Morning News Round-Up -- 4.9.10: Chuck and Larry getting hitched?

It will cost four or five times as much to have High-Speed Rail to go underground... that's the official word. Which means you HSR-NIMBYs should start bombarding the High-Speed Rail Authority now... Oh, and the train won't sit on "berms" in Palo Alto or Mountain View, in case you were concerned about that too...

The sale of the two parking lots in downtown San Jose (for $20 million to Sobrato) adds to the kitty being assembled to bring baseball to San Jose. There are more land sales pending for the baseball stadium, but apparently one of the parcels of land where the infield will be isn't for sale. An AT&T spokesperson, who speaks for the infield land-owners, said the land is not for sale. But when the infield does go on sale, the Redevelopment Agency should have the money now... thanks to the Sobratos.

Remember the Tapestry in Arts Festival in San Jose? You know, the Labor Day weekend celebration of local arts... well, you may have to remember it, because it might be going away. And by "might" we mean "probably is"... No fireworks on July 4th, no fancy car race in the summer, no Tapestry in Arts. The only thing that could save downtown San Jose in the summer is the Boys of Summer...

Say you had a job (which about 12% of you don't)... and your employer offered you a 4 percent pay hike and a $3,000 bonus, you'd probably take it right now, right? Well, not if you are a nurse at Stanford... you'd strike. We have nothing against nurses, in fact, we love you all -- but...

The Tech decided it was time to end the $200k/ year contract with the museum president's wife. Of course, that would have been the right decision before the contract even started...

In the blogosphere, San Jose Inside called Mayor Reed "Nuts" earlier in the week for endorsing Richard Calderon for Sheriff, and then yesterday they hint that the Mayor might be getting ready to endorse Larry Pegram... Watch Dog bets it will be today, as getting news like this out on a Friday helps sufficiently bury it for a while... Inside made the awesome reference to Chuck and Larry, which is ironic, as the film was about gay marriage... we will now use this reference whenever we refer to Mayor Reed and Larry Pegram together:

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.8.10: Let's make a (Redevelopment) deal like it's 1999...

A development deal has been struck for two parking lots in downtown San Jose and it isn't even 1999 anymore... two prime development lots that are currently underutilized for parking, across from the St. Claire Hotel and across from Gordon Biersch are being sold to the Sobrato Organization for a cool $20 million. That should keep some folks at the Redevelopment Agency employed for a few more months...

San Jose Inside has a take on yesterday's news that Mayor Chuck Reed is endorsing Sheriff Laurie Smith's challenger... their post's title: Mayor Goes Nuts... Oh, and the countdown to the Ajlouny-inspired Reed endorsement of Larry Pegram should happen any day now... Also on the endorsement front in District 9, a commenter set us straight, the good folks at Labor "dual" endorsed Don Rocha and Jim Cogan, which is somehow different than "open" endorsement. To round out this issue, Labor's "dual" endorsement also pushes the Mayor even closer to Pegram... Welcome to San Jose politics.

Scott Herhold at the Merc (two 'h' sounds, remember) gives a little history and detail about how and why Caltrain is so (budgetarily) screwed... and it isn't because they don't serve beer on the train, as Watch Dog previously thought.

And even though Caltrain is screwed, High-Speed Rail is going forward with or without its slower, antiquated Caltrain cousin...

If you thought you'd take care of all your business that you have with the City of Gilroy on a Friday... forgetaboutit... they are closing City Hall to close their budget gap.