Calif. city manager blocks local blogs from staff computers

To the lengthy list of Web sites blocked on city employees’ computers in Vallejo, Calif., which so far includes pornography, social networking and gambling sites, we can now add three blogs — one hosted by the local Times-Herald.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the clampdown comes as the city faces bankruptcy and an onslaught of criticism over its finances, not least from the blogs in question. One, called Vallejo is Burning, is run by volunteers, the Chronicle reports, and about 15 percent of its 60,000 daily hits come from city computers.

The Times-Herald reported Wednesday that another blog, vallejobankruptcyupdate.com, is also inaccessible to city employees at work.

As for the reader message boards, blocked from the Vallejo Times-Herald‘s Web page, City Manager Joseph Tanner told the Chronicle it is a "rag of a newspaper" and "we blocked these (sites) because they are political in nature."