Breaking News

Charges have been dropped against the former mayor and his aide by the Santa Clara County District Court judge hearing the case. You can read the story in the Mercury News here:

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_6123426

A PDF file of the ruling can be found here:

http://bayareanewsgroup.com/multimedia/mn/news/gonzales_courtruling_061307.pdf

What do our bloggers think of this development?

This week, we thought we would focus in on what the priorities of our city government should be, given its limited resources. We daily columnists will all be weighing in on our regular days with some thoughts of our own. To get the ball rolling, we want to give our bloggers an open forum to express their views first. So we hope that you will take the opportunity to tell us what you think today.

We are taking a few days off to enjoy ourselves with family and friends and hope you are doing the same. In the meantime, we are inviting you to participate in a weeklong, year-end roundup of your favorite, best, worst and most important events, people and places of 2006. Scroll down and you will find an assortment of subjects to blog on. Or, use this thread to write about anything you like or tell us what you think about San Jose Inside. But, by all means, have fun with it!

Single Gal will return from her holiday party circuit on January 2, followed by the rest of us on our usual days—maybe a little red-eyed and worse for wear, but raring to go for the New Year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Single Gal, Tom McEnery, Jack Van Zandt, John McEnery IV, Riya Reynolds, and the staff of San Jose Inside.

OK, we all agree that the 2006 local election was the most important political event of the year. But after that, none of us can agree on anything in the “top,” “best” or “worst” categories. We even asked our larger-than-life friend and bar buddy Bill Brasky what he thought, but we can’t print anything he said.

We thought it would be nice to remember those who passed away in 2006. There is also room here to remember personas, places and things, including the politically dead. We have open minds, so use this space as you see fit, but with respect.

Oh, this is really going to be fun. You get to name your own category and winner. What could be better than that?

With all the local sports action this year, it’s hard to pick a favorite event or most important story. Even after a few pints at O’Flaherty’s, our merry little group of writers couldn’t agree on a single thing (nothing new there), so we put the following short list together to get the ball rolling. We have told you ours, now you tell us yours.

By Leonard McKay

Editor’s Note: As a tribute to our recently departed friend, we are repeating the piece he wrote for this site last Christmas.

Did you ever wonder how Christmas was celebrated in the past in San Jose? When our first foreign settlers, the Spaniards, were here, the birth of Christ was celebrated by going to mass at the Mission Santa Clara, the closest church. The male citizens rode their horses for the three mile trip. The women and young children went on the rough ride to the mission on a wooden wheeled, no-springs caretta. After the Americans arrived, most of the celebrations moved to the family home or local churches.

The Future of San Jose Inside

Last week’s elections may be over but here at San Jose Inside we will continue to provide an open forum for our readers to discuss the issues of the day in a local context. As we look towards the future, we would like to hear from you today about what subjects you would like to discuss and what new features you might like to see on our site.

The editorial board of San Jose Inside recommends voting for the following:

Tom McEnery will be discussing the San Jose mayor’s race on the Ronn Owens Show on KGO AM 810 radio this morning, Thursday, November 2, from 10-11a.m.

We are experiencing problems with our daily email notification to certain addresses. The webmaster is working to correct the problem by upgrading our software and we hope to have it cleared up in a few days. In the meantine, thank you for your patience.

SuperBlogger Demands New Contract

As internet blog sensation SanJoseInside.com (SJI) gears up for the fast approaching mayoral runoff election, a conspicuous, if not gaping, hole has opened up in their writing stable over the past two weeks as marquee blogger and star of the site, John McEnery IV, continues to hold out over a contract dispute.

While John McEnery IV is vacationing on the beaches of Tahiti this week with his harem and entourage of personal attendants, we thought we would give our bloggers an opportunity to sound off about the San Jose Mercury News. Has anyone noticed anything different as the paper has gone through the changes of ownership? How are they doing covering local issues? Does the paper seem biased in any way in how they present stories or write headlines? What about the quality of the writing? Is there anything you would like to see them do that they are not doing? And what about the ownership’s performance so far in supporting community arts and events, especially in comparison to Knight Ridder?

Swing for the fences!