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01/02/2026

The Bay Area has a thriving Latin vinyl scene. Migration patterns meant sounds and music influences traveled between continents just as much as people. Today, there are many Latin vinyl clubs and record shops in the Bay Area.

For these Latin vinyl collectors, protest music of the past still resonates. DJs Elisse Locomotion (.locomotion) and Jose Trujillo () started a latin vinyl night called Caja Majica () that you can find every second Friday of the month at Kilowatt Bar in the Mission. It was important to them that the party be held in a Latin neighborhood. Their DJ night, in which they often invite friends and collaborators from the Bay and around the world, explores Latin sounds of the 60s and 70s. "Weird sounds," like distortion, or spacey music, explains Trujillo. But they always make sure it's danceable, and their selections often come with an ear towards the political. Posters about what to do if you encounter ICE lined the walls of one of their parties last year. And many of the sounds they research and dig up from the underground of the past reveal previous struggles, historical beats of protest and celebration that are still relevant today.

Their next DJ night is Friday, January 9th at Kilowatt Bar.

🎥 Anna Vignet

12/29/2025

Lombard Street is one of San Francisco’s most iconic thoroughfares. Beautiful mansions and carefully trimmed hedges frame the winding brick lane. But after the curves end, the street continues, heading all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge.
If you’ve ever driven along this stretch through the Marina district, you might have noticed that dozens of motels dot the thoroughfare. Why so many in one place? We answer this question on our podcast Bay Curious.
As is so often the case, San Francisco’s built environment is a product of its past. By the 1920s, America had entered the age of automobiles and highways began to connect places that had once seemed distant. And, in the early 1930s, engineers started planning for the construction of what was, at the time, going to be the longest suspension bridge in the world.
Now one of San Francisco’s most iconic landmarks, the Golden Gate Bridge would stretch across the channel of water between Marin County and San Francisco, formerly only connected by boat. And Lombard Street would be the main approach road leading to the bridge.
Back in 1939, Heidi Detjen’s grandfather could see the writing on the wall: when the bridge opened, visitors with cars would flood into San Francisco. They — and their cars — would need a place to stay. In 1939, just two years after the Bridge inauguration, he opened up the first motor lodge on Lombard Street. It was called the Marina Motel.

Find this full episode of Bay Curious, the podcast that answers your questions about the San Francisco Bay Area, at kqednews.org/baycurious.

✍️ Christopher Beale, Gabriela Glueck
🎥 Anna Vignet
🎬 Anna Vignet

12/26/2025

The most ardent fans of Jane Austen — or Janeites as they call themselves — discuss more than their favorite film portrayals of Mr. Darcy.
As they celebrate her 250th birthday on Dec. 16, some are seeking out the deep cuts, one of which now includes a modern critical edition, published by a Bay Area high school class, of an illustrated poem that was like The White Lotus of Austen’s time.
The Tour of Doctor Syntax: In Search of the Picturesque, written by William Combe and published in 1812, was a mega bestseller. It chronicles a bumbling, unfashionable clergyman named Doctor Syntax and his efforts to earn a living during “picturesque” travels — satirizing an ideal of the time, popularized by the artist William Gilpin, that nature was meant to be experienced like a landscape painting, in the vogue of romanticism that dominated art of the era.
“It was the great comic sensation of the Regency,” said Ben Wiebracht, who teaches a class on Austen at Stanford Online High School and studied her as part of his doctoral dissertation. “There are Syntax adaptations on the stage. There was merchandise. There was even a racehorse named Doctor Syntax.”
Austen herself refers to Doctor Syntax in a 1814 letter to her older sister Cassandra: “I have seen nobody in London yet with such a long chin as Dr. Syntax.”

✍️ Alexander Gonzalez
Wardrobe: Jessica and Keith Fowler
🎥 Martin do Nascimento
🎬 Anna Vignet

12/22/2025

The VTA is building a four-station, six-mile extension, which will eventually tie into existing BART service that currently terminates at the Berryessa/North San José Station, which opened in 2020, along with the Milpitas station.

New stations along the extension are planned for 28th Street/Little Portugal, Downtown San José at First Street, Diridon Station and the current Santa Clara Caltrain station. Project officials said over roughly the past month, major excavation work has ramped up at the West Portal site on the border of San José and Santa Clara, near PayPal Park and San José Mineta International Airport.

Contractors are digging out a large ramp leading down to a 133-foot hole in the ground, which is being reinforced with huge rebar cages filled with concrete, some of which required a 217-foot crane and specialized equipment to drop into place.

The project, originally estimated by VTA in 2014 to cost about $4.7 billion and be completed in 2026, has ballooned in cost multiple times to its current figure, and is currently estimated to be completed sometime in the year 2037.

Read for more information at kqed.org/news

✍️ Joseph Geha, Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman
🎥 Darren Tu
🎬 Darren Tu

12/17/2025

It’s only been a month since the federal government shutdown caused the 5.5 million Californians who use CalFresh — the state’s version of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — to see their payments delayed.
And although payments of SNAP (formerly referred to as food stamps) have restarted, another holiday season is around the corner, putting extra strain on folks who are food insecure in the Bay Area.
One positive development: the CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Program — a state program offering SNAP recipients up to $60 of free produce each month — has restarted as of November.
The program, which first launched in 2023, is dependent on state-allocated annual funds that are spent until they’re used up, and the 2024 cycle ran out for CalFresh users back in January of this year.
But this year, the program has received an injection of $36 million, which is projected to last until summer 2026.
In previous years, the CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Program has made “a real, real difference to so many families,” before its funds were used up, said Assemblymember Alex Lee (D-San José), who chairs the state Legislature’s Human Services Committee with oversight of CalFresh policy.
But despite that, he said, “still only a small percentage of all CalFresh-eligible families are using it.”
While only six stores in the Bay Area are participating in the program right now — almost all of them in the South Bay — anyone receiving CalFresh benefits can automatically receive $60 worth of fresh produce each month if they’re able to reach one of these locations.

Go to kqed.org/explainers for the full guide.

✍️ Carly Severn
🎥 Carly Severn
🎬 Anna Vignet

12/17/2025

As President Trump’s immigration crackdown intensifies, California farmworkers describe mounting fears of ICE raids, with one worker telling the Los Angeles Times that “the American dream eats us alive.”

12/16/2025

Federal officials began detaining activists outside San Francisco’s federal immigration office on Tuesday morning after they blocked access to the building for hours, calling for due process and respect for immigrants amid escalating enforcement activity.
At least 20 people were handcuffed and taken inside the building after Department of Homeland Security officials gave repeated warnings to disperse. The San Francisco Fire Department began breaking chains connecting some of the activists to the building’s doors just before 10 a.m.
By 11 a.m., the protesters blocking both entrances had been cleared, though many remained in the streets and sidewalks around the building. Most of the at least 40 people who had been waiting in line outside the building for scheduled check-ins throughout the morning also began to leave after officials said their appointments had been canceled.

✍️ Katie DeBenedetti, Juan Carlos Lara
🎥 Beth LaBerge
🎬 Anna Vignet

12/16/2025

The Trump administration has stopped releasing these kids to their families and loved ones, and is not saying why.

12/16/2025

At least 20 people were handcuffed after activists chained themselves to the ICE office’s doors, blocked intersections and vehicle access, and sang hymns.

12/16/2025

San Francisco Unified School District leaders’ proposed cuts include staffing reductions, shortened middle school schedules and school consolidations as soon as 2027.

12/16/2025

The intensification of ICE enforcement across California has left many Sikh immigrants in cities like San José wondering whether even their gurdwaras, sacred places of worship, are safe.

12/16/2025

About two dozen people singing hymns and holding large banners were stationed in front of the ICE office’s doors, while others blocked intersections and vehicle access.

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