Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Morning News Round-Up -- 8.25.09: #5 (plastic) #6 (water)

"Number 5: Divert 100 percent of the waste from our landfill and convert waste to energy." Does that sound familiar to you? It is from the San Jose Green Vision, which was passed unanimously by the City Council. Now, San Jose is moving forward on Number 5 as it inches closer to eliminating its share of the 19,000,000,000 plastic bags floating through your yard, down the creek, or across the street. Councilmember Sam Liccardo takes a bold stance in the face of a (possible) lawsuit from the American Chemistry Council, “We can’t be afraid of what the plastics industry and its lawyers might do.” Predictably, Councilmember Constant takes the other view. This story is getting some wide coverage, including our friends to the north and the Associated Press.

To Number 6...

San Jose resident Gene Kohara is confused, and a little pissed. Kohara questions those funky water misters at City Hall while he’s being asked to cut water usage... in the 3rd year of a drought. San Jose’s public art misters help to cool visitors to the (giant concrete) plaza. Others wonder if trees might do the trick. Number 6 in the Green Vision does say, "Number 6: Recycle or beneficially reuse 100 percent of our wastewater (100 million gallons per day)"...

We missed this from the weekend because you'd need to be a detective to find it on the Merc.'s website... from Internal Affairs: Council candidate Jim Cogan says he wasn’t offended, really, when opponent Pam Foley offered her district needed an “ethical” representative. Perhaps he should have been...

The Merc’s Editorial Board wants to see you at City Hall this week as pension reform is under discussion. (If you have second, check out the first comment on the Merc's website following this Editorial...)

Gilroy Councilmembers are pissed off. Someone is dishing the secret details from behind closed doors. Threats of Grand Jury investigations could be heard from Mayor Al Pinheiro and Councilmember Craig Gartman after tales were told about proposed employee raises. We understand why Pinheiro and Gartman are mad... but are the also politically tone-deaf? Employee raises?

Gilroy Unified Schools transportation supervisor ditched his gig over the weekend. Emil Frates was accused of contract violations and Superintendent Deborah Flores said they’d been trying to “fix” the mess but they continued “to be in turmoil.” Perhaps Mr. Frates learned that City employees in Gilroy were getting raises and scooted across town...

Psychiatrist David Arredondo is calling for “…less blame and more understanding of what's really going on in the culture of these high schools...” as he looks into why teens are killing themselves.

The Merc’s Mr. Roadshow dishes Top Secret details from the California Highway Patrol High Command, smuggled out by daring men on horseback. Not really, but Watch Dog bets today’s dish from the Highway Patrol gets a few readers pissed off about the warning: Put Your Cellphone Down.

Dude, the skate park’s “...not a magnet for bad behavior...” really. The Morgan Hill skate park has had its share of naughtiness, but parents and police hope that’s a thing of the past as bad behavior (seems) to be going away. (Don't tell Los Gatos about this...)

San Jose Councilmember/Insider Pierluigi Oliverio notes he’s meeting with City Planners to help a constituent who didn’t “take responsibility” for figuring out what he could do with land he wanted to buy before he bought it. We thought the folks in Willow Glen were the smartest folks in town...

Speaking of Jim Cogan, or at least we were near the beginning of today's Round-Up... Cogan chimes in on today's Protect San Jose site and tries to be funny, but sneaks in a litte (ok, a lot) of self-promotion.

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