OAKLAND — Two men were wounded, one at least twice, in a Thursday night shooting at a West Oakland parking lot, authorities said.
Both men, one a 47-year-old Oakland man who was wounded in the head and leg and a 31-year-old San Francisco man who was hit in the leg, were in stable condition Friday at a hospital, authorities said.
The shooting happened about 9:28 p.m. Thursday in a commercial mall parking lot in the 900 block of West Grand Avenue and caused the activation of a gunshot detection alert system, authorities said.
Initial police reports were that a car drove into the parking lot and one masked man got out with a firearm while another man remained in the vehicle. Both men began shooting toward the other two men before fleeing in the vehicle.
More than two dozen shots were fired, authorities said. Some parked vehicles and a building were also hit by gunfire but no other injuries were reported.
Police have not said if the two men shot knew each other or if one or both of them were the intended targets.
A motive for the shooting is under investigation. Detailed descriptions of the shooters have not been released.
Anyone with information may call investigators at 510-238-3426.
The family of Krysta Tsukahara, one of three victims in a fatal Piedmont Tesla Cybertruck crash last November, filed a lawsuit against Tesla in an Alameda County court on Thursday, alleging the vehicle’s design failed to provide a manual door to allow their daughter to escape the vehicle.
The filing represents an escalation in the family’s pursuit of legal remedies connected to the death of their daughter in late November 2024, taking aim at the Cybertruck automaker which has come under scrutiny for eight recalls since 2024 and ongoing concerns about battery combustion.
“Her death was preventable. She was alive after the crash. She called out for help. And she couldn’t get out. We are filing this lawsuit not just for accountability, but because there are other families out there who may never know the risks until it’s too late,” Krysta’s parents, Carl and Noelle Tsukahara, said in a statement.
Krysta Tsukahara, 19, died from smoke inhalation and burns suffered in a fatal car crash on Nov. 27, 2024, in Piedmont. Her family is suing the owner of the vehicle, Charles Patterson, and the family of the driver, Soren Dixon. Courtesy of the Tsukahara family
The Tsukaharas’ lawsuit alleges Tesla had ignored concerns from customers, bystanders and first responders about the company’s reliance on electronic doors for its vehicles, according to the complaint. The lawsuit further states that Tesla was aware of the threats its electronic doors posed to vehicle occupants, according to the lawsuit, but continued to “design, market and sell” vehicles with this feature.
“Consumers lodged dozens of complaints with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), many warning that rear-seat passengers — especially children — could be trapped inside during a crash or a fire,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit calls out Tesla founder Elon Musk for being personally aware of the problems with Tesla vehicles’ doors. At a 2013 earnings call, Musk acknowledged these issues, saying that “occasionally the sensor would malfunction … so you’d pull on the door handle and it wouldn’t open.” Musk assured investors that the design flaw had been fixed, even as failures continued to happen for years, with the lawsuit citing more than 30 examples of customers’ complaints about Tesla vehicles’ doors refusing to open.
On Nov. 27, 2024, Krysta Tsukahara, after returning home for Thanksgiving break from Savannah College of Arts and Design, attended a party with other graduates of Piedmont High School. The party, held at a private residence, included alcohol consumption by minors.
Around 3 a.m., Soren Dixon, 19, convinced Tsukahara and a handful of other partygoers to go to his home at 6861 Estates Dr. to pick up a Cybertruck that was owned by his grandfather, according to court documents. Dixon drove the Cybertruck with Jack Nelson, 20, Jordan Miller, 19, and Tsukahara as his passengers as they drove along Hampton Avenue toward another Piedmont residence, according to authorities.
Dixon had consumed approximately eight alcoholic beverages that evening, according to an unidentified witness in a California Highway Patrol report. Dixon’s autopsy also confirmed the presence of 180 nanograms of cocaine and 55 nanograms of methamphetamine per milliliter of blood at the time of the crash.
Just blocks away from their destination, Dixon accelerated out of a stop sign, crashed into a tree and struck a retaining wall. Another Piedmont High graduate, Matt Riordan, had followed in a vehicle behind the Cybertruck when he came upon the wreck as flames began to consume the vehicle. Riordan used a tree branch to break the passenger door window, where he pulled Jordan Miller from the vehicle. He returned moments later to save Krysta, Nelson and Dixon.
“I could hear Krysta yelling and the car saying ‘crash detected,’ ” Riordan told authorities, according to court documents. “I went back to the broken window and yelled for them to try to get out at this window. … Krysta tried to come up, sticking her head (out) from the back, I grabbed her arm to try and pull her towards me, but she retreated because of the fire.”
In April, the Tsukaharas filed a lawsuit against Dixon’s family, claiming they had been barred from accessing the vehicle and kept in the dark by the other families affected by the crash. The Tsukaharas alleged that Dixon “negligently and carelessly drove” the vehicle, causing their daughter’s death.
The Tsukaharas’ latest lawsuit blames Tesla, too, claiming its “negligent” door design caused the sudden and tragic death of their daughter.
“Krysta was a bright light in our lives — an honors student, a creative soul, and a beloved daughter,” Carl and Noelle Tsukahara said in a statement. “We never want this to happen to anyone else.”
California shoppers’ optimism hit a three-month low, according to new polling data.
My trusty spreadsheet’s review of the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index for California showed a 4% decline in this shopper psyche measurement from August to September. This index is based on consumer surveys.
Golden State confidence has declined 23% over the past year and is 9% below its average dating to 2007.
California and President Donald Trump are not a good mix, politically or economically. The new administration’s “American First” thinking sharply contrasts with California’s globally oriented business environment.
Think about the two parts that comprise this confidence index.
California’s “present situation” index – tracking impressions of current economic conditions – was off 8% for September to a five-month low. It’s off 22% year-over-year yet remains 1% above its 19-year average.
However, the future remains the biggest question mark. California’s forward-looking “expectations” index did rise 1% in a month to its highest level in seven months. But it’s down 24% in a year and is 16% below average.
Nationally nervous
The White House’s unorthodox business policies have shaken the economy statewide and nationally. The Federal Reserve’s recent interest rate cut was a signal that the economy is, at best, cooling.
Nationwide polling found U.S. confidence fell 4% in a month to a five-month low and has declined 5% over the past year. However, the index is 3% above its average since 2007.
Americans have mixed feelings about today’s economy. The U.S. “present situation” yardstick is down 5% in a month to a 12-month low. Nevertheless, it’s up 1% in a year and 19% above its 19-year average.
Yet U.S. consumers also see an uneasy economic future. The “expectations” marker is down 2% in a month to a three-month low. It’s off 11% in a year and runs 11% below average.
Unsettled states
Five of the seven other states tracked experienced confidence dips for the month, ranked by the index change.
Illinois: Off 23% in September to a five-month low. It’s down 9% in a year, but 2% above the average.
Texas: Off 18% in September to the lowest since December 2020. It’s down 12% in a year but 18% below average.
Pennsylvania: Off 11% in September to a 12-month low. It’s up 4% in a year but 7% below average.
Ohio: Off 6% in September to the lowest since October 2016. It’s down 17% in a year but 2% above average.
Florida: Off 6% in September to a five-month low. It’s down 1% in a year, but 7% above average.
Michigan: Up 4% in September, off 3% in a year, and 17% above average.
New York: Up 13% in September to a five-month high. It’s up 13% in a year and 28% above average.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com
California drivers began receiving newly designed licenses on Wednesday, Oct. 1, the Department of Motor Vehicles announced.
The new driver’s licenses have an updated design and advanced security features, the department said in a statement.
An image of California’s redwood trees, poppies and coastline are accompanied by a digital security signature embedded in one of the two barcodes on the back — making California one of the first states to use this feature. New licenses no longer have the magnetic strip, which contains all of the information that is on front of the now-older licenses.
The updates are on the state-issued identification cards as well.
The DMV last added new security features in 2010 and redesigned licensees and IDs in 2018 with the implementation of Real ID.
“While I know some of our customers will want the new version of the driver’s license,” DMV Director Steve Gordon said in a statement, “there is no need to replace an existing license or identification card until your current one expires.”
Some migrants being held in the immigration detention center in Tacoma, Washington, have the right to request to be released on bond, under a federal judge’s order that says a new Trump administration policy denying bond hearings for jailed migrants is unlawful.
U.S. District Judge Tiffany Cartwright’s order, granting summary judgment for a class action case impacting people detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center, said certain immigrants “are not subject to mandatory detention” and holding them without the possibility of a bond hearing violates the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The immigration judges at the Tacoma detention center have long denied bond requests by migrants. In July, Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, adopted that policy for immigration judges across the country, meaning that most migrants arrested cannot be released unless the Department of Homeland Security makes an exception.
The new rule has impacted people who have lived in the county for years, even decades, their lawyers say, including a man who was detained in Iowa when he sought police help after being shot during a robbery.
Messages seeking comment from ICE, DHS and the Executive Office for Immigration Review were not immediately returned. An EOIR spokesperson sent an automatic response saying “the appropriation that funds my salary has lapsed and as a result I have been furloughed.”
Matt Adams, attorney for Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, said the Tacoma ruling only applies to people held in that city and is not precedent for ICE detention centers across the country. But a similar lawsuit filed in California by NWIRP and the American Civil Liberties Union seeks to change the rule for all immigrants, he said.
The ACLU also filed a complaint against DHS in Massachusetts, saying denying bond hearings denies the immigrants their due process rights.
“When the government arrests any person inside the United States, it must be required to prove to a judge that there is an actual reason for the person’s detention,” Daniel McFadden, managing attorney at the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in a statement. “Our client and others like him have a constitutional and statutory right to receive a bond hearing for exactly that purpose.”
The Tacoma case was filed in March on behalf of Roman Rodriguez Vazquez — who had lived in Washington state for 16 years — and others held at the ICE detention center. At the time, national data showed that Tacoma immigration judges have granted bond in only 3% of cases where bond was requested, making the Tacoma court’s bond rate the lowest in the U.S., the judge’s order says.
The new national policy issued on July 8 followed that pattern by saying: “All noncitizens who have not been lawfully admitted, including those already present in the United States, will no longer be eligible for release from ICE custody for the duration of their removal proceedings except by discretionary parole.”
Under the policy, “even those with strong ties to the community and no criminal records” are no longer eligible for a bond hearing, the judge said in her order.
Cartwright said immigrants who fall into this category have the right to seek bonds. Denying these hearings violates the primary federal law that governs immigration and citizenship in the U.S.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
On a recent Saturday near Seattle, Cheryl Ewaldsen pulled three golden loaves of wheat bread out of her kitchen oven.
The fragrant, oat-topped bread was destined not for her table, but for a local food bank, to be distributed to families increasingly struggling with hunger and the high cost of groceries.
“I just get really excited about it knowing that it’s going to someone and they’re going to make, like, 10 sandwiches,” said Ewaldsen, 75, a retired university human resources director.
Ewaldsen is a volunteer with Community Loaves, a Seattle-area nonprofit that started pairing home bakers with food pantries during the COVID-19 pandemic — and hasn’t stopped.
Since 2020, the organization headed by Katherine Kehrli, the former dean of a culinary school, has donated more than 200,000 loaves of fresh bread and some 220,000 energy cookies to food banks. They come from a network of nearly 900 bakers in four states — Washington, Oregon, California and Idaho — and represent one of the largest such efforts in the country.
“Most of our food banks do not get any kind of whole-grain sandwich bread donation,” she said. “When we ask what we could do better, they just say, ‘Bring us more.’”
Anti-hunger experts expect to see more need
Ewaldsen’s bread goes to the nearby Edmonds Food Bank, where the client list has swelled from 350 households to nearly 1,000 in the past three years, according to program manager Lester Almanza.
Nationwide, more than 50 million people a year receive charitable food assistance, according to Feeding America, a hunger relief organization.
Gauging the impact, however, could soon be more difficult after the U.S. Agriculture Department recently said it would halt an annual report on hunger in America, saying it was redundant, costly and politicized “subjective liberal fodder.” After 30 years, the 2024 report, to be released on Oct. 22, will be the last, the agency said.
“Ending data collection will not end hunger, it will only make it a hidden crisis that is easier to ignore and more difficult to address,” Crystal FitzSimons, president of the Food Research & Action Center, an advocacy group, said in a statement.
Almanza said federal funding for his food bank has dropped at least 10% this year, meaning that every donation helps.
“It’s something that a lot of people rely on,” he said.
Food bank breads are often highly processed
That includes people like Chris Redfearn, 42, and his wife, Melanie Rodriguez-Redfearn, 43, who turned to a food bank in Everett, Washington, last spring after moving to the area to find work. They had to stretch their savings until she began a new position this month teaching history at a local college. Chris Redfearn, who has worked for decades in business, is still looking.
“The food pantry assists with anywhere from $40 to $80 worth of savings weekly,” he said. “We’ve been able to keep ourselves afloat.”
Finding homemade bread from Community Loaves at a food pantry was a surprise, the couple said. Often, surplus bread sent by grocery stores includes highly processed white breads or sweets donated near their expiration or sell-by dates.
The breads come in three varieties — honey oat, whole wheat and sunflower rye — all made with whole grains and minimally processed ingredients.
“They make it really wholesome and fibrous,” Chris Redfearn said. “It mimics most of the health-conscious breads that are out there.”
Many food banks don’t accept donated baked goods
The notion of donating home-baked bread came to Kehrli, 61, during the pandemic, when she was displaced from her job at the busy Seattle Culinary Academy.
“I love to bake and just an idea sparked: Would it be possible for us to help from our home and get important valuable nutrition to our food banks?” she recalled.
Many food pantries don’t accept or distribute donations of homemade baked goods. Feeding America warns individual bakers against the practice, saying “since food banks can’t confirm how your baked goods were made or their ingredients, they can’t be donated.”
But health department rules vary by state, Kehrli learned. In Washington and the other three states where Community Loaves now operates, bread is one of the few foods allowed to be donated from a home kitchen through a program like theirs.
“We wouldn’t be able to donate custard pies. We wouldn’t be able to donate lasagna,” Kehrli said. “But bread is deemed safe. Anything that is fully baked and does not require refrigeration.”
Still, Community Loaves bakers must follow approved recipes for the bread and two types of energy cookies. They obtain flour from common sources, and bake and deliver on a shared schedule twice a month.
The bakers buy their own supplies, donating the cost of the ingredients as well as their time. Most make a few loaves per baking session before delivering them to local “hubs,” where other volunteers collect the bread and transport it to the food banks.
Bakers range from former professionals to beginners. A robust website with recipes and how-to videos backstops every step, Kehrli said.
Baking the bread is satisfying on several levels, said Ewaldsen, who has donated nearly 800 loaves in less than two years. Part of it is addressing the physical need for food, but part is also addressing the spiritual hunger for connection with neighbors.
“It’s the opportunity for me to bake something and to share something with others in the community, where they don’t necessarily need to know who I am, but they know that there’s a community that loves and cares for them,” she said.
While such sentiments are sincere and admirable, anti-hunger experts stress that individual donations can’t take the place of adequately funded government services for struggling Americans.
“It’s beautiful that our communities act this way,” said Gina Plata-Nino of the Food Research & Action Center. “But it is a loaf of bread. That is going to feed one person — and there are millions in line.”
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Puerto Rican megastar Bad Bunny is performing at the Super Bowl 60 Halftime Show at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on Feb. 8, 2026, Apple Music announced during halftime of “Sunday Night Football.”
The Latin pop sensation will make an exclusive stop in the United States during a worldwide tour for his album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” to perform at the world’s most-watched television event of the year: The Super Bowl.
The performance will be the artist’s second time at the Super Bowl after his appearance with Shakira and Jennifer Lopez during halftime at Super Bowl LIV in 2020. Bad Bunny will make history as the first male Latin artist to headline the halftime show at the 2026 Super Bowl.
Bad Bunny last performed in the Bay Area at the Chase Center in San Francisco in March 2024. The announcement of his show in Santa Clara is a surprise after his tour announcement did not include any dates in the United States, which the artist said was due to concerns about potential ICE raids and fear for his fans’ safety.
The “King of Latin Trap” advances his conquest of the world’s charts with a performance on the world’s biggest stage. Still, the singer of “Tití Me Preguntó” will have a big stadium to fill after Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy-award-winning Halftime Show in February.
NEW YORK (AP) — Albertsons Companies has recalled several of its store-made deli products because they may contain listeria bacteria, in a move that arrives shortly after federal health officials warned consumers to not eat certain pasta meals sold at Walmart and Trader Joe’s over similar contamination concerns.
The Boise, Idaho-based supermarket giant on Saturday said it was pulling five deli items because they contain a recalled bowtie pasta ingredient made by Nate’s Fine Foods. Albertsons is urging consumers to not eat these products — which were supplied by refrigerated goods distributor Fresh Creative Foods — and is instructing those impacted to throw them away or initiate a return at their local store for a full refund.
The products under recall include certain ready-to-eat basil pesto pasta salad offerings, as well as pasta dishes with chicken, spinach and other ingredients. Consumers can determine if an item they bought is impacted by looking at the list of product names, sell thru dates and other identifying information on Albertsons’ website.
The recalled items were sold in various Albertsons-owned stores — including Albertsons Market, Safeway and Von’s — across more than a dozen states.
“Listeria monocytogenes can survive in refrigerated temperatures and can easily spread to other foods and surfaces,” Albertsons warned in its release. The company also noted that the FDA instructs consumers to be extra vigilant when cleaning any surfaces or containers that may have come into contact with products recalled for possible listeria contamination.
The Associated Press reached out to Nate’s Fine Foods in California and Fresh Creative Foods, a division of Oregon-based Reser’s Fine Foods, for further statements on Sunday.
Albertsons on Saturday said that there had been no reports of injuries or illnesses related to its recalled products. But the company’s recall comes amid wider warnings from U.S. health officials about potential listeria contamination in ready-made meals sold by other retailers, some of which have previously been linked to a deadly outbreak.
Last week, the U.S. Agriculture Department issued a public health alert warning consumers to not eat Trader Joe’s “Cajun Style Blackened Chicken Breast Fettuccine Alfredo” with best-by dates of Sept. 20, Sept. 24 and Sept. 27 — as well as “Marketside Linguine with Beef Meatballs & Marinara Sauce” sold at Walmart with best-by dates of Sept. 22 through Oct. 1, due to potential listeria contamination.
No recall has been issued for either of those products, but Trader Joe’s in a company advisory urged consumers to discard or return its impacted chicken alfredo — and Walmart officials also said they put a stop on sales.
Similar to the bowtie pasta recalled at Albertsons, the pasta in these goods came from Nate’s Fine Foods.
Listeria infections can cause serious illness, particularly in older adults, people with weakened immune systems and those who are pregnant or their newborns. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions.
Roughly 1,600 people in the U.S. get sick each year from listeria infections and about 260 die, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
OAKLAND — A shooting in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood Saturday night left a man severely wounded, according to police.
The shooting occurred just before 7 p.m. Saturday evening in the 1700 block of Fruitvale Avenue, police officers stated.
The man who was wounded was transported to a local hospital and was reported to be in grave condition, according to Oakland police.
The shooting occurred after the man became involved in a confrontation with a group of men. One of the men involved in the confrontation shot the victim.
The victim was reported by police to be a man in his 30s and is believed to be an Oakland resident, police said. The victim’s name wasn’t released.
The motive for the shooting wasn’t immediately disclosed. No detailed information was immediately available regarding the suspect.
Anyone with information regarding the shooting is asked to contact the Oakland Police Department detectives who are investigating the case at 510-238-3426.
The debate over renting vs. owning has long posed a challenge for households in California. Arguments have morphed in recent years as home prices and mortgage rates soared beyond the increasing rents. To illustrate the complexities, we’ve created a hypothetical rent vs. buy scenario to track housing finances over a 30-year period. However, the math doesn’t account for the intangibles: the flexibility of renting compared to the stability of owning.
HOW MONTHLY COSTS COMPARE
Key in any housing calculation is monthly cost. Our example estimates California house rent today at $4,000 a month vs. buying a $900,000 house with a 10% down mortgage at 6.5% plus property taxes, insurance, association fees, and repairs. The scenario assumes costs grow with historical inflation and the mortgage rate is lowered twice by a half-point through refinancing.
RUNNING THE TAB
Homeowners need to repay their mortgage plus cover a range of additional costs. So renting’s total costs run cheaper for nearly two decades. But owning ends up costing slightly less over time. Here’s cumulative costs by year, in thousands of dollars.
THE BOUNTY: Ownership’s edge
Owning’s true financial benefit arises from the increasing value of the home. Assuming historical gains of 5% per year, the owners gets a $3.8 million asset after 30 years. The renter, who hypothetically invested the $90,000 down payment in the stock market, would accumulate $929,000. Here’s investment value by year, in thousands of dollars.
WHERE IT GOES
Look at the slices of 30 years of housing expenditures, rent vs. own. The renter just pays the landlord. Owner costs go to principal and interest on the mortgage, property taxes, home insurance, association fees, and repair and maintenance costs. Note: Interest payments and property taxes can be tax deductible.
A HISTORY LESSON
Look at the past 30 years of historical returns for three key factors in this rent vs. buy calculation, using 10-year moving averages for rent (California Consumer Price Indexes); home values (federal California index) and stocks (Standard & Poor’s 500).
Unfathomable, unaffordable
California’s long-running and steep affordability crunch makes the rent vs. buy debate a moot argument for many people. Housing costs throttle numerous California family budgets. The state’s flock of high- paying jobs pushes up housing costs well past what more typical paychecks can easily afford. That’s true for households considering renting or buying.
Stagnant ownership
Stubbornly high ownership costs have kept California’s share of people living in homes they own relatively stable, except for a temporary surge in the early 2000s when mortgages were too easily obtained. Those risky loans played a key role in the Great Recession, as borrowers defaulted in huge numbers.
Housing afforability index
It’s tough to be a California homebuyer. The estimated number of Californians earning the statewide median income who could comfortably purchase a single-family home is falling sharply, according to a California Association of Realtors index. The Golden State share of qualified buyers is significantly below the national norm.
Housing-cost stresses
The 2024 edition of Census housing data details how California’s cost of shelter varies between renters and homeowners — with or without mortgages on the property.
But because renters typically earn less than owners, it’s more likely that their housing costs exceed 50% of their household incomes, an extreme level of financial stress.
Big housing worries
A statewide survey last year asked “How often do you worry about the cost of housing for you and your family?” Those who said “every day” or “almost every day” …
After Starbucks announced it would be shutting hundreds of stores, its website is listing dozens in the Bay Area as being closed as of Sunday, Sept. 28.
To check if a store is on the closure list, go to the Starbucks store locator online, find your desired outlet and click the information icon to check whether it will be open beyond this week.
As of Sept. 26, the following stores were slated for a Sept. 28 closure:
By PAUL WISEMAN, BARBARA ORTUTAY and PIYUSH NAGPAL, Associated Press
The Trump administration’s abrupt decision to slap a $100,000 fee on H-1B visas has stunned and confused employers, students and workers from the United States to India and beyond.
Since announcing the decision Friday, the White House has tried to reassure jittery companies that the fee does not apply to existing visa holders and that their H-1B employees traveling abroad will not be stranded, unable to re-enter the United States without coming up with $100,000. The new policy took effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Sunday.
Despite the effort at reassurance, “there’s still some folks out there recommending to their H-1B employees that they not travel right now until it’s a little clearer,” Leon Rodriguez, a partner at the Seyfarth law firm who was director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration.
Other questions remain, some of them basic. “What actually is the process for paying this $100,000,” Rodriguez said. “Usually, when an agency is going to charge a fee, there’s a whole process. There’s the creation of forms for collecting that fee. … At this point, we don’t actually know what that process will be like.”
“Key questions remain, such as whether the new fee will apply to universities and nonprofit research organizations, employers that Congress has exempted from the annual limit on H-1B visas,” said Bo Cooper, partner at the immigration law firm Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy.
Here’s a look at what the H-1B visa program is and what the Trump administration is doing to it.
What are H-1B visas and who uses them?
Created by the 1990 Immigration Act, they are type of nonimmigrant visa, meant to allow American companies to bring in people with technical skills that are hard to find in the United States. The visas are not intended for people who want to stay permanently. Some eventually do, but only after transitioning to different immigration statuses.
An H-1B allows employers to hire foreign workers who have specialized skills and a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent. They are good for three years and can be extended another three years, suggesting that there are now “around 700,000 H-1B visa holders in the country and another half a million or so dependents,” economist Stephen Brown of Capital Economics wrote in a commentary Monday.
At least 60% of the H-1B visas approved since 2012 have been for computer-related jobs, according to the Pew Research Center. But hospitals, banks, universities and a wide range of other employers can and do apply for H-1B visas.
The number of new visas issued annually is capped at 65,000, plus an additional 20,000 for people with a master’s degree or higher. Those visas are handed out by a lottery. Some employers, such as universities and nonprofits, are exempt from the limits.
According to Pew, nearly three-quarters of those whose applications were approved in 2023 came from India.
What did Trump do?
The White House announced the $100,000 fee. The application fee is currently $215, plus other relatively nominal processing charges. It took effect barely 24 hours later.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the fee would be applied annually, for a total of $600,000 over the maximum number of renewals allowed. The White House clarified Saturday that it was a one-time fee and said it would not apply to current visa holders.
Trump also rolled out a $1 million “gold card” visa for wealthy individuals.
The moves are certain to draw lawsuits charging that the president was improperly sidestepping Congress with a dramatic overhaul of the legal immigration system.
Why target H-1B visas?
Critics say they undercut American workers, luring people from overseas who are often willing to work for less than American tech workers do. Staffing companies such as Tata Consultancy Services often supply Indian workers to corporate clients.
“To take advantage of artificially low labor costs incentivized by the program, companies close their IT divisions, fire their American staff, and outsource IT jobs to lower-paid foreign workers,” the White House said in its proclamation Friday.
In a 2020 report, the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that 60% of the H-1B positions certified by U.S. Labor Department are assigned wages below the median for the job.
Brown at Capital Economics wrote that “it is hard to disagree with the administration’s argument that the program needs reform.”
Giovanni Peri, director of the Global Migration Center at the University of California, Davis, said that abuses of the program — such as bringing in mid-level coders to replace higher-paid Americans — do occur but are relatively rare.
Most H-1B visa holders, he said, really are highly skilled workers who are hard to find. “Most of these people come in, and they have helped the productivity of firms; they have helped innovation,” Peri said. “They have complemented the work of Americans, and they have allowed growth.’’
What impact will the H-1B crackdown have?
Brown said that many tech firms can probably afford to pay $100,000 to bring in skilled workers.
“Nonetheless,″ he wrote, “the upfront fee will clearly be too high for many companies to stomach. Last year, the healthcare, retail and accommodation & food services sectors accounted for a quarter of H-1B visas between them, and firms in those sectors will probably find it harder to afford the fee.″
The higher fee — along with other Trump administration attempts to curb immigration — is likely to reduce the U.S. labor supply and push wages higher, Brown said.
Foreign workers like Alan Wu are worried – and stunned by the speed with which Trump disrupted the H-1B process. “Can you release some policy which impacts tons of people just like that?” said Wu, who is working in Indianapolis as a data scientist for a pharmaceutical company.
He is working legally on his student visa after earning a doctorate. He’s failed to win the H-1B lottery for two consecutive years. And he’s now rethinking his plan to live permanently in the United States, where he’s lived for more than a decade. “I am definitely concerned about my job now that the cost and risk of hiring a foreigner is so high,” he said.
Navneet Singh, who runs a consultancy “Go Global Immigration” in India’s Punjab state, said changes to H-1B visa policies are likely to significantly impact future migration to the U.S., particularly from India.
“Trump is trying to suffocate new immigrants who are skilled, so that they won’t take the jobs away from the average American. But by doing so, they will be making (U.S.) production expensive,” Singh said.
He said the new policy is likely to create advantages for competitors in other countries. “Countries like France, Netherlands, Germany and Canada are set to gain from this move,” he added.
Some Indian students aspiring to pursue higher studies in the U.S. are disappointed. “It feels like a door closing,” said one aspiring student who requested anonymity.
What businesses will be hurt the most?
Greg Morrisett, dean and vice provost at Cornell Tech, said startups and small businesses are likely to be the most affected by the fees since there’s “no way they can” pay them. Cornell Tech, for instance, has launched about 120 startups and the “vast majority” have students coming from overseas. The result? “They’ll pick up and move to Europe or Asia, wherever they can find,” he said.
“The big tech companies will likely move a lot of operations and things into other countries. We saw this when, for example, you know, Ireland made it really attractive from a tax perspective. All of a sudden all the headquarters move to Ireland,” Morrisett said.
And startups, he added, “the next Amazon, the next Google will give up here and go somewhere else and then we won’t have that advantage in the next generation of tech leadership.”
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Barbara Ortutay reported from Oakland, California, and Piyush Nagpal from New Delhi, India.
Authorities at CHP’s Contra Costa office received a call around 3:26 a.m. Saturday of a sideshow involving over 100 vehicles blocking the intersection of Pomona Street and Merchant Street near the entrance and exit ramp for I-80 westbound on Pomona Street.
Upon arriving at the scene, officers received reports of a spectator who climbed over the concrete safety barrier of the Pomona Street entrance ramp to westbound I-80 and fell to the ground. The responding officers went to the site where the teenager fell. Their preliminary investigation indicated that the boy had climbed over the barrier and accidentally fallen to the ground below. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
CHP said the incident is under investigation. Anyone who witnessed the incident or the events leading up to it are instructed to contact CHP’s Contra Costa office in Martinez at 925-646-4980 or email your contact information to 320Investigations@chp.ca.gov to be contacted by the investigating officer.
SAN JOSE — Wide-ranging efforts are underway to find merchants to fill the empty ground-floor spaces along two sides of the Signia by Hilton San Jose, endeavors that could help lift the downtown economy if they succeed.
Colliers, a commercial real estate firm, has begun to scout for dining establishments and retailers for the hotel tower at 170 South Market St.
“We are looking to lease about 30,000 square feet of spaces at the Signia,” said Nick Goddard, a senior vice president with Colliers. “We are going to put some high-end restaurants in some of those spaces. These will be very fine, swanky dining establishments.”
Some of the spaces will be leased to retailers, such as personal salons and spas, according to Goddard.
“We are already getting inquiries from some top-level restaurants,” Goddard said.
The spaces are for the sides of the building that front on the Paseo de San Antonio and South First Street, according to Goddard.
“Marketing efforts are not the problem with filling these spaces, it’s the uncertainty of the time and cost it will take to permit and occupy the spaces,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use and planning consultancy.
Finding more merchants for downtown San Jose is deemed crucial ahead of the potential influx of visitors expected to attend three mega sports events that are slated to occur in the South Bay during 2026.
“The City of San Jose needs to step up and provide proactive assistance in filling these key spaces,” Staedler said. “The wait-and-see approach has not been working to date. We don’t need to wait until after 2026 to realize that this is a problem.”
The 541-room, 22-story Signia by Hilton is San Jose’s largest hotel and was seized by its lender, BrightSpire Capital, through a foreclosure on May 12.
The lender’s foreclosure placed a value of $80 million on the hotel, which was 41% below the $134 million loan for the property.
During a July conference call with Wall Street analysts to discuss financial results, BrightSpire discussed its plans for the hotel in the wake of the foreclosure.
“Our intention is to make much-needed and neglected physical and operational improvements to the property ahead of significant events taking place in the Bay Area through mid-2026,” BrightSpire CEO Mike Mazzei told analysts. “We want to do things that we need to do to get that hotel fully operational and in peak condition before those events.”
The hotel fell into some level of disrepair as the prior ownership group was preoccupied with three court proceedings that were filed in an attempt to retain control of the property, according to BrightSpire.
“During the protracted foreclosure process, the hotel experienced meaningful deferred maintenance,” Mazzei said. “There was some distress at the asset. There were just basic things like elevators. Some elevators were not operating and offline.”
San Jose hotel operators hope to capitalize on the Super Bowl, multiple matches for the FIFA World Cup, and several of the games of the men’s college basketball tournament that are being held in the South Bay in 2026.
SAN JOSE — Rosendin Electric, a century-old electrical contractor born out of a San Jose garage in 1919, purchased a San Jose research and office complex known as The Orchards in a deal that enables the firm to gather multiple operations into a unified work hub.
Barings, a real estate investment firm, was the seller of the 144,900-square-foot two-building property at 3000 and 3030 Orchard Parkway.
Through the deal, a Barings affiliate was paid $23 million for the buildings and received an additional undisclosed amount paid by two departing tenants to terminate their leases, according to multiple sources familiar with the transaction. The $23 million that Rosendin paid Barings was disclosed in a grant deed filed with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office on Aug. 29.
Newmark commercial real estate brokers Joe Kelly, Jon Mackey, Steven Golubchik and Edmund Najera and Colliers commercial real estate broker Michael Rosendin arranged the transaction.
The deal is a fresh indicator of heightened interest in purchases or leases of office sites in north San Jose.
— Vibrant Wellness paid $17.5 million in September for an office building at 3100 North First St. that the biotech company can use for expanded operations.
The East Palo Alto housekeeper with a chronic health condition who fainted while being arrested by ICE agents early this week has been discharged from Stanford Medical Center to a federal detention facility in Bakersfield, U.S. Rep. Sam Liccardo said Saturday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had been posted at her hospital room since she was arrested with an expired visa Monday, and prohibited her family from visiting most of the week, even forbidding flowers with a notecard from her father. The agency did not respond to a request for comment Saturday morning, or earlier inquiries during the week.
Aleyda “Yeny” Rodriguez, in a photo from her family’s gofundme page, remains at Stanford Medical Center with ICE posted outside her door after being arrested in East Palo Alto with an expired visa. (Courtesy of Rodriguez family)
Aleyda “Yeny” Rodriguez, 47, has a blood disorder exacerbated by stress that causes her to faint, her family has said. They declined to comment Saturday.
Stanford wouldn’t disclose Rodriguez’s health condition when she was discharged, but said in a statement that “throughout the patient’s stay at Stanford Health Care, our clinicians provided all necessary care.”
Liccardo, a Democrat who represents much of Santa Clara and parts of San Mateo county and was participating in a Half Moon Bay beach cleanup Saturday, said he has been in touch with federal officials about her case. They told him that Rodriguez will have access to her phone Saturday to contact family.
“Yeny’s arrest, which may have been perfectly legal under existing laws, exemplifies the devastation and trauma that this deeply misguided and cruel immigration policy is wreaking throughout our country,” Liccardo said in an interview Saturday. “We need to persuade more Americans and the other half of Congress of the extraordinarily important role that millions of our neighbors like her play in our families and our communities.”
Rodriguez was arrested Monday morning while dropping off her husband at her brother’s East Palo Alto house to start his day as a gardener. Her husband, Oscar Flores, managed to run to a neighbor’s house, where ICE agents stopped their pursuit because without a warrant they are prohibited from stepping onto private property, immigration lawyers say. Their nephew, Dario Jasso, had been arrested earlier that morning while getting into his vehicle to head to his construction job.
Jasso, 29, had contacted his family earlier this week to say he was being held at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center, where his aunt now is being held. Flores videotaped the arrest of his wife, who was heard screaming while agents handcuffed her behind her back while on her knees. She fainted on the way to the ICE van, while her husband yelled in Spanish, “she’s sick! If she dies it’s your fault.”
Flores is in hiding, but told the Mercury News earlier this week that he and his wife had 10-year tourist visas that expired two years ago. They had no other criminal record, he said, not even a speeding ticket.
“I certainly heard that the target of her arrest was somebody else in the family,” Liccardo said, “and so we’re still trying to understand this and get more information.”
Rodriguez’s father, Armando Rodriguez Garcia, had told the Mercury News that he traveled from Mexico to California on a tourist visa several weeks ago intending to take his daughter back to Mexico with him because she was “tired here.” He said he hoped he could take her home instead of having her experience the stresses of ICE custody, which were life threatening. The trauma of the arrest itself, he said, led to her weeklong hospital stay.
The Trump Administration had once said its priority was arresting immigrants with criminal records, but has since expanded its operations over the past several months, hiring scores of agents to arrest those with expired visas. Federal agents only need probable cause to believe someone is in the U.S. illegally to make an arrest on public property.
Liccardo said that he said he and fellow Democrats are working with organizations “to see how we can start to rally employers in red states and red districts as we start to see the impacts of these immigration policies on our agricultural industry, on health care, on elder care, on tech, construction and many industries where we know immigrants are critical to the substance of our economy.”
He added that they are “working to essentially find allies who can communicate with Republicans who suffer from wobbly knees, if they can stiffen their spines.”
BRENTWOOD – After numerous discussions and pushback, Brentwood has established an ordinance that prevents tobacco retailers from being within 500 feet of a youth-oriented establishment.
The Brentwood City Council on Tuesday refined its definition of a youth-oriented establishment as any public or privately owned and operated elementary school, middle school, secondary school, high school, or other institution providing academic instruction for students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
The definition does not include any alternative education facilities, such as daycare or tutoring establishments.
In May, the city had proposed that the tobacco ordinance also include public libraries, youth centers, and any business establishment likely to be frequented by minors, such as arcades, bowling alleys, or skating rinks, among others, to be defined as youth-oriented establishments.
It also proposed a 250-foot distance requirement from those establishments.
However, business owners who sell tobacco-related products expressed concern that the change would reduce revenue or potentially put them out of business.
At Tuesday’s meeting, some councilmembers felt the initial definition of youth-oriented establishments was too broad and agreed that it needed to be narrowed. Some also said the ordinance was not meant to punish businesses, but stricter rules needed to be established to protect youth.
Councilmember Jovita Mendoza stated that the school district had come forward requesting assistance.
“I wish we had an SRO (school resource officer) here because they can tell you the problems we have at our schools right now, the bathroom. My kids have graduated, thank God, because they couldn’t even use the bathroom in the schools because everyone was smoking and vaping and doing things they shouldn’t be doing,” said Mendoza. “Someone said that it’s the parents and the teachers who should be doing things. It was our school that came up and said, ‘Hey, we need help. We can’t do this alone,’ and so that was a catalyst for everything that we’re doing.”
Vice Mayor Pa’tanisha Pierson said the council took the voices of residents and business owners into consideration.
“But we are not going to make everyone happy, and so we’ll try our best,” said Pierson. “This is what we do on council.”
The newly passed ordinance also capped the number of tobacco retailer licenses within the city at 41.
All tobacco retailers must be registered to obtain a license within 30 days from Oct. 9, when the ordinance is expected to take effect.
Existing tobacco retailers who do not meet the 500-foot separation requirement will be issued a 12-month “Wind-Down Permit,” which provides businesses some time to sell their tobacco products and stocks, or wind down their tobacco retail operations.
Interim City Manager Darin Gale said this will give retailers time “to figure things out,” since they are no longer able to sell tobacco-related products.
However, it is unknown how many businesses will be directly impacted by the ordinance yet, Mayor Susannah Meyer said.
“We will not know how many businesses are impacted until staff have the chance to redraw the (city’s) map with the new definition and distance,” said Meyer.
During public comment on Tuesday, Matt Strauch, from Strauch & Company and Strauch Brother Incorporation, who own and operate two ARCO AM/PM stores in Brentwood, said he and his brother have “poured decades of hard work” to develop their businesses.
Strauch said the company has gone “above and beyond” in terms of tobacco compliance and has trained every staff member to check for identification for customers under 35.
“We don’t sell flavored vapes, the product kids actually seek out, but this ordinance treats us the same as businesses that haven’t followed the rules. It puts a huge part of our revenue at risk, not because of anything we’ve done wrong, but simply because of where we’re located,” said Strauch.
He said that other cities have taken a more “compassionate approach” and have allowed license transferability, as well as exempting existing businesses from the distance buffer.
Ronit Shirwagi, a member of the Courage Youth Health Coalition and a senior at Dougherty Valley High School in San Ramon, said tobacco products among high schoolers have been extremely prevalent and accessible.
He said many students take up smoking due to peer pressure and educating students on the dangers of nicotine and tobacco can only do so much.
“Having the proper policy changes like the one proposed will be the most significant change that will reduce teens’ access to tobacco retailers,” said Shirwagi. “With the right policies in place, students will be protected from the pressures and easy access that fuel this issue and will be one more step closer in creating a smoke-free society.”
San Mateo County in a lawsuit filed this week claims the State of California “shorted” it and its 20 cities $38 million in funds distributed annually under a decades-old deal involving vehicle-license fees that is now enshrined in law.
California’s unprecedented “raid” on the funding stream deprived San Mateo County and cities from East Palo Alto to Daly City of “critical” funds for serving residents, while giving a “windfall” to the state, the lawsuit filed Monday in San Francisco County Superior Court claimed.
The lawsuit accuses California of breaking a legal requirement to provide the funding, and seeks a court order mandating payment of the $38 million, plus unspecified damages.
Named as defendants are the State of California along with state Finance Department Director Joe Stephenshaw and State Controller Malia Cohen. A spokesperson for the Finance Department said the department had not seen the lawsuit yet and couldn’t comment on it.
“Once we receive it and review it we will obviously have a filing with the court in response,” said department spokesman H.D. Palmer.
State Controller’s office spokesman Bismarck Obando said none of the lawsuit’s allegations “pertain to the State Controller in her official capacity.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to questions about the lawsuit.
The lawsuit revolves around a complicated compensation scheme for counties and cities, based in part on how far property taxes in a county’s school districts go toward meeting education-funding requirements. The process dates back to 2004, when local governments agreed to receive a reduced share of vehicle-licensing fees, in exchange for annual payments from the state to compensate them for the loss.
“The funding formula was supposed to treat every county the same, but because of how our schools are structured, San Mateo gets left out — and our residents pay the price,” said San Mateo County Executive Mike Callagy.
Under the arrangement, San Mateo County gets about 60% of the compensatory funds for the county region, with the rest shared among its 20 cities.
San Jose State University welcomed a record number of students for the fall 2025 semester, despite concerns that the Trump administration’s crackdown on higher education would cause a drop in fall enrollment.
The university said Monday nearly 40,000 students enrolled at San Jose State for the fall semester — an 8% increase from last year and the highest enrollment total for a single academic term in the university’s 168-year history.
San Jose State also said it welcomed its largest-ever classes of first-year students, transfers and undergraduate students, with more than 5,100 first-year students, 3,600 transfer students and a total of 8,700 new undergraduate students.
SJSU said it also saw a record number of students enrolled in its online programs for the fall 2025 semester, with 850 students enrolled — a 30% increase from last year. The university said its professional and continuing education programs — post-secondary learning opportunities for working adults — saw an all-time high of nearly 5,000 students enrolled.
The announcement comes as San Jose State University is one of many universities across the state and nation facing increasing scrutiny by the Trump administration.
San Jose State is currently under a federal investigation over a potential civil rights violation for allowing transgender athletes to compete on women’s teams, stemming from national scrutiny the university faced last year when the co-captain of the San Jose State women’s volleyball team joined a lawsuit accusing the NCAA of discriminating against women by allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports.
NEW YORK — Federal auto safety regulators are investigating why Tesla has repeatedly broken rules requiring it to quickly tell them about crashes involving its self-driving technology, a potentially significant development given the company’s plans to put hundreds of thousands of driverless cars on U.S. roads over the next year.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a filing on Thursday that Tesla’s reports on “numerous” incidents involving its driver assistance and self-driving features were submitted far too late — several months after the crashes instead of within five days as required.
The probe comes two months after the electric vehicle maker run by Elon Musk started a self-driving taxi service in Austin, Texas, with hopes of soon offering it nationwide. The company also hopes to send over-the-air software updates to millions of Teslas already on the road that will allow them to drive themselves.
Investors enthusiastic about such plans have kept Tesla stock aloft despite plunging sales and profits due to boycotts over Musk’s support for U.S. President Donald Trump and far-right politicians in Europe.
The safety agency said the probe will focus on why Tesla took so long to report the crashes, whether the reports included all the necessary data and details and if there are crashes that the agency still doesn’t know about.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment, but the agency noted that the company has told it the delays were “due to an issue with Tesla’s data collection,” which Tesla says has now been fixed.
The new investigation follows another probe that began in October into potential problems with Tesla’s self-driving technology in foggy weather and other low visibility conditions, which has been linked to several accidents including one death. That probe involves 2.4 million Tesla vehicles.
The crash reporting rule for vehicles using Level 2 driver-assistance software, or those that require drivers to pay full attention to the road, was implemented in 2021. Since then Tesla has reported 2,308 crashes when the software was used, the vast majority of the more than 2,600 reported by all automakers, according to agency data. The numbers are skewed by the fact that Tesla is by far the dominant maker of partial self-driving vehicles in the U.S.
The company has been offering robotaxi rides in Austin to only a select group of riders, but said it will allow any paying customer to hail its cabs starting sometime in September, according to a Musk post on X earlier this month. Tesla has also begun allowing limited robotaxi service in San Francisco with a driver behind the wheel as a safety check to conform with California rules.
Investors in Tesla were initially cheered after Trump won the presidency in hopes he would reward his biggest financial backer, Musk, by getting safety regulators to go easier on the company. Now that isn’t so certain given Musk’s falling out with the president in recent months after Musk called Trump’s budget bill an “abomination” that would add to U.S. debt and threatened to form a new political party.
Tesla stock fell less than 1% in afternoon trading Thursday to $321.
