Payday lenders, those upstanding folks that lend money at unbelievably high rates to folks who are desparate for cash, are about to be much more strongly regulated in San Mateo County.

This may be the strangest story we’ve seen in some time: Chinese officials visit East Palo Alto to study housing policies… Really?

While we’re in EPA… the Police Chief has been named Interim City Manager. How very Atherton of EPA…

The Burlingame Post Office is going to be sold… Please see Palo Alto for how to deal.

Being a San Mateo County Supervisor must be the absolute best job in the world because there is another Menlo Park City Councilmember entering the race: Andy Cohen. He joins everyone else in the race to replace Rose Jacobs Gibson. Everyone else includes: Kirsten Keith, Shelly Masur, Memo Morantes, Carlos Romero, David Woods, and Ernie Schmidt… Let the games begin.

Speaking of the June ballot (and Shelly Masur) the Redwood City school district is considering looking for a parcel tax… again, again, again…

As if rates for garbage weren’t high enough, over the weekend Bonnie Eslinger let us know that “Recology overcharged San Carlos customers for waste pickup“… Garbage Saga, Chapter 2?

Bonnie Eslinger gets the first sentence this story absolutely correct… “When Menlo Park officials sit down with Facebook representatives in the coming weeks to negotiate an agreement that would allow the social networking company to expand, they’ll likely try hard to avoid making their requests for community benefits sound like a Mafia shakedown…” Menlo Park will try, but it will seem like a shakedown nonetheless… not to mention EPA’s request too…

It turns out there was no mumps outbreak at the jail… that’s really good news. Joshua Melvin is probably excited that he doesn’t have to go visit the jail to cover this story anymore…

Speaking of jail… the two former employees of the Vector Control District were in court this week…

To politics: Kevin Mullin is running for Assembly. How familial…

They paved paradise and put up a 4-story apartment building. Mel’s Bowl goes residential…

Perhaps some Facebookers will live at Mel’s… because Facebook is struggling trying to figure out where to house all the new (rich) folks…

As soon as the Controller decided he was retiring, the Board of Supervisors put 3 tax (increase) measures on the June 2012 ballot. There is nothing the Sups love more than finding things to tax… beware the blog tax…

Of course, those new taxes won’t help the residents of the Burlingame Long Term Care Facility… the County is closing that.

Happy Valentines Day!

Love is in the air between Millbrae and the Sheriff.  The Millbrae Police Department is about to be outsourced to the Sheriff’s Office. And this thing is happening quickly. Perhaps even next month…

The County Controller, Tom Huening, announced his resignation yesterday. The County Sups will now have to decide what to do: appoint or elect. How much would you like to bet on appoint? (Even though there is a Countywide election in June…)

Burlingame High School was in lock-down mode last Friday because a student sent a threatening email to administrators… the student has since been arrested.

Sorry folks – we’re off this morning.  Check Twitter for the latest and greatest…

Joshua Melvin is following the case against the Redwood City teacher
accused of child endangerment and battery… and things are looking
worse than originally thought: “…The Redwood City School District
placed eight employees on administrative leave Thursday and launched
an investigation into its workers’ handling of allegations that a teacher
slapped and kicked special needs students during a two-month period…”
Penn State West?  (Note to Shelly Masur:  You should say something about this sooner rather than later…)

It seems that Styrofoam is enemy number one in San Mateo County. This week it was Redwood City looking to ban it and next week it will be San Carlos. What did Styrofoam ever do to you Andy Klein?

Ah, downtown Burlingame. It is getting all the attention today. From the Daily Journal’s Editorial and from the Burlingame Voice. Good times…

There was one big story in San Mateo County yesterday… unfortunately, that story was about a gigantic “crack, meth bust“…

In other crime news, the Summit prep student pleaded not guilty to attempted rape…

Speaking of things that are/will be in court… the suit brought against Burlingame for their cell tower “moratorium” is in court this week.

Have a good one…

Draper University at the Ben Franklin in downtown San Mateo? That’s the idea that Tim Draper, considerably less cool than Don Draper, pitched lasts night…

A bit down the road, Styrofoam was the topic of the day. Redwood City will probably ban foam containers for take out…

Finally, we love this story: Realtors are drooling at all the new Facebook-types working in Menlo Park and their requisite stock options that they’ll plunk down on Peninsula property…

All those big garbage rate increases are paying off, apparently… The Garbage Saga has an upside: the tons of recycled stuff is way up. Must be the fancy new building off 101…

The news of Kepler’s owner’s retirement has even caught the attention of the Chronicle. Welcome to Menlo Park Mr. Chronicle…

More terrible news coming out about the Redwood City teacher accused of child endangerment and battery… (Remember, yesterday we brought you her LinkedIn page…)

Here’s a popular idea, the San Bruno district is thinking about closing school/s…