Nov. 8--GARBAGE OR, more properly, trash sorting is the talk of the town in Pleasanton.

The City Council, in its mad rush to go green, forced the local garbage company to change its previously "state of the art" sorting system.

So, instead of sending everything in one can to the transfer station where trash was sorted on a conveyor belt, recyclables were recovered and the rest was sent to the dump, it's now a three-container operation in Pleasanton -- requiring additional trucks driving the same routes to gather the third can.

It's one truck for trash going straight to the dump.

It's one truck for recyclables being sorted on the conveyor belt.

And one truck for green waste -- a program that was in place before these latest changes.

The reason: The council -- unanimously -- wanted to be green and meet the county's goal of 75 percent diversion. The concept that it's a goal, not a mandate, never apparently crossed the council's collective mind.

The earlier requirements, by state law, mandated a reduction of 50 percent of the waste to the dump and contained a $10,000 per day fine as a hammer. That worked.

This time, it's the county's goal. Mind you, this is Alameda County, home of the People's Republic of Berzkeley as well as the radical left of Oakland. There is little rational thought or consideration of the economics -- it's simply the green notion that

reducing waste is worthy at any cost.

That there now are three trucks burning fossil fuel covering routes that used to be serviced by two -- details, details.

The city is trying to get a $65,000 grant with this program, at the cost to its residents of four times that in increased garbage collection rates. Yes, that's right. Government and green logic -- see climate change legislation for more.

To say nothing of the time residents are wasting trying to figure out what goes where. When the city and the trash company have to run workshops to teach residents how to sort their trash, you know somebody missed.

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Residents of Livermore, Alamo and the rest of the voters in the 10th Congressional District traded a Blue Dog Democrat for a classic liberal in Tuesday's special election.

Lt. Gov. John Garamendi comfortably won over Republican challenger David Harmer, but ran well behind the 18-point Democratic registration advantage. In fact, the 53-43 margin may encourage Harmer to mount a rematch come next year when Garamendi must stand for re-election.

For the well-known career politico, who outspent Harmer by a considerable margin, it was hardly a resounding win.