Top Stories: Oct. 29, 2009

Green Jobs; eBay Says No; County Demands Vaccine; More Trouble at Wilcox

By Staff (Oct 29, 2009 )

Tesla Motors to Start Hiring
Tesla Motors announced that it is planning to start hiring. The electric car manufacturer is taking advantage of a news tax incentive to promote green industry, in order to expand its Palo Alto headquarters and hire as many as 1,400 people.

State Treasurer Bill Lockyer says that the decision to expand and hire is based on an agreement recently reached between the company and the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority, which will help to "create valuable jobs for our battered economy."
Read More at NBC Bay Area.


eBay Takes a Stand on Anti-Abortion Killer
On May 31, 2009, Scott Roeder walked into a Wichita church and gunned down Dr. George Tiller, one of a handful of doctors in the country who performed late-term abortions. Roeder is now facing charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault, and is scheduled to go to trial in January.

Roeder doesn't deny the slaying. He and his supporters, a group of radical anti-abortion activists, claim that his action was "justifiable homicide." To fund his defense, these supporters decided to auction off items related to the anti-abortion movement on eBay. Among them are several autographed drawings done by Roeder in prison, a cookbook by Shelley Shannon, who shot and wounded Tiller in 1993, and a manual by the anti-abortion group Army of God, with information on how to sabotage and even bomb abortion clinics.

Then eBay told them, "Not on our site." In response to a letter by Lee Thompson, attorney for the Tiller family, the online auction company based in San Jose issued a statement, reading, "Based on the details we know about the anticipated listings, we believe these would violate our policy regarding offensive material. … We do not allow items that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity and will not be a platform for those who promote violence toward others."

Roeder's supporters condemned the decision, going so far as to call it "raping the whole Constitution." They argued that eBay continues to sell World War II memorabilia, even though they believe this also celebrates violence. In an interview with Rachel Maddow, Thompson responded by calling the auction "a reprehensible publicity stunt," and asking that any funds raised this way to support Roeder be directed by the state's Attorney General to the Kansas Crime Victims Compensation Board instead.
Read More at KansasCity.com.

More Vaccines Needed Now!
The US HealthWorks Medical Group of San Jose may advertise itself as "The Right Care, Right Away," but that doesn't include patients who want to get the swine flu vaccine. The health care provider received only 166 of the vaccine, and is being forced to prioritize who gets them: pregnant women, young people aged 24 and under, and healthcare professionals. This is just one example of how the shortage of swine flu vaccine is affecting local medical professionals.

Yesterday, SanJose.com reported that all of Santa Clara County—the largest county in Northern California, received just 8,800 doses of vaccine this week, even though this past Friday, President Obama declared the virus to be a national emergency.

County Executive Jeff Smith is outraged. "We have about 800,000 individuals who would fall into the high risk inoculation pool," he said. While the 8,800 vaccines available countywide may account for 1 percent of that, the 166 vaccines allotted to HeathWorks don't even qualify as a statistical blip.

There have already been 10 deaths in the county due to swine flu (1 percent of the national total) and 300 people have been hospitalized.
Read More at KCBS.
Read More at ABC 7.


School Janitor Fired for Recruiting Student Models
There's a problem in Santa Clara's Wilcox High. In August, SanJose.com reported that special ed teacher Edward Slate III was arrested for having sex with a student. Earlier this week, it reported on allegations that the principal, Tab Taber, had been aware of the problem but willfully ignored it. Now the school's custodian, Joe Miller, is being fired for taking and displaying "sexually suggestive photos of students" in the school and on his website, Rockabilly Models.

Miller claims that he is being scapegoated to draw attention away from the scandal surrounding Slate and Taber. Others claim that the photos were clearly provocative, and that recruiting students for a side-business is morally "objectionable." Parents are now claiming that Miller even pulled students out of class to discuss potential modeling gigs, and that in at least one case, one of the students posed topless.

Miller's models have featured throughout the Bay Area, and in 2005 one of his models, Amanda, was named Miss San Jose Grand Prix. With the success of his modeling venture, once can only wonder why Miller chose to keep his job as a school janitor, apart from the accessibility it gave him to his future models.
Read More at the Mercury News.


American Airlines to End Light Maintenance at Mineta
American Airlines is cutting back on maintenance crews throughout the country, and this will have a direct effect on Mineta Airport. Though most local maintenance occurs at San Francisco international, some light maintenance is provided at Mineta as well. As part of its reorganization efforts, American will lay off 100 workers at San Francisco, and close the maintenance station in San Jose entirely.
Read More at the SF Examiner.