The San Jose City Council passed a series of resolutions on the topic of campaign contributions yesterday. The most controversial vote revolved around a cap on so-called “soft money”—contributions by individuals or special interest groups that act independently to persuade voters to support one candidate or another. The cap, set at $250, was ruled unconstitutional in federal court in 2006 as a violation of free speech, but this ruling was later overturned on a technicality. The city voted to extend the cap by a vote of 6 to 5.

Traffic may be down considerably at Mineta San Jose International Airport, but that hasn’t affected its quality of service. The $1.3 billion renovation and modernization project has earned Mineta the title of Airport of the Year for 2008.

Figures just released by the Sacramento Bee calculate how much local counties, cities, and redevelopment agencies across the state will be forced to pay to cover the $3.7 billion that the state needs to balance its own budget. In Santa Clara County, that sum comes to $185,253,807.

A watershed moment in an acrimonious battle between local labor and business occured Tuesday when the San Jose City Council reversed its vote to rebid the construction of the Educational Park Library and awarded the contract to low bidder Barry Swenson Builder.
The vote was 6 to 5, with union-aligned councilmembers Nora Campos, Kansen Chu, Ash Kalra, Madison Nguyen and Nancy Pyle opposed.

“From June 17th to 23rd of 2008, the blog they say I run posted eight times. What was I doing during this period? I was on my honeymoon,” Bump wrote on July 24.

When the Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger signed his Million Rooftops initiative back in 2006, one of the first people to jump on board was San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, who said the city would take 100,000. The following year, Reed announced his Green Vision to reduce the city’s nonrenewable energy use to zero by 2022.

Now the mayor is bringing his initiative much closer to home—his own home, in fact.

Nine California school districts lost an appeal to have students who speak English as a second language undergo testing in their native languages for No Child Left Behind assessments. The school districts first sued for that right in 2005, claiming that it punished non-native English speakers, 85 percent of whom speak Spanish.

The Santa Clara County Water District received $44.1 million in federal stimulus money for a number of flood protection and water recycling projects. Of the funding, $18 million will go to the Lower Silver Creek flood-protection program to protect land adjacent to the creek from flooding. Another $12.5 million will be used to build two new bridges—one for cars and one for trains—over downtown San Jose’s Guadalupe River.T he South Bay Water Recycling Advanced Treatment Facility Project will receive a much-needed $8 million.

While nonprofits throughout San Jose are struggling to survive, at least one cultural organization received a much needed boost, when the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation of Miami, Florida, announced that it would be granting $975,000 to ZER01: The Art and Technology Network, producers of the 01SJ biennial, which focuses on inspiring creativity at the intersection of art, technology and digital culture. The festival, which attracted more than 65,000 visitors in its first year, highlighted the works of more than 350 artists from over 40 countries. The next biennial is scheduled for mid-September, 2010.

A privacy-invading anonymous website known for personal attacks on journalists and political adversaries of local labor-backed politicians has been tied to the inner circle of former vice mayor and newly-appointed South Bay Labor Council chief executive Cindy Chavez.

According to electronic evidence inspected by San Jose Inside, an administrator of the site, “San Jose Revealed,” is Manhattan-based former SBLC political director Philip Bump. The labor council made payments to Bump until earlier this year, according to two sources.

Citing “low morale” and “childish” political infighting on Gilroy’s city council, Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage announced that he will run for mayor of that city. Gage served on Gilroy’s City Council from 1981 to 1997, when he ran for a seat on the county’s Board of Supervisors.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed struck a defiant pose yesterday in response to California’s new state budget. After hammering out a difficult budget of his own to cover the city’s $84 million deficit, Reed was shocked to learn that his city could be handing over as much as $100 million to the state.

His strategy is simple: Sue the state. “We will certainly be joining in with other cities in litigation,” he said.

This was echoed by mayors across California

Just over a month ago, San Jose-based Cisco Systems replaced GM on the Dow Jones list of the nation’s biggest companies. Now the networking and communications giant announced that it will be laying off some 700 people at its corporate headquarters in San Jose. The move is part of a larger strategy, announced in November, to reduce spending by $1 billion in fiscal 2009. At the time, the company announced that it “will be targeting reductions in travel and discretionary-related expenses, including offsites, outside services ... and other activities.” The company is now saying that “this limited restructuring is part of our ongoing, targeted realignment of resources.”

Critics are noting that Cisco’s second corporate headquarters in Bangalore, India, is soon to be expanded to 3,000 workers.

Regents of the UC system are meeting in San Francisco to decide on how to implement the necessary budget cuts for the coming year. The meeting comes in the wake of an $800 million cut in state funding to ten-school system’s budget, compounded by an additional $335 million deficit expected over the next two years because of increasing costs.

They will be voting on a plan unveiled by UC President Mark Yudof to impose furloughs and salaries on 100,000 staff members, which will reduce their pay by 4 to 10 percent. The biggest cuts would be borne by the highest-paid staff members, with Yudof himself taking a 10 percent pay cut. This was unsatisfactory to protestors gathered outside his house this week, who pointed out that Yudof is already earning $800,000, while they are barely earning enough to provide for their families.

A U.S. District Court judge dismissed two state legislators, Assemblyman Joe Coto (D) of San Jose and Senator Gilbert Cedillo (D) of Los Angeles, from a lawsuit filed by the Minutemen, an anti-illegal immigrant group, which claims that its First Amendment rights have been violated. The legislators had petitioned Caltrans to revoke the group’s Adopt-a-Highway program and remove a sign bearing the group’s name.

For local hotels and other downtown businesses, the $300 million McEnery Convention Center renovation project is vital for San Jose to remain competitive with nearby towns such as Santa Clara and San Mateo. Last year hotel owners even attempted to raise $150 million in private funds in order to keep the project on track. But with California’s budget crisis forcing state legislators to find new sources of money to close the gaping budget deficit, redevelopment projects such as this are an easy target.