A San Jose safe parking site for homeless people living in their vehicles is at capacity one month after opening — and two people have already moved into permanent housing. The safe parking site at 1300 Berryessa Road offers 86 spaces for individuals and families to live without fear of getting swept or towed. It’s the city’s...
Democrats accuse Trump and his allies of profiting from tariff flip
Democrats want to know whether President Donald Trump and his GOP allies financially benefited from implementing and then pausing recent tariffs — a move some said was effectively insider trading. “It happened in front of our eyes,” Sen. Ruben Gallego told NOTUS. “This hurt the economy in the end. People on Main Street are going...
Santa Clara County libraries brace for loss of federal funds
Libraries across Santa Clara County are bracing for a multimillion-dollar federal funding cut that could affect vital community programs — all during National Library Week. The California State Library learned last week President Donald Trump’s administration terminated a $15.7 million federal grant. The state library, which allocates these funds to libraries statewide, anticipated more than...
Santa Clara to spend millions fixing community swim center
Santa Clara is scrapping plans to temporarily reopen its swim center this spring, and instead is pushing forward with a broader renovation. The Santa Clara City Council has unanimously approved an additional $8.1 million to repair all three pools at the George F. Haines International Swim Center, along with the dive tower, boiler and other...
Silver Taube: We need AB 694 to address severe understaffing at CalOSHA
Worker Memorial Day is April 28. On that day, we remember workers who were killed or injured on the job. In 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 363,900 nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in California with 2.6 million nationwide and 439 fatalities in California with 5,283 nationwide. CalOSHA plays a significant role in ensuring...
Santa Clara County weighs ranked choice voting for some elections
The pieces are in place to seismically shift Silicon Valley elections — and Santa Clara County supervisors are holding all the cards. For the first time in almost a year, the Board of Supervisors is expected to discuss a potential switch to ranked choice voting at its April 15 finance and government committee meeting. There,...
UPDATE: San Jose special election is a race for second place
A Wednesday election results update shows Gabby Chavez-Lopez maintaining her lead in the special election for the District 3 seat on the San Jose City Council, but the second place vote getter has flipped. As of 4:02 p.m. Wednesday, Chavez-Lopez still holds on to a solid 29% of the vote, but Anthony Tordillos has leaped...
Silicon Valley fast-food owners could pay for workers’ rights training
It’s been a good week for fast-food workers in Silicon Valley. Employees at local McDonald’s, Taco Bell and other fast-food franchises roared with applause Tuesday when the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved creating a training program for fast-food workers on their state-mandated labor rights. While workers support the move, store owners say it’s unnecessary...
YWCA Silicon Valley loses federal funding for rent subsidies
YWCA Golden Gate Silicon Valley will no longer be able to provide as much rental assistance, leaving domestic violence survivors at greater risk. Domestic violence survivors enrolled in YWCA’s rapid rehousing program received a letter March 26 informing them their rental assistance won’t be renewed after June 30. The program received money through the federal...
Ellenberg: More work needed to achieve parity in Black maternal health
Efforts to improve Black maternal health outcomes have been doggedly pursued for decades. While there has been some encouraging data, there is still much to do to reduce instances of mortality and morbidity for Black infants and mothers (to include all pregnant and birthing people). Black mothers and infants have the highest rates for preterm...