Psycho Donuts scared off some of its vegan customers and incurred the wrath of animal rights groups Friday, National Donut Day, when it gave out free Foie gras donuts to the morning’s first batch of customers. Though California last year outlawed sale of force-fed-until-fat-engorged goose and duck livers, the state doesn’t ban giveaways. This did not sit well with the Internet.

For the second consecutive year in a decade, the city appears ready to adopt a budget without service reductions and layoffs and a greater focus on restoring public safety cuts.  The City Council will finalize that budget Tuesday while also discussing increased a business tax amnesty, extending a library parcel tax and street maintenance.

Santa Clara County residents enjoy longer life expectancies and overall better health than the rest of the state and nation, but stark disparities based on wealth and race persist.

About 47,000 county homeowners will soon find out that their homes are worth more than what they paid for them. Assessor Larry Stone announced in a press release Thursday that the South Bay’s residential property market continues to trend upward.

As San Jose copes with one of its most violent years in decades—22 homicides since the start of 2013—a group of community members will gather tonight at City Hall to honor the memory of those lost.

Tuesday night’s special election ended with Cindy Chavez and Teresa Alvarado placing first and second, respectively, in the primary for the county supervisor seat formerly held by George Shirakawa Jr. But while each candidate hosted parties to celebrate making it to the runoff, one of Chavez’s handlers was less than thrilled to allow media access.

Today’s primary for the District 2 county supervisor seat is an enormously critical one-issue ballot. Seven candidates are up to to replace disgraced former county Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr., with Teresa Alvarado and Cindy Chavez looking like the frontrunners to extend the race to a runoff.

A proposal for a new construction fee to rake in more money for affordable housing has sharply divided the City Council. Vice Mayor and 2014 mayoral candidate Madison Nguyen and Councilman Don Rocha say San Jose desperately needs another funding source for low-income housing since the state-ordered end of Redevelopment Agencies (RDA). But councilmen Pete Constant and Johnny Khamis strongly disagree. Other issues at Tuesday’s City Council meeting include a public hearing to raise the medical marijuana tax and a fight over a recycling facility near the San Jose Flea Market.

The Great Recession devastated shelters for battered women. And while government funding has declined, the need for such services has drastically increased. This issue will be one of many discussed at Tuesday’s county Board of Supervisors meeting, including a federal grant to develop news strategies to find long-term homes for foster children.

Should the city recruit more department heads from outside or promote from within? Councilman Don Rocha says he thinks the city needs to do a better job casting its net to outside talent.

Silicon Valley home values saw double-digit appreciation in the past year, outpacing the nation’s rebounding real estate market. Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone last week released a detailed breakdown of single-family home and condo prices. The report of prices in 25 South Bay neighborhoods shows growth in single-family home values ranging from 4 to 24 percent, and 13 to 46 percent for condos.

The Santa Clara Family Health Foundation was created to help raise money to pay for poor children’s health insurance premiums. In recent years, however, the tax-exempt organization has also acted as a political entity, helping the South Bay Labor Council and Working Partnerships USA fund local tax measures through year-round planning and coordination. While there are some allowances for tax-exempt organizations to get involved in issue campaigns, nonprofits and public agencies cannot play a role in individual candidate campaigns. Kathleen King, executive director of the Health Foundation, has not always followed this rule.

County supervisor candidate and labor organizer Cindy Chavez has not always been the biggest fan of San Jose Inside and Metro‘s coverage of local politics. In fact, she was so perturbed by a report in March about the political activities of the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation, on which she was previously a board member, that she suggested a lawsuit.

Push polls are a common occurrence in campaign season. They are designed to leave voters with a more positive or negative reaction to topics and/or individuals after answering questions. Political consultant Rich Robinson recently wrote a column on San Jose Inside about his distate for the leading questions, which are often asked without proper context, he argued. Based on email records obtained through a court order last week, it can be said that Kathleen King, executive director of the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation, does not share this opinion about push polls.

A Menlo Park cop’s fling with a prostitute prompted one local reporter to investigate confidential police arbitration cases across the Bay Area, including those in San Jose. The city’s Rules and Open Government Committee seems ready to deny the reporter’s second request for records, according to the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting.

Kathleen King expressed concern earlier this year to Working Partnerships USA policy director Bob Brownstein that the city of San Jose would stop funding the Children’s Health Initiative (CHI) after Measure A passed in the 2012 election. As executive director of the the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation, King realized this would have an adverse effect on the foundation’s ability to continue operations. A plan was then set in motion to tap trusted elected officials.