A statewide ballot measure in the upcoming Nov. 3 election could impact voting rights in Santa Clara County. California Proposition 39 — the Voter Identification, Citizenship Verification, and Registered Voter List Administration Initiative — would require additional identification to vote in future elections. This could have a significant effect on Santa Clara County, where Hispanic...
New downtown Palo Alto parking garage moves forward
Spurred by a legal challenge from a downtown developer, Palo Alto leaders on Monday gave the go-ahead on a new six-story parking garage at the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Waverley Street with an adjacent plaza that could eventually become affordable housing. The vote closed the loop on a decade-long plan for the city to...
Santa Clara County sues Trump over sweeping green card changes
Santa Clara County and San Francisco are working to stop President Donald Trump from giving federal agents sweeping discretion on who can obtain a green card. A Sept. 14 lawsuit filed alongside New York City, Chicago, Seattle and King County, Washington alleges the Trump administration’s new criteria for barring immigrants from becoming lawful, permanent residents if they...
ICE observer sues after being handcuffed in San Jose
It never crossed former San Jose resident Yesenia Campos’ mind she would be detained by federal immigration agents for recording activity from a distance. On Oct. 30, 2025, Campos was notified of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity at the South San Jose field office, where immigrants periodically check-in for compliance. She immediately drove...
Judge orders pause on work at South County ICE facility
A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction blocking construction at a proposed ICE facility in South County as the lawsuit against the project plays out in court. In a 23-page ruling filed Friday, Northern District of California Judge Eumi Lee said that plaintiffs are “likely to succeed” in their claim that the federal government...
Bramson: A plan that promises progress, not miracles
There is an increasingly popular story being told about homelessness: We’ve tried everything. We’ve spent billions of dollars. Nothing works. It’s an understandable conclusion. Anyone who lives in Santa Clara County can see that homelessness remains painfully visible. Our latest count found 10,711 people experiencing homelessness on a single night. And for every household we...
Santa Clara County residents say local news matters
Santa Clara County residents said the news closest to home matters most, but a new survey shows it’s also the hardest to find. Residents ranked what’s most important in their neighborhood ahead of their city, the county, Bay Area, California, nation and world, according to a survey of 2,031 county adults — of which 52%...
Cupertino sign theft complaints hit new high
Theft and vandalism of campaign yard signs is a perennial problem every election season, but Cupertino is seeing an unusually high volume of complaints this year in the sharply divided City Council race. Cupertino City Hall has received 23 formal complaints regarding yard sign thefts, compared with just six during the last election in 2024....
San Jose conference highlights digital divide facing Latinos
As artificial intelligence reshapes Silicon Valley, Latino leaders are pushing for a bigger role in deciding who benefits from the technology and who might get left behind. That question was at the center of a two-day conference in San Jose, hosted by the New York-based Hispanic Federation, which brought together nonprofit leaders and community advocates...
Bay Area’s first ‘living levee’ opens at Palo Alto Baylands
A cool breeze swept through Palo Alto’s Baylands Nature Preserve as local and federal representatives opened the Bay Area’s first nature-based horizontal levee — a project officials hope protects against rising sea levels and helps filter wastewater going into the bay, while boosting the native marshland ecosystem. Dozens of representatives from various agencies, from Palo...