Morning News Round-Up -- 8.31.09: Salame Trouble... again

The battle between Foster City and the San Mateo-Foster City Elementary School District has been going on for sometime. There were op-eds back and forth. There were community meetings. There were even some insulting things said (in Watch Dog's estimation) by the City about their lack of responsibility to provide schools. Well, an interesting and promising turn in this battle may be taking place. The Federal government has awarded $20 million to the School District to build a new elementary school. Watch Dog would like to place a bet that the Foster City City Council will be at the grand opening of said school in several years taking credit for a great working relationship... Besides the money, another chapter in this saga will be written tonight as the City Council meets to talk about possible school sites. We guess the excuse that the School District doesn't have the money to build a school seems thin these days...

It has been a bad couple of weeks for the good folks at Columbus Salame. First a fire. Then an ammonia leak on Friday that landed 8 folks in the hospital and caused a full evacuation of their SSF facility.

We know that Williams Ayres will be tried again for his (alleged) molestation of young, male patients. What we don't know is when that will start. And we won't know when the retrail will start until September 11.

While we are on the topic, Watch Dog readers should know that the investigative journalist/author who brought the entire Ayres issue to life, Victoria Balfour, won a pretty significant award recently. Congrats Ms. Balfour.

If you have thoughts about San Bruno Mountain and its endangered butterflies, you have until today to make yourself heard.

Here is a non-shocker: Caltrain is going to hike parking fees and cut service today at their Board meeting...

The Service Employees International Union may strike in Palo Alto to protest the City of Palo Alto's decision to ask for long-term union concessions. This should be an interesting time on the Palo Alto City Council as they have a ballot measure in November asking for a new business tax.
U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier faced off with an angry group of opponents who heckled her at a town hall meeting in San Carlos Saturday while she spelled out the necessity for health care reform. She reportedly kept her cool, despite the sweltering heat. And if you need a reason why we need healthcare reform, here's one.

Burlingame Police are looking a man who slid open a ground floor bathroom window of an apartment complex, reached inside with his arm, and made a lewd comment a female who was inside the bathroom at the time. She ran out of the bathroom screaming.

Bay Area News Group -- also known as BANG (seriously) -- has decided to start doing some in-depth reporting. The news agency has dedicated reporters to track the salaries of public employees are update them continuously. According to the newly-launched database, there were no salary no records found for Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums. No need to include Daly City's Ms. Hipona in the database, her salary is widely known, at least half of it is...

Burlingame has decided to lift the City ban on bounce houses so that families can have affordable birthday parties for kids during this recession. "Recession" clearly has a very different meaning in Burlingame. At least Burlingame is tackling the big issues of the day...

Mehdi Morshed, Executive Director of the High Speed Rail Authority assures us that the recent court ruling over the environmental report won’t slow down the bullet train project. Don't tell the NIMBYs in Menlo Park/Atherton/Palo Alto. They'll think of other lawsuits to file...

More crashes and fires Coastside. Oh, and a mountain lion…

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.16.09: Slocum to the rescue...

Pay-Cut Gate is back in the news. This time, San Mateo County Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder Warren Slocum is coming to Daly City Clerk Annette Hipona's defense and questioning the legality of the actual pay cut...the story continues...

It ain't COSCO Busan, but it is a boat that hit a bridge. Yesterday the U.S. Coast Guard minimized the threat of a fuel-spill from the boat that crashed into the San Mateo Bridge earlier this week because of high-winds.

The wind is causing problems Coastside as well...

The Guaranty Bank in Burlingame was robbed on Tuesday for the second time in three weeks. It is unclear if the bank is one targeted on www.EasyBanksToRob.com...

"At the end of the day" Michelle Durand sounds off in today's Daily Journal on sin taxes...Which is appropriate "in this economy"...

The local part of $4.4 billion Hetch Hetchy water system upgrades will break ground today...expect lots of politicians, shovels, and the usual back-slapping...

A former Reporter/Editor of several local papers was arrested (again) on drug charges. Brian Bothun was picked up on April 5th in Palo Alto. This just proves that Reporters/Editors love writing about Reporters/Editors. Hell hath no fury like former newspaper rivals...

Assemblymember Jerry Hill (a.k.a. The Bearded One) will honor Nona's Kitchen in Pacifica on Friday...Watch Dog hearts Nona's Kitchen -- and shopping for NorCal gear next door...

The Peninsula Health Care District is headed for a Board shake-up. Sue Smith has tenured her resignation...the Board will decide how to replace her Board seat on April 23rd...David Lim -- get on it! (Thank you Bruce...)

Woodside (and Concerned Citizens therein) are giving props to the Woodside Library's 150th anniversary...they are not, however, taking Watch Dog's advice to cut out the corny puns.

Pay-Cut Gate...an apology to Ms. Hipona

Pay-Cut Gate has received much attention here and elsewhere. When Watch Dog wrote about it most recently, however, we made a mistake and we'd like to correct it. Here is what we wrote referring to this story:

--

More important than the Pay-Cut Gate story today, someone's grammar was way off in this piece: either Hipona, reporter Christine Morente, or the County Times Editor left their grammar checker off. (Watch Dog's money is on Hipona...) The story has this gem of a quote, commenting on the fact that it won't matter what the Attorney General says about Hipona serving in two elected capacities, because:

"It's now a mute point..."

Really? A mute point Ms. Hipona? Not a moot point?

--

That quote should be attributed to Jefferson Elementary School District Governing Board President Hans Hansen, not Ms. Hipona. Our money was on the wrong person because the quote didn't belong to Ms. Hipona. Our apologies.

That said, it is still unclear who made the error: Mr. Hansen, Ms. Morente, or the County Times Editors...Watch Dog will not place bets this time, because we lost our shirt last time.