Pete Constant became the second San Jose councilmember to file forms that he intends to run for mayor of San Jose in 2014, joining Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen, who announced her intentions in December of last year. Downtown Councilman Sam Liccardo is also expected to file forms today.

A funny thing happened after Willie McDonald announced in a June 10 email to San Jose Fire Department staff that he was staying on as fire chief. He decided to send another email, only in this message, dated June 13, McDonald thanked everyone for their hard work and abruptly informed them he was leaving for Las Vegas, where he would oversee Clark County’s fire and ambulance services. So, why would a fire chief leave for a job expected to pay him less and demand more? And what would make him change his mind?

George Shirakawa Jr. once counted on Santa Clara County taxpayers and campaign contributors to be his benefactors, as he spent public money and campaign funds on luxury rental cars, gambling junkets, vacations and lavish dinners for staff and political allies. Now, it seems, high-profile developer John Vidovich has assumed the role of financier.

The San Jose Police Department’s duty manual serves as a bible of sorts when it comes to the rules and regulations for officers. In the 756-page tome that lays out procedures and protocol, five pages are dedicated to interviews and interrogations of witnesses and suspects. Nowhere in the duty manual, however, is there any mention of an interrogation technique that is now receiving criticism from the Santa Clara County Public Defender’s office and local defense attorneys: letters of apology.

UPDATE: Sources within the county have told San Jose Inside that Vinod Sharma will be officially removed from his current position as chief financial officer in two weeks. Sharma will be reassigned to a position in the Valley Medical Center Health and Hospitals System while county administrators work to create new accounting positions. During the 2013-14 budget process, the county allocated money to create these new positions but did not establish official titles. The Board of Supervisors is expected to approve these new positions at its first meeting in September. Sources tell San Jose Inside that Sharma’s salary will be “significantly lower.”

Downtown San Jose appears poised to add a new entertainment venue next month. The question is whether some of the workers will be topless, fully nude or neither.

Why wait for “Anchorman 2” to hit theaters when we can just tune in to KTVU’s coverage of the Asiana flight 214 crash? Proving some newscasters will literally say anything put on a teleprompter, Channel 2’s afternoon anchor Tori Campbell read four obviously fake—and blatantly racist— names that supposedly belonged to the pilots of the Boeing 777 that crashed while attempting to land at San Francisco’s airport on July 6.

On Friday, June 21, the San Jose Stage Company has an especially auspicious occasion scheduled, as the company will put on a benefit performance to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the political comedy show Monday Night Live! and the 30th anniversary for the company as a whole. The five-hour gala will start at 7pm inside the Silicon Valley Athletic Club’s Corinthian Grand Ballroom. Ticket reservations can be purchased at http://www.thestage.org, or by calling the box office at 408.283.7142.

More than four years have passed since Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig formed a committee to study the best places for the Oakland A’s to play ball. But what’s the point of studying something if that knowledge is never put to the test? On Tuesday, the city of San Jose called time and filed a federal lawsuit challenging MLB’s antitrust exemption, part of which prevents teams from relocating without approval of the league and other team owners.

The Government Attorneys Association (GAA) held a special meeting Friday, and sources tells San Jose Inside that if the county attorneys agreed upon anything, it’s that a “deep division” exists amongst the membership. The big question is how can this be resolved when the union’s leadership continues to focus on scoring fleeting political points.

George Shirakawa Jr. remains free after his hearing Friday, at which he was scheduled to be sentenced for misusing campaign and county funds. Judge Philip Pennypacker chose to delay sentencing the former county supervisor until at least July 19 due to a new felony charge that the District Attorney’s office filed against Shirakawa on Wednesday.

During a press conference held Friday at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, President Obama insisted that “Big Brother” has played by the rules while keeping tabs on nearly every phone call made within the nation’s borders during the last seven years.

A cloud has been cast over the 2010 election of San Jose Councilman Xavier Campos with this morning’s announcement that George Shirakawa Jr. participated in a covert effort to change the election’s outcome, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney. Shirakawa, the disgraced former county supervisor who will be sentenced for unrelated crimes Friday, allegedly licked stamps affixed to fraudulent campaign mailers that were designed to discredit council candidate Magdalena Carrasco, who lost two close elections to Campos, a friend and staffer of Shirakawa’s at the time of the crime.

County prosecutor Chuck Gillingham Jr., son of the former county sheriff, called a press conference Wednesday to accuse Metro of being an accomplice to prostitution and underage sex trafficking. Gillingham said he was acting in an unofficial capacity as a concerned citizen. But it seems something much greater is at play.

Cindy Chavez’s campaign manager, Ed McGovern, acknowledged Tuesday evening that his client has a found a way to circumvent state laws that prevent independent committees from coordinating with candidate campaigns.

What’s the difference between Cindy Chavez’s campaign and some of the independent expenditure committees that want to get her elected to a county supervisor seat? Little more than a few choice words, according to mailers that have been targeting voters in District 2. With absentee balloting already in full swing, the campaign of candidate Teresa Alvarado chose last week to file a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission.