Catch Me Up: Daily news roundup for June 20, 2025

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This Daily News Roundup for the 24 hours from 4:00 PM Thursday 6/19 to 4:00 PM Friday 6/20 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, June 20, 2025. Here is a look at some of the top stories from across the region.

San Jose and Santa Clara County’s progress in reducing homelessness faces a potential setback as the state considers cutting crucial funding. The California Legislature’s preliminary budget for the fiscal year 2025 to 2026 has eliminated the Homelessness Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program, or HHAP, which is the state’s primary source of homelessness funding. San Jose anticipates losing about $30 million in funding starting in the fiscal year 2026 to 2027, potentially affecting 550 beds and spaces in temporary homeless housing. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan stated that losing this funding means walking away from progress and people in need. Santa Clara County has also heavily relied on HHAP for temporary housing and prevention efforts.

Meanwhile, San Francisco is moving closer to having a Major League Soccer-affiliated team call Golden Gate Park’s Kezar Stadium home. The Board of Supervisors has given the green light to the city’s Recreation and Park Department to finalize a contract with the newly formed Golden City Football Club. The agreement includes at least $10 million in renovations for Kezar Stadium and a minimum 15-year lease. The club, founded this year by co-owners Marc Rohrer and Geoff Oltmans, will compete in MLS Next Pro, a developmental league for top MLS clubs. Renovations will include a new natural grass field, improved seating, a state-of-the-art sound system, and accessibility upgrades. The stadium will continue to be used for public, high school, and college sports.

Shifting our focus to public safety, Vallejo police arrested two males found with handguns near a high school graduation ceremony last week. On June 13th, officers responded to a report of a male with a handgun near the 800 block of Nebraska Street, where Jesse Bethel High School’s graduation was being held. Witnesses reported seeing six males, one of whom was carrying a firearm. When officers located the group, two males walked away and were later detained near a parked vehicle. Police discovered a loaded firearm in one suspect’s waistband and a loaded, unserialized firearm in a juvenile’s backpack. The adult suspect’s gun was reported stolen from Yuba County. The adult was booked into Solano County Jail, and the juvenile was booked into the Solano County Juvenile Detention Facility.

In Oakland, a two-day “Stand Down” event will be held next week to provide critical support to the region’s homeless veterans. Organized by the Alameda County Veterans Affairs Commission and St. Vincent de Paul emergency shelter, the “Stand Down in the Town!” event is scheduled for June 27 and 28, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. It will take place at St. Vincent de Paul, located at 2272 San Pablo Avenue. The comprehensive indoor resource fair will offer free services including showers, meals, legal assistance, housing placement, health care, employment support, and veterans’ benefits counseling. Organizers emphasized that the timing aligns with PTSD Awareness Month, given the high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder among homeless veterans.

In other news, a new report from Stanford University finds that immigration raids in California’s Central Valley earlier this year caused enough fear to keep nearly a quarter of students in five districts home from school. The study evaluated daily student attendance and found a 22% increase in absences after raids in January and February. These raids, part of “Operation Return to Sender,” targeted immigrants at gas stations and restaurants and pulled over farmworkers. The districts closest to the raids, including Bakersfield City, Southern Kern Unified, Tehachapi Unified, Kerman Unified, and Fresno Unified, experienced the highest absentee rates. Empty seats in classrooms impact student education and reduce districts’ funding, which is tied to average daily attendance. The California Legislature is currently considering Assembly Bill 1348, which aims to compensate districts for lost funding if attendance declines due to fear of federal immigration enforcement.

Finally, the Martinez Refinery Company reported a Level One Community Awareness Message for flaring early Friday morning. Contra Costa Health issued a statement indicating this message is for informational purposes only, and no action is required from the public, although residents may hear, smell, or see signs related to the event. Refinery officials stated that flares are an essential part of their safety systems, designed to safely manage excess gases and pressure through combustion. This flaring comes as the refinery has been restarting some of its process units that were shut down after a fire in February that injured six workers and burned for three days.

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