Morning News Round-Up -- 3.18.10: Hungover? 420

John Woolfolk, the City Hall beat reporter for the Merc, has a piece in today's paper about pension costs rising in San Jose. The story is short, but the message is clear: the City of San Jose is in deep financial doo-doo. The City's pension costs are going up nearly 43 percent this year to clost to $200 million in the coming fiscal year. So all you folks who love neighborhood centers, libraries, and paved roads -- get ready.

Speaking of budget cuts... the East Side Union High School District is cutting just about everything in their budget for next year. You know what would probably help in these difficult times out there? A Superintendent...

San Jose has a pot club problem. You see, they are sprouting up -- and their landlords are being threatened to close them down. To add insult to injury, here is San Jose's chief Code Enforcement dude: "...It's not that we don't want to welcome medical marijuana dispensaries in San Jose. We just haven't had a chance to try to figure out where we want them, and how many we want..." Huh? It sounds like he's been to one too many clubs...

Yesterday we learned about a possible firefighter-backed ballot measure in Palo Alto (headed up by a Sunnyvale City Councilmember...). Today, we learn that the firefighters in Gilroy are just as pissed -- and so is the City of Gilroy. They keep sending nasty letters back and forth to each other (and to the Gilroy Dispatch). Perhaps the firefighters should call Councilmember Tony Spitaleri in Sunnyvale...

How about an IPA on Friday evening Mayor Reed?...

The Mayor (just this afternoon) admitted that he screwed up the Independent Police Auditor (IPA) selection. (He wanted a Lager?)

In so doing, the Mayor also shot back that he let the entire Council know that the Chris Constantin had a brother on the San Jose Police force. He isn't using the actual phrase, "Councilmember Campos is lying..." but that is what he is really saying. And he has Councilmembers Pete Constant and Pierluigi Oliverio to back him up. You see, Campos has been hammering the Mayor over the "flawed" selection process, even though she was (seemingly) intimately involved in the selection process. In fact, the Mayor, Constant, and Campos were the three most important people in the process, according tonight's story.

This is all very interesting in terms of the actual IPA story...

But the timing also reinforces a lesson that Watch Dog has been teaching readers for some time: If you want to release bad news, or as in this case, admit a mistake, do it late on a Friday afternoon, or the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, or around Christmas Eve...

This mea culpa was released on Friday afternoon and appeared in the Mercury News at 6:49 p.m. on Friday. A pretty good time to bury a story. If we didn't have such a crush on John Woolfolk, we wouldn't know that the Mayor admitted this mistake until Saturday or perhaps even Sunday. (Spies who work late in City Hall also help a lot...)

Metro versus Merc: Yesterday's Coverage...

In the news business, speed is important. Reporters, Editors, and newspapers fall all over themselves to be first with a scoop...

Yesterday, sad news broke about about Councilmember Judy Chirco and her being diagnosed with breast cancer. Our best wishes go out to her, her family, and her staff.

But the news roll-out of this story was interesting to watch unfold yesterday:

4:19 p.m.
Erin Sherbert with the Metro posts the story on San Jose Inside

5:47 p.m.
John Woolfolk with the Mercury News posts the story on the Mercury News website

Woolfolk has an office in City Hall, has all the sources in the world in City Hall, and works for the local "paper of record." He got scooped by an hour and a half on this story...that's pretty weak.

Sherbert works for the Metro outside of City Hall and some folks inside City Hall won't even talk to the Metro. Her scooping Woolfolk is pretty cool.

Is this just another sign of the Mercury News' downfall? Or perhaps is Woolfolk at fault? We know how Revealed feels about him...

Or perhaps the Weekly + Blog model just opens up new scoops for the Metro/Inside family of publications...

Again, this is not to undermine the seriousness of Chirco's health -- rather, a summary of the news surrounding the news...