welcome to assignment 7. today on our program, the ghost stories of san francisco's chinatown, the tour that reveals the secrets in one of the bay area's secret neighborhoods. hundreds of holes suddenly appear in a woman's floor. how a tiny bug can do big damage. and a woman with a rare medical condition are hoping that bay area doctors can help. we begin with the dramatic increase of special ed students in california schools. as lyanne melendez explains, the added cost of teaching them could bankruptcy some school districts. >> nobody really saw it coming.

the number of kids like travis with autism. this is home video of travis in 1992 when he was one. jane is his mom. >> we noticed by the time he was a year old, a little over a year old he was>> a study >> a study found that before 1990, nine in 10,000 kids were diagnosed with autism by age six ten years later, it jumped to 44. today, one in 110 have an autism spectrum disorder. >> it was something you had to explain to people all the time. now, he has autism thing. it seems like everybody knows now. >> i'm going to tell you, this is a "d" word. >> whatever the cause, they must be guaranteed by law a free and appropriate education for their kids, congress declared so in

1975, which brings us to the costs of educating all special ed students, because the need of additional services, the federal government is supposed to contribute 46% of those costs but any district will tell you they are luckily to get the 10-15%. take gilroy unified school district. >> our costs in 2002 was about $170,000. so this school year, it's 3 million $200,000. >> they say if the trend continues it will bankruptcy districts. >> it's definitely costly because it requires more personnel and more services. >> as a result more money is being taken from the general fund. and districts are mixed because the federal funds aren't there, not everybody is implement go

the services effectively so many clients ask for non-public schools which are privately operated. o'ryan is an example. most of kids have this syndrome and the cost is $30,000 a year. if a parent of public school student is able to demonstrate that their district cannot provide adequate services for their khiels child but a non-public school can, the local school district must, by law, pay the tuition, services and transportation. director of student services sometimes parents expect too much. >> they are expected to provide the volumes wagon version, we have parents for a lot of different reasons think that they should be getting the cadillac version. >> she is with an organization called support for families. she says these kids deserve a good education and services. >> most people think those kids

with disabilities can't. so why giv we giving them money because they can't. what people don't understand, if you provide it, they can. >> travis spent most of his years in san francisco public schools until his parents felt it was time to go non-public. he is now 19. >> every kid in the district needs more than the budget is giving them. so to say, my kid needs even more, you think it's taking from the other kids. you rather it would come from another source. but, i'm not going to let that go. >> they disagree as the number of autistic kids increases, congress must come to terms with the fact that the demand for services will drain school budgets even more. newest twist in identity theft may be happening as you sit in a coffee shop with your

laptop connected to a wi-fi network. >> nobody pays attention and logs a laptop in. but what happens next should put you on alert. an application can track who is using facebook or allo twitter allowing a stranger to take over your account. >> they can capture the cookie that passes alongite dent information. >> users are surprised. >> not cool. >> how is this possible? while the website may require a password to log in many don't make subsequent transmissions. this customer was logged on fies back but she wasn't too concerned. >> its social network for me. i only use it to catch up with people. >> fire sheep was created by two

seattle programmers trying to wave a red warning flag. >> i wrote it because i was tired with dealing with websites that they were ignoring the problem. >> the free application has been downloaded 8900,000 times, empowering people to become identity thieves. >> anybody that watches this they can watch it. >> fire sheep also looks for account data from twitter and 22 other popular websites. >> also the fact that these websites the social networking websites don't encrypt their traffic throughout. >> something to think about. >> in campbell, david louie, money scope. san francisco's chinatown is the oldest in the nation and with that rich history concerns

of mystery, intrigue and folk lower. dan ashley has♪ more. ♪ >> the full moon casts a glow on the colorful streets of san francisco's chinatown. if the streets could talk, they would tell stories are wealth, greed and racism. >> they believe evil spirits and pagodas helped them. so it would shoot back up. >> the maze of alleyways provides the perfect place to tell ghost stories. >> there is a family of pets that lives in this alleyway. in no one knows why they are here. and the owner of the community says that these pets represent of the reincarnation of the ladies of the evening that were

there. >> and cynthia shares the stories she shares the stories that she heard growing up. some are board ought supernatural. others are haunting tales of lost love. >> they used to solicit the business and behind the red doors were the broth else. >> there was one named anna wong and she was fortunate to meet a she maker and they occupied that apartment upstairs. but then he was called to war. he never came home and anna wong actually died of heartbreak waiting for her husband to come home. you come through this al, there the flower is for her.

>> the street has a lot of garbage and some homeless and there is no reason for the perfume smell but not everyone smells it. >> isn't it isn't just spooky ss but a lesson in history and culture. >> this was invented 1894. they started to put a tea garden into the restaurant. i went to share my stories and my heritage and my family. >> they say visitors have claimed to see and smell ghosts. with or without a ser natural encounter say it is well worth the trip. >> it's nice spooky zbleirs thought was interesting to see, history you normally wouldn't see every day. >> who can blame them.

dan ashley, "abc 7 news". up next, 7 on your side, hundreds of tiny holes suddenly appear in a woman's [ male announcer ] myron needed an mba to turn his technology into a business. so he chose a university where the faculty average over 14 years of experience in their fields... to help him turn a thesis into a business plan and accelerate the path between ideas...and actions. my name is myron sullivan, i'm developing a robotic system to clean up oil spills, and i am a phoenix. [ male announcer ] imagine what a business degree can do for you. with six bay area locations, one is closer than you think.

welcome back. if you have furniture or floors of hardwood, you ought to hear this story. a bay area woman had newloors installed but was unaware of what was happening inside the wood. >> barbara was mopping her dining room floor when she noticed something very odd. a small circle of saw dust right here on her ash wood floor. >> i l real carefully and i had a line of saw dust in my dining room. >> she looked closer and found a tiny hole. there were more holes next to it and still more holes beyond that. pretty soon, she discovered a

hole trail of tiny holes running along the dike room and into her kitchen. >> there must be at least 50, in the corner, hundreds. >> hundreds of holes just big enough to fit the point of a pencil. an exterminator said the tiny holes was a big problem. the floor was infested with a wood eating bug called the powder post beetle. >> bernard lewis is showing us a sample of the pesky critter. he wasn't surprised to hear of barbara aways a's case. he says the bee wills did he deposit larva in hardwood and few years later the larva hatch, chew their way through the wood and pop out the hole. she experienced this firsthand as more and more bugs crawled

out of her floor. >> every day we would look and see another piece of wood with bugs. then you could see the bug peeking out of the hole. they are black and have like two things that stick up. >> the exterminator they must have been inside the wood before the floor was installed four years ago. the professor says that is typically the case. these beetles can bore through theened of the raw wood so they can't get in once a floor laid. >> someone has a brand-new floor put in and problem was resolved several years. most likely i think they came in with that lumber. once the floors are installed and the varnish and all that not going to have insects. >> she asked the contractor where the wood came from.

no one would tell her. that is when she contacted 7 on your side and we tracked down the source. >> the next day, he called me and gave me the name of the mill. >> turned out the wood came from don white lumber company in oakland. right away, the lumber mill stepped up and took action. he says he is not convinced the bugs invest tested the wood at his mill. he says this the only time in business it has happened. finally, barbara received a check for $16,000. and this is the result. workers ripped out the infested wood and installed a brand-new floor, this one made of oak. barbara said the old bug infested floor and it's grateful it's gone.

>> after i called 7 i got action really fast. >> the owner says he doesn't install ashwood floorsit attracs it attracts that type of bug. you'll notice saw bust dust in the floors and beetles do show up not only in floors but also in furniture made from ash and other hardwoods. now, if you would like more information on how to avoid or deal with these bugs, i posted a great deal of information at www.abc7.com. i'm michael finney, 7 on your side. making it tougher for parents to have a child in the hospital, that isn ronald mcdonald's house is a blessing. >> and plus, one woman is growing

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families with critically ill children are drained emotionally and financially when short hospital visits nuiw months. there are places to ease that burden. >> the family has been through a lot because the twin boys were born 26 weeks prematurely because of something called twin to twin transfusion syndrome. >> one is bigger than the other and the other one can be really small because they don't share the nutrients equally. >> they were taken away right after better. >> we didn't know if they were alive. we didn't know anything. >> it was touch and go for a little bit. they didn't want to come back with a yes or no and it was pretty scary. >> they were intense active care

for more than two months, the family is from aptos and jim works in santa cruz at the costco store. >> we didn't know what we were going to do because we were couple hours away. it doesn't seem that far, we kind of go back and forth but we don't know how we would do it. >> a social worker told them about the ronald mcdonald's house in san francisco. three-year-old big brother got to stay there and jim remembers just how high their emotions were running during that awful time. >> i had to go back to work and came in the door, it was just like a little home and they could be safe. >> jim had used all his vacation time to stay by heather's side. then he got major help from the manager at the santa cruz costco who kicked off a campaign to donate vacation time.

>> costco pulled out 28 days so i could stay here. >> jim inspired people at costco to make donations directly to the ronald mcdonald's house. the money goes to help the families and repairs have to wait. it's at least a $40,000 repair job. >> we patched it for quite a few years. now it's reaching the point we can't wait much longer. >> the buckets to catch the drips will have to do it for now. the executive director is all about providing a home away from home. >> with this wonderful cooking space, the volunteer groups coming and prepare meals for our families. it's so amazing. >> having home cooked meals all the time. >> and the support that heather and jim received from other parents at the house made all

the difference. >> we talked to where usual now, s this is where we are and things can turn out okay. >> cheryl jennings, "abc 7 news." >> a nevada woman is hoping doctors in san francisco can help her with a condition several other doctors could not. care oh will lynn johnson reports. >> desperation for them, 600 miles by ambulance from las vegas to san francisco hoping that doctors can do something no one else have been able to -- stop her body from growing. this was tanya at age 16. she was about 140 pounds. this is tanya today, as tall as 6'11" beforel her spinal cord weight. the result of tumor related

condition. >> a neurosurgeon in the type of brain tumor that is putting pressure on the gland causing her to flood her body with growth hormones. >> i hope we can northerlyize the chemicals that activating this activity. >> doctors haven't been able to remove the tumor responsible for her runaway growth. her mother says a new treatment strategy will at least offer hope to control the symptoms. >> we know he is not going to shrink. we're beale realistic, but to have a little more mobility get this growth under control. >> the doctor is currently adjusting her medication and considering an experimental drug being tested. there is possibility of another surgery, using technology thatud radiation to remove the tumor. >> i would like to see her

ambulate to her home and do the things you do in a normal life. >> she continues her work as an advocate of early detection of acromegaly. symptoms that go unrecognized until the condition has progressed. >> if i would have known i have acromegaly five

welcome back. an exhibition of old masters art is on display at the contemporary jewish museum. it's about work stolen by nasas and the family determined to get it back. don sanchez has more. >> old masters hanging in the jewish museum. exhibit is called reclaim, once part of the collection, a jewish

art deal they are the 20s and 30s. >> this incredible person, he entertained and set a tone in amsterdam. >> the nazis invaded, he left and the art stayed. >> jewelry in the back and money and passports and they were on their way. they were on their way to one of the last boats out. >> on the boat, he fell through an uncovered hatch and was killed but his wife was able to row cover a book that showed every painting in the collection. after the war, allies returned paintings to holland, the widow tried to get them back but was rejected by the dutch government. 50 years later, his heirs resumed the request for the art. >> they were hanging in 17 museums. >> after years of legal batt his daughter-in-law reclaimed

200 works but nearly 1200 are still missing. search goes on worldwide. sometimes owners get it back but other times it winds up in court. >> while this is a success story about restitution, there are estimates that are hundred thousand pieces of nazi looted art out there still waiting to be recovered. >> this is why they wanted to share their story. i'm kristen sze, thanks so much for joining us. much for joining us. a sudden shakeup in the government of san francisco. doctors are optimistic for the recovery of gabrielle giffords after she was shot in the head. and new details about the gas

pipeline blast in san