Hope you had a good July 4 this week! Namely, we hope you didn't come anywhere near Joey Chestnut's 2nd place hot dog eating contest finish at your barbecues of choice. It was a week of transit woes -- Caltrain fares going up, inconvenient MUNI routes, and BART breakdowns. It wasn't any better on the roads, either -- some drag-racing teenage girl killed two members of the Tongan royal family in a car accident in......

After a bit of a rough year, Kepler's bookstore in Menlo Park recently celebrated its 51st anniversary as one of the great independent bookstores in the area - a dying breed as you well know. We got Clark Kepler to take some time out and answer a few of our most burning questions: For any readers who might not know, tell us why Kepler's is so awesome. For me and many others who've been......

A letter from Clark Kepler posted on SaveKeplers.com confirms rumours we've been hearing for a few days now: Kepler's is re-opening next Saturday, October 8th at 11am. They'll start with a rally and then officially re-open the doors. To prepare for the re-opening, and to help Kepler's stay open, volunteers are needed. They do mention they need people to take membership pledges so it seems they'll be going ahead with the suggestion many had......

Kepler's, the beloved Menlo Park bookstore, has announced the formation of a Board of Directors to help get it re-opened, hopefully no later than October. In addition, a Patron's Circle with 17 members offering an undisclosed amount of financal support has been formed. Read the full press release (PDF) - including the charming, we think, detail of how far each board member lives from Kepler's. Members of the Board include Clark Kepler, President, CEO and......

SFist Mary-Lynn's on vacation, but we're sure she'll be thrilled to hear that the white knights of Menlo Park may actually be coming to the rescue of beloved independent bookstore Kepler's! A group of about 15 investors has come together to work on reopening the store, which could no longer make their rent payments in their prime real estate space on El Camino Real. The store had been forced to renegotiate its lease in 1999, when, as we all know, real estate was so cheap and plentiful down in the Valley -- and Kepler's landlord, the Tan Group, has been unwilling to renegotiate now that the dot-com boom has ended. The Tan Group will not respond to media requests for comment, but owner Clark Kepler is "optimistic" that something might be worked out. "I don't think any other attitude than optimism is appropriate," Kepler told the Merc News. "It's just an incredible outpouring, and I want to do everybody right by making it work." Follow the news on SaveKeplers.com, and/or write a letter about why you love Kepler's to the Tan Group at 3630 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306. Picture by SFist Mary-Lynn...

Save Kepler's! The Menlo Park community is rallying around the storied independent bookseller, who recently announced that it would have to shut down due to increasing rents. SFist Mary-Lynn was one of the two-hundred plus bibliophiles in attendance, and reports "TONS" of kids and signs, and that the car horns of support from El Camino were sometimes so loud that you couldn't always hear what people were saying. After the rally (at which owner Clark Kepler himself, along with good neighbor Mr. Baronne from Cafe Baronne next door to Kepler's, spoke), business types went into City Hall for a brainstorming session. Ten to fifteen investors have already been lined up, and other people have suggested that they work with Menlo Park neighboring town's Stanford Business School for help. Check out more of Mary-Lynn's awesome photos on Flickr or after the jump. ...