Pinole News

Engine #45 of the "Super Skunk" train awaits the "All Aboard!" call of the conductor while surrounded by giant Redwoods at Northspur Station.

Six people escaped with their lives after their home went up in flames when a candle was left unattended in a bedroom, a Contra Costa Fire Protection District battalion chief said.

The girl who was gang raped at Richmond High School in 2009 testified Monday that she recalled waking up in the hospital in "excruciating pain" but did not remember being sexually assaulted outside the homecoming dance.

A homegrown event will again brighten San Pablo Avenue and adjacent areas of Old Town Pinole with shining steel, glass and chrome next weekend.

A homegrown event will again brighten San Pablo Avenue and adjacent areas of Old Town Pinole with shining steel, glass and chrome next weekend.

A 22-year-old man convicted in the 2009 Richmond High School gang rape testified Thursday that he saw his former co-defendant Jose Montano on top of the 16-year-old victim for "like two seconds."

Fort Bragg Mayor Dave Turner says the City is willing to do whatever it can for the Skunk Train.

But their mutual love of her isn't the only thing that unites a father-in-law and son-in-law.

Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, will provide updates on state issues at a districtwide town hall meeting from 7 to 8:30 p.m. June 19 at Pinole Middle School, 1575 Mann Drive.

A Richmond man said Wednesday the Oct. 24, 2009, gang rape assault on the Richmond High School campus began moments after the 16-year-old victim passed out from drinking brandy.

Once upon a time a 3-year-old boy from the Anderson Valley rode the Skunk Train and dreamed the dream of countless other kids to be a conductor, in his blue suit, in charge of the fabulous iron machine.

A proposed feasibility study on a BART extension to San Pablo, Richmond Hilltop, Pinole and Hercules has become bogged down in procedural issues, with the Planning Commission the latest Hercules body to punt on taking a formal position.

The city is scrambling to beef up its fire department staffing, with the imminent jump by three firefighters to the adjacent Rodeo-Hercules Fire District.

The ways couples might react when learning they may -- or may not -- have a baby is explored in "Baby: The Musical," which opens on June 14 for eight performances by the Pinole Community Players at the Pinole Community Playhouse, 601 Tennent Ave. This is an updated version of the play that opened on Broadway in 1983 and ran for 241 performances.

The race card game plays out as a love triangle in Neil LaBute's dark comedy "This is How It Goes," opening in its Bay Area premiere on June 14 at Aurora Theatre Company.

A former Richmond High School student testified Thursday that the day after a sophomore girl was gang raped on the school's campus in 2009, three of his acquaintances were "laughing and joking" about how they participated in the assault.

The trial for two men charged with participating in the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl on the Richmond High School campus continued Wednesday with testimony from the first responders and the airing of a 911 call that put an end to the 21 2-hour attack.

"Nobody understands it," said George Krebs, a reserve sergeant for the Albany Police Department.

Some of the defendants, shown in 2010: Jose Montano , John Crane and Elvis Torrentes.

Prosecutors laying out their case against two men charged with the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl outside a Northern California high school homecoming dance said this week that the men also helped others participate in the attack, while the girl's father testified Tuesday that someone taunted him the night of the attack using her cellphone.