Larry Esquivel inherited San Jose’s chief of police position without ever putting his name up for consideration. In fact, none of the San Jose Police Department’s deputy chiefs showed a genuine interest in the job, leaving the applicant pool to some uninterested and/or unqualified candidates outside of the area. But Esquivel is learning the ropes, and a perusal of his Twitter account shows a man who loves emoticons, classic cars and ... the Mercury News? Yes, the Mercury News.

San Jose’s Elections Commission received complaints last year about political candidates exchanging coffee for signatures on a nomination petition, raising money after the election to pay off campaign debt and mingling primary and general election funds. In response to some of these complaints, the city wants to update its campaign and ethics provisions, Title 12. A public meeting will be held March 28 at City Hall.

Rising crime rates and controversy surrounding San Jose’s Measure B pension reform efforts may have cut into Mayor Chuck Reed’s approval rating, which, according to a recent opinion poll, is listed at 55 percent.

The city’s poised to deny for the second time a Public Records Act (PRA) request from a journalist who wants to glimpse the behind-the-scenes workings of Casino M8trix. Other items on the Rules and Open Government Committee agenda fro Wednesday include a dispute within the Vietnamese community and a passionate letter from our favorite city critic.

Integrity is the single most important ethos the public has a right to expect from anyone who participates in the political arena. Beyond party and philosophy, it is the one essential element of governance that each of us must insist upon when doing the people’s business.

ABV News’ sixth issue hit digital news racks Monday, this time with a little less sensationalism and a little more transparency. Robert Braunstein, high school sportscaster and defeated District 10 City Council candidate, now signs his name at the end of the newsletter, which includes news links and a brief editorial.

One of the most generous gifts in San Jose State University’s history will push the school’s journalism and communications department closer to the forefront of the digital age. Bob Rucker, head of SJSU’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications, announced Wednesday that a Jack and Emma Anderson, a couple who owned the press where the Spartan Daily student newspaper was printed for 20 years, left $8.7 million in their will to help the school advance its digital marketing, new media and social media storytelling.

Last November, a few hundred people donned their best suits and gowns and converged on San Jose’s historic Hayes Mansion to toast some of the East Side’s most accomplished alumni. The stars that night, honored in the East Side Union High School District Education Foundation’s Hall of Fame fundraiser, consisted of a 10-person class led by Khaled Hosseini, a 1984 graduate of Independence High School and author of The Kite Runner. But on Nov. 15, 2011, the IRS revoked the foundation’s nonprofit status. And yet almost no one outside of its board—including donors—knew about its lost certification when it threw a fundraiser a year later.

Nobody likes to lose an election, but it seems Robert Braunstein—TV sports host and vanquished candidate in San Jose’s District 10 City Council race—has yet to call it quits. Braunstein is behind a south San Jose newsletter that is directing residents to local stories while also taking shots at his former campaign opponent, Johnny Khamis.

The audience at the SF Commonwealth Club, in the sold out Herbst Theater, stood for a sustained ovation Monday in honor of Sonia Sotomayor. The Supreme Court Associate Justice is traveling across the country to discuss her new book, My Beloved World. Her inspiring talk touched on the importance of her schools, and it made me think of how Rocketship and other charter schools are impacting the local educational landscape.

To keep people on task, the city’s IT department developed a prompt back in the Internet’s toddler years—circa 1997—to notify workers that they may be attempting to visit websites prohibited by city policy. Fly was then dismayed and downright harrumphed when it learned last week that the Metro-affiliated political website San Jose Inside provoked the prompt for city workers as if it was some sort of personal blog about cats and the things they fancy.

San Jose Inside today purchased the abandoned domain of the shuttered political blog San Jose Revealed. Internet users browsing to sanjoserevealed.com will now be directed to the San Jose Inside article revealing that the anonymous hit site was operated by former South Bay Labor Council political director Philip Bump.

Turning the page on 2012, it’s also time to close out the final chapter on emails between politicos and Barbara Marshman, the opinionated opinion editor of the Mercury News.

While the District Attorney’s Office and Fair Political Practices Commission continue their investigations into Supervisor George Shirakawa, the county has moved forward with updated policies on P-Cards and expenditures. Also, sources have confirmed with San Jose Inside that Teresa Alvarado, a potential candidate to replace Shirakawa if he is forced out of office, is moving to District 2.

The 2012 election is barely over and already people are opining on who will contend for the Presidency in 2016 or who will be the next Mayor in 2014. Who will replace Supervisor George Shirakawa if he resigns? Which brings us to the mental gymnastics some local pundits are making regarding recent changes at the South Bay Labor Council. Is Cindy Chavez running for Mayor? Is she positioning herself for Supervisor?

On the same day the county released a second audit critical of P-Card purchases made by Supervisor George Shirakawa’s office, County Executive Jeff Smith provided his first extended comments regarding Shirakawa’s misuse of taxpayer funds.