#contra-costa-county

#contra-costa-county

Another beautiful weekend awaits, and we have lots of choices for stuff to see and do, from great movies and shows to a fun Berkeley brewery day trip.As with everything these days, be sure to double check websites for any last-minute changes in health guidelines.Meanwhile, if you'd like to have this Weekender lineup delivered to your inbox every Thursday morning for free, just sign up at www.mercurynews.com/newsletters

You can add wildly-popular Shake Shack to Walnut Creek's evolving fast-casual burger scene.Come Sunday, March 5, George's Giant Hamburgers, The Habit, Gott's Roadside, Burger Lounge and MOOYAH will face new competition when the New York City-founded counter-service restaurant famous for double cheeseburgers, hand-spun milkshakes and crinkle-cut French fries makes its debut at the corner of Mt.

Grilled cheese specialist The Melt has oozed into Contra Costa County with a new brick-and-mortar in downtown Danville.Creative versions of all of your gooey, cheesy faves are on the menu.The restaurant offers riffs on the Three Cheese Classic grilled sandwich such as the Sicilian Chicken (fontina, provolone on garlic bread) and the Queso de Mayo (avocado, smoked bacon, pickled jalapeños, pepper jack cheese) as well as skillets of Melty Mac, Garlic Chicken Bacon Mac and Steak Fajita Mac.

The unfriendly skies during Thursday night's atmospheric river storm limited arrivals at the San Francisco and San Jose airports, causing some impromptu detours to Oakland.According to the National Weather Service, Thursday night's storm drew wind gusts that reached 53 mph in San Francisco, 63 mph in Contra Costa County, and 79 mph in Los Gatos.

The Bay Area's wild housing market might be cooling down a little.Data shows that for the first time in a decade, Bay Area homes are selling for less than their asking price on average, the Bay Area News Group reported.That's not to say that it's exactly affordable: The average price of a home in San Francisco did go down 8.3% since last year to $1.2 million, according to Redfin.

Hit the Brakes
A Tesla driver was left dead and several other people were injured after the electric vehicle rammed into a parked firetruck that had, ironically, been responding to a previous crash.As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, the Model S crash - in which the car failed, for some reason, to slow down enough before hitting the emergency vehicle - occurred just before 4 am on a freeway in Contra Costa County, California, and the firetruck had been parked after responding to an accident that occurred just a half hour prior.

The long-awaited Central Subway line connecting Chinatown all the way to Sunnydale and the Bayview officially started its full operations on Saturday without any major hitches.A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new T-Third Line gathered State Sen. Scott Wiener and San Francisco Mayor London Breed at Muni's Union Square station to celebrate.

City Center Bishop Ranch, the Renzo Piano-designed shopping square in San Ramon, continues to expand as a major Tri-Valley dining destination.Opening this month and next: Three new food businesses that are firsts for Contra Costa County, including Dumpling Time, Miette Patisserie & Confiserie and a holiday pop-up of Jaynelle St. Jean's beloved pie biz, Pietisserie.

The test results come less than two weeks after the FBI confirmed it has launched a joint investigation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency into the Martinez plant's spent catalyst release.FBI agents and EPA personnel have gone door to door asking residents about their experience during and after the incident.

She works long hours, yet barely gets by.At 62, Nicholson doesn't have enough savings to retire because she has been underpaid."People still kind of see us as, I'll say, babysitters, that's really how people look at us," Nicholson said."We are actually the ones that are developing our next generation."

You've probably heard the expression that Behind every great man there's a great woman.That certainly is the case with Karl Benz, credited with inventing the first internal combustion engine in a car, which was financed by the dowry of his wife, Bertha, and patented in January 1886.It was a three-wheeled model called the Motorwagen.

Who said this East Bay city wasn't a food lover's delight?Located 30 miles northeast of San Francisco, Martinez is known as the birthplace of the Martini, and home to the largest bocce ball league in the United States.As the county seat for Contra Costa County, it's also where many locals report for jury duty.

"Deputy Hall ordered Tyrell Wilson to drop the knife a third time, and then shot him once with his firearm," the report continues."Tyrell Wilson was struck in the head and collapsed to the ground."Wilson was pronounced dead at John Muir Medical Center two days later.About a month later, Becton's office announced criminal charges against Hall for fatally shooting Laudemer Arboleda in 2018.

Many San Francisco Bay Area residents were given several seconds' warning before shaking arrived from a magnitude 5.1 earthquake that struck under the mountains east of San Jose this week.The activation of the U.S. Geological Survey's ShakeAlert system is the second time in six weeks that Bay Area residents got a warning before they felt shaking.

Perhaps it was inevitable  what goes up, up, up, must come down eventually.Homes in the Bay Area are now selling for less than they were a year ago, the only part of California where that is true, as rising interest rates continue to throw cold water on the region's once-scorching pandemic real estate market.