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SAN FRANCISCO - A man who shot and killed a passenger on a San Francisco subway commuter train will be charged with gun crimes but not homicide in what was "clearly" a case of self-defense after he was attacked with a knife, his attorney said Monday. Javon Green, 26, will face charges of having a concealed weapon in a public place and having a loaded gun in a public place, both felonies that possibly could be reduced to misdemeanors, attorney Randy Knox told the San Francisco Chronicle. Green was scheduled for a court appearance on Tuesday. The San Francisco District...

Officials in San Francisco voted to approve a mask mandate on Thursday for people using its public transportation system. The Bay Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors approved the mask mandate during a board of directors meeting, and it comes just over a week after a federal judge tossed out the national mask mandate for public transportation that was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Fox affiliate KTVU in San Francisco.

A Twitter dispute between the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and the city's police union is heating up. The online incident comes after the transit agency tweeted they would no longer transport officers to anti-police protests.... Then came the tweet and a response from the police union...."lose our number"

Just hours before SFMTA bus drivers halted service for eight minutes and 46 seconds to symbolically memorialize the life of George Floyd, the transit agency made another monumental decision. As several demonstrations continued to take place throughout the Bay Area on Tuesday, Muni announced it would no longer transport officers from the San Francisco Police Department to protests. This news comes after the transit agency was criticized on social media for videos uploaded by users showing officers in riot gear departing packed buses in downtown San Francisco earlier this month. The transit agency said it was making efforts to advance...

*** As several demonstrations continued to take place throughout the Bay Area on Tuesday, Muni announced it would no longer transport officers from the San Francisco Police Department to protests. "We transport everyone at MTA and make sure our services are available for critical needs," SFMTA responded at the time. "From the COVID+ patients we transported to health care and rooms to SFPD officers, Muni is for everyone. To be clear, no Muni vehicles or employees will be used to transport any detainee." On Tuesday, however, the transit agency said it was making efforts to advance its racial equity work...

Muni’s massive cutback in service to cope with the coronavirus pandemic will leave just 17 bus routes active in San Francisco, with the rollout starting in phases Tuesday and taking full effect Wednesday. The decision to eliminate service on 51 of Muni’s 68 bus lines was made because almost 40% of the citywide transit system’s drivers were not expected to report for shifts Monday, said Jeffrey Tumlin, the agency’s transportation director. The drivers are considered to be in high-risk groups if they were to contract the virus. When the cuts are completed, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s system will...

Officials from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency are warning riders to expect major delays on Muni Monday morning after a contract dispute prompted a “sickout” by a large portion of Muni workers. […] Muni operators voted on Friday on a proposed labor agreement, but that does not mean that the contract will be ratified. […] Under the proposal, Muni operator’s pay would be raised to about $32 an hour on July 1—making them the second-highest paid transit workers in the country, according to the SFMTA. …

A blown transformer at the Van Ness Muni Station in San Francisco caused the shutdown of the Metro subway system Monday evening. Muni officials said the transformer blew at about 6 p.m. as a result of rain damage from Sunday's storm. Subway service had not reopened late Monday, but light-rail vehicles were running on surface lines in the western part of the city. Also, cars on the F-Market line, which runs above ground, had been turned around at 11th Street for a time because of an earlier accident at Market and Dolores streets. The line was reopened at 8:35 p.m....

On a typical work day in San Francisco, at least 27 private employers are picking up workers in shuttle buses — complete with cushioned seats and WiFi — at more than 200 stops across the city. The transit option is a booming private enterprise that reduces traffic congestion and air pollution. Some in the city want to snuff it out, San Francisco-style, with government regulations and fees. San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos wants to eliminate the cushy private shuttles and charge employers to use the Municipal Transit Agency's spartan buses, according to the San Francisco Examiner. “Their rapid growth makes...

The Muni operator who faces a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charge for running over a 23-year-old woman with his bus in a Castro District crosswalk last summer made a brief court appearance this morning on a procedural matter, and in a hallway interview afterward his attorney said that his client shouldn’t be blamed. The real culprit, if there were one, said defense attorney Stuart Hanlon, was inadequate supervision at Muni that allowed his client, Wallace Loggins, to drive a 40-foot bus along unfamiliar streets. “He was was doing everything right, but he was lost,” Hanlon said. “Central Control sent him on...

Muni operators must work under the contract they overwhelmingly rejected last week, an independent arbitrator ruled Monday night. The decision, announced during a union membership meeting, infuriated many Muni operators. Under the City Charter, if the Municipal Transportation Agency and Transport Workers Union Local 250-A fail to reach an agreement, an arbitrator determines the terms of the contract the 2,200 operators will work under for the next three years. "It is the opinion of the mediator/arbitrator that the terms of the (proposed contract) on the disputed issues represent the best resolution of these protracted labor negotiations and are in the...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Muni operators overwhelmingly rejected a proposed contract Wednesday that management said would have saved the agency tens of millions of dollars a year and made the transit system more reliable. The tentative agreement - backed by the executive team of the operators union - was shot down on a vote of 994 to 488, according to management and Transport Workers Union Local 250-A. It was the third time in 1 1/2 years that the union rank and file has snubbed its leadership and management's requests for cost-saving concessions.The labor dispute now goes before an independent arbitrator, who...

The labor union representing Muni operators is asking the federal government to withhold billions in funding for the Central Subway and other projects if the Municipal Transportation Agency follows the dictates of Proposition G in bargaining a new contract. Attorneys for Transport Workers Union Local 250A filed a letter with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis asking that the Department of Labor refuse to certify the Municipal Transportation Agency as being in compliance with a federal law that protects collective bargaining rights for unions at transit agencies receiving federal funds. The union contends that Proposition G violates that provision of the Federal...

Meredith Whitney continues to take it from all sides! The latest attacker is Charlie Gasparino, who accuses her of causing a muni market panic that caused the recent sell-off, thus costing taxpayers millions. In a HuffPo column, he demands that Whitney release her gigantic report detailing why, exactly, she expects the market to crash this year. Of course, its her proprietary research, and it's her right to keep it for her paying clients, but it is interesting since last week on CNBC she said one of the reasons for doing this research was to illuminate the issue of municipal debt....

DECATUR - As the Decatur City Council prepares to convene Monday to discuss setting its portion of the local property tax levy, the largest burden on those revenues - funding the pensions of police, firefighters and city employees - remains a persistent and growing challenge. City Manager Ryan McCrady and Finance Director Ron Neufeld highlighted some telling statistics in the city's attempts to maintain its pension funds over the last decade. "We've been putting in what we're required to put in, but the unfunded liability keeps growing," McCrady said. The council will discuss how it will meet the obligations before...

The Wall Street Journal reports New Jersey Pension Gap Hits $54 Billion. New Jersey’s pension gap grew to $53.9 billion in the last fiscal year, up from $45.8 billion, thanks to market losses and a lack of state funding, according to figures released Thursday. Gov. Chris Christie’s administration said the gap, which reflected the state’s investment positions as of June 30, highlighted the need for proposed cuts to current public workers’ pensions. The $53.9 billion figure reflects the difference between the retirement benefits the state has promised to roughly 780,000 state and local workers over the next few decades and...

CARSON CITY – Nevada’s public employee retirement system will require increased contributions from the state and local governments next year to maintain the long-term financial health of the defined benefit plan, the board overseeing the program was told today. The contribution rate for regular employees will have to increase by 2.25 percentage points to 23.75 percent in the coming two years. The retirement system covers 103,000 active public employees, including state workers, teachers and local government employees.

Public Pension Cost Cover-Up? The Union Effort to Kill TransparencyThe usual (and not so usual) suspects don't want you to know how much your grandchildren owe. Posted by LaborUnionReport Sunday, December 19th at 2:30PM EST If you’re going to be required to pay for something, common sense would say that you should have the right to know how much it costs, right? After all, no one likes surprises — especially if those surprises cost trillions and you, your children and your children’s children are likely going to have to pay for it for decades to come. Yet, there are those...

Budget shortfalls and subsequent muni bond defaults "could derail the recovery, cost a million public employees their jobs and require another big bailout package that no one in Washington wants to talk about," ... Gov. Christie does an excellent job of framing this discussion by pointing out the huge disconnect between the benefits of public sector employees vs. their private-sector counterparts. "I think the general public thinks, 'I can't believe anybody gets a pension anymore. I've got a 401(k). It got killed in the stock market. I don't know what I'm gonna do for my retirement. I can't believe people...

Muni management, pointing to the agency's anemic finances, has moved to put the kibosh this year on year-end payouts from a special trust fund set up for the city's transit operators. Unless the decision is reversed - the operators' union is reviewing its legal options - there will be no annual disbursement, which in years past has put up to $3,000 extra into each worker's pocket at the start of the winter holiday season. The cumulative hit to Muni would be $3.5 million this year, said management spokesman Paul Rose. Muni's operating budget this year is $775 million. It is...