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Santa Clara County’s largest school district is dealing with a double-digit absenteeism problem and working to understand why. Schools are combatting chronic absenteeism through a multi-faceted approach as more and more students miss class, possibly due to COVID-19 infections, mental health issues or other factors. Recent data shows the San Jose Unified School District has...
Santa Clara council questions mayor’s ethics
Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor is facing scrutiny and ethical questions from her colleagues after she lobbied Gov. Gavin Newsom to help a major developer skirt paying higher wages—months before the firm began a spending spree to support her reelection. The Santa Clara City Council voted 6-1 to direct its governance committee to discuss whether councilmembers should be...
San Jose mayor’s race boils over at Vietnamese event
Shouting matches at a flag raising ceremony and a cease-and-desist letter. Those are the latest salvos in a growing fight in the Vietnamese community over San Jose’s mayoral election. Tensions are rising in Vietnamese political circles as two factions stake out support for their chosen candidates—Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez or San Jose Councilmember...
Santa Clara County called out for jail project
As Santa Clara County remains undecided on whether to push forward with a controversial new jail, residents continue to demand local leaders ditch the project. More than 20 callers asked the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to redirect $747 million currently earmarked for a new jail project toward the county’s understaffed and underfunded mental...
Why one Silicon Valley city is paying for gas and groceries
Mountain View might be the perfect place to test out a guaranteed income program, which aims to raise the quality of life for its struggling residents. So when the city begins sending monthly $500 checks to low-income families at the end of this year, officials are hoping to not only help people just getting by, but...
San Jose to sweep homeless from ‘Field of Dreams’
Homeless residents living near Mineta San Jose International Airport are in a panic knowing that in just a few days they will have nowhere to live. Starting Friday, San Jose will disband a makeshift homeless RV camp where more than 100 people are living. City officials estimate more than 140 RVs, trailers, campers and cars—many inoperable—have moved...
New laws coming from Silicon Valley lawmakers
Santa Clara County representatives are seeing their work turn into reality following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signing of a flurry of bills at the end of September. These new laws stem from both the state Senate and Assembly, and deal with addressing housing displacement, more stringent screening of potential police officers and helping small businesses upgrade...
What San Jose mayor’s security is costing taxpayers
San Jose taxpayers have doled out at least $200,000 per year to keep Mayor Sam Liccardo safe, a practice that began after San Francisco Mayor George Moscone was killed at City Hall more than four decades ago. Liccardo, who terms out this year, is part of a long line of San Jose mayors with a security detail....
San Jose mayoral race breaks campaign cash records
The amount of funds flooding into San Jose’s mayoral race is breaking the record books—with almost $2.4 million spent in special interest money to date. With a little over a month before San Jose elects its next mayor, Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez and San Jose Councilmember Matt Mahan are locked in a hotly contested—and...
San Jose mayoral candidate admits employee classification error
San Jose Councilmember Matt Mahan’s mayoral campaign is correcting the misclassifying of some of its employees, weeks after facing a complaint filed with the state labor commissioner. The changes follow San José Spotlight’s reporting on how Mahan’s campaign listed at least 18 workers as consultants in campaign finance disclosure forms. More than half are high schoolers, in...