On Sept. 2, the San Jose Police Department issued a press release that explained the department’s policy on enforcing immigration laws. “Much discussion is taking place across the country concerning what responsibility local police departments have to ensure compliance with immigration laws,” it reads. “While the San Jose Police Department stands ready to work with any law enforcement agency to pursue violent suspects, regardless of a suspect’s immigration status, the Department has a longstanding policy of not arresting persons based solely upon their failure to comply with Federal immigration laws.

Like an underwater homeowner on an adjustable-rate mortgage in late 2008, Team San Jose was unfazed by money issues in the months leading up to its being slapped with a default notice. And like a feckless federal regulator, the city official charged with overseeing the local business-union-municipal alliance was upbeat—right up until the report that $750,000 had fallen off the truck.

“It’s Not Fair To Make Public Unions The Scapegoats…Unions Are Not Devils,” writes Evan Low, mayor of the City of Campbell, in a recent opinion piece published by the Mercury News. “In these tough economic times, we cannot stereotype or demonize one another or strictly adhere to political ideologies. We need to look at what’s fair and what’s right considering the limited resources we have…”

Should we be celebrating Silicon Valley’s small educational gains this week? Are these gains scalable? Are we beginning to turn the educational tide? My answer to all these questions is a resounding “maybe.”

Last Tuesday,  the City Council had a study session on the upcoming Redevelopment Agency (RDA) budget. RDA funds are regulated by state law and are almost entirely spent on land and construction, similar to how bond monies are restricted. We have funded some limited city services in RDA and Strong Neighborhood Initiatives (SNI) areas (not citywide), such as anti-gang programs and code enforcement. The bulk of RDA funds have gone to capital project like the HP Pavilion, numerous museums, the convention center, parking garages, hotels, Adobe and facade grants as well as industrial projects in North San Jose and Edenvale.  However, RDA also funded approximately $70 million for SNI capital projects like community centers, parks, traffic calming, etc

Last week, Nora Campos took City Council candidate Magdalena Carrasco to task for accepting campaign money from a controversial L.A. lawyer named Francisco Leal. Campos’ brother, Xavier Campos, is facing off against Carrasco for Nora’s soon-to-be-vacant District 5 seat, and the outgoing East Side councilwoman publicly questioned Carrasco’s ethics. She also wondered aloud whether the $250 Leal contribution is evidence that Carrasco is selling her district out to Southern California interests.

Finally, this might be the change that I and millions of educators have been awaiting. Arnie Duncan, Secretary of Education, announced on Saturday a new path for American school assessments to begin after development by a consortium of member states in 2014-15. The $330 million project will be managed by Achieve Inc. and involve 44 states

On April 18, 2006, the City Council unanimously approved the Guadalupe Mines General Plan amendment, changing the zoning from Research & Development to Residential. At that same meeting, the Council debated other industrial conversions along Old Oakland Road/Rock Avenue, and voted to convert all of the employment-land parcels that night to housing.

“A’s Wait For New Home As Cities Play Hardball.” So read the sub-headline of a recent front-page story in the Mercury News. The paper provided an overview of the three proposed ballpark sites in Oakland. It seems that some civic leaders from the East Bay are making an eleventh-hour push to keep the A’s in Oakland despite the fact that Mr. Wolff has expressed a strong interest in moving the A’s to San Jose.

Some of the headlines in various local rags and websites over the past couple of weeks cast such a golden glow on San Jose’s firefighters union, it was as if Local 230 president Randy Sekany had written them himself: “San Jose Firefighters Quickly Quell Two Blazes.” “Firefighters Respond to Three Blazes in Less Than Two Hours.” “San Jose Firefighters to Expose Fatal Flaws in City’s ‘Dynamic Deployment’ Scheme.”

Coming as they did while the union was locking horns with the city over pay cuts and layoffs, the puff pieces no doubt pleased Sekany and his troops. But on Friday, every news source in town seemed to spin that story in the city’s favor: “San Jose Firefighters Reject City’s Concession Proposal.”

A $250 campaign contribution from a Los Angeles lawyer to San Jose City Council candidate Magdalena Carrasco is drawing fire from District 5 Councilmember Nora Campos. Campos, whose brother Xavier Campos is running against Carrasco to represent San Jose’s East Side, suggests the money is evidence that Carrasco is somehow in cahoots with politicians from L.A.

Thomas Jefferson said, “Democracy is never a final achievement. It is a call to an untiring effort.” At a dinner party I attended on Saturday evening there was much thoughtful political discourse, a good democratic tradition. I wanted to know, from the bright and civic-minded guests, if they are optimistic about the future of America in the next 50 years.

My sampling size was small (n=5) but the result was illuminating—and very depressing.

I attended the first community meeting regarding the selection of the next San Jose Police Chief on Tuesday,  Aug. 24 at the Roosevelt Community Center.  Approximately 21 people attended. Attendees were divided into small groups to discuss five questions. I did not see any police officers however they may have been in attendance but remained anonymous.

For some reason, the Bay Area has recently been home to a number of violent and senseless tragedies.  In San Jose, on the night of August 17th, three people suffered injuries in two stabbings that the Mercury News reported may have been gang related. “In the first incident…three teenagers were standing near their vehicle in the parking lot…when they were jumped.”

Considering how hard she’s been pushing for Measures V and W, former vice mayor Pat Dando might be having second thoughts about her star turn, back in 2000, in some San Jose Fire Fighter’s Union promotional videos.

Team San Jose, the peculiar alliance of hoteliers, unions and city bureaucrats that runs the city’s entertainment and convention venues, is facing the biggest crisis in its short, contentious history.

Last Wednesday, finance chief Scott P. Johnson issued a report showing that the quasi-public entity overshot its budget by $750,000, and tangled its bookkeeping so badly that director Dan Fenton can’t even say exactly where the missing money went. Then on Monday, City Councilmember Sam Liccardo turned up the heat, asking city manager Deb Figone to dig into the hotel-tax-funded entity, which is run by Fenton and an executive committee including South Bay Labor Council boss Cindy Chavez.