The following story was first printed in the April 12 edition of the Daily Post. If you want to stay on top of local news, pick up the Post. BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT Daily Post Staff Writer  The city of Palo Alto has cleared out a hotel that had been converted to apartments for 26 Stanford graduate students who were living among exposed wires, corroded pipes, locked fire exits and a balcony at risk of collapse, according to building inspectors. The Stanford Terrace Inn at 531 Stanford Ave. was red-tagged Tuesday night after the final residents moved out. Firefighters required the owner to set ..read more

Robert Wenzlau of Palo Alto was arrested Thursday on four charges alleging lewd contact with a child online.  Wenzlau, 67, was arrested by police in the 1400 block of Dana Avenue in Palo Alto, police said. A law enforcement agent in Georgia, posing as a 12-year-old girl, allegedly exchanged messages with the Palo Alto man, according to police. He allegedly sent kiddie porn pictures to the undercover decoy.  A Palo Alto officer posed as a child on the same app and was contacted by Wenzlau, police said. He allegedly sent lewd photos to that decoy officer as well ..read more

BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT Daily Post Staff writer The city of Palo Alto is putting a temporary fire station at the Cubberley Community Center for two years while the fire station at Mitchell Park gets rebuilt. A double-wide trailer will go in a parking lot in the southwest corner at Cubberley just off Nelson Drive, plans show. The temporary fire station, about a half-mile away from Mitchell Park, will have one ambulance and at least two firefighters at all times, Public Works Director Brad Eggleston said in a report to council. The fire station at Mitchell Park, known as Fire Station #4,  is g ..read more

By Levi Sumagaysay CalMatters With more California homeowners just discovering their insurance policies are getting canceled — and hundreds of thousands of others stuck with a pricey option of last resort — state Insurance Commissioner Richard Lara is scrambling to end the crisis. Ten of the 12 largest home insurance companies in California have either stopped or greatly limited new home insurance applications, destabilizing the insurance market. Allstate and State Farm are not accepting new applications for California home insurance, while Farmers has scaled back the number of policies it pla ..read more

Katie Causey, an LGBT+ activist, today became the first candidate to enter this fall’s Palo Alto City Council race, when voters fill four of the panel’s seven seats. The terms of Pat Burt, Lydia Kou, Greg Tanaka, Greg Tanaka and Greer Stone expire this year. The city’s term-limits law prevents Kou and Tanaka from running again, but Burt and Stone are free to run if they wish. If Burt and Stone decide to run, that would leave two undefended seats on council. Causey, a product of the Palo Alto public schools, ran unsuccessfully for school board in 2020. Causey is currently a member of the city’s ..read more

BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT Daily Post Staff Writer A company that provides in-home care has paid $100,000 in civil penalties after being caught placing unscreened caregivers into the homes of the elderly and disabled, resulting in a Palo Alto resident getting thousands of dollars stolen from him. The penalty was the result of a District Attorney’s Office consumer protection lawsuit, the first of its kind filed in Santa Clara County. The complaint alleged that Serving Seniors.Care, based in Daly City, didn’t perform background checks and hired unregistered aides.  By law, those convicted of any ..read more

BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT Daily Post Staff Writer Vacancies in downtown Palo Alto are the highest they’ve been in more than 25 years — a span that’s included the dot-com bubble burst and the Great Recession, according to data from a consultant and the city. Downtown vacancies in the first quarter of this year are at 15%, according to a report from consultant Michael Baker International. Online shopping and the city’s retail preservation rules are to blame, Michael Baker said in the report. From 2014 to 2020, the downtown vacancy rate stayed between 0% and 6%, Michael Baker said. About a year into t ..read more

BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT Daily Post Staff Writer Residents of Buena Vista Mobile Home Park in Palo Alto said tonight (March 4) that they are getting poor offers and unclear communication from the Santa Clara County Housing Authority ahead of plans to redevelop the property with 44 new coaches and 61 apartments. “For some people, it might be a project,” said Liney Barella, a resident of 21 years. “But for me, it’s my home. It’s my family that’s (on the) journey, and it’s very stressful. So please take (into) consideration our needs.” Flaherty Ward, director of real estate for the Housing Authority ..read more

BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHTDaily Post Staff Writer Congressional candidate Karl Ryan hasn’t participated in any debates, raised any money for his campaign or done any interviews talking about his politics — until now. Ryan, 60, of Los Gatos, sat down for an interview in Palo Alto last week to talk about being a Republican, his personal background and why his website was generated by AI, and included a photoshopped picture of him with his family. Ryan said that a friend created his campaign website and may have edited an old Christmas photo because Ryan was blinking in it.”It’s not like we’re trying t ..read more

BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT Daily Post Staff Writer The director of Palo Alto’s public art program says that she didn’t know who Assata Shakur was when she approved the controversial figure’s inclusion in a Black Lives Matter mural in front of City Hall, according to court documents. For that matter, the artist’s proposal for the mural didn’t include Shakur’s name. The painting went on to become the subject of a lawsuit from six police officers, who said the painting of Shakur put a target on their backs and made them afraid to come to work. Shakur is a civil rights activist turned refugee after ..read more