Habemus Papam! We have a Pope! The centuries-old tradition of locking 115 men in a room until they make a decision still works today. This brings us to an old idea for getting rid of gridlock in our political system.

Xavier Campos is a public servant who doesn’t like to talk to the media. For this reason, and maybe a few others, the San Jose councilman refused to answer Fly’s questions about his former campaign treasurer, Linda Delgado, who handled accounting duties for his council race in 2010. Treasurers aren’t usually a hot topic of conversation, but Delgado also happens to be one of the absentee accountants who facilitated George Shirakawa’s embezzlement of more than $100K in campaign contributions.

Funds from two local non-profit health care foundations made their way to phone banks and mail campaigns of the South Bay Labor Council in 2012 after routing the money through a Measure A’s campaign committee. Both the VMC Foundation and the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation gave more than a quarter-million dollars each—a total of $539,000—to support an 1/8th cent county sales tax measure, Measure A. At least $90,000 of those monies were transferred to the South Bay Labor Council. An incestuous tangle of organizations, directors and consultants characterized the transactions, with common decision-makers on both the giving and receiving ends. None of the organization are willing to discuss how the funds were used and how decisions were made. Former San Jose vice mayor and South Bay Labor Council CEO Cindy Chavez currently heads up the nonprofit SBLC-linked Working Partnerships USA (WPUSA) and sits on the board for the Health Trust and Santa Clara Family Health Foundation.

Hey, you, bicyclists over the age of 12: Get off the sidewalks. Enough people complained about your scofflaw ways that the city’s about to crack down on the pedestrian-scaring practice. Well, sort of.

With its vastly superior public education system, will Boston surpass Silicon Valley as the global leader of technological innovation? It’s a distinct possibility unless we get our act together. Boston is poised to win, considering the current fights focus on turf instead of better educational results for our children.

Mayor Chuck Reed’s top priorities in a cautiously optimistic 2013-14 budget proposal, released Friday, include restoring public safety salaries and city services. How does he plan to do it? Good question.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors votes Tuesday on whether to hold a special election June 4, with a possible June 30 runoff, to replace disgraced District 2 Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. Other items on the agenda include hillside development, potential fundraisers on county property and a huge new contract for the Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System.

The District Attorney’s investigation into George Shirakawa Jr. has some new paperwork to add to the pile, as discrepancies may have been found Monday in forms the former county supervisor filed during and after his time as a member of the San Jose City Council in the late 90s and early 2000s. The City Clerk’s Office began making copies of forms for the DA when San Jose Inside’s inspection of “Friends for George Shirakawa Jr.” campaign forms found inconsistent signatures from previous campaign treasurers Shirakawa employed for his 1998 council re-election campaign and officeholder account.

Rising crime rates and controversy surrounding San Jose’s Measure B pension reform efforts may have cut into Mayor Chuck Reed’s approval rating, which, according to a recent opinion poll, is listed at 55 percent.

The day begins like any other in beautiful Silicon Valley: children are on their way to school, commuters are stuck in traffic, etc. Our carefree existence then suddenly gives way to a terrorist attack at a high-profile technology company. People are killed, injured, power is out, phone service is down, and a pursuit is underway for those who have set out to harm us. Police and fire departments across the region and in neighboring counties attempt to communicate and provide mutual aid, as an “all hands on deck” approach is required to tackle the catastrophic situation as it unfolds. But in this scenario, one of the main issues is that there is no way to for all personnel to effectively communicate with other agencies in real time.

I don’t regularly watch Board of Supes meetings. But I watched on Tuesday because I don’t often see a board trying to figure out how to replace a colleague who is being charged with five felonies. (Sorry, George Shirakawa, it has nothing to do with you being a Raiders fan. That would have been cause enough for a sixth felony.) The board decided to hold a special election on June 4 because they didn’t want to look like 4 white guys telling East San Jose who should represent them. Brilliant political move. I noticed something interesting in the process.

As an active resident in Santa Clara County’s District 2, I, like so many others, am ashamed of George Shirakawa. The former supervisor blatantly violated the trust of the most vulnerable residents of our district. His deplorable actions have led this district, which suffers from high rates of poverty, gangs, drug issues, under-education and lack of healthcare, to have absolutely no representation until August.

In my last column about San Jose Parks Foundation, I stressed the economic importance of parks, as well as the overwhelming evidence of the correlation between health and the presence of accessible parks and trails—both for individuals and a community’s wellbeing. There is another layer of health benefits that is even more critical: the essential role that parks and trails play for the environment.

A South Bay gun buyback became the third largest in the nation last weekend, when Santa Clara County traded $114,000 in cash for 1,116 firearms. Forty-seven of the guns were assault weapons, 479 handguns, 355 rifles and 235 shotguns. There’s still $36,000 leftover for a future buyback.

The Beltway in Washington D. C. is a place of intrigue. Dysfunction, infighting, ancient irrelevant practices, and crises of leadership are common. Yet, sometimes there are individuals who stand out as diamonds in the rough.

The county’s four remaining supervisors voted Tuesday to hold a million dollar special election on June 4 to fill the seat of soon-to-be-jailbird George Shirakawa Jr. If only there was an app for that. Considering the job pays six figures, provides a CalPERS pension, comes with all kinds of perks—assuming you don’t exceed a $3,000-a-year local meal allowance with your P-Card (really?!)—and could last 12 years if all three terms are completed, there should be no shortage of entrants.