Detailed blueprints show an ICE office with detention and processing space is planned in South Santa Clara County. The 111-page document obtained by this news outlet, dated Sept. 17, 2025, illustrates a future U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility with detention areas, detainee processing areas, interview and holding rooms, spaces for mothers with infants,...
Sylvia Arenas ahead in early results for South County contest
Early results show District 1 Santa Clara County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas comfortably fending off a challenger to hold onto her agricultural South County seat. As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, Arenas is leading with 61.9% of the vote or 26,962 votes. Morgan Hill Unified School District board member Rebecca Munson is in second with 37.9% of...
Santa Clara County Fairgrounds shifts leadership structure
After two years of uncertainty, Santa Clara County Fairgrounds leaders are gearing up to change their own governing structure, ceding more control to the county over the 165-acre public property’s future. The Fairgrounds Management Corporation board of directors on Wednesday voted unanimously to move forward with the county’s recommendations to go from five volunteer board...
Santa Clara County faces $200M losses in new state budget
Outrageous. Catastrophic. A massive leadership failure. These are the words Santa Clara County leaders used this week to describe Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decisions in response to his May 14 state budget revision. Instead of helping California’s second largest public hospital system withstand billions of dollars in funding cuts under President Donald Trump’s H.R. 1 spending...
Report shows child deaths in Santa Clara County were avoidable
Santa Clara County has seen an encouraging decline in child death rates, while simultaneously being marred by repeat tragedies and scandals as a result of bad homes and youth welfare leaders bungling foster cases. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday grappled with official findings that most deaths of children under the county’s care between 2021...
Dollars flow into Santa Clara County DA, supervisor races
Money is flowing in two competitive Santa Clara County races less than a month before the June 2 primary election. Campaign finance filings show District 1 Supervisor Sylvia Arenas has raised more than $119,000 between this and last year and spent more than $3,600 to hold onto the agricultural South County region she won in 2022. She’s fending off a...
Silicon Valley Business Alliance calls for halt to gas-appliance ban
A coalition of South Bay business leaders and anti-regulation advocates is urging Bay Area air regulators to halt a forthcoming ban on gas-powered water heater installations set to take effect next year. Dozens gathered in front of the Santa Clara County Government Center on Monday to take part in an event organized by the Silicon...
Santa Clara County budget makes steep cuts to safety net programs
Santa Clara County leaders are recommending a net reduction of 464 jobs across the region’s social safety net programs to shoulder a $787 million deficit in their nearly $15 billion budget. County Executive James Williams’ Friday recommendations mark a 7.5% spending increase to the county budget compared to last year, as expenses continue to outpace...
Santa Clara County public defenders crushed by caseloads
Santa Clara County public defenders have become a model for getting poor people out of jail before their trials. But their caseloads have exceeded national standards by staggering percentages and upcoming budget talks have the ability to plug an ongoing drain of attorneys. The county has lost 33 public defenders – who are constitutionally mandated...
Santa Clara County looks to fund Latino ‘health promoters’
Latino community health workers in Santa Clara County, known as promotores de salud or “health promoters,” have for years knocked on doors that others couldn’t. Now the county needs them again — and has plans to make them a permanent part of the region’s public health system. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously...