welcome to "assignment 7". today on our program, the huge bill one bay area woman got from a store. she hasn't shopped at in years. seven on your side helped settle it. a woman gives up retirement to work on a humanitarian mission half a world away. and uncorking an east bay secret. you may not have to go to napa or sonoma to visit a winery. businesses in california delinquent in paying their sales taxes. as abc 7's laura anthony reports, many of the companies are in the bay area and include some familiar names. >> reporter: what do an east beta co- bell, a pittsburgh car dealership and a san francisco cement company all have in

common? they're all on a notorious state list of the top 250 businesses that have failed to pay their sales taxes. >> there is about $322 million outstanding now. >> reporter: of the top 250, 42 are bay area businesses that collectively owe $80 million. they include san francisco's pacific cement company, $3.1 million. san ramon wells interior, $2.4 million. and san jose south bay auto, $2 million. also among those who failed to pay the former owners of this lafayette taco bell who owe $836,000. that debt dates back to 2002 and like most of them, the state hasn't been able to collect. >> get craftier and aggressive and we need to do the same. >> reporter: implicating the collection efforts of the state, most of the companies on this list like the furniture store that used to occupy this building in san ramon, are no longer in business.

by far, the most common offenders, car dealerships. the former owners of this ford store in pittsburgh owe $1.2 million. same with this dealership across town. chris hunt is with the contra costa taxpayer association. >> the question that immediately comes to mind is why is that money sitting there, particularly from car dealerships? if it's from sales taxes on vehicles, why wasn't it remitted immediately? >> reporter: whatever the reason, the state board of equalization plans to crack down on all tax cheats. but especially car dealerships with more frequent audits and better tracking of their sales through the dmv. abc 7 news. >> here is a question, what should you do if you receive a bill for something you didn't buy? it happened to one bay area woman. she was told to pay thousands, but it was money she didn't owe. "7 on your side" michael finey has your story. >> this woman hasn't shopped at macy's in years.

so she was surprised when out of the blue, the store called and said she owed thousands of dollars on her macy's credit card. >> i said, well, what do you mean? how much do i owe? she said $19,000. i said no, i haven't been in the store. >> reporter: she couldn't figure out how she could owe any money, much less 19 grand. but the store kept calling. she kept saying she doesn't have an account. >> i owe you nothing because you don't have my signature on nothing and you have never sent me a bill. >> reporter: macy's sent this case to the collections department which sent her this letter saying she had racked up $19,791 in charges and she better pay $3,811 of it right away. >> you never sent me a bill. >> reporter: good question. macy's told her the bills had been going to a different address and that's how she figured out what was going on. >> my daughter's address. that was her address.

>> reporter: turns out her grown daughter had opened the account using her mother's identity. the daughter was making payments until she died of cancer last november. when payments stopped, macy's tracked down dor rain. >> the general rule is parents aren't liable for the debts of their adult children. >> reporter: dean johnson says no one can be held responsible for debts they didn't agree to, especially if their identity was falsely used. >> unfortunately, there are lots and lots of people out there who get those surprise letters in the mail saying, dear, sir or madam, you owe thousands of dollars in debt for something that you don't know about, don't have anything to do with and have never heard of. that's called identity theft. >> reporter: lorraine kept telling macy's she had not signed a credit card agreement, but they kept demanding payment. >> that's when i called channel 7 because michael finney is always at your rescue. >> we contacted macy's and right away a customer service manager

spoke with lorraine. after reviewing the case, they told her she was off the hook. all $19,000 worth of charges gone. >> she said okay. we will not have you responsible for this bill. i said will you in that in writing? >> reporter: they would not discuss the detail, saying only a customer with questions or concerns is best served talking and working directly with macy's rather than going through an intermediary. credit accounts involve confidential information and we respect the privacy of our customers. she was happy she worked with us anyway. >> made me feel real good because i knew i had help. >> michael finney, "7 on your side." >> michael says if you suspect someone else used your identity to rack up bills, you should notify the creditor or the collection agency right away. we posted a link to the state and federal laws regulating debt collections at abc 7 news.com, look under "7 on your side."

san jose could become the first city in the nation to put in what's known as a pot car system. they're carrying passengers at the airport in london. heather ishimaru has this story. >> reporter: this promotional video from the pod car company shows a system at work at london heathrow airport. the elevated electric transit system let's passengers pick a destination and takes them directly there at 25 miles per hour. >> for silicon valley, it's like aet swi packet switch people mo, like the internet for people. >> reporter: san jose is thinking about bringing them here to link the airport with cal train and bart station, light rail, the convention center and possibly office parks and retail centers. the vta just dedicated $4 million for a feasibility study. laura is the sustainability officer for san jose's department of transportation. >> we're going to do an analysis in the next nine months that will give us an in-depth

analysis, is it really ready? and also fees ability financially. can we operate the system? it's not going to put us in the hole. >> reporter: if the answers are yes, the next phase will be designing a system and selecting a vendor. the u.k. based ultrashows its system here, but there are other companies out there. san jose estimates the cost at $200 million, much cheaper than a $600 million estimate for an underground people mover. in october, san jose will host an international pod car conference. the city thinks there is more than a transit opportunity here. the silicon valley could become the global center for commercializing the new technology. >> it's a highly automated system that requires a lot of competing power and we are central for a computer and information technology and the human computer interface. those are the things that silicon valley does. >> reporter: passengers could be riding pod cars as early as

2015. heather ishimaru, abc 7 news. >> imagine this, turning a wind blown island in san francisco bay into a self sustaining urban utopia. up next, the new vision for treasure island. plus -- >> for the price of a good silk blouse, i could fly there. >> a woman's crusade to stop child slavery in nepal. my mercury moment happend right after our wedding, when i realized that along with all the gifts that i'd be getting mercury had better coverage, better service and and we saved hundreds of dollars by combining our home and auto insurance policies. and he got miss pookie.

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welcome back to "assignment 7". cities around the world are looking to islands to solve their expansion, transportation and housing problems. san francisco sees its future on treasure island. abc 7's alan wong has more on a plan that envision has residential utopia in the middle of the bay. >> reporter: in urban architect craig ideal world a diverse population generates its own power on a sustainable island with organic farms. easy access to mass transit, and

no gas stations. he's hoping to morph treasure island into that world. >> you want to put the most density again, right on top of transit if you can. >> reporter: by concentrating people in high-rise towers, he wants to transform the remaining 300-acres of treasure island into open space with hiking trails, wetlands, recreational facilities and farm land. >> we are trying to bring the idea of food to our lifestyles as close together as possible. >> reporter: hartman wants to redesign this wind battered island by angling streets to minimize the pacific jet stream and maximize sunlight. he uses a virtual wind tunnel to see how certain buildings will shield common areas. >> the buildings block the wind from these parks, yet the sun is coming this way so it maximizes the amount of daylight in the park itself. >> reporter: but hartman's new urbanism faces an old problem. cars. the new plans allows for 5,000

more vehicles on the island, possibly adding more traffic to the bay bridge. >> 8,000 more cars on the island i think is going to be crazy busy out here. it's going to feel more like in san francisco. >> reporter: there is only two exit and entry points onto treasure island from the bay bridge. >> they're going to have to create bigger access. that's going to be a real logistic issue. >> reporter: there is a plan to widen the ramp, but san francisco development director jack sylvan also has a plan to encourage the use of mass transit. >> we're providing a series of carrots and sticks to encourage you to not use your car. >> reporter: the stick is a hefty fee for using your vehicle during peak commuting hours. the carrot? a ferry service running every ten minutes to and from san francisco. also a special bus lane on the bridge. the ferry and bus terminal would be a walk away for most residents. >> the intention is to try to

fine tune transportation behavior so that people are encouraged and find it more convenient to use public transportation. >> reporter: and give up the freedom and independence of driving a car. the sparkling skyline across the bay would cost the developer somewhere in the range of $6 billion. if it works, this manmade island will have been transformed into the most environmentally sustainable project in u.s. history. in san francisco, alan wong, abc 7 news. >> a bay area woman lead ago campaign to stop child slavery for more than a decade is now getting help from the government of nepal. as abc 7's cheryl jennings reports, thousands of impoverished girls are getting a new chance at a good life. >> reporter: these young girls are the face of modern day savery, from rural villages in nepal, living in the shadow of the himalayas in one of the poorest parts of the world. >> little girls, little tiny girls, six, seven, eight, nine, who are more or less sold by their parents to work as

servants in the homes of strangers far away. >> reporter: thousands of families sell their girls every year. often because they can't afford to feed them. the parents get about $50 a year. the daughters are sent to big cities to work long hours, most never go to school and many are abused. this video is provided by the youth opportunity foundation in nepal founded by olga murray, a retired lawyer. she went there on vacation more than 20 years ago and fell in love with the country and its children. and she decided to spend her retirement making a difference. >> and i realized that for the price of a good silk blouse, i could save a kid's life. >> reporter: she first started raising money for scholarships. one went to a young man named sam. after college, he became a children's rights activist. he was stunned to learn about the sale of young girls in some parts of his own country.

>> everybody had a little girl working in their house and even the media would not like to take the issue on because the law is imply -- human rights worker. >> reporter: they came up with a plan. if a family agrees to keep their daughter home, olga's foundation gives them a kid, which they can raise and sell for about the same amount they would have received for their daughter. the foundation pays for the girl to go to school. >> the education of girls is the key to the improvement of nepalese society because girls who are educated will marry later. they'll have fewer children, and they're more likely to keep their daughters. >> reporter: the first year, 30 families joined the program. the next year, there were 150 and the program kept growing. last year, olga brought 400 rescued girls to nepal's capital. they put on a huge public

campaign to eliminate child slavery. >> as a result, the government appropriated $1.6 million to educate these girls. >> reporter: so now the government is paying for school and that means olga's organization can spend its money rescuing more girls. >> we are on the verge of eradicating this custom all together in these areas. >> reporter: cheryl jennings, abc 7 news. >> when "assignment 7" continues, a doctor's work that helps free a man from hiv, it's now bringing hope and a new line of research to the bay area. plus -- >> hopefully this will be an equivalent to gasoline. >> from silicon valley, an ambitious car battery project. imagine going 500 miles on a single charge.

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and 110 lightly sweetened calories. more grains. less you! multigrain cheerios. the german doctor who cured an hiv patient was in san francisco this summer. the doctor's stem cell procedure eliminated the virus from the man's body. lyanne melendez has more on the doctor's work and the hope for the future. >> reporter: there is so much

optimism around the doctor's 2007 procedure that the city of san francisco gave the german doctor a proclamation. three years ago, he treated an hiv man for leukemia using stem cells from a matched donor. the donor was also immune to the hiv virus, which meant he did not have the ccr 5 protein. this protein helps the hiv virus attach itself to a healthy cell, therefore, infecting it. but without ccr 5, the virus can't hold on. the new cells from the donor helped the patient's body defeat the aids virus. the doctor says today the patient is hiv free. >> surprisingly, we found 60 days after transplantation was the last time we have ever done hiv in the patient. >> reporter: the case sparked great interest from the california institute for regenerative medicine. the state stem cell agency.

jeff is a board member. >> there is excitement because this is a way in which we can use stem cells to potentially cure hiv. >> reporter: dr. levy is a leading expert in hiv research. >> if we can eliminate that attachment site, which is called ccr 5, the virus will not be able to enter the cell. >> reporter: the stem cell agency is funding two studies that focus on cutting off the ccr 5 gene. similar research underway offers a treatment but not a cure. >> where we can take these cells out through a peripheral blood draw, clip them from the t cells, expand that and then reinfuse them in the hope of giving patients an immune system that is now immune to hiv infection. >> reporter: one of the two stem cells studies will be done at point richmond using the latest technology in gene therapy. >> the goal of both applications is to be ready for phase one

clinical trials at the end of four years. >> reporter: in san francisco, lyanne melendez, abc 7 news. >> a different kind of science now. a team of scientists at ibm research in san jose is tacking what they call the future of the all electric vehicle. abc 7's reporter reports. >> reporter: ibm researcher sally swanson is climbing what she calls the mount everest of energy, working on ibm's battery 500 project. >> this is a sandwich. >> reporter: the goal is to build a car battery that will go 500 miles before needing a recharge. swanson says the battery would revolutionize the all electric vehicle market and do away with many people's recharge anxiety. >> i can get back home if i have to. i can get to my son's house in l.a., whatever. >> reporter: right now this is the best known of the few all electric vehicles in production,

its lithium eye onbattery has a range of about 200 miles. ibm's representative says pound for pound a lithium air battery could be more efficient. the trick is to make use of something light and easily available. air. >> you have ions going in and the air from the atmosphere to come and release external energy to be used to drive your car or any device. >> reporter: the benefits of metal air batteries like this one, have been known for decades. they power millions of small devices like hearing aids. but the challenge has been making them bigger and rechargeable. ibm set aside another two years to test the science behind its battery 500 project. swanson says the recent oil disaster in the gulf just reaffirms the urgency of their work. >> hopefully this will be an equivalent to gasoline and do away with the need for so much

gas in the country. >> reporter: the ibm research labs may not resemble mount everest, but the journey could result in a powerful view. abc 7 news. >> up next, you may not have to travel all the way to napa or sonoma for good wine. some of the best wineries may be closer to home.ssssssss

>> welcome back. when we think about local wineries, most of us have in

mind napa or sonoma. theresa garcia found out some people are thinking of oakland or almeda as the new wine country. >> reporter: row upon row, these may fake you feel like you arrived at a cellar o in wine country, but not so here. >> you look east and it's like oh, wow. there is a scene out there. >> this wine maker is talking about the east bay where there is a growing industry of urban wineries, at least 21 are part of the recently formed east bay isn't they are wine country. this boasts spectacular views of the san francisco skyline. it's housed in a converted 40,000 square foot airplane hangar at the former naval air base. going urban is a much cheaper way to break into the wine industry. >> why own a vineyard if you don't have to? why spend a million dollars on a plot of land you're not sure is going to do great? >> reporter: instead, that's wine makers researched, purchase and truck their grapes in from a

variety of california growers. >> it's beautiful. it's cranberry, sage. >> reporter: for her, it's an art and science she learned growing up. her father, kent, is a founding trail blazer of urban wine making producing zinfandel since 1978. then there are self taught successful wine makers. he's been monkeying around since 1996 and now produces nearly 2,000 cases of wine a year at his oakland based irish monkey cellors. >> i like the fact we're connected to people in our very, very specific community. >> reporter: many customers who come to the tasting room are local. some like the eco friendly concept of not spending as much gas and drive time as it would take to visit the traditional napa sonoma wineries further north. as for quality, plenty of awards speak for themselves. and the grapes, well, bob believes they don't really care where they're crushed, fermented and aged into wine.

>> i think it knows who is making it, but it doesn't know where it's being made. so it's perfectly reasonable for them to be wineries in the middle of oakland or any place else. >> reporter: turning a profit can take time, but these urban wine makers are showing they're willing to take the risk and pour in a labor of love. >> cheers. >> reporter: theresa garcia, abc 7 news. >> if you want more information ourn our program today, go to our web site and look under the news links on the left side for "assignment 7". that's all for this edition of "assignment 7". i'm kristen sze. thank you for joining us. we'll see you back here next time. >> alan: a nightmare in the desert. eight people are killed after a speeding truck slams into a

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