• A three-alarm fire early Monday has nearly destroyed a Buddhist temple in San Jose that also suffered a fire last year. The Chua Duyen Giac Buddhist temple on Foss Avenue broke out in flames around 5:30 am and the cause of the fire remains under investigation. [KTVU]
  • Oakland’s homicide count for the new year jumped to five on Saturday with a triple shooting around 3 am on the 8400 block of International Boulevard. These three killings followed two fatal shootings in the city on New Year’s Day. [KTVU]
  • The two hikers found dead on Mount Baldy who remained unidentified last week have now been identified as Guatemalan nationals Juan Sarat Lopez, 37, and Bayron Pedro Ramos Garcia, 36, who were both residents of Los Angeles. Authorities believe they fell from Devil’s Backbone on Monday, the same day they were found, and the same day that 19-year-old Santa Clara University student Marcus Alexander Muench Casanova also fell to his death in the same area. [CBS News]
  • The Port of Oakland reported a 4.1% decline in year-over-year trade volume in November, which Port officials were celebrating because it was far less terrible than was anticipated amid Trump’s tariffs, with exports remaining strong. [Bay Area News Group]
  • Republican appointees on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals have sided with plaintiffs in a case looking to overturn a California law that bans the open carrying of weapons in more densely populated counties, saying it is inconsistent with the Second Amendment. [Associated Press]
  • Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, thanked President Trump and his administration “for their firmness and determination in upholding the law” in the capture and removal of President Nicolas Maduro over the weekend. [CBS News]
  • Secret Service agents detained a man early Monday for allegedly vandalizing the Cincinnati home of Vice President JD Vance, which was unoccupied at the time. [New York Times]
  • King Tides continued through the new year’s weekend, lapping up over piers and along the Embarcadero, as see in the photo above, taken Saturday.

Top image: Photo by Gary Saltzman