‘BEGIN AGAIN’LOOKS MIGRANT OVERLOAD VISION GIRLS AT POWER OF MUSIC BORDER PATROL RESCHEDULES FLIGHT PLANS TO CALIFORNIA GO FOR GOLD WEEKEND JOURNAL PAGE 19 NATION PAGE 7 SPORTS PAGE 11 Leading local news coverage on the Peninsula Weekend • June 28-29, 2014 • Vol XIII,Edition 270 www.smdailyjournal.com VA review finds ‘significant and chronic’failures Recommendations include need for more doctors,nurses and trained administrative staff By Jim Kuhnhenn failures,” substantially verifying ed the timeliness of health care. while waiting for appointments for more doctors, nurses and THE ASSOCIATED PRESS problems raised by whistle-blow- The review also found that a 14- and of treatment delays in VAfacil- trained administrative staff. Those ers and internal and congressional day standard for scheduling veter- ities nationwide. The White House recommendations are likely to WASHINGTON — In a scathing investigators. ans’ medical appointments is released a summary of the review face skepticism among some con- appraisal, a review ordered by A summary of the review by unrealistic and that some employ- following President Barack gressional Republicans who have President Barack Obama of the deputy White House chief of staff ees manipulated the wait times so Obama’s meeting Friday with blamed the VA’s problems on mis- troubled Veterans Affairs health Rob Nabors says the Veterans they would appear to be shorter. Nabors and Acting VA Secretary management, not lack of care system concludes that med- Health Administration must be The review is the latest blister- Sloan Gibson. resources. ical care for veterans is beset by restructured and that a “corrosive ing assessment of the VA in the The review offers a series of rec- “significant and chronic system culture” has hurt morale and affect- wake of reports of patients dying ommendations, including a need See REVIEW, Page 18 County crop production on the rise Report:Values up, but livestock and fields take hit from drought By Michelle Durand doors held steady through the year, DAILY JOURNAL STAFF according to the 2013 Agricultural Crop Report for San Mateo The county’s agricultural produc- County. tion jumped 2.2 percent the last This annual snapshot of San year, thanks in large part to a larg- Mateo County’s crop production ANGELA SWARTZ/DAILY JOURNAL er haul of Brussels sprouts and fava will be delivered to the Board of The Yaseen Foundation in Belmont held prayer services at the Belmont Sports Complex Friday afternoon. beans, but wasn’t immune to the Supervisors Tuesday by state water shortage. Agricultural Commissioner Fred Certified farmers’ markets and Crowder. Ramadan to commence this weekend direct marketing by honey and egg The report looks at the values of producers also kept livestock and the goods but also calculated that apiary, or bee, products on an county agriculture contributes Month-long religious observance involves fasting,prayer upward climb by 4.8 percent but $216 million to the local econo- By Angela Swartz Abdel-Sadek, “We have a very good relation- nursery and floral industries fell as my and provides 4,708 jobs. The DAILY JOURNAL STAFF 53, has a Ph.D. ship here as a community and with several producers shuttered in and is a poly- other communities,” said Abdel- 2013. Those that didn’t close their See CROP, Page 24 This weekend marks the begin- mer and materi- Sadek. “Other religious leaders get ning of Ramadan, the Muslim reli- al scientist at together and discuss the large gious holiday, and Belmont’s PowerVision by community issues.” After-school programming Yaseen Foundation is organizing day in Belmont. During the month of Ramadan, activities around the holy month. When he joined Yaseen conducts open houses and In Belmont, volunteer Imam the community invites non-Muslims to explain pilot set to begin in the fall Gomaa G. Abdel-Sadek is helping of Belmont in things and answer questions. South City school district will offer about 90 slots Gomaa December “We are in good communication lead prayers during the annual Abdel-Sadek By Angela Swartz At a meeting Thursday night, the spiritual observance, which is 2010, the Imam with many organizations and we had just left for England so he are part of Peninsula Clergy DAILY JOURNAL STAFF Board of Trustees voted 4-0 to add regarded as one of the Five Pillars pilot programs for this coming of Islam. began to fill the position volun- Network,” he said. “Therefore, school year at Alta Loma and “Ramadan is a very special tarily. He hails from Cairo, Egypt, there are many ways to send a mes- School board members are tak- month for our community,” he and has seven children with his sage through.” ing the first steps to fill a hole Westborough middle schools, said. “We look forward to this wife, who he commutes to visit in Fasting for Muslims during they see in the South San while transporting some students month all year because it is the San Diego every weekend since Ramadan typically includes the Francisco Unified School District in district vehicles to Orange month in which we should develop his children are finishing school increased offering of salat with a pilot program for middle Park’s Boys & Girls Club pro- our family and communal ties, in Southern California. He says he (prayers) and recitation of the school after-school programs, gram. Parkway Heights Middle increase our good deeds and enjoys Belmont and the communi- much to the delight of district par- improve our spiritual state.” ty here. See RAMADAN, Page 18 ents. See SCHOOL, Page 24 2 Weekend • June 28-29, 2014 FOR THE RECORD THE DAILY JOURNAL Thought for the Day “One of the sources of pride in being a human being is the ability to bear present frustrations in the interests of longer purposes.” — Helen Merrell Lynd,American educator (1896-1982) This Day in History Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, were assassinat- ed in Sarajevo by Serb nationalist 1914 Gavrilo Princip — the event which sparked World War I. In 1778,the Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth took place in New Jersey; it was from this battle that the legend of “Molly Pitcher” arose. In 1836, the fourth president of the United States, James Madison, died in Montpelier, Virginia. In 1838, Britain’s Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey. In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in France, ending the First World War. In Independence, Missouri, future president Harry S. Truman married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace. In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Housing Act, which established the Federal Housing Administration. In 1939, Pan American Airways began regular trans- Atlantic air service with a flight that departed New York for Marseilles, France. REUTERS In 1944, the Republican national convention in Chicago A workman makes a traditional Ramadan lantern ahead of the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Cairo,Egypt. nominated New York Gov. Thomas E. Dewey for president 1958) sitting on his lap. The photo was Star Line built three huge ships: the and Ohio Gov. John W. Bricker for vice president. taken while the couple was aboard a Olympic in 1911, the Titanic in 1912 In 1950, North Korean forces captured Seoul (sohl), the cap- ship called Monkey Business. and the Britannic in 1914. The Titanic ital of South Korea. *** was the largest passenger ship in the In 1964, civil rights activist Malcolm X declared, “We The largest ships in the Princess cruise world at the time of its launching. want equality by any means necessary” during the Founding line are the Sapphire Princess and the *** Rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity in New Diamond Princess. The identical ships After the Titanic ran into an iceberg in York. each carry 2,670 passengers and 1,200 1912, the ship’s orchestra was instruct- In 1978, the Supreme Court ordered the University of crew. ed to play cheerful tunes to calm the California-Davis Medical School to admit Allan Bakke, a *** passengers. The eight members of the white man who argued he’d been a victim of reverse racial Originally, the pilgrims traveling from orchestra played while the ship sunk. discrimination. England for America in 1620 departed They went down with the ship. In 1989, about 1 million Serbs gathered to mark the 600th on two ships — the Mayflower and the *** anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. he unlucky S.S. Minnow on Speedwell. However, the Speedwell The mutiny aboard the British Royal “Gilligan’s Island” (1964-1967) developed a leak and could not make the Navy ship named the Bounty occurred Twas named after Newton Minow voyage. in 1789. First mate Fletcher Christian (born 1926), former chairman of the Birthdays *** (1764-1793) led a mutiny against Federal Communications Commission. Captain Joseph Hazelwood (born 1946) Captain William Bligh (1754-1817) Minow gave a speech in 1961 denounc- sending the captain and half of the crew ing television as a “vast wasteland.” stood trial after the 1989 oil spill of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker. He was accused adrift in a small launch. Bligh sailed the *** 23-foot boat 3,600 miles back to civi- “The Poseidon Adventure” was the top- of causing the accident due to intoxica- lization. The mutineers started a settle- grossing film of 1972. Ernest Borgnine tion. Ajury found that he was not drunk, ment in Tahiti. (1917-2012) and Gene Hackman (born but he was fined $50,000 and 1,000 1930) starred as passengers of a luxuri- hours of community service for negli- *** ous ocean liner trying to survive after gently discharging oil. Answer: Jack Sparrow — the Black the ship gets hit by a tidal wave and cap- *** Pearl, from the movie “Pirates of the Can you name the ships of the follow- Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Actor John Cusack sizes.