San Jose officials are hoping the use of a rather unique approach to stemming gang violence will help reduce gang-related troubles in the city. With signs that a long-running fued between rival street gangs may be heating up, the city has been calling in pastors and former gang members to try to ease tensions between rival gangs.

The mayor of San Jose is warning city workers that if they don't agree to take steep cuts in pay and benefits, the city will have to eliminate hundreds of jobs. As San Jose faces its ninth consecutive year with a budget deficit, Mayor Chuck Reed says if city employees don't agree to a 10 percent cut in compensation, the city will have to cut more than 500 jobs.

A long-running dispute over a Nazi salute given by an activist at  a Santa Cruz City Council meeting in 2002 will get another look from a  federal appeals court in San Francisco. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals announced Friday that an  11-judge panel will reconsider a ruling in which a smaller panel of the court  last year dismissed a free-speech lawsuit filed by Robert Norse.

San Jose's zoo is set to reopen after a multimillion dollar renovation project that kept it closed for nearly two years. Happy Hollow Park and Zoo officials say the revamped zoo will open to the public on March 20. The zoo has added several new exhibits and children's rides and is four acres larger. Zoo curator Valerie Riegel says visitors will get to see new animals, including spider monkeys and red-ruffed lemurs.

San Jose police are investigating the discovery of human remains found in a rural stretch of land at the edge of the city. San Jose police Sgt. Ronnie Lopez says a person walking along a roadway in the area called police to report what appeared to be bones. When officers responded they found the remains were attached to what Lopez described as a "partially unearthed skull."

A Toyota executive said Thursday the company is "mystified" by a report that a California man's Prius gas pedal became stuck and caused the car to speed out of control on a California freeway. James Sikes quickly became the face of the Toyota gas pedal scandal after he called 911 to report losing control of his Prius on Monday. His car reached nerve-rattling speeds of 94 mph before an officer helped bring it to a stop.

A former Wells Fargo bank manager in San Jose is accused of bilking elderly customers of nearly a million dollars in fake transactions. San Jose police and Santa Clara County prosecutors have filed charges against John Tran accusing him of Theft from an Elder, Grand Theft and Forgery.

Santa Clara County prosecutors are reviewing procedures at the county's public hospital after finding information about suspected sex assault victims that was never turned over to defendants. The intake forms at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center documented hospital personnel's interactions with suspected victims. They should have been turned over to defense attorneys along with other evidence against their clients.

Two suspected gang members were in court Wednesday to face charges in connection with a Watsonville bowling alley attack that sent a 7-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man to hospitals. Eighteen-year-old Abraham Santoyo and 20-year-old Jordan James Macias were charged with two counts of gang-motivated attempted murder. They did not enter pleas.