Local:
- Another benefit of BART’s new feature allowing you to tap your credit or debit card to get on a train is that you’ll also get a 30-minute grace period to enter and leave the same station. These changes will take effect this Wednesday, August 20, and BART will no longer charge you that inexplicable $6.40 fare if you enter and exit at the same station (though the grace period only lasts 30 minutes). [SFGate]
- The sun will set right at 8 pm in San Francisco on Saturday, and that will be SF’s last 8 pm sunset of 2025. The sun will not set at 8 pm again until late April or early May of 2026. [Secret San Francisco]
- A South San Francisco police officer will not face charges for shooting and killing 60-year-old Brian Montana, who was a founding member of the Bay Area death metal band Possessed. Montana was shooting at his neighbor's house in what was an apparent tree-trimming dispute, and did fire at officers, so his killing was considered an act of self-defense by the officer who shot him. [KRON4]
National:
- Now that the National Guard has been deployed to take over policing in Washington DC, the White House says that 45 people were arrested Wednesday night, though that seems a pretty small haul for the deployment of 1,650 Guard troops. [Associated Press]
- Trump and Vladimir Putin have their summit scheduled for this weekend in Alaska, which seems unlikely to accomplish anything in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, but is seen as a major win for Russia because a superpower nation is having friendly relations with him again. [NY Times]
Video:
- We noted that federal troops are occupying Washington DC, and one inspiring folk hero in a pink polo shirt has made legions of fans with this hilarious incident where he threw a subway sandwich at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent. Alas, though, the sandwich-thrower Sean Charles Dunn was apparently a Justice Department employee who has since lost his job and been charged with a felony, though that same department has recently hired people who assaulted police on January 6.
— bobby salsa (@bobby_salsa_) August 12, 2025
Image: mprage via Unsplash
