News Round-Up 12.11.08: An East Bay Cabinet Secretary but (perhaps) no baseball team...

First a Nobel Prize, then a seat on Obama's cabinet. Steven Chu will leave the Berkeley National Lab and head to 1000 Independence Avenue, D.C.

Fremont Site A, Fremont Site B, or San Jose? Are the Oakland A's that fickle or that brilliant...are they playing each area off one another in order to cut a deal and make a killing. (All the while fielding a team that is good, but not great.) The Merc. has the San Jose perspective, including some funny quotes from San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed that show that he isn't such a baseball fan...

• ...regarding A's owner Lew Wolff, Reed said, "I won't be calling...He's got my phone number."
• ...if the A's want to come, Reed said, "He'll (Wolff) have to bring his checkbook..."

That's some welcome mat Mayor Reed...unlike Mayor Reed, Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman does want the A's. He is going to meet with Catellus, who like the A's even less than Chuck Reed. They are concerned about traffic and they own a key piece of land for the Site A location off of 880. The folks around the being-built BART station at Warm Springs are also concerned about traffic. This is all to be continued and Watch Dog will be there (whether 'there' is Fremont, Fremont, or San Jose...)

In the least surprising news of the week, Senator Perata has found himself in the middle of some controversy. Perata is a major fundraiser -- his position in Sacramento didn't hurt in this respect. But the latest controversy involves Perata shifting/laundering $1.5 million from one of his Political Action Committees to his legal defense fund...which he will no doubt need...

There are some goings on in local higher-ed circles...

• Chabot College has plans to open a Union City Campus.
• Cal State East Bay continues with its master plan, which Sherman Lewis of the Hayward Planning Association called, "...inadequate on transportation."
• Berkeley and Cal are paying hefty legal bills for the tree-sitting law suits.

There are two items to add the "Only in Berkeley" file in the same story today. Item 1: The City Council support prosecution of former White House Counsel John Yoo, a recommendation that came from Berkeley's Peace and Justice Commission. Which leads to Item 2: Berkeley has a Peace and Justice Commission.

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."