Part of the San Jose Fire Department’s lagging 9-1-1 response times may have been just a matter of faulty record keeping.

The City Council deadlocked in a 5-5 vote Tuesday (with Pete Constant absent) on medical marijuana zoning, moving to table the action another week.

Santa Clara County will consider bolstering its living wage policy to include not just higher pay, but adequate paid leave, benefits and hours.

In the end, it took longer to put former county Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. in jail than the time he actually served. But that might not be the case for long.

Supervisors found that Code Enforcement cases are woefully backlogged and databases are out of date.

A 50-year-old troubled-youth ranch is getting a $27 million upgrade, about half funded by a state grant and the rest by Santa Clara County.

People looking for addiction treatment in Santa Clara County often have to wait for the help they need—or resort to an emergency room.

Elected officials in San Jose and Santa Clara County have expressed diplomatic, if not cautious, public support for a proposal that would have the Sheriff’s Office assist an undermanned San Jose Police Department. But behind the scenes, the two law enforcement agencies have been at odds for more than a year over services already contracted.

Kathleen King ran the county's $450 million sales tax campaign, and she also happens to be CEO of the organization most likely to get leftover money from Measure A. So, coincidence or kickback?

With the Sunnyvale Armory slated for demolition to make way for permanent low-income housing, north Santa Clara County stands to lose its only cold-weather shelter.

Santa Clara County supervisors want to bring electronic cigarettes and vapes under the purview of existing anti-smoking laws.

More than a year after San Jose upped its minimum wage to $10 an hour and as the conversation around pay increases for low-paid workers ramps up on a national scale, Santa Clara County is starting to look at enacting a similar measure for unincorporated parts of the region. Supervisor Dave Cortese, who’s also running for mayor of San Jose, will lead the discussion when the Board of Supervisors meets on Tuesday. A county ordinance comes with many more challenges than a citywide measure, Cortese notes.

The mayor's race is on, so of course there are going to be fireworks. But the latest tiff in San Jose's quadrennial contest actually involves fireworks.

Santa Clara County will consider an ordinance to punish employers for wage theft, a charge that would disqualify businesses from public contracts and give workers a formal recourse to lodge complaints against stingy bosses. The motion going before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday would direct the county to come up with a draft ordinance over the coming months. Supervisor Dave Cortese brought forward the idea, citing a 2008 study by the National Employment Law Project that says two-thirds of the 4,387 low-wage workers polled in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago were denied full compensation.

A federal ruling will dramatically cut the cost of out-of-state phone calls for Santa Clara County inmates, making it actually cheaper to dial long distance than local. The Federal Communications Commission handed down a directive this month that drops the price for inmates calling to another state by 85 percent, though it’s been met with legal opposition from the phone companies that have a monopoly on jail and prison telecommunications. Global Tel-Link, the service provider for the 700 phones at both Elmwood Jail in Milpitas and the main jail in San Jose, is asking a judge to delay the ruling.

On Wednesday, the county Board of Education agreed to participate in a mayoral candidate forum on education. Educate Our State invited the Board be a partner, and the data show a thoughtful discussion is needed. Nineteen of the thirty-one districts in the county are located in San Jose, and nearly 50 percent of San Jose’s public school students test below grade level in math and English.