California has now conducted more than 1 million tests for COVID-19, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday, just as Santa Clara County leaders encouraged workers with frequent public contact to get tested. “Ramping up our testing capacity is critical as we begin modifying our stay at home order,” Newsom said during his daily briefing. “In addition...
UPDATE: San Jose OKs trailers for homeless residents amid COVID-19
Already facing a severe housing shortage, San Jose leaders worry the newest crisis plaguing the region — the coronavirus pandemic — will spread among its homeless community, one of the city’s most vulnerable populations. With more than 6,000 unhoused residents in the city, lawmakers are ramping up their efforts to contain the virus. As part...
UPDATE: Santa Clara prepares for financial deficits, signs new Singer contract
Santa Clara isn’t immune to the negative financial impacts from canceled events and shelter-in-place orders that are affecting cities across the nation, and City Hall heard a 90-minute presentation detailing some of the devastating changes to come. Finance director Kenn Lee said Tuesday the city faces a bleak $10 million deficit the remainder of the...
Coronavirus: Need help paying a bill or buying groceries? There’s a donor for that.
For many of San Jose’s low-income families, paying a utility bill, filling the gas tank or buying groceries is becoming increasingly difficult as stay-at-home orders stretch out. Pandemic of Love, a San Jose-based chapter of a larger organization, aims to streamline the giving process, making it easier for immigrant and undocumented communities to seek help....
SJSU student activists celebrate county’s cannabis-conviction clearance
When Aysha Pathan got word recently that the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office eliminated more than 13,000 cannabis-related convictions, the San Jose State University student was thrilled. “I dropped everything and started reading all these articles,” Pathan said. “I kind of knew something was happening, but I didn’t know the number. I was really...
County to consider plan to offer WiFi, devices to neediest South Bay families
Santa Clara County officials on Tuesday will consider a proposal to purchase computing devices and provide internet access for the county’s 15,000 neediest families. The proposal, authored by Supervisor Dave Cortese, calls for partnering with the county’s Office of Education on an initiative that he estimated would cost the county “a little more than $1...
Judge orders full signature recount for San Jose ballot measure
Labor leaders announced the revival of a contentious union-backed initiative to shift mayoral elections to presidential years Monday, after a judge ruled in favor of a full recount of nearly 100,000 signatures to determine if it qualifies for the Nov. 2020 ballot. The order was issued on Friday, just weeks after Santa Clara County Registrar of...
Bramson: How to help vulnerable families survive COVID-19
In the 1930s, with the Great Depression blanketing the country, countless families faced the heartbreaking uncertainties of how to pay the bills, what to eat for each meal and even where to sleep the next night. With staggering unemployment, Americans were displaced at record numbers, shocked, dejected and hopeless. Then, perhaps not so different from...
South Bay activists spent lifetime fighting for worker rights. Then they got COVID-19.
Alone in her hospital room at night, Augustina “Sally” Armendariz kept the light on to counter the loneliness and fear she felt at Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center, where she spent four days battling COVID-19 last month. The 77-year-old lifelong Santa Clara County resident and 60-year community activist is a fighter by nature, but...
Tesla files lawsuit against Alameda County after Elon Musk’s Twitter threats
In a heated Twitter rant Saturday morning, Tesla CEO Elon Musk threatened to move his company’s operations out of the Bay Area and sue Alameda County “immediately” for not easing stay-home orders due to COVID-19 that have shuttered his carmaking business. Later, Musk made good on the threat and filed a lawsuit against the county....