Budget crisis, monkey fights and more: Sacramento’s top stories for 5/7

The Sacramento Bee on May 7, 2026, covered major developments across local government, business and public safety, including the city of Sacramento’s budget crisis and a look at how remote work has affected California’s job market.

Here’s a quick digest of the day’s top stories.

• Sacramento Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum floated cutting the city’s entire homeless agency during a Tuesday council meeting as the city grapples with a $66.2 million budget shortfall. Pluckebaum later walked back the idea, calling it “heartless,” but said restructuring the $41.5 million Department of Community Response is still needed.
• California is missing roughly 200,000 jobs because of remote work trends tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, the nonpartisan Legislative Analysts Office found. Employment in remote-heavy sectors grew 16% nationally from 2019 to 2024 but only 7% in California.
• A USDA inspection of UC Davis’ California National Primate Research Center revealed that monkey fights potentially had been caused by human error, including one incident in which a monkey required amputations after a welding failure let another monkey escape. The facility was also cited for keeping two monkeys in an enclosure smaller than federal regulations require.
• Ten Sacramento-area hospitals earned “A” grades in the Leapfrog Group’s 2026 hospital safety report, One hospital received a “C,” and eight hospitals received “B” grades, including two that previously held “A” ratings. Our story also delves into how the rankings have become controversial.
• San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said the search at convicted killer Paul Flores’ Arroyo Grande home could last days as investigators “overturn every rock” related to the Kristin Smart case. Parkinson said advances in ground-penetrating radar and other technology over the past 25 years prompted this most recent search for Smart’s remains.