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THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 2017

The newspaper of Silicon Valley

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MERCURY NEWS DAILY

By Casey Tolanctolan@bayareanewsgroup.com

California likes to think ofitself as the nation’s most im-portant state, with its movies,music and technological prow-ess shaping lives across theAmerican landscape.

But when it comes to presi-dential primary elections, thestate holds little sway becauseCalifornians don’t vote untilJune, near the end of the pri-mary calendar.

Now, the state’s top electionofficial is spending some politi-cal capital in an effort to moveup the primary to March, mak-ing it the third state in the coun-try to weigh in on presidentialcandidates.

Increased influence?

StateseeksloudervoiceBill aims to put Californiain middle of presidential frayby making primary earlier

By Eric Kurhiekurhi@bayareanewsgroup.com

SAN JOSE — When February’s floodwa-ters receded from the Golden Wheel MobileHome Park, Lam Tran, a part-time teachercaring for her disabled husband, didn’t knowhow they were going to get their home of fiveyears fixed up.

The muddy water ruined the stairs, theducting, the crawlspace skirting and even herfront-yard flower and rock garden. And withher husband, Chay Philip Truong, 56, suffer-ing from dementia, Tran didn’t know whereto turn.

“It was so scary,” Tran said. “I just wor-ried. I was worried for the flood, and theworry didn’t go away.”

But on Wednesday, Tran’s mobile homewas among the first to benefit from chari-table efforts of a local nonprofit and Bank of

San Jose flood victims

A HELPING HANDNonprofit, bank team up to help restore poorest residents’ damaged homes

By Vivian Salamaand Josh LedermanAssociated Press

WASHINGTON — Layingbare deep and dangerous di-visions on Syria and other is-sues, President Donald Trumpdeclared Wednesday that U.S.

relations with Russia “may beat an all-time low.” His top dip-lomat offered a similarly grimassessment from the other sideof the globe after meeting withRussian President Vladimir Pu-tin in Moscow.

“Right now we’re not gettingalong with Russia at all,” Trumpsaid flatly during a White Housenews conference. It was starkevidence that the president ismoving ever further from hiscampaign promises to establish

U.S.-Russia relations reach ‘low point’‘There is a low level of trust’

Secretary of state meetswith foreign minister; twospar over Syria, Ukraine

By Tracy Seipeltseipel@bayareanewsgroup.com

Vaccinations among Cali-fornia’s kindergartners havesoared to their highest rateever recorded, less than a yearafter a controversial state lawstarted requiring every child toget their shots to attend school.

The new figures releasedWednesday show 95.6 percentof kindergartners have receivedall their vaccinations — a jumpof nearly 3 percentage points

California public health

Vaccinations hitrecord high forkindergartnersOfficials credit state’s tough new law thateliminated personal belief exemptions

WEATHERShowers. High: 60-63 Low: 45-47Full weather report on Page B12

BUSINESS........ C10

CLASSIFIED....... B8

COMICS/TV..... B10

LOTTERY..............A2

MOVIES........ EYE22

OBITUARIES.......B7

OPINION............A14

PUZZLES .....B6, C8

ROADSHOW........A2

NEWS ON THE GODownload Bay Area News Digestfrom the app store for your iPhone A Digital First Media newspaper

Sports Warriors open playo!s at12:30 p.m. Sunday against Blazers. C1

Sports Sharks takeGame 1 in OT 3-2. C1

Nation US to formdeportation force. A4

Eye ‘Summer of Love’revives iconic’60s images at de Young Museum.

GARY REYES/STAFF PHOTOS

Beverley Jackson, executive director of Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley, left, gets a hug from grateful homeowner Lam Tran ather mobile home at the Golden Wheel Mobile Home Park in San Jose on Wednesday.

Bank of America, Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley and volunteers joinedto repair Tran’s home, which was severely damaged from the recent flooding.

The bill,sponsored bySen. RicardoLara, D-BellGardens,wouldauthorizethe governorto move theprimary dateeven earlier ifother statesfollowedsuit. And theprimary forstate andlocal electionswould be heldon the samedate — evenin non-presidentialelectionyears.

BY THENUMBERS

95.6Percentof statekindergartnershave receivedall theirvaccinations

+3percentagepoints fromthe previousschool year

ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, right, metwith Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday.

See Primary on Page 12

See Rebuild on Page 13

See Vaccines on Page 12See Russia on Page 12

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111 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP A13THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 2017

America to help the poor-est city residents who wereflooded out with the costlyrepair work needed to re-store their homes.

“We’re helping peoplewho don’t have the ability todo the work themselves, orcan’t afford to pay someoneto do it for them,” said Bev-erley Jackson of RebuildingTogether Silicon Valley, anonprofit that does repairwork for low-income hous-ing. “We’ve got 40 homeslined up in this park thatwe’re going to fix. Mobilehomes are the last afford-able housing there is in Sili-con Valley.”

As of Wednesday, 39buildings throughout thecity remained so dam-aged from the flood thatthey were unfit for habita-tion, down from more than1,300 back in February. SanJose spokeswoman CherylWessling said most of thosehave a property owner whohas not been in contact withthe city.

“Property owners haveto take certain actions likehave a damage survey done,and the city is here to helpget the property movedout of yellow-tag status,”Wessling said. “But weneed the property ownersto work with us.”

Jackson said those re-ceiving help from Rebuild-ing Together are all low-income homeowners whodidn’t have flood insurance.She couldn’t estimate the

total cost of the repairs.But she said the effort gota big boost from donatedlabor — in this case fromBank of America, whichalso put in $15,000 specifi-cally for the residents ofGolden Wheel.

Golden Wheel Parkmanager Erin McGuire saidabout 150 of the 221 unitsat the park suffered somesort of damage, and Tran’sis in one of the hardest-hitareas.

“A lot of people were

able to just let it dry out un-derneath, many people didwhat repairs they neededthemselves,” McGuire said.“But some were prettybad.”

The flood forced evacu-ations of thousands of resi-dents when Coyote Creekspilled its banks after aseries of storms, and manywere unable to return forweeks.

HomeFirst, which oper-ated an emergency shel-ter for the city at Seven

Trees Community Centerfor residents unable to re-turn home, closed it downon Monday. SpokeswomanStephanie Demos said thefinal night had only a singleman, down from four onSaturday night and nine onFriday.

All told, the shelterserved 197 people since theflood with most moving intotemporary housing sincethen — motels, family orfriends, some banding to-gether and finding an apart-

ment in a cheaper area outof the county.

“It was a very bitter-sweet closing,” Demos said.“There were people herethat we just made deep con-nections with.”

She said the populationwas largely from the Viet-namese community.

Wessling said many own-ers of flood-damaged prop-erty do not live in the area,and have not responded toattempts to contact them.She said that was surpris-

ing, given the Silicon Valleyreal estate market.

“You would think theywould want them anythingbut sitting vacant in disre-pair,” Wessling said.

Back at the GoldenWheel, Tran watched vol-unteers from the bank laydown a layer of shiny whitemarble rocks around a flow-ery front yard centerpiece,barely containing her ex-citement, giving the work-ers juice and donuts andflurries of “thank you’s.”

“It’s the little things likethe flowers that are impor-tant,” said Jackson of Re-building Together. “Part ofthe work is about makingthe home safe. But it’s alsoabout what makes a per-son’s heart feel good.”

Contact Eric Kurhi at408-920-5852.

GARY REYES/STAFF

Volunteers prepare to install new landscaping on a mobile home at the Golden Wheel Mobile Home Park in San Jose onWednesday. About 150 of the 221 units at the park suffered some sort of damage from the recent floods.

GARY REYES/STAFF

William Fok, RebuildingTogether Silicon Valleyvolunteer, works on adding anew siding to a mobile homeat the Golden Wheel MobileHome Park on Wednesday inSan Jose.

By Jill LawlessAssociated Press

LONDON — U.S. firstlady Melania Trump has ac-cepted an apology and dam-ages from the publisher ofthe Daily Mail newspaperfor reporting rumors abouther time as a model, the twoparties in the lawsuit saidWednesday.

In a joint statement, theparties said the Mail re-tracted its false statementsthat Trump “provided ser-vices beyond simply mod-

eling” andagreed topay damagesand costs.

The totalsettlementfor the U.S.and U.K.lawsuits wasabout $2.9million, according to a per-son familiar with the settle-ment who spoke on condi-tion of anonymity to disclosethe information, which wasnot released in court.

Melania Trump’s law-yer, Charles Harder, issueda statement praising thesettlement.

“First lady MelaniaTrump is very pleasedthat she has resolved thismatter favorably with the

Daily Mail, which has is-sued a full and completeretraction and apology forits false statements abouther, and agreed to pay hermillions of dollars in dam-ages and full reimburse-ment of her legal fees,”Harder said in a statementWednesday.

“Mrs. Trump will remainvigilant to protect her goodname and reputation fromthose who make false anddefamatory statementsabout her,” he added.

Trump sued the DailyMail in Britain and MailOnline in the United Statesover an August 2016 article,which ran in the newspaperunder the headline “Racyphotos and troubling ques-tions about his wife’s past

that could derail Trump.”In a lawsuit filed in New

York in February, the firstlady’s attorneys arguedthat the report was falseand damaged her ability todevelop “multi-million dol-lar business relationships”based on her status as awell-known figure and “suc-cessful businesswoman.”

As part of the settle-ment, the Mail published anapology, saying “we acceptthat these allegations aboutMrs. Trump are not trueand we retract and with-draw them.”

The settlement is farless than the first lady hadsought. The U.S. lawsuitsought compensatory andpunitive damages of at least$150 million.

By Angela CharltonAssociated Press

PARIS — With a bleed-the-rich video game andsuggestions of a “Frexit,”French far-left candidateJean-Luc Melenchon israttling financial marketsby rising in polls just 11days before the country’spresidential vote.

Melenchon’s surgeis the latest surprise ina roller-coaster cam-paign that’s being closelywatched around Europeand has featured a strongdose of anti-establishmentpopulism.

Most polling agenciesstill show that centristEmmanuel Macron andfar-right candidate Ma-rine Le Pen are leadingahead of the April 23 firstround presidential vote,with the top two vote-get-ters advancing to the May7 presidential runoff. YetMelenchon, once a distantfifth, has risen in recentpolls to roughly third,about even with conserva-tive presidential candidateFrancois Fillon.

Melenchon’s sharp-tongued wit and eloquentanti-capitalist rhetoricduring the two presiden-

tial debates helped boosthis standing among anelectorate frustrated withFrance’s traditional leftand right parties, whichhave failed to create jobsor pull the country out ofits economic stagnation.

Promising to heavilytax the rich and renegoti-ate France’s role in the EUand trade pacts, Melen-chon is also giving financialmarkets a new reason toworry. A possible Frenchdeparture from the EU— a “Frexit” — would bedevastating to the bloc.

Investors are growingmore cautious ahead of thepresidential election in theeurozone’s second-biggesteconomy. The differencebetween the 10-year bondyields of France and Ger-many has risen to its wid-est in six weeks, as inves-tors flock to the perceivedsafety of German debt.

“With the growingthreat of Euroskepticparties destabilizing theeurozone’s unity weighingheavily on sentiment, theeuro may be in store forfurther punishment,” Luk-man Otunuga of FXTMsaid Wednesday.

Melenchon, 65, is anunlikely iconoclast. Hespent decades in main-stream politics, servingin a Socialist governmentand in parliament. He nowleads a far-left alliancethat includes the Commu-nist Party.

Trump

Far-left Melenchonenjoys late poll surgeAnti-capitalistrhetoric duringdebate helped rise

By Franklin BricenoAssociated Press

LIMA, Peru — TheUnited Nations’ child reliefagency is warning that thou-sands of children in Peru areat risk of severe malnutri-tion as a result of floods andmudslides that have killed106 people and left countlessmore homeless.

An estimated 15,000 chil-dren under the age of 2 livingin the Andean nation’s hard-est hit regions don’t haveaccess to sufficient food,clean water and sanitaryliving conditions, UNICEFrepresentative Maria LuisaFornara said Wednesday.

“A child can rapidly be-come malnourished if theydon’t have needed food ordo not eat,” Fornara said.

A warming of PacificOcean waters along Peru’scoast has generated a seriesof intense storms that of-ficials are calling the worstenvironmental calamity tostrike the nation in nearlytwo decades. Floods andmudslides have destroyedthousands of homes, crip-pled roads and bridges andruined agricultural lands.

Along Peru’s northerncoast — the hardest hit re-gion — families left home-

less are living in sheltersand tents. In those condi-tions, respiratory and intes-tinal ailments abound andchildren are “the first to getsick,” Fornara said.

“They live in tents whenthere are tents and at nightthey start to get cold,” shesaid.

Nationwide, nearly 15percent of Peruvian chil-dren suffer from malnutri-tion. In many of the areasdevastated by floods those

numbers are even higher. InPiura, for example, 20 per-cent of children are consid-ered malnourished.

“In an emergency situ-ation, the situation is evenmore severe,” Fornara said.“Children can fall into acutemalnutrition, which is whatwe must prevent.”

Peru’s president esti-mates it will take $9 billionfor the country to rebuildwithin five years. Humani-tarian organizations are

calling the internationalcommunity to donate $38million in humanitarianaid, including $8 million tocombat malnutrition andprovide assistance to chil-dren.

On Wednesday, RollingStones frontman Mick Jag-ger joined the plea for as-sistance, urging his follow-ers on Twitter to support afundraising effort to “helprelieve the devastating ef-fects of the floods in Peru.”

Children at risk after Peru floods

Melania Trump wins damages from Daily Mail publisher

Settlement from twosuits reportedly worthabout $2.9 million

PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES

Jean-Luc Melenchon, French presidential candidate forthe far-left coalition Unsubmissive France, delivers aspeech Wednesday during a campaign meeting in Lille.

PHOTO COURTESY OF LA PATRULLA AEREA COLOMBIANA

La Patrulla Aerea Colombiana, a Colombian NGO of pilots and medical personnel, sets up anemergency health clinic Wednesday inside of a local church in Catacaos, Peru.

RebuildContinued from Page 1