San Jose Inside

When the sun goes down, big-rig truck drivers parallel park on Baytech Drive in the Alviso neighborhood so they can rest for the night. It’s not illegal, but it is annoying, says City Councilman Kansen Chu. Other items going before the Rules and Open Government Committee on Wednesday include Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen fighting for the public’s right to take photos in public spaces and potential raises for City Manager Debra Figone and City Attorney Rich Doyle.

Dozens of alleged Nuestra Familia gang members were indicted by a criminal grand jury on 77 charges, which range from meth sales to murder. It’s the largest gang case Santa Clara County has ever tackled: 48 people charged in a hefty 99-page indictment. “This is a sophisticated, complex criminal organization that required a sophisticated, multi-faceted law enforcement and prosecutorial response,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement released Tuesday morning.

Psycho Donuts scared off some of its vegan customers and incurred the wrath of animal rights groups Friday, National Donut Day, when it gave out free Foie gras donuts to the morning’s first batch of customers. Though California last year outlawed sale of force-fed-until-fat-engorged goose and duck livers, the state doesn’t ban giveaways. This did not sit well with the Internet.

For the second consecutive year in a decade, the city appears ready to adopt a budget without service reductions and layoffs and a greater focus on restoring public safety cuts.  The City Council will finalize that budget Tuesday while also discussing increased a business tax amnesty, extending a library parcel tax and street maintenance.

Every year around this time, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and the City Council hold a series of public meetings regarding our city’s budget, which the council must pass it before the summer “recess” in July. This year, the city should needs to make libraries one of its top priorities.

The transfer of the naming rights from HP to SAP is a positive move. The naming rights deal has an annual value of $3.35 million. Even better, SAP is a software company known the world over.

George Shirakawa Jr. remains free after his hearing Friday, at which he was scheduled to be sentenced for misusing campaign and county funds. Judge Philip Pennypacker chose to delay sentencing the former county supervisor until at least July 19 due to a new felony charge that the District Attorney’s office filed against Shirakawa on Wednesday.

During a press conference held Friday at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, President Obama insisted that “Big Brother” has played by the rules while keeping tabs on nearly every phone call made within the nation’s borders during the last seven years.

Santa Clara County residents enjoy longer life expectancies and overall better health than the rest of the state and nation, but stark disparities based on wealth and race persist.

According to the May 2013 Pew Research Center report, “Teens, Social Media, and Privacy,” teens are changing their habits when it comes to choosing social media and how much information they make public. Parents be advised.

About 47,000 county homeowners will soon find out that their homes are worth more than what they paid for them. Assessor Larry Stone announced in a press release Thursday that the South Bay’s residential property market continues to trend upward.

If stupidity were a felony, ex-county Supervisor George Shirakawa would be spending a lot more time in jail. The new charges filed by District Attorney Jeff Rosen against Shirakawa, resulting from DNA samples found on a political dirty trick mailer, is the latest example. But this brings us to a new problem: Shirakawa didn’t act alone. The pieces were written, designed and printed by others. There must be more DNA out there that identifies those who helped. These folks should be lawyering up right now.

As San Jose copes with one of its most violent years in decades—22 homicides since the start of 2013—a group of community members will gather tonight at City Hall to honor the memory of those lost.

I have mentioned before that we are now all part of a new paradigm in civic life, especially as it relates to our parks, trails and recreation programs. The new paradigm is not a great distance from this traditional view. It is merely a small step forward by the citizenry toward a closer level of ownership and participation than we have generally assumed. That one step is active care. A recent example relates to bags supplied at our local dog parks.

A cloud has been cast over the 2010 election of San Jose Councilman Xavier Campos with this morning’s announcement that George Shirakawa Jr. participated in a covert effort to change the election’s outcome, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney. Shirakawa, the disgraced former county supervisor who will be sentenced for unrelated crimes Friday, allegedly licked stamps affixed to fraudulent campaign mailers that were designed to discredit council candidate Magdalena Carrasco, who lost two close elections to Campos, a friend and staffer of Shirakawa’s at the time of the crime.