Friday, December 4, 2009

Morning News Round-Up – 12.4.09: A good day to get lei’d…

Stanford University and the Committee for Green Foothills are headed to the California Supreme Court. San Mateo County doesn’t want Stanford’s trail, County Supervisor/State Assembly wannabe Rich Gordon shrugged and told Stanford they should cough up $8.4 million for Santa Clara County. The big problem? A pesky little environmental impact report…

The High-Speed Rail debate got (a little) more interesting this week when the Rail Authority board decertified the environmental impact report. HSR Authority deputy director Jeff Barker says extra studies won’t derail plans for a 2012 ground-breaking. California Rail Foundation’s Richard Tolmach is keeping his fingers crossed the Pacheco route disappears…

Morgan Hill Finance Manager Kevin Riper says 3/4’s of a million needs to go from the city budget and layoffs are likely unless unions say no to raises. Union representative Donna McKnight said the city hasn’t asked for help on contract negotiations while Police Officer Association President Scott Silva was surprised to hear layoffs (might be) on the table.

Hopping on the green train Cupertino hopes to have a green building policy ready for action in 2010. Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s Shiloh Ballard wants Cupertino to look like other cities saying “it’s a little bit nightmarish to comply with radically different regulations…”

Apple’s Steve Jobs can breathe again… Hopes for a second Cupertino campus are a little closer after the planning commission agreed to ditching some of that residential zoning. Really, this was a debate for Cupertino?

A Mountain View NIMBY battle over housing has neighbors fighting over leadership. Developer John Moss hopes old timers retain the reins in the battle over Mintons saying a site like this comes up “once every 100 years.”

Want a seat on Mountain View’s planning commission? Let your resume show long time residence, oh, and owning a home doesn’t hurt. Mountain View’s City Council rejected younger/renter/(possible) council wannabe’s Rachel Grossman and Chris Clark for seats. City Councilmember Ronit Bryant said she wants longtime residents and her colleagues agreed…

Sunnyvale’s City Council reviews prospects for the Baylands Park next week. The economy has Sunnyvale noodling over who should cover infrastructure costs – the owner (Santa Clara County) or the renter (Sunnyvale).

The winter cold didn’t keep an (accused) flasher from exposing himself to a 13-year-old girl at Graham Middle School in Mountain View. Police spokesperson Liz Wylie said police are on the lookout and hope to talk…

The Merc’s Mike Cassidy joins the White House, San Jose city leaders and a host of others to send props to Adobe founders Chuck Geschke and John Warnock.

Mountain View’s Chez TJ is mired deep in controversy… Owner George Aviet and chef Bruno Chernel are at odds over the real reason for the loss of a much coveted Michelin star…

Speaking of (another) TJ’s… Palo Alto Town and Country shoppers waiting a decade for the opening of Trader Joe’s will attend the lei-cutting today…

San Jose Inside reports Congressmember Anna Eshoo is pissed the volume goes up as commercials come on. Eshoo says she was surprised by the gratitude from congressional colleagues.

Protect San Jose’s Kathleen Flynn sees an elephant; mental illness is ignored in the police vs. knife wielding mentally ill tragedies. Watch Dog likes Kathleen and is providing a helpful reminder of recent reports on the mental illness/police front.

1 comment:

Kathleen said...

Thank you WD, I like you and James Rowen too! Thank you for posting a link to my article on Protect San Jose. The original posting was a mess this morning but has been corrected now. Whew! Please take a moment to re-read it.
You and James have a wonderful weekend, and thank you very much for all your support~