Morning News Round-Up -- 1.27.10: Joe Friday Wednesday...

We never came back for a post yesterday, apologies to everyone... we'll include some stories from yesterday, just in case you missed them...

The story about the toddler who lost his life because of a tree that crashed into the parked truck in San Jose took an interesting turn into yesterday's paper. Of course this is a huge tragedy, but yesterday's story shed light onto the City of San Jose's budget cuts over the past few years that has meant trees in front of houses (but in the public right-of-way) are now homeowners' responsibility... expect neighbors to show up at the next round of budget discussions talking about trees. Trees, police officers (and pensions), firefighers (and pensions), public employees (and pensions), library hours, parks, community centers -- the budget discussions will not be particularly fun this year.

And...

There is already a response from the City about trees in today's paper in the form of an "aggressive public awareness campaign"...

And...

The Merc Editorial Board chimes in and says San Jose's tree law make sense... which is perhaps the last popular position of the day.

Sheriff Laurie Smith is in a much better re-election position than the other County law enforcement officer (DA Dolores Carr) this year, but that doesn't mean she is getting a free re-election pass... there are three folks lining up to challenge Smith. The Merc singles out one candidate, retired SJPD Captain Richard Calderon, as a candidate that "...has issues of his own..." (Rich Robinson, clip that sentence from the story for your "op research" file...)

And if it is Wednesday (or any day, for that matter), Dolores Carr will be in the paper. Today she is there defending her boycott of a local judge. Using a double negative (sort of) she wrote to the Merc via email and said that boycotting a judge is "not unheard of"... Maybe, there are some legal experts in the story that have a different opinion. Until tomorrow's story about Dolores Carr...

San Jose's Club Wet is back open... but the Police Chief's ability to close down clubs in the future is about to be curbed by the City Council. Stemming from a lawsuit Club Wet brought against the City last year, the City (and club owners) have reworked the ordinance, started talking to each other, and apparently the clubs aren't the brawl-magnets they once were... for now. Anyway, club owners and the City (but perhaps not the Police Chief) seem happier than they were late last fall. That doesn't mean Watch Dog will be rolling into Club Wet anytime soon, but maybe...

Mayor Reed and Councilmembers Sam Liccardo and Rose Herrera proposed a job-spurring package this week to be heard in a few weeks that would encourage businesses to stay and grow or relocate to San Jose. Watch Dog doesn't know if it will help, but it probably can't hurt... Liccardo wrote about it this week on San Jose Inside.

Santa Clara County is the new Belmont? If a measure gets traction to ban smoking in apartment buildings, the County will join Belmont... it is one of the ideas Board of Supervisors President Ken Yeager is proposing. He also gave his State of the County yesterday and it was nice to see all of you there... it was perhaps the most political crowd ever at a State of the County with all the candidates and glad-handing. Is the County Building sexy again?

The 49er's vote in June in Santa Clara is even closer than it was. The Santa Clara Council voted on a procedural measure to move it forward. But the quote in this Merc story is a gem, from Councilmember Jamie Matthews: "Ultimately, the people will decide, and they are smarter than all of us..." ...Especially smarter than the Santa Clara City Council... just kidding. Perhaps the "no on stadium" folks can use that quote against Matthews in a Gavin-esque manner...

Protect San Jose gives us the (Just the) "Facts About Cannabis Use"... which was not written by Sgt. Joe Friday (or Chief Davis), but it might as well have been... Damn hippies!

Monday's gun-point gas station robbery in north Gilroy was caught on tape... Don't expect this video to appear on one of those late-night "America's Scariest Videos" anytime soon. The whole thing went down in a pretty orderly and mellow way actually. They were probably stealing money for pot...

Morning News Round-Up -- 1.13.10: Mayor of Almaden for Senate...

It is a big political news day locally...

The Mayor of Almaden Valley (not Jim Cunneen or Pat Dando) Tom Campbell is dropping out of the $uper rich race for Governor against Meg Whitman and $teve Poizner and turning his sites on the slightly less rich Carly Fiorina. Campbell will jump into the Republican primary for US Senate with Fiorina and the right winger from the Southern California (Chuck DeVore)... Continue to do Almaden proud Mr. Campbell.

The pro-Santa Clara 49ers stadium folks delivered 8,000 signatures for their ballot measure to Santa Clara City Hall yesterday. Begging the question: there are 8,000 people in Santa Clara? (Just kidding.) That is almost double what they need to qualify the measure. Expect an election in June. (And expect James Rowen to continue writing about it...)

Supervisor Ken Yeager is the new President of the Board of Supervisors, taking over for Liz Kniss at yesterday's meeting. Congrats President Yeager, and good luck with that budget...

And finally this political piece: the Palo Alto Unified School District will go for a parcel tax renewal and hike in May. They are looking to increase their current parcel tax ($493) by $96. Every other school district in the County is drooling at those numbers...

The much-discussed 'inclusionary housing' policy in San Jose passed yesterday, much to the chagrine of Councilmembers Pete Constant and Pierluigi Oliverio who were out-voted by a 9 to 2 margin. The policy doesn't go into affect until 2013 at the earliest...

Merc columnis Mike Cassidy continues his Mercury News boosterism by letting us all know that the Mercury News "focuses on offering unique local content" and that they do local better than anyone. Ok. Saying it doesn't make it so Mr. Cassidy. Perhaps covering a new President of the Board of Supervisors would be "unique local content" but it doesn't appear anywhere on the Merc's site...

A big Bay restoration project will break ground in Alviso today. This is a long time coming... like 80 years.

This should go over big... the Cupertino Union School District is increasing its teacher-to-student ratio in order to deal with budget shortfalls. Expect crowded meetings and upset parents...

The Third Street Promenade opened to traffic (cars and people) yesterday. Not the one in Santa Monica, but the one in Morgan Hill.

There will be no pot dispensaries in Gilroy. That's the vote of the City Council. It didn't pass by five votes, however, meaning that it won't go into affect immediately, but rather in February. (Note to those candidates running for the South County Supervisorial seat -- the vote at the Gilroy City Council was split. One of the candidates in your race is in favor of pot dispensaries...) San Jose Inside breaks the "sticky situation" down as well...

Protect San Jose, which has been complaining about the Mercury News for some time, is now fond of reposting things directly from their website. Yesterday they reposted some comments that have been published in response to Bobby Lopez's "Latinos have a drinking problem" piece. Because the comment section of the Mercury News is where enlightened dialogue thrives...

Morning News Round-Up – 9.15.09: What do plastic, bail bonds and Wet have in common...

Good News – Silicon Valley schools rank high in California. Bad News – Silicon Valley Latino and African American students do worse than state averages.

Vincent Cardinalli, Sr. thought he’d found the ideal way to scam money until the law caught up and handed him 157 felony counts. Always thinking creatively, Cardinalli instead sued one of the witnesses for $4.5 million, and won judgment. If only the Godfather thought of it first...

Candidates for Palo Alto City Council are unhappy interviews to take over the Police Chief gig happened behind closed doors.

San Jose’s Coyote Creek has the dubious distinction of landing on Save the Bay’s Top 10 “Bay Trash Hot Spots.” Plastic bags floating down Coyote Creek to join the 1 Million that land in the Bay each year garnered the creek this (depressing) honorific.

Gubernatorial hopefuls come calling in Silicon Valley looking for some love.

The Merc’s Sal Pizarro shares the news that San Jose Downtown Associations Scott Knies is getting canned by the city. Don’t worry about Knies, it just means the city won’t be paying Knies $160,000 (on top of the $69,000 from the association). Instead, the San Jose Redevelopment Agency will add $100,000 to the Downtown Association coffers.

Sunnyvale Mayor Anthony Spitaleri is pissed he (and Sunnyvale) have landed in a payment dispute between the Sunnyvale Mixed Use LLC and the folks (formerly) doing the build.

San Jose celebrates going solar at 6 city facilities, a $500,000 lands in the form of solar panels.

Oops, the Morgan Hill Unified School District discriminated against special education student Jessica Perez forcing her to stay in school longer and miss graduating with friends. At least, that’s what the State and Perez say.

Those fun loving folks on the Gilroy City Council may have goofed when they voted behind closed doors on raises for the city manager and clerk. Secrecy be damned, numbers for your review in the Gilroy Dispatch. You gotta wonder, who advises these guys…

Sports, sherry and dark chocolate sustained Wimbledon player/wild woman Dorothy Crichton who passed away at the age of 104 in Palo Alto.

PoliticonValley sends kudos to County Supervisor Ken Yeager for landing the State Senate confirmation to the California Air Resources Board.

Protect San Jose’s Ed Rast is one pissed off number cruncher. Rast is (apparently) mad that some non-profits receive city funds.

(also pissed off) San Jose Insider/Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio is mad affordable housing projects don’t pay into the city’s park fees. Oliverio and Rast should get together for a mad fest. Also Inside, Santa Clara County Board of Education Trustee Joseph DiSalvo wants kids to have the same teacher for more than one year.