A San Francisco resident asked the local Bay Area Rapid Transit authority why the escalator repair at a station was taking so long:

Can you shed any light @SFBART?

24th St escalators were due to be reopened on Friday and now it's been pushed out a month. It's been closed for nearly 6 months now and for some reason the northern 24th St entry is also blocked. What's the hold up? Can we reopen that entry please? — Megan G (@_meglet) July 22, 2019

The answer? A federal law preventing maintenance crew from removing this nesting pigeon:

During repairs on the 24th St Mission escalator, a pigeon set up a nest by the escalator and laid two eggs. By federal law, we can’t disturb an active nest and monitored the nest every day. Last week, the two hatchlings and momma pigeon flew away and we’re moving forward again. https://t.co/hPytXCRNso pic.twitter.com/O2olXufa00 — SFBART (@SFBART) July 22, 2019

Narrator voice: There is no federal law protecting nesting pigeons:

Wondering why the escalator at 24th Mission BART was closed for weeks? A pigeon nested in it, & BART thought (wrongly!) they couldn't legally move a nest. (The ban on moving nests doesn't apply to pigeons, as a 5-minute google search would've revealed)https://t.co/jQqmqHH9Qu — Julia Galef (@juliagalef) July 24, 2019

Please remember this the next time a lib says we should get rid of the electoral college so our betters in states like California can manage even more of our daily lives.

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