today, the day the trial began for the accused killer. i am not a murderer, and i did not murder anyone. >> reporter: those were the words of steve lebo from inside county jail in 2016. he was 39 at the time. after a three-year wait, he's on trial for the murder of 28-year-old kyle myrick. the two worked in the parts department at a san jose motorcycle shop where they assembled all-terrain vehicle. myrick's parents, two brothers, relatives, and friends, say it's a long wait. after a string of hearings, this is the 39th time they've been in court. >> we wanted to show our support for our son, and we want everybody to know how much we love him. and i think everyone is here for that. >> reporter: the opening argument by prosecutors said it was difficult on them. myrick had suffered a traumatic death, his left ear left at the crime scene, a storage room at the motorcycle shop. the body was found days later along a creek in the santa cruz mountains. it's not clear yet what led to

the murder. lebo told us in the interview he thinks someone had put drugs in his coffee. >> putting stuff in the coffee or it was in the coffee bean -- >> reporter: his attorney plans to call witnesses saying he wasn't himself that day. she doesn't think the jury will convict him of homicide. >> your life gets put on hold. all you think about is getting justice, you know, for kyle, and hoping that he goes to prison and people can get on with their lives and not be focused with coming to court every month for three years. >> reporter: the trial's expected to last for two weeks. it is not known whether the defendant will be called to the stand to testify in his defense. in san jose, david louie, abc news 7 news. two teenagers died after they were electrocuted while rescuing a dog from a canal in solano county. the dog jumped or fell from a foot bridge across the canal west of interstate 80 in dixon yesterday. the two 17-year-olds then jumped

in to grab the dog and then grabbed the metal bridge for support. witnesses say that's when the teens were electrocuted. one of their friends was able to pull the boys and dog out of the water. the dog survived. pg&e had to deactivate power to the bridge so it would be safe for investigators. officials are trying to figure out how the bridge became energized in the first place. vandals hit an oakland school, and the district says the mess that will cost them thousands of dollars to fix. we're going to tell you where it happened, and it was at manzanita community school in oakland. just a big mess. abc7 has the story. >> reporter: more than ten windows smashed, a toilet destroyed by a massive rock. this is the scene. the students at manzanita community school in manzanita walked into this morning. >> the computers, toilet, supplies have been destroyed. you know, we're talking thousands of dollars certainly. and that doesn't include the people hours that, you know, they had to come and clean up

real quick. >> reporter: todd davis said he knew it was bad when he said the lights were on inside the library. >> i had beets in the refrigerat refrigerator, and they were thrown on the ground. a half container of apple sauce was eaten. >> reporter: after seeing the mess, davis with other schoolteachers and students saw this -- the hallway that leads to the basketball courts trashed. >> the hallway was two feet of debris that had just been pulled off shelves. and a classroom that's far away from here was entered and rocks, little marbles that they -- students collect for good behavior, was thrown on the floor. >> reporter: based on the patterns, some teachers believe the vandals checked every single door. the ones that weren't locked like this were the easy target. even though the staff room doesn't look like it, vandals got in here. a mass transit i votea social worker says -- a manzanita social worker says this affects people on a deeper level. >> sometimes it's a reminder of

violence or other things that might happen in the neighborhood or community. >> reporter: davis is using this experience to teach students an important lesson. >> would you guys do this? >> no! >> no. how would you treat your school? >> good! >> reporter: oakland unified school district's police confirmed that an alarm went off last night, and. n -- and now they're investigating. louise pena. a search is underway for bart's next police chief. carlos rojas took the job at b.a.r.t. in may of 2017. he faced charllenging times including a rash of violent thefts on trains and a murder last summer at the macarthur b.a.r.t. station. b.a.r.t.'s general rather released a statement on rojas' retirement saying he worked tirelessly to improve morale and performance at the department. his last day will be may 1st. in our commitment to building a better bay area, abc7 is digging into the ride-sharing business. >> yeah, both uber and lyft were founded in san francisco as you

know and have completely changed the way that a lot of people get around. >> while it helps you get a ride at the push of a button, it's krip emed the once-lucrative taxi industry. >> there are fewer than 2,000 cabs in san francisco. on an average weekday, more than twice as many ride-share vehicles are operating on city streets. >> abc's wayne friedman spent the day with a taxi driver to find out how the rise of hate share is affecting him. -- rise of ride share is affecting him. >> reporter: welcome to the place of flywheel taxicab. is this a war? >> yes. it is a war. >> reporter: a war? you're a driver. >> we arement. >> reporter: corey lamm, married father of two, a driver for 13 years, specializing in transporting passengers with special needs. it's a niche or maybe a foxhole against an overwhelming army of ride-share drivers. >> my personal belief is that uber and lyft are here to stop

the taxis. >> reporter: what happens when they do? >> they raise prices. >> reporter: like walmart, he doesn't like losing out to what he calls out-of-town amateurs. people who signed up, got an app, and collect the spoils by a different set of rules. >> we have drivers that have been doing this for a very long time. and they feel sleighted that anyone can get in the car and pick up people. >> reporter: is sleight the right word? >> absolutely. >> reporter: what do you need to make it a level playing field? >> i need somebody to have actual regulations as to who can drive, how they can drive, background checks, drug testing. all the things that taxis have to have. >> reporter: are you obsolete? >> i don't believe so. >> reporter: but angry, absolutely. making a last stand on four wheels in contest the streets, the taxis received medals instead of those formerly apreciation us on economy dam -- precious medallions, we might find one here. was this ever an honorable professi profession? >> yes. >> reporter: is it still? >> it's getting hard.

>> reporter: because war is hell. in san francisco, wayne friedman, abc7 news. now we have ride-share stories on all of our platforms every day this week. we want to hear your ideas about building a better bay area. share them by joining our "building a better bay area" group on facebook. it's been five years since napa's big earthquake. that's the last time a big shaker hit anywhere in the state. that's not a good thing it means california is in a "quake drought," and a big one is overdue. this drought will end and eventually we'll see a big change. >> let's get to abc's cornell bernard who joins us live. cornell? >> reporter: yeah. this is one drought that nobody wants to end. we are on the cal campus memorial stadium. infamous hayward fault runs underneath it. a reminder the next big quake could happen any time. >> is it supposed to happen?

it's supposed to. maybe i'll be gone by then. >> reporter: maria thinks about earthquakes a lot, especially when the next big one could hit. seismologists do, too. some believe california is in the midst of an earthquake drought. it's been almost five years since the napa quake. that's the last shaker that was magnitude six or stronger. experts know the so-called drought will end with destructive results. >> there's no earthquakes in this record. >> reporter: dr. angela chung says the u.c. berkeley seismograph has been quiet with little quake activity. >> sometimes there can be stress build-up along a fault. >> reporter: experts say the bay area has been particularly quiet since the great earthquake of 1906 destroyed much of san francisco. there have been only three quakes magnitude six or higher including loma prieta in 1989. in the 1800s, there were 14 big quakes. the hayward fault which runs through most of the east bay concerns dr. chung. one reason why she helped develop an alert system which sends warnings to your cell phone. it was tested in oakland last

week. >> can't predict earthquakes. but what we can do is to tell you that an earthquake has started and that you're about to feel shaking. >> i feel like we're like playing a gambling game with the house, hoping like we will win. and that the earthquake won't hit before i do my retrofitting. >> for me it's been a steady rush of work. we can't keep up. >> reporter: structural engineers are seeing a six-month backlog of people wanting to seismically retrofit their houses. he's developed a new cheaper method of bracing homes and apartments. >> what we're looking for is being able to keep you in your home after the earthquake so that you're not chased out to a tent city. >> reporter: the retro fits can be pricey, running from $10,000 to $80,000. the so-called quake drought is a way to remind everybody to be a and have an earthquake kit ready at your house with water, non-perishable food among other things. we're live in berkeley, cornell

barnard, abc7 news. >> thank you. small quakes did shake the orville dam in 2013 after the dam's near catastrophe. it was thought the spillway failure may have caused the quakes. nearly 200,000 people were evacuated in february after that failure because of concerns the emergency spillway could fail. now two years and more than a billion dollars later, there's a new spillway. take a look. today the spillway underwent its first test as the department of water resources released water over it because of forecasted storms and a growing snow pack. dwr will release more water later this week. and it anticipates further releases to manage snow melt and lake elevations this spring. we're not seeing heavy rains today, but it's wet, right? let's complex in with meteorologist drew tuma to get the details on the rain or sprinkles in the forecast. >> certainly a wet start to the day. live doppler 7 along with satellite showing you that steady, light rain we had earlier has pushed off to the east. but the clouds remain.

we are not done with this storms this week. look at this -- two more are lined up to finish out our week thursday and friday. and we're honing in on the one on friday because future weather showing you, it's going to tap in to a weak atmospheric river and bring us the potential for heavier rain on friday. we'll take a closer look at each storm over the next couple of days and show you when you'll find drier weather in the full accu-weather forecast coming up. a russian spy plane in the skies over california. why it was flying and the connection to the white house. three warriors stars are find lon. what's behind it and why draymond is dinged the most. the big cost for small businesses. how they make an ideal target for cyber attacks. and the power of flowers. one neighborhood experiences ♪ [baby crib musical mobile]

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a russian surveilance plane was spotted in california last weekend which sounds like the beginning of a hollywood spy movie but has a very gidifferen outcome. the story from reporter angela greenwood. >> reporter: a different sight to see, a russian plane on the tarmac in fairfield. it was first spotted last week and spent several days in the area. so why is a russian spy plane flying over california? the aircraft is part of the open skies treaty between the u.s. and russian federation which took effect in 1992. under the terms, unarmed military planes from both countries are allowed to fly over each other's territory. the 154 is equipped with sensitive electrooptical cameras capable of taking high-resolution photos while airborne. what was it looking at? well, data from the plane's transponder shows it flew over downtown sacramento on its way to travis last week. it also flew over other strategic military sites on the west coast including point magoo, coronado island, camp

pendleton, twentynine palms, vandenbe vandenberg, and edwards air force bases north of las vegas where the test site and area 51 are located. the u.s. air force has its own version of an open-sky surveillance plane. so far this year, it's conducted three missions over russia. the flights were russia's first mission over the u.s. this year. and it's enough for both countries to keep an eye on each other's military assets as new controversies revive some cold war-era tensions. >> intriguing. that was reporter angela greenwood. last week we reported if you ate at buca di bepo in the area, your credit card information may be in the hands of hackers. >> as many as two million people may have fallen victim to a nationwide data breach including customers in san jose, campbell, and palo alto, as well. >> yeah. one thing for customers to protect themselves, but what about smart business owners? >> 7 on your side's michael finney is here with helpful tips tonight. >> those of us dealing with small businesses. the big headlines go to the big

companies like the data breaches from equifax and marriott starwood hotels. those make the big headlines. a consumer reports investigation shows why incidents at small businesses should worry consumers just as much. allison meyers has an endviewable job. -- enviable job. >> i love my job. i mean, i work at a chocolate factory. what's not to like? >> reporter: but in september of 2017 the head of sales at lake champlain chocolate never imagined the news that was about to be dropped on her desk. just days after one of the world's largest data brokers, equifax, suffered a major data breach, the family-owned chocolate shop suffered a data loss of their own. >> i was personally affected by the equifax breach. so when we had incidents of our own, we knew to take it seriously. >> reporter: hackers stole names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and credit card information from customers who had purchased chocolates on line. and the numbers between the equifax and lake champlain

dienolates could not be more about 148 million to a mere 90 customers. but a "consumer reports" investigation finds that in breaches both big and small, the consequences may not be so different. >> your credit card information i your credit card information. it doesn't matter if it came from a hardware store down the street or from a big data broker information. the information is still the same. >> reporter: lake champlain chocolates reacted quickly and reported the incident to vermont's attorney general. other small businesses might not be that vigilant. so how can you protect yourself from breaches big or small? >> you got to be stingy with your personal information. the less you put out there, the less there is to steal. if you have any accounts that you use maybe less often or not at all anymore that are pretty old, you might want to go and check those or monitor them on some sort of routine basis. >> reporter: after putting new protocols in place to protect its customers, for allison meyers and lake champlain

chocolates, it's business as usual, making deliver us on chocolates. now you can also use certain apps to protect yourself from data breaches. one passwords, last-pass, and dash-lane are big and will keep track of your passwords and can also generate new passwords that are designed to confuse hackers. >> all right. we like to confuse the hackers. >> the more confused the better. >> yeah. >> thanks, michael. >> true. we have an update on a kitten rescued after falling 17 feet down a drain pipe in menlo park a couple of weeks ago. it took several hours for a firefighter to fish out the 3-week-old feline. the little game's named riley after the firefighter who rescued him. he is well on his way to getting a permanent home so he is one lucky cat. >> they ended up having to create a lasso that they kind of got the kitten to walk into. so the fireman was able to pull the kitten up 17 feet.

>> the kitten and its siblings are in a fosters home because they are too young to be adopted. so eight lives left for that little kitty. >> no problem. all right. let's update the weather forecast for you want more rain coming. >> i know. lots of canceled plans, drew. >> yeah. we've got more storms on the way this week. we're not done with the wet weather just yet. live doppler 7, earlier this morning we were tracking steady, light showers, that shield of moisture is out of here. we still have a fair amount of cloud cover overhead. but if you're in the south bay, look at san jose. we've got a break in the cloud cover. late-day sunshine. and that sun has been very hard pressed to come out. not only today but a lot of cloud cover this week means we have more rain chances on the way and less sunshine. take a look at the next couple of days. tomorrow, it's not a completely dry day, unfortunately. tomorrow we have a 20% chance of finding some very light drizzle. so light in fact we're not giving it a number on the storm impact scale.

but it still stays unsettled the next 24 hours. thursday, though, you see the chances really ramp up with our next storm arriving with some light showers. but our focus is really on friday. to end the week, looking at a strongest storm over the next couple of days which could bring some heavy rain to parts of the region. so the big takeaway, we are not done with the storms yet, and we're still unsettled even into the weekend. today, though, what you felt certainly a cooler afternoon compared to yesterday. temperatures in some spots really struggle to hit 60 degrees. we're at 58 in san francisco. 55 in hayward. 61 in oakland. and san jose with just a little bit of sunshine, you've managed to warm to 63 degrees. but tonight, those clouds will hang tough once again. we'll find an isolated shower here or there, nothing widespread. but again, temperatures will be on the mild side in the mid to low 50s for this time of year. future weather, tomorrow we start with a lot of cloud cover. some isolated drizzle. and again, it will not be widespread. it will not be as wet tomorrow

morning as it was this morning. but you may finds yourselves turning on your windshield wipers for a minute or two as it stays unsettled tomorrow. afternoon, we'll see still a lot of cloud cover. but it looks like the drizzle will temporarily cease before our next storm arrives on thursday. tomorrow, limited sunshine once again. a lot of cloud cover throughout the day after this morning drizzle. 60 in san francisco. 65 in san jose. about 64 at oakland, 62 in santa rosa. 65 the high in con cords. still have a winter -- concord. still have a winter weather advisory for the sierra. the storm bringing snow. about 6,500 feet. three to six inches in the highest peaks, we could finds a foot of pressure powder through midnight. level-one system through thursday. it's those nuisance, light showers. they don't add up to much, but it's enough to kind of dampen your day. rainfall less than..1 inch. it will be breezy at times. we want to focus on the storm to end the week. future weather, you see by friday afternoon, you can see a pretty good shield of moisture

moving on shore into northern california. we could likely find light to moderate showers by friday afternoon and into the evening. unfortunately that will impact the giants's home opener at oracle park on friday. if you're going, bring the pancho, bring the rain gear. showers in the forecast with temperatures in the mid 50s. accu-weather seven-day forecast will show you pockets of drizzle tomorrow. more showers on thursday. we're keeping our eye on friday. we may have to increase this number on the storm impact scale. morning showers on saturday, and finally warmer weather, drier weather to finish out the weekend. >> finally. >> finally. >> i know. >> yeah. >> we'll be ready. okay, is it the end for a local football league? that story is next. and then at 5:30, on "world news with david muir." >> coming up, breaking news, the arrested mar-a-lago chinese woman with multiple possports, a thumb drive, what was she trying to do while the president was in florida? and crawling to escape, schools on lockdown, next. >>thank you.

seal you then. new at 6:00, the latest bedroom community. it is bursting

the nba issued fines against three warriors stars today for their creditism of a referee -- creditism of a referee. kevin durant, steph curry, and draymond green, $10,000, $25,000, and $35,000. it follows statements about officials after friday's loss to minnesota. in particular, two game-changing calls made with less than six seconds left in the game. the referee ruled a foul on heled a foul ed before his ng. against durant. the timberwolves won by one point. >> league frowns on players criticizing referees. >> they do. it doesn't look like the alliance of american football is going to make it to its championship game.

>> the league suspended operations today eight weeks into its inaugural season. it brought in big-name coaches like steve spurrier and offered a second chance to players like johnny manziel. the alliance of american football has eight teams, and its headquarters are in san francisco. banking on becoming a feeder league for the nfl, even using some of its players. >> looks like it's a bust. sunshine amidst the rain next. first, we want to thank anirudh of the picture of why he says california is called the golden state. golden hills, right? he shared it using #abc7now. >> so did richard sending us this red-tail hawk flying over marsh creek in contra costa

i'm ama daetz. coming up at 6:00, it's never happened before -- pg&e's acting ceo addresses the wildfire crisis with i-team reporter dan noyes. plus, the new conditions the utility faces in order to prevent another disaster. also -- >> i'm just stuck. i'm stuck, and i'm trying to get us to where we need to go. >> a lyft driver kicks a bay area mom and her baby out of his broken down car in the rain. that's not all. 7 on year side's michael finney has lyft's bizarre response and a look at what ride-hailing companies do to make sure their passengers are safe. that's coming up at 6:00. >> thanks. see you then. flower power is alive and

well in the place where it all started. >> today the society of american florists walked the streets of san francisco's ashbury neighborhood and handed out free bouquets to brighten people's day. >> sweet. according to the group, a recent study found that flowers reduce stress, and april is stress awareness month. >> hate ashrabury is the iconic place of flower power. what we've proven years ago is now proved by science. what's important is that everyone can relate to feeling stress, and it we can provide a moment of calm today, that's -- we know that we've achieved our goal. random act of kindness when you just approach someone, they can't believe it. you get hugs, tears, smiles. lots of different emotions going on. >> and that overwhelming emotion is probably happiness and >> the flower brigades head to portland. love random acts of kindness.

>> "nightly news" is next. >> for all of us, we appreciate your time. see you again in half an hour. tonight, breaking news. what we have just learned. the arrest. the security threat at mar-a-lago. the chinese woman with multiple passports, four cell phones, a laptop and a thumb drive. what was she trying to do? and how did she get that far inside with the president in florida? also developing tonight, the deadly explosion. workers crawling under fences to escape. some on gurneys. residents nearby feeling their homes shake. multiple schools on lockdown. the breaking headline tonight. an arrest after the murder of a popular rap star, amid that new surveillance of the deadly attack. and the scare during a vigil erupting into chaos. multiple injuries. two new storm threats as we come on tonight. blinding rain, strong winds, even snow. the system moving up the east coast. rob is tracking it. we're on the scene tonight, multiple bodies found inside