chronicle they are glad that the president is taking some action to address this issue. live in berkeley, amy hollyfield, abc 7 news. >> amy, thank you. it is now 4:30 on the dot. if you're just waking up to us, good morning. here's a look at your weather and traffic. mike? >> we're going to start with some temperatures. along the east bay, neighborhoods in the mid-40s to low 50s. significantly cooler there. partly cloudy to mostly cloudy conditions. the lack of clouds insulating us allowed us to cool a lot. here's a look from -- we're looking from exploratorium right there. it's at 7:00 when we'll see temperatures in the low to mid-40s. we've got mid to upper 50s at noon. we'll stay in the mid to upper 50s at the coast while we hit the 60s for the bay and inland neighborhoods. we have a chance of a shower near the coast, by 7:00, grab a jacket, we'll be in the mid to upper 50s. once the sunset, we'll quickly

drop into the 40s by 9:00. give you a chance to digest this and take a look at the commute planner in the rain that's coming for tomorrow's commute. here's today's commute with alexis. >> we're enjoying the dry conditions here while we've got them. a live look at san mateo bridge. westbound 92, we've got a few vehicles, the volume slowly increasing. nothing major along that stretch. our drive times overall are looking good, too. westbound 80, highway 4 to the maze. it's going to take you 17 minutes. once you make it through the toll plaids a, eight minutes into san francisco. san francisco to sfo, great in the green at ten minutes. thanks, alexis. in an exclusive interview only on abc 7 news, a ups driver taken hostage and forced to drive miles at gunpoint is now breaking his silence. >> that incident ended late in the night february 14th. with one suspect shot dead by

police in san jose. a reporter. amanda del castillo sat down with the driver for a one-on-one interview. >> valentine's day, ups driver mitchell is was filling in for a driver on vacation. he was on the phone with his wife and two kids talking about valentine's day for cards. >> all i had left was that little area at communication hill. that's when i met them. >> suspects joanna mae macy rogers and mark morasky. he told me, he said i'm telling you, you're going to get me out of here and get me out of here now. they were very direct. there was going to be an issue. i remember saying, you know what, just take the truck. he had put the shotgun two inches from my cheek. >> the hostage taking began. >> he heard sirens. the sound inching closer. >> i told him, i said there's cops everywhere. he told me, just pull over. they'll drive right by.

>> officers were monditoring frm the sky. the first moment to bail. >> when i started to make the right-hand turn to get on to the freeway. when i was making the turn, i rechd over to unbuckle my seat belt. he caught me. he got pretty upset. very upset. >> driving, suspect morasky keeping a grip on his seat belt. behind the ups truck, a sea of patrol cars. >> when i saw that many officers behind me, i'm in trouble. i figured this guy did something pretty bad. >> he thought, keep driving. >> i figured as long as we were driving, we're okay. we're okay for now. >> the scene surrounding him w s like straight out of a movie. >> when you're in the driver's seat and you're driving away from them, it's uncomfortable. >> he stayed under 50 miles per hour purposely hitting spike

strips. minutes later, miles away the truck came to a stop. macy rogers surrendered. leaving the two men inside the truck. morasky admitted he had nothing to lose. >> he had started stressing out about his daughter, how he's not going to let his daughter be a part of this. he had looked right at me. it was the one and only time he did. he looked at me and he looked at me and said, this is why i'm not going back. i'm not going back. i'm not dealing with all of this. today we die. >> morasky, emotions everywhere. >> he was just crying. he was bawling. i was just sitting there quietly. and he just randomly asked me. he goes, hey, can i show you a picture of my daughter is what he asked me? and i said, yeah, absolutely. >> he will erred's release was after one last exchange. i said, can i show you a picture of my daughter?

>> and that was -- >> amanda del castillo reporting. shortly after he was released from the truck, the suspect ran from the truck with gun in hand before he was shot by police. he will erred has not yet returned to work at ups. this morning, abc news learned the fbi is joining the criminal investigation to look into the certification of the boeing 737 max 8. meanwhile, we're also learning more details about last year's max 8 crash in indonesia. bloomberg reports that u.s. officials started investigating a software system link to the crash weeks after that lion air flight plunged into the java sea. u.s. officials found the stall prevention feature blamed for the crash wasn't flagged in pilot manuals. happening today, abc news has learned the man charged with sending package bombs to democrats will plead guilty in a manhattan courtroom later this

afternoon. prosecutors say cesar sayoc targeted critics of president trump. package bombs were mailed around the country including here in northern california. one addressed to kamala harris. the other in burlingame was addressed to democratic activist tom steyer. palo alto police hope you can help them catch an intruder who broke into a home in the middle of the night and sat next to a woman on her bed and tried to talk to her. you're looking at a sketch of a man at el camino real early in the morning. the victim escaped unharmed. he's described as standing 5'8", weighs about 180 pound. he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and gloves. the victim tells police the man was carrying a flashlight. >> startling statistics to report this morning. more than half of all muni fare evasion tickets are never paid. according to muni, 4 out of 10 people paid their fines.

nearly 50,000 tickets were handed out in the 2017 fiscal year. but just over 22,000 people paid up. muni says it's not a priority for them. officials say they would rather focus on providing access to those who can't afford transportation than criminalize fare evasion. california students may be banned from using smartphones at school. a southern california member would require school boards to adopt policies to limit or prohibit the use of cell phones on school grounds. it will be left up to school districts to decide exactly what the rules would be. the state lawmaker says the devices are too much of a distraction and can interfere with classroom learning. grab a heavier coat but leave the umbrella behind. look at these temperatures. 39 in santa rosa. we've got 42 in pleasanton and livermore. brentwood and antioch, 44 with fremont. 46 in san jose and san carlos. albany, oakland, pacifica at 47. san francisco the lone holdout

at 50 right now. the temperatures are up to 11 degrees, even 12 degrees cooler than yesterday. here's a look at your commute this morning. doesn't it look nice and dry as we look south on 680 through-wall nut creek. for mass transit, chilly this morning, mild this afternoon. no small craft advisory out on the bay waters. it's going to be calmer. peninsula starting at 7:00, 46. we're going to be in the 50s all day today with clouds more prevalent from 9:00 through 3:00. here's a look at the east bay valley. starting off in the 40s through 9:00. 57 at 11:00. mix of clouds and sunshine this afternoon. the south bay, in the 40s through 9:00. then we jump into the 60s by 1:00. we'll have clouds in the afternoon hours. a chance of a shower in the mountains on either side of you. not likely. we'll keep an ioane that. keeping an eye on a much quieter commute i hope. >> looking better than we were

at 4:38 yesterday. >> roads have been brutal. >> they sure have. we have one issue. a sig-alert. from castro valley into san leandro, we have a backup. northbound state route 238 connector to 880 is closed due to a crash involving a semi. they have to offload the con tepts of th -- contents of the trailer. it sounded like initially ohm part of one lane was blocked. that is backing up on to 580 from castro valley. no estimate on when the connector is back open. westbound 580, tracy to dublin, in the yellow at 40 minutes. antioch to concord in the green at 14. san rafael to san francisco, 16 ri in sncs proposal that could make it more challenging. >> it's been called a public nuisance at least from the outside. get an exclusive look

the fog we talked about, here it is. petaluma, rohnert park. you can see 101 as we go down to street level, western lane there, avenue, also visibility to santa rosa where it's at least a mile. here's a look around the state. unsettled from fresno southward.

valley rain, mows, snow showers up in the mountains. here's a look at tahoe's forecast for today. a couple of inches possible. a little bit of rain at lower elevations. we'll get a break saturday and sunday before more wintry weather hits monday, tuesday and wednesday. >> thank you, mike. san francisco is considering making some streets car-free. sfmta officials are discussing what streets could be made bike and pedestrian only. this comes after a bicyclist was hit and killed while riding her bike in the south of market neighborhood two weeks ago. street traffic is also a problem for city buses. there is one car-free street in the works, market street. the mayors of oakland, san jose and other california cities are lobbying governor newsom for hundreds of millions of dollars more to fight homelessness. they made the pitch at a meeting with the governor yesterday. the proposed state budget includes $500 million for homeless services. the mayors say they could use at least 500 million more. the governor left the meeting

promising to revise his budget. he didn't say what changes he intends to make. finding solutions to the housing issues in the bay area can come in many forms. share your ideas and see what others think by joining our better bay area facebook group. this is the hillsborough house that gained international fame and has sparked a lawsuit. in an abc 7 news exclusive, reporter vic lee goes inside the infamous flintstone house and met with the owner and got her reaction to the growing controversy. >> thank you to give me the chance to tell my side of story. >> that's the voice of florence fang, owner of the unique, colorful home dubbed the flintstone house. she declined to go on camera. but gave us an exclusive tour of the now controversial hillsborough residence. it's a three-bedroom, 2700 square foot home built in 1976. what's most striking, no square rooms. only curved lines everywhere. in the front yard, a life size

statue of fred flintstone. he's joined by his wife wilma and pet dinosaur dino and of course dinosaur x and the rubbles. in the backyard away from the public street, large dinosaurs, a giraffe and even bigfoot surrounded by colorful mushrooms. this is florence fang's favorite room, the conversation pit. it's peaceful, it's private. but the view outside also reminds her, she's not isolated from the world or from the complaints of some residents in the city of hillsborough which is suing fang for creating what it calls a highly visible eyesore. fang thanks her man i supporters who have contacted her through social media. >> i'm not the only one alone just fighting for the legendary flintstone. it is a truly american memory that makes the people smile and make them feel good about themselves. > she says a

well. >> let's keep fred and dino alive and working together to keep our smile. >> a message to the city from fang. >> i will fight the best i can. stay tuned. >> one last thing. >> yabba dabba doo. >> vic lee, abc 7 news. she said yabba dabba doo. she said it. >> she said it. >> the plot thickens. >> it was spelled out and everything on her yard. saturday night's powerball jackpot will hit a whopping $625 million. no one picked all six winning numbers in last night's drawing. the numbers are 10, 14, 50, 53, 63 and the powerball is 21. that jackpot was worth an estimated $550 million. the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292 million

what? i can't each read the number on our prompter. anyway, odds are minimal. good luck to you. >> guess what i'm buying if i n?use. >> yabba dabba doo. >> you can make a house next door for barney and -- >> betty. >> betty and barney. >> pebbles and bam bam. >> it's all coming back. >> and bigfoot. >> don't forget about bigfoot. >> he needs his own home. >> i'm going to have the lochness monster. she has bigfoot. >> with a lake and finding nemo. >> now we need to buy tickets. >> it always comes back to disney. >> so many ideas. >> brontosaurus burger, medium. >> done. >> let's move on and talk about nice weather today to be outside. make you say yabba dabba doo? i don't know. >> it's quiet right now.

brighter day today. there's a slight chance of a shower in our mountains. we've got chances of rain tomorrow and next week and in between we'll try to squeeze in a dry weekend. 58 half moon bay. san francisco 59. 60 to 64 elsewhere. comfortable. tonight you can see the cloud cover. up into the north bay, we'll be in the mid to upper 40s. this low is not coming our way. there's a low that will develop here and shoot this moisture towards us. starting tomorrow morning. let's have a storm impact scale for friday with light to moderate rain. maybe an inch or more in higher elevations. we'll be watching the north bay for the best chance of any steady rain throughout the commute. the rest of us could have spotty showers. you can see the green covering mainly the north bay. heading into the afternoon hours, look at the yellows and the oranges. the light to moderate rain. moving across all of our neighborhoods. but then falling apart a little

bit into the evening hours. then we wake up saturday morning, things are looking pretty quiet. saturday afternoon, increasing sunshine and mid-60s. sunday, we'll have increasing clouds and mid to upper 60s. you can see it's going to be wet, monday tuesday andmike. we have one new issue. if you're trying to leave san francisco via the bay bridge, a disabled vehicle on the lower deck. eastbound 80 before treasure island. i'm not seeing a backup yet. it's blocking the far right lane and sounds like a tow truck is on the way to assist. they're going to get the vehicle off to the off ramp. shouldn't be an issue for long. not a big deal. keeping an eye on that. we have roadwork, various lanes closed until 11:00. eastbound 580 between greenville road and 205 to get into the central valley. that's causing a delay. we have our typical backup out of tracy. 14 miles an hour for you. 6 miles an hour through the construction zone. we do have a sig-alert if you're getting from castro valley into

san leandro. we'll talk about that next. thank you, alexis. at&t and comcast are unveiling a system to combat robo calls. apple is rolling out new and improved wireless ear buds. here's techbytes. >> in today's tech byte, the battle against robo calls. >> at&t and comcast have partnered up to verify calls made between their networks. the system confirms legitimate calls by using a digital signature and both companies plan to have the system available to residential customers for free later this year. at&t mobile customers as well. balance bow is planning to -- volvo is planning to install cameras. they will monitor eye movements of the driver to make sure you're not distracted or drunk. someone from volvo could call you and the car could slow down or stop. apple quietly unveiled the next generation wireless ear buds. >> hands-free access to siri.

it will cost you just under 200 bucks. those are your techbytes. have a good one. this morning, there's hope that mavericks could be a go. what organizers are watching way out in the pacific. a bay area city is taking action against side shows. what they're putting in the road to stop them. they roamed north america they roamed north america millions of for 50 years, cracker barrel has been making folks feel right at home, with meals like homestyle country fried steak, grandma's sampler, and our signature chicken n' dumplins. so, come on home to what you love. come on home to cracker barrel. so, come on home reynold's kitchens™ hasfrustration for good.rap to celebrate, award winner jeff russo composed the world's shortest victory song. [sfx: victory song plays] yes! this is the good stuff™

let's check out tomorrow. i want to get you ready for the commute. during the morning, the rain, best chance in the north bay. for the evening, all of us dealing with light to moderate rain and slippery streets. plan accordingly. in the east bay, contra costa county is trying to stop illegal sideshows on a major road. public works crews installed race pavement markers at the intersection of ham ber valley road and bear creek road in martinez. the aim is to make it more difficult for sideshows. they started in oakland and spread to other communities. a. >> there's a glimmer of hope mavericks could happen in the next week. swells are developing. they could produce the waves needed for the competition. organizers will be watching conditions between now and tuesday. waves need to be a consistent 25 feet or more for that

competition to get the green light. the window for mavericks closes march 31st. the event near half moon bay hasn't been held since 2016. mike, it's time. >> get his new sponsor, new money in that. hopefully a new attitude. hope it does happen. i'd like to see how it turns out. 5:00 in the morning, everybody pretty dry. through the morning commute, the north bay is going to get wet. by noon, about everybody wet except for the peninsula and the south bay. in the evening hours, they start to stack up to nearly .75 inches from the south bay towards the north bay. storm concerns tomorrow. just road flooding once again. there's a slight chance at the trees and power lines down near the coast or in the higher elevations where the winds will be around 35 to 45 miles per hour. alexis? >> all right, mike. good news in the east bay. we've got our one and only problem here this morning involving a collision. a sig-alert canceled state route 238. that connector to northbound 880

was fully blocked. it was involving a semi. sounded like it was going to last a while. all lanes are open and they canceled the sig-alert. heavy on 580 and castro valley on to 238. it should start to thin out quickly. bay bridge toll plaza, we have reports of a vehicle that hit something, possibly a lane divider, stuck under her vehicle now. emergency crews are on the way to assist. she wasn't sure which lane she was in. we have a stack-up in the cash lanes. next update at 5:00. thank you, alexis. guess what? >> what? >> we're one day away from national puppy day. we're celebrating here on abc 7 mornings. >> you can join us tomorrow morning beginning at 4:30 a.m. we're going to tell you how to give an adorable puppy a forever home. we'll be streaming our puppy cam all morning long. all the puppies are here at our studio. go to abc7news.com or our news app.

we want to see your puppy pictures right now. share them with #puppies on 7. you may see your dog on tv or online. >> of course, we all know that people love to take their pups to golden gate park. don't be alarmed if you hear a strange roar in the next few weeks. >> it will be coming from that mouth. a life size t-rex part of dino days at san francisco's california academy of sciences. for six weeks, visitors can see the tyrannosaurus make the sounds. they roamed north america 65 million years ago. dino days starts friday and goes extinct on may 5th. between that and the flintstone house, we have a real theme going this morning. >> we sure do. next at 5:00 a.m., president trump is not backing down from criticizing late senator john mccain. also, help for south bay teachers struggling to find affordable housing.

the plan up for a vote later today. new sexual harassment claims involving uc berkeley footb in your noise cancelling trheadphones?ry maybe not. maybe you could trust you won't be next to a loud eater. (eating potato chips loudly) or you could just trust duracell. (silence) ♪

good morning north bay. this is abc 7 mornings. i just have a feeling it's going to be a good day on this thursday, march 21st. >> i think so, too. it's supposed to be sunny. let's check in with meteorologist mike nicco. >> yep, definitely going to be drier today and a little more sunshine out there. there's a slight chance of a shower along the peninsula coast and into the santa cruz