Contra Costa County News

It's just a 4-mile stretch of country road, but Highway 156 is a vital link between the Monterey Peninsula and the Bay Area -- and now it could become the first toll road north of Los Angeles.

A Concord woman was arrested Sunday evening on suspicion of arson after police say she used a lighter to set fire to a hillside that in turn sparked a four-acre burn.

Dogged for two months by calls for her ouster since an independent investigation revealed she misused city resources, Human Resources Director Leslie Knight will resign effective July 1, City Manager Bill Lindsay announced Friday.

A federal judge on Friday threw out a civil lawsuit lodged by a Contra Costa deputy district attorney who claims he was maliciously prosecuted on rape charges.

Board chairman Paul Sosnowski listens during a meeting of the Bradford Island Reclamation District in Bethel Island, Calif.

Q Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD, has been inundated with inquiries about lowering the legal blood alcohol limit for drunken driving from 0.08 percent to 0.05 percent, which is the legal limit in much of Europe and which last week was proposed to become the legal limit in the U.S. From 1999 to 2010, 20,671 people in California were killed ... (more)

BRENTWOOD – Dogged by self- consciousness and suburban angst, I've always shied away from partaking in the whole U-pick produce craze that took hold a couple decades ago.

A veteran West Contra Costa schools administrator has been honored for expanding the district's special education programs into some of the most comprehensive and effective in the state.

A Richmond man was sentenced to six years in state prison Friday for his role in the 2011 revenge killing of a 22-year-old man in a Rodeo housing complex.

Just as elite riders in America's most prestigious bike race prepare to zip past this affluent community on their way to Mount Diablo, residents here are pondering a ban on the outsiders who ride bicycles for recreation into their bucolic town.

The Conservancy is holding their regular board meeting Wednesday, May 22, from 9 a.m. to Noon at the Big Break Visitor's Center, 100 Big Break Road in Oakley.

Byron Boys Ranch Librarian Nadia Bagdasar chooses books she thinks will speak to the residents' experiences and appeal to their interests.

Two school districts in the South Bay and East Bay showed dramatic swings in standardized test scores in recent years, similar to the fluctuations in the troubled Atlanta Public Schools, where 35 educators have been charged in a cheating scandal.

On a bright Friday morning, Leia laced up her Nikes and took a run through Heron Park in Brentwood.

In an uproarious session of the Orinda City Council on Monday, May 13, residents of Orinda and other Bay Area communities expressed strong opposition to plans requiring local communities to build high-density, high-rise housing in Orinda and elsewhere.

Every year, more than 1,500 elementary school students spend a free, fun-filled day at the Contra Costa County Fair's School Tour Day.

Officials painted a bleak picture of the coming fiscal year's budget, telling residents at Tuesday's City Council meeting that unless they approve a utility tax hike in June, the city likely would have to disband its police department and contract with the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office for police services.

Jessie Stoddard-Nunez has lots of questions for the officer who shot and killed his brother in the early morning hours of March 3. His brother, Shawn Stoddard-Nunez, died when Hayward police Officer Manuel Troche fired into the passenger side of a car he was riding in.

A judge has sentenced a brother and sister to 10 months in prison for conspiracy to create and sell false identification documents in Contra Costa and Marin counties.

A man who was shot and critically injured while driving in Richmond on Friday has died from his injuries, according to police and the Contra Costa County coroner's office.