Morning News Round-Up -- 7.10.09: Two local, legal battles heat up...,

Sorry to begin with, but it is certainly the quote of the day: "I've never massaged a penis..." You guessed it, that's Dr. William Ayres' speaking in his own defense.

Another very serious local legal battle is heating up. The Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia is being sued by Pez Candy Inc. for copyright infringement. (The previous two sentences are true.)

We have seen lots of reports coming out of the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury, but we haven't learned a lot about the folks on the actual Grand Jury. Until today. The Daily Journal does a write up of Virginia Chang Kiraly, the Grand Jury forewoman...

Speaking of the Civil Grand Jury... today's report says that the County is losing out on all kinds of money. And anther update on the Civil Grand Jury: the full TRASHTALK report is published for all of you with nothing to do this weekend...

On the flip side, there are folks at Sustainable San Mateo County and San Mateo Acting Responsibly Together are looking to save folks money through energy efficiency programs in your home.

We hope that the local folks in Sacramento photocopy the Daily Journal Editorial today about the dysfunction in Sacramento and pass the copies around to their colleagues.

COWs of Woodside delve into the new cost for Woodside for outsourcing their police protection to the Sheriff's Department.

A letter on Coastsider does its best to imitate the Civil Grand Jury calling for new leadership at the Coastside County Water District.

Ahhh, politics. In Palo Alto, expect the next City Council race to be a biggy. Councilman John Barton is not seeking another term. That makes three Council-folk from Palo Alto that won't be on the ballot in November: Barton, Yoriko Kishimoto, and Jack Morton. The other folks up in November are Larry Klein, who is running again, and Peter Drekmeier, who will let us all know on Monday. Hold on to your hats, it could be a real barnburner in Palo Alto in November.