palo alto weekly 04.02.2010 - section 1

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Stanford’s shot at NCAA Final Four

Page 21

Obituaries 11 Movies 18 Spectrum 20 Puzzles 35

News Page Mill investors sue fi rm for millions Page 3

Arts Favorite son creates ‘Sons of Tucson’ 5

Home Old Palo Alto: Walkable, bike-able, beautiful Page 25

Stanford hosts colorful Hindu rite of spring

page 12

Member FDIC

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Palo Alto-based property man-ager Page Mill Properties com-mitted securities fraud, misled

its investors and engaged in an ille-gal and “morally offensive” plan to gentrify a portion of East Palo Alto, a group of Page Mill’s investors is

alleging in a lawsuit against the be-leaguered real-estate company.

Page Mill, which until recently was the largest landlord in East Palo Alto, has been facing a storm of criticism since 2007 from East Palo Alto’s tenants, tenant advocates and

city officials, many of whom ac-cused the company of engaging in a “predatory equity” scheme and of flouting the city’s rent-control ordi-nance. But as court documents make clear, the company has also been fighting a legal war with its own investors, who committed to invest-ing $30 million to a now-crumbling fund and are accusing Page Mill of withholding crucial information and misleading them about its East Palo Alto portfolio.

The conflict between Page Mill and 19 of its investors — including more than a dozen experienced real-estate developers — reached a boil-ing point last October, a month after the company lost its East Palo Alto holdings to foreclosure. On Oct. 12, frustrated investors voted to oust Page Mill CEO David Taran from his posi-tion as the manager of the Page Mill Properties Access Fund, a real-estate fund that Taran set up to finance the East Palo Alto portfolio.

In the Oct. 12 “written consent,” the investors wrote that they have “lost all faith in Access Fund Man-ager’s ability to manage the Com-pany, and legitimately fear that Access Fund Manager, if allowed to continue as managing member and manager of the company, will continue to pursue its own improper self-interests, thus causing both the company and its members further

UpfrontLocal news, information and analysis

Veronica Weber

Page Mill investors sue firm over millions

W hat does the growth in Asian enrollment mean for Palo Alto’s public schools,

and the community at large?That was the question Wednesday

night as some 200 parents and stu-dents — mostly, but not exclusive-ly, Asian — gathered to reflect on “Growing Up Asian in Palo Alto.” The event was sponsored by the Palo Alto Council of PTAs and moderated by School Board President Barbara

Sih Klausner, who stressed that she was participating as an individual, not in an official capacity.

About one-third of Palo Alto’s 11,680 public school students are Asian American, and about one in five is ethnic Chinese, Klausner said.

Students from Paly and Gunn described what it’s like to live with — and sometimes overcome — ste-reotypes from peers and others that they care mainly about math and

science. “Some common questions I get

are, ‘You’re Asian; you must like math and science,’” said Paly junior Chirag Krishna.

“I say, ‘Well yes, I do, but I’m also interested in a lot of other subjects — English, history.’

“People say, ‘You must play the violin, piano or cello.’ I say, ‘No, I’ve actually played the guitar for the past 10 years.’”

Krishna, a tennis player and sec-retary in Paly’s student government, said his school leadership activities have been particularly satisfying.

Running for student body presi-dent at Jordan Middle School, he realized for the first time that rely-ing on his relatively small circle of mostly Asian friends would not be enough to win.

“I had to get myself out there, regardless of stereotypes,” he said. “That’s what I did and it helped me

so much.“I branched out with white kids,

Hispanic kids, African-American kids — people in every single cor-ner, just like the corner I had out on the quad.

“They were a little surprised that this Indian kid, this Asian kid, who could only do well in math, would stand up to do something not typi-cally Asian, that we were not ex-pected to want to do or succeed at.

“This gave me a lot of satisfaction, especially when I won for the first time, which I didn’t really expect.”

Many in the audience were im-migrant parents, who described their challenges in trying to raise “American” children while main-taining their cultural values — and embracing new ones.

“My mom always said, ‘Be a good girl, don’t make mistakes,

Students, parents reflect on ‘Growing Up Asian’

One-third of Palo Alto school enrollment is Asian American

by Chris Kenrick

Parcel-tax ballots to

arrive soonMail-in election seeks

increased levy for Palo Alto schools

by Chris Kenrick

Voters in the Palo Alto school district can expect ballots in the mail next week for Measure

A, which would replace the current school parcel tax with a tax costing an additional $96 a year.

District taxpayers currently pay an annual $493-per-parcel, generating $9.4 million a year, about 6 percent of the school district’s operating budget.

Measure A is a $589-per-parcel tax that would yield about $11.2 million a year for the district’s approximately $154 million operating budget.

The parcel tax would expire in six years and would carry an optional exemption for seniors as well as a 2 percent annual “escalation adjust-ment.” A two-thirds majority is re-quired for the measure to pass.

The Palo Alto Board of Education chose a mail-in ballot rather than an in-person election when it unani-mously voted to submit the tax to voters, saying it would save money.

Voters in the Palo Alto Unified School District, which includes Palo Alto, Stanford University and parts of Los Altos Hills, should receive ballots in the mail Monday.

Ballots must be mailed back no later than April 30 to ensure they are received by the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters by the May 4 deadline, Measure A backers said.

Ballots also may be dropped off at Palo Alto City Hall, 250 Hamil-ton Ave.

A parent-led campaign committee, “Support Palo Alto Schools 2010,” has been holding weeknight phone banks to identify supporters.

No organized opposition has sur-faced in the Measure A campaign.

ELECTION

COMMUNITY

(continued on page 5)

(continued on page 9)(continued on page 5)

Investors claim Palo Alto company committed fraud, misled them in East Palo Alto ‘scheme’

by Gennady Sheyner

Waiting in the wingsMichael, left, and Luis, center, — playing a lion and a cub — wait backstage for their cue while performing the skit “Big Bully, the King of the Jun-gle” during AchieveKids’ Spring Showcase Thursday. Students, who range from 5 to 22 years of age and have developmental disabilities, showcased their talents in poetry, acting, music and signing. The nonprofit operates in Palo Alto and San Jose and is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Upfront

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Around Town

‘‘‘‘

DON’T SKIRT THE LAW! ... Palo Alto’s elected officials are officially lining up against a Cali-fornia Assembly Bill that would exempt certain projects from provisions of the California En-vironmental Quality Act (CEQA). On March 16, Mayor Pat Burt sent a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declaring the city’s opposition to Assembly Bill 1805, which would allow proj-ects selected by the Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency to avoid the stringent environmental-review process. As the letter makes clear, the city is particularly worried about the state’s proposed high-speed rail (HSR) system, which under the current plans would stretch through the city along the Cal-train tracks. “This project, if built, would be the largest single capi-tal infrastructure project in the city, and its impacts on Palo Alto would be significant,” Burt wrote to the Governor. “We strongly believe the guarantees of full CEQA review of the HSR project were the basis for approval of Measure 1A,” he added, refer-ring to the $9.95 billion bond measure California voters ap-proved in November 2008.

FOOLS RUSH IN ... For chari-table folks with limited time on their hands, the Stanford Blood Center this week announced a revolutionary new way to donate blood via the Internet: the iDo-nate application. Using a USB interface (Windows and Mac compatible), blood bag and ster-ile, single-use needle, donors can deliver their type A, B, AB or O blood straight to the labo-ratory for processing. No need to go the blood bank in person anymore! The only catch? The Stanford Blood Center made the announcement in an e-mail ... sent on April 1 — as a joke.

FOR THE FRANCOPHILES ... He slugged Spiderman, got stoned with Seth Rogen and frolicked with Harvey Milk. Now, Palo Alto native James Franco has his sights on the next big project: publishing a collection of short stories. Franco, who graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1996, is scheduled to have a book published in

October. The collection, entitled “Palo Alto,” will be published by Scribner. But fans of Franco (or of Palo Alto) don’t have to wait that long to get a sample of Franco’s fiction. The maga-zine Esquire has just published Franco’s story, “Just Before the Black,” which features reckless driving, raunchy banter, marijua-na smoke and allusions to local locales such as Foothill College and the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course pro shop.

THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER ... Palo Alto’s heated battle over compost-ing is scheduled to continue Monday, when the City Council considers whether it’s greener to build a composting facility at the Baylands’ Byxbee Park or to ship the city’s yard waste to a regional facility. This means the conservationists who’ve been dreaming of a completed Byxbee Park are set for another scrimmage with environmental-ists who see a local waste-to-energy facility as a great way to both dispose of yard trimmings and make some money for the city. This week, the two sides renewed their efforts to sway the council to their respective points of view. David Bubenik, who opposes a new compost-ing plant on park space, sent the council a letter with pictures of what a possible composting plant would look like and argued that “to surrender parkland for a waste-processing facility would be unbelievably retrogressive and beyond unconscionable.” Other notable green leaders, including former council mem-bers Enid Pearson and Emily Renzel have likewise lobbied city officials to close the landfill at Byxbee Park and restore the parkland. Not to be outdone, proponents of a new compost-ing plant organized into a new group, Palo Alto Green Energy, which includes former Mayor Peter Drekmeier, Acterra direc-tor David Coale and environ-mentalist Walt Hays. The group sent the council a letter, asking for a feasibility study of a new facility, which the group wants to see next to the Regional Water Quality Control Plant.

‘You’re Asian; you must like math and science.’

— Chirag Krishna, a junior at Palo Alto High School, on the stereotypes he and other Asian stu-dents have faced. See story on page 3.

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and irreparable harm.” The investors also voted to appoint Alpine Road Management, LLC, as the fund’s new manager.

Two days later, Page Mill officials advised the investors that they con-sidered the request for a manage-ment change “void.” The two sides are now looking for an arbitrator to help them settle the dispute, said at-torney Steven Morger, who is repre-senting the investors.

According to Morger’s complaint, Page Mill began soliciting the in-vestors’ participation in May 2007, when it provided them with a “pri-vate placement memorandum” ex-plaining the company’s investment strategy. The document, according to the complaint, was “based on a slickly crafted pitch that combined (Bernard) Madoff-like airs of exclu-sivity with projections of ‘consistent and superior risk adjusted returns.’”

The 68-page document describes the East Palo Alto portfolio as an area “poised for growth and gentri-fication.” The plan calls for engag-ing East Palo Alto in a public-private partnership, developing condomini-ums, fixing up the infrastructure and “further developing community-ori-ented retail and service business.”

But as the complaint states, Page Mill also failed to mention a few key tidbits about its East Palo Alto portfolio. For one thing, the port-folio was losing about $1.5 million a month at the time Page Mill ap-proached the investors and was a “literal black hole of operating losses.” The company also didn’t disclose to its investors that its new East Palo Alto holdings are subject to the city’s rent-control ordinance — a detail that severely complicated Page Mill’s plans to raise rents and achieve an internal rate of return of 20 percent.

The company’s plan for a private-public partnership with East Palo Alto also didn’t go as planned. In-stead, Page Mill became entangled in about a dozen lawsuits with the city, many of them centering on the rent-control ordinance. The compa-ny successfully challenged the city’s attempt to revise the ordinance last year, forcing the city to delay the vote until this June. Page Mill also petitioned San Mateo County to re-move the Woodlawn Park neighbor-hood from East Palo Alto’s jurisdic-tion.

One investor, Paul Magliocco, wrote in a declaration that Page Mill materially misrepresented and fraudulently concealed material fact, “falsely portraying the Fund as an ongoing success with bright future prospects.” Magliocco, who has been affiliated with the angel inves-tor network Keiretsu Forum, wrote that he would never have invested in the fund had he known about the “scheme to evade rent control laws.”

“From a purely economic perspec-tive, it rendered the investment far too risky,” Magliocco wrote in the Dec. 7 declaration. “At least as im-portantly, I find the scheme morally offensive.

“This investment was sold to me and my fellow investor members as socially conscious and community

beneficial. That was a cynical lie.“Page Mill’s scheme was exploit-

ative and damaging to the East Palo Alto community fabric, forcing many residents out of their homes with huge (probably illegal) rent increases. Had I known the truth, I would have wanted absolutely no part in it.”

The investors are also claiming that Page Mill had failed to inform them of the $50 million loan pay-ment the company was scheduled to make to Wachovia by Aug. 1, 2009. Page Mill failed to repay the loan and, as a result, lost control of its 1,812 units to a court-appointed receiver in September.

The company’s default apparently surprised the investors, who were repeatedly assured that everything was going according to the plan. In November 2008, Taran had made a presentation at an investors’ meet-ing at the HP Pavilion in San Jose in which he was reportedly “upbeat about the (East Palo Alto) portfolio’s performance and prospects.” At that meeting, Taran projected a $1.5 mil-lion operating profit “six months for-ward,” according to the complaint.

By the third quarter of 2009, it

became clear to everyone that the fund was doomed. The missed loan payment and the subsequent fore-closure wiped out Page Mill’s then-$12 million fund and angered the investors. On Aug. 13, more than a week after Page Mill defaulted on the loan, the investors were “first warned that there might be a prob-lem,” the complaint states. Less than a month later, the San Mateo County Superior Court appointed a receiver, Wald Realty Advisors, to oversee the properties.

Beside Magliocco, the list of plaintiffs also includes 14 Crow Canyon Corporation, Dennis A. Chantland, Diablo Capital Venture Fund, Randy Haykin, John Quandt, John Adams, Shane Albers, Colin Wiel Investments, Dina Partners, Kevin Grauman, John Hammergren, James Levine, Neal Mitchell, David Pottruck, William Powar, John Sta-ples, Kenneth Stevens and Vertical Venture Capital.

While the investors have attribut-ed the fund’s collapse to Page Mill’s fraudulent conduct, Page Mill has characterized their complaints as an attempt to skirt a contractual obliga-tion. Under the agreed-upon terms, City National Bank fronted all the money for the fund with the under-standing that it could later call on the investors to repay it.

Early last October, when it was clear that the investment was tank-ing, the bank asked the investors for $14.8 million in repayments. The in-vestors declined to pay and are now suing the bank, claiming that it was complicit in luring them into Page Mill’s scheme.

Page Mill’s attorney, Christine Morgan, characterized the plain-

tiffs as a “self-described group of elite, sophisticated, well-educated and wealthy professionals” who should’ve known what they were getting into.

Albers, for example, serves as chairman and CEO of Investment Mortgage Holdings, a company that manages more than $700 million in real estate investments, Morgan wrote. Vertical Venture, meanwhile, reportedly has more than 15 years of experience as a real-estate developer and investors.

Their latest challenge to Page Mill is basically about the plaintiff’s “at-tempt to avoid honoring their obliga-tion to pay for a group of investments that might fail,” Morgan wrote. Page Mill initiated arbitration proceedings against three of the plaintiffs.

The three plaintiffs, Albers, Grau-man and Vertical Venture, were or-dered by the courts to pay a total of $2.8 million, Morgan wrote.

Taran also disputed the inves-tors’ argument that the company misled them into making a risky investment and failed to disclose its financial obligations. The $50 mil-lion loan from Wachovia was used to refinance a much larger loan from Greenwich Capital Financial Prod-ucts, Taran wrote — a loan of which the investors knew, or should have known. Without the Wachovia loan, the Greenwich loan would have ma-tured in December 2009 and would have required the company to pay Greenwich about $125 million, he said.

The agreed-upon strategy was “to leverage a leveraged investment,” Morgan wrote.

“However, as do all leveraged real-estate investments, Access Fund had risks, and Plaintiffs were thoroughly advised of them,” Morgan wrote. “It should come as no surprise to this sophisticated group, particularly giv-en the real-estate market meltdown and credit crisis, that the Fund could, and did, lose money.”

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

Upfront

Page Mill(continued from page 3)

The Stanford Historical Society Presents Sixth Annual House & Garden Tour

A Study in Contrasts Sunday, April 25, 2010, 1 to 4 p.m.

Three pre-1930 houses and two fascinating modern residences designed by Charles K. Sumner, John K. Branner,

Frank Lloyd Wright, and William Wurster also showcasing landscape architect Thomas Church

Tickets are $20 each (before April 16) And $25 the day of the event

Tour information & directions: http://histsoc.stanford.edu Questions: 650-324-1653 or 650-725-3332

This space donated as community service by the Palo Alto Weekly

A longer version of this article is posted on Palo Alto Online. Also, share your thoughts on the online community dis-cussion forum, Town Square.

READ MORE ONLINEwww.PaloAltoOnline.com

don’t cause trouble,’” said Lie-Yeh Cheng, who immigrated to the Bay Area as a doctoral student at Stan-ford University in Materials Science and Engineering.

“I find I do that to my child too. I had a tendency to say, ‘Be careful, don’t climb that tree; you might fall down.’

“I gradually had to change my-self,” said Cheng, who has a son at Jordan and a daughter at Hoover.

Klausner said she hoped Wednes-day’s meeting would be the first of many to enable parents and students of all ethnicities to discuss the inter-section of Asian culture with Palo Alto and its schools.

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

Growing Up Asian(continued from page 3)

‘Had I known the truth, I would have wanted absolutely no part in it.’

—Paul Magliocco, investor, Page Mill Properties

When a group of Fairmeadow residents launched an effort two years ago to ban new

two-story buildings in their Eichler neighborhood in south Palo Alto, they had no idea they’d be setting off a bitter debate surrounding property rights and privacy.

After hearing from both propo-nents and opponents of the proposal Wednesday night, a split Palo Alto Planning and Transpor-tation Commission ruled that without a clear consensus, a ban on new two-story build-ings would be premature.

The commission voted not to proceed with the “single-story overlay district” in Fairmeadow but asked staff to conduct a fresh survey of the neighborhood, which is bounded by East Meadow Drive and Charleston Road. Both proponents and oppo-nents of the new overlay dis-trict are to help staff craft the language in the survey.

The petition for the overlay was proposed by residents in a 127-home section of Fairmeadow — Starr King Circle, Lindero Drive and Redwood Circle. Last year, the residents presented the planning commission with a petition show-ing 72 percent of the property own-ers in the subset of the neighbor-hood supported an overlay district.

Proponents argued that their boxy, glass-laden Eichler homes lose charm when a neighbor builds a two-story building next door. The taller buildings loom over the mod-est one-story Eichlers with their floor-to-ceiling windows, ruining the neighborhood’s visual consis-tency and residents’ privacy, peti-

tioners contended.Anne Knight, one of the circula-

tors of the petition, said two-story buildings juxtaposed with one-sto-ry homes run counter to the Eichler philosophy. Knight said she sup-ports letting property owners do as they please, provided their actions don’t have a negative impact on neighbors.

“We need to think what’s best for the whole community,” Knight told the commission Wednesday.

But many neighbors begged to differ. Some argued in letters and during Wednesday’s meeting that a new overlay district would effec-tively strip them of their property rights and bring down their prop-erty values. A few characterized their neighbors’ effort to ban two-story houses as selfish and incon-siderate. Others said they have no immediate plans to build up but said they’d like to reserve that op-tion to accommodate their growing families.

“I want new families to move into my community, and I want

them to have a choice,” said Anna Thayer, another Fairmeadow resi-dent. “When they buy a home for $1 million, they should have the right to do what they want to do with that home.”

The city’s effort last year to gauge the neighborhood’s opinion further muddled the debate. Last September, the city mailed out a

survey to all 300 houses in the entire Fairmeadow neighborhood, which also includes Roosevelt Circle and a portion of Bryant Street and South Court. Only 137 people responded to the city survey, with 73 property owners (24 per-cent) supporting a single-story overlay and 64 (21 percent) opposing it.

A few residents told the commission they were con-fused by the survey and weren’t sure what they were voting for. Some said they never received it.

Under the city’s municipal code, the overlay proposal needs the sup-port of 60 percent of the property owners before it can be adopted. Commissioner Susan Fineberg argued that because the original survey of the neighborhood’s sub-set showed 72 percent in favor of the overlay, the commission should honor their wishes and create the new zone in the smaller, 127-house area.

“I don’t like processes that are divisive, I’m sorry it happened already in this neighborhood, but there’s never going to be a consen-sus,” Fineberg said. “Our munici-pal code, our laws, don’t say, ‘Ev-eryone has to agree or you don’t get this.’”

But her proposal to proceed with the overlay district in the smaller area failed by a 3-3 vote, with Edu-ardo Martinez and Arthur Keller supporting her idea and Daniel Garber, Samir Tuma and Greg Tanaka voting against it.

“I do not oppose furthering a single-story overlay for this par-ticular area; I’m happy to entertain that,” Garber said. “But I’m unwill-ing to do that if it creates division and questions and confrontation between neighbors.”

Tuma proposed not creating the new zone overlay until residents come back with their own survey proving that they have a clear con-sensus. Keller suggested that staff work with both sides of the debate to craft and circulate the survey, a proposal that passed 4-2, with Tuma and Tanaka voting against it.

Once completed, the survey will return to the planning commission for further discussion.

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

Upfront

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Planning and Transportation Commission (March 31)Fairmeadow: The commission voted to recommend not creating a single-story overlay district in the Fairmeadow neighborhood. The commission also directed staff to conduct a new survey of a 127-home section of the neighborhood to measure residents’ interest in the new overlay district. Yes: Garber, Keller, Fineberg, Martinez No: Tuma, Tanaka

Utilities Advisory Commission (March 31)Ameresco: The commission recommended that the City Council approve two contracts with energy firm Ameresco, which burns landfill gas and converts it to electricity. Com-missioners Eglash, Melton and Keller said they would prefer 20-year contracts with Ameresco, while commissioners Foster and Ameri said they would prefer 15-year con-tracts. The Finance Committee will discuss the contracts on April 6. Yes: Unanimous

Architectural Review Board (April 1)California Avenue: The board held a study session on Phase 2 of the California Avenue Streetscape Improvement Plan, which includes new benches, kiosks, bike lockers and newspaper boxes along California Avenue. The board was generally pleased with the pro-posal, but members criticized some of the benches and kiosks in the plan. Action: None

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 www.PaloAltoOnline.com

Eichler community divided over two-story houses

Neighbors split over proposed ban of tall buildings; planning commission orders new survey

by Gennady Sheyner

NEIGHBORHOODS

ROOSEVELT CIR

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REDWOOD CIR

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RAMONA

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SOUTH COURT BRYANT ST.

LINDERO DR.

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ARLSON CIRCLE

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Upfront

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Join Twain scholar and Director of Stanford’s Program in

American Studies Shelley Fisher Fishkin and prolific author

Hilton Obenzinger for a two part film series, Ken Burns’

Mark Twain. Mark Twain is the fifth film in Ken Burns’

popular American Lives series and features interviews with

Hal Holbrook, Arthur Miller, and leadingTwain scholars. A

popular humorist, philosopher, and social satirist, Mark Twain was

the nation’s first literary celebrity. Tracing Twain’s rise from his

humble birth in Missouri to his prosperous life in Connecticut as

the nation’s best-selling author, Burns’ film reveals a compelling

portrait of the father of American literature.

Mark Twain Anniversary Festival:Ken Burns' Mark Twain Film Series

Mark Twain, Part IThursday, April 8

7:30 pm

Mark Twain, Part IIThursday, April 15

7:30 pm

History Corner(Bldg. 200), Room 002

FREE

Father, son sue Palo Alto over housingFollowing in his father’s footsteps, Forrest Mozart filed

a lawsuit against Palo Alto earlier this month, claiming that the city’s affordable-housing program is illegal and amounts to a “special tax” against developers.

Mozart filed his lawsuit just four months after his fa-ther, John Mozart, filed a similar suit, arguing that the city is unfairly forcing him to devote 10 percent of his 96-unit Sterling Park development on West Bayshore Road to below-market-rate housing.

The younger Mozart’s suit pertains to a much smaller project: a 6-condominium West Meadow Oaks project on West Meadow Drive. But the argument is the same. Both suits challenge the city’s practice of requiring de-velopers to either devote a portion of their projects to below-market-rate (BMR) housing or to pay the city an “in lieu” fee to build affordable housing elsewhere.

The city approved West Meadow Oaks in 2008 with the understanding that the developer would comply with the BMR terms and pay an in-lieu fee. The fee would be 7.5 percent of the project’s sales price, which is expected to total hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Though the applicant agreed to the terms, he argues in the lawsuit that he executed the documents “under duress and compulsion.” Forrest Mozart’s lawsuit also claims that the city “improperly, and without legal or evidentiary justification, arbitrarily set its requirement for payment of the disputed ‘BMR in lieu fee,’” — the same argument his father made when he filed his law-suit in October.

Forrest Mozart’s lawsuit likens the fees to a “special tax” and “an arbitrary and unjustified development ex-action.” It also claims that that the city’s practice of demanding that a fixed percentage of homes in a devel-opment be below-market-rate houses “unlawfully re-quired the project to bear costs and burdens necessary for the city to cure its existing perceived deficiencies of ‘affordable housing’ in the community.”

Donald Larkin, Palo Alto’s assistant city attorney,

said the city is planning to go to mediation to resolve the lawsuit with John Mozart.

— Gennady Sheyner

Fraudulent solar seller to repay victimsRichard and Esther Sirinsky wanted to do a good turn

for the environment. So in 2008, they decided to install solar panels on the roof of their Menlo Park home. They called a few companies and settled on Beohana Solar Corp. of San Jose.

Esther Sirinsky was particularly impressed with CEO Peter Be, who seemed knowledgeable about the panels he was selling.

“He had the product we wanted. He was very person-able. His price was in the proper range,” she said.

But unfortunately for the Sirinskys, Be’s price turned out to be all too high. After taking their deposit, Be failed to deliver the system, first stalling, then telling the Sirinskys the product was no longer available, ac-cording to Esther Sirinsky.

When the Sirinskys demanded their deposit back, he sent only a fraction, Esther Sirinsky recalled Tuesday.

The Sirinskys were not alone, as the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office later discovered.

Last week, Be, 42, was sentenced to eight months in county jail and ordered to pay restitution of $178,146.90 to 62 victims of his operation.

Most had paid Beohana Solar a $1,000 deposit, but a few paid between $2,000 and $8,000, according to Lisa Schon, deputy district attorney with the county’s Consumer Protection Unit.

Be was convicted of four felony counts of diversion of construction funds and a misdemeanor count of con-tracting without a license. Be represented himself as a licensed contractor, which he was not, according to a press release from the District Attorney’s Office.

The case was investigated by the Contractors State Licensing Board, which licenses and regulates Califor-nia’s construction industry. The probe was “crucial in bringing justice to consumers who became victims of Mr. Be’s crimes,” District Attorney Dolores Carr stated in the press release.

— Jocelyn Dong

News Digest

Upfront

Palo Alto’s composting quandary continuesPalo Alto should hold off on considering a new composting plant

until it can find a site that can accommodate the new facility, staff is recommending in a new report. (Posted April 1 at 9:51 a.m.)

Prize-winner hooked on the ‘elegance’ of mathIt has been at season of rewards for Palo Alto High School senior Lyn-

nelle Ye. Ye’s passion for the “elegance” of mathematics — discovered in childhood and nurtured by her grandmother, her parents and various Palo Alto teachers — has earned her top rankings this year in two of the nation’s most rigorous academic competitions. (Posted March 31 at 1:27 p.m.)

Menlo Park to hire high-speed-rail lobbyistThe city of Menlo Park has hired a lobbyist to make the city’s case

to Sacramento when it comes to the California high-speed-rail project, and has devoted $200,000 for the upcoming fiscal year to rail issues. (Posted March 31 at 11:50 a.m.)

Youth initiatives to be put to the test SaturdayHopes for more youth summer internships, tastier lunch options at

Gunn High School and new late-night teen hangouts are to be clarified Saturday in a “youth forum” at Mitchell Park Community Center. The forum is the third and final in three sessions aimed at promoting “hon-est and open dialogue” between Palo Alto’s teens and adults. (Posted

March 30 at 4:37 p.m.)

Palo Alto takes fresh look at landfill-gas contractsPalo Alto is once again considering investing in “green energy”

generated by landfill gas, though the latest proposal is far less sweep-ing than the one a City Council committee balked at two weeks ago. (Posted March 30 at 4:26 p.m.)

Menlo Park police Chief Bruce Goitia to retireMenlo Park police Chief Bruce Goitia will retire after 28 years with

the Police Department, effective June 1, City Manager Glen Rojas an-nounced Monday. (Posted March 30 at 11:20 a.m.)

Three ideas win ‘There Oughta Be a Law’ contestThree ideas for new legislation have been selected by California

State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) in his annual “There Oughta Be a Law” contest. One would protect the rights of Californians who are improperly cited by “red light cameras”; the second would enable more voters to cast their ballots at a local polling place; and the third would issue a formal apology from the State of California to Italian Americans interned during World War II. (Posted March 29 at 4:54 p.m.)

Mountain lion may have killed deer in La HondaA deer that was found dead in San Mateo County’s La Honda area

this morning appears to have been attacked by a mountain lion, county officials said. (Posted March 29 at 11:55 a.m.)

Stanford has record number of applicantsStanford University has offered admission to 2,300 high school stu-

dents from around the world — just 7.2 percent of those who applied, the university announced. The 32,022 applicants to Stanford’s class of 2014 represented the largest in the university’s history, according to the Office of Undergraduate Admission. (Posted March 29 at 9:55 a.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.

All Types of Roofi ng & GuttersResidential & Commercial S.C.L#785441

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ALL ABOUT PREGNANCYWe will off er an overview of pregnancy for the newly pregnant or about-to-be pregnant couple. Th e program will include the physical and emotional changes of pregnancy, comfort measures for pregnancy, fetal development and growth, pregnancy testing, life changes and much more. Off ered Free of Charge. Seating is Limited. Please call to reserve a space. - Saturday, May 15: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

HEART TO HEART SEMINAR ON GROWING UPInformative, humorous and lively discussions between parents and their pre-teens on puberty, the opposite sex and growing up. Girls attend these two-part sessions with their moms and boys attend with their dads. - For Girls: Wednesdays, May 12 & 19: 6:30 - 8:30 pm - For Boys: Mondays, May 17 & 24: 6:30 - 8:30 pm - In Spanish for Girls: Saturday, May 15: 3:30 - 5:30 pm

NEWBORN CARE 101Th is interactive program teaches the specifi cs of newborn care including bathing, swaddling, soothing and more. Infant doll models are used to allow for hands-on practice. - Saturday, May 1: 9:00 am - 12:00 pm

Call (650) 723-4600 or visit www.lpch.org to register or obtain more information on the times, locations and fees for these and other courses.

Your Child’s Health UniversityLucile Packard Children’s Hospital offers classes and seminars designed to foster good health and enhance the lives of parents and children.

C A L L T O D A Y T O S I G N U P F O R C L A S S E S ( 6 5 0 ) 7 2 3 - 4 6 0 0

L U C I L E PA C K A R D

C H I L D R E N’SH O S P I T A L

L U C I L E PAC K A R D C H I L D R E N ’ S H O S P I TA L

GRANDPARENTS SEMINARDesigned for new and expectant grandparents, this class examines changes in labor and delivery practices, the latest recommendations for infant care and the unique role of grandparents in the life of their child. - Wednesday, May 19: 6:00 - 8:30 pm

Anyone who may have knowledge about allegations that a member or members of Stanford Law School may have

communicated negative information about former Stanford Law School students between 2001 and the present, is urged

to call 415-205-8925. All responses will be kept confidential. Information may be pertinent to a pending lawsuit, case #CIV489678,filed in San Mateo County Superior Court.

Upfront

Thank You Palo Alto. Lets Celebrate Our

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ALSO CATERING YOUR BUSINESS OR SOCIAL EVENT

PALO ALTO CITY COUNCIL ... The council plans to discuss the city’s options for a composting facility and to consider a proposal from the Department of Public Works staff to conduct a survey of registered voters about the possibility of building an organic-material-processing facility at Byxbee Park. The council also plans to amend the Fiscal Year 2010 budget and to accept the Regional Water Quality Control Plant Site feasibility study. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Monday, April 5, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

HIGH-SPEED RAIL SUBCOMMITTEE ... The subcommittee plans to hear an update on high-speed-rail legislation from the city’s lobbyist, Ravi Mehta. The meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 6, in the Council Conference Room at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

FINANCE COMMITTEE ... The committee plans to discuss the city’s development agreement proposal for the Stanford University Medi-cal Center hospital expansion project; review a proposal to sign a renewable-energy contract with Ameresco; and consider increasing storm-drain rates and refuse rates. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 6, in the Council Conference Room at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

PLANNING AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION ... The commis-sion plans to comment on the revised Draft Program Environmental Impact Report for the proposed high-speed-rail system. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 7, in the Council Conference Room at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

UTILITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION ... The commission plans to dis-cuss a proposal to open an anaerobic digestion facility at the Regional Water Quality Control Plant; the city’s transmission interconnection alter-natives; and the latest activities of the Bay Area Water Supply and Con-servation Agency. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 7, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

Public Agenda

Pro-Measure A volunteers will be-gin calling supporters next week to make sure they have returned their ballots, campaigners said.

Measure A backers plan to rally at Lytton Plaza Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Featured speakers will include State Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, a Paly graduate and former mem-ber of the Palo Alto school board; Stanford University football coach

and Paly graduate Jim Harbaugh; Palo Alto Mayor Pat Burt; Palo Alto City Council Member Yiaway Yeh, a Gunn High School graduate, and Stanford Freshman Dean Julie Lythcott-Haims.

School board President Barbara Sih Klausner and Gunn Student School Board Representative Steve Zhou also will attend.

“This community has long sup-ported and benefited from its fine school system,” said campaign co-chair Anna Thayer, a mother of four and vice-president of the PTA Coun-cil Executive Board.

Measure A(continued from page 3)

PulseA weekly compendium of vital statistics

Camp ConnectionPaloAltoOnline.com/biz/summercamps

G U I D E T O 2 0 1 0 S U M M E R C A M P S F O R K I D S

Sports Camps

Player Capital/Plan Toys Tennis Camp Palo Alto

www.playercapital.com 650-968-4783

Spring Down Camp Equestrian Center Portola Valley

www.springdown.com 650.851.1114

Champion Tennis Camps Atherton

www.alanmargot-tennis.net 650-752-0540

SOLO Aquatics Menlo Park

www.soloaquatics.com 650-851-9091

YMCA Peninsula

www.ymcasv.org/summercamp.com 408-351-6400

Matt Lottich Life Skills Woodside

www.mllscamp.com 1-888-537-3223

Stanford Baseball Camps Stanford

www.StanfordBaseballCamp.com 650-723-4528

Academic Camps

iD Tech Camps and iD Teen Academies Stanford

www.iDTechCamps.com 1-888-709-TECH (8324)

Summer @ Harker San Jose

www.summer.harker.org 408-553-0537

Summer at Saint Francis Mountain View

www.sfhs.com/summer 650-968-1213 x446

Nueva Summer Hillsborough

www.NuevaSummer.org 650-350-4555

Summer Institute for the Gifted Berkeley/Hillsborough

www.giftedstudy.org 866-303-4744

The Girls’ Middle School Summer Camp Mountain View

www.girlsms.org/summercamp 650-968-8338

Woodland School Summer Adventures Portola Valley

[email protected] 650-854-9065

Oshman Family JCC Camps Palo Alto

www.paloaltojcc.org 650-223-8600

Stratford School - Camp Socrates Bay Area

www. stratfordschools.com 650-493-1151

Write Now! Summer Writing Camps Palo Alto/Pleasanton

www.headsup.org 650-424-1267, 925-485-5750

TechKnowHow Computer & LEGO® Camps Peninsula

www.techknowhowkids.com 650-474-0400

ISTP Language Immersion Palo Alto

www.istp.org 650-251-8519

Theatreworks Summer Camps Palo Alto

www.theatreworks.org/educationcommunity 650-463-7146

Amazing Science Camp! Mountain View

Email: [email protected] 650-279-7013

India Community Center Camps Palo Alto & Milpitas

www.indiacc.org/culturalcamps 408-416-0215

Art and Music Camps

Summer Rock Camp Palo Alto/Redwood City

www.summerrockcamp.com 650-722-1581, 650-856-3757

Community School of Music & Arts (CSMA) Mtn. View

www.arts4all.org 650-917-6800 ext.0

Palo AltoMarch 24-30Violence relatedBattery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Strong-arm robbery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Theft relatedCommercial burglary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Credit card forgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Grand theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Identity theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Shoplifting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Vehicle relatedAbandoned auto. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Abandoned bicycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Auto burglary attempt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Evading traffic stop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Hit and run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Misc. traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Suspended license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Theft from auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Vehicle accident/minor injury . . . . . . . . .6

Vehicle accident/property damage. . . . .9

Vehicle impound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Alcohol or drug relatedDrunk in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Drunken driving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Possession of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Possession of paraphernalia. . . . . . . . . .1

MiscellaneousAnimal call. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Casualty fall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Counterfeiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Elder abuse: neglect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Harassing e-mail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Found property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Lost property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Misc. penal code violation . . . . . . . . . . .2

Noise ordinance violation . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Possession of stolen property . . . . . . . .1

Sex crime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . .2

Terrorist threats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Unattended death. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Warrant/other agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Menlo ParkMarch 24-30Violence relatedBattery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Spousal abuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Theft relatedFraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Grand theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Commercial burglary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Residential/commercial burglary . . . . . .1

Vehicle relatedAuto theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Driving w/ suspended license. . . . . . . . .7

Hit & run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Theft from auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Vehicle tow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Vehicle recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Alcohol and drug relatedDrunken driving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Drug activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Narcotics registrant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

MiscellaneousAnnoying phone calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

CPS referral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Domestic disturbance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Found property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Info case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Juvenile problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Lost property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Medical aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Missing person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Mental evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Threats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Warrant arrest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Weapon concealment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

VIOLENT CRIMESPalo AltoArastradero Road, 3/24/10, 2 p.m.; battery.

600 block East Meadow Drive, 3/25/10,

10:47 p.m.; strong-arm robbery.

Menlo Park300 block of Ivy Drive, 3/25/10, 7:14 p.m.;

battery.

Middlefield Road, 3/25/10, 8:26 p.m.;

spousal abuse.

1200 block of Carlton Avenue, 3/30/10,

1:44 a.m.; battery.

Transitions

Adalberto Viggiano, a 48 year Palo Alto resident, died March 25 at 86 years of age. His wife of 62 years, six children, 17 grandchildren, and their families will remember him with infinite love.

He was born in Trieste, Italy and grew up in Venice. He earned an advanced degree at the University of Padova in Electrical Engineering. In 1947 he married the love of his life, Dina Fontanin. They led an adventuresome life, first immigrating to Halifax, Nova Scotia, then to work at the University of Chicago before settling in Palo Alto where he worked as an engineer at SRI, Bechtel and Lockheed among

other places. He loved opera, traveling, but most of all he loved his family.

Nonno, as he was known to his grandchildren always put his family first. It was impossible not to love him.

A celebration of his life will be held for family and friends on Saturday, April 3rd, at 2:00PM, at his home.

In lieu of gifts, please send donations to the Henry and Maria Holt Memorial Scholarship Fund221 Lambert Avenue, Palo Alto, CA [email protected]

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

Born in Vancouver BC., Frank passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family. He was a long- time resident of San Francisco, San Mateo and Menlo Park. Frank is survived by his wife of 65 years, Marian and their two sons, Don and Jim, 4 grand children and 3 great grand children. He was preceded in death by his youngest son Ken.

Frank graduated from Burlingame High school and attended the University of California, Berkeley. He attended many Cal - Stanford Big Games in support of his beloved Bears. Frank started his working years as an accountant for Steam & Plumbing Service Corp; a San Francisco based plumbing wholesaler, eventually becoming owner and President until his retirement in 1985. Frank enjoyed traveling, especially to Hawaii, and spending summers with Marian at “YABAHAT”, their summer retreat at Lake Tahoe. He spent many hours perfecting his golf skills at courses around the Bay Area. He was an active volunteer for Meals on Wheels, delivering food to seniors in the South Bay Area.

There will be no memorial service. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Little House c/o Peninsula Volunteers, 800 Middle Ave, Menlo Park, CA 04025


Mignon Heck, 37, a resident of San Francisco, died March 23.

Mignon grew up in Palo Alto, and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1996.

She enjoyed photography and modern dance. She is survived by her mother, Ruth Norman; brothers,

Carson Heck and Merril Heck; stepmother, Patricia Heck; stepbrothers, Bryan Clarkson and Brad Clarkson.

Services will be held on Saturday, April 3, at 11:00 a.m. at Peninsula Bible Church, 3505 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto.


John E. “Jack” Austin, 91, of Palo Alto, California, died March 15, 2010, after a brief illness. He was born and raised in Seattle, and attended the University of Washington. During World War II, Jack served as a test pilot and achieved the rank of Captain in the U.S. Air Force. He began his career in real estate development in the 1940s; in 1960, the Austins moved from the Pacific Northwest to Palo Alto, where Jack served on the city’s Planning Commission, was an active member of the Kiwanis Club, and a champion for business interests in the community.

The family owns and manages Pacific Square, a 75,000-square-foot commercial building in the heart of downtown Santa Cruz. A landmark destination, the building houses nine tenants, among them Urban Outfitters, Regal Cinemas, Peet’s Coffee and Tea, and the Santa Cruz Medical Clinic (part of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation).

Jack is survived by his daughters, Nancy K. Austin and her husband, Bill Cawley, of Aptos, California; Melanie M. Austin and her husband, Michael P. Stickels, Sr., of La Conner, Washington; and by his son, Todd F. Austin, and his wife, Mary Austin, of Sonora, California. He is also survived by his sister-in-law, Nancy E. Yochem, of Palo Alto; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

He will be interred in a private ceremony next to Marilyn K. Austin, his wife of 53 years, in Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto. The family suggests donations to the American Heart Association. www.rollerhapgoodtinney.com


6 3 5 1 4 8 9 2 79 8 1 7 2 3 5 6 42 4 7 6 9 5 1 8 35 9 3 2 1 7 6 4 81 7 8 4 5 6 3 9 24 2 6 3 8 9 7 1 58 5 2 9 3 1 4 7 63 6 9 8 7 4 2 5 17 1 4 5 6 2 8 3 9

Answers to this week’s puzzles, which can be found on page 35

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DeathsRachel Feferman

Rachel Feferman, 55, a former resident of Palo Alto, died March 14 after a long struggle with breast cancer.

She grew up in Palo Alto and Stanford and lived in San Francisco and Seattle before settling in Port Townsend, Wash.

She attended Stanford Elementary School, Terman Middle School and Gunn High School. She did her uni-versity studies at the San Francisco Art Institute and Lone Mountain College, and graduate work at the University of Washington. She also worked as a cook at Castilleja School and the Djerassi Foundation.

An intrepid experimenter in many forms of art, she had numerous solo shows in Palo Alto and Seattle and other venues. In 2009, her book “Golden Hands: Drawings and Re-flections” was published. Loved ones recall her as a gifted artist, writer and teacher.

She is survived by her parents, Anita and Solomon Feferman of Stanford,; her sister Julie Feferman-Perez; and two nieces.

Elinor SmithElinor Smith Sullivan, 98, one

of the world’s earliest and most re-nowned female pilots, died of kidney failure at Palo Alto’s Lytton Gardens March 19.

She was born in New York, N.Y., and grew up in Long Island, N.Y. She took her first flight, as a passenger, at age 6 and began taking flying les-sons at age 10.

In 1927, at age 16, she became the youngest licensed pilot on record in the world and completed daring tricks along with setting endurance, speed and altitude records, according to a report in the Washington Post.

Smith married Patrick Henry Sul-livan II in 1933 and retired from fly-ing to focus on raising her family. After her husband’s death in 1956, she resumed her flying career and took her last flight in 2001.

Twenty-five years ago she moved to the Bay Area to be near her son and a close friend.

She is survived by her children, Patrick Sullivan III of Santa Cruz, Patricia Sullivan of New York, N.Y., Kathleen Worden of Grand Junction, Colo., and Pamela Sullivan of Glen Cove, N.Y.; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Cover

Traditional festival of ‘Holi’ celebrates spring, raises money for education in India

Photographs by Veronica Weber / Story by Martin Sanchez

M ore than 5,000 people converged on Stanford University’s Sandhill playing field Saturday afternoon

to dance, sing and cover one another with huge quantities of colored powder for Holi, a Hindu holiday celebrating the coming of spring.

This incarnation of the ancient festival was also a fundraiser for the Stanford chapter of Asha for Education, a nonprofit group that conducts educational programs in India, ac-cording to Stanford student and event orga-nizer Hari Kannan.

Holi has acquired much mythological sig-nificance over the years, Kannan said, but the holiday’s most recognizable activity involves people plastering friends and strangers alike with “gulal,” a brightly colored powder.

On Saturday, two volunteers waited at the festival’s entrance with bulging sacks of pow-der and made sure no one entered the party unadorned.

Inside, exuberant attendees wandered the field flicking handfuls of the dusty stuff on the faces and clothes of passersby with the accompanying greeting “Happy Holi!” (pro-nounced “holly”). Others — children, mostly — mixed powder and water in water pistols and tried to catch their targets by surprise.

Occasionally, an inattentive teenager was scooped up by four or five others and whisked

off to a faucet to receive a thorough soaking. It was not always apparent that these cap-tives knew their assailants, but none of them seemed to mind either way.

Vibrant red, blue, green, yellow and pur-ple dominated the scene Saturday, but those shades quickly blended together on the bodies of particularly persistent revelers. As the event wore on, enthusiastic gulal use caused a thick orange haze to form over the playing field. Brighter-hued blossoms frequently punctu-ated the cloud as people threw handfuls of powder into the air or at nearby faces.

Asha for Education volunteer Akanksha Bapna said covering passersby with gulal represents “a celebration of brotherhood, of putting aside differences.”

Her favorite part of Holi is “definitely the colors, but it’s nice to know the money is go-ing to such good causes,” she said.

Others saw Holi as an opportunity to break down social barriers as well.

“I heard a couple talking to their daughter, and they said, ‘No, you do talk to strangers!’” Stanford student Eve Thorne said.

As Thorne’s friend Emily Knight put it, her favorite part of Holi is “a toss-up between the food and having my face touched by strange

people.”Holi drew families as well as students.“It’s a great time, very good family fun. The

color, everybody running around with squirt guns — it’s great,” said Palo Alto resident Jay Miller, whose daughter Madeline was perched

‘ It’s a great time, very good family fun. The color, everybody running around with squirt guns — it’s great.’

– Jay Miller, resident, Palo Alto

Holi Festival participants hold out their hands to receive more yellow pigment.

Colorful Hindu holidbrightens Stanford

Story

Asha Stanford Co-president Nikit Abhyankar splashes color on visitors entering the festival, held last Saturday.

Far left, Prateek Verma gives daughter Vaura Verma a lift as they dance with friends Mannat, Nitish and Nipa Badhwar. Left, Holi revelers dance to Bollywood-style music. Above, festival participants are gleefully engulfed in a cloud of yellow pigment, called “gulal.”

day

on his shoulders. Saturday was the first time either of them had celebrated Holi, he said. He heard about the event from friends who had attended in past years, he said.

(continued on next page)

Cover Story

Palo Alto resident Ruma Nandi also attended the event with her children.

“At my kids’ first one, I told them, ‘You can throw anything on anyone and they won’t mind,’ so that’s great for them,” she said.

Saturday’s event also attracted people of diverse ages and ethnici-ties, Nandi said.

Festival goers also enjoyed dancing to catchy Bollywood-style songs sung in Hindi, though some featured snatches of Michael Jack-son’s “Billie Jean” or Queen’s “Un-der Pressure.” Dancers who knew the music cheered and sang along

Above, in keeping with the spirit of Holi, this handful of bright green gulal could end up on a friend — or a stranger. Right, friends take a festivalgoer to get hosed off with water.

with their favorites, while others merely smiled and grooved.

Nearby, a First Aid team ad-ministered a steady stream of eye drops to those temporarily blinded by gulal. Most patients were quick to rejoin the party.

Prathima Venkatesan attended the event with the “Indian fusion” dance group Project Pulse, which performed several times during

the event. “It’s all so colorful. It’s really

just celebrating life,” she said.The event’s organizers said

the Holi festival raised about $75,000.

Profits from the event’s admis-sion fees will fund 11 projects in India, including an elementary school for children with disabili-ties, Kannan said.

Staff Photographer Veronica Weber can be e-mailed at [email protected]. Editorial Intern Martin Sanchez can be e-mailed at [email protected].

Holi Festival(continued from previous page)

‘ It’s all so colorful. It’s really just celebrating life.’

– Prathima Venkatesan, dancer, Project Pulse

1390 Pear Ave., Mountain View(650) 254-1120www.mvpizzeriaventi.com

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To cook: Bring 1 cup water to a boil in a large stockpot. Add clams; cover and cook 4-5 minutes or until shells open. Remove clams from pan; reserve 1 cup cooking liquid. Discard any unopened shells.

Bring 6 quarts water and 2 teaspoons salt to a boil in large pot. Add broccoli, and cook 3 minutes or until the broccoli is bright green. Remove broccoli with a slotted spoon (do not drain water from stockpot). Place broccoli in a colander, and rinse with cold water. Drain broccoli; coarsely chop.

Return water to a boil. Stir in pasta and return to a boil, stirring frequently. Cook 8 minutes or until the pasta is al dente, stirring occasionally.

While pasta cooks, heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add garlic; cook 30 seconds or until fragrant and translucent, stirring constantly. Add broccoli and red pepper; cook 2 minutes or until broccoli sizzles. Stir in clams and reserved 1 cup cooking liquid; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 2 minutes or until broccoli is tender.

Add pasta to skillet, stirring well to coat. Bring mixture to a boil. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt and chopped parsley; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Serve immediately and drizzle eachserving with 1/2 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil and 4-5 shavings of Asiago.

Serves 4.

Linguine alle Vongole con Broccoli

shells, scrubbed (about 2 1/2 pounds)

divided

Linguine alle Vongole con BroccoliThe Amalfi Coast seduces its visitors not only for the wonderful panoramas and

gastronomy. Each town and village features typical specialties from the local products. Pasta alle Vongole con broccoli is one of the grandest of all Amalfi Coast seafood dishes, allowing for the romance of Positano by teasing the palate with the freshness of spring broccoli and warmth of summer still to come in the spicy red pepper. The sea provides its fruits and the land its bounty. The people, they provide

and area been so blessed.

From our kitchen to yours. Buon appetito! Chef Marco Salvi, Executive Chef

On the cover: Ingrid Inema prepares to toss red pigment at Stanford’s Holi festival last Saturday.

Arts & EntertainmentA weekly guide to music, theater, art, movies and more, edited by Rebecca Wallace

by Rebecca Wallace

Greg Bratman is certainly not the only high-flying kid from Palo Alto to enter a Ph.D. program

at Stanford. But he just might be the first environmental-science student to co-create a TV show.

“Sons of Tucson,” a half-hour comedy that premiered on Fox last month, is the brainchild of Bratman, 34, and his actor friend Tommy Dewey. The pair met in a theater improv group while they were Princeton stu-dents, then started doing two-men, multi-character shows. Before they knew it, they were also writing scripts for film and TV.

Bratman and Dewey thought up “Sons of Tucson” as a fam-ily comedy about four kids — one of whom “just happens to be an adult,” Bratman said in a recent interview. The premise is that the three Gunderson broth-ers are left on their own after their white-collar-criminal fa-ther is sent to prison, and they need a phony dad to register at a new school. So they turn to Ron Snuffkin (played by Tyler Labine from “Reaper”), who is a slacker but also a resourceful and rather charming liar.

What results is a shady busi-ness deal that turns into a fam-ily of sorts, complete with a cute teacher (Natalie Martinez), who may or may not be immune to Ron’s banter.

The show is billed as having an offbeat flavor similar to that of the 2000-2006 Fox program “Malcolm in the Middle,” and some familiar names show up here, including Justin Berfield, who played Malcolm’s brother Reese and is one of the execu-tive producers of “Tucson.”

Bratman also gives a lot of credit to another executive producer, Harvey Myman, for getting “Tucson” to the small screen. He helped Bratman and Dewey formulate the show and make the script tight.

“A lot of times you’ll go in and pitch an idea, but we were unknowns in television. It’s very hard if you haven’t worked in television before. We had to have a fully fleshed-out script,” Brat-man said.

The “Tucson” team started shooting the new show last Sep-tember and wrapped in Decem-ber after creating 13 episodes. The show is currently airing at 9:30 p.m. on Sundays and is scheduled to do so until June.

Bratman said that making the pilot, in particular, was a great collaborative learning experi-ence.

“We were on the set, got to be in post-production and had a say in pretty much everything,” he said. “I just saw so much and learned so much about how it

Stanford student Greg Bratman is also

co-creator of Fox comedy ‘Sons of Tucson’

(continued on next page)

A Ph.D.-to-be TV on

Greg Bratman, 34, is a Gunn High School graduate.

This Fox publicity shot shows Tyler Labine surrounded by his fel-low “Tucson” actors: from left, Frank Dolce, Matthew Levy and Benjamin Stockham.

Arts & Entertainment

NOTICE OF VACANCIES ON THEHISTORIC RESOURCES BOARD

FOR THREE THREE-YEAR TERMS ENDING May 31, 2013

(Terms of Bower, Bunnenberg, and DiCicco)

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the City Council is seeking applications for the Historic Resources Board from persons interested in serving in one of three, three year terms ending May 31, 2013.

Eligibility Requirements: The Historic Resources Board is composed of seven members appointed by the City Council and who serve without pay. Members shall have demonstrated interest in and knowledge of history, architecture or historic preservation. One member shall be an owner/occupant of a category one or two historic structure, or of a structure in an historic district; three members shall be architects, landscape architects, building designers or other design professionals and at least one member shall possess academic education or practical experience in history or a related field.

Duties: The primary duties of the Historic Resources Board include: a) Reviewing and making recommendations to the Architectural Review Board on proposed exterior changes of commercial and multiple-family buildings on the Historic Building Inventory; b) Reviewing and making recommendations on exterior changes of significant (Categories 1 and 2) single-family residences on the Historic Building Inventory; c) Researching and making recommendations to the City Council on proposed additions and on reclassifications of existing buildings on the Inventory; and d) Performing other functions as may be delegated from time to time to the Historic Resources Board by the City Council.

Application forms and appointment information are available in the City Clerk‘s Office, 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto - (650) 329-2571 or may be obtained on the website at http://www.cityofpaloalto.org.

Deadline for receipt of applications in the City Clerk‘s Office is 5:00 p.m., April 23, 2010. If one of the incumbents does not apply, the final deadline for non-incumbents will be April 28, 2010 at 5:30 p.m.

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was put together.”While the later episodes were

being shot, Bratman and Dewey stayed involved, working with other writers, being on the set and giving notes to the director.

“We didn’t give many perfor-mance notes because the actors were all great. We were adjusting for our own writing,” Bratman said. “Sometimes you can’t tell whether something you’ve written works un-til you see actors doing it.”

Working with children was chal-lenging in part because they had to be in school and were less available for shooting, Bratman said. He be-came particularly fond of lead actor Labine, who “was like a father fig-ure in every way to these kids ... the ways in which he would gently pull them back to getting on course.”

There are, of course, no guaran-tees on how long the show will con-tinue, but Bratman says he’s hopeful that the network will ask for more episodes. A fan of TV’s “The Wire” and the British version of “The Of-

fice,” Bratman likes television be-cause of the way a series “can seri-alize and stretch out story and get deeply into character in a way that a screenplay can’t really do.”

So far, “Tucson” has gotten a mix of press; while the San Francisco Chronicle’s Tim Goodman didn’t find the show funny, Los Angeles Times critic Robert Lloyd praised its “unsentimental whimsy.”

The program, Lloyd wrote, “is a lesson in just how many old tropes, previously seen characters and stock situations one may hammer together into a television series and still ar-rive at something fresh and real.”

Besides pursuing television work,

Bratman also has a few screenplay-writing projects going with Dewey, and he says he’d like to do some more acting as well. His theater resume includes appearing in The-atreWorks’ “The Grapes of Wrath” in 2000.

At the moment, he spends much of his time in Southern California, where he lives with his wife, fellow Gunn High School graduate Kris-tin Kleidon, and their young son. Bratman and Kleidon “went out in high school and got back together 10 years later,” he said.

Meanwhile, of course, there’s the Stanford Ph.D. program, which Bratman doesn’t sound that daunted about. After all, he was in the midst of getting a master’s degree when he and Dewey started writing “Tuc-son.”

An affinity for Stanford runs in the family, too. Bratman’s father, Michael, is a Stanford philosophy professor. “Palo Alto,” Bratman said, “means a lot to me.”

Info: For more about “Sons of Tucson,” go to www.fox.com/sons oftucson.

Greg Bratman(continued from previous page)

A TV series can “stretch out story and get deeply into character in a way that a screenplay can’t really do.”

—Writer Greg Bratman

Arts & Entertainment

For 22 years, Know Knew Books on Palo Alto’s Califor-nia Avenue has been stuffed

with used books of all shapes and sizes, along with CDs, records and assorted literary merchandise. Loy-al customers drop by to browse and schmooze, but in these turbulent economic times, it isn’t enough.

Since almost closing last fall due to financial hardship, owner Bill Burruss is trying something new: opening his shop to visual and per-forming artists and authors, with hopes of revitalizing the business. He says he wants to create a wel-coming space for all types of com-munity artists.

“The idea is to add more creativ-ity to the store itself,” he said.

Burruss says he hopes his art events will draw in store newcom-ers, potential buyers who will re-member Know Knew Books when looking for reading material.

Sculptor Tom Franco (the brother of actors James and Dave, and son of children’s-book author Betsy) grew up in Palo Alto in a family of Know Knew Books fans. Burruss credits Franco (and his Berkeley-

based Firehouse Collective artist group) as a partner in the store’s new artistic ventures.

“Tom’s only 28 but he’s very ma-ture and energetic. He really came up with the idea last fall and I saw the potential there,” Burruss said.

Franco first proposed that the bookstore host an evening of po-etry and music by artists from his Berkeley collective. Burruss was skeptical when he learned the art-ists would be playing keyboards with their feet, he recalled, laugh-ing. But ultimately the group’s per-formance won him over.

Franco’s Firehouse Collective supplies many of the colorful paint-ings and sculptures now decorating the store’s walls and front window, giving it more of a gallery feel. He and his mother, whose newest book he illustrated, presented their work at the store on March 6, and the store also featured a window dis-play of Betsy Franco’s work.

“Tom and Bill have worked to-gether to bring the store to life as a place people in the community can come together in creativity,” Betsy Franco said. “Bill is so sup-

portive of local art of all kinds: ac-tors, writers, musicians, dancers. It’s great.”

There are unusual ongoing events, too. Since autumn, the store has hosted break dancers every third Saturday, and numerologist Michael Bisbiglia on the second Wednesday of each month. Ann Graff reads tea leaves monthly.

“It’s sort of gaining speed; there’s some pretty interesting stuff,” Bur-russ said.

Local actor Gerry Hiken has per-formed monologues at the store, and Burruss hopes he’ll do so every other week. Hiken’s next appear-ance is set for April 10.

A father-and-son guitar and man-dolin duo, and pianist Larisa Mi-gachyov, have also performed, and soon Burruss plans to have “Lord of the Rings” animator and Menlo Park resident Patricia Hannaway in for a talk.

Couches have been installed at the store’s front, encouraging the area as a hangout, while posters advertising upcoming events grace the door and window. And audi-ence response has been positive.

“At Bill’s events, the room is full. It’s really evolved beautifully,” Bet-sy Franco said.

The Franco family plans to re-main involved with the store’s ar-tistic future, she said. “We’ve ral-lied around when Bill wanted to change the atmosphere of the store. That’s a great thing that’s happen-ing there; it’s very hopeful.”

Burruss is also putting the word out that the store is available for reading and knitting groups, as well as musicians who want to jam. He says that because he’s been hit by the recession, he’s not able to pay the artists coming to his store. Rather, he relies on their desire for exposure and enthusiasm for shar-ing their art.

“I don’t have any money but I’m pretty outgoing, so I just ask, ‘Do you know anybody that ...? Would you like to ...?’” the gregarious Burruss said, adding that he always puts out a receptacle for donations and tips for the artists. Some have made several hundred dollars, he said.

Since almost closing, the store has been holding huge sales, mark-ing down merchandise by as much as 50 percent, and has added toys, games and DVDs to its stock in an-other attempt to stay afloat.

“The economy, it’s awful. I’m a pretty good business guy but I have no control over it,” Burruss said. “But the community really came behind me,” when he nearly sold the store in 2009, he added.

Burress said he hopes to be able to stay in town for years to come.

“I don’t like the idea of not being in the community any more,” he said. “To have a college town with no record store, no music store, only two used bookstores, it’s weird to me, it doesn’t compute.”

Info: Know Knew Books is at 415 S. California Ave. in Palo Alto. Burruss can be reached at 650-326-9355 or info@knowknew books.com. The next store event will feature monologues performed by actor Gerry Hiken, on Saturday, April 10, at 8 p.m.

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Stanford Memorial Church

http://religiouslife.stanford.edu

“Mary Magdalene’s Ascending Christ”Dean Scotty McLennan

Ecumenical Christian Communion service with music featuring University Organist, Dr. Robert Huw Morgan

and the Memorial Church Choir.

University Public Worship Easter Sunday

Sunday, April 4th, 10:00 am

We Invite You to Learn and Worship with Us.

1667 Miramonte (Cuesta at Miramonte) 650.968.4473

www.fpcmv.org

FPCMV welcomes our new Pastor Timothy R. Boyer.

Biblically based Sermons and Worship Service 10:30 AM.

First United Methodist Church of Palo Alto

625 Hamilton Ave, Palo Alto(650) 323-6167

Sunday School for all ages – 9:00 a.m.Sunday Services – 10:25 a.m.

“The children in our midst, the mission at our doorstep, a place of hospitality and grace”

Easter Worship–April 4 at 9:30 & 11:00 a.m. with Oxford Street Brass and the Hallelujah Chorus

Egg Hunt for children between Services

Rev. David Howell peaching

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, UCC

A Guide to the Spiritual Community

INSPIRATIONSA resource for special events and ongoing

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

Blanca Yoc at 326-8210 x6596 or email [email protected]

A bookstore becomes a stage and gallery

Struggling in the recession, Know Knew Books tries to woo customers with concerts, readings, visual art

by Karla Kane

Local actor Gerry Hiken is one of the artists appearing at Know Knew Books; he’s set to perform monologues there on April 10.

Since autumn, break dancers have performed at Know Knew Books every third Saturday.

Weekly file photo

Courtesy B

ill Burruss

Movies

OPENINGS

Alice in Wonderland (PG) Century 16: 11:50 a.m. 2:25, 5, 7:45 & 10:20 p.m. Century 20: 11:20 a.m.; 1:55, 4:40, 7:30 & 10:10 p.m. in 3D at 12:40 & 6:15 p.m.

The Bounty Hunter (PG-13) Century 16: 11:20 a.m.; 2, 4:45, 7:35, 10:15 p.m. Century 20: 11:25 a.m.; 2:15, 5, 7:35, 10:20 (Not Reviewed) p.m.

Chloe (R) 1/2 Palo Alto Square: 2:15 & 7:20 p.m.

Clash of the Titans (PG-13) Century 16: 11 a.m.; 12:25, 1, 1:35, 3, 3:35, 4:10, 5:35, 6:10, 6:45, 8:10, 8:55, 9:20 & 10:40 p.m. In 3D at 11:40 a.m.; 2:20, 4:50, 7:25 & 10 p.m. Century 20: 11:10 a.m.; 12:30, 1:10, 1:50, 3:10, 3:50, 4:30, 5:50, 6:30, 7:10, 8:30, 9:20 & 9:50 p.m. In 3D at 11:50 a.m.; 2:30, 3:30, 5:10, 7:50, 8:55 & 10:30 p.m.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (PG) Century 16: 11:15 a.m.; 1:40, 4, 6:50 & 9:10 p.m. Century 20: 11:30 a.m.; 1:55, 4:20, 6:50 & 9:15 p.m.

The Ghost Writer Century 20: 11:15 a.m.; 2, 4:50, 7:45 & 10:35 p.m. Palo Alto Square: 1:25, 4:20 7:15 & 10:10 p.m. (PG-13) 1/2

The Girl With the Dragon Guild: 1:15, 4:30 & 8 p.m. Tattoo (Not Rated)

Green Zone (R) Century 16: 11:10 a.m.; 1:50, 4:30, 7:10 & 10:05 p.m Century 20: 11:05 a.m.; 1:45, 4:25, 7:05 & 9:45 p.m.

Greenberg (R) Century 16: 12:05, 2:35, 5:10, 7:40 & 10:10 p.m.

Hot Tub Time Machine (R) Century 16: 12:30, 2:55, 5:30, 8 & 10:25 p.m. Century 20: 11:40 a.m.; 1, 2:20, 3:30, 4:45, 6, 7:15, 8:25, 9:40 & 10:45 p.m.

How to Train Your Dragon Century 16: 11:45 a.m.; 12:15, 12:50, 1:30, 2:10, 3:15, 3:55, 4:35, 7 & 9:25 p.m. Century 20: 11:15 (PG) 1/2 a.m.; 12:05, 12:55, 1:40, 2:40, 3:25, 4:15, 6:55, 5:20, 6:10, 7:45, 8:45 & 9:30 p.m.

The Hurt Locker (R) 1/2 Aquarius: 2:30, 5:30 & 8:30 p.m.

The Last Song (PG) Century 16: Fri.-Tue. at 11:30 a.m.; 2:05, 4:40, 7:15 & 9:45 p.m. Century 20: 11:55 a.m.; 1:05, (Not Reviewed) 2:35, 3:40, 5:15, 6:25, 7:55, 9:05 & 10:30 p.m.

Our Family Wedding (PG-13) Century 20: 2:25 & 7:25 p.m. (Not Reviewed)

Repo Men (R) Century 20: 11:35 a.m.; 2:20, 5:05, 8 & 10:40 p.m.

The Rocky Horror Picture Guild: Sat. at midnight. Show (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed)

The Runaways (R) Palo Alto Square: 4:45 p.m. Fri.-Sat. also at 9:45 p.m. (Not Reviewed)

The Secret of Kells Aquarius: 1, 3, 5, 7 & 9 p.m. (Not Rated) 1/2

She’s Out of My League (R) Century 20: 11:45 a.m.; 4:55 & 10 p.m. (Not Reviewed)

Shutter Island (R) Century 16: 6:20 & 9:35 p.m. Century 20: 10:15 p.m.

Why Did I Get Married Too? Century 16: 11 a.m.; 1:45, 4:55, 7:40 & 10:25 p.m. Century 20: 11:10 a.m.; 2, 4:50, 7:40 & 10:35 (PG-13) (Not Reviewed) p.m.

Skip it Some redeeming qualities A good bet Outstanding

MOVIE TIMES

CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATERS AND SHOWTIMES

“...A HILARIOUS COMBINATION.”

“...A HILARIOUSCOMBINATION.”

Maria Salas,

TERRA-TV (Miami)

The Ghost Writer 1:25, 4:20, 7:15,Fri/Sat 10:10

Chloe 2:15, 7:20The Runaways 4:45

Fri/Sat 9:45Established in 1977, the French Film

Club is an independent non-profi t Organization, open to the public.

For full program and discounted tickets go to our website. Call 650-400-3496 for details.

April 9thDoors open at 6:30 pm

Movie 7:30Q & A 9:30 pm

”He who has two women loses his soul. He who has two houses loses his mind.”

Eric Rohmer‘s series”Comedies and Proverbs”

“Les Nuits de la P leine Lune”“Full Moon in Paris”

1984 film by Eric Rohmer. Pascale Ogier, Fabrice Luchini (Moliere)

Christian Vadim, Tcheky Karyo (Nikita)

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Clash of the Titans (Century 16, Century 20) Long

before the Pegasus turns up in a ra-ven hue, the new remake of 1981’s “Clash of the Titans” is evidently a horse of a different color: darker, that is.

Desmond Davis’ original was mostly a sunny affair, which made the shadows-and-hellfire show-down between demigod Perseus and snake-haired Medusa all the more striking, especially as animated un-der the aegis of special-effects mae-stro Ray Harryhausen. It’s a mark of the remake’s failure that the same showdown is one of the film’s most disappointing scenes, rendering the Medusa in the film’s least art-ful, most weightless CGI (blah 3D is no help). Remake director Louis Leterrier (“The Incredible Hulk”) has let the darkness spread through the narrative, and bled out what fun there was to be had.

It’s a gamble that could have paid off with a sharper script, but “Ti-

tans” is still pretty dimwitted and incoherent. The difference now is that it’s lost its camp appeal.

Leading man Sam Worthington (“Avatar”) exacerbates the film’s downbeat tone. As Perseus, Wor-thington remains a credible but basically charisma-free actor. He has one speed: smolder (OK, two: smolder and sneer) and his humor-lessness makes one long for the days when Harrison Ford and Bruce Wil-lis ruled the roost.

The broadest strokes of this an-cient-times fantasy remain the same, but call it a loose remake. Several characters have been added (includ-ing Zeus’ jealous brother Hades, played by Ralph Fiennes, and a Le-gion that seems to have wandered in from “300”) and others subtracted (Burgess Meredith’s likably dotty Ammon). The sea beast that is the Kraken is still the 11th-hour show-stopper, after a parade of famous monsters of filmland including ogre-ish Calibos, giant scorpions, the Stygian witches and Medusa.

The remake emphasizes the no-tion of man going to war with gods,

touching on the philosophical notion that the gods need human worship to thrive and, perhaps, survive.

But this provocative idea is quick-ly lost to muddy motivations (Zeus was always a flip-flopper, but just try to follow his train of thought here) and tiresome action that suf-fers from a lack of audience identi-fication in a hero who sorta wants to save the day, as long as it doesn’t mean taking any favors from Dad.

Principally, Perseus craves re-venge against Hades. This puts him only slightly further up the evolu-tionary scale than the Sodom-and-Gomorrah-style mouth-breathers of Argos, a port town scheduled for heavenly demolition unless they feed their Princess Andromeda (Al-exa Davalos) to the Kraken.

This “Titans” does have some saving graces. Liam Cunningham as Legion leader Solon is the film’s unlikely but skilled comic relief, and the depiction of mystical Io (Gemma Arterton) harkens back to Homer’s earthbound encounters between men and gods. And if all you’re really after is seeing Liam Neeson’s Zeus, in gleaming white armor, stare down the camera and intone, “Release the Kraken!” do I have good news for you.

Rated PG-13 for fantasy action

violence, some frightening images and brief sensuality. One hour, 46 minutes.

— Peter Canavese

For theater addresses and a review of “The Secret of Kells,” go to www.PaloAltoOnline.com

Search a complete listing of local

restaurantreviews by location or type of food onPaloAltoOnline.com

AMERICAN

Armadillo Willy’s 941-2922

1031 N. San Antonio Rd., Los Altos

Range: $5.00-13.00

Hobee’s 856-6124

4224 El Camino Real, Palo Alto

Also at Town & Country Village,

Palo Alto 327-4111

Burmese

Green Elephant Gourmet

(650) 494-7391

Burmese & Chinese Cuisine

3950 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto

(Charleston Shopping Center)

Dine-In, Take-Out, Local Delivery-Catering

CHINESE

Chef Chu’s (650) 948-2696

1067 N. San Antonio Road

on the corner of El Camino, Los Altos

2008 Best Chinese

MV Voice & PA Weekly

Jing Jing 328-6885

443 Emerson St., Palo Alto

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Chess divasEditor,

We would like to thank the groups of people who came by to help Haiti and learn a bit more about chess at our March 20-21 fundraiser in Lyt-ton Plaza. We raised $430 for UNI-CEF Haiti relief by having fun and playing fast-paced five-minute blitz games with many of you who rose to our challenge and donated $5 per game to help people who really needed it. We really wanted to find a way to combine our passion for chess with the overwhelming need of earthquake survivors in Haiti, and I think we did, in a friendly community gathering place. The money is on its way.

Meanwhile, we hope that many of you will continue to help Haiti and also to enjoy chess by watching our award-winning local access “Chess Diva” show on Midpeninsula lo-cal access television. in Palo Alto. Thanks to all of you again, who stopped by.

Lauren and Barbara Goodkind “The Chess Divas”

Palo Alto

Pro-anaerobic facilityEditor,

In light of the recent letters about Palo Alto’s supply of renewable en-ergy, I’d like to express my support for the commission of a feasibility study by the Palo Alto City Coun-cil on the viability of an anaerobic digestion facility located within the city.

Research on the subject has found it to be a legitimate technology, widely adopted with great success and the cornerstone of an effective integrated waste management op-eration. Anaerobic digesters have been recognized by the United Na-tions Development Program as one of the most useful decentralized sources of energy supply and would significantly further the emission reduction goals set forth in Palo Alto’s Climate Protection Plan.

Palo Alto is well-positioned for this kind of technology due to the fact that we are of municipal scale, own our own utilities and have the ability to co-locate the facility next to an existing wastewater treatment plant. Imagine finally getting to re-tire our outdated incinerator and re-directing the savings toward things like parkland and open space.

Having the foresight and creativ-ity to turn what is currently a waste expense into a revenue stream shows the sort of leadership we’ve all come to expect from Palo Alto. To take care of our waste locally while also generating electricity, natural gas, compost and revenue for the city shows tremendous financial, envi-ronmental and social responsibility — not to mention the sense of pride it would foster.

I would like to see us continue to lead others in these efforts by en-

couraging the city to commission a feasibility study of an anaerobic-digester facility. Though new to us, let’s not be afraid of technology that’s already proven feasible by others. www.pagreenenergy.org has some enlightening facts on the sub-ject as well as a petition to sign if in favor of such a study.

Brandy FaulknerBarron Park

Palo Alto

Park vs. composting?Editor,

On the issue of retaining com-posting in Palo Alto, park advocates have been framing it as park vs. no park. However:

1) The proposed anaerobic diges-tion facility would take only about 8 acres — less than 10 percent — of Byxbee Park, which is only one part of 2,000 acres of preserved baylands.

2) Byxbee is not yet developed, and with the city’s current budget crisis, the only near-term hope for converting it to a real park would be revenue from the sale of energy generated by the compost.

3) Anaerobic digestion of compost

would not disturb enjoyment of the park. The composting would take place in a closed container next to the Water Quality Treatment Plant and be covered by a green roof. The small amount of noise from its operation would be lost in that of the plant and airport, about which no current park users have com-plained.

4) One important function of a park is education. The composting facility could include a center where visitors could learn about how an-aerobic digestion not only diverts waste but produces both valuable compost and energy.

The technology is proven; there are 12 such facilities in Germany and another 12 in the pipeline. Palo Alto’s would be first in this country and would symbolize the city’s con-tinuing environmental leadership.

With its potential economic ben-efits and community support, the proposal deserves a feasibility study, and the final decision should be by the voters.

Walter HaysParkside Drive

Palo Alto

SpectrumEditorials, letters and opinions

Put compost proposal to a citywide voteAt issue is whether an ‘anaerobic digestion’

composting operation makes enough environmental and economic sense to undedicate 8 acres of parkland

Another “only in Palo Alto” kind of political debate comes before the City Council Monday night, one that promises to divide envi-ronmentalists and confuse many others.

At issue is whether the value of having a new-technology, local composting system outweighs the loss of 8 acres of dedicated parkland adjacent to the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant at the end of Embarcadero Road.

As outlined in pro-and-con opinion columns in last week’s Weekly (available on www.PaloAltoOnline.com), the plan would use a system called “anaerobic digestion” to compost yard wastes, food scraps and sewage sludge in airtight containers that would produce methane gas and enough electricity to power up to 1,400 homes, according to staff estimates. The technology is used in Europe but not yet in the United States.

The catch is that after an extensive search for sites, a special task force of citizens — some with significant expertise in composting — concluded that there are no feasible sites. They ruled out the parkland site by the sewage plant because of political opposition expected due to the 1965 Park Dedication Ordinance and a later designation of the city’s landfill area as future parkland — including the area presently used for recycling and composting immediately south of the sewage plant.

The current proposal envisions using 8 to 10 acres, not the larger existing composting site. About half the site would be under a “green roof” covered with native grasses, enclosing much of the composting operation.

The proposed technology would mix yard clippings with commercial and domestic food scraps to create compost for home use, and with sludge from the sewage plant for compost for commercial use. The sludge currently is incinerated at a cost of about $800,000 a year plus about $240,000 to transport it to a disposal site in the Central Valley.

Anaerobic means that the compost produces methane gas, which can be used to produce enough electricity to operate the sewage treatment plant and provide power to homes. Revenues would be expected from fees from people bringing material to the center and sales of power.

The impacts of the operation could be significant in terms of truck traffic and noise that might intrude on areas of the surrounding Byxbee Park, some potential visual impacts, and loss of about 9 percent of the future park. Former Councilwoman Emily Renzel is a vigorous opponent of any loss of dedicated parkland.

This proposal is vastly different than the ill-conceived Environmental Services Center plan of several years ago, which involved a huge building on a substantially larger site.

Proponents of the composting plan, chiefly former City Council member and Mayor Peter Drekmeier, argue that in this case the economic and environmental benefits outweigh the value of the parkland that would be lost. They note that keeping the operation local would save people from making trips to Sunnyvale to deliver materials or retrieve compost.

They say some revenues and savings from the operation could expedite development of other parts of Byxbee Park, for which no funds presently are allocated or available. The city faces a huge and growing budget shortfall, in addition to a half billion dollars in unfunded capital-improvement projects, they correctly point out.

Some are discussing conducting an initiative-petition drive to place the matter on the November ballot. An alternative is for the City Council to assert its leadership and place it on the ballot. An initiative drive would need more than 4,356 signatures for the Nov. 8 election or 2,178 isgnatures for a regular city election next year. An initiative would not require that an environmental-impact study be done prior to the election, whereas an environmental study would need to be done if the council placed it on the ballot.

Either alternative is better than being scared off by the need for voter approval to undedicated the 8 to 10 acres being discussed.

But we do not believe voters should be asked to decide an issue of this importance without a full, clear understanding of the impacts of the operation that an environmental-impact study would delineate.

The Park Dedication Ordinance is an important safeguard for citizens to protect their parklands, but it should not block consideration of a potential innovative composting facility that may have both significant environmental and economic benefits for the community.

Editorial

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

What do you think? What is your most memorable April Fool’s Day prank?

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.

SportsShorts

FridayCollege baseball: Stanford at UCLA,

6 p.m.; KZSU (90.1 FM)

SaturdayCollege baseball: Stanford at UCLA,

2 p.m.; KZSU (90.1 FM)

SundayWomen’s basketball: Stanford vs.

Oklahoma, 4 p.m.; ESPN; KZSU (90.1 FM)

MondayCollege baseball: Stanford at Cal,

2:30 p.m.; KZSU (90.1 FM)

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SPORTS ONLINE

With her basketball teammates celebrating, Stanford senior Rosalyn Gold-Onwude (headband) holds aloft the trophy from the Sacramento Regional following the Cardinal’s dramatic 55-53 victory over Xavier on Monday night. The victory earned Stanford a third straight appearance in the NCAA Final Four.

Kyle

Ter

ada

After earning a berth in the Final Four, Stanford’s Jayne Appel (2) and Nnemkadi Ogwumike were named second-team All-Americans.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Stanford planning to make some noise

Cardinal’s ‘Big Three’ hoping their actions speak louder than words in national semifinals

by Rick Eymer

S tanford All-American senior center Jayne Appel remem-bers Nnemkadi Ogwumike

being quiet when they were intro-duced during Ogwumike’s recruit-ing visit three years ago.

Appel, who averages 13.6 points and 8.7 rebounds a game for the second-ranked Cardinal women’s basketball team, makes it a point to chat it up with the recruits.

“I’m always trying to tell them why Stanford would be a great place to go,” Appel said. “A lot of recruits are quiet when they visit. Neka was real quiet, maybe not as quiet as Kayla (Pedersen) was the year be-

fore, but she was pretty quiet.”Ogwumike must be a quick study

TV: Stanford vs. OklahomaSunday, 4pm, ESPN

Stanford women’s tennis home streak will be in jeopardyby Rick Eymer

S tanford women’s tennis coach Lele Forood understands ‘The Streak’ has taken on a life of

its own. That’s all well and good, and an indication that the No. 12 Cardinal plays a mean game of ten-nis at Taube Tennis Center.

But forgive Forood for focusing on other things at the moment, like

how Stanford (2-0, 13-1) will beat visiting No. 18 USC (3-0, 11-6) Fri-day in a Pac-10 Conference match at 1:30 p.m.

“That’s the most important match,” Forood said Wednesday. “If we don’t win Friday then a lot of things are no longer in place.”

Stanford has won 158 consecu-tive home matches, dating to a loss

against California on Feb. 27, 1999. It is recognized as the longest active home winning streak of any inter-collegiate sport in NCAA Division I athletics.

Perhaps even more remarkable is that the Cardinal has won 210 of its past 211 home matches, which includes all NCAA tournament matches.

During the current streak, Stan-ford has won six NCAA titles and reached the championship match on two other occasions.

Also during the streak, UCLA and California have reached the cham-pionship match five times, with the Bruins winning it once. Both are



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PREP ROUNDUP . . . It was a battle between the No. 1 and 2 teams in the Central Coast Sec-tion. It was a meeting of two coaches from the same club team. It was a confrontation be-tween players who are teammates in the offseason. All that added up to something special when Menlo School hosted Palo Alto on Wednesday in a nonleague showdown to decide the unofficial champion in girls’ lacrosse this season. With no CCS playoffs in lacrosse and both teams playing in separate leagues — Menlo in the WBAL and Paly in the SCVAL — this one-time meeting offered big-time bragging rights to the winner. Not too surprisingly, de-ciding the winner was not easy. It took two halves, two overtimes and then two sudden-death pe-riods before Menlo senior Mila Sheeline scored to give the Knights a thrilling and exhausting 12-11 victory on Wednesday that stretched late into the day and finished in the cold rain. Maggie Brown scored four goals for the Knights (6-3) while Kimmie Flath-er tallied three for the Vikings (9-1) . . . The Palo Alto baseball team continued its perfect run through the SCVAL De Anza Division with a 10-1 spanking of host Cuper-tino on Wednesday. The Vikings (7-0, 11-3) held on to first place by producing 10 hits against the last-place Pioneers. Wade Hauser had three hits, including a solo home run in the first inning, and a double and scored twice to spark Palo Alto. Christoph Bono added two hits and two RBI with two runs scored. Winning pitcher T.J. Braff helped himself with a double and two RBI.

SWIM HONOR . . . Stanford senior Julia Smit, a two-time Olympic medalist, has won the 2010 Honda Sports Award in swimming & diving, designating her as the nation’s top collegiate female athlete in that sport. The honor was based on the results of national balloting among 1,000 NCAA member schools as part of the Collegiate Women Sports Awards program, now in its 34th year. Smit also was nominated for the award in 2009. This marks the 10th time that a Stanford athlete has been honored with the award.

Sports

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though. After a year of watching Appel gain first team All-America status and earning Pac-10 Player of the Year honors, Ogwumike flour-ished in her second year on The Farm as opposing teams keyed on Appel, who started the season slow-ly because of offseason surgery.

Ogwumike (19.2, 9.6) became Appel’s heir apparent as she played her way to the Pac-10 Player of the Year award and All-America honors this season, and she’s one of the reg-ulars at post-game media sessions. Just like Jayne.

“It’s great how she’s developed into a tremendous leader for our team,” Appel said.

Pedersen gave short, one-word an-swers during her recruiting trip to Stanford. If Pedersen had her way, Appel thought, she wouldn’t have uttered a word.

These days the ‘Big Three’ have become quite the talkers, and am-bassadors of Stanford basketball. It’s hard for Cardinal fans to think of playing without one of them.

Pedersen (15.9, 9.3) has taken full advantage of her playing skills to keep other teams from trying to pack it in and stop the inside threat. She’s made nearly 38 percent of her 3-point attempts (52-138) and is an 83.4 percent free throw (126-of-151) shooter.

Appel and Ogwumike were named to AP’s All-America second team earlier this week. Pedersen was an honorable mention. Now all three will be trying to keep Stan-ford’s national championship bid alive on Sunday when the Cardinal (35-1) meets No. 12 Oklahoma (27-10) at 4 p.m. (PDT) in the first of two national semifinal games at San Antonio’s Alamodome.

Top-ranked and defending NCAA champion Connecticut (37-0) meets Baylor (27-9) in the later semifinal. Both games are on ESPN.

The Sooners enjoyed their easiest game of the tournament in beating Kentucky, 88-68, to reach the Final Four. They needed overtime to beat Notre Dame in the Sweet Sixteen after knocking off South Dakota State by 11 and Arkansas-Little Rock by 16.

Stanford, outside of its loss to Connecticut this year, had its tough-est test of the year in beating Xavier, 55-53, in Sacramento. The Cardinal handled UC Riverside, Iowa and Georgia by a combined 98 points.

Baylor’s journey began in Berke-ley, where the Bears beat Fresno State by 14 and Georgetown by 16 before knocking off top-seeded Tennessee, 77-62, and No. 2 seed Duke, 51-48.

The Huskies reached the Final Four, winning four times, by a com-bined margin of 187 points, or an average score of 87.3 to 40.2.

“I feel like we’ve been given a new basketball life,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “I watched Jeanette Pohlen’s play and the two missed layups over in my mind a million times. We saw the season pass before our eyes. It was over. We’re thankful to be playing, and appreciative of going to San Anto-nio. I’m sure the team will make the absolute most of it.”

NCAA hoops(continued from page 21)

Oklahoma is sure to be making the most of it, as well. The Lady Soon-ers may have 10 losses, but they’ve played NCAA tournament teams for more than half their schedule. And they have reversed several of those losses to be where they are.

Oklahoma’s losses have been to Georgia (very early in the season), Notre Dame, Tennessee, Baylor, Iowa State, Texas, Connecticut, Ne-braska and Texas A&M (twice).

The Lady Sooners are 12-10 against the NCAA field, and that includes wins over Notre Dame, Baylor, Texas and Texas A&M.

“There are more similarities than differences between the teams,” VanDerveer said. “It’s a great matchup and it should make for a real exciting game. Oklahoma has great guard play and they have been there before.”

Appel has played against Okla-homa’s 5-9 junior guard Danielle Robinson, a Mitty High product, as has Pohlen. The two were opposing guards in the California state high school championship game several years ago.

“I played with her in 10-under or 11-under,” Appel said. “She’s always been like a lightning bolt. I also played against her in high school.”

Ros Gold-Onwude played the last

time Stanford and Oklahoma met, in the Sweet Sixteen in 2006.

“I remember that game very well; it was the biggest game I had played in and we won,” the fifth-year senior said.

Stanford’s hopes still depend on Appel’s ability to play through a sore ankle. The Cardinal is a differ-ent team without her in the lineup. It showed at the end of the Xavier game when Musketeers’ guard Dee Dee Jernigan was left unguarded twice underneath the basket in the final seconds.

Appel is also an inspirational leader and often carries the Cardi-nal through difficult stretches.

Appel and Ogwumike, VanDer-veer said, were a little tentative against Xavier’s ‘Twin Towers,’ and that wasn’t acceptable.

“There’s a lesson there,” VanDer-veer said. “We need them to do what they’ve been doing all season and that’s being aggressive. Neka has, basically, shot 65 percent all year and she was 5-for-17? That’s not go-ing to cut it.”

Stanford set a school record with its 26th consecutive win Monday night, and will be looking to break a tie for most wins in a season when it takes the court Sunday. A 37th victory will be even better.

ATHLETES OF THE WEEK

Hailie Eackles*Pinewood basketball

Kimmie FlatherPalo Alto lacrosse

Kelly Jenks*Palo Alto softball

Jenna McLoughlin*Pinewood basketball

Sunny MargerumGunn track and field

Miranda SetoPinewood basketball

Kyle BullingtonMenlo lacrosse

Nicky HuPalo Alto tennis

Arnaud KpachaviPriory track and field

Kei MasudaMenlo-Atherton swimming

Joc PedersonPalo Alto baseball

Chace WarrenMenlo-Atherton baseball

Honorable mention

Sammy AlbaneseCastilleja School

The senior pitcher won two softball games by throwing 14 scoreless innings of no-hit ball with 42 strikeouts, 22 coming in a 2-0 win over Mercy-Burlingame to give the Gators sole possession of first place in the WBAL.

Philip MacQuittyPalo Alto High

The senior ran on back-to-back days at the Stanford Invi-tational track and field meet, first on the 4th-place distance medley relay team and then a state-leading 4:13.92 to win the mile and break a 44-year-old school record.

* previous winner

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

Sports

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teams Stanford plays at home every year. This is no trifling matter.

Stanford has 30 NCAA home victories among the 158, and Taube Tennis Center hosted the NCAA championships twice (and is sched-uled to host again in 2011).

When the Cardinal started its current streak, it beat five nation-ally-ranked programs, including California, among its first six wins. Stanford faces a difficult home schedule every season.

The Cardinal has already faced five Top 25 programs, all on the road, this season. This weekend is, by far, Stanford’s biggest test. No. 7 UCLA (3-0, 16-2) follows the Wom-en of Troy with a visit on Saturday at noon. The Bruins handed Stanford its only loss of the season, 6-1, at the end of February in Westwood.

“I know a lot of people look at how we lost at UCLA so badly and then had the rainout with USC,” Forood said. “Our win at California was good and beating Arizona State was our best match of the season so far. The Pac-10 is a good conference and winning the Pac-10 title is a big deal, whether it’s tennis, baseball or softball. This is a premiere con-ference, particularly in the spring sports.”

There are six (of nine) Pac-10 teams currently ranked among the top 25, a figure matched only by the 12-member ACC.

So how do her players react to their participation in ‘The Streak?’

“I’m not even sure they know about it,” Forood said. “We don’t talk about it. It’s secondary to what we need to do to win matches this year. It’s a byproduct and not the focus. The streak involves so many players (including former NCAA singles champions Laura Granville and Amber Liu) over such a long pe-riod of time that it’s just not about this year’s players.”

Stanford has its share of talented players — five of the six singles players are ranked among the top 100 — and is always in the hunt for a national title. Junior Hilary Barte took over as the team’s top singles’ player in her freshman season and has maintained a stranglehold on it ever since. She’s undefeated in 14 dual meets (22-3 overall) and brings a 17-match winning streak into Fri-day’s contest.

“Her game is continually improv-ing,” Forood said. “You can see her

level of play going up and it’s be-cause she’s putting in a lot of extra effort to be a great player. She com-petes incredibly well and it shows in how much her game is progress-ing.”

The eighth-ranked Barte faces her toughest challenge of the season too. She’ll be matched against USC’s Maria Sanchez, the nation’s second-ranked player, and UCLA’s Yasmin Schnack, ranked fourth, this week-end. She’s 14-2 against nationally-ranked foes this season.

“What she does rubs off on the others simply because she’s the hardest worker,” Forood said. “They pick up on that notion. Not only is she talented but she’s one of the hardest workers and that brings up the level of our practices. They see the connection that great players are often the hardest workers. She runs down every ball no matter where it is.”

Barte and senior Lindsay Burdette, the team’s No. 2 singles player, form the nation’s second-ranked doubles team and they usually set the tone for a match as doubles is normally played first in a dual meet.

Forood never thought of pair-ing Lindsay and her younger sister, Mallory, in her freshman season at Stanford, as a doubles team despite their success together on the junior circuit. After all, Barte and Burdette (21-2 this year) were national dou-bles runnerups last year.

“It’s really strengthened doubles play with them split up,” Forood said. “They complement each other well and they get along great. The other pairings, though, are just not there this year.”

Stanford tennis(continued from page 21)

From the start, state basketball title for Pinewood just meant to beby Mitch Stephens

T he stage evidently was set ear-ly for good things to happen to the Pinewood girls’ basketball

team when, in the second quarter, senior guard Emily Liang drove to-ward the lane and lost the handle slightly.

“I didn’t want to lose it so I just wanted to tip it to someone,” she said.

From just below the free-throw line, she tipped it straight into the basket, drawing a giant groan from the largely vacant Rabobank Arena and a giant smile from the entire

Pinewood bench.“You don’t see that every day,”

Pinewood coach Doc Scheppler said. “When a shot like that goes in you know it’s your day.”

And it was indeed Pinewood’s — though it had little to nothing to do with luck.

With what Scheppler called “great resolve” after losing last year’s state title game and enduring an offsea-son of knee injuries, the Panthers basically put on a clinic, defeating a vastly taller and stronger St. An-thony’s (Long Beach) team, 62-44, in the CIF State Division V cham-

pionship game last Saturday in Ba-kersfield.

St. Anthony is the same squad that defeated the Panthers, 43-42, at the Nike TOC.

“That also helped with our re-solve,” Scheppler said. “That’s as well as any of our teams have played in a big-game setting.”

That’s saying something, con-sidering Pinewood (27-6) won its fourth state title in five tries.

But the Panthers never trailed in utilized each of their small, but mighty weapons, led by 17 points from Miranda Seto, 16 from Hailie

Eackles and 13 by Jenna McLough-lin, who didn’t play in the first meet-ing against St. Anthony (26-10) be-cause of an ACL injury.

The team’s tallest player at 5-10, McLoughlin helped Pinewood im-prove a 53-15 rebounding disparity it endured at the Nike TOC, but not by a long way. St. Anthony, which got 11 points from Jordan Jackson, held a 41-25 edge on Saturday.

But McLoughlin’s presence in the middle no doubt helped, as did a near-perfect game plan carried out to perfection.

“Pinewood played a great game

and (Scheppler) definitely out-coached me,” St. Anthony coach James Anderson said. “They made adjustments after the first game and we didn’t. That’s on me.”

Pinewood was up 48-22 with 3:09 left in the third and this one was es-sentially over.

“We just didn’t want to feel like we did last year (in the state-title game),” Seto said. “We came out here and we weren’t nervous at all. We played like we can.”

(Mitch Stephens is a national col-umnist for MaxPreps.com)

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