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f0 now at 11:00, they blocked anyone from getting by for hours, but their protest on the bay bridge was up for legal interpretation. >> essentially the judge dismissed the case. plus a driver flies down a freeway shoulder, slamming into the chp, and investigators say it was no accident. and challenge accepted. how chefs are using oakland's image problem as creative fuel. >> honestly it's for us about a challenge creating something so unique that you have to come

out. from kpix, this is the late news with sara donchey on cbs news bay area. hello, i'm sara donchey. protesting is a long time part of bay area culture and history. we've seen a lot of it lately this year especially, including criticism about how people go about it. dozens of pro-palestinian protesters were arrested last november for blocking the deck of the upper bay bridge for hours. that protest didn't just keep people from work, but delayed life saving operations as organs for transplant were caught in the grid lock. but when the da announced charges against the protesters, reactions that the decision was split. but today the 78 people facing a possible trial scored a major legal victory instead. wilson walker reports. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: the bay bridge 78 walked out to the cheering crowd that packed the hallway

to support. the outcome, in the words of one organizer, a complete vindication and victory. >> essentially the judge dismissed our case as of may 15th with a diversion offer of five hours community service and a little under 4,500 in restitution. i think that the da's retaliatory charges were an attempt to put a chill on mobilization. >> reporter: as for some kind of precedent here, we have seen incidents like this before. in 2016, protesters with black lives matter took over the bridge, and the highway patrol arrested 25 people. the district attorney reduced the charges to simple traffic citations saying it was in the interest of free speech. then a judge just threw the charges out wholesale, so while blocking the bridge is illegal, there is plenty of room for discretion.

>> yes, the government does have a certain amount of prosecutorial discretion in terms of whether it's going to arrest people, whether it will just say go home and allow people to leave. there's all sorts of latitude and discretion that keeps in at various parts of the process. but certainly in terms of the first amendment question, they are permitted the say either move to the sidewalk or you have to stop your protest. >> reporter: the protesters initially asked for the charges to be dropped completely, and there was a great deal of anger directed towards district attorney brooke jenkins for her pursuing of the charges at all. 1 of the 78 defended the protest saying the movement is being persecuted and misrepresented. >> i still stand behind what we have done and that we needed to make the statements we needed to do to make our voices loud and clear. this movement is much larger than what is being perceived in the media, and i hope you as a reporter can reflect that in your own

reporting. >> the da says if the protesters are arrested again in the next two months, the deal could be off the table and criminal proceedings could be back on. when the sun goes down in san francisco's civic center, the stolen goods and drugs come out according to police. tonight they're cracking down. police gave us this video showing what illegal vendors are hawking from baseball cards to bags of candy and nasal spray. officers are working with public works and public health to give out citations and impound what vendors are selling. >> we'll have to give you a citation for $250 and impound all your items you don't have proof of purchase for. good it's illegal in the city of san francisco to be vending without a permit. were you aware of that? >> they were also giving out warnings tonight. police started doing more patrols around the plaza last month and have plans to continue that, they say. today felt like the kind of

day where fate decided your allergies aren't bad enough yet, so why not really get the wind going? at least it wasn't raining, good news for the people still working to clean up this mess in the santa cruz mountains. a toppling tree took out a set of power lines as it crashed across highway 35 north of highway 9. the road will be closed until at least 6:00 a.m. and if you didn't have major problems because of the wind, you probably heard it. boy, paul, it was windy out there. yes, it was whistling through the ducts overhead in the studio here when the wind was at its strongest this afternoon. now we're in a relative lull. the strongest sustained winds around 15, 16 miles per hour. even the strongest gusts at the moment are below 30 miles per hour. that's at sea level. you go up in elevation, and the wind is still whipping. that's why we have the wind advisory continuing through 11:00 a.m. tomorrow. even at sea level, the winds pick back up heading forwards early tomorrow

morning. winds in the 20 to 30 miles per hour range into early afternoon, but then the winds abruptly die down mid to late afternoon, and we're in for a calm and fantastic weekend. wind advisory in effect for the higher elevations, the bay area through 11:00 a.m. tomorrow. this is where it's most likely you're going to have maybe minor tree damage, potential for power outages. the gusts could still reach over 50 miles per hour for about the next 12 hours or so. then we get to enjoy the pleasant weekend. more on that coming up in a few minutes. san jose is on the hunt for its next police chief, and it's asking residents what they want to see out of the next top cop. a community meeting tonight gave the public a chance to weigh in. chief anthony matta is set to retire at the end of the month after 28 years with san jose police. when he does, two major bay area cities, san jose and oakland, will be without a permanent chief. a baseball flying through the sky at the ball park? good.

baseball sized hail flying from the sky? not so good. and oakland restaurant week isn't just a chance for us foodies to unwind. >> for me, even creating a menu is how can i dig deep and tell a story with the menu. >> it's a chance for restaurant owners to come up with something special to get people to come out. and a relaxing pickle ball game ends in a dive to safety for a group of firefighters in the wrong place at the right time.

welcome back. so we have been talking to restaurant owners around oakland for the past few months and beyond even. a lot of them have been saying basically the same thing. that car break ins and crime have been keeping customers away and that it's hitting their bottom line. but starting tonight, everything from food trucks to michelin star restaurants are in the spotlight for oakland restaurant week and offering special deals to draw new customers in. our andrea nakano talked to one chef about how he's stepping up his game to

get people to come out. >> we got the smoked plantain on the bottom. >> reporter: some may recognize this chef from top chef. he married an oaklander and called the city home since 2010. for chef nelson, restaurant week is an event he looks forward to every year. >> honestly, as a chef, we used to hate restaurant week back in the day. there was a time everyone was looking for something cheap and this and that, and people were just too needy. but it's not like that anymore. it's really a sense of like us getting a chance to shine even more. >> reporter: chef nelson infuses his dominican roots and lessons he learned from cooking with his grandma and mother in every dish. >> i'm actually doing the same dish i did on episode 4 of top chef. i'm super excited.

really excited. it tastes amazing, but it really tells a story of where i come from and a lot of us come from. >> reporter: dishes like these are part of the three-course pre fixe menu offered at his restaurant for the next ten days. >> it's really how can i dig deep and tell a story with the menu. it's not the cheapest item i have and creating a menu, but it's showcasing something new on the menu. something i've been wanting to test out. >> reporter: there's nothing ordinary about the dishes or cocktails served at chef nelson's restaurant. he knows this week is key in luring customers that might be hesitant to dine out because of crime in oakland. >> there's definitely an impact with that. just the thought that nothing is secure, right? honestly it's about, for us, a challenge of creating something so unique that you have to come out. >> reporter: the restaurant definitely left an impression on these folks. they returned

for a second year in a row to celebrate a birthday. >> ox tails. they have some good french fries and stuff like that. i don't know why, the french fries are good! >> reporter: gary and sonya say for them it's worth it to come out and enjoy good food with good friends. >> we have a beautiful place here. we have the activity going on, we know that, but there's a lot of great things happening here and we want to keep supporting it. >> reporter: and restaurants in oakland could use all the support they can get to keep the local food scene vibrant and dynamic. >> there's still a lot of beauty and positivity here. even with everything happening, change is happening. >> even at 11:12 at night, fried fish looks really good. chef nelson said his restaurant week reservations started off really slow until they picked up tonight. looking up at this in the sky wouldn't be comfortable, necessarily. ominous clouds

swirled above homes in st. charles, missouri, an area on high alert for tornadoes tonight. meanwhile, across the border in kansas, it almost sounded like gunshots were going off in this neighborhood near kansas city. it was actually the sound of baseball sized hail hammering people's cars. that will leave a mark. that went on for nine minutes. >> oh my god! >> yeah, your windshield is completely shattered! >> oh, that's awful. meanwhile, a huge snowstorm is about all they're talking about in central colorado tonight. our cbs station in denver sent their crews up and down the front range to cover it, but the guy who ended up in estes park ended up pretty limited in what he could actually show us. >> this was clear last night around midnight, now there's about a foot and a half of snow on top of my vehicle. i'll see if i can try and get out of this parking lot or else i

might just be facing the other way giving you a similar update. >> does he get hazard pay for clearing off the news vehicle? probably not. probably not. it just comes with the job. but that's why we do weather here, paul. he should get bonus play for clearing off the entire vehicle. the pet peeve is just clearing off the windshield and leave the snow on the roof. >> and leave it to fly behind them. >> and impacts traffic behind them. make sure to clear off the entire vehicle. that storm system is part of why we're getting gusty winds in the bay area. it's bringing showers to southern california, showers and thunderstorms to arizona, and that snow to the front range of the rocky, the moisture is all missing us to the east. but it's close enough that it's squeezing the atmosphere compared to this area, and the proximity of the two to each other is squeezing the atmosphere over the west coast and resulting in the gusty offshore winds we had today and will still have

tomorrow. especiallity higher elevations. peaks around the bay area had the gustiest winds. over 70 miles per hour earlier today at mount diablo. this is the old list of wind gusts. i'm not sure how that made it into the run down. but these are from a previous storm system. they're kind of similar to where we were today. 72 miles per hour in mount diablo. san jose at 30 miles per hour. still enough to move you around on the roads. looking at the wind grid as we head through the next couple of days, we'll see the winds dying down once we get into tomorrow early afternoon. so the red tiles on the map indicate the potential for wind gusts over 30 miles per hour. those are going to die down as we go through the afternoon and evening hours. by saturday, the wind isn't going to be a big factor. let's check out the relative humidity levels that have been helping us out by not being too low. they won't go up a lot tonight like they normally would this time of year, bull they'll remain high enough, even during the driest part of the day tomorrow they'll be above any

critically low threshold. usually we need humidity levels below 20 to 10% for a fire threat. by the time the humidity drops to this level, the winds die down by 3:00 tomorrow afternoon. in terms of solar electricity generation, we'll continue to be the top of the scale. the offshore winds result in clear skies over the bay area, so we'll make the most of our almost 12 hours of daylight. first day of spring is right around the corner. you probably noticed an increase in the pollen count if you're at all sensitive to seasonal allergies in the high category through monday until we get more rain, which is further down the line in the forecast. beyond the seven-day outlook the pollen will be a problem, so make sure you stock up on allergy medication and tissues as well. it's still mild outside. upper 50s to low 60s. we only drop to the 50s by the morning, and then temperatures warm up. let's look at tomorrow's forecast highs. about 5 to 10 degrees

above normal. mid-70s in san jose. 75 probably the warm spot around the region, but a lot of other spots are close. low to mid-70s on a widespread basis except along the coast. half moon bay will get close to 70. that's pretty good for the middle of march. low 70s in san francisco and oakland, and low to mid-70s inland north bay as well. temperatures should back up a little bit saturday and sunday, but still above normal. just minor ups and downs to the temperature pattern over the next several days. really through the middle of next week. we start with the inland seven-day forecast where it will be the warmest for the longest through the middle of next week before a gradual return to near average temperatures next thursday. the cooler air gets to bay side locations just a day or so earlier. the clouds might arrive earlier. by early next week i think we'll be back into a typical pattern for this time of year which is morning fog and low cloud cover and plenty of sunshine breaking through in the afternoons. along the coast, you get the warmer temperatures into the early half of next week and

retreating to around 60 degrees wednesday and thursday, but it's another seven-day forecast without a hint of rain. the next shower chance won't be probably until a week from tomorrow or the following weekend. >> as long as we're talking about weekends, never too early, right? an inspirational night tonight at our station as we honored all of last year's bay area jefferson award winners. we've shared stories of our 45 regional winners throughout 2023. tonight 40 received bronze medicals. the top three got silver medals and will be considered for a national jefferson award later this year. find out more about the winners and their stories on our website. hey vern, did you hear one of the best players in tennis was run off the court today? not be his opponent though. something else entirely. >> i heard! bees, don't mess with them! straight ahead in sports, 49ers, it's never boring. a long time niner moves

on, but where? and why are we going to be talking about stanford men's basketball coach jared hasse?

the niners super bowl loss will sting for a long time, but i think it also makes this off season very important. >> yes, some players will be moving on. and the fan, i get it. you like a player, get close to them, they're like family to you, and then they're gone. >> it's hard to see them in another jersey. >> but it's a business. these athletes have a small window of time to get their bag, you know

what i mean? >> and it's a big bag usually. >> it's happening for a lot of players. i've seen a lot of players come and go. it's a business, but it's never easy. the 49ers added four players through free agency, all defensive linemen to replace eric armstead. eric, a free agent yesterday, agreed to join the jaguars today. three-year deal worth $51 million. he'll be reunited with former 49ers general manager who drafted him back in 2015. pivot to hockey. the sharks played the penguins tonight. it was supposed to be jarmir jagr's bobblehead night in pittsburgh, but someone stole the bobbleheads, all of them! the team announced this morning the shipment was stolen on the way to the arena. so someone in the pittsburgh area is in

position of 10,000 jagr bobbleheads. san jose had the game tied until the last period three all. and then all pittsburgh. ludwig broke the tie, pens won it 6-3, so sharks playing its way to the number one pick in the draft and head to columbus on saturday. after last night's come from behind overtime win over cal, the stanford men remain the lone bay area team standing in the pac-12 conference tournament this week. so they needed to survive and advance again today! they jumped it up with washington state. the the cougars, no pressure. they're a lock for the ncaa tournament. and they played like it. first half, look how they worked it around and attacked the rim. isaac jones threw it down. he scored 16. washington state with coach kyle smith cruised 79-62, and stanford ended their season with a record of 14 and 18. and then just 15 minutes

after the game, it became official. jared haase out as stanford's head coach after eight seasons. since taking over in 2016, the cardinal has made the postseason just once, an nit appearance in 2018. and there's the old story of the coach at the banquet after a stellar season, and he says to the fans, will you love me if we go 12 and 17 next year? that guy in the back yells yeah, we'll love you coach. and we'll miss you too. that's the business >> i was going to say, this whole sports segment as had a theme. cut throat business deals. >> that's the way it is. >> it is. a driver accused of using his job as a wrong way weapon aimed right at chp.

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we have some dramatic video of a wrong way driver barreling down the shoulder of i-80 and slamming head on into chp cruiser. tonight the chp says it was no accident. the crash happened yesterday near davis. the chp says two officers had just finished the traffic stop and were parked on the side when the car came flying at them. the crash sent both officers to the hospital, but they're both home recovering tonight. the driver was arrested. no word on a motive for all of this. and in tempe, arizona, a group of firefighters playing pickle ball between calls had to save themselves from an out of control car that sped toward them. after running for their lives, they immediately ran to help the driver. he was taken to the hospital. we haven't heard yet why he ran off the road. this tennis star may be

ranked se

some of the world's top players weren't just hitting tennis balls at indian wells today. these players had to use their rackets as fly swatters to keep a swarm of angry bees at bay. and it looks like the bees won. >> there's a whole bunch of them all over the the court. you can see them.

>> holy cow. never seen that before! >> no, they're right above the chair, the umpire's chair as well. carlos had to get a towel on his head. that's amazing. >> look at that. >> everybody near the court is fleeing. >> i need to see more urgency in this situation. >> yeah! >> why aren't we running and screaming? >> they just came out of nowhere. >> the bees not only forced the players and umpire off the court, they briefly suspended the the entire match. by the way, when the invaders stopped making a racket, alcaraz made it to the finals. >> there was a swarm under neither the umpire's chair like they were trying to make a nest. >> apparently the player was stung, but it doesn't matter why, it just matters that i would be running and crying.

>> yeah, they're lucky nobody was allergic. >> i was just thinking that. >> that would be quite bad. >> if those were shell fish flying around, that would be the end for you. >> that would be the end for you! >> we talk about that a lot. >> i'