Why don’t members of our business community understand simple macroeconomics? Why are they the first to justify outrageous salaries for CEOs and the first to oppose an increase in the minimum wage? Measure D will enhance our local recovery and provide needed resources to people who need it. It’s the morally right thing to do.

At 6pm tonight at Hofstra University, the second Presidential Debate of 2012 will take place. Debate moderator Candy Crowley, CNN’s chief political correspondent, will introduce the candidates for a Town Hall meeting format. The stakes for the two candidates are huge, especially for the incumbent.

The San Jose City Council met last week to discuss and prioritize certain ordinances the city should pursue in the coming year. Creating an ordinance requires staff time from the department that the ordinance will affect and, as always, time from the City Attorney’s office. In many cases, outreach for ordinances must be done to garner resident and stakeholder input which takes time and staff facilitating the public meetings.

Voters will elect representatives and decide state and local governments’ fiscal futures in this year’s election. Here are Metro‘s endorsements for the local measures on the Nov. 6 ballot.—Editor

Voters will elect representatives and decide state and local governments’ fiscal futures in this year’s election. Here are Metro‘s endorsements for the propositions on the Nov. 6 ballot.—Editor

The San Jose City Lights production of “44 plays for 44 Presidents” is terrific for political hacks, history majors and local political wannabes. It is engaging, poignant and most people will learn something new of the Presidency. But—**spoiler alert**—the ending does encourage everyone to register and vote. In the spirit of democracy, I respectfully disagree.

I am very embarrassed. Through an unfortunate set of circumstances, I have contributed to diluting the critical conversation about the quality of public education in Santa Clara County. The debate on how to ensure a high quality public education experience for every child in the county is too important to have it held hostage to a serious error of judgment. The focus of far too many articles in the San Jose Mercury News has been about a condo and contract debacle that I have tried to own for personal naivety. And not asking the right questions of legal counsel when the new superintendent’s contract was negotiated in March 2012.

Last week, I hosted a community discussion on identity theft. Our expert that evening was the Director of the Identity Theft Council. The meeting was filled with shock, drama and some hope at the end.

The last week of September was busy for Gov. Jerry Brown, as he signed and vetoed bill after bill. A bill that many justice advocates were watching was SB 9, called the Fair Sentencing for Youth Act and authored by San Francisco Senator Leland Yee. The bill carved out a narrow opportunity for certain adults who were convicted as juveniles—serving life sentences without the possibility of parole—to appeal for resentencing. The Governor signed the bill September 30. 

Here comes the plethora of mail, radio, television, emails, blogs, YouTube ads and Facebook posts designed to win over the uninformed, the misinformed, the naive, and the truly rare undecided voter. But these messages are important, believe it or not.

For every big city, graffiti too often presents a Sisyphean challenge. Volunteers and abatement crews diligently work to clean it up—particularly the gang-related tags that most demoralize and threaten residents—only to see the same markings return a couple of days later. Happily, community engagement and innovation have combined to lighten our burden in recent months—with positive results to prove it.

Supporters of the minimum wage increase to San Jose businesses fail to consider the impacts of the small business owner trying to do business in this city. The South Bay is predominately suburban communities with no distinguishable borders. Case in point is Campbell, where the Camera 7 operates in the Pruneyard Shopping Center. Camera Cinemas also operates the Camera 3 and 12 in downtown San Jose. Only seven miles separate the facilities. This would certainly not be fair to the employees of the Campbell site where the minimum wage would not be affected. If this ordinance passes, and there is a need to downsize an operation — and in this economy there is a very real possibility of this — the San Jose facilities would be considered first, due to its higher overhead. I’m certain that any other business owner would have to make similar decisions if this ordinance passes.

A comprehensive plan must be developed to chart the best course for the ever-expanding charter school movement—before it is too late. Like urban sprawl, the unplanned process will be disastrous. I believe there is still time for a win for our students, a win for the teachers and a win for our region.

Tuesday is the day that councilmembers reserve for City Council meetings. Closed session council meetings start at 9-9:30am and often continue past noon. The public council session starts at 1:30pm, often merging into the evening session with a short break. If no evening session is scheduled, then the afternoon session simply continues into the evening until the entire agenda is covered. Woody Allen once said that, “Eighty percent of success is showing up,” and many would agree with that statement.

If we’re grading embarrassing flip-flops on a scale of 1-10, the San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce’s decision this week to unendorse candidate Drew Spitzer for a seat on the Santa Clara Valley Water District board has to rate somewhere in the teens.

P911. Our schools are OOT. Our classes once had PANS, but today kids are BTD. If you can decipher that, you are probably under 25. More importantly, this new lexicon is the wave of the future and few in education understand where it is leading the next generation.