San Jose & Silicon Valley News

SJSU Gets $3.1 Million
It's been a rocky year for SJSU, but things are finally starting to look up. The college has just received a $3.1 million one-time grant of federal stimulus money, just months after the school decided to slash enrollment by 3,000 students in the upcoming academic year and to eliminate financial assistance for students who fail to get a passing grade in remedial classes. » Read More

Teachers' salaries are being slashed across the state because of the budget crisis, but there's at least one community where teachers are doing pretty well for themselves. The average salary per teacher in the Mountain View-Los Altos High School District is $95,365, with a low of $61,184 and a high of $115,616. » Read More

49ers Cream Rivals in Stadium Funding
If money talks, lots of money talks loudly. That's what opponents of the Santa Clara stadium project learned this week. The 49ers obviously want to move down here. So far they've spent $350,000 in November and December alone, supporting Santa Clarans for Economic Progress, a local group that support the stadium. To be fair, $250,000 was staff time, but that still leaves $100,000 in cash to help promote "the cause." It's the team that keeps on giving too, or as their spokeswoman Lucy Lang says, they plan to keep on donating "as necessary." » Read More

Wages Down in Silicon Valley
There’s more bad news for people working in Silicon Valley high-tech firms. Not only is unemployment soaring at 11.2 percent; not only has Silicon Valley lost 134,000 jobs since the dot.com bust of 2000; but wages have declined dramatically too, from an average of $120,064 in 2000 to $105,500 in the first half of 2009. » Read More

Property Taxes: The Good News and the Bad News
There's some good news for homeowners in Santa Clara County. Property taxes will be going down this year. Not by a lot, mind you. It's only by 0.237 percent, but that's still an improvement over the standard hike of 2 percent that most people are accustomed to. Or is it? » Read More

Mr. Chip Goes to Washington
A new report by the Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org) finds that high-tech industries—i.e., computer and internet companies—were collectively the fourth largest industry lobbying Washington in terms of money spent. This places them right after Big Pharma and the insurance companies, right behind electric utilities, and ahead of the combined efforts of big business and the oil and gas industries. » Read More

City Mulls a Tree Tax
Street trees are like abandoned puppies. Everybody thinks they're cute. No one wants to take care of them for the long haul. That's the problem City Hall is facing with its plans to add 100,000 new trees to the almost quarter million that already line our streets. No one is willing to take care of them by watering and pruning them, or even removing them when they become dangerous. This became a problem when a 10-ton silver maple crashed down on a car last Friday, killing two-year-old Mateo Ortiz. » Read More

Hospital Fined for Code Violations
The Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose was fined $50,000 by the California Department of Health for violations of the Department's code. It was one of thirteen hospitals, including two other Bay Area hospitals, to receive the penalty. It has ten days to appeal the decision or outline a program to avoid similar violations in the future. » Read More

The State of the County Is … Better than Most
Newly elected President of the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors Ken Yeager had some good news for his constituents yesterday. In his first State of the County speech, he said that Santa Clara County was in "a better position to weather the fiscal storm than almost any other place in America." Though he recognized that the county faced a $273 million budget deficit last year, and that unemployment was at 11.7 percent, he also noted that the county's budget, $4 billion, is larger than that of four states. Over the coming year, he plans to put that money to good use. » Read More

Liccardo Wants to Revitalize Downtown
The recession has taken a toll on downtown San Jose. City Councilmember Sam Liccardo, whose district includes downtown, is hoping to do something about that. "We need to take some risks," he says, and proposes waiving some of the fees that may keep people from coming downtown. » Read More