San Jose’s casinos increasingly require more police attention, according to an annual audit of the two permitted card rooms going before the City Council. Other items on the agenda include an update on Measure B litigation and an audit of Team San Jose.

A curious coupling of councilmembers issued a 4:59pm memo last Friday recommending the City Council adopt what sounds at first like a reasonable idea. Unfortunately, the path to bad policy is often paved with reasonable ideas.

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.

Councilman Don Rocha wants to explore the idea of imposing a standard for automatic recounts in event of a very close election in San Jose. Other items going before the Rules and Open Governemnt Committee on Wednesday include an amnesty offer to businesses behind on their taxes, study sessions and Councilmember Kansen Chu attempting to direct funds to libraries and a gun buy-back program.

A city commission that handles election and ethics complaints needs two new members. The deadline to apply is Friday. New members would have a chance to form recommendations to update the cavity’s municipal code. Suggestions created by the election’s commission last year include modifications to the city’s sign ordinance, clarifications on campaign disclosure methods and rules to prevent bribes.

Working Partnerships USA, the labor-aligned nonprofit headed by former San Jose vice mayor Cindy Chavez, yesterday released its most recent Internal Revenue Service Form 990, after eight days of refusing requests to view the document. A review of the organization’s filings over the years found spending increases during key elections despite IRS restrictions on political activities by charities. In total, the nonprofit has raised and spent more than $25 million since 1998.

When the calendar ticked over to 2013, a slew of bills authored last year by our local state senators and assembly members became actual law. Moving forward, those lawmakers have until late February to introduce bills, which means they’re in the middle of planning a legislative agenda for the coming year. We compiled a list of their just-enacted bills and called up those same representatives to ask them what they have planned for the upcoming year.

Voters love term limits for politicians, but they shouldn’t. The quaint notion that public service should be held only for utilitarian purposes for a short period of time, and that these limits create better government, is misguided and fundamentally flawed. The proof can be seen locally in the current mire that represents our public policy.

In a state of more than 18 million registered voters and a city of nearly one million people, it’s easy for any one person to feel insignificant. That’s why it’s important to remember that we’re all in this together; that our collective opinions add up to something greater than ourselves; that this grand experiment called “democracy” works best when we all stand up to be counted.

Looks like Proposition 35 is already under fire after winning with a resounding 81 percent of the vote on election night. Prop. 35 increases penalties for human traffickers and requires those convicted of even a misdemeanor to report their Internet provider and user name to law enforcement. A judge blocked this part of the proposition after the ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a complaint.

Everyone who had a stake in one of the local races on Election Night was asking the same question: For the love of god, what is taking so long for the results? OK, maybe that’s not exactly what everyone said, but it’s close.

One of the Election Night’s big surprises was the shellacking County Assessor deputy David Ginsborg took in his aggressive bid to win a board seat on the Santa Clara Valley Water District. Barbara Keegan finished almost 25 points ahead of his paltry 32 percent of the vote, while Drew Spitzer finished a distant third.

The day you’ve all been waiting for is almost here. No, not Election Day. We’re talking about the day after tomorrow, when people can put partisan politics to bed and go back to calling each other $%&#! at the dinner table based solely on the content of one’s character. For now, here’s en election night preview of the two City Council races.

Many current public polling organizations have mastered the art of the liar poll. These polls are designed to reflect a result, so that voters are deceived into believing that certain candidates or issues are winning, when clearly they are not.

Voters will elect representatives and decide state and local governments’ fiscal futures in this year’s election. Here are Metro‘s endorsements for the propositions on the Nov. 6 ballot.—Editor