Morning News Round-Up -- 4.30.10: DeadbeatDellums.com...

Sharks won Game 1... and not because the Red Wings were grounded for missing curfew either...

From the sublime to the ridiculous...

Because we can't help ourselves, Watch Dog Silicon Valley is now the "point out Mayor Ron Dellums' shortcomings" blog... yesterday we wrote about his Palin-esque (or was it Yoda-esque) quote in the paper. Today it is a story from the Chronicle about Mayor Dellums going back on his pledge to take a 10 percent paycut. (He needs the money to pay the IRS who probably have their own internal blog about Dellums' shortcomings... DeadbeatDellums.com) But should MLB really listen to guy who can't pay his taxes and goes back on his $18,000 paycut pledge? Just asking. We'll add this to the "things that won't happen in San Jose when the A's move here" list: there will be no anti-Wolff banners, there will be no anti-A's City Attorney, and there will be no Mayor that gives back his paycut... San Jose looks better and better everyday... don't you think Bud?

Super Bowl in Santa Clara? It could happen, and James Rowen will absolutely be there... His blog-enemies will absolutely not be...

But a story in today's Merc brings up the prospects of "...Raider Nation -- and its rough-and-tumble reputation -- descending on Silicon Valley for football Sundays..." and how that might impact the vote in June. It ain't the wine and cheese-going 49er crowd, that's for sure...

High-Speed Rail could be in trouble, according to a new State audit because it... "...suffers from 'weak oversight,' 'lax' management and a shaky funding plan..." Funny, we thought that was the norm for things coming out of Sacramento... One thing for sure, this audit will be the talk of the country-club set in Menlo Park and Atherton this weekend...

We'll let Sean Webby continue his work on this story and we won't comment at all: Prosecutor: San Jose cop's work on sex assault cases sloppy, but no charges...

Our only comment on this story is that the formatting, probably for a split second yesterday, was a bit screwy... so we share because we can't resist...

While we are on the San Jose Police, the San Jose POA's Vice President didn't mince words when he expressed regret that the Police Chief didn't get the Dallas job, sort of... "Chief Davis has lost the confidence of his troops..." tick tock Chief Davis, tick tock. Of course, we've said that before...

• Medical Cannabis Dude A: Dude, let's file a lawsuit against the City of San Jose for trying to screw with us...
• Medical Cannabis Dude B: Dude... let's do it...

(Don't worry all you medical cannabis users out there. I support you. But it is funnier to write about this story if we throw the word "dude" in once and awhile...)

If you life isn't boring enough, there will be public workshops will start this weekend about how to develop 2,600 acres of land around San Jose's "water treatment"/ sewage plant. Either your life isn't boring enough OR you ran out of your Ambien prescription...

Become the Lt. Governor go on Colbert... that is Maldo's path to fame.

But the special elections that the Governor is pushing got dinged in the Merc Editorial pages today... because of cost ($3 million) and because of politics...

The Board of Supervisors' plan to ban fast food toys gets some love on SFist.com... at the same time that George Shirakawa goes out for steak for a good cause (Dining Out for Life) and presumably not handing out toys... BUT wait, the comments on San Jose Inside tell a different story: apparently Shirakawa wasn't going to be there after his press release was sent out...

The City of Cupertino is laying out some cash ($2.1 million) now (with Siemens) to reap energy efficiency savings later (through cuts in energy and water bills)... How'd they find $2.1 million? $438k in grants, $562k in capital improvement reserves, and the other $1.1 will come from a private lender or reserves...

The Minton's project in Mountain View got approved. 203 "luxury apartments" will be built on the site of the old lumber yard... Prometheus Real Estate Group 1, NIMBYs 0...

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.8.10: When the Saints...

If you didn't check Watch Dog after you read the Morning News Round-Up on Friday, you missed late-breaking stuff about Mayor Ron Dellums being "in the know" about when Major League Baseball would hear back from the Task Force looking into the Oakland A's Bay Area stadium options... We posted it after we read the East Bay Express, then San Jose Inside did.

This is interesting, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and City Manager Deb Figone are on a different page when it comes to changing the make up of the pension boards in the City of San Jose. It is interesting because Reed and Figone are often on the same page when it comes to such things... Figone wants all the folks on the board to be independent, financial experts appointed by the City Council -- Reed has cut a deal that isn't as strong, but will still get more experts, but fewer Council appointments, on the pension boards. Pension board/ taxpayer watch dogs seem displeased...

Perhaps a winning lotto ticket could help make up some of San Jose's pension losses... a $20 million ticket was sold at 7-11 on Bascom Avenue. Check your numbers: 19, 29, 36, 41, 20...

Dolores Carr in the news... again. This time, the judge that she has instructed her prosecutors to boycott has a key case in front of her right now and isn't letting the case go. Sorry District Attorney Carr...

Also in the news is the SJPD, well, one detective in particular. This will affect Dolores Carr's office too. A detective in the Sexual Assaults Investigations Unit may face charges for allegedly filing false police reports that led to some cases being dismissed, although is seems that no one was falsely charged because the shoddy police work. Of course, after the fact of this coming to light, Police Chief Rob Davis is looking into auditing detectives more closely... sound familiar?

Speaking of internal government controversies, here's another one: Silicon Valley Power, the utility that provides electricity to Santa Clara, was forced by Cal-OSHA to shut down one of the City's three power plants. The story also highlights some other internal issues going on at Silicon Valley Power... No word yet if Mission City Lantern can trace this closure back to the anti-49ers crowd, but we'll wait and see.

In an unrelated story, 5 folks died at a Connecticut power plant after a big explosion.

When we think about the 49ers stadium plans in Santa Clara, we've generally only been talking about Santa Clara. But the Sunnyvale City Council wanted some 49er love as well -- and Lisa Lang of the 49ers gave them some. Perhaps San Jose is interested in the economic/ traffic impact of the 49er's stadium?

Scott Herhold at the Merc is doing some reporting this week, apparently. He fills us in on a story developing in the County Building where Assessor Larry Stone is actively trying to stop former Sunnyvale Councilmember John Howe's appointment to an Assessment Appeals Board at the County. Supervisor George Shirakawa has nominated John Howe and Larry Stone thinks that Howe is not only unqualified, but wrote a nasty letter to tell everyone about it. Herhold got wind of the story and wrote about is as a reporter, not a columnist, this weekend...

Herhold also wrote a column this weekend, continuing a push for openness from the San Jose Police Department, specifically about 911 tapes. Herhold notes that the entire Toyota accelerator recall stems, in large part, from a released 911 tape. Oh, and the Police Chief Rob Davis was out of town when Herhold called for a quote. Perhaps he is looking for a place to retire too, because Herhold also noted that Davis "...is widely believed to be a short-timer..."

Internal Affairs in the Merc let Sheriff Laurie Smith know why she should be careful whom she writes letters of recommendation for... her opponent in her re-election bid is using a Smith-written recommendation as a campaign promotional piece. Oops.

Morning News Round-Up -- 12.15.09: Big night for the San(ta Clara) Francisco 49ers...

The San(ta Clara) Francisco 49ers kicked some serious Cardinals' ass last night. Seven Cardinals' turnovers helped San(ta Clara) Francisco's cause as well... We're not here, to start no trouble, we're just here to do the Santa Clara shuffle... (Mission City Lantern doesn't miss a beat...)

Speaking of new stadiums... the Chronicle's man in Oakland, Chip Johnson, does his best to boost Oakland Mayor Ron Dellum's plans to keep the A's in Oakland -- and not with out some needling of San Jose. Like this: "...the chances that Wolff and San Jose city officials will prevail in their attempts to move the team are slim..." Really? I suppose Chip Johnson and Ron Dellums are closer to Major League Baseball owners than Lew Wolff (a Major League Baseball owner). Johnson's piece also states the obvious -- that is may be too little too late -- when he writes: "...It's a complete turnabout for Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums who in early 2007, shortly after taking office, dismissed any notions that the team would remain..." So perhaps Lew Wolff's non-embrace of Oakland is because it comes three years too late...

The Merc Editorial Board gives an atta-boy to Mayor Chuck Reed for punting San Jose's Redevelopment budget talks to February until things can be ironed out on several fronts: the State's money grab, perhaps the Teamsters' thingy, and some other stuff too.

Scott Herhold provides some perspective on the death of teenager Sarah Botill in Gilroy from a night of drinking. Herhold concludes that this is no ordinary story because, "...She was the daughter of a firefighter. She died after drinking at the home of an ex-councilman. And she had a few swallows of beer that night at the home of a cop..." More details about the case from the news side of the house at the Merc and the Dispatch as well...

The Merc's Mr. Roadshow describes some details about the proposed BART-to-Silicon Valley line and how some traffic delays can already be tied to BART's eventual construction...

Speaking of trains... more and less. Apparently High-Speed Rail tickets might be a little bit more expensive than originally planned (and sold to voters) and the ridership numbers may be a little less. Oops... Watch Dog would still pay a pretty steep price to not have to fly into LAX ever again. It might be a good place to get a haircut, but it is a bad place to fly in to. It is safe to assume that the higher fees and lower ridership are not what 200 folks in Mountain View were most concerned about when they attended a High-Speed Rail meeting...

This week the Merc called Steve Poizner's Gubernatorial campaign "anemic" and then late yesterday a story posted that went further into detail about what the rumor-mill in Sacramento is churning out. Poizner may not spend the $15 million he is putting in for some time and all the money that is being put into the race by Whitman and Poizner may mean that San Jose's Tom Campbell is backing out of the race, to which Campbell's press secretary says: "People can talk and conjecture all they want, but there's no change..." Of course, Campbell's press secretary did confirm that supporters are encouraging Campbell to run for Senate instead... because nothing could go wrong with a Campbell Senate bid... (36.6%)

More bad news for the Santa Clara Unified School District and Wilcox High School. Just as the Broom Closet Modeling Agency flap has died down, the Santa Clara Police are forwarding to the District Attorney their findings of their investigation into whether the Wilcox High Principal knew a teacher was known for having sex with students before he was arrested for (you guessed it) having sex with a student... now the District Attorney Dolores Carr needs to review the findings and decide if she wants to take on a high-profile rape case... where have we seen this before? We can only hope two things in this case: 1. that Jim McManis isn't the defense attorney for the Principal, and 2. that the DA's husband isn't working for the victim's (victims'?) families in some way...

To light or not to light... that is the question (at the Ann Sobrato high School football field in Morgan Hill). One complication -- the football field is actually in San Jose ... and within the City's greenbelt. San Jose Councilmember Ash Kalra, who represents the part of San Jose that would be impacted had this to say: "I'd certainly be open to discussing it. I don't want to close any doors to the interest the community may have to try to find a way to make it happen. But under the current zoning, it just won't work." Oh well... perhaps there is a high school in Dillon that will share their Friday Night Lights...

They are going to pave "paradise" (Palo Alto Bowl) and put up a "parking lot" (for a new hotel and townhomes)...

San Jose Councilmember Pete Constant joins Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio this week on San Jose Inside talking about the City budget. San Jose's new blogging duet...