The Bay

In this month’s edition of The Bay’s news roundup, Ericka, Alan, and KQED outdoors reporter Sarah Wright discuss Oakland’s new policy that will make it easier to sweep homeless encampments and RVs. Plus, a measure to tax the wealth of California’s billionaires seems headed for the November ballot, and a small group of lucky booklovers gets married at the San Francisco Public Library. 

Links:

Oakland Passes Controversial Policy Easing Restrictions on Encampment Sweeps | KQED

California Billionaire Tax Nears the November Ballot | KQED

Bay Area Book Lovers: We Have Highly Literary Date (or Friend Hang) Ideas for Your Weekend | KQED

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nuclear power has always been hotly debated. 9% of California’s power comes from the last operating nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, in San Luis Obispo County. But after initial plans to close it by 2025, an about-face by Gov. Gavin Newsom led the state to extend its operations until 2030 — with lawmakers now debating whether to keep it open for even longer in order to bolster California's ability to provide power in the face of climate change. 

Links:

The Debate for Keeping Diablo Canyon Open Past 2030 Is On. What Could It Mean for Your Bills?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by President Donald Trump last year, will cut an estimated $900 billion to $1 trillion from Medicaid over the next decade. Between funding cuts and big changes to enrollment and eligibility requirements, residents who rely on Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, are bracing for impact. Doctor and journalist Sejal Parekh explores how this is playing out in Contra Costa County.

Links:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been one week since Rep. Eric Swalwell ended his run for governor after ⁠multiple allegations of sexual assault and misconduct⁠. Before that, he was starting to consolidate support from voters in the progressive, vote-rich Bay Area.

Now that he’s out of the race, the remaining candidates – especially the leading Democrats – are trying to win over his supporters before the June 2 primary.

Links:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some school districts are now providing workforce housing, as they find themselves with vacant properties and employees who say they can’t afford to stay in the Bay Area. 

Today, we meet one teacher in San Francisco who was planning to leave – until she got an apartment in a teacher housing complex.

Links:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You know the sound: a robotic, ancient-sounding voice as you wait for BART: 6-car Blue line train for OAK Airport in 15 minutes. 

In America's tech capital, why do BART announcements sound so old? In this episode from our friends at Bay Curious, reporter Ana De Almeida Amaral sets out to find the answer.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode contains descriptions of sexual assault. 

Until last week, former Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from Dublin, was a leading candidate for governor.

But on Friday, a former staffer accused Swalwell of sexual assault. In interviews with the San Francisco Chronicle, former staff member said Swalwell sexually assaulted her when she was too intoxicated to consent in both 2019 and 2024, after multiple inappropriate advances both on Snapchat and in person. Since then, at least four more women have come forward, including one who alleges she was violently raped by Swalwell in 2018.

Swalwell denies these allegations. But within days, after supporters fled his campaign and called for him to step down, he ended his run for governor and resigned his Congressional seat.

Links:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rising child care prices leave many Bay Area parents with little choice but to turn down career opportunities, cut back hours, or even quit. As part of KQED’s new series on affordability, early childhood education reporter Daisy Nguyen introduces us to one mother who left her job as a teacher after the birth of her third child.

Links:

When Child Care Costs Half a Paycheck, Bay Area Parents Must Choose: Kids or Career | KQED

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We asked you to share your experiences with making friends in the Bay Area. Today, we hear from you — and follow one listener as she tries to meet new friends in San Jose.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Victoria Duran grew up in East San José, and remembers celebrating her community's ties to labor activist and United Farm Workers co-founder Cesar Chavez. His legacy looms large on the East Side, where he held his first organizing meetings and where his former home still stands. But for many people in San José, that sense of pride was shattered after a New York Times' investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by Chavez.

Now Duran, who teaches ethnic studies and psychology at William C. Overfelt High School in East San José, is reckoning with how to teach about Chavez in light of these sexual abuse allegations.

Links:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices