Morning News Round-Up -- 1.8.10: Need a miracle?

High Speed Rail has certainly gotten the attention of folks up and down the Peninsula -- think Atherton, Menlo Park, and Palo Alto. But now, Mayor Chuck Reed and Councilmembers Pierluigi Oliverio and Sam Liccardo are concerned about a raised HSR track through downtown. So they did what elected officials do when they are concerned... they wrote a letter.

While that letter might have an impact, we doubt it caused this... The Executive Director of the California High Speed Rail Authority (Mehdi Morshed) is retiring in March.

Here's a fun story to end the week on: Silicon Valley bankruptcies are at an all-time high. Have a good weekend...

While we're on bankruptcies...

It is nice to see folks in the Merc newsroom are reading Watch Dog (or at least the Gilroy Dispatch...) They caught up with the story about the Sargent Ranch folks filing for bankruptcy... The Dispatch had it earlier in the week...

Four folks who are definately not filing for bankruptcy anytime soon are the four folks who are officially running for Governor (Whitman, Campbell, Poizner, and Brown -- sort of sounds like a law firm...) are being asked by the Bay Area News Group papers to release their tax filings. From rich to not-as-rich, here's where we think folks will line up: Whitman, Poizner, Campbell, Brown...

Lately when Watch Dog has written about the Santa Clara Unified School District is involved either teenage models or rapist-teachers -- but today it is new type of story for the District. Parents slept out and lined up for their chance to get their kids into the kindergarten at the Don Callejon School. No word if anyone uttered: I need a miracle...

There is an OpEd in today's Merc celebrating 30 years of the Rep. Kudos Mr. Reber and all who enjoy the theatre...

Taking Scott Herhold's column and running with it -- water well owners in South County are protesting proposed fees. Apparently, if more than 1/2 of all the well owners protest, then they won't have to pay it, according to the Morgan Hill Times.

There was a bomb threat at Palo Alto's City Hall yesterday morning which caused an evacuation (obviously). Coincidently (?) a small earthquake shoot Palo Alto City Hall (and the rest of us) at almost the exact same time... perhaps the bomb-threat-maker caused the earthquake?

Morning News Round-Up -- 11.13.09: Nightmare on Santa Clara Street...

It is Friday the 13th and there is a nightmare (for Rob Davis) on Santa Clara Street... Ethnic leaders in San Jose are calling for Police Chief Rob Davis to head into the sunset. Asian Law Alliance Executive Director Richard Konda doesn’t “ask for [Davis’] resignation lightly,” standing with La Raza Lawyers, San Jose Peace and Justice Center, Services Immigrant Rights and Education Network, and the San Jose/Silicon Valley Branch of the NAACP. Konda adds Davis’ resignation is not the “end-all solution” but a good “first step.”

No nightmare for Chuck Reed though: San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed’s high marks during a recent poll caused San Jose State’s Terry Christensen to suggest anyone thinking about challenging Reed would be “extremely” discouraged. San Jose Councilmember/ Assembly candidate Nora Campos dismissed the results saying polls have “varying degrees of accuracy.”

But there is a nightmare for Harry Mavrogenes and the San Jose Redevelopment Agency: The Merc’s Editorial Board (apparently) read San Jose Redevelopment Agency budget and found themselves with more questions than answers. First up: Does Redevelopment head Harry Mavrogenes know how much money he has in the kitty? Next: Can Redevelopment get the County to agree to $2 million (instead of $58 million) during their own cash-strapped challenge? County Executive Jeff Smith thinks Redevelopment is telling tales about the depth of their poverty and isn’t likely to ditch $56 million.

Meeting approval with the Merc’s Editorial Board, a proposal for the County to purchase the (former) San Jose Medical Center site to return medical care to San Jose. Calling the past 5 years a “public relations nightmare” for the Health Corporation of America, the Merc calls this a problem solved.

The 4 teens/(suspected) Sureño gang members who attacked trick-or-treating kids were in court yesterday while the youngest victim remains in “extremely critical” condition.

Calling compliance with Gilroy’s cease and desist order “irresponsible,” MediLeaf’s dispensary ombudsman Eric Madigan said the marijuana dispensary plans to stay open until they “work out the details.” MediLeaf attorney James Anthony is part of a “mercenary band of lawyers” looking forward to seeing the city in court. During a shopping trip to Rock Zone, 16 year old Jeremiah Loyd said “bud’s bud” as Rock Zone manager Cassie Lopez tried to explain the difference between (medical) bud and the other kind.

Life is good if you’re a Planning Commissioner working for the Mexican American Community Services Agency. Gilroy Planning Commissioner Art Barron played the lottery and took home $64,000. Perhaps he could use that money to help MACSA deal with their (alleged) embezzling problems...

Look for sparks to fly as San Jose’s Planning Commission and City Council discuss doubling the height of allowed housing on West San Carlos Street. Consider it a battle between the neighborhood, business, housing advocates, and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

San Jose’s Lynbrook High was hearing “Let the Sunshine In” as they powered up their parking lot solar panels. Estimated savings: $12 million from the districts 2nd highest budget item.

In a moment of rare economic good news, Gilroy Unified School District Trustees will save $20,000 million in construction costs during the Christopher School upgrades. Trustee/Christopher School Parent Club Vice President Fred Tovar commented he didn’t want to take away state-of-the-art fittings at the Christopher School theater or aquatic center “because a few individuals” want the same for their kids schools.

“If we wanted to go to Campbell’s stuff – we’d a moved there” Parents pissed at having their kids leave home in Santa Clara to attend Campbell schools didn’t say that but they sure were thinking about it. Hot on the heels of Santa Clara’s defeat at the ballot box another financial hit is in the works if parents determined to leave the Campbell school districts have their way. Santa Clara Superintendent Steve Stavis said his schools are “pretty much at max” with no room for new kids.

Morning News Round-Up -- 10.22.09: Beam me up...

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed opted out of adding sunshine to a gloomy Tuesday (Remember this? Sunshine go away today...) this week but now says he wants to reconsider releasing 911 tapes from the shooting of Daniel Pham. Perhaps a little late to the table, Reed and San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis are accused of misrepresenting the Sunshine Reform Task Force requests. The Merc’s Editorial Board sends props to Councilmembers Ash Kalra, Nora Campos, Kansen Chu, Sam Liccardo and Madison Nguyen for “standing up for public access.”

Parents at Wilcox High say they warned school officials about teacher/perv Edward Slate’s “flirtatious” emails to their 17 year old daughter. Superintendent Steve Stavis said the District is working closely with Police during the investigation.

The Merc’s Scott Herhold reminds us that the written/ spoken word is a mighty powerful tool, or weapon, as his neighbors talk about the use of ethnicity in describing cyclists (who may be) casing the neighborhood.

Payless Hardware on King Road in San Jose is licking its wounds after realizing it wasn’t the economy causing that slow leak from the till. Accounts Receivable clerk Desiree Herrera and husband Ruben skimmed more than $1.3 million in 7 years. The State tax guys are also pissed, the Herrera’s didn’t pay $182,000 in taxes on their ill-gotten gain. Office Manager Karey Thatcher is given props for the numeric sleuthing that uncovered the crime.

Silicon Valley the home to spies? Say it ain’t so. According to defense attorneys for Lan Lee and Yuefei Ge the Feds got it all wrong, Lee and Ge are super smart geeks who invented the better mouse trap. The FBI and prosecutors say not so fast, Lee and Ge were thieves getting ready to sell secrets to China.

Former Assemblymember Sally Lieber speaks out on campaign finance...

Palo Alto has tossed in the towel, declaring an impasse in negotiations with their largest union after 5 months of contentious talks. Union representative Nick Steinmeier and City Manager James Keene point at the other side for not accepting “reasonable” counter offers.

Trekkies beam in to San Jose this week for “Star Trek: The Exhibition” at geekiest museum of all, the San Jose Tech. The Merc’s Sal Pizarro joined Museum board members Judy Swanson, Steven Moore, and Mike and Joan Hackworth in greeting Mr. Sulu on the bridge. Pizarro reminds us the holidays are around the corner with a variety of gift purchasing opportunities in store.

San Jose Inside’s Fly ran into fake protesters marching in downtown San Jose. The pretend protesters work for Barry Swenson and are trying to increase sales during the housing crash. According to spokesperson Christy Marbry, it works.

Protect San Jose’s irascible Kathleen Flynn said Tuesday’s San Jose City Council meeting left her with “conflicted feelings.” On the one hand she was delighted with the Mayor’s stance against recommendations from the Sunshine Reform Task Force on the other hand she was pissed that Sunshine member/Mercury News Managing Editor Bert Robinson wanted reforms enacted… Bringing up the most puzzling question of all these days: Where is Sunshine Task Force Chair/Protect San Jose blogger Ed Rast?...

Morning News Round-Up -- 9.9.09: This Boots was made for prison...

Boots Del Biaggio never got so much press as when his sentence of 8 years and $67 million was handed down. Del Biaggio has until January 8th to pack his bag for prison. The other shoe drops when a judge hands Del Biaggio SEC penalties.

The fallout from former Mayor Tom McEnery’s visit to the Elections Commission continues today. Commissioners contemplate new rules on anonymous complaints, you know to “minimize frivolous complaints.” No word if this will be called the McEnery Amendment. Our biggest complaint is that the anonymous complaints are usually the most fun...

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse: County Tax Assessor Larry Stone, will really earn his daily boo this week. Thousands of homeowners who received property tax relief earlier this year will get an unpleasant notice – your taxes are going up.

San Jose Congressmember Mike Honda put pen to paper to say he was “flummoxed” over misinformation giving rise to contentious town hall meetings on healthcare. Honda concludes healthcare saves money and lives.

Palo Alto union staffers mysteriously picked up a bug that kept 25 percent of them out of the office. Union representative Lynn Krug offered “…I can only guess that the individual employees may have become ill from the stress of the City of Palo Alto contract negotiation proposals…” A sick-out, very retro.

Darkrooms, “donuts,” and atriums were on the minds of Palo Alto Unified School District Trustees as they looked at plans for using up the $378 million from last years successful bond measure. Trustee Camille Townsend wants the high school plans to give a “unifying theme.”

“Beach Hi” (Miami Beach High School) sends props to alumni/ Palo Alto City Councilmember Larry Klein. Beachers are adding Klein to their Hall of Fame along with actor Andy Garcia and U.S. Secretary of State Robert Rubin. That's pretty good company.

Silicon Valley giant, Apple, has fans, investors, and everyone else on the edge of their seats waiting for today’s big announcement.

Speaking of Apple, CEO Steve Jobs’ legal beagle wants Superior Court Judge Marie Weiner to agree to knocking down Jobs’ home in Woodside. It isn’t often you hear an attorney tell a judge “…pigs will fly…”

It’s all about the schools…

Santa Clara Wilcox High School student Victoria Villagomez watched President Obama as he encouraged students to study, practice, and be careful on Facebook. Villagomez, sharing the single parent lifestyle with the President, said “everyone can relate to the problems he had.”

The Merc’s Editorial Board shared a few thoughts on the craziness leading up to President Obama’s speech to children. Suggesting while it would have been tough for English teachers to explain “the Decider’s chronically bad grammar,” any President talking to kids is “charming.”

A field of 5 lines up for 3 seats on the Cupertino Union School District election in November. Joining incumbents are Soma McCandless and Kern Peng.

Teacher Patty Polifrone is ditching Mountain View-Whisman Schools. Rumors say the beleaguered teacher is heading a little south after pissed off parents didn’t dig her teaching style.

San Jose Insider/Santa Clara County Board of Education Trustee Joseph DiSalvo helped a Sharks-loving teen with a pesky No Teal school rule only to find himself facing the news that local gang members also love the teal. DiSalvo wrapped with a cheer for the uniform, and no teal.

Sgt. Jim Unland heads back 6 years on Protect San Jose to the night San Jose Police shot Bich Cau Thi Tran while she was waving her “Asian vegetable peeler.” The post is complete with police photos of the peeler/ weapon and goes after local media for screwing up the story from the get-go.

Morning News Round-Up – 1.5.09: Famous last words "...we don't forecast anything that dramatic..."

When elected officials take off for the holidays, it usually means that they want to hit the ground running in the New Year. Watch Dog suspects it is because they want folks to think that they work hard. The weird part is the City of San Jose doesn't have a Council meeting this week. I guess they work so hard in San Jose that they deserve to take an extra week off ;)...so the New Year begins with lots and lots of meetings (except the San Jose City Council)...here is a snap-shot...

• The Sunnyvale City Council will meet Tuesday to choose an interim Council member as bench warmer for Otto Lee, elect a Vice Mayor, and figure out how to make the budget work.
• In Mountain View, the City Council will elect their new Mayor on Tuesday.
• The Milpitas City Council will talk about land deals with the County for a new park.
• Monte Sereno residents will air their grievances about garbage and weeds in front of the Council on Tuesday.
• On Wednesday, San Jose’s Rules Committee will decide how much sunshine they want on meetings with McEnery et al about the new San Pedro Square Market.
• The Santa Clara Unified School District meets on Thursday to see how their schools did in 2008.

Saratoga’s new Mayor, Chuck Page, meets twice a month with the public, he says he’s often surprised by the scope of the conversations and even more surprised by how much he knows. He credits being second chair to Mayor Ann Waltonsmith for preparing him for the lively meetings. Looking forward Page says, "So if there's a way to create an environment for sustainability, a better world for our kids, that's a better thing. That’s the right thing to do.” Page hopes to build consensus with his colleagues (including incoming Councilmembers Susie Nagpal and Howard Miller) to discourage use of plastic bags.

San Jose’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, which contributes millions to San Jose’s financial health, is projecting little impact due to the economic meltdown. Dan Fenton, the CEO of both the ConVis Bureau and Team San Jose that runs the convention center, says "It's still too early but we don't forecast anything that dramatic at all. I think we're positioned much better than we were to be more resilient." Really Mr. Fenton? San Jose's convention business is immune to the economic downturn?

We love The Town: Los Gatos Observer Editor Alastair Dallas looks forward to the new police headquarters, as well as Smokey Market. Mayor Mike Wasserman has the honor of first shovel at the groundbreaking for a new library and Los Gatos Economic Vitality Manager Danielle Surdin has hightailed it to Santa Rosa, her seat to be replaced with a Community Development Director.

Watch Dog was going to launch into San Jose Revealed today about a weird bias in a post about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Not long after writing this anti-Revealed piece, Revealed disappeared...which caused some consternation on San Jose Inside but nothing compared to Mr. Rowen's consternation at Mission City Lantern. Watch Dog knows that it isn't Blogger's fault that Revealed is down because we run Blogger too...

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This affects a lot of folks locally, so I'll include it today. If you own Apple stock (and who doesn't) hold on to your hats. Steve Jobs announced that he has a "hormone imbalance" -- and not reoccurring cancer. Perhaps not since Fidel Castro has the world been so eagerly anticipated someone's health news. This will not end speculation about Jobs' health and stock jitters that come with it -- especially after Apple backed out of MacWorld.

Morning News Round-Up –- 11.27.08: "Final" Semi-Official Results...

The election is over...really. The Santa Clara Registrar of Voters has posted the “Final – Semi-Official Results.” Only the Registrar could use the phrase "Final" and "Semi-Official" right next to each other...Automatic re-counts happened in 3 races West Valley/Mission Community College District, Gilroy Unified School District, and Berryessa Union. So what happened in these ‘recount’ seats?:

• …West Valley/Mission will see incumbent Chris Constantin and newcomer Adrienne Grey taking seats.
• …the Berryessa drama concluded with Richard Claspill and Khoa Nguyen taking seats, incumbent Rudy Nasol lost his.
• ...in Gilroy, Fred Tovar, Rhoda Bress, and Mark Good held on. Jaime Rosso lost his seat by a mere 6 votes…if only Rosso had walked/called 7 more voters...

And in everyone’s favorite ballot fight, Measure B…after what looked like a heartbreakingly close defeat on election night, the yes folks pulled it out after all the provisional ballots were counted with 66.78%. But this may drag on for a bit…

Santa Clara Unified School District Trustee Don Bordenave hung on to his seat by just 29 votes, while newcomer Albert Gonzalez came in nearly 6,000 votes ahead of Bordenave. What happened there? Incumbents don’t usually get smoked.

Did all the election silliness get your juices flowing? Well, it ain’t over yet. The election of George Shirakawa, Jr. to the Board of Supervisors has left a vacancy in San Jose’s East Side Union High School District, applications will be accepted through December 10. If Eddie Garcia didn’t burn bridges perhaps he can get back on, after all, Eddie is one of the Bay Areas Most Inspirational Latino Leaders.

The Mission City Lantern offers gift suggestions for everyone from Mayor Reed's bud Vic Ajlouny to Erlinda Estrada – all this was all posted a minute after wishing everyone a peaceful and joyous 2009...ironic.

Letterman would be proud... Scott Herhold wrote the Ten Reasons to be Thankful. Among them the end (for now) of the mania for Coyote Valley development and Little Saigon. Wait until March, however, when the Little Saigon issue will be all over the place in the recall election of San Jose Councilmember Madison Nguyen.

The Thanksgiving free-for-all dates back to 1991 when Los Gatos residents Matt Ober, Brock Baxter, Kevin Sweatt, Ted Sweatt, Joey Alvarado, Wes Coy, Craig Evansa, Mike Ortega, Jeff Frederick, Huy-Lin Nguyen, and Jeremy Harms headed out to play pad-free football at LGHS. It has since grown to be the National Turkey Bowl League, "Where Athletes Are Reborn Once A Year — Thanksgiving Day."

Saratoga Councilwoman Jill Hunter learned the Village Post Office would be leaving town for the first time at a hastily called community meeting.

Facing a $3.3 million shortfall Morgan Hill will be adding to its financial woes. After more than 3 years of negotiations, the City Council unanimously approved purchase of Associated Concrete’s property for $3.9 million.

The Gilroy Dispatch wants to know your thoughts on which local governmental agency is the worst run. Your choices are the Water District, VTA, Gilroy Unified School District, or the City of Gilroy. So far, Gilroy itself is running away with the vote. Perhaps Watch Dog should run the “Which local newspaper is the worst run”…