Morning News Round-Up -- 3.17.10: It would be a lot cooler if you did...

The budget is bad in San Jose, real bad. Yesterday was a hum-dinger at the Council meeting as it pitted people who love parks, libraries, and other City services against City employees who love their jobs. According to the Mayor (in the Merc story): "Although this is the ninth year we've faced significant budget shortfall, this year is by far the worst..." What he didn't say: "Because things are so shitty, we are going to give card rooms the latitude to turn San Jose into Las Vegas..."

To help move things in the right direction, the City also approved a series of pro-business incentives... and... they also approved a rezoning thingy to allow the Earthquakes to build a soccer stadium right off Coleman avenue. Hey, if the Earthquakes play it right, they could take over the airport site (when the airport fails) and build the San Jose version of Estadio Azteca...

Happy Hollow got its facelift,

Happy Hollow got its (taxpayer) gift.

Now take your kids,

And you will see,

That it isn't as crappy as it used to be...

Ironically, the Happy Hollow story in the Merc was written by Holly Hayes... Holly Hayes' Happy Hollow story. Who said the Editors at the Merc can't be cute?

This is a story with so many interesting angles it will make your (political) head spin... Palo Alto firefighters are looking to put a ballot measure on the November ballot that would block Palo Alto from firing firefighters as Palo Alto balances its budget. This will get every firefighters union in the county (or the world) to call their political consultants as soon as possible this morning... Another layer of intrigue is that the head of the Palo Alto firefighters union putting this thing together? Tony Spitaleri... why does that name sound familiar to you? That's because he's on the Sunnyvale City Council. Just wait until the Sunnyvale Public Safety Officers put a ballot measure on Sunnvyale's November...

Speaking of the ballot box, but let's move up to this spring. 8 (8?!) school districts are looking for parcel taxes on ballots this spring: Milpitas, Mt. Pleasant, Alum Rock, Palo Alto, Fremont Union, Loma Prieta, Lakeside, and Union.

Back to Palo Alto... they are going to do a tad bit more outreach before re-writing their recycling regulations. It seems folks had a bit of a privacy issue with having the city go through garbage. Shocker.

We'll end today with a little political reporting from the good folks as the Fly/ San Jose Inside. It seems that Cousin Cortese, who is running in San Jose City Council District 9 is a Karaoke DJ master. Seriously. Watch Dog has confirmed, however, that his ballot designation is not Karaoke DJ, although, to paraphrase Dazed and Confused, it would be a lot cooler if it was...