By Lou Alexander

Lou Alexander was the advertising manager of the Mercury News for 20 years, and retired in 2003. — Editor

A couple of people have asked me for my take on the announcement that the parent company of MediaNews has reached a deal with its senior creditors to carry out a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of a financial restructuring. I doubt this bankruptcy will make much difference in the day-to-day work lives of people who work at the SJMN and other MediaNews newspapers, at least for the moment.  The company’s material says there will be no layoffs as a result of this action. And the same guys will be in charge.

Chris Constantin, a performance auditor for the City of San Jose and local political figure, announced today that he is leaving the area. In a letter to colleagues, he said he is taking a job as Deputy City Auditor in San Diego.

Constantin made news last year when he was appointed by the City Council to serve as the Independent Police Auditor. He resigned the post a week later, after it was revealed that his brother is an SJPD officer.

For a couple of weeks leading up to Monday’s MLK Day “Freedom Train” event, there was a story going around that San Jose/ Silicon Valley NAACP president Reverend Jethroe Moore II made some rather offensive remarks during a radio interview. The rumor was sparked by two anonymous comments on San Jose Inside and Protect San Jose, claiming that during a segment on radio station KLIV, Moore said “the MLK taking money from the POA is like the Jews taking money from the Nazis.”

The San Jose Mercury News’ owner will seek bankruptcy protection in a major restructuring of the company’s ownership and debt, news agencies reported Friday night. The Chapter 11 filing will slice holding company Affiliated Media’s debt from $930 million to $165 million. The negotiated transaction will cost executives Dean Singleton and Jody Lodovic ownership control.

Equity in the struggling newspaper group will be issued to 116 creditors, a group led by Bank of America Corp. Hearst Corp., which owns the San Francisco Chronicle, will see its $400 million investment in MediaNews wiped out in the proceedings, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported that Hearst declined comment.

San Francisco has its Ferry Building. San Jose will soon have its “Public Market.” Detailed plans of the project were unveiled last night in the adjacent Theatre. Among the attendees were potential tenants, local business owners, and neighbors who want to see how their neighborhood might change.

The New York Times report following the release of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget plan yesterday summarized the harsh facts succinctly: “Mr. Schwarzenegger … has proposed eliminating the state’s $1 billion welfare program for families with children, ending a $126 million health insurance program for children, reducing the state’s Medicaid eligibility to the minimum to save over $500 million, and ending the state’s network of subsidized home health care providers for the poor.”

While the San Jose Redevelopment Agency struggles to scrounge together enough money to expand and refurbish San Jose’s McEnery Convention Center, Team San Jose CEO Dan Fenton is on his way to Dallas to try and protect the convention center’s existing business.

At the heart of the problem is a contract that the convention center signed with San Jose Teamsters Local 287, granting them exclusive rights to set up trade shows at the Center. The contract is contested by Teamsters Local 85 of San Francisco, which argues that businesses should have the option of choosing who gets to set up their trade shows

Mayor Chuck Reed sent a letter to the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) today, asking that the group reconsider a decision regarding the route of the Sacramento/San Francisco/Los Angeles line, which may pass through San Jose’s Diridon station.
*UPDATED 3:40pm.

In 2006, Augustin Uribe was convicted of child molestation and sentenced to 38 years to life. He will be a free man this week after Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Andrea Bryan ruled yesterday that Deputy District Attorney Troy Benson, who prosecuted the case, engaged in “numerous acts of misconduct.”

Local political strategist and onetime San Jose Inside blogger Jude Barry has announced a new business venture that he hopes will revolutionize the process of signature-gathering for ballot initiatives.

Unemployment may still be above 10 percent, but San Jose still leads the nation as the second best place to find a job, just behind Washington, DC.

Needy families lined up long before sunrise yesterday outside the Sacred Heart Community Services to find Christmas gifts for their children. Each of the 5,000 families that pre-registered for the event could pick out up to two toys for each of their child, from among the 15,000 that were donated this year. Especially popular were bicycles—over 1,000 were donated—and books so that parents could read to their children.

Ever get the feeling that there are way too many potholes in San Jose? Despite all the stimulus money pouring into Silicon Valley for shovel-ready projects, the region still has the second-worst roads in the country, topped only by Los Angeles—though it is tied with San Francisco and Honolulu. A report just released by the National Transportation Research Group claims that 61 percent of Silicon Valley’s roads and highways are in a state of disrepair.

Chuck Reed is expected to announce today that he plans to run for a second term as mayor of San Jose. In a prepared statement Reed will announce that he plans to continue focusing on developing the city’s economy and promoting it as a center for clean tech development. He also intends to bring greater transparency to City Hall and overcome the achievement gap in the city’s schools.

The expansion of the McEnery Convention Center has long been the crown jewel of the San Jose Redevelopment Agency’s list of projects. Then came the budget crisis—city and state—which clobbered potential funding for the project, and caused the proposal to be scaled down by more than half, from $300 million to $140 million. Now Mayor Chuck Reed is asking the most fundamental question of all: Can we really afford to go ahead with the expansion?

There’s a reason people hold on to the remote during all of their favorite programs, and its not just to surf the channels when a commercial comes on. Often, it’s to lower the volume when that same commercial comes on.