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Top Stories: Nov. 17, 2009San Jose Attorney Sues Mormon Church; Teens Charged With Murder; Elton and Billy Cancel Showby Danny Wool on Nov 17, 2009San Jose to Become Even More Bike Friendly Portland may still be the best city for cyclists in the nation, according to Bicycling.com, but the website recently named San Jose as a runner up as one of the most improved cities. Andy Clarke, Executive Director of the League of American Bicyclists, says, "If you put San Jose on the East Coast, people would think it was a mecca of cycling." So what's needs improvement? According to the city's Bike Coordinator, John Brazil, the city still needs to fill in the gaps in its biking network. And they will do that tonight. At its meeting, the City Council will adopt its Bicycle Plan 2020, doubling the local network of bikeways, from 250 to 500 miles. There's still a way to go though. One of the reasons San Francisco still tops San Jose is the number of people who adopted bicycles. But San Francisco also put its plans for expanding its bike network on hold until it can be run through an environmental impact review. And they have a lot more hills. Read More at KLIV. Read More at Bicycling.com. Brothers File Suit Against Mormon Church Two brothers, identified only as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2, filed suit against their stepfather for what they described as years of sexual abuse. The brothers, who are originally from Sunnyvale, said that their stepfather was a Boy Scout leader at the time of the incident, as well as a member in good standing of the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which is named in the lawsuit. While the case against their stepfather is not unusual, the attempt to sue the Mormon church is. Allen Ruby, the San Jose-based lawyer for the church in Northern California, said that he did not know of any other cases in which a church was sued for the wrongdoing of one of its members, and the church has stated that it "unequivocally" condemns sexual abuse. Two other cases against the Mormon church were filed this week, in Portland and Seattle. The two brothers say they informed the church of what was happening to them when they were boys, and that their mother turned to the church for guidance. Almost thirty years later, she is still married to her sons' alleged abuser. Nor is this a case of former Mormons venting hostility against a church they left. Both are still active members in the local Mormon community, and one of the brothers stated: "I love this church … but the Mormon Church failed. They betrayed me.” The Mormon church has a long history in the Bay Area, dating back to 1846, a year before Salt Lake City was founded by Brigham Young. Sam Brannan, the founder of the original community, had hoped to make San Francisco the center of the Mormon church, but Brigham Young eventually succeeded in establishing Salt Lake City as the Mormon religious capital. There are now 500,000 Mormons in California, making it the state's second largest religion after Catholicism. Mormon activity in the Bay Area centers around the Oakland Temple, dedicated in 1864. Read More at NBC Bay Area. Read More at KCBS. Read More at Inside Bay Area. Local Teens Charged with Murder Police have charged two teens with the stabbing death of 15-year-old Michael Russell, a sophomore at Santa Teresa High School. Russell was killed outside his home last week just as City Council was deciding on what measures to adopt to combat increasing violence in the city. The suspects, aged 15 and 16, do not appear to be connected to any gang, and police are now investigating what possible connections they had to the victim, or whether other people were also involved in the murder. Although the names of the suspects have not been released, the Mercury News reports that they attended the same school as their victim, and that the victim was even appeared as a friend on their Myspace pages. According to the Merc, the pages of the two suspects "featured declarations of devotion to drugs, violence and carnage," leading to considerable speculation in Santa Teresa High about the motive behind the crime. Read More at ABC 7. Read More at the Mercury News. SJSU Offers New Global Leadership, Masters in Engineering Programs Will the future leaders of the global economy come from San Jose? That's the plan of SJSU's new Global Leadership Advancement Center. The year-old center is headed by Joyce Osland, one of a handful of academics anywhere to specialize in this emerging field. Osland, who comes from the college's School of Business a specialist in international management, with a focus on Latin America, as well as global leadership, and organization development. She spent fourteen years working abroad in Latin America and West Africa before coming to SJSU. For the past decade, her research has focused on global leadership, which she describes as a "more extreme form of leadership." The university will also be launching three accelerated master's degree engineering programs in analog and mixed signal, cloud computing and virtualization, and clean technology. The programs will be run in conjunction with local high tech industries, and are designed to give students a head start in these emerging industries. Read More at the Business Journal. SmartMeters Less Popular than Expected There was a lot of fanfare when PG&E began to install its new SmartMeters throughout the Bay Area. The meters are integral to the Mayor's "zero emissions" goal for the city, and just two weeks ago Chuck Reed seemed upset that the city did not get the $40+ million that it had requested in federal stimulus funds. He may have spoken too soon. According to a PG&E spokesman, "We have investigated hundreds of bill complaints where customers felt higher bills were due to the SmartMeter meters," though he added that in each case the meters were actually correct. This did not convince more than 30 customers who complained to the Mercury News about the meters' performance. Some people have seen their electricity bills triple. In one instance, a bill that was usually $400 skyrocketed to $4,000 (though the homeowner did not receive any bill at all for several months). It could be, as PG&E claims, that rate hikes, aging appliances, and house guests are responsible for the sudden surges in power and costs. And it could also be that the meters still need to be tested and improved before they are installed en masse. Read More at The Mercury News. Elton and Billy to be a No Show Does anyone remember the Elton John song "Sick City"? It was the B-side of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," and it's also how a fairly accurate description of how Elton's been feeling lately. The 62-year-old artist cancelled his Oakland show with Billy Joel on Saturday night, and he's just cancelled his November 17 show in San Jose too. "I'm Still Standing"? No, he's not. News has it that he's been hospitalized recently with a double whammy of e-coli infection and the flu. As for Billy Joel, he should remember, "You're Only Human. He's been under the weather recently, and concert organizers have urged him to take it easy for now. The artists are looking for a date to reschedule, once John and Joel get their "Second Wind." Read More at NBC Bay Area. ˇBienvenido a Youtube! Youtube announced that it has reached a deal with Spanish-language television station Univision to broadcast its programming, along with programming from its subsidiaries TeleFutura and Galavision. "With this new partnership, our community here in the U.S. can watch and enjoy both full-length and short-form programming from Univision's three major networks on our platform," read a statement by Chris Maxcy, who oversees content partnerships for Youtube. Univision will share ad revenue from its programming with Google, which owns Youtube. Read More at The Mercury News. by Danny Wool on Nov 17, 2009 |
 Bicycle.com has named San Jose as one of the most improved bike towns in the nation. |
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