the national park service issued a permit allowing the group to known as patriot prayer to stage rally. the park service issued a statement saying it cannot deny a permit with anyone planning to exercise the first amendment rights based on their political stance or beliefs. mayor ed lee expressed his disappointment and is urging people to stay away from the rally. >> i don't want to dignify their mess only of hate and division in our city of love and compassion. >> the permit comes with 26 conditions. among them no firearms, no explosives, no large backpacks and no mace, pepper spray or mel mets. common sense ocf course but thi the conditions of permit.

>> vic lee is live in the news room with gibgibson's reaction. >> reporter: joey bishop said he's exercising his constitutional right to free speech. obviously, he's delighted the park service gave him the permit and he says his critics namely politicians here in the bay area did not, in his words have authority over the constitution. >> there's going to be bernie supporters coming in, atheists, muslims. >> reporter: he's expecting hundreds of people to attend his rally saturday at crissy field. he never doubted the park service could grant him the service. >> i'm not surprised. >> i do people are drawn to the message of love and kindness.

>> reporter: the last thing he wants for violence to er >> i'm sick of antifa, the kkk, the why supremacists. >> reporter: patriot prayer rallies have been denounced by city leaders as forum supremist supremists. nancy pelosi opposed holding the rally. >> it's not place where nazi sympathizers should come. >> now they are guaranteed that they're not bringing in any weapons, anything that can be used as a weapon. >> reporter: gibson says he appreciates the police protection and hopes it will be a day without violence. vic lee, abc 7 news.

>> there are counter protests scheduled in different locations saturday. at noon there's an art for equality event at harvey milk plaza in the castro district. at 1:00 there's four different counter protests at crissy field. at 2:00, a peaceful protest against white nationalists at civic center plaza. they are telling drivers to report any incident of hateful and sbintimidation and harassme. one driver said he plans to stay in the south bay and on the peninsula on saturday. download the abc 7 news app to get breaking details on the protests this weekend. to get the latest news as it happens. a uc berkeley scientist

becomes the latest luminary to resign from president trump's administration. it's how he did it with letter that contained a hidden message that's generating a lot of buzz. >> reporter: another member saying i've had enough. he works here at uc berkeley. he spoke with us a little while ago. >> i've had it with the direction that mr. trump is trying to go. >> reporter: he's an environmental fienvironment al physicist, hardly a household name. he did so in paub lick letter to president trump. one that contained a not so subtle embedded message. take the first letter of every paragraph. put them together and they spell it impeach. >> i take pride in my writing and i lieng to think i do it with meaning. >> reporter: the letter moves beyond science and sites

statements about charlottesville. >> whether it's having an agenda that's anti-science, anti-environment. >> reporter: his actions spoke loudly as well. members of congress heard from the public in response to indications that the administration is considering drilling for oil in marine preserves. when we asked about the letter. >> there are experts who are dropping like flies because they recognize that this president is a fraud. >> toxic that no one wants to be in the room with this president. >> reporter: after today, add another. every day i get surprised by new lows. the former chairman of the california republican party, tom

del had this to say. this is good news for the president's agenda. we have a federal bureaucracy and people hang onto those roles for a long time. a statue inside san jose city hall is creating controversy and there's a petition to have it removed. >> reporter: dan, the statue in question is that of explorer christopher columbus. there's a group that says it's offensive to indigenous people. they started a petition to remove it. >> i think you leave it alone. he's a good guy, i think. he practically discovered america. >> reporter: the statue of christopher columbus was donated to the city of san jose in 1958

by the italian american community. it's been housed in city hall for deck katades but a group sa city hall is not the place for it. members told us that national sentiment over hate speech, white supremacy and the removal of confederate monuments prompted them to start pea tigs -- a petition to have it removed. >> he was are moved one of the largest genocides on this planet. also he was responsible for rape and the slavery of the native americans. nobody wants to talk about that. we're here to bring that conversation front and center. >> much more focused on what we can do in response to charlottesville.

>> reporter: the community has expressed their desire to have the statue removed from city hall. they don't want the statue destroyed. they feel it should be moved to a more appreciate location. some say little italy in san jose could be an option. there is san jose city council man that's working to put a memorandum together so the city council can take up that issue. we'll have more on that coming up at 6:00. >> thank you. another east bay jewish community is under attack by hate speech. police say someone left hate speech stickers at kehilla synagogue on grand avenue. the stickers were stuck on to the sign last thursday. the police chief said they had thick glue that made them hard to remove. police are increasing patrols in the area until they track down the suspects. they encourage people to call police if they see anything unusual. >> please be on the look out for

any criminal activity at all but certainly with another vandalism that has anything to do with any of the social issues in community right now. >> next month alameda city council will take up a resolution to condemn intolerance and violence on bay farm island and hateful flyers found on sidewalks. city leaders there are calling to make training available to help people identify hate symbols and hateful groups. oakland detectives pleading for the public's help in solving a double murder. this was the scene captured by a security camera as shots rang out at a block party over a year ago. there were about 00 people at the party. police believe there were four gunmen. >> a lot of times people have information.

they are scared to come forward for one reason or the other. >> somebody saw something. all we ask is you come forward. >> there's a reward and oakland police hope they will come out. a former cia agent wants to buy twitter. the reason. to get rid of one infamous tweeter. that story is next. your drinking water planned to help keep it clean could come at a cost. lottery fever is spreading. a lot of reasons to buy and almost as many not to. relief from robocalls. michael

. a fix is in works after

tests found unsafe levels of lead in the water. the school district says an affected water fountain at football field and a faucet in the calf fefeteria have been replaced. the source of the led is not the water system it but the hard wear. high levels of lead were found coming from shower heads in both the boys and girls locker rooms. they are no longer being used. the shower heads are expected to be replaced by the fall. now speaking of water. your water bill could be going up in an effort to get clean water to all californians. neighbors from low income communities rallied in support of a state bill that would create a fund to finance clean drinking water projects. most water customers would pay a dollar more per month. lawmakers who support the measure say a million people in the state rely on bottled water. their communities don't have the resources to tap into clean water systems. >> we are not flint, michigan.

300 water agencies, 300 communities without safe drinking water. it speaks for itself. >> california water agencies called the fee a tax and say the money should instead come from the general fund. speaking of money, we're less than three hours away from tonight's power ball jackpot drawing. at stake $700 million. players are mathematicians say maybe you shouldn't be. >> reporter: they're only saying that about the odds which is are astronomical. we're seeing a more stream of steady people coming in to buy their power ball tickets. he decided there were 700

million good reasons to buy a powerball ticket today. >> i did like my wife's birthday and my birthday. >> reporter: we asked some players what they thought about their chances of winning. not that good. >> about 700 million to 1. >> reporter: nope, not that bad. >> the chance of winning the powerball jackpot is about 1 in 292 million. >> reporter: that's because there are 292 million different numerical combinations possible in the powerball drawing. buying a few more tickets won't help you very much. >> if you buy 50 tickets a week you'll win about once every 1 in 12 years. >> reporter: what if you bought every mile you drove. >> you'll have to drive 611 round trips to the moon before you win the jackpot. >> reporter: that makes powerball a lousy investment but a whole lot of fun if you've got the time and disposable income.

if the odds against winning are astronomical, that doesn't seem to turn anybody away. >> i feel like the odds are within it. >> reporter: even winning wouldn't be winning. >> i have an ex-wife. she'll fwe >> reporter: good luck, everybody. >> okay. it's long shot. >> a little bit. >> how would you spend that massive powerball jackpot? >> good yes. you could buy the oakland a's. the team is valued at $307 million. you'll still have 25 million tlars dollar to play. >> say if you're a coffee fan. you could buy more than 135 million vente cups at starstarsr

>> you could make a serious dent in an effort to buy twitter. former cia operative valerie wilson launched a campaign to raise $1 billion to buy twitter with the intent to boost trump off the cite. her campaign has raised 25,000. that's up from about 4500 yesterday after getting media attention. she wants to shut down mr. trump's quote, violence and hate. twitter is worth about $12 billion. >> all right. this probably happens to you.

consumers bombarded to robocalls straight to their phones. michael finney slains what you can do to finally get relief. >> i get about five or six per week. the area codes are all over the country. i have a baby and always concerned it could be something about the baby. >> reporter: according to a recent consumer report survey, 62% of the at&t, centurylink and verizon customers reported receiving six or more robocalls per week. >> we're hearing about a call goes into your voice mailbox without the phone ringing. they can fill up your phone inbox and block important messages. >> reporter: for calls that aren't by passing the ring phone carriers are offering different tools to help. at&t has a free app for

customers that block scam calls for iphone six and higher. androids that can use at&t hd voice. sprints and verizon have apps that display the name on your incoming screen for calls not already in your contact list. look at the terms and conditions when sieng up. >> every time it happens i kind of yell into phone like unsubscribe and that doesn't work. it's frustrating. that i don't have any recourse to deal with these calls or make them stop. >> good information. that's michael finney reporting. report bow brobocalls to the ft.

visit end a warmer day inland. let's look at forecast highlights. near average temperatures. not too hot, not too cold but noticeably warmer as we head into tend of the week and the early part of the weekend on saturday. then those numbers will continue to climb especially inland by sunday and monday. we're nearing 100 degrees inland around the bay. you'll notice warmer weather. live doppler 7. right now we have the comfortable fog keeping us cool this spots and this time of the year got a little something for everybody out there. a wide range in temperatures. mainly cloudy over san francisco. lots of sunshine as you get towards concord. a comfortable 77 right,000. 91 in brentwood.

a lot of cloud cover on the coast. the other thing you'll notice, more in the way of fog overnight tonight. the marine layer is not disappearing over the next 24 hours. mid-50s to lower 60s as get you out the door. let's time it out for you. a will the of us are starting out with gray skies. mainly temperatures in the 50s. by 1:00 we're having hard time clearing the patchy fog. some of us may be stuck in the clouds for much of our thursday especially right along the coast. that will create the wide range in temperatures. 64 the high in half-moon bay. 79 in san jose. a warm 93. a little bit of afternoon sunshine. much warmer inland. we do have a serious storm brewing. this is tropical depression

harvey. doesn't have a lot of time to strength strengthen. by friday night and especially into saturday, look what happens in texas especially around houston. we could see locally more than ten inches of rain from the storm system. likely late this week into the early parts of next weekend we'll hear some issues with some dangerous floodingn i home it't dry skies and warming temperatures. your three-day forecast, it's bit of change. temperatures holding. by saturday and especially into sunday that's when you'll notice the warmer weather. future tracker temperatures as we get you into saturday noticeably warmer. then we're wampling up through the weekend. even into monday it looked like the heat will old on and then it's gradual cooldown.

it's really just two days of very warm temperatures and the heat will pull back away from the region by next week. spacex has yet to get its manned missions off the ground but it's teasing what crews will wear. that's next. at at&t, we believe in access. the opportunity for everyone to explore a digital world. connecting with the things that matter most.

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toast followed prayer in livermore. that where they joined wine lovers in the vineyard. the practice dates back centuries. it's not only blessing the grapes, it's also honoring the people who work in the vineyards. the wine harvest will begin later this week. we're getting the first glimpse of a space suit that may be used by future spacex

astronauts. the company's ceo posted this picture on instagram today. musk says that it's an actual space suit, not a mock-up. he says it has already been tested for vacuum pressure. he's trying to balance a thetices and function. it's got to look cool and work. spacex is in race against boeing to launch people into space. it seems apple's plan for a self-driving car is turning into an autonomous shuttle for employees. apple wants the shuttle to move staffers between its new spaceship campus and offices in p palo alto. they would use a commercial vehicle from an unspecified automaker. a local animal shelter need your help in recognizing a spray pregnant goat. you're now looking at the goat that just wandered into family's living room on monday night. animal services is taking care

of the goat. officials believe the goat is probably somebody's escaped pet. that person has until saturday to claim the goat before the goat goes up for adoption. this summer we have seen warriors guard throw out the first pitch, play in china. now he's back in oakland getting his own basketball court. we'll have that story. first we want to thank irwin for this shot. share your pictures with us. >> you may see it on air or online at abc7news.com. ke

developer digs up controversy at a housing project. the preparations in berkeley for a slew of alternatives to an anti-marxist rally planned for sunday.

fiejly tonight it has a very special day at oakland's kip bridge academy. >> the kids went wild when klay thompson hit the official shot. 600 students got new speakers just like the ones klay they also heard from their hero. >> just got to realize they go hand in hand. >> the kids gave klay a t-shirt. he donated the money to refurbish the court. >> i think the message he gave was thumbs up. >> world news tonight is coming up next. >> we appreciate your time.

tonight, president trump on the attack. in front of thousands, defending his response to white supremacists in charlottesville. outside, protesters clashing with police. then another speech today, a sudden change in tone. what's behind it? also breaking tonight, the hurricane watch right now. the track that has it coming toward the u.s. harvey gaining strength over the gulf. evacuations start first thing in the morning. the mystery growing tonight. u.s. officials rushed out of cuba after that sonic attack. now tonight, the state department is asked about a report. did any of them suffer traumatic brain injury? how they responded. the school year just under way, and the attack in the classroom. it is disturbing. a student taking aim at a teacher. what authorities are now saying tonight. and the second largest jackpot ever tonight, $700 million.