As leaders of organizations and agencies that support those impacted by mass incarceration, poverty and substance use, we have a loud and urgent call to stop Proposition 36 and the irrevocable damage it will bring to our entire community if passed. The proposition is falsely guised as an attempt to reduce crime, homelessness and substance...

Family caregivers are the unsung heroes of our health care system, yet their struggles often go unnoticed. In the Bay Area, the cost of living is astronomical, making caregiving an expensive endeavor. Our family caregivers face immense challenges, from financial strain to emotional stress, and it’s time we address these issues with the urgency they...

Sept. 21 will mark a significant milestone in transit history: the start of Caltrain’s electrified service. This transition from the diesel fleet that has been used for decades to electric trains is a major step forward for sustainable transit in the Bay Area and beyond.  Passenger rail service has existed on the Caltrain corridor for...

Here’s my message to Sam Liccardo — speak for yourself instead of using your supporters to do your dirty work. You had your longtime supporter, Jonathan Padilla, ask for a recount “on behalf of Evan Low” and it backfired. Now you are using your supporter Ann Ravel and her reputation as a former FEC commissioner...

Most people agree that the best way to address our area’s housing affordability issue is straightforward: build more houses. By some estimates, Silicon Valley’s housing market is at least 100,000 homes short of what is needed to arrest the inexorable housing price increases we have experienced decade after decade. Increasing availability by building more housing,...

The residents of South San Jose deserve transparency, trust and respect from their government officials and agencies. Unfortunately, recent events have demonstrated that these fundamental principles have been neglected. The shocking revelation that Santa Clara County intends to transform the emergency interim housing site located at Monterey and Bernal into a jail diversion facility —...

During the past year, Valley Water biologists and other people spotted numerous Chinook salmon, juvenile steelhead and other fish species in waterways across Santa Clara County. Many of these fish were swimming and spawning in sections of creeks and rivers where Valley Water has completed habitat improvement projects specifically designed to benefit and support these...

In California, there are more than 66,000 businesses active in the digital economy. They employ more than 1.6 million Californians and account for more than 10% of the state’s GDP. Californians are disproportionately paying the costs of politically motivated legal attacks on America’s leading tech companies. Successful litigation could cost targeted firms more than 10%...

The influence of money in politics is not talked about enough, and I commend San José Spotlight for bringing up this issue in their recent article, “Silicon Valley campaign contributions expose financial loophole.” Campaign contributions, who gives them, how they are given and how much is given are often not on the minds of voters....

The fifth annual Silicon Valley Pain Index, an easily understandable, statistical overview of the structured inequalities in Silicon Valley, was recently released and features new data that highlight the region’s persistent inequalities. There are almost 200 statistics in the pain index, which can be organized around the ideas of wealth, poverty and inequality. The U.S....