If the Transportation Security Administration changed its screening protocols, it could improve airport security while simultaneously lifting pressure on overworked baggage screeners who allegedly violate security rules, the agency’s former administrator argues. Kip Hawley, who led the TSA from 2005-2009, believes the airport security system established after 9/11 is in “critical need of an overhaul.” Baggage screeners are expected to look for small items that rarely or never represent genuine threats — a tedious job that Hawley says “dulls their edge.” Read More

A visa program that puts rich foreigners who invest in the U.S. on the road to citizenship is picking up steam and could one day lead to hundreds of jobs and tens of millions of dollars in Bay Area investments, backers say. In recent years, the once-sleepy EB-5 visa program has become the focus of global entrepreneurs on the hunt for secure investments and U.S. officials looking for ways to buoy a flailing U.S. economy. Read More

Unofficial results from Tuesday’s election had Marge Colapietro and Wayne Lee leading the pack for three City Council seats, with Robert Gottschalk and Anne Oliva in a tight race for the last spot.The hard-fought race centered on economic uncertainty, exacerbated by the departure of many businesses over the past year, which has led to chipping away of city services, staff and pensions. Also central to the race was the Police Department, which reached a crisis point earlier this year after struggling to do its job with limited staff and no full-time chief. Read More

The results of the Redwood City Council election brought no surprises. Four incumbents — Alicia Aguirre, Ian Bain, Rosanne Foust and Barbara Pierce — retained their open seats, while outsider Paul McCarthy, a Highway Patrol sergeant who spurned the media spotlight, failed in his bid for office. Candidates sought to lead a city with falling revenues, increasing costs, and large upcoming payments for its redevelopment association, an entity Bain strongly supported. The candidates campaigned on various ways to further pare the budget without dipping into reserves. Read More

A tight field for three seats on the Redwood City School District board features three incumbents and one newcomer.On Tuesday, voters will have a choice between incumbents Alisa MacAvoy, Shelly Masur and Dennis McBride and challenger Lea Cuniberti-Duran, a mother of three children who attend Redwood City public schools. Read More

Sequoia Union High School District enrolls students from the winding back streets of East Palo Alto to the palatial homes of Woodside and Menlo Park, a situation that has led to a so-called “achievement gap” falling largely along ethnic and geographic lines.With an election just days away, five candidates for Sequoia’s three open board seats agreed that the achievement gap is one of the district’s biggest issues. Read More

He may be just a rookie, but when it comes to firing off new bills, Rich Gordon doesn’t miss very often. With 15 of 19 bills signed by the governor, Gordon, the first-year Democratic assemblyman from Menlo Park, had the highest percentage of bills signed into law of anyone in the Assembly. “They’re not the most controversial bills, but they are bills that make sense,” said Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, who only got eight bills on the governor’s desk in her first session. Read More