Tag: pm report

Going to the Super Bowl? Here’s the special menu

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Every NFL season, the Levi’s Stadium chefs try to take their menu to a new level of creativity. But when the Super Bowl comes to town, and fans are paying thousands of dollars to attend, the expectations soar.

So to impress the crowd on Sunday, the culinary team headed by Jon Severson, Levy regional chef, and Alvin Kabiling, executive chef for Levy at Levi’s Stadium, has created a “best of the bay” menu.

They’re showcasing signature ingredients from Marin County (oysters) to San Francisco/Half Moon Bay (crab) to the South Bay (garlic) along with locally sourced meat, cheese and produce.

According to the Levy company, which is the stadium food partner, 90 percent of the purveyors are based in California.

Pulling together a fan feast like this requires a sizeable staff. On game day, 2,000 Levy culinary, bar and serving team members will be working with 40 executive chefs behind the scenes. (Keep that in mind when you grouse about the prices.)

Here are some highlights:

Gilroy Garlic Steak Frites: A seared, sliced California hanger steak will be served au poivre atop hand-cut fries with crispy Gilroy garlic and pink peppercorns. Where: Sections 109 and 315, and in the East Field Club.

Dungeness Crab “Potachos”: Hand-cut Kennebec potato chips are layered with local crab — thankfully, the Bay Area’s beloved Dungeness season started in time — and then covered in a Petaluma white cheddar fondue sauce. Where: Sections 104, 124 and 306, and in the East Field Club.

“Super Shucker” Hog Island Oyster Sampler: This platter will feature a half-dozen oysters sourced from Hog Island’s Marin County farm in Marshall, and served with Hogwash mignonette, lemon and hot sauce. Where: Bud Light Club.

A dozen more special menu items will be available, along with the favorites — many from local restaurants — that the 49er faithful have been served all season.

The cocktail menu is wildly creative too. To commemorate the trip to the Bay Area for out-of-towners, there’s the “Karl the Fog” Misty Spritz. Because fans may not have seen much of Karl in S.F. during this sunny week, this misty mixture of Tanqueray Gin. elderflower liqueur, club soda and fresh lemon juice may have to suffice. Where: 400 East Club.

On the bright side is the Santa Clara Sunrise, which is Astral Blanco tequila with fresh orange juice and cherry juice. Where: East Field Club, Bud Light Club and 400 East Club.

Find more food, drink options at https://levisstadium.com.

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Linda Zavoral

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February 7, 2026
How should Richmond spend its $550 million Chevron settlement? City leaders want to know

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RICHMOND — As half a billion dollars from Chevron start to flow into Richmond’s coffers, city leaders want to know exactly how residents would like to see that money spent.

To get those answers, councilmembers have agreed to set aside up to $300,000 to contract out support that would facilitate community feedback. A central goal of the initiative, approved during a meeting Tuesday, is to develop a “just transition” away from the fossil fuel industry while ensuring community buy-in for how the dollars are spent.

“We’re in that moment where we actually do have to be as careful and as thoughtful as we can to make decisions for the future,” said Vice Mayor Doria Robinson, who drafted the item with Councilmember Claudia Jimenez and Mayor Eduardo Martinez. “We’re making a huge turning point for our city if we do it right. Or we can do it like the way people who win the lottery, go out and buy a bunch of fancy things and then be broke in 10 years.”

The $550 million Richmond is poised to collect stems from an agreement it negotiated with the Richmond Chevron Refinery. In exchange for the funds, the council agreed to remove a tax measure, dubbed the Make Polluters Pay campaign, from the November 2024 ballot. If approved by voters, the measure would have brought in between $60 million and $90 million annually by charging Chevron for every barrel of raw material that was processed at the plant.

Representatives from the two local nonprofit organizations behind the Make Polluters Pay campaign – Asian Pacific Environmental Network Action and Communities for a Better Environment – endorsed the councilmembers’ plan during Tuesday’s meeting.

“The additional and hard won $550 million is a chance for Richmond to both fully fund the crucial improvements in the neighborhoods and help build that just economy independent of the fossil fuel industry,” said Emma Ishii, a local policy coordinator with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network.

Members of the public who spoke on Tuesday also backed the plan, but some alternatively said they did not want an outsider without a historical understanding of Richmond dictating the outreach process or how the dollars are kept and spent.

Councilmember Jamelia Brown, the only councilmember to vote against the measure, said spending $300,000 on the effort “seems crazy.” She asked that the maximum contract amount be reduced but was denied by her colleagues after City Manager Shasa Curl said a project with such a wide scope may require the support of multiple firms.

The firm or firms leading the project will be asked to develop a scientific approach to widely surveying the public. But councilmembers are also interested in developing investment strategies while expanding on a preliminary expenditures framework that would see funds go toward large scale projects that would generate new tax revenue, efforts the provide direct support to residents, projects proposed and developed by residents, improvements to city services and increasing staffing in areas that further the goals of the funds.

Brown shared concerns the project would result in a report that will go unused, and questioned how the city would ensure all Richmond voices were heard. Brown said those behind the Make Polluters Pay campaign are “amazing stakeholders,” but they don’t represent the entirety of Richmond.

As representative of District 1, a historically socioeconomically disadvantaged part of town, Brown said her constituents are more likely to say public safety, clean streets and youth programming are more of a concern than air quality.

“I really want us to get real about our relationship with Chevron. It’s like a person we say we don’t want to be with but we’re constantly accepting gifts and money from,” Brown said. “We say we want this just transition. We want to move away from Chevron. But we’re constantly in tango with Chevron time and time again.”

In a separate item on the Tuesday agenda, Councilmember Cesar Zepeda proposed the city seek public input on what to do with the settlement funds using only city staff and existing resources. Zepeda said he’s already been meeting with community members and argued the funds spent on contracting out services could go to other important issues.

A majority of councilmembers, including Zepeda, ultimately agreed to find a third-party contractor after finance department staff explained that the city did not currently have the capacity or the expertise to lead the project.

Councilmember Soheila Bana said she was confused by the measure and abstained from voting. She had previously argued the city needed to provide the community with more information before asking them to weigh in on a strategy for holding and spending the money.

Recognizing concerns around equitable and unbiased outreach, Councilmember Sue Wilson also requested that whatever firm is selected returns to the council to detail their community engagement plan.

“All individuals and all community groups should be equally treated regardless of whether they played a role in (the Make Polluters Pay campaign),” Wilson said.

Eager to begin the process, councilmembers asked that a request for proposals be issued as soon as possible. Other initiatives will likely need to be deprioritized to meet the council’s demands, Curl said. Staff will give the council an update on the process in March, she added.

Meanwhile, what funds the city receives from the settlement with Chevron will remain in an investment fund until a plan for what to do with the money is complete. So far, the city has received one $50 million payment.

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Sierra Lopez

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January 28, 2026
Wind-battered Lick Observatory rushes to shield historic telescope after dome damage

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Winds exceeding 110 mph that tore across the top of Mount Hamilton early Christmas morning blasted a massive steel protective door off the iconic white dome at Lick Observatory.

Now, with back-to-back rainstorms bearing down on the Bay Area, officials this week are racing to seal the gaping hole and protect the historic Great Lick Refractor telescope beneath it.

“I’ve never seen or even heard of damage like this to a dome,” said Lick Observatory site superintendent Jamey Eriksen.

The Christmas Day storm that brought winds of 110 mph to the top of Mt Hamilton where the James Lick Observatory sits brought down the 60-foot crescent steel door that once covered half the dome’s vertical opening. The door landed onto an adjoining building where it broke windows and splintered attic beams. (Photo by Jamey Eriksen/UCSC Lick Observatory)

The damage threatens one of the Bay Area’s most significant scientific landmarks — a telescope that helped shape modern astronomy and still draws thousands of visitors each year to the mountaintop east of San Jose.

From the Bay Area below, the dome sheltering the Great Refractor still appears intact. Up close, the damage is stark: a multi-ton, 60-foot crescent of steel that once covered half the dome’s vertical opening is gone. It was one of two giant doors that slid open to reveal the night sky, then closed again to protect the telescope from the elements. Now it lies on the pavement beside the dome.

Inside, an all-hands scramble by a skeleton holiday-season crew helped avert worse damage. Beneath the dome, the 57-foot-long Great Refractor telescope is wrapped in black plastic tarps from eyepiece to lens assembly. Above it, the fallen door has left a gap in the steel dome roughly 4 feet wide and 10 feet tall, with a larger opening below it covered only by a fabric windscreen.

The Christmas Day storm that brought winds of 110 mph to the top of Mt Hamilton where the James Lick Observatory sits brought down the 60-foot crescent steel door that once covered half the dome’s vertical opening. The door landed onto an adjoining building where it broke windows and splintered attic beams. (Photo by Jamey Eriksen/UCSC Lick Observatory)

This week’s first storm is expected to dump about an inch of rain atop Mount Hamilton on Wednesday evening into Thursday morning. A second storm could add another inch Friday and Saturday, National Weather Service meteorologist Dial Hoang said Tuesday.

“Lenses, of course, don’t like water,” Lick astronomer Elinor Gates said. “Electrical equipment doesn’t like water.”

What a permanent fix will look like remains unclear. Even a temporary solution has proven difficult. Contractors suggested drilling into the surface of the dome — built in the 1880s — to fasten sheets of plywood or other materials over the opening. Eriksen rejected that approach, saying the solution will likely involve attaching large sheets of wood or siding to the dome’s interior steel framework instead. Tarps may also be suspended beneath the opening to catch any rain that gets through.

“It is not an easy solution,” Eriksen said. “We’re just trying to get through, protect this amazing telescope and building.”

Why the steel door fell off remains unclear. It initially crashed down onto an adjoining building, breaking windows and splintering attic beams, before a crane hoisted it and lowered it to the ground.

“Every winter we get very strong winds of 90 to 100 miles per hour,” Gates said. “This just seemed to have been a little more sustained than usual.”

The dome’s aging hardware may have made it vulnerable, she added. Newer research telescopes at Lick appeared undamaged and will continue operating, according to the University of California, which owns and operates the observatory.

When the damage was discovered Christmas morning, the roughly 10 staff members who had not left for the holidays rushed to the dome as rain fell and winds continued to buffet the peak.

“The set of skills up here is very good,” Eriksen said. “We worked full blast Christmas and the next day.”

Sensitive equipment and historical artifacts — including the Mills spectrograph used in the observatory’s early days to measure the colors of light emitted by stars and galaxies — were wheeled out as rain blew inside and winds swirled through the opening.

Gates and others mopped the circular wood-laminate floor surrounding the telescope, which sits atop elevators that raise it about 16 feet for observation. Others climbed a spiral staircase along the pedestal that supports the instrument. A 60-foot black tarp was cut in half, wrapped around each side of the telescope and secured with ratchet straps and minimal duct tape.

$Lick Observatory astronomer Elinor Gates stands outside the damaged dome housing a 36-inch Lick Refractor telescope on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. A large metal shutter was torn off the dome during a recent wind storm. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)$
Lick Observatory astronomer Elinor Gates stands outside the damaged dome housing a 36-inch Lick Refractor telescope on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. A large metal shutter was torn off the dome during a recent wind storm. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)

“We had nothing falling inside the dome but water,” Gates said — an outcome staff described as a relief under the circumstances. “We’re reasonably certain the telescope is fine, and that is a huge relief because of course the telescope is the heart and soul of this place.”

Built between 1880 and 1888, the Great Refractor — with lenses 3 feet across — was once the largest lens-based telescope in the world. For the 100 years after it was hauled up Mount Hamilton by horses and mules, it ranked among astronomy’s premier research instruments. It gained worldwide fame in 1892 after astronomers used it to discover Jupiter’s fifth moon, Amalthea, almost 300 years after Galileo identified the planet’s first four.

Later advances in mirror-based telescopes eventually eclipsed its scientific dominance.

But, said Andrew Fraknoi, former head of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and an astronomy professor at the University of San Francisco, the telescope “remains both a great teaching tool, and a historical place where generations of students were trained.”

Still the second-largest refracting telescope in the world, it anchors Lick’s popular visitor programs, which draw adults and children eager to peer through its eyepiece into distant galaxies.

“At many observatories, you just showcase the science and you go to museums for the history,” Fraknoi said. “But here, you have a combination of both the history and science.”

A safety hard hat placed on a bust of James Lick inside the Lick Observatory on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. A large metal shutter was torn off the dome of the facility during a recent wind storm. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)

Those public programs — including nighttime stargazing events, tours and educational programs — are now on hold indefinitely. The observatory’s Main Building, which houses the Great Refractor dome, the smaller Nickel reflector dome and an exhibit and lecture space between them, has been red-tagged by the county as temporarily unusable.

“It’s going to take many months,” Gates said. “This is going to be a real blow to our public programs.”

Fraknoi noted that terrestrial telescopes like those at Lick remain vulnerable to extreme weather. The site narrowly escaped destruction during a major wildfire in 2020.

“Fire, water, wind — all those things are issues,” he said. “In part, that’s why we have telescopes in space. But they can get hit by a chunk of rock, so no observatory is totally safe.”

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Ethan Baron

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December 30, 2025
‘They treated us like animals’: ICE arrests at Bay Area courthouses left immigrants in fear, but judge’s order gives reprieve

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When federal agents arrested Jorge Willy Valera Chuquillanqui as he left his immigration court hearing in San Francisco this summer, they moved him to a 200-square-foot cell that held seven other detainees.

For three days, Immigration and Customs Enforcement kept Valera in the metal-clad room on the sixth floor above the courtroom, according to a declaration he submitted to a judge. There were no beds, and the lights remained on at all hours. Detainees were forced to share a single toilet against the wall.

“They treated us like animals,” the 47-year-old Peruvian man told Bay Area News Group.

On Christmas Eve, five months after Velera’s arrest, a federal judge in San Jose temporarily barred ICE from making arrests at immigration courts across Northern California. Bay Area immigration advocates sued to halt the arrests, which they argue force those seeking refuge in the United States to choose between skipping their court dates, thereby increasing their chances of deportation, or attending the proceedings and risking detention.

“This ruling is a critical step in ensuring that immigrants can safely pursue their immigration cases without fear of arrest,” Jordan Wells, an attorney for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, said in a statement.

The decision by U.S. District Court Judge P. Casey Pitts applies to ICE’s San Francisco area of responsibility, encompassing Northern and Central California, as far south as Bakersfield, and Hawaii. Pitts found advocates raised credible claims that the arrests have a chilling effect on court attendance and undermine the immigration court system.

He ordered the ruling remain in place until a final judgment is entered in the case. It’s unclear when the lawsuit could be resolved.

This year, there have been at least 75 documented immigration court arrests in San Francisco, including Valera, and at least 39 in Sacramento, advocates said in an October court filing. It was unclear how many people have been arrested at the Bay Area’s other immigration court in Concord.

Attorneys for ICE argue that a January directive allowing the courthouse arrests nationwide is legal “operational guidance” authorized by the Trump administration. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.

Under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, ICE arrests have surged, often topping 1,000 a day, according to data from UC Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project. About a third of those arrested this year had no criminal record, according to analyses of the data by NPR and other news organizations.

“We are making America safe again and putting the American people first,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement earlier this month. “We have secured the border, taken the fight to cartels, and arrested thousands upon thousands of criminal illegal aliens.”

Valera, who has asked a court to grant him asylum, came to the United States three years ago, leaving behind his wife and young sons after fleeing criminal groups that he says threatened his life in his home country. Valera said he obtained a work permit and that he has cooperated with immigration officials while applying for asylum to remain in the U.S.

But after walking out of his immigration hearing on July 25, ICE immediately apprehended him. Soon after being taken to the holding cell, Valera said he began to feel half of his body going numb. Handcuffed to a stretcher, he spent the next day under observation at a hospital in San Francisco.

After being taken back to the cell, Valera said he received only small burritos and a chocolate bar at each meal. He and other detainees did their best to keep the area clean, but a small trash can in the corner quickly overflowed. The air conditioning ran constantly, and the men slept huddled together in the cell.

“They made us sleep on the floor in handcuffs,” Valera said.

Now, agents overseeing the San Francisco cells must provide detainees beds, clean clothes, basic hygiene products, medically necessary diets and to dim lights during sleeping hours, among other requirements, following a November injunction secured by advocates in the courthouse arrest case.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment on the cell conditions. But government attorneys told the court the agency is complying with the injunction.

From San Francisco, Valera was transferred to a holding cell in Oakland before being flown to a larger detention facility in Arizona. A judge ordered his release about a week later, determining he had been unlawfully detained, attorneys said.

Valera was dropped off at a bus station and used his own money to buy a ticket back to San Francisco for the next day. He booked a motel room, where he took his first shower since his arrest about two weeks earlier.

Despite the ordeal, Valera, who currently rents a space in a home in Daly City, said he plans to continue his asylum case in hopes of making a better life for himself in the U.S. He wants to one day bring his family to join him.

“There are people who have gone through things that are far worse than what I went through, and I don’t wish that on anybody,” he said. “It’s very traumatic, to be honest, and I hope one day this all ends, that it goes back to normal, and that they don’t treat us that way. You come to work, not to commit crimes.”

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Ethan Varian, Luis Melecio-Zambrano

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December 26, 2025
49ers change classification of Brandon Aiyuk’s delayed comeback

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SANTA CLARA — Brandon Aiyuk has officially left the 49ers’ building — and roster, likely forever.

Aiyuk’s stalled comeback from last season’s knee injury turned into such a vanishing act that the 49ers reclassified his status Saturday as “reserve/left squad.”

Aiyuk did not previously count against the 53-man roster with his reserve/physically-unable-to-perform list, and now the 49ers are announcing he’s not returning this season — nor essentially in the foreseeable future.

Although the 49ers voided $27 million in 2026 guarantees back in late July for reportedly violating terms of his knee rehabilitation, Aiyuk maintained a very visible presence during training camp and the first month of the season as he shadowed wide receivers’ warmups.

He vanished from the media’s sight once October arrived, although 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch stated that Aiyuk continued to show up for early-morning therapy sessions.

Aiyuk has not officially commented to the media since last season.

Teammates have expressed concern for Aiyuk and, in recent days, the tone shifted to a past-tense about his 49ers career, which began as a 2020 first-round draft pick and peaked with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons in 2022 and ’23.

Aiyuk and the 49ers clashed throughout the 2024 offseason before he agreed to a four-year extension worth $30 million annually. His right knee’s ligaments and meniscus were torn in a devastating hit against the Kansas City Chiefs in October 2024.

“At this point, it doesn’t seem like he’s coming back. I try my best not to think about it,” tight end George Kittle said Thursday. “I love Brandon. He’s one of my best teammates I’ve played with. We have a lot of moments together from his rookie year (in 2020). Every year we have a ton of memories. That’s the Brandon I remember.

“I wish he was here. It kind of just makes me sad so I just push it to the side,” Kittle added. “Look, we have to make to due with what we have in the locker room, and the guys that want to be here are here.”

Jauan Jennings is the only 49ers wide receiver with a touchdown catch this season, and his five are tied for the team lead with Kittle and running back Christian McCaffrey, the latter of whom surfaced on Saturday’s injury report with a back issue that has him questionable for Sunday’s game between the 49ers (9-4) and visiting Tennessee Titans (2-11).

Quarterback Brock Purdy, along with Kittle, praised how special Aiyuk was to the 49ers’ offense, when healthy.

“He did it all at receiver,” Purdy said Thursday. “So, he did a great job with that. And obviously I wish he was healthy to be able to be with us and play and roll, but like I said before, and I’ve said in the past, all the things off the field, that’s not my place to say anything. All I can say is I’d love to play with him and in the past we’ve had such great times together and so that’s all I can really say about it.”

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Cam Inman

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December 13, 2025
Kurtenbach: The superior 49ers should handle the Panthers. But does that sound like the 2025 Niners? My predictions for Monday Night Football

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The NFL schedule makers, in their infinite, algorithmic wisdom, have given us a Monday night curiosity.

The 49ers, I get — big brand, big names, big ratings for ESPN.

But the Carolina Panthers? I’m not even sure if noted superfan Steph Curry has watched a full Panthers game this season.

And was this supposed to be a breakthrough campaign for them?

So the NFL’s most forgettable team will be on arguably the sport’s biggest stage. And having watched them in preparation for Monday Night Football, I have some bad news to deliver:

The Panthers are not a good football team.

They aren’t even a bad football team — because bad teams at least have the decency to have an identity. No, the Panthers are something far worse: aggressively mediocre.

They’re the unsalted cracker of the NFL. The waiting room music of the league.

I could go on.

But it’s that pile of nothingness that would make Nietzsche shudder that makes Monday’s game the most dangerous night of the year for Kyle Shanahan.

The Panthers cannot beat the 49ers.

Don’t misconstrue that: The Panthers can win on Monday. They have won six times already this season.

But they cannot go toe-to-toe with the 49ers, both teams playing their best, and win.

And that makes this game the ultimate litmus test for the Niners.

Can San Francisco take care of their business, capitalize on Carolina’s many deficiencies, and stroll to a win?

Or will they run head-first into wall after wall while the Panthers stand there, hands in their pockets, just doing their unremarkable thing?

Don’t pretend like that can’t happen to San Francisco.

The Packers thought they were above losing to the Panthers. They were 11.5-point favorites at home, after all. But then they had two turnovers, missed a field goal, and failed to contain the run, and suddenly, despite outgaining Carolina by more than 100 yards and with Bryce Young only throwing for 102 yards, the Packers lost at home.

The Panthers accept this kind of gift, weekly, with the polite nod of a doorman collecting a tip. They don’t force errors — they simply provide a safe space for them to happen.

And six times this year, an opponent has looked at the Panthers and said, “Here, you take it.”

If San Francisco is what they want to be — a legitimate playoff team and one that can win a game or two, even with all their injuries — then this game should be a procedural formality. A real contender looks at a team like Carolina, identifies the lack of elite firepower and its non-playable-character defense, and squeezes the life out of them. A contender plays clean, boring, victorious football, and they take care of this early.

This should be procedural.

Does that sound like the 2025 49ers?

So yes, this is a trap, and it has a massive, neon-lit sign with an arrow pointing down at it.

If the 49ers lose this game, it won’t be because Young carved them up. It won’t be because the Panthers’ schematic brilliance overwhelmed — this team runs a lot of mirrored concepts on offense like it’s high school ball..

No, if the Niners lose, it will be because the 49ers beat the 49ers.

And for a team that has not earned the benefit of the doubt this season, such a loss would be disqualifying.

For what it’s worth, I do expect the 49ers to win. There are too many universes where San Francisco overwhelms an inferior team.

And here are three predictions for the game:

Ricky Pearsall has a day

» Stop checking the box score and actually turn on the tape.

Ricky Pearsall played well against Arizona — you just couldn’t see it.

I saw the panic this week. It was laughable.

The kid wasn’t just running cardio; he was absolutely cooking professional defensive backs.

He was beating man coverage consistently, snapping off routes, and getting open at will. The ball didn’t find him — that happens in an offense with Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle — but the separation was undeniable.

Shanahan will have seen it on the All-22. Brock Purdy would have seen it. And against the only team in the NFL that’s as bad at pressuring the quarterback as the 49ers, they will have time to get Pearsall the ball this week. I imagine it will be a top priority.

We did this same thing last year, folks. Let’s not forget hard-learned lessons.

The targets are coming. Pearsall’s breakout isn’t a hope; it’s inevitable.

Hands up!

» The 49ers’ pass rush needs to change its psychology this week, and I think they will.

Sacking Bryce Young is great, but sacks have been hard to come by for this patchwork 49ers defensive line.

So why not just throw your hands up instead?

Young is historically small — 5-foot-10 and maybe 190 pounds. He makes Brock Purdy look like Cam Newton and Cam Newton look like Shaq.

And with that diminutive stature, Young has to throw high-arcing loopers just to clear the line of scrimmage. He practically sacks himself half the time with his processing speed.

The directive for the defensive line shouldn’t be “kill,” it should be “reach.”

Alfred Collins should have a big day in this regard. Playing right up the middle, the 6-foot-5 defensive tackle also possesses 34-inch arms. How is Young going to see over that?

If he just stands there and puts his mitts up, he’s getting pass breakups by accident.

Make Young try to throw over a forest, and the turnovers will fall into your lap.

Simple plan

» The Panthers have so many things going against them on defense, but if they have one area of quality, it might be in slowing down interior runs.

So all that gap-scheme stuff the Niners have been running in recent weeks? Please put it on the back burner (you’ll need it later).

No, the Niners need to get back to the basics of the Shanahan offense and run outside zone again and again and again this week.

Carolina runs basic Cover 3. They have no one who can set an edge. Run the ball to the perimeter, turn the corner, and watch the yards pile up. It’s a layup.

Don’t be the Warriors and miss it.

PREDICTION: 49ers 26 – Carolina 18

Niners get up early and mess around for the rest of the game. You’ll be happy to know that Gonzaga will play Alabama in men’s basketball on TNT, while the Rockets take on the Suns on Peacock.

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November 23, 2025
AG Rob Bonta spent nearly $500K on lawyers while trying to be ‘helpful’ amid East Bay corruption probe, adviser says

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SACRAMENTO — California Attorney General Rob Bonta spent $468,000 of his campaign cash on lawyers while reportedly being interviewed by federal authorities investigating Oakland’s former mayor and others in a sprawling federal bribery and corruption inquiry.

The longtime East Bay politician’s senior adviser, Dan Newman, told this news organization Wednesday that Bonta’s legal bills were for the sole purpose of “providing information that could be helpful to the investigation of those implicated” in the ongoing criminal probe.

Bonta — who lives in Alameda and has worked his way from city councilman to the state’s top prosecutor — was never a target of the investigation, Newman said.

“The AG’s involvement is over,” Newman added. “But this is an ongoing legal proceeding that we don’t want to hinder — with no relation to or involvement of the AG — so unable to provide further information.” He said the work required of those attorneys ended in 2024, the adviser said.

Newman initially told the KCRA this week that the attorney general used the campaign funds “to help his law enforcement partners pursue justice” in the East Bay corruption probe. The Sacramento station was the first to report Bonta’s legal spending.

Newman later changed that stance, claiming in a subsequent interview with KCRA that Bonta spent the money on attorneys for himself while being questioned by federal investigators. The adviser stressed Bonta was never a target of the investigation, and the funds were needed “because of the nature of the charges against the people implicated,” the station reported.

The size of Bonta’s legal bills appear historically large, and they reflect the fact that Bonta retained one of the premier law firms in Silicon Valley — Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati — which routinely charges four figures an hour for its work, said David McCuan, a Sonoma State University political science professor. That also highlights the stakes Bonta faces as a politically ambitious state attorney general, particularly one who has taken a leading stand against the current White House administration by filing dozens of lawsuits against it, the professor said.

“His problems are the appearance of impropriety when he is the poster child against Donald Trump and the administration,” McCuan said. “So if he has an image problem that is created by this expenditure, then that is a problem for him.”

McCuan added that California campaign finance law is considered “murky” when it comes to when candidates can use campaign cash for legal help.

In general, campaign funding can only be used “if the litigation is directly related to activities of the committee that are consistent with its primary objectives,” said Shery Yang, a spokesperson for the Fair Political Practices Commission, in an email. While she said she couldn’t speak specifically to this case, instances where that money can be used include defending against claims that a candidate violated election laws, or ensuring compliance with state campaign disclosure reports.

The five payments to Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati were made two days before Bonta announced he would not run for governor and seek reelection as attorney general in February, the records show.

It all casts a fresh spotlight on Bonta’s ties to many of the main players charged in the ongoing bribery and pay-to-play probe that has roiled the East Bay’s political scene, including former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and Andy Duong, who helps run a recycling company contracted by the city of Oakland.

In charges unsealed in January, federal prosecutors accused former Thao of accepting bribes from Andy Duong and his father, David, in the form of political favors and a $95,000 no-show job for Thao’s romantic partner, Andre Jones. In return, prosecutors claimed Thao promised to secure lucrative city contracts for a fledgling housing company co-founded by David Duong, as well as for Duongs recycling business, California Waste Solutions.

Thao, Jones and David and Andy Duong have all pleaded not guilty and could face trial by next year.

Bonta has known Andy Duong for years, even becoming a frequent presence on his Instagram page before federal agents raided the businessman’s house in June 2024.

In an August 2021 social media post, Bonta was seen standing alongside Andy Duong and the famed Filipino boxer and retired politician Manny Pacquiao, each of them giving a “thumbs up” to the camera. In another, Bonta appeared to be sitting in a limousine, smiling at the camera with one arm around Andy Duong and another around his wife, California Assemblymember Mia Bonta.

“Cannot wait to see what else the future has to offer to you,” wrote Andy Duong, calling the state’s top prosecutor a “brother” while recounting his rise from “Vice Mayor to State Assembly and now CA Attorney General.” The post included no less than nine other photos of the two together over the years, often at campaign events or, in one instance, together at a Golden State Warriors game.

Rob Bonta has since sought to distance himself from the Duongs. Shortly after the FBI and other federal authorities raided the family’s Oakland hills houses on June 20, 2024, Bonta said he planned to give back $155,000 in political contributions that he had previously received from the Duong family.

The political fortunes of Thao and Mia Bonta also nearly collided several years ago. Before running for mayor, Thao briefly considered campaigning for the state assembly seat once held by Rob Bonta before he became the state’s attorney general. Instead, Thao opted to run for the mayor of Oakland, while Mia Bonta ran and filled her husband’s post in Sacramento.

Bonta ties to people investigated in the corruption probe extend to an unnamed co-conspirator widely believed to be longtime Oakland political operative Mario Juarez. Bonta and Juarez enjoyed “close financial and political ties,” such as when Bonta helped secure a $3.4 million grant in 2017 from the California Energy Commission for a company that Juarez co-owned, according to a filing late last year by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.

“They have publicly endorsed each other and have used the same office for their business dealings,” said the filing, adding that Juarez and the Bontas’ “extensive intertwined political and business dealings are widely known.”

Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.

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Jakob Rodgers

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November 19, 2025
Bay Area residents win more than half a million dollars in Powerball

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Two Bay Area residents won more than half a million dollars each playing the Powerball Lottery on Saturday night, officials said.

The two winning tickets, which selected five correct numbers, were each worth $609,497, according to the California Lottery.

The first ticket was sold at the Rotten Robbie at 1655 Foxworthy Avenue in San Jose.

The second winning ticket was purchased at One Stop Liquor & Food at 5206 Pacheco Boulevard in Pacheco.

Neither location could be reached for comment Sunday morning.

The winning numbers were 6, 7, 12, 47, 53. Neither ticket had the winning Powerball number of 21.

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Caelyn Pender

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November 16, 2025
South Bay tech company, East Bay oil titan prep fresh job cutbacks

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South Bay tech company Bill.com and East Bay energy giant Chevron have revealed plans for new rounds of job cuts that are poised to displace well over 100 workers in the Bay Area, filings with the state government show.

The layoffs are a reminder that job cuts in the tech industry have yet to run their course, as a wide range of tech companies continue to reveal their plans to trim staffing levels in the region.

Bill.com logo on the tech company’s office building at 6220 America Center Drive in north San Jose. (Google Maps)

Chevron, which has moved its headquarters from San Ramon to Houston in another example of the corporate exodus from California to Texas, revealed prior layoffs that erased 600 jobs in the Bay Area.

According to WARN notices the companies sent to the state Employment Development Department, the layoffs include:

— Bill is cutting 84 jobs in North San Jose at the company’s headquarters complex. These layoffs are expected to take effect on Dec. 15, the WARN letter to the EDD shows.

— Chevron is eliminating 100 jobs in San Ramon, an East Bay city where the energy giant had once based its headquarters, according to the WARN letter. These most recent cutbacks are due to occur on Oct. 23. Chevron is also cutting 75 jobs in the Kern County city of Bakersfield.

Bill and Chevron both stated that the layoffs would be permanent.

“We are providing severance pay, medical continuation coverage, access to education and training resources, and outplacement assistance,” Henry Perea, Chevron’s manager of state government affairs, wrote in the WARN letter to the EDD.

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George Avalos

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October 20, 2025
‘It’s really tragic’: Details emerge after former NFL star Doug Martin’s death in Oakland police custody

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OAKLAND — Retired NFL star Doug Martin spent his final moments alive Saturday morning wandering in the dark through the backyards and banging on the front doors of his neighbors’ houses in the Oakland hills, sources told the Bay Area News Group.

Martin’s subsequent death — after what police described as a “brief struggle” with officers inside one of those homes — sent shockwaves through the city, stunning those who recalled the former All-Pro running back’s quick burst on the football turf and easygoing temperament off of it.

Two days later, questions mounted about the Oakland Police Department’s actions before dawn Saturday, along with the factors that appeared to lead Martin inside his neighbor’s home and the exact circumstances around his death in police custody.

“It’s tragic, it’s really tragic,” said his neighbor, Lynne Belmont, 74.

It was an abrupt, shocking end for Martin, a 36-year-old raised in Stockton who had quietly lived in Oakland of late after ending his playing career with the Oakland Raiders.

Multiple people called 911 around 4:15 a.m. Saturday, as Martin went door-to-door on the 11000 block of Ettrick Street, sources said. He had been staying in a longtime family home on that block, which sits atop an Oakland hills neighborhood near the Oakland Zoo.

Police initially received a call about a person breaking into a home on that street, which a source said had been occupied at the time. They “simultaneously” received notice that a person believed to be a burglar was having “a medical emergency,” according to a statement released Sunday by the Oakland Police Department.

A “brief struggle” ensued when officers contacted the suspected burglar inside a house and tried to detain him, police said. Martin then became unresponsive after being taken into custody, according to Oakland police.

Oakland police did not respond to multiple requests by this news organization for further details. City and police officials have yet to release police radio and dispatch recordings from the encounter, which were recently encrypted and shielded from the public’s ear.

The police department also has yet to announce how many officers have been placed on paid administrative leave, as is customary following an in-custody death.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Doug Martin (22) runs during the second half of an NFL football game against the New York Jets, in Tampa, Fla. Two-time Pro Bowl running back Doug Martin has been released by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018, who may look for a replacement in free agency.(AP Photo/Jason Behnken, File)

In a statement issued Monday evening, Martin’s family said his parents “were actively seeking medical assistance for him and had contacted local authorities for support” before his encounter with police. They added that Martin “battled mental health challenges that profoundly impacted his personal and professional life,” and that he fled his home that night after “feeling overwhelmed and disoriented.”

“Ultimately, mental illness proved to be the one opponent from which Doug could not run,” said the family’s statement, which was released by Athletes First. The firm represented Martin when he was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2012.”

On Monday, Mayor Barbara Lee issued a statement mourning Martin’s death and noting she had reached out to Martin’s family. Lee hailed him as “an Oaklander who had a distinguished NFL career,” adding that “our condolences are with his family and loved ones.” The family has requested privacy.

Martin did not seem much involved in Oakland’s professional sports community, a tight-knit social circle that includes former big-league athletes and coaches. Several long-timers contacted for this story had not been aware that Martin had even resided in Oakland.

On his journey from high school stardom in Stockton to NFL fame, however, Martin was as memorable a running back as the coaches who crossed paths with him could remember.

“He was the kind of guy who really just absorbed everything you tried to teach him,” said Earnest Byner, a former NFL all-pro who was Martin’s running back coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “He could do anything you asked him to do.”

It was the kind of inner confidence that made the relatively undersized, 5-foot 9-inch tall player — nicknamed “Muscle Hamster” — eager to take on more physically taxing assignments, such as blocking heftier linebackers.

But Martin truly shone with the ball in his hand, coaches said, zipping downfield with a springy first step. A decorated college career at Boise State — where he logged 3,400 yards and 43 touchdowns — led him to be the Buccaneers’ first-round draft selection in 2012.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Doug Martin (22) walks off the field after a staggeringly successful day against the Oakland Raiders in an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012 at O.co Coliseum in Oakland, Calif. Martin rushed for 251 yards and four touchdowns, as the Buccaneers won, 42-32. (D. Ross Cameron/Staff)

Martin had been known around the college campus for his bounding social energy. He rode a remote-controlled electric skateboard to classes, forged close locker-room friendships and even embraced the popularity of “Teach Me How to Dougie,” a hit song with a signature dance move that shared his name.

“He was just having fun playing ball,” said Keith Bhonapha, the college’s running-back coach at the time. “He really felt at home there.”

Martin’s NFL draft-day party at his relatives’ house in the Oakland hills was uniquely festive, recalled Tony Franks, his high school coach in Stockton. Television trucks lined the street and dozens of people cheered when the St. Mary’s High School star received a call from the Buccaneers at the end of the first round.

Martin’s running style was prototypical for the time — “powerful, compact, explosive,” he said, yet nimble enough to “change direction on a dime.”

“He had such natural strength, leg strength, body strength,” Franks said. “The force he could create by accelerating was just tremendous.”

In the NFL, though, Martin faced adversity. After a breakout rookie season, he suffered a torn labrum that sidelined him for much of his follow-up campaign. Still, he notched two All-Pro teams in a career that lasted seven seasons, rushing for over 5,300 yards and two touchdowns before retiring in 2018.

Martin was suspended four games in 2016 for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy after testing positive for a banned substance. In a statement at the time, Martin said he initially considered appealing the penalty but had decided instead to seek treatment.

“My shortcomings,” he said of his off-the-field life, “have taught me both that I cannot win these personal battles alone and that there is no shame in asking for help.”

Bhonapha, an Oakland native who played football at Skyline High School, visited Martin sometime during the Tampa Bay years. Over a steak dinner, the coach recalled, Martin spoke sentimentally about his Boise State years, reminiscing about the familiarity and friendships that came before the realities of adulthood.

“The amount of calls I’ve gotten from teammates since this weekend asking what happened … guys who were really close with him said they hadn’t talked to him in a couple years,” Bhonapha said.

But even amid the shock of Martin’s untimely passing, those who witnessed the Stockton kid’s rise to the sport’s top ranks recalled the determination that had brought him there.

“He had probably gone through being doubted because of his size at one point,” Byner said. “But he never doubted what he could do — and we didn’t, either.”

Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.

Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at smukherjee@bayareanewsgroup.com.

Originally Published: October 20, 2025 at 4:56 PM PDT

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Jakob Rodgers, Shomik Mukherjee

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October 20, 2025
East Bay highway chase leaves suspects dead, CHP officers injured

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Two suspects died in a crash early Saturday in San Leandro after reportedly leading California Highway Patrol officers in a highway chase that began in Castro Valley, officials said.

According to the CHP, a pair of officers also suffered major injuries when both their vehicle and the white Mercedes they were pursuing crashed into a noise barrier on a tight, winding exit road from I-238 that leads to East 14th Street.

The two officers were taken to a hospital with major injuries, though they were not life-threatening, the CHP said Saturday. A passenger in the Mercedes was also hospitalized with major injuries.

The pursuit on Saturday began at about 3:41 a.m. when CHP officers attempted a traffic stop of the Mercedes sedan on Interstate 580, near Eden Canyon Road in Castro Valley, authorities said.

The driver did not pull over, the CHP said, and the ensuing vehicle chase extended for several miles along I-580 and I-238. It ended when the Mercedes crashed off the highway exit, just before it could reach San Leandro’s city streets.

Authorities said the CHP vehicle similarly ran into the barrier as a result of the first crash, though the two vehicles did not collide.

Responders from the Alameda County Fire Department and county sheriff’s office arrived to the scene soon afterward. The case is under investigation, the CHP said. No identifying details of the deceased suspects had been released as of press time Saturday.

Saturday’s incident was the latest high-speed law enforcement chase in the East Bay to result in a deadly crash — a trend that has led to fierce public debates in nearby Oakland about when police should engage in pursuits.

A similar CHP chase in Oakland in May led the suspect driver to crash, causing the death of a popular local teacher.

Last month, a civilian body that oversees the Oakland police approved new policies that relaxed previous restrictions on when the city’s officers can initiate a high-speed chase.

The CHP is not bound by any local policies limiting pursuit speeds. The agency has regularly been deployed to the East Bay, a crime-reduction strategy championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Originally Published: October 11, 2025 at 4:08 PM PDT

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Shomik Mukherjee

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October 11, 2025
UC Berkeley professor Omar Yaghi wins Nobel prize in chemistry

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UC Berkeley professor Omar Yaghi, a Jordanian immigrant molded by the American public school system, reached the pinnacle of his field on Wednesday, sharing the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

After receiving the award for his work on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which have incalculable applications, Yaghi acknowledged the role his American education played in the realization of his work at a press conference.

“This recognition is really a testament of the power of the public school system in the U.S. that takes people like me — with a major disadvantaged background, a refugee background — and allows you to work hard and distinguish yourself,” Yaghi said. “Especially UC Berkeley, where the faculty are given full freedom to explore, fail and succeed.”

Yaghi’s discoveries with MOFs – along with co-winners Richard Robson of the University of Melbourne, Australia, and Susumu Kitagawa of Kyoto University, Japan – have broad implications for emerging technologies such as water capture from desert winds, toxic gas containment and carbon sequestration from the atmosphere.

Susumu Kitagawa of Kyoto University, Japan, left, and Richard Robson of the University of Melbourne are co-winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with UC Berkeley professor Omar Yaghi, on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP)

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in its announcement, lauded the MOF breakthroughs for their ability to craft customizable materials with applications across the scientific field. Yaghi built on Robson and Kitagawa’s discoveries by creating a stable MOF that could be modified to have new properties: Imagine a porous filter programmed to selectively remove any atom or molecule at the command of a scientist.

Since the trio’s discoveries, “chemists have built tens of thousands of different MOFs,” the academy wrote in its award announcement, noting that some may be key to solving humanity’s greatest challenges.

“Metal–organic frameworks have enormous potential, bringing previously unforeseen opportunities for custom-made materials with new functions,” said Heiner Linke, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

On Wednesday, Yaghi spoke with reporters via Zoom from Brussels, Belgium, to discuss the award. He described the moment he was exiting a plane in Frankfurt, Germany, when his phone buzzed with a call from Sweden. On the line was the secretary of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry with the news that he had won.

“It was absolutely thrilling. You cannot prepare for a moment like that,” Yaghi said. “Since then, my phone hasn’t stopped ringing, buzzing, receiving emails, hundreds and hundreds of emails. I have no idea how I’m going to respond to all of them.”

Yaghi said his two biggest influences were his father and his Ph.D. adviser, Walter Klemperer, who each pushed him to challenge the status quo and accept failure as an inevitable part of progress, and also instilled in him his belief in the power of the experiment. His father’s belief in Yaghi’s academic potential pushed him to send his son alone to Troy, New York for school.

“That takes incredible commitment … We didn’t have a lot of the conveniences that many others do, but we had a lot of love and a lot of care,” Yaghi said. “I’m quite emotional to see my refugee parents spend every minute of their time dedicated to their kids and to their kids’ education, because they saw that as a way to lift themselves and their kids out of challenging situations.”

Yaghi addressed the challenges facing the scientific community as President Donald Trump’s administration cuts funding for research and discovery. Public funding from his first grant from the National Science Foundation was crucial to securing the resources and funding that laid the foundation for his research, he said. The grant allowed Yaghi to take creative risks and explore new directions in chemistry, ultimately leading to the discoveries that earned him the Nobel Prize.

The Jordanian refugee turned Nobel Prize winner said that scientists face a “crisis of our times” today as public support for science fades. He called on scientists to renew their historical commitment to the pursuit of knowledge, exploring the frontiers of science without fear. Only when scientists can explore their curiosities, he said, does that lead to building the industries of tomorrow, improving public health and securing the future.

“Science is an absolute essential part of an enlightened society and building a robust society that improves the quality of life for its people,” Yaghi said. “Our science is a jewel in the crown of our country, so we cannot allow that to slip.”

Originally Published: October 8, 2025 at 4:42 PM PDT

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Chase Hunter

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October 8, 2025
Review: Monterey Jazz Festival gets off to a fine start on Day 1

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Christian McBride had one question for the large crowd assembled before him on Day 1 of the 68th annual Monterey Jazz Festival:

“Whose idea was it to put me on after Gregory Porter?” remarked the gifted bassist, who was following the remarkable vocalist on the festival’s big Jimmy Lyons Stage on Friday at the Monterey County Fairgrounds. “I remember one time going on after Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. It was wrong. It did not end well for me.”

Indeed, Porter was a tough act to follow, as he delighted the audience at this outdoor stage with a 75-minute set that was full of dynamic vocal work, winning personality and, in general, numerous reasons why this Sacramento-born artist — who was raised in Bakersfield — is considered one of the best in the game.

Porter’s high-flying set, no doubt, will be the one the most people will be talking about from Day 1 of the festival. Yet, McBride — one of the top instrumentalists and band leaders in all of jazz today — also delivered the goods during his own 75-minute set with his versatile band Ursa Major.

And, really, each of those great acts accounted for just two of a number of reasons why the 68th annual Monterey Jazz Festival — which was co-founded by music critic Ralph J. Gleason and radio DJ Jimmy Lyons in 1958 — got off to such a good start. Other artists that delivered winning Day 1 performances included saxophonist-vocalist Grace Kelly and Latin jazz pianist Alfredo Rodriguez.

Yet, we should be clear upfront about one thing:

Monterey Jazz remains, however, a festival in transition.

It’s still recovering from its pandemic woes and trying to find its footing in the post Tim Jackson-era, after the longtime artistic director stepped down from his position following the 2023 festival. Jackson’s position was quickly filled by acclaimed composer Darin Atwater, but that tenure proved to be very brief — with Atwater and Monterey Jazz parting ways after just one festival (2024).

Bruce Labadie, an extremely savvy booker known for his work with San Jose Jazz Summer Fest, the Mountain Winery, Villa Montalvo and too many other Bay Area arts organizations to mention, has since stepped in as interim artistic director and has done a superb job with what he’s had to work with.

Yet, that hasn’t stopped people from noting — and complaining — that the 2025 edition is a downsized version of the festival, with fewer sets of live music, fewer stages and fewer marquee names on the bill than what fans were accustomed to seeing prior to the pandemic.

And while all of that is true, it certainly hasn’t stopped both fans and artists from enjoying being back in Monterey.

“I love how y’all get down at the Monterey Jazz Festival,” remarked Grace Kelly, looking out at the crowd midway through her energetic set on the Dizzy’s Den stage on Day 1. “We’ve got people in cowboy hats dancing in the aisles”

Growing up as a musical prodigy, the 33-year-old artist has certainly performed at some impressive venues and big occasions over her still-young career. For starters, she performed at 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama at age 16 and as a soloist with the Boston Pops — playing an original composition — at just 14. Since then, she’s played the Hollywood Bowl, spent time as a member of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” house band and released more than a dozen albums.

Yet, she was still thrilled to be making her debut in Monterey — at the longest continuously run jazz festival in the world — on Friday.

“Thank you everyone for coming out,” said Kelly, who proved to be an equally entertaining vocalist, saxophonist and frontwoman during her Monterey Jazz set. “It’s the start of a great weekend.”

Opening day would reach its crescendo — as McBride alluded to — with the performance by Porter, who was opening the festival’s main arena stage for this 68th edition.

Porter sounded brilliant as he melded jazz, pop, R&B, Motown and gospel into his own distinct vocal approach — one that has twice won him a Grammy in the best jazz vocal album category. He’d highlight both of those winning albums (2013’s “Liquid Spirit” and 2016’s “Take Me to the Alley”) during his set, while also taking time to tell stories and joke around with the crowd.

“It’s wonderful to look out on this crowd and see so much wisdom,” Porter said to a mixture of groans and guffaws from the crowd. “Hey, nobody is calling you old.”

The 2025 Monterey Jazz Festival is set to continue through Sunday. Fans can expect to see performances by supremely talented vocalists Ledisi and Dianne Reeves, as well as bluesmen J.C. Smith and Mr. Sipp, on Saturday. Sunday’s expected highlights include New Orleans favorites Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue and Latin jazz great Pete Escovedo.

For more information, visit montereyjazz.org.

Originally Published: September 27, 2025 at 10:22 AM PDT

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Jim Harrington

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September 27, 2025
San Jose State University sees record enrollment despite Trump concerns

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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.

Last year, the university saw a 3.7% increase in total fall enrollment and a 2.8% increase in freshman enrollment for the fall 2024 semester, despite concerns that errors in the federal financial aid form and resulting application delays would cause a widespread drop in enrollment. San Jose State credited last year’s enrollment boost to the university’s proactive workshops, communication and staff efforts to counteract the national error.

Last year, the California State University system as a whole saw record first-year enrollment for the fall 2024 semester. Preliminary fall enrollment data is typically released in October and finalized in November.

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.

The university has also been impacted by several of the Trump administration’s higher education policy changes, including cuts to research funding, international students’ visa revocations and cuts to students’ financial aid.

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Molly Gibbs

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August 26, 2025
Heliot Ramos comes up clutch in ninth inning as SF Giants rally against Brewers
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On the fourth pitch of his at-bat, with the bases loaded, down to the team’s final out and facing one of the most fearsome closers in the game in Trevor Megill, Giants slugger Heliot Ramos did exactly what he needed to do with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball on Sunday.

The 25-year-old laced a single to center, driving in his 54th and 55th runs of the season and giving San Francisco a lead it would not relinquish in a 4-3 come-from-behind victory in Milwaukee to clinch the three-game weekend series.

San Francisco improved to 63-68, while Milwaukee fell to 81-50. The Giants are 6.5 games behind the Mets for the National League’s third and final wild-card spot.

Ramos’ big at-bat capped off an inning that saw Matt Chapman lead off with a double to center off Megill. Then Wilmer Flores struck out after a nine-pitch at-bat and was followed by the red-hot Luis Matos, who singled to put runners on the corners with one out.

Rafael Devers, pinch-hitting for catcher Andrew Knizner, was then blown away on a 101 mph four-seam fastball.

But the Giants were not dead yet. Jung Hoo Lee drew a five-pitch walk to set the stage for Ramos. The 2024 All-Star outfielder came up big, and Ryan Walker closed out the game.

“We continue to try and make the adjustment to try and win every game, and today was the greatest example for me,” shortstop and former Brewer Willy Adames told NBC Sports Bay Area’s postgame crew. “We came back against one of the best closers in the game right now and we got the win and the series victory. We’re going back home with a happy flight and hopefully we can continue the momentum now at home.”

The Giants also had a chance to take the lead in the eighth when they had runners on first and second with one out. Dominic Smith struck out and Casey Schmitt — coming off a four-RBI game — popped up to first as San Francisco came up empty.

Robbie Ray made his 27th start of the season for San Francisco in a topsy-turvy game, while Milwaukee right-hander Chad Patrick made his 21st start this year.

Matos provided Ray with a 2-0 lead in the second inning when he smoked Patrick’s 88 mph cutter some 391 feet over the wall for his seventh home run of the season. The shot produced by an uppercut swing was another great at-bat in a series full of them for Matos. The 23-year-old right-handed slugger went 2 for 4 with two RBIs, marking his fourth consecutive game with two hits.

“We’ve seen him do this before, and it was time to let him get up here and let him do his thing,” Giants manager Bob Melvin told reporters. “So far, so good.”

After Matos figured out Patrick in the second, Milwaukee’s Brandon Lockridge turned a Ray slider into an RBI in the bottom of the inning when he poked the ball through the left side of the infield to cut the Giants’ lead to 2-1.

In the third inning, Christian Yelich drove a ground ball into right field to tie the game at 2-2. In the fifth, Caleb Durbin belted his eighth home run of the season to give Milwaukee a one-run lead.

Ray lasted five innings while walking four, allowing six hits and three earned runs on 80 pitches — only 47 of his pitches were strikes. The veteran also failed to strike out a single batter, the first time that has happened this season.
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The Brewers paid tribute to the late and legendary broadcaster Bob Uecker, who died in January, by wearing jerseys adorned with the name “Ueck” on the back in lieu of their own last names. Adames, the former Brewer, wore special cleats to honor the man.

“It was very special, and very emotional,” Adames said. “I’m so happy we were here for this weekend.”

The Giants’ series win was their first since Aug. 4-6, when they took two of three from the Pirates in Pittsburgh.

San Francisco will enjoy a day off before starting a six-game homestand against the Cubs at Oracle Park on Tuesday (6:45 p.m., NBC Sports Bay Area). Justin Verlander (1-10) is expected to start for the Giants, while Chicago has not named a starter.

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Joseph Dycus

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August 24, 2025
North Coast Section’s leading rusher from 2024 talks transfer to DAL powerhouse, goals for senior year

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Clayton Valley Charter transfer running back Jhadis Luckey, a Fresno State commit, discusses his plans for a follow-up to his breakout junior year at California High.

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Originally Published: August 24, 2025 at 8:05 AM PDT

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Christian Babcock

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August 24, 2025
Bay FC mounts late comeback, falls to Washington Spirit in front of record crowd at Oracle Park

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SAN FRANCISCO — Bay FC put up a good fight in the second half, but it was unable to catch up to the Washington Spirit in the two teams’ showcase game at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

In front of an NWSL-record announced crowd of 40,091 fans, Bay FC fell down three goals but rallied to make a game of it late. Kelli Hubly’s second-half goal gave Bay FC hope, but Washington hung on to win 3-2.

Washington (9-4-4) built its first-half lead with goals by Kate Wiesner and Croix Bethune, plus an own goal by Hubly in stoppage time.

Racheal Kundananji responded with Bay FC’s first goal even later in stoppage time, a header in the fifth minute of added time that gave Bay FC needed hope heading into the halftime break.

Bay FC goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz (29) fights for the ball against the Washington Spirit’s Gift Monday (21) during the first half of an NWSL match at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Then Hubly really gave Bay FC’s record home crowd a reason to believe in the 54th minute, heading home a corner kick from Alyssa Malonson to bring Bay FC within a goal.

Bay FC (4-8-5) generated a number of late chances and was generally on the front foot for the rest of the game, but the hosts were unable to equalize and reward their home fans with a result.

Check back for updates to this story.

Bay FC celebrates their second goal scored by Bay FC’s Kelli Hubly (11) against the Washington Spirit during the second half of an NWSL game at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Bay FC fans celebrate a goal by Bay FC’s Racheal Kundananji (9) against the Washington Spirit during the first half of an NWSL game at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

The Bay FC takes on the Washington Spirit during the first half of an NWSL game at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Fans celebrate the second goal scored by Bay FC’s Kelli Hubly (11) against the Washington Spirit during the second half of an NWSL game at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Originally Published: August 23, 2025 at 2:04 PM PDT

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Christian Babcock

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August 23, 2025
Askarov, with tempered celebrations, remains perfect with Barracuda. When might Sharks call him up?

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SAN JOSE — Goalie Yaroslav Askarov has been everything the San Jose Sharks have wanted him to be in his first two starts for their top minor league affiliate.

He’s even, upon request, dialed back the post-victory celebrations, at least to some degree.

Askarov was perfect again Saturday, making 26 saves as he earned his second straight shutout to start the season, leading the San Jose Barracuda to a 5-0 win over the Iowa Wild before an announced crowd of 3,942 at Tech CU Arena.

Askarov made 10 saves in the first period and helped the Barracuda kill off four minor penalties, earning his 11th shutout in 94 career AHL games. He also made 22 saves for San Jose in a 5-0 win over Ontario last week.

Two Barracuda players scored their first goals as professionals, with 24-year-old forward Donavan Houle scoring his first two goals as a professional and 19-year-old defenseman Luca Cagnoni getting his first.

“The team played unreal,” Askarov told reporters. “That helps me a lot, and I try to do the same (for them). It’s a good team win.”

After he shut out Ontario, Askarov, known for some flamboyant celebrations after shutouts and victories, lowered the crossbar onto the ice. After a 45-save shootout victory for the Milwaukee Admirals on Feb. 11, 2023, Askarov laid down with his back on the ice, pulled the net down, and began bench-pressing the crossbar.

YAROSLAV ASKAROV

that’s it. no other words.#AHL #BarracudaHockey #TheFutureIsTeal #IAvsSJ pic.twitter.com/WjsPrC6nBV

— FloHockey (@FloHockey) October 20, 2024

Saturday, his celebration was a bit toned down. He pumped his fist right after the final horn as his teammates congratulated him. Named the game’s second star, he played to the crowd a bit by removing his mask and cupping his ear with his glove.

“Someone told me, try to be more quiet,” Askarov said of his celebrations. “Not quiet, but take it easy.”

Regardless of how the 2023-24 AHL All-Star Classic participant celebrates wins now, Askarov has come as advertised after the Sharks acquired him from the Nashville Predators in August.

Now it’s a matter of when he’ll be recalled by the Sharks and play another NHL game.

On their 23-man roster, the Sharks have 14 forwards, seven defensemen, and two healthy goalies in Mackenzie Blackwood and Vitek Vanecek. After he acquired Askarov from the Predators in August, Sharks general manager said he wouldn’t rule out starting the season with three goalies on the roster.

It is unclear whether that mindset has changed now, but Grier clearly believes in competition. For now, the Sharks will be patient and let the process happen.

“We have pretty good depth now, so I think it’ll just kind of play out naturally,” said Barracuda general manager and Sharks assistant GM Joe Will told Bay Area News Group last week.

“We’re just getting used to having (Askarov) here, and he’s getting used to being here. And so I think it was all set up not to be in a hurry or anything, but just to let it evolve organically.”

It’s then possible that Askarov will have to wait for an injury or a trade to be added to the Sharks roster. Askarov has played three NHL games, going 1-1-0 with a .914 save percentage for the Predators.

The Sharks will probably know when Askarov, or any goalie, is ready for the NHL when they show that they can “take a good workload of games and perform well within those games,” Will said, “and they kind of show you by their play.”

“Does he control the game for us, and that’s going to mean different things on different nights,” Barracuda coach John McCarthy said last week. “Does he deal with everything thrown at him in a mature way, and does that show up on the ice?”

There’s no issue to this point. After playing Iowa again on Sunday, when Georgi Romanov is expected to start in net, Askarov will likely get at least one start again next week when the Barracuda travel to face the Henderson Silver Knights on Wednesday and Friday.

For however long he is in the AHL, Askarov figures to give the Barracuda a chance to win just about every time he’s in the net. That’s huge for a team that has had substandard team save percentages of .864, .891, and .890 the past three seasons and has designs on making the playoffs this season.

“Guys are excited to play in front of him,” McCarthy said. “(All) you need to know about a goalie is how the guys play in front of him, and there seems to be a lot of trust in him.”

Originally Published: October 20, 2024 at 10:44 a.m.

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Curtis Pashelka

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October 20, 2024
Injured Sharks players improving, but questions about availability remain

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SAN JOSE – Injured San Jose Sharks defensemen Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Shakir Mukhamadullin and goalie Yaroslav Askarov could all begin to skate again soon although questions remain whether any of the three will be ready for the start of the regular season.

Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said Sunday that Vlasic (upper body), Mukhamadullin (lower body), and Askarov (lower body) are all getting closer to skating on their own but will not be practicing with the team right away.

Vlasic, Mukhamadullin and Askarov have been out since the start of training camp on Sept. 19 as the Sharks have tried to remain patient with each player’s recovery.

Still, starting Monday, the Sharks will have just three practices and three games left before Oct. 7, when teams must submit cap-compliant rosters of no more than 23 players to the NHL.

The Sharks’ season-opener is Oct. 10 at home against the St. Louis Blues.

Mukhamadullin and Askarov, both waivers-exempt, could be assigned to the Barracuda once they are healthy. Askarov’s injury would seemingly ensure that the Sharks would start the season with two goalies, Mackenzie Blackwood and Vitek Vanecek.

But if Vlasic has to start the season on injured reserve, that would open up a roster spot for another defenseman.

The Sharks’ top six defensemen are Matt Benning, Cody Ceci, Mario-Ferraro, Jan Rutta, Henry Thrun, and Jake Walman. Jack Thompson, followed by Jimmy Schuldt, Jake Furlong, and Luca Cagnoni, lead the seventh spot competition.

Vlasic is entering his 19th NHL season, all with the Sharks. He was a healthy scratch for several games during the first half of last season but played every game for the team in March and April, scoring five points in 24 games and averaging 16:31 in average ice time.

“He understands what it takes to win in this league,” Warsofsky said of Vlasic, who has played in 1,296 NHL games. “He understands how to win at this league, and the little habits that you have to play with, and those winning habits that we’re trying to integrate with our team, and I think he understands that.”

Warsofsky said Forward Thomas Bordeleau, out for the past week with his own lower-body ailment, remains more week to week. Bordeleau is also waivers-exempt and can be reassigned to the AHL.

Originally Published: September 29, 2024 at 1:14 p.m.

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Curtis Pashelka

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September 29, 2024
Grandfather begged for custody before San Jose boy, 6, stabbed to death, lawsuit says

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Before 6-year-old Jordan Walker was stabbed to death, his grandfather had begged for custody, warning Santa Clara County social workers that the two-bedroom apartment where the San Jose boy lived with a cast of nefarious relatives with criminal backgrounds coming and going was dangerous.

But those red flags were either ignored or mishandled, grandfather Morian Walker Sr. said. Now as one of the boy’s uncles sits in jail on murder charges in the killings of Jordan and Jordan’s great-grandmother a year ago, Walker Sr. is suing Santa Clara County’s child welfare agency, Washington Elementary School in San Jose and others, claiming they didn’t do enough to keep Jordan safe.

“I talked to several people at Child Protective Services, to social workers,” Walker said in a phone interview. “I asked them to do criminal background histories on everyone that’s living there. I asked them to check the police reports, to see the police blotter at that location. It all fell on deaf ears.”

Walker’s lawsuit filed Sept. 13 in Santa Clara County Superior Court is the latest complaint against the county’s Department of Family and Children’s Services, which has been making efforts to reform the agency after the Bay Area News Group investigated the death last year of baby Phoenix Castro, who was sent home with her drug-abusing father over objections from social workers. This news organization also exposed the county’s operation of a string of illegal group homes, called scattered sites, and highlighted two state reports that have been highly critical of the county’s child welfare agency.

The lawsuit hasn’t been served yet, and the county had no comment except to say that “the murder of this child and his great-grandmother is a heartbreaking and shocking tragedy.” The school district also had no comment.

The lawsuit also challenges a guiding principle of Damion Wright, the director of the county’s child welfare agency who is named in the lawsuit: that children always do best with their families. In this case, at least, despite intervention and support from his agency, Jordan was placed with the wrong relatives.

As the lawsuit makes clear, Jordan’s brief life was chaotic and insecure. His mother, Danielle Walker Marshman, had a history of drug problems and allegations of neglect. In August 2022, a social worker came to her home amid reports that adults there were selling fentanyl and leaving drug paraphernalia around the house. When Jordan’s mother refused a drug test and social workers didn’t see any signs of drugs, the case was considered “unfounded” and closed, the lawsuit says.

Two months later, social workers responded to reports that Jordan’s mother and stepfather were smoking fentanyl, and Jordan was left alone for hours and had to “scrounge” for food. The case was closed because “social workers said they were unable to make contact with the family,” the lawsuit said.

Not until February 2023 was Jordan removed from his mother’s care — six months before he was killed — when he took a bag of methamphetamines to school and told his teacher that his mother had given it to him. The lawsuit accuses Washington Elementary of sending Jordan home that day with his mother and, in prior instances, failing to report her neglectful care of him.

Even so, the incident with the bag of methamphetamine triggered prosecutors to charge Jordan’s mother with child endangerment. That’s when county social workers sent Jordan to live with Delphina Turner, his 71-year-old maternal great-grandmother.

“The apartment was described as an endless revolving door of different drug users and homeless people — both short term and long term visitors,” the lawsuit said.

Those coming and going through Turner’s apartment while Jordan was assigned to live there, the lawsuit says, were a convicted rapist, a felon who spent 20 years in prison, at least two drug addicts, and Jordan’s uncle, Nathan Addison, who had drug and mental health issues and a prison record and is charged with Jordan’s murder.

At one point, it appears that a social worker flagged the family problems, writing in an “investigation narrative” that “the generational history of substance use, mental health, and criminal history indicate a risk for the family environment the child is exposed to.”

Walker, who filed the lawsuit, “was upset and appalled that his grandson was being placed in Turner’s home after social workers were told that he wanted the boy, had a stable environment for Jordan to live in and Jordan loved his grandfather and wanted nothing more,” the lawsuit said. Turner was once Walker’s mother-in-law.

Morian Walker, Sr., shares photos of himself with his late grandson, Jordan Walker, who was stabbed to death in Aug. 2023 allegedly by an uncle with a long criminal history. Walker is suing Santa Clara County’s child welfare agency for placing Jordan in an unsafe home instead of with him. (Photos Courtesy of Morian Walker)

Walker, 59, retired after a military career, says he purchased all of his grandson’s clothes and toys over the years in an effort to help his daughter who was struggling. In the lawsuit, Walker was characterized as “stable and had no drug or criminal history.”

Even though Walker “adamantly expressed” to social workers “the unsafe living conditions and the number of convicted felons and drug addicts living with Mrs. Turner,” Jordan was allowed to remain at the apartment of his great-grandmother. Turner had a long-term job at NASA, but Walker says she enabled her younger, drug-abusing, dependent relatives.

At one point, a social worker told a family member that “social workers knew there were dangerous people going in and out of Ms. Turner’s house, including Nathan Addison” and warned Turner that only she and Jordan were allowed in the home, the lawsuit says.

“Social Services did nothing to ensure the warning was adhered to,” the lawsuit says, “and in fact, knew it was not.”

The great-grandmother also promised that she would supervise all visits between Jordan and his mother, who had not been attending drug classes as agreed, the lawsuit said. When a social worker visited the mother’s home in June 2023 and found Jordan with her unsupervised — and the mother refusing a drug test — she called for the court to terminate parental rights. And that’s how — just weeks before the killing — Jordan was sent to live again with his great-grandmother in the two-bedroom apartment.

By that time, Addison had been released from prison and was back living in the apartment, the lawsuit said.

Walker says he was told by relatives that Turner had been giving money to Addison, and he may have become enraged when she cut him off, which led to the stabbing. Prosecutors wouldn’t immediately comment on a motive.

Walker broke down with emotion as he remembered his grandson’s short life, how he liked to swim and ride his skateboard. He was funny.

“I love him and I miss him,” Walker said. “And with every day that goes by, I won’t stop fighting for justice for Jordan and bringing to light the travesty that Santa Clara County Family and Children’s Services and everybody involved have let Jordan down.”

Originally Published: September 25, 2024 at 4:56 p.m.

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Julia Prodis Sulek

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September 25, 2024