The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department is grappling with how to safeguard inmates’ private information when they begin to use tablets behind bars for the first time next year. According to a recent report from Sheriff Laurie Smith to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors’ Public Safety and Justice Committee, officials are struggling to protect...

Black and white “prison stripes” have been donned by minimum security inmates at one Santa Clara County jail for more than a decade. Now, advocates from the Bill Wilson Center are trying to change that. Amanda Clifford, a policy and advocacy associate at the center, said switching from stripes to a solid colored uniform at the...

After months of negotiations with Santa Clara County, thousands of its workers, represented by Service Employees International Union Local 521, went on strike Wednesday — a protest that hasn’t happened in 40 years. “We are striking because there is a crisis in Santa Clara County when it comes to public services,” said Social Worker Supervisor...

Voting has never been a universal right throughout America’s history, some officials say, and the present is no exception. Political and community leaders discussed Thursday what can be done to encourage participation despite current forms of voter suppression in Santa Clara County. Secretary of State Alex Padilla joined Supervisors Cindy Chavez and Dave Cortese, County...

Santa Clara County has the highest number of wage theft claims in California, but county leaders announced plans Monday to open a new enforcement office to fix that. Established in Sept. 2018, the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement leads the county’s data collection and research initiatives to advance labor standards, including combating wage theft. The office opened its...

Elders are projected to make up nearly a quarter of Santa Clara County’s population by 2046. With that growing number of older adults, county lawmakers say a focus on elder abuse, housing, transportation, social participation and safety needs to grow, too. Those issues were discussed during a special meeting by Santa Clara County’s Children, Seniors...

More than a dozen activists were arrested Thursday in San Jose after blocking a street to protest Santa Clara County’s decision to close its Department of Family and Children’s Services on North King Road and move the family resource center to its campus on West Julian Street — more than three miles away. The social...

Santa Clara city leaders have given the San Francisco 49ers until Nov. 15 to turn over management duties for non-NFL events at Levi’s Stadium, but what comes next may be messy. The football team, which received notice of the city’s decision Wednesday morning, will need to decide whether or not it will put up a...

The South Bay Labor Council’s Executive Board — which represents nearly 100 local unions in Silicon Valley — voted Monday night to sanction a strike by members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 521, including more than 11,000 Santa Clara County employees. “Today, the South Bay Labor Council on behalf of first responders, teachers,...

The Constitutional rights of criminal defendants in California are not outweighed by state laws protecting the confidentiality of police personnel records, the state Supreme Court ruled last week. In a way, the court’s opinion vindicates Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen’s approach to balancing the rights of law enforcement officers to keep their personnel...