Despite advances in civil rights, the state’s prison system still uses inmates for labor under the pretense of rehabilitation.

The City Manager's Office on Sept. 1 wrote to city council members, saying the new employees contracts will mean minimal service cuts and minimal layoffs, but warned of additional impacts in future years.

California is tapping into new technology to figure out how to attack wildfires, using military satellites, drones and infrared mapping.

The city this week announced with enthusiasm tentative agreements with three bargaining units, but the unions representing police dispatchers, building inspectors and park rangers account for a little more than just 7% of the contracts that end June 30.

After unanimously clearing the Senate, a bill expanding first responders’ access to workers’ comp for PTSD moves to the Assembly.

Independent political action committees were big spenders for the 2022 mayoral candidates.

Komodo Fire Systems of Morgan Hill worked with firefighters and volunteers from throughout the Bay Area.

With California wildfires, it seems that every year brings a new record for “more”: More acres, more frequent, more extreme, more deaths, more destruction.

Fire officials said “vegetation fires” can ignite easily with dry grass and rising temperatures.

The peak of the Santa Cruz Mountains looked like an erupting volcano as the Loma fire burned 4,474 acres. Such fires are expected to increase.

The stink of ex-Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. has dissipated, and Santa Clara County is focused on a fresh start for 2014. “Scandal is no longer in the air,” Supervisor Ken Yeager said after Tuesday’s State of the County speech, delivered by recently sworn-in Board President Mike Wasserman. “We certainly spent most of last year changing and improving public outreach and creating much more transparency than there was before.” Wasserman’s address focused on the county’s role as a safety net for the most vulnerable, while also highlighting the little-known services it provides for residents.

For the last several months, a fight with multi-million dollar implications has quietly been waged over fire safety requirements in San Jose’s tallest buildings. The clash—featuring a tangled array of alliances between elected officials, developers, lobbyists, a monopolistic breathing device manufacturer, a union spurned and an ambivalent fire department—will come to a head Thursday afternoon, when the Public Safety, Finance & Strategic Support Committee meets to discuss the city’s tri-annual review of its fire and building codes.

Last week, Mayor Chuck Reed and Councilmember Sam Liccardo submitted a proposal to bolster our public safety capacity by focusing on San Jose’s inability to retain police officers. The gist of the Reed-Liccardo proposal was to hire 200 police officers by restoring wages by 10 percent within the next four years. On the surface, this sounds like a reasonable idea. However, because this proposal was more about timely politics than about meaningful policy, I could not support the plan.

A funny thing happened after Willie McDonald announced in a June 10 email to San Jose Fire Department staff that he was staying on as fire chief. He decided to send another email, only in this message, dated June 13, McDonald thanked everyone for their hard work and abruptly informed them he was leaving for Las Vegas, where he would oversee Clark County’s fire and ambulance services. So, why would a fire chief leave for a job expected to pay him less and demand more? And what would make him change his mind?

The city of San Jose should put a hold on hiring firefighters until the firefighter union accepts a lower cost, second-tier pension plan for new employees. This would achieve cost savings and keep the city on a fiscally responsible path. Doing so would allow us to dedicate more funds to hiring police officers.

San Jose Fire Chief William McDonald will step down from his position after he was selected to serve as the head of Las Vegas’ fire department. His appointment is expected to be approved by the Las Vegas City Council in July.