Around Town Around Town (September 10, 2003)

DIRECTOR LEAVES ONE EAST PALO ALTO . . . Todd Stowell,who has been executive director of One East Palo Alto for more than two years, is leaving the nonprofit this week, citing personal and health reasons. One East Palo Alto partners with police and school district officials to rejuvenate the city's neighborhoods.

ORACLE DONATES TO KIDS . . . The Oracle Foundation donated $1.4 million to the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula to support its Academic Program, both organizations announced last week. The BGCP Academic Program helps youth members develop strong academic skills and achieve academic progress. The program was piloted last year at the club's Menlo Park Clubhouse, and the new grant will allow the program to expand to the East Palo Alto and Redwood City clubhouses, where it will reach 400 active participants by 2004/2005. "The Oracle Foundation grant comes at a time when programs like those of BGCP are increasingly important given the severe budget pressures faced by our public schools," said BGCP Chairman Dennis Lenehan. Founded in 1958, the BGCP is the largest youth development organization on the Peninsula, and serves disadvantaged youth after school and during the summers.

SHOE SHOPPING . . . Pedestrians enjoying a Saturday stroll down University Ave. got quite an eyeful when they spotted Lynn Cheney - a.k.a. Mrs. Dick Cheney - on a shopping trip. Bay Area activists staged a protest against the VP's wife and her connection to Lockheed Martin, the defense contractor based in Sunnyvale. "But there is one catch," said Jeff Grubler, who helped organize the protest. "The Mrs. Dick Cheney that showed up was me in drag. So we were protesting against our own Lynn Cheney impersonator." Grubler shook hands with folks on the street while the protest ensued around him and then the group hit up the Mountain View art and wine festival. "I didn't know what to expect going to Palo Alto and Mountain View, but people were cracking up, they were laughing, " Grubler said. It was a precursor to today's protest at Lockheed Martin where activists will speak out on behalf of the "Lockheed 52" -- the 52 protestors arrested on April 22, 2003 for blocking the street outside the Sunnyvale facility. Lockheed is working to have the arrested individuals pay the company $15,000 to reimburse it for additional security costs Lockheed incurred on the day of the April protest.

TRAILHEAD LESSONS . . . The Santa Clara Valley Water District board of directors is giving more than $2 million in grants to public agencies - $350,000 of which is earmarked for an educational trailhead facility, called Gateway Educational Training Facility, in the Arastradero Preserve in Palo Alto. The grant awards will fund the creation of 130 acres of open space and 48 miles of trails for Santa Clara County residents. "We've heard time and again the community's desire to be able to visit local waterways and undeveloped lands in the county, which is something the board of directors has tried to provide over the years," said Sig Sanchez, chairman of the water district board of directors. Ballot Measure B, passed by county voters in November 2000, created a special tax that funds awards from the district's Trails, Parks and Open Space Grant Program. "Thanks to voters' approval of Measure B, we now have the ability to use our partnerships with cities and the county to make those wishes come true," Sanchez said.

HELPING ARNOLD . . . The Hoover Institution at Stanford has long had ties to the Republican Party, and five senior Hoover fellows are now advising actor Arnold Schwarzenegger in his bid for governor in the recall election. Those advisors include former Gov. Pete Wilson, former Secretary of State George Shultz, Michael Boskin, an economic advisor to the first President Bush, former Labor Dept. administrator John Cogan, and Bill Whalen. But Schwarzenegger took hard hits from both sides last week; from Democrats for refusing to participate in two debates and from conservative Republicans who feel that Wilson and his advisors are trying to move the actor too much into the middle. The Hoover Institution reached national prominence during President Ronald Reagan's campaign and service with many Hoover fellows playing prominent roles in his campaign and in the White House. And, of course, Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security advisor, is also a senior fellow at Hoover and a political science professor at Stanford.