Morning News Round-Up -- 12.02.08: The election isn't over yet...

An East Bay issue in a different County...Measure B (BART to Silicon Valley) in Santa Clara County passed (barely) as reported by Watch Dog Silicon Valley. But the opponents of Measure B aren't done fighting yet. In court yesterday, Superior Court Judge Mary Jo Levinger scolded the opponents for filing a lawsuit in the wrong County and sent them scurrying for San Francisco in an attempt to force a recount – at the Santa Clara County’s expense. Transportation Solutions Defense Fund President David Schonbrunn complained they were being forced "… to go to two different courts." Perhaps Schonbrunn would complain less if he could take BART to San Francisco from Santa Clara County...

And if Ignacio De La Fuente took BART, he could have avoided this...

Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente doesn’t really have to follow the rules like everyone else. (The same frame of mind that landed his son in hot water…) He was fined $1,500 for receiving $2,331 in free parking at SFO in 2004 and 2005. He repaid the airport, but the fine is from the FPPC, the overseers of all things ethical for elected officials. The most obvious question is why is De La Fuente flying out of SFO when he has an airport in his backyard?

Money is tight in the Bay Area, perhaps they have more in other parts of the Country. To find out, UC hopes to expand non-state admission…especially after this story last week about international students feeling the economic pinch.

New regulations put forward by East Bay legislators are aimed at hitting pimps/johns who victimize children “where it hurts”…that’s not a Watch Dog play words, that’s what the story says…

Pot-advocates won a US Supreme Court (the high court) battle yesterday – high times for the Oakland-based medical marijuana group -- Americans for Safe Access. If police take your weed, they have to return it…In a node to the decision, Watch Dog noticed the reporters of this story used the phrase “high court” enough times that everyone, expect their Editors, got the joke…

It isn’t just pot-advocates…Fremont is going green-er too. (The other green...)

Activist want to shut down the Delta pumps…again. Environment versus Business…the repeat.

First written about here, it isn’t just police officers that are getting a sweetheart deal from UC in the retire, collect pension, start working again scam…

Yikes, it just keeps getting uglier out there. DHL is cutting 800 Bay Area jobs…East Bay to be among the hardest hit. About 265 of the layoffs are slated to hit Alameda County alone. That includes DHL locations in Oakland, Fremont and Dublin.