Catch Me Up: Daily news roundup for May 10, 2025

This Daily News Roundup for the 24 hours from 4:00 PM Friday 5/9 to 4:00 PM Saturday 5/10 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 Saturday, May 10, 2025. Here is a look at some of the top stories from across the region.

We begin in Fairfield, where police are asking for the public’s help to locate a young child. Authorities received several reports around 10:05 Saturday morning of a white or Hispanic boy, believed to be about 2 years old, running in the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Utah Street. Neighbors and witnesses in the area reported the same occurrence. Fairfield police officers, with assistance from the California Highway Patrol, searched the area for about an hour but were unable to find the child. He was reportedly wearing a red shirt, blue shorts, and no shoes. Anyone with information about the child is asked to call the Fairfield Police Department Communications Center or 911 in an emergency.

From that concerning situation, we turn to news out of Monterey County, where a beloved local tradition has come to an unexpected end. The annual Artichoke Festival, a staple in the region since 1959, has been canceled indefinitely. The festival’s board of directors announced the decision on Friday, citing unsustainable financial strains. Originally held in Castroville, the event later moved to the Monterey County Fairgrounds and was scheduled to be held in Salinas for the first time this June. Organizers stated that increasing event production costs, insurance premiums, and operational challenges made it no longer feasible to continue. The board expressed gratitude to the farmers, volunteers, and visitors who supported the festival over its many decades and said they would explore ways to preserve its legacy and continue supporting local agriculture.

While one community event faces closure, another is just beginning to take shape in Solano County. Construction has officially started on a long-awaited bike park at Centennial Park in Vacaville. The city announced on Friday that work is underway on the project, located on the park’s northeast corner. The bike park is part of the Centennial Park Master Plan approved in 2023 and is being delivered through an innovative public-private partnership with Landify-ECT Corporation. This model uses clean, construction-excavated soil as structural fill for the park, reducing environmental impact at no cost to the city. The first phase involves building a large earthen mound, and all imported materials are tested for environmental safety.

Shifting our focus to statewide concerns, a recent report from the Office of the Inspector General has highlighted significant weaknesses in the emergency preparedness of California’s state prisons. According to the CalMatters report published Saturday, an audit of 30 state prisons found that many are not adequately prepared to respond to natural disasters such as wildfires, floods, and earthquakes. The report detailed issues with transportation for evacuations, inconsistent risk assessment methods, and challenges posed by prison overcrowding. For example, during the flood risks in 2023, two prisons in the San Joaquin Valley developed evacuation plans that could take up to 14 days or longer to move thousands of incarcerated individuals. The Inspector General’s report concluded with 18 recommendations to bring the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation into compliance with state emergency planning regulations. Advocates have long raised concerns about the vulnerability of prisons to climate hazards, and this report underscores the urgency of addressing these systemic issues.

Turning now to developments in the justice system, two men were convicted in San Francisco on Friday for a fatal robbery that occurred in the city’s Portola district in 2020. A jury found Zion Young, 24, and Fagamalama Pasene, 31, guilty of killing a man while attempting to steal his cell phone on May 7, 2020. According to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, surveillance video showed the passenger of a black Honda CR-V, later identified as Young, accosting the victim and shooting him when the victim resisted. An anonymous tip led police to Young the day after the murder. Ballistics tests matched a firearm seized from Young’s residence to casings found at the scene, and his DNA was found on the weapon. Video evidence also implicated Fagamalama Pasene in wiping down the vehicle used in the crime.

Finally, some exciting news for sports fans in San Francisco. A professional soccer team affiliated with Major League Soccer’s Next Pro league is coming to Golden Gate Park. Golden City Football Club is slated to begin play at the historic Kezar Stadium within the next two years. The agreement, announced Friday, was described by Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office as a public-private partnership. It includes a commitment from the new franchise to make $10 million worth of upgrades to Kezar Stadium, including a new natural grass field, new seating, and modern sound and scoreboard systems. The stadium will continue to be available for public and high school sports. Golden City Football Club was co-founded by Marc Rohrer and Geoff Oltmans, who aim to create new opportunities for the community through the sport.

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