world. >> san francisco pays tribute to a tireless advocate for justice and equality who left his mark in the tenderloin and beyond. plus a passionate debate before the supreme court that could have major implications for the bay area, how far can local governments go to regulate homelessness? >> we want the city to have an effective and humane response to homelessness on the streets. >> we see one of the city's sweeps in action and hear from neighbors who say they've made a difference. >> i think some people would be afraid coming to businesses like this. plus on this earth day the trash punks are tackling an overwhelming problem in san jose, how a former punk rocker is gaining worldwide attention for his unique approach to helping the planet. >> i wanted to bring that same do it yourself energy to cleaning up our world. we're not waiting on people. we're doing it ourselves. >> they make cleaning up the city just fun and engaging. they've made it a social

experience. this is cbs news bay area with juliette goodrich. >> good evening. we begin with breaking news and heartbreaking news. san francisco is mourning the loss of a man who devoted his life to helping the city's most vulnerable communities, the reverend cecil williams. he's died at age 94. williams was the long time minister of glide memorial church. he died at his san francisco home surrounded by friends and family. the glide foundation celebrated its 60th anniversary in san francisco's tenderloin last december. it provides services for the homeless and anyone in need of a hot meal every day of the year. you may recognize it most for its thanksgiving celebrations where reverend williams always played a key role. his fight for justice also extended around the globe. he's seen here with human rights champion nelson mandela in 1990. san francisco mayor london breed paid tribute to

reverend williams writing, "as a young girl, i would never have dreamed i'd grow up to work with him. we all benefited from his guidance, his support, and his moral compass. we would not be who we are as a city and a people without the legendary cecil williams." we were there as williams celebrated his 90th birthday in 2019. ♪ happy birthday to you ♪. >> it was a celebration of 90 years of a life spent serving the less fortunate. when he first arrived at the tenderloin in 1963, the reverend cecil williams was seen as a radical and later a civil rights leader and eventually a humanitarian. his church became a refuge for the people society left behind. >> that's why he built the church and he'd do what he'd do. you understand? because he wants everybody to know that there's somebody out there

that cares. >> along the way reverend williams has become a celebrity himself exalted by the rich and powerful, but his wife and church co-founder says he has never lost sight of his mission. >> he's always kept his feet on the ground. he's never elevated himself above anybody else. he's always told everybody you have power and he uses his power in order to empower others. >> over the years as reverend williams started to slow down, others carried on the programs he started to help for the poor. a man who has risen to great heights devoting his life to those at the bottom. >> i always talked about changing the world and i really believe that we have touched many people from all over the world. >> williams wife died in july 2021. employees at glide say it's an honor to be part of some of the impact that

williams mobilized throughout the city. >> awesome man, an honor. it was so cool and like i said, just the message for him that his vision, him and his wife's vision continues, and i was honored just to be part of what he started and continued to do, very sad today, but like i said, he's going to continue to live with this glide name and his visions. >> jimmy says one of the things he loved most about reverend williams, it was always about the people, uplifting and supporting the kids, families, communities who needed it most and glide's reverend marvin white says the work must continue. >> we know because of who cecil is and was that it is about the work still. so we can grieve and mourn, but we can't lose sight of the mission. it's even more visible now because

of his passing. >> you can read more about the life of reverend cecil williams on our website, kpix.com. on to our other big story, the supreme court heard arguments today on a case that could define how cities across the country tackle the homeless crisis. in fact, bay area leaders are watching this closely and the central question, are bans that target homeless encampments unconstitutional? it all stems from a law passed in 2018 in grant's pass, oregon, that fined people for sleeping and camping outside. a group of unhoused people sued and the 9th circuit court ruled the law violated the 8th amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment. the court said local governments could not make it a crime to sleep on the streets when there isn't enough shelter space available. california and 20 other states have asked the supreme court to overturn the ruling saying it's made it nearly impossible to remove camps from the

streets and today several conservative justices seemed open to that argument. >> how does this law help deal with the complicated policy issues? >> one of the most difficult challenges is getting people the help that they need and laws like this allow cities to intervene. >> but the court's liberal justices questioned whether the law criminalizes homelessness. >> what you do say, only homeless people who sleep outdoors will be arrested. that's the testimony of your chief of police. >> there's nothing in the law that criminalizes homelessness. >> that's what you say, but if i look at the record and see differently, it's a different argument. >> so san francisco has been at the center of the legal battle. a federal judge cited the grant's pass ruling in 2022 when she issued an injunction preventing the city from sweeping its encampments. homeless advocates in san francisco held a rally today.

they say the city's shelters are often full and are asking the supreme court to side against grant's pass. >> we want the city to have an effective and humane response to homelessness that leads people off the streets. this is one little right we could put in there and say look, you got to at least consider people's housing needs before you cite and arrest them. >> while the city waits for clarity from the supreme court, it is trying to figure out how to address a very visible crisis on the streets. officials say they only cite or arrest unhoused people when they refuse offers of shelter and only clear encampments if they're a public health issue. kenny choi was there for one of those homeless sweeps today. >> reporter: residents and many of the unhoused in the tenderloin near 11th avenue say sidewalk sweeps happen several

times a week. amigo's market owner has noticed a difference the last couple months. >> not so many people hanging around. the street's been cleaned. >> reporter: the small business owner opened his store on leavenworth and ellis 20 years ago and said the proliferation of tent encampments on nearby sidewalks has been problematic. >> it's blocking the way of people getting through here walking the sidewalk and people hanging blocking them, that's something you concerned. >> reporter: he supports the city's effort to keep the sidewalks clear. >> some people will be afraid to come into businesses like this when they see a lot of people gathering or on the street. >> reporter: cities like san francisco have been limited how they can enforce encampment cleanups because of previous lower court rulings. >> the question in this case is do the homeless have some constitutional protection from being criminalized for what they have to do? >> reporter: rory little is a constitutional law professor at

uc law san francisco. >> the likely result is that they will reverse the 9th circuit. >> reporter: a supreme court reversal would give cities more leverage how they address homelessness, including encampments on sidewalks and parks. >> they're not going to get into the business of detailed regulation of the homelessness issue and that in itself will be in a sense a victory for the city of grant's pass. >> reporter: little believes federal courts will have less role to play in the detailed day-to-day treatment of the homelessness issue. for this store owner, he's open to more city enforcement to keep sidewalks clear of tents. >> there's somewhere to follow if you have to move them from one place. >> reporter: he believes that's good for small businesses and the city as a whole. >> the case in san francisco is on hold until 30 days after the supreme court ruling.

a federal judge says there's evidence prosecutors racially profiled jurors in alameda county and now the d.a. says all death row cases have to be reviewed. >> certain prosecutors in the alameda county district attorney's office may have intentionally appeared to have intentionally excluded jewish and black jurors from death penalty cases. as a result of that misconduct, every death penalty case from alameda county that we currently have pending has to be reviewed by my office. >> along with today's announcement, the d.a. released these notes. they show prosecutors writing things about jurors' races. in many cases the word jewish is underlined. in one note a juror is described as a short fat troll. the alleged misconduct came to light during a review of the conviction of ernest

sentenced to death in 1995. governor newsom declared a moratorium on death sentences in 2019. opening statements today in former president trump's hush money trial, prosecutors allege he orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the election. to bolster their argument, they called the former publisher of the national enquirer, david pecker, to take the stand. he testified about the publication paying sources for the rights to stories and then preventing the story from ever being made public, also known as the catch and kill technique, but former president trump says it's simply a case about bookkeeping. >> this is what they tried to take me off the trail for, that checks being paid to a lawyer. they take this payment and they call it a legal expense. you

heard it today for the first time. this is what i got indicted on. >> defense attorneys argue mr. trump is innocent and that the manhattan d.a.'s office should never have brought this case. the trial is expected to last several weeks. tonight cbs evening news will have much more on today's opening statements coming up right after this newscast at 6:30. a dead whale was towed from alameda to angel island today. the whale was found floating off robert crown memorial state beach saturday. the marine mammal center will be working to find out how the whale died. the center says this is the first whale casualty of the year in san francisco bay. earlier this month a different whale was spotted off the coast of pacifica. that one had a gill net wrapped around its tail. a rescue team tried to cut the net away but could not do it because the whale got aggressive. work has started to repair the damaged sausalito pier. the golden gate ferry says it could

be fixed by the end of the week. until then ferry service has been canceled. buses are available for people to get into san francisco. let's get to our first alert weather. we had a warm, warm weekend, but there's a noticeable change coming, paul. we're getting ready to feel the drop in temps. >> we're going to cool down significantly today to tomorrow. today's high temperatures away from the water were into the upper 70s and low 80s in concord and san jose and santa rosa, 8 to 13 degrees above normal. tomorrow everyone's high temperatures will be within a few degrees of what is average for late april, a return to 60s and low 70s across most bay area and later this week might even have a chance of showers, talk more about that coming up. also still ahead on this earth day, we introduce you to the trash punks, how they're making a dent with the san jose trash problem and having some fun

it is earth day. people around the world are showing how they care for our planet. here in the bay area a volunteer group that picks up trash around san jose is starting to get worldwide attention. as len ramirez shows us, the group is known for its high energy and fast-paced cleanups. >> reporter: all these bags of trash were picked up in just a couple hours by a group of volunteers called the trash punks that takes a diy, do it

yourself, approach when it comes to cleaning up trash. >> all right. always got to have music. there you go. got to keep the energy going throughout the entire event, for sure. >> reporter: justin takes a different approach when it comes to cleaning up san jose. he says it's all about the mindset, something he took away from his experience as a drummer in the south bay's punk rock scene. >> i wanted to bring that same diy energy to cleaning up our world. we're wait on people. we're doing it ourselves making through to make a difference in this world. that's where the trash punks name comes from. >> reporter: the trash punks were started in 2017 after he got tired of seeing trash pile up around his neighborhood. on this earth day 2024, he led about 50 volunteers in tackling trash at guadalupe river park and even got the mayor to sign

on for a shift. >> i'm so impressed with justin and trash punks. they make cleaning up the city just fun and engaging. they've made it a social experience. people come out, have food, listen to music. they're part of something. it isn't just picking up some litter. it's actually building community and taking pride in our city. >> reporter: the group was packed with volunteers like sherry hull, recently laid off and spending her time between jobs on projects like this. >> i've been doing this a few times now with the trash punks and i can see the difference every time i'm out here. it gets a little bit better, a little bit better every time. >> reporter: things did get challenging when the volunteers came upon a large homeless encampment. >> these are people, our community, that are living out here. we want to show some love to them. let's clean up the area and get it done. >> reporter: the volunteers swarmed around the large piles of open trash, bagged it and made piles the city will pick up later. >> this group is wild getting dirty. >> reporter: the trash punks'

reputation is growing. justin has been to kenya, africa, to advise village leaders who started a program and the same could be happening in a group in china in dealing with a problem that can easily seem overwhelming. justin's motto is just pick up one piece of trash at a time and it all adds up. justin says the trash punks are on track to pick up their millionth pound of trash later this year. >> the group doesn't just pick up trash on the streets. several times a year the trash punks on, ewaste collection events to safely dispose of outdated and unused electronics. if you've missed it this afternoon, we are reairing our cbs news bay area earth day special tonight at 10:00. we will look at how scientists and everyday pool in the bay area are working together to protect the planet. it is streaming on kpix.com, the free cbs news app, and on pluto tv. still ahead, we are going

to feel the change coming in our weather. paul has a closer look a ( ♪♪ ) you made a cow! actually it's a piggy bank. my inspiration to start saving. how about a more solid way to save?

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if i was listening correctly, even though i'm in denial, there's some showers on the way. >> a chance of showers late this week, probably not going

to amount to a whole lot. this time of year it's just a quick hit or miss trace of rainfall and we should be dry next weekend. the last time we had two back-to-back dry weekends? >> i don't know. >> take a wild guess how long it's been. >> what, since january. >> since october, october of 2023 was the last time we had consecutive dry weekends in the bay area. so it's been a while. >> let's change that. >> we are going to change that in about five days. let's look at the big picture pattern how things change in the short term as we head towards with a cooler pattern returning to the bay area. the storm system in the upper levels of the atmosphere will reduce the weight of the atmosphere on top of us and allow temperatures to cool. we'll cool down to about normal for high temperatures tomorrow and again wednesday. a second storm system follows that up and send another wave of cooler air across the bay area associated with the chance of showers by thursday and friday. it's not going to amount to a lot. we'll see

cloud cover make a push inland heading through tonight and backs up to the coast midday, the back and forth dance of the fog and low cloud cover happening every day this week, more clouds for most of us thursday. i don't think we'll see anything fall from the clouds and hitting the ground around the bay until thursday night. the futurecast radar simulation tries to bring a few showers by midday thursday, more than likely have to wait longer. looking outside in san jose, plenty of sunshine, 71 degrees after a high of 83 degrees. it was also 83 in concord. there's the onshore breeze definitely having an impact. temperatures dropped 17 degrees, 66 degrees in concord, 61 degrees now in santa rosa. the rest of tonight our temperatures will drop off, but as cloud roll in, it's going to keep temperatures from falling too far, the lower half of the 50s by early tomorrow morning. your furry friends won't mind it. i love this picture because it looks like

sugar and kylo are looking at the forecast, temperatures topping out close to average, morning clouds giving way to a mix of clouds and sunshine. let's fill in the rest of the map and talk about how temperatures vary across the bay area, almost normal for the high in san jose, 70 degrees, mid-60s los gatos and morgan hill, warmest inland in the east bay low 70s, 70 degrees in fremont and only upper 50s for half moon bay. that's where coastal temperatures will hover the rest of the week with a lot of clouds overhead, low to mid-60s in san francisco and oakland and most of the north bay. the fog and low cloud cover holds on a little longer and slows down the rate you warm up. you'll lag behind a bit for the inland valleys of the north bay in temperatures. the pollen count will head in the right direction after one more day in the medium high category tomorrow. we retreat

to the medium category, about the best we can hope for in late april. there is some relief in sight. the rain is not likely to have much impact. futurecast forecast models show barely more than a trace, gives you a sense of the overall flavor thursday night into friday, not very much. the sierra, it's not a whole lot of snow, but just enough to freshen up the slopes for early may skiing next week, a couple inches in most locations, especially higher up in elevation. let's look at the seven-day forecast, back to the bay area and near normal temperatures as we head through the whole seven-day outlook, a mix of clouds and sunshine, more clouds thursday and a chance of showers thursday night into friday morning. then we clear out and warm up for the anticipated dry weekend, second straight dry weekend since the first half of october last year, 60s around the bay

and very close to normal with normal cloud cover along the coast, temperatures hovering in the upper 50s. coastal locations probably have the best chance of maybe seeing a little drizzle the next couple nights. we'll watch the chance of showers thursday night into friday and get it out of the way in time for the weekend. >> a chance. >> lower than a 50/50 chance. coming up, a helicopter actually swoops into action to help an injured tree trimmer. we have new video of the rescue mission in the north bay.

and this is new video of a rescue mission in the north bay. an injured tree trimmer was hoisted up to safety by a helicopter near santa rosa. this was in the area of hood mountain. a firefighter climbed down the helicopter and put the person in a basket stretcher. both lifted up by rope. the victim was lowered down where an ambulance was waiting. all ♪ ♪ >> maurice: turmoil at some of america's top universities. >> safety has to be for all students. all of us. >> stop this! >> maurice: propalestinian protests spread to other campuses, leading to arrests and safety concerns for jewish students on the first night of passover. >>