The U.S. Department of Commerce picked San Jose City Hall as the permanent site for its Silicon Valley satellite patent office. The office will open up shop by the end of 2014, the federal agency announced Tuesday.

Despite vocal opposition from some community members, Rocketship Education could receive approval to start building another charter school in the Washington/Tamien neighborhood. The City Council this week will consider selling the nonprofit educational company an $850,000 parcel of land to develop the new campus. Also on the council agenda is an underfunded gun buyback, a contract agreement with the electricians union and an urban village plan.

Two minutes shy of deadline to place it on the Nov. 19 City Council agenda, Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio logged a request for the city to revisit the discussion about where to place a softball complex paid for by the remaining balance of a $228 million pool of bond funds. That and more at Wednesday’s Rules and Open Government Committee.

Communities across the nation on Monday recognized the men and women who have served in the U.S. armed forces. A ceremony for San Jose’s 95th annual Veterans Day parade was held near the SAP Center, and hours earlier the Veterans Day National Ceremony commenced at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Every winter, Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane has one hand perpetually tied behind his back, as he tries to rebuild his rosters for the following season. Frugal ownership, a decrepit stadium, and multiple run-ins with raw sewage make the A’s one of the least desirable Major League Baseball landing spots for top free agents. So, Beane, the man profiled in Michael Lewis’ bestseller Moneyball, does his best to cobble together lineups with bargain basement prospects and aging journeymen. And because he’s exceptionally good at his job—and a little lucky—he manages to field competitive teams year after year. The city of San Jose faces similar obstacles in recruiting and retaining the best and brightest minds to run the day-to-day operations of America’s 10th largest metropolis.

Mike Honda—Silicon Valley’s globe-trotting, karaoke-singing, hard-partying congressman—has had a charmed career. Now, a well-funded challenger, Ro Khanna, asks whether being likeable is enough, or whether the public expects a lawmaker to work hard, write laws and fight to keep valley industries competitive.

Last fiscal year, the city completed 101 construction projects valued at $110 million, according to a capital improvement review going before the City Council on Tuesday. Completed projects included the San Jose McEnery Convention Center expansion, a $130 million effort that wrapped up in September.

TV sportscaster and former San Jose City Council candidate Robert Braunstein penned a heartwarming editorial in his newsletter about the reconciliation of two political rivals: the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce and Democratic Central Committee. The business backers and the labor supporters, Braunstein wrote, have let bygones be bygones. Except they haven’t.

First he behested $200,000 on behalf of a shadow group under the control of John Arnold, the former Enron executive who helped crash California’s economy before making big bucks as a hedge-fund manager. Then he acted as chief requester for $50K from Richard Riordan, the former mayor of LA, and a matching denomination from a couple of pension-busting obsessed businessman in Silicon Valley. Now, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, in his quest to put a state pension reform measure on next year’s ballot, appears to have joined forces with the Manhattan Institute and its billionaire chairman Paul Singer, an ardent supporter of The One Percent.

John Dowling and other residents of the Winchester Ranch Mobile Home Park could be forced out of their homes if developer Pulte Homes buys the park property, which is adjacent to Santana Row and the Valley Fair mall in San Jose. Cali-Arioto Properties owns the land, and like a lot of mobile home park owners in the region, the family proprietor is exploring the option of selling the lot, which houses more than 145 mostly low-income seniors and disabled residents. Real estate prices are going up and the park lies in a part of the city pegged for future mixed-use development under the city’s General Plan.

There’s a petition going around that aims to transform St. James Park from an open-air drug den to a destination for free live music. The San Jose Rock Shop, a music store near the downtown park, posted the petition directed at Councilman Sam Liccardo on Change.org to let a national nonprofit called the Levitt Pavilion build an outdoor stage. So far, it’s gathered more than 100 signatures from residents of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. Liccardo seems all for the idea–he posted a link to the petition on Facebook Wednesday encouraging others to sign their support.

The government shutdown may be over, but the Republican-fueled hits keep on coming—especially for Silicon Valley’s most vulnerable citizens. Starting Nov. 1, extra funding provided by the American Recovery Act, President Obama’s 2009 economic stimulus package, expire. As a result, people who rely on rely on food stamps, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or CalFresh in California, will see their benefits decrease. In addition, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill last month that would cut $40 billion from the program over the next decade—resulting in 3.8 million people getting kicked off the program next year, the Congressional Budget Office estimates.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed on Tuesday filed to put a polarizing state constitutional amendment on the November 2014 ballot that would allow government agencies to dial down public pension benefits. If voters OK the Pension Reform Act of 2014, it would change the state constitution to empower government agencies to negotiate existing employees’ pension and retiree healthcare going forward.

A federal judge on Friday dismissed most of San Jose’s lawsuit against Major League Baseball, which accused the league of flouting antitrust laws by delaying a proposed move of the Oakland A’s to the South Bay. U.S District Judge Ronald M. Whyte said San Jose could go ahead with claims that MLB got in the way of an option agreement between the city and the A’s over property for a new stadium. That means the city could still pursue billions of dollars in damages, but has to back down on a court order to allow the A’s to move to San Jose.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a trio of bills sponsored by the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), the state’s political watchdog group, making it easier for the rest of us to police our politicians.

A new policy is expected to require Santa Clara County restaurants to post grades from their latest health inspection report on the front window of the establishment. No more hiding that cockroach problem.