The shift, made this week, is accompanied by a new court calendar reserved for people who discover they are the subject of bench or arrest warrants, and until now had to submit to jail booking — and possible detention — just for the chance to argue to a judge why they shouldn’t be in custody.

According to the court and attorneys involved in shaping the new policy, the change had been in the works for several months. The issue gained added public pressure in July when the ACLU and the Stanford Law School Criminal Defense Clinic sued the court over the previous practice.

The plaintiffs — led by a man who discovered he had a warrant for a minor offense, then spent three days in jail only to be released at arraignment — called the system a “bail or jail” test that unfairly burdened poor people.

“Our hope is that this allows people to avoid truly unnecessary incarceration,” said Emi Young, a staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California. “That’s something that never should have happened. It was extremely harmful to individuals and was bad public policy.”

The Superior Court declined to offer any comment other than to assert that the lawsuit was not the catalyst for the policy change.

Under the new protocol, people who learn they are wanted for a warrant now have the option, through an attorney, to request an arraignment date on the court calendar. They would still have to submit to an “informal booking” requiring a photograph and fingerprint recording, but they would head to court from there instead of being faced with posting bail or going into jail custody. In its initial stages, the reserved calendar for these cases will be on the second and fourth Mondays of the month.

A judge still has the final say on whether someone will be released, based on a person’s individual case and history. The kinds of cases on this calendar will typically involve minor and nonviolent offenses for which there is a good chance that someone will be ordered released while their case is adjudicated.

Meghan Piano, a county deputy public defender who was involved in drafting the new protocol — joined by representatives for the court, pretrial services, the district attorney’s office and the sheriff’s office — said the change is an important step toward leveling court access.

“Prior to this calendar, if you were poor and could not post bail, you sat in jail, whereas your wealthy neighbor would never step foot into a cell,” Piano said. “What matters is that we are here addressing this gaping hole of inequity.”

In several ways, this new calendar is a return to form. A similar practice was instituted as an emergency measure near the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. But in July 2022, Criminal Division Supervising Judge Daniel Nishigaya sent an email directive to judges stating that continuing to calendar unserved arrest warrants created an “administrative difficulty” that muddied recording, tracking, and reporting of cases.

Brandon Cabrera, supervising deputy district attorney for his office’s court diversion and mental-health unit, said a series of meetings followed in which there was a consensus to move away from forcing jail stays for people whose situations meant they would likely be released by a judge anyway.

“We got all the right people finally together to have a conversation about this,” Cabrera said.

Cabrera said that led to discussions about how to tackle those “administrative difficulties,” which ultimately led to the court agreeing to reserve a court session on two Mondays a month, when the arraignment calendar is the least busy, and the sheriff’s office agreeing to staff those Mondays at the county jail specifically to handle the warrant bookings.

What resulted, partly at Piano’s urging, was a “one-stop shop” system in which someone could get booked at the jail and go to court on the same day to see a judge and argue for release.

The new system is currently in a pilot phase, starting with one case this past Monday, and continuing with a full 10-case calendar Nov. 27.

Piano, who supervises the Pre-Arraignment Representation and Review program at her office, said she is already getting a flood of inquiries from people about the new court calendar.

“Just in the past week I have received numerous phone calls from people who really want to take care of their case but are petrified, and rightfully so, of having to sit in custody while they do so,” she said.

“It’s this unexpected complete interruption in life. All the main staples of what people have to hold on, their housing or their job or their family situation, they get ripped away from all that,” De-Bug cofounder Raj Jayadev said. “Even if the jail stay is only a couple of days, some of those things might never come back.”

Cabrera added that the new policy helps streamline the court system by incentivizing people to resolve their warrants, and allow cases to move along rather than wait for an unserved warrant to get activated by a happenstance encounter with law enforcement.

“If we can avoid someone waiting two to three days in jail and we know they don’t need to be there, this is a perfect solution,” he said.

Modera The Alameda, a 168-unit apartment building on The Alameda near the SAP Center and Diridon train station, is a step closer to transformation into an affordable housing complex following a unanimous vote by the San Jose City Council.

A $100 million package of tax-exempt bonds to finance the purchase of Modera The Alameda is the funding centerpiece of the affordable housing conversion.

The city’s decision paves the way for the anticipated future owner of the property to pursue the financing for the apartment complex at 787 The Alameda.

The $100 million financing package would be used for “the acquisition, rehabilitation, improvement, and equipping of 167 apartments and one manager’s unit to transition to an affordable housing development,” a city staff report states.

The California Municipal Finance Authority, an agency jointly established in 2004 by multiple government agencies, is slated to issue the bonds for the purchase of the Modera apartment complex.

“This will allow the Modera development to move forward with its current financing plan and create much-needed affordable housing,” the city staff report stated, referring to the financing package to convert Modera into affordable housing.

The California Municipal Finance Authority acts as a conduit for tax-exempt bonds to finance an array of projects to promote economic development.

“San Jose lacks a sufficient amount of affordable housing to meet residents’ needs,” the city staff report states.

The conversion proposal sketches out a plan whereby Catalyst Impact Fund, a nonprofit, would purchase Modera, the city documents show. Catalyst Impact would buy Modera the Alameda from current owner AEW Capital Management.

Once the apartments are converted to affordable housing, they would be set aside for very low-income and low-income individuals and families.

People who live in Modera typically pay monthly rents that range from a low of slightly more than $2,300 a month to nearly $4,600 a month, apartments.com reports.

“To avoid displacement of any current market-rate residents, units will transition to affordable upon move-out,” the city staff report states. “Existing residents who income-qualify will be offered affordable rates upon lease renewal.”

Of the 168 units, 34 units will be set aside for people at the 50% area median income level and the remaining 134 units will be restricted to people at the 80% area median income level, city officials say.

“The 2023 income limit for households with 50% area median income is $62,450 to $89,200 a year and the 80% area median income is $96,000 to $137,100 a year,” the city staff report stated.

Modera’s current assessed value is $101.7 million, county documents show.

The proposal would remove Modera from the property tax rolls — which means the complex would no longer generate property tax revenue once the new owner takes over.

About $1 million a year in property tax revenue would be wiped out as a result of conversion to affordable housing.

Despite the loss in property tax revenue, a conversion makes sense, in the view of Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy.

“Existing units can be purchased for less than the exorbitant cost to build new affordable housing,” Staedler said.

Ryan Christopher, a San Jose resident, wrote an email to city staffers that raised questions about the wisdom of the conversion to affordable housing, especially if a significant hit to San Jose’s revenue from property taxes is in the offing.

“It appears to me that the 80% area median income rents are very similar to the current rents at the property,” Christopher wrote in a Nov. 14 email to the city. “As such, it seems questionable that there is a public benefit, and certainly questionable that we should forgo tax revenue to support this.”

But a recent study conducted by Kantar on behalf of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) found that both parents and teens are not only aware of GAI but also mostly optimistic about its impact. The study included teens (13-17) and their parents completing an online survey with 1,000 participants in each of three countries: The U.S., Japan and Germany. I’ll focus mostly on the U.S. responses, which, for the most part, were similar to those from the two other countries.

Familiarity and use

When it comes to awareness, U.S. teens (69%) and parents (74%) are mostly familiar with GAI with 25% of parents saying they “know a lot,” compared with 22% of teens, which itself is different from most other tech issues where teens tend to be more aware than their parents. But what’s most surprising is that 45% of U.S. teens agreed that their parents know more than they do about GAI while only about a third (32%) of teens said that they know more. Parents concurred, with the same percentage saying their teen knows more compared with 43% saying “I know more than my teen.”

The report didn’t speculate why parents feel more clued-in than teens, but I’m guessing it has something to do with extensive news coverage of GAI and the fact that parents are more likely to consume mainstream news than are teens. Teens are more likely to get their news from digital sources, including social media.

Even though parents are more likely to say they are aware of GAI, U.S. teens are slightly more likely (67%) than parents (64%) to “have used or tried using genAI.”

Nearly three-quarters (73%) of U.S. parents and 63% of teens say they mostly use GAI for its analytical tools while 67% of parents and 61% of teens have used it for creative tasks. The report said that teens are more likely (74% vs. 59%) to use GAI “to be more efficient at tasks including proofreading and creating synopses of longer works.”

Only about a third (34%) of American parents feel that they “don’t have enough information and education about genAI,” compared with 47% in Germany and 73% in Japan.

Top concerns

Respondents were asked to rate their top concerns, and both parents and teens picked job loss as No. 1, followed by the spread of false information. Parents picked “loss of critical thinking skills” as No. 3, while teens were more likely to worry about “AI surpassing humans.” The teens picked “new forms of harassment” as their fourth concern, but that didn’t make it on the parents’ top 5 list. Both groups rated “growing dependency on genAI” as No. 5.

“Teens,” said the report “are acutely aware of the potential for genAI to be used for more sophisticated means of bullying, or to create new or intensified forms of harassment. From parents’ perspective, many express trepidation that their teens will lose opportunities to engage in deep analysis, original ideas and meaningful thinking.”

Parents were asked if they need more information to help them guide their teens, and 55% of U.S. parents said they wanted to know more about the potential risks vs. the benefits. Just under half (49%) picked benefits. Fortunately, these are not mutually exclusive. ConnectSafely is currently working on a parents guide to GAI which will focus on both risks and benefits.

Perceived vs. actual risks

It’s important to remember that a survey measures perceived risks, not necessarily actual ones. GAI is still very new, and we don’t yet know what the real risks are. It’s not yet clear, for example, whether GAI will result in a net loss or a net gain in jobs, though it’s likely to have a negative impact on some job categories. We know that GAI can result in misinformation, but there are efforts in place to use it to help combat that very scourge. The same can be said for bullying and harassment. Time will tell, and we might be surprised to find that some of our fears don’t turn into major problems, while other problems may emerge that we are not thinking about right now. I know this from personal experience as the author of the1994 booklet, “Child Safety on the Information Highway,” which was written before there was a lot of research and well before some problems emerged that I wasn’t able to anticipate nearly 30 years ago.

Generally positive perceptions of GAI

Despite concerns and plenty of negative press, parents do feel positive about their teens’ use of GAI. Two-thirds (66%) of U.S. parents said they felt positive, compared with 70% in Germany and 59% in Japan.

About two-third of parents (66%) and teens (65%) agreed that “Using genAI tools will be a vital skill to have to remain competitive in school or career. About 60% of both groups also feel that “GenAI will augment or supplement humans, but we’ll still need human creativity,” vs. “it will surpass human capabilities and take over many tasks,” while 55% of parents and 57% of teens say it “will make it easier to stay connected with others,” vs. “it will make it harder to stay connected with others.”

Trying it out

Although this survey sheds light on how adults and teens are using GAI and paints a reasonably optimistic picture of how it’s perceived, the best way for you to learn about GAI is to try it. Google Bard, Microsoft Bing and ChatGPT all offer free access to GAI services that make it easy for anyone to ask questions or create content. I find it fascinating to try out different scenarios on these services and have used them in my work to generate ideas and recently used ChatGPT’s Dalle2 image-generation tool to create artwork to accompany some of my blog posts. I understand that it can make mistakes, so I never rely on it without verifying information. I also have an ethical responsibility to do my own work in my own words, so I use it mainly for ideas and research rather than a shortcut to wordsmithing. But, just as I can’t imagine going back to my old typewriter, it’s now hard to imagine doing creative work without getting at least a little help from Generative AI.

Larry Magid is a tech journalist and internet safety activist. Contact him at larry@larrymagid.com.

When the Spartans play San Diego State Saturday night at Spartan Stadium, they will be honoring seniors who were part one of Brennan’s first recruiting classes and pivotal to this season’s turnaround.

“It’s an emotional day for the guys who actually are realizing it’s their last game at (Spartan) stadium,” Brennan said. “The guys we’re talking about are really special guys that have been very impactful on and off the field. I hope there’s just a lot of people here to celebrate the seniors that are playing their last game.”

Among the 17 seniors are running back Kairee Robinson, quarterback Chevan Cordeiro, offensive lineman Jaime Navarro and Anthony Pardue, twin defensive backs Tre and Andrew Jenkins, safety Chase Williams and defensive lineman Noah Lavulo.

Many of the seniors have been with Brennan since they were freshman in 2018, a class that has defined Brennan’s tenure at SJSU.

That class included Robinson, Navarro, Pardue and the Jenkins twins. They all were essential pieces to the team that won the Mountain West championship in 2020 and helped SJSU earn a bowl game appearance in 2022.

The countdown to the last home game of their college careers has been in the minds of Tre and Andrew Jenkins since the season started..

“We kind of knew that going into the season that for all the seniors, we know it’s our last season,” Andrew said. “So we already had those conversations with our best friends, me and Tre have been having those tough conversations to know that we got to enjoy these moments.”

After starting the season 1-5, the Spartans have won four straight to move into a three-way tie for third place in the Mountain West.

SJSU (5-5, 4-2 MW) trails Air Force and UNLV (both 5-1 in conference) with two regular season games remaining, so a few things need to break their way, but there suddenly is a path for the team to get back to the conference championship game for the second time in four years..

The Spartans have leaned on their senior playmakers to get them to this point. Robinson, Andrew Jenkins, Navarro and Lavulo are all having career years.

Robinson has rushed for 919 yards and 15 touchdowns. He recently broke the SJSU record for consecutive games with a rushing touchdown held by Tyler Ervin in 2015, and is tied for the single-season rushing touchdown record with Johnny Johnson (1988) and Deonce Whitaker (2000).

Lavulo has been a standout on the defensive line, totaling 35 tackles, 7 tackles for a loss and 3.5 sacks — all career highs.

“I think playing better football right now is a collective effort and everybody is all in on it,” Brennan said. “That’s why it’s really fun to be a part of it and to just see how hard the players are working and how much they care.”

Robinson says the only thing that has mattered this season is getting to the conference title game.

“I haven’t tried to think about it too much,” Robinson said of his record-breaking personal accomplishments. “I’m just focused on getting an opportunity to make it to the conference championship and focusing on this year and this moment.”

Seats are already filling up at Spartan Stadium in anticipation for senior day. The Jenkins twins reserved 30 seats and are looking for more. Robinson said there will be a whole section reserved for all of his relatives.

“It’s going to be a big crew for sure,” Robinson said. “All from Antioch.”

As emotional as Saturday’s game will be, the end might not be so near for SJSU’s seniors. There will still be one more regular season game and the potential for the Mountain West championship game and a bowl game still out there.

“I still think their legacy is still being written,” Brennan said. “We still have a lot of football to play. Maybe ask me that question. In two weeks.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service also offered the broad scientific explanation for the pond’s color: “It’s natural. Tiny microscopic organisms specialized to live in very salty water live here, including the microscopic algae known as Dunaliella salina and halobacterium.”

Meanwhile, Santa Clara County Parks explains on its website that a nearby levee project could be making A12’s water pinker than usual: “In 2021, Valley Water, the State Coastal Conservancy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) began construction of the South San Francisco Bay Shoreline Project (Phase I) between the Alviso Slough/Guadalupe River and Coyote Creek. The levee construction requires very low water levels, therefore we did not replenish water into these ponds as they naturally evaporate throughout the summer. As a consequence, Pond A12 got saltier and pinker.”

Although a final decision won’t be made until January, efforts are being made to retain the program at Lynbrook, Homestead and Fremont high schools, and phase it out at Cupertino and Monta Vista. Chinese — whose projected cut at Homestead was also contested by the community — will continue to be offered at that school, while French would be phased out at Fremont High.

Since 2019, enrollment in Fremont Union’s world language offerings have dropped by 18%, while total enrollment has dropped by 12%, according to the district. Fremont Union also anticipates its student population will drop by more than 2,000 students in the next five years.

“As we face declining enrollment, it gives us all an opportunity to think about what our values are vis-à-vis education. What are our resources, and what are our priorities?” said Jeremy Kitchen, the Japanese teacher at Lynbrook High School. “I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet, as declining enrollment looks like it’s going to continue. Districts all around this area are going to continue to be faced with difficult decisions.”

Fremont Union is far from alone. Across the Bay Area, schools are grappling with declining enrollment, along with the funding, resourcing and staffing implications of that trend. Over the last six years, the district has spent more than $2.4 million overstaffing dwindling classrooms, and has been forced to combine courses once enrollment dipped too low.

That was why initially, the district had proposed cutting one language from each of its five high schools, a change that would have culled the number of campuses offering Japanese programs from all five campuses to just two. After reviewing enrollment data this fall, however, the district said Lynbrook had “sufficient student sign ups” in all four language offerings for the programs to be maintained — and students like 12th grader Maya Swaminathan have been able to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Japanese is really what makes Lynbrook strong,” said Swaminathan. “Of course, we have the computer science and STEM departments. But what really makes Lynbrook stand out is Japanese.”

For years, Lynbrook and other high schools in the district have competed at the Japan Bowl, a national competition where students battle over Japanese language, culture and history. Since 2013, there have only been two years that a Fremont Union High School district team hasn’t won first prize in at least one of the competition’s three levels. And even in those missing years, Cupertino or Lynbrook high schools took every second prize except for one.

Last spring, students at Cupertino High took home first place in two of three of the Japan Bowl’s levels. Lynbrook earned second place in all three.

“Without a Japanese program at Cupertino, those students will be hard-pressed to participate in the Japan Bowl in the future,” said Andy Tsai, a former Japanese student at Lynbrook. “In an increasingly competitive admissions environment, it’s removing one avenue by which students can differentiate themselves and demonstrate academic and extracurricular excellence.”

Still, that decision isn’t final. The proposed, secondary plan is “tentative,” district spokesperson Rachel Zlotziver said, and pending verification of next year’s enrollment projections in December. The following month, the district will then inform schools of their course offerings for the next academic year.

Despite the letdown of losing Japanese at Cupertino and Monta Vista, Ann Jordan, a retired Japanese language teacher in Los Gatos, said she felt like the district had taken the concerns of the community seriously.

“I don’t think they were expecting the level of scrutiny that came upon them (after the phase-out was first announced in April),” said Jordan. “But I do think they listened to the public and tried to come up with a less drastic solution.”

Can I keep my out-of-state plates and registration “forever,” renewing annually, until I move permanently to California? I’ll be spending three to four months at a time in California.

Anonymous

A: The DMV answered your question. If a driver claims a property tax exemption in California, then they are considered a California resident and must register their vehicle in California. A customer can only claim one primary residence. More information on what constitutes a “California resident” can be found on the DMV’s website at https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/how-to-determine-residency-when-fees-are-due-on-out-of-state-vehicles-htvr-33/.

Q: Drivers with high beams are bad enough. More often, I see drivers with no taillights on. They have their daytime running lights on, but that doesn’t turn on taillights. In earlier cars, when headlights were off, your dash was dark. Now, electronic dashboards are always lit up. There ought to be a federal law requiring all new cars to have automatic-on headlights, controlled by solar cells to sense darkness.

Doug Finley

A: And …

Q: I have two cars with auto high beams. I turn the automatic off and do it manually, as they seldom go back to low early enough when a car is approaching. Who wants to blind oncoming traffic?

John Hamblin

A: And …

Gwynne Willison

A: A good idea, having headlights adjusted if many other drivers think your high beams are on.

Q: Declining eyesight is a serious factor in night driving and any driving. It’s not just the headlight issue. I found night driving increasingly difficult, with glare from oncoming headlights blinding me, making driving dangerous and full of anxiety. I had cataract surgery, and my life was transformed. One hour, minor discomfort, zero after-effects. There are now actual colors and clarity. I recovered 20/20 in one eye and 20/40 in the other. Driving, day or night, is now confident and safe.

John Joss, Mountain View

A: And that’s today’s last word.

Look for Gary Richards at Facebook.com/mr.roadshow or contact him at mrroadshow@bayareanewsgroup.com.

Chris Allen: San Jose CC, No. 14, 170 yards, 6-hybrid

Matt Arba: Deep Cliff GC, No. 3, 114 yards, 8-iron

Bill Ayres: San Jose CC, No. 7, 116 yards, sand wedge

Tami DeFiore: Deep Cliff GC, No. 8, 79 yards, 9-iron

Peggy Heath: Deep Cliff GC, No. 8, 79 yards, pitching wedge

Gary Hubbard: Spring Valley GC, No. 7, 160 yards, (club not reported)

Donna Lee: Deep Cliff GC, No. 8, 79 yards, 9-iron

Kohl G. Phillip: Deep Cliff GC, No. 10, 131 yards, 8-iron

Justin Polk: San Jose CC, No. 7, 156 yards, 9-iron

Ernesto Vallin: Deep Cliff GC, No. 10, 140 yards, 8-iron

Ex-trainer’s sentence
falls short of justice

Re: “Ex-SJSU trainer sentenced to 2 years in prison for sexually abusing athletes” (Nov. 14).

Upon reading the article about ex-SJSU trainer Scott Shaw sentenced only to a two-year sentence for sexually violating many SJSU students, I am outraged, not only by our justice system for the sentencing and restitution to the victims not being enough for his heinous actions, but also at the fact that he will still receive his pension.

His abuse of power as a trainer, and his taking advantage of so many young women, has broken my trust in the university.

Alivia Martinez
San Jose

MTC’s toll road plan
should be rejected

The MTC is considering making all lanes of Bay Area freeways tolled. Good intentions cannot pave new transit lines or construct infrastructure upgrades.

I understand and support efforts to encourage greater transit use and reduce emissions from travel, but this policy seems like it will not only fail on this goal but worsen conditions as a whole. Current express lanes have done little to nothing to reduce traffic, and are punitive against those with lower incomes.

Caltrain services are being reduced, BART remains a mess, and many folks live far from stations, rendering transit lines a poor alternative. This forces people to drive, and between a tolled highway or surface streets, many are simply going to reroute through the cities, worsening traffic, impeding emergency vehicles, and overloading municipal road resources.

Our transit should avoid becoming another political albatross like CPUC. MTC should reject this plan lest voters intervene.

Christopher Dooner
Sunnyvale

Valley buildings should
reflect cutting edge

Re: “Former Fry’s site to become housing” (Page B1, Nov. 13).

I’m writing to express my dismay at the uninspiring multi-story, high-density buildings that have proliferated in San Jose. These structures, lacking character and resembling prisons, are a design disappointment for a city that is a global tech hub. As we strive for recognition of technological achievements and innovation, our architectural landscape should also reflect the same forward-thinking vision.

How could the San Jose City Council and the Planning Commission approve such lifeless building designs? It begs the question of whether these decisions align with our city’s aspirations. San Jose has a unique opportunity to showcase cutting-edge designs that not only accommodate density but also contribute to a vibrant, aesthetically pleasing urban environment.

I urge our city leaders to reassess the architectural direction of current high-density housing and consider collaborating with visionary architects to create structures that resonate with our status as a technological powerhouse.

Bob Young
San Jose

Legislation would help
reach climate goals

Re: “Permitting reform may help cool the climate” (Page A6, Nov. 3).

Such a bill is underway in the U.S. Congress. The BIG WIRES Act was recently introduced in both the House (HR 5551) and Senate (S 2827). This bill hastens the extension and upgrade of our national electric transmission grid. Affordable, clean electricity will be more available to regions now distant from renewable sources of energy. The bill should attract strong bipartisan support because it improves the supply from both renewable and nonrenewable sources of electricity. It would provide more good jobs for Americans, particularly in rural areas of the country.

Rob Hogue
Menlo Park

The concert — the popular annual holiday show from Bay Area radio station Alice at 97.3 — was supposed to have been headlined by local pop-rock act Train and rising country star Jelly Roll on Dec. 1 at SAP Center.

Other acts on the bill were the Band Camino and Benson Boone.

“The ALICE in Winterland show scheduled for Dec. 1, 2023 at the SAP Center has been cancelled,” according to a news release from SAP Center. “Refunds will be provided to all guests who purchased on Ticketmaster automatically. All other purchasers can receive refunds at the original place of purchase.”

No reason was given for the cancellation.