NAMED NATIONAL FOUR-YEAR DAILY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR FOR 2020-21 IN THE COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION’S PINNACLE AWARDS
Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Volume 160 No. 18 SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
City Hall talks hot button issues San Jose city councilmembers discuss AAPI issues, customer service and city infrastructure By Alina Ta STAFF WRITER
Mayor Matt Mahan and San Jose city councilmembers discussed several topics about San Jose’s community during the City Council meeting on Wednesday. Councilmembers focused their attention on topics related to finance, AAPI issues, customer service and public infrastructures.
Anthony Sung Cho v. City of San Jose At the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting, Mahan and city councilmembers approved a $200,000 settlement with Anthony Sung Cho, who claimed he was the victim of excessive force by the San Jose Police Department. According to a Oct. 20, 2022 case report published by the Northern District Court of California, Cho alleged San Jose police officers used an excessive amount of force to restrain him after a police chase on June 18, 2020. The first responder on the scene, Officer Rodriguez, admitted to striking Cho with a baton after alleging that Cho did not cooperate with the arrest, according to the same report. Rodriguez is currently involved in a pending criminal prosecution in which a San Jose woman named Guadalupe
ALINA TA | SPARTAN DAILY
CITY COUNCIL | Page 3
San Jose councilmemebrs discuss the Anthony Sung Cho case settlement, customer service and Measure T during a City Council meeting, on Tuesday in City Hall.
SJSU climate experts discuss California drought By Christine Tran STAFF WRITER
DYLAN NEWMAN | SPARTAN DAILY
A toy tricycle sits parked inside the Associated Students Child Development Center on Monday.
SJSU child center trains future childcare workers By Dylan Newman STAFF WRITER
The Associated Students Child Development Center, a nonprofit care program across the street from campus on South Eighth Street, has had its staff care for San Jose State students’ children for 50 years. Center director Jane Zamora said the center’s priority is providing care for student families. “We always prioritize the student families,” Zamora said. “We have to definitely accommodate our students at large, so that we can ensure that they are getting their work done and being able to graduate.” The Associated Students Child Development Center is licensed by the California Department of Social Services to care for 110 children from four months to five years old, according to the
center’s website. The California Department of Social Services is a state agency providing aid, services and protection to children and adults in need, according to the department’s website. Zamora said although the size of the facility cannot accommodate every student with a child, students are the first people picked from its waiting list. She said the center differs from day care services because children are actively learning in a classroom environment throughout the day. “We do include aspects of math and literacy, science, even also conflict negotiation,” Zamora said. “We are still a very play based center, so it comes from what the children are actually CHILDCARE | Page 3
Over the past two weeks, parts of California are no longer in a drought for the first time in three years. As of last Thursday, areas of California were still experiencing moderate drought and severe drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor website. The U.S. Drought Monitor classification presents five levels of drought, varying from “abnormally dry,” to “exceptional drought,” according to its website. The monitor’s statistics from three weeks ago found that California was facing both extreme and exceptional drought, the two highest levels of drought conditions. State officials had previously estimated that California was headed for its fourth year of drought conditions, according to a Saturday Washington Post article. California’s Sierra Nevada experienced around 12 feet of snow over the weekend, according to the same Saturday article. Last fall, California reservoirs dropped to extreme low levels, but the water supply is projected to improve once the snow melts in the spring, according to the same article. Katherine Cushing, professor
and environmental studies department chair, studies and specializes in sustainable water resources management. She said, 17% of California, including the San Francisco Bay Area, is officially out of a drought, and there is a month to go before the end of the water year on April 1st. The water year The water year goes from October 1 to September 30 of the following year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture website. “While our unprecedented rainfall events of December and January helped us fill reservoirs and create an incredibly robust snowpack – this weekend we have the potential for another atmospheric river but it is predicted to be warm,” Cushing said. “Which could actually melt some of the snow that’s been able to accumulate at lower elevations.” The drought has caused Bay Area residents to be asked by Gov. Gavin Newsom to restrict their water usage by 15% starting July 2022. Environmental studies assistant professor Costanza Rampini, whose expertise is in floods and flood risks, said the rain is good news in terms of water supply because California reservoirs and snowpacks are full. DROUGHT | Page 3