Bay Current

For more than two decades, Bret Burkhart has covered the Bay Area's biggest and most important news stories with his inimitable, award-winning style.  Now, Bret brings that style and experience to KCBS Radio - and we're thrilled to have him.

Matt Pitman sits down with Bret discussing his passion for storytelling, covering Bay Area news, and an unlikely off-the-air hobby that continues to connect Bret to his Bay Area roots.

NASA and The White House had quite the treat for space enthusiasts around the world: vibrant and stunning images of deep space from the new James Webb Telescope, the agency's largest and most powerful telescope ever launched into space.

In this episode of “Bay Current”, Mallory Somera hears from KCBS Radio reporter Matt Bigler, who took a field trip to Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, which designed and built the Near Infrared Camera used to take some of the breathtaking images.

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Bay Current is on YouTube, on the KCBS Radio YouTube page.

A Bay Area OB-GYN has an audacious plan for women in southern states like Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama - where abortion is banned or extremely limited - to have access to abortion and reproductive health care. An abortion clinic based in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

KCBS Radio's Doug Sovern broke the story Friday afternoon and joins Matt Pitman with details.

25 years ago, Cuban and Pan-Latin restaurant Cha Cha Cha opened in San Francisco’s Mission District. 

But on Sunday, July 3, those doors closed for good. It is survived by its Haight District location, which opened in 1984. 

In this episode of “Bay Current”, Mallory Somera sits down with Cha Cha Cha owner Irfan Yalcin to hear why he decided to close the iconic hot spot.

Subscribe to Bay Current on the Audacy app, Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and Stitcher.

Bay Current is on YouTube, on the KCBS Radio YouTube page.

When it comes to police-caused hospitalization rates for Black residents, San Francisco has been ranked as the worst in the state. 

That’s according to a new study by University of California, San Francisco. The key question: What community characteristics are associated with racial and ethnic disparities in legal intervention injuries in California?

In this episode of “Bay Current”, Mallory Somera learns more about the study and their findings from its lead author, Dr. Cora Ormseth, a resident physician in the emergency department at UCSF. 

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The peregrine falcon chicks have fledged! 

Yes, Annie and Alden’s closely watched brood atop UC Berkeley’s Campanile clock tower have taken the leap -- or dive rather -- and flown the nest on June 18, about six weeks after hatching.

In this episode of “Bay Current”, Mallory Somera catches up with Mary Malec, raptor nest monitor from Cal Falcons, East Bay Parks and the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory to see how the now-hatched and fledged chicks, Lindsay and Grinnell, Jr., are faring, and what’s next as they begin to take flight. 

Subscribe to Bay Current on the Audacy app, Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and Stitcher.

Bay Current is on YouTube, on the KCBS Radio YouTube page.

Pista sa Nayon is Vallejo’s annual Philippine Independence Day festival, and the largest of its kind on the West Coast. This year’s main event was held on Mare Island, hence its theme: Where It All Began.

In this episode of “Bay Current”, we hear about the history of Filipinos in Vallejo and at Mare Island, and why it’s important, from the Filipino American National Historical Society Vallejo Chapter.

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Californian's are paying more for a gallon of gas than any other state in the country, and Governor Gavin Newson is making good on his promise to help us pay for it.  But how much will you get - and when?

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June is usually reserved for celebrations in honor of the LGBTQ+ community, but recent incidents of hate aimed at them, with threats to retract or block their rights, have stifled some cheers across the country, and the Bay Area has proved to not be immune.

Just last week, Kyle Chu, whose drag name is Panda Dulce, was reading to a group of preschoolers at the San Lorenzo library for Drag Queen Story Hour when a group of men affiliated with the far-right Proud Boys interrupted the event, shouting homophobic and transphobic slurs to Panda Dulce and the kids. It's now being investigated as a hate crime.

In this episode of “Bay Current”, we hear from Beatrice Thomas (drag name: Black Benatar), drag performer, creative producer, cultural strategist and president of the Drag Queen Story Hour HQ National Board about why people seem to love drag so much, what lessons they think people can learn from drag queens, and how the organization plans to move forward. 

Every two years since 1994, South Bay residents have voted to send Rep. Zoe Lofgren to represent them in Washington D.C.  Now the Congresswoman is center stage in her role on the U.S. House Jan 2 select committee's national televised hearings.  Laying out in precise detail the months long efforts by former President Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election, and his role stoking his supporters to violence, culminating in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Bay Current spoke with Rep. Lofgren about the urgent mature of the committee's work.

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