Includes hair salons & barber shops indoors, gyms & fitness centers outdoors, and indoor shopping malls at 25% capacity
By Contra Costa Health Services
The California Department of Public Health on Friday announced new statewide guidelines to make regulations and community re-openings more standardized throughout the state. Contra Costa and most other counties are now in the purple (most restrictive) tier.
According to these new state rules, hair salons and barber shops can now operate indoors in Contra Costa County with safety guidelines in place. Indoor shopping malls may also reopen at 25% maximum occupancy as long as public congregation points and food courts are closed and the mall has approved a COVID-19 safety plan from Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS). Gyms and fitness centers may begin operating outdoors in accordance with their own state guidelines and checklist.
These new state rules do not change the restrictions on in-person education, or the state’s school waiver process in Contra Costa.
We continue to evaluate the State’s new framework and its impact on our county, and we will provide additional information as it becomes available.
CCHS encourages businesses to adjust reopening plans as needed in response to changes in air quality in the county from Northern California wildfires. The county has issued a health advisory about smoke, encouraging all residents to stay inside when possible with doors and windows shut. For air quality updates and forecasts, visit the Bay Area Air Quality Management District website. Contra Costa Health Services urges residents to continue wearing face coverings when they go out or are near people outside their households, observe physical distancing, stay home from work or school when they do not feel well and wash their hands thoroughly and often.
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By Jimmy Lee, Director of Public Affairs, Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff
All three suspects involved in an armed robbery that occurred on July 25, 2020 in Orinda have been arrested.
The robbery occurred on Fallen Leaf Terrace in Orinda at about 2 PM when armed suspects approached a resident as he was unloading his vehicle in his driveway. The suspects fled with personal property.
Orinda police detectives, working with other law enforcement agencies, were able to identify the three suspects involved in the robbery. They were apparently suspects in other crimes committed in the East Bay.
Two of them were arrested late last month by Piedmont and Berkeley Police. The two agencies were serving search and arrest warrants at an Oakland home for crimes that occurred in their jurisdictions. The two are identified as 23-year-old Shane Downs and 25-year-old John Downs, both of Oakland.
The third suspect wanted by Orinda police was taken into custody on Tuesday, August 25, 2020, in Plano, Texas. He is identified as 25-year-old Demaria Leanthony Adger of Oakland. He remains in custody in Collin County and is pending extradition back to Contra Costa County.
Orinda detectives continue to investigate the incident.
Adger has a criminal history with multiple arrests dating back to 2014 in Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda County, San Joaquin County, and Sonoma County. (See graphic below)
Anyone with any information on this incident is asked to contact Sergeant S. Valkanoff of the Orinda Police Department at (925) 253-4217. For any tips, please email: tips@so.cccounty.us or call 866-846-3592 to leave an anonymous voice message.
Allen Payton contributed to this report.
Read MoreIn the Bay Area, BART connects us all, and it deserves leadership that doesn’t divide us.
One of the best things about the Bay Area is the way its people live their beliefs. Hardly an election goes by without residents voting to support the places, institutions and services that matter most to them, whether those are schools, parks or libraries, or public transit. BART in particular is a beloved symbol of the region. It knits together our diverse communities, and allows more than 400,000 trips per day, day after day, helping people work, shop, play, visit friends and family, and more.
While BART faces real challenges, from capacity and cost issues to reduced ridership in the age of coronavirus, it stands as a truly unifying institution. That’s why it deserves leadership that doesn’t divide the communities it serves.
Since 2016, (former) Republican Debora Allen has been BART director for District 1, which includes Contra Costa County. During her time on the board of directors, she has promoted aggressive policing policies for BART, pursuing a crackdown agenda the community has roundly rejected. In the face of white officers shooting Black riders, Allen has repeatedly insisted that the answer is more officers, and more enforcement of petty crimes like fare evasion and panhandling. In a recent discussion, she strenuously objected to public comments criticizing BART police, and said the following: “I get that we can’t silence the public, but, I think it’s important we address some of these statements that are made that aren’t true. BART PD murders people? That’s not true. The definition of murder is the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.”
Her behavior at recent meetings proves that Debora Allen is more interested in arguing about the dictionary definition of the word “murder” than in preventing further violence. Allen’s history on the BART board of directors further shows her to be unresponsive to public wishes and hostile to public input. Instead of effectively advocating for expanded service hours or reduced fare costs or improved car cleanliness, Allen has tried to double the number of BART police, extending the politics of resentment and repression, and signaling clearly to the community that she rejects their preferences wholesale.
No one who rides BART would call it a perfect system. However, its challenges can only be solved by people whose priorities are to make it cleaner, faster, friendlier, and, yes, safer. None of those goals are obviously served by spending the system’s few dollars on more armed officers. The community, including Oscar Grant’s family, is correct when it calls for Debora Allen’s ouster and a transit system that is fair, friendly, safe, and welcoming for all. Other BART directors are correct when they go on the record to “completely disavow” Allen’s public comments, or call them “vicious, toxic, and racist.”
BART serves the entire area. That is what is wonderful about it. Debora Allen’s shameful track record clearly indicates that she believes BART should serve only the rich and those who agree with her. Our community deserves better, and in November, we should vote accordingly to replace Debora Allen on BART’s Board of Directors.
Anijar is the Executive Director of the Contra Costa County Labor Council, AFL-CIO, a federated body of more than 85 unions representing more than 85,000 members who live, work, and build their families in Contra Costa County.
Editor’s Note: Debora Allen is no longer a Republican. She left the party a few years ago and is now a registered independent.
Read MoreThe BART Police Department is launching a new initiative that gives riders another way to request assistance from officers while they’re in the system. Text BART Police allows riders, employees, and others to directly contact the BPD Dispatch Center. The launch builds on the success of the BART Watch app, which has been downloaded 89,000 times.
“I want to give our riders as many ways as possible to reach us while they’re on our trains and in our stations,” said BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez. “Text BART Police makes it easy for anyone to use their phone to discreetly contact us if a need should arise.”
The number for Text BART Police is 510-200-0992. Text BART Police is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week and can also be used to send pictures to BPD. Much like the BART Watch app, the number should be primarily used for non-emergency reports. Anyone with an emergency is still urged to call 911 or contact their Train Operator.
Read MoreFollowed by 20 years of supervised release
OAKLAND – John Vicencio Vinoya was sentenced today to six years in prison, to be followed by twenty years of supervised release, for attempted receipt of child pornography, announced United States Attorney David L. Anderson and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge Tatum King. The sentence was handed down by the Honorable Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr.
Vinoya, 48, of Richmond, California, pled guilty to the charge on September 30, 2019. According to the plea agreement, Vinoya admitted that, in July 2018, when he was 46 years old, he texted a girl that he knew to be fourteen years old. When he learned that the minor was about to take a shower, he requested that she send him a “half body pic.” Vinoya admitted that he hoped and intended that the minor would send him a naked photograph that would have constituted child pornography.
Vinoya further admitted that, two weeks later, he sent sexually explicit text messages to the minor’s cell phone. He attempted to persuade and entice the minor to have sexual intercourse with him. On August 2, 2018, Vinoya drove to the minor’s home at a time when he believed that her parents were out of town. He brought condoms and lubricating oil with him to the meeting. He was stopped by law enforcement when he reached the minor’s home.
Vinoya was indicted by a federal grand jury on December 13, 2018. He was initially charged with online enticement of a minor, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b). He ultimately pled guilty to a violation of 18 U.S.C §§ 2252(a)(2) and (b), attempted receipt of child pornography. Vinoya has been in custody since his arrest by officers of the El Cerrito Police Department on August 2, 2018.
Katherine Lloyd-Lovett is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Kay Konopaske. The prosecution is the result of the collaborative investigative efforts of the El Cerrito Police Department, the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and Homeland Security Investigations HSI.
Read MoreHair salons, gyms, fitness centers may begin operating outdoors, hotels and short-term rentals may open
From Contra Costa Health Services, Office of the Director
Daily hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and the percentage of COVID-19 tests returning positive remained steady or fell slightly in Contra Costa County during early August, reflecting recent local progress in slowing the spread of a deadly virus. The seven-day rolling average number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Contra Costa dropped slightly, from 103 on Aug. 5 to 96 on Aug. 24. The average percentage of tests administered in the county that come back positive, meanwhile, has fallen from 8.8% on Aug. 6 to 7.4% on Aug. 24.
These key data indicators for the pandemic remain at dangerously high levels in Contra Costa, which remains on the California Department of Public Health’s county monitoring list, but are not currently increasing as they did in June and July.
Given the improvement, Contra Costa County today makes small changes to its social distancing health order to allow certain business sectors to begin operating again outdoors. The changes align Contra Costa’s policy with recently updated state health guidelines:
— Personal care services that do not involve close contact with the face, such as nail salons and massage, may begin operating outdoors in accordance with the state-issued industry guidelines and checklist.
— Gyms and fitness centers may begin operating outdoors in accordance with their own state guidelines and checklist.
— Hotels and short-term rentals in the county may open for personal or recreational travel, not just for essential business purposes.
These updates to the health order are effective Friday, August 28. Hair salons and barbers have already been permitted to perform limited work outdoors in the county, with no reported outbreaks.
Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS) does encourage businesses to adjust reopening plans because of poor air quality in the county from Northern California wildfires. The county has issued a health advisory about smoke, encouraging all residents to stay inside when possible with doors and windows shut. For air quality updates and forecasts, visit the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
While recent issues at the state level skewed local testing data in late July and early August, Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS) has confidence in data related to hospitalization and number of new positive cases because they are directly reported to the county by local health providers and clinics.
“Based on what we are able to see, we can be cautiously optimistic that there is a gradual downward trend in county cases, testing positivity rates and hospitalizations,” said Dr. Chris Farnitano, county health officer. “We need everyone to understand this is a reason to keep up what we are doing and not let down our guards.”
Previous health orders remain in effect. Contra Costa Health Services urges residents to continue wearing face coverings when they go out or are near people outside their households, observe physical distancing, stay home from work or school when they do not feel well and wash their hands thoroughly and often.
Details of the update, including the full text of the order, are available at cchealth.org/coronavirus.
Read MoreCycle 16 of Workforce Development Program
By Brian Boyle, Communications & Development Associate, St. Vincent de Paul of Contra Costa County
The Workforce Development Program at St. Vincent de Paul is a paid jobs training program aimed at helping the unemployed re-enter the workforce and find stable employment. The 24-week Pittsburg, CA based program teaches members techniques to find a job, offering training in resume development, interviewing, and workplace success techniques in a supportive & compassionate environment. Mandatory orientation sessions for people interested in applying to the program will take place on 9/12/20 & 9/15/20 from 9:00 AM – Noon in Pittsburg. To register call (925) 439-5060.
The Workforce Development Program aims to help tear down the barriers that stand in the way of employment for individuals who have struggled to obtain and maintain employment. Participants are matched with mentors and take weekly classes to continue developing necessary workplace skills. A new class of participants are selected every six months.
Participants gain paid, part-time, (22.5 hours per week), work experience in a St. Vincent de Paul thrift store or SVdP’s trucking and transportation department. Additional training in retail operations include cash register operations, inventory display and optimization, and warehouse operations.
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen millions of people suddenly find themselves out of work. In these hard times, it is more imperative than ever that applicants gain skills to be competitive in the job market. The Workforce Development Program at St. Vincent de Paul seeks to address that need, and prepare participants for the realities of the working world.
St. Vincent de Paul of Contra Costa County has provided safety-net services in the county for over 56 years, serving 81,000 people annually and distributing over $1M of direct financial assistance and over $1.5M of in-kind aid. Over 750 SVdP volunteers and a small staff lead operations in Contra Costa including the SVdP Family Resource Center in Pittsburg, 28 branches and 3 Thrift Stores. One of the largest charitable organizations in the world, St. Vincent de Paul is an international, nonprofit, Catholic lay organization of more than 800,000 men and women who voluntarily join together to grow spiritually by offering person-to-person service to the needy and suffering in 155 countries on five continents.
Contact: Barb Hunt, Development Director
(925) 330-6732
St. Vincent de Paul Society of Contra Costa County
2210 Gladstone Dr.
Pittsburg, CA 94565
Read MoreWest Contra Costa residents looking for fast, free COVID-19 testing will have a convenient new option beginning Wednesday, when Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS) opens a new community testing hub at Richmond’s Civic Center Plaza.
The new testing site, in a parking lot with the entrance at the corner of 25th Street and Nevin Avenue, accepts appointments and walk-in patients. In September CCHS will add drive-through service, allowing the location to test as many as 400 people per day.
“Our testing program has already shown that communities of color, and specifically some neighborhoods in West County, are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Chris Farnitano, Contra Costa County Health Officer. “Accessible, timely testing is critical to reduce transmission of the virus and protect the community.”
Contra Costa offers COVID-19 testing to anyone who lives or works in the county, regardless of insurance, ability to pay or whether they have symptoms or not.
Drive-through appointments continue to be available at West County Health Center in San Pablo, and at a site near the corner of Second Street and Ruby Avenue in North Richmond, where no-appointment, walk-in testing is available Tuesday and Friday afternoons.
The Civic Center site replaces a smaller county testing location at Kennedy High School in south Richmond, opened over the summer in partnership with West Contra Costa Unified School District.
The expansion of public testing service in West County coincides with an increase in laboratory testing capacity and improved turnaround time in Contra Costa, where many patients this summer waited two weeks or longer for their results due to a national shortage of reagents needed to process specimens.
The primary private laboratory contracted by Contra Costa to process tests was reporting a turnaround time of two to five days as of Monday. The county has also contracted with additional labs, which are now preparing to process county specimens, and its Public Health Laboratory this month received new equipment from the state allowing it to process hundreds more tests in-house daily. Turnaround times at the county’s in-house lab average two to three days.
CCHS now operates nine free community testing sites, and the state runs another three in Contra Costa County. Testing appointments are available for all county sites by calling 1-844-421-0804 (8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily) or visiting coronavirus.cchealth.org/get-tested to schedule online. The new site also accepts walk-in patients without appointments. (Note: Testing clinics operated by Contra Costa County may close during the afternoon this week depending on current air quality.)
While you don’t need symptoms to get tested, symptoms that may warrant a test include cough, shortness of breath, fever, chills, fatigue, muscle ache, sore throat, headache, vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, recent loss of taste or smell, or confusion, particularly in older adults.
There is no up-front cost for testing and patients do not need medical insurance or government-issued identification to get tested. However, if you have health insurance, your insurance will be billed.
CCHS does request identification during appointment registration as part of its process to receive federal reimbursement for testing, but ID is not required to receive a test. Patient information is confidential and not shared with law enforcement or other government agencies.
Patients receive their test results via secure text, or in the mail if they cannot receive texts. Patients who test positive for COVID-19 also will be contacted by Contra Costa Public Health with important next steps, including information to help prevent spreading the virus to others.
Visit coronavirus.cchealth.org/get-tested for details about community testing, including site locations.
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By MELISSA JORDAN, BART Senior Web Producer
BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez told the group Latinos in Transit how his experience as an immigrant has shaped his policing philosophy, most recently when he created a new Bureau: the Progressive Policing and Community Engagement Bureau.
“They’re going to continue the work we’ve done to make connections with the communities we serve,” he said in the discussion on Friday. “It’s the message that we teach and train constantly. If you treat people with respect, you’re going to get it in return.”
Alvarez, who has spent his entire career rising through the ranks at BART, talked about how the organization has changed over his 23 years there. He addressed the killing of Oscar Grant by a BPD officer in 2009, which presaged the nationwide reckoning over policing that disproportionately affects minority communities, and which BART itself has improved through numerous changes.
You could hear the emotion in his voice as Alvarez called that time over a decade ago as “rock bottom. It was hard to come to work. I care about this place and these people.”
In the intervening years, he said, BPD has made groundbreaking reforms, becoming one of the first departments to use body-worn cameras, and the role of BART’s Citizen Review Board and Independent Police Auditor in implementing other checks and balances. “Now I’m proud and happy to come to work,” he said.
Alvarez became chief only nine months ago, a trial by fire with the coronavirus pandemic, the economic devastation it wrought, and the outpouring of demonstrations for the Black Lives Matter movement sparked by events in Minneapolis in May 2020.
“We denounced the murder of George Floyd,” Alvarez said, of the man who lost his life when a police officer, now charged with murder, kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. “It shouldn’t have happened. And a lot of departments are changing how they operate because of it, because of him and the other individuals before and after him. It’s been a call to action.”
Alvarez shared a bit of his life story and the experiences that formed his character.
“I was born in Mexico in the state of Jalisco,” he said. “My parents migrated from Mexico to the United States and they built a life for us. I’ve lived in the East Bay my whole life, and my mom still lives there.”
Alvarez said that as a young boy he had to learn English, benefiting from ESL classes, and that his parents emphasized education as a way to get ahead, a principle he lives by to this day.
“I’m really proud of where I came from,” he said. “We persevered. I lost my father to a tragic accident when I was 10 years old, and my mom had to step up. My mom is a very strong Mexican woman. She had to learn how to drive, how to get a job to support our family.”
She went to work at the American Licorice Company in Union City (you may know them as the maker of Red Vines candy). “My mom never called in sick one day in 25 years, ever,” Alvarez said. “She made sure we were in school every day. On Sunday mornings, when we’d stayed out late on Saturday nights, she would kick open the door of our bedrooms, open up the blinds, and tell us we’re going to church. I appreciate that now. It helped make me the person I am today.”
Alvarez joined the force with a junior college degree then went back to school in his 40s to get his bachelor’s degree. “It was really hard, to be working, going to school and raising a family,” he said. “That’s why I tell Latino kids when I speak at schools, take care of your education before you have a lot of other commitments. I tell the kids to keep working on learning English, keep at it, the language will come.”
“We as immigrants have to take advantage of the opportunities that this country affords us,” Alvarez said. He said he never dreamed that one day he would be chief of the BART Police, with more than 400 personnel under his watch.
“We’re out there handing out face coverings, working on the mental health piece, connecting the homeless with services. In some ways this pandemic has been a good opportunity for us to hit a reset, tighten up a few things, so that when our ridership goes up we’re in a better place than we were pre-pandemic.”
“Our message right now is that BART is safe, reliable and clean. We’re ready to welcome everybody back to our system.”
Alvarez spoke at a monthly meeting (held virtually for now) of Latinos in Transit, a national organization that promotes the advancement and development of Latinos and other minorities in the transportation industry. The “Café Con LIT” networking meetings let members share a coffee break to connect with others and learn from their experiences.
At the talk with Alvarez on Friday, participants said his story resonated with many who had similar upbringings, and inspired pride in members of the Latino community.
“I’m humble to be one of many,” Alvarez said. “We’ve got to keep being role models, keep grinding, show people that it can be done. This country gives us many opportunities. You have to take them and give back.”
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