cardboard no. delicious yes. welcome to "assignment 7". today on our program. >> made those maps that now show we are in a flood zone when, in fact, we are not. >> "7 on your side" tells us how a bay area homeowner got around his bank's demands after refusing to pay for coverage he didn't need. also the story of local young ll woman who couldn't watch young children miss out on treats, so she opened up a special bakery and -- >> i'm out in the field 200 days a year. it's a good life. >> what 40 years of study taught one man about butterflies and climate change. we begin with a new investigative tool for fact

checking in the governor's race. mark matthews tells us how the california watch site works. >> reporter: pick a statement by meg whitman on a particular issue. say the budget. then compare that statement with what jerry brown has said on the same issue and you've got a big part of what political reporting is all about. if you take every quote or promise or statement made by both candidates and run them through a whole batch of search tools, now you got the basic idea behind politics verbatim. >> it's a way voters can use it as a voter guide. it sorts by issue, like abortion, the budget, welfare, environment. >> reporter: mash is editorial director of california watch. he showed off the site which also sorts candidates' statements by geography. are they telling voters in orange county the same things that they are saying in san francisco? >> there will be a way for people to do a search and sort for inconsistencies with this

site, definitely. >> he says his staff is scourine political coverage of the candidates's speeches, on their campaign sites. >> on top of that, what we're trying to do in our next implementation is make it easy for other news organizations, news partners, as well as the general public to upload video, audio files to us so we can transcribe them and put them directly on the site. >> he envision this is as a 21st century voter guide. our political analyst doesn't think so. >> because voters have better things to do with their lives. they actually have lives, unlike journalists. >> this professor says journalists and political scientists and bloggers, they'll be the ones that find the site very useful. and they will report on what they find. >> and that's how it will ultimately get to your average voter. >> the professor also believes there may well be unintended

consequences. >> one unintended consequence, particularly with these two candidates, is it may push them to be more vague than they already have been. >> we have seen that in this governor's race from both sides. politics verbatim is flagging statements that are deflected or vague and they are adding another flag for flip flops. you can find their site by going to our site at abc 7 news.com. -- we are a media partner with california watch and will be contributing to politics verbatim. in the news room, mark matthews, abc 7 news. >> east bay man never thought his retirement savings could be threatened all by a map. it has to do with his flood insurance, something thousands of homeowners are being forced to purchase by their lenders. "7 on your side" michael finney has the story. >> reporter: robert's backyard is bordered by a shallow creek. his house sits 13 feet above it, as do all the other homes in this carefully planned complex.

so why is robert being singled out? >> they overlaid those maps, it now showed we are in a flood zone when we're not. >> reporter: new flood maps by fema shows robert's house sits just inside a flood zone. although his neighbor's homes do not. as a result, robert's mortgage lender required him to buy flood insurance. >> all together, we were billed $3,150 for flood insurance that we don't need. there is absolutely no risk. for it to even get up to the walking path outside our house that, would mean the entire area behind us would have to flood. >> reporter: city planners agree there is no reason to single out robert's home as a flood risk. >> the home is specifically required to be out of the flood plain. >> reporter: she says the city required the developer years ago to build all these homes above the flood plain. that includes robert's house. this whole complex was engineered specifically to meet

fema's standards with all homes at least one foot above the flood plain. fema signed off on this 13 years ago. >> the entire tract was taken out of the flood plain, including all the land that all the homes were on. >> reporter: she says nothing has changed since then to make it a flood risk. but the new fema maps ignore all of that, and she says they aren't quite accurate. fema laid area photos over hand drawn flood maps and the two don't quite mesh. >> it's nearly impossible to match them exactly perfectly. >> reporter: she says incorrect lines push robert's house in the blue hazard zone here when it's in the safer white zone here. none of that mattered to robert's lender, chase bank. >> it's a sorry state of affairs. you should be able to talk directly to the people that are billing you, number one. that's first and foremost. it's frustrating. >> reporter: he sent the bank all the planning and fema documents, no one responded. so he contacted "7 on your side"

and we contacted chase. the bank said it must abide by the latest fema maps, right or wrong. it's up to robert to appeal to fema. not the bank. since robert holds a federally insured mortgage, and the map says he's in the hazard zone, he must buy flood insurance. >> unless we can get fema to prove they made an error drawing the maps with their new technology, there is really not too much we can do about it. >> reporter: robert would have to hire an engineer, file an appeal, and persuade fema its map is wrong. he figures it can cost thousands of dollars and possibly take years. so robert took a quicker and more drastic approach. >> i had no choice. >> reporter: he liquidated a big portion of his retirement tos af the entire $69,000 mortgage on his house in one lump sum. now there is no federally insured mortgage, so nobody can

make robert buy flood insurance. >> paying off the mortgage was definitely not in our retirement plans. but it was either that or i be paying $3,000 a year for flood insurance premiums when i don't need flood insurance. kind of changed the way we're looking at a lot of things as a result. but it would be easier to just pay for it and be done with it and get it out of our hair. >> reporter: there could be help for homeowners caught up in the bureaucracy like robert. following our investigation into inaccurate fema maps, one congress woman introduced sweeping flood insurance reforms. one would give them access to a consumer advocate to fight these charges. homeowners would also be given five years notice before being forced to buy the insurance. michael finney, "7 on your side" >> researchers could provide new hope for people who suffered spinal cord injuries. >> brownies, starts, pies. >> a new bakery that takes the

cake and more. coming up, a young woman is opening her own gluten free bakery. how she was inspired by the people she loved. [ female announcer ] back to school means back to busy mornings. that's why i got them pillsbury toaster strudel. warm flaky pastry with delicious sweet filling my kids will love. plus i get two boxtops for their school. toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat. and these arthe ones you'll love on a tuesday. pillsbury crescent dogs, with just a few ingredients, you have an easy to make dinner. they're crescents r the other 364. try them tonight. yeah. you must really care about him. what? no, no. you gave him fiber. no she didn't. this tastes way too good to be fiber. they're delicious crunchy clusters with sweet honey and half a day's worth of fiber. you care about my fiber? not really. i care about youfiber too. i have for while.

ok, carl. why don't you care about her fiber? hey carl. [ male announcer ] fiber one. cardboard no. delicious yes. rich fudge over a warm, chocolate brownie like nothing you've ever had before ready made sweet moments in the refrigerated section

[ female announcer ] within every pillsbury package is the power to enrich a child's mind. collect pillsbury double box tops for education today. >> a young east bay camp counselor has become an entrepreneur at age 22. she was inspired to create her own recipes and business after watching people she loved suffer from health problems related to gluten intolerance. the story from abc 7's cheryl jennings. >> i have created all my own recipes. i converted a lot of recipes from regular recipes to gluten free. >> reporter: 22-year-old katy taylor is running hard between her booming gluten free catering business and the new gluten free bakery she's about to open. >> cookies, brownies, tarts, pies. >> reporter: it's called anythinglet cup cake shop. >> i threw out so many cupcakes. it was hard to figure out what the blend needed to be.

sometimes it would turn out too soft or sometimes too hard. >> reporter: she chose gluten free desserts and breads because of her mother's illness and the kids she met while a counselor at a camp in livermore. they suffer with seal yack disease. their bodies can't tolerate gluten, a protein in certain grains. here are some of the stories that broke katy's heart. >> if i have too much of the gluten, i could have kidney failure and stuff like that. >> i get really sick. >> what kind of sick? >> i'll be in the bathroom all night throwing up. >> i usually get really bad migraines. >> they found out because i was breaking a few bones every year. >> i can't eat wheat, oats, barley or rye. so sometimes i'm at a birthday parties, i can't have the cake. >> on a gluten free diet, it changed my health. >> reporter: katy's parents, elaine and barry taylor, started the taylor family foundation in the east bay 20 years ago to

help children with life-threatening illnesses. now their daughter is helping sweeten their mission as she begins her own career. >> this ability to be able to just turn it on and focus on the rest is really exciting. i see a great future for her. >> how could a 22-year-old put this together? >> reporter: she had a learn how to cook gluten free food and it was extremely important for her to make it taste really great. >> i use fine brown rice flour. but other than that, i can't tell you anything. it's top secret. >> reporter: cheryl jennings, "assignment 7". >> there is new hope for people with spinal cord injuries. for the first time, a study shows our own antibodies help repair nerve damage. >> after christopher reeve advocated for more research on spinal cord trauma. >> research today is not speculative.

it is not a waste of money. it is the only way to relieve suffering. >> reporter: researchers at stanford school of medicine think they know how to help nerve cells in the spine grow. for some unknown reason when the nerves in the spine are severed, fatty substance called myelin sits there, worthless. not allowing the nerves to reconnect. >> as those nerves start to grow back down the spinal cord, they can't, because the myelin is acting like a stop signal, blocking the ability to regenerate. >> reporter: this doctor is the lead researcher. he says antibodies have limited access to the brain and spinal cord. so he and his staff injected antibodies directly into mike, which then cleared that fatty substance. >> at any time theoretically that one could remove the myel myelin, it would turn it into a

go sign. >> reporter: so preparing these antibodies in a lab may lead to a new way of repairing damage, from stroke and spinal cord injuries. the problem is our bodies need myelin to help nerves make connections. now researchers must figure out how to make the antibodies distinguish between working and worthless myelin. abc 7 news. >> first of its kind place built in the bay area for veterans, by veterans. the special gym helping rehabilitate america's war wounded. and a butterfly effect with 40 years of counting these species are telling one man about climate change. ♪ ♪ ye ♪ look, they fit!

oh my gosh, are those the jeans from last year? how'd you do it? simple stuff... eating right...whole grain. whole grain? [ female announcer ] people who eat more whole grain tend to have healthier body weights. multigrain cheerios has five whole grains and 110 lightly sweetened calories. more grains. less you! multigrain cheerios. so i grabbed my son a juiceed dbox...and left the cooler lid. open. twenty minutes later, all our hot dogs were gone. and so was most of the car. my mercury agent, steve, told me the car was covered. i switched to mercury because i saved hundreds of dollars on my car insurance, but it was the service that really made me a happy camper... er...ex-camper. call 888-4-mercury or visit mercuryinsurance.com to get a fast, free quote and start saving today. [ wind howling ] [ male announcer ] it balances you... [ water crashing ] [ male announcer ] ...it fills you with energy... and it gives you what you're looking for

to live a more natural life, in a convenient two bar pack. this is nature valley... delicious granola bars made with 100% natural ingredients. nature valley. 100% natural, 100% delicious. a first of its kind facility

in the bay area is helping injured veterans rebuild their health and fitness. as abc 7's carolyn johnson reports, the vets had a hand in helping to design the equipment. >> reporter: marine sergeant (r. pierce refuses to let his wheelchair keep him down. in fact, he builds muscle lifting it up. 18 months after being severely wounded by a road side bomb in afghanistan, pierce is working out again. not in a traditional gym, but in a first of its kind outdoor rehab facility at the v.a.hospi. >> it's nice. most of the gym equipment that would come is made for normal people that can walk, stand and move around. this is really good. >> reporter: the equipment was designed with the input of disabled vets returning from iraq and afghanistan. integrating angles that allow wheelchair athletes to perform

high impact exercises. >> i can't really get onto anything where i can do good presses. a couple of these machines help with that. >> it needs to be a little further out. give me a longer range. >> reporter: adrien was an engineer with the company that's building the prototypes. >> it provides a better challenge to really do something well for these guys, men and women. knowing the outcome is for life function, i do want to do a good job. >> reporter: he says the daunting challenge came from younger veterans like sergeant philip who missed one form of exercise more than any other. >> i was a big runner and since then, i haven't been able to work on my cardiomuscles. >> reporter: a wheelchair treadmill was part of the solution. >> i can build up a sweat. >> reporter: but they designed weight machines with high speed motion to produce aerobic workouts: they believe the outdoor location is providing

psychological benefits. this is the director of occupational health. >> i was really inspired to learn that component of the athletic self and the mental health self. those two come together. when you're outdoors and exercising, people feel better. >> reporter: the v.a. is hoping to refine the prototypes and potentially expand the concept to other facilities across the country, helping others. >> i wouldn't mind going up again. that was really nice. the only limit it is my imagination. i can imagine just about johnsorter: carolyn johnson, abc 7 news. >> everything you ever wanted to know about butterflies is common knowledge to a local man. as abc 7's wayne freedman reports, his study offers a fascinating perspective on climate change. >> i've been doing this so long that it's second nature.

>> reporter: if dr. arthur shapiro of uc davis had a dollar or even a penny for every step of every hike he's taken in the past four decades, he might be one of the world's richest men. then again, maybe he is already. >> i'm out in the field 200 days a year. it's a good life. >> reporter: his commodities -- >> here is a caterpillar. >> begin like eggs and hen they blossom. there is little about butterflies that he can't explain. >> that's a male, court ago female. she left. >> reporter: why do they break up? >> irreconcilable differences. >> reporter: he's the butterfly equivalent of a census taker. he expected to find 11 different species along the american river in the sierra foot hills. >> it's the commonnist thing here on the american river bikeway. >> since he began his counting trek, suburbs have replaced wilderness and the butterflies changed with the landscape.

>> as sievization spreads, the natives withdraw and the weedy ones come in. and it's the natives that he is most interested in because butterflies are what scientists describe as indicator species. they don't live very long in the wild. they have many generations over a relatively short period of time. that makes them perfect for the study of climate change. >> you believe that climate change? >> i know claimant change is happening. it's not a question, i would have to not believe -- an idiot that it's not happening. >> reporter: causes aside, he knows this, that after all his years of collecting and cataloging of butterflies, the patterns are changing and fast, along with climate triggered biological timetables. as the world warms, he has noted that some species now appear as many as three weeks earlier than they did three decades ago. >> is it the end of the world? >> no. it's the end of the world as it was when we were kids.

it's not the end of the world. >> reporter: no, change is a constant and normal state of affairs, he argues. the absence of change would be abnormal. so says the curious scientist with no political agenda, except finding the truth. have we hit our 11 species yet? >> nope, only eight. 11 was just a guess. so whatever the truth is, the truth rules. that's the nature of science. >> reporter: from the sierra foot hills, wayne freedman, abcc 7 news. >> up next, a visit to the country's largest orchid farm. how it's cultivating more than beautiful flowers.

♪ [ female announcer ] yoplait's real fruit and the goodness of dairy... gives you a little slice of happy. and happess comes in 25 delicious flavors. explore them all. yoplait. it is so good. the yoplait you can't get enough of. now in a four pack. layers of brownie and caramel, dipped in chocolate ready to eat sweet moments new from pillsbury. in the refrigerated section

[ female announcer ] within every pillsbury package is the per to enrich a child's mind. collect pillsbury double box tops for education today. you don't love me anymore do you billy? what? i didn't buy this cereal to sweet talk your taste buds it's for my heart health. so i can't have any? if you can deprive me of what can help lower my cholesterol... and live with yourself. right. mmm, i worry about your mother. cry herself to sleep every night over my arteries, but have yourself a bowl. good speech dad. [ whimper ] [ male announcer ] honey nut cheerios tastes great and its whole grain oats can help lower cholesterol. bee happy. bee healthy.

>> if you have an orchid plant in your home, it most likely came from the nursery in the salinas valley. karina rusk looks at how they grow and how they're changing lives. >> reporter: andy knows in business what is beautiful is not always profitable. in 1997, he cut flowers from -- cheap cut flowers from south america flooded the market. he need to do sow new seeds. his solution? potted orchids. >> i saw this is the one. >> reporter: he wanted this once exclusive bloom to be affordable for all. he hired a doctor to help create what is now the largest orchid nursery in the united states. the science of mass orchid production literally begins in a bottle. >> we have auger water, mineral and we have table sugar in there. you have to get the

concentration right, otherwise the orchids will either not grow or grow slowly, which makes them more expensive. >> reporter: it can take two to three years to move the plants from sprouts to store shelfs. at any one time, the nursery has 10 million potted orchids in production. the nursery stands 75-acres. the orchids are shipped from washington state to washington, d.c sharon ching is a frequent buyer and sells them at pin nursery in san francisco's flower market. the variety ranges from the exquisite lady slippers to more familiar ones. >> 70 different colors. yellow, orange, red, i can remember that many. >> reporter: it turns out andy is not just passionate about orchids. he is using his success to help young people do something he never did. go to college. six years ago, the nursery owner started a foundation. each year the nonprofit selects

18 students who have the grades for college, but not the money. carla is one of this year's recipients. she will use her $40,000 scholarship to attend san jose state university. >> i'm going to be able to live my dream to go to college and study nursing and be the first one in my family to go to college. i'm very proud of that. >> reporter: so far, the orchids totaling more than $3 million, which means the nursery is cultivating much more than potted plants. >> he is growing dreams, actually. and the dreams of these students and what they hope to accomplish in their lives, i think, is going to be tremendous. >> reporter: at age 75, andy knows his business decision more than a decade ago is paying unexpected dividends. his goal is to give away $100 million in scholarships. >> i'm looking at many kids to

send to school. >> reporter: that is why these orchids are even more beautiful than they first appear. in salinas, abc 7 news. >> if you like more information on the stories on 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 eric thomas. thank you for joining us. >> next as 5:00, fire in the south bay destroys a home. the search is on for a missing teenager. why her parents believe a myspace friend is to blame. and good news for the health of a dog who was