This Memorial Day was like no other for Oak Hill Memorial Park as it hosted its flag-raising ceremony online for the first time due to the COVID-19 crisis and shelter-in-place orders. Oak Hill Memorial Park has hosted its flag-raising ceremony at the San Jose cemetery for more than 100 years. But this year felt a...
Data gap complicates efforts to aid LGBTQ community during COVID-19
Local leaders are searching for more insights into how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting members of the LGBTQ community in the South Bay.
From tears to tests: Finding out if I have the coronavirus
Anxious tears accompanied my calls to clinics across Minneapolis on March 13. I sat alone in a friend’s apartment, where I spent the morning on hold trying to find a test for the coronavirus before going home to see my family. Did you recently travel overseas? No. Do you know anyone who’s tested positive? No....
Amid ‘unprecedented’ unemployment numbers, Silicon Valley feels blow slightly softer
California is seeing record unemployment numbers, with the largest single month of job losses ever recorded and a 15.5 percent unemployment rate in mid-April, about a month after the state began sheltering-in-place due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. But the blow has been a little softer overall in Silicon Valley, local experts say. The unemployment...
Surviving the pandemic: How you can donate to help those in need
The need for assistance – financial and otherwise – is growing in Silicon Valley, more than two months after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down businesses, workplaces and livelihoods in Santa Clara County. With a multitude of different ways to help, finding the right organizations and funds to donate to can be overwhelming, even for those...
Santa Clara County’s newest health order took effect. Here’s what’s new.
Santa Clara County’s latest shelter-in-place order took effect Friday, moving the South Bay into California’s second of four stages for allowing businesses and activities to reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s a quick look at the major changes that went into effect. What’s open? All retail stores can now reopen for curbside or outdoor pickup...
Small businesses feel the brunt of shutdown in Silicon Valley and beyond
Hospitality, cafe and restaurant businesses and workers are being hit the hardest by the shelter-in-place orders, according to a new survey and report of more than 86,000 people across the country. Legislators and chambers of commerce have sounded the alarm about the impact of the pandemic-related shutdowns across the country on small businesses, but the...
Local companies jump hurdles to get masks, supplies to Silicon Valley
Dozens of volunteers gathered this week in a parking garage at what was once Vallco Fashion Mall in Cupertino to pray and pick up more than 1 million face masks already making their way to hundreds of Bay Area organizations. The scarce personal protective equipment is on its way to 500 nursing homes, homeless shelters,...
Report sheds light on San Jose’s debt woes as it confronts pandemic
While the pandemic blows holes in city budgets across the nation, a new report released this month shows San Jose was already financially struggling before the coronavirus collapsed local economies. The annual report, released by the nonpartisan think tank Truth in Accounting, assessed the fiscal health of the top 10 U.S. cities based off each...
Advocates urge Santa Clara County to forgive rent as end of eviction moratorium looms
South Bay resident Chris Rios worries he’ll soon become homeless. His tutoring income dropped by half because of the novel coronavirus. His parents’ pay plummeted, too. They’re still waiting for federal checks intended to support those impacted by the virus. While waiting, they’ve fallen nearly $4,000 behind on rent for their three-bedroom Milpitas apartment. Santa...