Free Republic

In a blow to high-speed-rail critics lobbying for the train line from Los Angeles to end in San Jose, Caltrain officials said Tuesday that the idea would require the same Peninsula track expansion while harming local commuter service and stripping the agency of funding. For riders to take the bullet train from Southern California to San Jose and transfer to an express Caltrain to San Francisco — as some critics and planners have proposed — Caltrain would have to add tracks or eliminate commute service to accommodate them, said Bob Doty, Caltrain's joint high-speed-rail program director. As a result, whether...

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman reached out to Latino businesspeople at a San Jose luncheon Thursday, promising to create jobs, improve education and cut spending. She didn't mention a touchier topic: immigration. But following her question-and-answer session with the Greater San Jose Hispanic Chamber of Commerce at a Santana Row restaurant, Whitman told the Mercury News she is "100 percent against amnesty," wants to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants and will eliminate "sanctuary cities" like San Francisco that don't enforce federal immigration laws. Still, Whitman said, she hopes her plans to improve education and the economy will...

Nothing on the wires yet. No more news given than what I put in the headline.

WASHINGTON — A gunman coolly drew a weapon from his pocket and opened fire at a security checkpoint into the Pentagon on Thursday in a point-blank attack that wounded two police officers before the suspect was fatally shot. The two officers suffered grazing wounds and were being treated in a hospital, said Richard Keevill, chief of Pentagon police. The shooter, identified as John Patrick Bedell, 36, of California, died hours after being admitted to a hospital in critical condition, authorities said. They had no motive for the shooting. There were signs, however, that Bedell may have harbored resentment for the...

SAN JOSE (CBS 5 / AP) ― The holding company for newspaper publisher MediaNews Group filed for Chapter 11 protection Friday and expects to emerge from bankruptcy in a month or two. Affiliated Media Inc., the privately held parent company for the owner of 54 daily newspapers including the San Jose Mercury News, Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times and Marin Independent Journal, had said Jan. 15 it would be making the move. The company said it had a deal with creditors that will cut its debt to $165 million from $930 million. Lenders led by Bank of America would get...

Isabel Luevano was late with her car payment. On Tuesday night, the repo man came. Trouble was, when he snatched back her 2000 Honda Accord, her 2-year-old son, Cyrus Lopez, was repossessed, too. He was asleep in the back seat. Frantic, Luevano called 911. She thought the car — and her child — had been stolen right before her eyes as she stepped outside to pick up her 6-year-old daughter. Police swarmed to her rescue. A search helicopter circled in the air. And 31 minutes later, San Jose police found the boy after astutely figuring out they should call Alberto's...

Minor shake, rolling. Probably a 3 ish?

Another earthquake just hit San Jose. 4th one this week. This one was not as strong as yesterday, but it was longer.

San Jose, Calif. (AP) -- Grainy cell phone images are often used against cops accused of using excessive violence. Now, officers are being armed with their own cameras. The so-called head cameras are the latest technology to come from Taser International Inc., makers of the stun guns popular with law enforcement. "It's like the helmet cam you've seen on X Games," said San Jose police officer William Pender, who demonstrated the camera on a recent afternoon. Eighteen of San Jose's more than 1,300 sworn officers have been trained to use the AXON head cameras as part of a free trial....

Thousands of people filling the sidewalks and spilling onto Tully Road had arrived early Saturday morning to receive one of 5,500 doses of coveted swine flu vaccine. "There's no way there's enough," said George Reis, who was helping with crowd control. "They keep coming."

San Jose already has a far higher rate of retired police and firefighters on disability than other large California city. And in the three years since a Mercury News investigation documented that trend, pension trustees haven't denied one of the dozens of claims that have come before them. But a city physician's effort to demand more medical documentation of career-ending injuries now has officers calling for his ouster. Police say Dr. Rajiv Das is holding up officers' disability retirements — which, unlike regular service pensions, are mostly tax-free. Though Das merely advises the trustees who decide disability retirements, police complain...

Just had an earthquake in San Jose. It was small, but the 2nd one this week.

Even a federal judge can wind up having problems with lenders and banks these days. A small Northern California community bank this week sued San Jose U.S. District Judge James Ware in Santa Clara County Superior Court, accusing him of failing to make payments on an $80,000 boat he purchased nine years ago. The lawsuit, filed by Butte Community Bank, alleges that Ware owes more than $58,000 — and the bank is seeking a court order to seize the boat. So now the veteran federal judge finds himself facing the prospect of being a civil defendant in a courtroom instead...

San Jose's ACORN has closed its first-time homeowner program in the wake of the scandal that has also cost the national group its federal funding. Allison Chadwick, a national spokeswoman for ACORN Housing, said all of its offices, including San Jose and the East Bay chapters, would suspend classes for first-time home buyers. However, foreclosure advice would continue. ACORN, a nonprofit anti-poverty organization, is reeling from a sting operation by undercover conservative activists posing as a prostitute and her pimp. The pair videotaped ACORN housing workers in Baltimore and other locations offering them advice about cheating on taxes and operating...

San Jose and other redevelopment agencies across California score a victory vs. the state — for now. California's redevelopment agencies have won a major victory in their battle to keep the state from grabbing hundreds of millions of tax dollars. Now a second legal skirmish looms that could blow a huge hole in the fragile state budget if the agencies win — or jeopardize everything from street repairs to major urban renewal projects if they lose. Last week, state officials dropped an appeal of a judge's ruling that their 2008 seizure of $350 million from the agencies — including $13...

San Jose council votes to ban most plastic and paper bags beginning in 2011 The San Jose City Council on Tuesday voted to make the city the largest in the nation to ban most plastic and paper shopping bags — and took steps to bring other Santa Clara County cities along with them. Although the ban approved Tuesday won't take effect until 2011 — and still must go through an environmental impact study that will require the council's final signoff — it's a major new front in the war on plastic bags, which environmentalists say foul waterways, clog landfills and...

Just wanted to give an after report from the San Jose Tea Party. It started today around 1pm on the corner of Winchester and Steven's Creek. I'd say there were several hundred protestors. Lots of cars were going by and honking in our support. As usual, it was full of nice peaceful all-Americans. I heard that some of the protestors were going to a Town Hall meeting that Mike Honda was having. I didn't know about it, so I couldn't go. I didn't have a camera so I can't post any pictures. It's always very encouraging to see so many...

A pigeon that nuzzled too close to another bird on a high-voltage line Wednesday got zapped into eternity and likely sparked the four-alarm brush fire that scorched several acres on San Jose's Communications Hill, PG&E officials said Thursday. San Jose fire Capt. Scott Kouns said the cause of the fire that blackened some 15 acres and the skies above before it was extinguished two hours later officially remains under investigation. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries and an outbuilding was burned. But Jennifer Zerwer, spokeswoman for Pacific Gas & Electric, said utility crews found a downed 12-kilovolt power line and a...

Babs Boxer showed up today at a Barnes & Noble book store in San Jose, CA. Many citizens showed up at the book store to express their opinions to Babs. These activities all took place out side the store. As far as I know, there was no disruptions inside the store. This small minded hag was walking around taking pictures. She said was going to put them on the Internet to show everyone what "idiots" we were. Can you imaging a conservative doing something like this at a liberal rally. The ACORN and SEIU guys would rip you apart.

Push to fluoridate water in San Jose So far, tooth fairies have had it great in San Jose: The city is the largest in the country that doesn't fluoridate its water. But now a major effort is under way to shed that title. In a push toward better dental health in the valley, advocates have launched a campaign to raise the millions needed to upgrade the city's water infrastructure. Given the controversy that typically surrounds fluoridation efforts, they expect progress to be slow. So on Wednesday backers of the effort brought a top engineer from the Centers for Disease Control...