NAMED BEST CAMPUS NEWSPAPER IN CALIFORNIA FOR 2022 BY THE CALIFORNIA COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION
Wednesday, April 5, 2023
Volume 160 No. 27 SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
City council approves creek sweeps City approves agreement to remove unhoused residents from Coyote Creek By Alina Ta
STAFF WRITER
San Jose city councilmembers approved an agreement on Tuesday to sweep the houseless population in Coyote Creek to continue maintenance of the area. City and Santa Clara County District Valley Water representatives discussed with councilmembers on how to move houseless communities away from areas surrounding Coyote Creek. Valley Water supplies water and flood protection while maintaining water streams to Santa Clara county, according to its website. Valley Water has multiple flood management projects including the Coyote Creek Flood Management Measures Project and Coyote Creek Flood Protection Project, according to an agreement between the city and the Santa Clara Valley Water District. The purpose of these projects is to prevent flooding around surrounding homes, schools, businesses and transportation networks, according to the agreement. Bhavani Yerrapotu, deputy operating officer for Valley Water, said the organization is working on the Coyote Percolation Dam Replacement Project. The goal for this project is to replace the Anderson Dam tunnel by 2024, according to a
ALINA TA | SPARTAN DAILY
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan presents a certificate to those recognized as Climate Smart Champions at San Jose City Hall Tuesday.
Valley Water webpage. Yerrapotu said the work zone for the Coyote Percolation Dam Replacement Project overlaps a nine mile stretch of area between Oakland Road and William Streets. She said Valley Water estimates that there are around 120 to 200 houseless people currently living in those areas. “So it is a pretty heavily encamped area,” Yerrapotu said. She said this is why Valley Water is planning to collaborate
with the city. “Valley Water is not a service provider of those types of services,” Yerrapotu said. Andrea Flores Shelton, deputy director in the Community Service Division for San Jose’s Department of Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services, said the department will be assisting Valley Water as the organization continues to replace the dam. Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services is the
department which helps support the community by supporting recreational services, social opportunities and outdoor spaces in over 200 locations in San Jose, according to its webpage. “PRNS provides a range of services to encourage and enhance the cleanliness of the city,” Shelton said. “That includes the responsibility for conducting abatements of encampments of unhoused people under certain
circumstances.” Abatements, also known as sweeps, are when encampments of houseless people are swept and removed from streets, parks and waterways, according to an audit of San Jose’s homeless assistance programs. Shelton said the department will help Valley Water move houseless people away from the work zone next to Coyote Creek by doing sweeps and outreach CITY COUNCIL | Page 2
Trump arrested over hush money By Enrique Gutierrez-Sevilla STAFF WRITER
Former United States President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records on Tuesday at court in Manhattan, New York. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump for covering up a sex scandal with adult actress Stormy Daniels and for paying her $130,000 to quiet their affair. In a press release by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Bragg wrote, “the People of the State of New York allege that Donald J. Trump repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal crimes that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.” There is evidence that from August 2015 to December 2017, Trump orchestrated a “catch and kill” scheme to hide his false business entries, according to the press release. The term “catch and kill” refers to people of power eliminating any harmful information from being reported through newspaper and media outlets, according to NPR. The press release also stated the American Media Incorporation paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman, who claimed to know information about Trump having a child outside of his marriage. There was another instance where the American Media Incorporation paid $150,000 to a woman who alleged to have a sexual relationship with Trump. Trump told his lawyer, Michael Cohen at the time, to reimburse the media company in cash, but instead made the payment through a shell company. OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO, PUBLIC DOMAIN, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
TRUMP | Page 2