Morning News Round-Up -- 7.29.09: SaveThePlasticBag.com... (Seriously)

It was a big night for the East Side Union High School District Board of Trustees. They had to show how angry they were at their Superintendent Bob Nunez for his questionable spending. The spending was called into question initially by an audit conducted by the County Office of Education. (Note: The audit was not conducted by either the Board or the District.) But, why didn't the Board know about this in advance? Why weren't they asking questions? No wonder parents are pissed. It turns out the Board did do a good job at acting angry. The Superintendent is now on paid (?) administrative leave until further notice. Watch Dog was drawing attention to this Board for some time. We hate to say we told you so, but but but but...

While this isn't from a local paper, a local insider did direct us to it... A big city police department in a high-profile case released 911 calls. And no, the sky is not falling. Perhaps San Jose could learn a lesson?

The thief who robbed the SLAC National Accelerator Lab was a former employee hoping to reverse "bad karma"... we guess getting caught proved that it didn't work.

The plastic bag war has been settled, for now, in Palo Alto. The City can't implement the bag ban without an environmental review. Incredibly, the group that brought suit against Palo Alto is called SaveThePlasticBag.com. There are somethings worth saving, like baby seals and the rain forest, but who would have thought that a plastic bag would be worth a "save"? I mean, aside from these folks and this guy.

HP employees got an interesting welcome to work yesterday: Greenpeace was protesting at their facility. (Ironically) They are concerned about plastics in HP products. Perhaps Greenpeace should protest SaveThePlasticBag.com headquarters next. Here is a map.

Los Altos is banning former City Councilmembers and former Planning Commissioners from "volunteering" at City Hall. All to combat the perception that these folks have too much influence and power at Los Altos City Hall. Good thing San Jose doesn't do such a thing: What would he, she, she, or she do?

The Gilroy Police Department will be three officers bigger thanks to a US Department of Justice Grant. May we suggest putting them in an anti-gang unit? Because...

...Monday night there was a drive-by shooting in North Gilroy caused damage to cars, but no injuries leading to this headline: Gang-related drive-by jolts soccer players, residents chatting in park.

To blogs:

• Mission City Lantern is still fighting the blogwar (you know the one) -- while San Jose Inside and San Jose Revealed seem to have taken a (well-deserved) break.
• Protect San Jose is still serving its mission to speak for/ defend police officers. Fair enough. But they haven't talked about the DA having to step back from (and put at risk) a prosecution that they handed to her (seemingly) on a silver platter.
• Finally, on a sad note, we learn that frequent commenter "Kathleen" will no longer be commenting on San Jose Inside and San Jose Revealed. We are thankful that she made this announcement on Watch Dog, and hope she will not stay silent on this site.