CoCo times wrote.. Police were contacted Monday after several fifth-graders at Stoneman Elementary school shared nibbles of a sugary treat made of Fruity Pebbles that contained marijuana. The fifth-grader who brought the treat to school got it from her adult sister, Lt. Brian Addington said. The older sister told police she received it from a medical marijuana dispensary. The fifth-grader was aware the treat contained marijuana, he said. They knew it was drugs. The kids claim it came from a medical marijuana clinic. Does that realy make it any better? The older sister who gave this to kids should be charged with child endangerment at the least. Even if the older sister was legally able to have this, it should not be handed out to kids or left for them to get. Am I wrong? I know we are talking about weed but shouldn't the same consequences be given as a parent who lets their kids get drunk ...

I got a letter from the Contra Costa County Assessor's office. Last year they did an audit of the area and adjusted home values for tax reasons. It's not a good feeling to seee my home price shrinking away but on the flip side it is nice that I am not going to pay taxes on an inflated home price. We will complete this proactive review by June 30th, 2010. We will notify qualifying property owners of the drop in their value in writing by July 31st, 2010. If you do not hear from us and think you qualify for a decrease in assessed value, you can file for a free review. If you have questions about how your home price is going to be assessed and would like to know more about it, the letter I have says to contact them directly. You can go to their website or give them a call at (925) 313-7400.

I had to take a blogging vacation. The job required all of my attention and taking care of the little man is almost a full time job also. I had to change around some priorities and the blog was way down on the list. I thought of just shutting it down but I am still very much interested in whats happening in the area and I think the site has enough readers to keep it up. Work is still crazy for those of you that know me on a personal level, you have heard enough of that. The Mayor of Concord blog should continue and I think between the awesome growth of Claycord and some other new local blogs that have popped up in the area over the past few months, we are becoming a great community of online contributors to the events and news around Concord and surrounding cities. I have a few new posts already drafted and have spent the past couple months putting together new ideas for posts that will be interesting for the readers. Thanks again for your support and I look forward to getting some new posts up in the weeks to come.

New video from over the weekend shows a BART Police officer dealing with an obnoxious BART passenger. What happens next is clear on the video captured by a train passenger. Lots of debate on the news about if the BART police officer was out of line. What do you think?

Esteban Nuñez the 19-year-old son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez is out on $1M bail while the courts run around in circles trying to get this case to go to trial. It didn't take long after the arrest for Esteban's MySpace profile to get deleted but we got some great screen shots before that happened. SAN DIEGO COURTS — The trial date for three young men accused in the fatal stabbing of a college student on the San Diego State University campus last year has been postponed again despite the objections of one of the defendants. After a full day of hearing motions in the case yesterday, San Diego Superior Court Judge Robert O’Neill pushed the trial for Ryan Jett, Esteban Nuñez and Leshanor Thomas to April 12. It had been set for March 29. Once again, O’Neill said the change was necessary because of scheduling conflicts among the attorneys. Jett, the only defendant in the case who remains in County Jail, objected to the delay through his lawyer, Terry Zimmerman. Zimmerman argued there was no justification to postpone the trial and faulted prosecutors for not producing new evidence, such as a knife owned by a fourth man charged in the case, in a ...

I was catching up on my YouTubes and found some great videos from the demolition of the Cowell Smokestack. I saw some other pictures on Claycord back during the project but I was unaware we had videos also, so I wanted to share. It was a piece of Concord that many used as a landmark. Now it's gone but we have some great videos of it being torn down. Please excuse the language on the first vid.

Wow. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger dropped a nasty, acrostic message in a letter he sent to California lawmakers. (via TechCrunch and SF Chronicle) This is a real-life, genuine letter from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the State Assembly, announcing his intention to veto a harmless bill that would've financed the Port of San Francisco. As you can see, it spells out "Fuck You." And why, exactly, would this completely uncontroversial bill that passed both houses without much fanfare elicit such an odd response from the governor? Because it was sponsored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano. Not too long ago, Arnold showed up uninvited at a Democratic party event, and Assemblyman Ammiano politely requested that the governor "kiss my gay ass."

A friend on Facebook posted this and I was unaware we had a game up for the Wells Fargo Game of the Week. If you haven't done so already, head over to KTVU and vote for Ygnacio Valley vs. Clayton Valley. We are currently ahead but that can change fast. Lets get up to 5000 votes and get the schools some extra cash courtesy of Wells Fargo.

I didn't know that every neighborhood in Concord had their own newsletter. Well, maybe not every neighborhood does, but Dana Estates is special then. Oct. 28th there will be a General Meeting for the residence and a guest speaker Edi Birsan (He's a local blog reader and suppporter) will be talking about the history of radiological activities at the Concord Naval Weapons Station and if we have anything to worry about. If you live in Dana Estates, they are looking for some help in the form of a new webmaster for DANAESTATES.ORG. As you can see from the current site, it could use a good face-lift. Do other areas of Concord have committees like this? Also they are collecting donations for the Toys for Tots program. You can drop off the donation at the General Meeting or at Mitchell's Contra Costa Travel at 2227 Willow Pass Rd.

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta Earthquake. I remember exactly what was going on before the Bay Area quake. I was just a young lad in high school. The school day was done, I was sitting in my living room flipping between the World Series and Silver Spoons. Ya, you know that show with Ricky Schroder. At 5:04, the sound shook me before the ground did. It was like a train was rolling right next to the house then the next thing I knew I was on the ground, the ground was rolling under me and the lamp fell over. Measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, this was one of the most well documented earthquakes in history. If you live in the Bay Area, you should know basic earthquake safety. You should have enough supplies on hand to hold you over for a few days if all other resources are unavailable. The quake killed 63 people throughout northern California, injured 3,757 and left thousands homeless.

10:30 PM: Multiple Concord Police units are searching the neighborhood for a man in Dana Estates.White Male, short hair, black shirt or hoodie. He is suspected of shooting another man in the neck and running. Victim was taken to John Muir. 10:40 PM: Ok. Sounds like a gun was involved. They located the bullet shell. Strange, I live in the area and didn't hear anything. 10:50 PM: Suspect lives in the area of Granada and Wren Ave. CHP Helicopter helping the search. *witnesses to the shooting knew the suspect and told police approx. where suspect lives. 11:17 PM: Police are canvasing the entire neighborhood looking for this guy. He could be running or hiding in a yard somewhere. If you live in the area of Granada over towards Landana, make sure your doors are locked. 11:25 PM: CHP Chopper heading home. CPD units still on the ground looking for suspect. 11:30 PM Concord Police breaking the perimeter. I guess after an hour, it's time to move on. What I don't understand is that a man was shot in the neck, witnesses saw the direction of travel for the suspect and after an hr, the police just call it a night and move on. Isn't this a guy ...

Many of us already know about listening to Concord Police scanner conversations online. I was wondering what else could be found in the area and came across the Concord Buchanan Airfields radio traffic. The Buchanan Airfield scanner can be listened to a few different ways, either through a flash player online or even through applications like Windows Media Player. There are many other air traffic control stations to listen to all over the country listed on this site. Concord may not be the most exciting airport to listen to but you never know when an other low flying plane of Concord might show itself again.

I have had a Facebook profile for a few months. I have the link on the right sidebar but other than that I haven't said much about it. I feel like I live on Facebook. I communicate with most of my frinds and family from there. Well..that and Twitter. I set up the fan page for the Mayor of Concord to share local news with people on Facebook that may not have heard about this site. Why a fan page? Part of the reason was just to expand the reach of the site. I was only posting links to my blog then realized I could do even more than that and share other local stories from new sites and other local blogs. I think that doing this gives my 'fans' interesting stuff to read even if it's not on this blog. You can contribute. One of the best parts of having the fan page on Facebook is that anyone can add links, pictures or updates to the page.I have got many emails from people asking for a way to add more 'social' in my social media. This is a step in the right direction. If your organization is holding a fundraiser, post a link on ...