Miracle worker or showman?

He’s been called a huckster, a monster, a maverick and a medical genius. The man who helped found El Camino Hospital and operated a small clinic on Main Street in Los Altos was a doctor with a notorious reputation.

Known among the medical establishment and public as the ice-pick lobotomist, Walter Freeman spurred controversy by propelling a surgical procedure dubbed barbaric, criminal and a circus act. But as Jack El-Hai discusses in his recent biography “The Lobotomist,” Freeman’s legacy is not that black and white.

Foreign student, teacher stage high-profile battle over American politics

A dispute between a Foothill College student and a professor has become the center of a national controversy.

Talk radio, cable TV talk shows, the evening news and bloggers have been abuzz discussing the political implications of a complaint by student Ahmad Al-Qloushi, a member of the college’s Republican club, against political science professor Joseph Woolcock.

El Camino CEO says hospital has legal right to keep salaries private

Finding himself in the middle of a controversy over whether his salary should be made public, El Camino Hospital CEO Lee Domanico said he would not reveal any number until the hospital’s board of directors ruled otherwise.

In an exclusive interview with the Town Crier Friday, Domanico also touched on the recent, high-profile departure of veteran anesthesiologists and the hospital’s rebuilding project.

Batteries responsible for 2-alarm hospital fire

Astack of 9-volt batteries in a supply closet were probably responsible for the two-alarm fire on the fourth floor of El Camino Hospital Feb. 22, said Lynn Brown, a spokesman for the Mountain View Fire Department.

Fire investigators said they strongly believe the batteries were touching one another, which generated enough heat to ignite supplies in the 6.5-by- 5-foot plastic storage unit that could be accessed only with a plastic key card.

LAH still targeting Bullis field for possible overhaul

The Los Altos Hills City Council reviewed a staff report Feb. 3 on the proposal to revamp the land behind the former Bullis-Purissima Elementary School into a synthetic turf soccer field.

The proposal was submitted by Hills parents seeking to remedy the lack of soccer fields available to children enrolled in Los Altos and Los Altos Hills Region 43 of the American Youth Soccer Organization.

Library tax set for May 3 special election ballot

The Santa Clara County Library District is asking voters to go to the polls one more time to pull the library system out of financial crisis following last March’s defeated bond election that would have extended about $5.4 million annually in supplemental funding beyond this June.

The Joint Powers Authority, which governs the Santa Clara County Library, agreed Jan. 27 to move forward with an initiative that will extend the current parcel another 10 years through a special mail election.

Editorials

Hotel delays mean lost dollars to the city
The idea for a downtown boutique hotel was first proposed in 1995, shortly after the city of Los Altos had acquired land at First and Main streets. Ostensibly, the land was purchased to expand parking. However, several proposals were made to build a hotel on […]

Letters to the Editor

Don’t penalize kids who use ball fields
Kevin Canty

In the interest of full disclosure, I must say I have never been supportive of the Bullis charter school initiative. This said, I respect the conviction and perseverance of the charter school advocates. I may disagree with the means but not the objective of […]

Doing my dry cleaning lady a favor

The lady that works behind the counter where I take my dry cleaning on Main Street is nice, but a strange one. For starters, she doesn’t like dirty clothes. I brought in a black pair of pants last week and as she inspected the garment I was reduced to a sniveling blob in front of other customers eyes.

“You did it again,” she snapped. “Where did you get all these spots?”

Services for Betty Lohman set for today in Menlo Park

Longtime Los Altos area resident and community benefactor Betty Anne Lohman died in her home Feb. 23. She was 84.

Services are scheduled 1 p.m., today, at the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, 950 Santa Cruz Ave.

Obituary Notices

ANNA MARIA (CELINE) SANDIE
Anna Maria (Celine) Sandie, passed away on February 19, 2005. A native of the Republic of Ireland (Eire), born in Sligo, “Yeats Country”, January 12, 1936 to Denis Healy (Cork) and his wife Elizabeth Higgins (Longford).
Celine studied nursing at Charing Cross Hospital Group Training School for Nurses, […]

Scouting News

Scouts from Troop 755 are cleaning up Covington School’s multi-

purpose room as their service project. The room was damaged in a fire last month that smoked the building and its contents.

Noteworthies

The Daughters of Charity Health System (DCHS), based in Los Altos, has named Conway Collis their vice president of Advocacy and Chief Government Affairs Officer. Collis received his bachelor’s degree with honors from Occidental College and his doctorate in law from Stanford Law School.

In addition, Gaynor B. Rabin has accepted the position as vice president of managed care contracting and payor relations for the DCHS. She began her tenure on Feb. 7.

LWV working to iron out electronic voting kinks

Members of the League of Women Voters are doing all they can to ensure the county’s new electronic voting machines are accurate, efficient and secure.

The Los Altos-Mountain View branch, one of seven branches countywide that will work with the Registrar of Voters, met last Thursday to establish goals for improving the performance of these Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) machines.

Free CPR classes set for March 12

More than 75 percent of all cardiac arrests occur at home with family and friends helplessly looking on. But you can change that by attending a free CPR training day March 12 at the Cubberley Community Center in Palo Alto.

Sponsored locally by the Palo Alto Area Chapter, American Red Cross, the event is designed to teach people valuable lifesaving skills such as rescue breathing, recognizing the symptoms of a heart attack and stroke, performing CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) on adults, and clearing the airway of a choking victim.

Community Briefs

Astronomer to address scientific misconceptions
Author and astronomer Phil Plait of Sonoma State University is scheduled to give a nontechnical, illustrated talk titled “Bad Astronomy (In Everyday Life and the Movies)” 7 tonight, in the Smithwick Theater at Foothill College.
The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking costs $2 in […]

Pet of the Week

MiMi is a 6-year-old spayed female dilute calico given up by her owner who chose to move away and leave MiMi behind to find a new home. MiMi is available for adoption at Palo Alto Animal Services. She is described as gentle, quiet, shy and well-mannered. To adopt MiMi, contact Palo Alto Animal Services, 3281 E. Bayshore Road, at 496-5971.

Calendar

Today
Mountain View Planning Commission, 7:30 p.m., city hall, 500 Castro St.
Thursday
Los Altos Hills City Council, 6 p.m., 25890 Fremont Road.
Los Altos Planning Commission, 7 p.m., city hall, 1 N. San Antonio Road.
Monday
Foothill-De Anza Community College District Board of Trustees, 7 p.m., 12345 El Monte […]

2004-2005 TC Holiday Fund exceeds expectations

The successful annual Town Crier Holiday Fund has just completed its fifth year, bringing the aggregate total of funds raised in the past half decade to nearly $500,000. The beneficiaries are a baker’s dozen of small non-profits in Silicon Valley.

The campaign, launched in early December each year, appeals to donors for two reasons, said Paul Nyberg, Town Crier publisher. “Some people say they appreciate the fact that we do the homework for them by choosing qualified local legitimate needy non-profit agencies,” he said. “Second, our no-overhead system gives donors a sense of satisfaction knowing that 100 percent of the funds go to the point of need.”

Nurse boards 1,000-bed hospital ship to help tsunami victims

Donna Mirenda, a critical care nurse at El Camino Hospital and assistant clinical instructor for De Anza College School of Nursing, is one of a small select cadre of doctors and nurses invited to participate aboard the USNS Mercy in the Project HOPE Medical Mission off the coast of Indonesia. She will work in the ship’s intensive care unit caring for tsunami survivors.

Mirenda credits her training at De Anza’s School of Nursing, volunteering with the American Red Cross, her assistant clinical instructing and her experience in El Camino’s Critical Care Unit in helping her qualify for this assignment.

All aboard for Sister Cities

The Los Altos Sister Cities organization had its annual general membership celebration Jan. 27 at the Garden House in Shoup Park. Los Altos’ four sister cities are: Bendigo, Australia; Syktyvkar, Russia; Shih Lin, Taiwan; and Rustington, England. In the picture, from left, are Phyllis Semple (Rustington), Susan Kitchens (city liaison officer), Amelia Ho (Shih Lin), Dorothy Dickson (Syktyvkar), Sylvia and Roger Eng (Bendigo) and Los Altos Mayor David Casas.

Discussion of school choices set for Sunday

A discussion of “School Choice: What are the opportunities? What are the challenges? What role does choice (charter schools, magnet schools, vouchers) play in high-performing school districts?” is scheduled 4-6 p.m., Sunday, in the Hillview Community Center multipurpose room, 97 Hillview Ave., Los Altos.

A panel of experts will address these questions, including Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Terry Moe; Aspire Public Schools CEO and founder Don Shalvey; Mountain View Mayor Matt Neely, also an associate principal at Mountain View High School; and Marge Gratiot, superintendent of the Los Altos School District.

Artists to discuss works at Main Street Forum

Four artists whose works are currently on display at the Main Street Cafe & Books will speak at the Main Street Forum 7 p.m., March 10.

Appearing next Thursday are Marie Gordon, Susan Kraft, Trevlyn Williams and Peter Zivkov. Sarah Griffith and Alicia Quani, whose works are also on display, will be unable to appear that evening.

Most of Blach portables to go in June

Although the trustees of the Los Altos School District announced in February that they would consider both camp schools when choosing a site for Bullis Charter School’s second year of operation and, further, that they would consider renting unused space at both camps, they are not likely either to offer the Blach Intermediate School camp to the charter or to rent it as it now stands, Randy Kenyon, assistant superintendent for business services, said last week.

Trustees are expected to make a preliminary offer of the Egan Junior High School camp to the charter at their midmonth meeting, and district staff plan to proceed as scheduled to remove all unnecessary portables from the Blach campus and restore the soccer and playfields.

League of Women Voters proposes improvements for public schools

Charter schools, school funding and local control over state-mandated programs are among the issues that surfaced when local educators, Stanford University professors, community leaders and parents joined with the Los Altos-Mountain View League of Women Voters to examine the future direction of state education policy.

The California League of Women Voters is rewriting its education consensus positions, last updated in 1985. Consensus positions are policy positions voted on by league members, for which local, county and state leagues can lobby. The questions for this update concerned five broad areas: equity, school finance, school governance, accountability and assessment, and the public’s role in public education.

Noteworthies

Danny Wynne, a Los Altos resident, was named to the provost’s list for the fall 2004 semester at Chapman University. To achieve this academic recognition, students must earn a grade point average of 3.6 or higher in at least 12 credits of residence course work taken for a letter grade in a semester.

Three local Vanderbilt University students have been named to the fall 2004 dean’s list. In the school of engineering, two students were named with high honors: Ryan Paul Davis, son of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Davis of Los Altos Hills, and David Benjamin Nelson, son of Dr. and Mrs. Stephen W. Nelson of Los Altos. In the school of arts and sciences, Brenton Michael Hughes, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Hughes of Los Altos Hills, was named to the dean’s list.

Local boys get bounced

For the St. Francis High boys basketball team, facing Westmont in the Central Coast Section Division II playoffs was almost like looking in a mirror.

“We ran into a team not unlike ourselves,” St. Francis coach Steve Filios said. “If they weren’t our opponent, I’d probably enjoy watching them.”

Friday’s jobs report will set financial tone for future

Last week blue chips were volatile, welcomed the latest gross domestic product data and closed in a positive manner. What’s impressive was the market’s comeback after its earlier loss of 174 points.

Wall Street welcomed the GDP data, which shows the economy is growing at an annualized rate of 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter. The jobs report, scheduled to be released Friday, will be most important because it has the ability to impact rates for weeks to come.

VietNam’s Arts & Crafts opens on State Street

Walk into VietNam’s Arts & Crafts on State Street and you may find owner MyMy Nguyen behind the counter embroidering a silk cloth for a pocketbook or table covering.

The newly opened store offers a wide selection of handmade products embroidered or specially handcrafted with luxurious butter-soft silk threads. The bags and purses feature silk fabrics, hand embroidery and hand-sewn beads and designs.

Birch offers complete wedding collections - under one roof

Birch, the premier paper boutique in the Bay Area, now offers the most complete wedding invitation collections in the country. They include designs by Soolip, A Day in May, Twig & Fig, Unique Artistry, Peculiar Pair Press, Fete, Real Card Studio and Birch’s own Signature Collection.

Most stationers carry the more traditional or commonly found wedding invitations; the collections offered at Birch are unique, distinctive works of art.

Power isn’t everything in a mid-luxury car

The old saying “Be careful what you wish for” often applies to motoring enthusiasts who sometimes get carried away wishing for more power, more performance, more zip and zing.

To satisfy those of us with this need for speed, AMG - the high-performance arm of Mercedes-Benz - created a hot version of the compact Mercedes C-class sedan, the C55 AMG Sports Sedan.

Risky roads: Beware of hydroplaning while driving in wet conditions

A puddle of water can be dangerous. Rainstorms that create slick roadways threaten drivers with losing control of their vehicles.

In many instances, hydroplaning uncontrollably can be avoided, according to the American Automobile Association of Northern California.

What car should I consider?

As auto columnists, we’re often asked by friends and readers to suggest specific cars that they should consider when they’re ready to buy.

Answering these questions is almost as personal as therapy, since we have to understand their personal likes and dislikes - as well as factual needs - before we search our database to find a car that will match.

National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence offers ways to save gasoline

Recent price increases seem to have provided motorists with even more incentive to conserve gasoline.

Here’s advice from the non-profit National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence on how to do just that:

Monterey Bay Aquarium inspires marine life viewing

The Monterey Bay Aquarium was designed with families and children in mind.

Fathers and mothers push strollers from exhibit to exhibit while children observe the dazzling marine life with awe.

Unique MVLA speech and debate team practices mental martial arts

For the first time in three years, students from the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District have won berths in the National Tournament of Champions, the Superbowl of debate competitions. For the first time since its inception in 1989, the district’s only intermural team will send not one but two students to the competition.

Mountain View High School juniors Prashant Rai and Stephen Hess, respectively sixth and 32nd in the nation in Lincoln-Douglas debate, will compete with only 68 other student debaters from across the country at the April 30-May 2 event in Kentucky. The two earned their tournament bids among 174 varsity debaters from 54 schools at the mid-December Blake School Holiday Classic in Minneapolis. Amassing 179 of 180 possible points, Prashant won the Holiday Classic’s top speaker award.

Three Los Altos teams win distinction in junior robotics competition

A Los Altos team carried away the top prize, and two other Los Altos robotics teams finished in the top 10 performance positions among 63 teams in the Northern California FIRST Lego League State Competition at San Jose City College Jan. 8. Six Los Altos teams qualified for the tournament. FIRST (”For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”) is a robotics program, in partnership with LEGO, for boys and girls, 9-14.

The TigerBots of Blach Intermediate and Mountain View High schools won the event’s highest honor, the Director’s Award, given to the team having the best combined score. This award qualifies the team to attend the national competition scheduled for April in Atlanta.

Grimmest of grim tales grips reader

“The Grim Grotto” (HarperCollins, 2004) is the 11th book in the “Series of Unfortunate Events” by Lemony Snicket. Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are some of the unluckiest children in the world. Their parents died in a fire, and from that time on they have been pursued by a greedy, evil man named Count Olaf and his Baudelaire-loathing deputies. In this grim series of books, the Baudelaire orphans go from one place to another with near-fatal accidents everywhere they go.

In “The Grim Grotto,” Violet, Klaus and Sunny float down to the Stricken Stream on a toboggan and wonder whether their lives will ever get better. As they turn the corner, they find themselves face to face with an adventure on a submarine. The Baudelaire orphans are on a mission with the V.F.D (a secret organization) to find an object called the sugar bowl. I never found out what was so special about the sugar bowl.

Foothill sweeps regional novice debate championship

In only its fourth year on the competitive circuit, Foothill College’s Speech and Debate Team has won the Northern California Forensics Association Novice Parliamentary Debate Championship for the second time.

This year three Foothill debate duos won the championship in an unbreakable three-way tie, closing out the competition at this prestigious tournament, Feb. 11-13, at the University of the Pacific.

Two Los Altos boys help turn tide of disaster

Nick Lillie, 10, was getting a haircut in late December when news of the Indian Ocean tsunami washed over the shop’s TV screen.

“I saw the devastation and the people separated from their families and all the children who died, and I said, ‘I got to help,’” Nick said last week.

Briefs

ACT deadline near for April 9 test
The registration deadline for the next ACT assessment is Friday; the testing date is April 9. The late registration postmark deadline is March 18. An additional fee is required for late registration.
The ACT assessment comprises four tests: English, reading, math and science. New this […]

Datebook

Items are run on a space-available basis for entertainment, non-profit events, low-cost classes and groups of wide interest in our circulation area. The deadline is noon, Tuesday, for the next week’s paper. Notices must be typed and include a contact name and phone number. Items may be submitted via e-mail (peteb@latc.com); fax (948-6647) or post (138 Main St., Los Altos, CA 94022).

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