Morning News Round-Up -- 5.27.10: San Mateo is the new Ohio...

The Menlo Park City Council had a nice conversation about the Bohannon "Menlo Gateway" project on Tuesday night. (Admit it, you were there...) But two Councilmembers, Kelly Fergusson and Andy Cohen, are not buying what Menlo Gateway is selling and it is making Councilmember Heyward Robinson "uncomfortable" that the two aren't supporting it. He's probably uncomfortable because Menlo Gateway is huge, and in the future if the project is hated, Robinson will be the one who voted for it... except he hedged his bets and abstained last night.

The Civil Grand Jury says that consolidation of fire fighting services could save money for local communities. Thanks Civil Grand Jury, everyone is already on the case (San Mateo/ Foster City, Coastside, etc., etc.)

Which leads us to our daily dose of pointing out the screw ups of others... the San Mateo/ Foster City fire merger is so important that it has to appear on the homepage of the County Times twice...


100+ layoffs coming to a school district near you -- that is, if you live in the Redwood City School District...

Friends and farmers celebrated Jack Olsen's life yesterday at his funeral.


Fresh off the Mercury News endorsement this week, Rich Gordon gets the Will Oremus treatment...

Steve Poizner will be holding a town hall meeting today at noon at the Hiller Aviation Museum. Don't all jump for joy at once... try to contain your excitement. Whitman is in town tomorrow at Graniterock in Redwood City. Apparently San Mateo County is now Ohio.

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.7.10: Matt Grocott?

The Supervisorial candidates get a long, long, long write up in the Daily Journal in their own words. Which is not nearly as interesting as the Daily Journal's endorsement of... drum roll please... Matt Grocott. (No joke.)

There is a brewing issue on the release (or non-release) the search warrant used to search the tech-writer who had the lifted iPod... the press wants to see the search warrant and prosecutors don't want them (or us) to...

Anti-High-Speed Rail folks have a new picture for the center of their dart board as a new CEO was named... Roelof van Ark... who will make $375,000, which seems low considering all the NIMBY meetings this guy is going to have to sit through up and down the Peninsula...

Mr. van Ark is coming on just in time for a new lawsuit from the duel NIMBY capitals of the Bay Area, Atherton and Menlo Park...

We wonder if Mr. van Ark can help Caltrain's bottom line... as the bottom line gets more and more screwed up...

It is well-known that East Palo Alto Police Chief Ron Davis wants out of town... he is in the running for the Seattle gig, but he seems to be out of the running for New Orleans.

High schoolers will need to find another place to buy booze other than the Sharon Heights Safeway... they won't be able to buy at the Rock of Gibraltor or the Chevron on Alameda de las Pulgas either... these were the places recently busted. Thank goodness Watch Dog just turned 21.

We know that the Redwood City School District is having a tough time and issued pink slips... well, so are their cousins at City Hall... Redwood City may cut 40 positions.

The Garbage Saga may be closed to over on this side of the hill, but it is just getting started in Pacifica. They have a new garbage hauler/recycling company, and new rates to boot. But Lionel Emde, a Pacifica resident, filed a lawsuit that said the new rates didn't get the full airing and notice of the public... Let's call this, Garbage Saga II...

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.4.10: Buy your Corona today...

If you have been sitting on your duff waiting to return the ballot you have in your house for your School Districts' parcel tax, please return it... well, if you are going to vote yes, please return it... (Menlo Park City School District and Portola Valley School District folks, that means you...)

Here's some good news, even if it is years off. One more lane in each direction of 101 between Marsh Road and Embarcadero Road... they will be "exit only" lanes, but still, that might help a little.

Pink slips - check. Fewer school days - check (perhaps)... Redwood City School District is having a tough go of it.

Big sewer rate hikes coming to Half Moon Bay...

Governor Schwarzenegger had a plan to fund parks with revenues from off shore oil drilling... um, not such a hot idea now... Because Pacifica and Half Moon Bay look much better with no oil spills on their shore.

And some great news. The Coastside Farmers' Market in Pacifica opens tomorrow...

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.