San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo will likely be on another continent when voters decide who will replace him next month. On Wednesday, the city Rules and Open Government committee approved Liccardo’s travel request to Egypt from Nov. 4-12. He’s flying on his own dime to the U.N. Climate Change Conference to speak about San Jose’s innovative...
San Jose homeless handed lifesaving tools
Fire extinguishers, Narcan and headlamps aren’t gifts that typically elicit a giddy reaction, but the cruel reality of living on the streets of San Jose can change that. For homeless residents in Santa Clara County, encampment fires, drug overdoses and collisions between people and vehicles are part of life, and with that comes death. Homeless deaths...
Former San Jose school leader wins $2M discrimination case
Women earn about 83 cents for every dollar men make. For the first-ever woman superintendent at one Silicon Valley school district, that number was closer to 81 cents compared to her male predecessors. Former Evergreen School District Superintendent Kathy Gomez won a more than $2 million settlement, after a federal court validated her claims last month...
Downtown San Jose gets Google — and a power grid
Google is coming into San Jose and bringing its own electrical grid. The tech behemoth is opening a massive complex in downtown San Jose and wants to construct its own electric distribution system, or microgrid, to power the 80-acre site. By the end of this year, San Jose will approve a business plan to make...
San Jose releases withheld Liccardo emails
A new trove of Mayor Sam Liccardo’s private emails released by San Jose raises more questions about the city’s practice of improperly withholding public records. The city last week released 132 pages of previously withheld documents, prompted by a lawsuit by San José Spotlight and the First Amendment Coalition. The emails detail Liccardo’s conversations with city...
San Jose preps sweep of migrating homeless camp
San Jose spent September sweeping homeless people from a large encampment near Columbus Park—now it’s clearing out another growing camp nearby. More than 100 people living in a baseball field at the corner of Asbury and Irene streets—many who moved over from last month’s sweep—are finding themselves in a familiar situation. Dubbed the “field of...
‘A chain that doesn’t let go’: San Jose State helps expunge criminal records
After being raped and kicked out of her parents house at the age of 13, Diana Carreras slept behind dumpsters or underneath friends’ beds trying to make it to her high school classes. She managed to survive the elements of San Jose streets until her junior year of high school. She was kidnapped and forced...
San Jose students are chronically absent from class
Santa Clara County’s largest school district is dealing with a double-digit absenteeism problem and working to understand why. Schools are combatting chronic absenteeism through a multi-faceted approach as more and more students miss class, possibly due to COVID-19 infections, mental health issues or other factors. Recent data shows the San Jose Unified School District has...
San Jose to sweep homeless from ‘Field of Dreams’
Homeless residents living near Mineta San Jose International Airport are in a panic knowing that in just a few days they will have nowhere to live. Starting Friday, San Jose will disband a makeshift homeless RV camp where more than 100 people are living. City officials estimate more than 140 RVs, trailers, campers and cars—many inoperable—have moved...
What San Jose mayor’s security is costing taxpayers
San Jose taxpayers have doled out at least $200,000 per year to keep Mayor Sam Liccardo safe, a practice that began after San Francisco Mayor George Moscone was killed at City Hall more than four decades ago. Liccardo, who terms out this year, is part of a long line of San Jose mayors with a security detail....