Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.26.09: A Supreme Tuesday Edition...

As we come back from a long weekend, the news today will be dominated by Supreme legal stuff... California Supreme Court's decision on Proposition 8 and Obama's pick for the US Supreme Court.

But Watch Dog must ask that you don't forget the local stuff... luckily, the Merc’s Internal Affairs never forgets the local stuff
  • Supervisor/President Liz Kniss is fighting with Supervisor Dave Cortese over foster kids. (No, this isn't a custody battle...)
  • San Jose Councilmember Nora Campos has a friend in the White House, Adolfo Carrion. Unfortunately, Carrion is accused of taking bribes while a New York Bronx borough president and might not be there long enough to help. (Which is ironic, since Campos' mentor was also written about in the Merc this weekend... we'll get to this later.)
  • San Jose’s normally genteel Councilmember Nancy Pyle got testy over accusations she met more than once with bail bonds lobbyists Tom Saggau and Dustin DeRollo and snapped at members of the public. Saggau said if he’s riding the elevator “with someone who's reportable, and I just mention Bad Boys Bail Bonds” he reports the contact.
San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed is facing off (again) with labor leader/former Mayoral opponent Cindy Chavez. This time it’s a 34 page set of recommendations on how to handle the City's budget crisis. Reed did not say this, however.

San Jose Police are refusing to release 911 tapes from the fatal Mother’s Day shooting of mentally ill Daniel Pham. Santa Clara Police Lt. Phil Cooke crossed the Blue Line and sounded less convinced about the need for San Jose Police Department's secrecy saying, “Police departments live on public trust. You take that away and you have nothing.” Unfortunately, Watch Dog thinks the public trust in the San Jose Police Department may have been bruised well before this incident... (See: Drunk Task Force and IPA selection.)

The Merc Editorial Board sends kudos to the City of San Jose for helping to add Rancho San Vicente to Silicon Valley’s open spaces. The Merc credits San Jose Planners with resisting pressure from developers and lobbyists wanting to build luxury estates. (A much more contentious issue dealing with developers, open space, and lobbyists is brewing in Redwood City, for those of you interested in things north of the Santa Clara/San Mateo County line...)

It was a violent weekend in San Jose…
On a less violent crime note... Lincoln High School’s Jeremy Talamantes saw himself as an artist with all the walls of San Jose as his canvas. San Jose Police, and residents, didn’t agree. Talamantes was yanked out of art class when busted as a member of the Toon Goons.

Morgan Hill’s sparkling new courthouse is headed for its own courtroom battle. In a finger pointing drama, County Supervisor Don Gage says the builder blew it while Paul Thompson with West Bay Builders points at County staff for errors. At issue is $20 million which the County says it doesn't owe the builder -- and the builder kindly disagrees.

An (apparent) joyrider stole a Mountain View Police car during a Shoreline concert. Police later found the car ditched in an apartment complex parking garage. (The Officer left the keys in the car... oops!)

A Monte Sereno “good neighbor” fence was anything but neighborly for Darla Padget who says City Manager Brian Loventhal sent threatening letters. The 10 year old “fence” trial heads to the jury this week.

Here for your Watch Doggers pleasure… the week around Silicon Valley government, with mad props to the Merc's Government Watch (on-again/off-again) crew...
  • The City of San Jose Rules Committee talks pay cuts for Councilmembers and management as well as the growing maintenance backlog.
  • The Cupertino Union School District studies the Governor’s revised/slashed education budget.
  • Franklin-McKinley School District reviews (horrible) financial projections.
  • Palo Alto Unified has a full plate with talks of enrollment, boundary changes, Mandarin immersion, and a delayed reopening Garland Elementary. Oh, and the (crappy) budget.
San Jose’s Oak Grove students who come from 13 countries, speak 9 languages, and have to work while in high school, need your help. Dig deep people, send the Valley’s smart kids to D.C. to compete. Donations for the "Eaglebots" can be sent to Oak Grove High School, Attn: Jeanie Romanoff, 285 Blossom Hill Road, San Jose, CA 95123.

If you were anywhere near San Jose’s downtown you couldn’t miss Fanime’s costumed conventioneers. If you missed it, you really missed it...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If only we had some kind of home town newspaper that could send a photographer to events like FanimeCon and post a photo gallery of people in interesting and clever costumes. Something that might attract a larger audience to future events of this kind in our city.