The next “Dying to Stay Here” podcast will feature a panel discussing what we call our criminal justice system. The panel reflected on a recent election in California, where voters were asked, in plain language, whether they wanted to remove slavery from our constitution, where it’s still allowed “as punishment for a crime,” and voted...
Robinson: Congressman Ro Khanna protects Epstein victims with floor speech
Local Congressman Ro Khanna used his immunity from the House floor to out child-rapists and protect the victims of Jeffrey Epstein. His courage must acknowledged. To date, very few victims have come forward with names of individual perpetrators. They are literally scared to death. Katie Johnson in a taped deposition described in detail how Donald...
Op-ed: San Jose parents question truth behind pending school closures
The San Jose Unified School District (SJUSD) is taking steps to close up to nine elementary schools as early as August. Thousands of parents have asked to stop the school closures, but Superintendent Nancy Albarrán has not shown willingness to take this input. This demonstrates the need for new district leadership. Unlike many districts facing...
Op-ed: San Jose can protect immigrants by ending Flock surveillance system
As ICE and other federal agencies continue their assault on civil liberties, local leaders are stepping up to protect their communities. This includes pushing back against automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, which are tools of mass surveillance that can be weaponized against immigrants, political dissidents and other targets. In recent weeks, Mountain View, Los...
Bramson: The Super Bowl left town — homelessness didn’t
On Monday morning, Santa Clara looked like a town waking up after a very expensive house party. The barricades were coming down around Levi’s Stadium. The rental cars were streaming back toward the airport. Hotel staff flipped rooms at record speed. By lunchtime, the Super Bowl had already begun to recede into memory — another...
Iton: Santa Clara County voters wanted Measure A to fund health care
As a physician, I am often confronted with the myriad of ways in which our social safety net has become hopelessly inadequate. Every minute of every day in the Bay Area, we are all witnessing a health care crisis playing out in our streets. It is a crisis that has become an issue for public...
Philbrick: Is our infrastructure ready for autonomous vehicles?
The power for more than 130,000 homes and businesses in San Francisco was knocked out in late December by a fire at a substation, but the outage had an unexpected effect: multiple Waymo self-driving robotaxis failed to adapt to the lack of traffic lights and abruptly stopped in the middle of intersections, dangerously blocking traffic....
Urbanowski: The arts need more investment from the state
As 2026 unfolds, we’re seeing urgent calls for artists, creatives and cultural leaders to step into their power and be the voice of our communities. Artists make California vibrant, innovative and culturally rich, yet our state ranks 35th nationally in per capita arts funding. When the state budget allocates just 53 cents per person to...
Park: San Jose’s ‘AI for All’ is a strong start, but California must go further
San Jose is preparing residents for the largest technological shift since the rise of the internet. With the launch of “AI for All,” the city signals that artificial intelligence should be accessible to everyone. But San Jose is not alone in facing this moment. Across America, two forces are shaping the next generation. One is...
Diridon: San Jose mayor is meeting the homeless housing challenge
Compliments to San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan for his inciteful, humane and more affordable program for meeting the homeless challenge — a great first step. But the Santa Clara County Health Department estimates that 15% to 20% of the homeless population does not have the capacity to live alone and will not stay in unsupervised...