hello. welcome to assignment 7. today on our program, san jose city councilman that found to say to save thousands of dollars. why he is facing a legal battle to get it done. plus .... >> a locking gas cap may be in your future. >> they are mobile robots. >> and whole new generation of table top technology. let's begin with gasoline selling for such high prices, it's a target for thieves. how can you protect yourself? here is 7 on your side's michael finney. >> check out these headlines

from across the country. they have figured out that getting gas is worth their time. it only turned up a couple reports, but this guy is hearing about it plenty. >> increase in fuel theft, throughout the whole contra costa area as prices rise. >> why is he hearing aboutnl gas? he owns dan's automotive and hardware. they are coming here to buy locking gas caps. they protect more than gasoline. they protect the car. siphoning can do major damage. >> the harm it does to the car with the hose to the fuel tank association once you push it in now you have a mechanic come and remove the hose. >> body shops are picking up business, too. it's not just the inside of the gas tank that can be damaged but also the outside of the car.

>> i live in the city. i was worried someone was going to break in. >> 'the gas cap won't stay cloud and this is the dent done by the thief tried to get in. >> it was $600. >> a lot of money. but the collision center there is a lot of work to be done. >> people will be shocked to hear that figure? >> they get mad. the dent the car with the estimate. the damage was caused by that person. >> so far he has only seen a couple cars damaged like this but with gas prices going up he is expecting more in the future. that brings us back to prevention. >> as things get worse we're going to be do locking gas caps.

once you lock it, they can't spin it out. >> depending on the car locking gas cap goes as much from $15 to $50. now if you knew instantly how much gas you were using or how many pollutants were spewing in the air, would you change your driving habits? laura anthony has the story. u.c. berkeley researcher elliott martin is using a gps device to get realtime information in how he is driving. >> that is going to change people's may have. >> it shows how much gas he is using and whether his car is emitted go too many pollutants. >> you don't want to brake too

fast. >> it's called eco driving. the device martin says is a eco navigate are that has an office in redwood city. >> there is display that has show the driver how much gas they are could consuming and how much carbon they are emitting and also a score card that gives you a score as to how you your driving compares to either other drivers of the same car or perhaps a fleet wide rating. >> when it comes to fuel economy it's not how hard as you push on the gas paled, something as simple as opening a window can make a difference. >> but will a driver make better decisions? that is what they are trying figure out. they have installed the eco navigator in a fleet of cars in the bay area and will study the results. one thing researchers at u.c.

riverside already know from their own survey, with or without a navigator, 95% of drivers say they will adopted eco driving strategy if and when the gas goes to $4.40 per gallon. when we continue. we'll revisit the scene of would than. state's worst environmental disasters. what happened then and what it's like now.

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welcome back. it's been nearly 20 years since a northern california chemical spill turned into the largest inland disaster in state history. it happened when a train derailed near dunsmir. >> with the mt. shasta snow meets the upper sacramento river you'll find one of premiere recreation areas in the country. but there was time when it wasn't this way. in 1991 a southern pacific train

derailed near dunsmir. it created an environmental disaster and crippled the local economy. 19,000 gallons of herbicide poured into the river. it was so toxic it was three days before scientists were even allowed near the water. >> virtually everything we've seen macro organisms you can see without scopes have basically died. >> that was biologist then. >> we were loading up several garbage bags full of dead fish. it was crayfish, it was skull fins. it was aquatic insects. >> reporter: almost every living organisms in 38 miles of the river was dead. >> it's amazing to see how resill yentd and how fast the river can come back. >> it started to recover within a week.

>> mark is in charge of monitoring the site. >> probably within three to four years the fish population were essential recovered. >> he said the long term effects have been minimal thanks to a fishing ban on the river. the fish came back on their own. by 2005 r showed that most fish species had completely recovered. that was the last time fish and game took a comprehensive look at the river. but now an environmental group has been looking into it. >> it's a mixed bag. my main take away from the incident is that the river is fundamentally changed. >> rene is with the river exchange. he has been studying the river and there is evidence that some species are still struggling. >> based on the research that was done it seems like a.m. fill fibian populations haven't recovered. >> the fish and game department says there is no money for more

studying. >> we have a lot of need for research assessment. >> it wasn't just wildlife that died when the river was poisoned. the town of dunsmir suffered, too. businesses struggled to stay open. >> most of them were impacted on the number of visitors that they had for several years. >> reporter: chamber of commerce president says economic recovery took years but things are largely back to normal now. resort owner louie was one of the lucky ones. >> a quick fix isn't going to help us. >> the resort business was in big trouble? >> what worried us was the perception was going to persist. perception is what kills the economy. >> but he says tourists came back within a year. today in this community there is a sense that they got lucky. >> it could have been a lot

worse chlorine, acid, all the things, all the things that are trained along here could have had a more lasting effect. >> reporter: southern pacific merged with union pacific and made changes to the loop along the act is river. >> we've installed a high strength barrier on that curve that we hope should there ever be an incident there again, would help us avoid any kind of tank car ending up in the river. >> they installed a monument, a reminder of what happened here 20 years ago and a symbol of how nature can recover given time. dan ashley, "abc 7 news." >> san jose city council approved a mistake budget in june closing a $150 million deficit. it included severe cuts to city services, layoffs and a pay cut to every city employee with the

elimination of one position and one council member's office turned in into quite a legal fight. karina rusk reports. >> councilmember pete constant did something that is stillverb eight go at city hall. as councilmember in san jose relies on a staff of four to six people. and every council district is served by an administrative assistant except for district one. >> there is administrative tasks everybody. >> has to share and if i have to do a little bit i do. >> it they are crying foul and here is why. the administrative assistant position berns $71,000 a year but the salary for council aides varies dramatically. the four people in his office make from $12,000 a year for intern position to approximately $40,000 for a council assistant.

the union says it's in their contract that administrative duties be performed by someone from the confidential employees organization. they say the position is to serve the residents, not the individual councilmember. >> these are professional people that do have prsm skills. these are also people that have an extensive knowledge of how the city works. >> the councilmember says he was able to save the city about $50,000 last year and has a more flexible staff, better able to go into the community to serve. besides, he says, mobile technology allows him to do his own scheduling and traditional administrative work. they are backing the twice elected representative of west san jose. >> that is an issue we look at every department, what is the best way to get the work done to serve the residents. >> the union is fighting back and in march was successful in

forcing the matter to arbitration. it's arguing the position must be filled and that the councilmember did not follow the proper procedure. >> he did not have the right to unilaterally decide that they don't need to fill or the residents don't need. >> the internal legal process, district one will have no administrative assistant and given the budget crisis, he scoffed at the criticism. >> i'm trying to be as efficient as i can with the tax dollars given to me to run my office. if i'm being too efficient, i don't have apologies for that. >> sheet only republican on the city council and so far the only one to opt out of the administrative help. still ahead, detecting

stroke. >> our system is fast. it can get a diagnosis under 90 seconds. >> thece developed in device den the bay area and how amazing technology is making it happen. and a gourmet finds an experiment turnsúd

welcome back. a new device being developed in the bay area could detect potential deadly stroke in a matter of minutes. carolyn johnson reports it's mostly associated with the navy. >> there is nothing wrong with her. but the engineer might hear it first. >> you can see how the signals got disrupted. that is how sensitive they. >> the head they are set they ag is a scanning device, it's based on technology based on sonar. they are testing pressure waves delivered to the skull. >> we're measuring the slight

variation on part of the major pulse signal and that includes details how an aneurysm may wiggle or wobble. >> this is the start-up company and he says the sensitive device is sensitive enough to pinpoint strokes. >> our system is fast. it can get a diagnosis in something under 90 seconds. >> after settling on the sonar principle he turned to decades from the navy and decades of experience. >> it expands the vessels a sends out a pressure wave through the fluid, through the skill and we pick up the pulse wave. >> they detected the application

at clinical trials african-american that research was completed, they turned the device toward a new target, concussion. in a study with bay area high school football players, researchers from is stanford is identifying patterns associated with concussions. >> like 29 players, we ended up with four with concussions and we were able to develop a trial. >> it raises the possibility of a portable unit that could save lives on the field and off, using technology perfected miles beneath the sea. we have a success story from the east bay. a couple of college people have grown a business that would have otherwise would have been thrown away. cecilia vega has the story. >> there is probably no better place for two young guys to grow

shrums except this warehouse. twant all that way for the owners of back to the roots. >> we started this in his kitchen. >> they were two u.c. berkeley students that wanted to be investment bankers but when professor raised the idea of raising mushrooms from coffee grounds. only one grew and they were too scared to eat it. >> no, we took it to a restaurant here in berkeley and we had them try it first. we had no idea had a they were. we didn't know any different. >> these are no white buttons, they are gourmet mushroom buttons, part of a mushroom kit that sells around the country. >> they stuck a deal with pete's coffee and collects 20,000 pounds a week. as the idea sprouted, there was

one problem, what to do with all their own waste. >> so they tried to sell it on craigslist. it turns out a huge market out there for mushroom soil. >> now they sell that, too. their business and their product don't grow. the next venture, hops that will soon become shitake. >> to show people you can operate a successful company but main focus is create a positive impact in a community. >> it's proof one man's trash is another man's mushroom. and exhibit in san francisco prominently figures not evil people but evil plants. amy hollyfield gives us a look. >> there is evil luishg go can he garden, evil that looks pretty but can kill.

>> if you are plant that is pretty important, don't get eaten. they can't run away and hide and can't fight back but they can put pain and suffering on anyone that eats them. >> all the cruel and unusual pain that plants can inflict on people and animals. so the golden gate park decided to bring the book to life and made a garden of killer plants. >> it's not meant to scare people but remind them how important it is to respect nature. >> some plants like this, this is known for killing socrates. and some curator wanted to get the cocoa plant but the city attorney said no. >> i think it would have been cool if they were able do that. i visited in the united kingdom that was able to grow those

plants with special permission but we're not quite there yet. >> it does tobacco which they have crowned the most wicked plant in the world. >> 90 million people have been killed. >> many have a story like white snake root which is best known for killing ape lincoln's mother. it's these stories that transform the plants to intriguing living creatures with a dark side. still ahead the next generation of mobile technology called mobot. it's in our future.

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robots are all the rage these days and robots that can adapt functions are not just science fiction. they exist in a u.c. lab.

>> you know that line about boys and the size of their toys? well, in a u.c. davis laboratory >> go. >> small size translates to big ambitions. >> that would be cool thing to put a microphone on it. >> the items moving on the table may look nondescript but they could be ancestors to machines in your future. >> they are mobots. >> they connect with other little ones bigger moreaking bie adaptable ones. >> when they move to mobots in your head, it's almost alive. this part moves. this part moves. it's all programmable. they put to them together, these mobots can do all kinds of tasks. >> different ways of sensing the world. different ways of moving.

mobots are a building block, kind of like legos. >> he is in business with the former professor. three years into the project the team has learned through experience that building a mobot is as involved a mechanical discipline as mankind has ever attempted. >> it combines mechanical, electrical and software and computer science together. >> for instance, date of our visit they spent one hour convincing this mobot to stand on its own. and now the courtesy, having stood up it spun around. they envision this as a mobile camera platform for going to inaccessible areas. >> if you know there is somebody under rubble and you can assemble them together that can

crawl down to a small area. >> give it ten years, transformers? transformational, we shall see. >> what the difference between you and a bunch of ten-year-olds? >> not much >> wayne freedman, "abc 7 news." >> that is all for this edition of assignment 7. thanks so much for joining us. we'll see you back here next we'll see you back here next >> alan: lawmakers play he braeme game on who calls threat downgrade. another psychiatric technician is assaulted.