After spending most of this year’s anticipated Measure A revenue to pull out of a deficit and boost some service levels, Santa Clara County officials are looking for ways to spend a remaining $9.7 million of the 1/8 cent sales tax. Other items on Tuesday’s agenda include the county picking up the full cost of the Healthy Kids program—rather than getting a little help from San Jose, a plan by Supervisor Ken Yeager to save a Santa Clara library and Supervisor Joe Simitian looking to grade local restaurants.

Robert Reich’s powerful new film, “Inequality for All,” breaks down the disparity of wealth that is so pronounced in this country. It solves the riddle of why San Jose is really two cities, and it explains the great political divide we face locally and as a nation.

After failed past attempts to regulate medical marijuana collectives in San Jose, the city should take up the issue again, says Councilman Don Rocha—just as a voter initiative to legalize the stuff cleared for signature gathering. Other items on the agenda for Wednesday’s Rules and Open Government Committee meeting include Councilman Xavier Campos asking for the city to sponsor a gun buyback event, Voice Mayor Madison Nguyen wanting some pension reform clarification and David Wall doing his best David Wall impersonation.

Agencies in Santa Clara Valley have finalized a sweeping conservation plan that will set out guidelines for development in exchange for preserving South Bay creeks, trails and open space. State, county and local agency leaders will meet Thursday morning at the Anderson Dam in Morgan Hill for a signing ceremony to launch the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan.

A nearly 100-year-old Chinese restaurant may get a historic designation, protecting it from new development. The City Council on Tuesday will vote whether to make Ken Ying Low an official historic landmark. Located at 625 N. Sixth St. in Japantown, the building is the last vestige of what was once a Chinese neighborhood. Other items on the council agenda include a $154,000 contract for a company to count trees in San Jose and stricter requirements for healthy options in city-owned vending machines.

Santa Clara County is going forward with a new ordinance to govern lobbyists. By definition, everyone who has an issue or interest is a lobbyist. But this new ordinance would apply only to those who are paid to redress county government.

When the economy tanked, metal theft increased along with the price of non-ferrous alloys. Thieves haven’t slowed down since, snatching up copper wire, aluminum, fire hydrant parts, manhole covers, streetlights and other metal parts to trade in for cash at recycling centers. San Jose’s Rules and Open Government Committee will consider endorsing legislation to combat metal theft when it meets Wednesday. Other items on the agenda include firework regulation and defending mobile home residents from rent hikes.

That single-use plastic bag ban worked. The city enacted the 10-cent charge and San Jose’s shoppers adapted accordingly, bringing their own reusable bags instead of opting for single-use recycled paper bags, according to city staff. It’s a good thing, too, because that good behavior is pushing the city to consider canceling a fee increase that would have come into effect Jan. 1, upping the price-per-paper bag to 25 cents. Other items on Tuesday;‘s City Council agenda include a $5 million settlement with a Halloween partier who was shot 20 times by police and the potential pick up of two new fire engines.

Plans to develop a 55-acre chunk of land in midtown San Jose into a bustling civic center are moving forward. Kind of. A request for quotations (RFQ) ended up with just one proposal up for consideration at Tuesday’s Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors meeting. It was the only proposal submitted. Other items on Tuesday’s agenda include the allocation of grant money to encourage breastfeeding and a quarter-million dollar request from Rotary Club of San Jose to help build a park.

For the last several months, a fight with multi-million dollar implications has quietly been waged over fire safety requirements in San Jose’s tallest buildings. The clash—featuring a tangled array of alliances between elected officials, developers, lobbyists, a monopolistic breathing device manufacturer, a union spurned and an ambivalent fire department—will come to a head Thursday afternoon, when the Public Safety, Finance & Strategic Support Committee meets to discuss the city’s tri-annual review of its fire and building codes.

An 85-year-old wheelchair-bound amputee got toppled over by a cyclist who came barreling down the sidewalk somewhere on King Road about a month ago, according to a letter submitted to the public record of the Rules and Open Government Committee. Other items on Wednesday’s agenda include Josue Garcia—Councilman Xavier Campos’ former chief of staff—asking the city to ignore its “Revolving Door Policy” and Mayor Chuck Reed suggesting the city further cut developer fees.

After royally screwing up the Environmental Innovation Center (EIC) project, the city’s trying to clean up the mess by hiring a financially stable contractor. The City Council will consider a takeover agreement with Liberty Mutual Insurance Company when it meets Tuesday. Other items on the agenda include a project to house homeless people, new developments at the airport and a review of local cities’ disability retirement programs.

Regulating alcohol sales, electric car plug-ins and cannabis clubs are among the city’s top priorities this coming year, according to a memo up for discussion at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Other items on the meeting agenda include a development deal that could land the city a new park and an audit that finds the monitoring of consultants needs to be much improved.

I watched a piece on CNN the other day that really tied the room together, in terms of the battle over America’s energy future. Recently in this space, I’ve ranted about rentseekers—established industries backed by favorable regulations that stifle innovation and thrive by maintaining the status quo. This story rides a thru-line from social innovators, like Uber and Airbnb, to the heart of the solar energy revolution, and it exposes a dilemma at the core of our economy: The free market doesn’t really exist.

Russia inspired pandemic outrage this summer when it introduced a spate of homophobic laws, including one that outlaws “gay propaganda,” which could get citizens and tourists jailed for something as innocuous as wearing a rainbow T-shirt. Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Ken Yeager wants his colleagues to take a stand against the draconian legislation, especially since the country plans to host the 2014 Olympics and Paralympics.

A gut-and-amend state Senate bill that would restrict nonprofits from spending taxpayer cash for political purposes has elicited opposition from K-12 and community college associations, various local governments—including San Jose—and the nonprofits that get money from them. That and more at Wednesday’s Rules and Open Government Committee meeting.