an abandoned u-haul, a high speed chase, a smashed up police car and a damaged east bay business all part of an overnight attempted robbery at a motorcycle and jet ski shop. thank you for joining us this midday. i'm natasha. >> and i'm kristen sze. abc 7 news reporter amy holyfield is live in front of east bay motor sports. >> reporter: police say they were planning a double crime that they stole the u-haul and then they planned to load it up with stolen goods. but police stopped the plan in

progress. it was almost 3:30 this morning when hayward police got the call an alarm was going off at east bay motor sports that someone had broken in. when they arrived they found three men in a stolen u-haul. >> the suspects tried to get away and they purposely rammed one of the police officers in their vehicle. >> reporter: the officer inside the car was okay. the officers on scene did not draw their weapons. >> the officers didn't feel that what had happened at that moment justified the need for deadly force. they rammed the vehicle, rammed the police car and continued on. >> reporter: the chase ended at 12th and willow in hayward. the two passengers ran away, but the driver was peacefully taken into custody. they got him when he tried to help the other two escape. >> they had slowed down to let one passenger leave, flee on food, and then the second passenger, but by the time the driver tried to do the same the officers were right there and stopped the vehicle. >> reporter: so now they are looking for those two passeng s

passengers. the driver they took into custody is a 20-year-old oakland man. he's now in jail being held on a number of charges including stolen vehicle, assault with a deply weapon and evading arrest. amy hollyfield. carrie fisher being remembered for a legacy that stretches far beyond the role that sent her to superstardom. over60. elizabeth has more on the iconic career. >> the legendary role of princess laia, may have defined her career. >> may the force be with you. >> but carrie fisher was a star in her own right starring in dozens of movies and tv shows, writing books and sharing with the world her struggles with bipolar disorder and addiction, telling abc's diane sawyer it was her mental illness that fueled her drug abuse. >> i am mentally ill.

i can say that. i'm not ashamed of that. i survived that. >> so many people are now coming out about their bipolar disorder. and it's -- you know, it's a beautiful legacy. the fact that she was so honest about mental illness is just incredible. >> reporter: it's a battle she chronicled in her semiautoby graphical nominal "postcards from the edge" turned into a movie. in her novel "wishful drinking" later became a celebrated one-woman show on hbo. >> while the place i've arrived at in my life isn't precisely everyone's idea of heaven, i could swear sometimes if i'm quiet enough, i can hear the angels sing. >> reporter: fisher's funeral arrangements are still being finalized. we're told her daughter is handling those plans. her brother in the meantime tells us expect her memorial service to be a celebration of her life because carrie always liked a good party.

abc news, new york. >> abc 7 news entertainment reporter don sanchez spoke to fisher when she was performing her one-woman show "wishful drinking" in 2008. she called her rant about celebrity, growing up with famous parents, also struggling with mental illness stage therapy through comedy. >> i'm not saying that you should care about my story any more than, you know, anybody you know. you shouldn't. no. but i want to make you laugh. otherwise my life isn't funny and that's not true and that's unacceptable. >> roxy theater plans to screen her film "postcards from the edge" on new year's day. a light saber tribute will glow in honor of the beloved princess laia. >> we first told you about the news of her death with an abc 7 push alert. in other news, the san jose man suspected of stabbing his wife to death on christmas eve is preparing for his first court

appearance scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. officers arrested him after the deadly attack on saturday. he remains at the santa clara county jail. police found his wife suffering from at least one stab wound when they responded to a 911 call on north tenth street. she died after being rushed to the hospital. a nasty crash in san jose on 280 leaves two people hurt. the remarkable thing is they survived at all. all lanes are open now after they were shut down this morning. abc 7 news reporter matt keller is live with more details on this wrong-way crash. matt. >> reporter: this looks bad. horrific. possibly tragic. een the chp when officers arrived on the scene said it looked like a possible 11-44, that means fatality. but within the crushed metal a

voice gave hope to san jose firefighters. someone inside this red chevy aveo was alive. >> i can tell you what one of the fire captains told me because when they got here and they heard the lady in the red car screaming, they took that as a good sign, oh, she's screaming, you know, she's still alive. >> reporter: majority of the damage was on the passenger side of the vehicle, so the driver's compartment was pretty well intact. so we had a little extrication to do on the driver and we were able to get her out of the car. >> reporter: the driver identified as a 24-year-old liverpool woman, the driver of the gray volkswagen golf was blamed for the crash. she lives in north hollywood but originally from cupertino. officers say she was driving the wrong way northbound on southbound 280 around 3:30 in the morning when her car smashed into this red chevy. then the golf was rear ended by a white bmw. the driver of the bmw wasn't

seriously hurt. and look at this, this is the volkswagen's engine sitting in the middle lane of 280. the fact this happened is actually a good thing. that saved the driver from potentially suffering more serious injuries or even death. >> when pieces come out like that, it actually helps disburse the kinetic energy, so it's actually getting rid of that energy hopefully before it gets to the driver or the passenger in the vehicle itself. >> by the way, wanted to let you know that the wrong-way driver was arrested for a felony dui. and that was matt keller reporting. a homeowner in sausalito is awaiting repairs this morning after it was hit for the second time in eight months by a truck. take a look, this is new video abc 7 news shot this morning at the home located near lower crescent drive and main street. you're looking at a cement truck on its side in a hole where the garage should be. >> when somebody says you have a giant concrete truck that's fallen into the hole that used

to be your garage, you know something pretty serious has happened. i'm going to be glad when 2016 is over because it hasn't been a very good year. >> that's because in april a 50,000-pound asphalt truck smashed into their garage. yesterday's work was an attempt to fix the damage by first building a retaining wall, but as the cement truck driver unloaded materials, the ground gave way and the truck flipped. new this morning, a minora has arrived in north beach in san francisco to replace the one somebody stole over the weekend. it's a gift from engineer of minora to go on the east coast. when he heard about the missing minora, he boxed up the seven-foot 50-pound replacement and overnighted it to san francisco. it will be set up just in time for the fifth night of hanukkah. if you ride muni in san francisco, you may notice fewer buses lately and longer wait times. it's because drivers are calling

in sick. according to the city control r controller's office, muni has the second highest rate of absenteeism in the city. that's costing taxpayers $42 million a year. in fact, so many drivers called in sick last week that muni was forced to cancel some routes altogether. an employee is quoted in the report saying drivers call in sick because their vacation requests are denied. san francisco's vaness improvement project is getting some money from the federal government. $75 million has been awarded to the sfmda to cover some of the costs of the transportation upgrades. in the end bus lanes will run down the center of vanness replacing sewer lines. work is already started on the project. it's expected to be completed in 2019. cal tran will offer additional trains and offer free rides on new year's eve starting at 8:00 p.m. saturday cal train will offer -- they will stop charging fair e fares for passengers. the agency is also adding four additional southbound trains

that operate after midnight. the trains will leaf the caltrain station in san francisco starting at 12:45 a.m. new year's day after the fireworks show along the embarcadero. open alcohol containers are banned on trains after 9:00 p.m. and muni will also offer free rides on new year's eve from 8:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m. on new year's day. all service will be free, both buses and cable cars. extra buses are scheduled. a new effort is underway to see if restoring mt. tamalpias west peak is feasible. an 18-month study is underway for project managers to look at potential costs of design alternatives for the old air force station. the west peak of mt. tam was used as a look out until 1980 to search for soviet war planes, also short range nuclear missiles. the study received $450,000 in funding from the marrin municipal water district and the nationalconservancy. there are still lots of

tickets available for the bay area's only bowl game. tonight, 19th ranked utah battles indiana in the foster farms bowl at levi's stadium. the yutes finished third finishing 8-4. 6-6 hoosiers playing in consecutive bowl games for just the third time in school history. kickoff is at 5:30 p.m. we need to get a bay area team back in the bowl games, right? all right, find a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll have -- actually, lost money? still ahead, how the copper coin cost our country $45 million. yikes. and president-elect donald trump takes to twitter first taking aim at president obama and then thanking himself. we'll tell you why right after the break. good morning to you, boy was it frosty. upper 20s in valleys. how about 57 in half-moon bay thanks to easterly winds. as we look at emeryville, wow, sunny and

new this morning, the man accused of shooting and killing nine black parishoners at a south carolina church last year says he will not call witnesses or present evidence to try to spare his own life. 22-year-old dylann roof is acting as his own lawyer in the sentencing phase of the trial. roof faces a possible death sentence for last june's mass shooting. one of the shooting's survivors is expected to testify during this phase, which is set to start next tuesday. happening today, a former east bay drug dealer serving a

35-year sentence will be released thanks to president obama. 48-year-old daryl lamar reed had his sentence commuted by mr. obama in august. reed was 20 years old when he was found guilty of distributing crack and cocaine in 1990. he was a kingpin in oakland's crack cocaine drug trade. as part of the reagan's era's war on drugs, reed got a stiff sentence of 35 years in prison. we spoke with a former alameda county deputy district attorney and he said he is shocked and that reed should stay in prison. president-elect donald trump is thanking donald trump. in a tweet mr. trump posted this tweet giving himself credit for the surge in the consumer confidence index. on the campaign trail he promised he would improve the economy and protect american jobs. the president-elect is going after president obama again as well. mr. trump says in this tweet, he's doing his best to disregard the many inflammatory president obama statements and roadblocks. thought it was going to be a

smooth transition-not. pennies cost more to make than they're actually worth. according to "the wall street journal," the cost to make each one-cent coin went up to 1 1/2 cents in the fiscal year that means the cost was 1.43 cents. government lost $45 million on the penny after minting about 9 million of them this year. the future of crime solving is now. after the break, the way an amazon echo may unlock a murder investigation. and autonomous driving at its best, coming up, the technology that helped a tesla avoid a highway crash. and how about a live look outside right now. just a gorgeous shot from santa cruz. you see clear skies, very chilly though especially along the coast.

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good morning to you. live doppler 7 right now showing the clear conditions. and we're going to look at some cloud cover that will increase over the next couple of days. but if you want to enjoy the sun, the milder temperatures, today and tomorrow are your days. as we look at live doppler 7, notice the lack of cloud cover around california. that's a big ridge building in. and that means fair skies, sunshine and milder numbers. in fact, we're talking a little bit above average 57 half-moon bay. i said before those easterly winds, but with the calm conditions, boy, we were cold this morning. everyone recovering nicely. 52 in mountain view, the golden gate bridge, wow is that pretty with all the blue sky. the wind though whipping at the coast. those are the easterly winds, but the calm winds overnight really allowed temperatures to bottom out 20s and 30s. so we're looking at nice day

today. and compared to yesterday already seven degrees warmer in oakland, hayward, mountain view. so we've got a jump start on our warming in the sierra nevada low 40s, blue canyon in the 20s at truckee. so unfortunately mother nature not helping out in this department right on through the end of the year. but the short term milder days today and tomorrow, cloudier and cooler for the weekend. we do have a slight chance of some showers, nothing too impressive at this point. overnight lows once again cool, not as cold as this morning in the 30s. about 40 in san jose, 47 half moon bay, tomorrow should be the warmest day. we take a dip on friday. the clouds increase. and then by saturday new year's eve we're cool and there will be showers around the bay area. check it out. by 2:00 in the afternoon sonoma county, maybe clear lake, but look what happens. kind of fades away. sunday, new year's day, we're dry. and as we go into the holiday after that on monday, we've got

the cold air in place. in fact, we've got northerly winds and with any moisture at all, we could see maybe a few flakes in the highest elevations. but new year's eve looks pretty good. look for 50s early in the day. by 4:00 upper 40s. it's going to be cold. and we will look for the dry conditions most likely. right know forecast model still not quite sure whether or not we're going to squeeze out any precip. upper 50s to low 60s. the accuweather seven-day forecast, we've got nice, fair, mild days today, tomorrow, increasing clouds and then for new year's eve maybe a possible shower. but otherwise it's really into the holiday 2017 that we could get some cold showers and maybe a dusting on mt. hamilton. >> 2017 i can deal with, just give us a dry midnight on new year's. >> looks like it, cold though. >> the words dry and new year's eve usually don't go together. but we'll take it. thanks. the amazon echo suddenly at the center of the debate in privacy. police have obtained a search warrant for the tech also called alexa, they're hoping the home

digital equipment might reveal voice evidence in a murder investigation. police seized the device and then asked amazon to hand over a history of voice recordings related to the device. and the echo itself does not store user questions, but amazon servers do. police think that their suspect may have activated the device inadd vei inadvertently and that a recording might solve the climb. amazon declined to comment on the specific case but released a statement saying the company will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand. video posted on twitter shows how a self-driving car is expected to operate. take a look. this is the view from the dash cam of a tesla model x in the netherlands. seconds before those two cars in the foreground crash, the tesla's warning system beeps and the car slows down. you see that? according to the news site electric, the upgraded autopilot technology in this particular test lab uses radar instead of cameras. the radar bounces underneath and around nearby vehicles to predict collisions.

sacramento has applied to the federal government to allow driverless cars to be tested on its streets. according to the sacramento business journal, supporters say this would secure the capital as a key contributor to technology. the application asks for fully autonomous vehicles to be tested throughout downtown and across i-5 to the sacramento airport. if approved, sacramento would be one of the first urban areas in the country to test fully driverless cars. >> all right. especially with the traffic we have here absolutely a driver's dream. no backup, smooth sailing. >> uh-huh. after the break, the unbelievable luck captured on % video by one new york city uber driver.

coming up -- coming up on abc 7 news at 4:00, a popular tahoe ski hotel closed until further notice after a fire. the investigation into what happened. and a work of art turns into a war over politics. tonight on abc 7 news at 5:00, the first of its kind memorial and the private turmoil over a public space. okay. if we all could be as lucky during our commutes as this one particular uber driver in new york city. >> this is incredible. take a look at this. noah foreman claims he achieved the unimaginable, unbelievable, while driving through manhattan earlier this month he hit 240

consecutive green lights. and this is the proof. you're looking at his dash cam. now, obviously this happened in the early morning hours. this was not in the middle of rush hour. hardly anyone else on the road. he says green lights in the big apple last anywhere from 45 to 120 seconds. that also may have helped, i think. >> yeah. and of course i think maybe the traffic lights in that case may be timed more efficiently than ours. >> especially along our embarcadero. i don't think they've ever done that. every single red light on the way down. >> we would know something about that, right? >> that's going to do it for now for all of us here at abc 7 news. thanks so much for joining us. w "who wants to be a millionaire?" is coming up next. the news continues online at abc7 news.com and we'll see you again at 4:0

>> you know, there's a famous saying. "it's not what you know. it's who you know." but whoever said that clearly never watched this show. this is "who wants to be a millionaire." [dramatic music] ♪ hey, everybody. welcome to the show. you guys ready to play "millionaire"? all right. our first contestant approaches life with a "go with your gut" mentality. well, that should help her on this show. from baltimore, maryland, please welcome melissa loftus. hey, melissa. how you doing? >> good, thank you. >> welcome. >> thank you. >> come on over. welcome to "millionaire." >> thank you. >> miss "go with your gut." >> yes. >> give me an example. >> uh, so, this year, i made a huge career change. i was a teacher--a middle school english teacher for 13 years,