Los Altos News Worth Knowing: MVLA High School Alumni Big in the News, Downtown Gets Skateshop

It's busy, and we know it's easy to miss news.  Now that it's Sunday, give yourself a short respite. Pull up a chair, pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea, and get caught up.

1.

Mandeep Chahal was voted 'Most Likely to Save the World' in 2009 by her classmates at .

But, it turns out, it was her classmates who rallied on Facebook to save the UC-Davis honors progam student, first.

On Tuesday at 8 a.m., Chahal and her mother, Jagdish Kaur, reported to immigration authorities for deportation, still in the middle of years' long appeals to get their  case reopened.

As immigration reform advocates were holding a teleconference to describe her plight as a test case for new guidelines on prosecutorial discretion issued last week, the pair was granted a stay.

"My family will be at home tonight, together, because of you,"  Chahal wrote in thanks on a note to the nearly 1800 people who had joined a Facebook group that had been set up just Sunday.

For Student Journalists, No Burden Guarding Vargas' Secret

On a cooler than usual spring morning in Silicon Valley, Jose Antonio Vargas sat across from 35 reporters ages 14 to 18 at  and told them his deepest secret, which he said only a few people knew. He also told them to keep it safe for a while. They did.

For the next six weeks not a murmur, whisper, tweet or status update suggested the teenagers guarded privileged information for Vargas, 30, a former Oracle editor-in-chief and a 2000 graduate of MVHS.

But now, the off-the-record comment he made on May 11 has been released and the news that a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, who worked at several national news outlets all the while being in the United States illegally, spread like wildfire online and raised a fury of opinions.

Closer to home, however, the teens felt relieved that now they could also share what happened on that day and why they bit their lips.

2.

In the two consecutive days, the national press has focused on Mountain View and  Los Altos—not because Google launched a new product or scientists at NASA Ames made a discovery; but because Pulitzer Prize winner Jose Antonio Vargas and UC Davis pre-med student Mandeep Chahal lived and studied here as undocumented students.

Vargas hid his undocumented status, but decided to announce it Wednesday as part of his new documentary project and non-profit venture "Define American." In contrast, Chahal's undocumented status because today she would have been deported if not for an eleventh hour reprieve.

"They were both incredibly ambitious students in high school, who worked hard, who are very accomplished and have gone on to do outstanding things," said Barry Groves, superintendent of  (MVLA). "It's sad that the DREAM Act failed by a few votes."

Grove made it clear that this was his opinion and not of the district.

The DREAM Act, the legislative bill that came close to passage last year, would have helped qualifying undocumented students like Vargas and Chahal, who were brought to the U.S. as children, get on the path toward citizenship.

At a gathering in her home, Susan Sweeley, a mentor to Vargas and president of MVLA Board of Trustees, watched Vargas–as part of his documentary–tell a roomful of people he knew from the community that he was undocumented.

"I know that it's risky for him to be doing this and I'm worried about him, absolutely," she said. "But he's compelled to advocate for the DREAM Act and he's a perfect example as to why the DREAM Act should be enacted."

3.

The end of an era arrived Wednesday, as a familiar institution on First Street made way for condominiums.

Quick-thinking Los Altos Patch users David Bergman and Andi Bruno, captured the razing of the Adobe Animal Hospital building on camera.

4. 

Home decor shop is opening a new boutique next month, expanding its business to downtown Los Gatos.

Since it opened in Los Altos over 15 years ago, Cover Story has been a fashion fixture for fine linens, Italian dinnerware, bath apparel and other European-inspired home furnishings. Now owner Craig Cousins is hard at work fixing up a  second store in mid-July at 2 N. Santa Cruz Ave. in Los Gatos, site of , a home decor store.

The new boutique follows on the heels of other small businesses that have expanded locally, despite the nation’s current economic woes. In May, modern Greek restaurant Opa!, which is always packed in Los Gatos, its latest location in downtown Los Altos. The previous month, Los Altos women's boutique, , its second location in Palo Alto.

 Cousins said the demographics of Los Gatos were close to Los Altos, in addition to it being  “spot on” for the shop’s targeted market: the well-traveled food and music lover.

5.

If you've been wondering where your teen has been spending all his time lately, we think we know.

Skateworks, a well-known Santa Cruz business held its official opening—ribbon-cutting, city officials, and all—Friday at 379 State Street.

A big yellow-and-red-balloon arbor arched over the storefront for the noon-time ribbon cutting, where chilled hibiscus tea, water and bite-sized chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies were served. Teens, however, quickly found it soon after its soft opening June 11 and began "clocking serious time here," said owner Jason Strubing.

Strubing, who is from Santa Cruz, said an opportunity presented itself as he was closing the Redwood City store, a skateshop palace on Broadway that boasted a 40-seat theater. With all the fixtures and wall treatments, Strubing was ready to set up quickly—and slickly.

Check out the colorful wall of decks, which has an allure that is irresistible.