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The San Francisco 49ers will join the Santa Clara County Library District, which includes Gilroy and Morgan Hill libraries, for this year’s Summer Reading program, which started June 1 and runs through July 31. The 49ers join returning sponsors The Tech Museum of Innovation and...

Hallelujah, our downtown coffee shop is going to stay open in the evenings. Congrats and welcome to the new owners of the shop formerly known as Fifth Street Coffee and then Sue's. The new owners, Philip Willis and his girlfriend Tiffany Smith, already have leapfrogged the naming pack with the cool selection of "Dragonfly on Fifth." The logo should be awesome – as awesome as Willis' quote from our story: "I don't know what the heck I'm doing. But this is something I've been thinking about for a year now. I wanted to be involved, and be a part of the community." A spring grand gala is planned with new floors, seating, paint, and - yes - hours befitting a real coffee shop that will stay open until 9 p.m. Could this be a key sign that a downtown breakthrough is ahead?

Seems like things are improving economically, but it’s a slow boil recovery. Have always felt like the psychological aspect to recovery – or slide – is critically important. It’s almost as if you can “feel” whether the economy is moving. The numbers don’t lie, but they don’t tell the whole truth either. So, as Miss Jenny and I struggle to get the two daughters through college and the nation sputters to leave the Great Recession behind, I’m chagrined at the plethora of state, county and local tax measures dripping ink all over the upcoming ballot. There have been some reforms for public agencies in pension, benefit and pay structures. But honestly, it’s not nearly enough – not nearly enough to justify supporting all the tax measures on the ballot. One of our Community Pulse members answered a question about supporting the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s tax proposal  with this: “No. On principle, voting no on all tax measures until agencies, counties, Sacramento get their wasteful spending practices in order.” That’s on the money, and it seems to me that until the clear majority of voters adopt that principle – despite general support for schools, dam re-building, public safety or whatever the purpose – serious and sustainable reform will not happen.

From the moment Mark Hanson raises his baton to start the overture for “South Pacific,” you know you are in for a truly enchanted evening. Although 65 years old, “South Pacific's” music is ageless, with a love story that has a simple delicate message from a more innocent time, and a thread of morality and a sense of what is right and wrong running through like a gentle brook. You know you are in for a fine evening of entertainment when the overture becomes an unforgettable moment.

Here's a guide to where to hike in the Sierras and Yosemite. Click on the location for a full story and photos.

Past the town of Carmel, Palo Corona Park is a mere 200 yards