English
Spanish
Vietnamese
San Jose and Santa Clara County will rely on a coalition of grassroots charity organizations led by Destination: Home and Sacred Heart Community Service to disburse $57 million in federal rent relief to landlords and tenants suffering the financial consequences of COVID-19 in Silicon Valley. But not one penny can move until the U.S. Treasury...
San Jose mayor renews six-figure contract with Washington PR guru
After spending $145,000 on a Washington communications consultant to boost his national profile over two years, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo extended her contract again for four months to the tune of $30,000. Stephanie Craig’s Apeiron Strategies Group was first hired by Liccardo’s office in 2018 and bills the city for placing opinion pieces in...
San Jose senator wants to end life without parole under California’s felony murder law
California’s felony murder law allows judges to send convicts to prison for life — and sentence them to death — even when that person is not directly responsible for the death of another. Sen. Dave Cortese wants to end that practice, and give thousands of inmates charged under the law a chance to apply for...
Rent relief on its way to Silicon Valley — eventually and for select few
San Jose and Santa Clara County are preparing to decide how to spend more than $117 million in federal rent subsidies. That’s probably not enough to cover everything tenants owe their landlords since the beginning of the pandemic. And it hasn’t been decided exactly who will be allowed to collect their fair share of the...
Tenants mount courthouse protest to end evictions in Santa Clara County
Dozens of tenants and their advocates blocked the entrance to the Santa Clara County Superior Court in downtown San Jose this morning to protest ongoing evictions during the pandemic. Nine protesters were arrested after sheriff’s deputies declared the demonstration unlawful. The demonstrators successfully shut down the courts in the morning but judges resumed hearing cases...
South Bay tenants, landlords anxious as evictions loom, debt piles up
Silicon Valley residents who have struggled to pay rent during the pandemic are up against a wall, hoping Sacramento lawmakers will extend an eviction ban for those hit with financial hardship. At the same time, South Bay landlords waiting on months of overdue payments are looking to state and local governments to quickly distribute $2.6...
Public webinars coming up on status of iconic landmark in downtown San Jose
Three years ago, a group of San Jose philanthropists aspiring to build a world-class landmark downtown and donate it to the city began with the idea of erecting a light tower at Plaza de Cesar Chavez — a 21st century update on San Jose’s original icon, a 237-foot structure adorned with newfangled electric light bulbs,...
What the failure of Prop. 16 means for the future of affirmative action in San Jose
On Election Day, California voters overwhelmingly rejected a ballot proposition which would have reversed the state’s 24-year ban on affirmative action programs that use race or gender to decide who deserves a leg up in public employment, contracting and college admissions. Fewer than 44 percent of voters in the state voted to approve Prop. 16...
Protester shot 6 times by San Jose police still awaiting trial 20 weeks later
It was the fifth night of protests in San Jose following the police killing of George Floyd and Yuridia Ochoa was doing a sideshow in his silver 2009 Audi A4 — turning in tight, fast circles in the car in front of City Hall at about 9 p.m. Within minutes, he was the target of...
From policy wonk to politician, Ann Ravel eyes state Senate
Ann Ravel is not a politician. And, although she’s running her first campaign for elected office, she’s not a novice either. Ravel has served as an appointed government official at every level. She was Santa Clara County counsel for nearly a decade and worked in that office for years prior to her appointment by the...