San Jose Fire Chief Robert Sapien Jr. told City Council members Tuesday that unspecified “appropriate disciplinary action” had been taken and that he considered his investigation of the Oct. 5 incident at The Pink Poodle closed.

Mike Honda has spent tens of thousands of campaign dollars to defend himself from a House ethics probe. No later than Thursday we'll learn if he’ll need to keep throwing cash at the problem.

Rep. Mike Honda’s office denies it engaged in a pay-to-play scheme to grant campaign contributors and prospects access to government events, despite internal emails released last week by Metro and San Jose Inside that suggest otherwise. An additional, previously unseen email could make Honda’s claims of strict separation more difficult.

A report going before the San Jose Ethics Commission is expected to clear Sam Liccardo’s mayoral campaign of breaking city fundraising laws, save for one count of improper disclosure.

The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University held a program on campaign ethics Friday. The central question posed: Do campaigns have ethical standards? It is not a question that can be fully answered in a sound bite. So let’s start with the three core issues: lies, inconsistency and money.