Morning (early p.m.) News Round-Up – 1.7.09: Larry Pegram vs. Darwin...coming to a school board near you

Sunnyvale City Council installed CSW (Chief Seat Warmer) Dean Chu to the City Council for Iraq-bound Councilmember Otto Lee last night, in spite of opposition from residents and former Mayors. Chu, who failed in his 2007 attempt to be re-elected, will hold down the fort for Lee. This sets up the dynamic where Chu will serve on the Council along with the guy that beat him in an election -- Dave Whittum. Awkward...

Metro’s Fly blogs about the reinvigorated efforts of the religious right to slap filters on public libraries -- and then some. The Values Advocacy Council, having helped in the passage of a constitutional amendment to prevent some citizens from getting married, is now calling their anti-free speech filters/stop teaching evolution b.s. the “Children’s Bill of Rights.” Watch out local school districts, the Scopes Trial is coming to your Board meetings...

The cost of housing each underage prison inmate is over $250,000 annually so it’s understandable that there’s a push to find alternatives to prison. A report released Tuesday said alternative programs show promise but lack accountability, a never ending story it seems. The County Supervisors will have their work cut out for them to maintain the County’s good reputation and not slide back to warehousing juveniles in the State prison system in the face of budget cut backs. Santa Clara County Probation Chief Sheila Mitchell said, "Keeping the kids here is common sense."

San Jose Revealed this week rationalizes why they were down (too many visitors), spanks supporters of Kevin Moore for making fun of a voice of support to Revealed on Facebook (Revealed has only 10 Facebook fans), updates reader 2008 highlights and predictions (...the Merc. will leave town), and ponders Mayor Chuck Reed’s upcoming State of the City speech (not exciting).

Silicon Valley technology at work…to choose boys? There’s an increasing number of boys being born among Asian immigrant families. According to journalist Preeti Shekar, a highly sought after gender selection tool has both, "sexist and racist consequences." San Jose’s Dr. Suresh Nayak refused to speak to the Mercury News about ads he runs offering to assist parents choose the gender of their child.