Archive for April, 2010

Morning News Round-Up — 4.30.10: DeadbeatDellums.com…

Friday, April 30th, 2010

Sharks won Game 1… and not because the Red Wings were grounded for missing curfew either…

From the sublime to the ridiculous…
Because we can’t help ourselves, Watch Dog Silicon Valley is now the “point out Mayor Ron Dellums‘ shortcomings” blog… yesterday we wrote about his Palin-esque (or was it Yoda-esque) quote in the paper. Today it is a story from the Chronicle about Mayor Dellums going back on his pledge to take a 10 percent paycut. (He needs the money to pay the IRS who probably have their own internal blog about Dellums‘ shortcomings… DeadbeatDellums.com) But should MLB really listen to guy who can’t pay his taxes and goes back on his $18,000 paycut pledge? Just asking. We’ll add this to the “things that won’t happen in San Jose when the A’s move here” list: there will be no anti-Wolff banners, there will be no anti-A’s City Attorney, and there will be no Mayor that gives back his paycut… San Jose looks better and better everyday… don’t you think Bud?
Super Bowl in Santa Clara? It could happen, and James Rowen will absolutely be there… His blog-enemies will absolutely not be…
But a story in today’s Merc brings up the prospects of “…Raider Nation — and its rough-and-tumble reputation — descending on Silicon Valley for football Sundays…” and how that might impact the vote in June. It ain’t the wine and cheese-going 49er crowd, that’s for sure…
High-Speed Rail could be in trouble, according to a new State audit because it… “…suffers from ‘weak oversight,’ ‘lax’ management and a shaky funding plan…” Funny, we thought that was the norm for things coming out of Sacramento… One thing for sure, this audit will be the talk of the country-club set in Menlo Park and Atherton this weekend…
We’ll let Sean Webby continue his work on this story and we won’t comment at all: Prosecutor: San Jose cop’s work on sex assault cases sloppy, but no charges…
Our only comment on this story is that the formatting, probably for a split second yesterday, was a bit screwy… so we share because we can’t resist…
While we are on the San Jose Police, the San Jose POA’s Vice President didn’t mince words when he expressed regret that the Police Chief didn’t get the Dallas job, sort of… “Chief Davis has lost the confidence of his troops…” tick tock Chief Davis, tick tock. Of course, we’ve said that before…
  • Medical Cannabis Dude A: Dude, let’s file a lawsuit against the City of San Jose for trying to screw with us…
  • Medical Cannabis Dude B: Dude… let’s do it…
(Don’t worry all you medical cannabis users out there. I support you. But it is funnier to write about this story if we throw the word “dude” in once and awhile…)
If you life isn’t boring enough, there will be public workshops will start this weekend about how to develop 2,600 acres of land around San Jose’s “water treatment”/ sewage plant. Either your life isn’t boring enough OR you ran out of your Ambien prescription…
Become the Lt. Governor go on Colbert… that is Maldo’s path to fame.
But the special elections that the Governor is pushing got dinged in the Merc Editorial pages today… because of cost ($3 million) and because of politics…
The Board of Supervisors’ plan to ban fast food toys gets some love on SFist.com… at the same time that George Shirakawa goes out for steak for a good cause (Dining Out for Life) and presumably not handing out toys… BUT wait, the comments on San Jose Inside tell a different story: apparently Shirakawa wasn’t going to be there after his press release was sent out…
The City of Cupertino is laying out some cash ($2.1 million) now (with Siemens) to reap energy efficiency savings later (through cuts in energy and water bills)… How’d they find $2.1 million? $438k in grants, $562k in capital improvement reserves, and the other $1.1 will come from a private lender or reserves…
The Minton’s project in Mountain View got approved. 203 “luxury apartments” will be built on the site of the old lumber yard… Prometheus Real Estate Group 1, NIMBYs 0…

Posted in 420, 49ers, atherton, cupertino, dellums, hsr, maldonado, MLB, mp, poa, sharks, shirakawa | No Comments »

Morning News Round-Up — 4.30.10: Shhhhhh…

Friday, April 30th, 2010

High-Speed Rail could be in trouble, according to a new State audit because it… “…suffers from ‘weak oversight,’ ‘lax’ management and a shaky funding plan…” Funny, we thought that was the norm for things coming out of Sacramento… One thing for sure, this audit will be the talk of the country-club set in Menlo Park and Atherton this weekend…
Students at Aragon, San Mateo, and Hillsdale High are having a silent-in today to protest Arizona’s ridiculous new immigration law… We stand quietly with you students… shhhh…
Lee Duboc must be happy, sort of. The Menlo Park City Council is going to “impose terms” on part of its unionized work force. That is a unions worst nightmare, obviously. San Jose imposed terms earlier in the week and Menlo Park followed suit. Trend. Growing…
In other union news, sort of. The teachers in Redwood City School District are contesting their pink-slips… the union thinks the District issued more layoff notices than it needed too. Well duh… doesn’t every District do that?
The Daily Journal Editorial Board is endorsing Joe Galligan for his bid to replace Lee Buffington as County Treasurer…
Joshua Melvin at the San Mateo County Times might win the Best First Sentence in a News Story Award this year: “…A San Mateo woman who tied up her teenage daughter with duct tape and poured dish soap in the girl’s mouth after a fight over a cell phone bill was sentenced Thursday to probation and six months in jail, a prosecutor said…” It is a creepy story obviously, but we are sure that Mr. Melvin will clip that one for his cubicle… reporters have very sick senses of humor…

Posted in aragon, buffington, county times, hillsdale high school, hsr, lee duboc, redwood city elementary, san mateo high | No Comments »

Morning News Round-Up — 4.29.10: Palin and Dellums share a speech-writer?

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Shock of shocks! Oakland is now trying to keep the A’s in Oakland, after ignoring them for a decade… they have some sites picked out and now they have an economic study that states the obvious: MLB is good for business and jobs. Perhaps former Mayor Jerry Brown should have commissioned that study and then tried to keep the team 10 years ago… But you have to love Mayor Dellums’ quote about the new economic study: “We know that it has a spiritual quality in that people love very much to be excited by the ability to root for the home team…” Is Sarah Palin now writing talking points for Mayor Dellums? Either that, or Dellums has morphed into Yoda…
And if that wasn’t reason enough to leave Oakland… a follow-up from yesterday’s news that folks were kicked out of the stadium for criticizing Lew Wolff… the Oakland City Attorney says that banning signs from the stadium is unconstitutional and is making a big fuss… there is a 100 percent chance that San Jose’s City Attorney Rick Doyle would never do such a thing. Welcome Lew Wolff… no signs, no politically ambitious City Attorney’s, and no crazy Mayors (see above)…
But leave it up to some SF-based media to bring hyperbole into the mix when it comes to Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose and the A’s plans… the same study that garnered the totally awesome (and weird) Dellums’ quote brought this headline: A’s leaving Oakland would devastate city’s economy. Which begs the question: What does it do to for Oakland’s economy when nobody actually goes to the games? (Or when folks get killed in broad daylight downtown?) We’re just saying…
Speaking of sports teams… the Red Wings are in town for the NHL playoffs, but they landed past the curfew, and like in high school, breaking curfew has consequences. While the Red Wings won’t be grounded for Game 1 tonight, let’s all get on the bandwagon for the Sharks, shall we?
“Damn it Google, why are you so good at finding out all those Mercury News stories about me…” While that probably is not a direct quote from San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis, it might as well have been as he lost out as a finalist for the Dallas Police Department top job… I wonder if it the Merc’s Sean Webby finds irony in the fact that he gets to write the story about the Chief not getting the job in Dallas when Webby’s previous stories were likely a factor in the Chief not getting the job…
The Merc Editorial Board sends props to the San Jose City Council for taking a paycut and paycutting the building inspectors’ union… (yes, we made up a word, paycutting…)
HP is buying Palm for a cool $1.2 billion… with the history of Compaq, how could this go wrong?

Posted in chief davis, curfew, hp, red wings, ron dellums, san jose a's, Sarah Palin, sharks | No Comments »

Morning News Round-Up — 4.29.10: French Quarter, Pike Place Market, or Ikea?

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Earlier in the week we learned that the East Palo Alto Police Chief might be packing his bags for Seattle. Today we learn that he might actually need warmer clothes because he might be headed for New Orleans. New Orleans or Seattle… Hurricanes (the drink) or Coffee…
The French Quarter or Pike Place Market… or any of these things and Ikea… Seriously, how bad does this guy want out?
Is he (competent) or isn’t he? That’s the question that still needs to be answered in the retrial of William Ayres… and it will be decided in June because the second doctor that needed to evaluate William Ayres couldn’t do it in time to reach the deadline yesterday… Our friends at William Ayres Watch are on it…
If Caltrain is going to survive these tough economic times, which would be good for the Peninsula, it may only happen thanks to the folks at the California High-Speed Rail Authority… We love this idea for the pure love of irony…
Speaking of tough times, the breakup of the Belmont-San Carlos Fire Department will cause a spike in overtime, according to the Fire Chief. That will be great for everyone’s budget…
San Bruno is losing some staff too, but not to New Orleans or Seattle… but to budget cuts in order to balance the f-ed up budget…
Oh Atherton, you can never really get it right, can you? Salaries/ benefits are going up, even as everything is going to hell in a hand-basket. But what else would you expect?
The Burlingame Elementary School District might buy back a school site they previously sold to meet rising enrollment demand (and assuage an angry parent community who does not want huge classrooms…) That seems like a good way to spend money — sell land then buy it back…
The most awkwardly worded, yet informative, headline of the day goes to the Daily News: Menlo Park pre-school supervisor to retire following arrest for allegedly annoying teen girl… What else do you need to know?

Posted in atherton, ayres watch, burlingame elementary, Caltrain, East Palo Alto, EPA, hsr, ikea, mp, san bruno | No Comments »

Morning News Round-Up — 4.28.10: This stuff writes itself sometimes…

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Where to even begin on a day like today. Contentious budget cuts at San Jose City Hall? No. Banning fatty toys at the County Building? No. Sacramento shenanigans that have impacts in Silicon Valley… perfect…
There might be an election in some parts of Silicon Valley in May, June (x2), August, and November… that’s because the Governor would like to fast-pitch the special election to replace Senator/Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado… (we wonder who this helps… hmmm…) “Hello Pat, It’s Arnold. What are you doing between now and August?…”
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 to ban toy giveaways at fast food joints within unincorporated areas of the County. The two that voted against the measure: Don Gage and George Shirakawa… seriously, this stuff writes itself…
Big day at San Jose City Hall yesterday… they were voting to cut the fat a little bit further, including their own paychecks. The tension at City Hall is apparently at an all-time high… or so they say. Unions are pissed at the City. The City would (ahem) like more cooperation from the unions… and never the twain shall meet, apparently. So the City Council needs to do something, and the only thing they can really do is cut — and without willing unions, they have to cut non-willing unions..
That is on the cut side of things, but on the revenue side of things in San Jose, there are tons of folks looking at Measure K as one way to help stem the tide. Measure K would allow the City’s two card rooms to expand in return for a higher rake for the City’s coffers. (New slogan: What happens in San Jose, stays in San Jose…) The San Jose Police Officers’ Association is opposed to the Measure (so are a few Council members)… but the San Jose Firefighters have thrown their support on the other side of things. Firefighters and Police Officers usually don’t break ranks with each other on such things… perhaps this is a sign of things to come?
Earmarks are the bane of every good-government stalwart… of course, the disapproval is for other people’s earmarks, not our own. Our folks requested $612 million in earmarks in next year’s budget, which does not include the cool billion that Congresswoman Jackie Speier is proposing for Bay clean-up projects…
Minton’s in Mountain View is about to get 203 units of housing. Of course, the new development isn’t without detractors or NIMBYs… Mayor Ronit Bryant said it pretty well, in Watch Dog’s estimation: “Will it bring more people into the neighborhood?… Yes, and I want more people downtown. We can’t be proud of having a vibrant downtown and then say we don’t want any more people in it…” You said it! Perhaps they could share the love with downtown San Jose?
You remember the story about the consultants that the City of Palo Alto hired to look into how to save money within their fire department… and how the consultants had never ever, not even once, recommended staffing reductions? Well, the consulting firm has been sacked…
Here is a heartwarming story from South County: A mother was arrested (and her kids were taken from her) because she left her kids alone at a motel. The four year old was wandering around the parking lot and the two year old was in a room alone. A special place in hell awaits…
We’ll end with this, in case you don’t read the East Bay Express… (pregnant pause) … Some fans have been kicked out of A’s games in Oakland for having anti-Lew Wolff banners. No wonder Lew Wolff wants to get out of there as soon as possible…
Reed: “Lew, you have my word: no banners in Cisco Field…”
Wolff: “That’s the guarantee I’ve been looking for. Thank you Chuck… When can we move in?”

Posted in Chuck Reed, city of palo alto, gage, lew wolff, maldonado, measure k, mt. view, pat dando, shirakawa | No Comments »

Morning News Round-Up — 4.28.10: The Lowest Bidder?

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

The San Carlos Police Department is up for bid… sort of. The City of San Carlos is fielding proposals to take over their police services. They got a bid from the Sheriff’s office for $6.7 million but then got underbid by Redwood City, which can do the job for $6.4 or $6 million… which begs the question: is a police department the thing you want to give to the lowest bidder?
The lawns in Menlo Park might get a little brown this summer… the City Council took another step toward a water conservation ordinance. It didn’t even raise lots of public concern, apparently. The story only mentions 2 members of the public that were even in the room. There is a 100 percent chance that once this ordinance goes into affect, the Menlo Park Council Chambers will start to fill up…
Watch Dog has to wonder if the water ordinance will help with the MP’s deficit, which the Almanac put into a pretty graph for everyone…
It was deer versus mountain lion last weekend in Portola Valley… and the deer lost. Watch Dog loves this part of the story: Residents are advised not to approach mountain lions, and to try to appear large and make noise if one is nearby. The cats are most active at dawn, dusk, and at night… Too bad the deer didn’t get the same advisory…
What was once going to be a big new housing development (500+ units) in San Bruno will now be a rebuilt old development with 300+ units. Instead of tearing the Treetops Apartment complex down, it will be rebuilt. Why? Because of money, of course…

Posted in daly city, mountain lion, mp, san bruno, san carlos police, water ordinance | No Comments »

Morning News Round-Up — 4.27.10: Rainy Days and Tuesdays…

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

Scott Herhold does his best Harry Mavrogenes as he gets into the nitty-gritty about traffic patterns in and out of the HP Pavilion (and Cisco Field)…
You remember the shitty story about the two Santa Teresa High School students killed a classmate in his backyard… the two students pleaded not guilty yesterday.
In lesser crime news… the Apple Store in Los Gatos was robbed via smash and grab on Monday… “Everybody down… step away from the iPad…” Perhaps the thieves were in town for the Wine and Fashion Week in Los Gatos…
Mountain View will talk affordable housing developments in their downtown… we weren’t there last night, but we expect the next story to be about NIMBYs…
El Camino Hospital is having a tough year in the budget department… they are $11 million short so far this year. Which makes it a great time to join the Board, which is what Patricia Einarson did by way of appointment this week…
Speaking of hospitals… a highly critical report was release this week of Valley Medical Center: “overstaffed,” “high pay and benefits,” “plagued with inefficiencies,” etc., etc., etc. It must not be a good morning at 70 West Hedding…
It is political season in Morgan Hill. Two folks have declared their intention to run for Morgan Hill City Council in November: Michael Castelan and Rick Moreno. The seats they are running for are currently held by Greg Sellers’ (who not be running again?) and Marby Lee (who hasn’t decided to run yet or not)…
The protest letters to the Water District were due today, so if you are pissed about the ground-well fee, we hope you spoke up or will forever hold your peace…
You remember that there was “trouble in paradise” between the Los Altos School District and its teachers’ union over contract issues… it was punted for a few weeks until something could be worked out that could pass the school board — and now it seems to have passed the school board… barely. The best part of this story is that one of the board members used the phrase “hissy fit” in her comments before voting yes…
You remember the singing group from Mountain View High School that got stranded in Paris, right? Well, now they have to raise $50,000 to pay for their baguettes, escargot, and espresso…
Thanks to Politicon Valley, we know that Yoriko Kishimoto got the Sierra Club endorsement… adding to a long list of organizations?

Posted in el camino hospital, lasd, Morgan Hill, mvhs, vmc, water district, yoriko | No Comments »

Morning News Round-Up — 4.27.10: Rainy Days and Tuesdays…

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

For the cities that are looking at implementing red light cameras (that’s you Belmont) you should read this story from South San Francisco. They need to refund drivers $237k and refund the County Court $250k… have fun with that SSF…
While we’re in South San Francisco, some property owners there are not pleased with proposed changes to zoning laws there East of 101… the City wants to change it from industrial to business commercial and technology… seems arcane, but not to the East of 101 Property Owners Association.
Senator Leland Yee’s bill that banned young people from buying violent video games will be heard by the US Supreme Court… yippee!
Supervisor Mark Church has someone running against him for County Assessor… sort of. A write-in candidate, John K. Mooney, signed the forms to become an official write-in candidate for Assessor. Of all the positions in local government, wouldn’t you want the Assessor to be on top of his game enough to actually file to run for office on time and get his name on the ballot? Just asking…
The East Palo Alto Police Chief may be moving to Seattle… it may be difficult to be the Police Chief of East Palo Alto from there…
The post-prom stabbing that sent the police tot he Marriot San Mateo and sent 4 kids to the hospital was apparently gang related.
A new park in Belmont? Say it ain’t so… the first one since the 1970s…
If you love the cafe in the County building… you’d better find another place for lunch because it will close in July…
Thanks to Politicon Valley, we know that Yoriko Kishimoto got the Sierra Club endorsement… adding to a long list of organizations?

Posted in belmont, city of san mateo, EPA, mark church, red-light cameras, ssf, Yoriko Kishimoto | No Comments »

Morning News Round-Up — 4.26.10: to Round 2…

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Let’s start with all things South Bay professional sports related…
Sharks, Sharks, Sharks… onto round two of the playoffs. A choke-free playoffs, perhaps? Tickets go on sale Tuesday at 10 a.m. — perhaps Councilmember Liccardo can help you score some tickets…
We learn today that 52 percent of folks in Santa Clara are supporting Measure J, the stadium measure, with 36 opposed and 11 percent undecided. Which begs the question, who are these 11 percent of the people. The stadium has been a civic question in Santa Clara for about 2 years, give or take. Have they not picked up the Weekly, the Mercury News, or talked to a neighbor in that period of time? And you know this must be newsworthy because the Chronicle picked up the poll numbers as well…
Lawyers, lawyer, lawyers. Cedar Fair, the folks that own Great America, love their lawyers. They are trying to renegotiate their lease at Great America in Santa Clara to account for the 49ers stadium.
San Jose is pushing forward with buying the land around the proposed A’s baseball stadium site near Diridon Station. Tracy Seipel at the Merc has the run-down about which pieces of land need buying and which ones don’t… (Note to Michelle McGurk: Please clip and send this story to Bud…)
Speaking of buying land… San Jose Councilmember Nora Campos gets a little piece in Internal Affairs written about her — and not in a good way. The gossipy piece talks about how she was (perhaps?) shilling for her husband’s unions when she made a stink about the sale of the $20 million pair of parking lots in downtown San Jose and if the eventual developers will use “prevailing wages” to pay its workers to build — which, it is noted in the story, the City of San Jose and the Redevelopment Agency has no ability to demand or enforce…
Internal Affairs finally catches up with the Metro/ San Jose Inside (Chuck and Larry?, San Jose Inside, April 8th) in running a piece about a possible Mayoral endorsement of right winger Larry Pegram in the San Jose City Council District 9 race. The Mayor’s spokesperson gives a classic non-answer/answer: “As of today, he has not endorsed anyone.” Of course, that was yesterday, who knows about today…
Teresa Alvarado got the nod from the Mercury News Editorial Board for County Supervisor… they call her “a standout“… (Cindy Chavez is going to be really, really pissed about that endorsement… so will Forrest, Mike, Tom, and Peter…)
From the previous Hispanic Foundation chief to the current one… Ron Gonzales, you remember, the former San Jose Mayor, climbed out from under a proverbial rock to pen a piece for a newspaper that he had a pretty big feud with. Bygones, we guess… He writes about the need for companies to come to the aid of schools locally.
Speaking of feuds with the local paper… Here’s something that Protect San Jose will actually like that is written in the Mercury News. The words “police tactics” and “widespread praise” are in the same headline… the story is about the downtown San Jose policing, which was (ahem) a bit of an issue for a while…
The San Jose City Council will consider (again) cutting its salary and the salary of high-ranking City officials. But that isn’t the part of the story that is striking in any way, this passage is: “…a 10 percent salary cut would bring council members to $84,442 — less than the wage of the average city worker…” The average working in the City of San Jose makes $88,000. $88,000! To quote the head of the Municipal Employees’ Federation (who was critical of how much high-ranking City officials make): I’d love to have that kind of accounting in my checkbook…
Interestingly, a similar story (sort of) appears in the Chronicle today, noting that 1 in 3 employees in the City and County of San Francisco government make over $100,000. Perhaps the Merc could re-run their numbers and find the same thing for the City of San Jose (and perhaps even for the County of Santa Clara…)
The Morgan Hill Times does a deep dive into the District Attorney’s race… and uses more flattering pictures for both Carr and Rosen. That is something they can probably both agree on, that newspapers ought to use flattering pictures…
Meg Whitman = Big Connections… and she showed it on Friday night when Mitt Romney and John McCain showed up at an event in Redwood City. Of course, both of those guys lost their last election, so perhaps she should invite more folks on a winning streak… just a thought.
We love you too Mission City Lantern… and that is non-negotiable…
Good luck getting your Sharks’ tickets everyone…

Posted in 49ers, alvarado, carr, jeff rosen, larry pegram, mcgurk, Nora Campos, protect, ron gonzales, san jose a's, sharks, whitman | No Comments »

Morning News Round-Up — 4.26.10: Big (losing) guns help(?) Whitman…

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Meg Whitman = Big Connections… and she showed it on Friday night when Mitt Romney and John McCain showed up at an event in Redwood City. Of course, both of those guys lost their last election, so perhaps she should invite more folks on a winning streak… just a thought.
San Carlos is thinking about jacking up sewer rates… again.
Dave Pine, who serves on the San Mateo Union High School District Board did double duty on the Charter Review Committee. He penned this piece in favor of District elections and it ran on the 21st. We are sorry we missed… thank you for the heads up, loyal Watch Dogger. We agree with you Dave: More democracy!
Congresswoman Jackie Speier has introduced a $1 billion Bay clean-up bill, which is the good news. The bad news? Well, it seems that a $1 billion very local project is often called pork inside the beltway… Don’t worry Congresswoman, around the Bay we call that great work.
It seems Atherton will get down to some governing today for a budget session as opposed to politically charged hits against colleagues and settling years-long lawsuits…
Leave it up to Pacifica Riptide to do some reporting that others won’t/can’t/don’t… this time it is about “Pacifica’s unfunded pension liability…”
Here’s a heartwarming story to start your week: 4 teenagers were stabbed at the Marriot Hotel in San Mateo on Sunday morning. It seems it might have been part of a post-prom-party kerfuffle… Watch Dog remembers when proms were innocent affairs that only involved awkward teenage gropping…

Posted in atherton, charter review, city of san carlos, city of san mateo, dave pine, riptide, speier, whitman | No Comments »

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