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film maker is giving the homeless an opportunity to share their experiences and to raise awareness about their situation. >> i get articulate, well informed, interesting people with good stories. >> walk up is part of a campaign of volunteers documenting homelessness in america. it's called homeless in the heartland. >> sometimes it's cold and sometimes it's frightening. >> to me, their lives are in danger. >> the grandson is in charge of code enforcement. they estimate there are 250 people on the streets of vallejo and only two shelters. >> oftentimes when citizens call

about a homeless encampment, they are complaining about trash junk, debris. >> it's her job to respond to those complaints and make sure people are following the law. abandoned buildings may offer shelter but as this video provided by the city shows, they also have serious health and safety concerns. >> all has been red-tagged and people are occupying them. >> part of the dealership burned that fire but that has not kept people out. >> there some on water, no electricity, no sanitary facilities. >> cities are obligated by law to follow up on those code violations but they often don't have the cash to deal with the problem. so they rely on community groups to fill in where city services fail. >> we have a mobile food distribution unit that goes out twice a month to distribute food

throughout the community. >> he is hoping it will lead to solutions. it has spawned a movement in vallejo. the homeless is now speaking up. >> homeless people fed up with the way they are being treated are now organizing, even showing up at city meetings. >> sometimes we're not honest about what is going on. sometimes we're not opening the doors that need to be open. >> doug is an advocate for the homeless. >> it's been a vicious cycle. when we evict people from their dwelling and we force them to go from one location to another but we're not providing alternatives. >> he suggests using abandoned buildings at mare island. he agrees it could be a start and they hope it will spark a

dialogue that will lead to a long term solution. >> civil rights and human rights respected. homeless camp and they want access to water, food and housing. of the 188 schools across d as failing ten were in san francisco. seven of those are in the mission district. lyanne melendez reports. >> first year math and science teacher and she understands why everett middle school was targeted by the state as one of california's worst performing schools. >> sixth grade math teacher, they are still learning the times tables and they are still working on division. really targeting that has been one of the goals. >> ten schools in san francisco are on the state's list. seven are in the predominantly hispanic mission district.

>> i don't think we can afford to use an excuse that kids are not learning, don't speak english. just because you don't speak english doesn't mean you can't be intelligent and do really great at school. >> the district must comply with reform measures so some of the targeted schools will close and changes are being made. they are receiving federal dollars as part of the reform task but some schools like everett were forced to replace half of the teachers. >> san francisco unified applied for and received $45 million from the federal government to be spent over three years. this means each of the so-called worst performing schools will receive more than one million dollars. >> to be exact $1.35 million each year. the monies will be used to support changes in the schools. >> hiring of additional teachers providing direct support and

tutoring to students. we have instructional lessons. >> they can review our data in what steps to maximize the results for our students here. >> new computers have also been purchased. >> early results after two of these assessments in fact we're seeing some student growth across the schools in english arts and mathematics. >> but the test given in the spring will tell the state if these reform measures are really working. lyanne melendez, "abc 7 news." a bay area research group is testing a new class of drugs against alzheimer's disease. carolyn johnson has more. >> reporter: for years, researchers have genetically altered mice to give them alzheimer's. it led them to see it as signaling imbalance in the brain

rather an disease of build up of plaque. that has made a new development of drugs they believe can control or even reverse the disease. >> we're still in the early stages with the mice. so it will be several more months before we know how long these mice will do bert and how much better they will do. >> reporter: a researcher says new direct therapy traces back to a discovery we first reported five years ago. when his team altered a protein associated with the production of plaque but instead of eliminating it they produced mice that had plaque in the brains but surprisingly no memory loss. when they were taught to swim to a target. their memories proved to be intact. but they believe it has a normal function in the brain and they suspect the protein they altered may have a role of altering memory function.

>> alzheimer's disease represents an imbalance between the normal processes of memory formation and memory reorganization. literally between normal memory and normal for geting. >> they make compounds that boost peptides in the brain. >> we have developed therapeutic that takes it and move it from the forgetting side of the molecule to the production of the memory side of the molecule. >> in other words, put the memory back in balance. he expected to have data back in several months and they believe they could be ready for human drug trials in about three years >> they have been doing some groundbreaking research. >> research that is getting a major boost from douglas rosenberg. he has pledged more $3.35

million for drug development and for him it's personal. he lost his father to alzheimer's and determined to do something about the disease that effects more than five million people in this country alone. >> you have to try. again you have to try with something new and fresh. >> they have plans to expand his support, he has created a company with a goal of raising and investing $10 million in the research. >> a rare look inside pandora. how the oakland based radio can you enjoy vegetables with sauce and still reach your weight loss goals? you can with green giant frozen vegetables. over twenty delicious varieties have sixty calories or less per serving and are now weight watchers-endorsed. try green giant frozen vegetables with sauce. soft! hard! [ male announcer ] how do you decide between crunchy and soft tacos? why don't we have both?

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of chocolate and raspberry yogurt and only 100 calories. yoplait delights. get rid of the "or." papdora announced plans to go public. only based internet radio site is free and it's changed the way people listen to music. cecilia vega had a rare tour of the headquarters. >> it's like a college dorm room tucked away in a high-rise. led zeppelin is on the walls. devo is on the desk. there is a set up for a rock concert or perhaps a dance party. but even with all this noise, there is something surprising about pandora's headquarters. the place is deafenly silent. don't let the grownup 16th floor entry fool you. that silence is occasionally shattered by workers who break out the ukelele for an office

serenade. >> this is where it starts. >> it's the brainchild of tim westergrand. she former rock band member that a few years ago had trouble financial backing for his internet radio station partly because the idea seemed so out there. radio station based on something the music genome. >> it's kind of like musical dna. it's musical attributes. everything from melody and harmony and instrumentation. we have broken music down. >> translation, they analyze die bie day or mostly musicians by night. they dissect songs note by note to expand the database of more than 800,000 songs. a database that is able to predict music individual listeners will like. >> a lot of people don't know

anything about the genome project but what they know it nails the selection for them. >> there is now more than 80 million registered users. the company is now moving into the car stereo business and it just announced plans to go public and issue more than a hundred million dollars in stock. >> so this is your side of the computer screen. all you need to type in the name of the artist. we'll try frank sinatra. song coming up in a matter of seconds and if you don't like this one, you go to the next one and you get something else. ♪ >> bay area music legend ben torres was skeptical but he later joined the advisory board. >> people like to be surprised. that is what radio used to do.

pandora makes it a possibility. it is music that you have shown that you have like. >> the question for them now is hitting the big time means this new radio will start to sound like the old one. westergrand says never. >> it has to be free forever. radio has been free for decades. ♪ >> in oakland, cecilia vega, "abc 7 news." coming up, a united front. >> no parts department anywhere in the country can be successful without committed volunteers. >> a group of women come together to revitalize their neighborhood park. and a robotic submarine that is dest for one of mary! hey! wow, you look great! thanks! it's this new wish yourself thin program. i just wish it and it happens.

it's probably those fiber one bars you're eating. i know they help me stick to my diet. the bars are 90 calories and the fiber helps you feel full. 90 calories and high fiber. so that's why this diet thing is working. but it's weird because my wish for lorenzo came true. [ male announcer ] fiber one 90 calorie bars. hungry no. results yes. i know it's sort of my weakness. i always keep it in the house.

well, that and boston crème pie, white chocolate strawberries, and mmm key lime pie. yeah, i've already lost some weight. [ female announcer ] yoplait light -- over 30 delicious flavors at about 100 calories. babe, what are you doi?! ♪ [ female announcer ] the yoplait you love, now in a 4-pack. try it today. you want that? you want a warm, super-delicious strawberry toaster strudel yeah but now i have nothing to eat sureou do. hey! you can have the pop tart! pillsbury toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat than listening there'to our favorite songs. there's nothing we love more than listening to our favorite songs. but our favorite thing is eating totino's pizza rolls. but our favorite thing is eating totino's pizza rolls. ♪ we're the kids in america ♪ oh, oh, oh

is a city filled with parks. some are more clean and vie than others and a lot of that is due to volunteers. >> there are 225 neighborhood parks in san francisco. many have been adopted by community groups. but there are 11 in bay hunters point that no one has looked out for until now. >> many of the parks we come to admire,. >> this is support park 92124. she and three other women who live in the zip code have started an advocacy group to revitalize the park. >> they have been neglected. part of it is the usership has been down so it's really not a priority for the city or for

people either. >> the park's director says city government can't do it alone. >> no parks department anywhere in the country can be successful without committed volunteers. >> the park envisions organizing cleanup efforts and raising money for playground equipment and community programs. according to the founders, there are more than 11,000 children age ten or younger living in district ten, most of them right here in bay view point. point. >> it was like part of stewardship. to bring a better quality of life to our community. >> most community groups focus on one park but the expertise of the influential neighborhood parks program they are tackling a dozen. >> they are the biggest things to envision neighborhood parks in san francisco right now. >> it's expected there will be a

multimillion dollar park measure in 2013. parks 92124 will be pushing for a piece of that pie. carolyn tyler. "abc 7 news." there is a groundbreaking project underway to explore a place no one has ever seen before. in alameda a robotic submarine is being built that will dive into the water beneath the ice of antarctica. it will venture in into the last one unexplored frontiers of the planet. >> it's somewhere nobody has been. >> the doctor from northern illinois university is using this one of a kind robotic submarine on a mission to antarctica. he wants to find out how fast the ice sheet is being melted by the ocean underneath and what is causing it to happen. >> it can lose mass and raise sea level faster.

>> it's being built by a group in alameda. they team will use it to study the glacier ice. they suspect the ice is melting from underneath. >> it is the atmosphere that is warming the ocean but it's the heat that is in the atmosphere going into the ocean. >> scientists don't know how fast the ice sheets are mejt so the doctor wanted to find out by sending a remote controlled submarine and high definition cameras around 2500 feet under the ice. but a sub like that didn't exist until now. >> watching it make it happen. >> the engineers are extremely excited and it's a challenge for them. it's been about three years in the making.

>> it weighs 2200 pounds, it will be sent down a bore hole into the ocean. >> when it enters the water below, it has to unfold and go around and take measurements and video and get the data sent back. >> this is where the fiberoptic cables come out. >> by getting it through half mile of ice is at feat. it requires a especially built hot water drill that looks similar to this. >> we gather the snow that is around and put it through steam heating and create very hot water and run it through pumps and then put it down through a rubber hose. >> it will take three days to make a hole for it. it will be under the ice for around ten days sending back information in realtime, but

before it goes to antarctica it will be tested in tahoe. >> this is mini robot and it will keep an eye on the machine. >> in will give us a whole new picture because it's the first time we actually get high definition video footage to see what we're doing he and his team hope it will show them whether earthquake lines connect in lake tahoe. he says the rover's work in an tar at this ka could provide life saving data about climate change. >> i've got two kids and i'm concerned about what we're creating for them to deal with in the future. >> and funding comes from the national science foundation.

go to abc7news.com and look under see it on tv for links to the project. still ahead. google's new feature to figure out what is for dinner a whole

[ mom ] can a little bowl of cereal change your life? i think it can. one of the challenges for kayla being gluten-free is actually finding choices the whole family will love. five flavors of chex are gluten-free, including the honey nut flavor, and that's amazing to a mom like me. as a parent you dot want to have to tell your kids "no" all the time. it's nice for me to be able to say "yes" to something th they want to eat. [ male announcer ] chex cereal. five flavors. gluten free.

>> terry: google has come up with a way to make cooking easier. millions of recipes and don sanchez how to show how to click it and cook. >> it hundreds of chefs in 25 restaurants on the google campus try to come up with interesting food for google employees daily. searching the internet got a lot easier with a single click. >> you have a search button and recipe and click on it. >> take chile you'll get 76 million results and everything. click on the recipe icon and a new world opens up.

>> cooking technique. the time it takes, calorie content. >> slice and dice, that is chef talk. >> so what you envy refrigerator like a whole chicken, say you have a chicken breast, you have a some asparagus. i want to make sure it's under 30 minutes. >> what you exactly ask for. >> it took .13 seconds. >> he says kids will get want to involved too putting in their own ingredients. there is a way to get them to eat broccoli. we re-created items on today's cafe menu. >> if you are looking for something specific you can type this in. >> google is a force could this mean the end of cookbooks? >> i'll continue to have my cookbook selection. >> the only thing it can't do is

cook it for you. that is all for this edition of assignment 7. i'm cheryl jennings. thanks so much for joining us. we'll see you next time. bye-bye. >> alan: another spike in gas prices just as oil companies get ready to announce record profits. new details of congresswoman gabrielle giffords' remarkable recovery. doctors clear the way for something her husband been praying for. and a thousand people sat down for meal in one church on this easter sunday. join us at 5:00.