San Jose Inside

Just hours after George Shirakawa Jr.'s attorneys filed motions for his political mail fraud trial, the ex-county supervisor reversed course and entered a no contest plea to one count of false personation.

Ex-county supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. attempted to pull strings from jail last year, according to new court filings from his political mail fraud trial. And in what could become a showdown over the use of the Fifth Amendment, the District Attorney's office plans to offer former San Jose Councilman Xavier Campos immunity in exchange for his testimony.

The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office plans to obtain cellphone spying equipment to track suspected criminals and find missing people.

The current conundrum at City Hall has been exacerbated by the inability of personalities to work together on Measure B and pension reform. Mayor Sam Liccardo and his opponents should try to find at least one issue on which they agree.

A proposed bill would give cities authority to regulate pedestrian right-of-ways, which would help San Jose enforce curfews and other rules at the Communications Hill staircases.

Houslets, a project offering open-source prototypes of tiny homes, is one of nine San Jose finalists vying for a slice of $5 million in grant money being distributed across the country by the Knight Cities Challenge.

Similar to SpaceX, the state's new Smarter Balanced Assessment System (SBAC) will eventually yield results that are worth the trial and error.

The special election to succeed former San Jose Councilman Kansen Chu—and by extension his temporarily appointed fill-in Margie Matthews—takes greater shape next week, when candidates must file their first campaign disclosure forms for 2015. But what have they been doing in the meantime?

The seams of Nora Campos’ carefully curated public image are unraveling at a garish pace. A year after San Jose Inside first reported that the San Jose assemblywoman had lost control of her office—firing employees at an unprecedented clip, wasting a half-million dollars for constituent services—a new source has come forward with details about the embarrassing state of affairs.

The anger expressed by San Jose Inside commenters regarding payouts to former city executives is representative of the public at large. A substantial segment of the population doesn’t believe taxpayer money is being used effectively; excessive payouts simply reinforce that idea.

Presidents Day means a day off for millions of school kids and some of their parents. All but a few government offices are closed. Patriotic and historical groups are staging re-enactments. Retailers are taking advantage of the holiday to lure in shoppers with sales.

President Barack Obama delivered a speech focusing on cybersecurity Friday at Stanford University, before signing an executive order intended to facilitate a dialogue between tech companies and the government.

Mayor Sam Liccardo’s pet project to have home security cameras feed into a San Jose Police Department registry will soon get off the ground. But not everyone shares his enthusiasm.

If the rhetoric is fiercest on the brink of a breakthrough, maybe the latest set of demands from San Jose's public safety unions portends progress in their labor negotiations with the city. Or not.

Thanks to a pair of whistleblowers, who filed a federal claim on behalf of the county and other government entities in 2011, Iron Mountain has to repay $44.5 million. Some $575,000 of that amount goes to Santa Clara County.