Christmas Eve Around the Bay: Another PG&E Substation Fire and Outage in the South Bay, Power Now Restored

Local:

• Since it’s Christmas Eve, the SF Fire Department announced the winner of their annual SF Fire Department Holiday Decorating Contest, and as we predicted last week, Sherwood Forest’s Station 39 was the winner. Yes, Peter Hartlaub had this news in the Chronicle yesterday, but the Fire Department just released the impressive sizzle reel seen below of Station 39’s over-the-top Christmas stylings and other holiday charitableness in which the station engages. [@SFFDPIO via Twitter]

• After Saturday’s SF blackouts, yet another PG&E substation caught fire shortly before 8:30 Wednesday morning in Calistoga, leaving 21,000 South Bay PG&E customers without power for more than three hours. Meanwhile in Monterey County, severe weather has knocked out power for nearly 30,000 customers, and their timeline for getting their power back is much murkier. [KGO]
• A Contra Costa College football player who was innocently shot by police in a San Jose taqueria back in 2022 is getting himself an $8 million settlement for his troubles, the second-largest payout for police misconduct in San Jose history. The settlement still needs to be approved by San Jose City Council, but the City Attorney recommended it, and city councils tend to listen to that advice. [KTVU]

National:

• Here’s a Christmas Eve news dump! Trump's Department of Justice now says they suddenly “discovered” a million more pages of Epstein files, despite the legal deadline for all documents being past, and this guaranteed more Epstein files for weeks to come. [NY Times]
• ICE agents in Baltimore suburb Glen Burnie opened fire on a van and shot two people, with the agents claiming that the van was trying to run them over. Both people shot have non-life-threatening injuries. [AP News]
• Pop star Nicki Minaj has gone full MAGA if you haven’t heard, then today deactivated her Instagram because people were giving her so much guff about it. [US Weekly]

Video:

• Whether you love or hate Christmas, you’re sure to see your spirit animal in this video of a songbird who knocks out a technically very impressive “Jingle Bells,” and a cantankerous little dog who wants absolutely nothing to do with this fucking bird’s shit.

Image: @SFCCM via Twitter