This is why we don't let BART in our area code

Because the rules are just so confusing. Buy a snack. Don't eat the snack. M&Ms taste better in my Mercedes anyway.

Economically depressed area saved by economic depression

Uh, recession, sorry. Speaking too soon.

Anyway, a decade's long battle surrounding a proposed Home Depot that had seemed to conquer local fears of small shop owners and provide a glimmer of hope for a large, good employer in the area, has been dumped due to the dip in the home-improvement market. That housing stuff is killing everything.

Look out Migden, Hello Leno

Were you in the 'Jo this weekend? I heard there was a hellofa Migden/Leno smackdown over the all-important party endorsement. No one got the endorsement. Oh, and if you're a fan of procedural stuff, note that Migden won but Leno wrangled enough signatures to bring the endorsement to the whole body. That's pretty rare. And pretty awesome. What a sight to behold.

Of course, if you get bitch-slapped at least twice by the FPPC in one week after having been in a rather questionable and questionably explained highway accident, well, you probably shouldn't have super high hopes, right?

Oh, Gavin, You Mix, You

Gavin says he might run for Governor. Maybe. No, not really. Ok, maybe.

Don't you love the tap-dance two years before the election.

But Gavin does have some words for us:

"Be careful what you wish for," Newsom said Tuesday at the Sacramento Press Club.

It turns out hosting the Chinese Olympic torch relay is a bit burdensome. The city isn't releasing the route of the relay because of security reasons, but Gavin swears that's not why. And the Tibet relay is getting mad. They want the city to make it easier to protest.

"You don't need a permit to protest," Newsom said.

I understand government transparency, but, seriously, people if you want to protest, you should ball up and just do it.

Oh snap, busted AGAIN!

Served again. Last week, it was a record $350k fine from the FPPC for botched reporting and expenditures. This week, it's a $9m FPPC countersuit against Ms Migden after she sued them 3 weeks back:

Ross Johnson, chairman of the Fair Political Practices Commission, charged Migden has repeatedly "deceived" voters by "filing inaccurate campaign statements, fabricating the elimination of committees and concealing campaign funds."

"The sophisticated and pervasive pattern of deception by her various controlled committees has been ongoing for more than five years," Johnson said in prepared statement.

Oh dear. Someone's having a bad week.

Newsom Sues

Newsom is expect to announce today, in Sacramento, a lawsuit against....someone.

As part of the budget crisis, Medi-Cal experience a $568M mid-year reduction and doctors were allowed to stop seeing patients. As Mayor of a city with 115,000 Medi-Cal enrollees, Gavin is a little upset.

The Don Does It Again

The Don (Perata), the Democratic face of budget protests, held a press conference in Concord last week with Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier and Senator Tom Torlakson,

But the Don was on fire.

"I'm taking off my (sun)glasses so you can look in my eyes and see if I'm kidding," Perata told the crowd. He was referring to Republican assertions that Democrats are going through the motions in their budget protests. "Democrats will never leave Sacramento as long as the governor intends to cut education by even one dime."

"Can we afford to pay more taxes?" Perata said. "No. But do we have to pay more? Yes, and we will."

Oh, Don, what will we do when you're gone?