Top Stories: Nov. 13, 2009

SJPD Chief Davis Under Fire; H1N1 Clinic This Weekend; Tech Crunch Blasts Facebook; Everybody Loves Chuck

By Danny Wool (Nov 13, 2009 )

More Bang for the Buck
Even as most businesses are reporting a decline in sales this holiday seasons, the line for the opening of San Jose's new 99 Cents Only store wound around the block. People showed up long before sunrise for a chance to get a scooter for under a dollar (available to the first 99 people in line).

Or even an iPod nano. It may sell at BestBuy for $139.99, but at the 99 Cents Only store, nine lucky shoppers got the first three digits slashed off the standard retail price.

For the rest of the public not lucky enough to get in line in time to buy an iPod, there were still plenty of bargains. Produce, canned goods, accessories, toys, cleaning supplies, and batteries, and even condoms can all be found there for 99 cents or less. And for the record, anyone afraid that the products are all knockoffs will be relieved by a study conducted by CSU Fullerton students, which found that Fantasy and Trustex brand condoms of all shapes, sizes and flavors are equal in performance to other name-brand products—putting a whole new spin on the term "cheap sex."
Read More at ABC 7.

Police Chief Comes under Fire
Groups representing San Jose's diverse ethnic communities have called for the resignation of Police Chief Rob Davis, claiming that the police use excessive force in dealing with minorities. "There needs to be a change in the culture of the current police force, and we don't think that Police Chief Davis can make that change," wrote Richard Konda, executive director of the Asian Law Alliance. The Asian community has been at the center of several high-profile cases involving the excessive use of force. These include the deadly shooting of Daniel Pham and, more recently, the tasing of Vietnamese student Phuong Ho.

Other minorities also claim to be affected by excessive police action, including the Latino community. The Mercury News has published a series of artices claiming to document a disproportional number of arrests for various misdemeanors, including public intoxication, affecting members of this community. Reverend Jethroe Moore II, President of the San Jose branch of the NAACP, described the SJPD's activities as "cowboy-style policing."

Other groups that joined the ALA and NAACP in calling for Davis's immediate resignation include La Raza Lawyers and the San Jose Peace and Justice Center.
Read More at The Mercury News.


County Prepares for New Swine Flu Vaccine Clinic This Weekend
As public health officials gear up for this weekend's public H1N1 vaccine, they are implementing a series of new procedures, based on what they learned last week. The clinic, which will also take place at the County Fairgrounds this Saturday, is trying to avoid the rush of people, some of whom lined up as early as 3:30 am, so it is introducing a numbering system for people on line. They are also increasing the number of available staff to help process forms more quickly, and even adding translators for non-English-speaking participants.

In related news, the Unified School District, which recently announced that it would be offering free vaccines to all its 32,000 students, has announced that it will be postponing the program. According to school board officials, the vaccines that were expected to arrive on Thursday, have been delayed, and they want a two-day window between the arrival of the vaccine and their distribution. In other words, if the vaccines arrive today, they will only be able to start inoculating students on Tuesday.

County officials says that even now there is a shortage of vaccines, so that distribution will be limited to high risk populations. To date, Santa Clara County has received an estimated 147,000 doses of the vaccine, while there are about 800,000 people in the county who call under the high risk category.
Read More at KCBS.
Read More at the Mercury News.


Facebook Comes Under Fire for Social Gaming Ads
Ever signed up for a social networking game like Farmville or Mafia Wars while on Facebook or MySpace? Check your credit cards statements if you have. Kershaw, Cutter, & Ratinoff, LLP, a Sacramento-based law firm, is putting together a class action suit for people duped into paying unauthorized fees for everything from mobile subscriptions to "learning CD" packages.

Facebook responded that it polices ads aggressively, and warns companies like Zynga that run these ad scams that "You are doing a disservice to your customers, and you should expect your business opportunities on Facebook to cease." Michael Arrington of Tech Crunch is not convinced. In a blog post two weeks ago, he raised the red flag, documenting how three big social gaming companies (Zynga, Playfish, and Playdom) are making hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue on Facebook and MySpace.

Arrington blames Facebook. In a later blog post he wrote, "Wonder how Facebook got to profitability way ahead of schedule? It was a surge in this kind of advertising. The money looks clean—it’s from Zynga, Playfish, Playdom and others. But a large portion of it is coming from users who’ve been tricked into one scam or another."

While some steps to fight this phenomenon are being taken now, one question remains. How long have Facebook and Myspace known about this? A video dating from Spring 2009 shows Zynga COO Mark Pincus saying how he knew he "needed revenues right ****ing now," so he did "every horrible thing in the book to just get revenues right away." He then admitted that even he couldn’t get rid of one of the toolbars he got users to download. Six months later, Kershaw, Cutter, & Ratinoff, LLP is finally taking them to task.
Read More at the Business Journal.
Read More at ValleyWag.


You're a Good Man, Chuck Reed
The city may be wallowing in deficits, but the people of San Jose like their mayor and think that he is doing what he can to help resolve their problems. This was the finding of a telephone poll conducted by the Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State University. Of the 765 respondents, only 14 percent said that they disapproved of the mayor's performance, while an average of 67 percent said that they approved.

Reed was most popular among self-described moderates. His approval among them was 79 percent. While 65 percent of conservatives approved of his performance, his lowest rating was among liberals, where he still received a 60 percent approval rating.
Read More at KLIV.