Morning News Round-Up -- 11.4.09: Champagne Hangover Edition...

So many campaign parties, so little time... And the winners (and losers) are:

• Barely 42 votes separated Palo Alto Mayor Larry Klein from newcomer/(former) Palo Alto School Board Trustee Gail Price. Klein should be wondering what happened. Klein and Price are joined by Karen Holman, Nancy Shepherd and Gregory Scharff on the (nearly) all new Palo Alto City Council.
• Sunnyvale’s Mayor Tony Spitialeri held on to his seat as did Chris Moylan, they’ll be joined by newcomer Jim Griffith who coasted to victory over Penny Kelly.
• Cupertino bounced incumbent City Councilmember Marty Miller to elect newcomer/(former) Cupertino Union School District Trustee Barry Chang along with incumbents Orrin Mahoney and Mark Santoro.
• Cupertino School District Trustees Gary McCue, Ben Liao, and Anjali Kausar are retaining their seats. With little opposition, these Trustees coasted to easy victory.
• Los Altos School District Trustee Mark Goines and newcomers Tammy Logan and Doug Smith will be dealing with the only-in-Los Altos-type school challenges.
• Orchard School District Trustees Alan Fong and Bambi Fleming will be retaining their seats. Although in Bambi’s case, she was pummeled by newcomer Mark Newton and barely beat out fellow incumbent Ken Riley. This race might not be over.
• It was grim news for new tax requests in Santa Clara County: Palo Alto’s hoped-for business tax went down in flames along with parcel tax requests from Santa Clara Unified School District and Fremont Union High School. Cupertinites happily voted not to increase taxes but push utility taxes into the kitty.

And while the election is the story of the day, the story of the month/year is San Jose's growing issue with the Police...

San Jose’s Mayor Chuck Reed (now) says he’s “...going to be on the side of full disclosure…” for release of 911 tapes and must now “...convince at least 2 members…” of the Rules Committee to join him today. In spite of repeated requests from Daniel Pham’s father for release of the 911 tapes, Police Chief Rob Davis worries about violating the family’s privacy... (Or perhaps he is erecting the Blue Wall...)

The Merc’s Scott Herhold challenges Chief Davis not to manipulate Pham’s family into providing the answer the Chief is hoping for and urges readers to join him at City Hall today…

Perhaps Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio has a way to ease the brewing tension... PO thinks a little weed might be just the ticket. Oliverio hopes to pick up where Santa Cruz leaves off and bring two new (medical) marijuana clubs to the City’s empty industrial sites.

Following the closure of San Jose’s downtown hospital in 2004, a flurry of activity took place (not) to get the nation's 10th largest city a replacement. San Jose Councilmember Sam Liccardo inherited the controversy and now reports a new site may be identified “...within weeks...”

Three teenagers were busted by San Jose Police following the gang-related Halloween stabbing of 12 and 13 year olds. Sgt. Ronnie Lopez said “...it was a tireless effort by [police] … following leads.”