Morning News Round-Up -- 5.28.10: Drive safe...

This is a Friday before a long weekend, so you must, must, must read the newspaper tomorrow. Late today is a great time to release horrible news if you are a government agency, elected official, corporation, or candidate. So, Watch Dog will be watching, but you should be too...

In a story that may get overlooked today, but will have lasting implications, Caltrain got an important "waiver" from the Federal government to move forward with electrification. Yes, it sounds boring, but it seems really important.

Speaking of lasting implications... there is oil spilling out of a sunken boat off of Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay. Authorities are trying to contain the spill -- which seems small potatoes compared to the Gulf Coast. But there is no such thing as small potatoes when you are talking about oil washing up on shore...

Campaign finance filings were due this week. And the Daily Journal chronicles the contributions for the Coroner's race... Can you imagine the fundraising pitch from someone running for Coroner?

You'll remember a while back that there is a new plan for Menlo Park's "downtown"... well, it seems some of the businesses and property owners (like 100 of them) don't really like the new plan all that much... This could get interesting.

Lots of property reassessments are happening these days, according to a story in the Daily Journal. That might be good for lowering property tax bills, but it is a tough thing for a lot of school districts who rely on the higher property tax bills... hence the flood of parcel taxes on the ballot in May, June, and probably November...

The Burlingame drive-in may become a mixed-use development... which is not nearly as cool as a drive-in... The Burlingame Voice has some perspective...

The Daily Journal chimes in on local measures and state propositions:

Local: Yes

State: Yes, Yes, No, No, No

You got that?

Watch Dog has less and less patience these days. This is not a news story: Bay Area families packing up and leaving for Memorial Day. Right, like every year since it was called Decoration Day following the Civil War...

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.18.10: Garbage Saga, The Original, Continues...

Ah, we thought the original Garbage Saga had ended and was giving way to the new Garbage Saga II in Pacifica... actually, Menlo Park and Atherton are asking questions about the original Garbage Saga and those two towns are pissed about it. (What aren't they pissed about though...) You see, the current garbage company, Allied Waste, signed a contract with Teamsters that extends beyond Allied Waste's contract with Peninsula cities... and it is pretty generous. Of course, Allied Waste won't be on the hook to pay it, and really, the new company that will take over in January, Recology, won't be on the hook either, garbage customers will be. Which puts the overseer of the garbage companies, Kevin McCarthy in a tough spot explaining things:

"On the face of it, it doesn't seem unreasonable. Certainly, I think we would have liked to have seen a shorter term. To say it's awkward to have a lame-duck service provider negotiating future agreements ... well, it's a very awkward situation."

What?!

There is no way you have forgotten about the series of sexual assaults at the County's psych ward perpetrated by patients on other patients... well, investigators are going to look to see if employees could have done something to prevent these attacks. Y'think? The psych unit isgetting another night nurse and security officer to help make things a bit more secure. Sounds like that move is a bit overdue...

A new housing proposal in San Mateo will be 50 percent affordable housing units developed in partnership between the Mid-Peninsula Housing Coalition and Palo Alto Partners...

SSF Unified may go to the ballot in November for a bond measure... which bucks the trend of school districts going for parcel taxes. Bonds can't be used for operating expenses, just for bricks and mortar...

Dude... the Blue Heaven Collective, a medical-marijuana dispensary, was denied its license by the County. To be continued... no doubt.

Burlingame Voice shows that it knows and cares about something other than High-Speed Rail as they dive into the ongoing negotiations between Burlingame and their Police Department over pension and benefits. The Voice also shows they have a very good sense of humor, calling yesterday's piece: Friends with Benefits... (If you don't know what this funny, you are not hip at all...)

The Tour of California rolls through the Bay Area today and tomorrow... So shave your legs and head out...

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.14.10: Where to put that hitching post?

The developers who want to build on the Salt Flats in Redwood City released a poll yesterday that showed that folks in Redwood City support development on the Salt Flats in Redwood City. What else would it show?

Belmont is setting itself up for some budgetary unrest... while Belmont cuts some services and some spending, firefighters are getting a raise as they spend down fire department reserves as they "quit" San Carlos...

Redwood City School District finally has a contract with its teachers. It has (only) taken a year...

Cabrillo Unified (on the coast) has a new deal with their unions too... but coastside the deal is "unspecified"... which must be very reassuring to taxpayers footing the bill.

Also on the education front, we get this headline announcing the Academic Performance Index results for the County: Test scores show most Santa Clara, San Mateo counties students reaching state goal... as if "most" is the goal. You can find your neighborhood school's listing here...

Some Daily Journal political endorsements for you this morning: Yes on Measure G - the Community College Parcel Tax... and Unelected Supervisor Carole Groom's mission to drop the "unelected" title is supported by Jon Mays and friends...

The day-time home break-in spree is still going on in San Bruno. police would like your help if you know anything...

And while folks in San Bruno (and Redwood City School District and SamTrans and the Community College District) deal with real challenging issues, the good folks in Portola Valley are deciding about where to site a new hitching post... seriously.

Finally, the Burlingame Voice chimes in on something other than High-Speed Rail... this time on test scores and teachers' unions...

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.5.10: Margaritas all around...

DAs must disclose the criminal history of police officers who testify in court to defense attorneys. This has all come to light in San Francisco, which caused this story to be written in San Mateo County... in San Mateo County, the number of officers with "...histories of crime or professional misconduct..." numbers about a dozen...

Apparently Foster City is better off than many of her neighbors financially. While nearly all workers in every city are forgoing raises, many are also getting their beneifts cut... not in FC. Unionized workers will be getting their health benefits increased over the next three years. It is just a matter of time before FC regrets this decision...

The Menlo Park City Schools and Portola Valley School District got their wish with their all mail-in ballot election this week. Both parcel taxes passed... MPCSD with 76 percent of the vote and PVSD with 78 percent. Kudos all around... the lawn signs worked!

You will no longer have to hold it in (or pee outside) at Mirada Surf Trail. That's because the Board of Supervisors accepted a piece of land from the Peninsula Open Space Trust for bathrooms (and parking)...

This should be fun... the Pacifica School Board will discuss budget cuts tonight.

The Burlingame Voice continues their crusade against High-Speed Rail with part 14 of their series. Part 14?!

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.21.10: San Mateo-Burlingame Police? Not. So. Fast...

Well, the San Mateo-Burlingame Police Department hit a road block yesterday. San Mateo approved moving forward, over the objections of David Lim. But Burlingame is balking at the idea... The Burlingame Voice was on the scene as the Burlingame Council looked at the police issue...

Congresswoman Eshoo testified in front of the House Financial Services Committee this week to blast Lehman Brothers for ripping off local governments, like the County of San Mateo. She also is pushing the Restitution for Local Government Act of 2010, sort of bail out for the 40 local government folks who lost $1.7 billion. Why should banks get bailed out for screwing up, but the local governments they screwed not get some help, the thinking goes...

Our other Congresswoman is busy too... Jackie Speier is trying to get $100 million in federal money for Bay restoration...

Menlo Park has serious concerns about High-Speed Rail... are you surprised? Anyway, they are sending a letter to the High-Speed Rail Authority, which the High-Speed Rail Authority will file under N, for NIMBY...

Ah, the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury. We missed you. Yesterday, the Civil Grand Jury recommended that the County consolidate nearly every job in the County into one position: Chief Financial Officer. The job would be controller, treasurer, tax collector, and we assume registrar as well. Because it would be a lot easier to pinpoint blame when the County loses buckets and buckets of money if there was one Chief Financial Officer...

A murder in Woodside? What will the COWs say?

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.20.10: 420, need we say more?

420... 'nuff said. Now, onto November...

And you thought the Garbage Saga was over... the County wants the garbage overseers, the South Bayside Waste Management Authority, to have elected officials on it, as opposed to City and Council staff... good luck with that...

Congresswoman Anny Eshoo will testify today on Capitol Hill in front of the House Financial Services Committee on how the County, and all kinds of other government agencies, got screwed by Lehman Brothers...

The San Mateo Police Department is as concerned as everyone else is with the recent crimes at the psych unit. They aren't surprised though, they go there all the time on calls.

Speaking of the San Mateo Police Department, Councilmember David Lim's plea to keep looking into the sharing a police department with Burlingame got shot down and now San Mateo's Deputy Police Chief Mike Callagy will be the new interim Police Chief in Burlingame. Sorry David...

Burlingame Voice also chimes in about how the man and woman on the street in Burlingame feels about the police department merger...

The John John John Johns drama ended yesterday as the Atherton Town Council approved a settlement... of course, like everything in Atherton, it wasn't easy. It was a 3-2 vote, with Elizabeth Lewis and Charles "I live in Atherton" Marsala voting no. Perhaps the gang that couldn't shoot straight can start focusing on other stuff now... the settlement vote warranted capital letters on the Town of Atherton blog: ATHERTON SETTLES JOHNS LITIGATION...

Yesterday was a bad day to be train-dependent. First a bomb threat that screwed up the afternoon/ evening community, then a suspicious package at the Caltrain Station in Mountain View closed things down for a while last night...

One Silicon Valley-ite who is running for high office has released his tax returns... Tom Campbell. And we learn what we already knew... he isn't a rich as Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, or Steve Poizner... Most stunning of all, he donated only $600 to charity in 2009. ... that's it.

Speaking of Silicon Valley types running for office... Chris Kelly is a former Facebook executive running for Attorney General. (In case you didn't know that, and if you didn't know that, then you are in the majority...) He is facing some tough questions about Facebook's privacy policies. Questions like, does Facebook have a privacy policy?

Layoffs, furloughs, and cuts, oh my! (In Half Moon Bay...)

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.26.10: Home/Loan Gate in Atherton...

Home/Loan Gate in Atherton continues... remember, Councilmember Charles Marsala asked for (and was denied) a $500,000 loan from a resident who had a pending lawsuit with the Town of Atherton -- and then Marsala voted against a citizens police oversight commission that the person suing Atheron wanted... The person suing Atherton claims that Marsala voted against the commission because the loan didn't come through. Coincidentally (?) there are also rumors swirling that Marsala doesn't live in Atherton -- heck, without a gigantic loan, who could? Later today, there will be a special meeting about the Marsala residency issue at 2 p.m. If you have absolutely nothing going on in your life on a Friday afternoon, perhaps you should stop by the meeting and then send Watch Dog an email about the outcome... Whatever the outcome of that meeting, Watch Dog predicts that there may be an open seat on the Atherton Council before too long...

We aren't going to take any credit for this Editorial in the Daily Journal, but certainly we here at Watch Dog have also been critical of Redwood City spending money on a mining-loving PR firm to fight the idea of a new County jail in their community...

Your favorite very local public station will stay open... KCSM will keep broadcasting for a little bit longer at least.

Usually when we think of outsourcing, we think China and India, but San Carlos may outsource some functions (police/fire) to San Mateo...

Pacifica Riptide is pushing some community activism in an effort to restart "greenwaste" drop off in Pacifica... Will the no-bid garbage company in Pacifica listen?

Our new friends at the Burlingame Voice actually pick up and read the Daily Post... they have a story about possible embezzlement at a Burlingame school...

As a reminder, the Daily Post does not post news on their ugly website, instead we learn this:

"You won't find any news on this site. Giving away news online is a dumb way to do business. News is valuable. We put our news in print. The news creates demand for our paper, and increased readership makes our ads more effective than advertising in any other medium."

Plus, does anyone really think that people are getting their news online?: Online newspapers enjoy double-digit year-over-year growth, reaching one out of four internet users, according to Nielsen/Netratings... That's from 2005, get with it.

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.24.10: 10 and 2, 10 and 2

Remember, no Devil's Slide today from 10 to 2. Which, ironically, is where your hands should be on the steering wheel when you drive over Devil's Slide...

For those NIMBYs that want High-Speed Rail to (inexplicably) end in San Jose to avoid big impacts to the Peninsula got some troubling news yesterday... even if that were the case, the impact to Caltrain would be as impactful as the impact of High-Speed Rail. That's because the transfer to a new train to make it the final 50 miles up the Peninsula would hurt Caltrain and would require new tracks, new construction, and new trains... Face it Peninsula, your train-screwed.

Boring Budget B.S.:

• The County's budget looks "grim"...
• Belmont's budget is grim...

Oh, and there is a new blog on the blogosphere locally that we might start Rounding-Up... the Burlingame Voice. Welcome, the more the merrier...