victims of the largest wildfire burning california. and there could be many more houses that end up like this. good evening. i'm ama daetz and i'm dan ashley. >> thanks for joining us. already, more than 71,000 acres have burned since the park fire started yesterday afternoon. the fire is near chico and is burning in butte and tehama counties. there are mandatory evacuations tonight. >> one man is under arrest accused of starting the fire. abc news reporter kayna whitworth has more from the fire lines. tonight, homes exploding in flames as firefighters north of sacramento desperately battle a monster inferno. >> the park fire. >> we're not cut off yet. we're good. >> but the heat is insane. >> outside the town of cohasset, terrifying scenes on the tiny town's main road. >> i'm completely surrounded right now, so i'm gonna. i'm actually gonna bone out of here and see if i can get ahead of this thing, because i'm gonna. i'm gonna end up getting caught multiple large homes and structures engulfed gas tanks

violently flaring as high as the trees. >> nearly 4000 fleeing their homes. but some were trapped, forced to shelter in place. >> we've got approximately 100 vehicles that are sheltering at the radio towers on cohasset road with fire department personnel. >> flames breaking out wednesday afternoon in a park outside of chico, california, burning 4000 acres an hour by daybreak, scorching more than 70,000 acres and an unknown number of homes. >> this fire grew very, very quickly. it got it got really big, really fast. >> how hard is that on your firefighters when something goes like that, it is it presents a lot of different challenges. the fire deliberately set according to authorities who are aware of this video posted to tiktok by someone who says they saw it happen. >> i watched the guy blow up his car and then put it in neutral and roll it down the hill and take off like nothing happened.

>> police arresting a 42 year old man and say, this is the vehicle pushed down the embankment that started the fire. and dan and ama, you can see here by how dark the sky is behind me. really how scary. this is incredibly ominous as the wind is sort of pushing this fire through. there's actually flames right on the other side of those trees. and so dan and ama, oh, there, you can see them popping up there right behind the trees. the concern now for firefighters is to try to cut line, because now we are in a red flag warning. and temperatures in this area have been exceeding 100 degrees. and this fire moved so fast. initially dan and ama, they had to open up logging roads just to allow people to escape. >> so intense it really is. >> thank you. kayna whitworth. okay, so let's get a look at the conditions that firefighters are facing. >> yeah. abc seven news weather anchor spencer christian is here. and spencer obviously could be worse, but it's not. there's not a lot of good news on the fire line. >> not yet dan yeah, that is correct. as we get later into the evening, maybe the relative humidity will increase as it typically does in the evening. but right now we are looking at classic fire weather conditions

near the fire near chico. it was just 102 degrees a few minutes ago. it's down to 98 now. relative humidity dangerously low at 12%. winds generally out of the southeast at 17mph, and we have seen stronger gusts over 20mph. now, let me take you to a satellite image of this fire to give you a better view. whoops. here we go. give you a better view of what's going on as you as seen from above. and you can see a huge plume of smoke being generated by this fire. and it's swinging mainly to the northeast over toward susanville and over towards the northern sierra. it's moving away from uh- locations in the sacramento valley, but still, that smoke could pose health threats for people in its path. and we'll continue to update you on conditions near the fire. dan. >> okay, spencer, thanks very much. in lake county, cal fire says forward progress has been stopped on a wildfire in the upper lake area. a crews are now working to mop up and build containment lines in the steep and rugged terrain there. the 150 acre grass fire had prompted an evacuation warning near manzanita circle after it

sparked this afternoon. officials say firefighters will remain on the scene tonight and tomorrow in sonoma county. >> a geyserville man has been arrested in connection with starting the 50 acre flora fire off chalk hill road. cal fire says the 49 year old man was seen driving his truck with no right front tire for more than four miles yesterday afternoon. they say it created sparks, causing three separate fires as the truck grinded the asphalt. the fire is 50% contained and you can track the wildfires burning across the state with an interactive map that's on our website. it also gives you an idea of fire warnings and air quality. just go to abc seven news.com/fire map. >> all right. let's move on and turn to our work to build a better bay area. and the big issue of course, that we follow closely is homelessness. governor gavin newsom wants california cities to begin clearing encampments. and he's issued a new executive order to help make that happen. and this comes after last month's supreme court decision, which gave local leaders more authority to remove unhoused people from the street.

>> abc seven news reporter suzanne fan begins our team coverage. she's live with a closer look at what the new order means. suzanne ama and dan governor newsom's executive order makes sure the decision to remove homeless encampments remains in local hands. now, with the help of state agencies like caltrans, state parks and department of fish and wildlife, the governor wants local leaders to act. >> now, i don't think there's anything for urgent and more frustrating than addressing the issue of encampments in the state of california. >> governor newsom wants to act now to clear away homeless encampments. >> today, i announced an executive order to move the process forward. we're done. it's time to move with urgency at the local level to clean up these sites. >> state agencies, including state parks and the department of transportation, would be required to prioritize clearing encampments that pose safety risks, such as those along waterways. john paul horn is assistant professor in the department of social work at csu east bay. >> the governor has control over state agencies. he has the

ability to mobilize the state agencies in order to enact any of the executive orders that he generates. so in this example, he's asking caltrans, the department of transportation for the state of california to, step in and intervene in the areas where it would be appropriate, according to the order, caltrans would give reasonable advance notice to encampment residents about cleanup efforts and offer to connect them to local services. >> caltrans also stores personal property collected at the site for at least 60 days. local cities and counties are urged to adopt similar protocols. the governor cannot order cities and counties to act, but his administration can apply pressure by withholding money from them. >> it's incentivizing them to do this. it's saying incentivizing with the stick, right? if you don't do this, we may penalize you by not withholding funds. >> karen nemecek is the director of housing justice for united way bay area. she doesn't agree with the governor's executive order. >> we all agree that living on

the streets is not optimal, but housing, building more housing, building interim housing, building permanent supportive housing is the way out. >> i don't think that this approach is going to work for the state of california. i think that what we're going to find is that when we break up these encampments, that those homeless individuals are going to have to go someplace else, that we're going to see another pop up of encampments and continued enforcement of removing encampments. and none of that is moving us closer to affordable housing. >> governor newsom says his administration has channeled about $24 billion into homelessness since he took office in 2019. now, an estimated 180,000 people were homeless last year in california. and the governor says this new executive order is expected to affect tens of thousands of people. we're live in the newsroom. suzanne phan abc seven news. suzanne. thank you. how has the governor's announcement being received in our three biggest bay area cities? we checked in with san francisco, oakland and san jose leaders today in the south bay,

mayor matt mehan said in a statement. here in san jose, we're working around the clock to stand up safe managed placements and require they be used. we appreciate governor newsom's order signaling that the state is also ready to solve this crisis with both compassion and urgency, the mayor of oakland, shengtao, pointed out what's already been done. >> in april 2023, the wood street homeless encampment was cleared out. crews removed 300 tons of trash and debris. >> we cleared the largest encampment in northern california, and that is wood street right here where we stand. there were hundreds of people here and the homeless camp by the bay bridge toll plaza is now cleared. >> sky seven flew over today to get a look at the debris that's left behind. it's taken several days to move out people and clear out the structures. about a dozen people lived there, some for more than a year. oakland ordered them out because if they did not leave, the city faced fines from the san francisco bay conservation and development commission. >> what about san francisco mayor london breed says the governor's order can help drive

more people into shelters and supportive services. >> we're excited about what this is going to do and we're hopeful we make it so uncomfortable for people that they accept our offer. that's what this is about. this is not just about cleaning and clearing, because these are people and they got to go somewhere, but we are going to make them so uncomfortable on the streets of san francisco that they have to take our offer. that really is the goal of what we're trying to accomplish. >> san francisco has been struggling to find humane ways to address homelessness for decades. >> so true and new. at six, we're joined by abc seven news building a better bay area reporter, lyanne melendez, with a bit of a history lesson on homelessness. >> well, we've been at this for a while. you know, from mayor feinstein to mayor breed. but even before that, you know, it started really in the 70s when the state saw massive cuts to mental health programs. there was a wave of vietnam vets in need of support, home prices were also going up, and there was a national recession. now, when dianne feinstein became

mayor, instead of focusing on building permanent housing, she, like many, thought it was going to be temporary and instead relied on shelters and soup kitchens. now, in the late 80s, mayor art agnos had a new plan to provide programs for the homeless, only to see many set camp at civic center plaza across from city hall, which was then called camp agnos. and that didn't work either. now mayor frank jordan in the early 90s used police to clear the homeless and attempted to give some of them housing. now let's go to willie brown. in the late 90s, he saw the dotcom boom, and through gentrification, many people were displaced. still, brown was the first to start the affordable housing movement. he had good intentions, but in the end, said, quote, homelessness may not be solved. gavin newsom from 2004 to 2011 had a different approach and called it care, not cash. remember that?

which meant no more cash payments, no more handouts. instead that money went towards housing. now that program got a lot of people off the streets, but in the end, he too said, we will never solve homelessness at city hall. now the late ed lee paid less attention to the homeless problem and more to the tech industry. now he was criticized for that and in his second term helped to reduce the number of families and young people who were homeless. he is also credited with building the city's first navigation center. when he died, london breed became mayor with an agenda housing first. under her administration, the city has expanded the number of navigation centers, added more shelter beds and permanent housing. but there was a major setback during the pandemic when the number of homeless people grew because they were basically left to their own devices and the number of fentanyl users increased dramatically, but also

during her administration, we have spent an enormous amount of money on the homeless now. mayor breed says she will be very aggressive towards removing the homeless while offering them homes and services. now, as you can see, there has been a persistent problem and so far unfixable. one of the mayor, the former mayor brown, said. and i'm going to quote before, it is not designed to be solved. it is designed to be perpetuated. >> we've had so many different approaches, nothing's really worked. >> task force after task force trying to solve the problem. good intentions. but here we are. >> yeah. different approaches. but like you said, here we are. thank you. liane. all right. >> this is not just an issue for the big bay area cities. today we spoke with state senator bill dodd, whose district includes parts of napa, sonoma and solano counties, about what an impact this can have on smaller communities. >> it shouldn't just be we clear these camps and go somewhere else. uh, this is something

that, you know why we've been pumping so much money into our local communities to get those services, you know, from health and human services to housing rapid housing, so it's multidimensional. >> it is multidimensional, very complex. it's also about affordability, an issue that's been decades in the making. a closer look at that aspect of this and other driving forces on homelessness is coming up at 630. so stay tuned. >> first voters. now the state supreme court deciding how to classify gig workers. next hear from workers both delighted and disappointed by the court's decision and not a good day to drive. >> why the bay bridge was backed up like this well,

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caught fire around noon on westbound 80 near the harrison street exit. as you can see, it was completely burning up. here's the view from sky seven. the chp says just one car was involved, but a total of three lanes were blocked as crews put out the fire, removed the car and cleaned up the charred debris. it was, as you can see, a real mess. not known what caused the car to burst into flames, but at least no one was hurt. all lanes reopened around 1 p.m, but traffic was still slow in addition, there was a crash involving a motorcycle on the eastern span that blocked a couple of lanes. traffic has finally cleared and now to a story we've been following for years. >> how to classify gig workers. today, the california supreme court upheld proposition 22, solidifying that uber and other

companies can continue classifying delivery workers as independent contractors instead of employees. abc seven news reporter luz pena spoke to gig workers who were glad about today's announcement, but others called the decision disappointing. >> since 2016, san francisco resident david lewis has been a gig worker, mainly for doordash. he says today's california supreme court decision gave him a sense of relief for this. >> i was kind of worried about, okay, i got to put in applications. i've got to go ahead and get a resume together. >> the flexibility of remaining as an independent contractor is why he says he does this job. >> so now it opens the door for another available employment opportunity that i can rely on to be able to supplement my income in 2020. >> companies like lyft, uber and doordash spent over $200 million to get prop 22 to pass, making sure gig workers would remain as contractors and not considered employees. prop 22 was approved by 58% of california voters that

year, and today the court upheld prop 22. >> california supreme court said the voters can do this. the voters can decide what kind of a workers comp system we're going to have. >> uc law san francisco professor matt coles said the court was not looking at if this was good or bad for gig workers, but instead if he went in line with california law, probably going to be bad for gig workers. >> employers after the affordable care act have to provide health insurance or pay a big penalty. it takes them out of the health insurance system, and there's a something of a health insurance subsidy. but basically, you know, unemployment insurance, worker's comp, health insurance, reimbursement for expenses, it's all less than they'd get if they were employees. >> according to the coalition protect app-based drivers and services, supported by many of these companies, gig workers want to remain independent. you know, some driver surveys. >> we've done more than 80% of drivers support prop 22. more than 70% of drivers like being independent contractors. >> yet lyft driver jason murillo is part of the group of gig

workers who wanted the court to intervene. >> the idea that prop 22 says, is that we're independent contractors, but the app really controls the way we work, so we don't have the independence that people might think we do. >> he said many like him are disappointed today and will continue to fight in san francisco. luz pena, abc seven news. >> two developing news now. the park fire that we told you about at the top of the hour is almost 125,000 acres. >> now it's just exploding in size. cal fire just gave us that update. the fire is burning in butte and tehama counties near chico. it's just 3% contained, so a lot of work left to do there. that's right. >> let's get to spencer christian. our weather anchor who's checking on all the fire conditions. spencer. >> yeah, we still have the three main fire weather conditions in play there near the park. fire. the temperature just dropped below 100 degrees. it had been around 102. is about 98 now. relative humidity down to almost 10% and the winds gusting over 20mph. so still quite a challenge for the firefighters

there. let's take a look at what's contributing to the current pattern we have here in the bay area, which is a cooler one that we had earlier in the week. high pressure had brought us that heat wave earlier in the week. right now, that low down offshore is generating a cooling onshore flow and helping to build a stable marine layer there. so we're looking at wind speeds right now at the surface. generally 12 to about 22mph across the bay area. cooler winds, i might add, than we had the last few days. and you can see the 24 hour temperature change is sort of a mixed bag. some locations a bit cooler, some a bit warmer. so let's take a look at precise temperature readings at this hour, starting with san francisco where it's 66 degrees 74. in oakland, hayward, 8388. redwood city 84. redwood uh- 88 at san jose, rather, 84 at redwood city, and half moon bay, 59 degrees looking down from mount tam. look, we see lots of clear skies here. there was a quite a little bit of a developing marine layer here early, pushing through the golden gate, but you can see it's very thin at the moment. it will deepen overnight, that's for sure. 86 degrees right now

in santa rosa, petaluma 7380 at napa, mid 90s at fairfield, concord and livermore. and looking at the golden gate, which had quite a bit of fog earlier or low clouds you can see is clear for the moment. these are our forecast headlines. cooler air continues to arrive tomorrow and saturday. the weekend outlook calls for below average temperatures. quite a cooldown is coming our way. and then next week we'll see minor warming at some points during the week, but nothing very major. we're not going back into a heat wave any time soon. the forecast animation during the overnight hours shows the marine layer will rebuild and push locally across the bay and locally inland, but it will burn back to the coastline by midmorning to midday, giving us mainly sunny skies overnight. low temperatures will be generally in the mid to upper 50s, so a little bit cooler than the overnight conditions have been recently, and 1 or 2 locations like antioch, livermore, san jose will see lows not dropping below 60 degrees. highs tomorrow 60 at half moon bay, 64 here in san francisco oakland 68. most bay shore locations will see highs tomorrow in the low 70s. and

then as we move inland, look how cool a compared to what we've had recently. how cool it's going to be. highs only in the low to mid 80s in most inland areas tomorrow. here's the accuweather seven day forecast. it gets even cooler on saturday with the high temperatures actually below average for this time of the year. and we'll see highs in the inland areas, mainly in the upper 70s to about 80, which is quite a bit below average for late july 84th inland on sunday and monday mid 80s. then as we get into the middle of next week, we'll see highs inching back up to low 90s inland, which is still not hot, just mild and warm and typical for this time of the year. >> okay, below average is our speed, spencer. >> we'll take it. all right a12, three. >> no more. it's the end of an era. southwest is changing its longtime open seating policy. so will customers love it? stay with us (woman) oh, come on! come on! (vo) fargo lets you do this: (woman) fargo, turn off my debit card.

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notifying them the service will end december 27th. gig offered vehicles to rent on a minute, hourly or daily basis. it launched in the bay area in 2017. triple a says some of the challenges it faced included decreased demand changes to consumer commuting patterns and rising operational costs. >> well, speaking of travel, it's the end of an era in airline travel. soon, you'll no longer be able to grab the first available seat you see when you board a southwest flight. after 50 years, the airline announced today that it will end its open seating policy. southwest says it is responding to research that shows customers prefer assigned seats. the airline will also change its boarding model and charge for premium seats. new york times reporter christine chung wrote about the changes and talked with us on abc seven news at three today. >> it seems like they're making these changes for a number of reasons, the biggest one being that they're really struggling financially lately, this is a bid to increase revenue. they need the cash back. >> chung says she does not

believe the airline will end its free checked bag policy. the new seating is set to go into effect next year. >> coming up next, the abc7 news i-team tracks down a swim team president arrested for embezzlement. see what the team is having to do to stay afloat. plus what we're doing is digging out of a 50 year hole. >> how did we get here? that 50 year hole. tonight we continue to look at what it takes to build a better bay

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youth swim team, and she's been arrested by police for embezzlement. >> they say she embezzled more than $50,000, and that is having a big impact on the nonprofit club, the alameda gators. >> abc seven news i-team reporter dan noyes is here with an investigation that we'll see only on seven. dan. >> well, amy and dan, parents from the alameda gators, asked me to investigate. they say because of this missing money, they've had to fire two longtime coaches. and now the kids are

holding fundraisers to keep the team afloat. when 45 year old sarah new became president of the alameda gators swim team in september of last year, she received a debit card with a personal pin number for the club's chase checking account. a witness told police that new used this branch and its atm to embezzle cash from the team. hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars at a clip, for a total of $51,440 over seven months. i was shocked, shocked, surprised. her arrest comes as a tremendous disappointment to the team's parents, especially in such a small, tight knit community, and it's hard to imagine what kind of person would sink to that level of depravity to steal, not just from a charity, but a charity where where they were in charge and, and one where their kids are participating. >> it's hard to imagine someone would be that selfish. >> sarah new surrendered to alameda police on july 2nd. they detained her in handcuffs for three felony counts of embezzlement and transported her

to santa rita jail. she was booked and released on $30,000 bail. the gators nonprofit board discovered the missing money only after firing new s president, because she refused to pay monthly dues for her own kids to participate on the swim teams, according to the police report. sarah. i'm dan noyes from channel seven. where is the gators money? go away. i called, texted and emailed sarah new and her husband and messaged them on their social media. but no response. so i met her outside the gym in alameda where she's a pilates instructor. you're accused of embezzlement. are you going to pay the money back? no answer. i reached her lawyer, robin nabizada, senior trial attorney at summit defense. he emailed, we intend to fight these charges to the fullest extent possible, and will therefore not be providing any sort of statement to any news agency. sarah. new left the gators club in financial turmoil, so team parents are scrambling to replenish the club's bank account. they are

raising dues by 20%. they're asking swimmers to fundraise for the team, and they have fired two veteran coaches, even though they had nothing to do with any financial impropriety. brett garvin, coach for the gators for 20 years. >> it was heartbreaking. it it was not what i expected, not what should happen. it's terrible for the community, for the swimmers, for the legacy that we've worked hard to build. >> garvin is struggling to replace his $32,500 coach's salary. it was the second job he worked each day to help make ends meet. >> i have bills to pay young children. daycare. everything is expensive these days. we know that. and not having that income is has been very difficult. i'm looking for anything i can to replace it with at the moment. >> gators parents reached out to me to investigate because it's been three weeks since sarah news arrest, and the case is now in the hands of alameda county district attorney pamela price. no charging decision yet. gators parents have been emailing the

da's office, urging them to prosecute sarah. now one parent wrote. sarah's actions have disrupted this positive environment, and we believe that holding her accountable to the fullest extent of the law is essential for justice and for the future integrity of the team. another wrote. the local community is outraged by what has transpired here and her actions should not be swept aside via a plea deal. >> it's absolutely essential that charges be pressed to the fullest extent of the law, this kind of tragedy cannot be swept away with a plea deal or anything like that. we need to send a message to youth sports all over the place that this is completely intolerable. >> pamela price's office tells me they don't have a timeline for when they might decide whether to file a case. i'll keep track of it and report back whichever way it goes. dan. >> goodness. all right. thank you so much, dan. >> all right. on to election coverage. now we are little more than 100 days away from the presidential election on november 5th. the next debate is scheduled for september 10th, hosted by abc. however late

today donald trump's team claimed there is too much, quote, political chaos to finalize debate details until the democrats formalize their nominee. vice president harris says she's ready. >> i think the voters deserve to see the split screen that exists in this race on a debate stage, and so i'm ready. let's go. >> we're less than a month away from the start of the democratic national convention, when the nominee will become official. that will be august 19th to the 22nd in chicago. >> today, president biden and vice president harris met with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu at the white house. also there, 12 family members of hostages. hostages. excuse me, being held by hamas, among them the parents of 24 year old hersh goldberg-polin, who's originally from berkeley, john pollard and rachel goldberg sat next to president biden, and they shook hands with prime minister netanyahu. president biden says ending the fighting between israel and hamas and freeing hostages remain among his top

goals. netanyahu, so far has resisted biden's efforts, rejecting calls for a cease fire. after the meeting, john paulson shared optimism about the impact of the upcoming election. >> we've got a rare moment now where the current president of the united states and anybody who might become president of the united states, both vice president harris and donald trump are all aligned in saying this deal must get done now. so anybody on any side who makes the mistaken political calculus that there's benefit in waiting, we'll find out that that logic is wrong. the deal must happen. now >> and you see the number on his shirt, 293. that's the number of days his son hirsch has been held captive. he was seen in this video released back in april. part of his left arm has been amputated. he was injured while being taken hostage during the october 7th attack. >> as we mentioned earlier, we're going to take a deeper dive into a work to build a

better bay area and governor newsom's new push now to deal with homelessness across the state. how did this issue become such a crisis? it didn't happen overnight. as abc seven news reporter anser hassan found a decades old bill limiting property tax increases and competing local, state and federal laws have all contributed. >> you can think about homelessness as being a math problem, where, you know, people have an income and then there's a rent and it doesn't quite add up. >> jennifer friedenbach is the executive director of the coalition on homelessness, based in san francisco. she says most recently, inflation, the pandemic and layoffs have all had an impact. >> you have large swaths of our community that are barely getting by, and so any kind of hit and that knocks them into homelessness, they're also more complicated problems linked to gentrification and corporate landlords, friedenbach says. >> 30 years ago, there was just more housing options. she uses community housing in san francisco as an example. >> there was the, you know, the classic cd flat in the mission where you rent a room, and, you know, you have pretty low rent.

it was pretty easy for low income people to get by, she says. >> those options turned into private homes over time, driven by real estate speculation, where people buy low and sell high. >> and because of the state uh- prohibition from being able to have rent controls on vacant units, there's a huge incentive for corporate landlords and corporate landowners to push long term tenants out in order to really jack up the rents, she adds. >> there are actually fewer protections for renters than people think. for example, concord has been a city for almost 120 years, but only passed rent control laws this year. then comes the math around the politics of getting housing built. like prop 13 passed in 1978, it limits property tax increases, the cause of the affordability crisis is proposition 13. >> there is no incentive for people to dispose of their property or sell their homes, or build new homes because they have such a good deal locked in.

>> kelly snyder is a professor of urban planning at san jose state university. she says prop 13 is hugely popular, and there's little incentive for lawmakers to change it, she adds. new housing, especially high density housing, isn't getting built. while the more recent push for affordable housing over the past ten years has come from initiatives and pressure from the state, what we're doing is digging out of a 50 year hole more and more laws from the state level overriding local officials. >> and if we can get to federal laws that override state and local officials, that's when we're going to start to see it loosen up. >> but she says those solutions are another 5 to 10 years away. anser hassan abc seven news. >> coming up next, seven on your side helps out families being charged for covid tests. years after the pandemic tests they were told, fargo makes banking faster, and easier. (woman) fargo, turn off my debit card! (vo) lets you pick up the tab, even if you forget your wallet... (kaz) i got this.

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what families say was advertised as free covid 19 testing at schools. now, three years later, some families say they are still receiving bills. abc seven news reporter melanie woodrow gets some answers. >> as covid 19 raged during the

early pandemic, covid testing at schools was critical and welcomed the testing was supposed to be free testing that we got that was performed by a laboratory that came to the school sites. debbie, who asked that we not use her last name, says her son had multiple covid tests at school, facilitated by pmh laboratory. she says she received this letter stating, quote, pm's sole compensation will be through insurance reimbursement or through the cares act. no student, staff and or family member will receive a bill from pmh from the services provided under any circumstance. the bill started coming probably about, i would say, eight months to a year later, she says. she ignored them at first, but they kept on coming years. >> it's very frustrating to be getting these bills, at least once a month. >> debbie's son's bill was for more than $300. seven on your side reviewed another student's pmh bill for more than $1,000. >> we just wanted to get it resolved. >> both families had blue shield of california insurance. i

reached out to blue shield and pmh in an emailed statement. pmh tells seven on your side. its general practice is not to invoice patients for covid 19 testing during the public health emergency. if patients provided insurance information at the time of testing, but that certain insurers improperly issued payments for the tests directly to the patient in stead of issuing the payment directly to pmh, the lab claims this practice violated the cares act, which specified the insurer shall reimburse the provider, not the patient, the lawsuit states. defendants intent was to profit by issuing only partial payments to patients and by forcing out-of-network providers like pmh to chase recovery of such lower payments from the patients. in its statement to abc seven news, pmh says this practice placed an undue burden on patients to identify why they received the payment and to deliver the insurers payment to pmh. also, that it placed an undue burden on pmh to obtain the issued payment from the patient, according to the lawsuit. as of december 1st, 2022, blue shield owes pmh no less than $38 million for covid

testing and services. in a statement to seven on your side, blue shield of california said it acted no differently with respect to pmh laboratory, writing in part, quote, we can state that we follow all applicable regulations and laws, including the cares act, as it relates to covid testing payment practices. debbie says she did receive payments from blue shield for the covid tests, and that she followed instructions to send those payments to pmh laboratory. >> the lab basically said that they are working on the bills, but i've never saw anything much resolved from it. >> it's not clear why a balance remained, and her son kept getting bills. after seven on your side contacted pmh, the attorney who filed the lawsuit against blue shield, spoke with debbie and said her bill would be resolved. it's possible other families also received direct payments from an insurer, but didn't understand what those checks were for, or that they needed to pay pmh in return. pmh tells abc seven news it's committed to working with patients and that anyone receiving covid 19 testing bills who isn't sure why can contact pmh billing vendor to resolve

their account in the newsroom. for seven on your side melanie woodrow, abc seven news. >> happening today, the opening of comic-con in san diego, and it's the first regular convention in five years. the festival was on hold in 2020 and 21 because of the pandemic. then it had covid protocols last year, the sag-aftra union strike canceled many panels, so now it is back to normal. comic-con runs through sunday. >> it's going to get much cooler in the next few days. a big change from the heat wave. earlier this week, spencer has the temperatures where you live

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it? and it's going to get even better. here's a look at our forecast headlines. and you can see cooler air still arriving tomorrow and saturday started cooling down today, but it will be even cooler in the next couple of days. the weekend outlook below average high temperatures for late july, and then next week there'll be some gradual minor warming, but nothing major. so let's move along and take a look at overnight conditions. the marine layer will return to the coast across the bay locally inland. overnight lows will be mainly in the mid to upper 50s. high

temperatures tomorrow under afternoon sunshine, except at the coast, will range from about 60 at the coast to upper 60s and low 70s around the bay to low and mid 80s inland, and the accuweather seven day forecast shows it's going to be even cooler on saturday, with inland highs barely reaching 80 degrees. and then we'll have gradual warming going into the middle of next week with that gradual warming will take inland highs only up to about the low 90s maximum next week, which is mild to warm but not hot, which is good news. we like it like that. >> we do? yeah. that's true. thanks, ben. okay. all right. >> sports director larry beil is here. baseball. >> oh, the giants, they wrapped up their series with the dodgers and this is so giants 2024. >> they're done in by a guy who was on their roster a few weeks ago. that's next. in sports

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team 20 or more times in a season. now, baseball has this balanced schedule, so it's down to just 13. the giants and dodgers are done. it's not even august yet. no september games unless they they both make the playoffs. and that's looking very feasible right now the way the giants are going. day game at dodger stadium. if you're a giants fan you're drinking like can you make mine a double please. clayton kershaw back from shoulder surgery season debut today elliott ramos singles off his back tyler

fitzgerald scores giants up two one. kershaw went four innings. logan webb just he's not right lately austin barnes a rocket off the glove of matt chapman. run scores. dodgers up three two. nobody happy. especially not webb. he went five innings. gave up four runs. all right to the eighth. we go tied at four. the giants they cut nick ahmed a couple of weeks ago. you know why. because he couldn't hit. and of course he just hit a home run off tyler rogers five for la. next pitch. here comes high. deep. sayonara means goodbye shohei ohtani is 31st of the year. dodgers take three of four. they win six four. giants now a season worst six games under 500. a's news they put their fireballing closer mason miller on the injured list with a broken pinkie. reportedly happened after monday night's win against the astros. manager mark kotsay confirmed it happened during a moment of frustration. it sounds like he punched the table basically. uh- miller was considered one of the a's most valuable trade pieces, especially after, you know, he

threw lights out on the all star game. but now he's on the shelf for a couple of weeks and that will be after the trade deadline. padres pitcher dylan cease threw the second no hitter of the season today in dc. first of his career, just the second in padres history. cease a career high 114 pitches, which nobody gets to at this point. he had a no know broken up back in 2022, was one out away. this is his third career complete game reason to celebrate a three nothing padres win out of the nfl. while brandon aiyuk and trent williams are in contract disputes with the 40 niners, the team did take care of christian mccaffrey this off season. the niners gave the nfl offensive player of the year a two year extension, so his annual salary is $15.5 million a year. needless to say, mccaffrey would like to be running behind the mammoth trent williams. >> yeah, i mean, look, i you know, the business side of things, as i said before, is it's the tough part about playing in the nfl. for me, i stay out of, everything really just kind of stay in my lane, focus on me and doing whatever i can to get back. but obviously,

no one's a bigger fan of trent than me. >> wrexham and chelsea played to a22 tie last night at levi's stadium, wrexham, owned by actors ryan reynolds and rob mcelhenney. reynolds posted a picture of his business partner. and, it's a classic. our chris alvarez spoke with rob about that. >> is this standard operating procedure this this this photo? no >> this thing. >> how happy this lady is. >> i know it follows me everywhere i go. the second it turns out that if you have a partner who's got 50 million instagram followers that he was, he was so liberal with the with the chest hair, i don't know, it doesn't even look like me. it looks more like him. >> sports on abc seven. sponsored by smart and final. rob does a little look. >> a little? >> no, it's very strange. rob went to on say that ryan, unfortunately couldn't make it to the match last night because he's promoting this little avant garde, niche film. he's something about art house, film deeds and a wolf for something

he couldn't remember the name of it, but just a little kind of small time thing on the side. oh, yeah? yeah. >> blockbuster. yeah thanks, larry. >> coming up tonight on abc seven at 8:00. catch. press your luck followed at nine by lucky 13. then at ten, you can watch who wants to be a millionaire? as always, stay with us for abc seven news at 11. remember, the abc seven news is streaming 24 seven. you can get the abc seven bay area app and join us whenever you want, wherever you are, that is going to do it for this edition of abc seven news. thanks for joining us. i'm ama daetz and i'm dan ashley for spencer, kristen, larry, bill, all of us here, we appreciate your time. >> enjoy the rest of your evening and we will see you again tonight at 11.

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an actor and screenwriter from provo, utah... whose one-day cash winnings total $15,500. and now, here is the host of "jeopardy!", ken jennings. thank you, johnny gilbert. welcome to "jeopardy!" we've learned that our new champion, davey morrison, is quite resilient. he told us yesterday that he once escaped quicksand, and in yesterday's game, he evaded all the snares of "jeopardy!" defeat, coming from behind in final jeopardy to best a three-game champion. let's see what happens today as we welcome his new challengers, krista and phil, and get right to work in the jeopardy round. here are your categories, players... ...up first. then... then we're... we have...