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Top Stories: Feb. 8, 2010

Figone vs. Unions; MLB to Decide on A's Move; Big Lotto Winner; Google and NSA; Boxer Optimistic About Silicon Valley

by Danny Wool on Feb 08, 2010
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SJSU Gets $3.1 Million
It's been a rocky year for SJSU, but things are finally starting to look up. The college has just received a $3.1 million one-time grant of federal stimulus money, just months after the school decided to slash enrollment by 3,000 students in the upcoming academic year and to eliminate financial assistance for students who fail to get a passing grade in remedial classes.

So, will the money be used to restore enrollment? Not likely, says Chancellor Charles Reed. He wants to speed up the pace of students graduating, and hopes to launch new classes to compensate for overcrowding in key classes required for graduation. Faced with a $41 million cut in state funding, the $3 million that the school is receiving will be used cautiously—though it might help to invest in better locks for the trailers where the Spartan Marching Band stores its instruments.
Read More at NBC Bay Area.
Read More at CBS 5.


Figone Takes on the Unions
City Manager Debra Figone has taken on the city's powerful unions in an effort to reform the boards that manage city employee pensions. Two boards currently oversee the pension funds—one for policemen and firemen, and another for the remaining employees. Each board consists of seven members appointed by city council, including council members, city employees, and retirees.

The problem, according to Figone, is that current rules require only one of the members to have financial expertise. Other critics of the current system also point out that losses incurred through poor investments of the workers' pension funds are assumed by the taxpayers, not the workers. Because they do not suffer potential losses, they are encouraged to make riskier investments.

Figone's plan, which would leave the appointment process for the boards almost exclusively in the hands of City Council, has come under intense fire from union heads, who want to have a greater say in how their pension funds are being managed. They prefer a compromise solution, proposed by Mayor Chuck Reed, that gives city workers and retirees greater influence on the appointments.
Read More at The Mercury News.


A's Decision Could Come Today
Will the A's stay in Oakland? Will they move to Fremont or San Jose? The answer could come as early as today, according to Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums. At a speech to Oakland's Chamber of Commerce last Friday, Dellum announced that the special commission set up by baseball commissioner Bud Selig is scheduled to present its findings today. On the other hand, that doesn't mean that Selig will release the findings either in part or in their entirety. Still, it's worth keeping an eye on this space for any sudden announcements.
Read More at the East Bay Express.


Making Millions at the 7-Eleven
Someone walked away with more than just a Slurpie at the Bascom Avenue 7-Eleven. They probably didn’t realize it right away, but they went home with $20 million, and they didn't even need a shotgun to get it. They Lotto ticket that they bought had the winning numbers—19, 29, 36, 37, 41, plus Mega number 20. While the winner has yet to be identified, it is likely that they'll be giving up microwave burritos for lunch for a while. After all, they can afford so much more.
Read More at NBC Bay Area.


Privacy Group Wants More Info about Google's Deal with NSA
The NSA and Google have been working out a deal to help the search engine giant protect itself from "highly sophisticated and targeted attack." Just last month, the company faced such an attack by hackers allegedly affiliated with the Chinese government, attempting to gain access to the email accounts of top Chinese dissidents and human rights activists.

While the effort is commendable, one group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), is concerned about the NSA's own reputation tracking private communications. During the Bush administration it was authorized to monitor private phone calls and emails without warrants as part of the War on Terror. "As of 2009, Gmail had roughly 146 million monthly users, all of whom would be affected by any relationship between the NSA and Google," says EPIC. The group went to on to file a Freedom of Information Act request in an effort to obtain records about Google's relationship with the NSA.

This is hardly the first time that EPIC has taken on Google. Last March the group filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over what it perceived as inadequate loud computing privacy and security safeguards by Google. One can only wonder whether increasing privacy at the time as EPIC requested might have prevented the most recent attack on Google.
Read More at the Business Journal.
Read More at EPIC.org.


Optimism about Silicon Valley Rebound
Could Silicon Valley be "on the other side of this recession?” Sen. Barbara Boxer seems to think so, and said as much on a visit to Solyndra's plant in Fremont this Friday. The company, which manufactures solar panels, is slated to double its workforce to 2,000 over the next few months. While most new jobs in Silicon Valley are in clean tech, Boxer is "confident" that high tech and biotech are about to rebound too.

The news from Solyndra is certainly having an effect on other businesses in the area. In San Jose, local cabinet-maker Amberwood has been contracted to manufacture reception desks and cabinets for Solyndra's new plant. After laying off 55 employees last year, Amberwood has already hired back 50 and could hire another 20 by the year's end.

Of course, there's still a long way to go. While clean tech has added 12,000 jobs to Silicon Valley, the region lost 100,000 jobs as a result of the recession. To cover the net loss of 88,000 jobs, it will need a lot more success stories like Solyndra.
Read More at ABC 7.


Santa Clara Power Plants in Trouble
City officials in Santa Clara are inspecting the Donald Von Raesfeld Power Plant, the town's main power plant, after receiving complaints from the plant's employees. The plant provides power for about half a million homes in Santa Clara. It could not come at a less opportune time. In December months ago, officials shut down another power plant in the city after a water heater overheated dangerously.

Inspectors from the Office of Pipeline Safety at the federal Department of Transportation toured the plant on Jan. 20 after receiving complaints from employees there. One week later, Cal-OSHA paid a visit to inspect the plant. Neither group has made their findings public.

One of the whistleblowers is Rick Parks, a generation technicians who worked at the Three Mile Island cleanup in the early 1980s. He was fired from his work there after complaining that a crane used to lift debris from the meltdown was damaged, but was later reinstated by the Department of Labor after he testified about the incident in Congressional hearings.

He has produced a long series of emails and complaint forms highlighting safety concerns at the Donald Von Raesfeld Power Plant. Among the issues he has pointed out are a lack of adequate communications between shifts and the absence of relief valves on much of the equipment.
Read More at The Mercury News.



by Danny Wool on Feb 08, 2010
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