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...

Morning News Round-Up -- 8.21.09: These Eyes, These Eyes...

We are pleased to know that the Chronicle is reading Watch Dog (or perhaps some other San Mateo news/blog outlet)... they have a piece today about the Safeway/ Girl Scout non-criminal charge, which was a Wednesday story here.

It is County Fair time, and aside from healthy food at the Fair, the bands have been announced: Boys II Men and Guess Who. And no, wiseguy, it isn't the County Fair from 1989 or 1969.

In other County Fair news... Twelve-year-old Anika Rianzares beat out a bunch of adults, placing second in the County Fair's adult painting competition last weekend.

Roughly 60 employees of the San Mateo County’s courthouse will be out of a job, thanks to the State. The court — and those throughout the State — is already preparing for closures the third Wednesday of every month to help ends meet. But don't worry, because all those folks in prison will be out soon.

It will be an interesting few months in Half Moon Bay, with eight candidates vying for two open City Council seats. Why is there so much interest this year? Half Moon Bay is stuck with bond payments for the next 30 years to pay developer Chop Keenan.

A 30-year-old man pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and will go to trial in January, two years after he allegedly beat an elderly woman in her Daly City home. There should be plenty of empty beds in Pelican Bay...

It was probably easy for U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier to stand (in heels) for two hours at the Hot Harvest Nights farmers’ market in San Carlos listening to her constituents natter away about health care reform. Easy, because majority of them agreed with her attempt to overhaul the nation’s health care industry. And those who didn’t agree with her were “well-behaved.”

Desperate times call for desperate measures. A man was arrested at the Mollie Stone’s in Burlingame yesterday afternoon for stealing items from a Federal Express truck while he was pretending to be the driver.

Kelly James Weston, the assistant cross-country coach at Menlo-Atherton High School accused of making racially charged remarks to a group of children and pushing an 11-year-old boy, said he only scolded the youngsters. He added that a former Menlo-Atherton coach who was talking to him on the telephone during the dispute can corroborate his account.

Notre Dame de Namur University seems to be benefiting from this recession. Enrollment is surging as more people get laid off from their jobs. So far this year, nearly 1,400 students have already registered for classes, which resume Wednesday. That’s double what it was this time last year. Go Fighting Irish... just kidding.

San Mateo County is suing the owners of a high-end office park in Redwood City, attempting to recover the nearly $1 million in unpaid taxes the office park may owe the County.

Members of the Palo Alto Architectural Review Board criticized the revised plan to expand the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, saying it was “boxy, intimidating and far too massive.” (Enter your favorite Michael Scott joke here...)

Did you notice the red waves off the coast last night? Biologists attribute the “spectacular” glow to an algae bloom off the shore of Miramar. Cool.

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.

Morning News Round-Up -- 8.14.09: Our Gambling Parlor Gem...

The battle over two proposed Off-Track Betting facilities in San Francisco is causing tempers to flare... again. The California Horse Racing Board will make a decision later this morning about the word "radius" -- San Mateo County's claim is that the proposed SF locations breach the radius of San Mateo County's facility. The best part of this story is that Unelected Supervisor Carole Groom calls the OTB parlor in San Mateo "a gem"...

San Mateo County Supervisors had good intentions when they, last year, created a citizens review panel, a group that would investigate misconduct of an elected official. The Supervisors established this ethics group after a San Mateo County Sheriff who was caught two years ago in a Las Vegas brothel during a police raid. (Oops...) The Daily News reports that many of the people identified as potential panel members had no idea they were placed on a list until a reporter called them. That’s because the County has yet to use the panel to investigate any elected officials, including the County Sheriff.

A San Mateo detective shot a man during a drug raid yesterday. And another robbery in San Mateo. Police believe the same person is responsible for all six robberies that have occurred since Aug. 6.

A 27-year-old Redwood City man stabbed his younger brother four times because he was using the computer without permission. He’s been charged with attempted first-degree murder. Motive = Guitar Hero...

Expect the roads to be packed with an extra 340,000 commuters starting Monday. That’s the number of people who are getting screwed by BART starting Monday morning when BART workers plan to start striking. The union announced this Thursday after the BART Board voted to shove a contract down the union’s throat.

But SamTrans will come to the rescue.

SamTrans will route its buses out of BART stations and run a commute-hour shuttle to a temporary transit center where passengers can connect with SF's Muni.

Even with more entertainment and a fireworks show, the 75th annual San Mateo County Fair is expected to be a bit quieter this year. We guess the "stay-cation" craze is dying down...

Fourteen people declared the their candidacy for Palo Alto City Council, where there are five open seats for the November race. Watch Dog can't wait!

Richard Merk, who will conclude his 13th year on the Portola Valley Town Council in December, calls it quits. Known for his politically incorrect questions and attention to detail, Merk says he has no plans to run for re-election because he’s “tired.” (No doubt some folks in Portola Valley feel the same way about Merk... tired.)

Would-be Half Moon Bay City Council candidate Kerri Lake was two sandwiches short of the picnic. The San Mateo County Elections Office disqualified her from the election because her petition has 18 verified signatures of Half Moon Bay residents. She needs 20 to qualify. In an related note, Coastside schools could use more math teachers...

If Congresswoman Jackie Speier learned anything from her Town Hall event Tuesday it’s that she needs a bigger venue. That’s why she is moving her August 23 Coastside event to a larger venue: Farallone View Elementary School in Montara. The time remains the same: Sunday, August 23 at 11:00 a.m.