Dan Brekke

Why is BART still so loud? Years after big changes, BART is still really loud. We measured just how many decibels.

In the Transbay Tube, no one can hear you scream (the Chronicle revisits a 2010 investigation on why @bart.gov is so damned loud). #transit

www.sfchronicle.com/projects/202...

Ongoing Clipper 2.0 Issues Plague Bay Area Transit Agencies, Seniors and Low-Income Riders | KQED The company responsible for Clipper’s new fare payment system said that it was making progress on resolving issues, as transit agency leaders voiced their frustration with ongoing glitches.

"Christy Wegener, the executive director of the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority, said that at the current rate, with about 7,000 to 8,000 accounts upgraded per day, it would take over three years to fully transition all accounts to next-generation Clipper."

“Judge Cannon's decision to permanently block the release of this extraordinarily significant report is impossible to square with the First Amendment and the common law"

YouTube video by Bart Fare Evaders Audio: BART has no Radio Communication in the Transbay Tube Service Stopped between SF & Oakland

@bart.gov Train Dispatch Audio
BART Lost all Radio Communication with
Trains in the Transbay Tube
Service Stopped between Embarcadero & West Oakland
February 22, 2026, 4:01 PM @danbrekke.bsky.social
youtu.be/EDzBiPZth9E

Marine Detained in Minneapolis Says Feds Copied His Phone Without a Warrant He was observing after Alex Pretti’s killing. Feds detained him at gunpoint, sampled his DNA, scanned his face, and cloned his phone.

"To be treated worse here, at home, than people who had attacked our unit in a war zone, it’s been hard to understand."

Is It Crow-maggedon? Why Crows Are Flocking to Bay Area Cities Each Winter | KQED Have you seen the huge gatherings of crows near Oakland’s Lake Merritt or in downtown San Francisco? There’s an explanation for their behavior.

Yeah, they're loud, but maybe...respect? 🙌🏼 "We should celebrate them for being successful... Like, they think about how to live with us, we need to think about how to live with them." www.kqed.org/news/1207243... via @kqednews.kqed.org @danbrekke.bsky.social

One Oakland police officer made $490,000 in overtime. The city can’t find records detailing much of what he did One OPD officer logged 5,242 total working hours, racking up $490,000 in overtime pay. If he worked more than half of the time in a calendar year, why can't the city tell us what he did?

Police sergeant reported working average of 100 hours a week in 2024, with total compensation north of $800,000 once regular salary and benefits were added in. One question the story doesn’t address: Who in the city administration is responsible for signing off on such an outlandish level of OT?

Why ICE Can Kill With Impunity Over the past decade, US immigration agents have shot and killed more than two dozen people. Not a single agent appears to have faced criminal charges.

"Before last week's fatal shooting in Minneapolis, ICE shootings involved moving vehicles at least 19 times & were connected to at least 10 deaths and six injuries. Task forces including ICE agents have shot at least three other US citizens."

Exclusive: Secret ICE Programs Revealed Leaked documents detail the dizzying scope of ICE operations

'The secrecy has concealed ICE’s transformation into a parallel FBI, a DEA and an independent police force whose mission has crept well past the deportations that media tend to focus on.' #ICE #immigration

Immigration Agents Terrified by ICE Backlash Leaked documents show Border Patrol needs volunteers for Minneapolis surge

“...Most field officers see a clear need for de-escalation. There is genuine fear that indeed ICE’s heavy handedness and the rhetoric from Washington is more creating a condition where the officers’ lives are in danger....” Via @kenklippenstein.bsky.social

Man dies 1 month after scooter crash on UC Berkeley campus The crash was previously unreported.

Two people have been killed in solo scooter crashes in #Berkeley over the last few weeks.

Key Messages from the NOAA Climate Prediction CenterIssued January 2, 2026 and Updated January 6, 2026

From NOAA's Climate Prediction Center: 'Major pattern change for the West Coast' after rainy period. #wx #cawx

A's Running into Issue with 'Las Vegas Athletics' Trademark The A's are running into a bit of an issue with their move to Las Vegas

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has something to say about what the franchise calls itself. #OaklandA's

Trump Says the U.S. “Needs” Greenland—Europe Should Take Him at His Word When a sitting U.S.

Trump Says the U.S. “Needs” Greenland—Europe Should Take Him at His Word

Rural Mail-In Ballots at Risk as Post Office Finalizes Changes to Postmark Dates Read more here.

And here's one of the effects the postmark changes may have: 2/2

Say goodbye to the same-day postmark - Save the Post Office Due to changes in the transportation system, nearly half of single-piece First Class Mail may end up being postmarked a day (or more) after the mail was sent.

Here's an excellent explanation of the Postal Service's change in postmark practices and how it will affect the public. 1/2

Historic Lick Observatory closes to public following significant wind damage Early on Thursday, Dec. 25, severe winds gusting up to 114 miles per hour tore loose half of the shutter on the 140-year old 36-inch Great Refractor dome. No one was injured.

Impressive: Winds on Christmas morning were violent enough to rip out part of the multi-ton shutter on one of Lick Observatory's telescope domes. Repairs will take months.

(Rainiest October, to be clear...)

This is more than record-book trivial in that long-term station observations like those at Berkeley provide data for understanding climate change. A meteorologist friend has told me this problem goes well beyond Berkeley and that the overall state of consistent record-keeping is a mess.

The current break in the record is the longest, more than four years. Lots of rainfall history is being missed, including October 2021, likely the rainiest in the station's history, and the series of wet Decembers we've had going back to 2021.

I've been told by folks at Cal that part of the problem is outdated equipment it's expensive to replace The campus record goes back to 1886 and is considered continuous since 1893. This isn't the first lapse in record-keeping. One occurred from 1902 thru 1904, another from 1991 thru 1993.

By the way, when it comes time to compute Berkeley's 2001-2030 "normal" rainfall in a few years, much of the record for this decade will be missing. That's because reliable data collection at our official station location on the UC Berkeley campus faltered during 2020 and ceased entirely in 2022.

My total for Dec. 17-Dec. 27 was 6.14 in. That's close to a quarter of Berkeley's "normal" annual rainfall (computed for 1991-2020) of 26.12 in and compares to December's "normal" rainfall of 5.32 in.

Just circling back on this after all the rain has fallen and the storms have moved on. My North Berkeley flatlands rain gauge caught 4.77 in. from Dec. 19, when I posted the forecast, and 4 a.m. on Dec. 25—a little more than half the amount projected.

Property owner on leafy Claremont Avenue faces nearly $1M fine for ‘most egregious’ tree removal Oakland alleges that a property owner cut down 38 trees without permits across his land, on city property and on his neighbors’ lots. The owner is also battling his neighbors in court.

The detail that gets me is cutting down trees on neighbors’ properties. The guy sounds like Trump with a chainsaw.

PG&E outages in S.F. leave 130,000 without power, knock out street lights, disrupt BART, Muni Nearly 130,000 San Francisco households and businesses lost power due to unexpected PG&E blackouts that brought a massive portion of the city to a halt — darkening homes and causing traffic...

Disgraceful:

"PG&E didn't immediately respond to multiple requests about the blackouts. Its first public response was posted to X at 4 p.m.: "We are working with first responders & city officials on an outage affecting 130,000 customers. We will share more information as it becomes available."

We're going to get a taste of what the Pacific Northwest has been going through for more than a week.

Rain will be just one aspect of this active pattern. Wind gusts Sunday will reach the 30-40mph range, not strong enough for any significant or widespread damage. However, gusts Tuesday evening and overnight could easily exceed 50-60mph, leading to tree damage, power outages, and flight delays. 4/6

Map showing forecast rainfall in San Francisco Bay Area from Dec. 19 thru Dec. 25, 2025.

Precipitation forecast thru Xmas morning via Calif.-Nev. River Forecast Center (www.cnrfc.noaa.gov). Forecast rainfall ranges from 4 to 5 in. in E. Bay valleys up to a foot for parts of the N.Bay. The forecast total for where I am in #Berkeley: 8 in., or more than 1/3 our average annual total. #cawx

One key point is that the initial days of this CA pattern shift will involve a very anomalously warm airmass--and there will be essentially no snow at all even in the higher mountains until Tue/Wed next week. Record low snowpack will persist, or become even lower, in meantime.