MARTINEZ, Calif. – Local music shop Good Stuff Guitar has announced its impending closure. The store at 511 Main Street will close its doors April 30. Lessons, however, along with instrument repair, will continue at 535 Ward Street. Limited retail items will also be available at that location, according to …

MARTINEZ, Calif. – Firefighters battled a blaze at a marijuana grow house in Martinez last Thursday, according to Contra Costa County Fire Protection District officials. The fire sparked in the garage of a home in the 1500 block of Ortega Drive just before 5 p.m. March 10. When fire crews …

Participants in the first Martinez Police Department Citizen Academy Class who recently completed their 10-week training. The academy gives participants an inside look at the Martinez Police Department’s operations through a series of lectures and hands-on training. For more information on the academy, visit www.cityofmartinez.org/depts/police. (MARTINEZ POLICE DEPARTMENT)

Dear Mr. Grinch, We are bees, not flies. Our buzz is productive buzz, signifying the telos (goal) of sweet honey. I think you have grown accustomed to the buzz of flies downtown, circling a decaying garden. We are a different creature. This is not the place to discuss why the …

By MANJIT SAPPAL Martinez Chief of Police Feb. 14, 2016, the police department made the transition to a new Neighborhood Policing Area structure. The Neighborhood Policing Areas (NPA) have been in existence for some time, but we have modified the geographic boundaries so that we now have 4 areas for …

By GERARDO RECINOS Martinez Tribune In the first two years of John Sasaki’s time at the helm of the Lady Bulldog lacrosse program, the team had won a total of four games. Last season the team matched that total in a full season. And now, with five games having been …

The Grinch Slowly comes the gossip, Quickly comes the yack. The more you treat a grinch right, The more he shows his back. – Harlan Bailey

Dear Mr. Rishell, Thank you for illustrating my point so beautifully (see the March 4-10, 2016 edition). All that yapping about bees buzzing, feasting off organically grown fruit in the garden … going “paleo.” Your letter reminded me of the old radio broadcasts, full of metaphors and sound effects. Only …