From the cops:

Upon a call of graffiti tagging in the area of Blacow Road and Irving(?), cops chase down and arrest the man they think did the tagging, who also had a probation violation

Fremont police had to go to the depot to arrest an unruly train passenger for public intoxication

Fremont police arrested in San Leandro the man they think is responsible for the Kirby’s shooting over the weekend. We’ll have more on that in Thursday’s paper.

We’ll have a story in Tuesday’s paper about 11-year-old Karen Chen, who won the national championship at the U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships Saturday in Salt Lake City.

That means the Fremont girl has a legit shot at being in the Olympics and someday winning a nationally televised dance competition.

As for Fremont’s reigning skating and dance champion, Kristi Yamaguchi, she started skating at age five as physical therapy for her club feet, according to the article about her in Wikipedia.

If you look at the Wikipedia article about Sarah Hughes, the 2002 Olympic Figure Skating Gold Medalist from my hometown, there’s no mention of misshapen feet.

Advantage Great Neck.

Today the California Community College Student Senate, tomorrow governing council of barefoot slam dunkers: Ishan Shah is on his way.

He’ll represent the interests of students at 13 community colleges, begging legislatures not to cut funds. He’ll be one of the few pols in Sacramento to have been interviewed on the BBC. Give ‘em hell, Ishan.

From the cops:
Officers were dispatched to the Ross store in the Hub Sunday to break up a cat-fight. One lady told the officer that she was human and the proud owner of a brain. She then started to curse the officer and finally pushed him, before he cuffed her.

A 30-something-year-old man in black clothes, a white beanie and a scarf covering his face walked into the Cold Stone Creamery at Pacific Commons Sunday looking for money. He showed the store clerk his knife, and the clerk handed over the contents of the store’s safe.

This one is a puzzler. Fremont police served a search warrant in connection to a $44,000 rink stolen out of Concord. The suspect wasn’t present. Hard to believe that anyone who could afford a $44,000 ring would choose to live in Cankerd.

A couple walking near Besco Drive and Piper Street were approached by two-short men, one of whom was carrying a pistol and relieved the couple of a driver’s license and a debit card.

Newark police arrested an active duty soldier on suspicion of domestic battery. Turns out the victim’s car was parked in the Fremont BevMo. Inside the car were grenades the soldier had brought back from his military post. Bomb squad was called in to deal with them.

A landlord decided to confront a tenant about not paying rent. At the home, he found about 170 marijuana plants. Cops didn’t give the location.

Fremont cops answered a CHP call to stop a car with a lost or stolen plate. Cops stopped the car around NUMMI, and all three occupants bolted.  Cops determined that the car was stolen. The also found a fake gun inside. And slowly but surely, they rounded up all of the occupants, including the driver, who was 14 years old.

From the National Football League:
Amazingly there were six blog comments during the Eagles-Giants disaster on Sunday. Don’t you people get Fox or know someone who does.  Somewhere in Fremont, John Herndon is wearing a purple jumpsuit, sipping Welch’s grape juice, and listening to Prince with a big smile on his face.

Last team to blow a 20-point fourth quarter lead? The 2006 Giants … to Tennessee. I watched that game in Fremont. It sucked, but not as much as Sunday’s game, which was the most epic Giants collapse since this one in 2003.

“Krithpee Creems, let’s get a box” – 49ers Quarterback Jeff Garcia’s call to arms.

Add Mayor Wasserman to list of people who think Vinnie Bacon probably would be on the City Council right now had he not decided to team up with Kathy McDonald. He said the two incumbents “lucky” Bacon made that decision.

As for ranking Bacon second out of the six finalists, Wasserman said, “He worked very hard to get elected. I think he’s sincere in wanting to contribute.”

The mayor said he might appoint him to a commission, but didn’t say which one. I think something like the Recreation Commission is more likely than Planning.

From the cops:
Two cops spotted a stolen Toyota Corolla at the Extended Stay on Farwell Drive. They waited for three folks to get in the car and drive off before stopping the car and arresting them.

Two short men in hoodies gave someone a handgun greeting in the vicinity of Hastings Court and Eggers Drive. Police didn’t say if the victim responded with the traditional wallet toss and cell phone surrender.

Cops get a call from someone on Beloveria Court in Centerville saying someone is trying to force his way into his apartment. The intruder made it inside, and that’s where police arrested him.

A  70-year-old woman who had gone missing before went missing again Thursday night. Turns out she walked to Central Park and then to a doughnut shot in Irvington.  She was found unhurt and very wet.

He got three out four first place votes.  Harrison was the only one not to rank Dutra #1. He ranked Salwan first. Council voted Dutra in unanimously.

The council is ranking the candidates.

Here is how they ranked them:

Natarajan
Dutra 1
Bonaccorsi 2
Bacon 3
Zlatnik 4
Salwan 5
Chugh 6

Harrison
Salwan 1
Dutra 2
Chugh 3
Bonaccorsi 4
Bacon 5
Zlatnik 6

Chan
Dutra 1
Bonaccorsi 2
Salwan 3
Zlatnik 4
Chugh 5
Bacon 6

Wasserman
Dutra 1
Bacon 2
Salwan 3
Bonaccorsi 4
Chugh  5
Zlatnik 6

I asked Harrison about ranking Salwan #1. He said he liked Salwan’s business experience. He also said he hadn’t read the blog today, although I don’t know if that would have mattered.

You can make the argument that it’s a politically astute vote for Harrison. As a former Republican, he’ll have to try a little harder when he runs for mayor in 2012 to show the local Democrats that he’s a true Democrat. Salwan is well connected with the party, so now Harrison can say that he was the only council member to pick one of the true-blue politically active Dems for council.

8:45 p.m. Dominic Dutra appointed to City Council

8:35 p.m. Council is ranking the candidates

Here is how they ranked them:

Natarajan
Dutra 1
Bonaccorsi 2
Bacon 3
Zlatnik 4
Salwan 5
Chugh 6

Harrison
Salwan 1
Dutra 2
Chugh 3
Bonaccorsi 4
Bacon 5
Zlatnik 6

Chan
Dutra 1
Bonaccorsi 2
Salwan 3
Zlatnik 4
Chugh 5
Bacon 6

Wasserman
Dutra 1
Bacon 2
Salwan 3
Bonaccorsi 4
Chugh  5
Zlatnik 6

I asked Harrison about ranking Salwan #1. He said he liked Salwan’s business experience. He also said he hadn’t read what we wrote regarding Salwan threatening to sue former customers who criticized his business on Yelp, although I don’t know if that would have mattered.

You can make the argument that it’s a politically astute vote for Harrison. As a former Republican, he’ll have to try a little harder when he runs for mayor in 2012 to show the local Democrats that he’s a true Democrat. Salwan is well-connected with the party, so now Harrison can say that he was the only council member to pick one of the true-blue politically active Dems for council.

For blow-by-blow coverage of all the candidate interviews, click where it says to click. Read the rest of this entry »

If you read my story in today’s paper, you might have scratched your head reading the last three paragraphs. They’re about candidate Raj Salwan having threatened to sue at least two former customers who wrote negative reviews of his veterinary business on Yelp.

I pushed hard for this to be its own story in today’s paper. But the paper was concerned that it would appear that we were only targeting Salwan of the six candidates, so it was cut and tacked on at the end of a broader story.

I’m going to provide below some of the documents I have and explain why I thought the lawsuit threats were important to be in the paper before the council votes tonight. If you read just one of the documents below, I would recommend the first one on the left. But first a few things in defense of Salwan:

1. Salwan has a clean record with the state veterinary board.
2. Yelp has been criticized for its practices
3. If the posts were inaccurate, Salwan’s only legal recourse was to sue the people making the comments. An attorney I spoke to said Yelp has no legal obligation to take down the comments.
4. Salwan says he regrets threatening his former customers and that he now has “thicker skin.”
5. Salwan never did sue them.

So why was I fighting so hard to get any of this in today’s paper? Let me list the reasons.

1) If Salwan is going to be on the City Council, he’ll face a lot of criticism. How Salwan deals with criticism is something the council should take into account in considering him for the job. What if Salwan is on the council, and someone wrote a letter to the editor about him in The Argus. Would he threaten to sue the letter writer? Would he threaten to sue the paper? How about an anonymous blog commenter?

2) In these instances, Salwan threatened to file lawsuits to silence people whose opinions he disagreed with. Would that be an appropriate action for council member?

3) This was not a single isolated instance three years ago. The first lawsuit threat I have documented below came directly from Salwan in 2007. The second one, written by his Virginia-based lawyer, came in July of 2009. If Salwan now says he was wrong to make the threats, it’s a very recent change of heart.

4) Salwan is not a small businessman who’s at risk of going under from bad Yelp reviews. According to county records, Salwan owns or co-owns 19 properties with a total assessed value of more than $15 million. He’s wealthy man. And if you get a letter from someone with his resources threatening to sue you, there is reason to feel intimidated.

So why now, the day of vote for the new council member?

I’ve been sitting on my Salwan file for more than a year. I didn’t write a story about the negative Yelp reviews because it would have been very difficult for me to determine their accuracy, just as it would have been very difficult for Salwan to prove they were libelous.

As for the letters threatening to sue his customers, as long as Salwan remained a relatively private citizen, I didn’t see the need to publish them.

But City Council is an important post. And once Salwan became a finalist for that job — and one of only three finalists to have the backing of all four council members — I thought this was important information for the people making the decision.

Had I had similar information about the other finalists, I would have printed that as well.

The documents are below. The first one on the left is Salwan’s letter threatening to sue a former customer. The next two are addressed to an elderly Hayward man offering to reimburse him medical costs if he took down his Yelp review. The Hayward man declined. The last three constitute a letter from Salwan’s attorney in Virginia threatening to sue a different former customer, who had posted negative reviews on Yelp.

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