Tue12102013

News

Local Voices: Festival of Lights in person

Town Crier reporters roamed Los Altos before the Festival of Lights parade catching characters come to life and learning back story on the local tradition. Hear people in their own words below, and read our coverage of the parade here.

Read more:

Loading...

Schools

Mountain View High hosts second STEM Day

Mountain View High hosts second STEM Day


Photos Ellie Van Houtte/Town Crier
Mountain View High School students mix chemicals to create polyurethane “foam gnomes” during hands-on experiments during the school’s second STEM Day last week.

Mountain View High School sponsored its second Sc...

Read more:

Loading...

Community

Trainers 'Push for a Cause' this coming Monday

Evolution Trainers in Mountain View is hosting its second annual "Push for a Cause" event this coming Monday, Dec. 9. The event gives trainer-led teams 24 hours to complete as many push-ups as they can to raise money for charity.

Proceeds from this ...

Read more:

Loading...

Sports

Lancers face familiar foe in final

Lancers face familiar foe in final


Ellie Van Houtte/Town Crier
St. Francis halfback Alex Andrighetto races to the end zone as Palo Alto quarterback Keller Chryst watches from the sideline. Andrighetto rushed for three TDs and intercepted a Chryst pass Friday.

The St. Francis High...

Read more:

Loading...

Business

Goldsmith ends 34-year run in Los Altos: Dean's Designs closing its doors at the end of 2013


Ellie Van Houtte/Town Crier
Dean’s Designs at 328 Main St. is closing its doors at the end of 2013 after more than 30 years in downtown Los Altos. Larry Hayano purchased the custom goldsmith business from founder Dean Yoshimizu in 1990. Long-time e...

Read more:

Loading...

People

 Noteworthy

Noteworthy


Courtesy of Scott Johnson
Jean Rousseau celebrates her award with husband Norm.

Los Altos resident Rousseau honored for volunteer work

Los Altos resident Jean Rousseau received the Distinguished Volunteer Fundraiser Award as part of the Silico...

Read more:

Loading...

Travel

Planning travel in Old England with television and the Internet

Planning travel in Old England with television and the Internet


Photos by Gary Anderson/Special to the Town Crier
The charming English village of Burton Bradstock, left, features camera-ready backdrops like the Three Horseshoes inn, above, and the parish church, below.

OK, we admit it – we’re great f...

Read more:

Loading...

Comment

The aftermath of an accident: A Piece of My Mind

My brother had an accident. He was working overtime on the weekend, on a 10-foot ladder. The ladder slipped backward from under him and he fell with it onto a wood-composite deck. He broke both wrists, his shoulder blade and every bone in his face ...

Read more:

Loading...

Stepping Out

TheatreWorks'

TheatreWorks' "Little" musical opens Saturday


Tracy Martin/Special to the Town Crier
The cast of TheatreWorks’ “Little Women” stars Justin Buchs (as John Brooke) and Sharon Rietkerk (Meg).

The TheatreWorks production of “Little Women” is slated to preview today through Friday, open Saturday...

Read more:

Loading...

Spiritual Life

Spiritual Briefs

LAUMC offers Advent activities

Los Altos United Methodist Church has scheduled two activities to celebrate Advent.

• Creekside Christmas: 9:30 a.m. to noon Saturday in Creekside Center at the church. Children and parents are invited to make 1...

Read more:

Loading...

Magazine

Tour of public sculptures in Los Altos

Tour of public sculptures in Los Altos

Ellie Van Houtte/Town Crier
“Space Dance for Peace” (1986), Mircea Paul Goreniuc at Lincoln Park in Los Altos.

Following is a list of Los Altos’ public sculptures, their artists and their dates of installation.


In or near downtown
“Walter Singer ...

Read more:

Loading...

Stocks take a licking & keep on ticking

When the stock market stalls after an exhilarating upward climb, the temptation to look for a correction is understandable.

A long list of potential negatives is on the horizon, which could cause investors and the market to pull back. However, predicting the timing for a correction is guesswork. The Affordable Care Act, scheduled to take effect Oct. 1, and other looming geopolitical events are likely to influence the market in the fall.

There is no shortage of reasons to be bearish – consumer sentiment tanked this month, turmoil rages in the Middle East, the Federal Reserve may call a halt to its bond buying and interest rates could rise rapidly.

Stocks are not cheap these days, and bull markets tend to end when shares become expensive. Investors should do their homework.

For now, solid stocks are still available at reasonable valuations, including the following two blue chips on the Town Crier “50.”

• Microsoft Corp. (MSFT; $31.60) has been on the scene since 1975. But since global personal computer shipments plunged 14 percent in the first quarter, many of the early software pioneers are navigating stormy seas.

The recent quarter marked the end of Microsoft’s 2013 fiscal year. The company earned $2.58 a share, compared with $2 a share in 2012.

Long-term investors should consider the stock-price decline as a second chance to purchase Microsoft shares on sale. The yield is heading back toward 3 percent, and the company’s outlook isn’t as dismal as PC industry sales suggest.

Once the holiday season begins, shoppers will focus on consumer electronics. Microsoft has a great opportunity to become one of the star players with its new Xbox One. Judging by past performance, Microsoft should sell more than 2 million units of the Xbox One, in addition to scores of accessories.

On average, analysts predict that Microsoft will generate $23.02 billion in revenues and 78 cents in net profits in the fourth quarter. With those results, Microsoft could make itself more attractive than the dividend yield of 2.89 percent.

Numerous analysts have downgraded Microsoft stock from a buy to a hold. The target price is $35, with a high of $41 in the future.

• IBM Corp. (IBM; $184.24) is struggling, and the time has come to decide whether its stock is attractive to new money and worthy of investment. Second-quarter sales have dropped two years in a row, with all divisions suffering varying degrees of problems.

Financial analyst and broadcaster Jim Cramer last week ranked IBM as a sell. The 52-week high is $215, and the low $184.78.

“The easy money has been made, and I would sell,” Cramer said.

IBM is not the financial powerhouse it once was. At the end of the second quarter, it had slightly under $7 billion working capital against $26.3 billion in long-term debt.

Nearly two dozen analysts, including those representing UBS and Barclays, have upgraded the stock. Most rate IBM a hold, and none calls for a sell. The mean target price is $217.50, with a high of $250.

I have a long position in both Microsoft and IBM stock, and I don’t plan to buy more of either in the next month.

Schools »

Schools
Read More

Sports »

sports
Read More

People »

people
Read More

Special Sections »

Special Sections
Read More

Photos of Los Altos

photoshelter
Browse and buy photos
http://www.losaltosonline.com/index2.php?option=com_content&task=emailform&id=45412&itemid=46
www.losaltosonline.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2013-48
161632
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:QGGTR5Q7Q7HHRB55S7ZYEXANENT2YGLY
<urn:uuid:67bd7580-564b-4fca-8087-ca6c8c1a4fe2>
2013-12-10T13:01:51Z
65.98.207.151
sha1:CXPKR5CYZRLPSSQCCU4U5T24YMYHR5ZP
<urn:uuid:b0137ad3-bd6e-48f0-831a-5dd32bfe1c3c>
http://www.losaltosonline.com/index2.php?option=com_content&task=emailform&id=45412&itemid=46
length
response
<urn:uuid:07f6814e-f17e-4421-b4ae-6a8614cf13a9>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2013-48
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for Winter 2013
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf