South Bay Labor has employed racist tactics to prevent minorities—including 1998 San Jose council hopeful Tony West—from securing office.

Sacramento’s most notorious lobbyist and San Jose’s shadiest council member each got slapped with fines by the state political watchdog.

Payday lending offices offer immediate financial relief to many of San Jose’s most cash-strapped citizens, but the high interest rates can leads to crippling debt when more loans are required to pay off the first. It’s a vicious cycle that brings interest rates to as high as 460 percent in some cases. This week the city’s planning commission made new recommendations on how to curb the proliferation of offices that many view as predatory lenders.

Emmett Carson, CEO of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, says it is “hard to understand” why the San Jose City Council chose to delay action on accepting a $50,000 grant to look into anti-predatory lending policies, what with so many people falling deeper into debt. He should ask Manny Diaz, a former city councilmember and state assemblymember who is now a registered lobbyist for Community Financial Services Association of America, a trade group that represents the payday loan industry