Local:
- Staff at regional Department of Education offices for civil rights enforcement, including the one in San Francisco, were locked out Wednesday amid chaos and mass layoffs at the department. According to one staffer, two-thirds of the 120 people employed at the SF office were terminated. [Chronicle]
- The SFPD, curiously, has moved its Mobile Command Unit No. 2 bus from Civic Center to 16th and Mission, even though this is just a block and a half away from a full-fledged police station. When asked why the bus was being parked there, a police source said it was "for looks." [Mission Local]
- NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a man who was seen decapitating a sea lion on Doran Beach in Bodega Bay on Christmas Day. [KRON4]
- We won't know about star ratings for months, but the Michelin Guide is adding eight new Bay Area restaurants to the upcoming guide, including the much acclaimed Four Kings, and the Chronicle-approved Sun Moon Studio in West Oakland. [Eater]
National:
- Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says that Democrats are prepared to block the Republicans' spending bill moving through the House. Schumer and Senate Democrats claim they have the votes to stop the bill, potentially leading to a government shutdown starting Friday. [CNN]
- Multiple people were hospitalized Wednesday in Denver after a reported explosion of some kind and a subsequent fire at an assisted living facility. [ABC 7]
- President Trump's egregious vendetta against Democrat-aligned law firms like Perkins Coie is being seen by legal experts as undermining the justice system as a whole, because it's sending a chill through law firms and threatening clients' ability to get a strong legal defense in court. [New York Times]
Video:
- Here's a 5-minute moment of Zen — an 8mm home movie of street scenes around Market and Powell streets shot on August 26 and September 2, 1967, via the San Francisco History Center, at the San Francisco Public Library.
