Good Friday to you… Let’s see what’s going on, shall we?
Tracey Kaplan at the Merc gets a great first line into her piece today: “…Ending an era in which criminal defendants’ constitutional rights were routinely jeopardized, Santa Clara County will now offer legal representation to anyone who can’t afford an attorney at their initial court appearance…” How do you really feel about it Tracey?
Speaking of Constitutional rights being jeopardized… There is a retired San Jose Police Officer who is suing the City of San Jose “for allegedly bypassing hmi for a lieutenant’s job on at least four occasions in favor of less qualified candidates…” during his 25 year run with the Department. The case is in federal court right now. In an added twist, “The trial is expected to force current San Jose Police Chief Christopher Moore and his predecessor, Rob Davis, who is accused of specifically retaliating against Harper, to take the witness stand…” Where’s Sean Webby when you need him? (No offense, Mr. Mintz…)
Here’s some heartwarming news, a Milpitas Unified School District employee was arrested for (allegedly) lifting almost $40,000 from “study body funds“…
Joining San Jose and a growing number of other cities, Mountain View is moving forward with a plastic bag ban… much to the dismay of some local lobbyists…
We’ll end with the blogs…
San Jose Inside is on its game this week:
- First, a story about how (and why) former San Jose Police Officers’ Association President George Beattie left his position at the union and headed back to work to put in some more time to pad his pension — and now he is Bobby Lopez’s direct supervisor. Awesome.
- Second, there’s a story about a growing rift between San Jose Councilmember Kansen Chu and Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen, including some pretty nasty (and now very public) emails between the two. Surprise, surprise, at issue is a Vietnamese flag raising ceremony and the political implications of who was there/wasn’t there…
And with all that is going on in and around San Jose, including the aforementioned story about George Beattie, Protect San Jose took another week off. In case they’ll be back next week, here’s the City Council agenda for your Council Watch…
If you are interested in an interesting take on all things Santa Clara (and a good laugh), you should probably head over to Mission City Lantern…
Have a good weekend…
