Morning News Round-Up -- 2.20.09: The budget, something (else) for Kevin Skelly to talk about...

For local school Districts the State budget approval was a mixed blessing. A sigh of relief it was over, followed by cursing when the severity of budget cuts looming in front of them was understood. Karen Fuqua with San Jose Unified said they will begin notifying nearly 400 teachers and all administrators that they might not have a job next year. Even though the budget is getting cut in education, on the bright side of things, Palo Alto Unified's Superintendent has something else to talk about other than this bone-headed stuff he said...the Merc. Editorial Board sees a silver-lining, which is a bit ironic since their silver lining (open primaries) was put there by a guy they took to task yesterday...

San Jose Revealed had some fun with San Jose Inside/Metro’s Fly story about the Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins/Cindy Chavez sightings. In a series of blurbs Revealed fills us in that the Chamber is hiring a policy wonk and paints Councilmember Nora Campos as a Knight in shining armor.

Mission City Lantern wasn’t so pleased with San Jose/Santa Maria Senator Abel Maldonado calling Abel a dimwitted extortionist. Tell us how you really feel, James.

Embattled San Jose Councilmember Madison Nguyen has raised over $250,000 to fight the recall battle while her opponents have raised less than half that. The recall proponents report having roughly $10,000 more in the bank than Nguyen’s camp with less than 2 weeks left before election day. Nguyen’s supporters are in full force, even Mayor Chuck Reed was pounding the pavement over the weekend.

Morgan Hill’s Police Department must have been following Watch Dog’s coverage of skyrocketing drunk arrests in San Jose. Not wanting to be left out they released a report that their drunk arrests doubled in the past 2 years. Chief Bruce Cumming says having more police resources have helped increase tossing the tipsy in the hoosegow. "Our officers are more assertive about (public drunkenness) than perhaps they were three or four years ago," said Cumming. San Jose Police Chief did not say, "See, everyone hates drunk people..."

Gilroy taxpayers alerted the School District that they weren’t being taxed. (What?) Yep, taxes that have appeared on annual bills for 35 years went missing, causing the District to scramble to figure out how to pay a $5.3 million bond payment due later this year. "We don't know what happened. We're still working through that. All we know is that the tax didn't make it to the taxpayers, but the why and the how - we're not there yet," Deputy Superintendent of Business Services Enrique Palacios said. In the meantime, watch dog Tom Newton is pissed the district met behind closed doors when the problem became known.

The Morgan Hill Times is pleased to announce a move to a bilingual web presence. Si desea leer el periódico en español, haga clic aquí. Watch Dog is (not) next, unfortunately...

The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office has asked for another delay in the trial of Armando Suazo Ochoa, who last year decided to run over two men with whom he’d been fighting. The DA’s office is still waiting for the Coroner’s report, nearly 4 months since the second victim died. (Wise guy, Ben Field did not say, "Who needs a Coroner's report to go to trial?...")

Homeowners, if you get a letter from Los Angeles Company Property Tax Reassessment – don’t fall for it. So says Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone who calls the letters “outrageous.”

It is perhaps one of the saddest stories of the year. Vanessa Geronimo started fearing school when she was only in kindergarten, she was often crying from the brutal teasing of classmates. In third grade she was skipping 20% of her classes, by the time she got to 7th grade she went to school 2 or 3 days a year. The Alum Rock School District tried everything, to no avail. Vanessa’s parents Jayvee Geronimo and Carol Reynoso will serve jail time for contributing to her delinquency. Deputy District Attorney Lois Baer said, "It's tragic. But she's essentially a fifth-grade dropout, and the parents haven't followed through at all.''

San Jose Inside has a new guest columnist, Steve Borkenhagen, of the very yummy Eulipia, posts a plea of support for the proposed public market (a.k.a. McEnery-ville). Borkenhagen is apparently a fan of McEnery’s as well as the Pike Place Market (Seattle) and Chelsea Market (New York).