Catch Me Up: Daily news roundup for May 22, 2025

This Daily News Roundup for the 24 hours from 4:00 PM Wednesday 5/21 to 4:00 PM Thursday 5/22 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, May 22nd, 2025. Here is a look at some of the top stories from across the region.

Federal agents on Thursday arrested a Sonoma real estate mogul accused of operating a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme. Sixty-three-year-old Kenneth Mattson was indicted on allegations of wire fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Prosecutors allege Mattson solicited more than twenty-eight million dollars in investments from hundreds of individuals, many of whom were nearing or in retirement, for what he claimed were legitimate real estate partnerships. However, authorities say none of the money was invested as promised. Mattson is also accused of deleting thousands of relevant files last year after learning of an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He is scheduled to make a court appearance Friday in San Francisco.

Meanwhile, a significant blow to California’s aggressive transition to electric vehicles. The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to block the state’s landmark mandate phasing out gas-powered cars. This decision to revoke three waivers granted by the Biden administration could dismantle California’s decades-long authority to combat its severe air pollution and reduce greenhouse gases. Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta denounced the move, vowing that “zero-emission vehicles are here to stay” and announcing the state will file a lawsuit against the Trump administration. Under the mandate, thirty-five percent of new 2026 model cars sold in California must be zero-emissions, ramping up to one hundred percent by 2035.

Shifting our focus to Silicon Valley, the region’s public transit agency, VTA, is facing a significant multi-year budget deficit. The agency expects an approximately eight hundred sixty-eight thousand dollar shortfall in 2026, which could balloon to nearly fifteen million dollars in 2027. This deficit stems from financial volatility, federal economic uncertainty, and a slowdown in VTA’s sales tax revenue, which accounts for over eighty percent of its funding. To address the situation, VTA is implementing short-term cost-cutting measures, including a hiring freeze and increasing staff vacancy rates to twenty percent. Despite the financial challenges, the agency is not considering cuts to services, aiming instead to protect its core operations and support its ridership, which is currently at eighty-five percent of pre-COVID levels.

In local news, Watsonville Police Chief Jorge Zamora announced his retirement on Thursday, concluding a distinguished thirty-year career with the force. Chief Zamora was the department’s first first-generation Mexican-American to hold the top position. He began his journey as a cadet at the age of fifteen and was appointed chief in 2022. Zamora is widely credited with establishing a chief’s advisory board, which significantly improved community connections with his office. He also notably assured the city’s immigrant community that his department would not facilitate deportation operations. His last official day will be August 30th, and Assistant Chief David Rodriguez will serve as interim police chief.

From that news, we turn to San Francisco, where newly installed speed cameras are issuing more than a thousand warnings daily. Data released by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency shows that over thirty-one thousand warnings were issued in April, the first month of the pilot program. Drivers caught traveling more than ten miles per hour over the speed limit received warnings, with most speeding between eleven and fifteen miles per hour above the limit. One specific area, Fulton Street between Arguello Boulevard and Second Avenue, accounted for forty-four percent of the average daily violations. Citations are expected to begin in August, following a sixty-day grace period once all cameras are activated.

Finally, some news on education. California schools are preparing to introduce universal reading screening for students in kindergarten through second grade. This initiative, mandated by 2023 legislation, requires every school district to select a preferred screening test by June 30th and begin administering it during the upcoming school year. The effort, championed by Governor Gavin Newsom, who has dyslexia, aims to detect early reading challenges and prevent students from being unnecessarily placed in special education classes. The goal is to provide guidance for parents and teachers on whether further diagnosis is necessary and to prompt schools to offer crucial support services, especially as statewide reading scores have dipped below pre-pandemic levels.

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