“Hello? Is This NEWS24/680/80/580?”
We’re defined by our own company name, which is – for the record – NEWS24/680. We chose the name because our bisecting highways have served as ready identifiers for our area of coverage. None of that seemed to matter yesterday as we were flooded by incoming calls about a developing incident at a theatre complex…
Building-Ramming Trend Continues – This Time It’s A Walnut Creek Post Office
Hopefully not a portent of things to come but a second vehicle made its way into a local building Friday morning, hours after an Orinda police SUV lodged itself in the local Wells Fargo Bank branch. This time, a Jeep driver pushed through the front doors of the postal branch at 2244 Oak Grove Road,…
We’re Getting Cruised – Just A Little Bit
We don’t know why we channeled DeNiro’s oft-repeated line from Goodfellas but it came to us and seemed appropriate this morning. People who know us would say we tend to swing more to the realist than the alarmist. Being frightened of things we see happening around us tends to shut down the brain and we…
Orinda Neighbors Look Up “EOD” After Military Ordnance Turns Up In Local Home
Eyebrows lifted skyward in Orinda Monday when a truck carrying a military bomb disposal squad and with EOD painted on its side rolled up to take possession of a rusty old missile located in a local home. No one in an official capacity was willing to talk on the record but to our untrained eye…
Poking Our Heads Above The Parapet
One of the many hard-earned lessons we’ve learned in this business is that people are perfectly happy urging someone else (us) to leave the safety of the trench and tackle a difficult subject they won’t. This dovetails neatly into another hard-learned lesson: that the person who leaves said trench (us) is usually the first trooper…
“Good Morning, Glory! Now Slow The @$% Down!”
As cautionary messaging goes this one is nicer than most, combining a little natural splendor with some sage advice. This flowery invitation to slow down and smell the ros… flowers stands in the 24/680 and caught the eye of one of our local lensmen, shell-shocked after a busy couple of days in the ‘hoods. Know…
24/680 Residents Head Over Perfectly Arched Heels For… Barbie
Just when we thought we had the readership figured out. The last couple of days and nights our patrols have reported a declining presence downtown, people eschewing local hotspots and boits to stand in long lines at local movie houses. Cool, we thought, we’ve shaken off the pandemic and decided it’s okay to see a…
The Night Shift: Tequila, High Temps, And AirTags
We’ve learned after many years of investigation that the news doesn’t confine itself to regular hours. Hence, those of us addicted to gathering the curious, sometimes dramatic but more often mundane details of life have taken to prowling our chosen areas of coverage during what Mister Sinatra used to refer to as “The Wee Small…
After A Busy Monday Night – Ferreting Out The Details
Monday night in the 24/680 was particularly bad, with folks hitting each other, walls, and their own personal limits with the rapidity of a triggered chain of dominoes. Our people were out and on the scene, returning with the glazed, dead-eyed expression of the shell-shocked, shaking their heads when colleagues asked what they’d seen. We…
“We Do Our Best Work In The Dark…”
Something tripped the grid last night and much of Walnut Creek found out what it was like to live back in 1845 – with some folks either running, screaming out into the darkness or calmly sitting down and finishing their meals in a suddenly very romantic setting. The Sages have told us we find out…