Government shutdown live updates: Alcatraz reopens, Muir Woods remains closed

Tour operator City Cruises reports their Alcatraz Cruises are open for regular business starting at 10:30 a.m.

City Cruises said it aims to resume its Alcatraz tours as normal on Friday.

However, if they are unable to, the tour operator will continue to run daily boat rides past Alcatraz (opens in new tab), and other landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge and Angel Island.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has taken to social media to ridicule President Donald Trump and Republicans for the shutdown and blame them for any economic damage it will cause.

“Republicans refused to keep health care subsidies for millions of Americans and then shut down the government,” Newsom wrote on X. “The GOP chose chaos over coverage. This shutdown is entirely on them.”

Newsom’s office said Wednesday that the most immediate consequences in California include making it more difficult to respond quickly to emergencies, such as wildfires and other weather crises.

The office said wildfire crews and emergency responders “remain on the front lines,” but other federal forest staff who are focused on prevention and planning have been furloughed, while Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Homeland Security grants that provide “disaster reimbursement and mitigation funding” are on hold.

Roughly two-thirds of National Park Service staff have been furloughed.

Newsom also blasted the U.S. Department of Energy’s cancellation Wednesday of clean energy contracts in blue states, including $1.2 billion in federal funding for hydrogen projects in California.

“In Trump’s America, energy policy is set by the highest bidder, economics and common sense be damned,” the governor said. “Clean hydrogen deserves to be part of California’s energy future — creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs and saving billions in health costs. We’ll continue to pursue an all-of-the-above clean energy strategy that powers our future and cleans the air, no matter what D.C. tries to dictate.”

Many federal agencies are operating largely as usual, with leaders shifting around funds to keep essential functions running.

But internal communications and public-facing statements are raising eyebrows. Messaging from federal leadership directly blames Democrats for the shutdown. For example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development added a pop-up banner (opens in new tab) to its website accusing “The Radical Left in Congress” of causing the lapse in funding.

The language, echoed across some departments, could raise concerns under the Hatch Act, which restricts political activity by federal employees.

Local sources in federal departments told The Standard that operations are being sustained — for now — by temporary funding maneuvers:

Fort Point National Historic Site is closed, along with “Black Gold: Stories Untold,” an anchor exhibition for Nexus, the Bay Area’s week-long celebration of Black art. For-Site, the nonprofit that organized the show, sent out an email Wednesday stating that the free community day on Saturday had been canceled due to the government shutdown.

Tours of the former federal prison were not happening Thursday, contrary to a notice on the National Park Service’s website. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area’s website (opens in new tab) offered no information on when the island attraction would reopen. 

Muir Woods in Marin County also remained closed Thursday.

“Due to a lapse in federal appropriations, some park sites and facilities are currently closed,” the website said.

Pelosi joined Bay Area Reps. Jared Huffman and Kevin Mullin at a press conference at North East Medical Services, a nonprofit community health center in Chinatown, to explain why Democrats forced a government shutdown.

All three noted that millions of Americans will see their premiums skyrocket to unaffordable levels if Republicans don’t back down on cuts to healthcare, and Pelosi called Trump and Republicans’ actions a “reverse Robin Hood.”

The two-time former House speaker, who led the effort to get the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, noted that she feels “proprietary” on the issue of healthcare.

“They would rather take food out of the mouths of babies so they can give a tax cut to the richest people in our country who really don’t need it,” Pelosi said. “And then, on top of that, $600 billion out of Medicare and a complete horror show when it comes to the Affordable Care Act.”

Trump and Republicans have threatened to fire thousands of federal employees; Pelosi argued that this will likely happen “with or without a shutdown.” She said Democrats are “united” under House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

“Donald Trump and Republicans must quit trying to make the shutdown even worse and instead come back to the negotiating table so we can reach a bipartisan agreement to open up the government,” Pelosi said.

Fleet Week festivities are still scheduled for Oct. 5-13 in San Francisco, but likely without the U.S. Navy’s signature Blue Angels. Instead, foreign and civilian pilots will take center stage.

The Canadian Snowbirds, a team of pilots who similarly perform aerial acrobatics, will be “returning for the first time since 2017,” said David Cruise, a spokesperson for SF Fleet Week.

The National Park Service scaled back operations, including in the Bay Area, with Muir Woods and Alcatraz shut down. The Presidio, which is financially independent, remains open. In a statement, the Presidio Trust said it is unaffected by the shutdown “because we earn our operating funds.”

The failure to reach a deal to fund the federal government resulted in the immediate furlough of roughly 900,000 employees and another 700,000 people working without pay. 

California is home to more than 150,000 federal workers, not including military personnel, the most outside of D.C.

The shutdown, the third under Trump, is the first in six years. Core government services will continue to operate. But many departments and agencies will go dark until there’s a resolution in Washington; for example, civil trials in federal courts are on hold.