San Jose City Living

The Mercury News has taken a turn for the… well that’s for you to decide.

As popularity for The Mercury News takes a dive and newspapers grasp for any rope that can pull them out of the hole that is a dying trend, articles like the recent one on Puberty become a new twist to keep you interested.

“During 2009, the Mercury News will publish
a story each month about the events that make each life extraordinary.
This month: A group of Silicon Valley tweenagers hit puberty, and puberty hits back.“

Maybe the Merc is working the bugs out or maybe this was a perfect ploy but the two most visible headlines being “Mortgage Rates Plummet” and “Puberty” send quite the an interesting signal.  I’m not 100% sure which to read first!  It’s all just so exciting.

However, newspapers are reaching a point where a change has to be made in content and how it is distributed.  Personally, I happen to read articles from the newspaper when presented via my personal circle of internet media sites I follow or happen upon.  Usually this happens by viewing the Yahoo! newspaper consortium articles I see first on my Internet Explorer homepage or when I read Inside San Jose.

But will these “real” issue articles be what brings people back to reading a physical newspaper?  We’ll see! What are your thoughts?

It’s true! Democratic State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano thinks legalizing and taxing the sale of marijuana could be the 1.3 billion dollar answer to California’s economic woes.

“The state of California is in a very, very precipitous economic plight. It’s in the toilet,” says Ammiano. “It looks very, very bleak, with layoffs and foreclosures, and schools closing or trying to operate four days a week. We have one of the highest rates of unemployment we’ve ever had. With any revenue ideas, people say you have to think outside the box, you have to be creative, and I feel that the issue of the decriminalization, regulation and taxation of marijuana fits that bill. It’s not new, the idea has been around, and the political will may in fact be there to make something happen.”

Fun Facts:

• Pot is California’s number 1 cash crop totally $14 billion annually (milk coming in a not so close 2nd place at $7.3 billion)
• In 1996 California became one of the first states in the nation to legalize medical marijuana.
• Currently, $200 million in medical-marijuana sales are subject to sales tax.
• If legislation passes, sale of marijuana will follow rules similar to the sale of alcohol, meaning those under 21 can’t buy marijuana unlike the 18 year old age limit of cigarettes.

Orange County Superior Court Judge James Gray estimates that legalizing marijuana will save $1 billion a year in prosecuting and imprisoning non-violent offenders.  Others like Joel W. Hay, professor of pharmaceutical economics at USC, feel that the legislation will only cause more harm than good.

So what are your thoughts?  Do you feel marijuana should be legalized or not?  Is making marijuana more accessible and taxing its sale worth the the money?

Tonight San Jose Police took a drug dealer off the streets at the corner of 2nd and San Fernando.

Did they really need 8 cop cars and 10 police officers for one guy and the lady he was either selling to or selling with?  This is not including the two pairs of police officers I saw just 20 yards away outside of San Jose Bar and Grill and Tres Gringos, though I’m thankful for them being there since I’ve seen some wild riots go down outside those two establishments.

Through asking around, it seemed none of the bystanders saw how the bust happened, but from the storage zip lock bag of pills on the police car, it was obvious the guy in zip-tie handcuffs was heading to jail for possession.  No doubt he’ll be needing Bad Boys Bail Bonds to get him out.  I just hope when he does, the last thing he does is try and sell more drugs.

While I’m happy when a drug dealer is off the street, does it really take as many police as they had?  I would much rather see one of those police officers parked on San Salvador between 3rd and 4th, also known as “Drug Street Alley”.  For those of you that don’t know why it’s called that, “Drug Street Alley” is a common hang out spot for drug dealers, gangs and their affiliates.

Just about every night if you drive by, you’ll notice some sort of deal going down.  If you don’t see a sly handshake or what looks like a deal being made, you can bet there is some large gathering of people that you’d feel uncomfortable even looking at as you walk down the street.  Even I was harassed walking down San Salvador Mardi Gras night, and I’m a pretty big guy!

So thank you to the San Jose Police Department for taking the drug dealer off the street on 2nd and San Fernando.  And thank you to the undercover narcotics officers I’ve known that have risk their lives to perform undercover buys in order to catch those peddling drugs on the street, especially the ones I’ve seen on San Salvador.  It just would have been nice if we could finally drive the dealers and gangs off of the streets knowing full well where they are there every day.

More photos of a San Jose Police arrest:

The bag of pills confiscated by the San Jose PD

Placing the drug dealer into the police van

What do you think about how many cops were at the scene?

Not too surprising that Lance Armstrong’s $10,000 dollar custom bike has been returned.

This bike was as hot as can be.  With a twitter release from Lance about the missing bike, the word was spread so quickly that it put major pressure on the thief or thieves.

With over 148,746 followers on Lance’s twitter posts and Facebook groups titled: 1 Million Citizens Looking for Lance Armstrong’s Stolen Bike, it made it impossible to either ride the bike or sell it.

The individual that returned the bike has not been charged.  But my guess is that he or she either stole it themself or know exactly who did.  The investigation is still on going.

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