The San Francisco 49ers broke ground Thursday on their new stadium in Santa Clara and threw a tremendous party replete with football royalty, current players, politicians and, most importantly, volunteers from the Measure J campaign that made the day possible. The model used by Santa Clara and the Niners should be replicated in San Jose for the new A’s stadium.

Almost four years ago, John McCain came within a Sarah Palin of capturing the White House. But last week, the U.S. senator huddled with several of Silicon Valley’s most powerful CEOs and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed to talk green technology, Obamacare, tax reform and ... sports. The meeting was part of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s semiannual trip to Washington, D.C., which features a parade of meetings with Capitol Hill’s influence makers.

At the National School Boards Association conference in Boston on Saturday, NSBA President Mary Broderick sent a tersely worded letter to President Obama urging him to work hand in hand with Congress to abandon the current “command-and-control” federal education oversight of the No Child Left Behind Act. Unfortunately, I have no hope that the NCLB/ Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) will be reauthorized during the 2012 election year, therefore no change in the law will occur.

In addition to discussing its top five economic priorities for the rest of the fiscal year, the City Council goes Hollywood on Tuesday—or at least brings little Hollywood home—when former American Idol contestant and San Jose native DeAndre Brackensick will receive a commendation. Other matters going before the council Tuesday include a ban on city departments purchasing expanded polystyrene, the Independent Police Auditor’s annual report and continuing to suspend certain pension payments. Now that we’ve fulfilled our agenda obligations, feel free to comment on which councilmember you would vote off this season’s cast.

We all have an impact on the sewer system and our waste must go somewhere to be treated. Miles upon miles of pipe transport and maintain our civilization and virtually eliminates outbreaks of typhoid and cholera. As some have said, “No pipes, no civilization.” if you would like to learn more about the challenges San Jose has with over 2,000 miles of sewer lines—and some portions being approximately 100 years old—attend a presentation at 6:30pm tonight at City Hall. And on another rnote, local residents now have the chance to submit business plans in a contest that has no better home than Silicon Valley: the Santa Clara County Start Up Cup.

I was a little bummed out Tuesday afternoon. I had my popcorn ready. I had my browser pointed to the City of San Jose website. I was keyed up to watch the council discussion of an update on progress with the city’s economic development priorities. Essentially, the city’s current economic strategy has been condensed to a five-point plan—as if we don’t have enough of those. To be frank, it should really be a one-point plan.

Santa Clara County’s District Attorney has accused the Mexican American Community Services Agency’s former chief executive officer and former chief financial officer of cleaning out their employees’ retirement accounts to the tune of $1 million. The third C-level MACSA employee at the time, former MACSA chief operating officer and current San Jose City Councilmember Xavier Campos, was not charged with felony grand theft, as the others were. The arrest warrant and complaint notes that while “Campos was almost certainly aware that MACSA had failed to make at least some pension payments,” there was a lack of evidence that he had a direct role in stopping retirement payments.

The Secret Service agents implicated in the prostitution scandal last week in Columbia probably never saw Mike Wallace’s 60 minutes interview with agent Clint Hill. If the agents had, there wouldn’t be a scandal.

UPDATE: The District Attorney’s Office is charging former MACSA CEO Olivia Soza-Mendiola and CFO Benjamin Tan with grand theft for illegally diverting more than $1 million that should have gone to employee retirement accounts. Check back later in the day for a story about the charges.—Editor

The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office plans to hold a press conference at 11am Thursday unveiling its findings from the investigation into the Mexican American Community Services Agency (MACSA). The announcement will come 28 months after former DA Dolores Carr was notified that MACSA, a nonprofit organization, stole $400,000 from employee pension funds from two of the schools it operated.

The California Public Utilities Commission predicts Santa Clara County’s 52-year-old area code, 408, will run out of numbers at the end of this year. Last October, the CPUC voted to add area code 669 to the same geographic region as the existing 408 area code in what is called an area code overlay. Starting Saturday, customers may dial ten digits for any number within the 408. On Oct. 21, a sure-to-be maddening voice recording will remind callers to dial a 10-digit number.

Recently, I was asked to take part in a community stakeholder interview for Cristo Rey High School in San Jose, which is currently going through a feasibility study. The landscape of public and private schools in Silicon Valley looks the same to many as it did in 1980. However, in reality, the new scene is vastly different and rapid change is occurring. One of these changes is a focus on corporate work-study programs.

Norm Mineta, Janet Gray Hayes, Susan Hammer, Ron Gonzales and Reed all took part in Monday night’s installment of the Don Edwards Lecture Series at San Jose State University, and each of the current mayor’s predecessors voiced relief that never in their tenures were they forced to deal with the current mayor’s challenges. A full decade of budget shortfalls, a workforce depleted and demoralized, the loss of the Redevelopment Agency and no certain economic rebound in the future was a tall order in every mayor’s eyes. The never-ending pummeling a mayor experiences—from the press, constituents and colleagues—was reiterated consistently in the talk, which retiring SJSU political science professor Terry Christensen moderated.

In a sign that the city of San Jose has no immediate plans to aggressively add to its workforce, an item on Tuesday’s City Council agenda suggests permanently eliminating 12 positions and adding a new job: Risk manager. Also on Tuesday, the city plans to accept an audit of the police department that says urgent reform is needed regarding the secondary employment of officers. Discussion on the city’s top five priorities in its Economic Strategy Workplan has been deferred to next week.

The “victory” claimed by certain union members by suing the city over the word “reform”—as in “pension reform,” known as Measure B for the June ballot measure—may have actually jeopardized a future tax increase to fund their own jobs. The removal of the wording, “essential city services including neighborhood police patrols, fire stations, libraries, community centers, streets and parks,” was included in the ruling and cannot be used as a way for the city to lure residents into supporting higher taxation.

The office of the Independent Police Auditor, led by retired judge LaDoris Cordell, conducted “unprecedented outreach” in 2011, according to its annual report released this week. As a result, the office received a 26 percent increase in the amount of complaints filed against the San Jose Police Department compared to a year prior. The IPA provided 30 recommendations, some of which were as small as prohibiting tobacco chewing to as large as overhauling Internal Affairs.

The long-awaited work to extend BART from Fremont to Berryessa begins today with a groundbreaking ceremony featuring many of Silicon Valley’s most prominent political officials. The event has been a long time coming, and shovels should enter the ground this afternoon.