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Dear Red Phone:

Within minutes, the mind wanders off to distant forests and worries melt away, if only for a while. Dawn Culp at The Zen Room, may have the cure for the work-a-day blues. And for a reasonable price too.

It was Mastocytosis Awareness Day Sunday at Gilroy Gardens and Wyatt Catalano’s message about the non-contagious disease was simple, "spots are beautiful." What led to the special day wasn’t so special though.

The Veterans Memorial at Christmas Hill Park honors Gilroyans who have served the country, but space for the commemorative bricks is running out.

Gavilan College removed 17 out-of-state football players—all but one of them African American—from the team and campus last week, claiming the athletes had received prohibited transportation, housing and food benefits and were improperly recruited.

It was already a long week. Working a 96-hour shift as a firefighter in extreme heat, away from home, away from family, can be draining. But when the bell rings, tired or not, members of the Gilroy Fire Department are on the job.

One hundred firefighters from Gilroy Fire Department, Cal Fire and other departments in the county are fighting a five-acre fire burning thick brush on top of the ridge. The GFD has reported no injuries or structures in danger at the moment. An investigation into how the fire started has not yet begun.  As of last night, 22 fire engines were employed to fight the blaze.

So hot that Fifth Street Coffee is closed...no ice coffees available.

Total employees, 678 – most part-time, seasonal

The owner of Union Taxi Company of Gilroy says ride-sharing companies like Lyft and Uber have been killing his business. Pedro Virgen, 50, who has owned the company since 2006, has seen his business shrink from eight taxis and a dozen employees to three cabs and two drivers.