January
POETIC JUSTICE
Yosimar Reyes was named the new Santa Clara County Poet Laureate. The queer and undocumented spoken word artist’s appointment broke new ground and provided visibility for an articulate counterpoint to a national narrative that associated migrants with criminals and called for mass deportations.
CAMERAS, GUNS & PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE
A San Jose man faced child pornography charges after a camera was found hidden beneath the sink at the Coleman Avenue Starbucks. Police say Louie Juarez Jr., 35, recorded at least 91 victims ranging in age from four to 85 years old. When police searched his home, they found 20 firearms, including an assault rifle, an unregistered firearm and high-capacity magazines. They also found micro cameras and recording equipment.
February
GOOGLE’S AI CHATBOT PRACTICES ‘DON’T SEE EVIL’
It was a bad month for Google’s new artificial intelligence service, Gemini, as it fumbled morality tests. The chatbot gave a pass to pedophiles, suggesting that not all of them were evil. It expressed a moral equivalence between Adolf Hitler and Elon Musk. And its image generating engine’s fake diversity model changed the skin colors of historical figures, outraging anti-wokeness trolls throughout the peanut gallery formerly known as the Twitterverse.
SHE KNEW THE WAY TO SAN JOSE, BUT LANDED IN JAIL
An Amazon delivery driver making a delivery on West Charleston Road left his van with the keys in the ignition and the engine running and returned to see it make a U-turn and head southwest on El Camino Real. Amazon and the police tracked the van, which was returned to an Amazon facility on McLaughlin Avenue in San Jose. All of the packages inside the van were accounted for and police arrested a woman who told police that she just needed to get back to San Jose.
March
LABOR GROUPS SPEND HEAVILY TO ELECT TEN-YEAR MAYOR … FROM OPPOSITE CAMP
Mayor Matt Mahan was re-elected with 86.61% of the vote. Progressive and labor groups had spent heavily to pass the 2022 Measure B, which moved San Jose mayoral elections to presidential election years, anticipating that the South Bay Labor Council’s former CEO, Cindy Chavez, would become the city’s first three-term, ten-year mayor. Instead, moderate Democrat Matt Mahan, who was opposed by unions, is on a path to become the city’s first ten-year mayor, directly as a result of labor’s expensive initiative to secure the seat for one of its own.
MAYBE HE SHOULDN’T HAVE UPLOADED ALLEGEDLY STOLEN GOOGLE DATA TO HIS GOOGLE CLOUD ACCOUNT
A federal grand jury indicted a Newark, California, man for a scheme to steal Google’s artificial intelligence technology. According to the indictment, Linwei Ding, 38, a national of the People’s Republic of China, transferred Google trade secrets and other confidential information from Google’s network to his personal account. The indictment alleges that Ding, who had access to confidential information about Google’s supercomputing data centers, uploaded hundreds of files to his personal Google Cloud account. Prosecutors say Ding then took a job as chief technology officer of a Chinese technology startup that offered him a monthly salary of about $15k, plus bonus and stock.
April
BIG TECH DECIDES ITS WORKFORCE IS TOO BIG
Apple joined the ranks of Silicon Valley companies permanently reducing their local workforces, with 614 job cuts at its local operations. Other icons of Silicon Valley who shed employees included Meta Platforms, with 5,195 reported job cuts in Menlo Park, San Francisco, Burlingame, Sunnyvale and Fremont; and Google, with 2,457 layoffs in Mountain View, Moffett Field, San Bruno, Palo Alto and San Francisco.
The layoffs also hit Cisco Systems in San Jose and Milpitas, Broadcom (which cut 1,267 jobs in Palo Alto following its purchase of VMware), Intel, Twitter, Paypal, LinkedIn and eBay.
THROWING MONEY AT PROBLEMS SOMETIMES REQUIRES PAYING ATTENTION
An audit revealed that San Jose did not have a plan to address the homeless crisis until January 2024, did not track its spending and did not consistently assess the effectiveness of its service providers. Despite spending “hundreds of millions of dollars in spending of federal, state, and local funding in recent years to respond to the homelessness crisis,” San Jose had no “established mechanism, such as a spending plan, to track and report its spending.”
PLATFORM SHOES RETURN
A fashion mistake from the 1970s disco days, the platform shoe, was reinvented as the platform sneaker. The high heeled athletic shoes trended and were seen on Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Katie Holmes, Hailey Bieber and Gigi Hadid. What’s next? After Gucci’s Sabato De Sarno unveiled a $1,000 penny loafer “that channels the energy of the ’70s,” things had clearly gotten out of hand. By fall, the elevator shoes could be seen on sale at the Gilroy Outlets.
May
LIBERAL REPUBLICAN WASN’T ALWAYS A NON SEQUITUR
When he passed away at age 96 on May 8, many Peninsula residents probably didn’t remember that Pete McCloskey represented the region in Congress from 1967 to 1983. Even harder to remember is a time when there was such a thing as a liberal Republican. In 1972, McCloskey ran a quixotic campaign for the Republican presidential nomination as a protest against President Richard M. Nixon’s continuation of the war in Vietnam.
NOW LIARS AND INCOMPETENT PEOPLE CAN’T RUN FOR OFFICE, FURTHER REDUCING THE POOL OF POTENTIAL CANDIDATES
Anh Colton, 51, of Cupertino, was convicted of lying about her credentials to run for Santa Clara County Sheriff. California law requires that sheriff candidates have at least one year of law enforcement experience in the last five years or an advanced law enforcement certificate. Colton had neither. “The qualifications for sheriff are not for show,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen boldly declared. “It is not a job for the inexperienced or incompetent.”
THE DOWN LOW
In a bizarre election result, two candidates tied for second place in the California 16th Congressional District race to succeed Anna Eshoo, who announced her retirement after 30 years in office. An ally of frontrunner Sam Liccardo, Jonathan Padilla, filed for a recount to break the tie. Assemblymember Evan Low, in whose interests the petition was ostensibly filed, opposed the recount, which broke the tie in Low’s favor. The third-placed candidate, Joe Simitian, graciously conceded the expensive, hard-fought battle. Low ran and lost to Liccardo in the general election.
June
FIFTH TIME’S THE CHARM IN CINDY CHAVEZ’S JOB SEARCH
Lame duck Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, who ran twice unsuccessfully for mayor of San Jose and twice was rejected by San Diego County for its chief administrative post, was selected to be the new county manager for New Mexico’s largest county, Bernalillo County, in a split vote, following allegations of secret meetings.
July
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND USEFUL IDIOTS
Venture capitalist and Elon Musk ally David Sacks called Reed Hastings a “useful idiot” for supporting the Democratic Party, exposing a public rift amongst Silicon Valley’s tech elite along party lines. Several months later, the Trump transition team would name Sacks the White House’s artificial intelligence and crypto czar.
August
LIKE THAT ANYMORE
In addition to being the rock star who got the most mileage ever out of singing “Uh uh uh, uh uh uh uh uh,” Greg Kihn was also a popular radio DJ and novelist. The beloved local rock icon passed away Aug. 13 at age 75.
DRONES IN CALIFORNIA
While drones in New Jersey seemed to be getting all the attention, the highly secretive U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in California underwent a wave of mysterious drone incursions in 2024. As America’s leading center for advanced aerospace development work, Plant 42 is enmeshed in highly classified military programs. The Warzone reported that the Air Force’s new B-21 Raider stealth bombers emerge from this facility, “so security at the installation, which is located in a relatively urban area, is taken very seriously.”
DENNIS THE MENACE
Investing in new tech can be risky, especially when the ranks of legit inventors include the likes of Dennis Fountaine. The faux entrepreneur scams investors for loans to fund inventions that don’t exist by creating sham companies and websites touting the inventions. In one case, he claimed to have invented a robot named Homer that would help dispense medication for the elderly and disabled. The 67-year-old, who has stolen hundreds of thousands from investors across the country—was convicted on May 20 in Santa Clara County of three felony counts of grand theft by fraud. His sentencing was set for Aug. 5. He never showed up, and is now a fugitive.
September
PLASTIC FANTASTIC HATER
On Sept. 23, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Exxon Mobil over its “decades-long campaign of deception” that overhyped the promise of recycling. Filed in superior court in San Francisco, the lawsuit argued that people were lulled into buying single-use plastics because of a false belief, promoted by Exxon Mobil, that they would be recycled.
SCREEN TIME
School districts in California got a big homework assignment on Sept. 23, when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed new legislation requiring rules restricting student smartphone use—a bid to curtail distractions in the classroom and ameliorate the damage that social media can inflict on children. Silicon Valley was somewhat ahead of the curve, with San Jose Unified School District allowing schools to create cell phone policies, and various others, such as East Side Union High School District, allowing use only under teacher supervision.
October
COUNCILMAN ADMITS MESSAGES TROLLING FOR SEX WITH MINORS, BUT SAYS IT WAS JUST ROLE PLAY
A search warrant was issued to collect information on San Jose Councilman Omar Torres after he sex chatted a Chicago man, “Ugot any homies under 18” and that he wanted his “asshole to be drilled.” Torres’ lawyer, Nelson McElmurry, argued that the messages were ”private communications between adults of age that involved talk of outrageous fantasy and role play.” Following the revelations, Torres stopped attending council meetings but continued to collect a taxpayer-funded salary.
CONTROVERSY OVER TRANSGENDER ATHLETE DISRUPTS VOLLEYBALL SEASON
After reports that San Jose State University transgender athlete Blaire Fleming knocked San Diego State University junior Keira Herron down with a spiked volleyball to her face, the Nevada women’s volleyball team voted to forfeit an Oct. 26 match against SJSU. The decision followed similar forfeitures by Southern Utah, Boise State, Wyoming and Utah State. It also provided fodder for the national debate over transgender rights, which contributed to Kamala Harris’ defeat by Donald Trump the following month.
November
BITE LIKE AN EGYPTIAN
Aedes aegypti mosquitos were spotted in San Jose and Gilroy. More than 350 of the mosquito species were found, according to the County of Santa Clara Vector Control District. “We need everyone to pitch in now to prevent this day-biting mosquito from becoming established in Santa Clara County,” Edgar Nolasco, director of the County of Santa Clara Consumer and Environmental Protection Agency, said in a statement. The agency asked residents in Santa Clara County to throw out even the smallest amount of standing water and scrub bird baths, pet dishes and other containers with bleach.
VENTURE CAPITALISTS BUY AMERICA
Silicon Valley techno-billionaires who supported Donald Trump’s candidacy—most notably Elon Musk, who showered the campaign with $250 million—are lining up to reap their rewards. Musk co-heads the Department of Government Efficiency with biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Peter Thiel is exerting his influence by providing the incoming administration with some 10 former associates, among them Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. Interviewed by NBC News, Neil Malhotra, a professor of political economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, pointed out that the tech bros closest to Trump don’t come from the biggest companies, such as Meta, Google, Apple and Microsoft, but rather from the venture capital world. “The Big Seven incumbent tech, those people are trying to be very neutral,” he noted.
RESIGNED COUNCILMAN JAILED
After a month of missing council meetings, Councilmember Omar Torres resigned from office on Election Day. Within hours, the former District 3 representative was arrested on charges of child molestation and held without bail after he admitted, during a police-monitored call, to abusing an under-aged relative multiple times. The sodomy charges were unrelated to an investigation into text messages that Torres sent to a Chicago man. Publicity about the other incident, however, prompted the victim to break his silence and contact police.
GILROY COUNCILWOMAN OUSTED
Incumbent Rebeca Armendariz came in dead last in a six-way Gilroy City Council race. Her problems began in 2021, when two people were murdered at an illegal Halloween party on her property; she was cited for 10 violations by the city, including allegedly lying to investigators, and faced an aborted recall campaign before ultimately losing in the Nov. 5 election. Armendariz previously had been an up-and-comer in valley politics, having appeared as one of four endorsers during Cindy Chavez’s 2021 mayoral announcement.
December
LEAVING CALIFORNIA
With her term as a Santa Clara County supervisor ending, Cindy Chavez wrapped up her local political career and headed to New Mexico to serve as county manager for New Mexico’s Bernalillo County. Chavez returns to her birth state to run a county that is about a third the size of Santa Clara County.
SCHOOL’S OUT FOREVER
In 2013, California public schools had more than 6.2 million attendees. That number dropped to 5.8 million in 2023, and by 2033 it’s expected to plummet to 5.1 million. Consequences are already being felt locally, with dropping enrollment and school closures. Three districts are early casualties. San Jose Berryessa Union School District board voted 4-1 to close Cherrywood, Toyon and Laneview elementary schools. Alum Rock Union School District in East San Jose also decided to close six schools for the 2025-26 school year, with two more at risk in 2026-27. Franklin-McKinley School District officials are in the midst of choosing which schools to close, and will break the bad news by February.
SPECIAL ELECTION
The race for a new District 3 representative on the San Jose City Council—precipitated by Omar Torres’ resignation and subsequent arrest—officially kicked off when the nomination period began Dec. 16 for an April 8 special election, with a June 24 runoff if necessary. Hopefuls have a chance to enter the race until Jan. 10, but some frontrunners are already in place. Mayor Matt Mahan threw his support to his deputy chief of staff, Matthew Quevedo. Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley Executive Director Gabby Chavez-Lopez, Planning Commission Chair Anthony Tordillos and attorney Irene Smith, who lost to Torres in the 2022 race, are also seeking the seat. The council will choose an interim appointee to serve until after the election, but will wait until after the filing deadline to ensure no one can run as an incumbent.
AN ERA ENDS
Jimmy Carter not only made it to the century mark but survived long enough to vote Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election. After the 39th president of the United States took his last breath, he drew accolades for his efforts to protect the environment and build a more peaceful world.
