safe travels. the latest on the investigation into certain boeing jets after a mid-air

malfunction. plus floating threat a popular lake tahoe beach gets flooded with plastic styrofoam beads. hear from those cleaning up the mess and what they blame for the problem. but first, former president donald trump in court on a charge of election interference. the outcome carries enormous ramifications, both for trump and for the broader question of whether an ex-president can be prosecuted for acts committed while in the white house. hi everybody. i'm dionne lim, thanks so much for joining us for this edition of getting answers. first, though, let's get a quick update on the forecast, because as we take a live look outside, things do appear clear and rather sunny. but it has been a soggy day. abc seven news weather anchor spencer christian joining us now with when the rain will return. >> okay, diana, it certainly was soggy in some spots earlier today as that cold front swept through. but right now looking at live doppler seven, you can see we've got quiet weather conditions. and as we saw in that live shot behind you, the

skies are partly cloudy at the moment. and you can see on the satellite radar the sweeping cold front going out of the bay area. but a second one is coming right behind it, and that will be our next rainmaker for tomorrow. so let's take a look at this storm on the exclusive abc seven storm impact scale. a level one storm for tomorrow, bringing scattered showers and lightrillionain rainfall totals up to about a third of an inch. it will be slick and slow. travel, of course. forecast animation starting 11:00 tonight shows some showers moving into the area by the time the morning commute begins tomorrow. these will be light scattered showers, but they'll be certainly wet spots on the roadways in the morning hours. and then the showers to become more widespread and a little bit steadier later in the day before winding down tomorrow night. and as i mentioned, we'll be left with rainfall totals up to about a third of an inch. i should add also that a winter storm warning will be in effect for the western slopes of the sierra and the greater lake tahoe area from 4 a.m. tomorrow to 4 a.m. thursday, 1 to 2ft of snow may fall in that area, with winds gusting up to 50mph, so travel will be difficult to impossible. i'll have more on that and our

complete seven day forecast a little bit later on. all right. >> sounds good. spencer. thank you. moving on now to the saga of the poll leading presidential candidate in court just six days before the iowa caucuses. this is his motorcade arriving this morning. former president donald trump says a president, quote unquote, has to have immunity. but federal judges are expressing some skepticism that his immunity from prosecution on election interference charges. trump was at the federal courthouse for his appeal this morning. and here's what he had to say after the hearing. >> we feel very confident that eventually, hopefully at this level, but eventually we win. a president has to have immunity. and the other thing is i did nothing wrong. >> so joining us live now is avery harper, deputy political director for abc news. avery, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> all right. this is so complicated. so please explain the situation that former president trump is dealing with here, right?

>> well, his lawyers are trying to put forth an argument to say that he is deserving of broad presidential immunity. we know that he's facing a special counsel, a federal trial uh- pertaining to his actions around january 6th and election interference. and i'll tell you today that there were concerns that were expressed by the judges about what broad immunity for a president could mean. there was a point where one of the judges, even suggested that it could allow a future president uh, to have a political rival assassinated without any repercussions. and so it's all in the hands of those three judges. now. we'll see what they they decide to rule. well, really could potentially set the stage and seems in a very dramatic way, that example. >> how does the court feel about trump's defense? and also, if you could elaborate on some more of it, right. >> well, trump's lawyers argue that the only way for a president to be held accountable for crimes is if, first, that president was convicted via an impeachment proceeding. and one

of the judges called that paradoxical, to think that a judge could be charged with the constitutional duty to ensure that laws are faithfully executed and then also be able to violate those same laws. and so uh, we'll see what happens when they rule. when they rule is probably even uh- as important as what they decide to rule. there's currently no timeline when we think about what those judges are up against, but the trump team wants to delay, delay, delay. these special counsel cases. this case, the election interference case, was supposed to start in march. so if they rule against trump, we could see the supreme court asked to weigh in, which could delay this case even further. and of course, we know election day is approaching . mhm. >> okay. and moving forward to talking about the judge's ruling that could rely on the reading of this impeachment clause of the constitution. can you explain to us more about the clause. >> right. well, trump's lawyers

are arguing that the only way for a president to be held accountable is if that crime was first convicted by an impeachment proceeding. and so the judges today, in this hearing, they expressed some skepticism about that. and so we're waiting to see what happens there. but we know that trump's lawyers are going to continue to make the argument that a president just needs broad immunity. we know that trump has denied any wrongdoing as it pertains to his actions around january 6th, but whatever comes out of this case could have broad implications for the other legal cases that former president trump is facing. and could have an impact on the election that we know is approaching. >> indeed, and in your expertise, if the court rules in trump's favor, would that put the president above the law? i mean, this has serious implications. going forward. well there's many legal experts that would counter that. >> that's probably not going to happen. um, but it's really about when this case is going to

be decided. and if that could delay this case even past the 2024 election, which is what is really kind of at stake here, we know that there's nothing that prevents former president trump from running, even if he is convicted. we know he's probably not going to voluntarily bow out of this race. and so we're just gonna have to wait and see what happens. okay. >> while we have you, i do want to talk about defense secretary lloyd austin, because today we learned, sadly, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. do you know at this point how this is going to affect his ability to serve as defense secretary? right >> well, we know that prostate cancer is a pretty common cancer among american men. uh, black men, even more. are there diagnosed at a higher rate. and die at a higher rate from prostate cancer. but when we look at the statement from, uh, secretary austin's doctors at walter reed, they say that his prostate cancer was caught early and that his prognosis was good. and so there is hope on the part of many that he will continue to

serve. >> and you'll have to forgive me. i'm not sure how this normally works, but isn't the public oftentimes informed along the way because this was obviously something that was kept secret for a while, right? >> uh, there is a, uh, usually folks will disclose these sorts of things, and that's kind of how this all came to the fore in the first place. right? the fact that, uh, not even the president was aware of the severity of secretary austin's situation, that he had been hospitalized for an extended period of time. and so we know that the white house has a review. uh that is ongoing about, uh, what happened here. why it was not communicated to them, uh, that secretary austin was hospitalized. and what could come out of that is a standardization of how federal departments, uh, notify by, uh, not only the white house but the public about what's going on with leaders of each of these departments. >> all right. avery harper, with abc news. many thanks for you joining us today. >> thank you.

>> well, coming up, airlines say they have uncovered some safety concerns during inspections of boeing 737 max nine, the latest on that investigation coming up after a s

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incident. all of this comes as new issues are uncovered in an investigation after part of a boeing jet fell off mid-flight. abc news reporter gio benitez has this update. reporter this morning, the growing fallout from that alaska airlines flight losing its door plug mid-air. >> the company saying it found some loose hardware during its initial inspection of its 737

max nine fleet, while united airlines, which has 79 max nines, said it found loose bolts on some of its door plugs, which are used to cover and seal optional emergency exits. the airline won't say how many planes are affected, but that they appear to relate to installation issues in the door plug and need additional tightening. >> the fact that loose boltzmann found in other similar aircraft indicates that possibly this is an endemic problem that was created in manufacturing. >> this after that missing door plug from alaska's max nine was finally found. the ntsb, searching for four bolts that should have stopped the door plug from flying off the plane at 16,000ft. what everybody was looking for in portland was actually in my backyard, and i was the first one to actually see it landing in the backyard of portland teacher bob sauer. >> a friend of mine called me and said, you should probably check your backyard once i'd finished my work for the day, i, i came out to look for it, and that's when i found it. well, my heart started beating a little faster. so yeah, i guess i was

excited. i went back in the house and i first called the ntsb. we were very careful not to touch anything during that time because i figured the ntsb would want to see it in a condition that had fallen in the images of the door plug and the plane, triggering new questions means there is more than likely a problem here with the latching mechanism or with the way it was installed. >> attention. >> now, turning to the company that manufactured the fuselage of boeing 737 max nine, spirit aerosystems. issues with its fuselages led to delays of boeing max planes last year, the company saying in a statement. spirit is a committed partner with boeing on the 737 program, and we continue to work together with them on this matter. kelly bartlett, describing the chaos when that door plug flew off the alaska plane, somebody had jumped over me to sit down in that empty seat and i just thought, where did you come from? >> like, why are you. i didn't know what was going on. the plug, leaving a gaping hole in the 26 row. >> the two seats closest to it just happened to be empty. but

the third seat on the aisle, occupied by a teen whose shirt flew off. bartlett says he ran up to her row after the incident. >> the kid who was sitting in that row like his seatbelt, had saved his life because he's that's why he didn't have a shirt on, was the suction had just torn it off. >> hundreds of flights. now canceled this week as those max nines are inspected, there are more than 170 around the world. and a key question right now were the planes delivered to the airlines with those loose bolts, or did the bolts become loose over time? it turns out the airlines would have only seen this during heavy maintenance every 2 to 3 years. gio benitez, abc news, portland, oregon this story continues to blow my mind and mine too. >> and the fact about the seatbelt too i think sometimes we wonder, oh, what is the seatbelt really doing on an airplane? and there you go. >> how fortunate the passengers were that this happened at an altitude of 16,000ft and not 32, 34,000ft. >> oh, we would have a much different situation. disastrous. yeah and our aviation experts

have also been saying that the way that the door fell off and what went out of the plane and how lucky the people on the ground were, oh of course, yeah. >> i mean, that door could have done severe damage. >> yeah. all right, moving on to the weather situation. things really have cleared up. >> they have for a while, you know, for now, bay area weather is rain and showers this morning. partial clearing this afternoon, but more rain is on the way. as you can see on our satellite radar composite image here. so the passage of the early morning front, or i should say the early morning front is far to our south. but another one is moving in our direction and we'll start to move into the area early tomorrow morning. right now, though, we've got dry and calm conditions. a bit breezy out there in some spots we have gusts up to 24mph at livermore. at sfo, 24 mile per hour winds as well, but it's dry and it's partly sunny out there. here's a view from sutro tower looking out over san francisco, where right now is 55 degrees. we have upper 50s at oakland and hayward, san mateo, 56 at san jose and 55 at half moon bay,

and the view at the golden gate is beautiful looking in that direction, we see mainly blue sky. it's 48 degrees right now in santa rosa, which is pretty cool. we have upper 50s at petaluma, napa, fairfield, concord and livermore, and all of these locations right now are reporting partly to mostly sunny skies. and here's the view from emeryville looking toward the golden gate. and these are our forecast headlines for the next few days. tomorrow light rain and showers will return on thursday. it will start the day with a morning chill, but lots of sunshine throughout the day. then on friday and saturday we'll have an unsettled pattern, which means periods of clouds, periods of sun and possibly some more rainfall. right now we're looking at the exclusive abc seven storm impact scale. the approaching storm is a level one storm, much like the one we had this morning. this 1st may last a little bit longer, though. scattered showers tomorrow. periods of rain, rainfall totals up to about a third of an inch, and roadways will be slick and there may be slow travel conditions. here's the forecast animation starting at 11:00 tonight, at which point it will be mainly clear, but the clouds quickly swing in tomorrow

morning, just in time for the start of the morning commute. we'll see some pockets of showers at that hour, but the showers will become more widespread and a little steadier as we get into the late morning and midday hours, and by afternoon, maybe even a few isolated downpours before the system sweeps on through much as today's front did. and we'll start drying out late tomorrow night and speaking of late tomorrow night, by 11 p.m. tomorrow, we expect rainfall totals to be right around a third of an inch at the most. some locations in the north bay will get under a 10th of an inch, so overnight lows will be generally in the upper 30s to about 40 and our inland areas low 40s around the bay shoreline and on the coast. tomorrow's highs. another narrow range of highs about 55 to 57 degrees, mainly, and a winter storm warning will be in effect from 4 a.m. tomorrow to 4 a.m. thursday. for the western slopes of the sierra and the greater lake tahoe area, we're talking about maybe 1 to 2ft of additional snow, strong and powerful wind gusts up to about 50mph. obviously, travel conditions will be a little challenging. here's the accuweather seven day forecast.

after tomorrow's light rain and showers, we get a sunny day on thursday with a morning chill. temperatures going to drop down to the frosty level again. clouds will increase on friday, then on saturday, showers return. some of those showers may actually develop late friday , but basically we're looking at the return of rainfall on saturday, continuing into sunday morning with some lingering showers there. sunnier skies on monday, which is martin luther king junior day. and then we become or the skies do become partly cloudy again on tuesday. dion. >> all right. that unsettled pattern continues. spencer. thanks. well a common new year's resolution is decluttering our lives. there's a way to do that and earn some cash. abc news reporter eva pilgrim has a look at how to make that easy cash along the way. so let's talk about how you can get rich this year. >> a new year calls for new goals, and for many, the top of that list is managing your money. >> hi, my name is nicole. i am hoping to declutter my finances

in 2024. i have a lot of student loan debt. then switching from college. i had a lot of low income paying jobs, so i had to rely on a lot of credit cards. >> and nicole is not alone. >> can we talk about debt? >> about 340 million americans are currently struggling with a total debt of over $17 trillion. in 2023, we turn to three of the top finance experts for tips on how to declutter your finances. what's up rich people first entrepreneur and finance expert mrs. dow jones haley sachs. >> my tip is take inventory on the items that you want to resell, fitness equipment, electronics, furniture and baby gear. all four of those categories we see having major impact on the resale market. if you can't think of a time in the last year that you have worn or used an item, it's time to resell it. you can look to make 50% back of what you initially spent, depending on how in-demand the item is that

you're reselling. >> next, vivian two, better known by her 2.5 million tiktok followers as your rich bff, we're going to want to make sure that we're researching the marketplace where we actually plan on selling that stuff. >> a few things to watch out for are how much the platform charges and fees, who's paying that shipping? the seller or the buyer, and how dependable or safe a platform might actually be. just to use. being mindful about fees and presenting your items in the best light could earn you an additional 10 to $50 per item. and finally, financial feminist podcast host tori dunlap tons of bills are negotiable, including your phone bill, a cable bill, your car insurance, even your credit card. >> interest rate is negotiable when it comes to negotiating a couple really key things one, the other person on the other side of the line is a real person. be polite. be considerate. second thing is to express your loyalty. anytime you can. >> another pro tip cancel subscriptions such as streaming or gaming services.

>> the first time i ever tried negotiating my bills, i saved $1,200 in the first year. for nicole. some of these tips have already paid off. >> i've looked through my items and i have a printer and a laptop that are both in very good condition that i'm hoping to sell off. i'm also already reduced my phone bill amount by adding in a veteran discount, so i'm hopeful that that will reduce the amount i'm owing in 2024. >> so many great tips i have to work on those subscriptions as well. moving on. teeny tiny balls of styrofoam have created a big environmental danger at a lake tahoe beach. so just ahead, a group taking on the tedious task of cleaning it all up talks to us about the ongoing thr

is cleaning up after a massive storm styrofoam mishap. so

joining us now to talk about the plastic storm that hit incline village is colin west, founder and ceo of clean up the lake. colin great having you here right away. the images coming in from incline beach and ski beach, they're pretty shocking how did more than 100,000 plastic beads get into the water and sand? there >> absolutely. it was a pretty sad scenario, but a floating dock actually broke free in the northeast corner of lake tahoe during the storm on saturday, and it ended up washing up underneath ski beach's marina or boat launch spot. and it broke open, unleashing close. to 100,000 plastic styrofoam beads or potentially more. and with the waves, it was washed up almost 10 to 20ft away from the water's edge onto the beach itself, where it became a bit of a nightmare getting intermixed with sand and snow. and we had 20 to 30 different volunteers out there trying every scenario to clean it up. >> yeah. and what are some of the environmental hazards? the styrofoam can pose not only in

the water, but also in the sand. >> i mean, obviously seeing these tiny beads and things in the water, you never know what wildlife might mistake it for food, but also, if we've ever had a styrofoam cooler in our past, hopefully not recently. those do break apart very easily , and these beads are probably just over the size of microplastics and can very easily break up and break down into further microplastics in our lake, which is already a very terrible problem that we're experiencing in tahoe. >> and colin, we're looking at video where people are using strainers, they're using big buckets. was this effort successful and what tools did they use here? >> it was pretty successful overall. however, i would say our organization clean up the lake removed about 90% of these plastic styrofoam balls that were on the lake there. so a very significant amount. but when we're talking about 100,000 plus of these small plastic beads, that does mean there

could be 5 to 10,000 of them still intermixed into the sand and the snow that we're almost impossible to get to. you can see that we tried snow shovels, leaf blowers and shovels, throwing them up so that we could blow the styrofoam balls into a tarp and shopvac them up. and even myself. i probably shot back the equivalent of a football field yesterday to get these balls off the beach. yeah, and it almost looks like snow from a faraway vantage point. >> that's how wide spread everything was. you know, does this set the stage for maybe how docks are constructed going forward? i didn't even know that docks included any styrofoam beads. >> absolutely. i mean, i think this really shows goes to show that we all have a role in making a difference to protect the environment and protect lake tahoe. but i think from corporations who are making decisions on building materials to governments and agencies that can further regulate construction materials or equipment that's used near water

resources like lake tahoe. it's important that we all do what we can and even consider. farmers should be aware if they're bringing dog toys or baby toys or anything down to the water's edge, that it isn't made up of these terrible plastic styrofoam beads. yeah definitely a wake up call. >> and real quickly, before we say goodbye, where can people learn more about your organization? or maybe get involved? >> yeah, our organization clean up the lake. we have a mission of protecting our environment, both above and below the surface. so from beach cleanups like this to scuba cleanups in tahoe and throughout the sierra, we do what we can and you can learn more about it at clean up the lake .org. >> okay, sounds like a plan. congratulations on the efforts that you have done to get this cleaned up. colin west joining us live. thank you. >> thank you for having me. >> a quick reminder to 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. you can find it available on apple tv along with google tv and fire tv and

roku. just search abc7, bay area to download it now and we will

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around the bay area world news tonight with david muir is next. and i'm dionne lim. we'll see you in just about half an hour as well for tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. this deadly storm system now slamming the northeast at this hour. the line of storms more than 800 miles that brought whiteout conditions, now blinding rain. several tornadoes touching down. tonight, the s