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About East County Today

by ECT

About
EastCountyToday was launched July 1, 2012. It is the first local, online-only news source dedicated to East Contra Costa County and has quickly become one of the most popular online news sites.

East County Today is not affiliated with any other local news media and is independently owned and operated. We provide a general news service of the issues we perceive as being important in East Contra Costa County, Contra Costa County and California.

It is our mission to provide relevant news that is straight forward and honest. We also want to provide residents with an opportunity to contribute to the community by posting news, opinion, and event notices to help others become aware of what is occurring in our community. Through discussion and awareness, we believe it will make the community stronger.

Through discussion and awareness, we believe it will make the community stronger.

Coverage Area
East Contra Costa County has a population of roughly 300,000 people. Our news focuses on Antioch, Bethel Island, Brentwood, Discovery Bay, Pittsburg, and Oakley. We will also feature materials relevant to Contra Costa County and political news out of Sacramento.

Events
Our event calendar is open to anyone who knows how to use a computer. Simply add an event and it will be posted pending an approval. Click here.

Is East County Today a news website or a blog?
Call us what you wish, it doesn’t matter as long as the information gets out to the public and shared. We provide news reporting, opinions, features, and photographs of local happenings. We strike to be independent, timely, accurate, honest, and information is helpful to the community. Lastly, we hope to supply information that other local media is choosing not to publish. So are we a website or a blog? That is for you to decide.

How can we get coverage in East County Today?
We provide a general news service of the issues we perceive as being important in East Contra Costa County, Contra Costa County and California.

There are however a range of ways in which you or your business can take advantage of our service and get in front of our readership.

These are:

  • Advertising: We offer a range of highly competitive and targeted advertising opportunities.
  • Sponsored content: If your business would like a story about your business or offerings, we have a number of sponsored content opportunities.
  • Columns: If you’d like to showcase your expertise with our audience, a column is always a great idea. We can help you reach your customers

Our Team

Michael Burkholder
Publisher
Submit a news tip, story idea, letter to the editor, announcement, business news, community news, school news, upcoming event, photo, and/or a press release for inclusion to this website, please email Mr. Burkholder at anytime. He also launched the new site www.calnewsnugget.com in early 2019.

We also have to credit our readers who are engaged and supply us with tips, photographs and announcements of events.

Photographs and Our Rights

While we will respect privacy in certain situations when we deem appropriate (sometimes even upon request), it’s important to remember our photographs have rights within the law.

  • Anyone in a public place can take pictures of anything they want. Public places include parks, sidewalks, malls, etc.
  • If we are on public property, we can take pictures of private property. If a building, for example, is visible from the sidewalk, its fair game.
  • If we are on private property and are asked not to take pictures, we will stop taking photographs.

The following can almost always be photographed from public places, despite popular opinion:

  • accident & fire scenes, criminal activities
  • bridges & other infrastructure, transportation facilities (i.e. airports)
  • industrial facilities, Superfund sites
  • public utilities, residential & commercial buildings
  • children, celebrities, law enforcement officers
  • People

If you would like a photograph or story removed from this website or our social media sites, please explain why and contact us at [email protected]

Comment Policy (UPDATED 1/11/2021)

East County Today encourages are readers to make comments and discuss issues. We ask that you keep it clean and resist from personal attacks.

While we admit we do not want to be the “comment police”, out of good conscious we will do it when requested. A good rule to follow is the “Grandma Rule” which states that if you wouldn’t want to your grandma to see it… don’t post it!

We understand some topics are considered “hot topics” and will get folks fired up, but lets have a discussion of ideas, not a fight between two people.

A few guidelines so your comment will not be removed:

  • All comments will be approved.
  • No indirect attacks, name calling, or insults
  • No foul language
  • No threats – if its severe, we may even report it to local law enforcement
  • No trolling or baiting
  • Do not pretend to be someone else – yes, we can verify if we have to.
  • We encourage you not to post personal or identifiable information besides your name
  • Do not “play” or use multiple names. If it becomes abused, you will either be banned or all comments deleted in that thread.

Free Speech Issue
For all the free speech folks who like to talk about it… here you.  The Limits of Free Speech in Social Media