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News From Silicon Valley's Neighborhoods Badside Manners Los Gatos--Dr. Michael Franzblau, a medical ethics professor at UC-San Francisco, has thus far relinquished seven years and $100,000 to bring an alleged Nazi criminal into the light. Before a packed Rotary Club, he spoke of his crusade against a German physician accused of sending disabled German Catholic kids to "Healing Centers," where they encountered brutal medical testing and ultimately euthanasia. Dr. Hans Joachim Sewering, a former SS party member, denies any involvement in Nazi atrocities. Meanwhile, Franzblau, who lost 26 family members to the Holocaust, considers it a "moral imperative" to deliver Sewering to trial. Wet and Wild Sunnyvale--Thanks to the newly planned restoration of wetlands outside Sunnyvale, Bay Trail hikers will soon find the area teeming with new life. The 321-acre piece of land, just purchased by the Santa Clara Valley Water District for $6.1 million, was once used for salt mining but now will be restored as mitigation for environmental damage caused by the water district's flood-control efforts elsewhere. Within two years, the salinity in the salt ponds should match that of the bay, at which point Mother Nature with any luck will return the land to its original state. Red-Handed Cupertino--Next time you decide to run that red light, say cheese! Starting in the fall, new "photo enforcement systems" will snap a picture of all derelict drivers and their license plates. The City Council on April 17 signed a five-year contract with Lockhead Martin IMS, which claims the method catches about 20 culprits a day. Cameras will be installed at seven notoriously dangerous intersections, primarily along De Anza and Stevens Creek boulevards. Red light dodgers are the second most common cause of accidents city-wide, with 336 reported collisions over the past three years. [ San Jose | Metroactive Central | Archives ]