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Caltrain struggling to survive

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Spectrum 12 Movies 37 Eating Out 39 Title Pages 52 Puzzles 69

Paly, Gunn students fi nd their confi dent voices

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Inside: Winter Home & Garden Design

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Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital 20th Anniversary

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I n August 2009, about two months before her death, Jenni-fer Schipsi complained to Palo

Alto police that her boyfriend, Bu-los “Paul” Zumot, had just threat-ened to kill her, according to police evidence the prosecution plans to show at the San Jose trial.

Schipsi, a 29-year-old real estate agent, allegedly told the police on Aug. 24, 2009, that Zumot had called her earlier that day and told her he would kill her. She said she feared for her life and described Zu-mot as having an “infatuation with murder,” according to the police reports.

Schipsi’s conversations with Palo Alto officers are among those that Judge David A. Cena agreed Thurs-day to admit as evidence in Zumot’s arson-and-murder trial. Cena also agreed to allow the jury next week to hear testimony relating to a phone call between Schipsi and Leslie Mills, whose father owns a florist business that shares a building with Da Hookah Spot, a hookah lounge on University Avenue that Zumot owned.

According to police reports, Schipsi called Mills in late August and left a voice mail saying that she had information about a tenant. Mills then spoke to her sister, Su-san Diggle, who told her that Zumot threatened to burn down the build-ing to collect insurance money. But when Mills called Schipsi back, Schipsi told her that she was no longer interested in discussing the subject. According to a police re-port, Schipsi told Mills that “Zumot threatened to kill and burn down Jennifer Schipsi’s house, if Jennifer talked to the police.”

Cena ruled Thursday that these statements could be admitted into

evidence under a “hearsay exemp-tion” that went into effect this year. The exemption, codified in Evidence Code section 1390, allows victims’ statements to be admitted as evi-dence even when the victim isn’t present as a witness — provided that the prosecution can demonstrate that the defendant had a motive to keep the victim from testifying.

Another statement that Cena agreed to admit is one that Schipsi made to her friend Heather Winters. Schipsi had reportedly told Winters about Zumot’s desire to burn down the hookah lounge building.

Winters was one of several wit-nesses to testify this week about the volatile relationship between Zumot and Schipsi. She said Wednesday that she saw Zumot on Oct. 17, 2009, two days after the fire, when he was playing cards at Da Hookah Spot.

“I said, ‘Hi.’ He didn’t say any-thing” — including any mention of Schipsi’s death, Winters said of her Saturday-night encounter.

Winters didn’t learn of the death until the following Monday, she told Deputy District Attorney Charles Gillingham.

Winters also said that Schipsi had told her in August 2009, during an off-period in Schipsi’s on-and-off relationship with Zumot, that he was abusive and that she had a safe-de-posit box that contained a note that said, “If anything happens to me, then Paul did it,” Winters said.

“She called me and let me know,” Winters said of the note.

Jacob Allen, a friend and former fiancè of Schipsi, who dated her for nine years before she began dating Zumot, also took the stand Wednes-day and recounted a similar story

F acing the looming possibility that Caltrain could go bankrupt if other means of financing are

not found, Friends of Caltrain — a grassroots group of riders, neighbor-hood groups, environmentalists and employers — will hold a community

meeting Saturday, Jan. 29, in support of the Peninsula’s beleaguered rail line.

Caltrain is facing a $30 million deficit on a $100 million budget in the coming fiscal year. The rail line could cut all service except for peak

commuter hours as early as July if additional funding is not found, ending non-peak weekday service, weekend and special-events service. Seven stations would be closed and service south of San Jose would end, according to Sean Elsbernd, chair of the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, which oversees Caltrain. He gave the dire prediction at a Silicon Valley Leadership Group summit held at Stanford University on Jan. 21. He is also scheduled to speak at

Saturday’s event in San Carlos.Currently, three transit agencies

partially fund the rail service. Forty percent of Caltrain’s operating bud-get comes from San Mateo County’s SamTrans, Santa Clara Valley Trans-portation Authority (VTA) and San Francisco’s Municipal Transporta-tion Agency (MTA). Budget cuts and reduced state funding of those agencies have led them to slash their subsidies of Caltrain, according to rail officials.

Fare revenues account for another 43 percent of funding. The remain-der comes from a variety of sources that varies from year to year, ac-cording to Christine Dunn, Caltrain spokesperson.

Friends of Caltrain wants the rail line to be financed independently and also modernized.

If Caltrain were to shut down entirely or drastically cut service,

UpfrontLocal news, information and analysis

Veronica Weber

Friends of Caltrain group seeks public input to keep and modernize the Peninsula rail line

by Sue Dremann

A llie Caccamo is vice president for manufacturing of Silli Skinz, a startup that makes

“protective coverings” for laptops.She’s also in middle school.Sunday night at the Computer

History Museum, Allie and her fel-low seventh-graders from The Girls’ Middle School in Mountain View will present their business plans to a panel of real venture capitalists in the school’s annual Entrepreneurial Night.

This week the girls rehearsed their pitches at the school, prac-ticing eye contact, speech clar-ity, graphic presentations, posture, messaging and more.

“We first tried contact paper, but that resulted in air bubbles and left

residue on the laptops,” Allie ex-plained, her voice amplified by a microphone.

“Then we found vinyl cling film that sticks using static electricity ... leading to the flawless final product that we’re proud to present today.”

In the rear of the room, teacher Tricia Kellison and parent volunteer Renate Steiner, both Palo Alto resi-dents, offered professional tips.

“The length is really good — you’ve done a great job cutting things out, but, Allie, you’re still reading,” Kellison said.

“It’s a great script. You need to say it to the audience, not read it.”

Can entrepreneurship be taught to middle-school girls?

Will the experience of selling

homemade laptop covers or neck-laces made from Scrabble pieces change the way they think?

The leadership of The Girls’ Middle School is betting on it. The year-long Entrepreneurial Program has been mandatory for all sev-enth-graders since the independent school’s founding 12 years ago.

“Young women are often ex-cluded from the whole language of business, and this is an opportunity to get them started,” explained Kel-lison, who came to the school from Apple Computer when her daughter was a student there and now leads the Entrepreneurial Program.

“Maybe they’ll look at the world a little differently. If they see some-thing that’s needed, maybe they’ll say, ‘Oh, this could be me.’

“We like to say it’s about making a job, not getting a job.”

At a Wednesday practice, each of the 16 girls in the room — all T-shirt-wearing vice presidents of manufacturing, marketing, commu-nications or sales — had a crack at the microphone.

A team called “Because We

Jury to hear about accused murderer’s threats

Judge allows prosecution to show jury evidence about Bulos Zumot’s alleged threats to kill girlfriend

by Gennady Sheyner

A hair-raising experienceRoxana Peralta-Rawson, 9, holds onto a Van de Graaff generator, which creates static electricity, at the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo during Science Night on Jan. 26. Science Night offered special exhibits and opportunities to pet the zoo animals, with proceeds benefiting Partners in Education.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Pitching their productsSeventh-grade girls go before venture capitalists

to tout laptop skins, Scrabble necklacesby Chris Kenrick

EDUCATION

Uncertainties mount for struggling Caltrain

(continued on page 9)

(continued on page 7)(continued on page 6)

1ST PLACEBEST LOCAL NEWS COVERAGECalifornia Newspaper Publishers Association

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Around Town

‘‘‘‘

NEXT GENERATION ... Just before Mayor Sid Espinosa ap-proached the lectern to pres-ent the annual State of the City speech Monday night, the crowd at the Cubberley Com-munity Center Theatre heard from another well-known Palo Alto policymaker from a high-tech background. Gary Fazzino, a former Palo Alto mayor and the city’s unofficial historian, recalled how he hired Espinosa at Hewlett-Packard, where Es-pinosa, 38, worked as director of philanthropy before he joined Microsoft. The third and fourth youngest mayors in the city’s history (Fazzino was also 38) worked side-by-side for sev-eral years and Fazzino said he was impressed by Espinosa’s conduct “under deadline and in the heat of the moment.” He described the city’s new mayor as “bright, ethical and hardwork-ing.” “When I was mayor, I would say that 50 percent of Palo Alto think they’re smarter than I am, and 90 percent probably are,” Fazzino said. “In case of Sid, it’s probably closer to 50-50.”

RISKY BUSINESS ... Has Palo Alto become too cautious as a city? At least a few members of the City Council think so. At Saturday’s council retreat in the Baylands, City Manager James Keene and council members Pat Burt and Greg Scharff all talked about the city’s toler-ance for “well-intended failures.” Keene mentioned the “perfec-tionist streak” in the community and asked the council if the city should be taking more risks. Scharff pointed to Silicon Val-ley’s culture of innovation and risk-taking and said city staff should be able to take part in “innovative projects,” even if these projects don’t always work out. “I do think we need to have some room for risk-taking and some room for failure without staff feeling like they’re being attacked for it,” Scharff said. He also proposed having the city partner with Stanford University on projects involving energy ef-ficiency. Pat Burt agreed with Keene that the community’s high expectations drive staff to “worry about not producing anything that’s less than perfect.” Burt

said the council needs to have a dialogue with the community about the “contradictory aspect” of being in the center of innova-tion and having risk-averse ex-pectations.

EMERGENCY DRILL... Palo Alto’s emergency-preparedness efforts surged forth in 2010, but city officials and community leaders agreed this week that much more needs to be done in 2011 to prepare the city for the “big one.” Annette Glanckopf Ashton, a Midtown resident who has helped lead the city’s disas-ter-preparedness efforts, told the council at its Saturday retreat, “We’re nowhere near where we need to be.” She called on the council to make the Citizens Corps Council an “official body,” like other city commissions, and to hire a director to coordinate the city’s emergency services. Though the council didn’t com-mit to these two actions, Mayor Sid Espinosa spoke Monday night about some of the activities he’s planning in 2011 to get Palo Alto prepared. These include encouraging residents to build emergency-preparedness kits for their homes, recruiting block captains to coordinate neighbor-hood responses to emergencies and hosting Quakeville 2 — a sequel to last September’s Jua-na Briones Park campout and emergency drill.

TALKING SCHOOLS ... State Sen. Joe Simitian will return to Palo Alto on Feb. 5 to update school officials, teachers and parents about the latest hap-penings in California education. Simitian’s “Education Update” will include discussion of Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget cuts, the Kindergarten Readiness Act and pending policy proposals relat-ing to K-12 education. Simitian, who served on Palo Alto’s Board of Education before joining the City Council, said in a state-ment that the periodic education updates give him an “opportu-nity to stay in touch with local education leaders, parents and advocates.” The meeting will be held at the Palo Alto Unified School District Board Room, 25 Churchill Ave., between 10 a.m. and noon.

I’m determined that Palo Alto will be a place where teens feel supported and celebrated.

— Palo Alto Mayor Sid Espinosa during the State of the City address. See story on page 7.

PUBLISHER William S. Johnson

EDITORIAL Jay Thorwaldson, Editor Jocelyn Dong, Managing Editor Carol Blitzer, Associate Editor Keith Peters, Sports Editor Tyler Hanley, Express™ and Online Editor Rebecca Wallace, Arts & Entertainment Editor Rick Eymer, Assistant Sports Editor Chris Kenrick, Gennady Sheyner, Staff Writers Sue Dremann, Staff Writer, Special Sections Editor Karla Kane, Editorial Assistant Veronica Weber, Staff Photographer Dale Bentson, Colin Becht, Peter Canavese, Kit Davey, Iris Harrell, Sheila Himmel, Chad Jones, Kevin Kirby, Jack McKinnon, Jeanie K. Smith, Susan Tavernetti, Robert Taylor, Contributors Sarah Trauben, Zohra Ashpari Editorial Interns Vivian Wong, Photo Intern

DESIGN Shannon Corey, Design Director Raul Perez, Assistant Design Director Linda Atilano, Diane Haas, Scott Peterson, Paul Llewellyn, Senior Designers Gary Vennarucci, Designer

PRODUCTION Jennifer Lindberg, Production Manager Dorothy Hassett, Samantha Mejia, Blanca Yoc, Sales & Production Coordinators

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The Palo Alto Weekly (ISSN 0199-1159) is pub-lished every Friday by Embarcadero Media, 450 Cambridge Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94306, (650) 326-8210. Periodicals postage paid at Palo Alto, CA and additional mailing offices. Adjudicated a news-paper of general circulation for Santa Clara County. The Palo Alto Weekly is delivered free to homes in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, East Palo Alto, to faculty and staff households on the Stanford campus and to portions of Los Altos Hills. If you are not currently receiving the paper, you may request free delivery by calling 326-8210. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Palo Alto Weekly, P.O. Box 1610, Palo Alto, CA 94302. Copyright ©2010 by Embarcadero Media. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. Printed by SFOP, Redwood City. The Palo Alto Weekly is available on the Internet via Palo Alto Online at: www.PaloAltoOnline.comOur e-mail addresses are: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] delivery or start/stop your paper? Call 650 326-8210, or e-mail [email protected]. You may also subscribe online at www.PaloAltoOnline.com. Subscriptions are $60/yr.

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Upfront

A n 83-year-old woman who has volunteered in Palo Alto for 37 years received a presidential

award from President Barack Obama on Wednesday (Jan. 26).

Linda Vargas, a San Jose resident, received the President’s Volunteer Service “Call to Service” Lifetime Award during a reception at Abilities United, a Palo Alto nonprofit organi-zation for people with developmental and physical disabilities. Since 1974, Vargas has worked three to four hours, three days each week helping the fund-development department. Her son, Robin, attends adult day care there.

Obama was not present to person-ally hand the award to Vargas — Vol-unteer Coordinator Joanie Meyers did the honors — but Vargas beamed as though the president had pinned the blue enamel pin with the presidential seal to her lapel.

Vargas was not expecting the award, although she knew something was up when staff told her she would receive a special honor that day, she said.

The presidential pin had company: The lapel of Vargas’ red blazer shone with more than a half-dozen pins she has received from Abilities United commemorating her service.

“I’m very honored by my presiden-tial pin,” she said.

Vargas was also given a person-alized certificate and a congratula-tory letter from Obama, which staff framed along with her portrait. A dozen or so clients were on hand for the celebration; they presented Var-gas with a basketful of heart-shaped cookies they baked and a valentine each person had signed.

The lifetime award is the highest honor of five awards given by the president to people who volunteer. Four are based on hours of service in a 12-month period. Since its inception in 2003, 1.9 million awards have been given to individuals and groups.

But the lifetime award is a special honor, bestowed on those who have done 4,000 hours of volunteer service over a lifetime. Vargas has clocked at least 4,500 hours.

“Linda is an overachiever in the Lifetime of Achievement,” Susan Vaswani, a volunteer who is coordi-nating efforts to find and nominate other volunteers for the awards, said.

Vargas has helped staff raise more than $1.5 million for services, Abili-ties United spokeswoman Wendy Kuehnl said.

In the early years, she did every-thing by hand. When the office wasn’t computerized, she wrote thank-you notes to donors and logged in dona-tions on index cards kept in a file box, she said. Now she has learned com-puter skills, scans checks for easy in-formation retrieval and assists in da-tabase administration, Justin Czujko, the database manager under whom Vargas works, said.

“She’s the most reliable volunteer we have,” Czujko said.

Every Wednesday, Vargas drives the 72 miles to and from her home in San Jose. When Robin, who has cerebral palsy, first came to Abilities United in 1972, Vargas received one day a week to shop and do other er-rands while he attended the respite-care program. There were no compa-rable programs for him in San Jose after he turned 21, she said.

Robin thrived at Abilities United and he began to attend three, and then five days a week. Vargas drove him to and back from Palo Alto each day for two years, until bus service became available and Robin could travel on his own, she said.

But even as her burden lessened, Vargas kept up volunteering, doing the small, unglamorous jobs that are the backbone of nonprofit organiza-tions. She is humble and upbeat and

always ready with a smile, colleagues said.

Vargas and her husband of 65 years, Joe, have twin sons, Robin and Rob-ert, and a daughter, Rhonda. Traveling to Palo Alto now is “a challenge,” but Vargas isn’t ready to give up.

“I live for Wednesdays,” Vargas said, simply. “Everyone has a hobby; mine is volunteering.” Robin also vol-unteers, shredding paper in the office at Stevenson House senior residences. He and others in the adult day program sometimes rake leaves, she said.

“Linda gives of herself and she gives so graciously and lovingly. And she creates an entire tone and atmosphere around her that we all enjoy and we all feel nurtured by her,” volunteer co-ordinator Joanie Meyers said.

Vargas said she encourages other people to donate their time doing the little things.

“It helps me to volunteer. There’s so much out there in the community. It’s been rewarding for me. They’re such wonderful people: I could start out my day down and they make me feel good,” she said. “I was going to retire when I turned 75, but I’m still here.”

Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be e-mailed at [email protected].

COMMUNITY

Principals describe ‘new campus cultures’Attention to student feedback, mental health stressed in report to board

by Chris Kenrick

President confers lifetime ‘Call to Service’ award

Linda Vargas, 83, has volunteered at Palo Alto’s Abilities United for 37 yearsby Sue Dremann

Watch Linda Vargas receive her “Call to Service” Lifetime Award at the Abilities United reception on Palo Alto Online.

SEE MORE ONLINEwww.PaloAltoOnline.com

EDUCATION

T he new principals at Gunn and Palo Alto high schools stressed a “change of culture” on their

campuses in their first formal presen-tations before the Palo Alto Board of Education this week.

At Gunn, which suffered a cluster of student deaths by suicide last year, many more students are “breaking

the code of silence” and speaking with counselors when they’re worried about a friend who seems depressed, Assistant Principal Kim Cowell said.

“We have a lot of kids who get it,” Cowell said in a special meeting of the school board Wednesday.

“It used to be, ‘I can’t tell, my friend will get mad at me,’ but it’s not that

way any more. The change in the school culture in getting help is a ma-jor milestone.”

The two principals who assumed their roles last summer, Katya Vil-lalobos of Gunn and Phil Winston of Paly, said they frequently exchange

Abilities United volunteer Linda Vargas is overcome with emotion when presented with the Presidential Volunteer Service “Call to Service” Life-time Award by Joanie Meyers, volunteer coordinator. The award honors 37 years of volunteer work.

Veronica Weber


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Care” described its line of greeting cards.

“Why cards? Cards are one of the earliest forms of communication, as you may know, and cards are fun to receive,” Caroline Eastburn of Palo Alto said.

“We have a broad target market because, from young to old, every-body loves to receive cards.”

The vice presidents of Pentimento pitched their product — clear Pentel pens with origami paper inside to give them an artful look.

“And tonight only, we’re offer-ing a special pen with beads inside instead of origami,” Vice President Ashley Helfinstein said.

Helfinstein went on to explain Pentimento’s business model: “For each pen, we have 86 cents of cost. Included in that is origami paper for each pen, the cost of the actual pen

and our labor cost, which is low.“We’re selling them for $2 each.

For profit, we’ll get $1.14 per pen.”Scribbled, a group selling neck-

laces made of Scrabble pieces, de-scribed some graphics challenges its team had overcome, as well as its business model and plan to donate 20 percent of profits to the nonprofit World Vision.

“Our necklaces are very attrac-tive and fit every personality,” Sar-ah Strober, vice president for com-munications, said. “We guarantee that no two are the same.”

Sunday’s panel of venture capi-talists will include school parents as well as outside volunteers. Each startup team also gets ongoing support from volunteer coaches as businesses take shape from brain-storming to ideas, business plans, manufacturing and website cre-ation.

Businesses each seek a $100 in-vestment, and pledge that backers will recoup their loans plus a per-centage of profits, with another 20 percent of profits going to charity.

“Some of the girls make good money, some make incredible mon-ey, and some of the kids just get it,” Head of School Deb Hof said.

“Boys tend to tinker from day one. It’s important for girls to un-derstand they can do anything they want if they’re not afraid to make mistakes,” Hof said.

Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be e-mailed at [email protected].

Girls(continued from page 3)

texts and e-mails and recently dined together at Hobee’s in Town & Coun-try Village to compare notes.

Both described concerted efforts to keep their doors open as well as wander around campus to speak with students and solicit viewpoints.

“If you ask for somebody’s opin-ion, you have to do it authentically,” Winston said. “If you get information different from what you’d hoped for, there’s nothing wrong with acknowl-edging that and asking how we can use it to make our lives better.”

Based on student feedback, Win-ston said he’d made “pretty dramatic changes” in Paly’s new tutorial pro-gram. Introduced at Paly last fall, tu-torial is a period every Thursday in which teachers are available to pro-vide extra help, or students may sim-ply find a spot on campus to study.

At first, students were permitted to go to only one teacher’s classroom. Now, students may see multiple teach-ers during tutorial, or go to the library, the Academic Resource Center or physical education facilities.

“As the year has evolved, students are making appointments and seeing guidance and college counselors dur-ing tutorial. We are also having guest speakers for students during tutorial,” Winston said.

At Gunn, administrators said they’ve held “adult education” ses-sions intended to help immigrant parents understand the U.S. system of high school and college preparation.

“Especially for some of our parents who are not from the U.S., they have no clue about college-admissions tests — why would they?” Cowell said. “We want to help them understand what that’s all about.”

Villalobos also pointed to the Col-lege Pathway project at Gunn, aimed at supporting minority students and their parents in the college-prep pro-cess.

At Paly, Winston said he had lunch with “underrepresented (minority) students,” and later placed them in groups of 10 with faculty volunteers.

“I had lunch with them to explain our motives,” Winston said. “There’s no hidden agenda here — we want our students to go to college.

“To really meet students’ needs you have to actually sit down with folks and have a conversation. They aren’t data. You have to understand each other, and understand where they’re coming from.

“We have spreadsheets to get infor-mation from the students who need us, and use the information to have honest conversations about what we need to do better. I don’t think we’ll make good movement until we really dedicate ourselves to that.”

Winston said the faculty volunteers are “challenging each other to see who can meet with their 10 first, so it puts us in a proactive mood.”

Mindful of two teen deaths by sui-cide this month at the Caltrain tracks — one a Paly student in a residence, and another a 19-year-old man who graduated from high school in another community — the principals men-

tioned mental health measures now in place on both campuses.

“We await the results of the Devel-opmental Assets survey to guide us on what we can do to increase resiliency skills among our students,” Villalobos said.

She said Gunn’s peer support group known as ROCK “will be the foun-dation to build connectedness among students. The school also is explor-ing bringing the Challenge Day to campus, a program that describes its mission as providing “youth and their communities with experiential pro-grams that demonstrate the possibil-ity of love and connection through the celebration of diversity, truth and full expression.”

In a recent survey taken by 350 stu-dents, 70 percent said “they have at least one adult in school they can go to with problems,” Villalobos said.

“A remarkable culture shift has oc-curred,” she added.

“Students are coming to counsel-ors, teachers and administrators and sharing when they’re worried about a friend, and there’s more self-referring when they’re distressed. Gunn’s mes-sage that we’re here to support them is getting through to students.”

School board members responded to the principals’ presentations with a standing ovation.

“The fact that the principals are col-laborating so much together and seem to like each other is nice,” Board Pres-ident Melissa Baten Caswell said.

Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be e-mailed at [email protected].

Principals(continued from page 5)

‘We like to say it’s about making a job, not getting a job.’

—Teacher Tricia Kellison about the entrepreneurship program at

The Girls’ Middle School

about the Wells Fargo safe-deposit box.

Defense Attorney Mark Geragos, however, challenged Allen’s testi-mony that he heard the story of the safe-deposit-box note from Schipsi, citing Palo Alto Police Department audio recordings of a police inter-view with Allen.

Allen also testified that he read “disturbing” text messages sent by Zumot to Schipsi early in their stormy relationship, when Schipsi first requested a restraining order against Zumot when living at San Jose’s Santana Row.

“It would be ‘I hope you die,’ but it wouldn’t say, ‘I want to kill you,’”

Allen said.Allen said he received a call from

Schipsi requesting his help as she hurriedly moved her belongings from the residence she later shared with Zumot in Palo Alto, although the defense tried to render his de-scription of her state of mind inad-missible.

“She was very frantic, stressed out. ... She was actually trying to pick what to take,” Allen said.

Other witnesses also testified Tuesday about the couple’s turbulent relationship. Millard Hampton, who until recently served as an officer in the San Jose Police Department, re-called meeting Schipsi on March 17, 2008, when she went into the station to report that she was assaulted and that her boyfriend dented her car.

“She was nervous; she was scared;

and she feared that Zumot would harm her at some point,” Hampton said.

While she was at the station, Zumot called her several times, Hampton said. Eventually, Hampton picked up the phone and told him that Schipsi was scared and that he should stay away from her.

“He was emotional,” Hampton recalled. “His response was that he cares about her and that he loves her.”

Craig Robertson, who lived across the hallway from Schipsi in San Jose, also testified Tuesday that he became worried about Schipsi as he learned about her relationship. Robertson said that on about three occasions, Schipsi would visit his apartment and have a glass of wine. On one such occasion, her phone

went off more than 100 times, he said. Schipsi told him it was her boyfriend calling, he said. One time, as Robertson was entering his apartment, he heard a slapping sound coming from the hallway. He then saw Zumot and Schipsi walk-ing together. She was holding her face, Robertson said.

The jury also saw this week sur-veillance footage from Da Hookah Spot, taken on the evening of the fire. The video shows Zumot enter-ing his business at about 6:47 p.m. and then sitting for a few minutes on the sofa just outside the lounge’s Ramona Street entrance. He then received a call and left.

Less than a minute before Zu-mot’s first appearance in the video, the flashing lights of an emergency vehicle could be seen streaking

down University Avenue. The surveillance videos were in-

tended to bolster the prosecution’s argument that Zumot was not at the lounge when the fire was reported at 6:39 p.m.

But Geragos countered that the security cameras didn’t capture the full story. Zumot could have been in the lounge’s private basement room before he walked into the building’s ground-floor area and made his first appearance in the video.

The trial will resume Monday morning in San Jose.

Editor’s note: Follow the trial on Twitter. Go to twitter.com/#!/paw_court

Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be e-mailed at [email protected].

Upfront

InnVision Clara-Mateo shelter to closeThe Clara-Mateo Alliance shelter for homeless families

and single adults will close, its parent organization, InnVi-sion, announced Wednesday (Jan. 26).

The closure of the Menlo Park shelter will take effect April 30 after a 3-month phase out, according to a statement re-leased by the board of directors and CEO.

Directors said their decision came after several months of analysis. The shelter has been in jeopardy for some time. In 2006, the Palo Alto VA Healthcare System told InnVision that the shelter would be evicted in 2010 because the build-ing is seismically unstable and the VA planned to add sports fields and recreational facilities for its veterans.

Clara-Mateo Alliance has 70 beds, and about 67 percent of its single residents are veterans. It was opened in 1999 on the grounds of the Veterans Affairs campus on Willow Road.

It is also home to the Elsa Segovia Center, which pro-vides resources for self-sufficiency for women, children and families. Programs include children’s educational and extra-curricular activities, adult education, food boxes and other supportive services.

In 2008, reduced funding threatened to close the facility — which also provides services for families and mothers — due to a decrease in donations. CEO Christine Burroughs said at the time that the shelter would probably be closed because

of the high cost of real estate. Some municipalities also have zoning restrictions on where shelters can be placed.

Clara-Mateo Alliance merged with InnVision in 2004. InnVision is Silicon Valley’s largest nonprofit provider of housing and services to homeless and at-risk families and in-dividuals and serves more than 27,000 homeless and severely at-risk people annually from San Jose to Redwood City.

— Sue Dremann

Audrey Rust to retire as open space trust head

Audrey Rust, who has led the Penin-sula Open Space Trust for 24 years, will retire as president this summer, she an-nounced Wednesday (Jan. 26).

“During my time at POST, we’ve saved 53,000 acres of open space out of a total of 64,000 acres since our founding in 1977,” she said in the an-nouncement. “We’ve raised more than $325 million to save stunning scenery, world-class recreation, productive farm-land and vulnerable wildlife habitat in

one of the world’s most expensive real estate markets.”Executive Vice President Walter Moore will take over as

president when she leaves on July 1, Rust said. Moore has been with POST for 16 years.

— Palo Alto Weekly staff

Major quake could hit within 30 years — or minutes

Two “micro-earthquakes” that hit south of Portola Val-ley in the past five days were too weak to merit updating the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) “probability” prediction for the Peninsula’s getting hit by a major quake, a public information officer said Tuesday (Jan. 25).

A 1.7-magnitude earthquake hit the Kaiser Permanente quarry east of Portola Valley on Jan. 20 at 2:24 p.m. A weak-er quake followed in a section of the San Andreas fault south-east of Portola Valley in the early hours on Jan. 24.

“They were too small to know” if a larger quake may hit, Public Information Officer Susan Garcia said.

The USGS’s 2008 forecast for the Bay Area estimated a 63 percent likelihood that a major earthquake measuring at least 6.7 will shake the region within the next 30 years. For years, USGS scientists have cautioned that such a quake could hit any time, even within 30 minutes.

The probability is highest for the Hayward-Rodgers Creek Fault system at nearly one in three and lower at the San An-dreas Fault, responsible for the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, at around one in five.

“There’s always the reminder that we do live in earthquake country — be prepared,” Garcia said.

— Sarah Trauben

News Digest

LET’S DISCUSS: Read the latest local news headlines and talk about the issues at Town Square at PaloAltoOnline.com

P alo Alto has much to cheer about in 2011, but challenges that dominated the city’s atten-

tion last year will remain front and center, Mayor Sid Espinosa told the crowd during his State of the City speech Monday night.

Speaking in front of an enthusiastic standing-room-only crowd, with about 50 more watching the broadcast in an overflow room, Espinosa celebrated the city’s recent accomplishments, re-viewed the city’s 2011 priorities and urged the crowd at Cubberley Com-munity Center to become involved in civic life.

The annual State of the City speech normally takes place at City Hall, but the council moved it to the theater at Cubberley on Middlefield Road to appeal to the residents of south Palo Alto.

In reviewing the city’s top five pri-orities for the year, which have been continued from last year, Espinosa took the time to celebrate the various volunteer groups and neighborhood leaders who continue to help the city address issues such as emergency preparedness, environmental sustain-ability and youth well-being. Espinosa also discussed the City Council’s two other priorities: city finances and land-use and transportation planning.

The Great Recession has precipi-tously reduced Palo Alto’s tax rev-enues, Espinosa said, and the city is still recovering from its devastating effects.

At the same time, he highlighted the series of actions the council has taken over the past two years to bring the city to solid financial footing, including eliminating 60 positions,

outsourcing some programs and ad-justing employees’ pensions and ben-efits.

“There is no more critical issue fac-ing our city,” Espinosa said. “If we do nothing else, this City Council will balance the budget, and we will put the city on a path of financial strength, which is a foundation for everything else we want to do.”

Though the deficit is projected to be smaller in the next fiscal year than in the previous two, Espinosa pointed to other fiscal challenges on the hori-zon, including the city’s infrastructure backlog, which is estimated at about $500 million.

Espinosa also said the city will continue to ramp up its emergency-preparedness efforts. He said he in-tends to help local neighborhood as-sociations recruit block captains who

would take charge during emergen-cies. He also said Palo Alto will once again hold a citywide emergency drill — a sequel to the Quakeville drill that residents conducted in 2010 at Juana Briones Park, with aid from the city.

“We are of course seen as leaders in this area, but the magnitude of problems we’re facing could be over-whelming,” Espinosa said.

Though his speech was punctuated with jokes and asides, it hit a somber and personal note when Espinosa addressed the subject of teenage sui-cides. At one point, he talked about a friend of his who had a mental illness and last year took his own life.

“The pain and grief of even one suicide is unbearable,” Espinosa said. “We feel lost, frustrated and power-less. We want to help, but we don’t know how.”

Espinosa highlighted Project Safety Net, a broad program aimed at pro-moting youth well-being and educat-ing people about suicide prevention.

“I frankly don’t care if we balance the budget if we aren’t also creating an environment where kids can thrive. And I’m determined that Palo Alto will be a place where teens feel sup-ported and celebrated,” he said.

Espinosa also pledged to make city government more transparent and

urged the citizens to hold their lead-ers accountable.

As mayor, he said he will establish weekly office hours, put out a monthly newsletter and travel around Palo Alto to talk to residents. The city will also ramp up its social networking tools and unveil a new program that makes it easier for citizens to report main-tenance issues directly to the depart-ments responsible for the repairs.

“The ways in which people receive and process information are funda-mentally changing around the world,” said Espinosa, who moved to Palo Alto to work for Hewlett-Packard and who now works at Microsoft. “We need to adapt and evolve.”

He concluded the speech by urging the community to become more in-volved in civic life by joining one of the city’s many neighborhood groups and volunteer organizations.

“We want you to be engaged,” Es-pinosa said. “Please leave here with a commitment to be involved.”

An audio recording of the State of the City address has been posted on Palo Alto Online (search under “Espinosa pledges openness”). Also, a video of the full pro-gram has been posted by the Media Cen-ter at www.communitymediacenter.net.

LISTEN ONLINEwww.PaloAltoOnline.com

Audrey Rust

Zumot(continued from page 3)

CITY HALL

Espinosa pledges openness, urges civic involvement

Mayor celebrates city’s accomplishments, lays out plans for 2011 in his State of the City address

by Gennady Sheyner

A fter two years of big budget cuts and a wave of employee retirements, Palo Alto’s shrink-

ing staff is struggling to keep up with growing demands, City Manager James Keene warned the City Coun-cil last Saturday at the council’s an-nual retreat.

Some staffing areas resemble Swiss cheese, with holes representing major staff vacancies, Keene said in one of several metaphors he used to describe the challenge. But an iceberg with a growing base best describes the in-creasing workload city workers face.

The retreat this year was held at the Baylands Nature Interpretive Center at the end of Embarcadero Road, framed by the city’s marshlands.

Historically, the retreat is used to set priorities for the year. This year, the council decided to carry over all five 2010 priorities: city finances, environmental sustain-ability, emergency preparedness, community collaboration for youth well-being, and land-use and trans-portation planning.

The council briefly discussed each priority and heard from Keene how

staff is addressing them.But the dominant theme of the

day was how to get by with a smaller staff.

The city cut 40 positions this fiscal year and 20 the year before, Keene said. The General Fund currently funds 579 positions, Keene said, compared to about 730 in 2003. In addition, 46 of the funded positions are vacant, he said.

“When we have budget problems, I do drag my feet on filling those to help us manage through the budget year,” Keene said.

The number of employees working on “strategic” issues has also shrunk. Keene said Palo Alto had about 66 such employees last year and 55 this year. Some opted to retire after the city modified its benefits to require greater pension and health-care con-tributions from employees.

“We have some shrinking capacity with the fiscal environment and we have a lot of demands,” Keene said. “How we manage these things and improve people’s perception is going to be a challenge.”

Council members suggested vari-

ous ways to function with a smaller staff.

Gail Price suggested that Keene point out on each report how many people, hours and departments it would take to carry out a particular function.

Pat Burt said the city should consid-er which items on the city’s workload are true priorities and focus on those. He singled out the downtown farmers market, which the council initially subsidized at City Hall but later turned over to a nonprofit group.

“Try to identify what are the ac-tions and activities by staff that had the least value,” Burt said.

Keene highlighted some issues that will consume large chunks of staff ef-fort and time this year. They include familiar topics such as the $3.5 bil-lion expansion/rebuilding of Stanford University Medical Center, which the council plans to rule on in April.

He cited progress on the Com-prehensive Plan (the city’s guiding land-use document), and continued support for Project Safety Net, the collaborative process to promote teen health and well-being.

Among the city’s greatest accom-plishments in 2010 was strengthening the city’s economic standing by mak-ing a series of ongoing “structural” budget cuts and labor reforms, Keene said.

“In many ways, we’re leaders in Northern California in trying to make structural adjustments — not playing smoke-and-mirror budget games — and trying to reposition the city as best as possible,” Keene said.

The job isn’t done, he said. Next year the budget deficit is projected at $1 million to $2 million, far smaller than in the past two years. One of the challenges will be to achieve savings in compensation for public-safety workers, he said.

“We need to bring public safety into alignment with the changes we’ve made with SEIU and manage-ment this year, at minimum,” Keene said.

The council also brainstormed other issues Palo Alto should focus on in 2011.

Larry Klein suggested that the city’s goals include preserving service from Caltrain, which is now going through a budget crisis and planning mas-sive service reductions — echoing a “save Caltrain” summit last Friday at Stanford University that he and other council members attended.

Greg Scharff encouraged his col-leagues to look for energy-efficiency partnerships with Stanford, which could use the city as a testing ground for its scientific advancements.

“Having our own utility depart-ment and having Stanford out there — there should be opportunities for Palo Alto,” Scharff said.

Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be e-mailed at [email protected].

Upfront

Gunn senior a finalist in Intel science competitionGunn High School senior Andrew Liu Wednesday (Jan. 26) was

named as one of 40 nationwide finalists in the 2011 Intel Science Talent Search. (Posted Jan. 26 at 9:50 a.m.)

Heritage tree falls in Menlo, where plenty hearMoney doesn’t grow on trees, but apparently it does grow if you chop

the tree down. After an hour and a half of late-night public comment, the Menlo Park City Council finally approved a developer’s request to remove a heritage redwood tree. (Posted Jan. 26 at 9:22 a.m.)

Eshoo says Obama was ‘describing her district’President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech Tuesday night

(Jan. 25) had a hometown ring to it for Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, she said in a post-speech interview. (Posted Jan. 26 at 9:17 a.m.)

Palo Alto may convene math ‘working group’A “working group” panel of parents and teachers to share ideas on the

best ways to teach math to students in the Palo Alto school district’s 12 elementary schools may be the result of Tuesday night’s (Jan. 25) Board of Education meeting. (Posted Jan. 26 at 12:29 a.m.)

Small quake rattles part of Santa Clara CountyThe U.S. Geological Survey is reporting an earthquake with a prelimi-

nary magnitude of 2.6 struck early Tuesday morning (Jan. 25) in Santa Clara County. (Posted Jan. 25 at 8:46 a.m.)

Bay Area airports on alert after Moscow bombingBay Area airports are in a wait-and-see mode after a terror attack at

Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport that killed dozens of people Monday (Jan. 24). (Posted Jan. 24 at 2:35 p.m.)

Los Altos rallies mark Roe v. Wade anniversaryHundreds of people with divergent views on abortion took to the streets

of Los Altos Monday (Jan. 24) for a pro-life walk and a pro-choice rally. (Posted Jan. 24 at 11:37 a.m.)

Google shake-up: Bold move or no big deal?With more businesses than ever targeting its customers, Google is aiming

to get back some of the spark with co-founder Larry Page now taking the helm as CEO. The company’s 10-year CEO, 55-year-old Eric Schmidt, will step down and take the job of executive chairman. (Posted Jan. 24 at 8:42 a.m.)

Another small quake hits southeast of San JoseAn earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 3.0 struck east of

San Jose late Sunday night (Jan. 23), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. (Posted Jan. 24 at 6:29 a.m.)

Fire hits Mountain View butcher shop, restaurantA two-alarm blaze significantly damaged a butcher shop and shut down

a neighboring sushi restaurant in Mountain View early Sunday afternoon (Jan. 23), a fire spokeswoman said. (Posted Jan. 23 at 7:41 p.m.)

East Palo Alto man, 21, faces 50 years in prisonKevin Maldonado, 21, of East Palo Alto faces at least 50 years in

prison after he was found guilty Friday (Jan. 21) of killing one man and wounding a second in September 2009. (Posted Jan. 23 at 10:36 a.m.)

New lion sighting in Woodside, tracks at StanfordA mountain lion was spotted in Woodside, near Interstate Highway

280, on Saturday night (Jan. 22), emergency officials said. Lion tracks were also found in the Stanford Golf Course area, university officials reported Friday (Jan. 21). (Posted Jan. 23 at 10:11 a.m.)

California unemployment rate rises againOne in eight California residents was unemployed as of December

2010, state officials said in a report released Friday (Jan. 21). (Posted

Jan. 22 at 10:19 a.m.)

Merge transit agencies, ‘Save Caltrain’ summit toldLocal transportation agencies should be merged and their funds

used to support a regional transit agency, state Assemblyman Jim Beall, D-San Jose, said at the Save Caltrain summit at Stanford Uni-versity’s Institute for Economic Policy Research on Friday (Jan. 21) morning. (Posted Jan. 21 at 5:37 p.m.)

Online This WeekThese and other news stories were posted on Palo Alto Online throughout the week. For longer versions, go to www.PaloAltoOnline.com/news or click on “News” in the left, green column.

Want to get news briefs e-mailed to you every weekday? Sign up for Express, our new daily e-edition. Go to www.PaloAltoOnline.com to sign up.

INSPIRATIONSA resource for special events and ongoing religious

services. To inquire about or make space reservations for Inspirations, please contact

Blanca Yoc at 223-6596 or email [email protected]

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, UCC

An Open and Affirming Congregation of the United Church of Christ

This Sunday: Who Isn’t Blessed?Rev. David Howell preaching

Oxford Street Brass Concert Sunday at 4:00 p.m.

Palo Alto’s smaller staff struggles with workload

City Council discusses priorities, hears about staffing challenges at annual retreatby Gennady Sheyner

CITY HALL

Friends of Caltrain maintains that the Peninsula would become more con-gested and polluted, with more than 12 million riders anually getting back in their cars and onto Bay Area free-ways. U.S. Highway 101 would need the equivalent of three more lanes of traffic in each direction, said former Palo Alto mayor Yoriko Kishimoto, who is spearheading the group.

“There is no room to expand 101. Caltrain is essential to the Peninsula’s quality of life, our commute alter-natives, avoiding freeway gridlock and our economic vitality. The three counties must come together to work on solutions,” she said.

Friends members say a dedicated, permanent source of operating funds for Caltrain is needed whether or not a statewide high-speed rail line is built on the Peninsula.

Caltrain should be supported be-cause it is one of the best-performing of the Peninsula’s public-transpor-tation alternatives, supporters say. Ridership is up — currently serving

40,000 passengers daily — and 43 percent of its funding comes from fares, according to a report by the Metropolitan Transportation Com-mission (MTC), which oversees re-gional transportation.

Caltrain operations bring in three times the fare revenue per dollar of operating cost of SamTrans and four times that of VTA, according to Friends of Caltrain.

But SamTrans has announced a $10 million reduction to its Caltrain subsidy, citing falling revenues and re-duced state funding. Caltrain officials said they expect the other agencies will follow with reduced allocations.

Speakers at the Jan. 21 Silicon Val-ley Leadership Group summit sug-gested various ways funding could be established for Caltrain and the agen-cy could be modernized. Ideas in-cluded reorganizing and merging the three transit agencies into a regional organization to redistribute funds, creating a dedicated high-occupancy/toll lane on Highway 101, adding local traffic-impact fees on new construc-tion, approving new taxes and extend-ing bridge-toll congestion pricing to all Bay Area bridges.

Burlingame Mayor Terry Nagel has

joined the effort to support Caltrain.“Caltrain is a vital link in our com-

munities that should not have to beg each year for funding from the three counties it serves. Our rescue plan for Caltrain should be part of a larger transportation vision for the Peninsula based on strong community input and projected future needs,” she said.

Other supporting organizations include the Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter, Rail Passenger Association of California, the San Francisco Bi-cycle Coalition, Menlo Park Green Ribbon Citizens’ Committee, Palo Alto Community Environmental Ac-tion Partnership (CEAP), BayRail Al-liance, Sustainable San Mateo County and Californians Advocating Respon-sible Rail Design.

The Save Our Caltrain meeting will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at SamTrans Headquarters Au-ditorium, 1250 San Carlos Ave., San Carlos. It will feature U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo) and Michael Brune, Sierra Club executive direc-tor, as keynote speakers.

Panel discussions include how Cal-train’s current economic model was established; the history and evolution of the rail line; and possible sustain-able-funding models. Public input and brainstorming sessions will be part of the day’s agenda.

Registration is free but organizers request an RSVP at friendsofcaltrain.com/summit.

Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be e-mailed at [email protected].

Public Art Commission (Jan. 20)California Avenue fountain: The commission selected Michael Szabo’s fountain design for the California Avenue fountain project out of three finalists. Szabo design: Acebo Davis, Brown, Collins, Richter, Usich Reed/Madden design: Smit Absent: Coleman

City Council (Jan. 22)Retreat: The council held its annual retreat to discuss its 2011 priorities. City Man-ager James Keene gave a presentation about current staffing levels. Action: None

City Council (Jan. 24)State of the City: Mayor Sid Espinosa presented the 23rd annual State of the City address. Action: None

Board of Education (Jan. 25)Elementary mathematics: The board heard a staff presentation and discussed ways to improve elementary math instruction and assessment. Action: NoneHigh school plans: The board heard presentations from high school principals about developments on their campuses. Action: None

Parks and Recreation Commission (Jan. 25)Election: The commission re-elected Daria Walsh to serve as its chair and Deirdre Crommie to serve as vice chair in 2011.Yes: UnanimousHighway 101: The commission discussed the Highway 101 Pedestrian/Bicycle Overpass/Underpass Feasibility Study and voted to recommend the overpass de-sign option, if sufficient funding could be acquired for the project. Yes: Crommie, Dykwel, Losch, Walsh No: Hetterly, Lauing Absent: MarkevitchEl Camino Reservoir: The commission discussed the status of the El Camino Park Reservoir Project. Action: None

Planning and Transportation Commission (Jan. 26)Palo Alto Commons: The commission adopted staff recommendations, with four minor conditions, and forwarded the project to the City Council. Yes: Unanimous

CityViewA round-up of Palo Alto government action this week

LET’S DISCUSS: Read the latest local news headlines and talk about the issues at Town Square at PaloAltoOnline.com

COUNCIL-APPOINTED OFFICERS COMMITTEE ... The council commit-tee plans to hold a closed session to discuss the recruitment of the next city attorney and performance evaluations for the four council-appointed officers. The meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. Monday, Jan. 31, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

CITY COUNCIL ... The council plans to make a proclamation expressing appreciation for Jay Thorwaldson and discuss the Stanford University Medical Center expansion and renovation project. The meeting is sched-uled for 6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 31, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

CITY COUNCIL ... The council plans to interview candidates for the Library Advisory Commission. The meeting is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 1, in the Council Conference Room at City Hall (250 Ham-ilton Ave.).

FINANCE COMMITTEE ... The committee plans to discuss the city’s Long Range Financial Forecast and goals for implementing the Refuse Fund Cost of Service Study. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tues-day, Feb. 1, in the Council Conference Room at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

HISTORIC RESOURCES BOARD ... The board plans to discuss 285 Quarry Road, a proposal by Stanford University Medical Center for ex-ternal renovations to the Hoover Pavilion. The meeting is scheduled for 8 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

UTILITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION ... The commission plans to dis-cuss feed-in tariffs for solar photovoltaic systems, the 2011 Utilities Stra-tegic Plan, a pilot program for large electric commercial customers, and long-term financial projections and proposed rate adjustments for water and wastewater. The meeting is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

HIGH-SPEED RAIL COMMITTEE ... The committee plans to discuss the status of Caltrain and the committee’s meeting frequency. The meeting is scheduled for 8 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 3, in the Council Conference Room at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW BOARD ... The board plans to discuss 211 Quarry Road, a proposal by Stanford Hospital and Clinics to renovate Hoover Pavilion and construct a new 60,000-square-foot medical office building and parking structure. The meeting is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 3, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

RAIL CORRIDOR STUDY TASK FORCE ... The task force is working to formulate the city’s vision for land use along the Caltrain Corridor. Its meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 3, in the Lucie Stern Community Room (1305 Middlefield Road).

Public AgendaA preview of Palo Alto government meetings next week

Upfront

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Caltrain(continued from page 3)

Mary Ann ShallenbergerMary Ann Shallenberger, 95, a

Palo Alto resident for many years, died Jan. 15.

She was born in Spokane, Wash., and first came to Palo Alto to attend Stanford in 1932. Graduating in 1936 with a degree in speech and drama, she met her husband Frank Shal-lenberger and moved to the Boston area.

After birthing three sons in

Worcester, Mass., she returned with her family and had a fourth son in Palo Alto.

A world traveler in her earlier years, she and her husband took their four sons out of school to travel around the world for a year in 1956. In 1964, she and her husband moved with their youngest son to Lima, Peru, where her husband was part of the founding faculty of a Stanford-initiated business school.

She was an officer in several Bay Area companies, including Shalco, Dynaship, and Materials Analysis. She also owned and operated the Menlo Park store Abacus, where she sold Asian art and antiques.

She held leadership positions in several community organizations. A longtime leader in the Family Service Mid-Peninsula and the Bay Window, a restaurant supporting the work of the Family Service, she re-

ceived acknowledgement as an “Ev-erlasting Guardian Angel” of the Bay Window.

She was preceded in death by hus-band Frank Shallenberg, who died in 1991. Husband Philip Sherman, whom she married in 1992, died in 2010.

She is survived by sons Edward, of Omak, Wash., Frank of Cupertino, Robert of Kamuela, Hawaii, and David of Dummerston, Vermont;

nine grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Molly LoveMolly Love, 86, longtime resident

of Menlo Park and Palo Alto, died Jan. 15 in Reno, Nev., after a short illness.

Born September 18, 1924 in Gran-ite City, Ill., to John Robert Sweet Jr. and Sylva Sweet, she spent her early years between Granite City and Wil-

TransitionsBirths, marriages and deaths

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mette, Ill.In 1946 she moved to Califor-

nia, where she met the love of her life, Bob Love. They were married in 1947 and moved to Menlo Park where they lived for 55 years, until Bob’s death in 2003.

From 1946 until 1990, she was the secretary for Edwin H. Smith, the city engineer for Menlo Park and Colma. After she retired, she worked with her husband in his golf sales en-deavors.

She is survived by her son Rob Love of Sparks, Nev., sisters Judy Costa (husband Milt) of Sparks and Joan Sweet of Reno, Nev.; brother Stephen Sweet (wife Carol Master-son) of Burlingame; cousin Patricia McAdam of Burlingame; and nu-merous nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers the family re-quests donations be made to Young Life, West County, P.O. Box 20822 El Sobrante, CA 94820.

Stephen E. StuntzStephen E. Stuntz, 97, a longtime

resident of Menlo Park and Palo Alto and a retired SRI researcher, died Jan. 15 at Stanford University Hospital.

He was born in St. Louis, Mo., May 8, 1913. The eldest of three children, he was raised in Findlay, Ohio.

After graduating from Findlay High School in 1931, he attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, for two years. While in San Fran-cisco in 1935, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. Because of his experience with amateur radio, he was assigned to duty as a signalman and posted to the Philippines.

After his army service, he re-enrolled in Miami University and completed his degree in speech in 1941. He earned a master’s degree in psychology from New York Uni-versity in 1947.

In 1942, he married Elizabeth Madsen in Kalamazoo, Mich. Dur-ing World War II, he was a research associate for the Psychological Cor-poration, developing criteria for the selection and training of radiotele-graph operators for the U.S. Army Signal Corps and the U.S. Navy, and visiting military installations to per-form psychological testing.

The family moved in 1949 to the vicinity of New London, Conn., where Steve was a research psy-chologist for the Navy Medical Research Laboratory and the Navy Underwater Sound Laboratory. They later lived in Sudbury, Mass., where he was an employee of the U.S. Air Force Decision Sciences Laboratory.

In 1964, he and his wife moved to California, where he joined the Sensory Sciences Research Institute at Stanford Research Institute. They moved two years later to their long-time home in the Menalto area of Menlo Park. He retired from SRI in 1978.

His secondary interests included live theater and ballet. He was a de-voted ham radio operator and was honored with a life membership in the Palo Alto Amateur Radio As-sociation (PAARA). He also had a life-long interest in photography.

After retirement, the couple toured the west and southwest in their camper van, visiting friends and relations.

After his wife’s death in August 2007, he moved to the Palo Alto Commons retirement facility.

He is survived by daughter Kay Stuntz and son-in-law Larry Carr of Highland, N.Y., and his brother Da-vid Stuntz of Brunswick, Maine.

Alan BayleyAlan J. Bayley, 77, a former resi-

dent of Los Altos, died Sept. 10.

He was raised in Nebraska and graduated from Rensselaer Polytech-nic Institute of New York. He and his family moved to the Peninsula in the late 1950s. In the late 1960s he formed General Recorded Tape (GRT Corp) in Sunnyvale, a tape-du-plicating company that later engaged a successful public offering.

He was a longtime member of the Los Altos Country Club and later re-tired in Sun Lakes, Arizona.

He is survived by his wife Bar-bara Bayley; four children; and two grandchildren.

9 5 8 2 6 1 7 4 33 1 4 7 8 9 5 6 27 6 2 5 4 3 8 9 12 8 1 9 3 4 6 7 56 9 7 1 2 5 4 3 84 3 5 8 7 6 1 2 91 4 6 3 9 8 2 5 78 7 3 6 5 2 9 1 45 2 9 4 1 7 3 8 6

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Jim and his wife, Virginia, travelled the world together for 63 years. On January 13, 2011, a week after his 90th birthday, Jim went on ahead to start his next journey, passing

peacefully at his home in Menlo Park. His wife and three daughters, Ainsley, Hilary and Leslie were with him for both milestones.

James Woodhouse Tedrow was born on January 5, 1921 in Estherville, Iowa to C.D. and Nina Tedrow. He attended the University of Chicago until the outbreak of WW II when he enlisted in the Army and spent three years in England as an intelligence officer working in cryptography. Jim returned to the University after the war and met his wife to be, Virginia Vlack. They graduated the same day, Jim adding a JD to his BA (the MBA came later) and they married between semesters. An avid expert bridge player all of his adult life, a favorite opponent of his in college was classmate and fellow code breaker John Paul Stevens.

Jim’s first job was business law professor at TCU; in 1951 he was recalled to cryptography duty during the Korean War, stationed in Tokyo for two years. On his return he joined

a corporate law firm in Chicago, then became counsel at Automatic Electric Company. In 1961 the family moved west to Atherton after he became corporate secretary of Lenkurt Electric. After retiring in 1984, he performed countless hours of pro bono work for the Legal Aid Society. An ardent supporter of the Menlo Park Library, he served 12 years on the city’s Library Commission, 8 years on the Peninsula Library System Advisory Board and was a long time board member of Friends of the Menlo Park Library. Jim had a magic touch with roses and dahlias, favored the single malt, defined the word generous and loved all things sung, danced, conducted, hung on walls in large rooms and that began with “Act I, Scene 1”.

He is survived by his wife, Virginia of Menlo Park, three daughters and sons-in-law, Ainsley Nies and III of Pacifica, Hilary and Casey Gauntt of Solana Beach, Leslie Tedrow and David Tregub of Redwood City, Granddaughter Brittany, husband Ryan and Great Grandson Wyatt James Kirby of Del Mar and sister Katherine Lary and Banning. The late James Tedrow Gauntt (Jimmy) had already been awaiting the arrival of his Grandfather.

A family service was held but a celebration of Jim’s life will take place in the Spring. In lieu of flowers a donation may be made in his memory to Friends of the Menlo Park Library, 800 Alma Street, Menlo Park, CA 94025.

James Woodhouse Tedrow

P A I D O B I T U A R Y

P A I D O B I T U A R Y

In Mountain View, Jan. 20, 2011. Beloved wife of the late Pinkus Sugarman. Loving mother of Alfred Sugarman (Fran) and Carla Pasternak (Melvin). Devoted grandmother of Aimee Lysaght (Colm), David Sugarman, Joshua Pasternak and Deborah O’ Malley (Andrew) and great-grandmother of Rachel and Sam Lysaght. A native of New York City and a graduate of Emerson College, Boston, age 97 years.

Funeral Services were held Sunday, Jan. 23 at Hills of Eternity Memorial Park, Colma. Memorial contributions may be made to the Pinkus and Sylvia Sugarman Fund for Exceptional Children with Special Needs in Jewish Education, c/o The Bureau of Jewish Education, San Francisco.

SINAI MEMORIAL CHAPEL650-369-3636

Sylvia Sugarman

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Second chancesEditor,

Accolades to Ken DeLeon, Ken Byk, Sue Rinsky and Ellie Guardino for their inspiring “second chance at life” stories and to Carol Blitzer for her touching interviews. I am sure these stories will help people for years to come when they are faced with similar circumstances.

In 1986, I felt like I was “near death” and, luckily, checked my-self in Stanford Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center at Hoover Pavil-ion after encouragement by two close friends. It saved my life.

In September 1987 I shared my story with the Weekly, along with two other Palo Altans. Because I was the only one to use my full name and photos, I have been amazed through the years by com-ments from people about this article and how it helped them. In fact, a friend called me on Friday about her brother who had just gotten out of treatment and who was not fol-lowing the advice given to him.

One of the most helpful com-ments by a counselor was, “I treat my alcoholism like a snake in the closet always ready to come out and bite me.” I am grateful every day that I did not lose my friends, family, house or job, and I can con-tinue to be an even more active Palo Altan.

Carroll HarringtonMelville Avenue

Palo Alto

Homeless art experts?Editor,

After the California Avenue fountain fiasco, several letters have appeared calling for the reconstitu-tion of the Public Art Commission. However, choosing new commis-sioners from the pool of local arts enthusiasts will lead to the same decisions made by members with different names and faces but the same aesthetic values.

I suggest that being homeless be made a requirement for serving on the commission. After all, the homeless must live with public art all the time while those of us fortu-nate enough to have homes can stay inside and draw the blinds.

Victor Frost would be an excel-lent choice for chairman. He has been running for City Council for-ever and obviously wants to serve the city. His occasional public com-ments indicate a level of common sense at least as high as that of the average resident. It will give him something to do and provide a few hours of shelter each month.

David LiebermanKingsley Avenue

Palo Alto

Public-art ideasEditor,

I appreciated the excellent article on public art by Karla Kane and the accompanying photo essay by Ve-ronica Weber depicting or referenc-

ing some 20 examples of art in our midst. The fact that you included the “Kura” carving at Stanford’s New Guinea folk installation — which for a second I did confuse with the City’s former holding “Foreign Friends” (from Sweden) — triggers me to suggest two more public arts ideas for our community to imagine and consider:

1) I think Palo Alto should do something substantial and ambi-tious to honor the passing of Nathan Oliveira (1928-2010) and his legacy here in town. Although the univer-sity (where Oliveira taught for more than 30 years) is said to be planning an impressive legacy project, we as a public community should do some-thing to match. There is precedent in the form of the great painter’s in-town history. Oliveira was honored with an Avenidas Lifetime Achieve-ment Award in 2003. He lent his work for a comprehensive show at the Palo Alto Art Center in 2008. Perhaps most significantly, a large body of his earlier work was created at his downtown studio at the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Emerson Street. We should do something larger and more permanent than the loan of his sculptural piece in the courtyard of 1313 Newell Road.

2) Speaking of “Foreign Friends, in honor of our new mayor Sid Es-pinosa I think we should ask our siblings in our sister city of Linkop-ing to try again. The first installation was attacked by vandals (several times) and ultimately removed from the city art collection. Although Es-pinosa has a Latino surname, he has also spoken publicly about his fam-ily’s Scandinavian heritage.

We budget about $25,000 of our $147 million dollar municipal bud-get for the Public Art Commission, a tiny fraction.

Although many question the value of the arts in recessionary times, our local arts are part of what makes us unique, what makes Palo Alto Palo Alto, what makes us human even. Even when we disagree about the merits or meaning of individual pieces (or the program as a whole), the debate itself is part of the com-mons, what makes us a community, what makes us us.

Although we are on a budget there may be considerable and propitious public-private, project-specific, and philanthropic support to honor Ol-iveira and Espinosa via the arts.

Mark WeissOak Creek Drive

Palo Alto

SpectrumEditorials, letters and opinions

Espinosa outlines a year of challenges

Well-delivered State-of-the-City speech focuses on critical priorities and how to achieve

real progress on meeting them

New Palo Alto Mayor Sid Espinosa captured an overflow audi-ence Monday night at the Cubberley Community Center for his State-of-the-City speech — both in getting an impressive

turnout and in people’s response to his comments. There was widespread praise for the clarity of his comments,

delivered in a smooth, fast-moving presentation that included humor, warmth and a touch of sadness about a young friend lost to suicide. His talk reflected realistic concern about the city’s economic base and its ability to meet long-term retirement commitments of about $105 million and a $450 million to $500 million backlog of city infrastructure projects.

There were no “big headline” items, as the city’s five priorities are held over from last year: city finances, youth well-being, emergency preparedness, environmental sustainability, and land-use and transportation planning.

But the tone of determination to make important changes during 2011 and the comprehensive overview of city and community issues dominated the evening.

He did make two important pledges: That city business will be done open and “transparent” and that progress on the priorities will be measured in ways that mean something. Those are not insignificant pledges, given a long history in Palo Alto of unspoken undercurrents and more talk than action on annual council priorities.

He repeatedly urged residents to become involved in city and neighborhood issues, from youth well-being and emergency preparedness to using new technology to learn about city issues.

“We need your active engagement. We need your partnership. We can’t accomplish any of these goals without you,” Espinosa summed up his 25-minute address.

He began his presentation by praising Palo Alto as a great city and place to live — citing a recent survey showing high approval ratings by citizens. But he quickly shifted to problems the city faces on one hand and its city’s reputation for innovation, its AAA bond rating, and its being “tree city, bike city, with Stanford and first-rate schools” on the other.

Like many cities, Palo Alto the recession, and faces millions in unfunded retirement commitments and infrastructure needs.

Palo Alto is a recognized leader in environmental actions and in emergency preparation, he noted. But “the magnitude of the problems we are facing can seem overwhelming” to the point that people give up or never try.

“Are we prepared for a disaster here?” he asked. Not really. “We are also a community where our youth are struggling.

Five suicides in a row, two others since the beginning of this year. Experts tell us to be careful how we talk about these circumstances because it might affect publicity. But clearly we are a community that needs to understand and deal with these terrible losses, and their causes,” Espinosa said. With some emotion, he said a young friend ended his life last year due to mental illness despite being an Iron Man athlete, working to finish his Ph.D. and being in a great relationship.

Espinosa then turned his attention to some broader, seldom discussed community issues:

“Finally, we are a community experiencing demographic shifts and changes. Darwin fans here in the audience will tell you that it’s not the strongest of the species that survive, or the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change. And we are a changing community.

“We need to integrate better across old and new divides, whether that’s geographic, north and south; ethnic with our growing Asian community; age-related, Boomers all nearing retirement but not necessarily wanting to retire but wanting to be engaged. We have a new base of wealth that is really unprecedented but not necessarily engaged in civic life. “We have to start thinking and acting like one city, with one future, with a shared responsibility for success.

“And frankly these periods of upheaval and change provide every city and every organization therein the chance to stop and think about how we do things differently — how we do things better, how we’re more efficient, how we’re more creative.Transformative policymaking often happens best in times of change.”

If Espinosa and his colleagues can tackle solving our community’s challenges as well as he outlined them Monday nightm, 2011 could be a banner year on many fronts.

Editorial

The Palo Alto Weekly encourages comments on our coverage or on issues of local interest.

What do you think? How are you personally engaged in your community?

YOUR TURN

Submit letters to the editor of up to 250 words to [email protected]. Include your name, address and daytime phone number so we can reach you. We reserve the right to edit contributions for length, objectionable content, libel and factual errors known to us. Anonymous letters will generally not be ac-cepted. You can also participate in our popular interactive online forum, Town Square, at our community website at www.PaloAltoOnline.com. Read blogs, discuss issues, ask questions or express opinions with you neighbors any time, day or night. Submitting a letter to the editor or guest opinion constitutes a granting of per-mission to the Palo Alto Weekly and Embarcadero Publishing Co. to also publish it online, including in our online archives and as a post on Town Square.

For more information contact Editor Jay Thorwaldson or Online Editor Tyler

Hanley at [email protected] or 650-326-8210.

What’s the most memorable public art piece you’ve come across in Palo Alto?Asked on California Avenue. Interviews by Sarah Trauben. Photos by Vivian Wong.

Michael ChanStudentUniversity Square, East Palo Alto“That big egg near Pizza My Heart: It’s part of the rhythm of my day, and it’s eye-catching.”

Tim SmudskiTandori Oven EmployeeDowntown Sunnyvale“The running car across from the Cal-train station: It’s a weird concept, but not entirely abstract.”

Jenny HongStudentMidtown, Palo Alto“The running car is a creative idea, and it gives you something to look at other than train tracks and houses as you drive down Alma.”

Liz NeumannTuba musicianGreenmeadow, Palo Alto“Sculptures over by the gardens of people sitting on park benches. Some-one took off their heads: Vandalism is awful.”

Brenda LowenESL TeacherEvergreen Park, Palo Alto “I like the murals downtown. There are many — the thieves climbing, the spaceman — and they’re playful.”

by Jay Thorwaldson

I t is impossible to imagine not hav-ing Caltrain and

dumping most of its estimated 40,000 av-erage daily riders onto the Peninsula and Santa Clara County freeways.

It is one of those “unthinkable scenari-os,” such as the real planning for nuclear war back in the scary years of the 1950s, when freeways were new things in the orchards of “The Valley of Heart’s Delight,” before silicon invaded.

That end-of-Caltrain threat became real last week when Caltrain announced it may have to make $30 million in cuts out of its $100 million annual operating budget. That means closing stations, slashing service on numerous trains and serious staffing cuts.

It would mean, in short, disaster, some-thing akin to a small A-bomb falling on the economy of Silicon Valley, already famed for its jammed freeways during commute times. It would undo all of the decades of efforts to reduce traffic congestion and increase use of transit, chiefly buses and trains.

But is the threat real? The Caltrain press release announcing the cutback was issued just one day before a major “save Caltrain” summit meeting sponsored by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, held at Stanford University.

It followed an announcement that the three transit agencies that heavily subsidized the Caltrain operation were making huge cutbacks in their subsidies this fiscal year — Samtrans

alone has said it plans to cut $10 million from its subsidy, leaving just about $4.7 million. Santa Clara County’s VTA and the San Fran-cisco transit system also would make substan-tial cuts, blaming the Great Recession.

So the $30 million is a conditional cut, based on a big IF. And the IF is laden with inter-agency politics. In addition, there is still the question of funds going to a BART exten-sion into San Jose from the east, but not up the Peninsula, and a huge push (and counter-push) relating to a high-speed rail connection from San Francisco to Los Angeles, in its initial phase.

A highlight of the summit last Friday was a call for merging at least the funding of the transit agencies around the bay, based on a suggestion of state Assemblyman Jim Beall, a former Santa Clara County supervisor. “Re-gional funding for regional transit” was picked up by a number of local-government officials in the 200-person audience.

A follow-up “save Caltrain” session will be held this Saturday in San Carlos, sponsored by a group called “Friends of Caltrain,” and organized by Yoriko Kishimoto, a former Palo Alto City Council member. The panel will be in the SamTrans auditorium, 1250 San Carlos Ave., San Carlos. (Disclaimer: I’ll be moder-ating a morning panel.)

But “saving the commuter service” is not a new topic, although it may be a historical footnote for the current generation of public officials.

Decades ago, when I was a reporter for the erstwhile Palo Alto Times (later the Peninsula Times Tribune), one of my beat responsibili-ties was covering the Peninsula commuter ser-vice then run by Southern Pacific Railway.

It was a pretty sad service, compared to to-

day’s Caltrain operation. Most of its rolling stock (technical term for train cars) had been rolling for decades. I can’t recall when it con-verted from steam to diesel engines, but as a kid in Los Gatos I used to like watching the steam engines arrive and depart from town about 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

I once decided to take a mid-morning train to San Francisco from Palo Alto to attend a state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) meeting on a proposed rate increase that SP was pushing hard. The off-peak rail car I boarded had rounded corners, cloth seat cov-ers and a row of flower-shaped light fixtures down the middle of the car.

It also had a conductor in full SP uniform and squared-off cap who came back and punched my ticket. As I was the only pas-senger in the car, we began chatting. He first complained about “these young guys” not car-ing about the “rules of the road.” He said when he was young “we’d sit around debating what a rule meant.”

Then he told me of the hierarchy of SP, of how the president had a rail car made that cost a half million dollars, a pretty outlandish sum in those days. I thought of that car descrip-tion when watching “Wild Wild West” TV episodes later.

And he told me of how the president, when he went somewhere in the car, would be fol-lowed to the station by all the top brass of SP, who would stand and wave good-bye as the train pulled out.

SP was one of the last great pyramid orga-nizations.

But it hated its own commute service and tried over and over to kill it, to the extent that it almost became a joke. It tried to convince the PUC that the “high-speed commute trains,”

such as they were, actually tore up the tracks more than the heavy freight trains — trying to shift the bulk of maintenance costs.

And reporters had to be especially on guard with the SP press announcements. Being gen-erous, one might say they didn’t always in-clude full information, or included informa-tion that sort of side-tracked accuracy.

An example is a hard-fought battle by SP to get PUC approval for an especially large fare increase. The PUC granted it but with a big condition: that SP order 18 brand new, double-decker commuter cars.

Ordering such cars custom built and deliv-ered took about three years. Then one day I received a press release in the mail that SP was rolling out 18 brand new rail cars. The release had an extensive quotation from the SP president saying that this purchase should put to rest critics who claim SP was trying to kill the commuter service.

I called a friend in the SP public relations office. “George, aren’t these the same cars that the PUC shoved down SP’s throat three years ago?” A pause. Well, yes they are. Ah.

SP once offered to help its commuters ac-quire vans for vanpools.

When the service was shifted to public ownership through an agreement between SP and Caltrans — ultimately becoming Caltrain — the Palo Alto Weekly ran a cover story on it. It was the brand-new Weekly’s third issue, Oct. 25, 1979.

“Southern Pacific cures its 47-mile long mi-graine,” the headline read.

So now it’s Caltrain that has the migraine. Weekly Editor Jay Thorwaldson is retiring

as editor today but will be writing columns in the future. He can be e-mailed at [email protected].

Can Caltrain survive ‘death by a thousand cuts’? On Deadline:

Check out Town Square!Hundreds of local topics are being discussed by local residents on

Town Square, a reader forum sponsored by the Weekly on our com-munity website at www.PaloAltoOnline.com. Post your own comments, ask questions, read the Editor’s blog or just stay up on what people are talking about around town!

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Inspiring children to achieve since I read a newspaper article

in the 1970s, when I was in my teens, about a sin-

gle “welfare mom” raising two teenagers.

Did the article portray her as irresponsible, lazy, or otherwise deficient? No. It portrayed her as a hardworking, devoted and highly creative divorcee who chose to prioritize her kids’ needs for her time over pursuing a career outside the home. The article was a multiple-page spread with pho-tos showing the enriching activities she and her kids did together in their home.

She was presented with respect and dignity as a positive role model for other parents.

This was before creation of the “welfare to work” and education pro-grams for welfare recipients in the Clinton era of welfare reform — pro-grams that provided hope and help for thousands but which now face elimination due to the disaster of our economy.

Fast-forward two decades, and that same mother might have been shamed in today’s social climate. Stigmatized. The point of the article might be to study what is wrong with her rather than what is right.

I know there are parents who par-ent poorly, or not at all, but it really upsets me when people criticize mothers in broad, sweeping, over-generalized ways. There is the argu-ment over whether mothers should parent full-time or work full- or part-time outside the home.

Or whether they should be legally married, or at least partnered, rather than choose single motherhood. Or whether they should have a male partner or if a female one is just as good, how much money they should make, or how old or well educated they should be.

Mothers are easy targets for criti-cism.

Sure, ideally mothers are married or partnered, well-educated, have good finances and support and are at least in their mid-20s. But a perfect world and reality don’t always match. Birth control fails or is overlooked, women and girls get raped, they use bad judgment with relationships, cou-ples break up, or the mothers-to-be lose their jobs.

And if one of those moms uses public assistance to support her fam-ily she is subject to being judged by social-service personnel, family, friends or anyone else she happens to meet.

The government pays lots of work-ing people, such as postal workers, police, firefighters, politicians, li-brarians, subsidized day-care work-ers, schoolteachers and foster-care parents. The last three groups, plus nannies, are paid to look after other peoples’ children, which is still con-sidered “work” as long as they are not looking after their own children — which isn’t “work.” They are all just as dependent on the money they’re paid as are welfare mothers, even though the money paid to the former group is considered “earned” and the money paid to the latter isn’t.

When I got pregnant with my son I was in a relationship with the father. I planned on being a “working mother,” and felt judgmental toward mothers

who weren’t. What was wrong with them that they didn’t want a life of their own, separate from their children, I wondered?

Then my partner and I broke up when I was five months along. I was working full-time as a substance-abuse coun-selor, and when my son was born I took maternity

leave. My employer refused to give me back my job. Tired and stressed, my confidence shattered, I went on public assistance. With multiple dis-abilities, getting another job wasn’t as easy for me as for other people.

My mother told me I should be ashamed of myself. I lost two friends, one of whom said she couldn’t abide my accepting welfare. Another ac-quaintance told me I was irrespon-sible.

Yet those months with my son were some of the most magical of my life. Getting the chance to watch him grow and develop, say his first words, learn how to crawl, are blessings that noth-ing can take away. And I was work-ing harder than I’d ever worked in my life. I later found a part-time counsel-ing internship, experience I needed to get my marriage-and-family-therapist license. It was non-paying, as many internships are, so I stayed on wel-fare.

I joined a single-mother’s support group. The husband of one mother left her and their three children. She was working as a secretary, but since she didn’t earn enough money to pay day care and her job didn’t offer health insurance she went on welfare. When she walked into the social-services office she felt judged by the employees there.

“You can think whatever you want to think about me,” she imagined say-ing to them, “but I will do whatever it takes to look after my children, and this is what I have to do to take care of them.

Another mother was raped and robbed by a stranger with a gun out-side her apartment building. When police discovered she was on welfare they closed her case and threatened to investigate her instead for welfare fraud, even though her money earned was within the legal limit.

Other mothers went on welfare after leaving husbands who abused them or their children.

I know it’s easy to think, “I would never have ended up in those situa-tions. I would have known better.” Not until you find yourself in any of those situations, however, can you re-ally understand.

Nowhere is it written in stone that it is wrong for a mother to accept public assistance. That notion only exists in some people’s minds and is promoted by politicians and the media.

For us to have a compassionate so-ciety we need to recognize child ris-ing, or “women’s’ work,” as real work — work that is worthy of pay, and, like the mother whom I read about as a teenager, is bestowed with dignity and respect.

Elizabeth Lee is a licensed mar-riage-and-family therapist and writer and lives with her husband, two children and dog in Palo Alto. She can be e-mailed at [email protected].

‘Welfare moms’ need respect by Elizabeth Lee

Board of Contributors:

January 28, 2011

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Sacred Heart Prep senior Abby Dahlkemper begins the celebration after her header in the 73rd minute gave the first-place Gators a stirring 2-1 victory over rival Priory in a crucial WBAL girls’ soccer showdown on Tuesday.

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egon St., noon; KZSU (90.1 FM)

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ON THE AIR

CARDINAL HONORS . . . Stan-ford’s three senior women’s vol-leyball players have all earned All-America honors by Volleyball Magazine. Alix Klineman, the Player of the Year, was named to the first team, while Gabi Ailes and Cassidy Lichtman were se-lected to the second team. Kline-man becomes the ninth Stanford player to garner National Player of the Year honors. She is a four-time Vollyeball Magazine and AVCA All-American. Ailes picks up her second career honor from Volleyball Magazine, while Licht-man is being recognized for the first time by the publication . . . Stanford junior Bradley Klahn is off to a good start on his way to defending his NCAA singles title. On Monday, Klahn was named the Pac-10 Men’s Tennis Player of the Week. Klahn took home singles and doubles titles on Jan. 17 at the Sherwood Cup, completing an impressive tournament weekend heading into dual- match season. He defeated USC’s Steve John-son, 6-2, 6-4, in the championship match, winning the Sherwood Cup singles title for the second straight season . . . The Stanford women’s basketball team is sitting alone atop the Pac-10 Conference standings this week, due in part to a big week turned in by senior Kayla Pedersen during a sweep of UCLA and USC. Pedersen was named Pac-10 Player of the Week, the conference announced Monday. She averaged 17.0 points and 7.5 rebounds while shooting 63.2 percent from the field and 57.1 percent from behind the arc as No. 4 Stanford first handed No. 8 UCLA its first conference loss before routing USC. . . . Stanford senior Shelley Alexander was named Pac-10 Gymnast of the Week on Tuesday and sophomore Ashley Morgan earned Pac-10 Special Performance of the Week honors.

COACHING CORNER . . . A girls’ lacrosse coach is needed at Men-lo-Atherton High. Those interested should contact M-A athletic direc-tor Mary Podesta at [email protected]

STANFORD SPORTS

No. 1swill riskrankingsTop-ranked women’s tennis and swimming in action this weekend

by Rick Eymer

E very so often at Stanford there’s a unique opportunity to watch two of the nation’s

top-ranked programs on the same day. This weekend, it’s scheduled to happen on two consecutive days, when both the top-ranked women’s swimming team and No. 1 women’s tennis team are in action within shouting distance of each other.

The top-ranked Stanford women’s swimming team hosts its final two home dual meets of the season this weekend and that can only mean one thing — the championship sea-son is just around the corner.

The top-ranked Stanford women’s tennis team, meanwhile, is just be-ginning its journey toward defend-ing its national title.

The Cardinal women swimmers face a tough challenge with No. 21 UCLA and No. 3 USC coming to Avery Aquatics Center. The Bruins (9-1) are first on tap at 1 p.m. Friday, while the Women of Troy arrive for a meet Saturday, also at 1 p.m.

Stanford finished second in the nation to Florida last year, with the title decided in the final event of the championships.

While Stanford lost two Olympi-ans in Julia Smit and Elaine Breeden to graduation, a strong group of freshmen arrived as reinforcements, joining an already celebrated group of swimmers.

Saturday features the final home matches for seniors Meg Hostage, Kate Dwelley, Liz Smith, Kerry Kraemer and Kelsey Ditto. The se-nior class (Ditto transferred from Georgia two years ago) is a com-bined 33-1 with the only loss to Arizona in 2008.

Hostage is coming off one of her best performances of the year, as she placed first in both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events in Stanford’s 174-120 victory at Arizona State last Saturday.

Dwelley ranks among the top 20 in several events this season, most notably fifth in the 100 free and sixth in the 50 free. She’s also 19th in the 100 fly and 20th in the 500 free.

Smith is one of the Cardinal’s top overall swimmers, ranking fifth in the 200 breast, fourth in the 200 IM and 11th in the 400 IM. Ditto ranks first in the 1,000 free. Kraemer adds depth in both the 100 breast and 200 breast.

Stanford has finished second or third six times since winning its last NCAA title in 1998. Last year’s margin was 2 1/2 points. Every point counts; even a 16th place fin-ish makes a difference.

Thanks to a freshmen class that includes Maya DiRado, Felicia Lee,


Priory sophomore standout Mariana Galvan was held scoreless as SHP often double-marked her during its 2-1 WBAL victory.

PREP SOCCER

SHP girls winRound 1

from Prioryby Keith Peters

N ot enough emphasis can be place upon the twice-a-year meetings between the Priory

and Sacred Heart Prep girls’ soccer teams. Since the West Bay Athletic League began in 2008-09, SHP and Priory have finished one-two, respectively, each season.

Making the matchups even more intriguing are players on each team who also have commitments to the U.S. National Team.

Priory sophomore Mariana Gal-van is leaving Friday to join the U.S. U-18 National Team for a training camp in Florida. She’ll miss match-es next week against Menlo and Mercy-Burlingame. Sacred Heart Prep senior Abby Dahlkemper will leave to join the U-20 squad the week of Feb. 13-20, missing only the season-ending league match against Menlo.

Thus, not only is it important to have both players on hand for each WBAL showdown, but winning those matchups becomes even more important.

Sacred Heart Prep swept the se-ries in 2009 to win the league title

(continued on next page)

Keith PetersKeith Peters

with a 10-0-2 mark, advancing to the Central Coast Section Division III finals and winning it. Last sea-son, SHP won the first match and lost the second while Dahlkemper was away with the U-17 National Team. The Panthers, however, also suffered a pair of ties with Menlo and finished second to the Gators once again.

On Tuesday, the league’s top two teams met in their first showdown and, once again, Sacred Heart Prep came away the winner following a header by Dahlkemper in the 73rd minute for the winning goal in a 2-1 triumph.

Thus, SHP coach Jake Moffat was in a good mood afterward after yet another familiar opening result with Priory.

“This is the third straight year we’ve been in this position,” Moffat said of the WBAL Foothill Division match.”So, it’s a comfortable posi-tion to be in.”

Sacred Heart (4-0, 8-4-2) once again is sitting atop the division standings heading into Thursday’s crucial match at Menlo (3-0-1, 4-3-5), which moved ahead of Pri-ory (2-1-1, 7-2-3) and into second place following a 3-0 victory over Castilleja on Tuesday.

The Gators appeared headed for a first-place tie with Menlo as they battled Priory to a 1-1 deadlock deep into their match. Dahlkemper changed all that when she rifled a shot off the hands of Priory keeper Liz Oliphant that went over the end line, resulting in a corner kick.

SHP sophomore Sophia Abuel-Saud placed the corner kick out front of the cage, forcing Oliphant to charge out. Dahlkemper, howev-er, raced in and headed a shot past Oliphant and into the cage for the winning goal.

“A win here is huge,” Moffat said, “not only from the standpoint of points, but from the momentum we’ve gained after it looked like we might have to settle for a tie.”

Dahlkemper also scored in the seventh minute on an assist from Kendall Jager, but Priory countered just two minutes later when Darrah Shields found the net off an assist from Galvan.

The teams battled evenly after that, before SHP made its push in the second half to control the match. Sacred Heart senior Keighley Lane marked the dangerous Galvan all match long and kept her from scor-ing. Fellow defenders Stephanie Terpening, Lauren Espeseth, Ken-dall Cody and Annie Fishback also helped keep the Panthers off the board in the second half. Cody and Espeseth helped out on Galvan, who often had to fight off two defend-ers.

“It wasn’t so much that Mariana didn’t get enough touches on the ball in the second half,” explained Priory co-coach Henry Arredondo. “She was still dangerous and was re-ceiving the b all in areas we wanted her to be effective. You also have to understand when the other team de-cides to double-mark a player and takes turns hitting her with no calls by the ref, it complicates our attack-ing scheme.

“I spoke to the ref at half and ex-plained that Mariana was just called to the U-18 National Team and has

Prep soccer(continued from previous page)

to report to camp in Florida on Jan. 28, and we need to protect her; she’s representing our country.”

Galvan took some hits and dished a few, as well, always remaining a dangerous player on the field — as was Dahlkemper, who sent long passes to the wing in the second half, finding Jager a handful of times that produced good shots on goal that just missed.

Dahlkemper eventually took mat-ters into her own hands, which usu-ally produces good results for the Gators.

“Abby played an important role in the win and she deserves a lot of credit,” Arredondo said. “SHP wanted it more and that was the dif-ference.”

Priory will get another crack at SHP and Dahlkemper on Feb. 10 before Dahlkemper departs for na-tional team camp. That puts a prior-ity on the season for Moffat.

“Our goal is to win league be-fore that Menlo game (on Feb. 15),” Moffat said.

Menlo, meanwhile, put itself in position to possibly take over first place — the Knights needed to beat SHP on Thursday — by scor-ing three second-half goals to beat host Castilleja at Mayfield Soccer Complex.

Menlo senior Kelly Cavan con-nected from 20 yards out off an as-sist from Alex Tom for what proved to be the winning goal. A few min-utes later, Cavan scored again from 23 yards out following a pass from Amanda McFarland. Menlo fresh-man Sienna Stritter finished the scoring with a 15-yard strike off an assist from Sophia King.

Menlo coach Donoson FitzGer-ald singled out defender Shannon Lacy and his goalie tandem of sophomores Julia Dressel and Kelly McConnell for their fourth straight shutout.

In a WBAL Skyline Division match, Adrienne Whitlock scored off an assist from Danielle Man in the first half as Pinewood (2-2, 7-6) produced a 1-0 victory over visiting

Eastside Prep.In the PAL Bay Division, visit-

ing Menlo-Atherton got second-half goals from Gillian Collom and Victoria Fernandez in a 2-0 victory over Hillsdale. The Bears (3-3-1, 8-3-2) remained tied with Carlmont for fifth place, trailing co-leaders Woodside and San Mateo, both 5-1-1.

In the SCVAL De Anza Division, Gunn battled defending division champion Los Gatos to a scoreless draw on Wednesday evening. The Titans moved to 1-3-2 in league and 6-4-4 overall. Gunn had two good chances to score, one a cross from Bonnie Cardillo that Hal Moalem nearly finished. The other came on a breakaway by Sarah Robinson that nearly found the net.

“It was a team effort,” said Gunn coach Damian Cohen. “Everyone played excellent games, played stel-lar defense, and combined nicely in the attack. We have played back-to-back excellent games (Gunn tied Sacred Heart Prep on Saturday) and thus are starting to find a groove and consistency.”

Boys’ soccerWith more ties than victories in

league play, Palo Alto coach Don Briggs was hoping for a break when his squad took on first-place Moun-tain View in a SCVAL De Anza Di-vision match on Wednesday.

The Vikings did finally get a break, but it wasn’t the one the Vi-kings were looking for.

Junior goalie Kris Hoglund suf-fered a broken leg during a collision in the first half of Palo Alto’s 2-2 deadlock with the Spartans. He will be lost for the remainder of the soc-cer season and will miss the lacrosse season, as well.

Hoglund had his leg casted on Thursday. According to his father, Tom, the cast might be hot pink.

Kris suffered a broken tibia, but his fibula was no broken.

“Any way you look at it, he will miss lacrosse season,” said Tom Ho-glund, “which makes no one happy.

Palo Alto’s Toby Nelson-Gal (18) congratulates James Maa (4) on his match-tying goal while Josh Totte celebrates during Wednesday’s 2-2 deadlock at firstplace Mountain View in a SCVAL De Anza Division match.

Sophia Abuel-Saud (right) congratulates Abby Dahlkemper on her match-winning goal, set up by Abuel-Saud’s corner kick.

Fortunately, he should be able to still play during the summer and pursue his hope of playing East in college.”

Hoglund, last season’s leading scorer for Paly, had been sharing time in goal with Austin Shiau, who also is injured. After Hoglund was hurt, senior Tony Panayides traded in his game jersey for the goalie jersey and helped keep the Vikings (2-0-4, 6-2-5) in the game. It was Paly’s fourth straight tie in league play and second in two days, follow-ing a 1-1 match with Los Gatos on Tuesday.

“This was a tough game for Paly, having played a physical game with

Los Gatos,” said Briggs. “Paly started the game with four subs and ended the game with only two players available (off the bench) after injuries to Hoglund and Peter Laminette.”

Mountain View took the lead in the second half on a direct-kick deflection off Panayides. Palo Alto made it 1-1 on a direct kick by John Richardson. The Spartans regained the lead in the final 10 minutes when a hard cross was slightly de-flected by a Paly defender and went into the upper corner. Paly got the game-tying goal when Austin Smith flicked a header to James Maa, whose header found the net.

“Gerritt Van Zyll did an excellent job of organizing the defense with two starting backs also injured an unable to play,” Briggs said of his junior center back.

In a makeup match Tuesday, Paly’s Skyler Felt took a pass from Richardson and scored to give the Vikings a 1-0 lead over host Los Gatos. That ended a streak of 2 1/2 games where Paly and Los Gatos had played scoreless ball.

In another SCVAL De Anza Divi-sion match, visiting Gunn dropped a 2-1 decision to Los Gatos. The Titans fell to 1-3-2 in league (2-7-4 overall).

In the West Bay Athletic League, Sacred Heart Prep maintained its hold on first place with a 7-1 vic-tory over host Crystal Springs on Wednesday. The Gators (6-0-1, 11-0-1) got two goals from sophomore Willy Lamb.

In other WBAL action, Priory edged Harker, 1-0, while Eastside Prep (1-4, 3-7-1) dropped a 1-0 de-cision to host King’s Academy.

In the PAL Bay Division, Phillip Witham scored an unassisted goal in the second half to lift host Men-lo-Atherton to a 1-0 victory over Westmoor. The Bears improved to 5-1-1 in league (7-2-2 overall) and remained just two points behind first-place Burlingame (6-1) in the division race.

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Upcoming Events

Charting Your Own Course: An Interactive Career Visioning Workshop

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Paly hoop teams tryingto continue the success

Boys and girls both lead their respective races on the heels of football, volleyball teams winning state titles

by Keith Peters

A fter a sensational fall season that saw the Palo Alto foot-ball team and girls’ volleyball

squads win state championships, Paly basketball coaches Adam Sax and Scott Peters perhaps had their respective bars of expectations raised.

“What I like about Palo Alto High is that there is high expectations ev-ery year,” said Peters, head coach of the girls’ team. “Obviously, this is a special year for our fall sports teams.”

Both Paly basketball teams, however, are do-ing their best to emulate the football and volley-ball squads. The Vikings lead their respective SCVAL De Anza Divi-sion races and there’s no reason why either coach should expect anything less than a league title.

One reason is the fact both races are winnable with no dominant team. Heading into the second half of the season, the Paly boys (5-1, 11-6) lead Gunn (4-2, 12-6) by a full game while the Paly girls (6-0, 13-4) also lead the Titans (5-1, 13-3) by a full game.

Thus, the Paly boys and girls control their own destiny.

The other factor why both teams could be considered title favorites is depth and talent. Both teams are blessed in each category. It’s just a matter of keeping things in perspective and their eyes on the prize.

“We have to stay fo-cused on each game and practice, so that we can win our league,” Peters said. “Then, see where it goes when we get into the playoffs.”

Both Paly teams are ticketed to the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs this season, as are Gunn’s squads. That should make for in-teresting matchups when the teams meet again at Gunn on Feb. 11, with titles and CCS seeds on the line.

Both Palo Alto teams kept their division leads intact this week by traveling to Los Gatos and winning in a hostile environment.

Having to play games at Los Ga-tos often has been upsetting for Palo Alto teams, which have seen dreams die at the hands of the host Wildcats over the years. The Paly girls’ vol-leyball team, for example, went 41-1 this past fall with its only loss at Los Gatos.

There were no upsets like that on Tuesday as the Paly girls and boys.

In the tipoff to the varsity double-header, the Paly girls followed up their big victory over Gunn last week with a solid 44-34 victory. De-fense once again was the key for the Vikings (6-0, 13-4), who held the Wildcats to just two baskets during

a 20-minute span from the second to fourth quarters. Los Gatos scored just eight points in the second and third quarters combined, just a sin-gle point in the third period.

Paly used a fullcourt trap defense to force Los Gatos into turnovers, resulting in easy baskets for the Vi-kings. Sydney Davis, Katerina Pe-terson, Stephanie Allen and Emilee Osagiede sparked the press while Josie Butler was intimidating, as well, with numerous blocks and al-tered shots. Davis led the way with 12 points.

“The addition of Josie Butler, Sydney Davis and (freshman) Dan-ielle Palmer has helped our defense immensely,” Peters said. “Josie is a factor that has to be considered when teams go to the basket. Sydney stops most guard pen-etrators. Lindsay Black has greatly improved her defense from last year, which is also a fac-tor. Emilee Osagiede is

also a tremendous asset on defense. When you add all this up, it allows us flexibility and depth to play ag-gressively.”

In the nightcap on Tuesday, Paly sophomore EJ Floreal poured in a season-high 27 points as the Vikings romped to a 75-47 triumph. Palo Alto had four players in double figures as Charlie Jones and Davante Ad-ams chipped in with 11 points each while Max Schmarzo added 10 as the Vikings posted yet another impressive per-formance.

Elsewhere in girls’ basketball ac-tion Tuesday night:

With senior guard Kelsey More-head pouring in 21 points, Pinewood held on to first place in the West Bay Athletic League (Foothill Division) with a 63-34 thumping of visiting Castilleja. The Panthers (5-0, 14-4) grabbed a 34-19 halftime lead and outscored the Gators (0-4, 9-7) in the second half, 32-15. Hailie Eack-les added 13 points for Pinewood, which made nine treys (out of 35 at-tempts) and had 20 steals.

After holding just a 13-8 first-quarter lead, Pinewood went on a 13-2 run while pushing its lead to 16. Castilleja senior Natasha von Kaeppler had 12 of her 13 points in the first half and finished with just five rebounds while guarding Eack-les on the perimeter.

In East Palo Alto, Eastside Prep’s one-two senior punch of Ahjalee Harvey and Takara Burse was a knockout combination again as they combined for 37 points in the Pan-thers’ 62-35 victory over visiting Sa-cred Heart Prep in WBAL (Foothill Division) action.

(continued on next page)

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ATHLETES OF THE WEEK

Gillian CollomMenlo-Atherton soccer

Hailie Eackles*Pinewood basketball

Ahjalee Harvey*Eastside Prep basketball

Emilee OsagiedePalo Alto basketball

Sophie SheelineMenlo soccer

Darrah ShieldsPriory soccer

Anthony BriggsMid-Peninsula basketball

Lydell CardwellMid-Peninsula basketball

Kalen Gans*Palo Alto wrestling

Reed McConnellSacred Heart Prep basketball

Isaac PolkinhorneSacred Heart Prep soccer

Reggie WilliamsMid-Peninsula basketball

Honorable mention

Abby DahlkemperSacred Heart Prep

The senior forward had a pair of hat tricks in WBAL Foothill Division soccer wins over Castilleja and King’s Academy, keeping the Gators atop the stand-ings, in addition to adding a solo goal in a 1-1 deadlock against Gunn.

Stefan WeidemannGunn High

The senior went 5-0 with three pins while winning the 152-pound title, becoming the first wrestler in school history to win at the pres-tigious Mid-Cal Invitational while improving his season record to 15-0, with 12 pins.

* previous winner

To see video interviews of the Athletes of the Week, go to www.PASportsOnline.com

Harvey poured in 23 points while Burse contributed 12 points and 11 assists as the Panthers remained in second place at 4-1 (13-6). Fresh-man Kimberly Leu scored six points and pulled down seven rebounds while helping Eastside Prep jump out to a 35-16 halftime lead against the visiting Gators (1-4, 9-5).

In San Francisco, Menlo School jumped out to an important 24-14 lead in the first quarter that wound up making the difference in the game as the Knights held on for a 62-56 victory over host Mercy-San Francisco in a WBAL (Foothill Di-vision) game.

The Knights (3-2, 13-6) moved into sole possession of third place with the victory. Drew Edelman led the way with 21 points and 16 re-bounds while seniors Emma Paye and Whitney Hooper also contrib-uted in a big way. Paye had 11 points and five assists while Hooper fin-ished with 18 points, making four 3-pointers, as the Knights tuned up for Friday’s home-game showdown with second-place Eastside Prep at 6 p.m.

In the PAL Bay Division, Menlo-Atherton had a great start but not-so-great finish and dropped a 77-58 decision to first-place Terra Nova in Atherton. The Bears (2-3, 6-13) jumped out to a 16-10 first-quarter lead and held a 36-35 advantage at halftime. The Tigers (5-0), how-ever, roared back in the second half with 42 points to grab the victory. Sela Tupou led M-A with 21 points while Anna Crookston Herschlag added 12.

In nonleague action Wednesday:Sophomore point guard Riya

Modi returned after missing the five previous games, sparking Cas-tilleja to a 46-39 victory over host St. Francis-CCC in Watsonville on Wednesday night. Modi scored eight points with five assists and two steals in her return from an ankle injury. During her absence, the Ga-tors lost four of five games.

Senior Natasha von Kaeppler led the victory with 21 points and 17 rebounds, surpassing Nikki Perl-man as the school’s all-time leader in defensive rebounds in addition to becoming the third player in school history to score at least 1,500 career points. Senior Laura Rose added 10 rebounds and six points as Cas-tilleja improved to 152-9 all-time while holding opponents under 40 points.

Boys’ basketballTrailing by 12 points in the third

quarter, Menlo-Atherton rallied for a 56-55 victory over visiting Wood-side on Wednesday in PAL Bay Division action. Senior Marquise Tolson scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half to go along with with six rebounds and three assists for the Bears (3-2, 10-9), who now have won back-to-back games for only the third time this season.

Tolson hit two free throws with under a minute to play for the win-ning margin.

Michael Culhane had 11 rebounds plus eight points for M-A, which trailed by seven at halftime but scored 37 points in the second half.

Prep basketball(continued from previous page)

McKinley Mathon hit a trio of three-pointers in the fourth quar-ter and finished with 13 points and seven rebounds while Myles Brewer also scored 13 points while sparking the Bears’ comeback.

In the West Bay Athletic League:Despite the fact senior Reed Mc-

Connell was sidelined by a sprained ankle, Sacred Heart Prep still had plenty of depth to hold on to its lead in the WBAL following a 56-38 vic-tory over host Harker on Tuesday night.

The Gators (7-0, 15-2) received a big 14 points from Pat McNamara with junior Cole McConnell add-ing 13 and senior Will McConnell tossing in 12. SHP’s defense limited Harker to just 11 first-half points as the Gators avenged last season’s only league loss.

Pinewood junior Dante Fraioli bounced back from a scoreless first half to score 18 points in the final two quarters to spark Pinewood to a wild 76-66 victory over host King’s Academy in a WBAL game on Tues-day night. Fraioli made six 3-point-ers as the Panthers (6-1, 14-3) made 13 while remaining a game back of first-place Sacred Heart Prep.

King’s Academy made nine treys and rallied from 15 points down

to make a game of it. Kevin Sweat (14 points), Bradley Naumann (11 points) and Solomone Wolfgramm (10) helped Pinewood shoot 62 per-cent from the field in the second half.

In Atherton, Brandon Willhite may have been lighting up the WBAL with his scoring this sea-son, but the Priory senior finally had someone turn out his lights as host Menlo School limited him to just six points on its way to a 59-34 victory on Tuesday night.

Willhite scored 61 points in three games last week and has been av-eraging over 20. The Knights (4-3, 8-8) limited Willhite to just 3-of-13 shooting and four rebounds with five turnovers. Gabor Somogyi led Priory (1-6, 8-8) with 18 points but was the only player in double figures as the Panthers shot only 20 percent (11 of 55) from the floor. Menlo got 12 points from Jonny Halprin.

In the Private Schools Athletic League, first-place Mid-Peninsula remained solidly atop the league with a 54-34 victory over host Jew-ish Community School at the Koret Center in San Francisco. The Drag-ons improved to 6-0 in league (13-2 overall) as Lydell Cardwell scored 21 points for Mid-Peninsula.

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Andrea Taylor and Kristie Chen, Stanford remains a strong contender in every event.

DiRado currently ranks third in the country in the 200 back and 200 IM and second in the 400 IM. Lee is ninth in the 100 fly, 13th in the 200 IM, 15th in the 100 free and 19th in the 50 free.

Taylor has the nation’s third-best time in the 1,000 free, the fifth best in the 400 IM, the seventh best in the 500 free and the 11th best in the 200 fly. Chen ranks 14th in the 400 IM.

Juniors Betsy Webb, Sam Wood-ward, Angela Duckworth and Jamie Bruce add balance and depth across the board.

Webb has the country’s third best time in the 100 back, the fifth best in the 50 free and is 10th in the 100 free. Woodward is 11th in the 50 free, 13th in the 100 free and 13th in the 100 fly.

Duckworth, who competed at

the 2008 Olympic Trials, is one of Stanford’s top distance swimmers while Bruce adds quality and depth to both the breast and IM events.

Sophomore Andi Murez has the 12th best time in the 100 free, while Megan Fischer-Cobrie, Alisha Finn and Natalie Durant are solid per-formers.

Stanford ends the dual-met season at No. 4 California on Feb. 12 and then it is on to the Pac-10 Champi-onships, which start Feb. 23. The NCAA championships begin on March 17 in Austin, Texas.

Women’s tennisTop-ranked Stanford, playing

without Mallory Burdette, picked up right where it left off Wednes-day, beating visiting UC Davis, 7-0, in the season opener.

Stacey Tan clinched the victory at No.4 singles for the Cardinal, which won its final 19 matches in capturing last year’s NCAA team title.

Stanford extended its home win-ning streak to 165 matches (133 reg-

ular season, 32 NCAA tournament), a streak that spans nearly 12 seasons and is the longest active home win-ning streak among all sports in Di-vision I athletics.

The Cardinal last tasted defeat at home, 5-4, to California on Feb. 27, 1999. The Bears ended Stanford’s then-record 52-match home win-ning streak. So, yes, that means the Cardinal has won 217 of its last 218 matches played at Taube Ten-nis Center, which likely dates to the NCAA semifinal loss to Texas in 1992 at Stanford.

The current winning streak began March 5, 1999 with a 7-2 victory over No. 24 Arizona.

Stanford hosts Cal Poly in the ITA Kickoff Weekend at 10 a.m. Friday. The Cardinal hosts Cal Poly on Fri-day, Jan. 28, at 2 p.m. The winner meets Oklahoma or UNLV at 2 p.m. Saturday.

The weekend survivor moves on to the National Team Indoor Cham-pionships for the final rounds in Charlottesville, Va., beginning Feb. 17.

No. 1s(continued from page 26)

Stanford freshman Maya DiRado will be a key performer this weekend when the No. 1-ranked Cardinal women’s swim team hosts UCLA on Friday and No. 3 USC on Saturday, both at 1 p.m. in Avery Aquatics Center.

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Synchronized swimming, men’s tennishighlight Stanford schedule this weekend

by Rick Eymer

S eniors Gayle Lee and Corinne Smith lead a young group of performers into Stanford’s

synchronized swimming season opener Saturday at 3 p.m. against visiting Incarnate Word.

The Cardinal finished second at both the U.S. Collegiate Champion-ships and U.S. National champion-ships last year.

Lee, a member of the Singapore national team, performed as a mem-ber of the first-place team event at the nationals. She missed the 2009 season with an injury.

Smith, who competed with the U.S. junior national team four years ago, has finished second in the team event in each of the past two colle-giate championships.

Junior Maria Koroleva may have the most experience with Stanford, having also competed in duet, trio and figures the past two years in earning All-American status. She was with the U.S. national team at the FINA World Championships in Rome in 2009.

Men’s tennis Alex Clayton and Greg Hirshman

helped the eighth-ranked Stanford men’s tennis team open the dual-meet season with an impressive 7-0 victory over visiting Sacramento State Tuesday.

Clayton, at No. 3 singles, and Hir-shman, at No. 5 singles, each won by scores of 6-1, 6-2 as all six singles players won in straight sets.

The Cardinal, which also swept its doubles matches, is back in ac-tion Friday, hosting Santa Clara at 10 a.m. as part of the ITA Kickoff Weekend.

Friday’s winner meets either Ne-braska or Vanderbilt at 10 a.m. Sat-urday. The survivor advances to the final rounds of the National Team Indoor Championships in Seattle beginning Feb. 18.

Women’s water polo Alyssa Lo, Melissa Seidemann

and Cassie Churnside each scored three goals and the top-ranked Stanford women’s water polo team ended its opening weekend unbeat-

en in four matches after beating host Michigan, 14-5, Sunday at the Michigan Kick Off in Ann Arbor.

Kelsey Suggs and Sacred Heart Prep grad Pallavi Menon each added two goals for Stanford (4-0), which also beat Indiana, 14-1, earlier in the day.

Victoria Kennedy and Kaitlyn Lo also scored for the Cardinal, which outscored its opponents 57-11 on the weekend.

Amber Oland recorded nine saves in goal against the Wolverines.

Stanford hosts its own Invitational on Feb. 5-6 at Avery Aquatic Center.

Women’s gymnastics Alyssa Brown, Shelley Alexan-

der, Ashley Morgan and Allyse Ishino each won an event and sec-ond-ranked Stanford beat visiting UCLA, 196.200-194.825, in a Pac-10 meet Sunday.

Morgan won the floor exercise with a score of 9.925, while Alex-ander won the beam with the same score for the Cardinal (7-0) in its home opener.

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All-state football honors for Paly;von Kaeppler joins her sister at Yale

by Keith Peters

T he Palo Alto football team re-ceived what appeared to be its final big honor of the season

last Friday when the Vikings were presented with the Army National Guard national ranking trophy, as part of the sixth annual MaxPreps Tour of Champions.

Palo Alto finished No. 13 in the final MaxPreps national rankings to qualify as one of 50 schools being honored.

On Monday, however, there were more honors for Palo Alto as senior Kevin Anderson was one of four Vikings named to the 32nd annual Cal-Hi Sports All-State Football Team.

The 6-foot-4, 250-pound Ander-son, who has verbally committed to Stanford, was a dominant player at defensive end for the Vikings during their school record-breaking 14-0 season that was capped with a 15-13 victory over Centennial (Coro-na) in the CIF State Division I bowl championship game in December. Anderson finished the season with 103 tackles and 11 1/2 sacks. He was named to the first-team defen-sive unit.

Fellow two-way starter T.J. Braff was named to the all-state second team on defense while Paly senior quarterback Christoph Bono and wide receiver Maurice Williams were named to the third team on offense. Braff had a team-leading 170 tackles this season (12.1 per game) while Bono completed 165 of 251 passes for 2,690 yards and 30 touchdowns. Williams caught 27 passes for 791 yards (an average of 29.2 yards per catch) with 11 touch-downs.

Three other local players received all-state honors in the Small Schools division.

Menlo School senior wide re-ceiver Tim Benton was named to the first team on offense along with Sacred Heart Prep senior offensive lineman Brian Moran. Sacred Heart Prep senior linebacker Hunter Shaw received second-team all-state rec-ognition on defense.

Benton caught 68 passes for 1,406 yards and 12 touchdowns this sea-son while Shaw had 116 tackles (an average of 9.7 per game). The 6-7, 295-pound Moran was a force in the offensive and defensive lines for the Gators, who won their first-ever Central Coast Section Division IV title in 2010.

Girls’ basketballCastilleja senior Natasha von

Kaeppler will be among the Yale women’s basketball team Class of 2015, as announced Thursday by Yale head coach Chris Gobrecht.

The 6-foot von Kaeppler is a two-time captain for the Gators. Academically, von Kaeppler is a National Merit Semifinalist. On the court, she is a four-year starter.

Through 17 games this season, von Kaeppler was averaging 20.3 points, 13.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 3.0 steals, and 3.65 blocks per game. She is currently third on the Gatorsí

all-time scoring list (1,508 points). She is the schoolís all-time leader in rebounds (1,176), double-doubles (57), field-goal percentage (.454), and steals (304), and she is second in blocks (254), trailing only her sis-ter Ericka (271).

“Natasha gives us another for-ward that gives us some size, but she could play the 4 or the 3 and she is a young player who just gets better and better every time I watch her play,” Gobrecht said. “She is a strong rebounder and a very aggres-sive player.”

She joins her sister, Ericka, cur-rently a sophomore forward for the Bulldogs, as the first pair of sisters coached by Gobrecht during her tenure at Yale and the third set of sisters in her coaching career.

Girls’ soccerSacred Heart Prep’s Abby Dahl-

kemper and Geena Graumann will sign a national letter of intent on Feb. 2 to continue their playing careers in college. Dahlkemper is headed to UCLA and Graumann is ticketed for USC. Palo Alto’s Helen Butler will sign with Virginia Tech while teammate Alex Kershner is headed to Duke.

Boys’ water poloIt was quite a 2010 season for the

seniors on the Menlo School boys’ water polo team. Not only did the Knights defend their PAL Bay Di-vision title, but they splashed their way to the Central Coast Section Division II championship.

To top it all off, all five seniors made early commitments to play water polo in college. Kyle Bowman is headed to MIT, Jacob Dorn is go-ing to Johns Hopkins, Jack Finch is headed to Navy, John Holland-Mc-Cowan will continue his career at Harvard and Keegan Williams will play for Bucknell.

“It is so rare, especially in this day and age, that every senior on a team is recruited by their top college choice and then earn admission, and all early-decision, especially at the caliber of schools that these stu-dent-athletes have pursued,” Menlo School coach Jack Bowen said.

The Knights are coming off a season during which they won the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Di-vision crown before capping off the season with a CCS title. Menlo also finished fifth among CCS boysí wa-ter polo teams in the CCS scholastic competition.

Other Menlo seniors who com-mitted to their respective colleges in the early signing period includ-ed: Jake Bruml (baseball), Pomona College; Allie Frappier (volleyball), Yale; Patrick Grimes (golf), Stan-ford; Whitney Hooper (basketball), New York University; Hailey Smith (water polo), Maryland; and Robert Wickers (football), Brown.

WrestlingGunn senior Stefan Weidemann

made some school history by win-ning the 152-pound division at the Mid-Cal Invitational on Saturday at Gilroy High. Weidemann is the first

Gunn wrestler ever to win a title in the prestigious event and now is 15-0 this season, with 12 wins com-ing by pin.

“Stefan had a great game plan and executed it perfectly,” said Gunn coach Chris Horpel. “The Mid-Cals are a good indicator to see if you are ready for CCS and State. Seven of the top 10 teams were from other sections . . . we even had out-of-state representation there.”

Weidemann scored 42 team points while finishing 5-0 in the two-day meet. Gunn finished 28th in the 70-team event with 75.5 points.

After opening with a bye, Weide-mann pinned Arthur Georgiyev of South San Francisco) in 2:53. Weidemann followed that up with a pin over Jose Cardenas of Seaside in 3:16.

In the quarterfinals, Weidemann won by decision over Charles Yllan of Madera South), 9-1. That earned Weidemann a berth in the semifi-nals, where he won by decision over Johnathan Gonzalez of Santa Tere-sa), 6-2. In the championship match, Weidemann won by decision over Isiah Morfin of Selma, 3-0.

Meanwhile, Palo Alto junior Kalen Gans made it to the champi-onship match at 162 pounds before dropping a 9-2 decision to Adam Busch of Castro Valley. Busch was ranked No. 2 at 171 pounds in the North Coast Section and No. 15 in the state.

Gans did defeat Chris McCalla-Creary of Harker in the semifinals, 14-5. McCallaCreary was ranked No. 1 in the Central Coast Section at 160 pounds, a spot Gans now oc-cupies.

The Vikings finished 26th as a team with 80 points. Menlo-Ather-ton also competed, finishing 51st with 36 points.

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