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News From Silicon Valley's Neighborhoods Boombastic Booty Los Gatos--Mission Oaks Hospital didn't go up in smoke after the hospital's facility engineer discovered a bomb in the basement. Turns out the bomb was merely a device built to look like one, and did not contain explosives. Police later learned that a former hospital employee had built the cardboard box--complete with plastic pipe, silly putty, wires and batteries--to use in a bomb threat evacuation-emergency preparedness drill. The same employee had shelved the "bomb" following the drill. Sewage Severed Willow Glen--It happens. And that's usually all anyone wants to know. After about four years, city officials say residents in western Willow Glen can expect an end to it after a new sanitary sewage pump station and main is completed next April. A Willow Street siphon that moves sewage from nearby residences to the water pollution control center, through a pipe under the Guadalupe River, collapsed in 1997. Gay-Straight Club Saratoga--In response to anti-gay sentiment and episodes of harassment, teachers and students at Saratoga High School have founded the Gay-Straight Alliance Club. In January, the club's adviser, art teacher Stephen McCue, found anti-gay epithets written in red lipstick on his classroom door and wall. Later, senior Jennifer Cohen, a founding club member, discovered a slang term for lesbian written in black ink on the taillight of her car in the school parking lot. The club is designed like its sponsor, the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, a national organization that aims to reduce homophobia in schools. [ San Jose | Metroactive Central | Archives ]