Here is a true "Only in San Mateo County" story...a Maverick's surfer was due to appear at the San Mateo County Historical Museum for a bunch of events around the opening of an exhibition. The day before the event at the Museum,
a man posing as surfer Grant Washburn scammed the Museum out of a couple of hundred bucks. This story is too weird to believe...No arrests have been made.
Watch Dog has been interested in the Garbage Saga forever...partly because of
the intrigue, partly because of
the cost, and partly because of
the colorful quotes. But others have been interested too -- like the Civil Grand Jury, who took up outgoing Supervisor (now Assemblymember)
Jerry Hill's call to action to look into how the 10-year contract was awarded to Norcal...the
County Times gives us an update on the Civil Grand Jury investigation:
nobody is talking about it...
As if taking a hint from the
Daily Journal's Jon Mays' Editorial this week about consolidating municipal services,
Burlingame is considering sharing fire and police services with Millbrae (
along with a bunch of other cost-saving measures...)
San Mateo Union High School District is in a battle with local unions about signing Project Labor Agreements, which would (essentially) require union contractors be used for high school modernization projects.
Some local folks attended the recent California Constitutional Convention Summit, (a.k.a. the Tea Party) (a.k.a. Throw the Bums Out Meeting) that took place in Sacramento...
Supervisors Gordon and Church were there...
On a (sort of) related note...
Teachers + California =
Yearly Pink Slips...
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission -- the folks the dole out the cash -- has a new Vice Chair, and
you may recognize her...
High-Speed Rail is coming to the Peninsula. (Some/All) Folks in Menlo Park
and Atherton
and Palo Alto hate it...but it seems that it is moving on a fast-track...(pun intended)...if you want to learn more (or spout off) there are two upcoming meetings, one
tonight in Palo Alto and one in Redwood City...
And...San Carlos has its own
Holly Street Bridge problems with high-speed rail they just (?) discovered...
Congresswoman Jackie Speier is the
Woman with the Plan (and President Obama too)...Speier writes about
her foreclosure plan today in the
Daily Journal, and it got covered in
a bunch of places as well. San Mateo County is extremely well-represented in Congress these days...
What is becoming a truism on Watch Dog, do not mess with school kids' parents. The uprising in the Burlingame Elementary School District about their lottery system meant to alleviate over-crowding, is now causing
the District to rethink/scrap their plans and instead invest millions of dollars in new facilities...
As if it were a different time and/or a different place,
there were protesters outside of the Planned Parenthood in San Mateo. Really? Still protesting outside of Planned Parenthood?
Surprise, surprise. A city-wide fiber optic network built by the City of Palo Alto is not likely to happen -- it seems -- after a decade of hoping and wishing and studying.
It turns out it is expensive to build and maintain such things...really?
Or, perhaps it isn't the money, but the fact that Palo Alto-based utility-type things sometimes seem to be (perhaps) corrupt. The Palo Alto Utilities Department is being investigated by the US Department of Transportation for
conspiracy to alter records...
Finally, Michelle Durand goes "Off the Beat" today in the
Daily Journal and is right on point. Lamenting the (possible?) demise of the
San Francisco Chronicle, she provides a reporter's insight into the newspaper industry. She ends her piece by asking "...
if no journalists remain to cover the story, who will ask the questions?..." I'm doing my best Michelle...
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