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tv   ABC7 News 500PM  ABC  March 21, 2024 5:00pm-5:31pm PDT

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i got proposition one because you will be proud. that's exactly what this initiative brings. fundamental reforms it requires. now, for the first time in state's history, that counties have one single plan. >> now that california's proposition one has officially passed by the voters, the question is how will it actually be implemented? good evening. thank you for joining us. >> i'm dan ashley and i'm ama daetz. the new law aims to restructure the state's mental health system with a $6.4
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billion bond. >> and already local leaders have started meeting to discuss exactly how to do that. >> abc seven news reporter jim johns has been looking into the proposition and what it will mean for bay area counties, and is live from the newsroom. tim >> yeah. dan. and the latest vote tally show the measure is leading by just over 29,000 votes. a really slim win for governor newsom and those who supported the measure for those who opposed it, there is a lot of concern for how and when prop one will be implemented. >> this is as was stated, historic day and that means little if we can't deliver. >> now on the promise. >> governor gavin newsom taking a victory lap thursday, newsom was in los angeles celebrating the passage of proposition one, a voter approved measure which he heavily campaigned for. prop one will create strict guidelines on every county in the state to spend money on housing, drug treatment and mental health services. funding will come from an infusion of new bond money. the goal of prop one is to stabilize and address the state's homelessness crisis. >> it's a really big deal, san francisco supervisor rafael
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mandelman also supported the measure, which he says will help the city immensely. >> he tells me after its passing, he and other city leaders spent thursday morning in meetings discussing how soon san francisco will be ready to implement the new law to figure out how to leverage these prop one dollars. >> what our need is at different levels of care. >> changes won't happen overnight, though. jim wunderman of the bay area council says it could take years for voters to see positive, substantial change. >> businesses to come back in stores to reopen economies to grow, jobs to be created. you know, all of those things that go into, you know, making for, you know, successful communities. >> however, not everyone is on board with the new measure that includes james burch of the anti-police terror project. >> it's an attempt to uh- a warehouse. these people, a warehouse, people who are living on the streets right now by, by, by, pressuring them into a diagnosis and then again, forcing them into treatment, burch says. >> for one thing, he worries the
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new law will disproportionately impact people of color. he also tells me the propositions passing is a major blow to advocates of voluntary mental health treatment. >> all of the data, all of the experts, are very clear that those treatments provide the best outcomes. >> well, the voters have spoken in california will clearly be taking another approach. now as of last year, the u.s. department of housing and urban development says the state has 28% of the nation's total homeless population, or about 182,000 people. and of those folks, over two thirds are unhoused. >> you know, those numbers, tim, are really staggering, actually. but despite that, proposition one passed with really just the slightest of margins, razor thin statewide. >> yes, that is true. but it's a little different if you look at the bay area counties individually, our three largest counties, san francisco, alameda and santa clara, all passing prop one with at least 10% of the vote. dan. >> interesting. okay, tim, thanks very much. >> another flip in the race to finish second in the 16th congressional district. the latest vote count now has santa
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clara county supervisor joe simitian on top by just one vote over assemblyman evan low. simitian gained four votes in the latest count. low gained none. the second place finisher will face off against former san jose mayor sam liccardo in november. >> bay area tech giant apple is now being accused of monopolizing the smartphone market, as well as hurting customers and other companies as well. that's according to a lawsuit filed by the us department of justice today. and it's not just the doj. california's attorney general is also involved. abc seven news south bay reporter zach quintus has a closer look now at this lawsuit and is live with details. zach >> yeah. dan. this lawsuit was filed in new jersey and 61 states have now filed, including california. now, since this announcement was made by the u.s. attorney general, we've now heard from state attorney general rob bonta. and he spoke more about why california has joined this lawsuit against one of its largest tech companies. >> our job is to make sure that the market is free, that the
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rules are followed. the laws are followed. >> california is suing apple. it's one of 16 states to team up with the feds in a sweeping lawsuit accusing the cupertino based tech giant of building an illegal smartphone monopoly that stifles competition. in the press conference announcing the suit thursday morning, u.s. attorney general merrick garland described some ways. he said apple is breaking antitrust laws. >> for example, if an iphone user messages a non-iphone user in apple messages, the text appears not only as a green bubble but incorporates limited functionality. the conversation is not encrypted. videos are pixelated and grainy, and users cannot edit messages or see typing indicators as a result, iphone users perceive rival smartphones as being lower quality because the experience of messaging friends and family who do not own iphones is worse. >> in a statement, apple pushed back against the lawsuit, saying in part it would also set a dangerous precedent empowering government to take a heavy hand
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in designing people's technology. we believe this lawsuit is wrong on the facts and the law, and we will vigorously defend against it, bay area tech expert ahmed ben arfa points out. this is not the first lawsuit apple has faced. he noted that the federal government has also come after other tech giants, and they're trying to make sure that the first of all, the consumers are not charged a lot and they have options. >> number three is the smaller companies that that the startups that trying to do, you know, live on making making the some of the features or some of the hardware or some of the some of the apps available for the users of the iphone? we're talking about 2 billion iphones in the world, but uh- uh- apple is not making it easy. >> california attorney general rob bonta says the lawsuit has a long road ahead, estimating it could take three years. but garland is confident in how the case will go. >> the united states normally wins the cases that it brings. >> in a statement this morning, the white house said that it's not commenting on the justice
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department's lawsuit, but the president did say that he, quote, strongly supports fair and robust enforcement of the antitrust laws right now. live in san jose. zach fuentes, abc seven news. >> all right, zach, thank you. shades of the past on wall street today, as a san francisco social media company had its initial public offering this morning, the reddit mascot, as you saw there, rang the opening bell at the new york stock exchange. the social network opened at $47 a share after setting its ipo at $34. it closed at $50. reddit is the first social media company to go public since pinterest five years ago. >> really bad news for a lot of california property owners. the state's largest home insurer, that state farm says it will not renew 72,000 policies. 30,000 of those are homeowner and rental insurance policies, and the other 42,000 are commercial apartment policies. affected customers will be notified between july 3rd and august 20th. this comes after state farm reported $6.3 billion in losses last year. also last
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year, the company stopped writing new homeowner's policies in california because of wildfire risk in the east bay. >> oakland's mayor says citizens can expect the increased law enforcement presence in one of the city's most troubled areas to continue. mayor shengtao says the surge, which boosted a crime crackdown along the hegenberger avenue corridor, is being extended. she discussed that and several other issues during an interview on our midday newscast. the mayor also provided an update on the search for oakland's next police chief, which has been narrowed down to four candidates. >> well, i'm still going through a thorough review. i think that the candidates have all gone through the process. they have been lifted up to my office as the top candidates, and i can tell you that there are strong candidates in this group and that, you know, we'll move forward expeditiously, but we want to do so in a way that i can make the best decision for the city of oakland. the four finalists for the job are abdul pridgen, san leandro's, former police chief floyd mitchell, the former chief in lubbock, texas,
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cincinnati police department leader lisa davis and luis molina, a new york city deputy mayor. >> new details in that terrible, deadly crash that killed a family of four at san francisco, at a san francisco bus stop on saturday. the 78 year old driver who hit them is now out of the hospital. meanwhile, family members say the organs of the youngest victim, a three month old baby, are being donated. the baby died of his injuries yesterday. his parents and brother died this weekend. the victim's family is thanking the community for their overwhelming support. now saying in a statement, diego and matilda were what one would call real life enhancers, the kind of people everyone loved to be around. >> still to come, a new tool to highlight local businesses and events in oakland. the plan to install 50 of these kiosks and who will pay for them? >> plus, republican leaders touting a victory. the plan, backed by the biden administration that could impose a pride flag ban at us
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it includes a provision banning pride flags at us embassies. the flag is at the center of a long running cultural battle. house speaker mike johnson is touting the ban as a victory for conservatives. the policy reverses a 2021 state department decision that allowed pride flags to fly. >> a new service is putting a spotlight on local businesses in oakland. the new kiosks, unveiled today will help people better navigate neighborhoods in the town. abc seven news reporter anser hassan explains why mayor shengtao is calling them, quote, beacons of progress. looking for a place to eat, shop, stay and play in oakland. >> these new kiosks will help do that. >> when you touch the screen, it unlocks and it opens a series of
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applications that help you figure out how to navigate the city and how to discover the city. >> gibran muhammad is vice president of business development at ike smart city. they unveiled one of the oakland kiosks installed next to the fox theater. the kiosks feature customized city content like local shops and local events, all in real time. and unlike using a smartphone. muhammad says the results are based on what's happening in that neighborhood. a feature that could help highlight lesser known establishments. >> every individual kiosk organizer is based on proximity, and so each kiosk is highlighting a different local business. and so the impact is that you're small and local businesses get a lift without paying anything for any sort of search engine optimization. >> ike is paying for the full project, including installation, operation and maintenance. they generate revenue based on ads revenue that will be shared with oakland, estimated at about $1 million a year for the city. >> to me, this is a win win. the city doesn't have to put a bunch of money into it, but we get a
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lot of benefit from it. >> the kiosks even feature social services like where to find a shelter, and 15% will be installed in historically underinvested communities. >> we know that it's in some of our most marginalized parts of the city, that it is our black and brown businesses that are located there, that they should have wayfinding as well. >> city officials admit that the kiosks can be a target for vandalism, but the company says they have experience working in cities with high crime rates. >> we also have remote monitoring, so we know if there's ever a software malfunction, we're able to treat it right away. as long as we address any sort of issue immediately, we realize that we can actually help reduce the vandalism that occurs through the kiosks. >> a total of 50 kiosks will be installed over the next two years in oakland, anser hassan. abc seven news. >> coming up, the local lab that's helping to rescue an endangered marine creature whose ss is already having a profound impact on the
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but his vision dimmed with age. he had amd. i didn't know it then, but it can progress to ga, an advanced form of the disease. his struggle with vision loss from amd made me want to help you see warning signs of ga, like: hazy or blurred vision, so it's hard to see fine details, colors that appear dull or washed out, or trouble with low light that makes driving at night a real challenge. if you think you have ga, don't wait. treatments are available. ask a retina specialist about fda-approved treatments for ga
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but researchers here in the bay area are taking on the challenge in the face of dangerous environmental threats along our coastline. >> so the spatulas are simulating water currents in the ocean, so we don't want these guys in stagnant water. we want them up in the water column so they can eat. >> marine biologist ryan even keeps a close eye on dozens of swirling jars in what's essentially a giant starfish nursery, feeding and raising tiny larvae too small for the eye to see. >> we have several million on both of these tables total in the nursery at the california academy of sciences is part of a multi-site project to rescue a species known as the sunflower sea star from near extinction. >> to understand the urgency. all you need to do is stroll along our coastline. that's where evans colleague rebecca johnson helped document the sunflower star's disappearance more than a decade ago, likely
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triggered by a severe marine heatwave and disease. >> they were particularly hard hit, especially here in california, and they really haven't made a recovery much easier to see is the environmental chain reaction the vanishing sea stars normally prey on purple sea urchins, whose population quickly exploded. >> that was deadly news for local kelp forests. the next rung down on the food chain for the hungry urchins. >> the urchins eat kelp, and so the loss of the urchin predator has released the urchins and allowed their population to grow, and for them to eat tons of kelp, contributing to a decline of kelp forests along our northern california coast. >> the damage to the kelp forests and surrounding ecosystem is so significant, scientists decided to bolster the sunflower star population in captivity. >> for now, it's crazy that these guys are going to grow up to be these keystone apex predators, but they will, she says. >> a team of researchers, including the birch aquarium at scripps institution of oceanography near san diego, are
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working to raise the sea star's first capturing sperme and eggs from a limited number already in captivity. because the tiny larvae go through dramatic changes before they become sea stars. raising them is a tricky process, and then they'll go through a complete metamorphosis and they'll settle down to the bottom of the ocean or the bottom of my tables, and they'll actually start looking like a sea star at that point, their diet changes completely, and any decision to reintroduce stars back into the ocean would also be tricky and probably decades away. but the debate is becoming familiar. there are already proposals to restore native sea otters that vanish from our coasts after being hunted nearly to extinction, while labs like the academy are also working with genetic variations of coral that could someday be used to repopulate coral reefs devastated by climate change. as for the stars, well, this is $1 million question. >> there are lots of regulatory hurdles and lots of things that would have to happen for that to
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be possible. but the hope is to increase the genetic diversity of the things that we're holding in human care. and to have as many individuals in as many places to protect the species as we get toward being able to reintroduce them. >> so for now, the spatulas continue to swirl and researchers continue to experiment with diet and environment. preparing for the day. there aquarium raised sea stars could return to become a key link in our coastal ecosystem. fascinating work, obviously. and just to underscore the urgency of the breeding program, scientists say average ocean temperatures are set to break new records, putting even more pressure on marine life like coral and sea stars. >> the long terme weather forecast is in for the spring, and it's good news for california. most of the east and california are expected to remain drought free this spring. yeah, drought free. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration put out its spring outlook today, and it
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predicts a warmer than average spring. but thanks to all the rain and snow, we got the wildfire risk is low for now. water reserves are in good shape in california after a second straight year of near to above average snowfall. forecasters, however, are keeping an eye on ocean temperatures, and conditions indicate a cooler la nina may develop at some point this summer, and that could affect the weather for the second half of the year. >> but for the moment, it looks like it's all going our way. pretty much yes. >> all right, let's get to spencer christian, because i think that rain is coming our way, too. >> that's true. there's a little rain coming our way, that's for sure. i like hearing about the water reserves being great and the risk of wildfire being low. right now, we're looking at the risk of rainfall being high. here's our satellite radar composite image showing the approaching storm. this is a level one storm on the exclusive abc seven storm impact scale. so tomorrow and saturday we'll have periods of light to moderate showers, perhaps an occasional downpour here and there, slippery roadways, of course, breezy to gusty, and even a chance of a thunderstorm on saturday afternoon as the atmosphere becomes a bit unstable. here's the forecast
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animation starting at 7 a.m. tomorrow. notice by mid-morning to midday, we'll see this line of showers sweeping through the north bay and then, of course, pushing eastward and southward to other parts of the bay area during the afternoon and into the evening. the evening commute will probably be a wet one for many regions of the bay area. that will be followed by a little bit of a break tomorrow night, and then more showers coming in on saturday. continuing through saturday evening and saturday night. it looks like some steadier, heavier rain coming in saturday night. that may continue into sunday morning before all of this starts to ease up just a little bit. rainfall totals by saturday night 11:00. anywhere from just under a half inch for much of the bay area south and east of the golden gate, to over an inch in parts of the north bay. so it's going to be a nice little bit of spring wet weather. right now we're looking at calm, dry conditions 61 degrees here in san francisco, mid 60s at oakland, hayward, san jose, san mateo at 59 at half moon bay. other temperature readings looking up north, santa rosa right now at 64 degrees 61 petaluma, mid 60s. also at napa, fairfield, concord and livermore. these are our
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forecast headlines. rainy pattern begins tomorrow saturday and sunday. we expect wet, gusty and much cooler weather. and then going into early next week, still unsettled and rather springlike as well for tonight, increasing clouds with low temperatures generally in the mid to upper 40s. so it will be relatively mild overnight and even as the rain arrives tomorrow, it's going to be a relatively mild afternoon with high temperatures mainly in the mid upper 60s, except a little bit cooler in the northernmost part of the north bay, where highs will reach only into the low 60s. and here's a look at our accuweather seven day forecast. we've got three days of level one storm activity coming our way friday, saturday and sunday looks like the heaviest rain could be saturday day, along with the gusty wind i mentioned and the chance of a thunderstorm, but it'll be morning showers for sunday, giving way to partial clearing later in the day. mix of clouds and sun monday and tuesday, then rain returns. light rain returns on on wednesday rather, and then sunny skies on thursday. now we have to hope that next thursday is the beginning of a long,
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sunny pattern. >> all right, we hope so. thank you. spencer. >> well, one of san francisco's grandest hotels is celebrating its 120th birthday. mayor london breed and other dignitaries spent the afternoon honoring the history of the westin saint francis. the hotel has welcomed people from across the globe, including world leaders, during the adoption of the un charter in san francisco. that was in 1945 and again last fall during the apec summit. the hotel's annual holiday. sugar castle, also a major attraction. we'll be right back. >> this is abc 724 seven. >> in san francisco, live at levi's stadium in san jose. >> live in oakland. yeah, you're watching abc seven news live anytime, anywhere. >> we are, we are, we are, we are, we are, we are where you are. >> never miss a moment of the news that matters to you. download our abc seven bay area streaming app. join us and start
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and download it. if you're a fan of pliny the younger beer. tomorrow's the big day. that's because tomorrow morning, the russian river brewing company will release its coveted pliny the younger. this year marks the 20th annual release of the popular beer. it will be available at russian river's pubs in santa rosa and windsor through april 4th. >> and just in case that doesn't make you happy, this will. it's a puppy pile. oh, boy. all right . take a look at this adorable video of a five year old who tried to play a game of tag with a litter of newfoundland puppies . isn't that great? but he quickly found out, as you can see, that the litter of pups might have been a little too much for him to handle. the dog breeder is a family friend of the child and says the brave little boy loves playing with her dogs. everybody's having a blast. and speaking of puppies, national puppy day is this weekend. that means it's time for our annual celebration right here on abc seven. watch us tomorrow morning for lots of adorable and adoptable. that's the key word adoptable puppies from shelters across the bay area. we'll have live coverage from 6 a.m. until noon just
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watch wherever you stream us, and maybe you could find a wonderful new pet. >> yeah, give them a good home. they deserve it. all right. remember, you can download the abc seven app or head to abc seven news.com, and you can join karina on the stream in just two minutes. >> and if you're watching us here on tv world news tonight with david muir is next f the right ingredients make all the difference. new herbal essences sulfate free is now packed with plant-based ingredients your hair will love. like pure aloe and camellia flower oil. and none of the things it won't. hair feels deeply nourished, soft and lightweight. plant power you can feel.
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salonpas, it's good medicine. >> david: tonight, we have breaking news coming in right now. the police ambush, three officers shot. the white supremacist on the run. the accomplice who fired at the officers. where they have now been caught tonight. and authorities just moments ago revealing they now want to know, did they kill while on the run? just a short time ago, news of this capture. the prisoner and the alleged accomplice who fired at those officers, surrounded and arrested. just in tonight, authorities say they are looking at two separate homicides in the last 36 hours that could be linked to this escape. also tonight, the harrowing scene on the streets of los angeles.

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