welcome to "assignment 7". today on our program, only in san francisco, the service the c city's homeless receive from the public library system. what one family found when they went looking for relatives who should have been buried decades ago. plus, the future of robots, dancing isn't even their most impresssive talent. we begin with a new burden facing the housing industry, starting next year, all new single family homes built in california must be equipped with sprinkler systems. nanette reports on the lives that could be saved and what it will cost. >> reporter: the housing industry says prices of new homes in california are about to go up, not because of an economic turn around, but

because of the sprinkler law adopted by the state buildingnd. single family homes built after january 1, 2011, must have a fire sprinkler system. >> so it's clear to us that sprinklers save lives, they reduce injuries and protect millions of dollars in property. >> this comes at probably the worst time. >> reporter: home builders say they built homes in east of the last two years since they began keeping records. it's hard enough selling new homes in this recession. mandatory sprinklers would boost prices higher. >> and on a per home basis, we're probably looking at 5 to $6,000 of increased costs. >> reporter: bob points out older homes are the problem. not new ones. their numbers show the majority of home fire happened in residences built before 1952. >> we primarily feel it would be better dollars spent to focus on getting hard wire smoke detection into the existing

housing stock. >> reporter: but the state says their numbers show the extra cost is worth it. with almost half of the fire department's reporting to the state, 44 deaths occurred in homes without sprinklers last year. while no deaths occurred in homes with sprinklers. there were fewer injuries, too, nearly 400 in homes without sprinklers. less than three dozen in homes with sprinklers. in this fire department demonstration, flames begin to grow in this makeshift room and as soon as the fire debts intense, sprinklers quickly douse it. >> our typical response times are from three to five minutes. the sprinklers are essential for homes because it's like having the fire department at your house 24/7. >> reporter: there is virtually no chance to fight this new regulation. once the sprinkler law was included into the national standard, california requires the state to follow. in sacramento, abc 7 news. >> san francisco is trying something new when it comes to services for the homeless. as abc abc 7's carolyn tyler reports, the main library offers

something you'll find nowhere else. >> you couldn't go and feel safe. >> reporter: barry is talking about san francisco's main library. it opened in 1996 across from the old building in civic center plaza. there were elaborate ceremonies and crowds waited in long lines to tour the 376,000 square feet, multi level structure. it's still popular. 6 million people are expected to visit this year, including many who are homeless. they come to read, use the internet, and the bathroom, or just as a sanctuary to get off the street. city librarian calls the library one of the most democratic institutions you'll find. >> we don't ask if you're homeless. we don't ask your status. it's absolutely open and free to everyone, but in some instances when we have issues of individuals needing some help, it's an opportunity with a social work tore provide that

referral. a social worker.t's right. there are other libraries in the country that are also havens for the homeless. but no one else takes this approach. this woman is a psychiatric social worker here 9:00 o'clock to 5:00 o'clock, monday through friday, walking from floor to floor. >> i say hello and somehow they start to feel more comfortable and they start talking. how is it going? >> okay. >> reporter: as she tries to link patrons with services ranging from housing to mental health counseling. not everyone is on board. would you do something if she came through and offered you some? >> not at all. i'm completely capable of taking care of myself. >> we can not help everybody. people have their own time and terms of when they want help and we have to respect that. >> reporter: as she has been on the job for just over a year, her salary paid by the library. before she arrived, the

situation was getting out of control. frightening some patrons and staff. >> people taking showers or people brushing their teeth in the bathrooms. there was some concern about people who might overdose. people who are using drugs in the bathroom. >> reporter: this is a psychiatrist with the city's health department. the library turned to him and other health professionals who then came up with a novel idea to hire leah, rather than traditional homeless outreach workers. >> what we found out was that a lot of the homeless folks who come here, they come here to get away from being homeless and i think that's -- we found a lot of the folks we spoke with did not really want to engage with an outreach worker at that point >> reporter: but many help. she has helped 250 people at the library since she started, including gary gray. >> somebody told me that there was a social worker upstairs, that go and talk to, maybe get

off the street. i did. that's how i met her. >> reporter: he was living under a freeway overpass and now has support of housing, a place to call his own. >> strawberries. >> it's not a total turn around at the library, but the staff says there has been a noticeable drop in inappropriate behavior. >> it's great since she started because i think it helps them and helps the libraries. >> several libraries around the country, atlanta, and others, have told san francisco they're considering replicating the program. >> thank you for your time. >> reporter: in san francisco, carolyn tyler, abc 7 news. >> many people might consider a hard core vegan diet as too extreme a solution, but that could be changing. carolyn john johnson reports. >> don't forget the mango. >> reporter: richie doesn't just preach a strict vegan diet, he

credits it with saving his life. he says he had begun to develop diabetes when he decided to eliminate all animal products and processed foods from his diet. >> i wound up losing 40 pounds. i rid myself of all the symptoms of diabetes. i was 100% raw vegan. >> reporter: he sells prepared vegan meals for a living. he admits the lifestyle is still lacking mass appeal. >> i would like to see people eat 100% raw vegan, but i don't think that's realistic at all. i think that if folks were even 80% raw and 20%. >> reporter: now a diet using about that formula is getting national attention. all because of a popular food critic from the "new york times." mark bitman. now perhaps better known as the vegan before 6:00 o'clock. >> i don't really proselytize. i say, is what worked for me. >> reporter: he had some of the

same health solutions. >> i made this rule for myself, which was okay, i need to be a vegan, a really strict vegan, until 6:00 o'clock at night or until i eat dinner. i'm going to eat whole grains, fruits and vegetables, legumes. that's it until 6:00 o'clock. >> reporter: he came up with daytime recipes using the kind of ingredients you can find at whole food and farmers market and still ate at restaurants several nights a week. >> after three months, my cholesterol was normal again. my blood sugar was normal. i lost 30 pounds. >> reporter: mark bitman started his own blog as well. we have a link for you at abc7news.com, along with links to other vegan sources. in the news room, carolyn johnson, abc 7 news. >> the sight of a horrid discovery 26 years ago. >> i would like to see at least something that says this is a memorial area for a sacred place. >> a family relives the pain

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>> it was 1984 when the discovery of human bones and ashes of thousands of people was made on a remote hillside. 26 years later, there is new controversy. here is abc 7's vic lee. >> you okay, mom? >> yes. >> reporter: finding the property where the cremated remains had been illegally dumped would have been difficult without the help of marcella fox, her mother, judy, and aunt janet. >> a lot of this was overgrown with needles and the path into here wasn't cleared. but we cleared what we could. >> reporter: it was 26 years ago when the ghastly discovery was made. here on ten acres of land near the motherload town of electric creek. white ashes and fragments of human bones were strewn in heaps four feet high. they were the remains of some

9,000 people. the property belonged to pilot b.j. elkin, who contracted with a neptune society and dozens of funeral homes to scatter the ashes at sea and over the sierra nevada. >> instead, he put them in a truck and brought them up here and dumped them in piles. >> reporter: those piles, the ashes of antonio, judy's father, she broke the news to her mother. >> having to tell her that, it broke my heart because they had been married for 42 years. >> reporter: her sister's remains were dumped here. elkin was eventually convicted of commingling human ashes and fined $6,000. he served no jail time. but the judge ordered his property transferred to the state cemetery and funeral board, which would act as conservator. >> this actually looked like somebody had camped and had fires over the years.

>> reporter: marcella says her family had been trying for decades to find this place. she succeeded early last year after contacting the cemetery board. >> they had no idea what i was talking about at first. it took them a few days to figure it out. >> reporter: even these directions which the agency faxed misspelled the name of the road leading to the property. >> there was garbage strewn all over. it looked like people camped here. >> reporter: it was obvious the cemetery board had not maintained the land. more disturbing to fox and her family was another discovery. bone fragments after almost three decades. >> i was walking around going, well, that's strange. one of those little white rocks are. it dawned on me those aren't rocks. that was a shock. >> reporter: we discovered more bone fragments on our visit and found these memorial stones left by othe families. it was the only clue that this remote hillside was the resting place of thousands. >> we thought that it was supposed to be accessible to the

family members and -- maintained? >> and maintained or protected and that it was supposed to be some sort of memorial park. >> reporter: did you expect, for instance, a fence or markers or something? >> something. something. there was nothing. nothing but trash. >> i would like to see at least something that says, you know, this is a memorial area or a sacred place. >> the judge said no, we're not going to allow a memorial to be put up because the deceased did not want markers or memorials in the traditional sense and so he felt it was important to honor those wishes. >> reporter: russ is the spokesman for the cemetery bureau. he says the judge ordered the agency to protect and preserve the property in its natural state. even $100,000 which the judge put into a trust fund to maintain this cemetery remains virtually untouched, earning so much interest that it's now

double to 200,000. >> you get a nice wind up here. kind of comforting. woreporter: since the state won't do it, fox and her family say they will continue trimming the area and cleaning the litter and started a facebook page for those with relatives and friends here. >> the important thing is that other families can come here if they wish. >> reporter: fox hopes they, too, may find some comfort in the tranquility of the sierra foot hills. this final resting place of their loved ones. vic lee, abc 7 news. >> when "assignment 7" continues, "7 on your side" examines those tiny url's that link you from one web site to another, the security threat that could pose to your computer. a high-tech election experiment, a bay area county is the first in the nation where you can sign

up with a touch of your ipad. and robots of the future that do more than dance. he ikea e! man: first, we'll need a bed. a modern storyline? no, more romance novel. about those novels... they need to go somewhere.

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keep your bones strong every day... ...with yoplait. if you're in the twitter, facebook or send lots of e-mails, this report will interest you. are those tiny url's safe? michael finney has an answer. >> reporter: let me show you how these things work. you put in a web site link and shrink it. a smaller link is created, a more manageable size and it can be more easily used on social sites like this one and in e-mails. convenient, but there is a concern. >> i don't click unknown links to things -- i don't know where it's going. >> reporter: this scientist run has successful healthy eating web site summer tomato. she posts shortened url's and still she's concerned. as it turns out, with good reason. >> there is a possibility, a dangerous potential there of

people taking a url and masking it effectively with a tiny url. >> reporter: ryan run has social media management site that provides shortening. he say c check every site it shortens. >> it looks at the url, compares it to a known database of bad url's and bad web sites and will flag it. >> reporter: click on a troubled rrl and a pop up warns against going on. they offer protection, but not all sites do. so should we be concerned? computer security firms has been looking into that. >> we got well over a million users who go through our crowd every day. so we can see real traffic to see out of those people who is clicking on tiny url it's are those good bad. >> reporter: that's the ceo. this appears to be the first major study of its kind. >> so we took a sample, a decent

sample, 1.3 million url's, tiny ones and looked to how many of them are malicious. the results are .06%. >> reporter: an amazingly low risk, especially he says, in the on-line world. >> i believe that. it's you don't want to be -- you don't want that one time to be you and have it ruin your whole operating system for the day. like who has time for that? >> i'm michael finney, "7 on your side". >> the use of touch screens for registering voters. david louis reports. >> reporter: this could be the beginning of the end for this kind of voter registration drive, the kind that uses paper and pen. in this era of smart phones, elaine davis recalls the last time she filled out a form that way. >> probably my voter registration when i moved. i think that's the only thing i can think of i do on paper. >> reporter: here is the new way, using touch screen mobile dices such as the ipad. santa clara county is the first in the state to approve new

technology developed. >> touch screens become more prevalent and by one estimate, one out of every two people in the country will have one by 2014, we think everybody will benefit from this and use this. >> reporter: co-founder says his registration system uses encription to safeguard data and the signature. electronic signatures are permitted under the state government code. they aren't mentioned in the state elections code, which may provide a loophole. >> anything that makes it easier for voters to get the kind of services they like and deserve, then we're in favor of it. >> reporter: touch screen registration may save money. a recent sudden said oregon spent $6 per person for voter registration. the company thinks it could shave it down to a dollar or two. >> the ipad is create to do replace paper. if we're going to use it to replace paper, why not in different ways like register to go vote? >> reporter: still there are some who say they're not convinced this is safe.

>> i'm still more comfortable doing things with paper and pen and putting my social security out there is still uncomfortable for me. >> reporter: while she may be reluctant, the company is going ahead with contacting other counties across the state to get them to start registering voters in time for the november election. in san jose, abc abc 7, money s. >> do you remember the cartoon, the jetsons where robots did almost everything? one menlo park company unveiled what could be one day, the closest thing yet. here is lisa with more. >> reporter: it can grab, stand up and walk. this is pr 2, a $500,000 robot that can also dance. the robot isn't just for entertainment. engineers at willow garage in mens with lo park are hoping pr 2 will change the world. >> it can help disabled people sort of filling in the gaps with

wherever their disabilities are. >> reporter: the robot can already do some helpful tasks. >> it's modeled to have a range of motion that's useful. >> reporter: it can fold towels. but it took six months for it to learn it. development is slow now, but will soon be in overdrive. that's because they're donating 11 robots to universities and research groups to push pr 2 is quite possible. >> what they will do for grad students is give them something to work on immediately. otherwise building one of these robots from scratch could take years. >> if they want to work on the brains of the robot, the mechanical and electrical part, they can right away jump in. >> reporter: uc berkeley peter will now have his chance to work on pr 2 for two years. cal stanford and universities in belgium, japan and germany will all get their own robots and each has a goal. >> i'll be happy if the robot can bring us coffee or sort of

try to do clean-up tasks. >> reporter: it may sound trivial, but in japan, the elderly make up 20% of the population. robots could make life easier for the aging. but with so many minds at work, the possibilities for these robots goes far beyond the basic. in menlo park, abc 7 news. >> from robots to carnivorous plants, the man eaters return to chomp at the city by the bay. you want some fiber one honey clusters?

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alleges shop of horrors has nothing on exhibit now displayed at the conservator are you in golden gate park. don sanchez shows his second installment of chomp 2. >> they are beautiful and deceptive and deadly if you're an insect. man eating plants. they're hungry for attention at the conservatory of flowers. like the venus fly trap.

>> it's in the crevice. >> reporter: when an insect gets in there, it triggers the closure. watch this. >> look at that! >> reporter: these plants are seductive, especially if you're a bug. glistening dew and anything like thatar offer a one way trip. they can grow two feet tall. >> some are so big, that they'll attract small frogs or mice. >> reporter: here is one where they cut off the top, that's a cockroach being overcome by the plant. this may look like pond scum. it can get baby fish in a small time. >> the speed is what's amazing for something that looks so simple. >> reporter: chomp 2 is a sequel to the first show three years ago. it's a great experience for kids to learn more about the intrigue and mystique of carnivorous plants. this is what they look like in nature. none of them has grown to this size. this is a costume they entertain children with this. just to make sure they don't get too close. like this fly did, trapped and

squeezed by the little hairs on the sun dew. there is a message here. a call to save these plants. >> around the world, about 95% of the habitats where they used to thrive have been reduced or eliminated through development or pollution. >> reporter: chomp 2 shows through halloween. in san francisco, don sanchez, abc 7 news. >> perfect. that's all for this edition of "assignment 7". i'm eric thomas. thank you for joining us. >> carolyn: a woman involved in the sexual hard harassment case comes fort. despite the temporary stay, this same-sex copies