The 21st annual comedy show Monday Night Live! starred some of Silicon Valley’s biggest political players eschewing personal dignity for the sake of raising money for the San Jose Stage Company. For that we thank them.

The Santa Clara County Office of Education announced Tuesday that Jon Gundry is the lone finalist to take over as superintendent of schools. A recent report, however, suggests Gundry does not have the strongest track record for improving the results of low-income students.

Economic recovery coupled with Silicon Valley’s increasingly international population has translated to a rush for passports.

Cannabis clubs, already banned from every local jurisdiction except for some slim pickings of real estate in San Jose, may get outlawed from unincorporated Santa Clara County, too.

Post-election: When people stop being polite and start being real. According to a report, Bobby Lopez and Neil Struthers recently had a public dispute about the East Side City Council race. At a Starbucks.

This country is still paying for the mistakes of George W. Bush—the worst President in our history. But the predictable civil war that now rages in Iraq is President Obama’s dilemma. And for now he seems resolved not to repeat his predecessor's mistakes.

Internal emails for top Santa Clara County Office of Education administrators provide a rare glimpse into an insulated power structure that attempts to control the message at all times, delays the delivery of information when possible and spins uncomfortable facts into purple public relations prose.

“Cortese ‘not afraid to say no'” to special interests, thundered a polished mailer from the Dave Cortese San Jose mayoral campaign. That might seem like typical candidate-speak, but the mailer actually quotes the Mercury News. But the Merc is accusing Cortese of deliberately "lying with the facts."

While litigious councilman's "trip and fall" case got dismissed, the back and forth racked up a hefty legal tab for the city of Sunnyvale.

A blueprint to transform San Jose's main transit station into a bustling development and hub for future BART and high-speed rail trains come up for a vote Tuesday.

An ordinance that would limit medical marijuana collectives to just 1 percent of the city comes up for a final reading at the City Council this week.

San Jose Councilman Xavier Campos says he cast the wrong vote for a planning commissioner appointment and wants a do-over.

The Mercury News will return to downtown San Jose, the newspaper announced Thursday in a deliciously meta article of self-praise. But the adulation of the expected move isn't the real takeaway from this story. The real takeaway is a sweetheart parking deal.

Looking at St. James Park here in San Jose, many people forget that it is not simply a matter of cleaning out undesirable elements to make everything alright.

Willard Birts Jr. kept in close contact with his daughter, Angela, throughout his life sentence in prison. Neither realized their close bond would one day help him gain his freedom.

Magdalena Carrasco stunned everyone by mollywhopping Xavier Campos in last week’s election rematch, but the newest San Jose councilmember-elect didn’t do it alone. In fact, one could argue she barely did it herself.