A veteran San Jose police officer was shot to death Tuesday night by a suicidal man armed with a high-powered rifle.

If George Shirakawa Jr. receives community service instead of jail time as punishment for his felony mail fraud, he can thank a judge with whom he’s shared a political relationship for more than a decade.

In his inaugural speech after being sworn in for his second term today, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen highlighted the reforms made since taking office in 2011.

San Jose police are planning another gun buyback to take illegal firearms off the streets—no questions asked. Two key organizers have formed an unlikely alliance.

District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced on Monday that his office will not file domestic violence charges against San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Ray McDonald, citing a lack of evidence.

Deadly encounters between police and citizens have increased in recent years. And while officer-involved shootings are nearly always ruled justified, mistakes are costly—both in lives and in the millions that the public pays to victims and their heirs.

Newly released Grand Jury transcripts show that investigators have gathered mounds of physical evidence linking missing Morgan Hill teen Sierra LaMar and Antolin Garcia Torres—her suspected kidnapper and killer—even though nothing suggests the two knew each other before her disappearance in 2012.

Police and prosecutors have teamed up to offer cash rewards for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in either of two separate homicide cases.

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against the man accused of killing Morgan Hill teenager Sierra LaMar, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday.

Authorities busted an alleged high-ranking drug-dealer accused of pumping millions of dollars of illicit narcotics into Silicon Valley's black market.

Politics can make for strange bedfellows, but there was something surreal about last week’s re-election kickoff party for Sheriff Laurie Smith.

The parents of Audrie Pott, the 15-year-old Saratoga girl who hanged herself after being sexually assaulted and cyberbullied by classmates, have successfully lobbied for a bill that would strengthen California’s sex crime statutes.

The year 2013 will be remembered for its political turmoil, local and nationwide. A former county supervisor went to jail and the spotlight subsequently landed on his political buddy, a San Jose councilman. The Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have the right to get married, and the president lied to the nation about domestic spying. San Jose Inside runs down the list of stories that caught our attention this year.

Very few people go out on their own terms, but there’s no doubt that Karyn Sinunu-Towery finished on top. The prosecutor wrapped up a 30-year career in the District Attorney’s office by successfully sending former county supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. to jail in her final case, and she handed off what seems to be a strong case involving Shirakawa and political mail fraud. Last week, colleagues honored her accomplishments with a cash bar fiesta at the De Anza Hotel, where junior and senior attorneys clinked cocktails as equals for minutes at a time.

A lobbyist-funded ballot initiative will attempt to overturn San Jose’s ban on expanded polystyrene (EPS) to-go containers at local restaurants. Sponsored by the California Restaurant Association, a petition that gathered 38,952 signatures was turned in to the City Clerk’s office Nov. 18. But before the county Registrar of Voters verifies if the necessary amount of signatures were gathered, critics have already lodged complaints with City Clerk Toni Taber that the petition misled signers.

As previously noted in this space, it’s nearly impossible to get Xavier Campos to agree to an interview. It helps, however, if you have a close relationship with the media-dodging councilman like NBC’s Damian Trujillo, who scored a rare on-camera chat last week. What did we learn from Trujillo’s interview and a follow-up report? Hardly anything. But we did learn plenty about Trujillo and NBC Bay Area.