ay d i l o H
g n i p p Sho ge 10 Pa
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IT’S YOUR PAPER www.claytonpioneer.com
November 6, 2009
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It’s Showtime as Clayton gets pro basketball team JAY BEDECARRÉ Clayton Pioneer
JULIE PIERCE
MAYOR’S CORNER Holidays bring out community’s best I love this time of year, with mild, sunny days, brisk nights and family holiday gatherings coming quickly together. I also love the way our town comes together in celebration of family. You know what I mean – it’s why most of us moved our families here, or in the case of many of our younger residents, back here to start their families. As I write this, I have just come from a neighborhood party that exemplifies what Clayton is all about. It was our neighborhood’s annual Pumpkin Carving Party. What fun! Everyone pitches in to buy the pizza and contributes some-
See Mayor, page 20
Take sharps and unused prescriptions to City Hall In California, it’s illegal to dispose of needles and pharmaceuticals in the garbage or to flush unused drugs down the toilet. Despite this, trace amounts of pharmaceuticals are still showing up in the surface waters of streams, lakes and rivers. As part of the effort to combat this pollution, the city has installed collection boxes at City Hall for unused pharmaceuticals and sharps (needles, lancets and syringes). Both boxes are located on the second floor in the police department lobby and will be accessible to the public during business hours. In compliance with DEA requirements, the pharmaceutical box will be within view of law enforcement at all times and, according to the police chief, will be bolted to the floor. The collection boxes are provided by Republic Services, Inc., which provides trash collection services to Clayton.
Flu epidemic has minimal impact on local schools
Professional basketball has found a home at the Clayton Community Gym. Our small city is now part of the American Basketball Association along with Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle and San Diego. The new Clayton Showtime franchise is owned and coached by area resident Earl Williams. His daughter Monica, a sophomore at Clayton Valley High, came up with the name in honor of her dad’s favorite pro team. The 1980s-era Los Angeles Lakers of Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Kareem AbdulJabbar were nicknamed “Showtime” for their pleasing style of play that earned them five National Basketball Association titles that decade. The announcement of the new Clayton Showtime franchise was made from the league’s Indianapolis headquarters last month. “The Northern California division is developing very well and we are certainly pleased to have Earl Williams and his fine organization as part of the league,” stated ABA CEO Joe Newman. “The team started as a bunch of guys playing rec ball together to travel ball and has progressed into a full-fledged ABA team. Quite a story, but then, that’s what the ABA is all about,” Newman added. The ABA was founded in 1967 as direct competition to the NBA and competed head to head through 1976 with stars
See Showtime, page 8
MATT BROWN Special to the Pioneer
Mike Dunn/Clayton Pioneer
SHOWTIME’S NO. 33, SWANEY COOPER scores against St. Bonaventure’s Bulldog Andrew Jenker of Clayton. The semi-pro team is based in Clayton and practiced with the Bulldogs at the Clayton Community Gym last Friday.
On Oct. 24, President Barack Obama declared the swine flu pandemic a national emergency – increasing people’s concerns about a very early flu season in which it seems no household has avoided having someone with flu-like symptoms. There is widespread flu activity in 40 states, including California. Locally, four cases of swine flu have been confirmed for Mt Diablo Elementary and one at Diablo View Middle School. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that in October alone, one in five children had flu-like symptoms. The majority of these cases were due to the H1N1 influenza virus. The CDC also estimates that “many millions” of Americans have already been infected with H1N1 influenza. While only those with severe flu symptoms are being tested, 70 percent of those tested have tested positive for the H1N1 flu virus. Fortunately, we also know that the H1N1 influenza virus has caused only mild flu symptoms in most of those infected. To date, there have been more than 20,000 hospitalizations for the swine flu and nearly 1,000 deaths. While these numbers are above what is expected for this time of year, they are well below the 200,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths annually attributable to
See Swine Flu, page 4
1960 film a critical flop, but rich with nostalgic details LOU FANCHER Clayton Pioneer
If every person has their 15 minutes in the spotlight, then every county must surely have an equal brush with the same fame. While the term doesn’t match the silvery smoothness of “Hollywood,” or “Bollywood,” “CoCo Countywood” does recognize a two-week period in 1960 when Contra Costa County was in the film industry’s circle of light. “The Wild Ride,” Jack Nicholson’s second movie, produced by Roger Corman and directed by Harvey Berman, was shot locally. The 60-minute film is all about tough kids cruising pell-mell down Pine Hollow Road and Concord Boulevard. Nicholson, who
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leads the dragster gang as the rough hunk Johnny, runs motorcycle cops off the road, disparages women who love it and rolls his eyes at authority in the way only Nicholson can. If the movie is thin on character development (more about that later), it’s worth watching for the scenery. It’s fun to see Nicholson saunter into the Pioneer Inn or zoom well over the speed limit past a sign announcing the new homes at DANA ESTATES. And for former students from Mount Diablo High School’s theater department, some of whom had roles in the film, it’s a chance to see themselves up on the big screen.
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See Film, page 6
Photo courtesy of Harvey Berman
FILMED IN JUST TWO WEEKS WITH A BUDGET OF $15,000, JACK NICHOLSON’S RIDE” gives 1960 Clayton and Concord a bit of screen time.
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SECOND FILM,
“THE WILD
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