even if it shakes. like mine. >> reporter: through her tears the mother of britneytany maynard told reporters her daughter wanted to die at home in the bay area. instead maynard and her family moved to oregon because ending one's life is not legal here. >> we'd left friends we'd left our supportive network. yet britney and i felt appreciative of her legal right in oregon that she could decide when enough was enough. >> i certainly feel as sick as i am. >> reporter: the 29-year-old maynard was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer on january 1st of last year. brittany, her husband and parents moved to oregon so she could qualify for what's called an aid in dying medication, one she used on november 1st. >> recognizing that we had to move to oregon she felt was a huge injustice. and so i made a promise that i would do what i could to help this effort.

>> reporter: now maynard's family is standing behind lawmakers who authored sb-128, the end of life options act for terminally ill adults. >> facilitated by a pharmaceutical prescription only after the strict criteria are met. >> reporter: tim rosales is with californians against assisted suicide. >> if you look at the oregon data, they're choosing this because they say if you're being a burden or they fear losing control. it's not suffering. it's not pain. >> i hope to pass in peace. >> reporter: sb-128 would allow those with six months or less to live to choose to end their life with a prescription medication. at least two doctors must confirm the terminal diagnosis. >> an exclusive new committee has been created to take a look at the costs that drive the university of california. its members are only two. the governor and the president of the uc system. abc 7 news education reporter

leanne mendes is live from campus with the details. >> reporter: well, you know, some are calling this the committee of two. others are asking, can't they discuss this over breakfast or lunch? do they really have to form a committee? but the reality, ama, is that these will be three-however meetings. an opportunity to have a very frank discussion with a quick timeline. the first meeting will be this monday. if anyone thought governor brown would change his tune regarding uc funding, they were wrong. brown once again suggested uc should tighten its belt. >> we fund what we fund. and then you manage as best you can. >> reporter: uc president janet nepal tawn low reminded the governor the formula for funding the uc has changed. today they receive $460 million less from the state than they did in 2007. this is what nepal tawn low told the uc board of regents hours before. >> we cannot continue to do all of these things without

additional revenue. we are already educating thousands more california students than our current level of state funding supports. >> reporter: this back and forth started in november when the regents voted to have the option to increase tuition by 5% every year for five years if the governor didn't add more to the pot. in january, brown said he would give uc what he had previously pledged, $120 million more to uc's budget. that extra money comes from prop 30 approved by voters two years ago to raise taxes to fund education. but napolitano said the university needs an additional $100 million over what brown is offering to maintain the academic quality of the uc system and to enroll more california students. however now both brown and napolitano, the sole members of a select advisory committee, will twin meeting in private to try to exchange ideas and find a common ground. their first report will be presented to the regents in

march. uc will meet its goals toward implementing new recommendations to address sexual violence on campus. they include establishing care offices on each of the ten campuses where a full-time trained staff member will provide crisis intervention to students. implementing a two-team response model. a team will review all sexual misconduct reports and a second will focus on policies community relations, and intervention. and launching a new statewide systemwide website for students to get quick access to campus resources. this afternoon 38-year-old matthew messier was sentenced to five years' probation and 66 days in jail. prosecutors say he befriended an 82-year-old neighbor in pleasanton, then got her to put her $1.5 million estate in his name. >> i did not anticipate that he

would get any jail time. and to me, the fact that the judge gave him that was wonderful. he is a police officer and he knew exactly what he was doing. >> messier faced ten felonies including grand theft. prosecutors reached a plea deal with a lesser charge of lying during a bankruptcy case because the victim's failing health kept her from testifying. >> we didn't get a chance to tell our side of the story. because the district attorney dismissed all the charges regarding elder abuse and elder fraud. >> messier will begin his jail sentence on march 25th. he could apply to become a police officer again after his probation is over. meantime, two state firefighters were fired today and another resigned due to the misconduct at a cal fire training facility near sacramento. the investigation began after cal fire battalion chief fleming was charged with murdering his girlfriend, a former escort. that led to accusations that

other firefighters had sex with the woman on fire trucks. the accusations were false. but the investigation uncovered other misconduct, including cheating on promotions and unauthorized use of state vehicles. 13 other cal fire employees face discipline now. a car crash on highway 101 today in redwood city sent four people to the hospital. it happened on southbound 101 near broadway avenue at 2:30 a.m. police received calls saying a silver suv was blocking one of the lanes. the driver and passenger had gotten out to move it off the highway. a good samaritan stopped to assist. that's when a honda carrying two people crashed into the suv. they sustained minor injuries. the two outside the suv had major injuries. the driver who stopped to help was unharmed. sebastian johnson is out of the hospital. he's the 4-year-old boy who miraculously survived a 230-foot fall from a bodega bay cliff. the santa rosa press democrat tweeted this picture of him heading home.

sebastian was reunited with the firefighters who rescued him. he suffered head injury that put him in a coma and fractures. doctors expect sebastian to make a full recovery. ebay is cutting 2,400 employees. that's about 7% of its workforce. ebay says holiday sales were weak and revenue growth looks sluggish. the cuts will take place in all parts of the company. the san jose-based company says it plans to spin off or sell the enterprise unit which develops online shopping sites for brick and more tan retailers. ebay has been planning to spin off its pay pill business in the second half of the year. scientists haven't identified the mystery substance that's killed and sickened hundreds of birds. they did rule out that it's polyisobutelane, synthetic rubber. the mission changed from a rescue operation to a recovery. some 200 birds have been killed. more than 300 birds are being cared for by the international

bird rescue in fairfield. state fish and wildlife says a special team from monterey will go to the rescue center tomorrow to begin performing necropsies. the hayward fire department arrested a man, they say he was drunk when he set his own apartment on fire. authorities had to rescue a cat from the man's apartment. officials say the man lit a newspaper outside his home. those flames spread inside. all the people in the adjoining units got out safely on their own. the firefighters gave the cat oxygen, it is expected to be okay. investigators say the intoxicated man set the building on fire by accident. an update on the breaking news on abc 7 news at 4:00. that edgewater new jersey apartment complex fire still burning out of control. it's now up to five alarms. firefighters from at least five surrounding towns have joined local crews to knock it down. this you're looking at is a live

picture across the river from new york. the fire broke out a couple of hours ago. massive flames have consumed at least three of those residential buildings so far. residents were evacuated to a nearby school. so far, there have been no reports of any injuries. well as we continue tonight, did the bay area's tom brady have an unfair advantage last weekend? >> the effect of a deflated ball, a quarterback may handle it better. coming up the deflategate controversy, and why the ball may no longer be in bill belichick's court. the downside to an up economy and why that bottle of wine is going to cost a few extra dollars. >> and what may be the ultimate drop test. an iphone gets launched from space. huh, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. yeah, everybody knows that. well, did you know that playing cards with kenny rogers gets old pretty fast? ♪ you got to know when to hold'em. ♪ ♪ know when to fold 'em. ♪ ♪ know when to walk away. ♪

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the national park service is going to great lengths to restore the landscape at point reyes, removing nonnative animals and plants. wayne freedman is live from marin county with the story of a new message. >> reporter: point reyes national seashore is 71,000 acres. even the national parks service will admit there are nonnative plants and animals in the area. the plant they're most worried about now is hemlock which is poisonous to humans but turns out it's not poisonous to every species. hence this unusual solution. in a way it fits the profile for low-key government experiment. an abandoned ranch. an electric fence. then you read the warning. you see the goats. and realize, this might not be as sinister as it seems. what does it take to do this? >> a lot of patience. >> reporter: brandon dock is anything but a government agent. more like a modern goat herder

working a government contract. watching 2 hundred of them slowly eat away nonnative plants on the point reyes national seashore. hemlock in particular. >> we've tried mowing, burning. we don't want to try spraying. so this is an experiment. >> reporter: when the goats arrived here tuesday afternoon, the field was filled with this stuff. now already that one's almost gone. the plan, to move the fences and the goats all the way down till they munch their way through 12 acres. >> the theory move them from one field to the next field to the next field? >> yep. >> for 2 1/2 weeks? >> yep. >> you're okay with that? >> yes, actually i am. >> reporter: 2 1/2 weeks in one place might seem like a long time for most 23-year-olds. brandon grew up with a country lifestyle and likes goat herding. he describes his accommodations here as almost luxurious. >> luxury as in most people that do it are typically out camping in a tent with a campfire, cans of beans.

>> reporter: so it's all relative. the point reyes national seashore returns this land to nature. brandon dock gets to camp out enjoy the views. and the goats? what could be better than gazing hung really at that next tasty field of hemlock? the latest in the controversy surrounding the bay area's own tom brady as the nfl investigates whether the new england patriots used underinflated footballs in their victory over indianapolis. new audio has surfaced of the patriots quarterback expressing his like of deflated footballs. it came during an interview in 2011 with a boston radio station. >> when gronk scores like his eighth touchdown of the year he spikes the ball and it deflates the ball which i like that i like the deflated ball. >> former 49er jerry rice tweeted about the controversy. 11 of 12 balls underinflated? can anyone spell "cheating"?

>> reporter: so-called deflategate heating up. nfl sources telling espn in sunday's game that has the new england patriots super bowl-bound, 11 of the team's 12 game balls were underinflated by two pounds per square inch. >> the softer football is easier to handle and perhaps would lead to increased offensive efficiency for patriots. >> reporter: while on offense each team uses their own footballs, which are allowed to are dbed slightly. then i they have to be inspected and approved by a ref before the game. after that, in alterations allowed. late in second quarter of sunday's afc championship game the indianapolis colts reportedly grew suspicious. >> intercepted! >> reporter: following this interception colts linebacker d'qwell jackson gave the ball to a member of his team's equipment staff. soon after, the ref switched out the ball and the patriots went on to win 45-7. >> we don't know who deflated

the balls. if it was the patriots belichick obviously looks for every angle. >> reporter: cheating allegations are nothing now for belichick. in 2007 the league fined him for videotaping an opponent's sideline signals during a game. now new accusations with super bowl xlix less than two weeks away. >> patriots will be on the field sunday taking on the seattle seahawks, regardless of what the punishment is. >> analysts say if the patriots are punished it would likely be in the form of a fine or they could have to question of up one of their future draft picks. doctoring footballs isn't new. tampa bay quarterback brad johnson admits to paying $7,500 to get the balls right when he played against the raiders in super bowl xxxvii. coming up at 6:00 our own former 49er sports anchor mike schuman will do a hands-on experiment to show you how important air pressure is to a football. berkeley police are trying to figure out who left skinned

wild boars in front of two vegetarian restaurants. the dead animals were discovered monday morning in front of herbivore's and flacco's. neither restaurant serves meat. berkeley's downtown ambassadors removed the one from herbivore's before police arrived to investigate. officers did see the one outside flacco's. >> nothing that i've seen or experienced in the almost 20 years that i've been here at the police department. i'm not sure if there is some specific intent behind it, if someone was trying to prank somebody. >> that's like -- i don't know offending the people that eat here. trying to make fun of them because they don't eat meat. >> police turned the skinned boar into animal control. they're checking surveillance cameras to find out who did this. president obama wants to make it easier for college students to apply for financial aid. >> 7 on your side's michael finney is here to explain how that might work. >> pretty big news last night. if you've ever had to fill out

those financial aid forms you know it can be very discouraging. many college student hot qualified for aid never applied balls the forms are too complicated. the president wants to eliminate 27 questions on the form known as fasa, free application for federal student aid. government agencies use it to decide whether students qualify for grants and loans. the president says the form should stick to simple questions about income and expenses, not taxes and savings. >> a federal judge has ruled dish network is liable for millions of illegal telemarketing calls. the judge ruled dish and vendors are liable for more than 57 million calls dating back to 2007. the calls were made to numbers on the national do not call registry and on the company's own do not call lists. the ruling means the federal trade commission can go to trial to seek penalties against dish. 7 on your side reached out to

dish for comment but did not hear back. third week of january. do you know what that means? many of us are giving up on our new year's resolution to lose weight and get into shape. check-ins at the gyms surge in early january driven by lofty resolutions. by the third week, we've had enough. however, trainers say there is a way to stay motivated all year long. >> you want to pick an action, pick one action. don't pick a result, don't say my new year's resolution is to hues ten pounds. saw, my new year's resolution is to walk an extra 1,000 steps a day. >> so choose an activity set the amount you will do and the result should come naturally. >> and set the barlow. >> there you go. >> i like that. >> that's what i've always done. it's time to check weather. we're hoping for some rain eventually. >> we are. we may not have rain but we have fog maybe.

>> we do indeed. dan, i liked your comment about setting the barlow low. right now no rain, absolutely clear out here. we are going to be seeing some fog towards the morning hours. and there is a chance of some rain coming up as well. take a look at live doppler 7 hd. we'll talk about what's happening right now. really just no moisture on our radar at this hour. here's what's going to show up. the fog from the central valley bill spill back in. offshore flow will bring patches of dense fog toward the north and east bay valleys again tonight. i don't think it's going to be as widespread. so we'll call it patches of dense fog. stunning sunset right now from you're emeryville camera. as we look, official sunset time is 5:21 p.m. upper 50s san francisco, oakland, san jose morgan hill. our highs today got up into the low to mid 60s. fairfield was 57 degrees. here's where they're hurting for snow. up in the tahoe area.

and right now there's only a slight chance to a chance of showers next week. no snow on the horizon, unfortunately. temperatures in the 50s from santa rosa to livermore. here's our view from our exploratorium cam. what we're looking at is patches of dense fog overnight. warmer weekend with records possible. slight chance of rain next week. at least there are two days where we may be looking at some moisture moving in. for the time being, it's high pressure that's going to really keep the rain away. but we will see high clouds tonight and thursday morning coming over the top of that ridge. and those high clouds will prevent the fog from becoming too widespread. the ridge expands this weekend. temperatures go up. with rising temperatures you might be tempted to head to the beach. if you do go, watch out for the surf. high surf advisory starts friday at 6:00 a.m., runs until sunday 6:00 a.m. waves are expected over 15 meet. that means you may get caught off guard. never turn your back on the

waves. you know the drill. long-range forecast, computer models are wishy-washy but there is a slight chance of some rain next tuesday and wednesday. we'll keep close tabs on it for you. and as we take a look at your morning, we will start out with the high clouds patchy fog dense in spots wheni do you wake up, allow extra time for the commute. mid to upper 30s in our coldest spots. afternoon highs will look like this, south bay 66. santa cruz san jose, cupertino, 68 in gilroy. peninsula, mid 60s redwood city and san mateo. sunshine, downtown san francisco, south san francisco 64. north bay, you're in the 60s. 66 napa santa rosa. 64 san rafael. towards the east bay 67 oakland hayward, castro valley inland areas you'll be running mild as well. 65 in livermore. 64 in concord. seven-day forecast does show you the warmth building as we head

towards the latter part of the work week and into the weekend. low 70s by friday. saturday we bump up the temperatures at the coast and bay. and then records are possible on sunday. it's looking like we may be setting more than a few records because the records are actually pretty low for this time of year. low to mid 70s on tuesday of sunday. a little dip in temperatures monday. only to bring on cooler weather tuesday, wednesday. and at least a slight chance of some showers. i'm just the messenger. i wish could i tell you it's going to pour. i just don't have that kind of forecast. enjoy the warmth. >> we put a lot of pressure on you. thank you very much. water resistance take on this a whole new meaning with this metal. how a new super surface lets water bounce like a ball. the new san francisco zoo and why it

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a team of scientists created

a metal so water resistant, droplets bounce off. researchers from the university of rochester used high-powered lasers to sculpt the surfaces of platinum titanium, and brass. the materials self-clean because water droplets gather dust particles before they slide away. other efforts to produce this effect rely on coatings like teflon. this is actually the metal itself, not a coating. the hope is this technique could be used for medical or sanitary purposes. the grocery delivery startup instacart will begin delivering food from petco. the expanseion is available only in the bay area and boston. wine lovers may want to stock up now. the cost of wine is increasing thanks to a stronger demand and improved economy. silicon valley banks surveyed nearly 600 west coast fineries and found fine wine sales are expected to grow up to 18% this year. the rise in prices comes despite three consecutive large harvests in the north bay wine region. as we approach valentine's

day, matterheartbroken? san francisco zoo will help you get the perfect valentine for your ex. adopt a hissing cockroach in the name of a former love and a scorpion option. don't worry, the gift will be sent anonymously. for anyone who hasn't experienced bad romance, the zoo has several charming residents who could benefit from adochings, including an emperor penguin. to be clear adoption packages do not include any live animals. your donation will be used to support the zoo and its an mays. do you don't get to ship the scorpion. >> no no. >> what's the point. >> still ahead, we've all dropped our smartphones and worried about what would happen. >> but wait until you see what happens when the phone

introducing the new subway "simple 6 menu". six of our best six-inch subs- like the italian bmt and tender turkey breast! with a 21-ounce drink and a bag of chips for just $6 every day. it's value made simple. subway! ♪ from. coming up on abc 7 news at 6:00, how much difference than a deflated football make?

abc 7 news sports anchor and former 49er mike schuman is here to follow up on that nfl scandal. a dilemma in the skies tonight. you'll hear from the fireplace police on how to spare the air that we all share. there's mike schuman's story and now here's the spare the air story. what will they go after next? and a new way of treating glaucoma that could save your eyesight. a promising procedure using smartphone technology. >> those stories and more coming up in half an hour on abc 7 news at 6:00. this what cans condition an iphone stand video blows others out of the water. >> or from the edge of outer space as the case may be. >> watch as this iphone6 in a protective case, falls 100,000 feet through the stratosphere in subzero temperatures at a speed of up to 70 miles per hour. >> california-based company urban armor gear created the video to show the effectiveness

of its military standard iphone on this wednesday night, the breaking developments right here in havana, cuba. an historic day, and what's coming next. tonight, new details inside the talks between the u.s. and cuba. the first disagreement here. as both sides push for diplomatic ties. the first time since the cold war. the mystery russian spy ship that pulled into port here. the u.s. coast guard tonight now patrolling off florida for cuban refugees. and of course, the american cars, right here from the 1950s. back home, before the super bowl, the super scandal tonight. the new report, what it reveals about those footballs. did the patriots cheat? the new storm coming. will it turn into a nor'easter? ginger zee is standing by. and the royal mess tonight. the headline breaking now about the newest sex scandal. what they've revealed. and the prominent americans caught in the middle of it.