A San Jose police sergeant and City Council candidate, Tam Truong, has been placed on administrative leave amid allegations of mortgage fraud. He said he plans to continue his campaign for elected office. Truong, who’s worked in law enforcement for two decades and is running against incumbent Domingo Candelas for the District 8 San Jose...
San Jose selects first homeless sleeping site
San Jose officials have zeroed in on the city’s first location for a sanctioned encampment, where homeless people will be allowed to stay inside tents without fear of being swept. The lot at 1157 E. Taylor St. could open early next year, with more safe sleeping sites opening by next June. The locations will house between...
San Jose police denied immunity in excessive force lawsuit
A legal shield protecting police officers from excessive force lawsuits has taken a major blow in San Jose. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday denied qualified immunity for Michael Panighetti, a San Jose Police Department officer who shot a Black activist, Derrick Sanderlin, in the groin with a foam round while he held...
San Jose sweeps Columbus Park after homeless return
Emotions ran high at a homeless encampment near a San Jose park as the city began sweeping the streets that unhoused residents called home. Two years ago, the city cleared the sprawling homeless encampment near Columbus Park that sits under the flight path of Mineta San Jose International Airport, after the Federal Aviation Administration threatened...
Failed contract prompts San Jose hotel worker strike
Frustrated San Jose hotel workers launched a three-day strike over Labor Day weekend against the Signia and DoubleTree after more than two months of failed contract negotiations with Hilton Hotels & Resorts. Unite Here Local 19 hotel workers in San Jose chose to strike Monday night and picket through Tuesday, a union representative told San...
Fight brews over San Jose’s Vietnamese garden
Some Little Saigon activists are in uproar after a San Jose councilmember’s office changed the locks and the rules for reserving events at the Vietnamese Heritage Garden. Councilmember Bien Doan announced those new rules last month after becoming the center of political divide over anticommunism earlier this summer among older Vietnamese Americans. The divide has partly played...
San Jose officials want rebate for electric leaf blowers
Advocates and politicians have worked for years to ban the use of gas-powered leaf blowers in San Jose. A new incentive could be the answer. Although the state has banned the purchase of new gas leaf blowers as of this year, the city is pushing to get existing gas-operated leaf blowers out of circulation. The program...
San Jose hotel for homeless residents fails to meet needs
Last year, a renovated San Jose hotel on The Alameda reopened with much fanfare to house homeless residents. But problems have cropped up from the start, according to people who live there. The city tapped nonprofit HomeFirst to provide supportive services and supervision of residents at the Arena Hotel, which was repurposed as a low-barrier...
AI companies see San Jose as a place for growth
Artificial intelligence lives and breathes thanks to tech innovators of the 1980s and 90s who saw Silicon Valley as the landscape to develop the more than trillion-dollar computer industry. Though AI only recently entered the public vocabulary — with the search term peaking in popularity just last month since Google began tracking the data in 2004...
San Jose candidate worked for controversial Chinese developer
A leading San Jose City Council candidate worked under a Chinese billionaire arrested on bribery and corruption charges — mainly helping the embattled CEO’s company sell off land from his failed developments in the Bay Area. San Jose Planning Commissioner George Casey, who’s locked in a heated race to replace District 10 Councilmember Arjun Batra,...