The haul in the state’s leading journalism contest included seven first-place awards, three runners up, four third-place finishes and more.

Brace yourself. We’re about to do a little navel gazing. Metro, San Jose Inside’s parent company, won a slew of journalism awards

Once in a while, real journalism rears its fierce head to expose issues that are actually germane to the public and need public scrutiny. San Jose Inside’s recent reports on the county Superintendent of Schools fall into this category.

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.

San Jose Inside's company parent, Metro, picked up some newspaper siblings this week when it acquired the Gilroy Dispatch, Morgan Hill Times, Hollister Free Lance and Good Times in Santa Cruz.

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?

Here it comes. The biggest, baddest sports spectacular in the United States of America. Super Bowl L—that is L as in roman numeral 50; and “L” as in “L”ove it—will be an unofficial national holiday. This is an extravaganza and event so special that it dwarfs all other sporting events. And to think it all started with one man’s vision, a letter and a personal visit.

Santa Clara County’s scofflaw Supervisor George Shirakawa had no problem admitting in last week’s Metro cover story his four-year failure to file campaign disclosure forms. But that seems to have changed now that the reported illegal conduct —along with payments he made to friends and family members with money he raised to run for office and retire campaign debts—has resulted in a Fair Political Practices Commission investigation into the supervisor’s secretive activities.

A key piece of evidence has disappeared in the Mercury News rack theft caper. At least one news rack in the Mercury’s possession vanished as the San Jose Police Department prepared to commence a criminal investigation into the daily’s dumping of its competitors’ racks. Mercury News executives offered no explanation for the disappearance—only that they had “triple checked” the yard.

San Jose Police were called to the headquarters of the San Jose Mercury News on Wednesday afternoon after an independent distribution firm discovered its news racks — along with those of other local publications — in a metal recycling dumpster behind the daily’s plant. News outlets whose news racks were found in the garbage container included Metro, the Palo Alto Daily Post, the Mountain View Voice, Good Times, La Oferta, the San Francisco Chronicle and other publications.