An Antioch man pleaded guilty Friday to felony charges of child endangerment and making a false bomb threat last November, when he was involved in a police standoff on the Bay Bridge, the San Francisco District Attorney's office said today. The charges for Craig Carlos-Valentino, 52, stem from his actions on Veteran's Day, when he pulled his car over on the bridge's upper deck and called a local radio station explaining that he had two pipe bombs and a gun.
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The fourth segment of the self-anchored suspension tower was added to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Monday.Click on the photo to the right to see a slideshow of the tower addition.Crews lifted the newest section onto the bridge in an around-the-clock operation, according to the Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee.The segment boosts the tower up to 480 feet, leaving the structure just 45 feet under its final 525-foot height, the committee said.
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In one case, a Muni operator was sleeping while his light-rail vehicle was on automatic through the Market Street subway. In another, an operator left a vehicle to buy a snack from a store. And on another day, five out of 13 vehicles observed passing through a school zone were speeding.These instances were among dozens of safety violations outlined in the inspection reports released last week by the California Public Utilities Commission, the regulatory agency that oversees rail and light-rail transit agencies in the state.
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Gas prices in San Francisco have risen by more than 25 cents in the past month, and ongoing unrest in the Middle East is likely to drive those costs higher. But area motorists say the prices would have to really soar before they would consider ditching their vehicles.
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An equipment problem near the Embarcadero BART station caused delays for nearly two hours for trains going into and out of San Francisco, a dispatcher said.
The problem was reported at about 10:20 a.m., causing delays of about 30 minutes at its peak, the dispatcher said.
Delays eventually dwindled to about 10 minutes and normal service had resumed by around noontime, she said.
The problem originated in one of BART's substations, but the dispatcher did not know what the exact nature of the problem was.
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Muni has been negligent in responding to pervasive safety problems, and could face fines of $20,000 a day, according to a state regulator that Thursday opened an investigation of the transit agency.
But Muni says it’s being railroaded, claiming to have been blindsided by the charges. The transit leaders claim they have responded to every request made by California Public Utilities Commission, the state agency with oversight of rail and light-rail transit systems.
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To many, Muni’s new hybrid buses are successful on several fronts. Not only are they environmentally responsible, but their low floors let passengers board quickly — a crucial element in speeding up the system’s notoriously inefficient service.
However, for the tens of thousands of disabled and senior passengers who take Muni, advocates say that the unfriendly design of the low-floor buses present yet another accessibility obstacle. And with the agency contemplating the purchase of 200 more in the coming years, the problem could become even worse.
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A winter wonderland is what people may be thinking about with the possibility of snow in San Francisco.
But also possible is traffic accidents, especially if there is a mix of alcohol with the drivers, warns San Francisco Police Department Capt. Al Casciato, with the police traffic company.
He warned drivers to simply pay attention.
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San Francisco International Airport is experiencing two-hour arrival delays today, mostly from flights out of other West Coast airports, due to the rainy weather, according to airport duty manager Lily Wang.
“It’s raining and there are visibility issues,” Wang said. She said there are also shorter delays for departing flights.
The delay schedule began at 11 a.m. and will last through 11 p.m., Wang said, but with the rain expected to continue, travelers should expect similar backups Friday at SFO.
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A motorcycle that crashed on the Bay Bridge Thursday afternoon and blocked traffic for about an hour has been cleared from eastbound lanes, a California Highway Patrol officer said.The crash was reported at around 3:45 p.m. and blocked two eastbound middle lanes, CHP Officer Kevin Bartlett said.The motorcyclist suffered minor injuries, Bartlett said.It did not appear that another vehicle was a factor in the crash, Bartlett said.
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