Mar 27, 2015
It didn’t take long after Officer Michael Johnson was fatally gunned down for the platitudes to begin. The shooting reminds us, Scott Herhold intoned, the “the job is fundamentally different than other dangerous lines of work.” Reminds us, the columnist wrote. Implying something all of us always knew. An editorial quickly followed. It righteously observed, “For all of our political…
Mar 24, 2015
Just a few weeks ago, we watched President Obama march along the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama; his feet walking the very same path taken by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and fellow civil rights activists fifty years ago to the day. As tear gas seared their eyes and clubs broke their bones in 1965, their spirits persevered and…
Mar 12, 2015
The politically influential Vietnamese-American Voters Political Action Committee (known more simply as “Viet Voters”) is chafing over being ignored by two of the 4 Vietnamese American candidates vying for San Jose’s District 4 council seat. Tweet
Mar 9, 2015
San Jose SB 3, Minimum Wage Fairness Act vote NEW MEMO: Councilmember Chappie Jones states his support to SB3 if it is amended with the following exemptions: 1) non-profits with job training programs; 2) small business with fewer than 15 employees; and 3) youth employment and job programs. Tweet
Mar 6, 2015
In San José’s pension wars, the truth has often been a casualty, and former Council member Pete Constant was often the trigger man. What a pleasant surprise to find the City has begun to set the record straight. Tweet
Mar 4, 2015
Silicon Valley is an area of contrasts. When you stop at a traffic light in Silicon Valley you will often find a Maserati or Tesla on one side of you and a beaten up, 15-year-old Accord on the other. It seems there are more high-end Mercedes, Jaguars, Bentleys or the occasional Maybach than in other areas. Tweet
Feb 18, 2015
Speculation is already hot on who will run for two South Bay open State Assembly seats in 2016. In the seat that covers the area from Morgan Hill and Gilroy down to the Central Coast, District 30 Assembly Member Luis Alejo terms out in a year and a half. Karina Cervantez, current Watsonville City Council member and Alejo’s wife, is…
Feb 17, 2015
San Jose City Commission Appointments: Ethics and Planning Council will interview the 5 applicants for the Ethics Commission [formerly known as the Elections Commission] and appoint up to 3 to terms expiring March 1, 2019. An applicant must receive at least 6 votes to be appointed. If any vacancy remains, City may continue recruitment efforts and bring forward additional applicants…
Feb 12, 2015
San Jose’s city worker unions are joining together to insist city leaders address the mess that is Measure B and not put it off until 2017, as the Liccardo administration is suggesting. As one union negotiator put it “these groups have no interest in kicking the can down the road and are looking for a public acknowledgement from the city…
Feb 5, 2015
CAPITAL & MAIN’S NEW MONTH-LONG SERIES EXPLORES HOW ECONOMIC INEQUALITY IS TRANSFORMING CALIFORNIA, AND WHAT CAN BE DONE TO REBUILD OUR VANISHING MIDDLE CLASS. The California Chasm As it pushes historic levels, inequality has become a hot topic. Activists have organized around the rich-poor divide, with “The One Percent” and “The 99 Percent” becoming a part of everyday language. Tweet