Thursday, June 18, 2009

Morning News Round-Up -- 6.18.09: Tone-Deaf Edition...

How are local governments going to make up the budget gap? Well, different ways in different cities. In Millbrae, a red light camera could generate $50,000 per year -- and they are going for it. Drive safe out there... (The Civil Grand Jury has never had such a big financial impact. You don't know what I'm talking about?) That $50,000 won't mean anything if the Millbrae Fire Assessment isn't passing with voters as we speak, however.

In other bad, local government budget news...

Half Moon Bay + $18 million legal settlement + No state bail out = Bonds...

And in a (related) tone-deaf move, the HMB City Council approved raises for their City Manager and Finance Director. Good timing...

The only school district that has been in the news more than La Honda-Pescadero recently is Redwood City Elementary... and school districts being in the news everyday can only mean one of two things: (alleged) corruption (La Honda-Pescadero) or severe budget cuts (Redwood City Elementary)...

Two High-Speed Rail NIMBYs (one from Menlo Park and one from Atherton) are raising money for the NIMBY lawsuit against the California High-Speed Rail Authority. On the one hand, it must be a tough time to raise money. On the other hand, if you have to raise NIMBY money, Menlo Park and Atherton are probably the best places in the entire world to start...

The Daily Journal's Michelle Durand must be reading Watch Dog (and/or watching Saturday Night Live). Really Michelle? Really...

Here's a Watch Dog San Mateo/Watch Dog Silicon Valley story for you: Gubernatorial candidates must have passed each other on 101 yesterday. Republican Tom Campbell spoke to a joint session of Congress, well, actually it was a joint session of the Burlingame, Foster City, and San Mateo Rotaries in Foster City. Democrat Gavin Newsom spoke to the San Jose Rotary. We will let you decide which event was more high-profile and we'll let pundits describe the chances each candidate has or does not have...

A good news bad news story from East Palo Alto... the good: seven folks were arrested in an EPA drug sting operation. the bad: a drug sting operation is necessary at all.

Some will call Stanford Hospital's $124 million investment in "community benefits" a way for Stanford to be a good neighbor to their Palo Alto "friends". Others will call this investment a way to buy good will... If it is the latter, the price of good will is pretty steep...

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