Morning News Round-Up -- 2.23.09: Never a dull day in the DA's office...or at San Jose City Hall

Life at the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office gets better and better. Last year, Prosecutor Marc Buller accused a Valley Medical Center nurse of lying about the existence of medical exam videotapes. This year, District Attorney Dolores Carr said she would release the tapes which could put sexual predators back on the street (from trials as long as 17 years ago). The hubbub isn’t over yet. Carr accuses VMC’s Dr. David Kerns of causing the problem for not "… consulting the District Attorney's Office," while defense attorney Lawrence Gibbs says the DA’s office still has a legal problem because they knew the tapes existed. In legal terms, it looks as if the circumstantial evidence is mounting...this time, against the Prosecutors...

Questions are swirling, legal action is in the works, and Councilmembers are snapping at each other...but it looks like the San Pedro Urban Market (a.k.a. The McEnery Plan) will move forward this week. Former Mayor/registered lobbyist Tom McEnery hopes to open a public market in 2010 with $6 million in grants and loans from San Jose. Councilmember Nora Campos has launched a new (potential Brown Act violation) salvo saying she received a voicemail message from her colleague Sam Liccardo who hoped she would set aside partisan politics during the plan's initial consideration...Interesting how Campos didn't bring this up when her opposition to the plan failed to kill it. Perhaps she hopes it will now?

Armageddon is how the California Transit Association describes the outcome from the (long-delayed) budget resolution in Sacramento. VTA alone is facing cuts of $50 million. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission does not see any BART to San Jose dollars coming from their pockets, so local hopes are pinned on Federal stimulus dollars.

San Jose’s (one-school) Luther Burbank School District received a mild slap when a long-awaited second audit was released a year after it was ordered. Fernando Elizondo, the District's Interim Superintendent said, "We need to eliminate the sloppiness and tighten down the ship." You'd think keeping track of money and running a tight ship would be easier when a District only has one school...but perhaps not...

Fremont residents squawked loudly about the "Fremont" A's. So loudly, in fact, that the plan seems close to dead. The neighborhood grumpiness (and NUMMI's grumpiness) is causing Oakland A’s owner Lew Wolff to rethink his plans to move to Fremont. San Jose A's?

Joint Venture: Silicon Valley announced the formation of the Silicon Valley Climate Prosperity Council on Friday with San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed at the helm. The Merc’s Editorial Board celebrates Silicon Valley’s new color saying, “A green agenda crossing city lines and promoted by private and public sector leaders can put Silicon Valley in a better position to recover.”

The Merc.'s Mr. Roadshow/Gary Richards let readers cut loose on angry man Grant Paulson who grumpily attacks Senator Joe Simitian’s cell phone law via a well-viewed billboard on 101. Our sister blog, Watch Dog San Mateo has more on the East Palo Alto billboard.

Speaking of Watch Dog San Mateo...

Ah, lifestyles of the rich and famous…the Merc’s Patty Fisher fills us in…Sun Microsystems Scott McNeely sheepishly admitted he hadn’t bothered getting permission before building his private, blimp-like ice rink in the hillsides above Palo Alto. It looks like Ms. Fisher reads Watch Dog San Mateo, because they wrote a (really funny) piece about the ice rink last week...

The Merc.'s Internal Affairs caught Mount Pleasant School District Superintendent George Perez hopping mad. Perez cut loose about the recently approved budget saying, "It's a crime and a sin what they are doing to public education.”

Hunger striker/freedom fighter Ly Tong has turned up in Orange County splattering red paint on a photo exhibit. He really sounds like a swell guy.

On tap for local elected officials this week:

• San Jose’s City Council will consider ordering nightclub owners to help pay for the Police and try to make downtown more inviting.
• Sunnyvale’s City Council will revise the ethics code for elected and appointed officials, taking away a Board Chair’s ability to punish said officials and making sure Councilmembers know they have to listen to public speakers. Really?
• Mountain View’s City Council will hear a midyear budget report on Tuesday. That should be fun...
• Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Subcommittee on Children, Seniors, and Families will talk about the changing child welfare system Thursday. The passage of the State budget should be helpful to that cause...except it isn't...
  
• Fremont Union High School District Trustees will hear a budget update and consider setting a cap on enrollment on Tuesday.
  
• San Jose Unified School District will attempt to figure out who to fire to make next years budget.

San Jose Inside's Editor voices support for beleaguered San Jose Councilmember Madison Nguyen and calls for a no vote on the recall. Inside points out Nguyen’s mistake was one of judgment...like she misjudged that this Little Saigon thing would be a big deal, she misjudged that her opponents would rally at City Hall for months, she misjudged that her opponents would get enough signatures to recall her...let's hope she doesn't misjudge the campaign her opponents are running...

Watch Dog note to Los Gatos Observer: How about some news? Or at (the very least) some more frequent Tweets...