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Monte Sereno Calendar of Events

Thu
21 Jun "Parent and me" Program for Infants and Toddlers A new ?Parent and Me? program for infants and toddlers begins January 5, 2012. Co-sponsored by The PJ Library® and Congrega…

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Fri
01 Jun First Friday Date Night at Lupin Lodge Come join us in our mountain paradise this season for First Friday Date Night in our clubhouse restaurant. Starting Novembe…

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Tue
19 Jun Late Night at the Coop Happy! Happy!! Hour at the Bar. Two Drinks for the Price of One*. Tuesdays and Thursday we have Live Music from 5pm to 7pm. S…

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Monte Sereno Area News

Two arrested during Greenpeace protest at Apple headquarters

Two Greenpeace protestors were arrested at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino this morning after sealing themselves in a giant pod to draw attention to claims that the company uses dirty energy to support its cloud services.

Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies responded to trespassing reports from Apple employees around 8 a.m., and arrived to find two women in their early 20s who had barricaded themselves inside the device, which was painted white with an apple logo, according to sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Jose Cardoza.

Sheriff's deputies then teamed up with Apple maintenance employees and members of the Santa Clara County Fire Department to get the women out of the pod using electric saws. There were other protestors around who were dressed as iPhones with screens displaying messages of support for the Greenpeace campaign, but they were on the public sidewalk, Cardoza said.

According to David Pomerantz, a spokesperson for Greenpeace, the two protestors are Elizabeth Donahue, 21, of Montana and Brandy Palm of Sacramento.

Donahue and Palm had reportedly attached themselves to each other and the pod using a large metal rod, and did not cooperate with requests by Apple employees or sheriff's deputies to leave the pod and vacate the property, sheriff's officials said.

"Both of them are activists who are really passionate about fighting coal and climate change," Pomerantz said.

According to a statement by Greenpeace, the protest follows the release of their report "How Clean is Your Cloud," which evaluated 14 Internet technology companies' network service clouds. 

Greenpeace says that unlike some companies, such as Google and Yahoo, Apple is using mostly nuclear and coal generated energy to power its cloud.

Specifically, Greenpeace alleges, Apple gets its cloud's power from a company called Duke Energy, which gets their coal by mountain-top mining, a technique that Pomerantz said not only destroyed mountains but also contaminates streams, with significant negative impact on local communities. 

Duke Energy itself seems to acknowledge the dark side of coal, naming "Reducing our reliance on mountaintop coal" as one of its goals in the "Environmental Footprint" section of its 2011/2012 Sustainability Report.

But Apple said in a statement that Greenpeace got the numbers wrong -- that its data center in Maiden, N.C. will use 20 megawatts at full capacity, not the 100 megawatts that Greenpeace reported.

In comparison, the report tallied Facebook's San Jose cloud facility at a capacity of 5 megawatts, 23.8 percent of which is powered by coal.

Apple also said that soon more than 60 percent of its on-site power will come from a new solar farm and fuel cell, which they said would be, "the largest of their kind in the country," adding that the project would, "make Maiden the greenest data center ever built," joined by a 100 percent renewable energy powered facility in Oregon in 2013.

Pomerantz contested that based on Apple documents for facility back-up generators, Greenpeace believes that the company will soon expand to use the full 100 megawatts. 

"We're concerned about a company that brands itself as so innovative ... still using something as anachronistic as coal," said Greenpeace spokesperson Keiller MacDuff.

According to Greenpeace, the dome from which the protestors were pulled was an 8-foot-tall, 10-foot-wide survival device that was used years ago in the Arctic in protests against oil drilling in that region.

In an appropriately tech-related twist, Palm was actually blogging from inside the pod this morning. "I want Apple to use their influence to power the iCloud I use every day with clean energy," she said.

The two protesters were arrested around 10 a.m., about 30 minutes before the survival pod was towed off of the Apple premises.

_{Wed, 16 May 2012 00:00:17 -0700}

Richmond debates tax measure for sodas and other sugery drinks

A full house was in attendance at the Richmond City Council meeting Tuesday night as the members considered a ballot measure to levy a tax on the sale of soda and other sugary beverages.

The idea is to tax the drinks one penny per ounce. The tax would make a can soda  cost 12 cents more, while a movie theater coke could cost 44 cents more.

Supporters of the measure said the tax would help Richmond's kids.

Richmond resident Marvin Willis argued that soda may taste good, but its not good for you.

"We do have a lot of overweight and obese children walking our cities and soda is contributing to it," said Willis.

Officials said the tax could generate between two to eight million dollars a year. The money could be used to support sports and nutrition programs for children.

Danny Alemayehu, who manages a market in Richmond, said the tax would be ineffectual.

"They're not going to stop [drinking soda] by raising the penny tax on them," said Alemayehu.

Century Theater manager Ben Suller had much more serious concerns about the measure. He told KTVU sodas are the number one seller at his business.

"It's gonna hit my bottom line big time and the cost of operating the business is probably going to be in question," said Suller.

Councilman Corky Booze is opposed to the tax.

"It's a tax on poor people," said Booze. "Let's just not call it a sugar tax. Let's call it what it is. A tax on poor people."

But resident Liduvina Ochoa said the tax makes sense to her.

"I think if you're poor and you don't have that much money I think it would be better not to buy the sodas and start eating healthy."

With the volume of people slated to speak, no decision on the measure had been announced as of late Tuesday evening.

_{Tue, 15 May 2012 22:52:37 -0700}

Hayward police investigate attack on postal carrier

Alameda County deputies were searching for a  suspect who jumped a postal worker from behind and knocked him unconscious early Tuesday afternoon before stealing the mail he was carrying.    

The carrier was walking down a driveway off Gilbert Street in unincorporated Hayward, approaching the mailbox and his truck, unaware that his attacker was lying in wait. 

Marjorie Meyerson told KTVU she saw the mailman slumped against his van in the cul-de-sac and called 911.   

"His jaw was swollen and he was grabbing his neck," Meyerson said.

She also found mail strewn all over the street that had been dropped by the robber.

"They took three big trays of mail, so everybody needs to be careful," explained Meyerson.

The stolen mail may have included tax refunds or credit cars, which could easily open the door to identity theft.

Postal inspectors and Alameda County Sheriff's deputies searched the area, but couldn't find a suspect.  The victim isn't the daily carrier for the neighborhood, but a frequent fill-in postal worker. Residents said he is middle-aged and friendly to everyone.  

In the days ahead, the households likely to have had mail stolen will be notified so they can take the proper precautions.    

"It is a federal offense also, to take that mail, but the primary offense we're concerned about is the crime of attacking the carrier," said U.S. Postal Inspector Jeff Fitch.

A $50,000 reward has been offered for any information leading to the arrest of the assailant.

Postal carriers told KTVU they are aware they could be targets and try to be watchful. But they also said they can't do their job while looking over their shoulders. 

"You're focusing on what you're supposed to be doing, and somebody could be casing you, know your routine and know you're not looking," said mail carrier Delbert Ojeda.

Area residents have had mail stolen before, but there has never been a case with a battered postman.     

"Guy's doing his job and someone hits him on the back of the head," said resident Michael King. "Why would you want to do something like that? He didn't do nothing to you."

The postal inspector said the carrier will be okay and has been sent home from the hospital by early evening. The carrier was identified as an 18-year veteran of the postal service.   

_{Tue, 15 May 2012 22:37:04 -0700}

News Source: MedleyStory More Local News Stories