Morning News Round-Up -- 4.6.10: 161 more to go...

While it may not seem like the top story of the day, it should be: Public Defenders are now representing defendants in misdemeanor cases in Santa Clara County. You know, the whole "...if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you..." that the County sort of forgot about until now...

The good folks at Protect San Jose would like to remind everyone that there are three sides to every story as they chime in (briefly) on the court rulings in favor of the SJPD in the 2006 Mardi Gras trial. (Of course, Protect San Jose voices love the "three sides" mantra...)

Perhaps there are three sides to this story... or column. Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters wrote about skyrocketing public safety pensions and how they led to Vallejo (and other cities, perhaps) bankruptcies and the piece was re-run by the Merc. It is a good primer on how pensions grew, why, and what will happen next. But remember, there are three sides to every story... right?

Yes on Prop 14, according to the Merc. Editorial Board... Open primaries. Thank you Senator Maldonado...

Scott Herhold (two "h" sounds as you read this to yourself) looks at political family dynasties in Santa Clara County. Alvarado. Cortese. Shirakawa ("...a Rodney Dangerfield complex..."). Farr ("...a sturdy backbencher..."). Diridon. Campos.

High-Speed Rail is coming to town, we all know that. But the High-Speed Rail Authority is coming to town too, on Thursday in Santa Clara. San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed with be there... will you?

The Chronicle loves to hate the idea of the San Jose A's. In today's paper, they cover an anti-A's to San Jose protest that wasn't at last night's game. By the way, the A's lost 5-3. 161 more to go.

The County Office of Education is perhaps the least understood government agency in Santa Clara County... The question is constant asked, "What do they do in that fancy building?"... But one thing is for sure, the Board loves to throw Superintendents under the bus... and the bus is about to start rolling over current Superintendent Chuck Weis. Perhaps he could call Colleen Wilcox for a quick pow-wow about how these things generally end. Today's story is about how he is getting mixed reviews from the County Board of Education, and has this strange nugget:

"...Last month he handed the board a letter from his doctor warning that "his work schedule is impairing his ability to maintain long-term good heath." It advises that he have at least two or three weeks of vacation each year — he gets 25 paid days a year — and time for vigorous exercise at least three times per week..." Tick tock Chuck Weis...

County officials (and candidates) had to file economic interest statements. Some folks are rich (Forrest Williams) and some folks not so much (Teresa Alvarado). Some folks got gifts (Larry Stone) and some folks got none (Jeff Rosen). But perhaps the most interesting thing we learned from the Merc's coverage is this: George Shirakawa received tickets to the San Jose Giants from a tribal casino in Madera County... What could they possibly want from Supervisor Shirakawa. Hmmm...

The Meg Whitman Campaign Start-Up just received another round of venture capital funding from the Meg Whitman Fund... $20 million...

A plan to study the compost-to-energy plant on dedicated parkland in Palo Alto is moving forward. But a plan to study and a plan to build are two very, very different things. And the City Council there is divided 5 to 4...

From the blogs...

Mission City Lantern covers the anti-49er's litigation that was dropped... (Thank you for the comment James to give us a heads up...)

Over on San Jose Inside, Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio continues his quest for a 420 San Jose... and the debate in the Comments prove that everyone already is smoking pot.

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

It is a big political news day locally...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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