Santa Clara County will be the first in the region to fund efforts to release every Bay Area resident unlawfully detained by ICE. County leaders are signing a roughly $200,000 agreement with La Raza Centro Legal, a nonprofit legal clinic based in San Francisco, to expand the Bay Area Habeas Network, whose attorneys work to...
San Jose scores poor ranking over lack of park investment
San Jose has slipped eight spots in a national ranking of city parks, with one of its weakest scores highlighting a challenge local leaders have struggled to solve for years: finding enough money to maintain and improve neighborhood parks. The Trust for Public Land’s 2026 ParkScore report ranks San Jose No. 49 among the nation’s 100 largest...
San Jose nonprofit buys property to help homeless people
A San Jose home that was part of a national Catholic movement to provide a “house of hospitality” to the marginalized is transferring hands, though its mission to help homeless people will remain. Catholic Worker San Jose is selling its seven-bedroom home on North Sixth Street, known as Casa de Clara, to nonprofit Amigos de Guadalupe...
Santa Clara County funds suicide prevention despite budget cuts
Santa Clara County leaders are walking back a portion of proposed budget cuts to keep a pioneering suicide prevention program that’s contributed to one of the lowest death rates in all of California. At a Monday budget hearing, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to save two positions from being cut from the county program...
Audit: Palo Alto cops frequently fail to activate body cameras
When two Palo Alto police officers attempted to arrest a drunk woman at a restaurant, they noted in their report that they heard a loud “pop” sound after pushing the woman against the wall. One of the officers told the woman: “I know it hurts because you are moving so much.” Only after they handcuffed...
Water and garbage rates increase for San Jose residents
While utility hikes are a regular occurrence for San Jose residents, an especially sharp jump in garbage disposal fees and water rates have led to pushback amid growing concern over rising living costs. Under new fee schedules set to take effect July 1, the start of fiscal year 2026-27, San Jose’s garbage disposal service fee...
Santa Clara County LGBTQ+ office hits 10 years of service
Santa Clara County is celebrating a decade of providing services to LGBTQ+ residents through an official department. The Office of LGBTQ Affairs on Friday celebrated its 10-year anniversary amid a Pride Month flag raising ceremony, resource fair and inclusive “lavender” graduation for LGBTQ+ high school and college students. The county department hosted the event in partnership...
Plans for massive Mountain View space center raise housing concerns
For the better part of a decade, NASA Ames and UC Berkeley have been planning to build a $2 billion space center at Moffett Field, but few details about the massive project on Mountain View’s border have been publicly known. That changed recently with the April release of an environmental report laying out different scenarios for the project....
Santa Clara County jail worker who exploited women gets light sentence
A Santa Clara County jail worker who sexually exploited incarcerated women by smuggling in drugs faces just one year behind bars. Marcos Pina Mejia, 56, pleaded guilty June 8 to two felony counts of bringing methamphetamine into Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas and two misdemeanor counts of having sex with a detained person. The civilian, non-sworn...
State proposition could wipe out San Jose’s Measure E funds
San Jose leaders are rallying opposition to a measure headed for the statewide November ballot that could undermine a cornerstone of the city’s efforts to keep low-income people housed. The measure, championed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, raises the threshold to pass local voter-sponsored tax initiatives, and also limits the amount cities can tax...