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.

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 ...

Jost poking around the local blogs and see that The Furgal Find has a new post about how to get $75.00 for free. Well, all you have to do is open a bank acct. and you get the free money. If you want to take 20 minutes out of a day and get some free cash, this is an easy way to do it. Basically it's a NEW member promotion, absolutely no cost and no strings attached.  No minimum balance, no keeping the account open for x days, etc.  100's of my local readers have already taken advantage of the deal and have their cash in hand the same day.  When I did it, it took me all of 20 minutes and I had an ATM to use that day! This is an INSANE promotion thanks to Pacific Credit Union.  If you open a Free Checking Account with eStatements and you are a NEW member you will AUTOMATICALLY get $50.00 in your account, like today, to spend right now.  I walked in this afternoon and 20 minutes later I walked out with temporary checks and an ATM card (no waiting 7-10 business days).  20 minutes and I had $50.00 in my ...

Just over two weeks since Jaycee Dugard was found alive in Antioch, the stories of new attempts to kidnap children in the area have parents on edge. The news about the kids being accosted and lured into a car in Pleasant Hill should make people a little scared. Anything this alarming even for non-parents makes a community take notice of strangers around them in ways they never would have. Most recently there was a man seen videotaping near Monte Gardens Elementary School several times that made parents in the area scared. No crime was committed but with the heightened awareness and news spreading across other local blogs that there was a man near a school with a camera, people acted. Thankfully Concord residents are more civilized than others and when the man was once again seen near the school, a mob wasn't assembled. Turns out this 72 year old man that caused such alarm in our community was in fact just a visitor and was videotaping the area and his granddaughter. Imaging the shock on this man's face when he was walking around Dana Estates and was confronted by Concord Police. So this is what I'm wondering, has all the news about Jaycee ...

The Associated Press is announcing that they have identified the couple responsible for the kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard. The kicker is that the man Phillip Garrido, is a registered sex offender and may also be a part of a religious cult. Sounds like this case and the Elizabeth Smart are similar. Clayord was even able to find a link to the offenders blog where is discusses his views on government and religion. Excerpt from his blog post where he addresses hearing voices and how to help people. There is new insight that has the potential of helping people who hear voices to possibly stop and reexamine their thinking before committing a violent act on themselves and / or others. A prime example is the woman who threw her three children into the San Francisco Bay. This tragic act could have been avoided if my findings were made public before she found herself being led by a powerful internal and external (hearing) process that places the human mind under a hypnotic siege that in time leads a person to build a delusional belief system that drives them to whatever course of action they take. Did he just try justify the actions of Lashaun ...

The Cellular Store store just keeps on going. The young man in the video who was seen taking the cell phone with his mom, went into the store today and apologized for his actions. Not before returning some other stolen accessories he had taken off camera. The boy and his family must be reading the blogs in Concord because I can't imagine any other reason he would have come forward after the fact. It takes some guts to walk into a store that you've been identified as a thief in and apologize while handing over other stolen merchandise. As much as I hate a thief, I can respect the move this kid made. He's very fortunate that Gary isnt pressing charges.

The story of the boy who stole a cell phone from the Concord Cellular Store just gets better. After releasing the videos on YouTube and the local blogs here in Concord, the boy's father did the right thing and returned the phone to the store and apologized for his kids actions. Some people (including me) think that this criminal is getting off easy. Granted, I'm not going to say the owner of the store Gary should still file charges. I do think the young man who stole the phone should have been man enough to apologize in person instead of having his father do it for him. There was some question about the woman in the video. Because of the age difference I assumed it was his mother but there was chatter that it may have been his girlfriend or just a friend. Turns out the woman in the video was the boys mother and she also went into the store to apologize to Gary about the theft. Gary wasn't working so she left him a voice mail. She claims that she had no idea her son was stealing the phone. HUH?!? No idea? Really?!? It's clear as day in the video ...

Just six months after hitting the hyperlocal blog scene, Walnut Creek blogger "Dub C" is calling it quits. The blog started in January focused on news and events around Walnut Creek and quickly gained steam with the community. Due to "...commitments of real life have taken center stage and squeezed out my blogging time for the foreseeable future." It was nice to have a couple blogs in Walnut creek to check into for local news. Now we are down to one. Thank you Dub C for the time you put into the site and I look forward to the time you can get back infront of the computer and spread some information.

Last night was an exciting night for the Mount Diablo School Board. I read the news first over at MisterWriter and it is now making waves across the local blogs and also on the front page of the Contra Costa Times. After months of debate over the future of the MDUSD, Gary McHenry resigned as superintendent of the school district. After making this remark at the last meeting when he was "visibly jolted" by the lack of support he got from the board."It's really difficult to stay motivated to do a job when it just doesn't seem like the board is going to support what you're going to do," he said. "I just think that what is happening here is wrong. I do think that it's somewhat vindictive and retaliatory and I'm going to see what action I can take to address it in whatever form is appropriate." - Looks like his decisive action was to call it quits. Was this a political move by the remaining board to oust an unpopular superintendent or did Gary McHenry see the writing on the chalkboard and throw in the towel? No official statement has been made by the ex-superintendent but Gary Eberhart the ...

I was looking for the article that I was interviewed for along with Claycord and other local blogs about how local blogging plays a part in keeping people informed. I figured the article was meant to show how a local blog can help fill the gap with other news a typical paper seems necessary to print. I was emailed a link to a very recent article on the Contra Costa Times that may shed some additional light on this. The article is titled Unfair reporting on MDUSD and here is a snippet from it. I have been a Mt. Diablo school district secretary since 2008 and a parent of children in this district since 1991. I am very concerned about the quality of "reporting" by the Times with regard to school district issues. I attend most of the board meetings. Anyone with a basic knowledge of critical thinking who hears the entire meeting and then reads the newspaper article the next day will notice the logical fallacies and cherry-picked quotes taken out of context or placed for maximum negative effect against the superintendent or the district. This does nothing to promote the public's right to know, but it does serve to promote a ...

I thought this story was not worth spending the time on but changed my mind. This has been covered by other local blogs such as Claycord and Crazy in Suburbia which also got some attention from CBS5. Newspapers are feeling the crunch of the economic downturn just like many industries but newspapers have been feeling the pinch for a long time. Traditional news is an online world now and paper is a waste of money. Some estimates are that a normal newspaper that costs $1.25 on the stand actually costs the company as much as $10 to print it. That can't be good news for newspapers. MediaNews is making their employees take a furlough just to save from having layoffs. The newspaper industry has gone through many changes over the past couple decades, one of which was their adoption of the internet as a viable source of publication. As this explains, back in 1981 some of the largest papers in the US took ahold of the internet to spread the latest news. It was a big gamble that has paid off well for some and not so well for others. The Silicon Alley Insider explained that printing the NY Times costs twice ...

I just got off the phone with Theresa Harrington from the Contra Costa Times. She is putting together a story about the Mt. Diablo School District and how local blogging plays a part. It was a good call. We spoke for about 30 minutes and talked about why people read local blogs, how a local blog can get the attention from the school board, and if local blogging really makes a difference. My thoughts are that media is so enamored with stories every day and there are much bigger stories to write about like the budget crisis that the local blogs fill the gap. The MDUSD blog covers a lot, the Monday memos give some insight but these are public officials and they have to toe the line with many issues. A local blog as no line to toe and since we have a platform to write about our opinions it makes for a great conversation. We spent some time talking about the other blogs in Concord and discussing my thoughts on them. Over all, it was a nice conversation and I'm looking forward to the article which should be published on Sunday. Theresa is going to reach out to the other ...

I've gotten to know many local bloggers in the past several months of running this site. It all started with Concord and I have talked with bloggers covering their local areas from Walnut Creek out to Oakland. After talking with the Contra Costa Times yesterday the onslaught on local blogs coming on the scene is almost impossible to keep up with. More people are stepping out and serving as an additional voice for their cities and communities. That is why I started this site to begin with. The local blogging scene amazes me and So my question is this: What other local blogs do you read?

I was drinking my morning coffee and reading through my other local blogs when I saw a new post from Claycord saying the Pittsburg is better than Concord. This was a statement by the Mayor of Pittsburg Nancy Parent. Nancy Parent says that Pittsburg is closer to Walnut Creek than it is Concord regarding crime. At first I was thinking "WTF!", how can the Mayor of Pittsburg begin to say they have less crime than Concord. I have lived here my entire life and Pittsburg has ALWAYS been known as a city stuck with crime issues.So I figured I would look at the data and see what the deal is. Lets look at some crime data about Crime in Pittsburg. Lets look at Concord Crime Data So what does this mean. By looking at the data, I have a higher chance of being murdered in Pittsburg but my house has less of a chance of being burglarized. Then again, Concord has an higher violent crime number according to aggravated assaults and robberies. Should I be concerned? According to the research there were 107 registered sex offenders living in Pittsburg, California in early 2007. The ratio of number of residents in Pittsburg to the number of ...

You haven't seen Chico the Dog in the Contra Costa Times but he's been featured in Eye on Blogs. He is the only dog with his own blog. Chico lives in the East Bay and needs a home. I'm pretty big -- about 100 lbs. I'm a cross between a German and an Australian Shep. I'm pretty sure my mom was the Aussie since my tail is cropped. I will protect you -- and if you have gardeners with blowers, I'll scare the compost out of 'em. OK, I do have a few issues: I am an alpha male, and I really like cats (they taste good). So, if it's just you and me, we're golden! I'm an awesome dog. Really -- just ask me. I'll tell you.... I love people. I love to take walks. I know how to sit and lie down. Did I mention that I'm only 2 years old? Chico was found near Clearlake and is being taken care of by a foster family with the Contra Costa SPCA, based in Concord. Chico started his blog after moving to the East Bay and finally having  a broadband connection. I know the foster family and though they love ...