us. >> i'm larry beil and i'm kristen z. well, spencer, kristen continues to track those lightning strikes for us. >> yeah. joining us now with a look ahead to what conditions we might see this evening spencer okay, larry and kristen, let me give you a look at live doppler seven. >> first of all so you can see what's going on. we have pockets of moisture and clouds streaming into mainly the north bay, but all parts of the bay area have seen some of these pockets of moisture today. there have been some isolated showers. they are tapering off right now, but look at the bigger picture. you can see this steady stream of subtropical moisture moving into the bay area, mainly in the north bay. right now from our southwest, the instability over in the sierra is much greater than here. numerous, even countless lightning strikes have occurred there. we've had some infrequent lightning strikes in the. the chance of more lightning strikes is diminishing as we get into the late day and early evening hours. but with that, even with that diminishing chance of lightning strikes, these are important things to keep in mind. lightning strikes can cause new fires, and the it's the finer fuels like the grasses, for example, that are

at greatest risk for being ignited by lightning strike. but again, the chance of more lightning strikes here in the bay area will diminish as we get into the evening hours. so i'll give you a complete look at the forecast and some calmer weather tonight. a little bit later, larry and kristen, thank you. >> spencer, we want to go now to the berkeley hills, where abc7 news reporter leslie brinkley spent the day with firefighters who are on high alert for dry lightning. >> yeah, this even as they're conducting fire training exercises. i guess it's good timing. >> of course. great timing. and they're they're like they said, always on alert. but, throughout we're kicking off fire season throughout the summer. they've got to be prepared. we're up here by berkeley fire station number seven off of grizzly peak . we had an unusual experience where it rained on us about an hour ago. so dry lightning did not prove to be a problem here. thus far. but it certainly did over in the central valley,

fresno county fire reported more than 1000 lightning strikes in a matter of hours monday night. five fires ignited, burning hundreds of acres. flames threaten the community of palermo close to oroville monday night, burning one square mile and prompting evacuations. it was dubbed the apache fire and tore through two structures, injuring a firefighter. >> we're on alert 24 hours. we don't stop. dry lightning can cause fires to spread extremely fast, especially if you have weather conditions. that's going to support that up in the berkeley hills, multi-agency training is underway this week. >> given the early start to fire season, the berkeley fire department is working closely with the el cerrito and kensington fire department, as well as the albany fire department, to coordinate a drill, a multi-agency drill for a wildland response. >> we don't want any gaps in our response that may have happened in the 91 tunnel fire, where

there were some hydrants that were different threads, and fire agencies had a hard time talking with each other. >> we've we've covered all of that. we've closed all those gaps. >> the agencies are familiarizing each other with neighborhoods in the hills, coordinating the use of low pressure hydrants and different equipment from each department. so there's a better, faster response. if an urban wildfire erupted in these densely populated hills, we're constantly trying to collaborate with our neighboring fire departments so that if we do have a major incident, we can develop a quick incident action plan as for the dry lightning potential, it is something that scares us, but we do have a response model ready for it. i was told all these fire chiefs from the different agencies hop on a conference call every monday morning and discuss what they're going to train for, what they're on alert for. last month, the agencies together worked on high rise fires. this month, the focus is all on wildland fires, and it's a good

thing they're ready to go. as we kick off an early fire season in the east bay hills, i'm leslie brinkley, abc seven news. >> leslie, thank you. i want to give you a live look now from sky seven, where the commute in the east bay is finally starting to clear for drivers who need to use 680 headed in the northbound direction. now, traffic has been backed up because of a garbage truck fire that took place just past monument boulevard in pleasant hill, near the highway 242 exit that occurred about six hours ago, and traffic is still impacted now. the fire started just after nine this morning, and the chp says the truck was full with trash. this led to them treating this as a possible hazardous materials situation, since whatever was burning could potentially be toxic. at one point, all lanes in the northbound direction were shut down, but traffic is moving now in both directions. >> new details on the mass shooting last wednesday at oakland's lake merritt, police revised the number of victims today from 15 to 14. they say a person involved in a different shooting was counted in the

total. in an update this afternoon, the alameda county da's office said it has not yet filed any charges in the case. investigators are still going through lots of video and talking with witnesses. one person was arrested that night for assaulting a police officer, and during our update this afternoon, d.a. pamela price also addressed the reorganization of her office, as well as the ongoing recall effort. >> the prosecutor's union came out in support of the recall last year, and according to price, the union represents a small part of the office, and she thinks the recent decision to reexamine death penalty cases only hardened their stance against her. >> at this point, what i can say is that there are i think that the final straw for the prosecutor's union was in fact, our investigation of the death penalty cases and the disclosure of the misconduct. i do believe that they are threatened by our review of past prosecutorial misconduct. >> the review of the death penalty cases started after it

was alleged that blacks and jews were deliberately kept off of juries. >> the effects of the fbi raid at the home of oakland mayor shantel are disrupting city operations at a crucial time. the deadline for the city council to sign off on a budget is now just five days away. the council's finance committee met today to discuss the budget plan. mayor shantel submitted. it relies on funds from the sale of the oakland coliseum to the african american sports and entertainment group, the head of that group tells abc7 news they are committed to making that sale happen. despite the turmoil the raid caused, mayor tao. but oakland city council member noel gallo says the finance committee is struggling to get the information they need. >> it's the actual numbers that i have available. the numbers keep changing from one meeting to another and at the same time, how much money will the city be able to generate tax wise, a federal wise and so forth? and that's an area that we're not

all on the same page. >> oakland is bracing for an historic budget deficit. the city anticipates a $177 million shortfall for the fiscal year, which ends this week, at the end of the month, and you add to that the fact that the mayor's chief of communications also resigned today. a lot to talk about with abc seven news insider phil matier, who joins us now. >> yeah, yeah. i'd like to add a little bit to the news that you just broke there. we were talking about how oakland in addition to having its problems or challenges with the mayor and with violent crime, is also facing a financial crunch of some $117 million. they're short that much for vital services including police, fire plus social programs and homeless programs and a whole myriad of things. and the mayor had been relying or hoping on the sale of their share of the oakland coliseum to bring in about $100 million to make up for that shortfall. but the city administrator just released a

statement saying that while that deal appears to be going forward and everybody wants to have it done as fast as possible, none the less, there's a real question. i mean, the reality is it's probably not going to it's not going to be done in time for this budget. they have until the end of the week. they have to have moved now. they can't. you can't build a budget on wish money. and until that money is in the bank, they can't spend it and they can't use it. so they're going to have to go ahead with the budget that probably has severe cuts to vital services in oakland, and in the hopes that some deal will be reached. and the money will come in down the line. but right now they're up against a deadline and that money isn't there. how much? so that's another big rocky way for the mayor to hit. well, that's what i was just going to follow up with. >> on on the subject of the mayor, i mean, this is the this is the last thing you need. there's already so much turmoil, right? i mean, yesterday, her own attorney left the case, and then today, as, as kristen mentioned, her chief spokesperson decided to leave as well. so how do you govern at

all and how do you try to even begin to figure out making up a budget deficit with all this turmoil swirling? well, let's just say that the mayor can get that turmoil out and internalize it and say, that is a matter over here. >> we're going to put that in a cabinet and we're going to lock it and get to the business at hand here. what you're presenting is up against the wall, up against deadlines that have sort of been delayed. the council has been kicking this economic problem down. the road, down the road, down the road and hoping that it would they would be able to hold it together until november, which coincidentally, is when she is up for a possible recall election and other council members are probably seeking other offices as well. but that's not going to happen. so yes, it becomes very difficult because qingtao is not the chief administrator of the city. the city administrator runs the day. she's the chief sales person. she's the one that has to sell the vision, sells the compromise, sell the programs or sell the cuts. and she's going to be in a very difficult position. but now the council is sitting there going, well, now

we're in a difficult position because this was your budget and your idea was to save it by selling the coliseum. and she announced that. and now if that goes south, then it sounds like howard terminal all over again kicking the can down the road. well, it's all of this is happening at a very quick time and a very unfortunate time for oakland, which is again continuing to sort of reel under