Morning News Round-Up -- 5.28.10: Drive safe...

This is a Friday before a long weekend, so you must, must, must read the newspaper tomorrow. Late today is a great time to release horrible news if you are a government agency, elected official, corporation, or candidate. So, Watch Dog will be watching, but you should be too...

The Mercury News is taking its news tips from Matier and Ross apparently. They get into how much money the 49ers are spending in Santa Clara. Of course it is going to "shatter local spending records" -- the most important thing folks in Santa Clara have voted on the past was if RJD2 deserved a second term as City Clerk...

Campaign filings are in other races too... In the past few months Jeff Rosen has been a fundraising machine while Dolores Carr has not. Chuck Reed raised a lot of money, his opponents did not. Madison Nguyen raised a ton and two of her opponents put a bunch of their own money ($50k and $80k) into their own campaigns... what does all this mean? Expect the airwaves (television and radio) and your mailboxes to be full in the week and a half...

The Merc finally came around to support the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District parcel tax: Measure I. The third editorial is the charm, apparently...

Robert Cortese, cousin of famous Supervisor Dave, has a true political flare. He has made it into the Metro's Fly more than almost anyone else. This time wanting to unban fireworks and supporting same sex marriage because of George Takei a.k.a. Sulu.

San Jose Family Camp isn't getting spared, but some San Jose pools might be... On the bright side of things, the pools are much closer than Yosemite.

Tesla is spending $42 million for the NUMMI plant. Which Watch Dog put together in a simple formula:

$42,000,000 for NUMMI/$100,000 per car = 420 cars for a manufacturing plant...

Not too shabby. Of course, when you are Tesla and you've only sold 900 cars total, 420 is pretty expensive...

In a story that may get overlooked today, but will have lasting implications, Caltrain got an important "waiver" from the Federal government to move forward with electrification. Yes, it sounds boring, but it seems really important.

What's old is new again at San Jose State. Former San Jose State President Don Kassing is coming back to lead State in an interim capacity next year while the school looks (again) for a new President... Welcome back Don...

The (alleged) Palo Alto/ Santa Clara kidnapper-rapist has been caught. DA Carr, do you think you can get this entire trial done before election day? It might help. Here's some more advice: Make sure all the forensic evidence gets tested before you decide to not pursue the case...

A "hit list" on a bathroom wall at Willow Glen Middle School early in the week and an Airsoft gun at Gunn High School. Ironic, we know... Don't take your guns to town... or to Gunn...

Here's something juicy, maybe. It looks like the Palo Alto Downtown Business and Professional Association kicked out its President and Executive Director. Why? Well, it seems Sherry Bijan never had a "deep interest" in doing big events in downtown Palo Alto... Of course, nobody in Palo Alto is interested in having people from outside Palo Alto come to downtown Palo Alto either, so perhaps Sherry Bijan was doing a perfect job...

Super-Sized Morning News Round-Up -- 5.17.10: Blood-Sport Monday - Hockey and Politics...

The Western Conference Finals started Sunday... Sharks lost... but at the end of the series, we are looking forward to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley sending some of Chicago's finest (and fattiest) foods west to San Jose. He and Mayor Reed made a little wager. Chuck may receive a bunch of Vienna Beef soon. Yum.

But hockey was the mild sport over the weekend with politics being a little more dangerous... Especially in San Jose's City Council District 5...

Let's go chronologically:

The Mayor may be sharing some of Chicago's finest foods from Mayor Daley with his new BFF, Magdalena Carrasco. He endorsed her late last week, according to Watch Dog's email...

But that wasn't the only, or the most intriguing, part of that City Council race this weekend. Mailers were mailed out that took a big shot at Xavier Campos' role at MACSA courtesy of the Chamber. (Can you use the phrase "courtesy of" when you are talking about who paid for a hit piece?) Longtime readers of Watch Dog will not be surprised about the MACSA/Campos connection...

But that wasn't even the more intriging news out of that City Council race. It seems someone is (illegally) using Magdalena Carrasco's name to put out a fake mailer that has her standing with a communist Vietnamese flag... welcome to 1950... The Mayor is not pleased with this latest development and is calling on the DA, the Elections Commission, the post office, and the media to all do their job to identify who did this shady work... Watch Dog won't speculate, even though we'd love to...

As if there wasn't enough going on on San Jose's east side, there was an emergency landing at Reid-Hillview over the weekend... and a man was shot and killed in the Tropicana parking lot on Sunday morning.

Expect this story to also have political repurcussions: Dolores Carr's DA's office apparently stopped the forensic testing of some evidence in the De Anza rape case. This according to evidence in an ongoing civil trial... Jeff Rosen's team is no doubt reprinting this story and distributing it widely... Especially now that he has the support of some high-placed friends...

A big, long in-depth story was in Saturday's Mercury News about the new County Executive Jeff Smith. He has some fans, namely the County Board of Supervisors, who extended his contract through 2013. But the more interesting part of the story is the detractors: the County's unions do not like Jeff Smith. But that might be expected... but Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren? Apparently Smith pushed off a meeting with Lofgren for months. Here's what she said:

"His comments so far appear to be precipitous, haphazard and detrimental to the foundation of county government... People are calling to complain to me. I spent 14 years of my life making a good hospital and many of us are thinking, 'What is he doing?'"

Well, we know he isn't making friends with people in high places...

That isn't the only County employee in the news this week... there is a new County Counsel in the mix -- the acting County Counsel Miguel Marquez is getting the acting removed from his name...

The Merc's Internal Affairs shed some light into how the employee negotiations are going at the City of San Jose. It seems that City Manager Deb Figone had her lunch at Flames interupted by some city workers that were having a protest and started banging on Flames' windows yelling "Save our jobs!"... of course, Figone used to eat lunch at Morton's, but since the pay cut, she's now at Flames... We also learn from IA that the San Jose Redevelopment Agency forked over a $62 million check to the State Govenrment t his week. No word yet if the Governor has signed the thank you note...

Also in an attempt to get attention for their union plight, Jim Unland at the San Jose Police Officers' Association wrote a Memo to the Mayor on Friday... we're sorry we missed it then, but the Mayor probably isn't...

Perhaps this will help with the Figone/Employee and Police/Mayor relations: Measure K in San Jose got the deep dive in Sunday's paper as the Merc's Sandra Gonzales goes into the lovely Garden City Casino for some "man/woman on the street/at the table" interviews and looks at the pros and cons of relying on gambling to plug San Jose's budget holes...

The Water District reversed course and approved a new map for districts. Gilroy is no longer with Palo Alto... And that new Gilroy/Morgan Hill district is the one that the fast-food toy-loving Supervisor Don Gage will run for this fall... But the Mayors of Gilroy and Morgan Hill are still not pleased...

Sometimes it is good to have a reporter/columnist that is over 25 years old... such is the case with Scott Herhold. He gives a great perspective on Larry Pegram's first go'round on the San Jose City Council. If you read between the lines, Pegram left the Council with his three buddies on the heals of a bribery scandal... Pegram wasn't indicted or found to have done anything wrong...

File this story under D -- as in "Drive Cindy Chavez Crazy." Local political consultant Jude Barry is a founder of a technology firm that allows folks to register to vote and sign ballot petitions through iPhones, iPads, and other smart phones. It is the same company that landed Barry on the California Labor Federation's Do Not Patronize list... (This story should tell you how important that list is...) The Santa Clara County Registrar is accepting registrations that use Verafirma technology...

File this story under W for Weird... the Merc Editorial Board, generally a pro-education parcel tax bunch is "reserving judgement" on one parcel tax this June -- Measure I in Alum Rock Union Elementary School District because they are not including charter schools in their tax measure. The other parcel taxes in Milpitas, Oak Grove, and Mount Pleasant get the Merc Editorial nod...

Palo Alto may be getting some taller buildings... above 50 feet actually. Expect the NIMBYs to start the rebellion soon...

Ken Yeager and the rest of the Santa Clara County Supervisors (except Don Gage and George Shirakawa) get props from Dorothy Dimitre in the San Mateo Daily Journal for their fast food toy ban...

We didn't write about this last week, but it doesn't mean we missed it. Saratoga City Councilmember Susie Nagpal died last week. Very sad story.

And because sometimes important things happen outside of our regular sphere: Burlingame and its police department have started the long road toward pension reform. From the San Mateo County Times: "...Police sergeants and captains in Burlingame have agreed to pay freezes through the end of the year and are ready to cut retiree benefits, the first union contract that includes pension reform for a city struggling to deal with escalating employee costs..."

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.13.10: Bike to Work... (or think about it at least...)

San Jose will join forces with other right-minded (or is it left-minded) California communities in pushing for some sort of boycott of Arizona... Don Gage and Pete Constant are the only (tea party) hold outs and are supporting the Arizona law -- sort of. Expect lots of American flag t-shirts and a Tea Party rally before the Council meeting in June...

When the San Jose City Council does take up the issue in June, it is likely that they won't get a lot of text messages during the Council meeting... John Woolfolk at the Merc looks into the lack of texting between lobbyists and the Council during Council meetings, which they banned a few months backed -- it wasn't so much as a ban as much as it was that those texts were open to the Public Records Act. We did learn something interesting from Councilmember Ash Kalra:

"Councilman Ash Kalra said he was messaging back and forth with his staff about unrelated upcoming agenda items, something he does frequently because "it's the one time of the week when they have me captive and I can get stuff done.""

That probably isn't very reassuring to all those public speakers (and City Staff) who think that Kalra is actually listening to them... silly public speakers (and City Staff)...

Yesterday was the Merc's deep-dive into the Dolores Carr half of the DA's race, today is Jeff Rosen's moment in the spotlight. There is lots of good information in the piece about his background, his law school days, how he didn't like being an associate at a law firm, and this little tidbit: he weighs 140 pounds...

Just to pile on...

The Metro's endorsements have been piling up on someone's desk, because they are all coming out at once. First it was Magdalena Carrasco and now it is Jeff Rosen. Just so we are clear, Metro endorsed Dolores Carr last go'round, but not this time...

49ers in. Yahoo in. The Santa Clara City Council is having a very busy year...

The Mercury News Editorial Board agrees with just about everyone else that the Water District should redo how it redrew their District lines... the District has scrapped the old plan and now is looking for a new plan...

The Merc Ed Board also commends the East Side Union High School District Board for cutting their own stipend and insisting on paying part of their medical benefits... which begs the question: East Side Union Board members get a stipend and health benefits?

We can't believe we've missed out on another local blog... Sunnyvale City Councildweeb Jim Griffith is writing frequently and brings us an insider's perspective to the goings on in Sunnyvale. Read more at dweeb.org... the latest updates are about Nokia opening up their Nor Cal headquarters in downtown Sunnyvale, which is "huge" according to Jim's Council Blog... He recommends: "...every one of us should immediately go out and buy our City Manager, our City Attorney, and their respective staffs a large bottle of their favorite alcoholic beverage..." That would be a sleepy party...

In sad news, the ACLU is closing its San Jose office because of budget cuts. That will make San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis and the POA pretty happy... but it makes Watch Dog sad. Why? First, the ACLU protects idiots like Watch Dog... and second, the ACLU local person, Skyler Porras, was a great quote. Remember these highlights?:

• About Mayor Reed: "...petulant political posturing..."
• About a plan for the San Jose Police Department to police themselves: "...Asking the police department to police themselves has been about as effective as asking a teenager to ground themselves after missing curfew..."
• About San Jose's plan to hire a group of social scientists to study the drunk arrest problem: "...a bumbling way to appease a scandal-plagued but politically powerful police department..."

While we are on the topic, did you know that a west coast big city mayor forced out the city's police chief? There were concerns about how the police department was dealing with vulnerable populations in the city... hmmm...

Finally, there is a woman at Valley Medical Center that they are trying to identify. If you know an elderly Asian woman that is missing, please take a look at the photo.

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.10.10: Sports, then politics...

Sporting news first...

The Sharks are moving on to the Western Conference Finals. For those of you who know nothing about hockey, that means they are 8 wins away from hoisting the Cup... but a tough 8 wins.

And Dallas Braden, the Oakland A's newest arm pitched the 19th perfect game in MLB history... hopefully Mr. Braden will still be in the green and gold when the open in San Jose...

The Chronicle goes deep into the details about the 49er's campaign in Santa Clara...

It is May 10, which means ballots will actually go out to voters today... and the news reflects that timing...

Thanks to a South County Watch Dog, we actually looked at the political endorsements in the Gilroy Dispatch this weekend. They endorsed Teresa Alvarado for County Supervisor, which is important. But the hit mailers that was undoubtedly written this weekend and will be mailed this week will be full of this quote about Alvarado's opponent, Forrest Williams:

There is one candidate who is the poster perfect person for what Santa Clara County absolutely does not need. Forrest Williams panders to public employee unions, takes their money and is happy to do their bidding. A vote for him is a long-term sentence for financial disaster and assures an acrimonious battle at the county level as tough economic choices are made.

All evidence points to the fact that (incumbent, barely being challenged) Pete Constant is doing some opposition research on the folks running against him. We learn this from Sunday's Internal Affairs column in the Merc. It seems his two opponents have both been arrested, and Pete Constant knew enough about it to call on of his opponent's arrests a "wet reckless" which means challenger David Clancy was drinking when he got pulled over his car. We wonder where a former police officer could learn those things about his opponent... hmmm... Thinking about it further, however, Wet Reckless would be a good description of the old Club Wet nightclub downtown too...

Jeff Rosen went north and south for a pair endorsements for District Attorney, the Gilroy Dispatch and the Palo Alto Weekly get on the Rosen Train...

We thought Scott Herhold was done with writing about the District Attorney... but apparently not. He continues his anti-Dolores Carr effort, this time, mostly about how funny it is that she has two PR people on staff, while at the same time cut the cold-case unit. He goes into specifics about how having 2 PR people on board is actually the opposite of transparency, the reasoning Carr gives for having PR people in the first place. (Kathleen, feel free to defend Dolores Carr below...)

Three school bond measures get the Merc Editorial nod... A, E, and G...

Now, onto Morgan Hill, Arizona, and Tea Parties...

Arizona used to be so quaint... with the lack of Daylight Savings time and all. Now it is the hotbed of regressive anti-immigration policies... and the City of San Jose isn't going to stand idly by, they are going to ban travel and official city business with the Sun Devil state.

Scott Herhold chimes in on the Morgan Hill t-shirt flap. (He's been very busy...) He doesn't think the kids that were wearing the shirt are right... but he doesn't think they should have been kicked out of school either... We also learn that he "...loathes the simple dictums of the tea party movement..." Perhaps he should look into which local elected officials have been to the local Tea Party rallies...

And of course, the obligatory Tea Party rally happened in Morgan Hill over the weekend as Watch Dog predicted:

Also from Internal Affairs, we learn that former Alum Rock Union Superintendent, who got fired, is now going to be the Superintendent at the Greenfield Union School District. She was appointed by the State Board of Education... Internal Affairs filed this in the "what were they thinking" file...

That wasn't the only Alum Rock School District-related news thought, they might push a mandatory parent volunteer effort... good luck with that.

Remember the stranded singers from Mountain View who spent a week in Paris because of the volcano? Well, they are holding a benefit concert to pay down the debt from baguettes, onion soup, and cigarettes...

Speaking of Paris... is it a Gran Boulevard? Or is it El Camino Real...

Watch Dog got a chuckle from this little bit on the Merc website on Sunday evening... check out the really, really important "California News"...

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.7.10: Giving up a touchdown to the Red Wings...

Well, the Sharks run of great games ended last night as they gave up a touch down to the Red Wings. They are still up 3-1 in the series..

Watch Dog predicted it... the Morgan Hill American flag t-shirt story has gone viral and national. Here's what we wrote yesterday:

This will be a controversial issue that will likely make Fox News, the Rush Limbaugh Show, and probably spark a Tea Party rally as well.

Speaking of Tea Party-lover (Pegram)...

San Jose's District 9 gets the write up today after Districts 1/3, 5, and 7 got some ink earlier in the week. Don Rocha - the handsome one, Jim Cogan - the Constant one, Larry Pegram - the right wing whacko one, Robert Cortese - the karaoki one, and Cueva, Greer, and Trout - the ones also running... Perhaps with all the City Council races going in, Terry Christensen gets his City Council Districts mixed up with this quote: "This is a lower-key and less-engaged district than some..." Of course, based on the amount of research Watch Dog does, which is very little, it seems more people vote in District 9 than in almost any other City Council District, but why let facts get in the way of a good quote Mr. Christensen...

Speaking of City Council races, the San Jose District 7 race gets a big write up in the Metro/San Jose Inside with Minh Duong as the central antagonist... Madison better watch out, Duong has a District map with push-pins in it...

Speaking of local races with a write up in the Metro, we also learn that Jeff Rosen and Dolores Carr can't even look at each other in the eye... and no, that isn't a short joke Mr. Rosen...

The Governor was in town yesterday for a Laurie Smith fundraiser... remember when it was a big deal with the Governor came to town?

We all know that the Governor's boyfriend Abel Maldonado is now the Lt. Governor... and that the Governor wants Maldo's seat filled with two special elections, one in June and one in August, but a new lawsuit may hold up those elections...

If Carly Fiorina hadn't already alienated every single in the Bay Area, she appears to be appealing to the most far-right of right... because Sarah Palin endorsed her. Well, from one unqualified candidate to another... It's like getting the old McCain band back together again... (There are many, many jokes to tell...)

Santa Clara's power plant on Robert Avenue is up and running again after being under Cal-OSHA's watchful eye for the past couple of months. Here is the exact right thing to say after you've been under investigation and closed down for several months by Cal-OSHA, "Our interactions with OSHA were positive and constructive." That's from Larry Owens from Silicon Valley Power. As if someone would say that their interactions with OSHA were negative and unconstructive...

While we're on utilities, the Merc's Editorial Board thought the Water District was righting its governance ship... but then the redistricting came out and now the Ed Board says that they "must reject gerrymandering"... the City of Gilroy agrees...

The City of Campbell has a plan to right its financial ship... and it includes cuts and "revenue enhancements" which are not nearly as robust as other kinds of enhancements...

Anti-High-Speed Rail folks have a new picture for the center of their dart board as a new CEO was named... Roelof van Ark... who will make $375,000, which seems low considering all the NIMBY meetings this guy is going to have to sit through up and down the Peninsula...

Mr. van Ark is coming on just in time for a new lawsuit from the duel NIMBY capitals of the Bay Area, Atherton and Menlo Park...

From fast trains to very, very slow trains... VTA is looking to make some lightrail trains express to drive ridership. Sounds like a pretty good idea to us, since we once beat a VTA train in a race and we were on foot.

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.26.10: to Round 2...

Let's start with all things South Bay professional sports related...

Sharks, Sharks, Sharks... onto round two of the playoffs. A choke-free playoffs, perhaps? Tickets go on sale Tuesday at 10 a.m. -- perhaps Councilmember Liccardo can help you score some tickets...

We learn today that 52 percent of folks in Santa Clara are supporting Measure J, the stadium measure, with 36 opposed and 11 percent undecided. Which begs the question, who are these 11 percent of the people. The stadium has been a civic question in Santa Clara for about 2 years, give or take. Have they not picked up the Weekly, the Mercury News, or talked to a neighbor in that period of time? And you know this must be newsworthy because the Chronicle picked up the poll numbers as well...

Lawyers, lawyer, lawyers. Cedar Fair, the folks that own Great America, love their lawyers. They are trying to renegotiate their lease at Great America in Santa Clara to account for the 49ers stadium.

San Jose is pushing forward with buying the land around the proposed A's baseball stadium site near Diridon Station. Tracy Seipel at the Merc has the run-down about which pieces of land need buying and which ones don't... (Note to Michelle McGurk: Please clip and send this story to Bud...)

Speaking of buying land... San Jose Councilmember Nora Campos gets a little piece in Internal Affairs written about her -- and not in a good way. The gossipy piece talks about how she was (perhaps?) shilling for her husband's unions when she made a stink about the sale of the $20 million pair of parking lots in downtown San Jose and if the eventual developers will use "prevailing wages" to pay its workers to build -- which, it is noted in the story, the City of San Jose and the Redevelopment Agency has no ability to demand or enforce...

Internal Affairs finally catches up with the Metro/ San Jose Inside (Chuck and Larry?, San Jose Inside, April 8th) in running a piece about a possible Mayoral endorsement of right winger Larry Pegram in the San Jose City Council District 9 race. The Mayor's spokesperson gives a classic non-answer/answer: "As of today, he has not endorsed anyone." Of course, that was yesterday, who knows about today...

Teresa Alvarado got the nod from the Mercury News Editorial Board for County Supervisor... they call her "a standout"... (Cindy Chavez is going to be really, really pissed about that endorsement... so will Forrest, Mike, Tom, and Peter...)

From the previous Hispanic Foundation chief to the current one... Ron Gonzales, you remember, the former San Jose Mayor, climbed out from under a proverbial rock to pen a piece for a newspaper that he had a pretty big feud with. Bygones, we guess... He writes about the need for companies to come to the aid of schools locally.

Speaking of feuds with the local paper... Here's something that Protect San Jose will actually like that is written in the Mercury News. The words "police tactics" and "widespread praise" are in the same headline... the story is about the downtown San Jose policing, which was (ahem) a bit of an issue for a while...

The San Jose City Council will consider (again) cutting its salary and the salary of high-ranking City officials. But that isn't the part of the story that is striking in any way, this passage is: "...a 10 percent salary cut would bring council members to $84,442 — less than the wage of the average city worker..." The average working in the City of San Jose makes $88,000. $88,000! To quote the head of the Municipal Employees' Federation (who was critical of how much high-ranking City officials make): I'd love to have that kind of accounting in my checkbook...

Interestingly, a similar story (sort of) appears in the Chronicle today, noting that 1 in 3 employees in the City and County of San Francisco government make over $100,000. Perhaps the Merc could re-run their numbers and find the same thing for the City of San Jose (and perhaps even for the County of Santa Clara...)

The Morgan Hill Times does a deep dive into the District Attorney's race... and uses more flattering pictures for both Carr and Rosen. That is something they can probably both agree on, that newspapers ought to use flattering pictures...

Meg Whitman = Big Connections... and she showed it on Friday night when Mitt Romney and John McCain showed up at an event in Redwood City. Of course, both of those guys lost their last election, so perhaps she should invite more folks on a winning streak... just a thought.

We love you too Mission City Lantern... and that is non-negotiable...

Good luck getting your Sharks' tickets everyone...

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.16.10: All Tea Partied Out...

Tea Party on Cesar Chavez Plaza (ironic?) happened yesterday. Were you there? Was Pete Constant?

Here's something that perhaps the Tea Party folks might like, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and Councilmembers Pete Constant and Sam Liccardo are taking a further big pay cut and asking key City staff leaders to take a 10 percent cut as well. What's good for the goose is good for the gander and all that shit.

Speaking of people that want to be Mayor... Cindy Chavez is in the news again (again, again). First it was her blacklisting political consultant Jude Barry. Then it was threatening Assemblymembers who gave money to Magdalena Carrasco. Now we learn that she thinks that there is some evil cabal trying to screw up her world. So pervasive is this thought that she apparently gave an impassioned plea to labor folks to endorse (Republican) Dolores Carr for District Attorney because Jeff Rosen "...is endorsed by Sam Liccardo, who is linked to former Mayor Tom McEnery and Deputy District Attorney David Pandori..."

Last week we read in a Merc OpEd why the 49ers' stadium was bad dead for Santa Clara, today we read why that was BS and how the football stadium "makes sense for Santa Clara"... or makes lots and lots and lots of cents... take your pick. It is penned by Santa Clara Mayor Patricia Mahan and Councilmember Jamie Matthews.

Emile's. Home of fine French dining in downtown San Jose and child pornography? Well, Emile Mooser, the restaurant's namesake was picked up on child pornography felony charges... and he has never even been a priest...

San Jose State is facing big budget cuts... 76 staff folks are losing their jobs. We are sure Mission City Lantern has some ideas who could be included in the 76...

Speaking of bad news for workers and institutions...

Stanford Hospitals final final offer to nurses was final. Of course, that's if you ask management. If you ask nurses, they think there is still room to move... room to move to picket line maybe.

And this, the Gilroy Unified School District has reached a "stalemate" with the teachers union: how many times can you split $0?

And remember that the Palo Alto Firefighters' Union (led by a Sunnyvale City Councilmember) was circulating a petition to get a ballot measure in November that limited (stopped) cuts to the Palo Alto Fire Department? Well, three (brave) Councilmembers are asking voters not to sign the petition: Karen Holman, Larry Klein, and Greg Scharff.

Hell hath no fury like neighbors facing school field lights...

Shocking! The Mercury News says vote "yes" on the school district parcel tax elections on the (mail-in) ballot this May...

We've seen it in San Mateo County for some time, as Watch Dog San Mateo can attest, but now some Santa Clara County cities and agencies are thinking about consolidating their police and fire departments... like Morgan Hill contracting with the Sheriff's office.

Sharpen your skates for game two tonight...

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.5.10: Garcia vs. Poizner...

First, the important stuff...

Go Stanford. Beat UConn...

Go A's. Beat Seattle (and move to San Jose...)

Now, to less important stuff...

The Mercury News Editorial Board (unsurprisingly) endorsed Jeff Rosen... But the language they used was harsh, and Watch Dog is certain that voters will see this phrase over and over again...: "...Dolores Carr has shown that she lacks the moral compass and clear judgment to serve as the county's top law enforcement official..."

Speaking of skyrocketing public employee pension and benefits cost... actually, we weren't, but this story is the result of those things: Pools in San Jose may not open as planned this summer. Swimming, swimming in the swimming pool, when days are hot, when days are cold, in the swimming pool... or not.

San Jose Councilmember Kansen Chu woke up Saturday morning to this headline: "San Jose Councilman Kansen Chu violated state, city limits on gifts..." No word yet if Chu's first call was to Sam Liccardo for advice...

Stanford and Palo Alto don't get along. If you missed that, then you are very, very new to Silicon Valley... In exchange for Palo Alto putting up a huge stink about Stanford's hospital expansion plans, Palo Alto wants Stanford to help pay for the the PAPD's new building. Usually those deals are cut behind closed doors, but this quid pro quo is right out in the public...

In other unsurprising news: Caltrain is in deep shit... and it may be taxpayers who need to keep it afloat, because riders can't afford the $50/day to ride the train what it would take to keep Caltrains running... Good times.

The folks at Protect San Jose can't type fast enough to counter this Merc profile of Raj Jayadev, the head of De-Bug and a thorn in the side of SJPD. You'll remember Raj as the dude the San Jose Police Officers' Association made fun of in their video last year. In an ironic twist, that video which mocked Raj actually gave him a bigger pedestal to blast the Police... now culminating in a (mostly) positive story about Raj and De-Bug. Good work SJPOA...

It was quite a day for Steve Poizner on Friday. Having nothing to do with his run for Governor, folks from the East Side Union High School District, and Mount Pleasant High School specifically, protested him at the mall where Poizner was signing his new book about teaching in the East Side Union High School District. In this news clip, we see Eddie Garcia getting in the face of Poizner. Poizner could have responded, "Mr. Garcia, as soon as the voters elect you to something, I will listen..." But Poizner didn't do that...

Speaking of troubled high schools... a victim of a stabbing was dropped off (or stabbed) at the entrance to Gilroy High School.

Yesterday was Sunday, which is the reporters at the Merc fun day, at least in terms of Internal Affairs. Here's the fun stuff we learned...

• The Santa Clara County Bar Association like Jeff Rosen better than Dolores Carr... so does Scott Herhold and nearly everyone who works in the DA's office...
• The East Side Superintendent that got fired before the most recent one got fired is getting fired again... from the Alisal Union School District. They sure do know how to pick 'em at ESUHSD...
• And perhaps most shocking is this: Steve Poizner had a man-crush on Ron Gonzales... Oh, as shocking, someone actually had to read Poizner's book to find out that info...

One task force to talk about tree removal and another to talk about tree planting. That's the plan for TJ Martin and Fontana Parks in San Jose because PG&E needs to remove trees and neighbors are not pleased...

The Merc Editorial Board continues with its political endorsements... beyond the really fun one for Jeff Rosen, a really not fun unendorsement for Proposition 17... which is funded by Mercury Insurance. (Note to Mercury Insurance: Please don't raise Watch Dog's rates...)

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.30.10: Rosen and Carr -- the saga continues...

We've said it before: When lawyers run against each other in politics, expect a litigious campaign -- especially when the folks are running for District Attorney. And the DA's race took another turn yesterday, and like most turns thus far, it doesn't turn in the incumbent's favor -- at least the way Watch Dog (and the Merc's headline editor) sees it. (Merc headline: DA challenger Rosen can keep flattering quotes in ballot statement. San Jose Inside had a different take: Carr v. Rosen split decision) Dolores Carr had sued to try to make Jeff Rosen change his ballot statement because it included quotes from the Mercury News and former DA George Kennedy and it compared the two candidates -- which is a no-no. The ruling: Rosen can keep in the quotes from the Merc and from former DA George Kennedy. He voluntarily changed the comparison part of the statement. Rosen's quote in the story sort of sums the whole thing up: "...Her ballot statement is about how she's a bureaucrat... My ballot statement is about how I'm a tough, ethical, experienced prosecutor who has prosecuted hundreds of cases and she has not." Anytime you do something that let's your opponent get that quote in the paper, you need to rethink your strategy.

The budget, the budget, the budget... San Jose is in trouble. The Merc Editorial Board is calling on employees to make concessions -- as it is the only way to get things more in line with reality...

More San Jose budget crap: If a city is a collection of neighborhoods and the neighborhoods are built around community centers, then San Jose is in even deeper shit... because "dozens of San Jose communiity centers" are about the get the axe. Expect a lot of folks to show up to speak at tonight's budget session, bring your No Doze.

Would you like to own a chunk of land in North San Jose? Well, if you are a government agency with extra cash on hand (and which government agency doesn't have a bunch of extra cash on hand) you could own the last bit of Agnews...

If you were looking forward to buying both the cause of hangovers (beer) and the cure (Advil) at Palo Alto Walgreens, you are going to have to wait longer. Neighbors filed complaints to the State Alcohol Beverage Control folks and things are on hold for a while.

Downtown Morgan Hill potential redevelopers have been narrowed to three: Barry Swenson Builders, City Ventures, and The Olson Company... and only one wears a hat all the time...

Christopher High School in the Gilroy Unified School District will get its aquatics center... but it will be two years later than expected.

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 -- 3.24.10: I heart lawyers... especially ones running against each other

Who doesn't love a great political fight? But the fight gets a little boring sometimes if it is between two lawyers, like Dolores Carr and Jeff Rosen. Dolores Carr is taking Jeff Rosen to court over his ballot statement. (Because voters love frivolous litigation?) Carr is claiming Rosen is using quotes from others and comparing himself to her in his ballot statement -- both apparent no-nos. Of course, the best part of this is the Carr has given quotes to others to use in their ballot statements in the past and has compared herself to her opponent in the past. Um, lawyers, everyone finds the law boring... no offense.

So it has come to this: paycuts for City of San Jose workers. Sort of. That was the discussion at yesterday's City Council meeting. The story in the Merc has some colorful language to describe what is happening in the City: "[The budget discussion] ...comes amid the heightened politics of an election year as the city careens toward a fiscal crisis that could force dramatic service reductions..." Careens? It looks like the City Council will eventually take smaller concessions from unions (maybe) and do a series of one-time, short-term fixes to get through next year. That sounds familiar, like every year for the past decade. Watch Dog isn't sure that pushing these big salary cuts off another year until the Mayor wins reelection and won't have to worry about anything politically is a great idea for the labor-majority on the Council, but whatever...

To figure out part of the budgetary problems that municipalities face with pay, benefits, and pensions, check out this story about a Palo Alto janitor that took home $156k in 2009 and will receive a full pension and lifelong healthcare coverage... if only we had a national healthcare policy.

For those NIMBYs that want High-Speed Rail to (inexplicably) end in San Jose to avoid big impacts to the Peninsula got some troubling news yesterday... even if that were the case, the impact to Caltrain would be as impactful as the impact of High-Speed Rail. That's because the transfer to a new train to make it the final 50 miles up the Peninsula would hurt Caltrain and would require new tracks, new construction, and new trains... Face it Peninsula, your just train-screwed.

And if the previous story doesn't give you your NIMBY fix, perhaps this will: a public comment session on the "Minton Project" last night in Mountain View. Let's just say that not everyone supports 203 new housing units...

In the midst of the Great Recession, garbage rates are going up in Morgan Hill.

Ending with some blog stuff...

Jessica Fromm at San Jose Inside looks through some fundraising reports in the San Jose City Council District 5 race and finds that Magdalena Carrasco outraised (Nora's brother) Xavier Campos this quarter and that Campos spent more money that he took in during the same period. One candidate is raising money, and one is spending it... hmmm. Perhaps the Supervisor Shirakawa needs to call an emergency staff meeting to straigten things out...

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.16.10: Bracket Tuesday...

It is fill out your bracket Tuesday today... so forget work. Start researching Murray State!

It is pink slip week at School Districts in California. Need we write any more? Send complaints to Capitol Mall, Sacramento, California...

Over the past several months (ok, the entire past year and then some) The Case Against Dolores Carr has been built by challenger to the DA Jeff Rosen. Now, The Case Against Jeff Rosen has one small piece of evidence... Mr. Rosen needs to amend his ballot statement because he misquoted the Mercury News... sort of. He quoted the Mercury News correctly, but the quote came from Scott Herhold, not the Mercury News. He's changing the ballot statement, but needs a court order to do it...

And when the Chamber of Commerce made the case against Cindy Chavez in 2006, they ran afoul of the City of San Jose's campaign spending laws that were in place at the time. Well, 4 years later, the court ruled in their favor and now they are getting their legal fees back... unless the City of San Jose appeals further, which it sounds like they will not do. Here's something: Our insiders are telling us that the Chamber has been grilling candidates that have come before them about how they would vote in closed session on this issue... classy.

Perhaps more important than the ruling itself is the author of this story from the Merc... none other than Scott Herhold. This is the second time (at least that we've noticed) that Herhold has been columnist AND reporter. They do that type of thing at the San Mateo Daily Journal, but at the Mercury News? Weird. Although, our friends at Protect San Jose think that Sean Webby has been writing a column rather the news for a long, long time...

Here's irony: A Southern California Republican Assemblywoman is becoming the best friend of all the NIMBYs up and down the Peninsula who hate High Speed Rail. Diane Harkey is introducing a bill to stop the sale of High Speed Rail bonds... Perhaps they will throw her a ticker-tape parade up and down El Camino Real...

Perhaps in response (?) Quentin Kopp wrote a pro-High Speed Rail piece for the Merc. Surprised?

With all due respect to Palo Alto, but any city should do their best to avoid this headline: Local teens describe their stresses on 'Dr. Phil.' Perhaps Dr. Phil can get Oprah to bridge the relationship divide between Stanford and Palo Alto...

When the going gets tough (and the going is tough for the Morgan Hill Police Department) the tough get going (to the Feds for more money).

When the going gets tough (and the going is tough for the City of Gilroy) the tough get going (home early for the week).

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.11.10: Carr's Car Cost Constituents...

Just a quick note that the airport's spokesman David Vossbrink (like everyone else) reads Watch Dog. He posted this comment yesterday:

...By the way, we have some good news at the airport this week -- Alaska Airlines starts direct service to Maui tomorrow morning (Thursday) and to Kona on Friday morning -- and it starts its second daily flight to Austin (the nerd bird) on Sunday. This more than makes up for Frontier...

Thank you for reading... if only someone would pony up for a grand grand opening.

And if it is a new day, that means there is another Dolores Carr story. And today's daily story shows, once again, that she has no political instinct. This time, as promised, the Merc's Sco9tt Herhold looks into her fancy car (or car fancy). (We don't think he literally looked into her car, but perhaps he did...) A story like this makes writing a campaign hit piece almost too easy: Carr's car cost constituents... To add insult to injury, challenger Jeff Rosen drives an old, beat up, 15 year old piece of shit with 150,000 miles on it. Don't worry Jeff, there's a sweet Acura TL just waiting for you.

From the frivolous to the serious about the District Attorney's office... a ton of new information was uncovered about the medical examinations of sexual assault victims at VMC -- 3,000 videotaped medical exams, to be exact. Expect lots of new appeals to be filed and (hopefully) some wrongfully convicted folks to go free. The head of the DA's sex crimes unit had this to say: "...I really don't want this to happen again..." You and just about everyone else...

Pete Constant must be torn... His Chief of Staff is running to replace Judy Chirco on the City Council, but Pete Constant's "friend" (ahem...) is running against Cogan (and Don Rocha). Larry Pegram, the censorship-loving, gay-hating, fake-tan-wearing, Bible-thumping wacko has thrown his self-righteous, hypocritical, Sarah Palin-loving, Tea Party-esque hat into the ring. Mr. Pegram, please come out against the City's recent gambling measure on the ballot or risk losing any credibility you ever had...

It is interesting that the San Jose Police Officers' Association blog, Protect San Jose, goes 24 hours without commenting on the fact that the Police Chief seems to be packing is bags for the Big D. "The most profound statements are often said in silence..."

It was hard to miss the big fire in Santa Clara yesterday with the smoke billowing overhead. It was a 4-alarmer at a recycling plant.

Sheeeee's baaaack... the fake finger in chili lady. She's in San Jose, but not at Wendy's. Funny, if she did show up to Wendy's the employees there would actually like to give her the finger...

The Morgan Hill Unified School Board is finally going Hollywood... their meetings will now be broadcast. Just in time for folks to watch pink slips being handed out...

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.5.10: Carr vs. Rosen - Round 1

Jeff Rosen and Dolores Carr squared off for the first time yesterday, and there is more than one reason that they are not considered "civil" attorneys... They got right into it over ethics, high profile cases, ethics, politics, and ethics. It was nasty, but it was fun... June is far away from now, so we can expect more sniping, more yelling, and generally more political chaos. It must be so interesting to be working in the DA's office right now...

There was a shooting at the Pentagon Metro Station yesterday in Northern Virginia... you probably knew that. But when did you know that the shooter is from Hollister? The Morgan Hill Times knew it almost immediately...

What everyone (especially NIMBYs on the Peninsula) has been waiting for... an updated report from the High-Speed Rail Authority. The update? Nothing has really changed with the alignment. Sorry Menlo Park, Atherton, Palo Alto, et al.

There is a growing and disturbing trend of sexual assaults around San Jose State... four to be exact.

The American Leadership Forum is hosting a community coversation about the San Jose Police, the independent police auditor, and other warm, fuzzy stuff... but the great part of this story is that the online version is (or was) screwed up last night... Check out the sentence in the middle of the story: Police said both men had used knives to menace those they lived with, but critics questioned whether the incidents could have been resolved with less force. One of these sentences is doing its own thing, one of these sentences just doesn't belong...

This web hiccup comes after some weird hiccups on the Merc's new San Mateo County Times website this week pointed out by Watch Dog San Mateo...

This will go over big with public safety unions in Silicon Valley: Gilroy City Councilmember Perry Woodward wants to do away with binding arbitration for Gilroy firefighters...

Have a safe weekend everyone...

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.4.10: "...protecting the people of San Jose..."

The big news of the day is obviously that District Attorney Dolores Carr decided not to charge the San Jose Police Officers in the videotaped beating/Tasing of Phuong Ho. Watch Dog is not surprised... Scott Herhold at the Merc won't be surprised... the Merc Editorial Board is not surprised... but for the San Jose Police Officers' Association to be "not suprised" is a little suprising, at least in our minds. (Perhaps they knew about it before we did?) The POA's statement also says this about the Phuong Ho incident: "Even though our work is difficult, we do an excellent job protecting the people of San Jose. This case was no exception." We guess "the people of San Jose" don't include Vietnamese students studying abroad in San Jose...

So while Dolores Carr made her decision in one part of the County Building (which also was a big relief to her most prominent political backers...), on the other side of the County Building, some more news was being released... The Deputy Sheriffs Association is endorsing Jeff Rosen for District Attorney. How is that for political timing?

The Merc has dug up (been handed) a story about the Tech Museum that is likely to gain some attention today: Pete Friess, the CEO of the Tech Museum, makes lots and lots of money. His salary is up to $367,478, even as the staff of the Museum has gone from 150 to 60. The Tech Board President did not say, "He is such a great CEO that he is doing the work of 90 people he fired..." Ironically, San Jose Inside has a stat on the Tech from a recent post that says attendance was way down, all the way to about 390,000... perhaps Friess gets paid a dollar per visitor?

Apparently it is egg-laying season at San Jose City Hall... and we aren't talking about the decision to close the San Jose Family Camp either...

Palo Alto is getting a new Assistant City Manager... we guess the bar is being set lower and lower about what constitutes news that Watch Dog will re-report...

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...)

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.24.10: Bear Arms...

Because we love this visual we thought we'd start with this today... Some probation officers will be able to bear arms. (Think about it... bear arms.)

It's a good thing District Attorney Dolores Carr already received the endorsement of the San Jose Police Officers' Association, because she decided not to bring charges against Phuong Ho. (Ho was the San Jose State student that was beaten and Tasered by SJPD while being secretly taped last year.) The charges that the DA was considering included resisting arrest and brandishing a deadly weapon. Of course, the issue that is still burning is this: will the videotaped San Jose Police Officers face charges from the District Attorney. Based on how the SJPOA endorsement went, Watch Dog really, really, really doubts it... Oh, and this must be really, really big news, because the Chronicle picked it up too...

In other DA news...

State Senator Elaine Alquist announced her endorsement of Carr's challenger Jeff Rosen yesterday. Actually, Jeff Rosen announced the endorsement, but if you have an email address, you already knew that...

Hey recent (or soon-to-be) college grads, here's some good news. Some tech giants might be hiring locally. That's great news if you've studied the past four years instead of taking bong hits...

But one "company" that isn't going to be hiring is the San Jose Redevelopment Agency. Their budget passed yesterday amidst a long-ass discussion which ended with the five-year budget passing, with which no one seems really happy: the Convention Center people aren't really happy because they need to find some more money down the line, the County is certainly not happy because they are owed 52 million bucks, and basically everyone just held their noses. (San Jose Inside's favorite tid bit is in this story too: "...Pete Constant was absent because of a medical appointment..."

We love The Garage in Naglee Park, and so does everyone on the Food Network. Eat up folks, but expect it to be busy for the next little bit...

STOP. THE. PRESSES... Noreen Likens is going to retire. Noreen Likens is going to retire. If you know Noreen Likens name, then you are probably freaked out. (If you don't know her name, she is the Principal at Gunn High School in Palo Alto.) This "news" warranted a special email "breaking news" alert from the Palo Alto Weekly. This means that both high schools in Palo Alto need Principals, which means every high school Principal in the world is polishing his/her resume and trying to find Kevin Skelly's email address... look no further Principals, here is his email...

Development and growth issues in Morgan Hill are always fun to follow... The City Council there will be considering how the City's "southeast quadrant" will develop in the coming decade. Expect some vocal proponents and opponents...

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.23.10: How to fix California? Eat lots of steak...

Fresh off his State of the City, Mayor Reed welcome some CEOs and other "Big City" Mayors to the San Jose to talk about how to fix California... Sending strong messages about frugality, being in touch with Everyman, and open government, they met behind closed-doors at Morton's in downtown San Jose...

Over at Protect San Jose, Jim Unland, the VP of the San Jose Police Officers' Association, seems to be hedging the organization's political bets. While they have endorsed incumbent District Attorney Dolores Carr in this year's race, they are also saying really, really, nice things about challenger Jeff Rosen. The only thing they say about Rosen that is negative is this: "...within the DA's office, he has limited supervisorial experience..." But Unland also has this to say about Rosen: "...Deputy District Attorney Jeff Rosen has also earned broad support and respect as a prosecutor from within the law enforcement community. Many of our officers speak highly of him. He has successfully prosecuted some very difficult and high-profile cases..." So they win if Carr wins, but don't really lose if Rosen wins. With "friends" like the POA, Dolores Carr is in for a long campaign season...

More recycled water could be finding its way to your tap... if the Santa Clara Valley Water District has anything to say about it. And they do. (Remember Mayor Reed drank some recycled water?)

How many preschools one street are too many preschools on one street? That is the question folks in Mountain View will be considering. The real question, obviously, is how many SUVs can fit on one street during drop-off/pick-up times?

At one time, Palo Alto had grand visions of a City-run fiber optic high-speed Internet network. That was a while ago and the vision has gone away... but then Google came calling, and now Palo Alto's high-speed Internet eggs are in the Google basket. This probably puts Councilmember Sid Espinosa in a weird spot. Espinosa works for Google's arch enemy: Microsoft...