Morning News Round-Up -- 8.26.09: Any-Excuse-to-Use-Funny-Photo Edition...

The Merc’s Sal Pizarro gives a rundown of San Jose’s latest accolades: 3rd best place for kids (think skate parks), 12th best public university in the west (tied with Humboldt, Fresno, and Texas State), and, drumroll please, top water pollution control plant from the US Environmental Protection Agency (for power generation). Yay us -- 12th best in the west!

Santa Clara Supervisor Ken Yeager hopes to find a way to keep Henry Coe State Park open while colleague/ Supervisor/(soon-to-be Mayor?) Don Gage says close that puppy. The list of closing parks is expected right after your Labor Day hike, so enjoy it.

Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro’s biggest hater, Mark Zappa, is waiting until the Mayor returns from Portugal before filing the recall paperwork and looking to a June 2010 recall election, to save the City money. That's pretty thoughtful... For the record, Gilroy’s future Mayor?/ Supervisor Don Gage made no appearance in the story...

The race to replace Hal Plotkin by appointment to the Foothill-DeAnza Community College Distict is in the final interview stage. Foothill-DeAnza Trustees want to talk with Joan Barram (Cupertino Union School District Trustee), Richard Bernhardt (Business and student lobbyist), Jeannie Conner (Senator Joe Simitian’s political director), and Anita Manwani-Bhagat (business leader at NASA/HP/Agilent).

Congressmember Anna Eshoo’s 2nd “telephone” town hall got her props from the more than 7,000 participants. Eshoo told participants she’s doing a face-to-face on healthcare next week and testily pointed out she’s done more face-to-face town halls than any of her colleagues.

Kathleen Blanchard, the Mother of one of Gunn High Schools suicide victims spoke out at the Palo Alto Unified School Board meeting. Without pointing fingers, she gently urged change in how adults work with students and called for “attitude adjustments and philosophical adjustments” in working with kids. The Merc’s Patty Fisher digs into other teen suicides in Silicon Valley and the news is not good…

NASA Ames is ready to build “Sustainability Base,” architect Kevin Burke loves the “combination of high tech and low tech.” Meaning the building will close itself at night and use the same “technology” as historic California Adobe homes to cool off or warm up. With a little luck, there won’t be a “toxic” siding battle on this green house.

Latest perv alerts heading your way…

• Dentist/(mock) breast health worker Benva Oshana Lazar has added another complaint to his patient list – bringing his total to 8 (so far) patients pissed to learn breast exams are not part of dental practice.
• Teacher/ perv Edward Riley Slate III was busted for a 6 month sexual relationship with a student at Santa Clara’s Wilcox High.

(shy) Erotica enthusiasts/ burglars hit Gilroy’s Simply Romance for a third time taking off with leather wrist bands, cash, and owner Hank Provost’s new pipe, among other goodies. The increased attention from thieves doesn’t deter Provost, “if anything, I’m more determined to stick around.” Perhaps we now know where the ball gag came from...

San Jose Insider/ Santa Clara County Board of Education Trustee Joseph DiSalvo (could he have a longer title?) has endorsed former Franklin-McKinley Superintendent Larry Aceves as his favorite for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

San Jose Inside’s Fly celebrates a (temporary?) reprieve for the (Fly hangout) “dingy, punky, (puky?)” Caravan Bar over an (un)watered down White Russian. (apparently) The Merc’s Internal Affairs story pissed off bartenders who “scribbled down letters” (on napkins) demanding an apology. Fly's piece also proves that Metro writers are probably a lot more fun to hang out with than Merc writers...

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?

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.3.09: "...a never-ending battle to limit their presence..."

“Judgment Day Comes for San Jose Councilwoman” so proclaims the Merc. as the brouhaha comes to a close for San Jose’s Madison Nguyen. Campaign workers on both sides are no doubt chugging the caffeine in preparation for a long day. Watch Dog will do live updates as soon as the polls close, check in here for the latest news. San Jose Revealed is also ready for the Little Saigon madness to end and shares a series of cranky email messages received since Friday’s post...

District Attorney Dolores Carr has jumped on the story about Mexican American Community Services Agency's (MACSA) serious financial irregularities related to a Charter school it runs. Carr said her office would investigate and that, "...the allegations appear very serious..." Yesterday, a story broke about MACSA's possibly illegal embezzlement (borrowing?) of funds from their teachers at a MACSA Charter School in Gilroy. Enrique Palacios, the Gilroy Unified School District Deputy Superintendent of Business Services, sounds pissed and called the financial irregularities "...a moral issue..." MACSA’s CEO, Olivia Soza-Mendiola, shot an angry Letter to the Editor of the Gilroy Dispatch saying it was the State's fault MACSA “borrowed” the funds. Ben Anderson shot right back in a Dispatch Editorial calling Soza-Mendiola’s ambivalence troubling and a poor example to the young people MACSA serves. Watch Dog will have more on this later...you will not want to miss the San Jose connections to this story...

If you need a day-worker, Mountain View is your town...at least that is the fear of those who oppose approval of the day-worker permit issued recently. “The Day Worker Center has to wait until the council takes action before they do any work on the site..." said City Zoning Administrator Peter Gilli.

The Merc’s Scott Herhold dedicates his column to his NIMBY Hanchett Park neighbors angst over the possible move to San Jose by Lew Wolff’s A’s and the high speed rail approved by voters in November.

Speaking of high-speed rail NIMBYs...

NIMBY negativism looms large in Palo Alto about high-speed rail. Rod Diridon, Sr. told Palo Alto’s City Council yesterday that it would have been helpful had they spoken up before the measure passed in November. You think? Normally cheerful Palo Altans marched on City Hall chanting and waving protest signs. It is untrue that the protest signs read: NIMBY's FOR SLOW TRAINS.... Councilmember Larry Klein, hopeful the state will undo what the voters did, said, "Laws do get changed. That's what our legislature is for, that's what the initiative process is for, and that's what the courts are for, in some cases." Really Larry, you are going to rely on the California State Legislature to help you out? Good luck...

On San Jose Inside's Fly cruises local habitat’s – after discovering City Hall’s resident falcons were unavailable on the Falcon Cam, Fly headed to Guadalupe River Park & Gardens for an Audubon Society lecture. While at the lecture, Fly notes the Police Department and Water District sweeps have cleaned out the Park's homeless encampments. “It’s a never-ending battle to limit their presence...” Park staffer Linda McCabe says. Ironically, San Jose Revealed says the same thing about San Jose Inside...

San Jose is getting into the energy business and hopes to install the largest solar power array on City lands and is looking for proposals. You have until March 23 to get your request in.

Watch Dog’s favorite cobbler, Paul Cruz, is retiring after 49 years of keeping San Joseans footwear in good working order. Chances are this workaholic will still be helping friends out with their leather needs. (Insert your leather needs/ball gag joke here: _____________)

Grassroots Sprout from Bad Weather...

The wet weather has apparently had the effect of sprouting grassroots in San Jose.

First, we have baseball...

With the (amicable divorce between Fremont and the Oakland A's, the grassroots group Baseball San Jose has launched some activity. Jacquie Heffner is posting on Baseball San Jose's blog, she started a group on Facebook, and has launched a website (well, not yet) at mlbsanjose.com. (Watch Dog hopes this blog (and the baseball movement overall) are more successful than Heffner's last blog-venture with San Jose Revealed...)

Next, we have libraries...

Also on the grassroots front, a website calling itself Books Not Filters has been activated to fight library censorship being proposed by Councilmember Pete "Ball Gag" Constant and Larry Pegram of the (so-called) Values Advocacy Council. (Of course) a Facebook site has also been launched. (Watch Dog has written about this issue before, and if it comes forward again, we won't be shy Ball Gag...)

Watch Dog understands that grassroots is not about competition...but...the Books Not Filters folks have more "Facebook Friends" than the Baseball San Jose people right now: 36 to 17. That probably means more in middle school than it does in real life, but we thought we'd share...

Sprout on grassroots activists!