Watch Dog San Mateo Has Moved!

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Morning News Round-Up -- 5.28.10: Drive safe...

This is a Friday before a long weekend, so you must, must, must read the newspaper tomorrow. Late today is a great time to release horrible news if you are a government agency, elected official, corporation, or candidate. So, Watch Dog will be watching, but you should be too...

In a story that may get overlooked today, but will have lasting implications, Caltrain got an important "waiver" from the Federal government to move forward with electrification. Yes, it sounds boring, but it seems really important.

Speaking of lasting implications... there is oil spilling out of a sunken boat off of Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay. Authorities are trying to contain the spill -- which seems small potatoes compared to the Gulf Coast. But there is no such thing as small potatoes when you are talking about oil washing up on shore...

Campaign finance filings were due this week. And the Daily Journal chronicles the contributions for the Coroner's race... Can you imagine the fundraising pitch from someone running for Coroner?

You'll remember a while back that there is a new plan for Menlo Park's "downtown"... well, it seems some of the businesses and property owners (like 100 of them) don't really like the new plan all that much... This could get interesting.

Lots of property reassessments are happening these days, according to a story in the Daily Journal. That might be good for lowering property tax bills, but it is a tough thing for a lot of school districts who rely on the higher property tax bills... hence the flood of parcel taxes on the ballot in May, June, and probably November...

The Burlingame drive-in may become a mixed-use development... which is not nearly as cool as a drive-in... The Burlingame Voice has some perspective...

The Daily Journal chimes in on local measures and state propositions:

Local: Yes

State: Yes, Yes, No, No, No

You got that?

Watch Dog has less and less patience these days. This is not a news story: Bay Area families packing up and leaving for Memorial Day. Right, like every year since it was called Decoration Day following the Civil War...

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.27.10: San Mateo is the new Ohio...

The Menlo Park City Council had a nice conversation about the Bohannon "Menlo Gateway" project on Tuesday night. (Admit it, you were there...) But two Councilmembers, Kelly Fergusson and Andy Cohen, are not buying what Menlo Gateway is selling and it is making Councilmember Heyward Robinson "uncomfortable" that the two aren't supporting it. He's probably uncomfortable because Menlo Gateway is huge, and in the future if the project is hated, Robinson will be the one who voted for it... except he hedged his bets and abstained last night.

The Civil Grand Jury says that consolidation of fire fighting services could save money for local communities. Thanks Civil Grand Jury, everyone is already on the case (San Mateo/ Foster City, Coastside, etc., etc.)

Which leads us to our daily dose of pointing out the screw ups of others... the San Mateo/ Foster City fire merger is so important that it has to appear on the homepage of the County Times twice...


100+ layoffs coming to a school district near you -- that is, if you live in the Redwood City School District...

Friends and farmers celebrated Jack Olsen's life yesterday at his funeral.


Fresh off the Mercury News endorsement this week, Rich Gordon gets the Will Oremus treatment...

Steve Poizner will be holding a town hall meeting today at noon at the Hiller Aviation Museum. Don't all jump for joy at once... try to contain your excitement. Whitman is in town tomorrow at Graniterock in Redwood City. Apparently San Mateo County is now Ohio.

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.26.10: 4,500 homes, 10,000 cars...

4,500 new homes in Brisbane? That's part of Universal Paragon Corporation's plans for the Brisbane Baylands unveiled last night to the Brisbane City Council. That should be great for traffic on 101...

Speaking of great for traffic... Check out this Almanac (hysterical) headline: Stanford medical facilities expansion could bring 10,000 more vehicle trips per day to the area. If they are that worried about car traffic, shouldn't they support High-Speed Rail? We're just saying...

It takes a special kind of asshole to "ransack" a school... but it happened again at James Flood Magnet School in East Palo Alto for the second time in a year.

It looks like Burlingame School District may buy, renovate, and eventually reopen the long-closed (former Buddhist center) Hoover Elementary School on Summit drive.

While we're there: the Burlingame Voice has a little perspective on the red-light cameras in Burlingame...

This should surprise absolutely nobody... the City of Belmont needs to dip into reserves to balance the budget next year. So does Watch Dog...

Jon Mays at the Daily Journal hearts the idea of a San Mateo/Foster City Fire Department...

A bit of really good news today: a bigger, better Ron Robinson Senior Care Center at the San Mateo Medical Center will reopen today...

Today is Yoriko Kishimoto's turn for a Will Oremus profile... Unfortunately for her, the Mercury News endorsed Rich Gordon today...

We mentioned earlier this week that we can't resist pointing out imperfections with the online Merc... we are clearly wildly immature. We wouldn't argue agains that... (There is a story linked here too...)

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.25.10: 2-40-2 Head line Bold herej head line bold goes here and here's more headling bold jyg

San Mateo County loves LOVES trying to consolidate things... trash, water, sewer, police, fire... and now the San Mateo Fire Chief Dan Belville is also going to be the Fire Chief in Foster City. Why pay two dudes when you can pay half a salary? That seems to be the thinking... and it may just be tip of the San Mateo/Foster City Fire Department iceberg...

The former Hillsdale High student who planned to pipe bomb the school last year was indicted by a grand jury Friday. Alex Youshock now awaits psychiatric evaluations about whether he is fit to stand trial...

Caltrain's spokesman Mark Simon writes a piece for the Daily Journal today about electrification... and he uses the word "diminishment," which looks funny.

Yesterday there was a story about how Belmont just launched their red-light cameras, and today there is a story about how Burlingame is abandoning theirs. Does Belmont not pay attention?

A two-pronged bond approach will be hitting voters in the Belmont-Redwood Shores School District this November. One for the elementary schools and one for Ralston Middle.

Some of you were probably at the big Stanford Hospital/ Palo Alto public meeting last night at the Palo Alto City Council... well, it is a busy week for the NIMBY set because tonight there is a big public meeting on the Bohannon "Menlo Gateway" project...

Finally, does pointing out the Merc's technical difficulties ever get old? (Remember the re-launched County Times?) Watch Dog doesn't think so... this was a headline for a breaking news story last night:

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.24.10: May Two-Four

Redwood City will start the environmental review process for the Cargill Saltworks development... this will take years everyone, so we are sure there will be plenty of public meetings to show up and complain...

DMB (the Saltworks' would-be developers) probably wasn't happy when the Mercury News hit their electronic doorsteps on Sunday morning... the Editorial Board wrote: Redwood City salt ponds not the right place for massive development...

DMB won't find this much fun either: There will be a pro/con discussion in Atherton on the project this week on Thursday night hosted by the League of Women Voters. Have fun in the NIMBY capital of the Peninsula DMB...

East Palo Alto is looking for a new City Manager (and soon, we'd bet, a new Police Chief)... there are 8 finalists...

Here's a sign of the times: the San Carlos Arts Commission may be disbanded because the city budget is costing the Arts Commission staffers their jobs...

Along the same lines, workers in the County are about to get cut too...

Monday + Daily Journal = Sue Lempert + Tax Collector/Treasurer

This is very strange: Just as some cities are shying away from red-light cameras (SSF, San Carlos) one is just launching them (Belmont). So make sure you slam on your brakes when you are driving in front of me in Belmont.

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.21.10: Simitian gets some anti-High-Speed Rail company...

Last week State Senator Joe Simiitian started hedging his High-Speed Rail bets and pulled up a chair to the NIMBY table... well, Congresswoman Jackie Speier may be following Joe...

Get ready for some fireworks... M-A is getting lights! Expect a high-energy NIMBY-meeting sometime soon...

That is a very slow news day... but like a Major League Baseball General Manager, Watch Dog can only do so much if the players aren't very good... and today, our best player, the San Mateo Daily Journal, seems to be having an off day. Some forgot to press the PUBLISH button...

Sorry...