Exuberance for education

“I’ve always loved school and every new subject I took,” Miner said. “Learning was just the best possible thing I could do.”

Miner admits it’s hard for her not to like something.

Los Altos police warn of burglers posing as workers

Los Altos police are advising residents, particularly older residents, to be on the alert for burglars posing as utility workers.

A burglary scam that had been making the rounds of Mountain View struck in Los Altos July 30. A man, who appeared to work for a water company, distracted an elderly couple while his accomplice sneaked into their home and stole approximately $50,000 in jewelry and cash.

More marijuana gardens discovered in foothills

The marijuana garden discovered in Hidden Villa’s outer reaches last week was just the tip of the iceberg, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department.

Since deputies cut down approximately 32,000 marijuana plants in a canyon in Hidden Villa’s backcountry, they have discovered several other illegal gardens in the foothills, according to Sgt. Edward Wise.

LA resident Brown Taylor steps in as interim police chief

Former Los Altos Police Chief Brown Taylor is briefly resuming his role as head of the police department, filling in as interim chief while the city seeks candidates for the position vacated by the retiring Bob Lacey.

Taylor, a Los Altos resident, retired in 1995 after serving as chief of the Los Altos and Mountain View police departments. Since retirement, he has filled in as interim chief and director of public safety for nearby towns such as Sunnyvale and Atherton. This month, he completes his work as temporary chief for Kensington, an unincorporated community in the Berkeley Hills. After spending time in the affluent 5,000-person community, which covers only 1 square mile, Los Altos will feel like the big time, he said.

City tries giving wheels to parking enforcement

Town Crier Staff Report

Community Service Officer Rod Sayre can be seen around town test-driving a Segway scooter for the Los Altos Police Department, which has a Segway on loan from a dealership in Pacifica. The city council is scheduled to consider purchasing a model at its Aug. 28 meeting.

News Briefs

Day workers find temporary location

Just in the nick of time, the Day Worker Center of Mountain View has found a new, if temporary, location. The center is scheduled to relocate to Trinity United Methodist Church in Mountain View Aug. 31. Center volunteers had searched for a new location this summer since learning […]

Police Blotter

Grand theft

Aug. 7, 9:05 a.m., 2310 Homestead Road, Los Altos: Somone climbed onto the roof of Rite Aid and stole approximately $2,500 worth of 3⁄4-inch copper piping. The 600 feet of pipe had just been installed.

Strong-arm robbery

Aug. 9, 7:50 p.m., N. Clark Avenue and Jardin Drive: Two male suspects […]

LAH begins annexation of West Loyola area

Fourteen families celebrated at the Los Altos Hills City Council meeting last week when the council heard their pleas and initiated the annexation process for 58 homes in the West Loyola neighborhood, located south of town.

Residents of the 65-acre area have been lobbying for annexation for the past six years, seeking access to the town’s sewer system and protective development ordinances.

BBB reports local startup’s phone campaign angers customers

The Better Business Bureau of San Jose reported Aug. 8 that the Los Altos-based startup MerchantCircle has angered business owners across the nation with a telephone marketing campaign that many claim was a bogus attempt to sign up new business.
MerchantCircle is an Internet business that provides tools and techniques to help small business owners set […]

Editorial

Our new city manager, Doug Schmitz, arrives in Los Altos on Sept. 10, and with him comes a fresh new start for city staff and the Los Altos City Council.

As we’ve mentioned before, Schmitz, formerly chief administrator with Lake Oswego, Ore., is known as a doer. That’s good, because there’s plenty to get done for Schmitz and the council. Here is our top five list of to-do items:

Letters to the Editor

Watch also for medical ID theft

My compliments on an excellent article on identity theft (Aug. 1). California ranks third in the country for identity thefts, with San Jose third within the state. I would like to point out that there are five primary types of ID theft - financial, which we are […]

A celebration is coming

I have in front of me a packet of letters and documents with the doings and contributions of a local club celebrating its 50th anniversary. I had the pleasure of meeting the members of this club two years ago with the prime goal of reading passages from my book. However, the warmth and spirit of the women motivated me to become a member that very day.

I am referring to the Federated Women’s Club of Los Altos, organized in 1957. In September the club will celebrate the anniversary of its good works for our community. Its list of accomplishments is long, with donations to the Youth Club, El Camino Hospital, Casa Say for runaway children, scholarships for high school youngsters and much more. What impresses me about the group is members’ tenacity and hard work - so many years spent planning parties and events helping others.

Obituary Notices

VERA O. ADAMS

Vera O. Adams entered into rest on July 25, 2007 at the age of 84. She was born in Canton, Texas on September 4, 1922, and moved to California in 1942, where she made her home for the next 64 years. She had been a resident of Palo […]

Local ‘Rambo’ Joe Mooney aids firefighters during Angora blaze in South Lake Tahoe

Joe Mooney’s Lake Tahoe vacation home of 45 years meant too much to walk away when the Angora fire threatened to destroy it. So rather than leave, the Los Altos resident chose to stay and fight the fire.

Mooney grabbed a shovel and joined Tahoe firefighters to battle the blaze June 26 on Gardner Mountain as it threatened to rage out of control. Due to their efforts, more than 20 homes on the mountain were spared from the blaze.

Former Town Crier editor Blankenburg recalls colorful characters of the early days

William Blankenburg was one of the early stars of the Los Altos Town Crier as the paper transitioned from a shopper to include an increasing amount of editorial coverage. The young man from South Dakota did a bit of everything at the paper, and his playful sense of humor fit in with the crew of the time, led by co-founder Dave MacKenzie. Like MacKenzie, Blankenburg still resides in the Los Altos area. The following summarizes an interview conducted by e-mail with Blankenburg last week.

What years were you at the Town Crier? How did you come to join up with Dave MacKenzie and company?

Italian Deli raises funds for Abraham donation

Los Altans flocked to the American Italian Delicatessen Aug. 3 to support a fundraiser in memory of Derek Abraham, an 18-year-old Los Altos High School graduate who died in a kite-surfing accident in Santa Cruz June 14.

Deli owner Tamar Sloan planned the fundraiser, donating half the proceeds of the day’s sandwich sales - more than $1,000 - to Los Altos High’s Main Street Singers, of which Abraham was a member.

Future MVLA parent named new trustee

The Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District Board of Trustees July 30 unanimously appointed Joseph “Joe” Mitchner, a future district parent, as a provisional trustee. Mitchner will replace David Williams on the board.

District officials said Mitchner’s background as a financial manager at Oracle Corporation, Hewlett-Packard and Stanford University provides considerable experience in creating, analyzing and overseeing budgets at all levels.

Schools Briefs

Foothill fall registration
runs through Sept. 23

Fall quarter for Foothill College classes is scheduled to begin the week of Sept. 24 and continues through Dec. 14. Students can register online or by phone now through Sept. 23. Register early for best course selection.
Students can apply for admission, register for classes, review the […]

Family Resource Center opens its doors to community

It takes a village - this is an apt summary of the philosophy at work in the FIRST 5 California Children and Families Commission and its county commissions.

FIRST 5’s mission to promote the physical, social and emotional health of children under 5 is guided by the belief that the entire community must make children its highest priority. To that end, the FIRST 5 Santa Clara commission funded a new Family Resource Center in Mountain View. The center celebrated its grand opening last spring with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house.

Foothill hires Flannery as soccer coach

When Owen Flannery took over as women’s soccer coach at Menlo College, the team had nowhere to go but up. And up the Oaks went - going from not winning a game in three and a half years to making the conference finals, then the regional playoffs.

Flannery finds himself in a different situation at Foothill College, which hired him over the summer to coach its women’s soccer team. The Owls are coming off a 14-5 season that included a No. 13 ranking in the state and a rare trip to the playoffs.

New volleyball coach embraces challenges

Hired last month to coach the varsity girls volleyball team at Los Altos High, Jason Kennedy doesn’t come into an ideal situation. He inherits a squad gutted by graduation, short on size and working under its third coach in as many years.

Yet Kennedy, embarking on his first season as a high school head coach, doesn’t seem worried. He welcomes the challenge.

Making history

The Red team claimed its title with an eight-run comeback, while the Blue team did so with a 14-8 shellacking of its opponent. Together, the victorious baseball teams made history.

This marks the first time in the 22-year history of Los Altos-Mountain View PONY Baseball that two Mustang 2 (age 10 division) teams captured section championships in the same season.

Downtown Los Altos bookseller keeps hands-on browsing alive

There’s good news for Los Altans who mistakenly lament the absence of a downtown bookstore. The Book Nest on Second Street has 12,000 used and rare collector titles covering a range of topics including children’s books, cookbooks, travel, philosophy and new and old classics.

Located in a two-bedroom house built in the 1930s, The Book Nest opened in 1978 and is arguably one of downtown’s best-kept secrets for book lovers.

Zitune adds Moroccan sweets to the menu

When Zitune opened on Main Street in downtown Los Altos earlier this year, owner and chef Chafik Larobi promised to add more uniquely regional dishes to the menu as he settled in and had time to experiment. Larobi made good on the promise this summer, adding three $9-$10 Moroccan desserts, fragrant with cinnamon, honey and almonds, to the menu.

“I’m trying to focus on and use everything we have back home,” Moroccan-born Larobi said. “You’ll soon see the crème brûlée and chocolate disappearing.”

Young chef goes pro with parties to please the palate

When most of us think of a teenage boy in the kitchen, the first images that spring to mind are likely to involve Pop-Tarts, Top Ramen and drinking milk straight from the carton. Los Altan David Robinson, 17, would like to replace that common perception with a new image, that of a meticulous professional capable of standing up to epicurean scrutiny.

Robinson, a senior at Los Altos High School, has been cooking all his life. At the age of 8 he began to teach himself technique and recipes, learning from cooking shows on TV and from independent experimentation. He cites Jacques Pépin, Julia Child and Iron Chef as influences, but as he continued to develop his skills, he was fueled by more internal inspiration.

Monterey Bay tasting features hot appellations

A recent tasting of Pinot Noir grown between the Santa Rita Hills (SRH) and the Santa Lucia Highlands (SLH) was held in the restaurant behind the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The wine was great, the food was good and the location not so good. Not to say the aquarium isn’t terrific, but conducting a wine tasting amid a general public eating fish and chips made things difficult for both groups.

There were 19 people having lunch and tasting the wines in flights of four.

Think you know curry? Think again

Curry is often associated with Indian food - and curry powder is thought of as its key ingredient. This is a misconception, though, because authentic Indian food does not contain curry powder.

In India, the word “curry” means gravy or sauce. Many Indian dishes call for powdered spice mix in the sauce, often a blend of spices known as garam masala, mixed with coriander powder and turmeric.

The etiquette and dangers of e-mails spelled out in ‘Send’

In the midst of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in Louisiana, FEMA Administrator Michael Brown e-mailed his staff: “If you’ll look at my lovely FEMA attire, you’ll really vomit. I am a fashion god.” And the country read it in the media in later reports on the FEMA response.

The defining features of e-mail - speed, simplicity and the illusion of privacy - are the very things that got Brown into trouble.

European trains offer efficiency, safety and convenience on the tracks

When I was growing up in Europe, we never flew anywhere - the train was more fun and convenient. Today, this is still true. I’ve put together a short list of reasons why I often choose to take the rails rather than fly or drive.

• Efficiency of speed. The phenomenon of high-speed rail has swept through Europe. Although there are variations in technological advancement, generally speaking, high-speed rail in Europe means that trains operate on dedicated high-speed tracks and travel up to 300 kilometers (185 miles) per hour. This allows you to connect between hundreds of cities by train much faster than by air.

Hidden Villa concert series concludes Sunday

The Hidden Villa Summer Concert Series is scheduled to conclude Sunday with a free performance by Hot Buttered Rum.

Scheduled 6-8 p.m., the concert will take place on the lawn outside the visitor’s center at Hidden Villa Farm and Wilderness Preserve, 26870 Moody Road, Los Altos Hills.

Datebook

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).

THEATER