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A former Northern California transit officer cried on the witness stand Friday while describing how he shot and killed an unarmed man on a train station platform more than five years ago. Johannes Mehserle testified in federal court in San Francisco that he meant to use his Taser rather than his gun to subdue Oscar Grant on New Year's Day in 2009. Mehserle was testifying in a civil rights lawsuit filed by Grant's father against Mehserle, the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency and other defendants.

It wasn't just a clerical error. For a month, questions have swirled about how BART negotiators mistakenly signed off on a new benefit worth millions. Last week, officials explained the bungling in detail. They previously blamed a temporary clerical worker for launching this cavalcade of miscues. It turns out that Thomas Hock, the outside lead negotiator hired under a $399,000 contract, unwittingly started it. The clerical worker played a key role in this surreal bureaucratic fiasco. So did Kevin Alexander and Ericka Mitchell, BART labor relations representatives; Rudolph Medina, labor relations manager; Vicki Nuetzel, senior attorney; and Paul Oversier, assistant...

At least one BART union agreed Saturday to put the transit agency's contract proposal to a vote, but commuters looking for a quick end to the 2-day-old strike should hold off on the celebrations. Speaking from the entrance of the shuttered Pittsburg BART Station, Antonette Bryant, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, said she expects that vote to result in a "resounding no." ... A spokeswoman from Service Employees International Union Local 1021, BART's largest union, declined to say whether that union also would allow a vote on the contract. ... With no negotiations scheduled, both sides said Saturday...

<p>The two workers, whose names weren't immediately released, died at the scene after they were hit by an eastbound train, sources close to the investigation said.</p>

(Reuters) - Commuter rail workers in the San Francisco Bay Area went on strike on Friday after talks with management over a new contract broke down, throwing the morning commute into chaos in the traffic-clogged region. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) management and employee unions have been at loggerheads for months over pay and benefits for more than 2,000 train drivers and other union workers who are demanding large pay raises in part to offset being asked to contribute to their pensions and other benefits. On Thursday, union officials said both sides had finally agreed on pay and benefits,...

OAKLAND -- Exasperated BART union leaders announced they would shut down trains Friday morning after a breakdown at the bargaining table Thursday, setting the stage for the second Bay Area commute nightmare in three months. A wild round of back-and-forth press conferences at 4 p.m. brought to a live TV audience an outpouring of emotion from sleep-deprived negotiators and the departure of the nation's top mediator. Although union leaders have been threatening strikes for the past week, they sounded much angrier and more direct this time, and talks ended altogether. "Unfortunately, yes -- we are on strike as of midnight,"...

To help you keep track of where both sides stand in the BART contract negotiations, here are our best estimates of current average salaries by bargaining unit based on the 2012 Public Employee Salary Database. This page will be updated as new contracts are proposed. Last updated 5:26 pm Oct. 14 to reflect the latest contract proposal by BART management.

Until now, the courts and the public have placed the responsibility for Oscar Grant's death entirely on the BART police officer who shot the unarmed passenger on an Oakland train platform. But a federal appeals court ruling could shift some of the blame to the officer's supervisor and perhaps the transit system itself. Former Officer Johannes Mehserle, who fired the shot that killed Grant on Jan. 1, 2009, served 11 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter, and is also a defendant in the damage suit by Grant's father and four of his friends. While allowing claims against Mehserle to go...

Lawsuits against BART police officers involved in the 2009 incident that left Oscar Grant shot to death will go forward after a federal appeals court declined Tuesday to grant the officers immunity as law enforcement agents. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco concerned suits brought by Grant's father, who is incarcerated, and by five of his friends, who were detained with Grant at Fruitvale Station in Oakland on Jan. 1, 2009. Grant had been in a fight on a train. After then-BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle shot him in...

<p>I’m a 10-year regular at BART’s Fruitvale Station, and this morning noticed a movie poster for “Fruitvale Station” near the turnstiles inside the station — not far from the tragic events that inspired the film.</p> <p>“Fruitvale Station” was written and directed by Oakland’s Ryan Coogler, and covers the last day of Oscar Grant’s life before he was fatally shot by a BART police officer on New Year’s Day 2009. It won the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award, and is set for wide release this Friday.</p>

-- The strike that shut down public transit in California's Bay Area is delivering a blow to the economy. As the shutdown enters its second day, a conservative estimate puts the cost at $73 million per day, the Bay Area Council Economic Institute said.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system, aka BART, has been shut down by a workers' strike that started at midnight. That means that the system's 400,000 daily riders have to find alternate ways to get to work. Naturally, a lot of them are driving. San Francisco already has some of the worst traffic in the country, and now things have gotten a lot worse. Here's what the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge looked like early this morning: [CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE PHOTO]

AN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — Bay Area Rapid Transit workers walked off the job early Monday morning after last-minute negotiations failed to produce a new contract agreement. The strike ensured a nightmarish commute to start the week, leaving about 400,000 BART riders to find another way to get work. The unions were seeking a 5 percent annual raise over the next three years. BART spokesman Rick Rice said the transit agency had rolled out several offers over the course of negotiations, including an 8 percent salary raise over the next four years. But the unions dismissed the proposals as “surface...

A short, mind-boggling video about a fired California public transit worker (fired for poor work habits)earning over $300,000 per year AFTER she had been fired! And yes, at taxpayer expense. Anyone still wonder why California is going broke?

There are so many unanswered questions surrounding the May 10 incident in which 24-year-old Yeiner Perez stripped naked and attacked commuters at the 16th and Mission BART Station. Among them: Why was this man subsequently released from police custody and back into the world? According to BART Deputy Police Chief Ben Fairow, Perez was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor battery; he had a psych evaluation and then he was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- which is now in the process of trying to deport Perez back to his native country. ICE officials would not reveal which country...

BART's top-paid worker of 2012 never worked a day With a gross salary of more than $333,000, BART's highest-paid employee last year wasn't its general manager, police chief or a worker who racked up gobs of overtime scrubbing grime from filthy train seats. It was someone who did no work at all for BART in 2012: Dorothy Dugger, the agency's former general manager who resigned under pressure more than two years ago. Under a lucrative retirement scheme, Dugger, 57, quietly stayed on the books, burning off nearly 80 weeks of unused vacation time, drawing paychecks and full benefits for more...

SAN FRANCISCO -- When Johannes Mehserle shot and killed Oscar Grant III on the Fruitvale BART platform in 2009 it was a mistake and a tragedy, his attorney said Wednesday, but it wasn't a case of gross negligence that would justify his involuntary manslaughter conviction. Dylan Schaffer, who is representing Mehserle in his appeal to have his 2010 conviction overturned, said he's looked at similar cases and found manslaughter convictions only for incidents involving "extraordinary imprudence" -- a man pointing a loaded gun at someone's head, or handing a pistol muzzle-first to a drunk spouse, or an old gambling den...

BART would get authority to ban those who repeatedly break the law -- fare cheats, vandals or protesters disrupting train service -- from entering its stations, under a bill passed by state lawmakers and sent to the governor's desk. Assembly Bill 716 would give BART and the Sacramento and Fresno public transit systems the authority to bar someone cited on three separate occasion over 60 days for infractions on a train, bus, station, or stop.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Vandals damaged vending machines at BART's Glen Park Station in San Francisco on Thursday night, hours after at least two dozen people were arrested during a protest at the Powell Street Station. About eight to 12 men dressed in black hoodies came into the Glen Park Station and used hammers to smash fare gates, eight Clipper Card readers and ticket vending machines at about 10 p.m.,

A crowd of chanting protesters converged on the Powell Street BART Station Thursday night and confronted police in riot gear who formed a wall to block them from approaching the pay gates and then drove them outside as they closed the station. At least 50 protesters chanted "no justice, no peace" confronted officers and several of them fought with police as they were arrested in yet another case of commuting delays and havoc on the besieged system. The demonstrators, who dubbed themselves "No Justice No BART," had promised to lie down in front of the turnstiles at the downtown San...