Morning News Round-Up – 12.05.08: With a theme...

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed is in a mad dash for $1 billion in aid from the Feds saying, “We want to make sure we get our share.” First on the Honey-Do list, the ever sexy street paving for a mere $100 million, and BART, and green tech, and...and...and...Isn't it times like these that it would be helpful for Mayor Reed to be a little bit more political? Did he help Obama or any other Democrats in the past election? Too bad, because as Senator Boxer famously said, "elections have consequences..."



Alum Rock gets reprimanded by the Merc for their massive bungling of the Norma Martinez bailout. Pointing out it’s about the children, “This latest giveaway is more evidence that voters aren't electing trustees worthy of their children's abilities.” (Chuck Reed added that some of the money that went to Martinez would be better spent on San Jose roads...)

Sunnyvale’s new City Manager, Gary Luebbers atteneded his first Sunnyvale City Council meeting to learn the Council, and the job, he’d just left was paying him the $309,000 they owed him. With the quarter million Sunnyvale is ponying up it’s a good guess that the taxman will be knocking on his door...(Chuck Reed hopes that the tax that Luebbers will pay will be returned directly to Silicon Valley for BART...)

Thanks to a Watch Dog tipster we know Sunnyvale Councilmember/former Sup. candidate Otto Lee will be leaving for Iraq to continue his job as a Naval Supply Officer. Lee must have updated his Wikipedia page to scoop the media. (Chuck Reed asked that Lee's meeting-stipend that Sunnyvale Councilmembers get be transfered to a "green tech" economic development fund...)

Oops! U.S. District Judge James Ware ruled as many as 900,000 people may be eligible to collect damages from American Corrective Counseling Services – used by Santa Clara County and others as debt collectors. If you got dinged any time between 1997 and now you could be part of the class action. (Chuck Reed believes the City of San Jose is owed part of this money...)

The Mercury News gives their take on the Big Three Bailout. Automakers showed up in Washington without the private jets and contrition in evidence. Among the Merc’s suggestions – drop the battle with states wanting higher fuel standards. (...and Chuck Reed wants some of that bailout too...)

Area gossip blog Valley Wag reports Google CEO Eric Schmidt could be setting up girlfriend #2 with a job at Google rather than funding her floundering documentary film company, Kate Bohner Productions. Wife Wendy deals with the very public mistress by running a bookstore 3,000 miles away. (Chuck Reed thinks that if Google has enough money to hire the CEO's mistress, than perhaps they could spare a few bucks for San Jose...pretty please?)

The folks at San Jose Revealed are grumpier than usual taking a whack at Tom McEnery, Sam Liccardo, and Lew Wolff in one long (grumpy) breath. (Chuck Reed knows enough to not ask the San Jose Revealed folks for money...)

And finally this nugget...San Jose has had some high-profile problems with arresting drunks downtown and entering them into 'the system'. In most places, drunks go into the drunk tank until they sober up -- keeping drunk people off the street for the night but not clogging the justice system with small 'crimes'...San Jose doesn't have a drunk tank anymore, contributing to this problem. But when San Jose did have a drunk tank, they didn't use it. (Reed promises to get a new drunk tank with Federal money if it comes...)