Morning News Round-Up -- 5.19.10: a very peloton Wednesday to you all...

The good news is that Patrick Marleau had two goals last night for the Sharks... the bad news is that the Chicago Blackhawks had 4... Deja vu?

Speaking of deja vu... Commie Gate turned into LA Gate yesterday... Remember the mailers that were sent out against San Jose City Council candidate Magdalena Carrasco last week calling her a communist. According to the latest fake mailer, she is also part of an evil plot to bring LA to SJ. Watch Dog has to wonder, the folks that are lined up against Carrasco, which is it? Is she a communist or an LA-o-phile? Either way, the story continues... and the bigger question remains, who is going to get caught for doing this. Watch Dog can assure you: We didn't work for candidate George Shirakawa's campaign in 2008 and our office has nothing to do with this mailer against Carrasco...

And by the way, Mr./Ms. Author of this stupid mail piece, we have traffic, gangs, and smog already in San Jose...

Perhaps the Sharks management doesn't have their eye on the ball... because they are still fighting San Jose's plans to bring Major League Baseball across the street from the arena... and it is an uphill battle because the Planning Commission is slated to approve the environmental impact report on the stadium tonight. Perhaps the Sharks management have other things to worry about? Like stopping playoff history (the curse) in its tracks...

As if the San Jose City Council wasn't rolling over enough to keep the San Jose card rooms in San Jose (Measure K = More tables)... they are going the extra mile. And it is a big extra mile. Garden City is moving right next to 101 to create the San Jose Strip near the airport, including a 600 room hotel... with full support from the City Council.

The Merc Editorial Board gives some props to the San Jose unions who put forward a plan to help with the budget... it isn't enough, but it is a good start -- according to the folks on Ridder Park Drive...

And the budget challenges in Los Gatos seem to be managable, or perhaps they have a more fiscally prudent, cooperative City Council. Either way, their budget plan moved forward yesterday... Watch Dog loves this, the libraries take a hit in the plan, they will still be open 7 days, but only 50 hours, not 54. Perhaps San Jose could run a shuttle from their closed libraries to Los Gatos' open ones...

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 -- 4.28.10: This stuff writes itself sometimes...

Where to even begin on a day like today. Contentious budget cuts at San Jose City Hall? No. Banning fatty toys at the County Building? No. Sacramento shenanigans that have impacts in Silicon Valley... perfect...

There might be an election in some parts of Silicon Valley in May, June (x2), August, and November... that's because the Governor would like to fast-pitch the special election to replace Senator/Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado... (we wonder who this helps... hmmm...) "Hello Pat, It's Arnold. What are you doing between now and August?..."

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 to ban toy giveaways at fast food joints within unincorporated areas of the County. The two that voted against the measure: Don Gage and George Shirakawa... seriously, this stuff writes itself...

Big day at San Jose City Hall yesterday... they were voting to cut the fat a little bit further, including their own paychecks. The tension at City Hall is apparently at an all-time high... or so they say. Unions are pissed at the City. The City would (ahem) like more cooperation from the unions... and never the twain shall meet, apparently. So the City Council needs to do something, and the only thing they can really do is cut -- and without willing unions, they have to cut non-willing unions..

That is on the cut side of things, but on the revenue side of things in San Jose, there are tons of folks looking at Measure K as one way to help stem the tide. Measure K would allow the City's two card rooms to expand in return for a higher rake for the City's coffers. (New slogan: What happens in San Jose, stays in San Jose...) The San Jose Police Officers' Association is opposed to the Measure (so are a few Council members)... but the San Jose Firefighters have thrown their support on the other side of things. Firefighters and Police Officers usually don't break ranks with each other on such things... perhaps this is a sign of things to come?

Earmarks are the bane of every good-government stalwart... of course, the disapproval is for other people's earmarks, not our own. Our folks requested $612 million in earmarks in next year's budget, which does not include the cool billion that Congresswoman Jackie Speier is proposing for Bay clean-up projects...

Minton's in Mountain View is about to get 203 units of housing. Of course, the new development isn't without detractors or NIMBYs... Mayor Ronit Bryant said it pretty well, in Watch Dog's estimation: "Will it bring more people into the neighborhood?... Yes, and I want more people downtown. We can't be proud of having a vibrant downtown and then say we don't want any more people in it..." You said it! Perhaps they could share the love with downtown San Jose?

You remember the story about the consultants that the City of Palo Alto hired to look into how to save money within their fire department... and how the consultants had never ever, not even once, recommended staffing reductions? Well, the consulting firm has been sacked...

Here is a heartwarming story from South County: A mother was arrested (and her kids were taken from her) because she left her kids alone at a motel. The four year old was wandering around the parking lot and the two year old was in a room alone. A special place in hell awaits...

We'll end with this, in case you don't read the East Bay Express... (pregnant pause) ... Some fans have been kicked out of A's games in Oakland for having anti-Lew Wolff banners. No wonder Lew Wolff wants to get out of there as soon as possible...

Reed: "Lew, you have my word: no banners in Cisco Field..."

Wolff: "That's the guarantee I've been looking for. Thank you Chuck... When can we move in?"

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.22.10: Opposed versus Opposing...

The San Jose Police Officers' Association has opposed the gambling measure on the San Jose ballot in June since it was put on the ballot a few months ago. Of course, they didn't oppose it enough to actually write an "argument against Measure K" for the ballot guide. Instead, they blogged about. So I guess we can say the POA are "opposed" but they aren't really "opposing."

But inside the story in today's Merc there are even more interesting details, if you read between the lines:

• Cindy Chavez still isn't talking to the Merc, but answered a question on Measure K through her spokesperson with a "no comment" -- thus violating Rule 1 of press relations.
• Even more interesting in the story is this: Ed McGovern pushing a yes on Measure K campaign on behalf of the card clubs and Jude Barry is a political consultant for the Police Officers' Association, which is opposed to the measure. This is interesting because Ed McGovern and Jude Barry are working together in Santa Clara on the 49ers' stadium campaign. Politics makes strange bedfellows... (No Councilmember Oliverio, we don't mean that kind of bedfellow...)

Here we go again... again. Senator Maldonado is gunning for Lieutenant Governor. Can't we all just get along?

While we are in Sacramento... Mr. Smith (well, Mr. Guardino actually) went to Sacramento, and got a piece written in the Merc about their trip... which we are sure will make the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce less than pleased because they went to Sacramento this week and got nothing written...

Speaking of Mr. Guardino, he comes to the defense of Cindy Chavez with a Letter to the Editor in today's Merc. He makes no mention, however, of why she has been in the paper lately: heavy-handed political tactics. But Cindy should send Carl flowers today...

Wouldn't it be great to buy alcohol and Advil in the same place? That way, you can get the cause and the cure for a hangover in one space... Well, the Campbell City Council doesn't think it is such a good idea and denied Walgreens' the proper permits...

The City of Palo Alto hired a consulting firm to see how it might be able to see how to trim costs from the fire department... of course, they forgot to find out if the consulting firm had every actually recommended reducing staffing levels of fire departments ever. The answer? No. Never. Not once. Well, that was money well spent by the City of Palo Alto...

A woman was violently attacked and robbed at the Gilroy outlets on Wednesday in the bathroom. Scary.

What a buzz kill... and during the week of 420: Mountain View Police busted a grow house with $100,000 of pot plants...

On the blogs...

San Jose Inside lets us all know about Sam Liccardo's birthday cake at his campaign kick-off, and that Zoe Lofgren was there. We also learn that candidate Tim Hennessey has "friends" on Facebook that are mad at him...