Three suspects from Vallejo were arrested in connection to multiple pickpocket thefts in Chinatown that began in early April. Police later found additional items at the suspects’ residence tied to thefts dating back to 2024.

The San Francisco Police Department announced Monday that three suspects were arrested Saturday under suspicion of committing a string of targeted pickpocket thefts in Chinatown. The department began receiving reports of multiple cases throughout the neighborhood beginning in early April, with one victim having about $4,000 worth of property stolen.

Foot patrol officers from the Central Station reportedly identified the suspects with the help of the community after a weeks-long investigation.

On Saturday, police were able to track the suspects’ vehicle using the department’s various intelligence tools, including automated license plate readers and a drone, according to the SFPD. The department located the suspects in their car in Chinatown, sizing up their next victims.

As can be seen in the video footage shared by the SFPD, the thieves allegedly worked in tandem to form a shield while one suspect reached into the victims’ bags — all in broad daylight on busy Chinatown streets.

Officers arrested Stefan Ruset, 35, Marian Constantine, 30, and Florin Matei, 26, all from Vallejo, Saturday. They were booked into the San Francisco County Jail on felony charges of grand theft and conspiracy, and misdemeanor possession of stolen property, which was recovered and returned to the victims.

On Sunday, officers served a warrant at the suspects’ residence in Vallejo, where they recovered more than $14,000 in US currency, as well as stolen property allegedly connected to a 2024 pickpocket case, per the SFPD. Police also found clothing that was believed to have been worn during previous thefts.

The investigations remain open and active. Anyone with information should contact the SFPD at 1-415-575-4444 or Text-A-Tip to TIP411 and begin the message with “SFPD.”

Related: SF Man Charged In 27 Separate Walgreens Thefts In SF; Other Alleged Prolific Retail Thieves Also Nabbed

Image: Screenshot from video, courtesy of SFPD

• Vallejo police arrested 10 people suspected of soliciting sex from sex workers during an enforcement operation Friday. One suspect fled the scene, initiating a chase with police before his tires were blown out by spike strips. [KRON4]
• DNA analysis determined that the coyote that made it ashore to Alcatraz swam there from Angel Island, which is even further away than San Francisco. Scientists are unsure where the coyote went after it stepped foot on the island as they never saw traces of it again. [KRON4]
• As the state moves to phase out the sale of natural gas appliances across the Bay Area, officials are considering offering certain households one-time exemptions. [KPIX]

National:

• Senate Republicans have proposed $1 billion in funding, largely for White House security upgrades, and Democrats say it’s effectively subsidizing President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom, as some of the funds would go toward helping secure it. [Associated Press]
• For the first time since World War II, the US’s national debt, which hit $31.27 trillion at the end of April, now exceeds its gross domestic product at $31.22 trillion. [CBS]
• An alleged con artist named Vladimir Sklarov, 63, who also goes by “Gregory Mitchell” and “Mark Simon Bentley,” was arrested in Chicago Saturday and is scheduled to appear in federal court Friday on charges that he duped a Mexican billionaire out of $450 million. [Associated Press]

Video of the Day:

San Francisco may have bar crawls dedicated to Brides and Mrs Roper, but what this city really needs is a bunch of Angela Lansburys hitting the streets, like this delightful-looking Murder She Wrote festival that recently took place in Mendocino.

Coincidentally, there’s currently a touring Murder She Wrote sing-along at Great Star Theater in Chinatown this week, running Wednesday through Saturday.

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

A lost dog named Fiona fell into a well under an abandoned home in Vallejo on Monday, and needed to be rescued after treading water for about two hours.

The incident happened on Monday, April 27, and was handled by the Solano County Sheriff's Animal Control Services unit.

According to a social media post, officers with Animal Control Services recevied two calls on Monday, one from an abandoned home where an animal's cries inside could be heard, and one from a family nearby whose dog had just gone missing.

An Officer Bradley responded to the scene of the abandoned house, and could hear the dog's distressed cries, but could not access the house. Solano County Sheriff's deputies reportedly assisted with breaking into the home, with the animal's welfare at stake.

"Inside, they found the dog trapped in a cistern several feet below ground treading water," the sheriff's office says.

The owners of the missing dog, Fiona, arrived at the scene and confirmed that this was Fiona down in the well.

Vallejo Fire Department personnel also came to assist at the scene with the complicated rescue, which is documented in some fairly blurry images posted in this Facebook reel.

"Confined space conditions made the rescue challenging, requiring specialized equipment and training," the sheriff's office writes. "Vallejo Fire crews worked from above and successfully pulled her to safety. Fiona, determined and exhausted, did everything she could to help — holding onto a loop with her teeth and trying to push herself up."

Fiona reportedly suffered abrasions,and was "cold and extremely tired," but she was reunited with her humans and is now recovering at home.

"A huge thank you to Vallejo Fire for their quick response, expertise, and dedication—this rescue wouldn’t have been possible without them," the sheriff's office says.

Denise Huskins, the Vallejo woman whose 2015 kidnapping and sexual assault case was featured in Netflix’s American Nightmare, is pushing for changes to state law after learning her assailant was given access to explicit evidence from her case during his trial.

As CBS Sacramento’s Julie Watts reports, Denise Huskins and her husband, Aaron Quinn, are preparing to testify in support of a victims’ privacy bill aimed at closing gaps in California law that allow defendants in crimes involving adult victims to obtain and retain sensitive case materials. Years after her attacker’s conviction, Huskins discovered that his then-wife still had copies of that evidence in her home.

The case stems from an infamous March 2015 home invasion in Vallejo where Matthew Muller blindfolded and drugged the couple before kidnapping Huskins, sexually assaulting her, and holding her for ransom in South Lake Tahoe for two days before releasing her near her father's home in Southern California.

At the time, law enforcement publicly accused Huskins of staging the kidnapping, a claim later disproven after Muller was arrested in a separate case and pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually assaulting her. The case became more nationally well known following the 2024 Netflix docu-series American Nightmare.

Over the past year, Huskins and Quinn have been working with investigators to help reopen cold cases tied to Matthew Muller, as SFist reported last year, efforts that led to new confessions and revelations about how evidence in her case was handled.

As CBS reports, the couple learned that explicit recordings of the assaults — which investigators say Muller filmed — had been turned over to defense attorneys as part of the legal discovery process and not properly safeguarded.

According to investigators, Muller’s then-wife, who said she acted as his legal assistant while he represented himself for a time, retained copies of that material in her home for years after his conviction.

The handling of explicit evidence in her case is now driving reform efforts in Sacramento, as Huskins and Quinn prepare to testify in support of a new victims’ privacy bill, SB 1056 authored by Senator Tim Grayson, as CalMatters reports.

"Part of videoing it is his ability to continue to exploit and re-victimize me over and over again every time he viewed it," Huskins tells CBS. “To learn that there wasn't more care, more guidelines and restrictions, was just another insult to injury."

CBS reports that while California law requires courts to seal sexually explicit evidence involving minors, protections for adult victims are far less defined. There is reportedly no consistent system to track or verify compliance once a case concludes — even when protective orders are issued.

As a result, individual prosecutors or courts are responsible for processing and tracking explicit evidence involving adult victims, without uniform statewide standards.

"There isn't a law," Sacramento County Deputy District Attorney Sonja Satchell told CBS. "We are governed by best practices… and those practices can vary from county to county. There is no uniformity."

Huskins and Quinn are now working with lawmakers to establish clearer statewide standards through the creation of SB 1056, as CBS reports. The bill would require courts to issue protective orders for sexually explicit evidence involving victims of any age and limit how that material is copied, shared, or accessed.

"If survivors don't feel like they're going to be safe and protected, they are not going to come forward," Huskins tells the station.

As CBS reports, the couple is scheduled to testify before the California State Senate Public Safety Committee in support of the bill on March 24.

"It's healing to know that we have a voice… and we can use it," she said.

Previously: Kidnapping and Assault Victim Denise Huskins Helped Law Enforcement Find More Victims of Matthew Muller

Image: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 15: (L-R) Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn attend the 2024 Critics Choice Real TV Awards at Fairmont Century Plaza on June 15, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)

• Merih Fssha Solomon, 47, of Walnut Creek was arrested in connection with the crash that killed a two-year-old and injured her mother in SF’s Mission Bay earlier this month. Solomon was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, red light violation, and failure to yield to pedestrians. [NBC Bay Area]
• The family of Sean Monterrosa of San Francisco received a multi-million dollar settlement from the city of Vallejo over the killing of  Monterrosa by a police officer in 2020, who said he mistook the hammer in Monterrosa’s pocket for a gun. [KRON4]
• The San Francisco Zoo announced it’s eliminating a “small number of positions” amid financial challenges following a scandalous 2024 report that revealed leadership struggles and concerns surrounding animal welfare and employee safety. [Chronicle]

National:

• Thousands were told to evacuate immediately and hundreds were rescued amid severe flash-flooding on Hawaii’s Oahu Island, as a local dam is on the verge of collapsing. [CNN]
• The FDA announced the recall of almost 90,000 bottles of children's liquid ibuprofen made by Strides Pharma for Taro Pharmaceuticals, with the product number D-0390-2026, after the company received complaints they contained "a gel-like mass and black particles." [Associated Press]
• CBS News is shutting down its radio division in May after 100 years in business, and all jobs in the department will be eliminated. [CBS]

Video of the Day:

As thousands prepare to descend upon Union Square for Tulip Day Saturday — early, we suggest, check out this cool video of crews setting up the spectacular installation this week.

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Vallejo's upcoming Punk in the Park music festival was just tarred by revelations that the concert promoter donated to the Trump 2024 campaign, but the Dead Kennedys still insist they’re playing the show.

We mentioned earlier this month that a punk rock and beer festival called Punk in the Park was coming to Vallejo on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, boasting a lineup including the Adicts, the Dead Kennedys, the Exploited, plus a whole lot of other acts. It seemed like a nice, affordable festival for aging punks, with an all-you-can-sample beer garden component.

But that festival has since run into a terrible speed bump of bad publicity. The Chronicle reports on a new controversy that the head promoter and organizer of the Punk in the Park festival has since been outed as a Donald Trump 2024 campaign donor, and several of the undercard acts have already dropped off the scheduled because of it.

That said, the Dead Kennedys say they’re still playing the gigs, but will not be affiliated with the festival after this year.

“We’ve become aware that the owner of Brew Ha Ha Productions, the company behind Punk In The Park, made financial contributions in support of the Trump administration,” the band posted to Facebook Tuesday. “Our first reaction was to cancel our upcoming appearances. However, we do not feel it would be fair to our supporters who have already purchased tickets & made plans to attend these shows.”

​​“Dead Kennedys have always stood firmly against authoritarianism, racism, and fascism. That has not changed,” they added. “After these scheduled appearances, we will not be participating in future Punk In The Park events.”

We should note that former frontman Jello Biatra no longer plays with the Dead Kennedys, having split with the band in the mid-1980s.

From SFist’s research, we found that Brew Ha Ha Productions owner Cameron Clark only donated $225 to the Trump 2024 campaign, in a donation dated May 30, 2024. But that’s still a donation to the Donald Trump campaign, and the blowback is certainly understandable.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Punk In The Park (@punkintheparkfest)

For what it’s worth, Clark posted a lengthy Instagram rebuttal to the controversy when it first came to light last summer.

“Like many Americans, my political views don’t neatly fit into a single box or party affiliation. I believe in fairness, humanity, free expression, and fostering unity among people. That’s how I’ve tried to live my life and conduct my business,” Clark writes. “I must admit that I haven’t been pleased with a great many of the current President’s viewpoints, opinions, and policies thus far, particularly with the recent ICE atrocities and the backtracking on the Epstein files being released, as well as all the posturing with our allies around the world.”

Related: Vallejo Gets a ‘Punk Rock and Beer’ Music Festival on Memorial Day Weekend, With the Adicts, Dead Kennedys, and the Exploited [SFist]

Image: Punk in The Park via Facebook

BottleRock just got a punk-ass little sibling breathing down its neck on Memorial Day weekend, as a festival called Punk in the Park is coming to Vallejo, with a beer tasting area, plus the Adicts, Dead Kennedys, and the Exploited.

For years, the Bay Area’s Memorial Day weekend live music scene has been dominated by Napa’s BottleRock festival, a decadent wine and cuisine affair whose tickets for this year’s May 22-24 festival are currently selling for $475, and the VIP passes are already sold out. Can we interest you in a beer-themed music festival the same weekend where tickets are just $59.99?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Punk In The Park (@punkintheparkfest)

Broadway World reports there’s a punk rock music festival called Punk in the Park coming to Vallejo’s Solano County Fairgrounds on Saturday, May 23. There will indeed be a sprawling beer tasting garden, and the musical lineup features the Adicts, the Dead Kennedys, the Exploited, Nekromantix, Manic Hispanic, Codefendants, N8NOFACE, Naked Aggression, 8 Kalacas, and Sissyfit. The festival indicates that more acts will be announced.

We should note that vocalist Jello Biafra no longer performs with the Dead Kennedys.  

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Punk In The Park (@punkintheparkfest)

Those $59.99 tickets are already on sale, and for General Admission ticket holders, the beer garden tasting area will cost you an additional $15. That beer tasting pass comes free with $129.99 VIP tickets, and VIPs also get a lounge, dedicated entrance lanes, a close-up stage viewing area, and access to certain special bars and food trucks.

Organizers say there will also be a lineup of food trucks, vendors, and beer vendors on hand.

Punk in the Park is not a new festival. It travels from city to city, and last year it was held at the Cow Palace on the first weekend of May. That was intended to be an outdoor festival, but was moved inside because of heavy winds. We'll see how it works out that the Solano County Fairgrounds.

Related: Mosswood Meltdown Announces 2026 Lineup, Iggy Pop and Bikini Kill Are Headliners [SFist]

Image: SAN BERNARDINO, CA - AUGUST 26: Singer Keith Warren of The Adicts performs onstage during the Its Not Dead 2 Festival at Glen Helen Amphitheatre on August 26, 2017 in San Bernardino, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)

Local rapper LaRussell, who petitioned the NFL to let him perform at this year's Bay Area Super Bowl, has gotten the invite to do so at the official NFL Tailgate Party outside Levi's Stadium.

He may not be opening for Bad Bunny at the Halftime Show, but 31-year-old Vallejo-born rapper LaRussell is celebrating that he's been asked to perform at Levi's Stadium, as the official "house band" and at the official tailgate party on February 8 — where Grammy-nominated artist Teddy Swims will also be performing.

LaRussell posted the video seen below Wednesday morning, with Oakland's Collab Choir backing him up, outside Levi's Stadium, singing and rapping the announcement.

The rapper also announced, "We are the official hyphy house band of Super Bowl 60 in the Bay Area, from the Bay Area. It ain’t never happened before."

LaRussell reposted the clip to X, with the caption, "FROM THE BACKYARD TO SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!" He added, "MY TEAM WORKED REALLY HARD FOR THIS! THE TEAM AT THE NFL FOUGHT REALLY HARD FOR THIS!"

The NFL also posted the video, and as the Chronicle notes, the NFL Tailgate will be airing on Peacock starting at 12:50 pm on February 8.

LaRussell was born LaRussell Dwayne Thomas in Vallejo in 1994, and he originally rapped under the name Tota Shakur, prior to 2020.

The "backyard" he's referring to is a pergola-covered stage in his backyard where he's performed a number of concerts, following an unsatisfactory experience with a local venue. LaRussell also thrilled local fans with a Saturday main stage set at Outside Lands this past August.

In his short career he's released dozens of studio albums and tracks, including, last year alone, Rent Paid, "Party on the Westside," Make Hip-Hop Fun Again, Be Home Before the Stree Lights Come On, Sobriety, and Good Ethica.  

Below, hear him performing with the Pittsburg High School Marching Band last month in a video that he made as part of his campaign for an invite from the NFL.

Image: Leanne Maxwell (2017)/SFist

• Despite informing patients it will soon be ending gender-affirming care for transgender youth last month, Sutter Health has reversed course. Families were relieved to discover that their trans children could continue receiving care through the network, despite the federal administration’s continued pressure to ban it. [KQED]
• The Vallejo City Unified School District voted to close three elementary schools this week, which include around 1,000 students and 100 staff members. The district cites a swift decline in enrollment rates, as the number of students in the district has gone down from 20,000 students in previous years to 10,000 currently. [KPIX]

• Hazie’s restaurant in Hayes Valley has seen a significant boost in business following a viral video involving the antics of an unfortunate drunk woman last week, which ultimately got her fired from her job at Strava. [KRON4]

National:

• Thousands gathered Thursday to honor the people killed and injured during a Hanukkah celebration last weekend at Australia’s Bondi Beach, the first day the park reopened after the attack. [Associated Press]

• Applications for Trump’s new gold card opened last week, geared toward enabling wealthy foreigners to bypass US immigration laws to the tune of $1 million, plus a $15,000 processing fee. [CNBC]
• After New York Governor Kathy Hochul banned phones in public schools in September, students have gone analog in the cafeterias, including playing Dominos and poker and listening to CDs via Walkmen. [Boing Boing]

Video of the Day:

The stunning City Hall Winter Lights display kicked off December 6 and runs through January 2, featuring a 10-minute show that begins with an homage to the history of City Hall, including the original architectural drawings by architect Arthur Brown Jr. projected onto the magnificent Beaux Arts structure. The presentation then transforms into a carousel of holiday-themed visuals that “fill the façade with warmth and color.”

Amplified sound is available every night except Christmas and Christmas Eve. Spectators can also access the playlist through the app. The show runs every half hour from 5:30 pm to midnight, every night through January 2, visible from Polk Street and Van Ness Avenue. — via Secret San Francisco

Image: SF Office of Protocol

A proposed mega-casino in Vallejo from the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians has faced legal challenges from tribes that run rival casinos, and now the Trump administration says the casino’s approval may have been based on a “legal error.”

If you don’t live around Vallejo, you may not be aware the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians has been trying for years to build a $700 million, 160-acre casino in Vallejo, not far from the intersection of I-80 and Highway 37. The casino would also come with a 24-unit single-family home housing complex, a 45-acre biological preserve, restaurants, a cineplex, and a bowling alley. The casino would be open and operating 24/7.

But this casino has been held up by lawsuits from other tribes, challenging the Pomo peoples’ ancestral claims to that land. The tribes filing lawsuits are the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation (who own the Cache Creek Casino Resort 57 miles away), the Koi Nation of Northern California (who own the Shiloh Resort & Casino 51 mies away), and the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria (who own the Graton Rancheria 36 miles away).

Those lawsuits are all against the US Department of Interior, not against the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo. But given the locations of those above-named casinos, you might be drawing some conclusions about why those legal challenges were filed.

Now the Vallejo Times-Herald brings up a new legal challenge, with the news that the Scotts Valley Band has already installed Class II slot machines into modular trailers that happen to be on the location’s in-progress construction site. And the Scotts Valley Band does not deny this, even though they had previously claimed those modular trailers were only there for office purposes.

Once they were busted for having the machines, the tribe claimed “the installation of Class II machines will create opportunities to hire local residents for onsite operational roles,” according to a letter from Scotts Valley Chairman Shawn Davis. “As you may be aware, Class II gaming machines are electronic bingo-style devices that may appear similar to slot machines but operate differently and are governed exclusively by federal law."

"These machines do not require a state gaming compact," the letter continued. "The number of machines will be modest, and the overall site configuration will remain unchanged. The Tribe expects only minor increases in vehicle trips along Columbus Parkway associated with staff and patrons.”

So it appears they may be able to get away with that legally. Though the tribe’s real legal trouble may be that the Trump administration’s Department of the Interior recently said that their approval of the proposed casino may have been based on a “legal error.” That legal error may or may not be rectified in the tribe’s favor, but surely other tribes mounting legal challenges have noticed.

Ultimately, whether or not Vallejo gets that Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians mega-casino depends on the Department of the Interior’s ruling, and the rulings in the three other legal challenges. And very interestingly, the City of Vallejo can just sit on the sidelines and watch all this, as their elected officials have no say in any of these outcomes.

Related: Feud Between Sonoma County Tribes Continues With Lawsuit Filed Over Proposed Casino Resort [SFist]

Image: Scotts Valley Casino

A small but noticeable 3.6-magnitude earthquake happened Thursday at 12:41 pm, with an epicenter two miles southeast of Vallejo.

According to the US Geological Survey, a 3.6M earthquake rumbled just south of Vallejo Thursday afternoon, and miled shaking was felt in San Francisco, the East Bay, and parts of the North Bay.

The earthquake appears to have occurred along the Southampton Fault, which appears like a northern extension of the Calaveras Fault — a fault running under the East Bay and down to Hollister, just east of the Hayward Fault.

A swarm of small earthquakes along the Calaveras Fault occurred on Sunday morning, as the Chronicle reported, with the largest being 3.8M. The fault is thought to be capable of producing quakes as big as 6.7M, or thereabouts.

A map below shows the major and minor faults under the Bay Area, with the Southampton Fault appearing in yellow, labeled with the number 11. It crosses paths with the Franklin Fault, which leads directly out of the Calaveras Fault and under the city of Vallejo.

Connected faults are believed to be able to erupt together, potentially causing larger earthquakes. A study from almost a decade ago found that the Rodgers Creek and Hayward faults are interconnected, capable of causing a quake along a stretch that extends 115 total miles.