I can imagine there were smiles all around when state Attorney General Kamala Harris signed off on the Stanford Health Care acquisition of ValleyCare Health System.
Assuming Stanford is OK with the conditions, the deal should close in the next couple of months and should ensure Livermore Valley residents will continue to have access to top quality medical care. ValleyCare had been bleeding cash for five years until last year when the board undertook a campaign to find a suitable partner. They also shuffled senior management with long-time CEO Marcy Feit departing and Scott Gregerson taking the reins.
Harris' terms mandate continuing to operate the ValleyCare Medical Center with 24-hour emergency services for the next five years—something Stanford would want to do anyway. Stanford will invest at least $50 million in the hospital over the next three years and guarantee the $85 million in outstanding ValleyCare bonds. Prior to this deal, the hospital was not meeting its bond covenants because of the operating losses and, in worst case, could have simply been foreclosed and sold to the highest bidder.

You have to like CBS Broadcaster Jim Nantz's assignments for the last 10 days.
He called the semi-finals and championship games of the NCAA Final Four last Saturday and Monday and then went down to Georgia to call four days of the Masters, the first major of the PGA Tour season and, for the snowbound states, the start of the golfing season. He broadcasts the action as 21-year-old Justin Spieth wins by four strokes and ties the all-time record at 18 under par. Tiger Woods set that record when he was 21. That sparked changes to the golf course that now is 500 yards longer than it was when Tiger set the record.

Browsing through the Wall Street Journal's Mansion section, there was a chart accompanying a story headlined "Ritzy Zip Codes Call For Pricey Cars. (April 10 edition).
The upscale communities ranged from Manhattan to McLean, VA, to Highland Park in Dallas and Beverly Hills. The Bay Area listing was for Atherton.
There were seven zip codes listed and the manufacturers represented in the top three number of new registrations were Lexus, Mercedes Benz and BMW on most lists. The outliers were the Acura MDX from Microsoft territory in Lynwood, WA. a Land Rover Range Rover in New York City and an Audi Q5 in McLean.
Atherton had two Mercedes on the list, but there were twice as many Tesla Model S listed as the models of Mercedes combined.
Giving Atherton residents taxpayer funds for the electric car is crazy—they can afford it without the tax break from the feds and the $2,500 rebate from California. They already benefit enough from paying no gasoline tax.