Police Chief Rob Davis’s retirement will cost the city millions of dollars over the next 25 years. A thirty-year veteran of the SJPD, he is entitled to 90 percent of his $230,000 salary, a 3 percent annual hike, and lifetime health insurance for himself and his dependents. Payments on the salary alone are expected to exceed $6 million.
Articles by Danny Wool
Google’s Sergei Brin and Microsoft’s Bill Gates are donating millions of dollars to defeat Prop 23, the ballot initiative which would suspend the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Spending for and against the contentious measure could top the $154 million record set in 2006 by Proposition 87. In the past two weeks alone, opponents of Prop 23 have raised $11.9 million.
City auditors have found a new way to save money, but it’s bound to upset the Police and Firefighters unions. They’ve concluded that if the officers leave their police cars (and fire cars) in the municipal parking lot at night, it could save the city $630,000. The cost saving involves 90 police vehicles, from sedans to motorcycles, but also two cars driven by the deputy firefighter chiefs and one driven by an SJFD press information officer.
City Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio is coming under fire by the Police and Firefighters unions for removing a “No on V” election sign. Oliverio says that it was on public property, but the unions claim that it was private property. Meanwhile, the unions are offering a $10,000 bounty to anyone who provides information leading to the prosecution and conviction of people who have stolen or vandalized their signs.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office has decided that there are no grounds for charges against the SJPD officer, who faked the arrest of a 15-year-old boy who he believed had sex with his teenage stepdaughter. They said that the officer was acting within his rights to investigate crimes, particularly when the crime involves minors.
One of the biggest challenges facing the 49ers’ new stadium in Santa Clara could be a boon to local businesses. The six-story parking garage across the street can only take 1,800 cars, so the NFL is hard at work negotiating with local businesses and institutions to accept the overflow parking.
Once there were only three networks in America: ABC, NBC, and CBS. Then came cable and the rise of Fox. Now TV is set to take another turn with the rise of Google TV, and the Big Three, the original networks that once dominated the tv-scape, are fighting back to maintain their position. while they are still locked in negotiations with Google about airing their shows on the new platform, they have blocked their shows from being viewable on Google TV. Fox is considering following suit.
The SJPD officially opened, and then shut, the new, $92 million South Side police substation due to budgetary constraints. Officials explain that keeping the building closed will save the city $2.5 million dollars. They also point out that with the current budget cuts, there are actually fewer policemen in San Jose now than there were when the building was approved.
Memory is a fickle thing, and the triggers that spur memories can be even more fickle. Aza Raskin, Creative Lead for the web browser Firefox, warned that some very sophisticated advertisers are looking into memories, and trying to find ways to reshape them and promote their products. They’ve even found the platform to do that: Facebook.
It is about to get harder to smoke in Santa Clara County, at least in the unincorporated areas. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors passed a series of ordinances that increased restrictions on the sale and use of tobacco products in the county. The new ordinances had two purposes: to reduce the level of youth smoking, and protect all residents from second hand smoke.
