Le Journal

The launch of a Bay Area-wide initiative aimed at saving public transit from an expected fiscal cliff occurred in San Francisco Friday morning. The kickoff rally featured a board coalition including state, local and department leaders across five Bay Area counties. They support the Connect Bay Area campaign, whose goal is to bring attention to the fiscal cliffs that threaten local transit agencies. In addition to raising awareness, the campaign’s goal also is to get enough signatures to qualify a regional sales tax measure to fund public transit for this November’s ballot. The sales tax would appear as a half-cent sales tax in Bay Area counties for 14 years, with the exception of San Francisco, which has proposed a one-cent transit tax to cover Muni deficits. Lawmakers spoke to the significance of this moment, which was described as a crossroads for Bay Area transit. “If we do nothing, these systems will begin to unravel. [It] will be a nightmare for the Bay Area,” California Sen. Scott Weiner said. According to an independent review by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and estimated annual deficit of $800 million is projected starting in the next fiscal year. From the Embarcadero Plaza, supporters are making their way to Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties on public transit. Supporters of the funding proposal need to gather 186,000 signatures by June to get the measure on the ballot.

Since coming to the United States 30 years ago from Mexico, Fernando Perez said U.S. immigration officers have stopped by his home numerous times, but he has never once answered the door. “There are rules and I know them,” said Perez, speaking in a mix of English and Spanish in a Home Depot parking lot where he has routinely sought work as a day laborer from contractors and people renovating their homes. Over the decades it has become common knowledge in immigrant communities across the country to not open the door for federal immigration officers unless they show a warrant signed by a judge. The Supreme Court has long held that the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment against unreasonable search and seizure prohibits the government’s forced entry into someone’s home. As a result, immigration officers have had to adapt by making arrests in public, which often requires long hours of surveillance outside homes as they wait to nab someone walking to the street. But an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press states immigration officers can forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant, marking a dramatic shift that could upend the legal advice given to immigrants for decades. The change comes as immigration arrests nationwide soar under a mass deportation campaign by President Donald Trump’s administration that is already reshaping enforcement tactics in cities such as Minneapolis. Perez said officers in the past would knock, wait and then move on. “But if they are going to start coming into my home, where I am paying the rent — they are not paying the rent — that’s the last straw,” he said. Most immigration arrests have been carried out under administrative warrants, documents issued by immigration authorities that authorize an arrest. Traditionally they do not permit officers to enter private spaces without consent. Only warrants signed by independent judges have carried that authority. It is unclear how broadly the memo’s directive has been applied in immigration enforcement operations. AP witnessed ICE officers ramming through the front door of a Liberian man’s home in Minneapolis on Jan. 11 with only an administrative warrant, wearing heavy tactical gear and with their rifles drawn. Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut is demanding congressional hearings on the ICE memo and calling on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for an explanation. “Every American should be terrified by this secret ICE policy authorizing its agents to kick down your door and storm into your home,” Blumenthal said in a news release. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court in 1980 that the “physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.” The waiting game For years, people have managed to evade arrest by skipping work and outings for days until agents move on. A senior ICE official once likened the surveillance experience to watching paint dry. In July, the AP observed as immigration officers saw a Russian man enter his home in Irvine, California. They gave up when he didn’t leave after three hours. They waited longer for a Mexican man who never emerged from his house in nearby El Monte, though they caught up with him two days later at a convenience store. ICE has tried what the agency called “knock and talks” to get people to answer the door by casually asking residents to step outside to answer a few questions, according to a 2020 lawsuit in which a federal judge found the practice illegal. In one case, they told a woman they were probation officers looking for her brother. More often, immigration officers simply play the waiting game — a pace that is not conducive to Trump fulfilling his promise of mass deportations. Not answering the door is a key part of know-your-rights trainings Since shortly after ICE was created in 2003, advocacy groups and immigrant-friendly state and local…

Two adults in San Francisco have died of the flu, city health officials said. The deaths, announced by the San Francisco Department of Health Friday, mark the city’s first flu fatalities of the winter respiratory virus season. Public health officials also are strongly encouraging the flu vaccine this season. It wasn’t immediately known what strain of the flu the victims had, but state officials have recently said the “super flu,” a strain that appears to last longer and is very contagious, is spreading across the state.

Towering high above Taiwan’s capital city at 1,667 feet, Taipei 101 dominates the skyline. The earthquake-proof skyscraper of steel and glass has captured the imagination of professional rock climber Alex Honnold for more than a decade. On Saturday morning, he will climb it in his signature free solo style — without ropes or protective equipment. And Netflix will broadcast it — live. The event’s announcement has drawn both excitement and trepidation, as well as some concerns over the ethical implications of attempting such a high-risk endeavor on live broadcast. Many have questioned Honnold’s desire to continue his free-solo climbs now that he’s a married father of two young girls. Known for his legendary ropeless ascent up Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan, documented in “Free Solo,” Honnold is intent on pushing the limits of climbing around the world. FILE — Alex Honnold speaks at Yosemite National Park, California on October 26, 2025. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images) “When you look at climbing objectives, you look for things that are singular,” Honnold told The Associated Press late last year. “Something like El Capitan where it’s way bigger and way prouder than all the things around it.” Something like Taipei 101. How to free solo a skyscraper Honnold won’t be the first climber to ascend the skyscraper, but he will be the first to do so without a rope. French rock climber Alain Robert scaled the building on Christmas Day in 2004, as part of the grand opening of what was then the world’s tallest building. He took nearly four hours to finish, almost twice as long as what he anticipated, all while nursing an injured elbow and battered by wind and rain. Honnold, who has been training for months, doesn’t think his climb will be hard. He’s practiced the moves on the building and spoke with Robert on his climbing podcast. “I don’t think it’ll be that extreme,” Honnold said. “We’ll see. I think it’s the perfect sweet spot where it’s hard enough to be engaging for me and obviously an interesting climb.” The building has 101 floors, with the hardest part being the 64 floors comprising the middle section — the “bamboo boxes” that give the building its signature look. Divided into eight, each segment will have eight floors of steep, overhanging climbing followed by a balcony that Honnold would be able to rest on. A view of Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan, on May 29, 2024. (Photo by Vernon Yuen/NurPhoto via Getty Images) The “Skyscraper Live” broadcast will be on a 10-second delay and begin Friday evening for viewers in the U.S. James Smith, an executive with event producer Plimsoll Productions, said he consulted safety advisers almost immediately after he first spoke with Honnold about attempting the climb. Smith works with a risk management group for film and TV called Secret Compass, which has supported productions in filming penguins in Antarctica and helping Chris Hemsworth walk across a crane projecting from an Australian skyscraper’s roof, alike. Smith and Honnold will be able to communicate throughout the event. They’ll have cameramen positioned inside the building, various hatches and places to bail during the climb and four high-angle camera operators suspended on ropes. “These people all know Alex. They trust Alex. They’re going to be close to him throughout the whole climb,” Smith said. “They’re going to get us kind of amazing shots, but they’re also there just to keep an eye on him, and if there’s any problems, they can kind of help.” The production has also commissioned professional weather forecasters to provide updates leading up to climb day. There’s currently a small chance of light rain in the morning, Smith said. Ultimately, if conditions are bad, Honnold won’t climb. At his local gym, Taiwanese rock climber Chin Tzu-hsiang said he’s grown up always looking up at the Taipei 101 and wondering if he could climb it. Honnold is a household name among…

The death of a 17-year-old girl who was found on the side of a road in Antioch early Friday morning is being treated as suspicious, police said. At about 3:30 a.m., Antioch police received a report of a person down on the side of the road in the area of L Street between West 18th and West 10th streets, the department said. Officers responded to the area and tried to save the girl, but she died at the scene. Police, citing preliminary information and evidence, said her death is being investigated as suspicious. The girl was not a student in the Antioch Unified School District, police said. An investigation into her death is underway. Anyone with information about the case is urged to contact Antioch police Detective Robert Ibanez by phone at 925-481-8398 or by email at ribanez@antiochca.gov.