Morning News Round-Up -- 5.21.09: Local Journalism Takes a Hit...

In case you missed it, the Civil Grand Jury is busy this week, we expect the Garbage Saga Civil Grand Jury Report soon... very soon. Perhaps today, but more likely tomorrow. We are taking bets...

From one side of the news to the other... Dana Yates, a reporter from the Daily Journal, gets a really nice send-off from Michelle Durand in her "Off the Beat"... The great part of this piece is that Dana isn't going far, she's going to work for the Bearded One, Assemblymember Jerry Hill, as the Director of Communications. (Nate Solov's new boss?) We can only hope that the Internet strategy includes Watch Dog Dana.

Election fall-out...

• The other failed election shoe is about to drop... the County is bracing for another $22 million hit from the State. (With bad news comes good, the County has the highest bond rating in the State, according to Moody's.)
• Pacifica is facing its own election shoes falling... Measure D failed and cuts are on the way. (Pacifica Mayor Lancelle is NOT pleased with the folks that ran the no campaign... Riptide has the details.)
• In you were wondering about how we did locally in terms of voter turn-out and how the County voted on these measures, the Daily Journal was kind enough to put it all together. (Preview: we mirrored the rest of the State, at least the 10 or 12 people who actually voted...)
• We guess there are three election shoes, actually... Show one was the actual election, shoe two is going to be the hit on local governments, and shoe three is the Bay Area Council, emboldened by the failure of the ballot measures Tuesday, calling for a "voter authorized constitutional convention"... Watch Dog will be there Mr. Wunderman.
  

San Mateo PD are (finally) moving into One Police Plaza... or at least our local version of it...

More on the Belmont Chamber President/Beau Monde Flooring owner and the molestation charges he faces... (Perhaps you know a good Belmont criminal defense lawyer?)

An entry into the Palo Alto City Council race for November: Gail Price, Board Member from the Palo Alto Unified Board. 5 of 9 seats are up, and (at least) two open seats because Jack "I hate High-Speed Rail" Morton and Yoriko "I heart Ruskin's seat" Kishimoto are termed out

Speaking of local City Council races... David Lim keeps the endorsements coming:

• Assemblymember Jerry Hill
• John Lee, San Mateo City Council
• Jack Matthews, San Mateo City Council
• Rich Hedges (Labor Leader)

The full Lim list...