1996
Sabeer Bhatia launches free email service called Hotmail, Adobe relocates to downtown San Jose – Stanford Gates Computer Science Building opens with Bill Gates donating $6 million – Congress enacts the Communications Decency Act
Line of Fire
Since she was hired as San Jose’s first independent police auditor in September 1993, Teresa Guerrero-Daley has been caught in a crossfire of criticism. “Useless,” “a political sop,” “an order-taker,” is how some residents described the auditor in a recent survey. San Jose’s rank-and-file police officers sometimes hiss at the 44-year-old criminal defense attorney when she walks into a briefing room, resentful that an outsider has been given authority to look over their shoulders. It’s not surprising the police would mistrust Guerrero-Daley. Her charge is to instill public confidence in the police by helping to rein in wayward officers. Each year residents lodge hundreds of complaints against officers ranging from rude behavior to unwarranted use of force. Groups such as the Human Rights Commission, the Santa Clara County Bar Association and the American Civil Liberties Union charge that the auditor doesn’t have the power or independence to improve police practices. The most effective approach, they argue, would be to appoint a group of residents to monitor the police—an independent citizen review board Laura Stuchinsky, Jan. 25, 1996
Booms Away
Buckle up for sanity. This is not a fruit orchard–to-Ferraris ’80s-style boom, rather a gourmet “hold the foam” caffeination. And, we’d like that with skim, please, with a couple of zeros at the end. Days when Nolan Bushnell could become a Silicon Valley legend after selling Atari for $28 million are over. Netscape’s Jim Clark is worth 25 times more than that on a bad stock day, and most people haven’t even heard of him. Dan Pulcrano, Dec. 26, 1996
