Morning News Round-Up -- 12.18.08: Rock and Roll Edition...

Looking an awful lot like real news, San Jose Inside and the Metro have cross-posted an interesting piece by Erin Sherbert in which she outlines the mixed results of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce under the leadership of Pat Dando. Although the political fundraising is way up the policy wins at City Hall are way down. The Chamber Board refused to meet with Mayor Chuck Reed when he sought support for Measure B – BART to San Jose. The Mayor's senior policy guy still seems a bit pissed...Jeffy Janssen said about the snub, ""I was surprised...The Chamber had always endorsed BART in the past and it had been active in the BART campaigns. And it was a lot more work to get their endorsement than I thought it would be." Dando's reasoning was that there were differing opinions on the Chamber Board. The same Board met with Councilmember Sam Liccardo on inclusionary housing and one would have to assume there were differing opinions on that too...but whatever.

Santa Clara County tops 1.85 million residents as new babies are being born and immigrants come to realize the Silicon Valley dream (or at least the potential dream when the economy isn't tanking...) Growing by 32,000 people, Santa Clara County was fourth fastest behind Placer, Imperial, and Riverside Counties in new residents. Supervisor Don Gage says this surge in people won’t translate to a need for new housing as, “The newborn baby doesn't get a house of its own and when people do come here from foreign countries they generally don't establish their own new household. They are more likely to live with kin or friends." Thank you Supervisor Gage for showing us all your knowledge of housing and immigration...is 2010 here yet?

So much for jump starting the economy. You might never have heard of them but the Pooled Money Investment Board will be well known through the state now. The three members of the Board (State Treasurer and Chair Bill Lockyer, State Controler John Chiang, and Finance Director Michael Genest) could be the ones stopping $59 million in affordable housing projects, a San Jose homeless shelter, park improvements as well as school improvements and road projects. Mayor Chuck Reed says this is a blow that will have a serious “ripple affect” throughout the area. The Merc Editorial Board isn’t any happier. One of the best ideas coming forward is keeping the legislators in lockdown and pumping in Alvin and the Chipmunks until a compromise is found...or perhaps this could be freshman Assemblymember Paul Fong’s big break to help Republicans see the light...

In an emotional ceremony at the Boccardo Center, the names of the 82 homeless people who died this year were read aloud and candles were lit in their honor. San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed expressed amazement saying, "Here where there's so much wealth, we have people dying on the street. We need to rededicate ourselves to ending homelessness." Well Mayor Reed, you set the budget priorities in the City...

A secret Grand Jury heard a stunning admission this week when former San Jose Police Officer Sandra Woodall confessed she was drunk the night she crashed her Cadillac Escalade into two cars sending a teenager to the hospital. No word yet how this affects the two officers who kept the secret of Woodall’s drinking though it’s doubtful they’re happy as she is spilling it on the stand...

In a move sure to be cheered on by frogs, deer, and environmentalists the Mid-Peninsula Open Space District (based in Los Altos) is restoring 14 acres of a former Christmas tree farm to native habitat. (Un?)Related, the move to support the environment might be too late to affect the mysterious disappearance of bees from the Silicon Valley landscape.

Asking “To Whom Does San Jose Belong?” San Jose Inside founder Tom McEnery’s $6 million Peralta Plan from the San Jose City Council is called into question by Pete Campbell. Since transition away from McEnery, Inside has made a few changes that signal a changing of the guard – among them the new banner and the occasional article questioning Tom McEnery.

Count V defined the sound of San Jose, rock historians called them “proto-punk”. Dan Orloff, co-founder of San Jose Rocks, says their hit was “one of the most pivotal songs in rock history," taking the 60’s British sound and twisting it until it haunted you. Now they say goodbye to their lead singer, John Byrne, an Irish immigrant who made every instrument he touched sing. Byrnes daughter Tina said her father was a hip rebel to the end with long hair and dark sunglasses and “Aerosmith called him a rock and roll legend.”