good morning. thank you for being there on this friday, march 17. i'm natasha, reggie and jessica are off but look who's here. >> i'm cornell barnard. >> are you sure it's friday? aren't you usually in here on the weekend? >> we just wanted to pull him in a little bit earlier. >> normally working nights. >> last time we worked together was saturday or sunday. >> you remember that. >> sort of.

sometimes. >> happy st. patrick's day, everybody. >> happy st. patrick's day. absolutely. love your tie. looks great. hi, everybody. let's talk about a fabulous friday. we've got a little bit of fog developing right now. the usual spot, santa rosa up at the airport right there so it's bleeding into windsor and all of your surrounding neighborhoods around sapt like guerneville, possibly sebastopol. quite a difference from yesterday. look how dry it is at the golden gate bridge. 42 to 52. dress a little warmer but don't keep that coat on along. upper 70s around the bay and inland at 4:00 and an awesome evening, 57 to 66. how about everybody where else? it is extremely quiet on the roads this morning. the only issue we have, this one popped up a few minutes ago, southbound 280 just past state route 92 in the san mateo, a vehicle hit a deer. hopefully the deer is okay but you can be slowed down just a little bit as you head through that area.

here's a live look at emeryville, wide open, westbound 80 as you head towards the maze so really quiet start. i will prove that with drive times coming up next. developing news, shots fired on a south bay freeway. chp is investigating a shooting on highway 101 near story road in east san jose. >> abc7 news reporter amy hollyfield is live on alum rock avenue where the driver of the car that was hit by bullets pulled over. amy. >> reporter: yeah, they exited here at alum rock. the passenger was suffering from two gunshot wounds. they were in a black acura. the driver was okay. the 17-year-old passenger survived and was taken to the hospital. this was on northbound highway 101 in san jose about 7:00 last night. the driver told investigators the two men were wearing black bandanas and were in a white dodge charger. they pulled up next to the acura and started shooting. investigators haven't said whether this was a random or targeted shooting. highway shootings have been a

huge problem in the east bay with about 80 of them reported on the freeways in the last year and a half. officers say most of the shootings are targeted and that they are hard crimes to solve. other drivers don't realize what is happening, so they don't usually have witnesses and the shooters obviously have a quick get away. they're already going very quickly down the highway. no arrests have been made in this case. they did shut down a section of the freeway for about five hours getting it reopened at about 11:40 last night. live in san jose, amy hollyfield, abc7 news. now on the peninsula, two men are under arrest accused of ramming their mercedes into a police car. the mountain view police department posted this photo on its facebook page. it shows the scene at the in and out parking lot. police say their detectives were investigating an uptick in auto burglaries in the area when they spotted the two men. when police tried to talk this them, they quickly tried to leave and then crashed into the police car.

one detective was hurt but is expected to be okay. now to a dental deception investigation on the peninsula. san mateo county sheriff's office says this man, joseph hirsch may have been posing as a d dentist and treating patients inside a can carlos office building. here's katie marzullo with details. >> therm dental laboratory and you got people walking in and out with no white labs, no type of anybody that looks like a dentist. >> reporter: daniel wall works at an auto shop a few miles away. he wasn't surprised when sheriff's deputies showed up on tuesday. >> very obviously a chemical burning smell, building locked down, certain people walking out at certain hours. >> reporter: the san mateo narcotics task force served a search warrant at the business after a three-month investigation. inside, they say they found drugs and equipment used the make drugs. they also arrested joseph

hirsch. the commander of the ntf say they suspect hire was working as a dentist without a license. >> his business is making products for dentists but we did find a crude dentist's office with a chair, x-ray machine and other tools that dentists commonly use. >> reporter: the department of dentistry is conducting its own investigation. linda had her suspicions about the business but never imagine third-degree. >> it's scary. i don't want that in our neighborhood. >> reporter: hirsch is facing felony drug charges. this man is in the santa clara county jail accused of human trafficking. sheriff's deputies arrest quanzell butcher and a 19-year-old woman after connecting them with the trafficking of a 17-year-old girl in san jose. investigators say they promise to reunite the victim with family in southern california.

tensions running high between the u.s. and north korea. secretary of state rex tillerson says all options are on the table if pyongyang takes action on south korea or other forces. tillerson toured the demilitarized zone, the most heavily armed border. he also met with more than 28,000 u.s. soldiers at a u.s. base near the dnz. it is the first trip by the new trump administration's senior diplomat as he makes a tour of japan, south korea, and china. happening today, president donald trump will meet german chancellor angela merkel for the first time. the two are expected to hold discussions on nato, the islamic state and the ukraine. white house officials say this will be the most important visit with a foreign leader since he took office. merkel's visit was supposed to happen on tuesday but it was dlid by the winter storm that slammed the northeast. also happening today, the palo alto unified school district is slated to vote on

whether to recommend new names for two middle schools. officials say david star jordan middle school and terman middle school were named after people who had leadership roles nlts eugenics movement which advocated for selective breeding. a school district committee had said it would cost about $200,000 to rename both schools. earlier this week, opponents told the board it would cost too much. others who attended the schools said the name changes would erase their past. 5:07 now and the family of sierra lamar is marking five years since her disappearance. last night, family and friends turned out in fremont to honor her memory. the money raised from the event will go towards the ongoing effort to find her body. she vanished near morgan hill, just 15 at the time. garcia torres is on trial for her murder. big milestone at uc berkeley. the board of regents has unanimously approved the first woman chancellor.

carol christ is the former president of smith college. the 72-year-old came out of retirement back in 2015 to return to cal as an administrator. she acknowledges the university faces tough times ahead but christ is optimistic about the future. >> never been in a place so deeply committed to widening the doors to educational opportunity. >> the regents are expected to approve a 20% cap on the number of higher paying out -- higher paying out of state students that will allow more california students to enroll. christ will receive the same compensation as her predecessor, nearly $532,000 including housing. some of our earliest commuters are waking up to some of the coolest temperatures. mid to upper 40s in our inland east bay neighborhoods, the warm spot would be pittsburg at 51 and mt. diablo 58. oakland, hayward, san carlos, pacifica at 50, san francisco 52, look up in the hills at los

gatos. 59 degrees, the rest of us around 45 to 49 degrees but we are going to rebound quickly today. check out your activity planner on this st. patrick's day. going to the beach, best day for warm sunshine. family time, going to be out and about? maybe taking a bike ride with the kids, warm and dry and a light breeze if you're going to be out on the water. here's a look from sutro tower. you can see how clean the air is. tree pollen high, uv index upper 60s at the coast, low to upper 70s at the bay and mid 70s to 80 inland. tonight's temperatures, upper 40s to mid 50s. so milder than this morning. traveling around the state, 76 in sacramento, 79 in l.a., 94 in palm springs, 61 in tahoe, rain and know tomorrow, a slight chance of showers sunday into monday, moderate snow tuesday and then light snow wednesday. i'll talk about our rain coming up next. we are very quiet so far

this morning. one new issue, just a whether i believe beyond where our traffic flows go but northbound i-5, we've got a vehicle fire reported. i was just looking at some flows on another map. it does look like we've got at least a mile backup so i'm guessing that is blocking one lane while fire crews respond to that but if you are heading towards the bay area from tracy, you're doing okay. westbound 580, tracy to dublin, 29 minutes, that's in the green. westbound 4, antioch to concord, about 14 and southbound 101, san rafael to san francisco also looki looking good at 17 minutes. minor issue heading northbound on 101 in marin county. the first attempt didn't go so well, but persistence finally pays off for crews demolishing this damaged bridge. this damaged bridge. and a murder

businesses destroyed in last month's fire in san francisco's chinatown are getting financial help from the city. $70,000 in grant money will go to help the business owners relocate, restock the shelves and buy new equipment and pay employees as well. each business will get $10,000. the money comes from the city's small business disaster relief fund. well, after some issues with the announcing that they have successfully destroyed a third of the condemned pfeiffer canyon. take a look at the wrecking ball bouncing off the bridge earlier this week. the 6,000 ball was just not

hitting the ball with enough force. a crane specialist eventually corrected the problem. it has been a month since the bridge was closed after both support pillars and the bridge deck were damaged by landslides. after the bridge is demolished, it could take as long as a year to rebuild it. state democrats have a plan to raise gas taxes and vehicle fees which would add up to $5.5 million in extra money for transportation projects. now lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are pushing for a measure to ensure those funds aren't used for anything else. the author of the measure says giving voters the opportunity to secure new revenue for transportation projects only may lessen the blow of tax and fee increases. >> i think voters are justifiably wary of new taxes unless they have that assurance that they know exactly what they're paying for. >> the tax increase plan would raise gas taxes by 12 cents per gallon phased in over the next three years. it would also increase vehicle registration fees by 38 bucks. 5:14 now and in today's

"gma" first look a terrible mystery unfolding in colorado after two teens are found dead on the side of the road. >> police have identified the boy and girl but now they're not saying how they died. here's abc eva pill grum. >> reporter: in this morning's "gma" first look, officials are on the hunt. >> it was not a murder/suicide. we are investigating this as a double homicide. and so we are aggressively, aggressively investigating this case. >> reporter: around 8:45 a.m. sunday, a 911 call reported driving by two bodies lying on the shoulder of the road. those bodies later identified by authorities to be 15-year-old derek benjamin grier and 16-year-old natalie partida. this morning, both families speaking out for the first time. >> he was always just so loving and he was my best friend. >> and she walked into her room, she took your breath away. >> reporter: the sheriff's office is not yet commenting on how the two friends were killed.

they are awaiting autopsy results which could take weeks and we'll have the latest on this investigation coming up at 7:00 a.m. with your "gma" first look, i'm eva pilgrim, abc news new york. in new york city, the accused killer of a veteran emt who died after being run over by her own ambulance has been charged with murder and driving under the influence. 25-year-old jose gonzalez was escorted by police. he told the crowd he was innocent. police say he was high when he stole ambulance. good samaritans tackled the suspect after he crushed. oroyo was a 14-year veteran of the fire department. joining forces this morning against sexual harassment of women in the military. nude images were being shared through a closed facebook page for a group of marines. peninsula democrat jackie spear unveiled a bill in washington,

d.c., yesterday that aims to ban u.s. troops from sharing images of other service members without their permission. attorney gloria all red joined spear on capitol hill. >> it's essential that we take immediate action to support them and change the law and to defend our country and then are treated so shabbily is absolutely outrageous. >> several marines face investigation for their possible roles in that scandal. 5:17 now. police will be out in force tonight seeking out st. patrick's day revellers who get behind the wheel after maybe having too much to drink. several -- i don't want to talk over him. several bay area police agencies including oakland and san jose planning sobriety checkpoints like this one tonight. officers will be on the lookout for any drunk drivers so you have been warned. a great option, aaa is going to be offering its free tipsy tow service for those who want to get home safely. take a look at this, guys. three things that probably go

together on st. patrick's day. live bands, beer, and, yeah, eggs, scrambled, fried, whatever you want. all these people are lining up in denver at lodo's bar and grill for its annual kegs and eggs event. thousands of people show up for this. and they stand in line like last night, 8:00, that's when they started lining up. anyway, doors open in denver in about an hour for the event, and it should be lots of fun. lots of beer on tap and lots of eggs. i'm thinking like thousands of eggs, probably. >> friends, it is 6:18 in the morning. what do you think, mike? you're all for it? >> i like beer. >> you got your protein. you got your, you know, carbs. >> stay hydrated for a warm day. >> yeah. >> absolutely. i like green eggs. i like ham. i like beer. but i don't necessarily like them all together. but yeah. how about this? the rest of the country may be green with envy with our weather today. mostly sunny and warm. that's the only time i'm going

to use that one all day, i promise. cool weekend, more clouds than rain, string of stronger storms next week. clear in most neighborhoods until you get up around santa rosa, some fog. not going to see much green on this map and where you do, it's going to be splotchy so here we are at 8:00 tomorrow morning, mainly up in the north bay. maybe a little drizzle for the rest of us. you can see at 2:00, we're just mainly cloudy with isolated shower here and there. you can see during the day and into the evening hours saturday, the best chance is going to be right along the coast and some of the higher elevations up in the north bay as we head toward sunday morning, pretty quiet and then most of sunday is going to be even quieter than what we're going to deal with on saturday as the storm track moves to the north but see that little push of green coming in, that's the first sign that next week's going to be a little bit wetter than the weekend. all right, so today, we could get near 80, not 90, 80 in some inland areas, mid 70s around the bay, mid to upper 60s at the cost, little bit cooler this weekend but not as cool as next

week with that wet weather starting especially wednesday, thursday, and friday. we will enjoy the sunshine while it lasts. i do want to take you up to marin county on our traffic maps. we've got a couple issues there. neither one causing any backup yet but we've got a disabled vehicle northbound 101 sitting in the left lane right now. so chp on the way to the scene and not too far from there, westbound highway 37, ramp to southbound 101, we had a solo vehicle collision, sounds like the air bags did deploy in that too and that driver may have some injuries. so again, we have emergency crews on the way but i don't think that's going to be a major blocking issue right now. the left lane is blocked. also a quick look at the bay bridge toll plaza. expecting those metering lights on in the next ten minutes or so and yes, it looks like that is spilling in a bit of a stack-up on the left-hand side in those cash lanes so we'll keep an eye on that as well. next traffic update just before 5:30. a meat company recalling more than 10 tons of frozen pizza sold at walmart stores because the pizza could be contaminated with listeria. "7 on your side's" michael finney first alerted us to the

recall last night. it affects 21,000 pounds of 16-inch pies. they're labeled marketside extra large supreme pizza and have a lot code of 20547. listeria was detected during routine sampling but there are no reports of illness. listeria can cause fever, headaches and convulsions, you recollected retuyou should retu the pizza to walmart for a full refund. attention, dog lovers. national puppy day, less than a week away now. >> we love doing this. abc7 doing whatever we can to help local puppies find their forever homes so we are launching this big adoption event. our goal to get many deserving pups into loving homes and we need your help. post a photo of you and your favorite dog on twitter facebook. use the #puppieson7 so we can see it is share it and then join us next thursday starting at 4:30 a.m. and all morning long. live streaming our puppy cam and we'll tell you how you can take one home. >> love it. my two beagles are waiting to be

a star. coming up next, the instead of seven things you need to know as you start your day. and the pot of gold of sorts found inside this piano. you're not going to believe it and the search for its owner. we appreciate you being here on this st. patrick's day. not lit up in green but still not lit up in green but still gorgeous, san francisco

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12 grams of protein and 80 calories. it's nutrition that fits my healthy life. light & fit. do what fits you. all right. it's 5:24, whether you're just joining us or headed out the door, these are the seven things you need to know. number one, chp investigating a freeway shooting on highway 101 near story road in east san jose. a 17-year-old passenger in a black acura integra was shot twice in his right side. the shots were fired from a white dodge. number two, firefighters in raleigh, north carolina, watching for hot spots after a massive five alarm fire overnight. the blaze destroyed an apartment complex that was under

construction. number three, secretary of state rex tillerson says all options are on the table if provoked by north korea. earlier today, tillerson toured the demilitarized zone between north and south korea. and number four, we did have the luck of the irish if you want warm weather today, our warmest day of any accuweather 7 day forecast. notice it's going to be cooler this weekend with a slight chance of a shower. more rain, significant rain on the way next week. and number five, we have been looking at some really light volgs so far for the friday morning commute. we do have one new problem in for the south bay, though. started off as a solo vehicle crash. northbound 280 at highway 17 another vehicle just hit that so we have the two left lanes blocked. emergency crews just arriving. number six, b.a.r.t. is hoping the morning commute will go smoothly after major delays caused by equipment problems last night. a ceiling fixture fell on to a train, causing smoke and sparks. all passengers had to get off while b.a.r.t. made sure there was no danger of anything else falling.

number seven, a live look from ireland this morning. look at all of those hats, look at all the green. yep, celebration well underway for st. patrick's day. and here in the u.s., we are expected to spend a lot of green today. $5 billion, in fact. officials say restaurants and bars expect to profit the most. a bald eagle mom is doing everything she can to protect her eggs this morning, despite a massive amount of snow. take a look. when the winter storm moved through pennsylvania on tuesday, the snow covered everything but her head peeking out there. some of her feathers too. she held out, but she finally had to stand up and shake off and then the warm dry eggs were surrounded by a wall of snow and the game commission is stream ago live picture of the nest right now and they say despite the cold, the eggs should be just fine. and if all goes well, we could see an eaglet or two within a few days. british officials are trying to trace the owner of a trove of gold coins found stashed inside

a piano. a piano tuner found a bag of antique gold coins last year. the current owners have no clue that they were there. the piano was built in london in 1906 and investigators are seeking information on its ownership before 1983. if the piano's owners or their heirs can't be found, the gold will be given to the piano's current owners. exact value of the coins minted in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries has not been released but officials say it will be a life changing sumg of money. >> who knew that the end of the rainbow existed inside of that piano? >> that's why b flat couldn't be hit. >> we're coming back with another full 90 minutes of news, including three bay area counties getting new federal money now to fix damage suffered in our recent storms. and one of the worst commutes in the east bay getting a bit better. the reason drivers between dublin and livermore are brea e dublin and livermore are brea e breathing a big sigh

5:30 on the dot and welcome to friday, march 17. i'm natasha zouves. >> and i'm cornell barnard. reggie and jessica are off today. who makes the coffee around here? >> the machine upstairs. do you need some? >> always. >> i'll be right back after this. oh, hi. there you go. live doppler 7, it is quiet outside. good morning, everybody. yes, it is early. thanks for being with us, cornell, we appreciate it. >> sure. >> what'd you get about two hours sleep. >> hour and a half. >> good. good. you look great. mount tamalpais this morning, look how clear it is. all right. so, let's talk about cooler conditions. yeah, dress a little bit warmer this morning, mid to upper 40s, we'll stay in the low to upper 60s on the coast. get outside today. our warmest and brightest day of

my accuweather 7 day forecast. low to upper 70s at 4:00 and mid to upper 60s at 7:00. we'll talk about an unsettled pattern that starts tomorrow coming up. the biggest issue is in san jose. northbound 280 at highway 17, we had a solo vehicle crash, lost control, hit the center divide and then bounced back to the left lane. another vehicle sideswiped that vehicle so we have the two left lanes down now. not a long backup but as you can see, you are pretty heavy approaching that scene. so we do have emergency crews there arriving right now and as i walked up here, i didn't see the official word that the bay bridge metering lights were on but it looks like. i'll confirm that coming up. developing news in the south bay. all lanes back open now on highway 101 in san jose following last night's freeway shooting. >> a teenager was shot on northbound 101 near story road. abc7 news reporter amy hollyfield joins us live with more on that shooting investigation. amy, good morning. >> reporter: hi, cornell. yeah, the morning commute looks

fine. the lanes reopened at 11:40 last right night. the scene is cleared but this problem of highway shootings persists, and this is a problem that you usually see in the east bay, but now this time, it was san jose. i know highway 101, the contact r acura that was shot at, the passenger had been shot twice. the driver was okay. he told investigators there were ptwo men wearing black bandanas in a white dodge charger. they go away. >> the victim vehicle was traveling northbound on 101. and it just -- the suspect vehicle just came alongside on the right side and began shooting at them. >> reporter: freeway shootings have been an issue in the east bay for more than a year. officers have responded to about 80 of them. they say they are often targeted shootings, not random but they do worry that unintended targets will find themselves in the line of fire or that cars will crash.

because of the shootings -- they will crash because of these shootings. they haven't said whether this was random or targeted here in san jose. this victim survived. he was taken to the hospital and they have not said his condition. live in san jose, amy hollyfield, abc7 news. okay, amy, thank you. two north bay high school students were handed down a harsh punishment after an investigation into hazing among football players at napa high school. napa board members voted to expel two more students last night and a parallel investigation the napa d.a.'s office is weighing whether to charge 14 students and a coach with felonies. it's in retaliation to the october 31 hazing incident in which junior varsity players are accused of restraining a clothed freshman player as they touched him inappropriately. the scandal has enraged parents. >> the punishment does not fit the crime and it was mishandled from the beginning. >> the district's most important responsibility is to the students entrusted to our care.

>> i know you're smirking at me but with all due respect, i'm really concerned about these kids. >> now more could be expelled. angry parents are circulating a petition to remove the superintendent and school board members. it's 5:34 and that breaking news coming into our news room out of maryland right now. authorities trying to figure out what caused a home to explode in the city of rockville. that is north of washington, d.c. right now, firefighters are looking for at least one person who is missing after the blast. firefighters say the home was completely levelled. the blast so strong that windows were blown out of nearby homes. despite all the damage to the neighborhood, officials say first of all fortunately no neighbors were injured. happening today, state officials are expected to reopen the damaged spillway at the oroville dam. work hasn't started to repair the dam, the water will be released down a channel created

by the emergency release of water earlier this year. today's water release is expected to cause the feather river to rise 10 to 15 feet by this afternoon. napa, san mateo, and santa cruz counties will be getting federal funds to help repair damage suffered in our storms. this is just some of what napa county had to deal with just a few weeks ago. president trump declared yesterday a major disaster exists in california and ordered federal help. county officials say the money will go towards fixing bridges, fire roads, and highways that sustained damage. happening today, california's high speed rail project will be the focus of a legal challenge in sacramento. transdeaf is an organization dedicated to better solutions for transit and air quality problems in the bay area. it's also anti-rail project and will be in superior court. a hearing will be held on trand def's challenge to a plan by the air resources board that the organization claims will increase rather than decrease construction emissions. the man who kidnapped a woman from her vallejo home will spend up to 40 years in federal

prison for that crime. victim denise huskins fought back tears as she described her ordeal in court yesterday before a judge sentenced matthew muller. she said, you treated me like an object, a toy, an animal, i still have nightmares everything night. muller tied up and drugged huskins' boyfriend before breaking into the home. quinn's mom spoke with abc7 news. >> i had no idea how bad it was for denise. >> family hopes that there's some degree of -- towards closure by the sentence and what occurred today. >> huskins and quinn said they wanted muller to be sentenced to life in prison. vallejo police initially wrongly called that kidnapping a hoax. the department has since apologized. huskins is suing the city and two police officers for defamation and inflicting emotional distress. 5 d:36 now. one of the worst commutes in the bay area has gotten a little bit better. express lanes on 14 miles of

interstate 580 between dublin and livermore opened a year ago. a new report by caltrans calls them a success. congestion pricing is driving the system with transponders, sensors, and cameras tracking over 30,000 trips a day along the corridor. the average driver pays $2 to $3. many are getting a free ride, though. >> you have to have a fast track flex if you want to travel toll free as a car pool on the i-580 system. >> fast track flex allows drivers to tell the system how many people are in the car. they are averaging about 10 miles an hour faster. the next stretch of the express lanes to open should happen this summer. that cooler weather we talked about, there it is. anywhere from 5 to 14 degrees cooler in most neighborhoods. about 13 degrees cooler here in san francisco so what does that mean for our east bay neighbors?

temperatures in the upper 40s to low 50s, coolest at union city, 46, warmest as it always is in alameda at about 52 degrees. 48 in san carlos, 47 in san jose, pleasanton, 44 right now, brentwood 46 along with novato, pacifica, one of the warmer spots along the coast at 50. here's a look at 101 and 880 down in san jose. mass transit cool to warm, everything's green, not because of st. patrick's day, that's part of it but all because it's good too. on the road, dry all day and our last calm day on the water. let's take a look at our forecast. upper 60s at the coast, 72 to 78 inland, tomorrow, 61 to about 68 is our spread as the cooling begins, more cloud cover and about 61 to 69 sunday. here's a look at tonight's temperatures, upper 40s to mid 50s so a little milder than this morning. today, no chance of rain. tomorrow, 30%. 10% sunday but then look at next week. a whole lot of rain. i'll put a storm impact scale on each one of those coming up.

i've actually got quite a few incidents that are starting to pop up. want to take you to the north bay right now. we've got a couple disabled box trucks that are blocking both lanes here, southbound 101 just past petaluma boulevard you're seeing that purple on our traffic maps. that typically means closed so we are working on getting to the bottom of that. and then just south of that, southbound 101 near san antonio road, we've got a solo vehicle crash, this was swerving before it crashed into some construction barrels. that vehicle is now smoking. we've got at least the two left lanes blocked there. and fire and ambulance on the way to the scene. on top of that, we've got trouble in san jose, still have this crash blocking northbound 280 and highway 17. that's blocking the two left lanes and emergency crews are arriving there as well. and the bay bridge metering lights were flipped on at 5:29 this morning. next traffic update coming up. there is more doubt been cast on president trump's wiretapping accusations. how the white house is doubling down on the claim next. police at the east bay recovered dozens of'ses of

stolen mail. what led officers to the suspects. as you get your day into gear, keep on top of weather and traffic through the commercial traffic through the commercial break with abc7 news now.

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xfinity. the future of awesome. we have learned that a teenage girl shot and killed by police in hayward was pregnant. 16-year-old elena mondragon died

after a confrontation with fremont police officers on tuesday. they went to hayward to investigate a string of robberies. officers thought they spotted a stolen vehicle and were trying to get the driver to stop when he rammed their cruisers. mondragon was a passenger in that car and was shot and killed when officers opened fire. two people were arrested at the scene. hayward police then captured a third person who ran after tracking him to san francisco. mondragon's family says he is her boyfriend. growing bipartisan pressure on capitol hill this morning to call president trump's wiretapping claim against president obama false. despite a white house assertion that mr. trump will be vindicated. president trump used the word wiretap in his tweet about president obama but the white house says that can mean any form of surveillance. that insistence comes as more republicans distance themselves from the president's claim. >> but the point is the intelligence committees in their continuing, widening ongoing investigation on all things russia got to the bottom at least so far with respect to our

intelligence community that no such wiretap exists. >> now on monday the issue may come to a head. that's when the justice department has to hand over any evidence of the president's wiretapping claims. we want justice for our people. >> abc7 news was outside the ninth circuit court of appeals in san francisco as demonstrators gathered in front yesterday. they were celebrating a pair of federal court decisions to halt president trump's second travel ban before it takes effect. judges in hawaii and maryland questioned whether the ban is targeting muslims and thus violating the constitution. the president is vowing to fight for his executive order all the way to the u.s. supreme court. california's chief justice says she is deeply concerned that federal immigration agents are using state courthouses as bait. chief justice has written a letter to u.s. attorney general jeff sessions and department of homeland security secretary john kelly about reports of undocumented immigrants being arrested when they show up in court. she wrote, policies of stalking

courthouses and arresting undocumented immigrants, the vast majority of those who pose no risk to public safety, are neither safe nor fair. martinez police they've stopped a pair of suspected mail thieves. officers holding stolen mail along with a home made key. officers camerature add man and a woman after getting a call of someone trying to pry open a mailbox yesterday afternoon. police say they uncovered evidence of mail theft inside the suspects' car. they had targeted mailboxes on morello avenue. a surge in mosquitos is prompting spraying contra costa county. this map showing the area the crews are focusing on. if you live in the area, you could see trucks with verkt control rolling through your neighborhood for the next couple of hours.

they're hoping to be done spraying in about 40 minutes. march madness spreading in moraga. >> absolutely. last night, st. mary's beat bcu in the first round of the ncaa tournament. the seventh-seeded gales started fast. bcu made a run in the second half, shrinking st. mary's lead the two but the gales howled on. 85-77 to advance to the second round for the first time in four years. >> trying to just ride the wave. it's so fun. you know, it's talking to dave and we're just not ready to be done yet. so kind of joke around about after this game, they can't get rid of us yet. st. mary's, ncaa, they can't get rid of us yet. >> not many teams at have got wins in the tournament so it's exciting. >> they take on arizona tomorrow at 4:45 tomorrow in the round of 32. the winner advances to the sweet 16 at s.a.p. center in san jose.

hey, mike, i got some friends visiting from boston next week. they want to escape the cold and they're hopeing for some sunshine. not so much next week, right? >> next week? >> yeah. >> yeah -- >> bad news. >> that's what i told them. i said, bring your umbrella. >> at least it won't be a blizzard. >> right. >> or sleet or cold rain like they had earlier this week. no nor'easters for us but we're going to see -- i hate to use this cliche but the storm door's going to open. we have a series of storms. beautiful shot from east bay. but let me go through the accuweather highlights. coolest this morning and warmest this afternoon, these are the extremes and we have them today. cooler but a fairly benign weekend ahead -- bless you -- and a series of stronger storms next week. by the way, tree pollen high again today. the heaviest rain is going to stay to the north this week. 8:00 tomorrow morning, few scattered showers across the north bay, some of those tried to slip down towards san francisco and oakland and fall

apart during the afternoon hours and then you can see redevelop as we head towards the evening right along the coast in our higher elevations and then by sunday morning, they're gone. by sunday afternoon, you can see a surge of southerly winds keep most of the rain around clear lake and that's where it's going to stay until we get to monday morning. and that's when the stronger storms come in. let me put a storm impact scale on those for you. 1 is light and that's going to be monday, tuesday, wednesday. i downgraded thursday's storm to light as it looks like the heaviest rain of the entire system will be friday. hey, alexis. good morning. we've got a lot of issues to get to. three of them in the north bay right now. we now have a sig alert issued for this crash, westbound highway 37 ramp to southbound 101, left lane is blocked by debris that caused one crash and three vehicles have flat tires so not sure what that debris but it's causing problems. also southbound 101 near petaluma boulevard, couple box trucks are reported there and both lanes are blocked in that

area. and southbound 101 near san antonio area, chp says another crash, likely going to be a sig alert very soon. a vehicle lost control, hit some construction barrels, caught ambulance on the scene there. so if you're heading through petaluma, expect significant delays. if you look right up where you see that live in the san jose 280 and 17 there up in the upper left-hand corner of your screen, this crash is just a little bit out of our viewing area here but northbound 280, another crash and that is blocking the two left lanes as well. in new problem for the bay bridge and a castro valley problem next. pro soccer is coming back to san francisco. the city's parks department will hold a free meet and greet event with players. there will also be soccer clinics for kids hosted by players and team swag. all the fun starts at 3:30 p.m. the deltas will host an exhibition match at 7:00 p.m.

the team's regular season will start on march 25. super cool. next at 6:00, strong words from the secretary of state. plus caught on video, a sales clerk's narrow escape from serious injury. what led to this dramatic moment. and this amazing sight drawing hundreds of people to a beach in australia, what's causing the water to glow amazing blue. so pretty. we leave you with abc7 news now. it's nice to see the golden gate bridge not shrouded with fog this morning. this morning. live weather, live traffic

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for the third day now, sicily's mount etna is spewing lava high into the air. that volcano yesterday unleashed a powerful explosion, hurling

molten rocks and steam into the atmosphere. tourists, reporters and scientists watching the volcano had to run to escape. fortunately, no one was seriously hurt. officials have ordered people to stay away, though, from the riskier areas of mount etna now. a convenience store clerk in georgia narrowly avoids getting crushed. wow, when an suv comes crashing through the window. the driver, we are told, apparently forgot to put the car in park and it began to roll and when she went to stop it, yeah, you guessed it, she hit the wrong pedal and off went suv. both the driver and the clerk, remarkably, are okay this morning. this morning, san francisco can boast having the tallest building west of chicago. the sales force tower officially took that title yesterday with the latest addition to the tower's top. the tower's official instagram account posted the photo. a building in l.a. has a spire but at 1070 feet, the sales force four will have the tallest

occupiable floors. if you need an excuse to hit the snooze button one more time and do we ever need an excuse? no. but we've got one. it's world sleep day. >> it's a day to recognize the importance of getting enough zs, world sleep day was founded by the world association of sleep medicine, ten years ago. the goal is to raise awareness about the benefits of sleep and to draw attention to the health issues caused by not getting enough rest, natasha. the national sleep foundation recommends most people get at least seven hours of sleep a night. all right, we've got a lot of trouble on the roads this morning. we started off very quiet but not anymore. so we've got a major problem here in petaluma, southbound 101 near san antonio road all lanes are now blocked due to a crash. we possibly have a separate issue just north of there as well near petaluma boulevard so chp just made that a sig alert. you are going to be forced off of southbound 101 to get around that. another problem, this one's been here for about 30 minutes,

westbound 580 just past the 238 interchange, multi-car crash past that connecter. we have at least the far right lane blocked, possibly a couple of those right lanes and one person was trapped in their vehicle. and bay bridge toll plaza, we have had those metering lights on since about 5:29 this morning. we've got a disabled vehicle blocking one of the left center lanes past that and that is just west of treasure island. so, it is slow once you make it on to the bridge as well. let's check in with meteorologist mike nicco. i don't know what's going on. it's a holiday, it's friday and it's nice outside too. yes, it is. it's a little cool this morning, little warm this afternoon. let's go back about 24 hours, remember that drizzle we were talking about. that stopped our streak at eight. eight consecutive days without wet weather, measurable drizzle in san francisco and also promd richmond for a few of the places and that's all it takes. let's talk about april, may and june. the climate prediction center, part of the national oceanic and

atmospheric ocean say equal chances of being wet or dry, equal chances of being warm or cold. fantastic! just tune in every day and i'll let you know what's going to happen. all right, mike, thank you. this might be my favorite video of the day. you've got to look at your screen. this is coming from tasmania and this looks like something straight out of disney's "fantasia." people break the surface of the water and it turns that ethereal glowing blue. this is bioaluminum me the sense, caused by billions of single cell plankton known as sea sparkle. they flash blue as a defense mechanism against predators but puts on quite the show for us. >> i could look at that all morning. speaking of sparkle, a pastor in west africa just found one of the world's largest uncut diamonds. take a look at this. 706 carats. the precious gem has not been valued but it's the largest diamond found in sierra leon since 1972. it's not clear how the pastor

came across the diamond but he is not keeping it. instead, he turned its over to the country's president, saying he hopes it helps to boost recent development in his impoverished nation. the government plans to auction it off. i's incredible. >> really touching. new at 6:00, the problem on highway 101 that could set caltrans back millions of dollars. and a gunman on the loose. just ahead the san jose highway shooting that sent a teenager to the e.r. berkeley has an ambitious plan to get the homeless off the streets. streets. new at

6:00 a.m. on this friday, march 17, st. patrick's day. i know a lot of you already looking forward to the weekend and we will get you there. i'm natasha zouves. >> and i'm cornell barnard. reggie and jessica are off today. happy st. patrick's day, everybody. >> happy st. patrick's day. you're the only one who's not going to get pinched today, cornell. mike and i get a pass because we're on the green screen and unfortunately we've got a lot of

issues. we've got a major problem in the north bay right now. this is petalum, southbound 101, all lanes are blocked right now. this is near san antonio road so sig alert has been issued. chp is saying they don't know when they're going to get these lanes back open but obviously that backup is growing into petaluma right now. it started as a solo vehicle crash, flew into some construction barrels, it caught fire so it sounds like a pretty serious situation here. also in tracy, a little bit out of the zone of our traffic flows but northbound i-5, a truck fire, that is a sig alert as well. that truck was hauling honey. we've got about 300 pounds of honey in the two left lanes there so that's going to take a while to clean up. whoo, sticky situation there. >> i wasn't going to say it but you did it. you went there. >> all morning i've been full of them whether they're st. patrick's day or that one. just buzz off, okay? >> oh, man. >> wow, that one got bad.