Feature Archives

The San Jose City Council will hold a public hearing about the future of Coyote Valley on Monday, August 13th. Coyote Valley is a large, rural space between San Jose and Morgan Hill. It is one of the last remaining open spaces of its size in Santa Clara County, and is home to many endangered animals and plants. Developers are planning to build housing for 80,000 residents in Coyote Valley. People will gather at 5pm in front of City Hall, located at 200 East Santa Clara Street, San Jose and then they will attend the 5:30pm Coyote Valley Task Force meeting.

Young and old gathered in solidarity to support immigrant rights in Campbell, California, a city bordering San Jose, on July 14. The Raging Grannies have put out a call for people to join them at the corner of Bascom and Hamilton in Campbell on the second Saturday of each month from noon to 2pm for a rally to challenge the presence of Minutemen.

On July 23rd, Cindy Sheehan's deadline for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to introduce articles of impeachment against George Bush and Dick Cheney ran out. Hundreds of supporters gathered there and marched on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, ending in a siege of Rep. John Conyers's office and several arrests. In solidarity, several people gathered in Mike Honda's Campbell, CA office. A similar action happened later in the day at the office of Zoe Lofgren in San Jose.

Faced with imminent layoffs and management’s attempts to eliminate unions, workers from the Northern California Media Workers Union held a picket and press conference in front of the offices of the San Jose Mercury News on Tuesday, June 26th.

Two Iraqi trade union leaders on a speaking tour of the United States called for rejection of the new oil law being considered in the Iraqi parliament. The law was secretly written in Houston in favor of the U.S. oil companies long before it was ever seen by any member of the Iraqi parliament. If passed, the new oil law would effectively turn over all new oil fields to the control of foreign oil companies. Speaking before an enthusiastic audience of approximately 125 people in the Laborers Hall in San Jose on Sunday, June 10, the two Iraqi trade union leaders from Basra agreed that the U.S. occupation must end. Both leaders clearly indicated that the U.S. occupation itself creates sectarian violence and reduces security.

On June 9th, 2007, Silicon Valley Impeachment Coalition held an impeach "spell-in" where people laid down in San Jose City Hall Plaza to spell IMPEACH with their bodies. Merriam Kathaleen, one of the organizers, explained, "we have come together to work specifically for impeachment because we believe that the next war can only be stopped by the impeachment and trial of those that brought us this one."

Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr recently announced that her office would not be filing any charges in the De Anza gang-rape case, in which an underage, unconscious young woman was assaulted by a group of De Anza College baseball players. At a Thursday May 31st press conference, community members gathered outside the DA's office in San Jose to demand justice for the young woman. Within a week's time, it was announced that Carr would pass the case on to state Attorney General Jerry Brown.