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Five kittens found living inside the hose compartment of a fire engine truck at a Foster City training facility were safely rescued, the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA (PHS/SPCA) announced Monday.

The PHS/SPCA received a call from the San Mateo Consolidated Fire Department about the kittens discovered at the fire academy in Foster City.

“With the ability of fire department staff, we were able to safely rescue all five of the little kittens from the engine,” PHS/SPCA spokesperson Buffy Martin Tarbox said.

The kittens, estimated to be about three to four weeks old, were taken to the PHS/SPCA for evaluation and treatment. Until they’re old enough for adoption, they’ll be placed in a foster home with a PHS/SPCA volunteer.

“The mom was no where to be found, and it was unsafe to leave the kittens tucked in the hoses of a fire truck engine,” Tarbox said. “The kittens appear to be in good health, and it’s a miracle they were found before the truck was used for fire safety training courses.”

The PHS/SPCA rescues more than 5,700 animals in a year.

Photos credited to PHS/SPCA

With Independence Day occurring at a tumultuous time marked by a global pandemic and a national crisis over racial injustice, Climate gave local contributors carte blanche to write their perspectives on what makes America special. We will be publishing our contributors’ American Stories now through July 4. Keep an eye out for these unique and personal pieces.

—

Only on the last hour of the last day of the first week of June, when the school doors opened for the last time and a summer without end beckoned, did the oppression lift. That’s why I say, in retrospect, that I was nine years old when I last felt freedom.

This is how we celebrated liberty: Baseball in a weedy lot. Night hikes in woods. Tree forts. Lightning. Stars. Transistor radios. Dogs. A grassfire. Fistfights. Bicycle thefts, thieved and thieving. Lost glasses. Lost teeth. A broken arm. A diabetic coma.

We did not exercise our civil liberties wisely. Submission to authority became a necessary survival strategy.

This is how government exerted its authority: Interference in foreign governments, forced busing, race warfare, Vietnam, domestic riots, Kent State, Watergate, Presidential crimes, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and persistent, institutionalized racism.

Authority did not exercise its prerogatives wisely.

Founding documents declare America free, but the first, the Declaration of Independence, uses the term only four times, most importantly once where it declares King George “unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” Three times it advances the rights of “free states.”

It declares not freedom for all, only that “all men are created equal,” entitled to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” When they said “men” arguably they meant only men.

The Constitution says “free” once, establishing representation for “free Persons;” “others” valued at three-fifths a person.

“Freedom” appears twice in the Bill of Rights but only to establish freedom of the press, the people to assemble and petition the government.

The country did go to war for freedom, once. One hundred years after the founding, Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, advanced a new definition at Gettysburg when he said, “This nation shall have a new birth of freedom and that the government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

But of all great American political figures none elevated “freedom” more than the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. He rode the Freedom Train. He led the Freedom March. He pleaded for it, he spoke it, he thundered it from a thousand pulpits. Millions of black Americans thundered back.

Freedom, it turns out, is the gift of slavery, the struggle against its ever-living consequence. It’s the tortured plea of black America, today the shared cry of many colors.

May it come to all, someday, equally.

Don Shoecraft has had careers in journalism, communications and book-writing. He’s now free to play golf and volunteer, one of which he does well.

Perspectives:

The Vote

The ties that bind us still

The Lucky Generation

Arrival Stories

The generosity of angels

The American Dream

The opportunity to do better

The great American songbook

Americas can-do attitude

Freedom

The Kaleidoscope

The American Military

An American lens

American unity

With Independence Day occurring at a tumultuous time marked by a global pandemic and a national crisis over racial injustice, Climate gave local contributors carte blanche to write their perspectives on what makes America special. We will be publishing our contributors’ American Stories now through July 4. Keep an eye out for these unique and personal pieces.

—

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, where my favorite summer activities included chasing after ice cream trucks and watching fireworks light up the night sky. I loved to lose myself, mesmerized by an ever-changing kaleidoscope. This was my childhood America—bright, carefree and so full of joy.

I left LA for the Bay Area to attend college and start my career teaching kids in public schools. Serving the community was an important way for me to give back. My parents had immigrated here for the promise of a better future. I wanted to mirror that intention and provide the same for others. After all, wasn’t this part of America, the land of opportunities?

Last night, I opened the window to let in the cool summer breeze. I could hear some kids outside laughing and playing games. “China!! China!! China!! BOOOOO!!!”—Wait … am I hearing this right? Yes. This is also my reality in America, a country built in part on discrimination and racism, an extraordinary country tainted by ignorance and complicity.

What makes America special is right now. I set down the kaleidoscope, no longer needing it to imagine America’s beauty. I can see this country as it is, without distortion. People are standing together to help this country become what it was always meant to be, for everyone, free.

Linda Li of Redwood City is a teacher whose parents came to the United States from China by way of Vietnam.

More perspectives:

The Vote

The ties that bind us still

The Lucky Generation

Arrival Stories

The generosity of angels

The American Dream

The opportunity to do better

The great American songbook

Americas can-do attitude

Freedom

The Kaleidoscope

Another block on B Street in San Mateo — from 1st to 2nd streets — will soon be closed off to vehicular traffic to allow for outdoor dining after the city reported early success in the program. Some city councilmembers are suggesting the downtown street closures become a seasonal or permanent feature.

On June 19, the city closed B Street from 2nd to 3rd streets to vehicular traffic, and additionally closed one lane of B Street from 1st Street to Baldwin Avenue, to provide outdoor space for dining. The plan aims to boost economic opportunities for the city’s restaurants impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic health order.

The B Street block between 1st and 2nd streets wasn’t initially closed as part of the program due to a lack of support from businesses on the block. But since closures have occurred on adjacent blocks, some of those businesses are now in support of closing 1st to 2nd, according to city staff. Also, having one block open to vehicular traffic in between two blocks that have closures is causing a confusing traffic pattern and a potential safety issue, the city said.

Thus far, the city reports that the outdoor dining program has been a success. Deputy Mayor Eric Rodriguez said he’s twice dined outdoors, enjoyed the experience and is thrilled the program will now run continuously along three blocks of B Street. Kids played in the street as adults dined, he said.

“We felt safe, we had fun,” Rodriguez said.

The street closures are set to run through Oct. 19 or until the COVID-19 public health emergency ends and restaurants can return to full capacity indoor service. Rodriguez and Councilmember Amourence Lee raised questions as to whether the city could make the program permanent or seasonal. Either is possible although a permanent closure would require a more involved process, Assistant City Manager Kathy Kleinbaum said.

“If you haven’t or plan to [dine outdoors downtown], I really would encourage you to think about how this adds to our downtown and think about how we might be able to think of something more permanent when the crisis subsides,” Rodriguez said.

Photo: B Street between 2nd and 3rd streets, courtesy of City of San Mateo

“The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults,” the French historian and diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville observed. Published in 1835, his “Democracy in America” attempted to explain to Europeans what made America, with its emphasis on equality and individualism, so unusual.

In 2020, the question is still relevant. With the Fourth of July in mind, Climate opened pages of the July magazine for local contributors to answer: What about America is special to you? Is it the Bill of Rights? Baseball? Or Netflix? Granted, viewing the nation through red-, white- and blue-colored glasses isn’t easy in this rollercoaster year: a soaring economy, then a pandemic and then a national crisis over racial division. Nonetheless, we gave our contributors carte blanche in their choice of topics – and asked them to have at it.

We will be publishing our contributors American Stories now through the 4th of July. Keep an eye out for these unique and personal pieces.

Caltrain’s ridership has reached 3,200 riders per day, more than double its lowest point of 1,500 riders per day during the COVID-19 shelter-in-place period, as public health officials ease restrictions, according to the transit agency. Before the pandemic, Caltrain’s weekday average was 65,000 passengers.

After reducing service down to 42 trains per weekday at the onset of the shelter-in-place order, the transit agency recently increased the frequency to 70 trains per weekday while launching a “skip-stop” system to avoid crowding.

In a statement today, Caltrain said it is “continuing to monitor ridership to ensure that enough capacity exists to allow riders to maintain a healthy distance from each other.”

The transit agency said it has also significantly stepped up cleaning and sanitizing of trains and stations.

“At this time, no employees that work on board or in a maintenance capacity have been infected with COVID-19,” the agency said.

CVS Health has added a San Mateo store to its growing list of locations providing free drive-thru COVID-19 testing.

The CVS Pharmacy at  124 De Anza Blvd. in the Crystal Springs Village shopping center is the first testing site launched by CVS Health in San Mateo County. Since May, CVS Health has opened over 1,400 testing sites nationwide to help expand testing capacity.

To schedule an appointment, patients must register in advance at CVS.com. Testing will not take place inside any retail locations.

A complete list of CVS Pharmacy drive-thru test sites can be found here.

Photo credit: CVS Health

Redwood City added two streets to its Slow Streets Pilot Program due to community feedback and input, according to the city.

“Sections of Bain and Crompton are now Slow Streets Neighborhoods,” the city said.

Slow Streets is a temporary pilot program using signage to discourage vehicular traffic on certain streets during the COVID-19 shelter-in-place period. The program aims to provide safe open spaces for residents to be physically active within their own neighborhood while social distancing. The program also maintains vehicular access to homes and businesses and for emergency and delivery services.

About 3 percent of city streets are currently Slow Streets.

The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday it will reduce inflated prices of commissary items at Maguire Correctional Facility in Redwood City after inmates began a hunger strike.

The inmates reportedly began a hunger strike on May 16 to protest comparatively higher prices for commissary items, lack of free phone calls during the pandemic, and technical difficulties with the new remote video visitation system. Inmate Rodrigo Prieto filed a Change.org petition stating inmates and their families are economically struggling during the pandemic and should not have to pay inflated prices. His letter points out prices for the same items are lower in San Francisco County’s jail system.

“We find ourselves in a constant battle with administration over outrages (sp) commissary prices that go way above market value,” Prieto said in a note to jail officials. “We have filed numerous complaints about these said prices.”

The sheriff’s office said it has discovered that its commissary vendor, Keefe Supply Company, has indeed been charging higher prices at San Mateo County jails than other jails.

“We have worked with our vendor and have agreed to lower the prices to match those of the other jails,” the sheriff’s office said, adding that all revenue from commissary is used for inmate programs and commissary personnel.

It doesn’t appear free phone calls are on the table, per the sheriff’s office statement. The sheriff’s office contracts for inmate phone services at a rate of 4.5 cents a minute, with a half-hour call costing an inmate or their family $1.35.

The office also said it’s also trying to resolve technical issues with its new remote video system, established at the onset of the pandemic. Every inmate is receiving two 30-minute visitation sessions per week free of charge, the sheriff’s office said.