Morning News Round-Up -- 5.28.10: Drive safe...

This is a Friday before a long weekend, so you must, must, must read the newspaper tomorrow. Late today is a great time to release horrible news if you are a government agency, elected official, corporation, or candidate. So, Watch Dog will be watching, but you should be too...

The Mercury News is taking its news tips from Matier and Ross apparently. They get into how much money the 49ers are spending in Santa Clara. Of course it is going to "shatter local spending records" -- the most important thing folks in Santa Clara have voted on the past was if RJD2 deserved a second term as City Clerk...

Campaign filings are in other races too... In the past few months Jeff Rosen has been a fundraising machine while Dolores Carr has not. Chuck Reed raised a lot of money, his opponents did not. Madison Nguyen raised a ton and two of her opponents put a bunch of their own money ($50k and $80k) into their own campaigns... what does all this mean? Expect the airwaves (television and radio) and your mailboxes to be full in the week and a half...

The Merc finally came around to support the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District parcel tax: Measure I. The third editorial is the charm, apparently...

Robert Cortese, cousin of famous Supervisor Dave, has a true political flare. He has made it into the Metro's Fly more than almost anyone else. This time wanting to unban fireworks and supporting same sex marriage because of George Takei a.k.a. Sulu.

San Jose Family Camp isn't getting spared, but some San Jose pools might be... On the bright side of things, the pools are much closer than Yosemite.

Tesla is spending $42 million for the NUMMI plant. Which Watch Dog put together in a simple formula:

$42,000,000 for NUMMI/$100,000 per car = 420 cars for a manufacturing plant...

Not too shabby. Of course, when you are Tesla and you've only sold 900 cars total, 420 is pretty expensive...

In a story that may get overlooked today, but will have lasting implications, Caltrain got an important "waiver" from the Federal government to move forward with electrification. Yes, it sounds boring, but it seems really important.

What's old is new again at San Jose State. Former San Jose State President Don Kassing is coming back to lead State in an interim capacity next year while the school looks (again) for a new President... Welcome back Don...

The (alleged) Palo Alto/ Santa Clara kidnapper-rapist has been caught. DA Carr, do you think you can get this entire trial done before election day? It might help. Here's some more advice: Make sure all the forensic evidence gets tested before you decide to not pursue the case...

A "hit list" on a bathroom wall at Willow Glen Middle School early in the week and an Airsoft gun at Gunn High School. Ironic, we know... Don't take your guns to town... or to Gunn...

Here's something juicy, maybe. It looks like the Palo Alto Downtown Business and Professional Association kicked out its President and Executive Director. Why? Well, it seems Sherry Bijan never had a "deep interest" in doing big events in downtown Palo Alto... Of course, nobody in Palo Alto is interested in having people from outside Palo Alto come to downtown Palo Alto either, so perhaps Sherry Bijan was doing a perfect job...

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.25.10: 2-40-2 Head line Bold herej head line bold goes here and here's more headling bold jyg

The Bay Area News Group is very proud of itself today as it unveils a (growing) database of public employee salaries for much of the Bay Area. Expect lots of folks on the 18th Floor to be search the database today... and if you have time, you can see how much more many of these folks make than you.

Speaking of public employees...

Not a day can go by without some news coming out of the San Jose City Council District 5 race. Yesterday it was Aaron Resendez who was making public a conversation that he had with Councilmember Nora Campos' Chief of Staff Ryan Ford. (Nora Campos is candidate Xavier Campos' brother.) It wasn't a conversation as much as it was a dressing down of Resendez by Ford, according to Resendez. He has called on Councilmember Nora Campos for a public apology, which sounds like he deserves... even Kathleen says so. Ryan Ford should expect a congratulatory call from Cindy Chavez and Neil Struthers today, "Our little boy is all grown up..."
Also, our call for campaign mailers yielded some fruit, and since we are in District 5 already, here is a glimpse of how nasty the race has become... With all due respect to Pat Dando, do voters in District 5 know her name still? Do voters in District 10?

Scott Herhold can not resist apparently. He takes yet another shot, albeit from a different angle, at District Attorney Dolores Carr. This time, Herhold isn't talking about her fancy car or her lack of ethics, although these things find their way into the piece (ok, not the car stuff). He profiles a Deputy DA who wants her boss to lose... she joins 40 other Deputy DA's in wanting the same thing. 40 DA's and one columnist...

Speaking of issues of crime and justice, the Merc Editorial Board continues to review its sample ballot and come up with judicial nominations in todays paper. They choose JoAnne McCracken, Vanessa Zecher, and Julia Alloggiamento but absolutely positively do not want you to vote for Thomas Spielbauer. They went so far as to write: Don't vote for Thomas Spielbauer. Wow. Perhaps Speilbauer and District Attorney Dolores Carr could commisserate about being treated like shit from the same newspaper...

Willow Glen Middle School was at the center of the world yesterday. (Some would say that Lincoln and Minnesota are always the center of the world...) A student apprently wrote a "hit list" on a bathroom wall that sent everyone into high alert.

Matier and Ross at the Chronicle (and the entire Chronicle, come to think about it) loves writing negative stories about the 49ers wishes to move to Santa Clara... yesterday's story was about how much money the 49ers are spending on their campaign. Another way to look at it is they are spending all that money to get the hell out of San Francisco...

Violent crime is on a downswing, according to statistics in San Jose. Of course, if you read Protect San Jose, we are headed down the road of Oakland...

Mountain View is buying up land faster than a South Bay city trying to land a Major League Baseball team...

Assembly candidate Josh Becker gets a long write-up by Daily News Group reporter Will Oremus... and the story (obviously) includes a stop at University Cafe in Palo Alto... a.k.a. Becker's headquarters.

Admit it Palo Alto readers, you were at the City Council meeting last night when the Council was discussing the Stanford University hospitals' expansion plans... that must have been so much NIMBY fun... so much fun, in fact, that the Palo Alto City Council put more demands, euphemistically called "community benefits" on the growing list of things Stanford should do to make their project acceptable to Palo Alto... like a "revenue guarantee"...

It has been a while since we made fun of Palo Alto Weekly's Editor Jay Thorwaldson for his "blogging" -- but his recent chime-in on High-Speed Rail re-sparked our snarkiness. He has posted twice in 2010. Perhaps he is getting into this new-fangled technology thingy...

We put this towards the end because really, who cares: Newt Gingrich endorsed Meg Whitman. One has to believe that Whitman sold her 2012 Presidential endorsement down the river for this endorsement...

Finally, does pointing out the Merc's technical difficulties ever get old? Watch Dog doesn't think so... this was a headline for a breaking news story last night:

Super-Sized Morning News Round-Up -- 5.17.10: Blood-Sport Monday - Hockey and Politics...

The Western Conference Finals started Sunday... Sharks lost... but at the end of the series, we are looking forward to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley sending some of Chicago's finest (and fattiest) foods west to San Jose. He and Mayor Reed made a little wager. Chuck may receive a bunch of Vienna Beef soon. Yum.

But hockey was the mild sport over the weekend with politics being a little more dangerous... Especially in San Jose's City Council District 5...

Let's go chronologically:

The Mayor may be sharing some of Chicago's finest foods from Mayor Daley with his new BFF, Magdalena Carrasco. He endorsed her late last week, according to Watch Dog's email...

But that wasn't the only, or the most intriguing, part of that City Council race this weekend. Mailers were mailed out that took a big shot at Xavier Campos' role at MACSA courtesy of the Chamber. (Can you use the phrase "courtesy of" when you are talking about who paid for a hit piece?) Longtime readers of Watch Dog will not be surprised about the MACSA/Campos connection...

But that wasn't even the more intriging news out of that City Council race. It seems someone is (illegally) using Magdalena Carrasco's name to put out a fake mailer that has her standing with a communist Vietnamese flag... welcome to 1950... The Mayor is not pleased with this latest development and is calling on the DA, the Elections Commission, the post office, and the media to all do their job to identify who did this shady work... Watch Dog won't speculate, even though we'd love to...

As if there wasn't enough going on on San Jose's east side, there was an emergency landing at Reid-Hillview over the weekend... and a man was shot and killed in the Tropicana parking lot on Sunday morning.

Expect this story to also have political repurcussions: Dolores Carr's DA's office apparently stopped the forensic testing of some evidence in the De Anza rape case. This according to evidence in an ongoing civil trial... Jeff Rosen's team is no doubt reprinting this story and distributing it widely... Especially now that he has the support of some high-placed friends...

A big, long in-depth story was in Saturday's Mercury News about the new County Executive Jeff Smith. He has some fans, namely the County Board of Supervisors, who extended his contract through 2013. But the more interesting part of the story is the detractors: the County's unions do not like Jeff Smith. But that might be expected... but Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren? Apparently Smith pushed off a meeting with Lofgren for months. Here's what she said:

"His comments so far appear to be precipitous, haphazard and detrimental to the foundation of county government... People are calling to complain to me. I spent 14 years of my life making a good hospital and many of us are thinking, 'What is he doing?'"

Well, we know he isn't making friends with people in high places...

That isn't the only County employee in the news this week... there is a new County Counsel in the mix -- the acting County Counsel Miguel Marquez is getting the acting removed from his name...

The Merc's Internal Affairs shed some light into how the employee negotiations are going at the City of San Jose. It seems that City Manager Deb Figone had her lunch at Flames interupted by some city workers that were having a protest and started banging on Flames' windows yelling "Save our jobs!"... of course, Figone used to eat lunch at Morton's, but since the pay cut, she's now at Flames... We also learn from IA that the San Jose Redevelopment Agency forked over a $62 million check to the State Govenrment t his week. No word yet if the Governor has signed the thank you note...

Also in an attempt to get attention for their union plight, Jim Unland at the San Jose Police Officers' Association wrote a Memo to the Mayor on Friday... we're sorry we missed it then, but the Mayor probably isn't...

Perhaps this will help with the Figone/Employee and Police/Mayor relations: Measure K in San Jose got the deep dive in Sunday's paper as the Merc's Sandra Gonzales goes into the lovely Garden City Casino for some "man/woman on the street/at the table" interviews and looks at the pros and cons of relying on gambling to plug San Jose's budget holes...

The Water District reversed course and approved a new map for districts. Gilroy is no longer with Palo Alto... And that new Gilroy/Morgan Hill district is the one that the fast-food toy-loving Supervisor Don Gage will run for this fall... But the Mayors of Gilroy and Morgan Hill are still not pleased...

Sometimes it is good to have a reporter/columnist that is over 25 years old... such is the case with Scott Herhold. He gives a great perspective on Larry Pegram's first go'round on the San Jose City Council. If you read between the lines, Pegram left the Council with his three buddies on the heals of a bribery scandal... Pegram wasn't indicted or found to have done anything wrong...

File this story under D -- as in "Drive Cindy Chavez Crazy." Local political consultant Jude Barry is a founder of a technology firm that allows folks to register to vote and sign ballot petitions through iPhones, iPads, and other smart phones. It is the same company that landed Barry on the California Labor Federation's Do Not Patronize list... (This story should tell you how important that list is...) The Santa Clara County Registrar is accepting registrations that use Verafirma technology...

File this story under W for Weird... the Merc Editorial Board, generally a pro-education parcel tax bunch is "reserving judgement" on one parcel tax this June -- Measure I in Alum Rock Union Elementary School District because they are not including charter schools in their tax measure. The other parcel taxes in Milpitas, Oak Grove, and Mount Pleasant get the Merc Editorial nod...

Palo Alto may be getting some taller buildings... above 50 feet actually. Expect the NIMBYs to start the rebellion soon...

Ken Yeager and the rest of the Santa Clara County Supervisors (except Don Gage and George Shirakawa) get props from Dorothy Dimitre in the San Mateo Daily Journal for their fast food toy ban...

We didn't write about this last week, but it doesn't mean we missed it. Saratoga City Councilmember Susie Nagpal died last week. Very sad story.

And because sometimes important things happen outside of our regular sphere: Burlingame and its police department have started the long road toward pension reform. From the San Mateo County Times: "...Police sergeants and captains in Burlingame have agreed to pay freezes through the end of the year and are ready to cut retiree benefits, the first union contract that includes pension reform for a city struggling to deal with escalating employee costs..."

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 -- 5.10.10: Sports, then politics...

Sporting news first...

The Sharks are moving on to the Western Conference Finals. For those of you who know nothing about hockey, that means they are 8 wins away from hoisting the Cup... but a tough 8 wins.

And Dallas Braden, the Oakland A's newest arm pitched the 19th perfect game in MLB history... hopefully Mr. Braden will still be in the green and gold when the open in San Jose...

The Chronicle goes deep into the details about the 49er's campaign in Santa Clara...

It is May 10, which means ballots will actually go out to voters today... and the news reflects that timing...

Thanks to a South County Watch Dog, we actually looked at the political endorsements in the Gilroy Dispatch this weekend. They endorsed Teresa Alvarado for County Supervisor, which is important. But the hit mailers that was undoubtedly written this weekend and will be mailed this week will be full of this quote about Alvarado's opponent, Forrest Williams:

There is one candidate who is the poster perfect person for what Santa Clara County absolutely does not need. Forrest Williams panders to public employee unions, takes their money and is happy to do their bidding. A vote for him is a long-term sentence for financial disaster and assures an acrimonious battle at the county level as tough economic choices are made.

All evidence points to the fact that (incumbent, barely being challenged) Pete Constant is doing some opposition research on the folks running against him. We learn this from Sunday's Internal Affairs column in the Merc. It seems his two opponents have both been arrested, and Pete Constant knew enough about it to call on of his opponent's arrests a "wet reckless" which means challenger David Clancy was drinking when he got pulled over his car. We wonder where a former police officer could learn those things about his opponent... hmmm... Thinking about it further, however, Wet Reckless would be a good description of the old Club Wet nightclub downtown too...

Jeff Rosen went north and south for a pair endorsements for District Attorney, the Gilroy Dispatch and the Palo Alto Weekly get on the Rosen Train...

We thought Scott Herhold was done with writing about the District Attorney... but apparently not. He continues his anti-Dolores Carr effort, this time, mostly about how funny it is that she has two PR people on staff, while at the same time cut the cold-case unit. He goes into specifics about how having 2 PR people on board is actually the opposite of transparency, the reasoning Carr gives for having PR people in the first place. (Kathleen, feel free to defend Dolores Carr below...)

Three school bond measures get the Merc Editorial nod... A, E, and G...

Now, onto Morgan Hill, Arizona, and Tea Parties...

Arizona used to be so quaint... with the lack of Daylight Savings time and all. Now it is the hotbed of regressive anti-immigration policies... and the City of San Jose isn't going to stand idly by, they are going to ban travel and official city business with the Sun Devil state.

Scott Herhold chimes in on the Morgan Hill t-shirt flap. (He's been very busy...) He doesn't think the kids that were wearing the shirt are right... but he doesn't think they should have been kicked out of school either... We also learn that he "...loathes the simple dictums of the tea party movement..." Perhaps he should look into which local elected officials have been to the local Tea Party rallies...

And of course, the obligatory Tea Party rally happened in Morgan Hill over the weekend as Watch Dog predicted:

Also from Internal Affairs, we learn that former Alum Rock Union Superintendent, who got fired, is now going to be the Superintendent at the Greenfield Union School District. She was appointed by the State Board of Education... Internal Affairs filed this in the "what were they thinking" file...

That wasn't the only Alum Rock School District-related news thought, they might push a mandatory parent volunteer effort... good luck with that.

Remember the stranded singers from Mountain View who spent a week in Paris because of the volcano? Well, they are holding a benefit concert to pay down the debt from baguettes, onion soup, and cigarettes...

Speaking of Paris... is it a Gran Boulevard? Or is it El Camino Real...

Watch Dog got a chuckle from this little bit on the Merc website on Sunday evening... check out the really, really important "California News"...

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.7.10: Giving up a touchdown to the Red Wings...

Well, the Sharks run of great games ended last night as they gave up a touch down to the Red Wings. They are still up 3-1 in the series..

Watch Dog predicted it... the Morgan Hill American flag t-shirt story has gone viral and national. Here's what we wrote yesterday:

This will be a controversial issue that will likely make Fox News, the Rush Limbaugh Show, and probably spark a Tea Party rally as well.

Speaking of Tea Party-lover (Pegram)...

San Jose's District 9 gets the write up today after Districts 1/3, 5, and 7 got some ink earlier in the week. Don Rocha - the handsome one, Jim Cogan - the Constant one, Larry Pegram - the right wing whacko one, Robert Cortese - the karaoki one, and Cueva, Greer, and Trout - the ones also running... Perhaps with all the City Council races going in, Terry Christensen gets his City Council Districts mixed up with this quote: "This is a lower-key and less-engaged district than some..." Of course, based on the amount of research Watch Dog does, which is very little, it seems more people vote in District 9 than in almost any other City Council District, but why let facts get in the way of a good quote Mr. Christensen...

Speaking of City Council races, the San Jose District 7 race gets a big write up in the Metro/San Jose Inside with Minh Duong as the central antagonist... Madison better watch out, Duong has a District map with push-pins in it...

Speaking of local races with a write up in the Metro, we also learn that Jeff Rosen and Dolores Carr can't even look at each other in the eye... and no, that isn't a short joke Mr. Rosen...

The Governor was in town yesterday for a Laurie Smith fundraiser... remember when it was a big deal with the Governor came to town?

We all know that the Governor's boyfriend Abel Maldonado is now the Lt. Governor... and that the Governor wants Maldo's seat filled with two special elections, one in June and one in August, but a new lawsuit may hold up those elections...

If Carly Fiorina hadn't already alienated every single in the Bay Area, she appears to be appealing to the most far-right of right... because Sarah Palin endorsed her. Well, from one unqualified candidate to another... It's like getting the old McCain band back together again... (There are many, many jokes to tell...)

Santa Clara's power plant on Robert Avenue is up and running again after being under Cal-OSHA's watchful eye for the past couple of months. Here is the exact right thing to say after you've been under investigation and closed down for several months by Cal-OSHA, "Our interactions with OSHA were positive and constructive." That's from Larry Owens from Silicon Valley Power. As if someone would say that their interactions with OSHA were negative and unconstructive...

While we're on utilities, the Merc's Editorial Board thought the Water District was righting its governance ship... but then the redistricting came out and now the Ed Board says that they "must reject gerrymandering"... the City of Gilroy agrees...

The City of Campbell has a plan to right its financial ship... and it includes cuts and "revenue enhancements" which are not nearly as robust as other kinds of enhancements...

Anti-High-Speed Rail folks have a new picture for the center of their dart board as a new CEO was named... Roelof van Ark... who will make $375,000, which seems low considering all the NIMBY meetings this guy is going to have to sit through up and down the Peninsula...

Mr. van Ark is coming on just in time for a new lawsuit from the duel NIMBY capitals of the Bay Area, Atherton and Menlo Park...

From fast trains to very, very slow trains... VTA is looking to make some lightrail trains express to drive ridership. Sounds like a pretty good idea to us, since we once beat a VTA train in a race and we were on foot.

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.26.10: to Round 2...

Let's start with all things South Bay professional sports related...

Sharks, Sharks, Sharks... onto round two of the playoffs. A choke-free playoffs, perhaps? Tickets go on sale Tuesday at 10 a.m. -- perhaps Councilmember Liccardo can help you score some tickets...

We learn today that 52 percent of folks in Santa Clara are supporting Measure J, the stadium measure, with 36 opposed and 11 percent undecided. Which begs the question, who are these 11 percent of the people. The stadium has been a civic question in Santa Clara for about 2 years, give or take. Have they not picked up the Weekly, the Mercury News, or talked to a neighbor in that period of time? And you know this must be newsworthy because the Chronicle picked up the poll numbers as well...

Lawyers, lawyer, lawyers. Cedar Fair, the folks that own Great America, love their lawyers. They are trying to renegotiate their lease at Great America in Santa Clara to account for the 49ers stadium.

San Jose is pushing forward with buying the land around the proposed A's baseball stadium site near Diridon Station. Tracy Seipel at the Merc has the run-down about which pieces of land need buying and which ones don't... (Note to Michelle McGurk: Please clip and send this story to Bud...)

Speaking of buying land... San Jose Councilmember Nora Campos gets a little piece in Internal Affairs written about her -- and not in a good way. The gossipy piece talks about how she was (perhaps?) shilling for her husband's unions when she made a stink about the sale of the $20 million pair of parking lots in downtown San Jose and if the eventual developers will use "prevailing wages" to pay its workers to build -- which, it is noted in the story, the City of San Jose and the Redevelopment Agency has no ability to demand or enforce...

Internal Affairs finally catches up with the Metro/ San Jose Inside (Chuck and Larry?, San Jose Inside, April 8th) in running a piece about a possible Mayoral endorsement of right winger Larry Pegram in the San Jose City Council District 9 race. The Mayor's spokesperson gives a classic non-answer/answer: "As of today, he has not endorsed anyone." Of course, that was yesterday, who knows about today...

Teresa Alvarado got the nod from the Mercury News Editorial Board for County Supervisor... they call her "a standout"... (Cindy Chavez is going to be really, really pissed about that endorsement... so will Forrest, Mike, Tom, and Peter...)

From the previous Hispanic Foundation chief to the current one... Ron Gonzales, you remember, the former San Jose Mayor, climbed out from under a proverbial rock to pen a piece for a newspaper that he had a pretty big feud with. Bygones, we guess... He writes about the need for companies to come to the aid of schools locally.

Speaking of feuds with the local paper... Here's something that Protect San Jose will actually like that is written in the Mercury News. The words "police tactics" and "widespread praise" are in the same headline... the story is about the downtown San Jose policing, which was (ahem) a bit of an issue for a while...

The San Jose City Council will consider (again) cutting its salary and the salary of high-ranking City officials. But that isn't the part of the story that is striking in any way, this passage is: "...a 10 percent salary cut would bring council members to $84,442 — less than the wage of the average city worker..." The average working in the City of San Jose makes $88,000. $88,000! To quote the head of the Municipal Employees' Federation (who was critical of how much high-ranking City officials make): I'd love to have that kind of accounting in my checkbook...

Interestingly, a similar story (sort of) appears in the Chronicle today, noting that 1 in 3 employees in the City and County of San Francisco government make over $100,000. Perhaps the Merc could re-run their numbers and find the same thing for the City of San Jose (and perhaps even for the County of Santa Clara...)

The Morgan Hill Times does a deep dive into the District Attorney's race... and uses more flattering pictures for both Carr and Rosen. That is something they can probably both agree on, that newspapers ought to use flattering pictures...

Meg Whitman = Big Connections... and she showed it on Friday night when Mitt Romney and John McCain showed up at an event in Redwood City. Of course, both of those guys lost their last election, so perhaps she should invite more folks on a winning streak... just a thought.

We love you too Mission City Lantern... and that is non-negotiable...

Good luck getting your Sharks' tickets everyone...

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.5.10: Garcia vs. Poizner...

First, the important stuff...

Go Stanford. Beat UConn...

Go A's. Beat Seattle (and move to San Jose...)

Now, to less important stuff...

The Mercury News Editorial Board (unsurprisingly) endorsed Jeff Rosen... But the language they used was harsh, and Watch Dog is certain that voters will see this phrase over and over again...: "...Dolores Carr has shown that she lacks the moral compass and clear judgment to serve as the county's top law enforcement official..."

Speaking of skyrocketing public employee pension and benefits cost... actually, we weren't, but this story is the result of those things: Pools in San Jose may not open as planned this summer. Swimming, swimming in the swimming pool, when days are hot, when days are cold, in the swimming pool... or not.

San Jose Councilmember Kansen Chu woke up Saturday morning to this headline: "San Jose Councilman Kansen Chu violated state, city limits on gifts..." No word yet if Chu's first call was to Sam Liccardo for advice...

Stanford and Palo Alto don't get along. If you missed that, then you are very, very new to Silicon Valley... In exchange for Palo Alto putting up a huge stink about Stanford's hospital expansion plans, Palo Alto wants Stanford to help pay for the the PAPD's new building. Usually those deals are cut behind closed doors, but this quid pro quo is right out in the public...

In other unsurprising news: Caltrain is in deep shit... and it may be taxpayers who need to keep it afloat, because riders can't afford the $50/day to ride the train what it would take to keep Caltrains running... Good times.

The folks at Protect San Jose can't type fast enough to counter this Merc profile of Raj Jayadev, the head of De-Bug and a thorn in the side of SJPD. You'll remember Raj as the dude the San Jose Police Officers' Association made fun of in their video last year. In an ironic twist, that video which mocked Raj actually gave him a bigger pedestal to blast the Police... now culminating in a (mostly) positive story about Raj and De-Bug. Good work SJPOA...

It was quite a day for Steve Poizner on Friday. Having nothing to do with his run for Governor, folks from the East Side Union High School District, and Mount Pleasant High School specifically, protested him at the mall where Poizner was signing his new book about teaching in the East Side Union High School District. In this news clip, we see Eddie Garcia getting in the face of Poizner. Poizner could have responded, "Mr. Garcia, as soon as the voters elect you to something, I will listen..." But Poizner didn't do that...

Speaking of troubled high schools... a victim of a stabbing was dropped off (or stabbed) at the entrance to Gilroy High School.

Yesterday was Sunday, which is the reporters at the Merc fun day, at least in terms of Internal Affairs. Here's the fun stuff we learned...

• The Santa Clara County Bar Association like Jeff Rosen better than Dolores Carr... so does Scott Herhold and nearly everyone who works in the DA's office...
• The East Side Superintendent that got fired before the most recent one got fired is getting fired again... from the Alisal Union School District. They sure do know how to pick 'em at ESUHSD...
• And perhaps most shocking is this: Steve Poizner had a man-crush on Ron Gonzales... Oh, as shocking, someone actually had to read Poizner's book to find out that info...

One task force to talk about tree removal and another to talk about tree planting. That's the plan for TJ Martin and Fontana Parks in San Jose because PG&E needs to remove trees and neighbors are not pleased...

The Merc Editorial Board continues with its political endorsements... beyond the really fun one for Jeff Rosen, a really not fun unendorsement for Proposition 17... which is funded by Mercury Insurance. (Note to Mercury Insurance: Please don't raise Watch Dog's rates...)

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.30.10: Rosen and Carr -- the saga continues...

We've said it before: When lawyers run against each other in politics, expect a litigious campaign -- especially when the folks are running for District Attorney. And the DA's race took another turn yesterday, and like most turns thus far, it doesn't turn in the incumbent's favor -- at least the way Watch Dog (and the Merc's headline editor) sees it. (Merc headline: DA challenger Rosen can keep flattering quotes in ballot statement. San Jose Inside had a different take: Carr v. Rosen split decision) Dolores Carr had sued to try to make Jeff Rosen change his ballot statement because it included quotes from the Mercury News and former DA George Kennedy and it compared the two candidates -- which is a no-no. The ruling: Rosen can keep in the quotes from the Merc and from former DA George Kennedy. He voluntarily changed the comparison part of the statement. Rosen's quote in the story sort of sums the whole thing up: "...Her ballot statement is about how she's a bureaucrat... My ballot statement is about how I'm a tough, ethical, experienced prosecutor who has prosecuted hundreds of cases and she has not." Anytime you do something that let's your opponent get that quote in the paper, you need to rethink your strategy.

The budget, the budget, the budget... San Jose is in trouble. The Merc Editorial Board is calling on employees to make concessions -- as it is the only way to get things more in line with reality...

More San Jose budget crap: If a city is a collection of neighborhoods and the neighborhoods are built around community centers, then San Jose is in even deeper shit... because "dozens of San Jose communiity centers" are about the get the axe. Expect a lot of folks to show up to speak at tonight's budget session, bring your No Doze.

Would you like to own a chunk of land in North San Jose? Well, if you are a government agency with extra cash on hand (and which government agency doesn't have a bunch of extra cash on hand) you could own the last bit of Agnews...

If you were looking forward to buying both the cause of hangovers (beer) and the cure (Advil) at Palo Alto Walgreens, you are going to have to wait longer. Neighbors filed complaints to the State Alcohol Beverage Control folks and things are on hold for a while.

Downtown Morgan Hill potential redevelopers have been narrowed to three: Barry Swenson Builders, City Ventures, and The Olson Company... and only one wears a hat all the time...

Christopher High School in the Gilroy Unified School District will get its aquatics center... but it will be two years later than expected.

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.25.10: Dolores Carr defends the Merc's rights? Weird

We mentioned it yesterday, lawyers running against lawyers can be fun... but it can also be litigious and boring. But we have to write about it anyway (especially when everyone else is writing about it...) Dolores Carr is now mad that Jeff Rosen is using Mercury News reprinted articles on his website -- which may violate copyright laws. We don't really blame Carr, all of the articles call her unethical, politically stupid, and other really nice things. Ironically, this puts Dolores Carr in the position of defending the rights of the newspaper that has absolutely crushed her over the past year. So, while Dolores Carr is spending time looking for reprint criminals, she should turn her attention to one of her own endorsers, Pete Constant, who uses reprints of the Mercury News all over his official City Hall website...

Scott Herhold compares Chicago Mayor (for Life) Daley and San Jose Mayor (for Now) Reed... His conclusion?: "...if he [Reed] had more of Richie Daley in him, he would enjoy more results..." Especially stinging for Reed and his crew will be this line: "...We are more open, more transparent, more ethical. As Reed's opponent, Cindy Chavez, said in the 2006 campaign, to what end?..." Cindy the Prognosticator.

The Merc Editorial Board defends the County's "Plan to Ban" (toys from Happy Meals...)

Budget woes are hitting everyone... the Santa Clara Unified School District is reminiscing about what it used to be like to have money as they hand out 100 pink slips...

Here's a Merc headline for you: Confusion, criticism follow Santa Clara Valley Water District groundwater fee... but then again, when doesn't confusion and criticism follow the Water District?

280 is getting a facelift?

Scott Herhold touched on it this week: schools, neighbors, and traffic do not mix in Los Altos... the Los Altos City Council agrees and is asking the Mountain View-Los Altos High School District to get its traffic shit together...

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.24.10: I heart lawyers... especially ones running against each other

Who doesn't love a great political fight? But the fight gets a little boring sometimes if it is between two lawyers, like Dolores Carr and Jeff Rosen. Dolores Carr is taking Jeff Rosen to court over his ballot statement. (Because voters love frivolous litigation?) Carr is claiming Rosen is using quotes from others and comparing himself to her in his ballot statement -- both apparent no-nos. Of course, the best part of this is the Carr has given quotes to others to use in their ballot statements in the past and has compared herself to her opponent in the past. Um, lawyers, everyone finds the law boring... no offense.

So it has come to this: paycuts for City of San Jose workers. Sort of. That was the discussion at yesterday's City Council meeting. The story in the Merc has some colorful language to describe what is happening in the City: "[The budget discussion] ...comes amid the heightened politics of an election year as the city careens toward a fiscal crisis that could force dramatic service reductions..." Careens? It looks like the City Council will eventually take smaller concessions from unions (maybe) and do a series of one-time, short-term fixes to get through next year. That sounds familiar, like every year for the past decade. Watch Dog isn't sure that pushing these big salary cuts off another year until the Mayor wins reelection and won't have to worry about anything politically is a great idea for the labor-majority on the Council, but whatever...

To figure out part of the budgetary problems that municipalities face with pay, benefits, and pensions, check out this story about a Palo Alto janitor that took home $156k in 2009 and will receive a full pension and lifelong healthcare coverage... if only we had a national healthcare policy.

For those NIMBYs that want High-Speed Rail to (inexplicably) end in San Jose to avoid big impacts to the Peninsula got some troubling news yesterday... even if that were the case, the impact to Caltrain would be as impactful as the impact of High-Speed Rail. That's because the transfer to a new train to make it the final 50 miles up the Peninsula would hurt Caltrain and would require new tracks, new construction, and new trains... Face it Peninsula, your just train-screwed.

And if the previous story doesn't give you your NIMBY fix, perhaps this will: a public comment session on the "Minton Project" last night in Mountain View. Let's just say that not everyone supports 203 new housing units...

In the midst of the Great Recession, garbage rates are going up in Morgan Hill.

Ending with some blog stuff...

Jessica Fromm at San Jose Inside looks through some fundraising reports in the San Jose City Council District 5 race and finds that Magdalena Carrasco outraised (Nora's brother) Xavier Campos this quarter and that Campos spent more money that he took in during the same period. One candidate is raising money, and one is spending it... hmmm. Perhaps the Supervisor Shirakawa needs to call an emergency staff meeting to straigten things out...

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.16.10: Bracket Tuesday...

It is fill out your bracket Tuesday today... so forget work. Start researching Murray State!

It is pink slip week at School Districts in California. Need we write any more? Send complaints to Capitol Mall, Sacramento, California...

Over the past several months (ok, the entire past year and then some) The Case Against Dolores Carr has been built by challenger to the DA Jeff Rosen. Now, The Case Against Jeff Rosen has one small piece of evidence... Mr. Rosen needs to amend his ballot statement because he misquoted the Mercury News... sort of. He quoted the Mercury News correctly, but the quote came from Scott Herhold, not the Mercury News. He's changing the ballot statement, but needs a court order to do it...

And when the Chamber of Commerce made the case against Cindy Chavez in 2006, they ran afoul of the City of San Jose's campaign spending laws that were in place at the time. Well, 4 years later, the court ruled in their favor and now they are getting their legal fees back... unless the City of San Jose appeals further, which it sounds like they will not do. Here's something: Our insiders are telling us that the Chamber has been grilling candidates that have come before them about how they would vote in closed session on this issue... classy.

Perhaps more important than the ruling itself is the author of this story from the Merc... none other than Scott Herhold. This is the second time (at least that we've noticed) that Herhold has been columnist AND reporter. They do that type of thing at the San Mateo Daily Journal, but at the Mercury News? Weird. Although, our friends at Protect San Jose think that Sean Webby has been writing a column rather the news for a long, long time...

Here's irony: A Southern California Republican Assemblywoman is becoming the best friend of all the NIMBYs up and down the Peninsula who hate High Speed Rail. Diane Harkey is introducing a bill to stop the sale of High Speed Rail bonds... Perhaps they will throw her a ticker-tape parade up and down El Camino Real...

Perhaps in response (?) Quentin Kopp wrote a pro-High Speed Rail piece for the Merc. Surprised?

With all due respect to Palo Alto, but any city should do their best to avoid this headline: Local teens describe their stresses on 'Dr. Phil.' Perhaps Dr. Phil can get Oprah to bridge the relationship divide between Stanford and Palo Alto...

When the going gets tough (and the going is tough for the Morgan Hill Police Department) the tough get going (to the Feds for more money).

When the going gets tough (and the going is tough for the City of Gilroy) the tough get going (home early for the week).

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.9.10: More bad news for SJC...

It has been a month of stories about SJC. We learned that they don't really fly to the East Coast except once a day. We learned that Frontier Airlines is pulling out. We learned they are asking (begging?) companies to pick up the tab for their grand opening. And then yesterday's Study Session at the San Jose City Council. Bill Sherry, the Airport Director, told the City Council that SJC might fail unless some things change... like living wage, or privatizing custodial services, or lifting the curfew. Why? Well, there is $32 million of debt service due soon and the airport can't pay it. Um, this isn't getting any better, just more and more pathetic.

On San Jose Inside, San Jose Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio let's us know that absolutely does NOT want to lift SJC's curfew... neither do any of his neighbors.

From one very expensive project that is failing, to another that will (hopefully) succeed. The mitigations fo the environmental impacts of the 49ers stadium will be dealt with and voted on today. If you love nitty gritty of land-use, head to the Santa Clara City Council meeting tonight. If you're normal, American Idol is on tonight...

A list came out of the lowest performing (failing) schools came out yesterday. It is a list that nobody wanted to be on... but here is who is on the list:

• Hoover Middle and Burnett Middle (San Jose Unified)
• Cesar Chavez Elementary, Ocala Middle, Joseph George Middle (Alum Rock) Escuela Popular Charter (East Side Union High School District)
• August Boeger Middle School (Mount Pleasant Elementary School District)

Libraries are under the knife (potentially) in San Jose. An OpEd in today's Merc makes the case why they shouldn't be cut... like the obvious, it is where many people look for jobs and many people don't have jobs right now.

The Merc's Scott Herhold looks at what government officials drive and on whose dime... Here's what we learn about government-funded rides: Supervisor Don Gage drives a very expensive, environment-be-damned GMC Yukon because he's a "big guy"... DA Dolores Carr goes for a foreign, luxury car -- an Acura TL... Sheriff Laurie Smith, a hybrid Camry. But the best part of the column is this tease by Scott Herhold: "...District Attorney Dolores Carr, who drives a $36,900 Acura TL (2007) with a power moon roof, a navigation system and heated front seats. That purchase required approval by the county executive's office — which I'll explain in an upcoming column..." Yay! More Carr columns coming...

Big props to Morgan Hill Police for arresting two of their "Most Wanted"...

Hangar One clean up and revamp will fall on NASA, not the Navy. That's not great news...

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.23.10: How to fix California? Eat lots of steak...

Fresh off his State of the City, Mayor Reed welcome some CEOs and other "Big City" Mayors to the San Jose to talk about how to fix California... Sending strong messages about frugality, being in touch with Everyman, and open government, they met behind closed-doors at Morton's in downtown San Jose...

Over at Protect San Jose, Jim Unland, the VP of the San Jose Police Officers' Association, seems to be hedging the organization's political bets. While they have endorsed incumbent District Attorney Dolores Carr in this year's race, they are also saying really, really, nice things about challenger Jeff Rosen. The only thing they say about Rosen that is negative is this: "...within the DA's office, he has limited supervisorial experience..." But Unland also has this to say about Rosen: "...Deputy District Attorney Jeff Rosen has also earned broad support and respect as a prosecutor from within the law enforcement community. Many of our officers speak highly of him. He has successfully prosecuted some very difficult and high-profile cases..." So they win if Carr wins, but don't really lose if Rosen wins. With "friends" like the POA, Dolores Carr is in for a long campaign season...

More recycled water could be finding its way to your tap... if the Santa Clara Valley Water District has anything to say about it. And they do. (Remember Mayor Reed drank some recycled water?)

How many preschools one street are too many preschools on one street? That is the question folks in Mountain View will be considering. The real question, obviously, is how many SUVs can fit on one street during drop-off/pick-up times?

At one time, Palo Alto had grand visions of a City-run fiber optic high-speed Internet network. That was a while ago and the vision has gone away... but then Google came calling, and now Palo Alto's high-speed Internet eggs are in the Google basket. This probably puts Councilmember Sid Espinosa in a weird spot. Espinosa works for Google's arch enemy: Microsoft...

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.19:10: The State of the City is... like canned brocolli

You may have read or heard that the Mayor of San Jose gave his annual State of the City address yesterday morning. It isn't good. The speech included big cuts to the City budget and a big ask for employee concessions. Most disappointing, however, is that the Mayor never actually said, "The State of the City is ____..." But Lew Wolff introduced the Mayor... which was the highlight, according to Watch Dogs who were there...

The Merc Editorial Board said it was "...a plate of canned broccoli..." among other things... Dan Pulcrano (actually) wrote something about it too on San Jose Inside...

But in bigger political news than a bad City of San Jose budget has been announced: The San Jose Police Officers' Association is endorsing District Attorney Dolores Carr over challenger Jeff Rosen. That said, Rosen has lots of other public safety-types, like other police department unions and the Deputy Sheriffs, on his side...

That wasn't the only POA endorsement announced... but it was the only one in the Merc. Here are the rest, courtesy of Protect San Jose: Incumbents Mayor Chuck Reed, Councilmember Pete Constant, and Councilmember Madison Nguyen. For open seats, the POA is getting into bed with Xavier Campos for District 5, Jim Cogan for District 9, and JoAnne McCracken for Judge. If you don't see your favorite candidate in your favorite race, here's why: "In city or county races not listed here, the POA chose not to endorse a candidate." Which probably pisses off Forrest Williams to no end...

Either Rosen or Carr may get to bring charges in the 4th homocide of the year in San Jose which took place last night/ this morning at a restaurant on Berryessa Road and Capitol Avenue...

Our sister blog, Watch Dog San Mateo, has been pointing out what a big deal a "two-tier" retirement system for municipal employees is, as South San Francisco considers the idea... well, Gilroy has taken some preliminary (and ceremonial) action on the idea too... Guess what? Municipal employees don't like it...

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.17.10: What's your vector Victor?

The Merc's Ed Board comes out with a strong pitch for baseball in San Jose and is pushing MLB Commissioner Bud Selig to do the same...

When the going gets tough on government, government starts looking at the easiest taxes to pass. Hence the 9-1-1 tax two years ago in San Jose and perhaps some others this year. One of the 'easy' taxes to get is to up the ante on the two card rooms in town on the June ballot. The other is not so easy: a 1/4 cent sales tax that will probably be worded as saving police and firefighters jobs in November. Watch Dog can only imagine how a sales tax hike on the November ballot will impact the planned ballot measure for a Major League Baseball stadium...

Former prosecutor Ben Field is in the news again... and it still isn't going Field's way. You'll remember that he was the former County prosecutor whose ethics (or lack thereof) were the focus of a Merc investigation which caused him to be disbarred, which an appeals board of the State Bar just upheld... (Recall also that Mr. Field is now a City Hall regular as he works for former Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez at the South Bay Labor Council.) We love this ironic line in the Merc story: Current District Attorney Dolores Carr also vouched for Field's honesty and integrity but conceded he failed to meet the office's overall ethical standards. He failed to meet the "office's overall ethical standards"? Really?

While we are on it... If you like graphs, methodologies, and candidate-sponsored poll results, you should check out DA challenger Jeff Rosen's website today. Rosen's poll says he's winning (big surprise)... but we guess if it didn't, we'd never see the results. Mr. Field should have had Jeff Rosen vouch for him...

This won't help the bottomline... there was significant damage to the West Valley College theater during the rain storms a few weeks back. The price tag? $500K or more...

Yesterday we learned about kids from Sobrato High School in Morgan Hill pushing for a proper football stadium, over the objections of San Jose Councilmember Ash Kalra... now we see that Monta Vista High School kids in Cupertino are pushing for lights at their football field. They have a 1,000-person petition on their side... but in this case, neighbors have some objections.

The Milpitas Walmart would like to expand its store to include a grocery store, be open for 24 hours, and sell alcohol. Expect a rowdy Planning Commission meeting in March on these plans...

San Jose Inside fills us in on San Jose being named America's Happiest Big City by Gallup's Well-Being Index. America's Bhutan... (Bhutan has a Gross National Happiness index...)

And finally, for all you conspiracy theorists: there will be Vector Control District helicopters spraying this week. "What's your vector Victor?"

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.9.10: It depends what your definition of "all" is...

Dolores Carr just can't help herself. She has some sort of addiction to bad decisions that inevitably lead to bad press... Her addiction and the bad press lead directly into more ammunition for Jeff Rosen's campaign. Remember the Memo she issued to her entire staff that said something like -- don't take any cases to a specific judge, you know, the boycott Memo. Well, she has been taking some serious heat for that decision... so she has back-tracked. Apparently Dolores Carr didn't mean it when she wrote: "I have decided to exercise a challenge to Judge Bryan pursuant to CCP 170.6 in all criminal cases." She is disputing the definition of the word "all" -- very Clintonesque Ms. Carr, very Clintonesque...

Speaking of interesting June 2010 ballot battles... the Santa Clara City Council will decide about what the actual ballot language will be on the ballot related to the 49ers stadium election. One small problem, the City Staff in Santa Clara seem to have a different idea of what voters should read and vote on in June versus what the stadium backers feel voters should read and vote on. Watch Dog's guess is that the 49er's language will take the day... This is such big news (apparently), even the Chronicle has a story...

Speaking of politics...

Mayor Reed did a big favor for the SJPD (and the POA) when he penned a very critical letter back to Assemblymembers Joe Coto and Paul Fong. Remember, Coto and Fong have asked a State Assembly Audit Committee to look into the San Jose Police Department training and practices in light of all the news stories and community complaints. By the way, the letter appears nowhere on the Mayor's website... only on Protect San Jose.

And more politics... and sports...

Matt Artz in the Tri-City Beat in the Contra Costa Times (you know you read it too) has a great piece about an imaginary conversation between Bug Selig and Lew Wolff about baseball and the Bay Area... Watch Dog's favorite line is from Imaginary Lew Wolff to Imaginary Bud Selig:

Bud, please, it doesn’t make sense to have two teams in one metropolitan area, and have both of them 40 miles from the area’s largest city.

That pretty much sums it up... unless of course your pitching ace is in arbitration...

Yesterday the Merc delved into the disagreement between San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and City Manager Deb Figone over how to revamp the City's pension boards. Figone had one way to do it, the Mayor had another way that was developed as a compromise. The Merc gives props for the Mayor for trying and encourages the reform, but ends with this: "But it's a shame taxpayers will still fall short of majority representation."

There was a huge fire in an East San Jose warehouse yesterday. You probably saw the smoke.

Soccer fields, soccer fields, everywhere there are going to be soccer fields near the new Earthquakes field.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District Board is about to get a new member soon to replace retired old-timer Sig Sanchez, who retired at the beginning of the year. The South County folks would like his replacement to be South County-centric. There are 14 folks whom the Board of the Water District interviewed and they will get resumes back soon... check out the list of folks who applied.

Scott Herhold gives some perspective on MediLeaf in Gilroy in his column today. Herhold thinks Gilroy is wasting money on a lawsuit against an establishment that isn't that dangerous because Gilroy thinks pot is the boogey-man...

This is fun: A Palo Alto public meeting on High Speed Rail design options. Expect a lot of angry folks yelling and screaming... And their neighbors to the north (Atherton and Menlo Park) are threatening to re-open lawsuits against the High-Speed Rail Authority...

More fun in Palo Alto... the City Council is getting out of the Palo Alto promotion business and letting the hotels in town spend the money it collects from a new "Tourism Business Improvement District" to promote themselves...

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.2.10: Ground-Hog Fundraising Reports...

There was a big, 2009 year-end political filing due yesterday which had candidates all over the place scrambling to get their stuff in.

In the oft-written-about race for District Attorney, it looks like challenger Jeff Rosen raised about the same amount of money as the incumbent Dolores Carr. Welcome to the big leagues Mr. Rosen... Rumors that Rosen sent a thank you note to the Mercury News Editorial Board earlier in the week are unfounded...

In the race to replace outgoing County Supervisor Don Gage, Teresa Alvarado and Forrest Williams lead the fundraising pack with $116k and $113k respectively. Next comes Mike Wasserman with $81k and way back is Water District Board Member Rosemary Kamei ($51k) and Gilroy Councilmember Dr. Peter Arrellano with ($26k)... perhaps Kamai and Arrellano could team up, pool their money, and make a real run for it...

And to some San Jose races...

• Mayor Chuck Reed is running for re-election and his challenger raised $50... not $50k, just $50. (Reed raised just under $70k... not $70, $70k...)
• In the District 5 race for Nora Campos' seat: Xavier Campos raised just over $32k with challengers far behind. Of course, the newest entry to the race, Magdalena Carrasco wasn't in the race before December 31st, so she didn't raise any money -- but that doesn't mean Xavier & Co. aren't really, really worried...
• In the District 9 race for Judy Chirco's seat: Don Rocha and Jim Cogan both 'raised' about $21k, but Rocha plopped down $10k of his own money so he leads the fundraising race out there.
• District 1: Pete Constant raised about $13k (he has no opponent yet)
• District 3: Sam Liccardo raised about $29k (his opponent Tim Hennessey didn't file anything)
• District 7: Madison Nguyen raised $34k and may face a real re-election battle

In the huge primary battle for the Democratic nomination for the 21 Assembly seat (the one Ira Ruskin will be leaving) -- race newcomer Josh Becker kicked everyone's ass in fundraising and has the most cash on hand going into the new year, over $200k+ to be exact. San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon has $133k+ on hand and Palo Alto City Councilwoman Yoriko Kishimoto has just over $100k to work with... of course, Kishimoto put in $40k of her own money this period, so she is being way outpaced on the fundraising side of the campaign.

The respect and goodwill that Republican Gubernatorial candidates Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman are showing each other is heartwarming... really. Yesterday Poizner told reporters that Whitman's campaign guru Mike Murphy threatened him to drop out of the race. (Poizner had an email sent from Murphy to a Poizner staffer to back up his claim...) Murphy, obviously much funnier than Poizner, then questioned Poizner's "mental condition"... Murphy went on to call Dianne Feinstein old and that Poizner might want to take on an old Democratic Senator in a few years rather than stay and fight in a race where he'll be outspent and beat up... I'm not sure this race is helping democracy any, and it certainly isn't good for the Republican Party, but it is good reading...

San Jose Councilmember Sam Liccardo put pen to paper (or finger to keypad) in today's Mercury News defending VTA and talking about innovation in tough economic times. Personal Rapid Transit, coming to an airport near you...

The Merc Editorial Board (finally) gives a nod to San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis for promoting Phan Ngy to Deputy Chief.

Here is something that should surprise absolutely nobody: our County's property tax base is taking a major hit to the tune of $70 million...

And while that's happening, the City of Gilroy (and everyone else) is trying to figure out what to do with ballooning retirement costs of city employees... today's nightmare story is about Gilroy.

And if property taxes are falling, why not look to increase the property taxes?

Foothill-De Anza Community College may become the first Community College District in the state to put a parcel tax measure on the ballot... they are moving forward with a poll to see what voters will swallow.

Protect San Jose wants body armor to be banned for felons -- that makes sense. But if you outlaw body armor, only outlaws will have body armor... or something like that. I read that on a bumper sticker once.

There was a bad accident in Los Gatos yesterday that killed a bicyclist.

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.1.10: Scary Legroom...

Before we do anything else, Watch Dog must welcome Sunnyvale Councilmember Otto Lee back from his one-year tour of duty in Iraq.

Sunday had the Merc's Internal Affairs center-stage on the political gossip front:

IA delved a bit into the departure of the once-considered Chris Constantin from the City Auditor's office to San Diego and what is likely to happen next in that office. IA also talked about San Jose City Council races that are taking shape -- District 9 (Judy Chirco's seat) and District 5 (Nora Campos' seat) are predicted to be battles.

• In District 5, we learn from IA that Magdalena Carrasco is slated to join the race. She has a high-placed ex-husband helping her out and we hear that former Supervisor Alvarado is also on the Carrasco train. Word on the street is that the Campos Camp is worried...
• In District 9, IA missed the entrant into the race that everyone is talking about and whose name rhymes with Scary Legroom... (Ironically, the aforementioned Chris Constantin was once rumored to be in the race...) Meanwhile in District 9, Don Rocha sent an email to supporters (and everyone else) to announce some key endorsements (Assemblymember Jim Beall and current District 9 Councilwoman Judy Chirco) and his fundraising total: $33,000. Everyone else's fundraising totals will be available today/tomorrow. We'll report on those numbers later.

In other political news... the Merc Editorial Board used Jeff Rosen's website to write an editorial against Dolores Carr... just kidding. But the Editorial Board was not shy in its criticism of the District Attorney, running through her ethical lapses and tone-deafness, from the De Anza rape case to the judge boycott... not missing a beat, Rosen has it up on his website with this url rosen4da.com/arrogance.html ...

Perhaps this DA, or the next, will get a chance to prosecute this: two young men beat a homeless man with a stick, and strangled him, in Gilroy last week. The Police are still investigating.

San Jose Family Camp, that family haven near Yosemite, may not open this coming summer because the dining hall is apparently unsafe and the drinking/ cooking water has E. Coli in it. San Jose, which owns and runs the Camp, is trying to figure out what to do and will have a meeting in late February or early March. Expect a big turnout for that meeting. On a someone separate note: Does anyone else find it ironic that there is tainted water at San Jose Family Camp? You could through a rock from that place and hit Hetch Hetchy...

Speaking of overdue repairs: the Merc did some digging and found that the expense to seismically retrofit homes could be too expensive for homeowners to actually do the work. And the cost varies greatly from city to city...

Scott Herhold takes a bunch of people to task for locking the doors of the Fairmont on the First Street side... he says they were always meant to be open, but the crowd is now "rougher"...

Oh no... "Sacramento to consider Little Siagon designation" Let the games begin...