News digest News digest (February 11, 2004)

Lucile Packard gives $1 million to community health groups

Lucile Packard Children's Hospital has given $1 million to four local agencies, to increase access to primary medical services and to serve children and expectant mothers.

These funds will go to the Ravenswood Family Health Center in East Palo Alto, the MayView Community Health Center in Palo Alto and Mountain View, the Santa Clara Family Health Plan's Healthy Kids insurance program, and the San Mateo County Children's Health Initiative.

"These community health programs are committed to providing health care for some of our most underserved populations," Christopher Dawes, president and CEO of Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, said in a press statement. "These funds will ensure their services for those who need them most."

The additional funding will provide an additional pediatrician, a pediatric social worker and an adolescent physician over the next three years at Ravenswood Family Health Center. It will also ensure continuity of services at the MayView Community Health Center clinics in Palo Alto and Mountain View; and provide funding to enroll 200 more children in the Healthy Kids health care insurance programs in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.

"With rising medical costs and the state budget crisis, many community health organizations are suffering at a time when even more residents need their services," Candace Roney, executive director of community services at Lucile Packard, said in a press statement. "The health-care safety net is badly frayed. This investment reflects our commitment to ensuring that high-quality health care remains available to underserved residents in our community."
Eshoo criticizes intelligence probe

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Palo Alto) has sharply criticized the composition of the new commission investigating intelligence failures before the war in Iraq.

"The American people deserve a strong, independent commission which has a free hand to investigate exactly how our intelligence was collected, how it was analyzed, what was given to the administration and how the administration used it," Eshoo said.

"But for the commission to be credible to the American people and the global community, the president should not be hand-picking its members and he should not be setting boundaries on how it does its work."

The just-formed commission is to explore the intelligence community's knowledge of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, cited as a motivating force to go to war. The commission is due to issue its report in March 2005.

Eshoo is a member of the House Intelligence Committee. --Don Kazak
Culprits caught in string of robberies

The Palo Alto City Manager's Office is applauding the police work of several law enforcement agencies whose investigation into a string of commercial burglaries along the Peninsula resulted in the arrests of two suspects late last month.

On Jan. 28, detectives from the Palo Alto and Mountain View police departments made the arrests and recovered evidence related to the burglaries.

Officials said the suspects had broken into 11 businesses in Palo Alto and had been linked to more than 40 commercial burglaries in Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, San Carlos, Redwood City and Menlo Park. In most of the incidents, the suspects would smash windows to gain entry and targeted cash from registers or cash boxes.

Evidence found at one of the Palo Alto burglaries led detectives to one of the suspects. Palo Alto and Mountain View officers conducted surveillance on the man. The suspect was followed from his home to a business in Mountain View, where he was witnessed breaking into the building, police said.

Authorities also served a search warrant on another suspect's homes and recovered property allegedly stolen in the string of burglaries. The second suspect was arrested at his residence.

Mountain View police identified the suspects as 33-year-old Thomas Love and 35-year-old John McIntosh, both of Palo Alto.

Numerous detectives and officers spent 24 straight hours investigating the crimes, conducting surveillance, making arrests and executing search warrants.

-- Bay City News
Learn how police handle sensitive cases

The Palo Alto Human Relations Commission will be hearing a report on how the police handle sensitive cases during its meeting on Thursday night.

Police Capt. Torin Fischer will be speaking about the department's procedures on cases involving elder abuse, domestic violence, child abuse and hate crimes.

The commission's meeting begins at 7 p.m. inside the City Council chambers at 250 Hamilton Ave.

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