It’s been more than a year and a half since 18-year-old Elias Elhania was fatally shot at a house party in Sunnyvale, but his parents still see him in their lives. “He is with us, around us all the time. We see him around when we go shopping, we see somebody who looks like him,...
Sunnyvale Starbucks workers feel exploited
Employees of a busy Starbucks store in Sunnyvale are working to unionize, joining a growing movement by workers at hundreds of the chain’s stores pushing back on what they call unfair and exploitative conditions. Most of the 24 partners—what Starbucks calls its employees—at the store near South Mary and Fremont avenues have signed onto a letter...
Silicon Valley students stranded by shuttered schools
A popular Bay Area charter school system is closing its two Sunnyvale campuses this June despite months of attempts to save them, but parents and teachers said the ordeal is far from over. Board members from Summit Public Schools voted to shut down the middle and high schools in Sunnyvale, called Summit Denali, at a special...
Sunnyvale charter schools lack funding to stay afloat
An imminent shutdown of a Sunnyvale charter school could be the result of longtime financial issues and lack of transparency. Officials with Summit Public Schools, which runs charter schools in Washington and California, provided information to the Santa Clara County Board of Education on Wednesday about the dire financial state of its Summit Denali middle...
UPDATE: Education leaders can’t stop Sunnyvale school closure
Santa Clara County education leaders are questioning the probable closure of a charter school in June as parents scramble to find a new place for their children. The Santa Clara County Board of Education received a report Wednesday regarding Summit Denali, a charter middle and high school in Sunnyvale run by Summit Public Schools. Charter...
Thousands raised for blind and homeless Sunnyvale man
Mir Sayed’s connection to the world just got a whole lot stronger. The homeless blind and hearing-impaired senior, who spends his days listening to a radio, received a surge of community support to help him stayed housed after San José Spotlight reported about his potential eviction. The 93-year-old initially had just enough funds to stay...
Sunnyvale gets sleek new City Hall
Sunnyvale’s environmentally conscious and modern City Hall building is nearing completion. The four-story, 120,000-square-foot building is expected to produce enough clean energy to power itself, and could be ready for move-in by March. The new building is going up next to the old city hall on the 26-acre civic center property along South Mathilda Avenue...
Blind and homeless: 93-year-old Sunnyvale man faces uncertainty
A transistor radio, a portable analog device with an antenna, is Mir Sayed’s connection to the world. The 93-year-old lives in a motel room in Sunnyvale and spends his days listening to his radio. He’s visually impaired, suffering from glaucoma and cataracts, and is hearing-impaired. Sayed’s housing situation is unstable and part of the longstanding issue...
Murali Srinivasan wins tiebreaker for Sunnyvale City Council
Nearly two months after election day, a winner has finally been named in the Sunnyvale District 3 City Council race. Until Tuesday morning, the race was locked in a tie between Murali Srinivasan and Justin Wang, following the election and two recounts. In a brief but tense public event on Tuesday, both candidates wrote their...
Sunnyvale City Council race tied after second recount
After a nearly five-day recount and ballot review process, the extraordinary race for a Sunnyvale District 3 City Council seat is now tied. While initial election results and a recount showed candidate Murali Srinivasan holding a one-vote lead over opponent Justin Wang, another review validated three previously discounted ballots—swinging the race to a stalemate. “It seems like...