Around Town: Keep on truckin’; community hero

Tidbits collected by the Weekly staff on Palo Alto people, events and other happenings.

KEEP ON TRUCKIN’ … It’s been a rocky few months for America’s relationship with Mexico, where government officials haven’t taken kindly to recent White Houses announcements about the border wall or deportation forces. But for Palo Alto and Oaxaca, the 53-year “sister city” relationship remains a source of pride. To underscore that fact, the City Council plans to continue in March a long-standing tradition by sending a local fire truck to Oaxaca. The transaction isn’t exactly a donation. Under the terms that the council is set to approve on March 6, Oaxaca would pay $25,000 for a “quint” truck (which serves as both an engine and a ladder truck) that has salvage value of $87,000, according to staff. The remaining $62,000 would be waived off as an “in-kind contribution” from the city. If things go as planned, the nonprofit Neighbors Abroad will coordinate the transportation of the vehicle to the America-Mexico border. The State of Oaxaca will then be responsible for the balance of the 2,500-mile journey between the two municipal siblings. While regulations no longer allow Palo Alto to use the quint truck because of its age and mileage, officials believe the vehicle can still have a long and productive life in Oaxaca. In a recent letter to the city, Bob Wenzlau, president of Neighbors Abroad Palo Alto, cited the city’s recent donation of an ambulance to Oaxaca. That vehicle, he said, was “a safe place to deliver more than 150 babies in Oaxaca’s remote communities.”

COMMUNITY HERO … He helped write one of the most famous and influential speeches in American history, authored two books and helped negotiate the end of an inmate rebellion in Attica Prison in 1971. Last week, Palo Alto resident and civil-rights icon Clarence B. Jones was recognized for his contributions by the Palo Alto City Council, which passed a special resolution in his honor. Jones, who served as a personal attorney and speech writer to Martin Luther King Jr. and who participated in writing the 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, received a standing ovation from a full council chambers on Monday, Feb. 13 after Vice Mayor Liz Kniss read the proclamation recognizing him as a “community hero.” Jones, who today is scholar at the Stanford Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University and who last month celebrated his 86th birthday, thanked the council for the recognition and reflected on King’s legacy. “In 12 years and four months, from 1956 until April 4, 1968, the date of his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, with the exception of the presidency of Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, Martin Luther King Jr. may have done more to achieve social, racial and political justice and equality than any other person or event in the previous 400-year history of America,” Jones said.

STAYING FOCUSED … Vijay Mehta is a strong contender in this year’s Jeopardy! College Championship. The Stanford junior swept the quarterfinals round that aired on Tuesday, Feb. 14 when he took an early lead with $2,000 in the game’s first Daily Double under the Sci-Fi category. Mehta was confident in his bright red Stanford sweater during the semifinals round on Tuesday, Feb. 21, when he battled head to head with competitors. After two rounds of questions, Mehta found himself in third place with $13,400, but made his comeback in the final question. None of the three semifinalists knew which city three retired U.S. marines hauled down the American flag in 1961 and raised it back up in the same place 54 years later in August 2015 (Answer: Havana). Mehta had written down Seoul, but his $6,000 wager (moderate compared to his competitors) brought him to the lead at $7,400 and earned him a spot in the finals, which aired Friday, Feb. 24.