The Meaning of Christmas

When the Palo Alto City Council gets back to business in January, it will face two tasks. One is electing a mayor. Another is considering whether it’s time to come up with a new system for electing a mayor.

A political action committee that supports local pro-business candidates has announced its endorsements for next year’s San Jose City Council and mayoral elections.

In a bid to revitalize a key gateway to downtown Mountain View, a local developer is proposing to build a seven-story condominium and commercial complex at the corner of Castro Street and El Camino Real.

An employee of former Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith has filed a whistleblower lawsuit, accusing Smith of harassing and intimidating her as she served as a key witness in a probe of gun-permit corruption.

A California icon dies, the A’s sign a deal to leave, and the drought is washed away.

Jonathan Weinberg, who was elected to the Los Altos City Council in 2020, was appointed to serve as mayor in 2024. Weinberg, who formerly served on the Parks and Recreation Commission, talks about what lies ahead in the coming year.

This year, Milpitas banned natural gas in all new buildings, enhanced its rideshare program and looked for new ways to increase its housing. Looking ahead into the new year, the city has plans for a workplace housing project and an expansion to its Innovation Campus.

Registrar of voters offices across the Bay Area recently issued guidance to “No Party Preference” voters who will have to take action if they want to vote in the presidential primary contest in the March election.

Inevitable change—and what to do about it—challenged Los Altos area residents throughout the past year.

Jonathan Weinberg was appointed Los Altos mayor. Following is a question-and-answer interview with the new mayor for 2024.

In 2023, San Jose and Silicon Valley’s development scene faced numerous challenges, including increasing costs due to inflation and spiked interest rates making financing projects of all kinds more difficult and expensive.

Palo Alto settled one of its most complex and contentious land use disputes when it granted a Midtown property owner its permission to build a home on a site that neighbors maintain was meant for housing.

Per current California law, apartment buildings that are above three stories require two stairway exit routes. But this requirement has been shown to impact the size, cost and design of new housing while also putting limits on the work of architects.

Council members voted unanimously for Evelyn Chua, who began serving on the council in 2020 and has been vice mayor since December 2022, to continue in her role.

Following its typical rotation, the board picked its leadership for the coming year, unanimously electing Sanjay Dave as president, Esmeralda Ortiz as vice president and Thida Cornes as clerk.

Sunnyvale’s process for proposing new policies is complex, so we’re breaking it down step by step.

Sunnyvale is hoping to finalize some of its biggest projects next year, from supporting homeless residents to putting in new sports fields.

San Jose and Santa Clara County have spent decades and millions of dollars trying to end homelessness, and while some progress has been made, thousands remain on the street each night — and hundreds die each year.

Just as you might intend to change your diet or workout plan, resolve to make changes that will allow you to meet financial goals.

Under new state laws, five cities will test cameras to catch speeding drivers and cruising bans will be lifted statewide. The first is supposed to improve road safety, but critics of the second say it will endanger the public.

Visitors can see the critically endangered Lord How Island stick insect, on display for the first time in North America, in a special habitat at the zoo’s Wildlife Explorers Basecamp.

Under a new law, employees in California are guaranteed five paid sick days a year, two days more than previously. Worker advocacy groups say the benefit is needed, but business groups warn of additional costs.

In a report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, researchers instead lay out a plan for what society might do to improve adolescents’ interactions with social media.

Prescribed burns, used to limit destructive wildfires, are growing in frequency at California State Parks. But as the smoke drifts into residential areas, it’s easy to see why many Californians are concerned about the health impacts.

A dark-sky movement to save birds from window strikes is sweeping the San Francisco Bay Area. Several cities have passed or are drafting laws restricting light pollution while making windows easier for birds to see.

Novelist Jonathan Franzen looks at how trap-neuter-release policies in feral cat colonies have troubling consequences for city residents, local wildlife and even the felines themselves.

State audits of the University of California and the California State University found both systems have failed to comply with decades-old state and federal laws mandating the return of Native ancestral remains and cultural artifacts. Only UCLA and Cal State Long Beach have returned a majority of their collections.

This past year, more than 1,000 bills went into effect, and most will become new laws in 2024. Plus, there are bills from previous years that are also scheduled to take effect after Jan. 1.

The Chico-based brewer has taken a more traditional approach to creating its non-alcoholic beer.

Sarah Grimes investigates reports of dead marine mammals up and down the coast. So when she began finding the decapitated bodies of harbor seal pups just a few miles north of Fort Bragg in 2016, she was on the case. Grimes wasn’t able to pin down the culprit until last year, with the help of a UCSC student.

The California Department of Water Resources has approved building a tunnel between the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The approval could signal a new wave of legal challenges to the long-running and controversial project.

The Hoopa Valley Tribe announced it is acquiring about 10,000 acres of land in Northern California for $14.1 million. As part of this, the tribe will remove dams along the Klamath River and restore salmon runs.

The 33-year old Mexican-born man—who from toddler age has been a permanent legal resident of California—has reported abuse, unsanitary conditions and threats of force-feeding before his release from immigration detention in April.

California fast-food workers will earn a $20 minimum wage in April. Other employers might have to raise their pay floor to recruit and retain staff.

The California Faculty Association has announced it will strike in January at the state’s 23 CSU campuses. It’s part of an ongoing effort by the group to obtain a 12% raise for the 29,000 professors and lecturers it represents.

An effort spearheaded by the Newsom administration and congressional leaders resulted in Congress authorizing and accelerating the transfer of seven C-130 aircraft from the U.S. Coast Guard to CalFire, expanding California’s firefighting fleet.

Federal funding for domestic violence shelters and housing programs is declining. Advocates want the state to step in, but with a record projected deficit new spending is unlikely.

Google has agreed to pay $700 million and will make changes to its app store it has resisted for years in order to resolve a lawsuit over whether its app store is an illegal monopoly.