HALFWAY TO CONCORD

POLITICS

Gary Agopian, candidate for County Supervisor in the 5th Supervisorial District, announced today that he has named Gary Gilbert as his Campaign Chairman. Gilbert is the Founder of United Citizens for Better Neighborhoods (UCBN) and Antioch’s 2006 Citizen of Year for his advocacy for the Antioch Police and neighborhood safety. According to Gilbert, “The citizens of District 5 deserve leadership we can trust and leadership we can believe in. As a resident of East County, I am confident that Gary Agopian completely understands the financial and public safety challenges facing Contra Costa County and I am certain that Gary will act in the best interest of all District 5 residents. Gary Agopian is the best choice to represent us for the next four years.” 

Abram Wilson’s campaign for the 15th Assembly seat will hold a fundraiser on August 21. Enjoy wine tasting and hors d’oeuvres from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., at the Deer Ridge Vineyard in Livermore, CA. RSVP to Susan Doyle or Ian Wiliams at 916-498-9223, or by e-mail.

BUSINESS

According to College Planning Specialists, financial aid applications have risen 20% across the state of California. Families are having to choose between staying in their homes, saving for retirement, or paying for college now that getting into top colleges is so competitive? College Planning Specialists offers a number of College Planning seminars in Walnut Creek, Danville, Clayton, and Pleasant Hill that help parents access financial aid money, achieve financial aid for high income households, even send your child to a private school for less than the cost of a Junior College. See the web site for full seminar schedule and more information.

Angela Loyd-Fiorelli is a Gold Powerseller on eBay and an Education Specialist Trained by eBay certified to teach “The Basics of Selling on eBay” and “Beyond the Basics of Selling on eBay”. She has 12 years of retail management experience prior to starting opening her e-commerce eBay business and fashion design firm. Learn how you too can start or grow a thriving e-commerce business by selling full or part-time on eBay! See schedule for classes in August and October to be held at the Brentwood Adult Education Center. For more info contact Email: fashionmommy@gmail.com or call: 925-783-0957.

TECH

Wordcamp 2008 Saturday at CSU Mission Bay in San Franicisco. Full day conference on future of Wordpress, the leading blogging platform employed by Halfway To Concord.

The big tech news today is a claim that metamaterials have been invented that help wrap light around an object to render it virtually invisible. According to Scientific American, “Scientists have created two new types of materials that can bend light the wrong way, creating the first step toward an invisibility cloaking device. One approach uses a type of fishnet of metal layers to reverse the direction of light, while another uses tiny silver wires, both at the nanoscale level.Both are so-called metamaterials — artificially engineered structures that have properties not seen in nature, such as negative refractive index. The two teams were working separately under the direction of Xiang Zhang of the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center at the University of California, Berkeley with U.S. government funding. One team reported its findings in the journal Science and the other in the journal Nature.”

Maybe wrap one around Concord’s Park ‘n Shop on Willow Pass? What would you render invisible?

COMMUNITY

Two Contra Costa County businessmen have found a meaningful way to give back to the wounded military men and women who have fought for our freedom and liberties. Together, with the assistance of the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes (CSAH) out of Washington, D.C., they are instituting an inaugural charity golf tournament to raise money for our wounded soldiers returning from war. Chairman Gregory Di Loreto, President of Bravo Building Co. Inc. (Pittsburg, Ca.) and Co-Chairmen Brandon Day, Vice-President of Wachovia Securities (Walnut Creek, Ca.) chose CSAH, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to rebuilding the lives of severely wounded war veterans and their families, as the charity for the tournament.

The tournament, dinner and silent auction will be held on Monday, September 8, 2008 at the Oakhurst Country Club, 1001 Peacock Creek Drive in Clayton. Shotgun start begins at 10:30 a.m., dinner starts at 5:30 p.m. A raffle will be held for a trip for two to Washington, D.C. Sponsorships, foursomes and single-player golf tickets are available. For more information or to sponsor, donate or volunteer, contact Bonnie Seck at GiveandGolf@yahoo.com or call 925-586-1358.

My Diablo High School adds tasteful wrought iron gates at either end of the campus on Grant St in Concord.

ARTS

Some Lego-addicted and fanatics have made the Beijing Olympics Lego model to give an appealing look of all the real Olympics Buildings such as Olympic Village. The model that was displayed in Hong Kong truly speaks the Olympic Imagery tour with the real traces of its venues. The carving art is an outcome of more than 100 hours of hardworking and is made out of 300,000 Lego Bricks and 4,500 Lego people.

Shades of the Bay Area Bombers! Local roller derby rumbles into Brentwood as Cemetery Mary promotes the classic xTreme sport with tryouts and practice for Brawlin’s Bettys ready to roll. Come skate with Mary and the other fine ladies at Paradise Skate in Antioch on 8/16, 8/30 from 3 - 5:30. They will be recruiting girls and teaching them to skate. It’s an open skate to the public, $8 fee to skate includes quad rental skates. Bring your own mouth guard, pads and helmut, For more info call Cemetery Mary or call
925-597-1653.