A handful of city leaders want to hike up penalties for illegal fireworks, given that complaints and injuries are becoming increasingly common. Also on Wednesday's Rules Committee agenda, the city's federal lobbyists will submit a mid-year report. San Jose Inside will be meeting with the lobbyists Thursday morning, and readers are invited to submit questions in the comments section.

An old yellow cottage in Delmas Park has become a point of contention in a heated debate about the future of downtown San Jose. That and more will be discussed at Tuesday's City Council meeting.

San Jose Inside editor Josh Koehn sat down for a interview last week with San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. In the first part of their conversation, the two discuss the city's controversial pension reforms, the depleted police ranks, the current mayor's race, San Jose's lawsuit with Major League Baseball and Reed's insistence that he's not a closet Republican.

Dave Cortese's campaign for mayor of San Jose suffered its first major setbacks this past week, and the Santa Clara County supervisor would prefer if we don’t talk about it. So, let’s talk about it.

City leaders are demanding a public hearing on airport security after two widely publicized security breaches called into question the safety of the San Jose airport.

Sources confirmed Monday that a complaint has been filed with San Jose's Ethics Commission against the mayoral campaign of Dave Cortese. Questions are now being raised about whether he will have to return money that was collected immediately following the June 3 primary.

Though polling appeared to show San Jose voters are willing to pay more to restore public services, the City Council on Tuesday voted against placing a tax hike on the November ballot.

Don Rocha issued a scathing memo Friday in support of a general sales tax measure while calling out Mayor Chuck Reed and his bloc of Measure B supporters on the council, as well as the Mercury News editorial board. On Monday, Rocha doubled-down.

Campaign disclosure forms covering the first half of 2014 came due Thursday, giving political nerds their first chance to break down exactly how much money was raised and spent in the first half of the year. The numbers also show who's well poised for the November runoff.

Voters may get a chance to modify Measure B, if the City Council agrees to place proposed changes on the fall ballot.

Summer brings a brief reprieve for local elected officials—for some more than others.

The November election will either shift the body politic in San Jose toward change or provide a continuation of the status quo. With the problems facing the city, change should be in the air.

As Bay 101 floats plans to build a new casino with adjoining hotels closer to competitor Casino M8trix, our selfless public servants in Sacramento are trying to do the right thing by green-lighting the San Jose card club’s exit to Milpitas. At least that's one version of the story.

Another political sign stealing incident made headlines. This time it was a “Sam Liccardo for Mayor” sign on a Willow Glen lawn. These thefts are becoming all too common and it’s just a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt.

Sam Liccardo will not accept a voluntary expenditure limit for the San Jose mayoral runoff. The decision leaves little doubt that the 2014 mayor's race will end up being the most expensive in city history.

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.