Morning News Round-Up -- 3.25.10: Dolores Carr defends the Merc's rights? Weird

We mentioned it yesterday, lawyers running against lawyers can be fun... but it can also be litigious and boring. But we have to write about it anyway (especially when everyone else is writing about it...) Dolores Carr is now mad that Jeff Rosen is using Mercury News reprinted articles on his website -- which may violate copyright laws. We don't really blame Carr, all of the articles call her unethical, politically stupid, and other really nice things. Ironically, this puts Dolores Carr in the position of defending the rights of the newspaper that has absolutely crushed her over the past year. So, while Dolores Carr is spending time looking for reprint criminals, she should turn her attention to one of her own endorsers, Pete Constant, who uses reprints of the Mercury News all over his official City Hall website...

Scott Herhold compares Chicago Mayor (for Life) Daley and San Jose Mayor (for Now) Reed... His conclusion?: "...if he [Reed] had more of Richie Daley in him, he would enjoy more results..." Especially stinging for Reed and his crew will be this line: "...We are more open, more transparent, more ethical. As Reed's opponent, Cindy Chavez, said in the 2006 campaign, to what end?..." Cindy the Prognosticator.

The Merc Editorial Board defends the County's "Plan to Ban" (toys from Happy Meals...)

Budget woes are hitting everyone... the Santa Clara Unified School District is reminiscing about what it used to be like to have money as they hand out 100 pink slips...

Here's a Merc headline for you: Confusion, criticism follow Santa Clara Valley Water District groundwater fee... but then again, when doesn't confusion and criticism follow the Water District?

280 is getting a facelift?

Scott Herhold touched on it this week: schools, neighbors, and traffic do not mix in Los Altos... the Los Altos City Council agrees and is asking the Mountain View-Los Altos High School District to get its traffic shit together...

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.22.10: Are you a Proprietary Member of Fremont Hills?

Two stories of local politicians ignoring folks in their own backyards in order to court voters in Orange County: Tom Campbell "assails" healthcare reform and Steve Poizner goes anti-immigration. We can't leave this part of the Campbell story alone: Campbell delivered his anti-healthcare speech at the Fremont Hills Country Club in Los Altos Hills, a club that has... "...a total of 425 Proprietary Memberships, granting all members full privileges at the Club. All club memberships are by invitation only..." Oh, and an equestrian center. We can assume that zero of the owners of the 425 Proprietary Members goes without healthcare or finds it too expensive... But perhaps a neat follow-up story to this one (hint to Barbara Boxer's team) would be to see how many of the workers at the Fremont Country Club have health insurance...

The San Jose Independent Police Auditor search appears to be heading into its final stages (finally). And the Merc uncovered one of the finalists: former Judge and former Palo Alto Councilmember LaDoris Cordell. This cannot make law enforcement officials very pleased... which probably does make a whole bunch of other people very, very pleased. We guess no brothers or sisters of current police offices applied...

The Merc just can't get enough of the Happy Hollow Zoo opening... another story appeared this weekend.

Remember those fireworks that you used to love in downtown San Jose during the Fourth of July? Well, you can kiss them goodbye. Fil Maresca says the City's fees for the Police were too expensive. That's sort of what the Chamber of Commerce is saying about the Police as well -- at least their pensions...

Speaking of the Chamber...

The Chamber's political action committee, COMPAC, won a lawsuit and now the City of San Jose owes them $400,000+. Pat Dando can't help but gloat in the Merc's Internal Affairs.

Also Internal Affairs is something that was essentially lifted from San Jose Inside: one of the "also rans" in District 9 is both a Cortese and a karaoke genius...

Rounding-Up Internal Affairs this weekend, we learned Sunday that Steve Poizner shared a flight to the Southern California debate with Meg Whitman's press team. But more important than that are two more things that we learned that were embedded in the piece: 1. Whitman is flying a private jet (everywhere) and 2. the source of all things anti-Poizner that has appeared in Internal Affairs is Mary Anne Ostrom is working for Whitman now but used to work for the Merc. Hmmm... Debunking the myth that all reporters (and former reporters) are Democrats...

Attention Mr./Dr. County Executive: The Mercury News Editorial Board has a big problem with you and how you want to run the Valley Medical Center. Please report directly to the Principal's office for further instructions...

The Merc Editors have started their campaign endorsements. They start with Proposition 16 and recommend no.

There is a new blog in town... zzz...

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.12.10: Pegram vs. Constant?

The Republicans are coming, the Republicans are coming... to Santa Clara. We wonder if the only two Republicans we write about on the local level -- San Jose Councilmember Pete Constant and his good "friend" Council candidate Larry Pegram -- will pass each other on the Convention floor and fight about San Jose City Council District 9. We kind of hope so. Two former San Jose Police Officers wrestling to the floor of the Republican Convention as Pat Dando and Jim Cunneen look on... that would be something. Not for nothing, we think Pete Constant could crush (literally and figuratively) Larry Pegram in a fight...

Speaking of Larry Pegram... In case you missed Watch Dog's details of Pegram's "non-profit" yesterday afternoon, take a gander (Values Advocacy Council: A deficit-ridden slush fund for Larry Pegram?). We guess one of the Values of the Council is taking up to 70 percent of the money raised for yourself... Oh, and it seems that Mr. Pegram is so focused on running for City Council, that he hasn't had time to stop running for Congress... his website is still up from when he thought running for office in Tracy was what he wanted to do with his life. Ironically, one of the issues he was running on was "..increased liberty and freedom..." we guess that doesn't extend to what you can read on a computer in a library...

The City of San Jose is writing off some bad debts that are owed...

Kramer: It's just a write off for them.

Jerry: How is it a write off?

Kramer: They just write it off.

Jerry: Write it off what?

Kramer: Jerry all these big companies they write off everything.

Jerry: You don't even know what a write off is.

Kramer: Do you?

Jerry: No. I don't.

Kramer: But they do and they are the ones writing it off.

Speaking of writing off bad debt... sort of. The San Jose Airport is hoping that their debt doesn't turn bad. But Patty Fisher of the Merc grills the aiport's spokesman David Vossbrink (who commented here...) to promote the week-long celebration being planned for June.

At least the millions spent at the airport (billions, actually) got a beautiful new building built. The County spent $20 million to get an audit done by Deloitte Consulting and the new County Exec called it "a waste of money"... but throwing good money after bad seems to be the next move for the County Exec with regards to the Valley Medical Center. This time, the price tag is only $100,000 to get the same results as the Deloitte waste of money... but after spending $20 million, what's an extra $100K?

As the County figures out new ways to spend money on things, they are also looking at the November ballot to raise some money too... and it only needs a majority vote to pass, so expect this one to be a homerun. The County may put a measure on the ballot to increase your vehicle license fee by $10 to go to road improvements. Watch Dog seems to remember that the vehicle license fee was once a touchy subject for a certain California politician...

Just in case you missed it last night, the Sharks scored a touchdown in the third period. They missed the extra point, but they still beat Nashville 8-5. (Nashville obviously had a field goal and a safety...)