abc seven news starts right now. >> 20-30 business. the whole bridge just fell down. start. start working, everybody. the whole bridge just collapsed. >> developing news out of baltimore, where the search for

six people missing after that bridge collapse was just halted by the coast guard. good evening. i'm ama daetz, and i'm dan ashley. >> thanks for joining us. this is a live look now at the scene in baltimore. the coast guard says, given the length of the search and how cold the water is, it doesn't think it is possible to find any survivors. >> abc seven news reporter stephanie sierra is following this developing story and joins us now with the latest. steph >> are construction workers who were on the francis scott key bridge doing repairs at the time the cargo ship hit. now, the pilots of the ship sent out a mayday call just before 1:30 a.m, alerting officials they had lost power and could crash emergency responders quickly shut down the bridge moments before impact to keep cars off of it, a move that likely saved lives. video here shows the cargo ship striking a support column, and then, in a matter of seconds, there was a fireball and the bridge crumbles into the

water. >> we were awakened with what appeared to be an earthquake and a long rolling sound of thunder. >> yeah, i was half asleep and she woke me up. she couldn't. >> i couldn't believe uh. >> she's like screaming. and i was like, what's going on? she just told me the bridge is gone. i'm like, yeah, right. and then i seen a picture of it and i was like, oh my god, you got you got to be kidding me. >> we're two people were pulled out of the frigid water. then the ntsb released a video this afternoon of the wreckage. part of the bridge and roadway are still resting on the cargo ship. there's not much left standing. the main part of the structure, as you can see, is still in the water. the port of baltimore is one of the busiest in the nation , and is one of the largest for cars and light trucks in the u.s. getting the port and the bridge back up and running are priority for the white house. >> well, it's one of the most important elements for the economy in the northeast, and

the quality of life. my transportation secretary is there now, as i told governor moore, i've directed my team to move heaven and earth to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge. as soon as humanly possible. >> the cargo ship was leaving baltimore at the time. everyone on board has been accounted for, according to its owners. as for the bridge, it was fully up to code and considered to be in good condition. the ntsb is leading the investigation and has not boarded the ship yet to collect evidence. it says it doesn't want to interfere with the ongoing rescue and recovery efforts. now, authorities have said there is zero indication this was terror related. in the newsroom, stephanie sierra, abc seven news. >> professors at the california maritime academy are studying this crash to learn about what led to the power outage today. abc seven news reporter ryan curry spoke with a professor who explained what usually happens when a ship enters and leaves a

port, such as san francisco bay. >> the crash in baltimore tuesday morning is leaving maritime experts stunned. they are wondering what caused the ship to lose power and crash into the francis scott key bridge immediately. >> me being a professional mariner, my mind goes to what happened, right? because this is obviously not something that happens every day. >> kevin calnan is an assistant professor at cal maritime. he spent years working on cruise ships and says if an accident is going to happen, it will most likely be when entering or exiting a port. >> any voyage, of course, the most complicated and stressful part that has the most variables is going to be arrivals or departures. >> cal maritime has a simulator. they use to help train their students who plan to work on large ships. calnan says there is an extensive checklist. ship workers have to go through when departing or arriving. >> some of the first things that go into it is voyage planning right, of course, we can't just leave the pier without knowing how we're going to get from a to

b, and if an emergency happens, he says each worker on board has a job to do. >> we have to check to make sure that all of our gps receivers are working, that our radars are working, our ictus, which is our electronic chart, display and information, basically, our navigation system is working. >> he is now studying the baltimore crash to figure out what failed on the ship in san francisco. he says large ships are usually joined by pilots who help navigate the ship in and out of the bay. baltimore also has the same system. >> there's what's called a master pilot exchange of information, where that pilot, speaks with the captain of that vessel and is explained the handling characteristics, the propulsion plant of that vessel, any deficiencies, if they're known with any of the navigation equipment or any equipment on board. >> communication is key. the ship in baltimore put out a mayday signal, and authorities closed the bridge before it crashed. calnan says that communication saved lives.

>> you know, preemptively making that call, of course, saved a lot of lives. saved a lot of, you know, people from getting hurt in the east bay. >> ryan curry, abc seven news and the baltimore bridge collapse reminds some of us of the incidents here in the bay area back in 2007. >> the cosco busan container ship hit the bay bridge, spilling tens of thousands of gallons of oil into the bay. though no people were killed, the crash in its aftermath killed thousands of birds and fish. the bar pilot on that ship spent ten months in prison after investigators found he was traveling too fast and was on prescription drugs when that accident happened. that wasn't the worst bridge disaster in our area, though. 1989. of course, the loma prieta earthquake caused the cypress street viaduct in oakland to collapse, killing 42 people. the double decker freeway connected 8-80 to the bay bridge approach. violent shaking from the quake brought the upper deck crashing down onto cars on the lower deck. a span of the bay bridge also collapsed during that quake, killing one person. earlier

today, we spoke to a professor of civil and environmental engineering at san jose state about how our local bridges compare to the one in baltimore. >> even a modern bridge is not going to be designed to withstand what seems to be a direct hit from a major container ship, and in some ways, our bridges might may do better. obviously, on the east coast, they don't need to worry so much about earthquake effects as we do out here on the west coast, and that would certainly make our bridges a more robust. and they can probably, absorb, shock better, but they would still be very vulnerable to that kind of a ship. >> now, coming up at 6:00, we will explore the safety and stability of our local bridges and what a traffic shutdown would look like in the event of a similar situation, like the crash at the francis scott key bridge. >> we'll stay on top of that story, of course, but let's move

now to your voice. your vote, and a new name in the race for the white house independent candidate and anti-vaxxer robert f kennedy has named a bay area woman as his running mate. abc seven news reporter lena howland has the story. >> robert f kennedy jr, an independent presidential candidate, is wasting no time in his campaign to announce his running mate, nicole shanahan. >> i'm confident that there is no american more qualified than nicole shanahan, and as of today, she's no longer a democrat. >> as an antiwar activist during the iraq war, she's gravitated toward the man who she says is the only antiwar candidate in this moment. >> i, i am leaving the democratic party. >> shanahan is a 38 year old oakland native who spoke today of her upbringing. raised on food stamps and government assistance by a mother who immigrated from china and an american father who struggled with substance abuse issues. she's now an attorney, silicon

valley entrepreneur, and a mother sharing a daughter with her ex-husband, google co-founder sergey brin. >> these are two of my political convictions. i hold today to serve peace and to help those in poverty. >> she talked about wanting to solve climate issues and what she calls the chronic disease epidemic, inspired by her daughter's autism diagnosis. >> one is a toxic substances in our environment, like endocrine disrupting chemicals in our food, water and soil, like the pesticide residues, the industrial pollutants, the microplastics, the pfas, the food additives and the forever chemicals that have contaminated nearly every human cell. >> kennedy's earlier than usual running mate announcement will give him more time to collect signatures for ballot access petitions in 23 states. so far, he's only made it on the ballot in utah. folks in the crowd at tuesday's announcement said they're impressed by shanahan. >> i'm absolutely amazed

background and her capabilities. very refreshing. yes. not the same old, same old. >> we can do this. it's possible. >> in oakland, lena howland, abc seven news. >> and we have an update on the race for california's 16th congressional district. a razor thin margin continues to separate. santa clara county supervisor joe simitian and assemblyman evan low simitian now leads by two votes. earlier today, he had a one vote lead. they're vying to face former san jose mayor sam liccardo in november's general election. the congressional district falls within san mateo and santa clara counties. both have until april 4th to submit final official results. >> the company behind instagram and threads has rolled out a new feature you may not know about. it's designed to filter out political content, and while some say there could be benefits, there is also criticism. as you might imagine. abc seven news reporter zach quintus has more on the feature and how you can opt in or out.

>> a new feature has been added to the latest versions of your instagram and threads apps. they told us in february, exactly in the 9th of february, that we're going to do this and this is what's going to happen. >> but we never know that they're going to start implementing this. last week, as part of its february announcement, meta said the feature is designed to keep the company from proactively recommending political content to users from accounts they don't follow. >> the company said it does not impact what users get from accounts they already follow, or may choose to follow later. >> they want to make sure that they are really keeping the misinformation away from the feed from people you're not follow, because if you follow somebody, you know by default, you're accepting that this person going to send you information. >> the move made by meta during an election year has been met with criticism and concern by many. >> here you have one of the biggest companies on earth that controls, you know, a huge portion of the communication on earth, saying they're going to moderate certain content. i think it speaks to the fact of how we've gotten way too comfortable with moderation,

which is just kind of a polite way of saying censorship. >> by default, all users have opted out of having political content limited from people they don't follow. but meta has given the option to opt back in. first, go into the settings and privacy section on your instagram profile, then scroll down and select content preferences. that's where you'll see the section for political content, where you can either leave the default selection in place or ask it not to limit political content from people you don't follow, though. meta has only appeared to roll this out for instagram and threads, it did say in the february announcement that it would eventually roll it out to facebook for now, many tech experts say they'll be keeping an eye on what other social media giants do moving forward. >> i want to see what's going to happen at x, what's going to happen at tiktok. you know, all the platforms, are they going to follow the same steps in the south bay? >> zach fuentes, abc seven news not giving a new meaning to life behind bars at san quentin prison. >> we're going to show you the former death row and hear from inmates about the governor's plan to transform the prison into a rehabilitation center. abc seven news at five will be right

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it's not freedom. but many of these condemned inmates say these changes are something that will give meaning to life behind bars. abc seven news reporter anser hassan explains the five stories of concrete cells that make up what used to be called death row is where kevin bernabei has lived since 2011. >> have you noticed we're in a cage right now? i'm used to being escorted everywhere and handcuffs. >> burnaby murdered a person, and he knows he will spend the rest of his life in prison. but change is on the way. governor gavin newsom's goal is to fully transform the once notorious san quentin prison from a maximum security prison into the san quentin rehabilitation center. that means death row inmates, who are now called condemned inmates are being moved out and

in some cases, being moved to lower level security prisons and integrated into the general prison population. >> but i look forward to that aspect of being able to move around, talk, do things on my own, on my own court. don't got to worry about officer being everywhere i go, everything i do maybe get a job. >> we have a total of 399 condemned. lieutenant jamari berry says two years ago, the state launched the condemned inmate transfer program to see if it could produce positive results. so, with little to no hiccups, that pilot program turned into new regulations being set as of january of 2024. >> the opportunity for inmates to work means money to pay restitution to their victims, lieutenant berry adds. the range of rehabilitation and educational services will also build trust between inmates and staff, which can create a safer environment inside the prison and she says it's working. >> we have several, programs here that have a 0% recidivism

rate. as far as the guys that are, transferring out, the condemned inmates can't stay at san quentin because it doesn't have an electrified fence moving inmates will also save the state money. >> they hope to move them all by july. >> you got to have some type of a sentence for somebody, period. nobody have any incentive. they have no point to grow, no reason to try. >> at san quentin anser hassan abc seven news. >> the attorney for hip hop mogul sean diddy combs is calling the law enforcement raids at two of his clients homes an unprecedented ambush and a witch hunt. armed agents with homeland security and other agencies swarmed the homes in los angeles and miami yesterday, sources tell abc news. authorities seized electronics as part of a federal probe involving claims of human trafficking. combs was hit with multiple civil lawsuits late last year alleging sexual assault and rape. >> the intersection could be that some of these civil claims involve criminal charges, like trafficking, that don't have a statute of limitations, and that's something that the s10e

or manhattan can investigate and appears that they are. >> in november, combs former partner, r&b artist cassie, sued him for $30 million, accusing him of rape, abuse and sex trafficking behavior she claims lasted a decade. they settled out of court a day later without any admission of wrongdoing. combs has denied all accusations against him. still ahead, san francisco's annual 420 celebration at hippie hill is going to look much different this year. >> the sports tournaments being planned instead of the usual

won't happen this year. the cannabis celebration brings thousands of people to the park, with attendance numbers getting higher each year. but organizers say with city budget cuts and limited sponsors, they couldn't get everything they need for a safe event. so there will be a volleyball and kick and kickball tournament this year instead.

>> also on for 20 san francisco's oldest lgbtq bar is set to reopen and a brand new location. the stud, will open its new doors at folsom and seventh. the owners promise more details about this are coming soon, but the new location is twice the size of the old venue at ninth and harrison, the stud bar shut down back in 2016 because of a rent increase. the bar originally opened its doors in san francisco in 1966. >> all right, let's turn to our weather because it's changing. people have easter plans coming up. >> they do. and meteorologist sandyha patel is tracking exactly how much and when the rain will arrive. sandy. >> yeah, the rain gets here. dan and ama tomorrow, and i'm going to show you the timeline of what you can expect for easter. so let's look at some live pictures right now. and let's just soak it up. there's plenty of sun out there from san rafael to sutro, santa cruz, vollmer showing a few high, thin, wispy clouds but just a gorgeous day. temperatures are up by a few degrees. five degrees warmer there in livermore, up four in san jose and two degrees warmer

in oakland and novato. here comes the storm. it is developing in the pacific, and it gets here early tomorrow morning as just spotty showers. and then as the day goes on, more areas will start to get wet. so as we look at live doppler seven here locally passing high clouds is about it. remember this morning there were some low clouds and they were stubborn in patches around parts of the east bay, the peninsula. eventually they cleared out and the temperatures were in the 50s and the 60s as they are right now, 67 degrees right now in brentwood, 56 in the city from our santa cruz camera, seeing a lovely view tomorrow morning, showers heavier in the evening, friday and saturday. we do have a stronger storm coming in and for easter the weather improves. i'll show you why i say weather improves in just a moment. morning temperatures 40s and 50s. i would make sure you have your umbrellas with you because although the spotty showers just begin early in the day, there will be some drizzle as well. tomorrow afternoon. the rain starts to spread 50s and 60s, so it's a cooler day. light level

one for tomorrow. light to moderate showers, heavier at night. breezy to gusty conditions expected. strongest winds will be over the hills and along the coast first thing tomorrow morning at 5:00. you will notice. just very spotty light returns. 8 a.m. north bay is seeing those showers by noontime. you start to notice the showers beginning to increase and for the early afternoon, more areas getting damp. roadways a7pmi think the afternoon evening commute will be the toughest as the rain increases. heavier rainfall around 10 p.m. and then it turns over to scattered showers for your thursday. so in the morning we'll see a few showers and this carries over into the early afternoon. so as far as rainfall totals go, anywhere from 807 inch in the south bay to about 8000/600 of an inch in santa rosa. everyone will fall in between the wettest locations will pick up over an inch, a winter storm warning 11 a.m. tomorrow until 11 a.m. thursday, 6 to 16in above 5500ft. up to two feet for the peaks. with those gusty winds, it will be difficult travel, but those snow

levels are going to be dropping thursday morning 3500 to 4500ft. now here comes the stronger storm friday. it is going to be pretty wet and windy in the afternoon and evening. the sierra seeing snow saturday. if this continues, there's a chance of thunder sunday morning. it looks like things are moving on out, but then the moisture wraps back around. there's an isolated possibility that we may still see a few showers. here's a look at the accuweather seven day forecast. it's a one for tomorrow. thursday rain and gusty. level two on friday. that's a moderate strength storm. chance of thunder on saturday with those showers. even though it's quieter for easter, i'm not entirely convinced that it's going to be completely dry. monday and tuesday will be sunnier and warmer, and i know dan and omar, you guys are thinking debbie downer not trying to be a debbie downer, just stating it the way it is. >> oh, you're just the truth. thanks, david. truth hurts. yeah, truth hurts. exactly. >> all right, well, still ahead, san francisco mayor london bridge shows her pride for the bay area's newest football club. that's not the

with our abc seven bay area streaming tv app. just search abc seven bay area and download

it. >> the bay area's newest pro sports team is just four days away from its home opener. bay fc was honored with a celebration in san francisco today. the new professional women's soccer team is in its inaugural season. dozens of local kids lined civic center plaza to greet the team. soccer, aka football, is one of the things that has become so exciting in san francisco, especially for young people in our rec and park system. certainly has. and bfc's home opener is saturday at paypal park in san jose and go. >> bay fc. that's really fun. all right. we still have much more news ahead. >> let's get to abc7 news anchor stephanie sierra for a look at the stories that are coming up at 530. >> steph. hi ama and dan. tonight we're digging deeper into the baltimore bridge collapse, assessing the safety of our local bridges. a structural engineer joins us live next to discuss what would happen to the bay bridge or the golden gate bridge if a vessel that size were to hit. plus what's being done to prevent situations like this in the future. then the two cities that

had the most postal robberies in all of california last year are right here in the bay area. i-team reporter melanie woodrow joins us live to discuss the latest analysis. join us for those stories and more at 530 on abc seven bay area streaming tv. dan and emma. >> excellent. all right, steph, thank you. >> and you can download the abc seven app or head to abc seven news.com and join steph in two minutes. >> and if you're watching us here on tv world news tonight with david muir is next for sandhya patel all of us. we appreciate your time. >> i'm dan ashley and i'm ama daetz. we will see you again at daetz. we will see you again at six. (gasp) you need weathertech. [hot dog splat.] laser measured floorliners front and rear. [drink slurp and splat.] (scream) seat protector to save the seats. [honk!] they're all yours! we're here! hey, i knew you were comin'... so i weatherteched the car!

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tonight, the horrific bridge collapse here in baltimore. the search for victims, the investigation tonight. how could this happen? the stunning new images showing the moment a massive container ship crashed into the francis scott key bridge here in baltimore, plunging the bridge into the river.