Morning News Round-Up -- 5.21.10: Simitian gets some anti-High-Speed Rail company...

Last week State Senator Joe Simiitian started hedging his High-Speed Rail bets and pulled up a chair to the NIMBY table... well, Congresswoman Jackie Speier may be following Joe...

Get ready for some fireworks... M-A is getting lights! Expect a high-energy NIMBY-meeting sometime soon...

That is a very slow news day... but like a Major League Baseball General Manager, Watch Dog can only do so much if the players aren't very good... and today, our best player, the San Mateo Daily Journal, seems to be having an off day. Some forgot to press the PUBLISH button...

Sorry...

Morning News Round-Up -- 3.16.10: Bracket Tuesday...

It is fill out your bracket Tuesday today... so forget work. Start research Murray State!

It is pink slip week at School Districts in California. Need we write any more? Send complaints to Capitol Mall, Sacramento, California...

To High-Speed Rail...

• Here's irony: A Southern California Republican Assemblywoman is becoming the best friend of all the NIMBYs up and down the Peninsula who hate High Speed Rail. Diane Harkey is introducing a bill to stop the sale of High Speed Rail bonds... Perhaps they will throw her a ticker-tape parade up and down El Camino Real...
• When the budget is tough, spend more money on an uphill battle... that's what Burlingame is doing.
• Quentin Kopp wrote a pro-High Speed Rail piece for the Merc. Surprised?

Atherton is getting in the business of police oversight... sort of like San Jose... Like all things Atherton, don't expect this to be anything short of hyper-political...

And more Atherton news... Actually, Menlo-Atherton news. The M-A field lights won't be installed in time for Fall... surprised?

If you are going to be a member of the Open Carry movement -- don't be so drunk you can't stand.

The PP Examiner gets in on the prognistication game about what is going to happen with Supervisor Mark Church as he runs for Assessor-Clerk-Recorder. Will his seat get appointed or elected? Let's wait to see what Carole Groom has to say about this...

Morning News Round-Up -- 1.22.10: One giant leap for lights at M-A...

Storm, storm, storm... but drought not over... power out because of storm... etc., etc., etc....

Watch Dog loves this story: Menlo-Atherton High School may get lights on its football field. (Welcome to 1985... right?) Anyway, because of where M-A is located (in the NIMBY capital of the world), the Sequoia Union High School District is approaching the idea carefully. They are doing an Environmental Impact Study and talking to "stakeholders." We expect lawsuits to challenge the EIR but that lights will be a reality before the current crop of Freshman graduate... hopefully.

If State Senator Joe Simitian hosts it, anti-High Speed Rail people will come... that was the scene last night in Palo Alto when hundreds showed up to have their voices heard, or at least their heads counted for a State Senate Committee hearing in Palo Alto.

Tesla is getting an influx of cash the new (as opposed to old) fashioned way... from the Federal Government... $465 million from the Department of Energy. That's a lot of scratch for a company that sells $100,000 cars to venture capitalists...

This is the type of story that warms your heart, and may hasten your grabbing your kid's cell phone from their hands and smashing it on the floor... A substitute teacher pleaded no contest to sexting (and having phone sex with) a San Mateo High School student... There were 400 "sexually explicit text messsages" involved in this case -- now there are 60 days in jail where John Oliver Jacobson will no doubt learn some interesting things about sex that he never knew...

This isn't good. Both Congressmembers from the area said yesterday that they will not vote from the Senate health care bill. It is unclear why Speier and Eshoo did this now, other than the fact that Democrats are worried about a Republican winning in Massachusetts. Trust Watch Dog Jackie and Anna, San Mateo County is more blue than Massachusetts. Vote for the health care bill that comes back before you... please. Watch Dog needs to see the vet sometime soon...

Morning News Round-Up --12.15.09: An NRA stick up...

And we thought our County had a lot of fight in it... but apparently not. A measly little NRA lawsuit threat and the County Supervisors (apparently) back off their plans for some local gun control laws... We got your back Supervisors!

High-Speed Rail -- the train that Peninsula voters loved, and now hate. But the opponents got some news today that they will like. High-Speed Rail will cost more per ride than anticipated and ridership will be lower than anticipated... the folks in Menlo Park and Atherton are smiling today...

Here's a legitimate shocker: According to the Daily Journal: No resistance to Safeway plans. Too bad, because we love the Safeway drama in Burlingame.

But there won't be any munchies in Redwood City to help fuel Safeway's bottom line... that's because the Redwood City Council put a temporary ban on medical marijuana collectives...

Watch Dog has a long-standing love affair with Atherton's small-town politics. And here's an update: Atherton settled a harassment case brought by a former police officer for over $200K. For such a small town, that's a big settlement. Good thing they are looking to renew their parcel tax...

The Menlo-Atherton High School track coach that yelled (and pushed) three kids near his house was convicted for pushing a boy. This story makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, doesn't it?

Finally, Bruce at PP Examiner looks into the opening seat of the County Education Executive...

Morning News Round-Up -- 12.14.09: Garbage is Back...

The Garbage Saga starts a new chapter soon... The new (controversial) garbage contract is due to start in January 2011, but today's story in the Daily Journal suggests that talks are in the works for Recology (the new guys) to take over the contract early from the Republic/Allied Waste (the old guys). Interestingly, Recology provided no comment to Michelle Durand for the story...

If there is one thing in San Mateo County that is certain to cause drama, it is a new (or redesigned) Safeway. (Think Burlingame...) Safeway has big plans for their Millbrae location -- including a two-story store and underground parking. Don't worry y'all, the mural will stay intact.

Speaking of Burlingame's Safeway, the Daily Journal said it best in their headline: At last -- Safeway nears approval. Those Safeway people have been busy here lately...

The UN Climate Change party (?) was preceded by UNICEF's 2009 Children's Climate Change Forum, and Chloe Songer from Menlo-Atherton High School was there... cool.

If you like to skateboard (or smoke) in Courthouse Square in Redwood City -- you better find a new place to hang out... new rules will ban both and require new fees and permits if you want to rent it out.

The California Coastal Commission isn't listening to the our County folks. They rejected all of the recommendations put forward for the Midcoast Local Coastal Program by the County.

Today is Sue Lempert's day in the Daily Journal. Topics: Jan Fraser (the new head of the County health system) and the correct pronunciation of San Mateo's Jan Epstein and Fred Hansson.

Morning News Round-Up -- 9.24.09: High-Speed Rail Politics...

The would-be Hillsdale High School killer, Alex Youshock, pleaded not guilty yesterday. Expect another high-profile case in the San Mateo County Courthouse...

To leash or not to leash (your dog), that is the question in San Mateo... we await David Lim's position on this vital issue. Michelle Durand talks dogs too in the Daily Journal...

Speaking of campaign issues, is there a candidate up and down the Peninsula that ISN'T talking about High-Speed Rail. The issue probably would have been better to talk about before everyone in the County voted FOR High-Speed Rail last year...

Belmont is losing its City Manager. Jack Crist will take over the day-to-day operations of Watch Dog San Mateo... just kidding.

The Performing Arts Center at Menlo-Atherton High School will celebrate a grand opening on October 11th. Expect a wonderful building, and lots of NIMBY crying from its Atherton neighbors...

The race for the Sequoia Union High School District board is broken down by Bruce at the PP Examiner... crowded field. Who wants to take bets?

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 -- 6.2.09: Great Prank Tuesday...

Cuts, cuts, cuts, taxes, taxes, taxes. Today's government agency in the headlines is the City of San Mateo, with two possible tax hikes headed to the ballot in November.

Also on the chopping block are the music programs in the Millbrae Elementary School District, prompting the headline Editor at the Daily Journal to write: The day the music died.

Let's stick with the government in crisis theme for a bit, shall we?

More State cuts mean more State beach closures, including many of those in San Mateo County. Some could be closed as soon as Labor Day. Thank you Governor Schwarzenegger, State Senators Yee and Simitian, and Assemblmember Jerry Hill... (But with the bad State news comes a (little) bit of good, the Half Moon Bay Bail-Out Bill (AB 650) has been altered and may line up an interest-free $10 million loan for HMB from a bunch of State funds. Let's hope...)

And joining San Mateo on the tax-hike train, Palo Alto is still planning on putting a business license tax on the November ballot, over the objection of the Palo Alto business community. The biggest businesses are going to be whacked with a new, $50,000 tax, which seems like a pretty bad idea these days, at least to Watch Dog.

Perhaps if Palo Alto wasted less money on stuff like this...

City officials in Palo Alto apologized to the Palo Alto Children's Theatre (and the non-profit that funds it) for a probe that the Palo Alto Police conducted last year. It turns out, the Police screwed up, at least according to Palo Alto's Independent Police Auditor. (On a separate note, in San Jose, that kind of finding gets the Independent Police Auditor booted from their job...)

In a piece that will generate hundreds of angry Letters to the Editor of the Daily Journal, Michelle Durand's "Off the Beat" praises the Menlo-Atherton High School senior prank of last week. Ironically, Watch Dog spent the weekend telling friends about the same incident, which was pretty much awesome. We guess, however, that some Daily Journal readers will write something like, "How dare Michelle Durand endorse such bad behavior?" Don't worry Michelle, Watch Dog has your back. Plus, the M-A students' phone prank is better than them doing this with their phones...

The M-A students weren't doing this either, luckily...

A San Jose man was arrested after a six-week sting operation for selling Meth out of the Safeway parking lot on El Camino in Menlo Park. I guess Safeway does have it all...

You think there is a Garbage Saga on this side of the hill, Coastside Scavengers in Pacifica are late (really late) in paying Pacifica their franchise fees... meaning the budget pain in Pacifica is not amped up a bit more to to the tune of nearly $750,000. Ouch. (Remember, they are also considering changing their garbage people like on this side of the hill. Sounds reasonable, given the tardiness of the franchise payments...)

And just because this will seemingly draw more people through our fair County, even if they only stop for gas or in traffic, the Santa Clara City Council will meet tonight to discuss a new 49ers stadium. In a war of words that is happening over San Mateo County's airspace, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom says that Santa Clara should spend its money on something other than a new stadium, like schools... which is weird, because he is trying (unsuccessfully) to build them a stadium in San Francisco with public money and Santa Clara has way better schools than San Frnacisco. Perhaps we could set up a San Mateo County-located rumble to settle this thing?

The trial of accused child molester Dr. William Ayres began yesterday... for minute-by-minute, motion-by-motion updates (and pictures), you can follow William Ayres Watch... we'll have updates periodically as well.

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.23.09: Food Stamps to the Economic Rescue...

You know the economy is bad when this is the headline of a Daily Journal story: Food stamps provide financial boon...

Apparently the economic boon that food stamps are providing aren't enough to stave off 5-10% cuts from the Belmont-San Carlos Fire Department however...

And food stamp boon is also not enough to calm folks anger of the proposed business license tax in Palo Alto...Palo Alto leaders are now going to "slow down plans" for the new tax...

Speaking of quelling anger...Assemblymember Jerry "The Bearded One" Hill is hosting a Town Hall on High-Speed Rail. That should be all kinds of NIMBY fun for the family...the Town Hall is in Belmont at 7 p.m. tonight.

A "virtual charter school" (whatever that is) will (likely) be voted down by the SSF Unified School District tonight. In Watch Dog's ongoing attempt at humor, we are letting folks know that World B. Free is not the petitioner for the Free World U Charter School...

"Off the Beat," Michelle Durand gives high-praise to Gale, the Wonder Woman of the Daily Journal.

The Right Wing Tea Party that happened last week in San Mateo is getting blasted for some anti-semitic stuff on posters. It sounds like the McCain/Palin rallies of October 2008 are re-igniting...Our State Senator Leland Yee is leading the anti-Tea Party charge...you go Leland.

Some crime news...

• Remember the woman who crashed into a house in her car in Foster City in February? (We made a joke about the snow on the roads...) She won't be charged.
• The mother of a teenage girl had sex with a 14 year old boy. This happened in San Bruno last year. The woman is being charged with a bunch of crimes, obviously.
  

It isn't part of the Garbage Saga, but Menlo-Atherton High School students are dumping stuff on the lawn to show how much everyone wastes...Happy (Smelly) Earth Day...How long before Lindenwood neighbors in Atherton start complaining about this?

Morning News Round-Up -- 1.9.09: A friendly blog disagreement...

Our new friends at the Examiner.com San Mateo Public Policy Examiner break a little bit of news by pinning down Supervisor Rich Gordon's ambition to run for Assemblymember Ira Ruskin's seat in 2010. The PP Examiner goes on to say that Gordon would be the "odds on" favorite for the seat. Watch Dog respectfully disagrees. My guess is that anyone else that wants to run would disagree as well. Why? Well, the District stretches (roughly) in a sliver from San Carlos to South San Jose. Looking at the demographics of the District, which PP Examiner apparently didn't do, shows that the San Mateo County/Santa Clara County breakdown of residents is nearly even. So, concluding that Gordon would be the odds-on favorite may be true if the District were San Mateo only, but it isn't...remember, Joe Simitian held the seat and he is from Palo Alto. Therefore, no one is the odds-on favorite until everyone has made up their minds to run...from both Counties. (Thanks Watch Dog Silicon Valley for the local knowledge...)

The Daily Journal's Editor Jon Mays has a fun piece today. He complains about an online-doppelganger. You see, another guy named Jon Mays is cramping Our Jon Mays' online style with this horrible photo on Linked In. The funny thing is, Our Jon Mays thinks this photo is the Other Jon Mays posing like Tom Cruise...sorry Our Jon Mays, that IS Tom Cruise. A note to Our Jon Mays, if you want to appear at the top of a Google search, type in "Jon Mays Watch Dog" and you'll rise to the top...you are welcome Our Jon Mays.

In a down economy, those with money can get good deals -- all you have to do is walk through Macy's in San Mateo to see that...but school districts (Sequoia Union, San Mateo Union, etc.) that are spending bond money are stretching those dollars further too...see, there is a silver lining...

As some school districts are spending money on bricks and mortar...others are spending money on other things. In order to keep horny students from screwing up their lives or getting sick, students at Thornton High School may soon be able to get condoms from the school nurse. Jefferson Union High School District Superintendent Michael Crilly said it best..."The school board is faced with the reality that a lot of young people are having sex and much of it unprotected...While most adults like to believe kids are not doing this, the reality is they are..." Kids having sex? Say it ain't so.

28 years ago, Rafael Losno brutally killed a rival gang member in Daly City. Soon, he may be paroled. The Governor will have final say, but Losno is thought to be a good candidate for parole with a clean prison record, strong family support, and vocational training.

Belmont's ban on smoking in apartments went into effect yesterday in multi-unit dwellings -- so put down the cigarettes folks. Remember when this story first came out it was the biggest news in the world...now, not so much. I guess a tanking economy, war, police shootings, and the transition to a new President have sort of overshadowed this issue...

Open City Hall was launched yesterday in Palo Alto. It is a forum where Palo Alto residents, and others, can make their voices heard on issues coming before the Palo Alto City Council. I hope that the Palo Alto City Council isn't paying a ton of money for this program run by Peak Democracy. It seems all the functions on the site could be done with any other off-the-shelf or free technology -- even though the folks at Peak Democracy say otherwise. At least from what Watch Dog can tell -- but what to do I know?...

Remember this story from last week? Six young guys robbed another kid's iPod Touch. Well, it turns out one of the robbers was M-A football star Vaughn Smith. M-A's football coach, Phillip Brown had a weird reaction. Perhaps he needs some media training. His response:
"I'm a little disappointed...I had just talked to the Butte (Junior College) coach last week and gave him a glowing recommendation. I called three JCs in Southern California, to get him (Smith) out of here; to get him away...It's unfortunate...In the wrong place at the wrong time." A little disappointed? Wrong place wrong time? Really? (In an un/related note, Adam "PacMan" Jones was released by the Dallas Cowboys this week...)

The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) made several big land purchases on the coast at the end of last year. The more than 1,000 acres include pieces of land in Half Moon Bay, San Gregorio, and Moss Beach.

While the BART Board of Directors deal with the BART officer shooting -- they are also going to have to deal with a massive budget shortage. While the public hearing on cost-cutting options has been delayed for a bit, the options include cutting back on service on weekends or cutting some service all together on weekends for some stations. Heads up Millbrae...