set on fire. and now the robo taxi maker finds its technology under fire. what's at stake for police and the company in this vandalism investigation? local businesses and artists are teaming up to commemorate this year of the dragon, a new lunar

new year clothing collaboration that involves a bit of a scavenger hunt and presidents day weekend is here. and the storms lined up to hit us. we'll dump a lot of snow in the sierra. the opportunity and challenges for skiers and snowboarders. you're watching. getting answers. i'm kristen sze . thanks for joining us. a heavy snowfall may be taking aim at lake tahoe, but here in the bay area, we are in for another stretch of rainy days, including back to back storms that are going to really pack a punch. so let's take a live look outside right now it is cloudy this afternoon, still dry, but things are going to look a lot different come saturday. abc7 meteorologist drew tuma has a look at the timeline of the storms. >> today is totally dry despite those overcast conditions, we'll have temperatures into the mid 60s so it will feel a little mild out there with limited sunshine. any friday night plans? you're totally fine. you can see later on this evening. close to midnight. we're still dry in those temperatures. pretty steady in the mid 50s

throughout the evening. now tomorrow is when the rain returns a level two a moderate system on the abc seven storm impact scale. rain heavy at times, particularly in the afternoon. those winds will be gusty about 20 to 40mph and a high surf advisory will be in effect along our coastline, where we could see breakers up to 28ft. it's just a messy day here tomorrow. here's future weather as you go into saturday morning. you can see we have lightrillionain overspreading the region. it's into the afternoon. we start see some of those downpours develop along this cold front as we head later into the evening. those steadier showers will taper to more scattered showers late at night on saturday, but it will be just a wet and breezy day tomorrow. rainfall estimates in the north bay anywhere from a half of an inch to an inch of rain, likely more than an inch of rain in the santa cruz mountains. some of our favorite spots. and then for the rest of the bay area, we're likely seeing a quarter to three quarters of an inch of rain out of this first system that will

just saturate the soil, which could cause problems with our next system. sunday into monday winds tomorrow strong along the coast in excess of 40mph at times away from the coast. those winds more towards 20 to 30mph. sunday morning will likely see a lull in the activity. then sunday afternoon and sunday evening. here comes our next storm system. the problem with this one is that it's slow moving and it's going to sit and spin off our coastline through wednesday. that is why the flood watch is in effect, because we are going to see rain for several days on top of saturated soil. rainfall totals through wednesday, a widespread 1 to 3in across the region. but parts of sonoma, marin county and the santa cruz mountains could likely see in excess of five inches of rain. with these storms. now the tahoe forecast, we're totally dry today. some light snow tomorrow with a winter weather advisory. much of sunday is fine, but then sunday night all day monday it is heavy snow and monday we will have travel issues when we total up

the systems through tuesday we're talking 2 to 3ft of snow and a lot of areas. our highest peaks could see four feet of snow. here's the accuweather seven day forecast. cloudy and mild today. and then it's wet and windy tomorrow. sunday morning we get a bit of a break, but then sunday evening into monday it is wet and windy again with those showers on and off through wednesday. >> all right. you heard drew. so heavy rain in the bay area means several feet of snow expected to hit the lake tahoe area. travelers heading to and from the sierra during president's day weekend could face tough driving conditions, but once there, they will certainly enjoy plenty of fresh powder. joining us live now is kevin coop cooper. he is the director of communications and public relations for california mountain resort company, which owns several sierra resorts. hey what's up coop? >> hey, kristen. thanks for having me on, man. here in drew troc about four feet of snow. that's just music to a hunter's

ears, right there, i know. >> okay, it's not coming out all at once. okay? give us a sense if we're planning on when we want to drive, when we want to ski, you know, when are you expecting to? heavy snow. >> so that's a great question. so if you're going to be coming up to the sierra, start packing. now. get on the road, get ready to go. have that emergency ro kit with you. we're going to see, you know, mountain pass challenges on i-80. highway 50, state route 88, highway four, 108 and 168. that's what i'm trying to peak all the way up to dodge ridge. so have that extra kit, have your chains available, full charge on your ev and full tank of gas. you're going to have that break. as drew was talking about, this is kind of a slow onset. you'll see the rain in the bay, but about midday tomorrow we're probably going to start seeing snow showers about 6500ft, most likely out of this first round. we're going to see anywhere about 4 to 6in at lake level, maybe up to eight inches at upper elevation. but it's that next round. that's why you want to be here sunday into monday into tuesday. we're going to see multiple feet of snow. so

plan on staying here a little bit longer. extend that presidents week and enjoy because it's going to be the best. >> if you get ski week then i'm envious of you and coop. this comes at a really good time right? because i saw headlines just a couple of weeks ago fearing a snow drought in the tahoe area. and that would be, of course, bad news, not just for skiers, but all of us that need all that melt for water this summer. so this comes at a great time. yeah absolutely. >> i was just looking at the berkeley lab up off of i-80, and they're looking at 85. that snow water equivalency, 86% is the snowpack so far. so this next round could really kind of lever that up just a little bit. maybe we'll get close to 90 maybe 92. but we still have march ahead. so we just need to see that consistency after wednesday. looks like there's a break. like we'll probably see one maybe two weeks. and then still ski seasons on. it's the best time to come and ski and ride. so we'll see some snow. >> so for this weekend i'm looking at the, you know, shots

of the ski lift and everything was will the conditions be like on the slopes. i mean do you expect powder all over and will all the runs be open? you think most of the resorts. >> great question. so the resorts are open at 100% and that's everything from china peak, dodge ridge, bear valley, all the way through the tahoe basin. they are open at 100. you need to bring extra layers up here, because this system is going to come in a little bit warm. so snow levels are going to flex. they're going to start about 6500. then they're going to drop. and then i've seen them flexing up towards 7000ft. so most base base areas at the resorts are anywhere between 6250 and 6900ft. so definitely be ready to go because it's going to be wait, it's not going to be cold smoke pow. but it's definitely not going to be sierra cement either. it's going to be that in between. perfect to keep building the base as we march into the month of march. >> yeah, indeed. hey look, ski week always attracts the new or occasional skier and some might be concerned after last month's avalanche of palace aides that unfortunately killed one person.

it didn't happen in the back country. it was in a maintained bowl. so i want to ask you how is the avalanche risk now and what has been done to mitigate it? >> another great question. so sierra avalanche center for today is moderate above, near and below treeline. so we're looking pretty good. this snow is going to be heavy. so it's going to bond. but just remember the mountain operations teams their job is to keep you safe. they get out each and every morning to do avalanche mitigation. and they check that terrain up. unfortunate accident. it happens sometimes but it's a very it's a rarity more than it's like a commonality. so be prepared. you know definitely ski patrol is going to be out there level. set your expectations. obey the rope lines and you're going to have a good time. and if you're coming up to learn to ski or ride, this is the type of snow that's going to be great for you to learn to ski and ride on. >> i know what you're talking about. it's a little more forgiving right now with these conditions, right? um, okay, so you told folks how best to drive up there, carry chains, obviously. pay attention to the forecast. do you recommend people rent skis before they get

up there or rent once they're there? >> uh, that's a great question. so you know, what's really neat is there's a lot of companies now that are working with companies down in the bay, like sports basement down in the bay. they've got a couple of different alliances with some of the resorts. so you can either pick up your gear or but if you're going to rent it up here, it's presidents week. so be ready to stand in some lines or go online right now and start booking that gear. you can at least give them your foot size, your level. you know your ability level. maybe you want to do a demo and you know a certain brand and model of ski that you want to try, but you need to do it before so you can walk in and fast track that line instead of getting in the line with everybody else that wanted to wait. >> yes, yes. oh, i remember those lines. president's day weekend look. and it's worth it, though. worth it certainly for the snow. but sf gate had an article a week ago. i don't know if you saw it with the headline. you now have to be rich to ski in tahoe. i think they're referring to the fact that things have gotten expensive. do you think that's true? >> yeah. you know, it put me on

the spot. >> yeah, it's gotten expensive. it definitely has. that's why you need to do some pre-planning. one. you either pick your pass right. you're going to ski for the season. if you buy a pass from any one of the resorts out there, three days, you paid for the pass. but if you're not, and maybe you're going to come up two, maybe three times a year and maybe four times in one season during that one week, go to the website. they have three packs and four packs. if you buy them 72 hours, 96 hours in advance, you can save up to 25 up to 40% off. so it just depends on the resort though. so if you want to not spend the big dollars, look at those off peak resorts. mount rose, you've got homewood, you've got sugar bowl, you have boreal diamond peak in the basin, you have sierra tower on 50, bear, dodge, china peak, all are great value propositions for your families. so look at the alternate shop early, get online and book it so you save all right. >> and before we go, one last question for you. and that is again because we're expecting a lot of first timers this weekend . um, can you name a couple of

resorts that you think are right for each type of skier? like whether it's a family or someone who likes speed or the different types of skiing, if you're if you're a big mountain skier, you're going to go now you throw me under the bus on this one, too. >> it's kirkwood and squaw valley palisades. those are your two big mountains, alpine meadows for families. it's unbelievable. plus they've got great, amazing terrain. sugar bowl up on i-80, easy. get to boreal if you want to ski all day and ski into the night. homewood diamond peak if you want to look at the lake, mount rose if you're up on the east shore, down on the south lake, if you're just right at the casinos heavenly mountain resort. good sierra at tahoe, always a great value proposition, but if you want to stay out of the traffic, save a little bit of money. head right up highway four, go to bear valley. that place is unbelievable. it is off the beaten path, not the crowds nor the price. check it out, coop. >> there's no such thing as throwing you under the bus. you just proved that you drive the bus. okay kevin, thank you so much. always great talking to you. it's going to be a great weekend. so we appreciate you coming on. have fun.

>> take take care guys. we'll see you out on the mountain. enjoy. >> all right. take care. all right. boy that energy level is buzzing in here right now after talking to coop. the stakes are high for san francisco police and waymo. after vandals set a driverless car on fire. our media partner, the sf standard, joins us with the impact on the police department, the driverless car maker and the city. that's are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor

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and leads the fight to ban congressional stock trading. katie porter. taking on big banks to make housing more affordable. and drug company ceos to stop their price gouging. most politicians just fight each other. while katie porter fights for you. for senate - democrat katie porter. i'm katie porter and i approve this message. vandalized and set fire to a waymo car. fortunately no one was inside the car at the time, but the incident is still raising questions about the safety of driverless cars. our media partner, the san francisco standard, has a new article out

looking at how the robotaxi burning puts both police and waymo in the hot seat. here to talk about it is the standard senior reporter jonah owen lam. hey, jonah, how you doing? i'm doing fine. thank you so much. not sure about waymo because this is ironic, right? because the waymo car was actually attacked. but in the aftermath, its technology is being attacked. explain this. >> i think the crux of the story here is that the investigation is looking into who did it, and that might inquire what kind of video waymo captured in the incident. so i think there's a lot of questions about to what degree might the company cooperate. they say they're cooperating, but we don't know specifically if they've given video to the police yet. and the reason why they may be might not cooperate. some folks have speculated, is because there might be some trade secrets. there might be information contained in the evidence of the scene, i.e. their burnt car and the video that might have

collected that could possibly make the company look bad. the other side of it is, you know, attorneys that i spoke to kind of speculated that the company might not want this to go to trial, because if it did, the trial could be turned into a trial where the defendant isn't being prosecuted, but more the company is because the defense attorney might very well say, well, you know, this happened, but really, these are dangerous cars and they should be on the streets anyway, whether or not that's true or not, you know, defense attorneys will say all sorts of crazy things to defend their clients. right? >> right. and of course, that narrative had kind of been out there, right? especially with cruz, waymo's chief rival, that really after a few high profile incidents, you know, now they're taken off the road. but waymo, on the other hand, had been kind of riding high, right. they got the permission to operate on highways from san francisco to sunnyvale. does this you think in any way change the trajectory for waymo? i mean, i think it's hard to say, like, i don't know

what the internal conversation is there. >> i don't know what it if at all, this might impact their conversations and their relationship with with regulators. i think this is a really a question of public perception, right. that all sorts of things can happen legally. they can expand. but if the public and the elected officials who that public elects to office are more and more against this company, whether it's valid or not, whether it's based in fact it, that could really put a dent in their ability as, as a company to grow and expand beyond san francisco. you're right. >> and of course, the stakes are high, not just for waymo but also for the police department. right. it's a high profile case. so they usually that means they have incentive to make arrests quickly. but what's happening here and are there things that kind of stand in their way. >> yeah i mean i think in this case it's one of these examples where an incident happens on the streets of san francisco. so it's made national, international news, and then it makes san francisco look like the city that's out of control, even though anybody who lives

here knows this is not the reality on the ground. you know, public officials have said, you know, we want this case solved and solved quickly because they want to send the message that, you know, you can't do this kind of thing on the streets of san francisco. and obviously, i talked to former commanding officers in the police department about what that investigation might look like and the degrees to which they would have to kind of investigate and try to get information from the company or from surveillance or from social media to try to identify the culprits and arrest. >> i was going to say there were so many social media clips and in some of them like this video here, you can kind of sort of see the face of one of the people doing something to the car. yeah, but san francisco does not allow the use of facial recognition for this, right? >> no they don't they don't really need that per se. they could get the image of the face and they can send out like apb's to other agencies and say, hey, have you dealt with this person? have you had cases with them? say hey, contra costa counties, you know, sheriff says, yeah, we

arrested a guy just like that. here's where he lives. and then the police can go and arrest them. so, you know, there are ways to find people just using you know, wanted posters like in the old west. and the police department is pretty effective at doing that and finding culprits in cases like this and in other cases that are much more high profile. and before we go, i just want to ask you what's at stake for the city, right. >> because i did notice mayor london breed issued a statement pretty quickly and i think you mentioned this in your article, too, that she really affirmed, you know, waymo and was kind of counter acting against the sentiment of those who were destroying the car that we really like this and want to develop this technology. why do you think that's especially important for her and for the city right now? >> i think that's important because as lots of tech layoffs and uh- downtown, that hasn't recovered the way others have, and i think the mayor and city leaders, chamber of commerce, real estate interests, they all want to send the message and

send it very clearly that san francisco is open for business. they you know, the narrative of like this is the center of ai. now, these are all kind of storylines that the city wants to try to impose on the way people think about san francisco. and it's ironic that the mayor is now saying these kind of messages when not that long ago, she was also banging on the crime is horrible, and we need to solve the problems of crime. so it's a little bit of a you create a little monster and now you're trying to put it back into the box. yeah. so maybe this will work this time. such a complex but interesting and important story. >> jonah owen lam thank you so much for coming on to talk about your story. >> thank you. and you can check out jonah's story and more of the san francisco standard's other original reporting on their website, sf standard dot com. >> abc7 will continue to bring you more segments featuring the standard city focused journalism twice a week here on getting answers, celebrating the lunar new year through food, fashion and art. san francisco businesses are teaming up for an exclusive collection that we

will unveil right here

millions of hard working families. they're working harder than ever and they still can't make enough to get by to afford food and medicine to even keep a roof over their heads. we need to build more housing that's truly affordable. we need to address this terrible epidemic of homelessness. we need to invest in good paying jobs, union jobs and investments in our future. this, this is why i'm running for the us senate. i'm adam schiff and i approve this message.

that's okay. in san jose. the three day tet festival is already underway with traditional lion dancing and lots of vietnamese food and entertainment in oakland. the stage is set for sunday's lunar new year parade through wilma chan park in chinatown at, and a lunar new year festival will take place in millbrae on sunday. if you go there, you will find a special line of t shirts and hoodies that result from a unique collaboration between local artists and businesses. joining us live now to unveil this lunar new year collection, anthony creer with stash sf and apparel store in the dogpatch neighborhood and bay area graphic designer brandon tam. hey gentlemen, welcome. >> what's going on? hey. how you doing? good good. >> hey, look, brandon, we're wearing the same shirt. you're sure you guys, uh, i know, i

love it, anthony. who's involved? tell us which businesses. what's the big idea here? and why do this? >> so, um, it was, uh, our store stash. sf and, um, willy pig cafe. um, we've been in in the neighborhood together six years, and, um, i frequent them. i go there every morning for coffee and everything. um and so we really wanted to come together and just do something really fun for the community. something um, that we could do together, that we can share, and something that felt a little bit bigger than us, you know, to do something for the, uh, lunar new year felt really special. it felt like the right thing to do. so >> all right, so i understand you guys sent some of the items over in the collection. there's this, uh, this chili oil, which looks like fire. that's. is that willy? willy pigs? >> yes. so we did a collaborative, uh, they made willy pig, actually. excuse me. they did a special chili oil for us, and we co-branded it. um, it's a little spicy, but it's amazing. i, i've been telling

everyone to make sure they grab that. we have very limited quantities. >> it looks amazing. so, brandon , you, i know, have done a lot of work locally, including with the 49 ers. we'll show that later. but right now i want to ask you about the inspiration on the hoodie, the t shirt that i'm wearing. tell me about the design. >> yeah. so based on like the collaboration that we were talking about, like i was just having lunch at willy pig one day, i did the new mural for them. that's uh. that's up. now, if you guys want to go check it out out there. but uh, justin came and just talked to me and said that they were going to do a lunar new year festival, and i just kind of, uh, light heartedly was like, oh, we should make, um, lunar new year. uh, year of the dragon shirts. and he was like, let's do it. and then that was maybe, what, like three, four weeks ago. and then we just went boom, boom, boom, boom. and uh, you know, got this going, hit up stash. and it was really cool and wanted to do a collab with us on this. um, but lunar new year always meant a lot to me because, uh, it was a time

where, you know, i get to see my family. it was always a fun time for, uh, family and friends. and so, uh, to be representing my culture here and making something that represents me and my family, uh, the neighborhood and, um, all together in one has been really cool. yeah >> and i just want to show you a 40 niners stuff, because that's really cool as well. and i know you've worked with a bunch of local businesses, but we have some of the videos and pictures from your 40 niners designs, and you've worked with some of the stars. really cool stuff. but while we see the 40 niners stuff, i actually want to ask you about your work at disneyland. uh, i thought that was so cool. what did you do there? you're not. you were not a typical disney artist. >> yeah, i was, uh, i actually accidentally got a job as a caricature artist at disneyland. so that kind of went hand in hand because, uh, designing and illustrating are two very different realms. and i think the niners saw that i can design logos and, like, in the clean, cool way, but then also like,

uh, illustrate in a, in a very expressive way as well. so mixing the two together has definitely, um, been a style that i've been exploring. and it's, it's been working well so far. i think fans like it and i've had a lot of fun doing it. >> it's awesome. hey anthony, we have about 30s, but i want to tell you, um, ask you to tell our viewers how to get this because you purposely set it up so you can't get it online and you have to go to a couple of places to get the whole collection. so how does it work? yeah. >> okay. so i'll try to be brief. so for the less than 30s, the hoodie and the chili oil come to stash sf for the t shirt, go to willy pig. each purchase you'll get a tote bag and the hoodie comes with a free drink. and if you buy everything, you get a free poster as well. >> i love it, it's like a scavenger hunt, you know? got to go all over the places. thank you so much, gentlemen. of course you'll be at the millbrae lunar new year on sunday as well. good luck. all right. remember, abc seven news is streaming 24 seven. get the abc seven bay area app and join us

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i'll see you back here at four. >> david: tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. donald trump's reaction just in tonight after being fined nearly $355 million. the major ruling late today hitting at the heart of donald trump's decades-long image. judge arthur an goran ordering the former president to pay nearly $355 in