Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.4.09: Hoping for Rain Edition...

(Before we begin...Last evening, Watch Dog posted a correction to its latest Tesla story. Please click here to see the correction...)

Unsurprisingly, the Everest Charter School got a thumbs up from the Advisory Commission on Charter Schools (ACCS) in Sacramento. This was widely expected to happen, even though all the local folks (Sequioa Union and the County Office of Education) said no...from the Commission, it will go to the Department of Education for final approval/rejection.

There are sometimes mountain lion sightings around the County...but rarely does someone catch the big cats on camera. As a Watch Dog, we don't really like big cats, but the video is pretty cool...

Police apprehended 3 of the 4 folks that robbed and held captive a 90 year old woman in San Mateo. There were two men, one (19 year old) woman, and one under-age kid...Scary...

Parents in Foster City want more schools in their neck of the woods because their part of the San Mateo-Foster City School District is crowded. The District asked for their feedback, and boy did they ever get it...

We have had our share of animal cruelty cases in the County over the past couple of months: the cat stomping, the dog punching, the puppy stealing, etc. Watch Dog isn't sure this counts as one of them, but...yesterday, Justin Bhagat Thind was sentenced to 6 months in jail (and 3 years probation) for threatening a scientists who experiment on animals...

Coastside residents that use Rancho Corral de Tierra as their own personal playground and backyard are concerned because the management of the 4,200 acre property is about to be transferred from the (anything-goes, dogs off leash, equestrian-friendly) Peninsula Open Space Trust to the (more strict) Golden Gate National Recreation Area...

Palo Alto is facing a massive budget shortfall of (somewhere near) $8 million over the next couple of years. They are doing all the standard things, hiring freezes and no more raises...but it doesn't look like that will be the end of the painful decisions...

Kelly Park in Menlo Park is likely to get a huge ($4.5 million) face-lift that includes tennis courts, a basketball court, a soccer field, and other fun stuff. With this park and the foreclosed home-buying effort they talked about yesterday, Menlo Park must be flush with cash these days...perhaps they can share some with Palo Alto...

We have (hopefully) one last campaign update from November's race in Atherton. The final fundraising numbers for the folks that ran can in this week. Elizabeth Lewis raised the most ($32,548), then incumbent Kathy McKeithen ($20,390), then David Henig ($14,017), and finally Richard Moore ($8,380). In case you forgot, Lewis and McKeithen won seats. (Perhaps) Proving the adage that whoever raises and spends more has a better shot at winning...

In Menlo Park, while they are a highly educated bunch, they can't seem to fill out their political fundraising compliance forms correctly. Of the three that were supposed to file their final November campaign statements, only Kelly Ferguson seemed to do it right. Rick Ciardella didn't detail how his money was spent and Andy Cohen forgot to turn his in. Where is the outcry for open government Lee Duboc?

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