"Don't go near the water!" That's the warning from health officials after Oakland's Lake Merritt suddenly turned an unsightly brown color.  

As KCBS Radio's Matt Bigler reports from Lake Merritt, it may be related to an algae bloom that is spreading across the Bay.

School is back in session starting today in San Francisco, San Jose and other Bay Area school districts. Many of which have scrambled to hire teachers to fill every classroom on the first day of school.

The CDC updated their covid guidance for community settings last week, with a focus on meeting people where they are and living with some degree of COVID-19 circulating in communities for the foreseeable future. The CDC is expected to release updated guidance for specific settings like healthcare and travel in the coming weeks. 

For more on what this tells us about where we are in the pandemic, KCBS Radio news anchors Melissa Culross and Eric Thomas spoke with Nancy Bristow, a professor of history at the University of Puget Sound who's studied the 1918 Influenza pandemic. She wrote the book "American Pandemic: Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic."

A national law enforcement sweep dubbed “Operation Cross County 2022” recovered more than 200 victims of human trafficking.

KCBS Radio’s Margie Shafer reports Bay Area victims were among those located:

With more monkeypox vaccine doses now on the way, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is looking to reassure her constituents.

KCBS Radio’s Keith Menconi has more on a telephone town hall meeting that happened last night.

The CZU Fire ripped through the Santa Cruz mountains two years ago and remains one of the most destructive wildfires in state history and recovery from that fire is ongoing. 

For more, KCBS Radio news anchors Eric Thomas and Melissa Culross spoke with Sara Barth, executive director of the Sempervirens fund and expert in wilderness conservation and protection,  appointed to the California State Parks and Recreation Commission by Governor Newsom in 2020.

In the wake of the Dobbs decision, scores of patients have been seeking salpingectomies, commonly known as getting ones "tubes tied." But, not all doctors will agree to perform one, especially when the patient is young and/or childless.

And as abortion becomes extremely restricted in some parts of the country and options become more limited, are there ethical implications to not allowing for sterilization? 

To discuss, KCBS Radio news anchors Megan Goldsby and Bret Burkhart spoke with Hank Greely, Law professor and Director of the Center for Law and Biosciences at Stanford.

Hulu's hit show 'The Bear' has made a star out of a sandwich called a Chicago Italian Beef. It’s popularity is up nationwide, including here in the Bay Area.

KCBS Radio news reporter David Welch went out to find what all the buzz was about.