San Jose Mercury News

mercurynews.com — Without the state Public Records Act, we would never have known about the Santa Clara County supervisor who used public funds to feed his gambling habit or the sheriff who issued concealed weapons permits to campaign contributors and out-of-county residents.

mercurynews.com — Click photo to enlarge It's standard procedure for judges at taste-offs, cook-offs and cocktails shake-offs to gracefully remark on the difficulty of reaching a decision. But this year's Best Martini in the East Bay contest, held Monday evening at the Lafayette Park Hotel, amped up the level of difficulty.

mercurynews.com — COLMA -- A person was dead Tuesday after being struck by a BART train at the Colma station. Authorities first learned of the incident around 9:06 a.m. and subsequently closed the station so BART police could investigate, said BART spokeswoman Luna Salaver.

mercurynews.com — Click photo to enlarge SAN JOSE -- It was a little like having Stradivari over to your house to make sure your violin is in tune, or having Rembrandt stop by to touch up that painting on your wall, but there was Steve Wozniak on Tuesday standing over a table of five rare Apple ( AAPL) 1 computers at History San Jose, regaling a small crowd with war stories.

mercurynews.com — MOUNTAIN VIEW -- Search giant Google ( GOOG) petitioned the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday for permission to separately report the number of requests it receives from the court, such as requests tied to the National Security Agency's Prism program, claiming protections from the First Amendment right to free speech.

mercurynews.com — SPOILER ALERT: Do not read the following unless you want to know who won the Season 4 crown on NBC's "The Voice." ... Danielle Bradbery, the 16-year-old country-singing dynamo with pitch-perfect pipes, captured the Season 4 crown on "The Voice" Tuesday night. Michelle Chamuel finished second and the Swon Brothers took third on NBC's popular singing competition.

mercurynews.com — SAN JOSE -- Netroots Nation is coming home. Not that location matters much to online political activists: Blogs, petitions, fundraising and social media know no borders. But as the annual convention of Internet liberals gathers Thursday through Sunday at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center amid new national concern over electronic surveillance and civil liberties, there's a feeling of returning to the place where the seeds of the Internet revolution were planted.

mercurynews.com — Every morning when I walk downstairs, I face the choice between two keyboards. The first, of course, is the one on my laptop, stashed out of sight for aesthetic reasons, but ever beckoning. I feed the cats, heat the water for coffee and within 5 minutes I'm online, jumping back into a marathon I have little chance of ever finishing.

mercurynews.com — By Ryan Teague Beckwith and Karen Workman Digital First Media Posted: 06/18/2013 09:31:42 AM PDT Updated: 06/18/2013 09:53:07 AM PDT Vice President Joe Biden is scheduled to speak about gun safety live Tuesday. Vice President Joe Biden is scheduled to speak about gun safety live Tuesday.Watch the livestream at 1 p.m.

mercurynews.com — Seven out of 10 workers have "checked out" at work or are "actively disengaged," according to a recent Gallup survey. In its ongoing survey of the American workplace, Gallup found that only 30 percent of workers are "were engaged, or involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their workplace."

mercurynews.com — Posted: 06/18/2013 03:57:22 PM PDT Updated: 06/18/2013 04:42:35 PM PDT Today: Google ( GOOG) demands transparency and Yahoo ( YHOO) discloses user-data requests as NSA Prism revelations continue to ripple through Silicon Valley. Also: Adobe ( ADBE) earnings, Facebook action and Hewlett-Packard ( HPQ) changes.

mercurynews.com — Cal football picked up its sixth oral commitment for the class of 2014 when running back Vic Enwere of Fort Bend Austin High in Sugar Land, Texas, chose the Bears over Michigan, Missouri and Utah, among others, according to multiple recruiting websites.

mercurynews.com — SAN JOSE -- With no progress after more than four years on the Oakland Athletics' planned San Jose move, the city Tuesday filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Major League Baseball. The lawsuit argues MLB's decree that the San Francisco Giants have exclusive territorial rights to San Jose, which the defending World Series champions refuse to relinquish, constitutes unlawful restraint of trade.