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The VTA light rail system is much like the famed song “Rock Island Line”: if you want to ride it, you gotta ride it like you find it. Light rail riders find the commute to be clean, comfortable, easy to use, handicap accessible and on schedule. It can also be time-consumingly slow, with a cross-town...
Top ten Santa Clara County political stories of 2021
This year was a tumultuous one for Santa Clara County politics. Records revealed San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo hiding emails, Sheriff Laurie Smith is battling multiple political scandals and a prosecutor is simultaneously suing District Attorney Jeff Rosen and gunning for his job. Here’s a look at some major political developments that happened in Santa Clara...
FAA to investigate Santa Clara County leaded fuel ban at airports
The Federal Aviation Administration has started a formal investigation into Santa Clara County’s policy to ban the sale of leaded fuel at its airports starting Jan. 1. In a letter sent to the county on Thursday, the FAA said it will investigate to determine whether the policy is a violation of the United States Constitution and...
Memorial honors 250 homeless deaths in Santa Clara County
Kelly Tasker, a grandmother at the age of 44, battled homelessness for nearly a decade. Through the help of the Compassion Center in Gilroy, Tasker found her first permanent apartment that would have given her a chance to get help with her chronic illness and lift her partner off the streets. But for Tasker, along...
Santa Clara County shields Coyote Valley from development
Climate advocates and conservationists are praising Santa Clara County lawmakers for creating protections for one of the last green open spaces in the South Bay. The Board of Supervisors voted last week to drastically limit development in Coyote Valley, preserving it for open space and agriculture and helping the region achieve climate change goals. “I commit...
Unemployment continues to drop in Silicon Valley
Unemployment continues to drop in Silicon Valley, but the recovery remains lopsided for certain industries. The unemployment rate in the South Bay dropped half a percentage point to 3.1% between mid-October and mid-November, according to a recent report from Joint Venture Silicon Valley’s Institute for Regional Studies. This is within 0.3% of the March 2020...
Landlords use scare tactics as Santa Clara County evictions grow
Since the statewide eviction ban ended in September, Santa Clara County landlords have been kicking tenants out of their homes in growing numbers. A total of 365 eviction lawsuits have been filed in Santa Clara County from September through Nov. 30 of this year, according to data from the Santa Clara County Superior Court. Of those,...
Homeless deaths soar in Santa Clara County
Santa Clara County saw a record high number of homeless deaths this past year, a somber reminder of the exacerbating housing crisis and inequality in one of the wealthiest regions in the nation. The number of people who died on the street in the region has grown in the last few years. In 2020, the area...
Civil Grand Jury accuses Santa Clara County sheriff of corrupt misconduct
A Civil Grand Jury has formally accused Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith of granting concealed weapon licenses to donors and political supporters and lying about accepting gifts. The accusation filed Tuesday claims Smith committed willful and corrupt misconduct by making it a practice to grant licenses to carry concealed firearms to people based on...
Santa Clara County adopts political map for next decade, with a shakeup
Santa Clara County officially has a new map of its political boundaries for the next decade. The Board of Supervisors adopted a map Tuesday proposed by Supervisor Cindy Chavez. Officially known by the number 90195, this map makes several significant adjustments to the five district boundaries, most notably moving Los Gatos and Almaden Valley out...