Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Palo Alto Patch puts the call out to the community to highlight local graduates.
Got a grad? What better way to honor them than by posting a photo of your favorite graduate on the pages of the Patch? It's that time of year to honor and celebrate the accomplishments of hundreds of graduates at various grade levels throughout Palo Alto who will be walking the stage and receiving diplomas. We are in the process of creating a special photo gallery that will feature Palo Alto graduates - and those from Palo Alto who are graduating from regional colleges - and are putting the call out to Palo Alto Patch readers to send us your graduate's photos. We will be publishing the gallery as soon as we receive the first couple of photos and the community will be building the photo gallery as it counts down to graduation ceremonies …
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
NASA Headquarters replied to repeated requests to approve the proposal by Google executives to re-skin Hangar 1 in exchange for long term rental by ruling Morrett is surplus and should be disposed of by GSA. This would have a huge negative impact here.
NASA shocked local congress members in April by refusing to approve the offer from Google executives to pay to re-skin Hangar One because they no longer believe Moffett is useful or needed. They declared it surplus and proposed turning the future of Moffett Field over to the General Service Administration, which handles disposition of Federal property. This was totally unexpected. In February a delegation from Sunnyvale spoke to the number two man at NASA and he gave no indication declaring Moffett surplus was being considered. He spoke only of continuing review of the offer for Hangar One re-skinning. Loss of Moffett will have a huge negative impact on this area, economically and from a safety and security standpoint. Activities at …
Monday, May 14, 2012
The 2012 Project Says, 'Don't Get Mad. Get Elected.'
Last fall when my friend, the documentary filmmaker and activist Michealene Risley, told me she wanted to run for president, I thought she was joking. We were having breakfast at the Palo alto Creamery talking about the plight of the economy and the deep concern we both have about the ongoing war in Afghanistan among other simmering issues facing this country. “President?” I asked, nearly choking on my eggs benedict. “Of the United States?” If there is a picture of incredulous, I am sure at that moment I looked it. She nodded. “Yes.” Now Michealene rarely does anything half-baked so when she said she was going to run, I believed her. Six months later, not only does she have an office, a staff, and a growing constituency, she also is the …
Sunday, May 13, 2012
The Peninsula Humane Society's Scott Delucchi showcased oxygen masks that allow firefighters to treat animals suffering from smoke inhalation on "The Sharon Osbourne Show" in a 2004 appearance.
I’ll always feel a little indebted to actor Wilmer Valderrama ("That 70s Show"). Thanks to Wilmer’s no-show, I was a guest on "The Sharon Osbourne Show." Let me correct that. My dog Cooper and I were guests on the talk show which aired in 2003-2004. Here's the set-up: In the winter of 2004, I received a call from someone claiming to be a producer from the show. This was at the time when my organization, the Peninsula Humane Society, was in the news for outfitting all our local fire departments with special oxygen masks that would allow firefighters to treat animals suffering from smoke inhalation. Naturally, I figured this was a friend pulling a fast one on me and almost hung up. He kept at it, I realized he was who he said he was and we…
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Pay attention to the budget this year - it's important.
For many years capital maintenance and improvements were underfunded in an attempt to maintain general fund public services. That shortfall has caught up with us, and the need for upgrading and maintaining our extensive capital investment is a major council concern this year. An overview of the budget and discussion of infrastructure needs and potential funding sources was conducted at the special Council meeting April 30, but the formal detailed discussion of spending, revenues, services, and staffing begins May 8 and is very much worth community involvement. One example of budget issues, funding limits, and capital needs is the very controversial proposal to eliminate animal services by closing the facility on East Bayshore and …
Monday, May 7, 2012
Maternal Bias Is Hurting Us All
Now that we are past the Hallmark part of the holiday, it’s time for some real talk about motherhood in America. Sure, I love that my three kids still make me breakfast in bed and give me cards that express their undying devotion (until, of course, I tell them they can’t take the car or stay out past their curfew). But let me tell you a few things I don’t love: What I do love is the work of an organization called Moms Rising. Started in 2006 by Joan Blades, the organization now boasts over a million members working together to ensure the next generation of mothers do not face the deep level of maternal discrimination the current generation is forced to deal with every day, even on mother’s day. I am also deeply impressed by the efforts of…
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
In the 1970s massage parlors were major sources of prostitution, but the laws need to be revised to protect perfectly legitimate spas.
Controversy over massage parlors in Palo Alto has arisen again recently, an issue that supposedly was buried more than 30 years ago. As was true in the 1970s, some massage parlors such as Watercourse Way offer standard massage treatments and have never been accused of being a den of prostitution. Then there are the others, such as two in Redwood City and one in San Mateo where women were arrested recently for offering services well beyond massage. Several years ago there were similar arrests at a “massage parlor” in Los Altos at 5100 El Camino. Any city can find itself hosting whore houses masquerading as massage parlors. To understand how bad it can get, you must know about what happened here in the mid-1970s. Massage parlors started …
Monday, April 30, 2012
A letter to the editor by State Senator Joe Simitian
By Joe Simitian-- In Syria, two photojournalists were killed. In Pakistan, a magazine editor was tortured and murdered. Two investigators, one in Brazil and one in Peru, both looking into the murder of journalists, were gunned down. All in one week in April, the International Press Institute (IPI) reported. May 3 is World Press Freedom Day, established by a United Nations proclamation in 1993. The California Legislature has unanimously passed a resolution, which I authored, to recognize this day, which honors those who have sacrificed their lives, and those who continue to risk their lives, in pursuit of a right that we in the United States too often take for granted. While the idea of a free press is deeply ingrained in American society…
The Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012 Is A Step In The Right Direction
Here’s the good news: my son is going to college. Here’s the bad news: it’s going to cost us over $60,000 a year, or actually, $120,000. Yep, you read that right. It will cost us $120,000 pre-tax dollars each and every year for the next four years to send our beloved son off into his glittering future. And by the time he graduates, his sister and younger brother will be in college costing us as much, if not more. In case you needed a little help with the math as I did, we are likely to be in for over $1.5 million pre-tax dollars by the time our children are launched. So, you can understand why we are particularly interested in the debate raging in Congress right now over student loan debt. Everyone agrees we have a crisis looming on our …
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Wild week at PHS ends with pomp and circumstance.
I’m used to getting upstaged by animals. When I speak at local service club meetings, the audience wants to know all about my dog, my wing man. "What breed is he?" I often hear. " How old is he?... Where did you get him?... Is he available for adoption?" Still, this week was a joke. I felt like the Invisible Man. And I could not have been any happier. In a two-day stretch, I was upstaged by 25 animals - none of them my own. On Wednesday, I issued a news release to my media contacts. The headline read, “Peninsula Humane Society’s New Wildlife Center Caring for First Groups of Orphaned Baby,” and the release included photos of the 10 ducklings and 10 goslings now growing up inside our Center for Compassion. These fuzzy, week-old babies …
Bill Hubeny
6:33 pm on Tuesday, May 15, 2012
What do you expect when you place idiots in charge of NASA. The current NASA leadership has as much sense as the White House amatuers who pull their strings. Remember this in November. more ›