Residents across Santa Clara County are receiving their mail-in ballots ahead of the Nov. 3 election, and local election officials are urging them to vote early. Vote by mail packets are going out to more than 1 million active registered voters in Santa Clara County this week. To ensure all votes are counted, officials with...
Newsom signs Silicon Valley lawmakers’ bills to combat ICE
While federal immigration agents have stoked fear in Silicon Valley, California has passed a number of bills to keep them and those who run detention centers accountable. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 29 signed nearly two dozen bills, with some spearheaded by Silicon Valley lawmakers to protect immigrants from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)...
VTA workers offered affordable housing built by transit agency
For VTA workers, living in Santa Clara County might become a reality in the future due to a unique piece of state legislation. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed into law a bill co-authored by Silicon Valley Assemblymembers Ash Kalra and Patrick Ahrens that gives VTA employees preference to buy or rent an affordable home built...
Santa Clara County fends off legal challenge to sales tax increase
A court ruling invalidates a lawsuit that claimed Santa Clara County incorrectly applied an emergency clause to Measure A that allowed the county to put the sales tax increase on the ballot as a general tax. California’s Sixth District Court of Appeal on Sept. 23 affirmed the county Board of Supervisors’ declaration that the county...
Santa Clara County funds independent living home upgrades
Last year, Santa Clara County created a grant to improve conditions at independent living homes. But advocates said there needs to be more oversight on who gets awarded these grants. Independent living homes house some of the most vulnerable populations in the county, including people with mental health issues. Some residents have suffered in these...
Ex-Santa Clara County undersheriff pleads guilty in weapons case
Eight years of investigation and prosecutions in a bribery scandal involving the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office approving concealed weapons permits came to an end this month, with a guilty plea by the department’s former second-in-command. Rick Sung, who served as undersheriff, pleaded guilty on Sept. 21 to two felonies involving incidents from 2017 to...
Public health clinic opens on San Jose-Campbell border
Santa Clara County’s newest health clinic on the border of San Jose and Campbell is its largest, combining more than a dozen services under one roof. The Valley Health Center campus at 1410 S. Bascom Ave. opens Sept. 28 and will provide adult medicine, urgent care, pediatric primary care, dental care, obstetrics and gynecology, behavioral...
San José Spotlight among top independent newsrooms nationwide
San José Spotlight has been recognized as one of only 11 independent news organizations nationwide to reach the highest level of business sustainability under a new assessment by Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers, whose mission is to strengthen the local news industry by helping independent news publishers build more sustainable businesses. The distinction places...
Santa Clara County approves blueprint for childcare
Santa Clara County has a new strategy for helping local families access childcare. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved the county’s Childcare Blueprint, which aims to expand childcare by addressing cost, access, workforce and facilities, especially in vulnerable communities. The plan, developed by the Santa Clara County Office of Children and Families Policy,...
Santa Clara County sees challenges for 5-year homelessness plan
Santa Clara County is charting how it plans to tackle homelessness over the next five years in one of its most challenging periods. The county’s next iteration of its Community Plan to End Homelessness, a template to guide its priorities through 2030, will focus on four key strategies: homelessness prevention, housing retention, increasing services for people on...