our story. of us >> reptee at saairpne reportedly hired by a different group back east flying above palo alto towing the message thank you, christine. we have your back. >> she's getting death threats. the trolls of the world aren't afraid to have their voice spoken, so we're trying to drown them out with our voice of love and encouragement and support. >> reporter: blasey ford emerged from a private life as a wife, mother of two and research psychologist when she came forward to accuse supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a party while the two were in high school in the 1980s. she has since gone into seclusion. to help defray security costs for her family, supporters have started two gns havraised 00,0ino . me out in droves to support her, their neighbor. i'm very impressed. >> reporter: the palo alto

mayor is among the voices of support. she's encouraging blasey ford to at kavanaugh's senate confirmation hearings. >> i don't think she'll do that publicly. i think that's probably uncomfortable, but i hope in this era when women's voices are being heard finally that she'll come forward with the ultimate reason for using your voice. >> reporter: last sunday night a friend was sent to blasey ford's home here in palo alto to retrieve her dog. that has been the only activity that we have seen at the house and she remains in seclusion tonight. reporting live in palo alto, len ramirez, kpix5. kpix 5 political reporter melissa caen now with latest >> len, are you seeing signs of any extra security around that house in palo alto? >> reporter: there has been some. as we've been out here, i've noticed a couple of times a patrol unit from the palo alto police department has been coming by. they apparently just want to keep an eye on thing. >> len ramirez, thank you. kpix5 political reporter melissa caen now with the

latest from washington including a new letter from judge kavanaugh. melissa? >> the white house today released a letter saying judge kavanaugh will be ready to testify monday, but lawyers for professor ford say she's willing to tell her story this week but with conditions and not on monday. >> i just want them to vote no. >> we believe christine ford! >> protesters gathered at senator jeff flake's office on capitol hill in a show of support for professor christine blasey ford. as the clock ticks closer to the deadline set by senate republicans for blasey to testify about the sexual assault allegations against supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh, late word emerged from her attorneys that she wishes to testify next week provided lawmakers can agree on fair terms and insure her safety. alumni and holden arms, an all girls school blasey attended in the '80s came forward to show support with a letter signed by more than 1,000 graduates.

>> we believe dr. blasey ford and we are so grateful to her for coming forward and sharing her story. >> democratic lawmakers say that the fbi investigated anita hill's sexual harassment allegations against supreme court justice clarence thomas nearly 27 years ago. they say they want the same considerations now. >> what is happening with the judiciary committee i would call it a railroad job. >> someone who is lying does not ask the fbi to investigate their claims. who is not asking the fbi to investigate these claims? the white house. >> senate judiciary chairman chuck grassley says the committee is working on its own investigation and that aides are reaching out to mark judge and two other alleged witnesses and that democrats have thus far declined to participate. republicans say aides interviewed judge kavanaugh under oath in private on monday. they appear to be moving ahead with plans to vote on his nomination next week. this story has sparked ugly

reactions on all sides. the judge, his accuser and even some senators say they are getting death threats. >> thank you for that. coming up at 6:00 a closer look at the political pressure on some key senators to vote against kavanaugh and the bay area congressman who is apologizing for a tweet. a millionaire homicide suspect who this week failed to show up to hear his verdict was finally convicted today. sherill smothers was found guilty of killing his girl friend in her richmond home nearly 35 years ago. smothers was a suspect in the case back in 1983 but initially he was cleared. then in 2015 prosecutors used dna evidence to connect him to the killing. smothers failed to show up for the jury's verdict on tuesday, but the court issued a warrant and officers later found him at his home in granite bay near sacramento. smothers will be sentenced next week and faces 25 years in prison. the nightmare still not over for a vallejo woman

kidnapped and raped in a case initially called a hoax by police. now the victim and her fiance have been ordered back to court to face questioning from her attacker. reporter steve large explains why. >> reporter: this is matthew mueller's new booking photo from the solano county jail after pleading guilty to kidnapping in federal court, the solano county d.a. charging him with six new counts including kidnap for ransom, rape and false imprisonment, all part of the break-in and attack on denise huskins and aaron quinn on his vallejo home in 2015. inside this solano courthouse mueller granted the right to act as his own attorney and possibly forced to wear shackles in the courtroom will have the opportunity to question huskins and quinn about the heinous crime he's already convicted of committing against them. >> this is pretty freakish stuff. >> reporter: dan russo is aaron quinn's attorney.

he believes mueller, the harvard educated 1 time lawyer, is relishing the opportunity. >> this is his golden opportunity to inflict more injury on people, but also draw attention to himself. >> reporter: acting at his own attorney, mueller will be granted access to prosecutor's evidence including two videos he allegedly recorded showing huskins' rapes. russo says huskins and quinn are prepared for the showdown in court, but it will not be easy. >> i think it's going to be a terrible experience for them. how can it not be a terrible experience for them? >> reporter: mueller is already serving a 40 year sentence in federal prison. if convicted on the new solano county charges, he could be sentenced to life. steve large, kpix5. >> the timing of the case could not come at a more stressful time for huskins and quinn. this preliminary hearing court date is set for tuesday, their wedding being the following saturday. a toddler was found wandering the streets alone early this morning in vacaville. the young boy was found by a

neighbor wearing red footy pajamas. police said the toddler was left with his mother's roommate when she left for work around 3 a.m. he wandered outside sometime after and was found just before 7:00. the boy is safe and has been reunited with his mother. and if the household is safe >> it's a good and important reminder to parents that sometimes our toddlers are a little more savvy than we give them credit. it's an important reminder to make sure those doors are locked. maybe place locks or some sort of devices in areas out of their reach. >> police are investigating how the boy got out and if the household is safe for him. another deadly workplace rampage, this time at a rite- aid distribution center outside of baltimore. four people are dead as a result including the female shooter. seven others were wounded and injured in this morning's attack. investigators are still looking into the woman's motive, but they have already ruled out terrorism. police say the 26-year-old

suspect was a temporary employee at the rite-aid facility. she died after the rampage at the hospital from a self- inflicted gunshot wound. a man who used to run san francisco's building inspection commission is in some hot water. his firm has been accused of submitting bogus documents and plans for work on three homes. kpix5's julie watts is live outside one of those homes with the allegations. julie? >> reporter: that's right. this complaint outline an elaborate scheme alleging the man that used to oversee building inspections in san francisco used his inside none to defraud city inspectors. did you, the defendant, submit falsified inspection reports with forged signatures? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: rodrigo santos was once president of the san francisco building inspection commission. now he's at the center of a lawsuit by the city attorney alleging his private engineering firm santos and murita used forged documents, unlicensed contractors, secret

building plans and outright lies to defraud the city and get away with illegal construction. >> those laws that are designed to protect the public were being circumvented by these same individuals for money and to try and get a competitive advantage on cost and speed and instead they put the public at risk. >> reporter: the city attorney alleges a common scheme resulting in illegal excavation in at least three homes. here the complaint says an unlicensed contractor was used to illegally excavate damaging the foundation of the home next- door and here the suit alleges the defendant submitted plans for a kitchen and bathroom remodel, then used a secret set of plans to illegally excavate a new floor and new living space. >> we're not to blame at all. >> reporter: santos denies the allegations or at least that he's responsible. did you submit these plans to the city? >> we did not. we developed a set of drawings that was presented to the builder and the builder chose to pull different permits for different aspects of the projects. >> reporter: he argues as an

engineering firm he doesn't hire contractors or submit plans and blames the contracts that hired his firm and at least one of those contractors agrees. >> why would the engineer be responsible when i'm not working for him? he's working for me. you guys have it all backwards. >> reporter: but the city attorney says it's pretty clear. >> different properties, different property owners, different contractors, but the one constant is the engineering firm. >> reporter: the city attorney's office points to evidence. in fact, it's in these documents here in this complaint including forged inspection reports that they say were signed and submitted by santos and his partner. we should also note that the contractors and some property owners are named in this complaint. in san francisco, julie watts, kpix5. coming up the law just signed by governor brown involving restaurants and straws. >> plus a man gets chased into a lion enclosure and then is bitten by the big cat, the overnight chaos at a central

valley zoo. >> why the company ticketmaster is now accused of running a secret ticket scalping project. >> and they're making a run for the playoffs, but the stands are still kind of empty, what's the oakland a's team saying now about their poor attendance?

can we transpose this? thu0326 - at the chaffee zoo.. rp stating that the man broke into the lion den.. and the lion currently h . a strange story out of the central valley, a man was attacked by a lion last night at the fresno zoo. >> the man broke into the lion den and the lion currently has the subject. >> security guards heard him screaming for help just past 11:00 last night. he claims he was chased into the zoo and the lion grabbed his big toe when he was climbing a fence in front of the exhibit. police say to get close to the lion enclosure he would have had to scale a number of barriers.

>> he did have to jump over a fence that has a no trespassing sign and climbed over the barbed wire on top of it to get into the zoo itself. >> the man suffered only minor injuries. authorities believe he was under the influence and he will be cited for trespassing. the case calls to mind a deadly tiger attack in san francisco. the teenager was mauled to death after breaking into the zoo on christmas day back in 2007. the tiger escaped its enclosure and attacked. the teen's two brothers survived and eventually won a lawsuit against the city. one person is in critical condition after an early morning cliff rescue at san francisco's aquatic park. chopper 5 was over the scene right after firefighters pulled a man and woman off the rocks. they were not hurt, but another man was later found in the water unconscious. that man was rushed to the hospital, unclear his condition right now. a lululemon store in santa rosa is out tens of thousands

of dollars of merchandise after a brazen grab and go robbery. police say four women rushed into the montgomery village store wednesday just after opening. they began filling their bags with pricey leggings and parkas that can cost hundreds of dollars each. the thieves showed no weapons and all wore red and black hoodies. they snatched up about $18,000 of merchandise before taking off in an older model black mercedes. ticketmaster denying a report by the canadian broadcasting corporation that it's running a secret ticket scalping project. journalists from the toronto star and cbc wore hidden cameras and posed as scalpers at a major live entertainment conference in las vegas in july. that's where they found ticketmaster representatives appearing to pitch a company- owned resale platform used by ticket scalpers. >> what we discovered is they are selling something called trade desk which is an online

system. it's purposely designed for professional scalpers. it helps manage large inventories. >> ticketmaster tells cbs news that it is categorically untrue that ticketmaster has any program in place to enable resellers to acquire large volumes of tickets at the expense of consumers. as for the employee in the undercover video the company says, "we do not condone the statements made by the employee as the conduct described clearly violates our terms of service." ticketmaster says it has already started an internal review. the oakland a's are powering toward the playoffs with the second best record in baseball since mid-june, but at most home games there are still large swaths of empty seats. kpix5's devin fehely on the team's continuing challenge to get fans to come out to the games. devin? >> reporter: yeah, the final score today 21-3. that's unbelievable and in the wider world of sports a perception of the a's and giants couldn't be more different. one team is on the rise getting

ready for a playoff run, the other one in apparent decline, but that's a fact not often reflected by their fans or attendance at their games. >> watch this bad boy sail into the east bay night. >> reporter: homers, no hitters and hot streaks, it's been an electrifying season for the playoff bound oakland athletics. >> we have a great fan base. we're excited to take this team potentially into october and have that success and to build on that for many years to come. >> reporter: but while the a's have outperformed expectations on the field they've underperformed at times with fans. the team's average attendance is the fourth lowest in all of major league baseball, a fact not lost on the players themselves. >> i just wish we could get some more people out here. we're fun to watch. we really want our fans to come out and support us. >> everybody loves a winner and i think we can rally around a winner and we're rallying around it this year. maybe it's not here at the ballpark, but another bay area loves the a's. >> reporter: it is, however, a tale of two cities.

while the giants have been a model of mediocrity limping towards the end of the season, they manage to average 39,000 fans per game, 20,000 more than their red hot rivals. >> the a's are playing beyond expectations. they need to keep that up another couple of years. the attendance will be right back up where it was in the '70s. >> reporter: the other intangibles is the stadiums in which the two teams play. the giants ballpark is considered one of the best in baseball. the oakland coliseum is aging and in need of replacement. >> critical for our future success in oakland and the ability to win more world championships, to build a new privately financed stadium here in oakland. >> reporter: the a's have built a great team. they hope to build a brand-new ballpark and perhaps hardest of all, in the interim they hope to build a little enthusiasm along the way. the a's will play their final home game of the season on sunday against the twins. in oakland, devin fehely, kpix5. people that want plastic straws with their drinks at sit-

down restaurants will now have to ask for them under a new state law. governor brown signed the bill today. it doesn't impact takeout places like fast food restaurants and the law doesn't kick in until next year. governor brown calls it a small step in reducing plastic waste. the california coastal commission says straws are the sixth most common item found on beach clean-up days. and it was a record breaking day on wall street. take a look. both the dow and s&p 500 closed at all time highs. tonight: paying the price for d.. san francisco just had its warmest day in two months, but coming up find out which city just had its warmest day of the year today and how long the warm fog free weather sticks around. i'll have your forecast next. the new toll proposal. >> coming up at 6:00 tonight paying the price for living on treasure island every single day, the new toll proposal that has island residents extremely frustrated.

sky-drone was hovering in the area earlier... giving us this iew of the b it was a beautiful late summer day across the bay area including here at treasure island. sky drone 5 was hovering in that area earlier today giving us this gorgeous view of the bridge. can you believe fall is only a couple days away? >> saturday. that's why we're getting warmer. everyone else is cooling down. >> people on the east coast are going what? what are you talking about? >> you visit out here and it gets kind of strange. it's like okay, i came in july and needed a jacket and didn't bring it and i come in september and needed short sleeves and didn't bring it. that's why the gap sells so much stuff in san francisco. because you aren't prepared. 73 today in san francisco, that's the warmest day in the

mast two months. san jose 89, santa rosa 80 -- past two months. san jose 89, santa rosa 88, napa tonight 54 degrees, oakland 56. 86 degrees at the airport today in oakland tied for the warmest day of the year. you have to go back to june 23rd when it also hit 86 degrees. your weather headlines, limited fog again along the coastline, if any, otherwise another clear night for the entire bay area. a couple degrees cooler tomorrow, but we'll be warm and stay above average now through the weekend and into at least the first half of next week. why? we've been cool about three straight week with an onshore flow from the chilly ocean. all that changed was a ridge of high pressure got closer and the winds wrapping around it giving us more of a north to northwest flow of air today, so less about the ocean and more about the land to our north. that's one version of our offshore wind. we have it today and we'll have it again tomorrow and the next several days. it will do a lot of things include keeping us warm and keep us clear. futurecast says no clouds at

all, but as soon as we grab the ocean influence again a little bit over the weekend, we go friday night, saturday morning, clouds are lined up along the coastline. it begins to push in by saturday afternoon. the coolest day of the next week is sunday when we reacquire that ocean breeze. tomorrow not chilly, another day in the 70s for san francisco, 72 there, 77 in oakland, fremont 83 degrees, napa 84, san jose 86, a little milder in pacifica and 90s will be there still, but you have to go pretty far inland, tri- valley 93, fairfield 91 degrees. we're a few degrees cooler tomorrow. we lose a few more saturday and sunday. sunday is your day if you don't like it hot, 80s inland, upper 60s near the bay. we warm back up next week, low to mid-90s inland and mid- to upper 70s near the bay. so we are now warm and staying warmer than average for a while. that's your forecast. we'll be right back.

ahead at six... it's "open streets" weekend in san jose. the cbs evening news is coming up next. >> jeff glor is here with a preview. >> tonight on the cbs evening news the latest on a workplace shooting in maryland leaving three dead. >> new information on the staggering number of robocalls people are getting on their cell phones. >> and a child who received a first of a kind surgery while still in the womb that repaired her heart and saved her life, those stories and more tonight on the cbs evening news. ahead at 6:00 it's open streets weekend in san jose. >> but not everyone is welcome. we'll tell you who is being

asked to stay away. elizabeth, paul and i will be back in 30 minutes with more local news for you.

captioning sponsored by cbs >> glor: on the cbs evening news this thursday, a woman opens fire on coworkers in maryland. three are dead. we are on the scene. brett kavanaugh's accuser now says she is open to testifying next week. and we'll introduce you to the child who received a first-of-a- kind surgery while still in the womb that repaired her heart and saved her life. but first, the headlines in 60 seconds. >> another tragic event for us here this morning in hartford county. >> multiple fatalities and multiple people wounded after a shooting at a rite-aid distribution facility. >> police say they're still working to find out a motive.

>> breaking news-- christine blasey ford says that she's open to testifying. >> but only if the senate judiciary committee offers terms that are fair and which ensure