The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors recently passed its $4 billion annual budget, and in one of her last meaningful acts, Supervisor Liz Kniss, who will be termed out at the end of the year, recommended that the county give $47,000 to Palo Alto Animal Services. This wouldn’t be that big of a deal—the amount accounts for .001 percent of the budget—except for the fact that the animal shelter is in no way related to county business. Oh, and there’s one other important detail: Kniss is running for a seat on the Palo Alto City Council this fall.

We tried to do a Q&A with Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone back in late March. That didn’t happen, but it wasn’t Stone’s fault—there weren’t enough questions at the time. But here we are, three months later, and we’ve got the tax man’s answers to a couple submitted questions, relayed in a telephone conversation, as well as his thoughts on the fight between the county and Redevelopment Agencies, the odds the Oakland A’s will relocate to San Jose and how he views the local housing market five years after the subprime mortgage crisis.

Two critical steps to building a public education system second to none begins with a focus on reading between birth to grade three—resulting in all students reading proficiently by the end of 3rd grade—and vastly improving middle school education. Middle schools are the key to increasing high school graduation and college enrollment rates. The seeds for dropping out often begin during the transition between elementary school and the less personalized middle school model—six teachers and instructional periods—where the content dots tragically do not connect.

Officials for Santa Clara County went back on the offensive regarding Redevelopment Agency funds this past week, deciding to direct $30 million in property taxes to schools rather than pay back a loan from the San Francisco 49ers.

Last week, the City Council spent nearly two hours discussing the development of four new recreational soccer fields that would be located next to the new San Jose Earthquakes soccer stadium by Lowe’s and In & Out Burger on Coleman Avenue. The soccer fields were a specific line item under Measure P, which voters passed in November 2000.

The city of San Jose recently cleared three areas with prominent homeless encampments. Along with clearing debris, the goal was to enter many of these homeless people into housing programs.

Part of a new plan by the business community to rebrand downtown is to staff the city’s core with two patrolling officers. However, how these security guards will be paid has kicked off a new fight between police and city officials.

On Monday, I was invited to join a march to San Jose City Hall that was organized by the local chapter of the California Youth Connection (CYC). CYC is a youth-led organization that aims to develop leaders who will empower each other and their communities to transform the foster care system through legislative and policy change.

Madison Nguyen’s plan to run for mayor of San Jose appears to be the worst kept secret at City Hall these days—mainly because she keeps telling everyone before adding that it’s “a secret.” Three of Nguyen’s colleagues confirmed that the District 7 councilmember started spreading word of her plan to run before the June 5 primaries.

Less is NOT more when it comes to government spending on quality early childhood education. Since the beginning of the Great Recession, California has cut spending for these programs by 26 percent. The reduction of government-funded quality childcare and preschool programs will cost each taxpayer four times more in 14 years than the dollar spent today.

The last City Council meeting of the fiscal year Tuesday will feature a loaded agenda. Last week, the council unanimously approved next year’s budget, moved past its stalemate on lower benefits for new employees to approve a second tier, and paved the way for paid time off for many city contractors. Here are some of the critical items up for the last meeting of 2011-12.

The topic of government providing transportation to seniors came up during our budget study sessions. Combined, the city and county currently provide a senior lunch program. The discussion was around the cost and value of increasing services like transportation to receive this lunch service.

The territory war between San Jose and the San Francisco Giants got a bit more heated Thursday, with the minor league Giants caught in the fray. San Jose councilmembers Sam Liccardo and Pete Constant said in a memo that before the city spends $85,000 on maintenance for the San Jose Giants’ stadium, they would like to know how much Giants owners are spending to sue the city over land being saved for a potential move to San Jose by the Oakland A’s.

District Attorney Jeff Rosen made a bold step last summer when he announced a new policy that would stop deporting as long as they aren’t considered a threat to public safety. Almost a year later, President Obama went a step further, announcing Friday that his administration would end the deportation of some illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children.

San Jose Stage Company rolls out the red carpet Monday for the 19th annual Monday Night Live! fundraiser. The question is: Who will steal the show this year? A sketch comedy event in which local celebrities, politicians and business people satirize the issues Silicon Valley is facing, as well as themselves, MNL!-Nineteen will be guest hosted by Councilmember and style guru Nancy Pyle, of District 10.

High above, I looked down on a sea of deep blue. With my last few frenetic days back in Cambridge, Mass., done, I was a minute or so away from touching down at Mineta. It was Saturday, May 26, and only at that point did I make the connection that the mass of indigo I was witnessing was Bellarmine’s graduation ceremony, where five years earlier I had proudly walked across that stage. The San Jose I’ve came home to, however, seems remarkably different from the San Jose I remember leaving.