isn't enough damage to qualify for a major disaster declaration. >> we here in sonoma county in this flood event, let's be blunt, got screwed because we were the primary epicenter of the flood event. we had an atmospheric river that came and just hit sonoma county, and it really parked itself over the russian river watershed and dumped all of its moisture there. meaning even counties to the south and north of us were not nearly as heavily impacted. had they been heavily impacted, we would have had more damages, more people who were suffering, which then would have gotten us the help that we need. >> now a team from fema has assessed the damage in sonoma and neighboring counties and will determine if it warrants a recommendation for the disaster declaration. good evening, i'm kristen sze. >> i'm dan ashley. thanks for joining us. tonight, a tale of two restaurants. one dealing with flood fallout. another reopening 17 months after the tubbs fire. it matters as much to the owners as it does to the customers. >> we have more live from

outside sweet t's restaurant which has moved to windsor. >> reporter: it has reopened. this is really about policyism. about how places -- symbolism. about how places that make us comfortable can make us feel whole again. it's about fire and water and the last 18 months in sonoma county. signs of the times. two signs, actually, on two restaurants. one says "we love our river." >> a lot of mud two inches. >> reporter: the other says "welcome back." >> it wasn't easy, but we got it done. >> reporter: they are two sonoma county disaster stories with hope and perseverance in common. even if one kitchen is booming while the other remains a work in progress. >> i feel like it's -- it's like a shoe with sand in it. and you keep knocking it. it keeps coming out. >> reporter: that's jason flint of the farmhandli in guarantee -- farm hand deli in guerneville. they found inspiration in how dennis and his wife ann reopened

sweet t's restaurant in windsor. >> can anybody understand this unless they've gone through it? >> probably not. >> reporter: these the remains of their original restaurant after the tubbs fire left them with little more than the goodwill of loyal customers. many returned today. >> we were getting reservations at 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning. >> we've been waiting over a year for them to open. >> reporter: meantime in guerneville, the farmhand still has a way to go. they had no insurance. in lieu of donations, lisa and james have asked customers to buy gift certificates. >> i think a lot of people in the community, they're, you know, seeing people just asking for money. and we don't want to just ask for people's money. we want to be able to, you know, give back to the community. >> reporter: it is about faith. there are lessons learned in sonoma county -- the hard way. >> if it's your passion, if -- and you have the determination, you've got to go for it. make it happen.

>> reporter: talking about making it happen, it is happening behind us. right now there's a 40-minute wait which doesn't seem like such a long time after 18 months. abc7 news. >> wasn't it in fountain grove, the anchor of the shopping center that burned down? >> reporter: the original restaurant, that's a good catch. the original restaurant was originally in fountain grove in the shopping center. the shopping center has never been rebuilt so they moved. what's interesting is some of the people who lived in fountain on grove have also moved to windsor. they think this new location is perfect. >> yeah. helps them feel like it's home. wayne, thank you so much. moving on now. in san jose a family tragedy has left flashes devastated after a -- left families devastated after a mother and two children were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide. today community members are processing this incredible loss as they try to figure out what happened and try to move

forward. abc7's chris winn with the story from dentwood drive. >> reporter: at the dent commons apartment complex near meridian and highway 85 in san jose, residents are with heavy hearts following an unthinkable tragedy. two boys, ages 4 and 7, and their mother found dead in their home yesterday. the result of an apparent murder-suicide, according to police, all discovered by a man who neighbors said was the husband and father of the deceased. police confirming to abc7 news that vietnamese translators were brought in to help communicate. >> our neighbor had been outside screaming his tarkly, very emotional -- hysterically, very emotional and confused, that his wife and children had died. that they weren't breathing, to please help him. >> reporter: neighbors wondering what drove a mother to kill her two children before reportedly hanging herself. >> very responsible mom. very loving, caring, always very independent. >> reporter: at leitz elementary school where the 7-year-old attended school, students and

staff leaned on wuone another f support. the school superintendent said, "students are being informed based on information we have at grade level-appropriate ways as guided by guidance counselor. we have additionally directed additional teaching and support staff to the school." the identities of the three have not been released by the coroner's office. in san jose, abc7 news. >> terrible tragedy. if you or someone you love is struggling with suicidal thoughts, don't do it alone. take action and find your ally at abc7news.com/takeaction. we have links to resources on suicide and other issues like domestic violence, bullying, and school safety. hall of fame pitcher tom seaver is retiring from public life to his north bay home after being diagnosed with dementia. the family of the 74-year-old made that announcement today. cease-fire grew up in fresno and went on to win 311 games in 20 seasons with the new york mets and three other teams. the man once known as "tom

terrific" has limited his public appearances in recent years. he attended a giants game at at&t park in 2015. according to his family, cease-fire will continue to work -- seaver will continue to work in the vineyard at his home in calistoga. the pentagon is reviewing musk's security clearance at spacex. this after the billionaire smoked pot on a podcast in november. an official told "bloomberg news" an incident report was started by the pentagon after the podcast. security clearance requires federal employees or contractors to acknowledge drug use over the previous seven years. the review has not directly impacted the company itself. in sacramento this afternoon, about 250 high school and sacramento city college students walked out of class. they were protesting the sacramento county district attorney's decision not to charge the two officers involved in stephon clark's death last year. the group marched to the state capitol. there have been several protests since that decision was

announced over the weekend. taxpayer advocates are blasting the state pension system for letting employees bank years of unused vacation time and cash out with a six-figure check when they retire. abc7 news anchor eric thomas has the story. >> reporter: you may remember his years directing caltrans district four based in this oakland office building. when he retired from the state last year, he had 4,400 hours of unused vacation time. meaning the state compensated him for that with a check for hundreds of thousands of dollars. >> we're very concerned from a taxpayer's perspective, this should be very concerning. >> reporter: that's john cuppol of the howard jarvis taxpayer association -- >> they're accusing and saving vacation for these six-figure payoffs when they retire is very much out of line. >> reporter: the "los angeles times" analyzed payouts to sartipi and other retirees. according to analysis, sartipi

received $405,000 in vacation pay, the equivalents of more than two years regular pay. and he wasn't alone. last year california paid out more than $300 million to workers war unused vacation and holiday time -- for unused vacation and holiday time, up to $3.5 billion of unused leave in 2017. >> we need to take a complete review, overview of our public employee compensation systems. >> reporter: we reached former caltrans director sartipi by phone. he wouldn't go on camera but told me he was surprised at being singled out for the "times" article especially because of, quote, the time i missed being with my family. he said the job was, quote, especially demanding during the furloughs when we worked long hours with no chance for time off. that's when the state was facing a $42 billion budget deficit. at the state capitol, lawmakers say tackling this through pension reform would risk

running afoul of some of the state's most powerful employee unions, and no one has the stomach for that, at least not right now. in walnut creek, eric thomas, abc7 news. state lawmakers are coming up with ways to tackle the affordable housing crisis. today assemblyman david chu of san francisco introduced a bill to create a housing agency for the bay area. the housing alliance for the bay area would be able to impose taxes to fund development, local planning, and tenant assistance. assembly bill 1487 is the cornerstone of a controversial regional housing agendas being pursued in sacramento. it includes emergency rent and legal help for tenants facing eviction. a regional rent cap, streamlined approval for more developments, minimum zoning standards for housing near transit stops. >> as a region, we have failed when it comes to producing housing, when it comes to protecting our residents who are being displaced when it comes to

preserving affordable housing that we need to preserve. >> the bill has drawn opposition from communities that say the regional housing initiative takes away from local control, the cities. >> right. more to come here. the new health plan for the south bay, that's next. what could be a high-value target and the effort to make sure the right person claims this bird. a few showers are still showing up on live doppler 7. i'll let you know when you'll catch a break. paying more to get to a giants game and paying more at an as game. baseball fans get good and bad news.

in the south bay, public health officials in santa clara county and getting to zero initiative have launched a campaign to educate people about hiv and reduce the still that associated with the virus. it's called u equals u which

stands for undetectable equals, untransmittable. it draws on research that shows that just because somebody is hiv positive it doesn't mean they will pass on the virus. >> it was about a year ago that the cdc announced that we have enough information to show that no one who has ever had hiv, takes medicine until they're undetectable, has ever passed hiv to their sexual partners. >> researchers stress this is not a cure for hiv. they say someone who's undetectable still has the virus in their system and could become sick if they stop taking their meds. the campaign runs through june. the city of millipedes is trying to find the owners of a parrot that firefighters rescued this week because it's a valuable breed of parrot. they're being cautious about revealing certain distinguishing characteristics to prevent anyone from trying to claim it fraudulently. abc7 shows what he can as efforts continue to reunite the bird with its rightful owner. >> reporter: the congo african

gray parrot is safe inside a cage at millipedes fire station one. he was found sunday in a tree in this grove of trees near highway 680 near dixon landing road. >> definitely was very happy to be out of the cold. and it was very appreciative of me coming to save him and put him in a nice, warm cab as we came back to the station. i would say that for sure. >> reporter: the quest is reuniting the parrot with its owner. days later the owner hasn't been located. we're not showing all aspects of the parrot because it has identifying marks that only the rightful owner will know. there's certain someone may try to claim it's their parrot fraudulently so we're not showing certain markings. the battalion chief won't disclose the gender or whether it's friendly or not or what it says. the parrot's home may be miles from where it was found. >> they normally would be one to five miles away from their home. but then talking with the rescue groups, with the recent weather patterns that we've had, with the high winds and everything else, that it could be up to 20 miles away from its home. >> reporter: monday, the chief will stop fostering the bird and

turn it over to the sousa sanctuary in gilroy that's already boarding and caring for african grays. say they sell -- they sell for $1,5 hundred to $2,000. >> we'll keep them fed and safe and healthy. >> reporter: adoption is the next step if the owners can't be found. that could be challenging as african grays are known to bond with one person, usually of the opposite sex. flyers have been posted to help find the owner. we'll have more on where to call on abc7news.com. in millipedes, abc7 news. >> we'll keep you posted on that. apple ceo tim cook is having fun after president trump called him by the wrong name yesterday. >> really put a big investment in our country. we appreciate it very much, tim apple. >> cook did not appear to react immediately after that. but today he changed the name on pcook and adding the apple logo. cook was at the white house for a meeting of the american work force advisory board.

the president's daughter ivanka also was at the meeting. she, too, joked about the name mixup on twitter. taking the ferry to a giants game is about to get more expensive. transportation officials today voted to approve raising the price in order to cover operating costs. the san francisco bay ferry provides special service from oakland, alameda, and vallejo on days when the giants play. it will now cost riders an extra dollar. that means if you want a ferry ticket reason ating from oakland or alameda, you will pay up to $9.60. fares for youth and people with disabilities have slightly less. a ticket from vallejo will cost much more -- $15.90 for an adult. the oakland as are opening a new spot for families to enjoy games. the as' stomping ground is being built in part of the east side club near the right field fly poles. the goal is to give kids a place to run around without sacrificing views for the adults. the inside features a stage and video wall, a hitting and

pitching machine, a fusball, and a photo booth. the outside section features elephant play structures, an astroturf seating area, and drink rails for parents. look at that. a mini ballpark. the kids will love that. also a spider web play area, access can be purchased with an upgrade to individual tickets. or through monthly or annual passes. stomping grounds, stomper, i love it. cute. >> that all looks so fun. >> sure does. >> you can enjoy it if it ever stops raining around here. >> there's that. i guess we're getting a brief reprieve now. >> yeah. we're going to be getting a break tomorrow. i heard complaining i believe. i know a lot of people are just wanting a break. you'll catch it tomorrow. let me show you live doppler 7. we're still tracking some showers now. i'm going to get you into street level radar where we're seeing a few drops right around oakland, trussle glen road, monterey boulevard. as we head toward the south bay,

from kyote, monterey road to morgan hill, you're seeing the showers. and really it is turning to some snow showers over the higher terrain. i want to show you these showers here. right around bay shore, jamestown avenue, heading across south city. we are seeing still some slippery spots. with the mixed precipitation over mt. hamilton, all right, it is cold enough to allow some snow flurries there. take a look at this live picture. much more than flurries in the sierra. they have a nice blanket of snow. and the snow keeps falling. we are expecting more over the next few days. so take a look at our forecast for tahoe. friday, looking at some gusty conditions, definitely some snow there. 32 degrees in the afternoon. morning, starting out in the 20s. chance of snow saturday and still a chance on sunday. if you're thinking about going up there, just make sure you have your chains with you. right now there are chain controls on state route 88. here's a look at live doppler 7 and the sierra where we still are seeing the snow falling.

winter weather advisory until 1:00 p.m. tonight. up to 12 inches expected at the peaks. the weather advisory is above 5,000 feet. temperatures now 40s, 50s, you probably noticed the chill in the air. here's a live look. despite the cloud cover, it is cooler air mass, east bay hills camera showing the clouds stacked up over mt. diablo. a few showers and flurries in the hills through friday. light system arrives on saturday, and daylight saving time begins sunday. just a friendly reminders, you want to spring forward one hour. chilly in the morning. make sure you bundle up. 30s, 40s, a few showers will be around. some slippery spots, but it's not going to be a widespread event. tomorrow, 40s, 50s, breezy, higher elevation showers possible. it's a light level-one system for saturday. light rain. most areas between .1 to.6 inch. locally breezy conditions expected. so let's start the animation tonight. the reason we don't have a storm impact scale for tonight is very isolated in nature. a few snow showers over mt. hamilton. 1:30 in the morning.

we'll keep showers going for tomorrow morning as you will notice. make sure that you allow a little extra time for that morning commute. some roads will be slippery although the showers will be skirting the coast. a few will make it over lands. 11:00 a.m. still looking at some wet roadways. at 3:00 p.m., this is mainly a higher terrain event. in terms of saturday, this is when you will see slippery roadways. 5:00 to 7:00 it starts. 9:00 a.m. it spreads. you will notice the rain is not going to ploont to heavy precipitation. but -- to amount to heavy precipitation. but enough to dampen the roadways, the ground, into saturday. north bay coast, peninsula, east bay, 8:00 to 10:00. some games may be canceled as we'll see showers into the afternoon. the seven-day forecast, few morning showers, light rain, level one saturday. still some showers on sunday. daylight saving time begins. then we have another system monday night into tuesday. tuesday looks to be wet and

windy. you do dry out on wednesday and thursday. some people are looking forward to seeing the sunshine there. >> right. >> people are going to be happy with you. >> i think. hopefully after -- >> we're always happy with you. >> sure. >> rain or shine. thanks. okay, cleaning up after cooking. there's a right way

there's always a better way to do daily tasks. that includes cleaning cookware. >> michael finney with more on that. >> i love scrubbing. no, no. >> seriously. >> there you go. no one really likes to clean up after cooking. there are ways to make it a little bit years and better. perhaps more -- bit easier and better. perhaps more importantly, if you do it the wrong way, you can damage those pats and pans. former chef caseyin hadchin loves to -- casey hinchin loves to cook and doesn't mind the cleanup either. >> i treat the cookware very well. it's the people i live with who

do not. >> reporter: sound familiar? "consumer reports" says it's not always as easy as soap and water. experts have a few tips to keep it simple. >> overall, the sooner you tend to the mess, the easier it will be to clean. however, different materials require different types of care. >> reporter: when it gloss cast iron cookware, a little effort after cooking goes a long way. rinse with plain water and dry thoroughly. >> for tougher messes, you can add water to the pan, simmer for a bit, and wipe it clean. or you could try scrubbing with coarse salt and water. >> reporter: no matter how you clean it, you want to make sure your cast iron is dried thoroughly to prevent rust. and once it's dry, rub the cooking surface with a little vegetable oil to keep the pan properly seasoned. for stainless steel and porcelain enameled coated cookware, avoid abrasives and use a nylon sponge and dish detergent. >> cleaning stainless steel immediately after using it really does help reduce the chance that you might see stains or water spots building up. >> reporter: you can also use a

stainless cleaner to remove the rainbow-like i did coloration that can sometimes happen. you should have an easier time when it comes to nonstick cookware. >> for nonstick frying pans, most say they're dishwasher safe. we found washing with hot, soapy water us a cinch. >> reporter: as for bakeware, cleaning substubborn -- stubborn stains, soak in water and baking soda and going to a doughnut shop. >> can't go wrong there. disney reveals the opening dates for the new "star wars" theme park, and fans have a reason to be excited. that's next. first, we want to thank terrell for this picture of a great blue heron with the golden gate bridge in the background.

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coming up on abc7 news at 6:00, a san francisco success

story. >> i thank god for all of this. i'm so happy. yes. >> at 6:00, we look at the innovative system that's helping people find an affordable place to live. it's working so well, other cities are working to duplicate it. and check this out -- a dented car is mistakenly declared a total loss. 7 on your side's michael finney shows the huge problems this caused one local woman. all that and more coming up in just a half hour on abc7 news. >> thanks. finally, a few more months for you "star wars" fans. >> "galaxy's edge" will open sooner than expected. rob mcmillan from our sister station in los angeles has the story. >> reporter: we're getting ever closer to that galaxy far, far away. one of the biggest expansions in disneyland history, "star wars: galaxy's edge," known to many simply as "star wars" land, opens to the public on may 31st. and we no longer have to set for

artist's renderings and sketches. this is drone video from inside where the first order and resistance have a presence. there are x-wing fighters, land speeders, and, of course, the millennium falcon. you won't need an e-ticket to pilot the falcon. disney hasn't done that in decades. to make point five past light speed you'll probably have to wade your turn. >> there -- wait your turn. >> there are huge fanatics out there. >> i think it will be fun. i'm nervous about the crowds. >> reporter: before you get a bad feel about this, we're also getting a first glimpse at how disney will manage those crowds. for at least the first few weeks to get into "galaxy's edge," you'll have to make a reservation on line. it won't cost you anything extra, but those reservations will be in high demand. >> those reservations are going to be gone in seconds. seconds. >> reporter: and "gall agents's

edge" -- "galaxy's edge" will be opening in phases. "rise of the resistance" will be open sometime later this year. rob mcmillan, abc7 news. >> what do you think? >> it's going to be packed, and an incredible amount of fun. >> company outing? >> yes. talk to our boss about that. >> yes. "world news tonight" is up next. >> we appreciate your time. when it comes to reducing the evsugar in your family's diet,m. coke, dr pepper and pepsi hear you. we're working together to do just that. bringing you more great tasting beverages with less sugar or no sugar at all. smaller portion sizes, clear calorie labels and reminders to think balance. because we know mom wants what's best.

more beverage choices, smaller portions, less sugar. balanceus.org tonight, breaking news. a sheriff's deputy shot dead, and the urgent manhunt. that deputy working with u.s. marshals, shot dead while serving a warrant. the suspect then jumping from a third floor hotel window. the 150-mile chase. where they've now surrounded him and we're on the scene tonight. also breaking at this hour, as we're on in the west, president trump's former campaign chairman in court for sentencing tonight. all eyes were on the judge, what the judge decided. paul manafort was facing the longest sentence of anyone charged by robert mueller. we'll go to our correspondent on that. the verdict is in tonight, after a deadly police shooting sparked national outrage. the plain-clothes officer who showed up on the scene. a driver on the side of the road. the officer shoots and kills him. the driver's car broke down. he was calling for help.