tv ABC7 News 500PM ABC December 13, 2018 5:00pm-5:30pm PST
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i'm larry beil. >> i'm kristen zee. several bay area organizations or businesses received those threats, including abc 7. this e-mail was sent to a 7 on your side mailbox demanding bitcoin as payment in exchange for not detonated an explosive device. but the fbi determined these threats were not credible. >> eric thomas live outside san francisco police headquarters with the latest details on the bay area investigation. eric. >> that's right, guys. even though the hib and the nypd counterintelligence unit decided pretty early on these were not credible threats, sfpd treated them like they were. instead of traffic, drivers in the flee,000 block of california street were being detoured around a web of yellow crime scene tape because someone e-mailed a bomb threat to the san francisco fire credit union. >> earlier this morning, we received an e-mail communication at the credit union from an individual or entity who was notifying us that they had
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planted an explosive device on site and they were demanding payment. >> the credit union called 911 and quickly evacuated the 100 or so employees. directly across california street, the jewish community center evacuated more than 500 people as a precaution. some ordered out of the pool and given bathrobes and told to move out. >> as an institution where people gather and as a jewish institution, we take safety and security incredibly seriously. and we have a very well trained staff. >> and then i went to take my shower, and lo and behold, we heard the announcement. that was a moment. so i had a towel on my head and i ran out with my clothes on. >> this place is pretty dialed in when it comes to stuch like this. i think from times in the past where there have been situations in the jewish community centers or attacks on the jewish community so they're really god. >> san francisco police said they had more than a dozen calls about the bomb threats and took each one seriously. >> the types of businesses affected by the bomb threats range from offices, financial
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institutions, a parking garage, some bio and tech corporations. >> no explosives were found and it's not known if anyone met the payment demand. meantime, sfpd's special investigations unit is taking over. >> part of our investigation will be determined if the bomb threats received in san francisco are related to the bomb threats around the country. >> and police say don't be surprised to see officers still out winding up their investigations once again. there have been no explosions, and these threats are thought not to have been credible. everyone had to treat them as if they were. by the way, the jewish community center based on previous threats has this down to a science. they were able to evacuate 500 people, 172 of them children, in about five minutes. live outside san francisco police headquarters, eric thomas, abc 7 news. >> eric, thank you. a big water main break in union city is causing traffic
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delays at this hour. sky 7 was over the scene on union city boulevard within the hour where the northbound lanes are completely flooded, as you can see. sky map 7 here showing you the roads. it's happening near whipple road at union city boulevard. the city says the water main break was called by pg&e, which was working on a gas main there. there are detours in place and you can expect delays for the next several hours. >> in petaluma, police have an unusual case on their hands involving a hotel guest who they say had a very sophisticated way of spying on his neighbors. abc 7's wayne freeman joining us from outside the sheraton sonoma county. we have new details learning about the suspect's job. wayne. >> interesting case. this is about privacy. it used to be what you see, what you hear, what you read. then technology came along. it's all changed, as borne out by this case. check into a hotel, close the door to the room, and a person experts privacy. at this sheraton, that does not
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appear to have been the case. >> he told us he likes to watch people. and he's into voyeurism. >> petaluma police lieutenant tim lyons describing the subject, a 30-year-old who says he works in a dean's office at uc burkery and who now faces charges of wire tapping and illegally recording another person by using two very small high definition cameras. police took this photo of one of the cameras pushed beneath an adjoiing hotel room door, recording a man on the other side. >> he had met him in the lobby. just by chance, they sparked up a conversation. our suspect then determined where his room was, requested to be moved to a room next to him. >> when police arrested martinez, they found a computer, a hard drive, two of the cameras. martinez spent a lot of time in this hotel chain, they say. now detectives must look through every file to see if he had other victims. >> what if this person was recording women or recording
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children? what if you find that? >> then that's going to be a lot more serious charges. that's why we're going to take our time and go through all of the data. >> meantime, hauv your martinez is out of jail on bail. he did not return calls from abc 7 news. here's what he told police. >> at one point, he did say he was doing it for reality tv, but we have no information that supports that. that's probably just an excuse. >> worth noting, management at the sheraton hotel here in petaluma has referred all questions to the petaluma police. the petaluma police in turn say hotel management treated this case perfectly, that they did a good job in dealing with it. so far, it's a misdemeanor as to why they want to see more of those videos, well, that could change the case considerably. hence all the openness on this. live in petaluma, wayne freedman, abc 7 news. >> wayne, thank you. a busy day for firefighters in vallejo. crew husband to use what's known as the rescue tool to extricate a driver from this vehicle.
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it overturned on the connector ramp from interstate 780 westbound to i-80 westbound. the driver's condition is unknown. and while this was happening, another wreck took place just 100 yards away on eastbound 780. that crash involved three vehicles, one ended up on its side, trapping two people inside. they were taken to local hospitals with a variety of injuries. sky map 7 shows the location of a multi-vehicle crash on highway 24 inside the caldecott tunnel. as you can see, chp closed all lanes heading into the westbound fourth bore. the crash happened around 10:45 in the morning and involved four vehicles, wrun caught fire. two people and a baby were taken to the hospital as a precaution. the highway patrol reopened all lanes about a half hour later. we're finding out more about what may have caused two structural steel beams to crack inside the sales's force transit center. it has to do with holes and heat. abc 7 news reporter has the
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story. >> this picture shows weld access holes that were made during fabrication of the compromised steel beam. on a much smaller scale, a local welder showed us what they may look like. these holes or cuts give crews access to be able to perform welding from beam to column. typically, the cuts are done using a drill. but in the case of the trans-bay beam, a thermal torch was used creating a high degree of heat, which eventually resulted in microcracks. >> when it cools, the molten surface layer of the steel cools very rapidly and forms a structure which can be very brittle and because it's so brittle, it cracks very easily, but it's a very thin layer. >> robert is the president of lpi, an independent company out of new york which conducted the tests. it was either the stress from the construction or the use of the building that caused these microcracks. that then contributed to the two larger cracks which forced the
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closure of the transbay transit center. the corporation was responsible for fabricating the beams that cracked. its president today underlined the findings are preliminary. >> i think when you say hey, it could be a design issue, it could be a fabrication issue, then you have presentations that really only look at the fabrication and materials, i feel like i'm underrepresented right now. and i think we have more things to talk about. >> members of the transbay joint powers authority were told a final report on the root cause of the cracks is expected by next month. in the meantime, a fix to the problem was presented today. it's expected to be approved by the peer review panel of engineers within the next few weeks. >> put a plate underneath, one plate underneath the cracked flange. one plate on top of the cracked flange. and then tie them up with bolts. >> as for when the transit center will reopen, it's not
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known. >> we may know next month what the path might look like and what timeline might be associated with that, but they just don't know at this point. >> meanwhile, the next phase of the project, which includes caltrain, has been put on hold. in san francisco, lyanne melendez, abc 7 news. >> tonight, fema is working to bring more trailers to the camp fire zone. some people who lost their homes have already been moved to trailers. fema's hoping to place hundreds more housing units at the butte county fairgrounds. there are more than 700 families in need of direct housing assistance. some people say they're receiving letters stating they're ineligible for benefits. fema is telling them not to give up. >> they may not have all of the required paperwork. or perhaps they have been referred to another agency. depending on what type of damage has been done to their residence. >> in the wake of the camp fire, pg&e is proposing more investments to reduce wildfire risk. the utility wants to install stronger and more resilient
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power poles and covered power lines and install new high definition cameras in high fire threat areas. >> a flight that started in sacramento had to turn around midtrip because somebody left a heart behind. you heard that right. a heart. after leaving sacramento on sunday, the southwest flight landed in seattle and then was continuing on to dallas. on the way to dallas, somebody discovered a human heart was onboard. a southwest spokesperson says they learned the heart was supposed to be delivered to a seattle hospital. they decided to head back. it's believed the heart did make it back in time to be viable for a valve transplant. hearts transported typically don't travel with a human carrying it. and that may be why. >> such a relief it was still viable. >> an update on the romaine lettuce e. coli outbreak. we now know where it started. >> plus, the crackdown on carpool cheaters. what abc 7 found as the chp
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targeted the people who make your commute even worse. >> i'm spencer christian. a colorful post-sunset sky shows more clouds. along with rain. i'll have the forecast coming up. >> the tech billionaire who built an app for the rest of us sfx: tsfx: feet shufflingc life can change in an instant. be covered when it does... ...with a health plan through covered california. we offer free expert help choosing the best plan for you. and all of our plans include free preventive care. financial help is available,
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so check for yourself to see what savings you qualify for. for health insurance starting january 1st, enroll by december 15th. because you never know when life... ...will change. get covered today. abc 7 news is committed to building a better bay area. that means we dig deeper into the big issues. housing, transportation, transit, including carpools. the chp has been cracking down on those not so sneaky carpool cheaters. the transportation commission found during peak commute hours in morning, 24% of drivers are in the carpool lane illegally. in the afternoon and the evening, 19% are driving solo in the carpool lane. one of the biggest problem areas happens to be the express lanes on interstate 680 in the east
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bay. construction is under way to extend them by 11 miles. today, abc 7 news reporter leslie brinkley got the opportunity to ride along with an officer for a closer look at the crackdown on the carpool cheaters. >> right now, there's a car, that green camry right there, appears to be solo. >> this is highway 680. the morning commute. >> are there a lot of carpool cheats out there? >> oh, yeah. they're everywhere. >> officer chris torres is our intrepid guide to the ins and outs of catching cheaters. he looks for people who zip out of the carpool lane when they see the patrol. >> he moved out when he saw me. that's when i allow them to pass me and i get behind them, make a stop. >> what's the main excuse people give when they're stopped for cheating? >> they tell me that they were only in the lane for a second, or somebody cut them off. >> and those don't hold water with you? >> no, no. >> they get a citation. >> oh, yeah. >> along these express lanes
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through danville, chp says the tale tell sign of a cheater is no transponder and often paper plates to avoid paying expensive tolls. >> this right here is a citation for being in the express lane without a toll tag. >> the driver didn't want to talk on or off camera after all, he got two citations. he got his license plates in june. and still hasn't put them on the vehicle. >> correct. >> so might be cheating on other days. >> oh, yeah. >> this truck was driving solo in the express lane with no transponder. >> exit the freeway. do not stop here. >> he got off with a warning to tell his employer he needed one. what are the weirdest excuses you hear when you pull people over? >> it varies. i had people have dolls or dummies sitting in the passenger seat. i have had individuals say that i'm pregnant, does that count as two? >> has anyone tried to claim their dog is a second passenger? >> yeah. >> really? >> yeah, and that's a sensitive subject to certain people.
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i'm like, no, you can't do that. >> chp is cracking down on cheaters. the golden gate division, which encompasses the whole bay area, there were over 18,000 citations written in 2017. this year, it's already over 31,000 hov violations. >> there's a paper plate, too. >> a retired couple appear to not have a transponder. >> can i see your license? >> but they did. >> mine was on the floor and i guess it didn't register. >> the chp effort to stop cheaters will keep accelerating into the new year. >> have a good day. >> i'm leslie brinkley, abc 7 news. >> the metropolitan transportation commission told abc 7 news today they have tried three different camera systems to identify carpool violators. >> none of them work to their satisfaction so they're going to rely on the chp to enforce the law. they say they do not plan to additionally test any other systems. the systems are designed to identify how many people are actually riding in a car. and this past september, the chp
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tweeted out this picture from highway 4 in contra costa county. they said dummy passengers can't fool us. is that a giants hat on top of him? that person apparently tried to tell the officer there was not any room in the trunk for his mannequin. good try. >> good try. not fooling anyone. >> in january, also in contra costa county, the chp posted this picture of the doll chucky riding shotgun in the passenger seat in a car in the carpool lane. ad guess what. >> yeah, you're going to get a ticket. >> that driver got a ticket. >> unless it's jon gruden sitting there. in may, the chp busted a driver for this doll strapped in a car seat. >> that's realistic. >> that looks close. this happened on oakland on a section of interstate 80 where you need three people in the car to use the hov lanes. otherwise, that might have worked. >> do you have an idea for building a better bay area? we want to hear them. use the #betterbayarea to get involved in the conversation with us online. >> all right, as you know, steph
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curry is one of the nba's brightest stars. this week, his comments about the moon have taken up all the headline space after expressing an opinion that the moon landing was fake on a podcast, the warriors star stepped back yesterday on his comments, telling espn he was joking. today, practice in oakland, he was apologetic about the statement and says he hopes for an opportunity to learn from all of this. >> i have an opportunity to talk to somebody that's very well knowledged in that industry. one, to express apologies and obviously regret of how this all kind of happened. hopefully i'll have that experience at the lunar labs and all that stuff. but hopefully this all gets behind us. >> if you're steph curry and you say anything and it's out of whack, everybody is going to jump all over it and it will be headlines for days. before steph has a chance to check out the lunar labs, more
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pressing concern. he and the warriors will be heading to sacramento to takoon the kings on friday night. hopefully they play better than they did last night. >> moving on, u.s. health officials have traced the romaine lettuce e. coli outbreak right before thanksgiving book to at least one farm in the central valley. a water reservoir at adams brothers farms near santa maria tested positive for the bacterial strain along with santa barbara county, officials say they should still avoid lettuce from monterey and san boneto. they encourage you to check labels. >> napster's cofounder has helped create an app to help people enjoy beaches to repent for breaking rules at big sur. the l.a. times reports sean parker teamed up with the california coastal commission for this app which will come out tomorrow. it's called your coast. the shows users beach access points along california's coast. back in 2013, parker had his elaborate wedding in an eke
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logically sensitive area of big sur without the proper permits. he also paid more than $2 million in a settlement. >> now, your accuweather forecast with spencer christian. >> we have active weather coming our way. let's get into it. calm conditions right now and clear skies, but that's about to change. looking at the post-sunset sky, you see a few clouds there, adding color to the sunset. but the clouds are going to increase overnight. right now, 60 degrees in the city. we have temperatures in the mid to upper 50s at oakland, mountain view, san jose, morgan hill, and half moon bay. this is the view looking towards the western sky. 56 in santa rosa. mid to upper 50s in napa, vacaville, san rafael, concord, fairfield, livermore, 52 degrees, and on we go to a live view from our emeryville camera looking westward at an orangey kind of sky. these are our forecast features. next storm arrives tomorrow. continues into early saturday. we'll have a second storm, a stronger one, on sunday, continuing into early monday morning. then a dry pattern begins next
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tuesday. let's talk about the first storm which ranks only 1 on the storm impact scale. astorm of light intensity expected to produce light rain and showers tomorrow into early saturday morning. less than a half inch of rain in most parts of the bay area. forecast animation starting at midnight. a few increasing clouds, spouty showers in the early morning hours. by early afternoon, we'll see more organized areas of rainfall. later in the day, it will swing southward and eastward. a fairly wet evening commute for much of the bay area, then that will wind down and give way to spotty showers early saturday morning. rainfall potential will be just under a quarter inch for most of the bay area. some north bay locations may see slightly more. overnight low temperatures will be generally in the mid to low 40s under increasingly cloudy skies. highs tomorrow right around or just above 60 degrees under showery conditions. now let's talk about the second storm. that's a stronger one comes in sunday, continuing into early monday.
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it ranks 2 on the storm impact scale. a storm of moderate intensy. this is likely to produce half an inch up to an inch and a half of rain in the wettest locations. rough and dangerous surf will accompany this storm along with strong, gusty winds. pick up the forecast animation. going into sunday, notice how the area of rain expands and becomes moderate to heavy by sunday evening. then it starts to weaken going into monday morning. we expect the storm also to produce snow over in the sierra. i mentioned wind. it's going to produce strong, large west-northwesterly swells. excuse me. sunday evening into monday. breakers, breaker waves may reach heights of 25 to 40 feet with this storm. okay, on we go to the accuweather seven-day forecast. notice a little break between systems saturday afternoon, but not much. not for long. and then that stronger, windier storm comes in on sunday, continues into monday morning. then we get a string of dry days beginning next tuesday. but we have pretty wet weather
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consumer news right now. a better way to pack your car carry-on luggage. >> it's important because it's so expensive these days. michael finney is here to explain. >> they're raising the prices all the time. >> i know, it's amazing. some airlines have upped their fees from $25 to $30 per checked bag. happened last month. but not to worry. it's possible to fit everything you need into a carry-on. here's a look at some space saving packing techniques. >> there's probably about ten things that i could have taken out. >> i'm not a smart packer. >> i'll take a little less. >> if this sounds familiar, consumer reports says it's time to maximize space and learn to pack efficiently. >> the number one thing you need to do is make a list of your
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essentials. >> include everything, clothing, shoes, toiletries, medications, electronics and documents like passports. next, forget about separate outfits for each day. instead, mix and match. three tops to go with one pair of pants, for example. and stick with three pairs of shoes. >> big things like shoes and those should go on the bottom. >> pack them toe to heel at the base for stability and roll nonwrinkle prone items instead of folding them. and what about your undergarmen undergarments? >> put them in between the cracks, stuff your socks into your shoes. >> and into your toiletry bag, too. tuck scarves and belts along the edge of the suitcase. save wrinkle prone items for last. put them in a bag and lay them flat on top. and try to use outside pockets for things like itineraries and computers. follow these steps and you just might have some room for souvenirs. >> remember, airlines have different size requirements so
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check ahead of time what size carry-ons they allow. now, you don't want to arrive at the gate and have to check your bag because it's too big to fit in the overhead compartment like you see them do all the time to everybody. >> so anoising. >> and then you're slowing everybody else down. >> then you're waiting in line. >> thanks, michael. >> all right. getting an opportunity to make a little extra money during the holiday season. that is always welcome. but usually not like this. >> mayhem breaks out when cash rains down.
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michael cohen will appear exclusively on "good morning america." he talks to george stephanopoulos about hot the president has been saying about him and his recent sentencing. tomorrow, 7:00 a.m., here on abc 7. right now, ama is here with a look at abc 7 news at 6:00. >> we're finally hearing from a man entangled in a high profire
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murder case. he tells why he agreed to dump the body and why he's desperate to go to vegas. >> also, it may not look like much, but this building will become ground zero for activity following the next major bay area shoe you what will happen inside. and not so fast on the proposed texting tax in california. that's all coming up on abc 7 news at 6:00. >> see you in a half hour. >> it was raining money today in new jersey this morning. >> oh, my god. look at all the money. >> the back door of a brinks armored truck malfunctioned causing cash to fly out on a highway in east rutherford. >> look at all these people out of their cars. >> they're braving the snow, and i guess the traffic, the cars, and they just kind of ran out to pick up whatever they could. no word how much money ended up on the road. >> police say they're looking with people with information or video of this incident. good luck on that. >> don't do that. world news tonight with david
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muir is next. >> for all of us, thanks for watching. we'll see you in a tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. the dramatic takedown a short time ago, after the terror attack near the christmas market. s.w.a.t. teams moving in quickly late today, surrounding the suspect and killing him. we're on the scene tonight. in new york city, the stunning images. the explosive backdraft. >> oh, my god! >> more than 200 firefighters on the scene. we're also tracking the major storm moving across the country. the accidents on highways already. and now, the east bracing for a friday travel nightmare. rob marciano standing by with the new track. police racing to a school today, tipped off an armed teenager was on his way to that school, too. they arrive at the same time. the boy shoots his way in, and what happens next. hundreds of fake bomb threats called into schools,
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