chance of thunderstorms, and dangerous surf. here's our forecast animation starting at 5:00 this afternoon. by that time, which is only ahour away, we expect rain to have developed in parts of the sut bay and perhaps the peninsula as well. by 8:00 tonight we expect to see areas of widespread rainfall, mainly moderate, but there could be heavy downpours. another wave of stronger or stormier weather around midnight. that pattern will continue overnight and into the early morning commute. it's going to be a wet and windy commute and looks like it's going to be a wet and windy day for much of the day tomorrow. i'll have a closer look coming up a little bit later. >> thank you, spencer, see you in a few minutes. today the a's unveiled a grand plan to transform oakland including an intimate waterfront stadium, 34,000 seats, which would be privately financed, to be located at howard terminal on the city's waterfront close to jock london square. the plan calls for redeveloping the current oakland coliseum site. >> sky 7 is overhead now.

you can see what it looks like compared to render action of the plan on the right-hand side. the plan is three-pronged. the hope is that it will revitalize housing, the local economy, and transit. we've been keep an eye on all these issues as part of our initiative to build a better bay area. >> after a wild card berth in 2018, the a's have found successful building a revamped roster. now they're hoping this project will solve attendance and payroll woes. >> abc 7 news sports anchor mindi bach has more on how the stadium wipe pact the product on the field even before the new stadium is complete. >> these fans have heard about the team's ballpark plans before. remember the announcement last december to build near laney ll? didn't happen. a's president cavill said today's revolution the team is going forward with the howard terminal site is different. >> we're getting traction with the port, the county, the city on our negotiations. we're three-quarters of the way through with the port on our option agreement.

there's a lot of different pieces of the puzzle that are happening. >> reporter: even if all the negotiations between the a's, the county, the city, and the representatives from the howard terminal site go well, a's fans won't be able to enjoy that new ballpark until 2023. today team management assured me they are making an investment in the team that fans will see this upcoming season. >> ownership's plan is absolutely to use this ballpark for us to jump into the middle range of payrolls. to have a competitive median payroll in our league, in the game, to keep our players, keep this going year to year. >> reporter: conversely, the a's need their fans to invest in the team, and they aren't going to do that if the organization continue i offseason trend of trading or not re-signing young, talented players when their price tag goes up. the a's have also had the lowest home attendance in the league over the past several years. >> the key thing is that we're lining up the investments in the team with the investments in the

ballpark to make sure there's a crescendo that you've seen with other clubs. because that's a very important recipe for success. >> reporter: that success equates to bodies in the seats of the new ballpark to help pay for it. jack london square businesses are hoping for a big jolt from the stadium project. real estate agents say the stadium will attract expensive new housing. >> live at jack london square with that part of the story. >> reporter: mindi said direct benefits would go to the team and the fans who would fill that 34 34,000-seat stadium. however, the side benefits they hope would go to the businesses in jack london square. >> any major development is going to have ripple effects. and it is certainly our hope that those ripple effects are positive. >> reporter: oakland mayor libby schaaf at today's news conferen hoping that the stadium brings major benefits with it. company at jack london square.

she's hoping the team means it when they say, rooted in oakland. >> there's still a lack of as much foot traffic as we would like. we're really excited for the stadium to come and make that connection to downtown oakland. >> reporter: at the nearby restaurant luna mare, husband and wife owners know any payoff would be years in the future. still -- >> we are very excited the ballpark will be nearly right behind us and we can't wait for this place to be full of a's fans. >> absolutely, more foot traffic for jack london square, for the downtown area, for all of oakland. >> reporter: more vehicle traffic too. business owners hope having a bart station a 15-minute walk away and other public transit will help mitigate that. sources inside the longshore man's union worry placement of the stadium will shrink the port, just when they're vying to increase shipping to oakland. then there's real estate. rents in oakland have climbed at a fantastic rate. the average apartment rents for

more than $2,500 a month now. this real estate agent says, be prepared to pay even more. >> prices will go up. that's what happened at at&t park. all that beautiful housing all around that area which was essentially industrial at one time. >> reporter: that is living space we're talking about. the other side of this is that business owners in jack london square also expect to see their rents go up as the ballpark is built and goes into action. they're hoping they can stick around and survive through the construction phase and make it past the rent hike phase. >> that's a good point. >> there's a lot of phases to this. now the question, how easy would it be for your average baseball fan, the a's fan, to get to a ballpark at the howard terminal site? >> kristin zee is here with the looks at the options and the challenges. >> as this shows, the proposed a's ballpark would be here at howard terminal.

right on the water. great view and atmosphere. but how would you get there? driving won't be easy. interstates 880 and 980 are jammed up during commute hours. you know that. the nearest freeway exits leave you about nine blocks away. plus there's no parking nearby. there's talk of finding a lot on the other side of the port, but you'd probably have to then shuttle over from there. the closest bart stations, west oakland and 12th street. about a mile away. that's walkable but not for people with mobility issues or small kids. that's about the distance between at&t park and bart, but there they have muni. another idea is not pie in the sky but gondola in the sky connecting the 12th street station with jack london square. a tran could carry up to 6,000 fans per hour but that may not be enough capacity after the game. finally the ferry and amtrak. both have stops nearby, but given the fan base being mostly from the east bay, those options

may not serve the majority. kristin zee, abc 7 news. while the a's are moving full steam ahead, the team isn't giving out coliseum site they've called home since 1968. the a's say they're in negotiations with the city and county on the coliseum property with a plan to redevelop it. they released these composite drawings of the site which would surround oracle arena. the plans include housing, shopping, amphitheater, community park, and other projects. >> i think that could be a very exciting process. we have a lot of input from the community to kind of achieve or arrive on that as a plan that we think can make sense. >> tonight at 5:00, we go into east oakland to ask residents what they'd like to see on the coliseum property. before we get too worked up, keep in mind the a's have unveiled previous plans to build on the coliseum site in fremont in san jose, laney college. they all failed. this, though, feels different. here to discuss is abc senior sports producer casey price.

you covered the a's for years. looking at all your tweets and facebook posts, you wanted this site all along. what's your initial reaction to it today? >> it's kind of fun talking to you about it right now. because we spend so much time in the sports department going on and on about howard terminal. i've been advocating for this site for many years and the reason is i feel like it's really a site that can revitalize the city from the waterfront, it connects the downtown. it's just really a perfect way to spark a real nice kind of renaissance for oakland. it's just a perfect site. >> when i've talked to the previous ownership group that included lou wolf, the managing general partner, and asked about this site specifically, he said, the environmental cleanup is just too big to overcome. let's talk about some of the obstacles that have to be met here in this challenge. >> yes, so that's the one thing that could be a big fear. i cautiously tell people, don't get too worked up and excited about this stadium yet, because

they have to do a year-long review which starts friday. if they uncover something in that review that's going to be extremely costly this whole thing could just go away. >> because it's privately financed? >> privately financed. the a's are footing the bill for this entire stadium. and there could be entirely larger environmental issues at hand here. >> right. now tied in with the development and the private financing part of it, the other hook on this is what's going to happen with the old coliseum site? part of that will be a baseball field, but what's around it is essentially, correct me if i'm wrong, will pay for the actual stadium construction itself? so this is a two-pronged approach. they have to have the coliseum tight site and the howard terminal site, none of which they have yet, to make this whole thing work. because they need to pay for the entire thing. oh, and also put together a competitive ball club as well in this process, to keep the public engaged and excited about this whole prospect. so they need the coliseum site. tier in negotiations.

they're seven months in on an exclusive negotiating agreement for that site and howard terminal. if they can get both, they can make the financials work. >> over the course of the past 15 years, i talked about, we've got a site! we've got a site! where are you, 1 to 10, in terms of optimism that we're going to see shovels in the ground in the next few years for a ballpark, play ball first pitch 2023? >> 30%. >> 30%? >> 30%. but it will get better if they can acquire the land. if they can get past the environmental studies. i mean, personally i don't know why you would necessarily announce this today. when you don't have the land yet. you don't have a lot of things that are potentially disastrous in play here. i think there's a lot that needs to be done. we saw it with the peralta site as well. before you can say, this is a lock, this is happening. >> i thought you were going to be a lot higher than 30%.

casey pratt, he's all over the a's coverage and has been for years. thanks for chiming in on that. we'll be doing a facebook live later on that will be just after 6:00 where we'll do a deep dive on all of this. if you want to take a closer look at any of these plans, we have all the information on our website at abc7news.com. the a's are hosting an open house tomorrow for fans to learn more about that plan. it's from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in oakland. we also have more details on our website, abc7news.com. survivors of the camp fire are acclimating to a new normal. coming up, how crews are trying to get some of the town back to what it was before. up next, a school distributing thousands of hockey pucks to its students. how that's supposed to stop school shootings. plus we'll introduce you to

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a massive cleanup process is under way in paradise. what about rebuilding? thanks to the total destruction of the camp fire there's still no power to much of the area but the process of putting the system back together is under way. abc 7 news reporter laura anthony is live in downtown paradise. >> reporter: this flashing stop light behind me at one of the main intersections here in paradise is really the first sign we've seen in three weeks that the work to restore power here is finally under way. pg&e tells us here with thousands of workers on the ground here, full restoration is likely still a long way off. it's going to take more than a village to rebuild all that was lost in paradise and surrounding

communities. >> we have about 3,000 employees, contractors, mutual assistant utility workers. >> reporter: there's an army of pg&e crews and other workers in the camp fire zone, supported by a huge base camp near chico. while some crews clean up mangled and burned power lines and debris, others replace miles and miles of lines, trying to get at least some power restored as quickly as possible. >> we are in the rebuilding phase. we've restored many customers, especially around the fringes of the fire area. and we are working closely with town officials on prioritizing repowering key buildings within the town of paradise. >> there are some little pockets, maybe 40 or 50 buildings that are still standing. >> our inventory has essentially burned down. at least 95% of it. >> reporter: the local realtors association has already begun assessing the catastrophic property damage here and the stark reality that this market

will take decades to recover. >> now with the inventory in the position that it is, burned to the ground, having to rebuild, the stigma of this town, as you can see, of burning down and the risks of burning down, are now here. >> reporter: once they rebuild, will the traumatized residents of paradise even want to return? >> i would love to go back to paradise. it was such a lovely town. i know it will never be the same again, but i'm hoping that some people will go back. >> reporter: we've talked a lot about houses and other structures that have been lost here in paradise. we haven't shown you a lot of the infrastructure downtown. this is a gas station where the pumps survived but the building itself completely gone. there are a lot of scenes like this here in paradise. even when people start to move back in, the essentials they need aren't necessarily going to be here. >> it is going to take some time

to rebuild, no doubt. pg&e says it considered proactively cutting power in butte county around the time the camp fire started but decided wildfire conditions were not bad enough. bloomberg reports a filing yesterday by pg&e to state regulators indicaes the utility company made its final decision more than six hours after the fire ignited on november the 8th. investigators have not yet determined a cause of that wildfire. pg&e reported an outage around the time and place that that fire started. can hockey pucks help stop an active shooter on campus? one michigan school thinks they may be the perfect weapon to fight back. oakland university near detroit is distributing thousands of hockey pucks to faculty and students. the school's police chief says should a gunman enter a classroom, everyone should be ready to throw something, anything, that could distract, stop, or hurt the intruder, even a hockey puck. can it actually work? some students are skeptical. >> i find it at first absurd. what good would it do?

i mean, if there's an armed person coming in, why would you chuck a puck at them? what's it going to do? nothing. >> the university's faculty union believes the pucks can help save lives. it has organized training sessions and it bought 2,500 pucks. >> hopefully they never have to use them. >> exactly. >> that would be the best hope. back to weather. if you can look outside, it's actually beautiful outside right now. but spencer, that is about to change? >> it is going to change quickly over the next couple of hours, as a matter of fact. we have one of the strongest storms coming our way that we've seen in a while. a lot of heavy rain and strong, gusty winds. live doppler 7. increasing clouds and little pockets of moisture developing in the atmosphere. down in the south bay, look at these clouds. westward from emeryville, looks rather threatening at the moment. temperature readings currently % in the low 60s in san francisco, oakland, mountain view, and san jose upper 50s. the soon to be setting soon from our east bay hills camera. 61 santa rosa.

napa 60. low to mid 60s san rafael, concord, livermore. blue sky larry was talking about, but lots of clouds are showing up moving in our direction from the southwest. these are our forecast features. a strong storm tonight and tomorrow morning. it will bring periods of heavy rain, gusty wind, and a chance of thunderstorms. and wind damage and flash flooding are possible with this system. it ranks 2 on the storm impact scale. a storm of moderate intensity. once again coming in tonight and continuing through tomorrow morning, perhaps into the early afternoon hours with heavy rain, damaging wind possibly, chance of thunderstorms, and dangerous surf as well. forecast animation starting at 5:00 p.m., by 9:00 tonight we'll see widespread pockets of moderate to heavy rainfall, followed by a break, then a second surge of stormy weather about 1:00 a.m. that will continue through the early morning hours. as the morning commute gets under way, there will still be pockets of heavy downpours, scattered showers, strong, gusty

wind, wet pavement, a mess for commuters. that will continue through the mid-morning hours. by mid-day, we expect a littl bit of a break here. partial clearing at least. looking at the flash flood watch, that's mainly for those areas up north, burn scar areas, mendocino, lake county, butte county as well. debris flows are possible. just be prepared for the possibility of evacuations. i underscore possibility. wind advisories in effect from 10:00 tonight to 4:00 tomorrow afternoon for most of the bay area. that includes some of the hills and mountains as well as some of the low-lying areas. gusts could exceed 45 miles per hour. a possibility of downed trees and power lines. a high surf advisory in effect until 4:00 a.m. friday. wave heights are growing from 10 to 13 feet right now. they're likely to grow much higher and there's a possibility of strong rip currents and beach erosion. in the sierra, the storm that's coming to us to bring rainfall will produce significant snowfall there.

above 6,000 feet, look for up to 1 foot of snow. this is in effect until 4:00 friday morning and we could see up to three feet of snow from this storm in the higher elevations. overnight lows, low 50s. highs tomorrow mainly upper 50s. here's the accuweather seven-day forecast. a little bit of a break starting late tomorrow and going into friday. but the next storm is expected to move in friday night, continuing into saturday. it will rank 1 on the storm impact scale, accompanied by much colder air. we're calling for cold showers on saturday. basically our weather will remain unsettled from the weekend into probably late next week. >> could we have some gaps to dry out? >> little gaps here and there, how we like it. we don't want all the rain at once, that could really complicate things. we're starting the abc 7 morning show a half hour earlier than usual tomorrow. reggie, jessica, mike, and alexis will track the storm and show us how it's affecting the morning commute. that starts tomorrow at 4:00 a.m.

up next here, today's ground-breaking for san francisco's new ambulance facility. there will be no place like it in the nation. the adult pig found roaming the streets of the bay area city and the e

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san francisco is getting an ambulance deployment facility that will be the first of its kind in the country. abc 7 news was in the bay view for the groundbreaking ceremony of the new depot, a one-stop center where fire department ambulances can replenish medical supplies. fire officials say it will improve medical emergency response times. the new facility will be operational in two years. a pig found wandering around east palo alto is available for adoption. police officers found the female adult, nicknamed piggy smalls -- that's a good one, yeah -- piggy smalls was on a on

and they took her to the humane society. this is the third stray pig the shelter has taken in this year. officials say they are committed to finding piggy smalls a loving home where she will be kept as a pet, not a source of food, just like the other two pigs they took in. >> can she rap? >> that's the question. shake shack is shaking up plans for its new restaurant in palo alto. the stanford shopping center released a statement saying the popular east coast burger joint will be open on december 15th. there had been reports it would open tomorrow. in addition to that palo alto site, shake shack plans to open restaurants in larkspur and san francisco. last april the "chronicle" reported the san francisco shake shack would go up on the corner of fillmore and filbert in cow hollow. still to come on abc 7 news, getting ready for the next big storm in the south bay, a process that actually started months ago. and the issue that is causing big morale problems inside

welcome to emirates mr. jones. just sit back, relax and let us entertain you... ...with over 3,500 channels of entertainment, including the latest movies and box sets from around the world. ( ♪ ) we even have live sports and news channels. ( ♪ ) and your free wi-fi will start shortly. enjoy your flight mr. jones. world's best inflight entertainment. fly emirates. fly better. live where you live. this is abc 7 news. here are the stories making headlines as we approach 4:30. the a's plan to build a new ballpark at the oakland howard terminal close to jack london square.

the stadium will be privately funded. the team expects to break ground in 2020 with the stadium opening expected in 2023. the general manager of the a's says with a new ballpark on the horizon, they need to build a team that can sell. abc 7 sports anchor mindi bach posted part of her interview on twitter. forrest says they'll invest more in payroll. what a day on wall street. the dow jones industrial average surged 600, bringing the three-day gain to over 1,000 points. a storm approaching the bay area is expected to be the strongest of the week, could bring thunderstorms. the entire bay area faces this threat beginning this evening and through the early morning hours. as abc 7 weather anchor spencer christian tells us, that will just be the beginning. >> that's true. that storm is getting really close. we may see or feel its effects in the next hour or so. live doppler 7, you can see how cloudy it is with pockets of moisture developing in the south

bay. just off monterey bay and near santa cruz as well, we see some areas of storminess moving up. 2 on the storm impact scale, moderate intensity, coming in tonight and through tomorrow morning, bringing periods of heavy rainfall, damaging wind, a chance of thunderstorms. forecast animation starting at 5:00 this afternoon shows by the time this newscast is over, we may see some rainfall moving into the south bay and the peninsula. certainly by 8:00 or 9:00 tonight, we'll see widespread areas of showers, moderate to heavy downpours continuing after midnight into the morning commute. and looks like rainfall totals from this storm will be rather significant. >> it looks so beautiful, it's hard to imagine a storm coming in. but enjoy it while you can. the break we've had between storms has provided opportunity for street maintenance crews to attack clogged drains that could lead to severe flooding with this next storm. >> abc 7 news reporter david louis has been following one of those crews in san jose and learned keeping drains clear

started months ago. he's already along 101 and fourth street in san jose. >> reporter: you know, we can expectation the storm but some things can't be anticipated. for drivers not knowing whether they're going to hit hydroplaning conditions on rain-slick roads. some things can be predicted such as clogged drains causing flooding. the city of san jose is trying very hard to get ahead of this next big storm. falling leaves can be a major cause of clogged drains and flooding. they create a formidable barrier that creates ponding. san jose's maintenance workers are out troubleshooting, responding to calls and spotting problems on their own. leaves are not always the problem. >> a lot of mud builds up at the mouth of the drain. what we do is get a pry bar, loosen the mud, and usually that takes care of the problem. >> reporter: the department of transportation has been anticipating these issues. by next month it will have finished cleaning every storm drain in san jose. >> we've got about 32,000 storm

inlets that they have been cleaning since the summer. then we actually go back and go do a second round of cleaning in high-traffic places like downtown san jose and low-lying areas. >> reporter: emily called the city fearing what this next storm could do. >> sometimes it goes to the top of the garage. >> that must scare you. >> yes, yes. >> you don't want water in your house. >> no. >> reporter: the valley water district has pickup stations across its service area where people can help themselves to prefilled sandbags. >> i'm going to put them on the driveway to block water under the house. >> do they work? >> yes. >> reporter: fast-rising creeks can produce major flooding. coyote creek is below flood stage now but two winters ago it spilled into the rock springs neighborhood, displacing 14,000 from their homes. aggressive vegetation management resulted. >> we've put more monitors in the rivers than we had before. you learn from the past. we have more gauges and so on, flood gauges and so on. >> reporter: city crews will be

on 24-hour standby as this storm bears down on us. they also will be prepared to fix potholes which often develop as a result of major storms. the city has 2,400 miles of streets. we're starting the abc 7 morning show a half hour earlier than usual tomorrow. reggie, jessica, mike, and alexis will be here to track the storm and show us how it's affecting the morning commute starting at 4:00 a.m. the san francisco police union has sent a blistering letter to chief william scott in the wake of recent department promotions. >> saying many of its members believe the process is "flawed." vic lee live in the newsroom with more. >> reporter: this is the letter from the police officers association. promotions are always emotionally charged, but this letter is unique in its bluntness. the letter from the police union

was sent to chief william scott after the department released a list of promotions a couple of weeks ago. it says many officers consider the process unfair and illegal, that there's a lack of transparency. the letter summed it up this way. some members are angry, discouraged, and demoralized, which adversely affects morale. >> i've never seen it this bad as far as since i've been in the department, 25 years. >> reporter: tony montoya heads the police officers association. >> i've never seen the department jump around so much to pick up certain candidates over others. >> reporter: promotions to sergeants, lieutenants, and captains are based on civil service exams. race and gender cannot be considered. but in certain cases the chief can factor in special skill sets. something called secondary criteria. >> different sets of experiences, different sets of training, different backgrounds, different cultural competencies. >> reporter: that's what many in the rank and file object to. they want promotions based solely on how well candidates do on the exam.

>> forget the secondary criteria. like i said, it gives more legitimacy and merit to the testing process. >> it's disappointing and i get that. but also we do have rules that we follow. they're there for a reason. >> reporter: the secondary criteria, the chief argues, gives more depth to the promotional process. some officers believe it also creates room for nepotism. >> asking for the department to be transparent with the promotional process. they don't feel that is happening right now. >> montoya says he'll meet with the chief and with his members in several weeks to discuss the concerns and figure out their next step. vic lee, abc 7 news. petaluma police are investigation after a woman's body was found dangling out of a donation box this morning in the parking lot outside the steel bear deli on old redwood highway. petaluma police believe the woman was reaching down inside the box and was crushed.

it's not known how long she was there. authorities believe her death was an accident. a court ruling found the state's assisted suicide law unconstitutional has been overturned. the california appeals court overturned that ruling today. doctors behind the case could not show they were being harmed by having the ability to help terminally ill patients die. the law allows adults to attain life-ending drugs if a doctor determines they have six months or less to live. the justices did not rule on constitutionality of the law, just on the doctors' standing. now to an exclusive. the abc news interview with ivanka trump. the president's daughter defended her use of private e-mail for white house business. she says she did nothing wrong and says this case is totally different from hillary clinton's e-mail controversy. jessica castro has the story. >> reporter: in an abc news exclusive interview, the president's daughter, ivanka trump, is unapologetic about a recent e-mail scandal regarding her use of a private e-mail

server, something her father bashed hillary clinton for in the 2016 presidential campaign. >> all of my e-mails that relate to any form of government work, which was mainly scheduling and logistics and managing the fact that i have a home life and a work life, are all part of the public record, all stored on the white house system. so everything has been preserved. everything's been archived. there just is no equivalency between the two things. >> but people see it as the same. >> people who want to see it as the same see it as the same. but the fact is that we all have private e-mails and personal e-mails to coordinate with our family. we all receive content to those e-mails. and there's no prohibition from using private e-mail as long as it's archived and as long as there's nothing in it that's classified. >> reporter: she also spoke to abc news correspondent deborah roberts about the crisis at the border. >> how have you responded to those images? >> i think like any other person with a heart, it's devastating.

>> reporter: but she stood by her father's calls for lethal force if necessary. >> lethal force under any circumstance would be the last resort. but he is the commander in chief of the armed forces of this country. so he always has to be able to protect the border. he's not talking about innocents. he's not talking about innocent asylum seekers. >> reporter: ivanka trump said we undoubtedly have a crisis at the border and she addressed the russia probe saying, quote, i know the facts as they relate to me and my family so i have nothing to be concerned about. in the studio, i'm jessica castro, abc 7 news. nancy pelosi is one step closer to being speaker of the house again easily winning her party's nomination to lead the house in the 116th congress, 203-32, with three blank ballots and one absent. the 78-year-old will now try to

return to the speakers' chair she held 2007 to 2010. both parties will participate in the final vote. the speaker of the house follows the vice president in the line of succession to the presidency. meanwhile barbara lee failed in her bid to become democratic caucus chair. the 72-year-old was vying to become the first black woman ever elected to a house leadership position and the first woman to lead the house democratic caucus. however, her colleagues chose new york congressman hakeem jeffries. the 48-year-old becomes the youngest member of house democratic leadership in decades. is lyme disease the first epidemic as a result of climate change? one journalist says so, and why californians should be concerned. "7 on your side." the 4 place

today a journalist is in the bay area helping shed light on lyme disease. she considers it to be the first epidemic of climate change. mary beth pfeiffer is joining us now. thank you for coming in. >> thank you for having me. >> first talk about this connection you say between climate change and lyme disease. >> what we see with ticks, and this is happening in many countries, they are moving to places they could never survive before. they're moving north on latitudes through scandinavia, up into canada, as they have

moved north from new york and the connecticut area where lyme disease first emerged in the late 1970s. and they are showing up in california, and not only in more places, but there are more of them and they are carrying more pathogens that can harm us. >> talk a little more about your research and climate change, the warmth, and why they can survive now more. >> well, ticks basically can survive many different environments. and we know they can survive very intense storms and winters. but what we're seeing is an environmental change. and it's not just the warming of the planet, but i'll get to that. temperatures are warmer in many places. 3 degrees warmer, for example in the last century in canada. so birds can carry them to new places. birds have long carried them there. but now when they come to these places, they can survive, they

can breed. but this is also moreover about the ways in which we have adulterated the planet. it's about suburbanization. it's about the slicing and dicing of forests. so weon't a ateally in its natural state anymore. so, for example, there's lots of white-footed miles on the east coast. lots of squirrels on the west coast. these are the small mammals that carry the infection and where the baby ticks go for that first sip of a lyme disease bug. >> why should people in california be particularly concerned about this? i think we think of lyme disease, ticks, a lot on the east coast. but california, maybe it's more prevalent than we actually know? >> yes. california hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. it's considered a low-incidence state as far as lyme disease goes, which means that people have to prove they are infected

to a higher degree than elsewhere to be counted by the cdc. and that serves to keep the case counts very low. so california officially has maybe 100 cases a year. the actual count is likely much larger. but when doctors see 100 cases in the entire state, which by the way are mainly concentrated in the north, they think, oh, it's not a big problem here, i don't need to educate myself on it, i don't need to look for it. and they really do. >> all right. mary beth pfeiffer, thank you for coming in and shedding light on this. >> thank you. now your accuweather forecast with spencer christian. >> our next storm is not far away. doppler radar showing clouds and rain. the storm that's coming ranges 2 on the storm impact scale, moderate intensity. it will be moving through tonight and tomorrow morning producing periods of heavy rainfall, strong, possibly damaging wind, maybe some thunderstorms, and dangerous

surf. the forecast for rainfall totals looks pretty impressive. most locations will see from just under 1 inch to 2 inches of rain by 5:00 tomorrow afternoon. and our rain chances over the next seven days are substantial. we expect a pretty decent chance of rain just about every day in the seven-day forecast. the strongest probabilities are tomorrow, saturday, and then next tuesday and wednesday. so here's a look at the accuweather seven-day forecast. we have the storm coming in tonight that will be with us through at least part of the day tomorrow. and then we get a little break on friday. the next storm comes in friday night and continues into saturday. then another break with lingering clouds on sunday and monday. then a weaker storm is coming in tuesday and wednesday of next week. the parade continues. >> all right, thank you, spencer. amazon pushing its way into health care. how its new software can help more patients in need get into drug trials. "7 on your side."

♪thisi'm gonna let it shine. ♪ it's energy saving time, ♪ i'm gonna reduce mine. ♪ californians all align ♪ to let our great state shine. ♪ let it shine, ♪ the power's ours to let it shine! ♪ amazon is making a new push into health care. the seattle-based company rolled hat rea thgs like pnt rec on says docto and ze

hospitals could use the program to cut costs and improve treatments. in fact, the fred hutchison cancer research center in seattle helped the company test its software and will use the service to help identify patients who might be able to participate in experimental drug studies. with holiday shopping under way, there's a warning about how you can avoid becoming a victim of fraud. >> "7 on your side" is here with that, michael finney? >> we're talking about debit cards. they're completely different from credit cards, the protections. i don't think a lot of people know it. you don't automatically get your money back if you're a victim of fraud, by law, with your debit card. being careful where you use your debit card is important. four places you should be on high alert. be careful where you swipe your debit card. the risk of fraud is everywhere. but experts say certain places are more dangerous than others. here are four risky places to avoid. first, outdoor atms.

bankrate.com says fee thieves c capture your information with a skimmer. use an atm inside a retail outlet where that's less likely to happen. number two, gas stations. bank rate experts say they're a danger zone because they're less secure and transactions require very little supervision. that means it's easy for thieves to place a pinpoint camera at the pump and steal your p.i.n. cash or credit cards are the best ways to pay at the pump. number three, online purchases. bank rate experts say this may be the most dangerous place to make purchases, saying there's potential for hacking at many points during a transaction. number four, bars and restaurants. just think about it. you give your card to the supervisor and the card leaves your hands and your eyesight for a while. you have no way of knowing whether your card's information was copied while it was gone.

safeguarding your payment information means staying alert at all times. >> because of legal protection, it is always safer to use a credit card over a debit card, so keep that in mind and be careful. >> credit card will give your money back, debit card the money's gone. >> you've got to fight much harder to get it. by law the money goes back into your account and they've got to fight to get it from you. that's the difference. fish on the streets of san francisco? up next, we'll talk to a secretive art best why he's working to cover our sidewalks with images of koy. new at 5:00, a violent bar fight in napa itgh wan getti attawhat happened and a newofhe find. also a santa coottery scam. the warning for you tonight. we showed you the plans to build a new home for the a's but

what could happen to their current site? the plan to develop the area around the coliseum coming up on abc 7 news at 5:00.

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i'm all about bulking up breakfast! [grunt] try my meaty breakfast burritos. part of the breakfast burrito family. employment tiprimetime. 9:30, "single parents" followed at 10:00 by "a million little things." news at 11:00. today we meet the street artist who paints thousands of fish onto san francisco sidewalks. >> you stumble upon a koy fish or something that is faux nature in an urban landscape i find whimsical and funny, also a very positive image for people to see. i stencil art, predominantly koy fish, a positive image for

people to stumble upon. i don't always do art with permission. i like it if i go into a restaurant, they don't know who i am. by removing the image of me, it fourths you to look at my art. i'm the fish guy, and instantly i have some cred or some like you are a legit artist. san francisco, i'm keeping with san francisco street art roots. there has to be 40,000 of them. there's a lot of them. there's some in people's houses. ppeople send me pictures of the getting tattooed on them. people have wedding pictures with scenic views. the fish, it's just like that's somehow an iconic part of their relationship in the city of san francisco. it's just beautiful. it's one of the reasons why i keep doing it is. when people stop and tell how it

makes them happy or their k to put them out there. art is important and it needs to be out there. so i do it without permission in hopefully in a way i'll get forgiveness or brighten someone's day before it gets removed. >> check out abc's new brand at localish.com, on facebook, on instagram. >> get the latest news any time with the abc 7 news app. enhanced features and push alerts to get news you want delivered to your phone in realtime. >> thanks for joining us for abc 7 news at 4:00. abc 7 news at 5:00 starts now. take your time and not be in a big rush. >> very good advice for drivers as a big storm moves in. meteorologist sandy batelle is timing it out. a brutal bar fight caught on camera. the suspect police are searching for. a very exciting day for the oakland a's.

>> laying out the vision for a new ballpark. the important focus for the team and the time leading up to its opening. that's not the only thing that couldn changing in oakland. the new things that may be sprouting up near the coliseum. right now at 5:00, a strong storm is moving into the bay area. this is a look now at live doppler 7. rain, wind, high surf, even snow in the sierra, all tracking it for you tonight. good evening. thanks for joining us. >> a live look outside from three of our cameras. san jose, emeryville, and mt. tam. it looks like a reprieve from the showers at the moment but not for long. >> it's on the way. let's go to meteorologist sandy batelle who's tracking the storm. a strong one. >> a powerful storm and it's intensifying. live doppler 7, notice lightning strikes off the coast. this storm is going to pound the bay area. it's a strong level 2 storm,

moderate strength between tonight and tomorrow morning. heavy rain, damaging winds, chance of thunder, dangerous surf. can't rule out an isolated tornado or waterspout. live doppler 7 tracking moist air flowing in, showers in the santa cruz area, boulder creek. east bay, light returns around the livermore valley across 580, vineyard avenue. this is just street level radar. high surf advisory until 4:00 a.m. friday. surthe is building. breakers could be as high as 18 to 24 feet. watch out for strong rip currents. the incoming storm is prompting a number of watches and warnings. a high surf advisory remains in effect right now. here's a live look at the santa cruz pier. >> while conditions on the coast are considered dangerous, surfers are loving it. abc 7 news reporter matt keller reports from steamer lane. >> reporter: big storm coming. big waves already here.