Monday, August 24, 2009

Morning News Round-Up -- 8.24.09: Pay Cut Gate Revisited...

BREAKING NEWS: The Chronicle reports that San Mateo’s Hillsdale High School is being evacuated this morning and the bomb squad has been called to the scene in response to a blast. That's no way to start the new school year...

Daly City sent a letter to the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury saying the City refuses to restore the salary that City Clerk Annette Hipona got when she got elected last year. You remember the Pay Cut Gate story, right? In June, the Grand Jury concluded that the City was unjustified in slashing Hipona's pay from $101,374 to $52,988 a year and recommended that the decision be reversed.

State cut-backs are one thing, stupid accounting mistakes are quite another. Both are leading to cutbacks in the San Mateo County courthouse.

Scientists + Sharp Park Golf Course = Less and Less Golf...

What's better than Target? A bigger Target. That's what's coming to Colma, along with increased sales tax revenues to City cofers..

San Mateo and San Carlos are thinking about forcing its commercial businesses to recycle. Steve Sherman of Cascadia Consulting, which is working with the South Bayside Waste Management Authority (SBWMA), noted that while recycling is popular, “Americans, in general, do not like to be told what to do.” Good point, especially by these guys...

Jury selection starts today for the trial of the East Palo Alto gang member accused of shooting and killing a police officer more than three years ago in front of a teenage police explorer doing a ridealong. It’s the first County death penalty case in six years.

More than 300 supporters and opponents of the proposed healthcare reform bill showed up to voice questions and opinions at a relatively peaceful Sunday Town Hall meeting in Montara hosted by Congresswoman Jackie Speier. She restated her support for healthcare reform to the 300 people who showed up. She also told them that in her district there are 46,000 uninsured folks who would be eligible for healthcare under the reform proposals. All this and she managed to make her point without relying on the phrases “single-payer” or “public option.”

In case you didn't get enough: Congresswoman Anna Eshoo is having her own telephone town hall meeting tonight so residents can vent about that public option plan.

Palo Alto is reeling after the suicide death of a 13 year old on Caltrain tracks where two other Gunn High School students died in the past several months. Former Palo Alto Mayor Victor Ojakian and Supervisor/former Palo Alo Mayor Liz Kniss are considering a committee to examine the issue.

Here are two stories about how things get done (or not) in Palo Alto:

Here's a shocker... The City of Palo Alto doesn't like the design of the new Lucile Packard Childrens' Hospital.

Bowlers are hoping to spare the popular Palo Alto Bowl from being demolished. The group plans to let the City Council know how they feel about the 53-year-old alley.

Residents living near the Caltrain tracks and their intersections with Encinal, Glenwood, Oak Grove and Ravenswood avenues should buy earplugs. The next four weeks Caltrain will be working on nearby railroad crossings.

And more good news from Caltrain… higher parking fees and fewer trains starting Aug. 31. Who doesn’t love paying more for less?

Screw Caltrain and ride your bike. About 500 cyclists from all over the Bay Area took part in the fifth annual Tour de Menlo Saturday. All riders stopped at the Picchetti Open Space Preserve and Winery in Cupertino for lunch, before heading back.

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