Morning News Round-Up – 12.21.09: It's all about moving...

Following last week’s baseball self-importance… The San Jose/(San Francisco) Giants are stamping their feet in anger with San Francisco attorney Todd Smith as chief grump for a nine page letter filled with arguments against the (San Jose) A’s moving to town. Sportswriter Mark Purdy says the Giants (apparently) think San Jose is filled with “totally stupid… rubes.” Santa Clara County Tax Assessor Larry Stone wiggled the knife for Giants President Larry Baer with the news Bud Selig’s committee was meeting with officials in San Jose. According to the Merc’s Internal Affairs Stone and Baer were sharing 49er’s owner Jed York’s suite for a little football…

Valley Medical Center’s executive director, Michael Skehan, is leaving in search of a Master’s Degree. County Supervisor Liz Kniss suggests it’s not the “blistering” audit but “being second or third in command.”

San Jose’s Strong Neighborhoods Initiative will feel the hit from the State’s $75 million money grab. Redevelopment Agency executive director Harry Mavrogenes said of the 84% budget cut in SNI “everybody is getting the same kind of cutback.”

The Merc’s Internal Affairs dishes former South Bay Labor Council “apparatchik” Phil Bump keeps up with some local news in his New York blog. On an (un)related note, Watch Dog really misses the snarky blog Bump didn’t have a hand in, their domain name is up for grabs… IA follows GOP gubernatorial wannabe/former eBay CEO Meg Whitman through courtroom proceedings where it’s looking more like Whitman has a little Jekyll and Hyde action.

The next time you get busted in San Jose, look for the EarCam. Some of San Jose’s finest will carry ear mounted cameras to record all “contact with a person.” The first 18 are provided by Taser International (pissed their friends in blue get bad press?), if San Jose police fully outfit the cost could run $4 million plus roughly $1.7 million yearly. Silicon Valley DeBug’s Raj Jayadev wasn’t so impressed suggesting “we can’t solve our problems with a new piece of gadgetry.”

The Merc’s Scott Herhold gets his Year in Review out early with a note that it’s all about following the money, studying the past and keeping an eye on the kids.

How many times do you need to hear it… Don’t bring things that go bang home from the war…

Protect San Jose is giddy with success declaring they are Movin’ On Up. Don’t worry, PSJ promises not to rest on their laurels…

Mission City Lantern outlines one of the Top 10 of 2009… The 49ers.