us plus dry january. the big benefits to swearing off alcohol for a month. the hardest day for those going sober and tips to conquer the challenge. and 2024 will be a big election year for our nation. and here in the bay area. we'll take a look at the races that will change our political landscape. but first,

in developing news, a passenger plane collided with a military aircraft at an airport in tokyo, bursting into flames, killing five people. abc news reporter and nguyen has the latest on the crash. >> a terrifying scene at tokyo's haneda airport, a japan airlines plane erupting into flames after it collided with a japan coast guard aircraft on the runway. prime minister fumio kishida says all 379 on board the passenger plane, including eight children, are expected to be okay. they were evacuated before the plane was engulfed in flames , but at least five people on the second aircraft were killed. only the captain making it out alive. nhk reports that crew was preparing to fly to niigata, japan, for earthquake relief and route to deliver supplies to the affected region. the quakes death toll reaching at least 49, with dozens still trapped under rubble fire teams at haneda

worked feverishly to extinguish the flames that streaked across the runway. >> the plane completely disintegrated, but it is remarkable that not a single one of those passengers was hurt or killed in that collision. the jal passenger flight was landing at haneda from hokkaido. >> experts say. the plane, an airbus a350, is a total loss but is a testament to how new commercial planes are designed to ensure all on board can evacuate within 90s. the incident, a rare one, with experts saying japan airlines holds an impeccable safety record. >> the airplane did its job here. what we think what happened is that this was a pilot error. somebody probably on the japanese coast guard side uh- taxied onto that active runway when they weren't supposed to. >> now, japanese safety officials will start a lengthy investigation into what caused the collision. the condition of the surviving captain of that coast guard plane remains

unclear. and when abc news, washington on this story, we will continue to follow. >> now shifting gears as we kick off 2024, we are keeping a close eye on a number of elections across the bay area. so joining us now to talk about some of those key races is abc seven news insider phil matier. first off, phil, happy new year. >> well happy new year to you. it's going to probably be a very interesting one around the bay and the state and the nation. >> that's right. so hold on tight. let's kick things off with the big race. of course in san francisco, mayor london breed being up for reelection and you say she's got a pretty uphill battle ahead and she does uh- polling in the last year has shown that the mayor is in deep trouble, with only about 35% of the voters ready to give her another terme. >> it's a combination of things. it appears we have the homeless, we have the fentanyl, we have a number of problems pressing san francisco and mayor london breed, uh, whether deservedly or not, is bearing the brunt of

that. the buck stops with her now. she's already facing a couple of challengers. daniel lurie from the heir to the levi strauss, uh, blue gene fortune years ago. uh, and now a philanthropist has launched a campaign. and to date, he's collected about a half $1 million in his campaign to possibly replace her. that is not chump change. that is some real money there. and he could really be a force in this race. another contender is, uh, san francisco supervisor asha safai, who has collected a lot less money but is still has a city hall as a podium. and both both, uh, candidates so far seem to have the same theme, which is basically they think more toughness has to be done with the homeless. and getting city departments out there to work and try to solve the situation needs to be a greater crackdown on open air drug marketing and crime in the city. and that the sort of the theme is that while mayor breed is embracing these

types of changes, it's too little, too late, and she's countering that by saying i'm the one that's holding the line. i'm the one that's out there saying, these are the plans. i'm having these are the arrest records i'm making and such, and that waiting for them to come up with answers to how they plan to fix it, rather than just saying they can do a better job with her. but it could be a tough race and one that's going to garner a lot of attention, both in the bay area and in the country as breeds posture and the city of san francisco. those future sort of hang in the balance. >> and phil, while we have you on this subject, can we talk about the importance of the aapi vote because you've said to me in the past that you cannot necessarily win an election with just this demographic, but they are important going forward. >> oh, you can't win in san francisco with just the asian american and the pacific island vote, but they represent about a quarter of the vote in san francisco. and you can't win without them. and that's the key. you need their support now. it's not a monolithic group. it's generational. we have

younger ones, many born in the united states, who are of a more liberal and progressive persuasion, and we have new arrivals that tend to be and older, that tend to be more conservative, uh, lassoing that vote is both a political and a cultural trick. whether willie brown did a very, very good job of it. dianne feinstein did a good job of it. gavin newsom did a good job of it, and ed lee did a good job of it. london breed has been in the forefront trying to hold on to that. she makes a lot of appearances in chinese neighborhoods. she's talking to them. she is communicating with their concerns, especially about the attack on the elderly. but it's going to be a key vote in this election, just as it was in the recall of the san francisco school board and in the recall of district attorney chesa boudin. this is a force out there that's not just seen, but is now being heard as well. >> phil, let's move to the other side of the bay now, where we're also watching very closely a recall campaign for da pam price. where does that effort

stand right now? because it seems every week there is a rally. there is an election. i guess, um, you know, signature collections. where do we go from here? >> well, there's big question is, can they get the 79 or so thousand signatures that they need to get on the ballot? indications are there's a good chance of that, in part because they are canvasing everybody that's signing to make sure that there are legitimate voter and that everything is correct on the petitions. now pamela price is saying that she's being targeted unfairly, that she's just got into office and that people are trying to undo what the voters did about a year ago. both is true. i mean, it is this is this is uh- from the get go. she was on thin ice with a number of people over her progressive policies. it's interesting to note that in the wake of the fatal and tragic shooting of an oakland police officer, uh, just the other day that pamela price has already come out and said, you know, she's going to prosecute to the fullest extent. that's not necessarily your typical

progressive stance. she's also, you know, been on the phone to the oakland, uh, police officers association, which is, you know, a change there. so i think that she's bracing for a possible, uh, recall drive that might make the ballot. and as her opponents are as well, again, the country and the bay area is going to be watching and wondering if first you you elect and then you, uh, turn out, uh, progressives for district attorney in san francisco and then oakland. this is going to be a very hotly contested race if it happens. >> yeah, certainly what we've seen in san francisco, it makes it feel like recall central here in the bay area. and i want to add one more to that list because we have heard rumblings in the past few weeks about a recall effort for mayor shang tao as well. today i just spoke with a community leader who is launching his efforts. so talk about what's at stake there, because i know there has been a lot of criticism, um, about the way she has responded to let's say, the police chief debacle and also what's going on with this latest slain officer. >> well, it's not just a police,

although that is a big part of it. and crime in oakland is rising. we're also seeing, you know, restaurants and businesses and, and such leave the city saying it's just they can't make it here anymore. there's not enough people in the downtown anymore. and they are getting robbed. i mean, it's too much. so that is not good for her. she's also going to be facing a bigger budget deficit because the revenues aren't coming in in oakland. the way that they were projected. she has the support of organized labor, which is no small thing in in oakland. and but people all over the bay area are and indeed across the country. i mean, it started we had the recall attempted recall of the governor, uh, chesa boudin, the district attorney in san francisco. people are feeling, as one person put it, grumpy or dis disconnected. they're not they're not in sync with their politicians, and they are not adverse to posing recalls. i mean, that seems to be the why wait till the

election? let's do a recall. some of that is frustration. how many of these get off the ground, get on the ballot remain to be seen. but i will tell you that there's no such thing as a an incumbent that can sit easy for any length of time, because there's always that sword hanging over them that somebody could take to the streets with petitions and start upsetting their entire administration. yeah. >> speaking of nationwide, i do recall today learning that there's another recall for a mayor in ohio. so certainly the mentality is shifting there. uh, speaking of a state level, because i do want to broaden things out a little bit. we've got a congressional seat that's up for grabs in the south bay, left vacant by an issue real quickly. i know the field of contenders is huge. who should we keep our eyes on? >> all of them. i'm telling you, dion. well we have here as a collection. we have a former mayor of san jose. we've got state assembly people. we have, uh, county. we have, uh, city officials all throughout that area. some in the district, some

outside the district, all eyeing or in the running for to replace anna eshoo. uh, so that is going to be another race. and at the same time, we're going to see, uh, longtime, uh, uh, east bay congresswoman barbara lee bow out. either she's going to get elected to the senate or her time is up because she can't run for both the house and the senate. and speaking of which, the senate race is still looming, is looming large out there. and surprisingly, the republican is showing some pretty good numbers in a state that is overwhelmingly blue and you have three democrats competing for one slot or two slots as well. so anything could happen there. this is going to be an election like we've never seen before, and it's going from iowa all the way across the country and back to california to it's going to be 12 months of a real roller coaster ride. and i have to say that there's new rules out there, whether it's the recall or taking donald trump off the ballot or not taking them off the ballot in

states, it's democracy tested like we haven't seen before on many, many levels at one time. >> all right. buckle up, phil, i'm sure you're going to be a guest on our show again very soon. given what you've told us. all right, phil matier, thank you. all right. now, you've probably seen or maybe heard about the headlines about california exodus. so ahead, we take a deep dive into the issue. is california's population drop really that significant? also, what does it mean for the state?

severe, as some headlines would lead us to believe. so joining

us live now is h.d palmer, the deputy director of california's department of finance. thank you so much for being with us. you know, the department recently, the department recently released a report about state population trends. so can you summarize the key findings for us? >> well, i think the summary would be that the decline is declining. um, not unexpectedly, we saw an outmigration and lower population during the peak of the covid pandemic, uh, with the increase amount of deaths and, and a little bit more outmigration from california than we have historically seen. and that's been a historic trend. but but that's turning around our outmigration in from july. to 2022 to july of 2023 was about 37,000. that's about half of what it was a year before. and it's nearly 90% below what it was two years ago. and so there are a number of things that are changing. number one, the deaths associated with covid, uh, are declining. um, we are seeing a return to normal migration patterns that were

that's legal immigration to california that were slowed because of the trump administration's policies to restrict legal migration. um, and those things have turned around. so we're seeing a slowing down of the decline in population out. migration has declined, as well as a decline. it's less than half of what it was two years ago. and so what we see going forward is a return to a somewhat normal year over year growth, certainly not at the level of the growth that we saw in the peak of the 50s. and 60s and 70s, to be sure. uh, but slower rates of growth, um, for a lot of things that are happening demographically that are particular to california, but also happening nationwide, one of the things the california is experiencing, like the rest of the nation, is declines in births. uh, we are seeing fewer individuals and fewer families having children or having fewer children or having children later in life because they want to first pursue educational attainment or they want to get a

career foundation put together before they start a family. so that's one of the things that's happening. um, and we're also seeing an aging of california's population. uh, look, the baby boomers are technically defined as individuals who were born between 1946 and 1964. um the earliest of those baby boomers are going to turn 30 or, excuse me, turn 80 years old. just two years from now. so we have an aging population and we're having fewer, uh, individuals having children. so that is slowing the rate of growth that will continue in california and return in the next 1 to 2 years. but it's going to be at a slower clip, uh, than it has been in the past for those demographic reasons. >> and hd, you mentioned these certain demographic, and we've been showing this map that was included in your report, and it shows that the population increased in those 16 counties. most of the growth in the central valley and in the san francisco area. can you explain

a little bit more about that? because as i can imagine, cost plays a role, but yet certain places are still very expensive to live in. >> that's true. we're we've seen it in recent years, and we're seeing it in a couple of interesting ways. one is we've seen a lot of migration from, um, the bay area over the altamont pass into southern san joaquin county and up the i-80 corridor into the sacramento area and the and the sierra nevada foothills. in recent years, for a couple of reasons, one has been housing affordable, to be sure, and the second is the advent of remote work. people who are able to work remotely, uh, may have chosen to say that they wanted a lower cost of living or more land or better rents. and so they were if they had the ability to do that, um, they, they moved away from the bay area. we're starting to see that trend slowing. one of the things that is probably a disappointment to the fans of the doom loop scenario is that in our most recent report, the city and county of san francisco actually added 4700 people between july

of 2022 and july of 2023. and our demographers will point to two reasons for that. number one, the return of those traditional levels of legal foreign immigration that have been so important to the bay area, and particularly our technology based economy there. and the second is that those very high rent, uh, prices during the peak of the covid pandemic have started to slow down. they began to ebb in early 2023, and they've declined significantly since then. and that's where you see the unlocking or the ending of those 12 month, uh, lease contracts that happened that were negotiated during the peak of the covid pandemic starting to roll off, and we're starting to see actually a decline in rents, uh, in the city. so those are the things that are affecting population primarily in sf and in the bay area. uh, is the lowering of the rents, uh, the home prices beginning to stabilize somewhat and the return of more traditional levels of legal foreign migration to california,

particularly to the bay area. >> all right. h.d. palmer, deputy director of california's department of finance, thank you for taking the time. it is a fascinating study. >> thank you. >> well, coming up, chances are you or someone you know is bringing in a clean start to the new year by saying no to alcohol. so we have a look at survival tips for dry january and the changing role alcohol is playing on

and the temptation is every where. so how do we conquer the challenge and what are some ways we can have a healthier relationship with alcohol? so joining us live now is sarah levy, a writer and the author of drinking games a memoir that explores the role of alcohol in our society. thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me all right. >> right away, let's talk about the biggest health benefits people can experience during dry january. i know weight loss is

one of them. >> weight loss, better sleep, clearer skin, more energy. i mean, alcohol is a depressant. so any time you're putting it in your system, you're maybe not going to feel like your best self the next morning and taking a break from it. you know, just like taking a break from sugar can have beneficial impacts on our mood, our energy and just our overall well-being. that's a very diplomatic way of saying you will have a hangover the next day. >> as we take a look at the cover of your book, you know, what about the psychological benefits as well? because i know for many people it is routine, mean it is a part of their evening routine. maybe pour a glass of wine. easy as that. >> definitely. and i mean, that's something that i did for years in my 20s. alcohol was a huge part of the way that i socialized and the way that i relaxed. and in terms of, you know, mental health, psychological benefits, i started getting better sleep. i started waking up and just feeling a lot clearer. and that just carried over into so many aspects of my life. i was able

to really get to know myself better and have a clear sense of, you know, what i wanted to be doing with my time, other than just kind of sitting on the couch with a glass of wine and numbing out. >> yeah, your productivity certainly increases, i'm sure. and let's talk about the going forward part, because the holiday parties, they're behind us. so maybe that helps. but what are some other ways people can overcome temptation and those cravings for alcohol. yeah i think it's really helpful to get clear about, you know, the why set an intention for the month. >> you know, it's easy to kind of start off on january 1st or second and say, i'm not going to drink for the whole month. and, and that's that, you know, and i think that coming back to the reason and being able to remember that in those moments where maybe you're at a restaurant and a cocktail good, or you're out with friends, you know, saying something like, i want to feel less anxious or i want to feel clearer or, you know, i just i want to give myself this time really writing it out and being very specific about the purpose. so you can

come back to it throughout the month and, sarah, you touched upon this a little bit because your book is coming out in paperback today. >> tell viewers what it's about from a personal lens. >> yeah. so drinking games is a memoir. it explores the role that alcohol had on me and my formative years, my 20s, living in new york city, a big work hard, play hard culture there. and when i made the decision to get sober at 28, it impacted every aspect of my life from my romantic relationships, my career, my mental health, my friendships and so much more. and drinking games is a closer look at all of that. um, and, you know, i really searched for a book like this when i was struggling with my relationship with alcohol in my 20s. so i really hope that it reaches anyone who is considering taking a break from alcohol this year, or really, anything that might not be serving them anymore. >> sounds so personal, but also so inspirational. was it a little bit scary putting your life story out there for everyone, especially when it comes to talking about drinking.

>> it was terrifying. and i think maybe taking a break from drinking feels similarly as terrifying. going to someone watching this and in my experience, the things that scare us the most are often the most rewarding. um, in being so vulnerable and sharing my story, i've been able to connect with so many people all over the country who also struggled not only with drinking, but toxic relationships with wellness or being addicted to work dating things that weren't serving them anymore, and i think that, you know, as scary as it was to share my story so publicly, it's been it's been really worthwhile. >> yeah, i can imagine. and wrapping things up, what is the big takeaway that you hope people will get from your book? because you said yourself there was no book such as this when you were going through your struggle. >> i think the biggest takeaway for me is that, you know, you're not alone. i thought that having a problem with alcohol, or even just wanting to get sober, wanting to take a break from

drinking, had to mean that you had hit a crazy rock bottom, you know? and that wasn't my experience. i just wanted to feel better. i was just tired of the hangovers and not really liking who i who i was. the morning after drinking. and so for anyone who might be feeling that way, you know, regardless of how old you are or what it looks like on the outside, how often you drink, um, if you're feeling like you, you want to change, you can make that change. and you're not alone. all right. >> sarah levy, author of drinking games, which is out in paperback today. thank you for being here. >> thank you so much. we do have a reminder for everyone out there that you can always get our live newscasts, along with breaking news, weather, and more with our abc7 bay area streaming tv app. >> it's available on apple tv along with google tv, fire tv and roku. all you have to do is search abc seven, bay area and download it for free. stay with us. we're back

for. we'll see you tn. tonight, the deadly plane disaster. a passenger plane crashing into another plane, going up into flames. and in new york city and much of the northeast, bracing for what could be a major winter storm. first tonight, that passenger jet crashing into a coast guard cargo plane while landing on the runway in tokyo, bursting into flames as it slides to a stop. nearly 400 passengers and crew racing to escape. matt gutman in tokyo tonight. here in the utz, the investigation in upstatequ