tv ABC7 News 500PM ABC August 26, 2017 5:00pm-5:30pm PDT
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now, from abc 7 live breaking news. and that breaking news is rallies in the castro, the mission and the civic center. all this because of a planned appearance by the right-wing group patriot prayer. the protests have remained peaceful. today the organizers of the patriot prayer rally held a lengthy news conference put together at the last minute in a place they felt safe. we have team coverage starting with tiffany wilson at crissy field. where that group is now. >> the leader of that group left just a few minutes ago. in the past few minutes it's gotten very contentious. you can see the group behind me. some people wearing bandannas. there are people with hoods and hats on covering their faces. you can see the alt-left and the alt-right really facing off.
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this morning it appeared patriot prayer would rally in alamo square park. a message from joey gibson made it clear, that would not happen. then he went live on facebook the announce an indoor news conference at 2:00. however, it was at a quiet pacifica park that gibson came forward from the shadows. >> i really don't see this as a loss. i see this as an opportunity for america to wake up, to understand. we can't let people silence others especially when we have such a positive message. >> reporter: he blames the media and the politicians for hijacking his message of unity and branding his movement as white supremacy. >> you have a mayor who says we're hateful and violent. doesn't bring up any specific examples but doesn't mention one word about antifa. >> reporter: several others expected to speak at the rally vented their frustration as well. >> i want people to understad that this rally from the beginning was about unity, free speech and patriotism.
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it was never an alternate right or white supremacist rally as the media has said. >> there's no way that i am a white supremac there's no way that i can support white supremacy. >> reporter: gibson says ultimately his message is about bringing moderates together. >> these corrupt politicians will stay in office as long as we stay divided down by party line. until we bring these moderates together and stand against the extremists, it will be the same problem over and over again. >> reporter: now, just in about the past minute, law enforcement was able to separate the instigators of the group that was connected together over here. now you can see this entire line of law enforcement standing by separating the two groups. now, when we spoke to joey gibson, he said the whole reason they called off the crissy field rally was he didn't want those two groups to get together, to mix together, to lead to the sort of confrontation that you just saw.
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and that is why he left when those sirens started going off when members from each extreme side started to butt heads together. so he has left crissy field. as you can see, police have turned out in force. they are making sure that the two sides are separated, and i can tell you in just the past two minutes, the tension level has dropped considerably. just as we were about to go live, there were a lot of heated words, a lot of people holding phones up to each other's faces, screaming at each other, yelling different opinions. but as you can tell now, it is very quiet. police are all standing by. and everything here at crissy field seems to be returning to normal. live in san francisco, tiffany wilson, abc 7 news. >> tiffany, thank you very much. a sea of counterprotesters traveled down market street this afternoon. the huge crowd gathered in the castro this morning and marched peacefully to civic center. we're live there with san
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francisco's mayor and chief of police are speaking to reporters right now. lisa? >> reporter: eric, that's very true. you know they just wrapped things up a few minutes ago. the whole message was positivity. the mayor and the police chief very happy with how things went. and they said their mission to keep san francisco safe was definitely accomplished. this, meantime, is the counterprotest at the civic center mazplaza, kids, couples, retired the folks. the program has been pretty loose but the message very clear. >> we're here because the racists aren't. and we're sending a message. >> reporter: and this event is build as peace, love and understanding rally. there's been a lot of music, a few speakers and, for the most part, people are just here to be surrounded by like-minded people. but there was one man, a marine
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corps veteran, who voted for president trump who said he was here alone to prove a point. >> my assumption was absolutely correct that i would be met with a lot of violence, a lot of anger here. and something that's supposed to be about peace, love and understanding, that kind of stuff. >> i'm not putting any hands on him. we had a robust dialogue over there, too. but i cannot allow him to be undisturbed. he knew what he was doing coming out here. >> reporter: and this has been a few thousand people. people in alamo square and in the mission broke off and marched here. back here live now, this rally is starting to wind down but it's supposed to wrap up at 5:00 exactly. but police say they've made only one arrest today. that was over in alamo square for public intoxication. i'll have more information for you at 6:00 with what the mayor had to say.
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>> lisa, thank you. earlier the crowd marched down mission street in san francisco die-in, rather, at mission street briefly blocking traffic for some time. sky 7 flew over the scene. the group cleared the intersection after about 15 minutes. the place where the patriot prayer rally news conference was supposed to happen was closed off and the neighborhood around it filled with demonstrators all day. we continue our team coverage at alamo square park. >> reporter: eric, demonstrators have left this area but many are declaring victory tonight. you can see police still here in streets all around the square are shut down. as far as the chain link fence around the park, it is still here as well. after a busy day of protests. hundreds of anti-hate counterdemonstrators marched on alamo square and rallied in the street. many in the crowd were ready to
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confront right-wing organizers of patriot prayer, which had promised to hold a news conference in the square but early saturday a surprise move by the city. the park was closed. chain link fencing went up all around. police turned people away. patriot prayer never showed. >> today the white supremacists got the message. where are they? they hid. >> reporter: many declared victory. >> i think that this is a victory not only for the grass roots people of san francisco but for all of san francisco, for the entire nation. >> reporter: streets around the square were closed and barricades went up to keep crowds away, but this woman jumped the road block and was detained by police. soon more crowds broke through. police in riot gear prevented the group from going west on hayes street. police ordered the crowd to leave. an hour later they did, marching
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toward the mission district. in san francisco, cornell bernard, abc 7 news. and more breaking news from berkeley. groups representing many faiths just held a rally against hate in civic center park. today's gathering took place in the same place where an anti-marxist rally is scheduled for tomorrow. but the organizer of that event says she plans to protest by herself and is urging people not to attend tomorrow in the light of violent threats. we've been staying on top of all these events. we posted the entire news conference from the patriot prayer group there. we're also constantly updating the list of rallies and events happening this weekend along with road closures. you can download aur app for free and enable push alerts. >> happening now, the remnants of hurricane harvey, now a tropical storm, continued to lash texas. live doppler 7 shows that storm still spinning off the coast where it made landfall last night. the storm turned deadly, brought damage and flooding and united
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airlines has now suspended most flights in and out of houston. that's where abc news reporter lan in zach joins with us the latest. >> reporter: certainly after the change from hurricane to tropical storm some people think that the problem is all over. as you can see, that's clearly not the case. we're expecting that rain to continue for days here. in addition, there have been several tornadoes that have touched down. reports of at least eight of them, six here in texas, many of them right here in houston and two others in louisiana as this storm continues. >> reporter: when hurricane harvey rolled into shore, it brought with it winds of 130 miles per hour and storm surges eported as high as 6.6 feet in port lavaca. in corpus christi punishing winds pulled down power lines. gusts blew out window. >> oh, my god!
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>> reporter: and seemed to toy with giant structures like this barn. among the hardest hit, rockport. at least one person confirmed dead. the devastation there tremendous. building after building ripped apart. throughout the region emergency teams worked heroically. >> corpus christi is the third largest petrochemical port in the nation. so there's a potential that we could have different types of chemical releases. >> reporter: bringing with it a new problem, widespread rele relentless torrential rain. >> we're measuring in feet of rain. >> reporter: already in houston flooding in residential areas with advice from the governor as the rain is expected to continue for days. >> turn around, don't drown. don't risk your life. >> reporter: and really, eric, that's the problem, that rescue workers are concerned that people will get this false sense of security, head out into areas that they can't handle, in part because the ground is becoming saturated as all this rain
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continues and the waters and the rivers and bayous are continuing to rise as well. reporting live from houston, lana zak. >> as she pointed out, it's not over yet. drew tuma is reporting on a warm-up for here in the bay area. >> feet of rain in the gulf, but back here at home, it is all about dangerous heat today and even a hotter air moves in tomorrow. the numbers ahead in the accuweather forecast. plus a special field trip for dozens of bay area girls sending a message of equality. and -- >> do you remember me? >> how far would you drive to pick up your best friend?
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more than a hundred peninsula school children marked a milestone in the fight for equal rights today. abc news was at the rosie the riveter and women's equality day. in 1920 congress passed the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote. congress declared women's equality day in 1971. >> women were really, in some respects, treated like chattel and told that either their father or their husband would be responsible for voting for their interests. >> it's great that we have places like this where we can go and learn more about what women did so you can just -- it also just motivates you. >> there's much more to be done to close the gender gap when it comes to pay. on average women earn 80 cents for every dollar made by men. we're tracking the biggest
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after a frightening car accident that separated a san jose woman from her beloved dog an emotional reunion brought them back together. >> do you remember me? do you remember? yes, you do. look at you. >> that is elizabeth inman reuniting with her dog easy who vanished near mesa, arizona, more than a month ago. she frantically searched for easy passing out missing dog flyers. pdog is lost, in this case, you never give up hope. you just keep going. >> look at you, my baby boy. are you happy? i'm happy. look at you. yes. >> a man recognized the dog in the flyers and called inman. she drove 800 miles from san
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jose to pick up easy and brought dog treats with her. all right. let's get back to more of the damage from hurricane harvey. a man in padre island, texas, shot this video of a home destroyed by the storm then burned to the ground. the storm made landfall as a category 4 hurricane last night. in corpus christi some evacuees are now being allowed to return home. now your accuweather forecast with drew tuma. >> starting off the weekend on a very warm to hot note for most, and tomorrow we're going to see those numbers even a few degrees warmer than they are right now. live doppler 7 showing you a mainly clear picture showing you a real thin layer of fog along the coast. in fact, the live look from sutro tower a ribbon of that fog as it moves over the golden gate bridge. that's it in terms of cooling from mother nature. we have widespread heat. it's 90 in san jose, currently
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92 in fremont, then you move inland and it's triple digits even north into santa rosa, santa rosa just hit a record high today. a lot of this warmth is going to hang on overnight tonight. here is the call. it's going to be a mild night. plenty of stars out there. a nice looking night. but very warm away from the coast. antioch to livermore, even san jose holding in the mid-60s overnight tonight. that will set the stage for a quickly warming day on your sunday. future weather as you go hour by hour, 7:00 on your sunday, very minimal fog. it's right along the coast and perhaps a little over san francisco. but by 11:00, future weather already early sunday morning. we have widespread 80s and 90s on the board. pthat means the afternoon will e another hot one for many of us. highs on your sunday, here we go, 106 and a hot 105 in in in antioch. even san jose tomorrow you'll be baking at 94 degrees.
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94 in fremont. san francisco i know 73 doesn't sound that bad but when you're in san francisco and we get to the 70s, it feels warm out there. an excessive heat warning is in effect until monday night. 9:00 for all areas you see shaded in pink. that's the majority of the region. for highs getting as high as 108 degrees. tomorrow morning a heat advisory will kick in for a lot of locations right along the immediate bay waters. that includes oakland, hayward, fremont. getting up to 102 degrees. know the sign between heat exhaustion and heat stroke. heat exhaustion, you get kind of sweaty, you're nauseous, dizzy, move to a cool environment and drink water. the big difference with heat stroke, your body will start sweating and that's a not a good sign. you have to call 911 because that's an emergency situation. still a tropical storm. it is moving very slowly to the north and west. watch what happens.
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this is additional rainfall through wednesday. local areas near houston could see over two feet of rain. that is going to be disastrous for some. the accuweather seven-day forecast back here at home, hot tomorrow, hot on monday. the pick of the week, i say, is wednesday. that's going to be the coolest day. and we're going to do it right back again by friday and saturday, hot across the region. that time of the year as we head towards september. >> just back from texas with sports. >> how is that? called my mom last night. everything is fine at home. good to hear. san jose static e ikick ks off new season with
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now, sports from abc 7 news. >> on dennis eckersley day at the colosseum, the rangers were in no need for a closer. the hall of fame pitcher threw out the first pitch but what the eck? the ball didn't even reach the home plate. chad pinder takes cole hamels deep to left field for a solo home run. then in the third pinder gets to hamels again. his 12th homer of the season. ties the contest at 2 apiece. oakland would go in front in the fourth. matt joyce with the sharp grounder. it will go off the glove of adrian beltre. matt chapman scores all the way from first. they'll go for the sweep
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tomorrow afternoon. at the little league word series, texas took on north carolina to decide who would represent the u.s. trailing 5-3 in the fifth, texas gets a break. the ball gets away from catcher bryce jackson. he then makes a bad throw to third and a run will score. the lead was down to one. then in the sixth, texas on top with the two-run homer to left field. texas advances to the final with a 6-5 win over north carolina. in the international final, japan shut out mexico. japan jumped out to a big lead in the first. nakajima drives in two runs with that base hit. that made it 3-0, then later that same inning, mexico's jorge garcia uncorks a wild. i. another run scores. 5-0 the final. tomorrow japan versus texas playing for the little league world championship. well, are you ready for some college football? san jose state kicked off its season today at home against 19th ranked south florida.
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this was also the first game for new spartans head coach. san jose is a 21-point underdog but has looked good early on. love to holmes for 32 yards. he gets down to the 14. a few plays later love will hook up with gaither for the touchdown. now late in the first, san jose state leads 16-0. the spartans have not been a ranked team since 2013. colorado state opened its brand-new football stadium by hosting oregon state. jake lutton tried to spoil the party by hitting a wide open hernandez for the first touch of the season. he threw a pair of tds but was also intercepted three times. trey thomas brings this one back, 34 yards. the rams dominate the second half and crush oregon state 58-27. and at 7:00 tonight, stanford kicks off its season in sydney, australia, by taking on rice. so the post christian
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we're continuing to follow praeking news as the organizers of the patriot prayer rally back in san francisco. tonight at 6:00, a look at the heated exchanges as protesters confronted them. people on the peninsula were treated to a fun country-style fair free of charge. the social media giant hosted the fair at its menlo park headquarters. and that's it for abc 7 news
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at 5:00. thank you for your time. tonight, breaking news. hurricane harvey, state of emergency. the images just coming in. one texas town nearly blown off the map. the view from above. home after home ripped apart, businesses destroyed, neighborhoods underwater. the deadly monster storm hitting the texas coast as a category 4, winds blasting up to 130 miles per hour. >> an incredible push. >> and our team in the storm zone as the most powerful hurricane in more than a decade hits the continental u.s. now emergency officials warn "catastrophic flooding" could be on the way, houston in the danger zone. at least four reported tornados already striking. plus, the search and rescue operations under way. the coast guard rushing in.
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