While dozens of local candidates battled it out in November, Matt Mahan quietly prepared to move into his council office and take the reins from termed-out Councilmember Johnny Khamis. The new Almaden Valley councilmember handily won his election in March and has since sat in on District 10 meetings to pick up where Khamis left...
Santa Clara County joins census lawsuit over count of undocumented immigrants
Santa Clara County has joined the legal effort to challenge the Trump administration’s move to exclude undocumented immigrants from this year’s census count. The county led a coalition of local governments by filing a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court this month challenging a July memorandum issued by the Trump administration. The memorandum would remove...
Alarming spike of fentanyl deaths reported in Santa Clara County
Fentanyl deaths are on the rise in Santa Clara County, striking both young and old. As of early this month, Santa Clara County has recorded more fentanyl-related deaths than there were in all of 2019. Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner Dr. Michelle Jorden said there are even more deaths under investigation that are likely to...
Who’s serving free Thanksgiving meals in San Jose?
At least five churches and local nonprofits are serving Thanksgiving meals around San Jose this week with the help of individual donations and local food banks, such as Second Harvest of Silicon Valley. “Second Harvest acquires food through a number of different sources, some donated, some purchased, and then distributes it out into neighborhoods throughout...
Court employees say COVID-19 exposure and lax rules put them at risk in Santa Clara County
Santa Clara County Superior Court employees say they’re not being protected from COVID-19, and they fear for their health and safety every day they go to work. Court employees are exposed to COVID-19 on an almost weekly basis. Safety concerns voiced by workers are routinely ignored. Mask wearing is not rigorously enforced. Those are some...
San Jose invests in wind energy from New Mexico
By the end of 2021, thousands of San Jose homes will be powered by renewable wind energy — generated by a fleet of turbines 1,000 miles away in New Mexico. Since its launch in 2019, San Jose Clean Energy, the city’s electricity supplier, has invested in renewable energy such as solar and battery storage but the new...
South Bay lawmaker, water company donate Thanksgiving gift cards for needy families
Like many of this year’s holiday traditions, Thanksgiving food events, donation stations and canned food drives have taken a hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s put a wrench into dozens of free turkey drives this holiday season as charities scramble to figure out socially distanced ways to serve low-income communities and communities of color. And as Silicon...
A look inside San Jose’s Office of Racial Equity
Five months ago at the height of Black Lives Matter protests, San Jose leaders created a racial equity office, a proposal that was shot down just two years earlier. Some critics, including civil rights leaders from Silicon Valley De-Bug, said lawmakers created the office to pacify protesters demanding the city defund the police. They said...
Santa Clara County moves forward with job cuts in face of deficit
Despite calls from county employees and labor advocates to reconsider, Santa Clara County continued on its path to lay off employees in anticipation of balancing its 2021-22 budget. In a 3-2 vote Nov. 20, the Board of Supervisors pushed through the elimination of 170 county positions. Supervisors Cindy Chavez and Dave Cortese cast the dissenting...
San Jose talks campaign finance after dramatic and costly election
As San Jose winds down from a feisty and expensive election season, Councilmember Sergio Jimenez asked lawmakers to rethink campaign finance regulations to help restore public trust in local government. “We’ve seen an astonishing amount of money spent on negative, divisive and often — as we all recall — misleading or outright false advertisements,” Jimenez...