Usually, the race for California’s highest public school office lacks suspense. This year is a notable exception.

Columbus Day has been called “the strangest of American holidays,” the least-liked and least-respected, a commemoration of an egomaniac who wouldn’t ask for directions and launched a centuries-long era of cultural genocide. So, why do we still celebrate it in San Jose?

Fed up after years of cost-cutting and layoffs, employees of the San Jose Mercury News took out a “Help Wanted” ad asking for a new owner.

Don Rocha issued a scathing memo Friday in support of a general sales tax measure while calling out Mayor Chuck Reed and his bloc of Measure B supporters on the council, as well as the Mercury News editorial board. On Monday, Rocha doubled-down.

Oakland's City Council modified a lease deal to keep the A's in the East Bay for another decade, which makes relocating—to San Jose or elsewhere—a no-go for the time being.

“Cortese ‘not afraid to say no'” to special interests, thundered a polished mailer from the Dave Cortese San Jose mayoral campaign. That might seem like typical candidate-speak, but the mailer actually quotes the Mercury News. But the Merc is accusing Cortese of deliberately "lying with the facts."

The Mercury News will return to downtown San Jose, the newspaper announced Thursday in a deliciously meta article of self-praise. But the adulation of the expected move isn't the real takeaway from this story. The real takeaway is a sweetheart parking deal.

John Vasconcellos, California's longest continuously serving lawmaker who represented the Silicon Valley for 38 years until he termed out in 2004, died over the weekend.

A mayoral candidate who’s made economic development the main tenet of her campaign wants to get the city to speed up the time it takes to get building and planning permits.

Judge Diane Ritchie scored a shocking victory in 2008 when she won a seat on the Santa Clara County bench, but now she's running for re-election and has no shortage of critics.

The frequency of posts by the Mercury News' new political blog has been herky-jerky, but that isn’t the only aspect of the gossip site that’s missed a beat.

So many of the higher paying jobs in our valley involve some aspect of computing and programming. A story in the Mercury News this past weekend highlighted the issue of access to technology by gender.

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.

Accountant Sharon Ryan takes over as president and publisher of the media consolidation monster that is Bay Area News Group this month as lines blur further between previously distinct publications. Last month, Silicon Valley Community Newspapers—a once-independent group of weekly papers that fell into the hands of the San Jose Mercury News—announced it was going to an “all access model.” This exciting new development was billed to readers as a way to have all the news in all formats, a media smorgasbord of sorts. But is it actually good for the local state of journalism?

The year 2013 will be remembered for its political turmoil, local and nationwide. A former county supervisor went to jail and the spotlight subsequently landed on his political buddy, a San Jose councilman. The Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have the right to get married, and the president lied to the nation about domestic spying. San Jose Inside runs down the list of stories that caught our attention this year.

San Jose State University suspended three white students Thursday after the District Attorney charged them with hate crimes. The three young men allegedly fastened a bike lock around their African-American roommate’s neck—twice—while also racially bullying him and locking him in his bedroom.