Local:

  • The San Rafael City Schools board voted to suspend trustee Isai Nicodemo Rodas, 22, following his arrest for allegedly molesting a 16-year-old student while working as a paraeducator. Rodas, who was elected unopposed last year, is barred from all board duties pending the outcome of the investigation. [Marin Independent Journal]
  • Pope Leo XIV urged tech leaders to develop AI in ways that respect human dignity, warning that people must not be reduced to functions or algorithms. In a message to a Vatican summit attended by Silicon Valley executives, he called for ethical standards that prioritize human well-being intellectually and spiritually, as well as materially. [CNN]
  • Security footage from an Oakland business captured a truck dumping thousands of gallons of unknown sludge on Pearmain Street on Wednesday, prompting calls from local officials for prosecution and cleanup amid long-standing community frustration with illegal dumping. [KPIX]
  • A San Francisco cyclist is suing Waymo, claiming the company’s safety tech failed when a robotaxi passenger door opened into a bike lane, causing her to crash and suffer serious injuries. [Chronicle]
  • Three juveniles, including a 12-year-old boy, were arrested in Livermore for nearly 50 overnight auto burglaries involving smashed car windows, with stolen items recovered and charges now under review by juvenile probation. [KRON4]

National:

  • A federal judge ordered the release of former Columbia graduate student and legal US resident, Mahmoud Khalil, criticizing the government for failing to justify his continued detention despite no violence or legal violations. Khalil will be free to walk out of the detention center in rural Louisiana — where he's been detained since March — by Friday evening. [Associated Press]
  • The Supreme Court ruled 7–2 that fuel producers have standing to challenge California’s authority to set stricter car emission standards under a federal waiver. The decision does not address whether California’s rules are lawful, only that the lawsuit may proceed. [New York Times]
  • Roblox players recently staged anti-ICE protests complete with barricades, Mexican flags, and clashes with police avatars dressed as SWAT officers — after weeks of in-game raids by users roleplaying as ICE agents. After the Teen Vogue article was published, the author reported on Threads that police violence eventually erupted inside the game, as players reenacting law enforcement shot the demonstrators. [Teen Vogue, Threads]
  • A federal judge has temporarily blocked the US Department of Transportation from withholding billions in funding to states that do not comply with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement demands, ruling the policy likely violates the Constitution. [New York Times]

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Image: Macy's Union Square; 2016, Leanne Maxwell/SFist