Morning News Round-Up -- 5.3.10: Grade the Mayor!

Sharks win again. Now they are up 2-0 against the Hockey Town Red Wings... As Sharks history proves, this is when it gets exciting.

The Merc's John Woolfolk talked to "friends, foes" about San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed's grade for his first year... Woolfolk talked to Chavez (who apparently IS still talking to the paper) who said bad things, Terry Christensen who said pretty good things, Raj Jayadev who said bad things, some average voter-types who said pretty good things, and Supervisor (and loser to Reed in 2006) Dave Cortese who said, "What he promised is what he delivered..." which reads to Watch Dog like a back-handed compliment, considering Cindy Chavez has often criticized Reed for promising very little...

The story about the SJPD beating of Phuong Ho took another turn we learned on Friday. Mr. Ho, the Vietnamese national San Jose State student filed a federal lawsuit against the San Jose Police officers, alleging that the Police violated his civil rights by using excessive force... $6 million is being sought. Mr. Webby's importance to the Mercury News continues...

Say it ain't so... the head of the San Jose Police Officers Association thinks that cuts and layoffs to the SJPD would hurt morale and public safety... Right, because having officers sued in federal court and on the front page of the paper is good for morale...

2,600 undeveloped acres near the water treatment (sewage) plant would be perfect for... sports! According to a lengthy, and no doubt boring, public meeting this weekend...

If it's Sunday (and it was yesterday) it is Internal Affairs day in the Mercury News. And in the midst of a campaign season, the "tips" must be flying fast and furious to the Merc reporters who contribute to IA... this week's stuff:

• Steve Poizner was on the New York Times Best Seller list with his anti-Mount Pleasant book... or was he,
• Carly Fiorina has some ex-husbands,
• Facebook or not to (mention) Facebook, that is the question for Chris Kelly, and Kamala Harris, and
• The Golden Spiggot gets criticized again... again... again...

Speaking of politics...

The Merc gives a run-down of the Supervisorial candidates running in District 1 to replace one of the two pro-fast food County Supervisors...

Speaking of speaking of politics...

The Merc has an editorial that actually questions a parcel tax at a local school district (Alum Rock) for their exclusion of charter school in their parcel tax... This is not the Ed Board's normal reaction to parcel taxes, as we've mentioned before, from April 16th's Watch Dog

Shocking! The Mercury News says vote "yes" on the school district parcel tax elections on the (mail-in) ballot this May...

Continuing on politics...

Scott Herhold and the Merc Editorial Board agree on Proposition 16. More importantly for sports fans, Herhold gets the Rosie Ruiz analogy wrong. If memory serves from Watch Dog's marathoning, Rosie "ran" and "won" the Boston Marathon, not New York... "How can we trust anything he writes when he get such simple things wrong," Cindy Chavez (probably) said as she read the paper yesterday...

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.11.10: Carr's Car Cost Constituents...

Just a quick note that the airport's spokesman David Vossbrink (like everyone else) reads Watch Dog. He posted this comment yesterday:

...By the way, we have some good news at the airport this week -- Alaska Airlines starts direct service to Maui tomorrow morning (Thursday) and to Kona on Friday morning -- and it starts its second daily flight to Austin (the nerd bird) on Sunday. This more than makes up for Frontier...

Thank you for reading... if only someone would pony up for a grand grand opening.

And if it is a new day, that means there is another Dolores Carr story. And today's daily story shows, once again, that she has no political instinct. This time, as promised, the Merc's Sco9tt Herhold looks into her fancy car (or car fancy). (We don't think he literally looked into her car, but perhaps he did...) A story like this makes writing a campaign hit piece almost too easy: Carr's car cost constituents... To add insult to injury, challenger Jeff Rosen drives an old, beat up, 15 year old piece of shit with 150,000 miles on it. Don't worry Jeff, there's a sweet Acura TL just waiting for you.

From the frivolous to the serious about the District Attorney's office... a ton of new information was uncovered about the medical examinations of sexual assault victims at VMC -- 3,000 videotaped medical exams, to be exact. Expect lots of new appeals to be filed and (hopefully) some wrongfully convicted folks to go free. The head of the DA's sex crimes unit had this to say: "...I really don't want this to happen again..." You and just about everyone else...

Pete Constant must be torn... His Chief of Staff is running to replace Judy Chirco on the City Council, but Pete Constant's "friend" (ahem...) is running against Cogan (and Don Rocha). Larry Pegram, the censorship-loving, gay-hating, fake-tan-wearing, Bible-thumping wacko has thrown his self-righteous, hypocritical, Sarah Palin-loving, Tea Party-esque hat into the ring. Mr. Pegram, please come out against the City's recent gambling measure on the ballot or risk losing any credibility you ever had...

It is interesting that the San Jose Police Officers' Association blog, Protect San Jose, goes 24 hours without commenting on the fact that the Police Chief seems to be packing is bags for the Big D. "The most profound statements are often said in silence..."

It was hard to miss the big fire in Santa Clara yesterday with the smoke billowing overhead. It was a 4-alarmer at a recycling plant.

Sheeeee's baaaack... the fake finger in chili lady. She's in San Jose, but not at Wendy's. Funny, if she did show up to Wendy's the employees there would actually like to give her the finger...

The Morgan Hill Unified School Board is finally going Hollywood... their meetings will now be broadcast. Just in time for folks to watch pink slips being handed out...

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.4.10: "...protecting the people of San Jose..."

The big news of the day is obviously that District Attorney Dolores Carr decided not to charge the San Jose Police Officers in the videotaped beating/Tasing of Phuong Ho. Watch Dog is not surprised... Scott Herhold at the Merc won't be surprised... the Merc Editorial Board is not surprised... but for the San Jose Police Officers' Association to be "not suprised" is a little suprising, at least in our minds. (Perhaps they knew about it before we did?) The POA's statement also says this about the Phuong Ho incident: "Even though our work is difficult, we do an excellent job protecting the people of San Jose. This case was no exception." We guess "the people of San Jose" don't include Vietnamese students studying abroad in San Jose...

So while Dolores Carr made her decision in one part of the County Building (which also was a big relief to her most prominent political backers...), on the other side of the County Building, some more news was being released... The Deputy Sheriffs Association is endorsing Jeff Rosen for District Attorney. How is that for political timing?

The Merc has dug up (been handed) a story about the Tech Museum that is likely to gain some attention today: Pete Friess, the CEO of the Tech Museum, makes lots and lots of money. His salary is up to $367,478, even as the staff of the Museum has gone from 150 to 60. The Tech Board President did not say, "He is such a great CEO that he is doing the work of 90 people he fired..." Ironically, San Jose Inside has a stat on the Tech from a recent post that says attendance was way down, all the way to about 390,000... perhaps Friess gets paid a dollar per visitor?

Apparently it is egg-laying season at San Jose City Hall... and we aren't talking about the decision to close the San Jose Family Camp either...

Palo Alto is getting a new Assistant City Manager... we guess the bar is being set lower and lower about what constitutes news that Watch Dog will re-report...

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.24.10: Bear Arms...

Because we love this visual we thought we'd start with this today... Some probation officers will be able to bear arms. (Think about it... bear arms.)

It's a good thing District Attorney Dolores Carr already received the endorsement of the San Jose Police Officers' Association, because she decided not to bring charges against Phuong Ho. (Ho was the San Jose State student that was beaten and Tasered by SJPD while being secretly taped last year.) The charges that the DA was considering included resisting arrest and brandishing a deadly weapon. Of course, the issue that is still burning is this: will the videotaped San Jose Police Officers face charges from the District Attorney. Based on how the SJPOA endorsement went, Watch Dog really, really, really doubts it... Oh, and this must be really, really big news, because the Chronicle picked it up too...

In other DA news...

State Senator Elaine Alquist announced her endorsement of Carr's challenger Jeff Rosen yesterday. Actually, Jeff Rosen announced the endorsement, but if you have an email address, you already knew that...

Hey recent (or soon-to-be) college grads, here's some good news. Some tech giants might be hiring locally. That's great news if you've studied the past four years instead of taking bong hits...

But one "company" that isn't going to be hiring is the San Jose Redevelopment Agency. Their budget passed yesterday amidst a long-ass discussion which ended with the five-year budget passing, with which no one seems really happy: the Convention Center people aren't really happy because they need to find some more money down the line, the County is certainly not happy because they are owed 52 million bucks, and basically everyone just held their noses. (San Jose Inside's favorite tid bit is in this story too: "...Pete Constant was absent because of a medical appointment..."

We love The Garage in Naglee Park, and so does everyone on the Food Network. Eat up folks, but expect it to be busy for the next little bit...

STOP. THE. PRESSES... Noreen Likens is going to retire. Noreen Likens is going to retire. If you know Noreen Likens name, then you are probably freaked out. (If you don't know her name, she is the Principal at Gunn High School in Palo Alto.) This "news" warranted a special email "breaking news" alert from the Palo Alto Weekly. This means that both high schools in Palo Alto need Principals, which means every high school Principal in the world is polishing his/her resume and trying to find Kevin Skelly's email address... look no further Principals, here is his email...

Development and growth issues in Morgan Hill are always fun to follow... The City Council there will be considering how the City's "southeast quadrant" will develop in the coming decade. Expect some vocal proponents and opponents...

Morning News Round-Up -- 1.29.10: Coto vs Reed?

For a Friday, there is some pretty big news...

Good morning San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis (and the SJPOA)... Assemblymembers Joe Coto and Paul Fong have something to tell you... they are asking the Joint Legislative Audit Committee launch an investigation into the SJPD to see if officers are trained properly and look into citizen complaints about use of force properly. But the intrigue doesn't end there... Mayor Reed criticized Coto and Fong, saying: "I see Joe Coto and Paul Fong all the time, and I'm surprised they haven't asked me about this." Stay tuned... Remember when there was talk of Coto running against Mayor Reed this June? Hmmmm...

The Merc's sport columnist Mark Purdy gives us an update about what the heck is happening with MLB in San Jose. The bottomline? MLB (and Bud Selig) are dragging their feet and San Jose needs to get on with it...

The City of San Jose, sensing a public sentiment shift under their own feet, is considering a new tax or fee to pay for tree maintenance... Which will make folks in the City who are uber-protective of their salary, benefits, and pensions pretty happy. You see, if there is a tax (or fee) for trees, then that money doesn't have to come from the general fund -- which means everyone's salary, benefits, and pensions are safe... for now.

You probably remember Broom Closet Modelling at Wilcox High in Santa Clara... the janitor who was running at teen modelling agency. But before there was the broom closet, there was a teacher arrested at Wilcox High School on the first day of school for allegedly having sex with a student... and that may have been a pattern that perhaps the principal knew about. Well, we have some more information today, thanks to the Merc: the Principal at the school will not face criminal "failure to report" charges... Not that it means anything, but... the principal's attorney is Steve Manchester, who seemingly endorsed the District Attorney when she ran the first time...

While we are talking about the DA's office, there is an Op Ed in the Merc by former Superior Court Judge LaDoris Cordell who calls for a mutany in the DA's office. She urges prosecutors to ignore their boss's decree to boycott one judge... and she calls out Jeff Rosen on the issue too...

High-Speed Rail could be moving faster than planned (pun intended) with a new influx of Federal cash... $2.25 billion, with a "b"... NIMBYs with an "n" better get their act together...

The backyard hockey rink in Palo Alto at the home of Sun Microsystems Chairman Scott McNealy needs to go through Palo Alto's planning process if he wants to keep it... What is weirder: Having a backyard hockey rink or Palo Alto's planning process?

Morning News Round-Up -- 1.22.10: More pot for Spicoli?

Storm, storm, storm... but drought not over... power out because of storm... etc., etc., etc....

The 49ers are headed for the ballot in June. Their ballot initiative qualified and the Santa Clara City Council placed it on the ballot. Good things the football playoffs aren't distracting anyone in the 49ers' organization from their pending political efforts.

Let's hope this press clip doesn't land in San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed's morning reading... or Harry's... or Krutko's... Tesla got its $465 million for their facility in Palo Alto. Ouch.

The Merc Editorial Board gives props to the (likely to be passed) Sunshine enhancement in San Jose that will include texts and personal emails. But the Ed Board can't resist taking this shot first: "...San Jose's mayor and City Council have resisted sunshine reforms for police records..."

The State Supreme Court struck down limits on how much medical marijuana patients and

caregivers can have for medical purposes. A ruling that will make Jeff Spicoli's day, but make the Morgan Hill and San Jose City Councils extremely angry and anxious. You know what can help cure anger and anxiety?

This story will make the San Jose Police Officers' Association a little angry and anxious... a City Auditor's report found that some Police Department desk jobs could be done by civilians rather than sworn officers. The City Council will take up the Auditor's report on February 2nd. Protect San Jose will (probably) take up the issue before that.

Speaking of Auditors and Police... San Jose Inside reports that Chris Constantin is leaving town and heading to San Diego. After being named, then un-named, as the City of San Jose's "Independent" Police Auditor, his stock sank (unfairly) locally. Unfairly because it was some other highly-placed peoples' lack of judgement that got him canned before he could actually get hired. Constantin is headed to San Diego to be the City's Deputy City Auditor. Good bye and good luck.

Yesterday we wrote that Tom Campbell woke up happy in Almaden Valley because the Governor's race which he left got more expensive right after he moved up in the ballot to the Senate race. (We got several wise-ass emails noting that everyone in Almaden Valley is required to wake up happy, it is in the deeds to their homes...) But the truth is that Tom Campbell will wake up even happier today when he checks the news on his HP computer. That's because he is leading the Republican field according to a new poll... and he is the Number 1 Republican contender to take on Senator Barbara "I heart the Oakland A's" Boxer...

Those poll results are being spun by Fiorina's team apparently. Politicon Valley has their press statement where Fiorina spins these results as positive for her camp (she's a strong candidate in the Primary and General) and opens up lines of attack on Campbell (career politician and worked in Sacramento recently). The best comes at the end of Fiorina's press person's statement: "...we expect his number to fall fast -- just like Martha Coakley's in Massachusetts..." Yes, because Carly Fiorina will be the Tea Party Candidate in this race...

Speaking of the increasingly expensive Governor's race, Steve Poizner criticized Meg Whitman's latest influx of $20 million bucks. Poizner says that Whitman is trying to buy the Governor's race... He did not say, "It isn't fair, I was going to try the Governor's race just like I bought the Insurance Commissioners office." Pot, kettle, black, irony... lots of zeros...

Hey, here's some positive news (with a downside)... home prices are up and so are sales. That's great as an economic indicator, bad if you've been saving up... Which makes this story sort of bad timing... or good timing, depending on how you look at it. The City of Mountain View is about to offer City employees $100,000 loans to buy a house in Mountain View.

Light Rail to Los Gatos? Maybe.

And while we are on rails... If State Senator Joe Simitian hosts it, anti-High Speed Rail people will come... that was the scene last night in Palo Alto when hundreds showed up to have their voices heard, or at least have their heads counted...

Morning News Round-Up -- 11.25.09: A Very Broccoli Thanksgiving...

Hitting the pages today news that State Senator Abel Maldonado has his fingers crossed for confirmation as Lt. Governor. The Merc’s Editorial Board chimes in their support for Maldonado calling it “progress for Californians.” And progress for broccoli too...

Now, the real question, which Watch Dog has been talking about even if no one else is: Is Pat Dando taking this extra long weekend to make a decisions about her future political career?

San Jose hasn’t been the “safest” big city since 2006 and now trails New York as 4th safest in the land. Mayor Chuck Reed remains committed to regaining the title as Assistant Police Chief Dan Katz reminds San Joseans “we’re the safest big city in California.”

And if San Jose is ever going to move up that silly list again, it may be with a new Police Chief. At least that's what some folks would like to see. With San Jose’s City Hall as a backdrop, “based on the questions… (we) ask that (Dolores Carr) convene an open grand jury…” asked Asian Law Alliance’s Richard Konda’s at a press conference with more than 15 other community groups. Police Chief Rob Davis asked Sgt. Ronnie Lopez to send an email saying his door was open and he was disappointed. Because nothing says "open door" like an email sent through a spokesperson through the media...

Convinced that continuing the conversation about police use of force is the best PR strategy... San Jose Police Officers Association Vice President George Beattie was “bothered” after re-reading the Merc’s use of force story. Beattie takes issue with the implication that force is common practice and that “minor infractions” are always safe.

Santa Clara Vice Mayor Jamie Matthews is keeping his inner-Yahoo under wraps (for now) to be “sensitive” to neighbor Sunnyvale. If Yahoo’s plans work out they’ll ditch Sunnyvale to be near the Silicon Valley 49ers – in Santa Clara.

Mountain View Police credit extra feet on the street from the Gang Suppression Team and a “zero tolerance” attitude towards underage drinking for a decrease in gang violence. That probably all helped... but also the fact that they are in Mountain View probably has something to do with it...

The Mountain View-Whisman School District yanked a discussion on special education teacher cuts before the meeting, at the request of the teachers union. Parents were pissed about a lack of “transparency” as cuts turned into part-time positions.

San Jose Insides Joseph DiSalvo sends his appreciation to teachers in schools as well as those in his life. Before heading off to enjoy his holiday repast DiSalvo closes by poking Inside readers “the division and the rancor of the discourse bordering on the personal on SJI is very distressing to me…” Perhaps he should have read the blog he posts on before agreeing to posting weekly. You think the personal stuff is bad now, DiSalvo should have read Inside during the 2006 Mayoral race...

Heading into the long weekend a little good news…

• Christmas in the Park opens for the 30th time in San Jose on Friday...
• Sunnyvale’s eSilicon is ditching a redux of their 2008 luxe dinner at Santana Row for a pizza bash in their office and a $5,000 donation to Sunnyvale’s Department of Public Safety...
• If you want to join eSilicon in the giving spirit this year the Merc has a few ideas...

And we end this short work week with this great tid-bit... As we were searching for the above picture of Pat Dando, and interesting "Sponsored Link" came up. It seems someone in the San Jose Revealed world is still paying the bill to AdWords... Go ahead, do a search for Pat Dando in Google and see what pops up.

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.28.09: Swine flu everywhere (in the news...)

Swine flu is everywhere...at least everywhere in the news, the actual flu isn't everywhere...Silicon Valley is (mostly) ready for Swine Flu, however, except maybe Kaiser. Doug North stepped off the plane from Cabo San Lucas with all the symptoms and still had to lie to get Kaiser let him see a doctor. No kidding, if you flew with the Norths on Frontier last week hang on for his results. Joy Alexiou, the County’s health spokesperson said there was an increase in worried patients but so far no confirmed cases. More details are on Twitter...

The Merc’s Editorial Board, participants on San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed’s campaign promised Sunshine Reform Task Force, questions whether Mayor Sunshine is holding up his end of the bargain. (Add this to the IPA fiasco/mea culpa and the loss on the Internet filters issue, and this is Mayor Reed's worst month in office, by a long shot...just ask the Merc's Scott Herhold what the Mayor's problem is...)

San Jose’s East Side Union High School District got press coverage... but maybe not how they wanted. "Rumors, poor communication and a lack of leadership...” is how the Merc characterizes East Side's feeble and unrealistic sports fundraising efforts. Trustee Eddie Garcia is hopeful you’ll show up at a meeting tonight, with your checkbook. (In case you forgot...)

Morgan Hill Superintendent Alan Nishino is pulling down $206,000 while Gilroy’s Superintendent, Dr. Deborah Flores made $175,000. Worse, Morgan Hill teachers' salaries are at the bottom with Gilroy and Morgan Hill Principals take home more than Palo Alto’s. Morgan Hill Trustee Bart Fisher is hopeful Nishino will pass up his guaranteed 3% raise. Weird, since (presumably) the Board of Trustees actually gave the Superintendent the raise in the first place...

Everyone is weighing in on the Propositions in the May 19th Special Election. The Merc’s Editorial Board says ignore party loyalists, vote yes on 1A. Morgan Hill Unified School District Deputy Superintendent Bonnie Tognazzini says the State shortfall will hit $14 billion if both 1A and 1B don’t pass. Which will probably impact some salaries...

Mountain View officials just found out that they’re “jobs rich” and house poor. The Association of Bay Area Governments is asking Mountain View accept its “fair share” of housing around the Bay by building more than 2,000 new units in the coming years. Councilmember Mike Kasperzak says the City goofed and missed previous opportunities to build housing.

The best and brightest from the Mexican American Community Service Agency couldn’t dazzle Gilroy Unified School District trustees and instead went the B.S. route. MACSA leaders dumped 200 pages of class schedules and handwritten calendars in front of Trustees hoping they wouldn’t notice a lack of details about the growing financial (embezzlement) problems. Seems latest figures on MACSA’s embezzling ways at El Portal Leadership Academy is now $800,000. Trustee Denise Apuzzo demands MACSA show remorse. MACSA’s Board President, Louis Rocha said the screw-ups were made by a few administrators and steps were taken.

Now that Judge Kevin Murphy declared that the Santa Clara Valley Water District's fees are unconstitutional, Great Oaks Water Co wants $5 million, and then some. Water District Chair Sig “Methusala” Sanchez plans to appeal. One possible fallout from the Judge's decision, farm failure on a grand scale. (Buried in the story is the news that Supervisor Don Gage plans to run for a seat on the Water District Board next year.)

San Jose Revealed wants former Mayor/lobbyist Tom McEnery to give up his losing ways – with the Sharks – and turn over the reins to another former Mayor. The Sharks are playing golf today, in case you missed it...

San Jose’s Police Officers Association has set up a trust fund for the family of Enrique Flores, stabbed to death at Almaden Expressway and Foxworthy this month. There are leads and Sgt. Ronnie Lopez says it doesn’t look like a gang-related murder. For further information, contact the Association at (408) 298-1133.

The City Manager in Palo Alto sees big cuts on the horizon...with a $10 million budget gap, what else are you going to do...Perhaps raise taxes on businesses? They could foam-containers... but instead are just going to be ban them...