Phishers, scammers targeting Los Altos

Los Altos plastic surgeon John Nicholson was targeted three times by con artists in less than a year.

Thanks to his sharp instincts, he averted potential financial losses before the criminals were able to take action.

City weighs proposed Cal Water rate increase

Los Altos city officials plan to scrutinize California Water Service Company’s proposal to increase rates by 31 percent beginning next year.

At the city council meeting July 24, council members voted unanimously to hire a water expert consultant to investigate the rate increase, which amounts to 31 percent beginning next July and a total 41 percent increase over three years. As a regulated water utility, the increase requires approval from the rate-setting California Public Utilities Commission.

LA to clamp down on parking violators, rejects one plan

Los Altos City Council members July 24 roundly rejected a police-endorsed plan to crack down on downtown parking violators, calling the plan punitive and confusing.

Presented by Community Service Officer Rod Sayre, the plan was aimed at business owners and employees who frequently park outside their businesses all day, violating the two- and three-hour parking limits. Few employees take advantage of the all-day parking zones in the outlying spots of Plaza South, behind State Street, he said.

Three locals vie for SC Valley Water District seat

Three Los Altos residents are among 15 candidates vying for appointment to the open seat on the Santa Clara Valley Water District Board of Directors. District spokeswoman Susan Siravo said the six members of the board of directors plan to appoint a seventh member by Aug. 8.

Mountain View resident Greg Zlotnick is leaving the board of directors halfway through his four-year term after taking a job with the water district. He held the seat for District 5, which represents Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, Cupertino, Saratoga, Palo Alto, Stanford and parts of San Jose. The candidate who fills his place will serve until the November 2008 election.

MV police search for impersonators

The Mountain View Police Department is looking for two suspects who impersonated police officers and fled with cash from the victim’s wallet.

On July 3 at approximately 8:30 p.m., two suspects posed as police officers and conducted a fraudulent pedestrian stop on a community member.

Mountain lion in LAH deemed transient

Los Altos Hills residents were reassured at the July 26 city council meeting that the mountain lion spotted around O’Keefe Lane last month was almost certainly a transient visitor.

Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office Wildlife Deputy Henry Coletto explained typical mountain lion behavior and assured the council that a family of mountain lions had not colonized the town-owned nature area at O’Keefe.

LAH resident, company named in stock options investigation

The stock option backdating scandal struck a little closer to home last week when the Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against San Jose semiconductor company KLA-Tencor and its former CEO, Los Altos Hills resident Kenneth Schroeder.

At the same time it announced the complaints on July 25, the SEC disclosed it had reached a settlement with KLA, in which the company admitted no guilt and paid no penalty, in exchange sharing the results of its own internal investigation with the SEC.

All aboard! Whistlestop train goes up for auction today

Whistlestop Park’s signature train engine, a popular play mobile in Hillview Park in Los Altos, is up for auction on eBay today.

Proceeds from the sale will go toward funding new playground equipment for the park. The Los Altos Parks, Arts and Recreation Commission plans to fundraise to improve all city playgrounds this year.

Editorial

New Los Altos City Manager Doug Schmitz has yet to report to work - he does that on Sept. 10 - but we feel good about the Los Altos City Council’s choice.

As the 15-year city manager for Lake Oswego, Ore., Schmitz forged a get-it-done reputation. He’s left an indelible stamp on the city’s appearance through projects such as the Lake View Village commercial development, a plaza park, hiking trails and open space. Before that, he had to answer to Mayor Clint Eastwood as city manager of Carmel.

A golden Buddha and a taming of the shrew (not)

The great hall of the Buddhist monastery in Todai-Ji, Japan’s first permanent capital, was built in the middle of the eighth century to house an enormous, 53-foot cast bronze Buddha. The statue weighs more than a million pounds and is covered with a quarter ton of gold.

• The smallest North American mammal, the shrew, is one of the most vicious. The short-tailed variety will attack animals twice its weight, poison them with a secretion from its salivary glands and completely devour them, including the bones. Experiments have shown that the glands of a short-tailed shrew can contain enough poison to kill 200 mice.

A local trash czar weighs in

The mug is still there, nestled surreptitiously in the weeds. I spotted it on my last trash walk and wondered if someone had placed it there deliberately. It looked as if someone finished his coffee and couldn’t be bothered to lug it home, perhaps intending to pick it up another time.

On the off chance this person forgot a promise to the mug, I waded through last year’s oats and moved it to within a foot of the path. The next time I went by, it wasn’t there.

EDITH MARJORIE CAMPBELL WATTERS

1919-2007Edith Marjorie Campbell Watters died peacefully in her sleep on 7-24-07. According to Edith, the secret to long life is to “be kind, be helpful and be understanding.” She just celebrated her 88th birthday.
Edith was a long-time […]

Aug. 10 deadline for community award nominations

Nominations for the 44th annual Silicon Valley Association of Realtors Community Service Award (CSA) for the Los Altos-Mountain View District are now being accepted. The CSA recipient and sponsor will be honored at the annual awards luncheon, scheduled Sept. 11 at Michaels at Shoreline in Mountain View.

SILVAR’s Los Altos/Mountain View District will honor an individual whose service exemplifies the spirit of volunteerism in Los Altos, Los Altos Hills or Mountain View.

New state legislation proposes to mandate kindergarten for 5-year-old students

Following the lead of school athletic coaches, many kindergarten parents have “redshirted” their children, starting their youngsters at an older age for academic advantage.

As in sports, where student athletes are held back a year to increase skills or maturity, parents are looking to gain an edge.

Noteworthies

Justin Lan of Pinewood School in Los Altos Hills and Nwamaka Uzoh of St. Francis High School in Mountain View have received “Innovator of the Future” scholarships from Rambus Inc. of Los Altos.

Established in 2005, the Rambus program seeks to broaden the educational opportunities of students who, by virtue of their academic and extracurricular achievement, demonstrate a passion for science and technology that extends beyond the classroom.

Federal Chafee grant program benefits emancipated foster youth entering college

When this year’s crop of high school graduates heads off to college in September, most of them will face a common set of worries - class registration, making new friends, handling the college workload and taking a step toward independence from their parents.

But for students coming out of foster care instead of their family homes, that already-daunting transition may occur with little to no personal or financial support. While average 18-year-olds celebrate newfound autonomy, foster youths can find themselves suddenly left out in the cold.

It’s over for the Oaks

Although he liked their chances, manager Steve Espinoza made no guarantees that his Palo Alto Oaks would win the state tournament. He did, however, expect the semipro baseball team to get beyond the first day.

“I didn’t think it would end on Friday, that’s for sure,” Espinoza said.

MV grads earn bronze medals at Jr. Olympics

John Fisher wasn’t surprised the club team he played on with fellow Mountain View High product Ben Douglas won a bronze medal at last month’s USA Volleyball Junior Olympics in Atlanta.

As Fisher sees it, the Bay to Bay Volleyball Club’s under-18 boys team was due for a breakout performance.

These Royals are winners

It’s not often that baseball fans can talk about the Royals and winning in the same sentence. But the Royals of the Mountain View Babe Ruth Senior League are not like those struggling Royals in Kansas City.

The local Royals just capped a successful summer season in which they went 20-12 and placed second in the state tournament last month. And the team of 16- to 18-year-olds did so with only two practices.

New Chinese restaurant offers Hong Kong-style cuisine

Don Jew, owner of Peony, a new Chinese restaurant on State Street, tried to retire, but it didn’t stick. After selling Wing Wah restaurant in San Jose, which he owned for 22 years, he thought he could relax and take it easy.

“After two years, I felt bored and decided to do a restaurant again,” Jew said.

The new station wagons

If you’re old enough to remember Woodstock and the Summer of Love, then you will also remember the big and ungainly - but roomy and practical - station wagons that anchored the not-so-sporty end of every automobile manufacturer’s lineup in the 1950s and 1960s.

With a little bit of creative packing and liberal use of the roof rack, dad could pack all the suitcases of vacation clothes that mom had assembled, yet still find space for a metal cooler, a butane stove and miscellaneous camping equipment and essential toys. And once all that was loaded, there was still enough room for three kids to ride comfortably to that rented cottage on the lake for the annual vacation.

The agony and ecstasy of Austrian lexicography a spelling kerfuffle

What momentous event took place in Austria on Aug. 1, 2006?

For those readers who might have been at the beach that day, I’ll provide the answer. It was the long-anticipated, much-heralded, hard-fought day the new German-language spelling rules were adopted. Keep in mind that Austria is a country where “official” (”beamter”) is a valid job title. There is an office responsible for allowing and disallowing certain footwear while driving - I was informed that my leopard-print clogs are illegal (presumably because they are clogs, not because of the funky print, but who knows?). Another office decreed that headlamps must be turned on at all times while driving. Unfortunately, the office for decreeing that headlamps must be turned off when not driving must have been on vacation because three dead batteries later, I’m finally remembering to check every time I leave my car.

In new book, Los Altan claims he predicted 9/11 attacks

Nearly six years after the Sept. 11 attacks, Los Altos resident Robert Schopmeyer believes his predictions of what was to come are the authoritative account. In a hefty, self-published book, “Prior Knowledge of 9/11,” he lays out his case, adding to a growing repository of alternative storylines on the events.

Through sheer logic and some imagination, Schopmeyer said he was able to foretell the terrorist plot - including the targets, the date, the flight numbers and later, the ages and nationalities of the al-Qaida members who crashed the planes into the World Trade Center towers - seven months before the event.

Let’s go bowling

There’s never been a bowling alley in Los Altos, and there probably never will be. With land so scarce and valuable - this is, after all, the place where homes have been priced as high as $27 million - it’s doubtful even the most brazen businessperson would build one.

So what is a Los Altan jonesing to drop pins and devour greasy foods in rented shoes to do?

Richards to star in ‘Late Nite’ at Bus Barn

The comedy “Late Nite Catechism,” a one-woman show starring Kimberly Richards, comes to Los Altos this week.

Performances are slated for 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Bus Barn Theater, 97 Hillview Ave.