It could be an expensive road ahead for Bay Area drivers—literally. Transportation planners are throwing around the idea to make the Bay Area the first place in the country to tax drivers for every mile they travel, with an average bill of up to $1,300 per year. The scheme would require installing GPS-like trackers on everyone’s car to keep track of how far they travel, which sounds a little fishy on its own.

Remember state Sen. Joe Simitian’s annual “There Oughta Be A Law” contest? Well, here’s a new law, signed last Friday, that oughta been on that list. Thanks to Assembly Bill 2078 it will now be illegal for a police officer to have sex with detainees.

Silicon Valley is home to tech behemoths such as Google, Adobe, Facebook, and HP. Being one of the biggest business hubs in the world, Silicon Valley has also become a fundraising battleground for President Obama and his likely opponent in November, Mitt Romney.

This weekend the Mercury News published an excellent story that exposed abuses by Santa Clara County court-appointed officials who take advantage of elderly and incapacitated adults whose finances have been placed under control of the county. Investigative reporter Karen de Sá found that some court-appointed personal and estate managers charge expensive and questionable fees, and judges often sign off with little scrutiny. These finance managers basically drew down their clients’ accounts until little to no money was left in the trust funds and their clients were forced to depend on government assistance. In one case, a Belmont dementia patient was charged $1,062 to help celebrate her birthday.

Almost half a million assessment notices went out to Santa Clara County property owners today, and following three years of minimal or negative growth in assessed property values, the county reports its first solid increase since 2008. Overall, total net assessed value of all real business and personal property values increased by 3.25 percent to $308.8 billion.

By now everyone knows that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare). Some of the conversation has centered on why the reform was upheld, but more so the story has been advanced to focus on what this all means for the future of the country as well as President Obama’s re-election chances.

Gay publicly spoke up about—and against—the belt-tightening measures that Council has taken in recent years.   In public session, she told the City Council about how the 14 percent cuts in her salary would make it difficult for her to continue to make payments on her modest home.   She warned about the dangers of Measure B, the pension reform measure on the June ballot, and testified against the Council’s decision to impose reductions in retiree medical benefits.  In every case, Gay spoke with civility and with a heartfelt conviction that comes from someone who reasonably relied upon promises that were made to her when she decided to move to San José to work for the City years ago.

The city of San Jose recently cleared three areas with prominent homeless encampments. Along with clearing debris, the goal was to enter many of these homeless people into housing programs.

The last City Council meeting of the fiscal year Tuesday will feature a loaded agenda. Last week, the council unanimously approved next year’s budget, moved past its stalemate on lower benefits for new employees to approve a second tier, and paved the way for paid time off for many city contractors. Here are some of the critical items up for the last meeting of 2011-12.

The territory war between San Jose and the San Francisco Giants got a bit more heated Thursday, with the minor league Giants caught in the fray. San Jose councilmembers Sam Liccardo and Pete Constant said in a memo that before the city spends $85,000 on maintenance for the San Jose Giants’ stadium, they would like to know how much Giants owners are spending to sue the city over land being saved for a potential move to San Jose by the Oakland A’s.

District Attorney Jeff Rosen made a bold step last summer when he announced a new policy that would stop deporting as long as they aren’t considered a threat to public safety. Almost a year later, President Obama went a step further, announcing Friday that his administration would end the deportation of some illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children.

San Jose Stage Company rolls out the red carpet Monday for the 19th annual Monday Night Live! fundraiser. The question is: Who will steal the show this year? A sketch comedy event in which local celebrities, politicians and business people satirize the issues Silicon Valley is facing, as well as themselves, MNL!-Nineteen will be guest hosted by Councilmember and style guru Nancy Pyle, of District 10.

The thriving arts scene in San Jose appears to be helping the local economy rebound from the recession. The San Jose nonprofit arts sector provided more than $122 million in economic activity, according to the “Arts and Economic Prosperity IV” study released by the city Friday.

Incumbent Kansen Chu won 54 percent of the vote in District 4. Despite a strong challenger in Tam Truong, Chu’s victory means he won’t have to go to a November runoff.

Update: The San Jose City Council voted unanimously to send a minimum wage proposal to voters after it failed to be adopted by San Jose City Council Tuesday night. The motion to immediately adopt a higher minimum wage than surrounding cities failed on an 8-3 vote. The proposal will raise the minimum hourly wage in San Jose from $8 to $10, if passed by voters.

Tuesday’s City Council agenda includes discussions about entering into an a park renovation project, continuing to suspend bonus payments to retirees, and the city’s revolving door policy.