Morning News Round-Up -- 5.26.10: not very CSI-like...

Ah, the news about how shabbily handled the De Anza rape case was just keeps coming. Today's news: "...nearly 24 hours elapsed between when the semi-conscious girl was brought to a hospital and the first sheriff's officers knocked on the door of the house where the incident occurred..." That doesn't seem very CSI-like. Expect the Merc's Sean Webby to get another award around his coverage of this story... and expect the Sheriff, the DA, and nearly every other law enforcement official and organization to continue to hate Sean Webby. Which is a pretty good indication that he is doing his job...

Fresh off banning toys at fast food joints, the Board of Supervisors is about to get into the parcel tax game on the November ballot. The tax will go to "preserve health insurance for low-income kids"... this seems pretty ground-breaking to Watch Dog and we wish the Supervisors luck in November. We are pretty sure that there are about a dozen or so school districts out there that were eyeing November for a parcel tax as well. They might not wish the Supervisors much luck because they have to ask themselves: How many new parcel taxes are people willing to support?

The Las Vegas-ification of San Jose gets a deep dive in the Merc today. It doesn't sound like that many people have confidence in the plan for a major hotel near the new San Jose "Strip on First," but Garden City Casino is certainly moving and they are getting more tables (and increasing the City's rake) when they do...

There is at least a conceptual plan, even if not a fully-baked financial one, to make the Mexican Heritage Plaza an arts and culture school. Maybe the increased rake at the card clubs could help finance the place...

And what would a day be without a little news from the San Jose City Council District 5 race? Yesterday all the candidates attended an "ethics workshop" at Santa Clara University and they all signed a pledge to run ethical campaigns. A little late, perhaps? One candidate has already been called a communist and a gang-banger...

If you are planning on getting a fat loan from San Jose as part of your compensation for being hired to a high-level management job, it just got a little less fat... Of course, judging from some of the salaries highlighted in the Merc's Public Employee Pay Database thingy, why would someone need a loan anyway?

San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon gets the Merc Editorial Board nod for the 21st Assembly District... for a Board that questions the status quo up in Sacramento, it seems a strange choice, no?

As a companion piece up the Peninsula, it was Yoriko Kishimoto's turn for a Will Oremus profile...

While we are in Palo Alto... the Palo Alto Finance Committee voted to start charging kids/families to act in the Children's Theatre... that should go over big.

Here's something: Mountain View Police will "forgo pay raises for a year"...

We mentioned earlier this week that we can't resist pointing out imperfections with the online Merc... we are clearly wildly immature. We wouldn't argue agains that...





Finally, where have you gone Politicon Valley? We miss you...

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.5.10: Margaritas all around... the Sharks won...

Sharks win... and it was a doozy. Four words: Overtime, Breakaway, Joe Thornton.

Hey, Denis Theriault is back on the Merc's local political scene... he covers some young-ish Silicon Valley guns running for office: Chris Kelly (running for Attorney General) and Josh Becker (State Assembly)...

San Jose's City Council will extend a program that has curbed "drunk-in-public" arrests... This story allows the Merc to reprint their favorite line:

The pilot program followed Mercury News reports that San Jose police were arresting more people on charges of public intoxication than any other law enforcement agency in the state. Some community members alleged the statistics showed police were inappropriately using the public drunkenness law as "social control," a charge police denied.

Speaking of the San Jose City Council, the Merc's John Woolfolk provides a preview of the San Jose City Council 4 way race to replace Nora Campos. We learn that Nora is Xavier's older sister, that Manuel Herrera ran for City Council in a different district, that Aaron Resendez is a press operator, and that Magdalena Carrasco is "a hard charging mother"... (It seems the Merc's website is on the fritz, the URL for this story is:

www.mercurynews.com/mr-roadshow/ci_15016835

Gilroy will sue the Water District over their redistricting plans... this is going to be good. (That is, if you like one government agency suing another... and Watch Dog does like that, a lot...)

Speaking of Gilroy and the Water District... the "campaign" to overturn the groundwell fee failed. Everyone at the Water District is breathing a sigh of relief, until they get subpeoned in the Gilroy lawsuit...

Another Gilroy story... Gavilan College is really screwed up financially and so is its foundation. This story has the phrase "misappropriated funds" which usually tickles the DA's fancy...

It was an election day (sort of) yesterday. Mail-in ballot elections were due in several school districts... Palo Alto, Fremont Union, Union, and Loma Prieta school districts won their parcel tax elections... Lakeside lost...

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.12.10: We hardly knew you Rosemary...

Abel Maldonado was nominated by Governor Schwarzenegger to be the next Lieutenant Governor... unfortunately, he didn't get 41 votes in the State Assembly to make it so... he did get a majority -- 37 to 35. So the Governor is going to swear him on February 23rd which is about to set off a legal battle in Sacramento. This entire episode is going to make everyone look even stupider than they already do in Sacramento, which is not easy.

There was the first (in what will be a long list of) candidates' forum in District 5 in San Jose last night in the race to replace Councilmember Nora Campos. The candidates there were Xavier Campos, Manuel Hererra, Aaron Resendez, and Magdalena Carrasco. The filing deadline hasn't even passed for the race, so we'll see how things shake out. Were there any Watch Dogs there that have any inside scoop about how the forum went?

Just as candidates were talking about how to address issues in East San Jose a 15 year old was stabbed to death 2 miles away.

Rosemary Kamei, we hardly knew you. You may recognize the name -- she is on the Water Board and was a candidate in the Supervisor's race to replace Don Gage. Unfortunately, she was one of the people that couldn't raise any money in the crowded field with Teresa Alvarado, Forrest Williams, Mike Wasserman, and Peter Arellano. Leaving the race she is endorsing Forrest Williams, which is ironic because leaving the race actually hurts Williams and helps Alvarado... it's funny how politics work...

We aren't sure we re-wrote about this story earlier in the week, but ex-Superintendent Bob Nunez showed up at a special East Side Union High School District Board meeting and blasted the current Board after his name had been more or less cleared in an audit conducted by the County Office of Education. The County's audit put the blame for screwed up stuff in the District squarely on the School Board...

Silicon Valley is at risk. Silicon Valley is at risk. So says the Joint Venture Silicon Valley index...

Los Gatos is so much like San Francisco... they banned panhandling in traffic medians... we guess making the car payments on the BMW makes people do desperate things...

County Superior Court Judge Lucy Koh's nomination in being heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee so her confirmation could be close... if the weather ever lets up in DC. Which would mean there could be an addition race for judge in the County this year -- in addition to the 3 that are lining up right now.

(Really) dirty dancing at Ann Sobrato High School?

Finally, from the blogosphere...

Kathleen Flynn over on Protect San Jose has some strong words to politicians and their supporters using victims' families for political purposes. Of course, this means that Kathleen probably forgot that she has invoked victims and their families in blog comments supporting JimCogan's run for Distrit 9 San Jose City Council. (Thank you City Hall Watch Dogger...)

"...was willing to give up his Saturday plans with his family to come support the family of a murder victim, as well as, gave a wonderful, caring speech during a rally at the peace march for Vahid Hosseini..."

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.10.10: And the ballot language is... drum-roll...

As you may have heard, the 49ers would like to build a stadium in Santa Clara. They need to go to the ballot first, however. That ballot measure is slated for this June. Earlier in the week, we learned there was some disagreement of how the actual ballot language should read in June. The Santa Clara City Staff had one recommendation for how the ballot measure should read, and the Santa Clarans for Economic Progress (the 49er's side of things) had another way. Watch Dog predicted that the 49er's version would take the day... and it did. But not before a 4 to 3 vote on the Santa Clara City Council. Here's the ballot language Santa Clara voters will see:

Shall the City of Santa Clara adopt Ordinance 17.20 leasing City property for a professional football stadium and other events; no use of City General or Enterprise funds for construction; no new taxes for residents for stadium; Redevelopment Agency funds capped for construction; private party pays all construction cost overruns; no city/agency obligation for stadium operating/maintenance; private party payment of projected fair market rent; and additional funds for senior/youth/library/recreation to City's General fund?

Just as Dolores Carr can't go two days without being in the paper, so too the San Jose Police Department. Today's SJPD story is about a man who was first beaten severely with a baseball bat by two other men -- but then died after being Tasered by San Jose PD. The murder trial of the two men who beat the victim opened yesterday and re-opens up the 'use of force' storyline again. It also gives Raj Jayadev, of POA video fame, another chance to be quoted in the paper for the next few weeks... and presumably gives the POA another chance to make fun of him...

The San Jose City Council District 5 Council seat will be a real hum-dinger of a race in June. Xavier Campos (Nora's brother) will square off against Manueal Herrera, Aaron Resendez, and new-to-the-race Magdalena Carrasco. Before that, however, there will many times that these four appear on the same stage -- the first of which is slated for this week...

The County Building has become a lot more interesting to watch lately. Earlier in the week, Scott Herhold pointed out the Larry Stone vs. George Shirakawa battle over the appointment of former Sunnyvale Councilmember John Howe to an assessment appeals board and then we learn today that "controversial developer" John Vidovich was nominated to the County's Planning Commission. Both Howe and Vidovich got approved by the Board of Supervisors yesterday for their respective Commissions.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District has a new Board member -- although you probably didn't see anything in the Mercury News about it. Thankfully, Watch Dog trolls the South County papers sometimes and the Morgan Hill Times lets us know that Sahib "Cy" Mann will be the newest Water Board member. He is rancher and realtor from Morgan Hill...

There was yet another public meeting about High Speed Rail through the Peninsula yesterday. This time, the options for tracks were discussed... again: elevated, tunneled, stacked, hybrid, etc., etc., etc. At the same time, Californians Advocating Responsible Rail Design are fixing to file another lawsuit...

Palo Alto Unified students (and vocal parents) may see increased class sizes in the School District because of budget cuts next year... we are sure that will go over really, really well.

There is yet another chapter in the story of the Gilroy teenager who died after a night of drinking. The Coronoer said the cause of death is still a mystery...

Apparently Campbell is the new hot spot in Silicon Valley? We know Evan Low is cool, but the new hot spot?

Finally, Mission City Lantern seems to be critical of what we write these days, and we aren't sure why. Nor do we really understand what he is writing. Nonetheless, we love you James, keep up the good work.