• A man drowned at Garrapata State Beach in Big Sur Friday afternoon while attempting to rescue his 5-year-old daughter, who’s still missing after she was swept away by a series of 15- to 20-foot waves. The man’s wife was also briefly pulled off shore while attempting to rescue them but managed to make it back to land where their 2-year-old child was unharmed. [KRON4]
  • The Department of Education agreed Thursday to give the state of California access to $200 million in pandemic recovery funds, which they blocked earlier this year. The funds were originally scheduled to run through March 2026, enabling 17 states to continue providing supplemental services at local schools to offset the impact of the pandemic. [Bay Area News Group]
  • Much of the tech world appears to be skeptical of Anthropic's claim that 90% of its AI-assisted malicious attack was autonomous because technology hasn’t advanced that much yet. “Why do the models give these attackers what they want 90% of the time but the rest of us have to deal with ass-kissing, stonewalling, and acid trips?” said one executive. [Ars Technica]
  • A former special education paraeducator with the San Francisco Unified School District, Calvin Tran, 36, is accused of sexually abusing a student between the years 2015 and 2018 at multiple sites, including Francisco Middle School, and he most recently worked at Argonne Elementary School. [Chronicle]
  • An Alameda County judge is allowing the manslaughter case to proceed against former San Leandro police officer Jason Fletcher for the 2020 death of Steven Taylor, who was shot and killed inside a local Walmart while experiencing a mental health episode. [NBC Bay Area]

  • Major food brands are introducing products free of artificial dyes and flavors — including Cheetos and Doritos — alongside their original technicolor-hued varieties, thanks to a push from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but doctors stress that the real danger in processed foods is the salt, sugar, and fat content. [CBS News]
  • Jodi Smith, a teacher from Minnesota who recently moved to San Jose for a new job at Oak Grove School District received quite a shock when a mix-up with her background check labeled her as a convict, resulting in the immediate loss of her job. [KGO]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist