great day. making news in america this morning, the first report just out this morning on what caused that boeing jet to fall out of the sky killing all 157 on board. what we've now learned and the question this morning, was a bird or other flying object to blame? trump's taxes. the new battle for the president's tax returns. what democrats are now doing to get their hands on them and how the president and the irs are responding. the shocking scene on the street. a boy is found wandering alone claiming he just escaped from two kidnappers. is he the same boy who disappeared seven years ago in illinois two states away? >> he walked up to my car, and he went, can you help me?

i just want to get home. >> the urgent search right now for answers and what the missing boy's family is saying. plus, facebook under fire. the new data privacy concerns. millions of user records have reportedly been exposed. health alert. the possible link between sleeping pills and high blood pressure. what doctors are saying. and -- ♪ what a way to make a living >> -- dolly parton off to the races. the news about dolly's involvement in nascar. good thursday morning, everyone. thanks for joining us. we begin with the breaking news about that crash of a boeing jet that left 157 people dead forcing the faa to ground the entire fleet of new 737s. >> investigators are now releasing the first report into the cause of the ethiopian airlines crash nearly a month ago. it comes hours after we learn that a sensor on the plane was damaged possibly because of a bird strike. >> abc's serena marshall is tracking all the new developments. serena, good morning. >> reporter: kenneth, janai, good morning. this was the second such

disaster for this boeing aircraft in a matter of months and it led to the worldwide grounding of this aircraft. it was the crash in march that led to the death of all 157 people on board. and two aviation sources tell abc news the reason for the crash of that ethiopian airlines boeing 737 max, a damaged sensor that led to a nosedive. the sensor is called an angle of attack sensor, and it's located outside the cockpit. it likely was hit by a bird or foreign object according to those familiar with the investigation triggering erroneous data and the activation of the anti-stall system known as mcas which nosed down the jet. abc's senior transportation correspondent david kerley learned in a simulator that in a situation like this, the procedure for pilots is to use a thumb button to electronically angle up the plane known as trimming the plane. if that fails, boeing emergency procedure calls for a shutdown of power to the mcas system. >> flip two switches down and shut off the electricity that

noses down the aircraft. >> reporter: sources say the ethiopian pilots did not trim the jetliner before shutting off the power. one source says they did try to manually trim the jet but then turned the power back on which led to the mcas system misfiring again nosing down even more and the pilots unable to maintain control. >> it's inexplicable that they would go through t emergen procedure but then re-engage the very motors, the very trim system that was causing the problem. >> reporter: earlier wednesday boeing released a statement that said, we urge caution against speculating and drawing conclusions on the findings prior to the release of the flight data and the preliminary report. in a press conference the ethiopian minister said the pilots did everything right but they were still unable to gain control of the aircraft. now, boeing says testify a fix in terms of a new software rollout and in order to prove that it's safe, the ceo even took a test flight with the new software.

kenneth, janai. >> serena marshall with those breaking details, thank you. democrats have formally asked the irs to turn over the last six years of president trump's tax returns. the chairman of the house ways and means committee made the request in hopes of shedding light on the president's financial dealings and possible conflicts of interest. the president fired back saying once again that he can't release his taxes because he's under audit, but democrats say they're relying on a tax law that's nearly 100 years old. >> the point of all this is to examine the extent to which the irs is auditing and enforcing federal tax law on the president of the united states. well, i expect that the irs commissioner will deliver these returns to the chairman. it's in the law. >> reporter: the irs is not commenting.cu democrats of weaponizing the tax code. the request sets the stage for a legal battle that could drag on for months. former vice president joe biden is vowing to change his m inap biden posted a video promising

to be more mindful of his actions. he tried to explain why he connects with people physically but he stopped short of apologizing. >> i'm always trying to be -- in my career i've always tried to make a human connection. that's my responsibility, i think. i shake hands, i hug people. i grab men and women by the shoulders and say, you can do this. social norms have begun to change. they've shifted, and the boundaries protecting personal space have been reset, and i get it. i get it. i hear what they're saying. >> reporter: "the washington post" reports three more women have come forward to complain about biden's behavior including a former white house intern who says he pressed his forehead to hers while talking to her. pk w weeks. t mh a. he raised $7 million. buttigieg will be on "good morning america" later this morning.

admissions scandal. a package food entrepreneur has become the first parent to plead guilty. meanwhile, a dozen other parents accused of bribing their kids' way into school faced a judge including actresses felicity huffman and lori loughlin. abc's elizabeth hur is in boston with the latest. >> reporter: actresses felicity huffman and lori loughlin in boston. >> lori, lori, lori, paper my tuition. lori! >> reporter: making their first appearances in federal court. the hollywood stars turned defendants in "operation varsity blues." wealthy parents including real estate executives, a lawyer, doctor and ceos appearing before a judge today, all of them charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud. >> fraud is about money and the amt frau i do think that when it comes to sentencing, it will be very different. >> reporter: loughlin and her husband, fashion designer mossimo giannulli stand accused of paying half a million dollars in bribes to get their two daughters into usc. huffman has been charged with paying $15,000 to allegedly have an s.a.t. proctor correct her e.

already some parents working with prosecutors on a possible plea deal while other parents like dr. gregory colburn and his wife amy making it clear they are fighting to clear their names. they've been charged with using $25,000 of company stock to cheat on their son's entrance exam. according to their lawyer they are innocent of these charges. and sources say prosecutors are now warning some defendants cooperate now or face more charges. the grand jury does have until next week to hand down any additional charges. janai and kenneth. >> our thanks to elizabeth on the ground in boston. and those other charges could include tax fraud for allegedly writing off the bribes on their taxes. time now for a look at your weather for this thursday morning. good morning. we're looking for the storm to spread by thursday night, so you'll have the ohio valley region, the great lakes as well as the northeast. now, speaking of the northeast, we're going to be quiet initially on thursday, but rain will hit us on friday. for the west coast, thursday

we're looking for scattered showers along the west coast and down towards san francisco just shy of the san diego area and then look for dangerous storms advancing throughout the lower mississippi valley region as well as the midsouth bringing with it dangerous winds, dangerous hail and the possibility of tornadoes. i'm accuweather meteorologist paul williams. coming up, how not to steal a chainsaw. we'll show you. but first, why gas prices are rising faster than expected. and how much more you can expect to pay. and up next, the american tourist kidnapped and held for $500,000 ransom. what authorities are doing to find her.

we are back with thi we are back with this violent crash of a stolen suv near seattle. police were chasing the vehicle

when it struck a police car and somersaulted right there into the air. the driver suffered a broken arm and was arrested. a desperate search is under way in uganda where an american were kidnapped by armed men. witnesses say they were traveling through queen elizabeth national park when the gunmen grabbed the pair and ran. police say the kidnappers used one victim's phone to demand a $500,000 ransom. security forces have blocked off all park exits near uganda's border with congo while the search is under way. new concerns this morning about how facebook handles personal data. a security firm says hundreds of millions of facebook records have been exposed on amazon cloud servers. researchers say the records include user names, passwords and likes. the data was uploaded to amazon's cloud system by facebook app developers. privacy will be one of the topics of discussion this morning when george stephanopoulos sits down with facebook ceo mark zuckerberg. that exclusive interview coming up on "good morning america."

plan on paying more to fill up your tank at least for a few more weeks. the national average for a gallon of regular is now 2.70. that's up 28 cents in the last month. some analysts say prices could rise another 5 cents this week alone. they say demand for oil has been higher than expected amid the conflicts in venezuela and iran. it may be the turn of the next century before all the crumbling bridges across the country can be repaired. a new report says at the current rate of progress, it will take 80 years to fix the bridges considered structurally deficient. more than 600,000 of them fall into that category including the brooklyn bridge. police in fresno, california, are looking for a man who was caught on camera at this store stealing a chainsaw by stuffing it down his pants. there he goes. >> yeah. >> then used his jacket to try to disguise it and walks out. they say he took off in a pickup

truck, incognito there. >> nothing to see here. coming up, the cancer patient who won the lottery. but first, a boy missing for nearly eight years possibly found alive. what we've learned overnight about a teenager found wandering the streets of kentucky who says he escaped from his kidnappers. plus, a potential health concern for people who take sleeping pills. for another 150 years. ♪ to inspire confidence through style. ♪ i'm working to make connections of a different kind. ♪ i'm working for beauty that begins with nature. ♪ to treat every car like i treat mine. ♪ at adp we're designing a better way to work, so you can achieve what you're working for. ♪ oh! oh! oh! ♪ ozempic®! ♪ (announcer) people with type 2 diabetes are excited about the potential of once-weekly ozempic®. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar

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been praying for for years. >> he's with a 14-year-old juvenile, male white, says he was kidnapped from somewhere. >> reporter: that 14-year-old boy says he's timmothy pitzen, the boy who vanished in illinois back in 2011 when he was 6 years old. police say the teen ran across a bridge into kentucky wednesday claiming he had escaped his kidnappers who were staying at a nearby red roof inn. >> he looked like he had been beat up, yes, punched in the face a couple of times. you could see the fear on him and how nervous he was and how he kept pacing, and he just looked odd. >> reporter: neighbors were alarmed when they spotted this young teen alone wandering the streets. >> he was just really, really scared, so i just called the cops. >> reporter: this woman who doesn't want to be identified says she called 911 after the boy approached her on the street. >> he walked up to my car, and he went, can you help me? i just want to get home. can you just please help me? i asked him what was going on and he told me he's been kidnapped and he didn't want to go nowhere.

he was just really, really scared. >> reporter: the teenager describes his kidnappers as two white men built like bodybuilders, one with black hair and a spider tattoo on his neck. the other short with a snake tattoo on his arms. investigators are now working to confirm whether this 14-year-old boy really is timmothy pitzen, the boy his dad has so desperately been searching for. >> i was just more devastated than anything else. where's timm at? if i knew where he was, i would go get him. >> reporter: his father revealed to "investigation discovery" back in 2015 that he and his wiy fe werhaawayn wiouwarn police say s l into a motne where she took her own life. they say she left a note behind saying timmothy would never be found indicating he was somewhere safe with people that would protect him but providing no other details. now his family says they're cautiously hopeful. >> we've always felt strongly that this day would come. >> reporter: timmothy's aunt says they're in contact with authorities who are running dna

tests. >> what's hard is the story that he escaped from captors, and your mind goes in too many directions that you don't want to think about. >> i'm very hopeful that it's him and that he's okay and he's been in a good place when he was gone and he's going to come back to us. >> and the boy is getting medical care. the fbi is searching for the men he described as his kidnappers. a new study finds a link between sleeping pills and high blood pressure. researchers looked at people over 60 and found those who needed more blood pressure medications were more likely to be taking sleeping pills. they're not sure why. doctors say it could be a sign that people on sleeping pills are more likely to have unhealthy lifestyles which cause high blood pressure. new details in the prostitution case against new england patriots owner robert kraft. his lawyers claim police in florida staged a phony bomb threat so they could install cameras at the spa where kraft

was arrested. kraft's lawyers argue the tactic was, quote, constitutionally problematic. they want the judge to exclude the video from any potential trial. san antonio spurs head coach gregg popovich had a short night at the office. he was ejected 63 seconds into last night's game in denver after arguing over a noncall. that's his second ejection this week. it may have been the fastest in nba history. dolly parton is off to the races this weekend as a nascar sponsor. the mostly pink number 2 chevy will be driven by tyler reddick during a race in bristol, tennessee. that's near parton's birthplace and the location of many dolly owned tourist attractions which, of course, are advertised on the car. >> good-looking car there. up next in "the pulse," why air travel may soon get even more uncomfortable. also ahead, a great idea. what some elementary school kids are now doing with all that food that's wasted in the cafeteria every day.

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now, save big on a case of paper. at office depot officemax ♪ ♪ it's time to check "the pulse." and air travel could soon get even less comfortable. >> is that possible? >> right. >> an italian company has unveiled a new prototype for a standing airplane seat. it's like a bicycle seat but with a back support. >> the company says its goal is not to cram more passengers onto planes but to give airlines another option that could be called ultra basic economy. ultra basic. >> that's my nickname for you. >> right. that's exactly what you have to be to buy one of those seats. >> yeah, ultra basic. the company says it's getting some interest but no orders yet. it looks like a ride, you know when you stand up at the theme parks.

ooh. time for takeoff. okay, so a young woman in kansas with a big heart is putting her best foot forward for some strangers in need. yes, addy tritt came across a payless shoe store selling all of its remaining shoes for $1 a pair after the chain filed for bankruptcy. so she decided to buy every shoe in the store and then donated them to flood victims in nebraska. >> tritt said she didn't have enough money, so she negotiated with the manager and got all 200 pair of shoes for just $100. >> most of those were baby shoes. addy tritt, we salute you because that's incredible. >> we definitely do. next we have a great idea from an elementary school in indiana. they noticed they were wasting a lot of food in the cafeteria every day. >> they also noticed a lot of local families are struggling to buy groceries, so they found a solution to both problems. they teamed up with a nonprofit called cultivate to package all that leftover cafeteria food into take home meals. >> the meals will be frozen and delivered to families in need every friday.

>> it's such a great idea, yes, definitely. fantastic. so heinz is at it again offering another mash-up condiment. >> it's called kranch. kranch is a mix of ketchup and, yes, ranch dressing and follows the company's other recent mixtures using ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard and barbecue sauce. >> so earlier kenneth turned all of our stomachs and tasted the kranch that we made ourselves on "world news now." >> go for it. go for it. go for it. yeah, right. >> oh. oh, my gosh. ew. ew. i can't believe you did that. >> i still cannot believe this man sat next to me and did that. kenneth, how did it taste? >> delicious. >> he still has the shakes. >> it was so good. how does my breath smell though? >> awful. it smelled awful all morning and

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an "unjection™". and breaking overnight, the first report just out on the ethiopia plane crash. it confirms the crew followed boeing's emergency procedures but still couldn't control their doomed jet as it went into a nose dive. and get out of the car, there is a move to ban siri froo the drivers using any hands-free devices behind the wheel. also, sgethis, he has been with blurry vision for years. >> what? >> the fact he's been able to make all those threes without permission, amazing. >> mark zuckerberg one-on-one with abc news, what he's saying about your privacy and the 2020

election. we have that coming up as well. good morning. it's thursday, april 4th. we'll start with meteorologist lisa argen. i felt a little bit of mist on my face this morning. >> you've been warned all weeklong it's coming, and we're not done with the rain yet. as we look at live doppler 7, plenty of clouds. some mist and drizzle, the wet pavement keeping it slick out there. we have a 1 on our storm impact scale today and starting with the mild to muggy temperatures, 55 in almena. we're in the low 50s around pacifica and 53 in santa rosa. so certainly mild stepping out. you want to bring your rain gear, give yourself extra time. we will have scattered showers throughout the day today. temperatures climbing into the lower 60s and random showers as well. good morning, sue. good morning, lisa. we are up and running with the san mateo bridge looking pretty good this morning. no rain here as of yet.

they're down to one lane. it's very difficult. you can see the slickness. they should be picking up across the waldo grade and the span. we'll check back in just a few. facebook's mark zuckerberg sitting down with george stephanopoulos in a one-on-one interview. >> abc 7 news reporter jobina fortson is live at facebook headquarters. jobina? >> reporter: facebook has found itself at the center of global controversy. when mark zuckerberg sat down with abc news he said he was proud of his company's progress pegsly security breaches and other factors on the platform. he defended facebook's actions following the recent a he 2020 u.s. presidential keeong

election and in the interview he elaborates on privacy and regulations. >> i think we have some of the most advanced at preventing the tactics russia and now other countries as well have tried copying what russia did in 2016. but the reality is that there's not like a single thing that we can do and say, all right, we put this in place so now they can't even try to interfere. they're always going to try. >> you can't guarantee it's not going to happen again? >> what i can guarantee they're definitely going to try. >> reporter: the exclusive sitdown with mark zuckerberg will air on "gma." jobina fortson, abc 7 news. as she just said, you can see more of the interview at 7:00 a