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CONCORD — Police are investigating the stabbing death of a man that resulted from a disturbance at his home Thursday morning.

A man has been arrested in connection with the death, police said.

The victim, whose identity had not been released because his relatives had not been notified, was stabbed about 10:30 a.m. at his home in the 3500 block of Concord Boulevard, said Investigations Lt. Jim Lardieri.

Police responding to a disturbance call found the man and summoned an ambulance. He died at the hospital.

Patrol cars, unmarked squad cars and the Concord police mobile forensics lab gathered at the homicide scene Thursday afternoon, where police tape sealed off a private driveway that leads to three small housing units.

Neighbors said the victim’s home, which is located at the end of the driveway, was often the site of domestic disputes. Maria Orfanos, who for six years has lived on the other side of the fence separating their properties, said a husband and wife have lived at the home where the stabbing took place for about a year.

“There would always be screaming and yelling,” Orfanos said.

It has gotten so bad, Orfanos said, that she had already decided to move away from the neighborhood for her young children’s sake before hearing about news of the killing.

Geologists have a logical term for the recent rash of devastating earthquakes around the world: They’re called clusters, and scientists recognize that such groupings do occur.

For Californians, the cluster seemed to start with a magnitude 6.5 quake outside Eureka on Jan. 9. Then a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti on Jan. 12. A similar-size quake struck Japan on Feb. 26, followed the next day by a powerful magnitude 8.8 temblor rocking Chile. A magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit Taiwan on March 4 and a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Indonesia the next day. Then, on Monday, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake shook Turkey.

Despite the unnerving series of recent quakes, it’s not a sign that more seismic havoc is imminent. Although large earthquakes are capable of triggering faraway temblors, the subsequent quakes are typically well under magnitude 4, geologists say. So when major earthquakes occur close in time but thousands of miles apart, it’s considered coincidence.

Stephen Kirby, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, compared it to a long series of coin tosses.

“Most geoscientists feel this is just a statistical variation that you would expect with a random process,” Kirby said. “In other words, if you take a penny and you flip it, sometimes you’ll get five heads in a row and sometimes you’ll get five or six tails in a row. But averaged over time, you get 50-50 heads and tails.”

The seismic waves from

a large earthquake rapidly diminish in strength over distances, and they’ve only been observed to cause tiny quakes in distant lands, explained David Hill, a retired scientist with the USGS.

In California, he said, the Chilean earthquake has triggered a number of small earthquakes in the southern end of the Sierra Nevada, in the Coso Geothermal Field area, as well as a number of roughly magnitude 1 earthquakes in the Geysers Geothermal Field above Calistoga. Most of these are too small to feel, although seismic monitoring equipment picks them up.

There’s one scenario, however, in which a big quake can unleash another large one, for instance magnitude 7 or higher, but it’s only in nearby areas through a process called a “stress transfer.”

“When a large earthquake happens, it changes the stress field in the vicinity and in some cases can load an adjacent fault that hasn’t slipped yet,” Hill said. “And that’s been documented a number of times around the world.”

Four quakes that hit Argentina in the days after the Chilean temblor are “good candidates” for having been triggered by stress transfer, Kirby said.

Hill agreed that given what’s known about earthquakes today, the recent set of large earthquakes is rightly ascribed to chance. But he doesn’t unequivocally rule out a connection between large earthquakes close in time but a great distance apart.

“It’s not completely out of the question that it could indeed happen,” he said. But for major shaking to trigger a large earthquake elsewhere on the globe the stress buildup along the fault line of the second earthquake would already have to be on the verge of breaking.

“(It) would have to be close to failure anyway,” Hill said. “It’s basically what some people refer to as a ‘clock advance.’ That stress has built up slowly over time, and some small change in stress happens and advances the time of the bigger earthquake.”

But the existence of “clock advance” quakes remains in the realm of the hypothetical, as there’s no way to measure if such a quake has ever occurred. And not every scientist agrees they are even plausible.

“Data trump everything,” said Ross Stein, a geophysicist with the USGS. “But data that I’ve seen thus far do not support the idea of a large quake triggering another large earthquake around the globe.”

This year’s earthquake toll may appear higher than normal, experts note, because many struck in heavily populated regions, leading to massive casualties in some areas and billions of dollars in damage. But, in fact, there’s nothing unusual about the quake numbers, as on average every year there’s one quake somewhere in the world that’s at least magnitude 8. And every year on average there are 17 earthquakes from magnitude 7 to 7.9, but most typically receive little coverage because they occur undersea or in sparsely populated areas.

“That’s what counts, the occurrence of large, damaging earthquakes,” Stein said.

Suzanne Bohan covers science. Contact her at 510-262-2789. Follow her at Twitter.com/suzbohan.

Several outside groups are trying to unravel the inner workings of the Peralta Community College District, which has been beset by scandal and sloppy accounting.

One group, the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, known as FCMAT, will comb through the four-college district’s financial records to determine, in part, whether fraud or other illegal activities have occurred.

Investigators and district leaders said they do not suspect the crimes, but that Peralta’s messy bookkeeping makes it difficult to know what happened. A firm contracted for the district’s annual audit has been unable to complete its look at last year’s budget because of problems getting information.

“One never knows (whether fraud has occurred) until the audit has been completed,” said Anthony Bridges, who is directing the crisis team’s study. “It’s more preventive than about allegations.”

Last year’s independent audit, by Vavrinek, Trine, Day and Co., uncovered serious budget problems at the Oakland-based district. Peralta leaders, who recently suspended their top two budget administrators as budget problems mounted, admit they have not solved several of those problems, and it is likely the shortcomings will threaten the colleges’ accreditation status in the next year.

Among the problems revealed by auditors last year were a lack of oversight, an inability to monitor district finances and shoddy record keeping. The district has an annual

operating budget of about $100 million.

The crisis team study was recommended by consultant Tom Henry, who has also been called in to look at other parts of Peralta’s operations. Peralta officials support the outside help, said Abel Guillen, president of the Peralta board of trustees.

“We had ongoing issues,” Guillen said. “We just realized, before we got in too deep, (that we should) call in some experts.”

The fiscal crisis team, which has been in existence since 1991, played a key role in the state’s 2004 takeover of the corruption-ridden Compton Community College District in Los Angeles County. Statewide college officials said they hope the organization can help districts such as Peralta avoid the same fate.

The key will be gaining the district’s cooperation, said Frederick Harris, the state’s assistant vice chancellor for finance and facilities planning. Unraveling last year’s budget will help solve other problems at Peralta, he said.

“The idea here is let’s clear the plate so we have a foundation to build upon for a complete recovery,” Harris said. “We want the district’s help and leadership solving these problems.”

Besides suspending Peralta’s top budget officials, trustees also declined to renew the contract of Chancellor Elihu Harris, who is due to depart this summer. The decision came after the Bay Area News Group published a series of articles about questionable decisions by Harris, including a no-bid contract between the district and Harris’ longtime friend and business partner.

The district’s shaky situation stems from a leadership void, said Debra Weintraub, president of Peralta’s faculty union.

“I think (the chancellor and trustees) should have been asking more questions all along,” she said. The accreditation is at risk “because of things going on in the district offices, not at the colleges, which is a shame.”

Matt Krupnick covers higher education. Contact him at 925-943-8246. Follow him at Twitter.com/mattkrupnick.

Check out more high school sports photo slide shows at ContraCostaTimes.com

Check out more high school sports photo slide shows at ContraCostaTimes.com

Jessica Click-Hill was reported missing by her father, Dean Click, on Sept. 2, 1995. He told authorities he believed his wife, Wendy D. Hill, abducted her.

The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office filed charges against Hill and a warrant was issued for her arrest in 1996. But authorities said the 52-year-old Hill, who also goes by Gail D. Jackson, vanished before police could arrest her. In 1997 the FBI issued a second arrest warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

FBI spokesman Joseph Schadler said it is always unlikely that a child abducted for more than a decade is found.

“But just because something is improbable doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen from time to time,” he said. “That’s why we keep looking.”

About eight months ago, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children contacted the FBI and police with a tip for a possible location in Monrovia, Los Angeles County, where the mother and daughter might be found.

“They are a clearinghouse for people to make tips about missing children,” Schadler said of the organization.

The FBI searched that location Tuesday. Agents, working with Walnut Creek police, arrested Hill on the federal warrant and then contacted Jessica Click-Hill, whom Schadler said was found at a separate

location.

He did not say whether Jessica lives alone or whether she sees herself as an abduction victim. Schadler also did not say where the tip that led to Jessica’s discovery and Hill’s arrest came from.

Hill was booked Thursday morning into County Jail in Martinez. Her bail was set at $250,000. Attempts to locate Dean Click for comment late Thursday were unsuccessful.

Roman Gokhman covers public safety. Contact him at 925-945-4780.

Toyota said Wednesday its decision to leave the NUMMI plant is “final,” and that it will pump $250 million into the Fremont auto factory to support bonuses for its 4,700 employees who remain on the job until the shutdown date, April 1.

The move supplies fresh evidence that Toyota Motor Corp. will proceed with its plan to abandon the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant during the next few weeks.

“Toyota’s decision to end its production contract with NUMMI as of April 1 was difficult but necessary,” said Jim Wiseman, group vice president for Toyota Motor North America.

“Regrettably, our decision is final,” Wiseman added.

Word of Toyota’s final decision came the same day as a report released Wednesday that suggests the plant shutdown would deal a $2.3 billion blow to the state’s economy. Lawmakers and union leaders have attempted to squeeze Toyota to persuade the automaker to relent.

The plant is a quarter-century-old joint venture between Toyota and General Motors Corp.

“Although NUMMI is an independent company, Toyota has made a significant financial commitment to help ensure that production continues as smoothly as possible and that team members receive transition support,” Wiseman said.

The plant’s prospects turned bleak when GM abandoned the factory in the wake of its bankruptcy. GM was the first to jettison its ties to the factory. In August, Toyota announced it would also depart.

“We treated this

a lot differently than General Motors,” Toyota spokesman Mike Goss said. “Under our plan, at least these team members had some time to work on what their future is going to look like.”

The $250 million in funding depends on an agreement between the United Auto Workers and NUMMI. Toyota said it hopes the union and the auto factory can soon reach an agreement so the bonuses can be made available.

“We are offering this money so that NUMMI can distribute it to team members who build high-quality vehicles through the end of March,” Goss said. “This is one way we are saying thanks to those team members for doing this.”

The support Toyota is providing to NUMMI underscores Toyota’s decision to do its part to help employees transition to a future without NUMMI, according to Toyota.

“It is unfortunate that neither GM — NUMMI’s other 50 percent shareholder and customer for 25 years — nor Motors Liquidation Company, its current shareholder, has indicated that it will do the same,” Wiseman said.

Toyota’s $250 million commitment produced mixed reviews from Sergio Santos, president of UAW Local 2244, which represents members who work at NUMMI.

“That’s good news that Toyota is offering the bonuses,” Santos said. “It’s discouraging that they are not offering an extension to keep the plant running after April 1. We are trying to get Toyota to agree to an extension.”

The move by Toyota suggests the Japan-based automaker wants to keep high-quality vehicles rolling off the assembly line in a productive fashion, said Bruce Kern, executive director of the East Bay Economic Development Alliance.

“This is consistent with their efforts to produce quality vehicles at the NUMMI plant all the way to its last day of operation,” Kern said. “Toyota also has spent quite a bit of time with suppliers to be sure they keep their quality high.”

A report prepared by UC Berkeley professor Harley Shaiken determined that it would cost California taxpayers $2.3 billion to replace the NUMMI factory jobs and the supplier jobs that could vanish when the plant closes.

“The cost to the public of replacing these jobs would be staggering,” the report issued by the Toyota NUMMI Blue Ribbon Commission stated.

Including supplier employment, an estimated 25,000 jobs will be lost due to the plant shutdown, according to the commission’s report.

The expense to taxpayers to replace the positions is expected to be $92,000 per job, including wages, health care and social costs, the researchers estimated.

“The most immediate, direct, and cost-effective jobs plan available is to keep NUMMI running,” the blue ribbon commission stated. “Toyota would restore its image and retain a world-class plant. Workers and their families would make it through a dark economic winter. California would get further down the road to economic growth and a green future.”

Still, Toyota’s latest comments suggested the company doesn’t see NUMMI as part of that future. The automaker seems to be focusing on its other facilities.

“Looking ahead, Toyota remains strongly committed to maintaining a substantial manufacturing presence in the U.S. and will continue to employ thousands of people in California,” Wiseman said.

Contact George Avalos at 925-977-8477.

OAKLAND — Richard Lewis, the first member of Your Black Muslim Bakery to be tried in the 2007 kidnapping of two women and the torture of one of them, is being framed by other defendants “who are out to save their own skin,” his lawyer told a jury Tuesday.

“There is no credible evidence to tag Richard Lewis with this crime other than these two men who have been offered (plea) deals,” defense attorney Patrick Hetrick told jurors. Those men, Yusuf Bey V and Joshua Bey, “are snitches,” Hetrick added.

Both of the men faced life in prison without the possibility of parole until they cut deals to testify. Joshua Bey would receive a three-year sentence and Yusuf Bey V would get 10 years if they fully cooperate.

“Richard Lewis is being scapegoated in the time-honored tradition of blaming the other guy,” Hetrick said. He told the jury that he would discredit the testimony of both men during cross examination.

Joshua Bey, who has already testified during a preliminary examination, “changes his story every time he opens his mouth,” Hetrick said.

Hetrick’s 20-minute opening statement stood in contrast to deputy district attorney Christopher Lamiero, who took more than five hours to methodically describe evidence he told jurors they will hear and see.

Lewis is the first member of former bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV’s inner circle to be tried in connection to the numerous crimes linked to the bakery about the time it

collapsed nearly three years ago.

Bey IV also is charged in the kidnapping and torture case and is scheduled to be tried with another defendant, Tamon Halfin, separately from Lewis. In addition, Bey IV is scheduled to be tried in May on triple murder charges for allegedly ordering the killing of journalist Chauncey Bailey and two other men in July and August 2007.

Lamiero told jurors that the kidnapping case was a desperate attempt by Bey IV to get money to help pay down the bakery’s massive debts. An Oakland drug dealer helped set up the two women, telling Bey IV that one of them would know where another drug dealer hid his money.

The women were pulled over on Interstate 580 the night of May 17, 2007, by Bey IV, Bey V and Lewis, who were driving what was once a University of California police car, according to police and court documents. Its flashing lights still worked, Lamiero told jurors.

Bags were put over the women’s heads, and they were taken at gunpoint to an East Oakland house. One was tied to a red wooden chair. The other was kept at gunpoint in a car, Lamiero said.

A police officer happened on the scene, saw what he thought was a police car and stopped to investigate. The five men fled, and the woman was rescued.

A large curved knife with studs around its handle like brass knuckles was found at the crime scene. DNA on the knife cannot be excluded as Lewis’, Lamiero told the jury Tuesday morning. However, Hetrick called that evidence flimsy. One out of roughly every 3,500 people could be matched to the DNA sample, he said, adding that it has “very little weight” when considered on its own.

Hetrick said in both cases, the men are highly motivated to lie about Lewis’ involvement. “This is an attempt to blame someone else for this crime,” he said.

Earlier Tuesday, Lamiero read jurors a transcript to a telephone call that Lewis made to his brother shortly after being arrested in 2007. In the call, Lewis said he would beat the charges unless “someone implicates me.” Earlier that year, a jury in San Francisco acquitted him on murder charges after an incriminating statement he gave police was thrown out on technicalities.

He had waited more than two years to be tried in that case and told his brother he feared that if some involved in the kidnapping case chose to cooperate with prosecutors “my dumb ass is going to sit (in jail) all over again.”