San Jose Inside

It’s getting to be like a game of chicken. On Tuesday evening, City Council decided to delay its vote on the 10 percent wage cut for city employees after five unions provided a counter-offer that would be the equivalent of the proposed cut. They are now ready to study the offer, and to meet again on Thursday or Friday to decide whether to accept it.

Are we crazy or what? It costs the state of California more than $225,000 to incarcerate one youth in the Department of Juvenile Justice system per year, yet we are only compensating school districts about $7,000 per year to educate a student.

Monday: Medical Cannabis Outreach Meeting
The first outreach meeting regarding medical cannabis collectives was held Monday night at City Hall. Even though the meeting was held late in the process, it was well attended with over 150 people. There were two main groups present: residents and collective patients. Not one person spoke against compassionate use of medical marijuana in San Jose, however, both groups agreed that the locations should be away from schools, parks, daycare centers, etc. Last October, when I initially brought this issue to the Rules Committee, I advocated that we restrict where collectives can locate and include setbacks from locations like schools, etc.

The American Red Cross and Harborside Health Center of San Jose are teaming up for the first ever pot club blood drive. Next Tuesday, June 15, Harborside will host a blood donation event at its 2106 Ringwood Ave. location from noon to 6pm.

Naveen Aggarwal, the community outreach coordinator for Harborside San Jose, says that this event marks the first time ever that the Red Cross has partnered with a medical cannabis collective.

“This is completely the first time,” Aggarwal says. “I’ve heard of it attempted in L.A. a while ago. But that didn’t have much success as far as having a lot of donors, and this is definitely the first thing of its kind with the involvement of Red Cross.”

It’s official: it was determined Friday afternoon that Challenger Jeff Rosen defeated District Attorney Dolores Carr Tuesday in an upset victory by a previously unknown 15-year prosecutor.

At the close of Tuesday’s poll, Rosen held a 2,217-vote lead, but the County Registrar’s office determined Wednesday it would still have to count 77,000 provisional and mailed ballots to determine a victor.

Today we brought change to this county.  By a margin of 2,854 votes and 1.14%, we won!

I am incredibly humbled to announce that, on January 3, 2011, I will be inaugurated as the Santa Clara County District Attorney.  This change will happen because you spoke out.  In this election, we spoke with the people of this county, and together, loudly and clearly, we said one word: justice.

San Jose Inside’s mad dash through Santa Clara County’s primary night parties. VIDEO

Should San Jose have its own Navy to protect and defend Alviso? Ask that question to most people and they would respond, “Of course not,” and add, “Are you crazy?” 

Most people would agree that the City of San Jose doesn’t need a Navy, but what about having our own State Department? We could be like Berkeley, and issue policy declarations for the rest of the world to follow and obey.

The San Jose City Council’s unilateral call to boycott the State of Arizona over the immigration issue is a bit like one principality declaring economic war over another. Give me a break.

It was a family affair at Magdalena Carrasco’s election night party. The former First 5 official and about 60 of her closest friends and family gathered at her campaign headquarters on Story Road to watch as the poll results rolled in.

At 8:30pm her results, which were projected onto the wall, were neck and neck with Xavier Campos. However, that didn’t stop the mother of four from offering thanks to all her family and supporters before celebrating.

A thicket of extended TV truck antennas crowded the paseo between the two Fairmont towers, so we pulled up and asked the doorman which millionaire had rented the ballroom. Meg Whitman?

Steve Poizner? Actually, former Congressman Tom Campbell had secured a small room off the alley to put the best face possible on his noble but doomed U.S. Senate bid. As Carly Fiorina pulled ahead in the early returns, we asked Campbell about the influence of money in politics this year.

Madison Nguyen’s election-night party wasn’t exactly hard to find. Blue-and-white “Re-elect Madison Nguyen” fliers appeared with increasing regularity as Metro neared M Cafe on Burdette Drive in San Jose, a hip Asian joint that serves coffee while showing sports on TVs.

Apparently, the Nguyen campaign had more posters and fliers than it knew what to do with, because the inside of the large room was stuffed with banners and campaign materials.

The South Bay Labor Council and its legions were out in full force in the lobby of the swank California Theater for political siblings Xavier and Nora Campos. Familiar faces sampled the fancy spread of sesame chicken, quiche, brie and fruit while watching results roll in around a large computer screen mounted by the entrance.

At 10:30pm, the mood was celebratory, despite the fact that what once seemed like a safe dynastic succession had turned into a November runoff and some candidates, like Forest Williams, fared worse than expected.

The big action of the night was downtown at Agenda, where a packed house celebrated Jeff Rosen’s thin lead in the District Attorney’s race.

Around 11pm, Rosen mercifully decided to cut up and pass out his victory cake, even though it would be a few hours or more before anyone could claim victory.

If Rosen pulled it out, and it looked like he would, it would become the first time in almost a century that a challenger had toppled an incumbent DA.

Our timing was impeccable as we strolled into Judge-elect Vanessa Zecher’s bash at the Brit, where the bar crowd was transfixed by the Lakers-Celtics game.

We interrupted a well-known senior judge to ask what he thought about the DA’s race. “We were just talking about that,” he said, calling it too close to call. “If she [Carr] wins, she’ll have a tough row to hoe.”

Larry Pegram’s supporters cheered at the Cambrian Round Table Pizza when the first results popped up, even though the San Jose City Council District 9 candidate trailed Donald Rocha by more than 1,500 votes.

“Anytime you’re in the money, it’s good,” said Pegram with a grin. Volunteers flipped around the channels on the flat-screen TVs looking for a news broadcast.