will close again. spencer? we have mainly light rain and scattered showers around the bay area. here's a look at the live view of the golden gate where the pavement is wet. we have a spare the air day. air quality will be poor. our current storm ranks one still on the storm impact scale. now through tomorrow morning we can expect more light rain and showers, less than a quarter inch of rainfall is likely. it will take us into the late night and overnight hours. we'll see another wave of showers coming in early tomorrow morning and most of the remainder of the day the rain becomes confined to the north bay. then becomes the second storm on sunday. on sunday, a stronger one, ranking two on the storm impact scale. it will produce rainfall totals of an inch to an inch and half. 30 to 40-mile-per-hour winds. rough and dangerous surf. i'll given you a closer look in

the seven-day forecast in just a few minutes. larry? >> thank you, spencer. we'll take a live look at sfo where some arriving flights are delayed by about 2 1/2 hours. rain and high winds are forcing gate holds and taxi delays between 30 and 45 minutes. those delay times are expected to increase, so be sure to check your flights before leaving for the airport if you're going to pick somebody up. >> that's a good idea. our dirty air alert is back. >> one or two fireplaces may not seem like a lot, but when the smoke sits there, it builds and bids and builds. it's like when they used to allow smoking in a restaurant. >> wood smoke is the major source of air pollution in the winter. like cigarette smoke it contains fine particles and carcinogenic substances that mack it harmful to breathe. you can check the weather in your area and track the storm

any time on your abc news app. tonight a stunning accusation against one of the largest utility companies. pg&e is accused of lying for years about safety maintenance on the lines. they've opened a case. an investigation revealed the company failed to mark natural gas lines because of low staffing and then pressured supervisors to falsify safety records. this happened allegedly between 2012 and 2017 and this is two years after the deadly sand bruno explosion. in a statement the cpuc says this is a serious violation of law and diminishes our trust in the utilities reports on their project. pg&e saying they're committed to accurate and thorough record keeping and we didn't live up to that commitment in this case. they're looking to improve how they shut down power lines during wildfire conditions. this comes amid accusations that its equipment may have started

the north bay fire lastier and the camp fire this year. the cause of the camp fire is still, of course, under investigation, but pg&e report thad one of its lines suffered a fire 15 minutes prior to. power was not shut off despite high winds and dry conditions but it caused major problems for thousands of people. abc 7 new's reporter wayne freedman has more on the suggestions. wayne? >> reporter: they hinted in the future when it shuts down power lines, it may go to the high voltage lines instead. all of this is offered as a solution, but customers still regard it as a problem. here's the general truth about news. aftermath will rarely be as intense as the event that follows, but often it's just as important. that would be the case at santa ro rosa's veterans building today.

that's the city manager dylan feek telling a public commissions panel what he learned about the pg&e shutdown that impacted 60,000 customers last october. >> it was a difficult decision we weren't prepared for. >> in those jut downs they got hit hard for fears of electrical lines starting fires. much time was spend re-energizing the lines leading to financial losses and inconvenience yenning people. but today the utility heard concerns about the shut-off needing more planning especially for people with disabilities. >> wheelchairs, lifts that get people out of things and into things breathing equipment, hearing equipment. >> you can't just have that turned off, you say. >> no. >> pg and e said they did get

the message but restoring after a shutdown is a process. >> during extreme weather to reduce wildfire tletds in high fire threatened areas. >> reporter: pg and e says it wants to streamline the process, but that won't be easy. last olkt before they turned the power back on, that i had to check 3,400 miles of lines. in sonoma county, wayne freedman, abc7 news. in the east bay, moraga will be the first city to hold an evacuation. residents will participate in this exercise. here's a look at maps of moraga and paradise. we're going to show them to you side by side. you can see how the communities have a similar layout, giving you three main roads in and out. abc 7 p news reporter leslie

brinkley with more. >> reporter: they're braced, they're ready for a 7:00 a.m. phone call tomorrow morning. they're going to be told to evacuate. they're going to knock on neighbors' doors, get in cars in an orderly fashion, file out of their neighborhood on a busy moraga way as part of this evacuation drill. is moraga vulnerable in a fire? >> i think anyplace is vulnerable in a fire. >> reporter: the fire chief says it's been divided into three zones. saturday at 7:00 a.m. will be show time. here's look at sky 7 in suburbs sur rounded by open space. residents of over 500 homes will be directed to evacuate on st. andrews drive to moraga way and highway 4. it's one of the few leading out of town. it will become a one-way

evacuation route with all westbound traffic. the signs are up warning of the eastbound closure for this drill. >> i think it's important to do evacuation drills from areas that are at far ends of communities where we only have a couple of i ways out of the community. >> i think it's super important. if we haven't learned anything that happened in paradise and napa and all these other areas, it would be silly not to prepare in a town that's very similar. >> one of the exercises we'll be doing tomorrow is we'll be doing the evacuations aed 20 miles an hour. the reality is when the roads are choked, people have to work together. they could tie the street up and block hundreds of other people. >> reporter: lessons learned tomorrow will be applied to other drills. 20 other agencies are coming to watch it all in live action to eventually replicate it in their own communities. lorinda is looking at doing it

next spring. >> doing it live in an actually community is always best. >> reporter: the chief says only 10% to 20% of residents are opting out of the drill. the other 80% are ready to get that early morning 7:00 a.m. call to evacuate. >> leslie, thank you. after being denied a permit to operate in san francisco, the electric scooter company is trying to get the city to change itses mind. the appeal was heard at a special meeting this afternoon. you see on this map how far line has expanded across the country. eric thomas is live with the company's push to extend its reach into the city. eric? >> reporter: they operate in mar thn 130 markets around the kun true and the world, but as you said, san francisco is not one of them, but the company still wants a slice of the pie. >> we need more scooters here. that's why we're here today. >> reporter: before the hearing,

supporters lined up outside city hall arguing that the company deserves a permit. >> we believe there's an opportunity for the city to answer the needs for better transportation and better scooter options. >> reporter: it could also bring jobs to communities. lime is one of three companies who began operating woutds permission earlier this year. they ordered a cease and desiftd order based on 2,000 complaints. >> complaints ranked from scooters blocking the sidewalks, illegal riding or unsafe riding. >> they allowed two smaller companies to operate, scoot and skip. since then only 300 complaints. lime was denied a permit and in

today's appeals hearing they say the application was weighted against them due to the rollout. >> i'll i'm going to prove beyond a prepon drederance was tainted. >> the city attorney said it's just sour grapes. >> this process was fair. lime's application simply did not measure up. >> reporter: so there were 2,000 complaints when others were on the streets. 300 since then. part of it may be because there are fewer scooters on the street. we drove around and found exactly one. and the decision on this appeal should be issued sometime in january. eric thomas, abc7 news. >> thank you. big change for buses in california. in a little over two decades

they should all be electric -- be all electric is what i meant to say. the california resources board voted all new buses must be carbon-free by 2020 and regular buses have to be phased out by the year 2040. california has 153 zero emission buses on the rhodes today and hundreds more are on order. >> the largest transit agencies and small transit agencies say they're poised and ready to not only respond to this role making but in many instances they're going to beat the deadline to become 100% electric. >> here's an interesting number. they account for 40% of california's greenhouse gases. california needs to dramatically reduce its emissions to address climate change goals. >> long lost trees breathe new life. how they're seeing the fruition of their work. plus -- >> the first commission i did

was for her majesty, the queen. >> not everybody can say that. an inside look at a jeweler. >> there's a gender neutral santa coming to town. we want to know your thoughts. we have a poll right now at abc7news.com/vote. >> are you ready for the rain? i hope so. it's here.

a breakthrough is allowing scientists to bring back ancient trees. today they planted saplings in san francisco's presidio. many years from now when they transform the growth back to a magnificent landscape. san francisco's presidio may be the most beautiful urban forest in the world, but today workers were working to help bolster what might be called its family

trees. they were planting coast red woods with lineage dating back to thousands of years. the sap l l l l l l l l l grown. they were cloned from some of the biggest oldest redwoods. joseph is with the ancient tree archive. the group recovered that living material could still be harvested from the stumps of massive redwoods that were cut by loggers in the 19th century. he said the two key component cause from the layers underneath the bark and the tips of branches snow then we bind them together and immerse them in nutrie nutrient-rich hormones and we carefully monitor them in our labs. >> for the presidio, this means a jolt of genetic diversity, better protecting it from fire,

bugs, and other tletds. >> and it can thrive in different climate conditions, different soil conditions. so by taking different genes from different trees, we can see which important the best in the park and potentially perform that going into the future. >> and plant a more significant one for years to come. it take 2/ 1/2 years to clone the trees once the genetic material has been collected. imagine meeting the queen of england. few have, but now envision designing some of her jewelry. one of the top british jewelry makers was in sonoma today and shared some inside information of the royals with us. >> reporter: elizabeth is in the bay area to attend a christmas party for silicon valley billionaire mike and his wife

julie. >> they were married a month ago and i created the wedding ring. >> here's her creation. price paid, undisclosed. it's her jewelry designs for the royal family that's gotten worldwide attention. >> it's very much an etiquette involved. you're not allowed to touch the member of the royal family, but we prentded it alongside the craftsman who created it. >> reporter: she's also designed pieces for kate middleton. >> kate is very beautiful, obviously very complex. >> i came for the got in, so i moved closer to get her to reveal more. >> give me a little more inside information whochl's a real royal beep? >> i would say prince george has definitely got a mischievous quality. >> and princess charlotte? >> definitely daddy's girl. >> and is there really a royal

rift between kate and meghan markle? >> obviously there are going to be parallels drawn there. >> that's as much as she was going to dish out. >> we're going to play a game. you're going select one item and you're going to describe the item using one word, a word that would be used in england. i'm going to use a word that would be used in the united states. >> right, okay. >> i would say it's se scintillating. >> and i would say rad. >> okay snow and these? >> this one i would say is very elegant. >> i'll would say mine. >> okay. >> reporter: oh, to have an on lentd lifestyle, simply enchanting. cheers. in sonoma, abc7 news. >> lyanne got the news and the bauble. >> let me lean in and ask the

revealing questions. the royal family is getting into the holiday spirit. >> they go for a more casual look here. this one shows the duke and duchess of cambridge and wloing prince superior, the mischievous one kicking up his feet and you see shar lot and princess kate holding up prince louie. >> they're sharing this irreverent photo sharing happy holidays. look at them side by side. i thought the backgrounds were identical. did they photoshop? >> i don't know. clearly that's the abc 7's royal family. >> but the backgrounds, they got the background right. how do they do it? >> the magic of cgi. i get it. they're so creative. >> also creative, spencer christian who is not in that photo but is fantastic. >> that must -- >> he does not need any beauty

enhancements snow there you go. not yet but maybe soon. here's a look at live doppler 7. light showers. just a little bit moving on the coastline beginning to push onshore. here's a view of emery view. there's not much widespread rain at the moment. oakland, 58. mountain view, san jose, upper 60s. there's wet microwavement at the golden gate. it doesn't appear to be raining there at the moment. upper 50s in concorde and livermo livermore. these are our forecast features. we may see more light rain and showers in through tomorrow morning. it will bring some windy conditions as well and we have a dryer pattern developing. the storm we kurnlly have, it will fizzle out sometime tomorrow but between now and

then more areas of light rain taking us overnight when we don't expect much more acacacacc we se we'll have more winding down. lower temperatures, upper 40s, low 50s. the highs will be around 60, maybe a little above 60 as we move southward and eastward. a strong ranking 2 on the storm impact scale. wind gusts, 30 to 40 miles an an hour. rough and dangerous surf will be whipped up. going into early sunday morning, it notice the downpours. it will sweep southward and eastward and down to the south bay and eeftd bay. by sunday evening it will start to wind down and produce snow in the sierra. rain fall potential once again

up to about a half inch in the areas not so hard hit and an inch and a half in the wettest locations. i mentioned the strong wind. we're going to have high surf as well. high surf warning in ee fejtds from 9:00 p.m. sunday to 9:00 p.m. monday. look for our breakers, 25 to maybe 40 feet high. there could be dangerous sneaker waves. here's the accurate seven-day forecast. beef break in the afternoon. sunny breaks before the second storm comes in. that will wind it down. pretty wet. >> kind of a washout for the weekend. >> we are ready. >> thanks,

. finney's friday free stuff. >> things you can hold in your hands. >> let's go with free. what we've got is pinot's palete. it's a wine and painting studio where you paint and drink and have fun. a local artist leads you step by step through the entire process and you leave with your own masterpiece and/or whatever you make. one catch, you must be at least 21 years old. $39 value. mike nicco did this and said it was really fun. >> i did a ladies' night like that. it's so much fun to create and do art together. it's very social. >> by the way, it's something you can give away for a holiday. and then the craneway craft fair. you can go shopping there.

you get two tickets to attend the annual craneway craft fair. you know this as the kpfa craft fair. that's what it was known as for years and years. it runs from 10:00 to 5:00 on both days. it's at the new crane way pav pavili pavilion. it's been there a while, but i think it's been fixed up. to get in on these two things gorks to our web page and then look for the finney's -- finney friday free shop page. by the way, that's a $35 >> wouldn't it be fun. okay. santa is typically seen as a bearded old man in a red and white suit, right. >> as he should be. >> yeah, but what do you think? we want to know your thoughts. we have a poll right now at abc7news.com/vote. right now most people say is the

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. coming up, former first lady michelle obama meets a small group. at 6:00, the topic of this discussion. it was near and dear to her heart. also -- >> you need a good mattress that's going to give you good support. it's not at that hard. >> well, 7 on your side michael finney lies down on the job to learn what it takes to pick the right mattress. he says you need to do this one thing for 15 minutes. you've got to tune in to find out what it is. it's all coming up at 6:00. larry, kristen? >> so intrigued. >> he's getti inting paid for t? is it time to update santa? we're asking you to weigh in. you can see the results right here. people are not going for this

idea. but let's go through what everybody is talking about. >> yes, it's time to update, 14%. no, never, 86%. we're asking because they're pushing to bring santa to the modern age. you can see, santa will look a lot different. >> yeah, a little hipster, skinny jeans, come on. the red, you've got that. the big belly is gone. a little more of a gut there. his beard would be more modern. tattoos? santa's going to be inched up. >> in that amazon kindle in his backpack? i don't know. his list would be on an i phone or ipad. he would ditch the slay and the reindeer and santa would instead get around on a hoverboard and a flying cup. >> what do you think? maybe i'm a dinosaur, but i like traditional old santa. santa -- the inch? >> yeah. i agree with you. that's what i prefer too. i don't know. i think the spirit of the

holidays is what you want it to be in your life, right? tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. the abc news exclusive. the president's former attorney and fixer sentenced to federal prison. now breaking his silence on president trump. what michael cohen reveals. and what he says when asked is the president lying about russia? and we have breaking news coming in at this hour involving the chief of staff. what the president has just revealed. we're also following a dangerous storm system tonight barrelling east. already heavy snow. and now rain and flood fears. treacherous driving for millions. as this now heads into the northeast this weekend. the breaking developments in the case of the missing mom last seen on surveillance, pushing that grocery cart. tonight, authorities escorting the fiance off his property. as they execute a search warrant now. what we've learned.