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 -- 5.26.10: 4,500 homes, 10,000 cars...

4,500 new homes in Brisbane? That's part of Universal Paragon Corporation's plans for the Brisbane Baylands unveiled last night to the Brisbane City Council. That should be great for traffic on 101...

Speaking of great for traffic... Check out this Almanac (hysterical) headline: Stanford medical facilities expansion could bring 10,000 more vehicle trips per day to the area. If they are that worried about car traffic, shouldn't they support High-Speed Rail? We're just saying...

It takes a special kind of asshole to "ransack" a school... but it happened again at James Flood Magnet School in East Palo Alto for the second time in a year.

It looks like Burlingame School District may buy, renovate, and eventually reopen the long-closed (former Buddhist center) Hoover Elementary School on Summit drive.

While we're there: the Burlingame Voice has a little perspective on the red-light cameras in Burlingame...

This should surprise absolutely nobody... the City of Belmont needs to dip into reserves to balance the budget next year. So does Watch Dog...

Jon Mays at the Daily Journal hearts the idea of a San Mateo/Foster City Fire Department...

A bit of really good news today: a bigger, better Ron Robinson Senior Care Center at the San Mateo Medical Center will reopen today...

Today is Yoriko Kishimoto's turn for a Will Oremus profile... Unfortunately for her, the Mercury News endorsed Rich Gordon today...

We mentioned earlier this week that we can't resist pointing out imperfections with the online Merc... we are clearly wildly immature. We wouldn't argue agains that... (There is a story linked here too...)

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.23.10: Uttering the "B" word...

Go electric or go to bankruptcy court... those seem to the options for Caltrain these days. That ain't fun. This will not be good news for Caltrain-dependent Peninsula cities. Caltrain is also the first (but certainly not the last) local government agency to utter the "b" word...

A Menlo Park woman wrote a letter to billionaire Warren Buffet about Proposition 13 and how it was hurting schools but was a windfall for businesses in California. Warren Buffet wrote back. Check it out.

The Daily Journal Editorial Board comes out in favor of the incumbent, Robert Foucrault... but does a good job summing up why the challenger has a chance...

More bad news for the Redwood City School District... or at least for 35 more employees. More pink slips.

Here's something you have never, ever read before, we (almost) guarantee it: solar panels were stolen from Oceana High School in Pacifica. 108 in all. And it is Earth Day week. Watch Dog is going to coin a new phrase: EcoThief...

Cow + Car = DUI + Hurt Cow.

Morning News Round-Up -- 2.17.10: Open Carry takes aim...

Watch Dog saw this coming... remember the East Palo Alto Police Detective that posted some funny comments on Facebook about Open Carry gun freaks? Well, the NRA-types are taking aim at the Detective, not literally, but figuratively... This is what we wrote on the 5th of February: This is a story the NRA is going to jump all over.

Everyone saw this coming... the Mavericks viewing area may be closed next time. Y'think?

The County Coroner may get a run for his money this June from someone who used to work in the office. Begging the obvious question, why is the Coroner elected in the first place? Of all the positions in the County, don't we want the Coroner to be highly trained and non-political? Just asking... In case you are wondering, we found this nugget from the California State Association of Counties: "All 58 counties in California have a Sheriff's Department and 41 of those counties also provide for the Sheriff to assume the duties of the Coroner."

And as the Coroner is being challenged, Jon Mays at the Daily Journal chimes in with a piece about how the mood of the public is one of unrest...

Like unrest in the race for Slocum's office... perhaps Ira Ruskin wants into the Assessor-Clerk-Recorder's office? That makes Supervisor Mark Church very, very uneasy... (Thank you Bruce.)

There is unrest in San Bruno certainly, that's because the string of home robberies in continuing... there is a meeting tonight to talk about it at the John Muir Elementary School. But lock your house before you go...

There hasn't been a story about Belmont schools, traffic, and crazy parents for a while. Luckily,a neighbor near Central Elementary School in Belmont gave the Daily Journal an ear-full...

Two stories of escape and survival: three kids escaped a house fire in Atherton and a man was struck by a train and survived...

Gilead Sciences got the approval for expansion yesterday by the Foster City City Council. We like writing the word City twice to describe the Foster City City Council, but the Daily Journal calls it the Foster City Council... just thought you'd be interested...

Pacifica Riptide is still pounding away on Pacifica's version of the Garbage Saga... this time, from a small business perspective.