Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor. Roundabouts could save lives all over Bay Area Re: “‘Turbo roundabout’ may involve a learning curve” (Page A1, April 15). Fatal car accidents occur far too often on major highways around the Bay Area. We need to look at new ways to reduce fatal car accidents. Adding solutions like the new turbo roundabout in San Benito County near Hollister to other high-fatality accident zones around the Bay Area should be a priority. This roundabout allows traffic to flow in four directions while eliminating the need to turn dir ..read more

OAKLAND — A former Fremont city manager — who drew the ire of prosecutors last year for embarking on an Italian cooking trip while facing felony fraud charges here — was sentenced Thursday to jail time and a six-figure restitution bill. Mark Danaj, 54, was told to report to Santa Rita Jail on June 4 to serve a 90-day jail sentence after having pled guilty last month to obtaining money under false pretenses, a felony. He also was ordered to pay nearly $317,000 to the city of Fremont, largely to reimburse the city for a severance check he received while leaving his job in 2021 under a thick lega ..read more

The latest edition of Viva CalleSJ — the event that welcomes cyclists, skaters, strollers and joggers onto six miles of San Jose streets — is this Sunday, and it looks like the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds will be a key destination no matter where you start your journey. The “SoFA to the Streets” route has endpoints at downtown San Jose’s arty SoFA district and Martial Cottle Park in South San Jose, with Monterey Road and a few other streets between them closed to vehicle traffic from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Fairgrounds, centrally located on the route, will be one of the big activity hubs for ..read more

OAKLAND — Eight men were arrested as suspects in a Tuesday morning armed robbery of tobacco products worth at least $10,000 from a delivery man, police said. The stolen products and two guns were recovered, police said. The robbery happened about 6:45 a.m. Tuesday outside a liquor store in the 7900 block of Mountain Boulevard. Two vehicles pulled up alongside a delivery truck and numerous masked suspects, some armed, got out and took boxes of cigarettes and other items from the truck, authorities said. The suspects then fled in the vehicles. The delivery man was not hurt. During the cours ..read more

Critics who blame California’s 2014 Proposition 47 for runaway drug addiction, retail theft and urban squalor said Thursday they have collected enough signatures to qualify a November ballot measure that would restore penalties for serial thieves and treatment requirements for addicts. Backers including owners of small businesses, social justice leaders and drug victim families gathered in San Francisco and Los Angeles to announce they have collected about 900,000 voter signatures, significantly more than the 546,651 required by April 23, and are turning them in to the Attorney General’s Offic ..read more

CONCORD — Burglars made off with a whopping $300,000 in cash and valuables from a single break-in at a home here last month, authorities said. The burglary occurred March 1 on Swainsons Court in Concord. The suspects broke in through a back window and made off with $100,000 in currency and $200,000 in jewelry, including an expensive Rolex watch, according to authorities. Just hours earlier, in San Ramon, a family returned home from a piano lesson to find that two burglars had stolen $25,000 in valuables from their home. Like in Concord, the burglars entered by smashing a sliding glass window ..read more

OAKLAND — A 61-year-old man has been charged with murder in the rifle-shot killing of another man April 11 in the Jingletown area, according to authorities and court records. Gregory Szugyi is accused of killing Antonio Poole, 36, about 3:36 p.m. April 11 outside in the 800 block of Kennedy Street, south of Interstate 880. Police have not said if the two men knew each other. He is also charged with another felony count being a felon in possession of a firearm. Szugyi, who was arrested April 12 in the 400 block of Embarcadero in Oakland, is being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail. Related Ar ..read more

At least a dozen people were arrested earlier this month by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office on suspicion of stealing about $150,000 worth of retail merchandise as part of an organized crime ring, authorities said Thursday. Authorities did not offer many details Thursday on how their investigation pinpointed the suspects. The Sheriff’s Office said that it served search warrants April 9 at two homes in San Jose, recovering approximately $110,000 worth of stolen merchandise from Home Depot and about $40,000 worth of stolen products from Target, Kohl’s, Lowes, Macy’s and Sunglass Hut. The ..read more

SAN JOSE — A woman whose sexual assault allegations against a longtime Leigh High School teacher led to his recent arrest claims in a new lawsuit the teacher forced her to terminate a pregnancy that resulted from their illegal sexual relationship. Shawn Renee Thomas, 56, of Los Gatos, was arrested in March 2024 on suspicion of having a sexual relationship with a student while he was a teacher at Leigh High School in San Jose in the early 2000s. A lawsuit from his accuser claims he impregnated her then forced her to get an abortion. (San Jose Police Dept.)  The plaintiff, referred to in le ..read more

SAN JOSE — Three San Jose residents were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, torture, robbery and other charges for allegedly attacking a man they believed had stolen a number of purses, police said. Duc Nguyen, 49, Kim Ho, 50 and Dayton Pham, 30, were booked into Santa Clara County Jail on suspicion of multiple offenses, including robbery, kidnapping, torture and assault with a deadly weapon, according to a news release Thursday morning from San Jose police. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office stated that all three were facing 13 charges related to the kidnapping and torture, i ..read more