Thursday Morning News Roundup

The team said the money comes from private investors. The home opener is scheduled for June 4.

The Ballers will be the first West Coast team in the independent Pioneer League.

The ordinance giving the Ballers access to the field won't become official until the council does a second reading of the ordinance at its April 30 meeting. Then the team has a little more than a month to work on the park.

City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan called the renovations a "vital improvement project."

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A man driving a dump truck in Napa County was killed Wednesday afternoon when the vehicle overturned and crashed into a culvert, according to California Highway Patrol.

Around 3:50 p.m., a 23-year-old man from Santa Rosa was driving a dump truck northbound on state Highway 29 in Rutherford, just south of Manley Lane, when he made an unsafe turning movement towards the right shoulder, according to CHP. The dump truck then left the roadway and crashed into a concrete mailbox and metal guardrail. The impact of the collision caused the truck to overturn and continue in a northeasterly direction, eventually crashing into a dirt and rock drainage culvert.

The passenger, a 61--year-old man from Vallejo, was ejected from the truck and landed on the dirt shoulder east of the freeway, according to CHP. The vehicle came to rest on its wheels east of the highway, facing south.

Neither the driver nor his passenger were wearing seatbelts and the driver sustained fatal injuries. The passenger was taken to the hospital with major injuries.

After a preliminary investigation, CHP said it does not believe that alcohol or drugs played a factor in the crash.

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A woman was arrested on suspicion of a felony after she allegedly caused a three-vehicle collision Wednesday afternoon in Lodi that killed one person, according to police.

First responders began getting calls about a crash at the intersection of Harney Lane and Hutchins Street at about 4:37 p.m.

Upon arrival, officers and medical personnel found three vehicles involved in a crash with injured people inside. One person succumbed to their injuries and was pronounced deceased at the scene, according to police.

An investigation appears to show that a 37-year-old female driver caused the crash and she has been arrested on suspicion of a felony. Police have not released more information about the nature of her arrest, nor her identity.

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Major campaign funders of the two frontrunners for the Contra Costa County's District 5 Board of Supervisors seat are trade unions and law enforcement, campaign finance records show.

Coming out as the top two choices from the primary election, Mike Barbanica with 38.7% of the vote and Shanelle Scales-Preston with 35.07% will vie for position this November.

Barbanica, currently an Antioch City Council member, is the clear choice for law enforcement political action committees, while Scales-Preston of the Pittsburg City Council has won the favor of various labor and trade union PACs.

So far this year, Barbanica has raised and spent less than Scales-Preston. Barbanica's most recently submitted 460 form -- the main campaign disclosure report -- was filed last month on March 8 and showed that he has received $33,288 in contributions with total expenditures being $57,042.49 this calendar year. Scales-Preston's most recent 460 form filed on March 1 showed $51,164 in contributions with $86,491.47 in expenditures.

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A man accused of a fatal hit-and-run collision with a 72-year-old pedestrian in Oakland in 2022 has been charged with vehicular manslaughter, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Emelia Martinez Roa was walking on International Boulevard in the Fruitvale District on May 31, 2022 when she was struck by a car and killed.

Prosecutors believe that suspect Jose Perez was driving a stolen vehicle when he allegedly struck Roa and fled the scene without stopping to help or call for aid.

Perez has been charged with one count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit-and-run driving. Prosecutors have also added enhancements for prior convictions and "violence or bodily harm," the Alameda County District Attorney's Office said.

Perez is scheduled to be arraigned on April 25. If convicted, he is facing up to six years in state prison.

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Prosecutors in Santa Clara County have charged two people with murder for allegedly providing the fentanyl that killed a baby last August in San Jose.

Phillip Ortega, 31, of Gilroy, and Paige Vitale, 32, of San Jose allegedly provided the parents of an18-month-old baby known as Winter Doe with "a steady supply of opioids and shared the drugs, while the baby girl wandered inside the drug-littered San Jose residence," prosecutors said.

Evidence will allegedly show that "babysitting" drug dealers Ortega and Vitale left opioids and drug paraphernalia out in the open around the house where the baby could find them.

Parents Darek Rayo and Kelly Richardson were charged five months ago with the overdose homicide death of their child, which District Attorney Jeff Rosen said was the first time in Santa Clara history for such charges to be filed.

Prosecutors allege Rayo and Richardson waited more than 12 hours before calling 911 to report that their daughter was dead. The baby had 15 times the lethal limit of fentanyl in her system when she died.

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Prosecutors in Napa County have filed charges against a man suspected in the shooting deaths of two teenagers last weekend, the District Attorney's Office said.

Vallejo resident John Nicholson, Jr., 22, was arrested Monday after investigators identified him as the suspect in the killing of a 19-year-old woman and a 17-year-old girl in the city of Napa.

Nicholson is accused of shooting the two during an altercation in the 400 block of Riverside Drive between Laurel and Oak streets on Saturday night.

Two other women were arrested in connection to the case as well-- Santa Rosa residents Jessica Whitten and Judith Adolph, both 19.

In addition to murder charges, Nicholson is charged with the special circumstance of alleged multiple murder. He is also charged with the special allegation of personal and intentional discharge of a firearm causing death. Prosecutors allege that he commmitted crimes that involved great bodily harm and a "high degree of cruelty, viciousness and callousness," and that the crimes were "carried out with planning, sophistication professionalism."

Nicholson appeared in court Wednesday for his arraignment, where he did not enter a plea, according to prosecutors.

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Police in San Francisco have identified a teenager suspected in an autonomous vehicle fire that occurred in Chinatown in February, the department said Wednesday.

On Feb. 10 just before 9 p.m., units responded to the 700 block of Jackson Street regarding a vehicle fire. Once there, police discovered an Waymo autonomous vehicle ablaze, which investigators later determined was the result of arson.

A 14-year-old boy has been identified as the suspect and detectives searched his residence in late March, where they allege they found evidence linking him to the crime.

Since the suspect is a juvenile, the juvenile probation department will decide if he will be arrested or appear in court out of custody, San Francisco Police said. The department said that prosecutors have also filed charges.

Police initially said that the car had been surrounded by 10 to 15 people, though no other arrests appear to have been made.

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Two people were injured, one seriously, in an unprovoked attack in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood on Tuesday evening, according to police.

The attack was reported shortly before 5:45 p.m. Tuesday in the area of Sixth and Jessie streets, where a suspect came up to a 56-year-old man and shoved him to the ground, San Francisco police said.

The suspect then turned to an 81-year-old woman and shoved her to the ground too. The man suffered life-threatening injuries in the attack while the woman is expected to survive, according to police.

The male suspect remains at large and police have not released a detailed description of him.

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Eastbound state Highway 12 in Santa Rosa will have full and partial closures starting Friday through Monday next week to expedite pavement replacement operations, Caltrans said.

The closures will begin at 8 p.m. Friday until 5 a.m. Monday, according to the agency.

Caltrans said it will alternate partial and full closures of eastbound State Route 12 in Santa Rosa between the Dutton Avenue exit and the South E Street exit.

The closures are planned to be divided into day and night shifts. At night, the eastbound freeway between Dutton Avenue and South E Street will be fully closed. During the day, one eastbound lane will be open, and one lane will be closed.

Motorists traveling eastbound on the highway between Dutton Avenue and South E Street are advised to prepare for traffic delays or consider alternative routes.

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A multimillion-dollar work backlog in San Jose is leaving empty spaces where playground equipment used to be, basketball courts eroded and turf riddled with holes from squirrels and gophers.

San Jose's parks department has a more than $554 million infrastructure backlog, according to a 2024 city status report -- with many East Side parks in disrepair. Most of the city's parks budget comes from development fees, and advocates are calling for the city to diversify funding in what they said is an equity issue.

The city is working on solutions such as asset management, maintaining parks as they are and improving efficiency, but there is no concrete solution for the 293 playgrounds and 212 parks that are part of an expected five-year capital budget of roughly $385 million for 2024-28.

San Jose parks representatives did not respond to questions before publication, but said at an April 8 Transportation and Environment Committee meeting that the department is continuing to assess needs and create plans to reduce the problems.

Jean Dresden, founder of San Jose Park Advocates, said the city's funding methods are lacking because the budget shifts at the whims of development, which varies by year and district. Bob Levy, a Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation program manager and former San Jose parks commissioner, said parks will continue deteriorating if the city doesn't expand its funding. He said parks are usually a last priority in the city's budget, not helped by short staffing.

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The Walnut Creek City Council earlier this week unanimously approved sending a $77 million overhaul of Heather Farm Park to the design/development phase.

Made possible by voters passing Measure O in 2022 to increase the city's sales tax, the City Council agreed Tuesday that the Aquatic and Community Center Facility at Heather Farm Park will replace the existing community center and swim center with a new combined aquatic and community center.

The aquatic component will consist of an 18-lane, 50-meter competitive lap pool and a 25-meter family recreational pool with a beach entry, a slide, and a children's water spray device. Locker rooms will be part of the adjacent community center building. The center will operate with electricity from solar panels.

The large pool will be configured to World Aquatics standards for competition. The entire pool space will encompass more than 35,000 square feet.

The new 23,400-square-foot community center will be able to function as an emergency operations center for the city as well. The city's current emergency operations center is a conference room at City Hall.

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The National Weather Service forecast for the greater San Francisco Bay Area for Thursday calls for mostly sunny skies during the day and cloudy skies at night, with patchy fog in some areas.

Daytime highs are expected to be mostly in the 60s on the coast, in the 70s around the bay, and in the 70s to 80s inland. Overnight lows will be in the upper 40s to low 50s.

Warm temps are expected to persist on Thursday into the weekend, with a slight cooldown on Friday as a weak trough advances. Forecasters say there will be increased cloudiness late week with a chance of coastal drizzle.

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