Saturday Morning News Roundup

Police in Oakland late Friday evening are searching for a missing 69-year-old woman who suffers from dementia.

Wanda Jones was last seen Friday in the 4000 block of Lincoln Avenue in Oakland. She is wearing a red robe, gray shirt, blue jeans and gray slippers. She is a Black female, stands 6’2″ tall and weighs 155 pounds. She has gray hair and brown eyes.

Police are requesting assistance from the public because of Jones’ age and having dementia.

San Mateo native Sheila Canzian has worked for her hometown since 1970, a 52-year career at City Hall that has spanned many civic accomplishments while in her longtime role as the city’s parks and recreation director.

Canzian, who has had an influential, award-winning career with the city of San Mateo and is one of the city’s longest-serving employees, is getting ready to retire.

She has been instrumental in managing San Mateo’s well-known recreational programs, facilities and amenities, with some of her proudest achievements being the creation of the city’s shoreline parks along the bayfront, co-founding the non-profit Police Activities League, rebuilding the Poplar Creek GolF Course and establishing the Senior Center.

Additionally, Canzian led the updating of the city’s Central Park Master Plan and brought a seasonal ice rink to Central Park. She also created a Learning Education Assistance Program to support schoolchildren during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Her department manages the city’s 35 parks, six recreation and community centers, the Marina Lagoon, the Poplar Creek Golf Course and nearly 23,000 city trees.

Graffiti discovered this week at a Palo Alto middle school is being investigated by police as a hate crime.

An unknown suspect wrote “KKK” in two restrooms at Fletcher Middle School, located at 655 Arastradero Road, in Palo Alto. It was discovered Wednesday by school administrators and then reported to police. By the time officers arrived on scene, the graffiti had been removed by school staff.

As the police investigation continues, it appears the vandalism appeared on two consecutive days — Tuesday and Wednesday — in two separate boys’ restrooms on the school campus. In both cases, “KKK” was written using a pen or marker, according to police. On Tuesday, it was written on a bathroom stall; on Wednesday, it was written on walls and on a toilet paper dispenser. Police believe it is likely the work of one suspect. Officers are actively investigating the case and working with school administrators.

In January, police investigated a graffiti vandalism case at El Carmelo Elementary School on Bryant Street. That case remains open; no arrests have been made yet nor any suspects identified. The investigation revealed that an unknown suspect wrote a racial epithet directed at those of African American descent on a sign on school property. The suspect also crossed out a cartoon image on the same sign that depicted two non-white children. The sign was eventually removed. That incident is also being investigated as a hate crime.

Police have no evidence to connect the incidents at the two schools.

There will be free AC Transit shuttles this weekend between the South Hayward and Union City BART stations while BART conducts major track replacement work between the two stations.

On Saturday and Sunday, BART’s Green Line service will run between the Daly City and South Hayward stations. Green Line service between the Union City and Berryessa stations will be suspended this weekend. Riders should plan to add 20 to 25 minutes to their trips, and can skip the service impact, for instance, by traveling to the South Hayward BART station to take BART to all points north, east and west.

A BART spokesperson said the regular last northbound departure from Berryessa at 11:48 pm is cancelled. The last train departing Berryessa will be a Union City-bound train at 11:29 pm on Saturday and 11:20 pm on Sunday, where a bus shuttle will be available to South Hayward.

Crews are replacing critical trackway components between the South Hayward and Union City BART stations as well as advancing preliminary work to create a new storage facility at the Hayward Maintenance Complex for hundreds of Fleet of the Future cars.

BART officials explain this critical work will replace track infrastructure that dates back to the early 1970s. Many of these aging track components have been in operation since the beginning of BART service in September 1972 and have outlived their design lives.

Funding for the track replacement work is coming from voter-approved Measure RR. Funding for the new rail car storage facility is provided in part by a $1.17 billion grant from the Federal Transit Administration. The storage facility is part of the Transbay Corridor Core Capacity Program, which will dramatically increase the number of trains BART can run through the Transbay Tube.

The annual and very popular pet parade through downtown Los Altos is back this weekend, and it’s even more special because of it is also celebrating a special occasion.

The 75th Annual Kiwanis Pet Parade will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday along the streets of downtown Los Altos.

The parade will start at First and Main streets, travel along Main Street and then along State Street.

The Los Altos Police Department said there will be no COVID-19 restrictions during the event.

Beginning at 7:30 a.m., Main, State, First, Second, Third and Fourth streets will be closed to vehicular traffic to prepare for the parade. Edith Avenue will remain open for vehicular traffic from San Antonio Road to Foothill Boulevard.

The following parking options are available: Attendees can park at the Civic Center lot located at 1 N. San Antonio Road, or at the Community Center located at 97 Hillview Ave.; Handicap parking will be located at South Plaza between Second and Third streets, plus there is additional handicap parking in both plazas adjacent to Third Street; Free shuttle service to downtown from the Los Altos High School parking lot will be available for parade attendees; and Central Plaza will not be accessible due to the street closures, however, access to all outer parking plazas will be maintained.

The parade is expected to finish at approximately 11 a.m. Cleanup will follow and all streets are expected to reopen by noon.

A mountain lion has been spotted early Friday evening in the Point Richmond neighborhood, according to a Richmond police spokesperson.

Police have received reports of a sighting from residents in the area. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife has been notified.

Police are advising residents in the area to consider bringing pets indoors.

Anyone who sees the mountain lion is asked to call 911.

A judge placed the Oakland Police Department on a one-year probationary period Thursday before he makes a decision on whether to release the department from nearly 20 years of federal oversight, court records show.

U.S. District Judge William Orrick issued the order in the case of Delphine Allen et al vs. city of Oakland et al after determining police achieved “substantial compliance” with reforms.

Oakland police must maintain “substantial compliance” for a year to be free of the oversight.

“The good news is that the defendants have achieved substantial compliance, and that the path here has led to tangible improvements in policing in Oakland and to the promise that a culture that understands and supports constitutional policing is taking root,” Orrick wrote.

According to a report by the Police Executive Research Forum, a research organization focusing on policing issues, “constitutional policing is legal policing.”

Legal policing operates according to the U.S. Constitution, state constitutions, and court decisions that spell out what the Constitution means for policing, the report says.

The case against the city of Oakland stemmed from the actions of a group of police officers known as the Riders. A rookie officer’s 2000 complaint against the officers alleged they beat a suspect.

An investigation of four officers uncovered more allegations that the officers planted drugs, falsely arrested suspects, and falsified police reports. That led to formal complaints by 119 victims.

None of the officers were convicted of criminal charges, but all four left the department. One fled the country before he could be tried. The city paid $10.4 million in civil rights claims to the victims.

Oakland police are in compliance with all but one reform, attorney John Burris said in an interview Friday morning. Police are in partial compliance with their consistency of discipline of Black officers.

Burris and attorney James Chanin sued the city and Oakland police in 2000 over the alleged police misconduct and have been on the case ever since.

A coalition is seeking to legally force the Oakland Unified School District to drop its school consolidation plan, alleging that the district failed to evaluate it based on the California Environmental Quality Act.

Justice for Oakland Students Coalition, a group seeking greater equity for low-income students of color in the district, filed a complaint Thursday in Alameda County Superior Court.

The coalition alleges the plan will further harm Black and Hispanic communities that absorb the students displaced from schools that close or no longer serve students in certain grades.

The communities that absorb the displaced students are burdened already by environmental problems such as pollution as well as racial injustices such as redlining, the coalition said.

The National Weather Service forecast for Saturday for the San Francisco Bay Area calls for mostly sunny skies with daytime highs in the 60s along the coast to the mid 70s t0 mud 80s inland. Overnight lows Saturday morning will range from the mid 40s to the mid 50s.

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Copyright © 2022 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.