Monday, March 1, 2010

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.1.10: TTYL... Tom

It was a very Sid Sunday... but former Mayor Tom McEnery was at the game too. It was actually a Shark-infested game in Vancouver. (If you have no idea what Watch Dog is talking about, you should.) More important than all of that is we learn that Eric Johnson, the Editor of the Metro, text messages Tom McEnery. Raising the question: Isn't Mayor McEnery a little too old to be texting in public?

Another story about the San Jose Airport... and it is getting a little pathetic. You remember that the powers that be (the Airport Director and the Mayor) had Sully come in for an inspirational speech to Silicon Valley executives. While the execs were there, they heard from the Airport Director and the Mayor who asked (begged?) these companies to fund the grand opening celebration at the airport this summer and asked (begged?) these companies to start using the airport... Bill Sherry even suggested that companies call airlines and implore them to get more flights in and out of San Jose... which kind of sounds like Bill Sherry's job. This is all good and fun, but the airport owes a whole bunch of money on a bond debt which they seemingly have no way to pay...

The Case Against Dolores Carr gets strong and stronger. Actually, in Sunday's Internal Affairs column, it is her husband (a former SJPD Officer) that is in hot water. It all stems from the same case that got the DA into trouble: the Hosseini murder. You remember, as the DA was developing her case her husband was working for the victim's family as a 'security consultant.' This eventually led to the case being moved (taken) from the DA's office and will be prosecuted instead by the Attorney General's office. Well, the State Bureau of Security and Investigative Services is looking into John Carr to see if he was a practicing private eye without a proper license. The Rosen campaign couldn't type fast enough on a Sunday -- their email didn't get out to folks until the mid-afternoon. As Daryl Hall said, private eyes are watching you, watching you, watching you...

The Chronicle's Matier & Ross continue their anti-Santa Clara 49er's effort and write about some leaked polling numbers about the 49ers stadium deal saying that voters are evenly split in the election. The poll was done by Richard Lindholm of 200 voters... which has a seven percent margin of error. The funniest thing about this story is that Lindholm convinced Matier & Ross that the polling was part of some long-term research project on Santa Clara County attitudes. Really? A poll on "Santa Clara County attitudes" would poll 200 voters in the City of Santa Clara? It looks to Watch Dog like Lindholm is polling for some San Francisco interests...

County Assessor Larry Stone wrote a piece for the Mercury News on Sunday that is certain to cause a stir. He wrote about public sector pensions and the dire need for reform. Specifically, he talks about how the pension liability explosion is crippling state and local government. This will make him among the least welcome people at the Firefighters' barbecue...

While healthcare news has mostly been coming out of DC -- on the local healthcare seen, we saw a shake-up announced over the weekend. Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System chief Kim Roberts is getting her resume together for her next job... Scott Herhold at the Merc dives deep into the politics of the County and gives the insight that the new County Exec doesn't mess around.

On a more constructive healthcare note... the good folks that brought you the Healthy Children insurance program in the County are looking to bring healthcare coverage to employees of small business called Healthy Workers. Perhaps the DC folks should take note...

If you are under 13 years old (and you read this blog) take heart, a County Commission has recommended that you not be put in jail...

There was another murder this weekend in San Jose. A 19 year old was shot and killed on S. 24th Street and Williams Street. 5th homicide of the year in San Jose.

Palo Alto Utilities Department has had a rough few weeks. First the East Palo Alto plane crash took out their powerlines causing a big, day-long outage... then last night a downed powerline caused outages for several hours. But the weird part of the story is this: Substantial portions of Palo Alto suffered electrical power brownouts or blackouts tonight, but no city announcement was made as of 11:30 p.m. three hours into the power failure. Palo Alto Weekly toots its own horn in the story to say that residents stayed informed by using PaloAltoOnline.com's "Town Square." (If that sounds familiar, it is because of this from March 2009: "No city utilities officials were available Sunday afternoon or evening to provide information about what was happening."

Here's some news you've been waiting for, the Palo Alto Police have made "strides" in dealing with racial profiling. We guess Chief "Doo-Rag" Johnson's departure did usher in some good...

From North County to South County...

A duo of bad budget stories: Gilroy Unified is cutting $7 million from their budget (ouch) and the City of Morgan Hill faces nothing but "bad choices" to balance their budget... (Some would argue that Morgan Hill's "bad choices" are what got them into this mess...)

1 comment:

Kathleen Flynn said...

I know this may not be as news worthy as Carr's husband being investigated again but, two people involved in the muder of my friend pleaded guilty.

Javier Olalde pleaded Guilty on 01/08/10

Jose Ortiz pleaded Guilty on 02/26/10

One of them is being sentenced March 9th, at 1:30 pm.