News Digest News Digest (March 26, 2003)

DMV's suspends license of teenage driver involvrf in hit-and-run fatality

Pending a potential hearing, the driver's license for Megan Coughran -- the 18-year-old Palo Alto High School senior who allegedly drove into a 6-year-old girl in January, killing her -- will be indefinitely suspended by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, effective April 21.

If Coughran -- who is also accused of fleeing the scene after the accident -- appeals the ruling, the burden would be on her to prove that she is not a danger, DMV spokesperson Armando Botello said.

DMV administrators made the ruling after looking over police report's made by Palo Alto cops.

On Jan. 28, Coughran was driving to school when she allegedly ran into 6-year-old Amy Malzbender, killing her, and 10-year-old Chloe McAusland, whose leg was broken in the crash.

Next week, on April 2, Coughran is scheduled to enter an appeal in Palo Alto Superior Court. --Bill D'Agostino
Palo Alto joins water board to help fix Hetch-Hetchy

Palo Alto will become a member of a new local agency that will have the authority to seek out and find new supplies of water, an especially important task since Palo Alto's main source of water is susceptible to cataclysmic failure, the City Council decided last week.

The agency -- known as the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency -- was made possible by the passage last year of a bill sponsored by State Assemblyman Louis Papan (D-Millbrae). Concerns that the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission was being unresponsive to the Hetch-Hetchy water system's vulnerability during a severe earthquake prompted Papan's legislation.

The new agency will also be able to assist the financing necessary for the repairs to the Hetch-Hetchy system.

Other Bay Area cities are currently in the process of deciding whether to join the agency, which is expected to be fully-formed and meeting by June.

If all 27 eligible municipalities unite, they would form the largest public water agency in Northern California. --Bill D'Agostino
Two Palo Alto students competing in National Geography Bee

Jane Lathrop Middle School eighth-grader Vijay Prabhakar and Jordan Middle School student seventh-grader Eric Varney will travel to Sacramento on April 4 to compete against 100 other students in the state finals for the National Geographic Bee. Last December, both boys won their school bee and then got a top score in a separate written exam.

The winners of the state bee will go to Washington D.C. in May to compete for the 2003 National Geographic Bee crown. First prize nets a $25,000 scholarship and a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society.

Questions will test the knowledge of students' geography, politics, cultures and religions. Last year's winner correctly knew the answer to the following question: "Lop Nur, a marshy depression at the east end of the Tarim Basin, is a nuclear test site for which country?"

The answer? China.
Downtown North Traffic Calming project to begin construction in April

Construction will begin next month on a six-month trial traffic calming project that will try to prevent cars from driving through local streets in the Downtown North neighborhood, especially Hawthorne Avenue and Everett Street.

Seven street closures will be the hallmark of the plan, the result of two years of study by the Palo Alto Transportation Division and the Downtown North Neighborhood Association.

Cars will only be able to travel through the neighborhoods on Alma, Lytton and Middlefield roads for the six months once the street closures are completed. City staffers are trying to limit the amount of "confusion and complaints" by alerting neighbors and posting signs along the route, according to the city staff report.

The project will cost $49,407 and is expected to be completed in May. The City Council will ultimately have the final decision on whether the changes should be permanent.