Thursday, August 20, 2009

Morning News Round-Up -- 8.20.09: County Fair = Scotch Egg

The saga that will never end... East Palo Alto’s biggest landlord is suing East Palo Alto and San Mateo County’s chief election officer over a rent control ordinance city voters are expected to vote on in November. Page Mill Properties claims East Palo Alto officials violated the Brown Act by discussing the ordinance in closed sessions and that the city didn’t regard how a rent control ordinance would impact the environment.

This saga won't end either... A Menlo Park resident has sued the California High-Speed Rail Authority and Caltrain, attempting to thwart plans to run high-speed trains along Caltrain's Peninsula corridor.

A (unemployed?) Pacifica man admitted he was just bored when called Caltrain and claimed there was a bomb on board. How fun!

With the State budget mess behind them, Senators Joe Simitian and Leland Yee and Assemblymembers Ira Ruskin and Jerry Hill are back in the Capitol working hard on cementing their legislative legacies. That includes state university reform, smoking at hospitals, greenhouse gas emissions, and renewable energy, etc., etc., etc.

Daily Journal columnist Michelle Durand pooh-poohs organic, healthy food at the San Mateo County Fair. She astutely notes: “You don’t go to the fair to research the slow food movement or hunt for the ripest nectarine. You go to the fair to eat stuff your health — and your conscious — wouldn’t let you get away with the other 364 days of the year.” Stuff like this...

A Sonora woman faces a maximum of three years in prison after pleading no contest to a series of Peninsula bank holdups, a prosecutor said. The woman was charged with that crime because her fingerprints were found on the demand note he used in one of the stickups, prosecutors said. Very CSI: San Mateo...

Foster City Mayor John Kiramis’ decision not to seek re-election this year will allow a newcomer onto the council after November’s election. Two seats are up for grabs on the Foster City Council, including incumbent Councilwoman Pam Frisella’s seat, who is seeking re-election. Four other have jumped in the race. Just some advice to all candidates: be ready to answer the schools versus city question... a lot.

Eight people are vying for two open seats on the Sequoia Union High School District's Board, which means this election will have some healthy debate over pressing issues in the school district, including charter schools (Everest) and budget cuts.

Palo Alto students are smarter than the average bear...

The developer of the "Menlo Gateway" (Bohannon) real estate development project doesn’t like to use the word “massive” when describing his project. But there is no other word for a project that’s 120 feet, 950,000 square feet. That doesn’t count the 760,000 to 820,000 square feet in parking garages. Oh, and the Menlo Park Fire Protection District would have to buy a new ladder truck to reach its summit.

A 103-year-old Dorothy Bolton had one birthday wish this summer… that’s for Menlo Park to fix the cracks and potholes on her street, Bay Laurel Drive. She wrote a letter on her 103rd birthday, signed by the party's attendees, urging the city to repair her street. I guess it will be hard for the Menlo Park City Council to tell Ms. Bolton that she'll have to wait a year until the economy turns around...

Even Atherton is having to share the pain. It used to be free to erect advertising banners in the city for ice cream socials at the library or lacrosse camps at Holbrook-Palmer Park, for instance. Now it’s going to cost the advertising organization $387. "$387! But I live on the wrong side of the tracks in Atherton..."

A 17-year-old Half Moon Bay resident tested positive for swine flu. Just in time for school to start next week.

No comments: