SF Bay Area Pianist/Composer Ken Berman will perform two sets of extraordinary original compositions that bring to mind the classic trios of Pat Metheny, Keith Jarrett, and Bill Evans, while maintaining a unique and inimitable sound. 

CitizenJazz says, “Gifted with a very fine touch and a state-of-the-art technique,” Ken Berman composes “very cool jazz, not at all cerebral, and extremely well-played.”  Mr. Berman is currently on the music faculty at the University of California at Berkeley and teaches part-time at Stanford University.  

Ken Berman – piano, Kai Eckhardt – electric bass, Akira Tana – drums performing from their new release “Looking Forward.”
 
Reservations: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/112026
  
August 8, 2010 – 4:30, $30
Douglas Beach House on Miramar Beach
307 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay, CA  94019
650 726-4143, www.bachddsoc.org

Follow the link for Neil’s interview with Measure E co-chair Nadia Bledsoe.

There have been nine auto burglaries this week on the Coastside, at Montara State Beach and at West Point near Mavericks. Secure your valuables and lock your car. Other activities included a residential burglary in El Granada, burglary at La Honda Elementary, DUI, warrant arrest, tagging, identity theft, and drugs found at a traffic stop.

Details after the jump.

Bruce Balshone, writing for the Examiner’s website, has written a good background piece on district elections for the Board of Supervisors and why this should have been a no-brainer.

Balshone covers the principal arguments for district elections: the County Civil Grand Jury has called for district elections, candidates for Supervisor must reach a voting base larger than a congressional district, the Board has history of using appointment rather than elections to fill vacant seats, and Board’s own Charter Review Committee recommended putting the issue on November’s ballot.

Then there’s the lawsuit that’s hanging over the board’s head:

In San Mateo County, the record of supervisorial elections is one of machine rule without contest. Over the past 30 years, according to county records, when incumbent supervisors run, approximately 50 percent of the time they are not even challenged. Worse yet, 86 percent of the time when incumbent supervisors run they face no competition or only token competition from protest candidates who rarely even mount a hint of a political campaign.

In April of this year, San Mateo County officials released a letter (see pages 23-24) from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, a San Francisco-based civil rights legal foundation, informing the County that the civil rights organization may file a lawsuit against the County for potential violations of the California Voting Rights Act due to the County’s use of at-large elections for San Mateo County Supervisors. At large elections are commonly challenged due to their impact on minority communities whose voting power is diluted if they cannot directly elect representatives from their own communities—a pervasive problem for the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.

The truth is that the Board should have voted not merely to put the matter to the voters, where it may well have been defeated by the county machine, but simply to eliminate at-large elections.

We’ll be writing more about this, but Bruce’s piece is a good start.

This engaging documentary deals with the dilemma of economic growth versus species preservation. San Bruno Mountain provides a context to explore these complex issues. San Bruno Mountain is the largest intact fragment of wild San Francisco.

For 50 years, many people have fought to protect the mountain and its rare butterflies. The fight resulted in a significant change to federal policy on endangered species, and in the process turned allies into enemies. Told with humor and insight from those involved with the battles, this is a tale of right vs. right.

It is also a story about the rights of nature and the rights of people, one of compromise and commitment, and one about the difficult choices we all have to make. Following the screening, filmmakers Ann and Steve Dunsky lead a discussion and answer questions about the film. This film is appropriate for all ages, but we ask that children under 12 be accompanied by an adult and be able to sit quietly for one hour.

BUTTERFLIES AND BULLDOZERS: David Schooley, Fred Smith and the Fight For San Bruno Mountain (a film by Ann and Steve Dunsky), Friday, July 16 @ 7:30 p.m., Mission Blue Center, 475 Mission Blue Drive, Brisbane. Free admission. Presented by Brisbane Public Library.

April Vargas is a candidate for the Board of Supervisors.

At their July 13 meeting, the Board of Supervisors rejected San Mateo County joining the other 57 California counties in having district elections.  Rich Gordon was the sole vote to put the issue on the upcoming November ballot. It was recommended by the County’s Charter Review Committee that voters decide whether San Mateo County should move from antiquated county-wide elections to district elections that would conform with the Voting Rights Act of 2001.

It is an outrage that the Board of Supervisors would not allow the voters to decide the issue of district elections.  By their action today, they are exposing the County to a likely lawsuit brought by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights. 

Counties, cities, school districts and special districts throughout California have instituted district elections to conform with the California Voting Rights Act of 2001.  At the forefront of this change is the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights which has won court decisions up and down the state in support of the Voting Rights Act.

District elections allow minority voters to have a greater influence on electoral outcomes by localizing the contests within smaller geographical areas.

The Board’s decision today ignores the Voting Rights Act, refuses to allow a vote of the people and persists in making it difficult for Coastsiders to elect a local representative. It’s time to end this insiders game and elect a new voice on the Board of Supervisors.

The Chevron station in Moss Beach is requesting a license to sell hard liquor in addition to their existing license to sell beer & wine.  The San Mateo County Counsel has asked for public input before July 30. This has been added to the agenda for the MCC’s meeting on Wednesday, July 15.

The meeting will be Wednesday, July 14, at 7:30pm at the Seton Medical Center Coastside, Marine Boulevard & Etheldore, Moss Beach. Take Highway 1 to Marine Boulevard and follow hospital signs uphill.

There are only 5 weeks left before all remaining medical records from the Coastside Family Medical Clinic are scheduled to be destroyed. Our volunteer group, the HMB Phoenix Project, has so far managed to get over 3500 records distributed to patients, but there are still 24,000 records left. I urge any former patients to contact me at 787-8005 as soon as possible regarding their records - you never know when something in the past may be important in the future, and by August 20 all chance to claim them will be lost. Please don’t put it off any longer - there are no lines, no charge, and a convenient distribution location in downtown HMB. If you’ve already requested them from us, please make a note to remind yourself to come in and pick them up.

Grant Weiss, MD
Director, HMB Phoenix Project