Extreme heat is dangerous and sometimes lethal—and it’s becoming difficult to escape in the age of climate change. In Silicon Valley, some residents struggled to stay cool during a heat advisory earlier this month. About 50 people gathered at three public cooling centers in San Jose from July 9-11, according to Daniel Lazo, spokesperson for...
Santa Clara County nail salons still reeling from pandemic shutdown
When Santa Clara County lifted some COVID-19 restrictions on nail salons and barber shops in late summer of last year, Louie Pham thought she could finally get back to work. Pham, the owner of Orchid Nail Lounge, said she was eager to come back after months of no work. The industry is a cornerstone of the Vietnamese community...
Santa Clara County DACA applicants dropped after federal ruling
A federal judge in Texas recently struck down a program keeping approximately 800,000 undocumented children and young adults in the country. This leaves thousands of Santa Clara County residents without federal protection from deportation. For the more than 8,780 San Jose residents benefitting from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the July 16 decision offers no resolution. The...
Santa Clara County wants employers to require vaccines for employees
Health officers from three Bay Area counties announced Thursday that they want all employers to require their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19, with few exceptions. “With the rise in COVID-19 cases leaving unvaccinated individuals at risk for serious illness and death, the health officers of Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Francisco counties strongly...
Santa Clara County leads in job losses as unemployment rate rises
The unemployment rate in Silicon Valley saw a slight increase in June, signaling that the region still has a way to go before returning to pre-pandemic levels. The regional unemployment rate increased from 4.6% to 5.1% between mid-May and mid-June, according to a study released this month by Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a nonprofit that analyzes...
South Bay workers allege ‘unstable’ workplace, petition to unionize
Retaliation, discriminatory treatment and job loss: those are the working conditions employees say they’ve faced for years at FIRST 5 Santa Clara County. Now some workers are pushing to unionize to improve those conditions. “Our turnover rate says it all—we have lost so much amazing talent due to the maltreatment that has become commonplace,” said Eula Idemoto,...
CPA latest to challenge Santa Clara County assessor
Silicon Valley’s high housing costs are personal for certified public accountant Andrew Crockett. He’s running for county assessor to help fix it. “One of my Masonic brothers lives in a two-car garage and he considers himself lucky to have a non-insulated, two-car garage to call his home,” Crockett, a member of San Jose Masonic Lodge No....
Special interests lining up to sway San Jose’s 2022 elections
Elections in Silicon Valley might be a year away, but special interest groups are already lining up to spend big bucks on their favored candidates. In 2022, many major offices are at stake. San Jose will have a new mayor, and two San Jose City Council colleagues are already jockeying for it. San Jose will...
How San Jose schools fared during COVID-19
New report cards on Santa Clara County’s public schools during COVID -19 show most high school seniors graduated, suspensions disproportionately hurt students of color and some teachers are being priced out of the region. These are the findings of San José Spotlight’s analysis of the latest school accountability report cards, despite those reports omitting data about student test scores and absenteeism...
Masks recommended indoors again in Santa Clara County
Bay Area health officials are now urging all residents to mask up when indoors out of rising concerns of the highly-infectious Delta variant. Santa Clara County, joined by a coalition of six other Bay Area counties and the city of Berkeley, recommends all residents resume wearing masks inside—regardless of vaccination status. “Out of an abundance...