SAN JOSE — A troubled tower in San Jose is mired in a fresh lawsuit, a filing that claims the building has suffered poor maintenance, financing woes, water damage, and a lack of heating and cooling in many units. The litigation and real estate woes have engulfed the western highrise of the two-tower residential complex at 188 West St. James Street in downtown San Jose. 188 West St. James, a double-tower residential complex at the corner of West St. James Street and North San Pedro Street in downtown San Jose.  Along the way, nine units in the tower have been auctioned off due to unpaid ma ..read more

California’s population grew for the first time in three years as legal immigration rebounded and the great California exodus during the COVID pandemic dramatically slowed as remote workers returned to the office, according to a state report released Tuesday. The overall population gains were relatively small — a net increase of some 67,000 people to raise California’s population to 39.1 million people in 2023, according to the California Department of Finance. Some Bay Area counties lost population, including Alameda and San Mateo, as layoffs took hold last year and residents continued to see ..read more

Over the past few decades, in a surge of bipartisan national self-confidence, the federal government has borrowed a lot of money, sometimes in response to national emergencies and sometimes to do the things people thought were worth doing. We gave ourselves permission to incur all this debt because interest rates were low and many people assumed that things would stay that way, so the costs of carrying that much debt wouldn’t be too onerous. Unfortunately, that assumption turned out to be incorrect. Interest rates have risen. According to The Wall Street Journal, America is expected to spend ..read more

By Alanna Durkin Richer | Associated Press WASHINGTON — Scammers stole more than $3.4 billion from older Americans last year, according to an FBI report released Tuesday that shows a rise in losses through increasingly sophisticated criminal tactics to trick the vulnerable into giving up their life savings. Losses from scams reported by Americans over the age of 60 last year were up 11% over the year before, according to the FBI’s report. Investigators are warning of a rise in brazen schemes to drain bank accounts that involve sending couriers in person to collect cash or gold from victims. “I ..read more

A new 130-unit affordable housing project with 64 apartments for formerly homeless residents has opened in downtown San Jose near Diridon Station. The Solaire Apartments complex at 425 Auzerais Ave. was completed with $26 million in county funding. That includes $13.2 million from Measure A, a $950 million affordable housing bond county voters approved in 2016. “We are helping residents of the Solaire Apartments and thousands of others across the county fulfill their own potential by providing critically needed housing,” Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Susan Ellenberg said in ..read more

Fraudsters exploiting a change in the application process for the controversial H-1B visa have been shut down by a new rule, federal authorities say. After U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2020 imposed a new, two-stage application process for the visa intended for workers with specialized skills, unscrupulous businesspeople colluded to game the lottery-based allocation system, a spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration said. The new process was meant to slash application costs by letting companies submit initial $10 “registrations” to get prospective foreign workers into the H-1B ..read more

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is selling his Atherton mansion for $24.5 million. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is selling his Atherton mansion for $24.5 million (Peter Lyons).  The European manor-style Walsh Estate sits on three acres in the most expensive zip code in the country. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is selling his Atherton mansion for $24.5 million (Peter Lyons).  It is comprised of a main house and a guest house, which in total spans 5,265 square feet with five bedrooms and eight bathrooms. Almost each room has a terrace for taking in the scenic grounds. The guest hous ..read more

SUNNYVALE — Google has sketched plans to trim dozens of Bay Area jobs in a disquieting reminder that the tech sector’s burst of layoffs might not be quite over. The search giant has decided to cut 50 jobs in Sunnyvale, according to a filing with the state Employment Development Department. The layoffs are slated to take place at three Google offices on Crossman Avenue, the WARN notice shows. Mountain View-based Google told the state EDD that the layoffs are slated to occur on June 15 and June 23. “Separations resulting from this action are expected to be permanent,” Lindsey MacLean, vice presi ..read more

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST | Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear an appeal from a CBD hemp oil maker fighting a lawsuit from a truck driver who says he got fired after using a product falsely advertised as being free from marijuana’s active ingredient. Douglas Horn says he took the product to help with chronic shoulder and back pain he had after a serious accident. The company said it contained CBD, a generally legal compound that is widely sold as a dietary supplement and included in personal-care products, but not THC, which gives marijuana its high, Horn said in ..read more

By Kimberly Palmer | NerdWallet Sometimes, climbing out of a money rut starts with a pep talk — to yourself. “I like affirmations and speaking out loud,” says Giovanna Gonzalez, a financial educator and author of “Cultura & Cash.” Her favorite affirmations are statements like, “I am not a reflection of my money mistakes,” “I can improve my financial situation,” and “My finances are within my control.” If you find yourself repeating frustrating money patterns, such as overspending or struggling to pay off debt, that kind of attitude shift can help get you on a different path, Gonzalez says ..read more