The people behind a poll should be a critical factor in analyzing the results.

Mayoral candidate Madison Nguyen lays out her plan to create a Mayor’s Business Advocate (MBA) position.

The first poll for the San Jose mayor’s race came out this week, and county Supervisor Dave Cortese sits atop the pack. This really isn’t surprising. What’s interesting is the fight for second.

So many of the higher paying jobs in our valley involve some aspect of computing and programming. A story in the Mercury News this past weekend highlighted the issue of access to technology by gender.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” That is the mentality of most large bureaucratic institutions, and San Jose State University is no different.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation granted $100,000 to Franklin McKinley School District to fund startup costs to promote collaboration between the traditional public school district and all its charter schools. The possibility that this seed money can lead to a much larger piece of the Gates Foundation Collaborative Compact financial pie is real, and predicated on the effort and results of the start-up phase. Santa Clara County Board of Education Trustee Joseph DiSalvo says that in order to radically impact student achievement and graduation rates in San Jose, especially for students of color and those living in poverty, we must work with all publicly-funded partners to reach new heights of high achievement for all. Too many efforts and public dollars are going into litigation in the old toxic model of competition between districts and charters.

San Jose’s Election Code is, like all laws in our democracy, a work in progress. So while the intent of each and every provision may be benevolently intended to lead us toward a more perfect political paradigm, it’s not a stretch to say revisions are in order. With the first campaign finance reports for Mayoral and Council elections due today, it’s appropriate to start by following the money. Regulations governing limits on individual donations and campaign spending are both worthy topics. But there’s enough grist there to write a novel. Instead, I’d prefer to look at a policy that is relatively unique to San Jose: the 180-day fundraising window for council and mayoral candidates.

Mike Wasserman, president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, gave an inspirational State of the County address Tuesday. While talking about public safety, he related the story of his mother being rushed to the emergency room by local firefighters, who helped save her life. It was a personal story that showed the role government plays and the everyday services that some people take for granted.

Two eagerly awaited American events take place this week: the State of the Union address and the Super Bowl. The broadcast audience for Super Bowl XLVIII on Sunday will be significantly larger than the President’s State of the Union address on Tuesday. However, there should be no doubt that the state of the National Football League—concussion issues aside—is better than our Union’s.

Pete Constant’s withdrawal from the San Jose mayor’s race sent shockwaves through a desperate California Republican Party. Trying to carve out a niche for itself in the Silicon Valley, Constant was seen as the best hope for the party to make an inroad into San Jose. Now one lucky Democratic candidate could gain considerable support.

The City Parks Alliance website has two very interesting video from two very different mayors: Betsy Price, a Republican from Ft. Worth, Texas, and Michael B. Hancock, a Democrat from Denver. These two mayors co-chair the newly formed group Mayors for Parks. This is a significant development, because the mayor of a city can make a huge difference in the success of developing, constructing and maintaining great parks and trails systems.

The Santa Clara County Office of Education and its Board of Education have been working to address education inequality through a myriad of measures, including the authorization of high quality charter schools. For this reason, I am troubled and angry about what happened at a seven-hour meeting last week.

The beginning of the New Year is a time for resolutions and “Top Ten” wishlists. This is my Bill Wilson Center wish list for addressing some of the major issues around homelessness for our youth.

In 1959, Mildred Overfelt, daughter of these San Jose farmers, wanted to preserve the farm in one piece as a garden park in memory of her parents. She made a donation of this property to the city of San Jose with the proviso that it be a public park. In 1971, a neighborhood couple created a six-acre garden within Overfelt Gardens Park. The result is one of the most beautiful and peaceful settings in all of San Jose.

It’s sad to see some of the data on how poor and minority children perform in school in San Jose and the greater Silicon Valley, says Santa Clara County Board of Education Trustee Joseph DiSalvo. The results of longitudinal student test data have long indicated a sizeable achievement gap—a gap that threatens our region’s long-term economic viability. We can and must do better, especially in a district like Morgan Hill Unified.

The public has a short memory regarding scandals, but there are three transgressions voters will never forgive. One of them is intentionally increasing traffic.