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Those Who Can, Teach (in Mountain View)Resignation Haiku from Sun CEO; Not a Lot of Boozing in the Bay Area; SJPD Making Amends with Asian Communityby Danny Wool on Feb 05, 2010Those Who Can, Teach (in Mountain View) Teachers' salaries are being slashed across the state because of the budget crisis, but there's at least one community where teachers are doing pretty well for themselves. The average salary per teacher in the Mountain View-Los Altos High School District is $95,365, with a low of $61,184 and a high of $115,616. "We have the best teachers in the state," says Superintendent Barry Groves, but he adds that all-important conclusion, "and they deserve to be paid well." And paid well, they are, considering that 23 of those teachers are in their first year on the job. There may be another factor at work as well. Joe White, the Associate Superintendent of Business in the district, points out that Mountain View's cost-of-living is also very high, and that salaries are commensurate with what it takes to live there … even if most of the teachers commute. Read More at the Mountain View Voice. Resignation Haiku from Sun CEO Ever since the days of Matsuo Bashō, talented poets have been able to pack volumes of meaning into the seventeen syllables that make up a haiku. And while the form may have never really caught on in English, it could be about to gain momentum thanks to microblogging sites like Twitter. After all, the heavily packed message lends itself perfectly to the site's 140 character limit. As an indication of the poem's potential, consider the resignation notice posted by Sun's CEO Jonathan Schwartz. Financial crisis Stalled too many customers CEO no more One is almost tempted to respond The Sun has set now As the Oracle foretold Ponytail no more Oracle has yet to confirm that Schwartz has actually resigned, though CNBC is reporting that he walked away with a $12 million compensation package. Read More at NBC Bay Area. Not a Lot of Boozing in the Bay Area Maybe it's all the fine California wines that keep Bay Area residents from getting drunk. Wine must be sipped, while beer must be guzzled, and shots must be, well, shot. It would certainly explain why San Jose ranked 79th in the list of drunkest cities across the nation. It’s particularly impressive because the drunkest city in the U.S. is another California town, Fresno, while both Riverside and Bakersfield make it into the top 10. The ranking is based on various criteria, including frequency of binge-drinking, DUI stats, and the number of deaths from alcohol-related liver disease. The fact that San Jose ranked so low could also be attributed to the efforts of the SJPD to keep DUIs under control, and for that they deserve a lot of credit. Read More at NBC Bay Area. SJPD Making Amends with Asian Community Earlier this week, SanJose.com reported that Police Chief Rob Davis is determined to mend the Force's relationship with the city's Asian community, and appointed Phan S. Ngo as San Jose's first Vietnamese Deputy Police Chief. It already seems to be paying off. Last night a local group, Asian Americans For Community Involvement, held a meeting to decide how to "bring community members together with police to better understand each other, rebuild that trust, and move forward." Among the participants was Vinh Pham, father of Daniel Pham, who was shot dead by the police during an altercation in his home. There was still disappointment over the way the Asian community feels it has been treated in the past, but the meeting was geared toward the future. After a panel discussion, participants divided into breakout groups to brainstorm for ideas on how they might improve tense relations with the city, and particularly with the police department. It is a major step forward in regaining that community's trust. Read More at ABC 7. Google Book Deal Not Quite There Yet The Justice Department responded to Google's proposed book settlement yesterday with some bad news for the search engine giant. While the current iteration is better than earlier ones, it still leaves an opening for Google to monopolize the market in orphan works and to violate authors' copyrights and class action rules. Google's new proposal recently came under fire from Internet rival Amazon, as well as from a group of academics, led by Professor Pam Samuelson of Berkeley. A fairness hearing about the proposal is scheduled to take place in U.S. District Court on February 18. Read More at the Business Journal. Patty Sapone Retires Deputy Police Chief Patty Sapone will retire today, ending a 30-year career with the SCPD. Sapone graduated from Santa Cruz High, where she was first drawn to the police force after spending a day in the Sheriff's Office. She went on to study criminal justice at San Jose State, and joined the force at the age of 22. At the time, the SCPD tended only to hire people who had previous police experience, so that she was not only the youngest female rookies but also one of the youngest rookies in general in the force. Sapone started with the SCPD as the youngest female rookie ever hired by the police force. At the time, new members of the SCPD were usually hired after they had experience in other police forces. Though Sapone was a trailblazer for women on the SCPD, looking back she says that she "never anticipated being treated differently." Nevertheless, in the early days, she was not allowed to do shifts with other women, and she was often handed child-abuse and sexual-assault cases because the prevailing wisdom at the time was that women handle those kinds of cases better. She also rose through the ranks, even though there was a time when she was the only female officer in the entire SCPD. Upon her retirement, the city will lose its longest serving officer—she has a year's seniority over current Police Chief Howard Skerry. She plans on spending her free time travelling with her husband, but adds, "I'm going to continue to be in the community." After such a long career, how can she do anything else? Read More at the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Three Arrested After Liquor Store Assault Two men and a woman have been arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and battery after attacking two women at a liquor store on California and Bay streets early Thursday morning. The assailants are Nada Daniel, 23, Mauricio Flores Perez, 28, and John Dively, 36. The victims, two women, apparently got into an argument with the assailants while still at the store, but drove off down Younglove Street. Their attackers followed them in a car driven by Perez, and hit the car with their vehicle at least twice. Daniel then got out of the car and started beating the driver. Though the three fled the scene, they were later identified and book in the county jail. Read More at KSBW. Arrest Made in Double Murder Santa Cruz police arrested Jaime Galdamez-Guevara last night for the double murder of Alejandro Nava-Gonzalez and Oscar Ventura on January 23. The arrest was made in Fresno, where police were tipped off the assailant might be. They are currently investigating the motive for the killing and whether other people at the house at the time of the arrest were also involved. Read More at Fox 35. Film Festival under New Leadership This Year As it prepares to launch its ninth season, the 2010 Santa Cruz Film Festival] has announced that its founder and current Executive Director Jane Sullivan will be taking a sabbatical this year. Her role will be taken over by a team of festival veterans and members of the Board of Directors. The Santa Cruz film festival highlights the work of independent filmmakers who produce culturally relevant and ideologically challenging works. Submissions are still being accepted, and over 100 works are expected to be screened May 6-15, 2010. Trailers from many of the films screened at last year's festival can be found on Youtube. Read More at TheCalifornian.com. by Danny Wool on Feb 05, 2010 |
 Mountain View is the city of happy teachers. |
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