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 -- 6.15.09: Mid-30s and bald...the Hooters' demographic

The Chronicle is encroaching on the Merc's turf, apparently. They have a piece in today's paper about the "Golden Triangle for smart phones..." Cupertino to Mt. View to Sunnyvale.

The DA’s office can’t seem to shake accusations of misconduct. This time, Deputy DA Jaime Stringfield is accused of withholding evidence in a sexual assault case. At risk, letting rapists roam the streets…

A handful of South Bay schools are showing success narrowing the achievement gap between white and Latino students. A big Woof to Mountain View High School, and Bracher, Arbuckle, and Grant Elementary Schools. Now seems like the perfect time for the State to cut millions (billions?) from schools...

The Gilroy Unified School District is back in good financial standing, according to Standard & Poor’s. Superintendent Deborah Flores says she’s “ecstatic about being taken off CreditWatch.” Too bad the same can't be said for this embattled San Mateo County school district (La Honda-Pescadero Unified) on Watch Dog San Mateo's watch list...

San Jose’s City Council may be taking a hit on their pay but the City’s unions aren’t ready to join them. Union leaders are accusing city leaders of asking them to take a “poison pill.” Watch Dog has to guess that the City Council is going to choose between a poison pill and paycheck...

At the heart of San Jose’s labor negotiations stands City Manager Debra Figone. The Merc’s Scott Herhold takes time to offer a portrait of Figone as an unquotable toughie putting reporters to sleep while trying to save money and jobs. (We expect Revealed's response to Herhold's Figone piece as soon as the pnuemonia passes... Get well Revealed.)

Get your telescope ready. NASA wants your help to look for water. Scientists from Mountain View based NASA’s Ames Research Center hope to blow up part of the moon. Scientist Kimberly Ennico anxiously waits for the final decision, looking forward to “making a big splash.”

Speaking of local geek fests… San Jose’s Tech Museum of Innovation celebrated its 10th birthday. Tech Boardmember/Former Cirrus Logic CEO Michael Hackworth says the Museum is past the survival stage which is good news for San Jose, which covers part of the budget.

Hooters in Campbell was the scene of more than just skin over the weekend. An argument that started in the restaurant turned into a stabbing in the parking lot with a “culprit in his mid-30s and bald” jumping into a silver Mercedes to run. Mid-30s and bald, you say? Isn't that the description of every dude at Hooters?

The Merc’s Internal Affairs had some fun this weekend...

• Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr is kinda-sorta-just-a-little helping pass legislation protecting prosecutors from misconduct charges. (Ben Field says thank you...)
• After a slow start, San Jose’s City Council is now playing “Who Gets the Biggest Paycut.” Councilmember Chu must have (finally) read Watch Dog and Herhold...
• Assemblymember Joe Coto is trading big insurance campaign cash for contributions from gambling, alcohol, and tobacco interests. How warm and fuzzy... (Watch Dog predicts Councilmember/candidate Nora Campos will be the big campaign finance winner in Coto's Sacramento assignments...)
• The ACLU’s Skyler Porras has been trying to get a meeting with the Police Officers Assocation's Bobby Lopez for some time. Turns out all she had to do was write a letter saying the POA had the right to do their YouTube video, even though it was "a desperate and obvious attempt to distract from the serious police accountability issues facing this city." (And, yes, video-gate is still up on YouTube.)

Around the Valley, here’s the dish on your local governance…

• The City Council in Santa Clara will discuss "mixed use" - like an amusement park AND a football stadium...
  
• Mountain View’s City Council studies NASA’s plans for Moffett...
• Milpitas Councilmembers will talk about rezoning 9+ acres of McCarthy Ranch for less industry and more shopping...
  
• San Jose’s City Council conducts a hearing on the budget, considers a wage freeze for the operating engineers union, higher health care costs, increasing affordable housing in North San Jose, and $300 million to renovate and expand the McEnery Convention Center...

Two last things...

On the cover of this weekend's Merc was a story about technology companies asking the Obama Administration to intervene with their beef with the Chinese government. The Chinese government is asking tech companies to pre-install censoring software on computers sold in China. Watch Dog had to chime in to let you all know that there is no truth to the rumor that Councilmember Pete Constant is representing the Chinese government on this issue...

In case you Sharks fans missed it, the hockey season ended on Friday night. The Penguins won. Which brings up the local angle: Remember when Boots Del Biaggio owned part of that team?

Morning News Round-Up – 3.19.09:

In case you missed Watch Dog's rant yesterday about San Jose's new (new!) way to deal with the drunk arrest issue in San Jose, here you go...in short, the City of San Jose is trading its Task Force for a Consortium and the ACLU Chief is not pleased...

In the great debate between Palo Alto (and Atherton and Menlo Park) and the High-Speed Rail Authority, you have got to admire Rod Diridon. He loves walking into the lion's den to pitch High-Speed Rail. He was at it once again in Palo Alto at the Palo Alto Rotary Club meeting at Ming's. His speech came just as Palo Alto is asking the High-Speed Rail Authority to study underground tracks through the Peninsula...a dollar short and day late?

Who knew... today’s library as the birthplace of tomorrow’s rockstars…The San Jose Public Library finished off Teen Tech Week with a Battle of the Bands, emphasizing the public library as a place where creativity is encouraged, young adults are “Free2Dream,” and find resources to help them achieve their goals. The winners, Sleepwell, with Craig Groves, Jonathan Borgia, Robin Smith, Jon Pollard, and Dalton Campbell won time in a recording studio and an on air interview. It is not true the Larry Pegram and Councilmember Pete Constant are now looking to ban rock and roll from the library because of the "negative influence it has on kids."

Pissed off parents may have their way after all. The Mountain View-Whisman School District is trying to work out a deal with the City of Mountain View and the YMCA that will keep YMCA preschool classes available in Mountain View-Whisman buildings -- even as enrollment in the District increases. This is a tough issue in Mountain View -- the School District needs the space and the YMCA is serving low-income families who rely on the preschool.

El Camino Hospital in Los Gatos will open 2 months early thanks to a flurry of paperwork. El Camino is purchasing the medical equipment and computers already in existence at the old Community Hospital and preparing for a job fair on Tuesday. It looks like the Los Gatos Observer is back online, they’ve got Los Gatos Mayor Mike Wasserman and Town Manager Greg Larson in the news expressing happy surprise over the hospitals (projected) early opening.

Blue pinstripe engulfs geeky Java-head…Big Blue (IBM) is looking to buy up the techie SUN, long respected for having solutions for, as yet, unknown problems.

Even fancy-schmancy Palo Alto is not immune to gang problems…Police are searching for Daniel Gil-Fernandez, accused of shooting Francisco Alvarez. Gil-Fernandez, who claims to be part of the Nortenos, took off running through Arastradero Park. If you have details, call 650-329-2190 to dish.

It’s great to be a nature lover, as long as it’s convenient…Mission College President Harriet Robles wants to evict the burrowing owls in favor a parking lot and soccer. Bob Power, Executive Director of the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society hopes to find a new home for the owls and worries about their rapidly declining population. And really, who needs burrowing owls when we have cars...

San Jose Insider Pete Campbell suggests the A’s offer the Giants a portion of the dollars from prospective luxury seating in San Jose (non-baseball events) to make territorial disputes go away. On a related note, Campbell believes a good hug will end the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Another related note, Mission City Lantern chimes in about property values and stadiums...property values go up...no surprise if you've ever seen the before and after pictures of AT&T Park's neighborhood...

And a few (perhaps related?) gun stories to go along with yesterday's arrest of a San Jose man for robbing guns from Big 5 in Morgan Hill...

• A shooter firing a BB gun hit a bunch of car windows yesterday in San Jose, and
• Thieves broke into San Jose's The Gun Exchange and stole over 100 weapons earlier this morning.

The Merc’s Gary ‘Mr. Roadshow’ Richards sends a shout out to his Prius driving/Speeder/Dancing Teletubbie buddy Steve Wozniak – and offers absolution to all Prius driving speeders if they ‘Vote for Woz!’ Even this kid who was driving his Prius over 100 mph?

Trading a Task Force for a Consortium...

For those of you who haven't been paying attention...

There is an apparent problem in San Jose with the San Jose Police Department arresting Latinos for allegedly being drunk. In December, 2+ months after the issue became public, Councilmember Nora Campos and Mayor Chuck Reed called for a Task Force to be put together to look at the issue and make recommended solutions. At the time, Councilmember Liccardo wanted swifter action and called for reforms to be implemented immediately and called Task Forces, "...the places where good ideas go to die..."

Well...it looks like Liccardo was right. Some folks in the City, including San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis and City Manager Deb Figone, don't actually want the Task Force to finish its work and are doing their best to see it die.

A story just posted on the Merc.'s website that says the City is engaging the Consortium for Police Leadership in Equity to look into the issue. Not with the help of the aforementioned Task Force. Not with the input of the aforementioned Task Force. Rather, it seems, instead of the aforementioned Task Force.

This doesn't really pass Watch Dog's smell test. Trading a Task Force for a Consortium to look at the same issue that we all knew about in October, seems to push off potential solutions even longer...Watch Dog complained when the issue was going to take 6 months to address. Now we are looking at a year, maybe longer...Really? A year? For what?

Rightfully pissed, and apparently taken by surprise, local ACLU head Skyler Porras unleashed a harsh and focused response. Not mincing words, here is the piece of the story about Porras, in all its glory:

Task force member Skyler Porras, who heads the San Jose Branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, called the city's enlistment of the social scientists "an end run" around the task force, and "a bumbling way to appease a scandal-plagued but politically powerful police department." She said the move "only serves to further engender that same distrust" that the task force was appointed to address.

Watch Dog predicts that this issue is about to blow up...stay tuned...

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.2.09: A Nickname is Born...

The final days leading up to the biggest day San Jose Councilmember Madison Nguyen’s career are filled with precinct walking and calloused dialing fingers. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., one way or another, papers will be recycled, old coffee cups thrown away, and sleep will come in more than a few hours at a time. San Jose has seen 5 recall elections before now, only one was successful. "We were hopeful that she would understand the Vietnamese community better," volunteer My Phuong Le said in between (Yes) calling voters Sunday, "because that's her background." We will be blogging live on Tuesday night as the results come in...whatever the results, Andre Charles is putting his new resume together...

As Nguyen's date with the recall nears, it looks like Silicon Valley/Santa Maria State Senator Abel Maldonado will avoid a recall. Former Congressman/Former Assemblymember Ernie Konnyu is choosing not to harass Abel Maldonado via recall. (Konnyu is fond of other kinds of harassment, though.) But as Konnyu eases up, GOP leaders aren't going to. The State Republican Party has decided that they are going to withhold campaign dollars from Maldonado and the other five Republicans who voted for the budget package. Maldonado said his party “…is down in the dumpsters, and it's wrong to do this." Truer words have rarely been said...

The Merc’s Internal Affairs continues to muse over San Jose Councilmember Nora Campos’ ambitious goals for higher office. (They are still writing that story?) Campos aims to expand her meet and greets outside Assemblymember Joe Coto’s Assembly District to include the entire City – covering her bases for his seat and Mayor Reed’s.

In other Internal Affairs news, Supervisor Liz Kniss opted for the title President over Chair saying she could have chosen Grand Poobah. Supervisor George Shirakawa did not say, "She really couldn't have chosen Grand Poobah, because I'm the Grand Poobah...I even have the hat..." And with this story, a new nickname is born for the County's newest Supervisor...

As scrutiny increased on the San Jose Police Department, the questionable arrest rates curiously plunged in December and January. ACLU's local Director Skyler Porras said it was, "an alarming confirmation of the sheer number of wrongful arrests" that were occurring. Police Chief Rob Davis had a different spin saying he was pleased the "changes we have made" were having a "positive impact." That is quite a different tune than Chief Davis was singing last year...

Speaking of fun drunken times…Internal Affairs ferreted out four downtown clubs that offer the biggest challenges to San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis: WET, Miami Beach Club, Vivid, and Motif...if anyone reading this blog has ever gone to one of these places, hit me up so we can roll together...

And the Drunk Task Force is still talking drunks in San Jose…City Manager Debra Figone ordered Police Chief Rob Davis to release 200 police reports to the Drunk Task Force for review. "We consider access to the information to actually identify the problem as a fundamental piece of our charge," said ACLU’s (always quotable) Sklyer Porras. "There is no point in sitting at the table to combat symptoms without getting at the disease."

Someone on the Merc’s Editorial Board was feeling particularly sassy this weekend when they wrote, “The great crossing guard panic of San Jose.” The Merc. Ed Board is critical of Councilmembers Pierluigi Oliverio and Pete Constant for frightening parents and education leaders when they claimed the crossing guard budget was being cut. Just as entertaining was the Rules Committee meeting where they feigned ignorance over the furor they helped create.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission voted to give Santa Clara County $90 million of the $490 million in Federal money. The funding is a relief because the State has cut funding said VTA spokesperson Jennie Hwang Loft adding, "Losing a few million dollars is one thing. When you start getting into double digits, that's a whole other scenario."

Los Altos Planners are mulling over the results of polling data in order to narrow the scope of a bond measure for their new Civic Center. In November, voters head to the polls to decide how much they are willing to tax themselves for a City Hall. Assistant City Manager James Walgren is confident sufficient funds are available for one facility and plans to survey voters again in the summer. Any chance Los Altos wants to relocate their City Hall to 801 N. First Street in San Jose? We hear there is an empty building there...

Watch Dog congratulation Mountain View for joining Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, and San Jose on the Bicycle Friendly Community list of California’s bike friendly cities.

Mountain View Police arrested community leader/soccer coach Pedro Carbajal for sexually assaulting female relatives under the age of 14. Police spokesperson Liz Wylie said they are “not looking for victims” among the Amigo League teams he coached.

And while we are on the topic...

Gilroy High math teacher (Morgan Hill resident) Alberto Gomez Vicuna, Jr. heads to court in San Jose this week. According to Deputy DA Ray Mendoza Vicuna, Jr. is a very, very bad man and faces up to 10 years in prison for having sex with a 14 year old San Jose girl he met on the social networking site Tagged.com. Vicuna had over 100 female friends on the site. Mendoza is concerned there may be more victims. Pissed off parent Jeannie White said, "If they have a pedophile on school grounds, I want to know if they're not doing a good enough background check."

Gang members in Gilroy High started an oatmeal fight which escalated to a battle that included 30 police officers in riot gear and shotgun wielding CHP officers and the arrest of 7 students. While the students were entertained, Principal James Maxwell was not because he was hosting reviewers from the California School Recognition Program for a possible award. (Was it an award for the most gang members at lunch?) Maxwell sighed, "Every couple of years you get a riot like this, and a lot of kids think this is a big joke, but it's not..."

Breaking news this morning in San Jose: A body was found on the 680/McKee off-ramp early this morning. Officer Jermaine Thomas said, "This was an apparent hit-and-run, and the pedestrian was dragged after the collision.'' Yikes...

It’s going to be a race now as to who is more pissed off: the Spansion employees who got rudely ditched last week (while the bosses got raises) or the ones who learned Sunday that their employer was filing for bankruptcy. Former Chief Exec Bertrand Cambou pledged Friday to return his $403,000 severance check because “my heart is broken” seeing his old team let go without severance. Current Chief Exec John Kispert said Chapter 11 made sense because it provides the company “the most effective means to preserve our market position and to maintain customer confidence."

Morning News Round-Up – 1.30.09: Drunks, Fast Cars and Animal Cruelty...

A rift is growing on San Jose’s Drunk Task Force. Community members are demanding a look back while city staff seem to think the past is irrelevant. Watch Dog has been following San Jose’s drunken intrigue from the beginning. Perhaps a sign of things to come…

• "I don't think that we need to have [arrest reports] to take a good and hard look at the way (public intoxication) arrests are conducted now or for us to come up with options to make things better,'' said Deputy City Manager Norberto Duenas. Those who forget history...
• ACLU head, Skyler Porras is pissed and said it’s all about "public relations [rather] than an opportunity to create accountability and transparency."
  
• Metro/De-Bug’s Raj Jayadev agreed saying "It's very strange to be asked to investigate an issue and not be given the most relevant documents to do an a honest examination."
  
• San Jose City Manager Deb Figone wants the Sunshine Reform Task Force to address the issue of report release – of course, Sunshine wants the reports released it’s Rules where the hang-up occurs.
  
• Attorney/Merc attendee at Sunshine committees James Chadwick "The members of the rules committee have been clear they have no interest in providing public access to police reports,"

Splattered all over the old-school news today – Plans to build Tesla plant in San Jose cancelled. Watch Dog issued the warning last year, a month later Watch Dog scooped the competition and yesterday watched as the rest of the media caught up. Tesla is lining up behind banks/states/local mayors for federal money to keep things moving. In a sign that Mayor Chuck Reed has been reading Watch Dog he says (now) the news was disappointing but not unexpected. Company founder Elon Musk will be unveiling the latest edition to the family – in Los Angeles – in March.

SanJoseRevealed gloats a little over the Tesla loss laying responsibility for the economic downfall at the feet of Chuck Reed. Revealed also spent time googling Dan Pulcrano and Chuck Reed – double checking positioning for SJR stories. Revealed didn’t find the multiple mentions of SJR on Watch Dog.

Boots is heading to jail, at least that’s what it looks like with Del Biaggio pleading guilty to at least some of the charges against him. The US Attorney Generals office and Boots’ lawyer Elliot Peters aren’t talking to the press but it’s clear Boots’ is talking to someone.
The Morgan Hill Times editorial board weighs in on efforts in Morgan Hill and Gilroy to cope with the economic crisis and takes issue with a few things. Like, it’s going to take 3 years to study the economic crisis? Looks like Morgan Hill and Gilroy are competing with San Jose in the study-don’t-solve department.

Duffers are among the latest group proposed to help raise state funds and local golf courses are not happy. "It's like getting hit with a sucker punch," said Tony Lauria, director of sales and marketing at Coyote Creek Golf Club north of Morgan Hill. "It's unfair to hit an industry that's struggling, and doing its best to keep our jobs."

Gilroy moved it’s police headquarters into a new building and promptly slapped a sign on the front claiming it was a “green business.” Seems Gilroy needs a lesson in what it means to reduce the carbon footprint. The new building is an energy hog and accounts for 41% of the city’s entire electricity and gas bill. Lisa Jensema, who recently lost her job as Gilroy’s Environmental Programs Coordinator, says the boastful sticker on the front door was not claiming to have reduced the city's carbon footprint, but to have encouraged other green practices - increased recycling, warmer clothes during the winter, shuttered blinds during summer, and so on.

The latest victim of the economic crisis? Animals, specifically animals in rodeos. County Supervisor Don Gage said "We don't feel the animal cruelty ordinance is a high priority right now." Not wanting to leave it at that acting county executive Gary Graves wrote, "we do not believe we have the resources at this time to adequately provide the review and development of options that will allow the board to make an informed decision on the (animal cruelty ordinance)."

There’s a sea change in shopping centers – Cupertino and Sunnyvale plan to capitalize on modern thought rather than rebuild the Edsel. With Sand Hill Property’s Peter Pau at the helm and 34 acre’s of shopping, housing, office space and so on. "We are not trying to create a mall here. We're blowing the mall up," Reed Moulds, Sand Hill project manager said. It looks like mall experts took a trip to Europe, question is, how well will communities adapt to the local mall being integrated in residential neighborhoods?

Abandoned in San Jose, J.R. ended up at the Santa Clara animal shelter. That is, until his mug was spotted by celebrity animal trainer Mathilde DeCagny. Now the formerly homeless terrier is a star in Hotel for Dogs. In the rare occasion where animal cruelty ends up benefitting the critter...