Contra Costa County News

The Berkeley teen arrested and charged with murder this week for the death of a San Ramon Valley High School senior in January was arrested five months later for burglarizing three Berkeley homes, court records show.

Former sex crimes prosecutor Michael Gressett is too broke to pay for his own lawyers in the rape case against him, but he's too enmeshed in Contra Costa County's criminal justice system for the public defender's office to take the case.

A pickup truck was found on fire at an apartment complex on the 2000 block of Vale Road in San Pablo shortly after 2 a.m., said Victor Massenkoff, an investigator with the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District.

California Watch /New America Media, News report, Louis Freedberg and Hugo Cabrera, Posted: Nov 20, 2009 Editor's Note: This article is part of a new collaboration between New America Media and California Watch , a new nonprofit journalism project at the Center for Investigative Reporting.

A Berkeley man has been charged in connection with the fatal shooting earlier this year of a 17-year-old Danville boy.

Inmates at the Marsh Creek Detention Facility near Clayton have been designing and handcrafting toys that will be given to children in Contra Costa County this holiday season, Contra Costa County Sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee said.

Most of California's largest school districts are increasing class sizes in kindergarten through third grade, eroding the most expensive education reform in the state's history.

A pair of cars found torched overnight are being investigated as arsons, but they have not yet been linked to a string of car fires that plagued West Contra Costa County over the past two weeks.

Lock your car and leave your windows up if you want to avoid becoming the next victim of a serial arsonist who has set 17 vehicles on fire in the last few weeks in western Contra Costa County.

Investigators are trying to determine whether three new vehicle fires in western Contra Costa County are connected to a string of car torchings in the area.

Butte County has a new interim chief administrative officer. Scott Tandy of Moraga, who for 33 years has worked in county administration in Butte County and elsewhere in the state, was appointed interim CAO Monday after a closed-door session of the Board of Supervisors.

On Monday a Contra Costa County Superior Court judge in Martinez found a Richmond woman not guilty by reason of insanity to charges that she murdered her 8-year-old son in 2006.

Cal Fire announced recently that the peak wildfire season in Northern California will end Monday, but fire officials are urging residents to remain vigilant in preventing the destructive blazes.

A teenage carjacking suspect shot and killed by San Pablo police over the weekend has been identified by the Contra Costa County Coroner's Office.

When it comes to traffic signals, timing is everything -- especially with keeping cars flowing on Ygnacio Valley Road, one of the most heavily traveled thoroughfares in Contra Costa County.

The Cal Fire Santa Clara Unit, which oversees a large swath of the Bay Area, plans to declare an end to the fire season Monday morning.

I GREW up in Richmond and am raising my family here. I understand how three casinos could change the character of our community in ways many of us don't want.

A Contra Costa County high school principal on administrative leave for allegedly handling a pellet gun inappropriately in front of a student is being replaced.

A mugging victim is questioning the response time by the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department, saying it took deputies 45 minutes to show up after calling 9-1-1. The woman said the attack happened in a parking near a bar and hotel in Port Costa early Sunday morning.

A Diablo man jailed on domestic violence charges is accused of trying to get a fellow inmate to murder his wife.