Catch Me Up: Daily news roundup for May 30, 2025

This Daily News Roundup for the 24 hours from 4:00 PM Thursday 5/29 to 4:00 PM Friday 5/30 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 Friday, May 30th, 2025. Here is a look at some of the top stories from across the region.

Health officials in Alameda and Santa Clara counties are advising residents of potential measles exposure at three public locations. This warning follows an adult Santa Clara County resident testing positive after recently returning from international travel. The potentially exposed locations and times are: the H-Mart at 1710 Oakland Road in San Jose on May 21st between 7:15 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.; a Starbucks at 35040 Newark Boulevard in Newark on May 23rd between 11:45 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.; and the Trader Joe’s at 1306 Grand Mall Parkway in Milpitas on May 25th from 4:45 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Officials urge anyone who visited these sites during the specified times to monitor for symptoms for up to three weeks and confirm their vaccination status. High-risk individuals should contact their doctor immediately.

Shifting our focus to San Jose, the Santa Clara County Emergency Medical Services chief is criticizing the San Jose Fire Department for potential federal law violations. This comes after reports that Fire Chief Robert Sapien knew about firefighter narcotics thefts, which led to patients receiving drugs from tampered vials, for longer than the city had disclosed. County EMS Agency Director Nick Clay sent a letter to Chief Sapien on May 23rd, stating that the lack of disclosure violates the city’s EMS agreement with the county. Clay is calling for a formal review, requesting a list of all patients who received narcotics from the department since January 1st, 2023. San Jose officials had announced the arrest of a fire captain for allegedly stealing paramedic morphine and tampering with drug kits on April 16th, but emails later obtained by San Jose Spotlight showed firefighters sounding alarms as early as 2023.

Meanwhile, in Berkeley, a high school teacher has been charged with sex crimes against a minor. Forty-nine-year-old Jason Hoopes was arrested on Wednesday after his employer, Bayhill High School, and the victim’s family alerted police last week. Hoopes was charged on Thursday with unlawful sexual intercourse, oral copulation with a minor, arranging a sexual meeting with a minor, and aggravating circumstances, according to jail records. Bayhill High School, which serves students with diagnosed learning disabilities, released a statement calling the charges “shocking and devastating for our entire school community.” The school stated they initially made a mandated report about inappropriate text messages between Hoopes and a student, and have since fired him. Hoopes remains in custody and was scheduled to be arraigned on Friday morning. Police are encouraging anyone with information about the case to call them.

Moving to San Francisco, two men have been charged in multiple cold-case killings, including three that date back to 2002. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced on Thursday that Sauntek Harris, 44, and Shaun Britton, 48, are alleged to have shot Perry Bradstreet on January 18th, 2002. Prosecutors also allege that Harris then fatally shot Lorenzo Richards on February 24th, 2002, and Gerald White on July 28th, 2002. The killing of Gerald White is alleged to have been committed to prevent him from testifying as a witness to a crime. Harris is additionally charged in the August 19th, 2019, killing of Dietrich Whitley. Both men face special circumstances allegations that the shootings were committed for a criminal street gang and constitute street terrorism. They are scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday, June 6th.

In state news, a new report from the California Department of Technology has raised questions about the state’s use of artificial intelligence. The report, which surveyed nearly two hundred state entities, concluded that not a single agency uses “high-risk” forms of automated decision-making technology. This finding comes despite the state’s documented use of algorithms to predict whether incarcerated individuals will commit crimes again, and previous use of predictive technology to deny unemployment benefits to hundreds of thousands of people. State Chief Technology Officer Jonathan Porat stated that the department only reported what agencies told them, and that agencies are responsible for interpreting the law. Critics argue the definition of “high-risk” may be too narrow, especially considering prior legislative analyses estimated hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars would be needed annually to monitor such systems.

Finally, some good news for commuters in Sonoma County. Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit, or SMART, trains will begin taking passengers to and from a new station in Windsor starting on Saturday, May 31st. This new station near the Windsor Town Green downtown park is the first of three planned extensions that will push SMART service further into northern Sonoma County. Future stations are slated for Healdsburg and then Cloverdale. Previously, SMART’s northernmost station was near the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport. The new train schedule for service to and from Windsor is now available on the agency’s website. A grand opening ceremony is also planned for 1:45 p.m. on Thursday, June 13th, at the Windsor station to celebrate this new northern endpoint for the train service.

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