A night in Morocco Cooking classes celebrate good food WEEKEND | 20 MARCH 29, 2013 VOLUME 21, NO. 9
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Toxics found in five more Evandale Avenue homes NEW MACHINE PROVIDES INSTANT READINGS OF TOXIC TCE LEVELS INSIDE HOMES By Daniel DeBolt
rent Environmental Protection esidents of a condo com- Agency practice. plex at 175 Evandale AveThough the complex sits outnue were in for a surprise side a “high priority” testing Monday when they took up an area initially designated by the offer to see instantly just how EPA, all five of the homes much toxic vapors were in their tested showed elevated levels of homes. trichloroethylene The unusual vapors (TCE), opportunity was including two offered by R.J. Lee ‘That’s the best on the DevonGroup, a Washshire Avenue side TCE hit I’ve ington state-based of the complex, company looking entirely outside ever seen.’ to demonstrate of the area where the capabilities the EPA is offerTODD ROGERS, of its $300,000 ing free, volunASSISTANT PROFESSOR “Proton Transfer tary indoor air OF CHEMISTRY AT COLUMBIA Reaction Mass tests. BASIN COLLEGE Spec t rometer,” TCE is the canmanufactured by cer-causing solIonicon Analytic. The machine is vent that computer chip manutouted as “real time technology” facturers released or dumped in that could potentially replace the ground for several decades time-consuming methods of at the nearby MEW Superfund collecting air samples in vacuum site, where a cleanup began in canisters and sending them to a lab for analysis, as is curSee TOXICS FOUND, page 6
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MICHELLE LE
Len Pingel brings in a summa canister to collect an air sample in an Evandale Avenue home.
Committee chair unleashes anti-Semitic comments MAYOR SAYS PARKINSON VIOLATED CODE OF CONDUCT By Daniel DeBolt
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omments made by Visual Arts Committee chair Christopher Parkinson online and in emails last week are bizarre, anti-Semitic, and examples of “textbook prejudice,” according to the AntiDefamation League. Parkinson’s original comments were removed from the Voice website for containing offensive language, linking City Council member Ronit Bryant to a conspiracy among women in local
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governing bodies and a Jewish conspiracy headed by the Rothschild family — “a classic antiSemitic charge,” said Seth Brysk of the Anti-Defamation League’s San Francisco office. When contacted by the Voice after he posted the comments, Parkinson sent emails further detailing his beliefs, as well as another email and online comment threatening lawsuits against the city and the newspaper if action were taken against him. Parkinson made his original comments on March 20 in an
apparent attempt to explain Bryant’s opposition to the placement of two donated Berlin Wall sections in front of the city’s library after she had previously called them “two very large pieces of ugly cement.” Parkinson serves as a volunteer on the visual arts committee, which had been charged with narrowing down a list of possible locations for the pieces. Parkinson’s allusions to the Rothschild family — often cited in conspiracy theories — “is See PARKINSON, page 13
VIEWPOINT 18 | GOINGS ON 27 | MARKETPLACE 28 | REAL ESTATE 30
Trustees approve $50 million in Measure G projects CRITTENDEN, GRAHAM MIDDLE SCHOOLS WILL GET AUDITORIUMS, OTHER UPGRADES By Nick Veronin
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he Mountain View Whisman School District has a rough outline of how it will spend the first $50 million of its $198 million Measure G school bond. At a March 21 meeting, the board approved a list of 13 priority projects to be built at the district’s two middle schools — Crittenden and Graham — including technology and data
infrastructure overhauls, an auditorium at each site, new classrooms and various other improvements to be made to school buildings and the surrounding grounds. The budget for all 13 projects is $25 million at each site. Trustees Ellen Wheeler, Bill Lambert and Chris Chiang voted in favor of the list. Trustee Steven Nelson abstained; he See MEASURE G, page 9