Morning News Round-Up -- 6.2.09: Great Prank Tuesday...

Cuts, cuts, cuts, taxes, taxes, taxes. Today's government agency in the headlines is the City of San Mateo, with two possible tax hikes headed to the ballot in November.

Also on the chopping block are the music programs in the Millbrae Elementary School District, prompting the headline Editor at the Daily Journal to write: The day the music died.

Let's stick with the government in crisis theme for a bit, shall we?

More State cuts mean more State beach closures, including many of those in San Mateo County. Some could be closed as soon as Labor Day. Thank you Governor Schwarzenegger, State Senators Yee and Simitian, and Assemblmember Jerry Hill... (But with the bad State news comes a (little) bit of good, the Half Moon Bay Bail-Out Bill (AB 650) has been altered and may line up an interest-free $10 million loan for HMB from a bunch of State funds. Let's hope...)

And joining San Mateo on the tax-hike train, Palo Alto is still planning on putting a business license tax on the November ballot, over the objection of the Palo Alto business community. The biggest businesses are going to be whacked with a new, $50,000 tax, which seems like a pretty bad idea these days, at least to Watch Dog.

Perhaps if Palo Alto wasted less money on stuff like this...

City officials in Palo Alto apologized to the Palo Alto Children's Theatre (and the non-profit that funds it) for a probe that the Palo Alto Police conducted last year. It turns out, the Police screwed up, at least according to Palo Alto's Independent Police Auditor. (On a separate note, in San Jose, that kind of finding gets the Independent Police Auditor booted from their job...)

In a piece that will generate hundreds of angry Letters to the Editor of the Daily Journal, Michelle Durand's "Off the Beat" praises the Menlo-Atherton High School senior prank of last week. Ironically, Watch Dog spent the weekend telling friends about the same incident, which was pretty much awesome. We guess, however, that some Daily Journal readers will write something like, "How dare Michelle Durand endorse such bad behavior?" Don't worry Michelle, Watch Dog has your back. Plus, the M-A students' phone prank is better than them doing this with their phones...

The M-A students weren't doing this either, luckily...

A San Jose man was arrested after a six-week sting operation for selling Meth out of the Safeway parking lot on El Camino in Menlo Park. I guess Safeway does have it all...

You think there is a Garbage Saga on this side of the hill, Coastside Scavengers in Pacifica are late (really late) in paying Pacifica their franchise fees... meaning the budget pain in Pacifica is not amped up a bit more to to the tune of nearly $750,000. Ouch. (Remember, they are also considering changing their garbage people like on this side of the hill. Sounds reasonable, given the tardiness of the franchise payments...)

And just because this will seemingly draw more people through our fair County, even if they only stop for gas or in traffic, the Santa Clara City Council will meet tonight to discuss a new 49ers stadium. In a war of words that is happening over San Mateo County's airspace, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom says that Santa Clara should spend its money on something other than a new stadium, like schools... which is weird, because he is trying (unsuccessfully) to build them a stadium in San Francisco with public money and Santa Clara has way better schools than San Frnacisco. Perhaps we could set up a San Mateo County-located rumble to settle this thing?

The trial of accused child molester Dr. William Ayres began yesterday... for minute-by-minute, motion-by-motion updates (and pictures), you can follow William Ayres Watch... we'll have updates periodically as well.