New Round-Up 12.16.08: Watch Dog seeks highly-trained, unemployed Nobel Laureate...

Berkeley (National Labs) gets its own seat on the Cabinet...sort of. (Stanford is taking credit for Steven Chu as well.) I guess this means that the post at Berkeley National Labs will be up as well...are there any unemployed Nobel Laureates out there?

San Francisco Magazine takes a look at Mayor Dellum's tenure. Some folks feel strongly that he hasn't done anything -- some of his more hard-core supporters feel like he is getting a bad rap...either way, is Oakland a better/safer place today to live/work/visit than it was when he took office? Watch Dog readers probably have a view...

Berkeley Police Department finds itself in a funny position. They got a grant to combat drunk driving...and since they got they grant, arrests for drunk driving have gone up. Does this mean that the grant worked or didn't work? Watch Dog can't tell...

How are we going to Watch Dog Sacramento without access to important stuff? Thanks to an East Bay group, MapLight.org, we may be getting closer.

In what may be considered one of the biggest screw ups the Oakland Police Department has ever been a part of...the Oakland Police Department delayed a raid on Your Black Muslim Bakery by 48 hours to accommodate two senior SWAT team commanders' vacations. And, you guessed it, Chauncey Bailey was killed during this delay, presumably/obviously, by folks involved in Your Black Muslim Bakery that would have been raided.

Contra Costa becomes the first County in the Bay Area to vote against joining the lawsuit against Prop. 8. Watch Dog wants to know who is giving political advice to the Board of Supervisors...55% of voters voted NO on Prop. 8 in Contra Costa County...

Morning (late afternoon) News Round-Up – 12.04.08: Vallejo can't catch a break...or a movie...

And in the least surprising news of this week...the generous/egregious severance packages are getting a closer look at UC. That seems like a good idea, unless you want a full-fledged revolt on your hand.

A major Oakland development is coming to a halt. The City Walk development has stopped, half-finished -- which is the latest chapter in the storied/crappy history of the downtown development. In the most obvious quote of the day, the guy in charge of the project, Tony Bosowski, who is the Regional VP of the Olson Company, "It's not a good time to be in the business."

Neither the government nor businesses in Vallejo can catch a break. First the Vallejo City Government faces bankruptcy, and now the Empress Theatre (which was revamped to much fanfare) looks like it may be seeing its last days...All the energy that went into the facelift should have been put into getting people to actually catch a movie there.

The A's are rethinking their plans to move...but don't get too excited Oakland, they just want to move closer to BART in Fremont -- maybe. This is still good for Fremont and probably great for BART, but maybe bad news for Cisco Systems, the owners of the previous, proposed baseball site -- Cisco Systems.

The Oro Loma Sanitary District Board members just gave themselves a raise. This is generally something that Watch Dog gets all iritated over...but...it was onlly 4 percent, which will equal about 10 bucks a meeting -- meaning that they will get $260/meeting as opposed $250/meeting. Watch Dog will keep eyes on the District's rates...don't worry. By the way, click through to their website and see if you can resist running to the bathroom from the sound...

Morning News Round-Up -- 11.21.08

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (Speaks for Me) was named the Congressional Black Caucus Chair. Kudos to the Dellums-protégé. Berkeley City Councilmember Max Anderson notes, "It's a tribute not only to Barbara, but to this area that has stood behind Barbara in every issue-from her opposition to the war and concern for AIDS around the world."

Labor unrest continues at UC-schools. This time labor leaders were arrested at the Regents meeting.

The City of Berkeley is proposing a ban on plastic bags. Since when does Berkeley lag behind San Francisco in such things?...

A Berkeley-to-San Francisco ferry? Cool. Watch Dog could blog mid-Bay…in a bit of Bay Area history, we learn that ferry service hasn’t been an option since the Bay Bridge was completed in 1936.

Cal State East Bay is getting more dorms and more parking.

And from the "Law Enforcement Officials Acting Badly" file…

...Drugs, lies, and police officers refusing to testify. It sounds like The Wire…but it isn’t. It’s the Oakland PD...again...

…The Contra Costa sex-crime prosecutor accused of rape will be charged Friday, according to his lawyer.

A proposed Jewish Community Center in Walnut Creek moves forward. The City Council approved the sale of land adjacent to the new Center to a developer, which in turn will help fund the Center. In an unsurprising move, neighbors voiced their NIMBY feelings for nearly 2 hours.

In perhaps the least surprising story in a long time, a government agency (the City of Alameda) realized that it couldn’t run a business as well as an actual business could run that same business. The City Council approved the sale of its AP&T’s telecom business to Comcast.

Like a real-life scene from the Three Stooges, a man who was trying to show Fremont police where he thought burglars had entered a pet store fell through a skylight. Larry, Curly, and Moe never got hurt though…this guy did. He is in critical condition.

The San Leandro Hospital is in deep trouble, so says a consultant...and doctors...and a lot of other people.

Not to be outdone by a hospital or the City of Vallejo...the City of Rio Vista may be heading to bankruptcy court. Providing no good answer to the financial crisis, City Manager Hector De La Rosa said, "We don't see a solution in the immediate future."