Free Republic

They were toddlers when their town earned the dubious distinction of America’s murder capital a quarter-century ago. In this bayside community bypassed by Silicon Valley’s wealth, gunfire became the soundtrack to childhoods spent avoiding parks and hustling home before dark. Now, as Detective Lydia Cardoza and Officers Jose Luaorozco and Robert Olvera patrol East Palo Alto’s streets, their Peninsula hometown that witnessed so much tragedy has undergone a transformation few had imagined possible. Violent crime has dropped precipitously — by over 60 percent in the past 25 years. Murder has almost vanished.

The grounds of St. Patrick’s Seminary & University boast row upon row of broccoli, Swiss chard, kale, and strawberries this spring, products of a new parish Catholic workers cooperative created in a venture among the seminary, Guadalupe Associates, and the parish of St. Francis of Assisi, East Palo Alto. “I was actually surprised we yielded so much the first year,” said Sulpician Father Gladstone Stevens, rector of the seminary who, along with San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, approved the use of seminary grounds to grow the crops as part of NanoFarms USA’s pilot project. The website is nanofarms.com....

It's being reported that a police officer from East Palo Alto joked about gunning down proponents of the second amendment on Facebook.  The article in today's Mercury News tells of the police officer in question joking about shooting someone as "2 weeks off". After several more comments in the thread, Tuason apparently joked that officers should shoot the advocates, who have made recent headlines throughout the Bay Area for sipping coffee at cafes and performing other everyday acts with visible weapons. "Sounds like you had someone practicing their 2nd amendment rights last night!" Tuason wrote. "Should've pulled the AR out...

EAST PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) - Authorities arrested a 23-year-old man on Sunday in the fatal shooting of a police officer who was gunned down while taking a teenager on a ride-along. Alberto Alvarez, of East Palo Alto, was taken into custody after an intense manhunt around 6 a.m. in East Palo Alto, where the shooting took place, according the California Highway Patrol. Officer Richard May, 39, was responding to a disturbance at the Villa Taqueria off University Avenue when the incident occurred around 5 p.m. Saturday, police said. The officer was approaching the suspect, who was walking away from...