Catch Me Up: Daily news roundup for June 5, 2025

This Daily News Roundup for the 24 hours from 4:00 PM Wednesday 6/4 to 4:00 PM Thursday 6/5 is based on news articles created by Bay City News reporters and editors. We prompted ChatGPT to analyze the articles produced by our staff and to choose 5 stories to highlight. Then we used ElevenLabs and other tools to help us convert the text into audio based on the voice of Leslie Katz, one of our Bay City News editors. This content was verified by a human editor.

Hello, and welcome to Bay City News for Thursday, June 5th, 2025. Here is a look at some of the top stories from across the region.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is redefining his “Responsibility to Shelter” initiative for homeless people. When the policy initially rolled out in March, it stated that individuals refusing shelter three times within an eighteen-month period could face trespassing arrests. Mayor Mahan has since revised his stance, emphasizing a case-by-case evaluation and a focus on connecting people to treatment or behavioral health courts. He noted that charges for drug or firearm possession could also be used to facilitate access to help. The city plans to create a new outreach team to build case files, though Santa Clara County officials and a former judge have expressed skepticism that the policy will work as intended within the current justice system.

Meanwhile, a private company responsible for medical care at Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail has agreed to a two-point-five million dollar settlement. Wellpath, the Nashville, Tennessee-based company, settled a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by the children of Maurice Monk, who died in the jail in November 2021. Monk was found dead in his cell after approximately three days, with family lawyers alleging guards ignored his condition and nurses tossed his medications into his cell. Wellpath’s two hundred and fifty million dollar contract with the county expires in 2027, and the county Board of Supervisors is considering putting the jail’s medical care contract out to bid.

Shifting our focus to other news from San Jose, city officials are paying out more than half a million dollars to settle police brutality claims stemming from the summer 2020 protests against police misconduct. The six hundred and twenty thousand dollar settlement resolves a civil rights lawsuit filed by the NAACP San Jose/Silicon Valley and community organizers. This includes five hundred thousand dollars for Derrick Sanderlin, who was shot by police with a less-lethal projectile during the citywide demonstrations. A San Jose police spokesperson stated the department does not comment on litigation. The officer who shot Sanderlin continues to serve on the San Jose Police Department.

In a developing state-level story, the California Department of Education is urging school districts to resist threats from the federal government regarding transgender athletes in school sports. This follows a U.S. Department of Justice letter warning California districts of legal trouble if they do not pledge to bar transgender athletes from competition by June ninth. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said that the federal letter does not change state law, which protects all students’ access to participate in athletics consistent with their gender identity. The controversy intensified after a transgender athlete won medals at last weekend’s state track and field championships.

In San Mateo County, the District Attorney will seek the death penalty against Chunli Zhao, the man accused of killing seven people and injuring another in the Half Moon Bay mass shooting in January 2023. Zhao, a sixty-eight-year-old farmworker, is charged with seven counts of murder and one of attempted murder. While California has had a moratorium on executions since 2019, District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe stated that voters have affirmed the death penalty in recent elections, and he believes his role is to enforce the law on a case-by-case basis. Zhao remains jailed without bail and is scheduled to return to court on August sixth.

Finally, in Monterey County, a law firm representing eight hundred people affected by the January fire at the Vistra Moss Landing battery facility held a rally there on Wednesday. The firm, Singleton Schreiber, stated that lawsuits have been filed against Vistra Corporation and PG&E, citing concerns over health impacts and decreased property values. Environmental advocate Erin Brockovich was publicized to appear at the rally, but had a last-minute cancellation. On Sunday, PG&E attempted to reboot its adjacent Elkhorn battery facility but encountered a coolant leak, deferring its return to service. Community anxiety remains high following the January blaze.

And those are some of the top stories we’re following. Thank you for joining us for Bay City News.