Morning News Round-Up -- 12.11.09: Oakland A's?

Oakland is getting around to realization that they might lose their baseball team... they are now putting together 3 sites that could house the A's. Perhaps that would have been a good thing for Oakland to do before the A's decided they wanted to move to Fremont... and perhaps it would have been an even better idea to do before the A's decided they really, really wanted to move to San Jose...

BART to San Jose, or at least to Berryessa, is looking promising following hints from the fed’s that there’s a big chunk of change heading West. Congressmember Mike Honda and San Jose Councilmember/(incoming) VTA Chair Sam Liccardo both breathed a sigh of relief and shared tears of joy with Carl Guardino... actually, nobody cried.

Now we know why San Jose Councilmember Pete Constant is missing so many meetings. He’s been busy building an iPhone app for blight. The Merc’s Editorial Board sends entrepreneurial props Constants way.

After colleagues on the Alum Rock School District Board decided to close Pala Middle School, Trustee Tanya Freudenberger said she was “sick to (her) heart.” Superintendent Jose Manzo said it was District solvency or school closure. Trustees are considering an extension of their parcel tax, which will no doubt go over well with Pala parents…

Can San Jose neighborhoods keep grocery stores in operation? You gotta wonder…

San Jose Rose Garden residents wondered why it took the San Jose Water Company 4 days to start fixing the gusher flooding their streets. Water Company spokesperson John Tang says it was a delay due to higher priority leaks and it wasn’t the media attention that bumped them up the list. Thank you for clarifying...

The story of the tragic death of a 15-year-old girl in Gilroy took a turn for the worse. Early information from the autopsy indicates she may have drowned. Mark Stanford with the County’s Department of Alcohol and Drug Services says “it’s a myth that you can sober up with… a shower.” But that may be where her friends put her...

Palo Alto Independent Police Auditors Mike Gennaco and Robert Miller want the new chief to put fresh eyes on the use of Tasers. Adding to the Taser woes, the Judge said police acted improperly when they zapped Joseph “Tony” Ciampi. Local attorney Aram James worries “it’s just a matter of time before we’re going to kill an unarmed person." Sound familiar?

Mountain View Whisman School District teachers are pissed at the way Trustees “handled the breach of professional conduct by the superintendent.” (former) Superintendent Maurice Ghysels’ is quick to point out his romance with a school principal is not the reason he’s resigning. It’s a timing thing…

San Jose Inside spent their Saturday with the NAACP for a “Courageous Conversation on Race.” District Attorney Dolores Carr, Police Chief Rob Davis, and La Raza Roundtable’s Victor Garza joined community groups for a confab on perception vs. reality over the challenges facing San Jose Police.

Mission City Lantern gets giddy over Santa Clara City Council’s approval of the 49ers environmental impact report.

Morning News Round-Up -- 11.12.09: Economic good news... and bad...

The good news is the economy just might be at the very beginning parts of a recovery... maybe. The bad news? Well, Silicon Valley companies are using this opportunity to keep cutting their workforce... the latest is Applied Materials. Adobe was last week. Sun and Electronic Arts the week before. Expect more folks spending the day at Starbucks and Peet's...

In other economic news... current tech giant HP is buying former tech giant (?) 3Com.

More details are coming out about the 25th homicide of the year in San Jose was a sophomore at Santa Teresa High School. He was stabbed to death in his own backyard. There don't seem to be a lot of details about what happened or who did it.

There is at least one really good job that will be opening up soon: The Chancellor at San Jose/Evergreen Community College District will step down at the end of the year. The official cause of the soon-to-be-vacancy? Health reasons. The unofficial/ unmentioned cause? Financial problems and union issues. Between the Mountain View-Whisman School District, the Los Altos School District, and the San Jose/ Evergreen Community College District -- there will be a lot of new faces in Silicon Valley education circles next year...

Scott Herhold gets in on the "Berlin Wall 20 years later" action. He has his own interesting twist about being approached to be a spy, but it does remind Watch Dog of this...

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There is an Opinion piece in the Merc today about how prosecutorial misconduct costs taxpayers money and hurts credibility of law enforcement. Yup. At least the San Jose Police Department aren't mentioned in the story...

Speaking of prosecutors... the suspects accused of killing Mark Achilli in Los Gatos are going to be in court on Monday to possibly get their trial date. The prosecutor in this high-profile case? Jeff Rosen. Does that name sound familiar Dolores Carr?

Palo Alto Unified is looking to April 2010 to renew their tiny ($493) parcel tax... They must be encouraged by these results... and these...

Morning News Round-Up -- 11.11.09: Veterans Day Edition...

This will come as a (welcome) surprise to many... Medical care is coming back to downtown San Jose. Five years after Health Corporation of America (suddenly) closed the San Jose Medical Center, HCA appears ready to sell the roughly 14 acres for a medical center, retail, and housing to the County. Councilmember Sam Liccardo offered HCA had “… some responsibility to a City where they closed a hospital and limited care for the poor...” at HCA’s other local hospital.

San Jose’s 25th murder happened the same day that a community meeting happened in East San Jose to discuss the Halloween attack on two children. The victim of yesterday’s murder was a teenage boy. Councilmember Nora Campos joined the Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force and Mayor Chuck Reed to talk to 300 pissed off community members in an attempt to stem gang violence.

It was a busy day at the San Jose City Council meeting: Absent from the proceedings were Councilmembers Pete Constant (obviously), Kansen Chu, and Madison Nguyen. San Jose’s City Council officially ditched Styrofoam at special events and hundreds packed the meeting to ask San Jose not kill their affordable housing program.

Gilroy City Manager Tom Haglund has plans to rein on Medileaf’s pot parade by issuing a “cease and desist” order. Haglund disputes owner Batzi Kuburovich’s claim that non-profits don’t need business permits. Get your "prescription" in Gilroy fast, this time tomorrow it’s likely you'll only be able to buy pot on the street, not in the club...

Mountain View-Whisman School District Superintendent Maurice Ghysels is looking to leave his gig following revelations of his relationship with Landels Elementary principal Carmen Mizell.

Here is a weird coincidence: The Superintendent of the Mountain View-Whisman's next door neighbor, the Los Altos School District, is leaving at the end of the school year...

Congressmember Anna Eshoo was in town pitching healthcare and to make sure Hangar One isn’t “de-skinned and left” like a freak of nature. Eshoo emphasized “we have to have a plan.”

Also hoping to talk to Mountain View residents, Supervisor/President Liz Kniss talks swine flu Thursday.

If you were hoping to send your post-high school student to a CSU far from home, think again. With less money from the State, all CSU’s are tightening belts and offering fewer seats to freshmen. CSU San Jose President Jon Whitmore plans to cut thousands of incoming seats saying “we’re downsizing.”

San Jose Police Officer Association President/Protect San Jose’s Bobby Lopez continues the chant that if it weren’t for the pesky media, San Jose’s Police force would not be in so much hot water – or, at least, no one would know about the hot water. Funny, if Lopez spent half as much time addressing the problem as he does accusing the Merc of “trying to sell one more paper” there might not be any problem.

San Jose Insider/Santa Clara County Board of Education Trustee Joseph DiSalvo received a “tsunami of racist comments” following last week’s discussion and suggests this provides a “teachable moment” for the less enlightened. DiSalvo remains optimistic that the achievement gap can be erased, pointing out “there will always be critics to any bold initiative.”

Morning News Round-Up -- 9.23.09: City Managers in the News... (and plastic bags too)

San Jose’s Mayor Chuck Reed offered to “step out and take the lead in the South Bay to eliminate the scourge of plastic bags” at a press conference before the San Jose City Council officially said no to plastics. Councilmember Sam Liccardo offered San Jose could be the tipping point as nearby Mayors were waiting for San Jose to ban the bag. Tim Shestek of the American Chemistry Council complained San Jose simply hadn’t tried hard enough to recycle the millions of bags that find their way to the Bay. Watch Dog spies have sent numerous tips as to the lobbying effort that the Chemists (unsuccessfully) put up on the 18th floor... A tongue-and-cheek snippet from the funniest tip: "It took a team of lobbyists to get Pete Constant to vote NO."

The press from (former/fired) San Jose Independent Police Auditor Barbara Attard’s loan for a San Jose pied-à-terre was on the minds of San Jose’s City Council as they said they want to approve all home loans in the future. They might want to ask if the person they are providing the loan to is actually going to live in the home for which the loan was made...

(Former) eBay CEO Meg Whitman held her “official” candidate coming out party far from home. Whitman hit the trail in Orange County to promise an immediate RIF (reduction in force) of state employees. It sounds an awful lot like "blowing up boxes"...

This may be the busiest press week in Palo Alto City Manager James Keene's life...

• Union employees in Palo Alto are taking the Guvernators lead -- they’ve given themselves a furlough day to save the City money. City manager James Keene is pissed saying employees don’t get to just say “we’re not coming to work today” and called the employee-generated furlough a strike. You say furlough, I say strike... you say tomAto, I say tomato... tomAto tomato, furlough, strike... let's call the whole thing off...
• Meanwhile, other Palo Alto employees aren’t talking to each other. Public Works employees “ignored” Planning Department directions and chopped down 63 trees along California Avenue. An embarrassed City Manager James Keene apologized and promised to do better while Public Works Director Glenn Roberts called it “unacceptable.”

From Palo Alto to Morgan Hill, the City Managers in the News theme continues...

• Morgan Hill attorney Ben Tichinin’s lawyer Steven Fink said “the First Amendment doesn’t just protect acts of chivalry, it protects the weirdos and the loonies…” Yep, he was talking about his client's predilection for spying on Morgan Hill City Manager Ed Tewes.
• Ed Tewes landed in the news a second time as Morgan Hill struggles to balance the budget, deal with (likely) layoffs, and unhappy unions.

The Merc’s Sal Pizarro celebrates San Jose’s roots as part of the San Jose Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival. Pizarro (hopes to) rub elbows with Benjamin Bratt, Joan Baez, Los Lobos, Mariachi Cobre, Carlos Santana, and Linda Ronstadt while tapping his toes.

Mountain View Whisman Trustee Fiona Walter said her “wish and planning would be is we keep class sizes as small as we can…” as the District faces $1 million cuts from the State (and more to come) and new school boundaries. From your mouth to Sacramento's ears Trustee Walter...

San Jose Insider/Metro columnist Gary Singh rehashed his Saturday visit to Soccer Silicon Valley’s honoring of Earthquakes/A’s owner Lew Wolff. Singh wasn’t moved by Silicon Valley Leadership Group Carl Guardino’s “sappy” introductory speech. We were...

Assemblymember Paul Fong must be quaking in his boots. Mission City Lantern broke the news that anti-49ers fans at Santa Clara Plays Fair have accused Fong of voting for State Senator Elaine Alquist's bill because of “moneyed interests."

Morning News Round-Up -- 9.11.09: The Honorable Councilmember Slumlord...

Here is a ballot designation Cupertino Councilmember Gilbert Wong probably won't put next to his name next time he runs: Slumlord. Wong refused to meet with property owners in San Jose’s Hoffman Via Monte neighborhood for year. When property owner Nubia Ramirez and neighbors threatened with a letter to the Cupertino City Clerk Wong found time to talk. Post-meeting, Ramirez says Wong asked her not to dish details to the press. Oops.

The Merc’s Sal Pizarro enjoyed a lesson in history as San Jose’s Mexican Heritage Plaza celebrated its 10th birthday. Mayor Chuck Reed and Councilmembers Nora Campos and Sam Liccardo were on hand to honor founder Blanca Alvarado with a mosaic.

Speaking of folks no longer working at the County Building...

Retired Santa Clara County executive Pete Kutras sends a smack down to San Jose State University Professor Terry Christensen and lobbyist Pete Carrillo. Kutras is truly pissed off at the idea he, and his County Executive colleagues, are unknown and need a Mayor of Silicon Valley to provide accountability. As rebuttal to being unknown Kutras rattles off the names of County Exec’s crying “I never knew we were unknown.” Is this the most obscure fight you have ever heard of? It is almost the beginning of a joke: A retired County Executive, a lobbyist, and a professor walk into a bar...

Santa Clara County Sheriffs shot a man in East San Jose. A slight problem: they were in the City of San Jose. The man who was shot was not identified and was taken to the hospital.

Los Gatos developers are hoping offers of new (soccer) turf and LED’s for trees will help sway minds for storage building on University Ave. Planning Commissioner Marcia Jensen said she wonders how a soccer field offset “the traffic impact…” right before she voted for the project.

Busted. Acupuncturist/perv Tung Wei Pan secretly videotaped patients as they undressed. A sharp eyed woman saw the tell-tale red light and sent Santa Clara County Sheriff’s to expose the child porn filmmaker.

The new look at Palo Alto’s City website is courtesy of a citizen committee pissed off at the (nearly) quarter million face-lifts the site received 2 years ago. (Former) Committee member David Voelker ditched the community effort complaining discussions on the basics could have been done quickly if the pros were left alone. (We just like using the phrase "face-lift" and "Palo Alto" in the same story...)

Forget the rabbit’s foot, Palo Alto has a lucky building. Saeed Amidi’s office on University Avenue has seen the birth of Google, Logitech, and PayPal along with Amidi’s own American Liquid Packaging Systems. UpMo CEO Jack Abraham is the latest to pin their hopes on technology and a lucky building, not to mention Amidi’s angel investor status.

Mountain View City Councilmembers prefer wildflowers. Looking at ways to build the Stevens Creek Trail residents and City staff proposed picnic tables, restoration of the cherry orchard, a community farm, and trees. Led by Councilmember Ronit Bryant, the Council settled on flowers, if there was money for it. Councilmember Mike Kasperzak said of the farm idea “I don’t think we want people bringing their hoes and rakes on the trail.”

More Students = More Headaches for Mountain View-Whisman.

San Jose Inside and Mission City Lantern shared the news: San Jose Councilmember Pete Constant is not happy at the thought of losing his crackberry during meetings. Constant did not say, "I really don't like my colleagues, so why should I listen to them when they speak?"

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.6.09: City, can you spare $600K?

The San Jose City Council will be hosting a bake sale any day now. City Manager Debra Figone said the worsening economy is leading to a budget deficit of $62.5 million for the next fiscal year. Ironically, Mayor Chuck Reed will release a scary budget message Friday the 13th...

Speaking of the City of San Jose spending money...

San Jose's (four-letter-word) developers ROEM and CORE are putting their hands out for more than $600,000 for a project not due to break ground until 2013. The developers need an advance on money the City's Housing Department has promised. This (semi)bailout would usually sail through the City Council no problem as the money had been promised and the developers just want an advance. Given the economy, that seems to make sense. But, this bailout isn't sitting too well with some of the neighbors of the Fiesta Lanes project on San Carlos Avenue. That's probably because ROEM/CORE have been seen as neighborhood bullies since the project started. Backyard neighbors to the project were told a year ago that part of their yards were actually on the project's property. These neighbors got a nasty note from ROEM/CORE telling them that their fences were to be removed...which was not very neighborly. One such neighbor, Terri Belandra of the Fiesta Lanes Action Group, is fighting back and seems to have the ear of the City Council because she got the bailout package delayed a week and got Councilmember Oliverio all riled up too. Another pissed-off neighbor is Rod Sayfie, the owner of Meineke Muffler, whose lease on the property slated to be part of the development isn't up until 2013. Sayfie doesn't want to leave early and doesn't like the way ROEM and CORE have treated him up to now either.

(Watch Dog readers should know that ROEM/CORE are likely to get the bailout they want from the City Council. RObert EMami (get it? ROEM) is perhaps the most generous political contributor to causes close to some City Councilmembers. Watch Dog bets that the Councilmembers who speak up loudest for the bailout are also the folks that are the beneficiaries of ROEM's largess.)

Speaking of active neighbors...Los Gatans pissed about a proposed cul-de-sac and development were successful in delaying project decisions too. Resident Stephanie Lynatt is concerned the orchards are disappearing and Planning Commission Vice Chair John Bourgeois complained the architect didn’t implement the level of changes the Commission asked for.

Santa Clara County is offering a Pharmaceutical Drop-Off Program for folks to go dump their unused med’s in a plastic box and not down the toilet. Pill-snatching, pharm-partying teenagers are not big fans of this new County program...

Three Silicon Valley blackmailers are heading to the County brig. Superior Court Judge Thang Nguyen Barrett generously gave them less than a year in County lock-up for luring men into a sex tryst – with cameras turned on. James Spader did not speak on behalf of the accused...

In a much different kind of scam (we hope) -- a group of scam artists pretending to be with the City of San Jose Senior Centers is hoping to separate older folks from their hard earned cash. Watch out...

Perhaps the number of desperate scammers is about to increase...the unemployment rate in the Silicon Valley jumped to 9.4% in January. The Silicon Valley Leadership Group's Carl Guardino is predicting a worse news in February and March...and he is usually such an upbeat guy...

Hao D. Lam was murdered outside a home in San Jose’s Alum Rock neighborhood Tuesday night. The Police are reticent to share details and are hoping you’ll call with information: (408) 808-4500.

Some Mountain View pre-school parents are pissed off and the Mountain View-Whisman School Board heard all about it. The pre-school currently rents unused District facilities. Now, the District needs that facility back as Mountain View-Whisman School District expands. The District and parents agreed to meet again and the District (and the City) are trying to help the pre-school relocate.

San Jose Revealed lets loose with more Quick Notes – or as Revealed calls them – notes for the temporally frugal…they hit Mayor Reed’s junket to D.C. to dine with SJSU officials. They also get a shot in on a GOP boss' salary...(which Watch Dog San Mateo wrote about yesterday)...

Morning News Round-Up – 1.20.09: Obama-rific Edition...

Apparently something is happening in Washington today...so we'll be brief...

San Jose Revealed chastises the weakening Mercury News for a possible misstep in saying Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles is the last living person to have stood on the balcony with Dr. Martin Luther King. Revealed even posts the famous photo of Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr., and Rev. Ralph David Abernathy as proof. Revealed was right on one count, facts are boring. Sorry Revealed, Rev. Kyles’ story is posted here along with the posted photo – people moved around after the photo. Watch Dog likes Revealed, but if you’re going to smack someone get your facts straight.

Revealed continues saying San Jose Councilmember Madison Nguyen remains firmly in the Labor camp – her vote for Republican/Councilmember Pete Constant’s choice for the Planning Commission not withstanding. After the Inauguration excitement today, the City Council will vote on new Commissioners for the Civil Service, Elections, and Planning Commissions along with a new Constant colleague on the Retirement board. Will Nguyen vote with Constant/Reed or toe the labor line? We'll see...

And some more Constant (don't worry, there's enough to go around...) Herhold gets in on Constant band-wagon. Herhold, who calls Constant noble and (generously) describes his frame as “husky,” provides the background leading to the battle over Police/Fire Pension Board member selection. Perhaps Herold should take a look at how often Constant is out of City Hall on Pension Board business...we hear it is a lot...Watch Dogs enjoying the City Hall escapades – drop a line to Watch Dog.

Details are emerging about the SJPD shooting in front of The Loft early Sunday. The Officer, Joseph Paolini is on leave after shooting Marcos Zuniga in the face while the two struggled. Zuniga is expected to survive, but the real question is – will SJPD survive this drama while they are trying to justify arresting record numbers of Latinos? Oh yeah, there was also another Bay Area officer involved shooting on New Years...

The Merc’s Editorial Board weighs in on the Governor’s proposal to toss environmental standards out the window in an effort to put construction workers on the job widening Hwy 101. The Guvernator wants to waive CEQA, and the ability to file a lawsuit, on ten projects statewide. Sierra Club Director Bill Magavern supports the Legislative Analysts Office's recommendation to streamline regulations on 122 less controversial projects.

Mountain View Whisman School District Trustees are moving the popular PACT (not to be confused with PACT) program at Stevenson School. Trustee Ellen Wheeler is worried about the $2 million price tag for the move along with lost rent of $363,000 for Stevenson. Mountain View Whisman will also be enacting a lottery to decide whether incoming kindergartners get their neighborhood school if school enrollment gets to high.

Gilroy City Councilmembers will meet behind closed doors to discuss layoff-prevention ideas offered up by two of the City’s labor groups. Firefighters were upset to learn their proposal hadn’t been given to Council earlier said Firefighter Jim Buessing. AFSCME and Police reps don’t have any ideas to offer to the Council Wednesday when they meet.

Gilroy School District Trustees are wrestling with the District's administration recommendation to build a new school ($20 million) or contain costs by increasing class size. Trustee Fred Tovar said he would support larger classes only if it was temporary. Trustees will continue the debate and discuss sale of a former school site at their February 5th meeting.

The Baker’s Dozen of SJSU Journalism students traveling cross country to the Inauguration by way of the Civil Rights landmarks received the good news Monday. Courtesy of Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, they hold 7 of the coveted tickets to the swearing in and 6 to the parade. Rock on, Congresswoman Lofgren...as new Chair of the House Ethics Committee, she’ll have all manner of tough decisions ahead. Also Inauguration-bound, the Redwood Middle School students from Saratoga will be group #17, after the Ohio Ladies and before the Marines – get your tape ready.

Were you near Senter Road and Independence Drive on Sunday around 8 a.m.? If you were, did you see a green sedan hitting 81 year old Quy Tran while she was on her way to Mass? Tran’s son Hung is hoping the driver will turn himself in. If you know anything, give SJPD a call at 408.277.4654. Tran is on life support but doctors don’t expect her to survive.

San Jose has its second murder of year. Early this morning, SJPD officers arrested 19 year old Richard Delgado for using his car as a murder weapon. Delgado crashed into a fence. After neighbors confronted him about it, Delgado drove across a neighbors lawn to run over a 46 year old woman. "Based on witness statements, we believe it was an intentional act," Sgt. Mike Sullivan said.