San Jose - Politics & Govt

Two 1,000-square-foot digital billboards are set to be built along Highway 101 near Mineta San Jose International Airport, and crews will need to cut down 43 trees to make room for them.

Other cities have tried it, and now the city of Mountain View is in the spotlight after the ACLU and the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley launched a new class-action lawsuit over its law banning RV parking.

Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen, a three-term incumbent, will face his first opponent in the upcoming 2022 election.

The toughest enforcement of COVID-19 health orders in the Bay Area was in Santa Clara County, which fined around 400 businesses a combined $6 million. Now, the county is hearing appeals from those businesses — and the process is raising serious questions among critics about the consistency and fairness of the enforcement.

This week, Santa Cruz is dispersing several encampments located near highways while discussing city policy on camping in general, putting its homelessness problem again in the spotlight.

Since 2018, the city of Palo Alto has been enforcing stringent parking restrictions on people living in motorhomes and vans on El Camino Real, and this week the debate about the parking enforcement has resurfaced.

Santa Clara County representatives push to allocate COVID-19 vaccines by census tract in a bid to address disparities that disproportionately impact communities of color.

Phil Reynolds, an elected member of the Santa Clara County Republican Central Committee, is under pressure from Democratic leaders in Santa Clara to resign after posting "The war has begun!" on Facebook while the pro-Trump rioters were breaking into the Capitol Building in Washinton, D.C. last week.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo waited until the second to last day possible to deliver his city-required, annual State of the City address. The speech happened virtually and was originally supposed to occur in the spring but was put on hold because of the pandemic.

San Jose Unified School District unanimously votes to update the memorandum of agreement with SJPD. Protesters have been pushing the district to end relations with the police since protests in the summer for defunding the police and police reform. Advocates want more money for mental health services.

San Jose seeks to honor Former President Barack Obama by renaming a number of streets as Barack Obama Boulevard. Not only did Santa Clara overwhelmingly choose President Obama in both of his presidential runs, but honors a man who inspired the next generation.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo is the latest public figure to say sorry for essentially breaking his own rules. On Tuesday, Liccardo issued an apology for what he did on Thanksgiving which was in direct violation of state coronavirus guidelines.

Santa Clara County Undersheriff Rick Sung has now been indicted in a long-running corruption scandal allegedly involving dirty campaign money in exchange for concealed-carry gun permits.

The City of Palo Alto has decided to protest a sprawling plan for future Bay Area housing that was recently announced by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), which would require Palo Alto to build 10,000 new housing units in the next decade.

The largest South Bay business group, Silicon Valley Organization (SVO), says it's not going anywhere and plans to continue to fight calls to dissolve after the group posted a racist and disturbing political ad leading up to the November 3rd election.

The 49ers may not be winning on the field this season but last week marked a huge victory for the team’s owner Jed York, who basically placed a massive bet that he could shift the power of the Santa Clara City Council, and won. 

Move over veteran California legislators, Alex Lee, who just became California’s youngest state assemblymember to be elected in 80 years, is promising to make some pretty big changes once he starts his term.

The city of San Jose will expand oversight of its police department and increase gaming at its casinos, while also raising taxes on casinos, after voters resoundingly approved Measures G and H.

A San Jose Church that has been slapped with repeat violations of coronavirus health orders has now been issued a court order by Santa Clara County.

Measure H, also known as the Cardroom Tax, would increase the gross revenue tax for Bay 101 Casino and Casino Matrix from 15% to 16.5% while expanding the number of gaming tables.

Polling sites and drop boxes are popping up across the state ahead of Election Day, and Santa Clara County officials are taking steps to ensure safety from things like fraud and voter intimidation with vows from law enforcement.

With homeless populations growing during COVID-19 and no end in sight, state and local leaders have been scrambling to find ways to get – and keep – vulnerable residents off the streets.

Thanks to a new round of Coronavirus aid, struggling businesses across the South Bay may soon get access to new support to stay afloat. Some business owners fear taking on more debt.

Browse a roundup of building permits issued in the last week in San Jose.