Former state senator Jackie Speier will be the commencement speaker for Notre Dame de Namur University’s four schools on Saturday, May 5. It is the university’s 155th commencement. There are approximately 450 graduating students.
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County supervisors got a hands-on example of what it feels like to breathe with asthma at their Tuesday meeting. During a presentation on World Asthma Day, each supervisor received a straw and were told to blow through it to simulate the difficulty in drawing a full breath. On a happier note, their goodie bags also included a pinwheel to symbolize the joy of breathing without a problem.
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Burlingame Avenue and Sam’s Italian Sandwich Co. can be seen prominently throughout Burlingame rap artist Soz’s new video recently featured on Yahoo! Music. The music video is for his second single "Undercover” off of the recently released album, The Secret Agenda. To see the video visit www.sozonline.net.
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SFO officials will be cutting the proverbial ribbon for JetBlue at the airport today. The discount airliner’s inaugural flight will be at 11:30 a.m.
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California Democrats including John Burton, former state senate president, and state Sen. Leland Yee have endorsed the presidential candidacy of John Edwards.
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On Friday, William Baner, the developer of Versailles Active Adult Condominiums, will be celebrating construction progress by hosting a "Hard Hat Tour/Roof Topping” at 10 Crystal Springs, San Mateo. "Versailles,” San Mateo’s newest community for people 55 and older, is scheduled for completion in December, 2007.
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The chicken is pan-frying, the biscuits are in the oven and the Bananas Foster are sizzling. Chef Glenn "Gator” Thompson is back, and he’s here to stay — with a 20-year lease on his new restaurant, Gator’s Neo-Soul Café that opened April 25 on San Mateo’s B Street between First and Second avenues.
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Downtown cleanups in Burlingame kicked off with more than 70 volunteers —many from local schools — filling two dump trucks full of trash collected on Broadway and Burlingame Avenue in two hours. Children began counting cigarettes for entertainment, with one child finding 249 in his designated area. This Sunday, volunteers will be out again planting flowers on Broadway and painting garbage cans on and around Burlingame Avenue. This weekend’s events are sponsored by local businesses —Big Joe’s Cafe and Copenhagen Bakery —so all helpers will get a little food for helping.
Anyone interested in getting involved can e-mail Councilwoman Ann Keighran at ann@annkeighran.com.
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Menlo-Atherton High School alum and "Dancing with The Stars” pro Cheryl Burke celebrated her 23rd birthday last Sunday at Parc — a trendy Southern California club —with show cast members and dancing partners Drew Lachey and Ian Ziering. Her boyfriend Matthew Lawrence showed his support, as well as New York Giant Michael Strahan, Lisa Rinna and former N’sync singer Joey Fatone. Photos of the outing made it to the popular gossip Web site TMZ.com.
The party was a bit premature as Burke’s actual birthday is today.
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South San Francisco leaders Mayor Rich Garbarino and Councilman Joe Fernekes already have competition in the upcoming election. Kamala Cynthia Silva Wolfe will be giving politics a second go. Wolfe previously ran for the council in 2005 as one of five candidates for three spots. She brought in 12.3 percent of the vote — 3,503 votes. Wolfe began her efforts last week when she appeared before the City Council asking the city to join the Sierra Club’s Cool Cities campaign by endorsing the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.
The reporters’ notebook is a weekly collection of facts culled from the notebooks of the Daily Journal staff. It appears in the Thursday edition.

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