When it comes to the workings of the San Jose City Government, the devil is too often in the details. The convention center expansion is a $300 million project, yet it has received little public scrutiny.

My vote for the Best Apocalyptic, Post-Suburban-Wasteland Photo Book of 2008 goes hands down to a glossy hardback aptly titled Frezno from Process Books. Photographer Tony Stamolis grew up in that Central Valley city, and spent six years chronicling the dreadful, doped-out, deranged and disregarded underbelly of the city whose airport code is FAT.

Tom McEnery recently returned from a visit to Vietnam. This is the second in a three-part series.

Beyond the Continental Hotel and the Cathedral of Notre Dame—we just missed a wedding there—is a place I was both anxious and nervous to see. It was once called the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes. But in slight bow to political expediency,  it has a new name: The War Remnants Museum.

By Colleen Watson
Starting at Story Road and King Street at 4:30pm. Wednesday, about 200 marchers protesting US immigration policy worked their way to City Hall, chanting “Yes We Can.” The largely Hispanic group reached a mostly empty City Hall at 6:30pm.

“My father insists that I call it Saigon—you see, he was in the Southern Army,”  was the simple, direct way our guide informed us why he used the city’s old name.  The comment was made in near perfect English. “Sometimes we say Ho Chi Minh City,” he conceded, “but I prefer Saigon.”  This was our introduction to a place so much in American minds for the last forty years, just recently a significant factor in San Jose politics.

Last week, Mayor Reed held his State of the City Address. And I think the mayor was forthright by clearing stating that the City of San Jose has a large deficit, and that cuts to services and layoffs are before us. In fact, I believe that the current $60-65 million budget deficit will worsen and grow to $70-75 million.

On Tuesday, change comes to America. Here in San Jose, life goes on. Register rants, raves, etc., here.

By Jill Escher

It’s time for SJUSD to right its wrongs.  The District was found guilty of unconstitutional backdoor taxation when, in early 2006, it secretly refinanced 1997 Measure C bonds to artificially raise tax rates to repay $22 million of new bond debt.  This week, Attorney General Jerry Brown handed down his much-anticipated opinion that such double dipping violates the state constitution and is illegal.

Watch Dog Silicon Valley reported yesterday that Tesla Motors faces new competition in the world of cool electric roadsters, and speculates that the company is unlikely to come to turn San Jose into the green Detroit that some have imagined.

Last month, for the seventh year in a row, the folks at NVIDIA—the Santa Clara–based visual computing giant—decided to do forego their annual company holiday party and commit themselves to a knock-down, drag-out community service effort called Project Inspire. One thousand employees, along with students, friends and family, volunteered and made their way out to Overfelt High School in East San Jose for the shindig last month.

This past week, the San Jose City Council gave its preliminary approval for a $300 million expansion of the San Jose Convention Center. The cost-benefit analysis upon which the council leaned to make its decision raises more questions than answers about the utility of the project. Is the convention center expansion designed to meet the needs of the people of San Jose, or the needs of the San Jose Redevelopment Agency?

Sign up at http://www.twitter.com/sanjoseinside .

Carol Bartz, Yahoo’s brand-new CEO, is promising to bring some passion to the job. On a conference call with analysts and reporters this morning, Bartz said she planned to help Yahoo get “some friggin’ breathing room” so the company can “kick some butt.”

Can we reduce the drop-out rate, and increase character while reducing the risky behaviors of teens, one service learning project at a time? I think we can.

After months of anticipated debate on the politics of airing a reality show documenting the adventures of the Department of Homeland Security on primetime on ABC, the Jan. 6 premiere may have ended the argument before it even could get started. I would like to say that viewers found the notion of celebrating a branch of the government that raids homes and tears apart communities an abhorrent brand of entertainment. But really, Homeland Security USA just sucked.

Last week, I attended in the Santa Clara County Cities Association. This association has a representative from every city in Santa Clara County. In my view, a good portion of the time is spent uniting all the cities to advocate state and federal policy- makers on policies or bills that help Santa Clara county cities. At this meeting, the Recycling and Waste Reduction Commission (RWRC) of Santa Clara County presented the concept of banning plastic bags.