Santa Clara County Local News

On Sept. 27, Eric W. Thornburg loaded up into a passenger van with his coworkers and headed out on a field trip into the Santa Cruz Mountains just above Lexington Reservoir.

Santa Clara County Superintendent of Schools Mary Ann Dewan has filed a lawsuit against the county Board of Education after trustees voted to fire her in closed session.

Three seats on the Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Trustees will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot. Voters will select their board representatives in Trustee Area 5 (central Morgan Hill), Trustee Area 6 (north Morgan Hill) and Trustee Area 7 (south Morgan Hill).

On the Nov. 5 general election ballot is the race for three seats on the Gilroy City Council. All three incumbents are running for reelection, and three political newcomers are challenging them.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed several labor and employment bills that advance workers’ rights.
Senate Bill 399 prohibits retaliation for declining to attend meetings on political or religious matters. The bill defines “political matters” to include “the decision to join or support any political party or political or labor organization” including captive audience meetings that oppose unionization.
Newsom also signed Assembly Bill 2499 that redefines workplace rights for victims of “qualifying acts of violence” and transfers enforcement from the Labor Commission to the California Civil Rights Department.
A qualifying act of violence is defined as domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking or any conduct that includes (i) bodily injury or death to another, (ii) brandishing, exhibiting or drawing a firearm or other dangerous weapon, or (iii) a perceived or actual threat to use force against another to cause physical injury or death even if there is no arrest, prosecution or conviction.
Employers are prohibited from retaliating against an employee who is — or has a family member who is — a victim of a qualifying act of violence, or for taking time off to serve on a jury, to appear in court to comply with a subpoena or court order, or obtain a restraining order.
If the employer has 25 or more employees, the employer must provide leave for an employee who is a victim of a qualifying act of violence to obtain a restraining order, medical attention or services from a domestic violence shelter; psychological counseling; relocate or secure a new residence or enroll children in a new school; care for a family member recovering from injuries; seek civil or criminal legal services; prepare or participate in or attend civil, administrative or criminal legal proceedings; or seek, obtain or provide child care or care to a care-dependent adult needed for their safety.
If the victim of the qualifying act of violence is the employee, the employer may limit the total leave time to 12 weeks. If the victim is a family member, generally the employer may limit leave time taken to assist in relocation purposes to five days and the total leave taken to 10 days — except that an employer may not limit the total leave time taken to fewer than 12 weeks if the victim is deceased as result of the qualifying act of violence. The leave will run concurrently with the Family and Medical Leave Act — or California’s version of it — if the employee is eligible, and the leave would be covered. Certification can include a statement by the employee. Workers or family members may also use paid sick leave as safe leave.
The governor also signed two laws that made significant changes to state disability leave and paid family leave. Under current law, employees cannot apply for state disability leave and paid family leave until they have gone out on leave for illness or caregiving. SB 1090 allows workers to apply for state disability leave benefits up to 30 days before their anticipated leave. AB 2123 eliminates the employer’s ability to require employees to use up to two weeks of vacation before they can apply for paid family leave benefits.
SB 951, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2025, allows lower-middle income workers to receive up to 90% of their normal wages from paid family leave and state disability leave while higher income workers will receive up to 70% of their regular wages up to a cap. The employer payroll tax limit was removed on Jan. 1, 2024 to pay for the increase.
These bills are the result of advocacy by labor unions and coalitions like the California Work & Family Coalition, and they will improve the lives of workers in California.
San José Spotlight columnist Ruth Silver Taube is supervising attorney of the Workers’ Rights Clinic at the Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center, supervising attorney of the Santa Clara County’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement Legal Advice Line and a member of Santa Clara County’s Fair Workplace Collaborative. Her columns appear every second Thursday of the month. Contact her at rsilvertaube@scu.edu.
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Two of Google’s A.I. researchers, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper,  shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, just hours after the Justice Department started spelling out plans that could lead to its break up.

The City of Gilroy and the developer of Glen Loma Ranch this week resolved a standoff over the builder’s previous promises to pay for the construction of the Santa Teresa Fire Station.

The 16th Congressional District debate on NBC Bay Area/KNTV, Telemundo 48/KSTS, and KQED had been scheduled for Oct. 3, but it was canceled when Liccardo withdrew less than seven hours before the event, citing laryngitis.

MH residents make the dean’s list

New court records released Thursday show San Jose Councilmember Omar Torres is being investigated for “oral copulation of a minor” — a stunning development in a criminal investigation that’s rocked Silicon Valley.
In the filings, police say they interviewed an individual named Terry Beeks, who is described as a 21-year-old Chicago resident, who was allegedly extorting Torres. The two allegedly met on social media about three or four years ago and in text messages included in the filings, Torres sent Beeks a photo of a younger kid that Torres said was autistic. Torres also allegedly talks about the minor’s penis size and pubic hair. The filings also describe text messages planning a sexual encounter in which Torres asks Beeks if he knows any minors.
Click here to see the police affidavit released Thursday.
On Feb. 24, 2022, Torres asked Beeks to masturbate while he drove to work. Later that day, Torres sent the Chicago man a photo of “a juvenile male smiling,” the report says. Torres identifies him as his “autistic son.”
The two men begin talking about his penis.
“He is like daddy lol he already has a big penis haha,” Torres writes.
Beeks also said Torres asked him about finding minors for sex.
“U got any homies under 18,” Torres texts a man police have identified as Beeks.

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The state plans to give San Jose $4.8 million to help clear encampments and provide support to unhoused residents. But it's a mere drop in the bucket compared to what the city needs to tackle homelessness.

Since planting their first crops about a year and a half ago, the owners and operators of Morgan Hill’s Three Feathers Farm haven’t rested in their efforts to cultivate relationships not only with buyers and vendors—but also with other growers, farming advocates and the underserved as they seek to maintain a robust agricultural community in the region.

The criminal investigation related to Councilmember Omar Torres has taken an ugly political turn — with people lining up to either defend or denounce the downtown politician. San José Spotlight knew that would happen when we broke the news Torres was being accused of child sex abuse.
What we didn't expect is San Jose City Hall would respond to the scandal under its roof by asking me — a journalist for nearly two decades — to reveal my confidential sources.
It's highly unusual, unethical and alarming.
This morning, I received a call from Carolina Camarena, the city's public information officer. Camarena has worked in communications for decades and has strong relationships with reporters across Silicon Valley, including me. She sounded uncomfortable as she asked me something she's never had to ask a reporter before.
She asked me to reveal who's been providing information to San José Spotlight about the Torres investigation. She claimed people say it's the San Jose Police Officers' Association — and asked if I would say whether that was true.
It took a minute for what was happening to sink in. A public official, whose salary is funded by taxpayers, asking a reporter to expose her sources — on the record. The city is using taxpayer dollars to uncover a journalist's sources, investigate so-called "leaks" and stifle information about a potential criminal case.
I have never revealed a source in my career, and I told Camarena I wouldn't do so now.
She said she understood and would let her bosses know. She could not say who directed her to make the phone call and ask what we both knew was a highly inappropriate question.
"I have high regard and respect for (journalists) and the news media," Camarena said. "In my close to 30 years of working in public information, I have sought to be a source of truth so we may get critical news and lifesaving resources to the public in a timely manner. As part of an internal investigation, I was asked to inquire about the general source of the criminal investigation details provided to media. In retrospect, I should have sought clarity on the request. It is never my intent to compromise the relationship between a journalist and the source. I seek to learn from this experience."
It's hard to blame Camarena — she is a public official put in an impossible position. But what about the person who directed her to make the phone call? It's stunning that officials in the highest positions of power at San Jose City Hall are more concerned about finding "leaks" than whether their elected official allegedly sexually abused minors.
A source told San José Spotlight that a city administrator attempted to question police detectives working on the Torres investigation in an attempt to find the leak.
Tom Saggau, a spokesperson for the police officers association, called the claims from the city unfounded and reckless. The officers would never impede or interfere with an ongoing investigation, he added.
“City management clearly have their priorities in the wrong order, instead of trying to identify whistleblowers who may have knowledge of alleged vile criminal acts they should be focused on protecting children by encouraging full and complete cooperation with the investigation,” Saggau said. “They should also immediately institute mandated reporter training for all city staff so that they immediately contact the police when they become aware of, or suspect, potential sexual abuse of minors.”
City Manager Jennifer Maguire said San Jose takes criminal investigations seriously.
"Details into a criminal investigation of a member of the San Jose City Council were made public by an undisclosed source, potentially compromising a criminal investigation," Maguire said. "To protect the integrity of all criminal investigations, the city has launched an internal investigation into the potential source of the information. The investigation was moving quickly and, unfortunately, there was a miscommunication regarding the city’s inquiries. Freedom of the press is important to the city. We apologize regarding our communication error and are committed to learning from it."
Make no mistake: This move by San Jose City Hall is intended to have a dangerous chilling effect. It's intended to stifle the truth and silence whistleblowers.
A public agency is accountable to the people it serves — people who deserve to know the truth about Torres and the countless other things journalists investigate every day to hold power to account. What happened today is an abuse of power by a government agency and misappropriation of taxpayer money.
"A government has absolutely no business asking a newspaper to give up sources. Full stop," David Loy, the legal director of the First Amendment Coalition which protects the public's right to know, said. "That is information that is 100% protected by reporter shield laws and the First Amendment. A public agency has no business asking the media to give up their sources."
Loy said he's never heard of a public agency asking journalists to expose their sources.
"It's sending the wrong message to the public that this is an acceptable topic of conversation," he said. "It's not a position that any reporter or editor should be placed in to have to say no to that question."
As concerns mount over the city’s push to uncover confidential sources, Saggau encouraged anyone with information about the Torres case to contact SJPD’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit at 408-277-3214. He said the police union will help city employees who fear retaliation find legal counsel.
Contact Ramona Giwargis at ramona@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @RamonaGiwargis on Twitter.
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Dave Cortese, who most recently stopped by Los Gatos Council during the farewell for former Town Manager Laurel Prevetti, today turned his attention to the plight of those who do the food-production heavy-lifting.

Campbell voters are slated to choose a fresh councilmember this November, with housing among the top issues.

Los Gatos fancy footwear designer Flor de Maria Rivera continues to add to the list of celebrities who’ve rocked items from her eponymous line on key runways and at massive social engagements.

On Sept. 24, the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District Board of Trustees approved an 8% raise for Superintendent Bill W. Sanderson, jumping to a base salary of $308,448—$28,448 more than his initial annual rate of $280,000 in 2022.

A mailer circulating in Assembly District 26 slams candidate Tara Sreekrishnan for her attendance record on the Cupertino Union School Board — where she has never served.

Copublished with Capital & Main

On one of the streets leading into South San Francisco a blue sign reads, “The Birthplace of Biotechnology.” The claim is backed up by the model of a DNA spiral built inside the sign’s central circle, by the subheading “Sponsored by Genentech,” and by the long rows of office parks as far as the eye can see.