Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.26.09: A Supreme Tuesday Edition...

As we come back from a long weekend, the news today will be dominated by Supreme legal stuff... California Supreme Court's decision on Proposition 8 and Obama's pick for the US Supreme Court.

But Watch Dog must ask that you don't forget the local stuff...

Good news. The San Carlos man/Olympian/Alzheimer's sufferer who wandered away from his home was found in Oakland. He is ok and his family is relieved, as you can probably imagine.

The Sequoia Union High School District battle with Everest Charter School took another turn. We know Everest is taking their battle with the School District to court, but they are also getting a vacant office space ready for school in the fall, while the School District is getting the proposed site for Everest, a vacant lot in East Palo Alto, ready. This is all getting pretty confusing (and costly), but expect the situation to get worse before it gets worse...

Take THAT State. San Carlos is (probably) going to declare themselves in "severe fiscal hardship" in an attempt to limit the amount of money that State can pilfer from its local coffers. No word yet as to what the "severe fiscal hardship" designation will do for San Carlos' bond rating... To alleviate some of that "severe financial hardship" it may cost a lot more money to do stuff in San Carlos... like park illegally, receive a permit, or get a copy of a police report...

Speaking of fiscal hardship, that's what San Carlos School District parents may feel if their kids need summer school. That's because the School District just axed its summer school plans to save money.

It looks like South San Francisco will have a contested City Council race this November. Three seats are open, two incumbents have announced their intention to run again, one is on the fence, and two challengers are lining up to run. Expect a busy Labor Day-to-Election Day sprint...

Belmont wants to make sure that land now designated a park will stay a park forever. The Belmont City Council doesn't seem to trust the wisdom of future City Councils and would like to permanently make parks parks.

Congresswoman Jackie Speier placed an OpEd in the Daily Journal in honor of Memorial Day.

(Not wanting to be left out, San Mateo City Council candidate David Lim blogged about Memorial Day.)

First, Belmont banned smoking in apartment complexes, now an apartment complex wants to ban smoking in their own apartment complex. This time in San Mateo. This renter-driven initiative may be part of a trend, or maybe their is just smoking-ban-envy on the Peninsula...

Speaking of people taking action on their own... 8,000 homes in San Mateo are voting on a whether or not they want to pay an annual assessment to pay for flood protection. Three weeks from now we'll know the result of the vote.

There is a public battle (re)brewing in Redwood City. The DMB plans for development are back on the drawing board, causing a Redwood City resident to ask, "Folks, can't we all just get a long?" in today's Daily Journal OpEd. Those words didn't really work for Rodney King, and Watch Dog bets they aren't going to work in Redwood City either...

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