San Jose Inside

In his budget message going before the City Council Tuesday, Mayor Sam Liccardo proposes opening libraries to six days a week, hiring more community service officers and having the Fire Department take over ambulance service.

Fearing the proliferation of "bikini bars" in the South Bay, Supervisor Cindy Chavez asked if the county could broaden its definition of "adult entertainment" to include even fully clothed dancing if it's in a cage, with a pole or on a lap.

San Jose's chronically underperforming ambulance contractor may get bumped if the city finds it more cost-effective to have firefighters take over operations. The plan was introduced as part of Mayor Sam Liccardo's first annual budget proposal.

LaDoris Cordell will retire from her post as San Jose’s independent police auditor this summer, the city announced Wednesday. During her five-year term the former judge brought unprecedented accountability to the San Jose Police Department.

Magdalena Carrasco got redemption in last June’s election, when she defeated Xavier Campos in a rematch for San Jose’s East Side council seat. But now, less than three months after taking office, sources say Carrasco already has her sights set on a run for the State Assembly.

Tenants of Oak Crest Estates mobile home park in north San Jose say landlords are trying to skirt rent control by passing off maintenance costs as service upgrades.

In 2012, a city audit found that San Jose police working off-duty security jobs lacked accountability and, in some cases, abused the system. Three years after the audit called for "urgent reform and a cultural change," more than 80 percent of those recommendations have yet to be implemented.

It is an outrage that Silicon Valley education leaders continue to choose battle ground over common ground. Despite extraordinary innovation that occurs everyday in our region, our education leaders too often choose to protect the status quo.

Sam Liccardo delivered his first State of the City speech as San Jose mayor Saturday morning at Independence High School, and the message was one of better times to come.

Mayor Sam Liccardo will outline key initiatives and budget priorities for San Jose in his first state-of-the-city address this weekend.

Ex-mayor and part-time lawyer Chuck Reed will take another crack at statewide pension reform, reviving a campaign to cut public retirement costs and bolster his political legacy.

With the collective force of 6,000 litter picker-uppers, San Jose was able to haul away the equivalent of 44 filled-to-the-brim semis of trash last year.

Marketing is for terrible people, and art is for people who don’t realize they’re terrible. Leave it to an $85,000 city-sponsored “art project” highlighting San Jose’s sewer system to synergize the two.

The special election race for San Jose’s District 4 council seat has taken a turn for the confounding. Another batch of error-laden absentee ballots went out Monday, only this time Santa Clara County’s Registrar of Voters might not be to blame.

Trustee Leon Beauchman will step down at the end of this month from his elected seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Education. I first learned of his decision during a call from him in February. It was a bittersweet moment.