Story 1: San Jose Councilmembers Nora Campos, Rose Herrera, and Nancy Pyle want in on baseball too. Watch Dog wants to know: Is there a Memo that Rose Herrera has not signed on to since she was sworn in? Competition policy. Crossing guards. Baseball...even her press-darling colleagues Pete Constant and Sam Liccardo sometimes take a break. As of press time, none of the Campos/Herrera/Pyle crew had joined the growing grassroots Facebook group, however. (Ash Kalra and Pete Constant have.)
Story 2: Also feeling his athletic best, Supervisor George Shirakawa, Jr. put his lobbying experience to good use in hopes to snatch the San Francisco 49ers away from Santa Clara and put them at the County Fairgrounds. Shirakawa, Jr. met with Niner's CFO Larry MacNeil and Vice President of Communications Lisa Lang to lobby for the switch. The County’s 4-H President Murlin Lee pointed out that he’s not surprised a new new idea is in the mix, noting that Supervisors contemplated a concert hall on the site for 7 years before that ill-advised plan fell apart. Is this just a way to for the 49ers to pressure Santa Clara?
Story 3: "Technically, it's not legal..." said Ben Tan, Chief Financial Officer of the Mexican American Community Services Agency, parent to Gilroy’s only charter school El Portal's Leadership Academy. It seems MACSA skimmed $400,000 from El Portal teachers and Gilroy City Employee Retirement Funds. The “technically illegal” problem was uncovered by a teacher who tried to access his retirement funds. "It has yet to be determined if El Portal is financially or academically sound," Gilroy Superintendent Deborah Flores said. MACSA also runs Academia Calmecac in San Jose, where the organization owes staff nearly $250,000, Tan said. Add to the financial misery (and mystery), the school’s test scores plunged 66 points last year.
There is an interesting connection between the first three Round-Up stories today. Can anyone guess why the third story could cause political problems for folks in all three stories?
A disgusting 1.3 million gallons of raw sewage and storm water spilled into the San Francisco Bay in recent weeks. And those were from the big spills we heard about. "It's like living in a situation sort of like a Third World country, where there's poor sanitary management..." said Sejal Choksi of the environmental group San Francisco Baykeeper. There is a (very expensive) plan to fix up San Jose's water treatment facility before it is too late...
We Hate High-Speed Rail Story #101: Folks at last night's High-Speed Rail meeting in Palo Alto demanded tunnels, which may work in theory but probably not in practice. Doing his best school-yard bully impression, Palo Alto Vice Mayor Jack Morton threatened to sue the California High Speed Rail Authority if they don't listen to him...the rumor is not true that Morton also challenged Rod Diridon, Sr. to a duel after the meeting...
And with ironic timing, the California Avenue Caltrain station upgrade is complete and was celebrated by Palo Alto officials and the community alike...To review Palo Alto's position: Slow Train = good, Fast Train = bad...
Save the cheerleader, save the world…Morgan Hill’s Sobrato High School cheerleaders and parents stormed the (Bastille) School Board yesterday and demanded the kids be allowed to head south for the National Cheerleading Competition. (Remember, this was the story where the coach forgot to send the registration in on time...O...M...G...!) District officials complied!!! The team is going!!! Awesome!!!! F**king Awesome!!!
(Pissed off) Former Spansion employees found out their dismissal enabled company executive’s to give themselves a 10% pay raise. These would be the same executives who have driven stock prices down to a record low 5 cents/share. There are two lawsuits in the works to get to the bottom of the shenanigans at Spansion. One of the legal beagle’s, Ken Sugarman, said "Right now I just think that's a very unsavory aspect of it."
There’s a bright spot over at Valley Medical Center. A little boy who was run over walking to school with his Dad is now breathing on his own. Medical costs are mounting however. Find out how to help.
San Jose Revealed provides the results of their State of San Jose (Revealed) survey. Liccardo does well, Constant doesn't. The City Budget is a mess and folks agree that arts are important. Oh, and some folks read both Revealed and Watch Dog. Thank you. I read both too...
Friday, February 27, 2009
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