Santa Clara County Government Articles

Peter Thiel, the Donald Trump supporting Silicon Valley billionaire and venture capitalist, may have played a big role inthe bank run that ended in the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. But why?

SVB lobbied hard for bank deregulation, which may have led to its own failure. And depositors blew past limits on federal insurance, knowing they would lose their cash if the bank went under unless the government saved them. Here’s how …

Climate change driven storms are creating new problems for Gavin Newsom and California's budget process, which is already reeling from a projected $25 billion deficit that emerged after a $97 billion surplus disappeared.

The task force members are discussing monetary and nonmonetary reparations ideas to compensate for slavery and racism. Some say they want policies to prevent future harms against Black Californians.

Dianne Feinstein, California's longtime senior U.S. Senator, has announced she will end a legendary career in public life that began in 1961 and took off amidst the turbulent, violent era of San Francisco in the 1970s.

Google may be forced to sell off its $200 billion online advertising service if a new lawsuit by the federal Department of Justice claiming that Google acts as a monopoly succeeds.

Kevin McCarthy has reached the top position in the U.S. House, but has still fallen short in addressing the ongoing water crisis in his owndistrict, a new CNN.com report says.

With a projected $25 billion deficit, Newsom proposes slashing $6 billion from climate change programs even as a historic storm likely driven by climate change batters the state.

Welcome to 2023 — a year that may prove decisive in California’s attempts to address some major challenges, from housing and homelessness to climate change.

2022 was a year that needed a lot of explaining. And California Local was there. Here are our 10 most important explanatory journalism stories from the year gone by, from immigration to cryptocurrency to wealth inequality and more.

CalMatters' expert journalists around the state created this guide to the state's efforts to meet the challenges of 2022 and prepare for 2023.

California is the most American of all states, both setting the direction for the rest of the country, and acting as a mirror of what the U.S. is today. Here's why, and how it got that way.

Hanging over the heads of California's newly sworn-in state lawmakers — and likely to be top of mind when they return to Sacramento next month — are the state's intertwined housing and homelessness crises. That was made clear Tuesday, when …

Proposition 13, the popular tax reform law passed in 1978, has driven increases in economic inequality and racial wealth disparities in California. Here’s how.

The governor threw communities into disarray two weeks ago by withholding $1 billion in homelessness funding for plans he saw as unambitious. But local officials said the assignment itself discouraged ambition. Now Newsom is yielding.

California's government was born out of utter chaos. Here's how the state developed some sort of order to the way it operates, and how it makes and enforces laws.

The newly approved homes include 36 housing units in San José—12 rentals and 14 townhomes.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has won three gubernatorial elections with historic support. He should use his popularity to unite constituencies and improve some of California’s intractable problems.

California is full of places and communities, but most are not cities. Here's what it takes for a community to become a city, the benefits of being one—and why the state has a 'de facto moratorium' on new cities.

Billionaires now own Twitter, Facebook and numerous other online and offline media outlets. But there are other information sources not run by the super-rich. We've found a few and listed them here.