now news to build a better bay area from abc news 7. to the rescue. a san francisco nonprofit gives people a second chance, proves some crime fighters don't wear capes. cornell bernard is in the newsroom with the story of how a safety monitor stopped a suspected thief in san francisco and the little-known program he's part of that's helping build a better bay area, cornell? >> reporter: don't call duane campos a security guard, who's a city ambassador helping keep part of the city safe. friday night his job description changed when he confronted a

suspected thief. >> how you doing, baby? >> i love you, man. >> i love you too. >> good people, that's my man. >> reporter: just about everybody between u.n. plaza and civic center knows duane kemp, working for urban alchemy, a nonprofit offering safety and service. >> practitioner, means i'm practicing being a good citizen. >> reporter: a hero, friday night catching a suspected thief. >> i heard a woman screaming, running after a guy. stopped that guy, "he took my phone." >> reporter: kemp confronted the suspect. >> i told him, give her back her phone. he says, what? give her back her phone. he reached in his pocket, handed back her phone. >> duane, you're the hero. >> reporter: the man got a8 but the woman who said she got the phone as a gift was overcome with gratitude. >> thank you, thank you.

>> duane does a great thing every day. >> reporter: duane's boss says duane is an ex-con turning his life around thanks to alchemy, who puts former offenders to work making parts of the city safer. while alchemy tries turning metal into gold this organization does more. >> instead of turning to gold, we're trying to make our spaces better. >> reporter: kemp modest about his role here, especially how he helped stop that suspected thief. >> a 16, 17 kid around my son's age. i used that father voice. >> reporter: urban alchemy has contracted with the city for several years now. the city says the presence of the practitioners is actually helping reduce crime and drug use in civic center and u.n. plaza. a spokesperson wants to make sure the mayor knows about duane kemp's act of bravery.

now storm watch, a live look shows it's a clear night, a little haze, but we can expect some showers maybe tomorrow? abc 7 news meteorologist frances is tracking the timing. >> it's on the way right now. the satellite image, a gorgeous day today with plenty of sunshine. we'll start to see increasing clouds tonight and more clouds overnight. we're tracking this system. this storm is what's going to be heading our way and comes through the bay area tomorrow. on our storm impact scale we rank the storm 1 of 5. it's light. it arrives tomorrow, continues throughout the day and into the early, early hours of monday morning. it should be over by the commute time. light to moderate rain expected. possible thunderstorms. a slight chance of that. very cold air will drop the snow levels to 4,000 feet. we could see a little bit of hail. i'll let you know when you can expect the heaviest weather for

your neighborhood and how much rain to expect in my next report. >> get the latest on the rain's arrival with live doppler 7 on our website and the abc 7 news app. developing news, a sports reporter is among five killed in a plane crash in lafayette, louisiana. 30-year-old carley mccord worked at a station in new orleans, heading to the playoff game between louisiana state university and oklahoma. she's also the daughter-in-law of lsu football coach steve ensminger. he decided to coach at the peach bowl today, he's on the right. it was the game she was heading to when the small plane crashed. >> reporter: shortly after taking off, a twin-engine plane crashed in louisiana. a mile west of the lafayette regional airport. >> unfortunately we have five individuals who are deceased as a result of the plane crash. six individuals on this small eight-passenger plane. of the six individuals in the

hospital being treated -- >> reporter: three others injured as a result of the crash. >> we had one individual that was in a car or near a car that was impacted by the event who's also being treated for injuries. two other individuals in the post office who went to the hospital because of smoke inhalation, treated and they're doing fine. >> reporter: the piper cheyenne headed to peachtree airport outside atlanta. sources telling abc news the passengers were headed to the lsu/oklahoma college football game. among the deceased new orleans nbc affiliate reporter carley mccord, daughter-in-law of lsu offensive coordinator steve ensminger. the plane struck a power line, then crashed in the parking lot of a u.s. post office, the impact blowing out windows, a nearby walmart evacuated. the faa and ntsb conducting the investigation. >> hopefully ntsb will be here tonight to take over where the feds are with the investigation.

>> reporter: louisiana's governor john bel edwards expressing condolences on twitter for the heartbreaking news out of lafayette, asking everyone to pray for the fa families and friends of everyone affected by this terrible tragedy. developing news about a tour helicopter crash in hawaii. the search resumed today to find a seventh person who's still missing. the helicopter on thursday was set to tour the rugged and remote kauai nepali coast. the crash was on the top of a mountain on kauai. six of the people on board were found including a mher and 13-year-old daughter who were visiting from wisconsin, a family of four believed to be from switzerland, and the helicopter's pilot. investigators say there are no indications of survivors. >> we owe it to these families to do whatever it is that we can in our power to go out and find the seventh passenger. >> the national transportation safety board is sending three investigators to the scene.

in response to the crash hawaii congressman ed case called for greater regulation in that industry. in the east bay a candlelight vigil tomorrow for three dublin high school students killed in a car crash in pleasanton on christmas. 16-year-old twin brothers mark anthony and michelangelo areese sta and javier ramirez died, two other teens in the hospital. mourners are gathering at a memorial set up at the crash site. tomorrow's vigil at dublin high school at 5:00. school counselors will be available when school resumes. firefighters are working to determine what caused a fire at a red tag oakland warehouse, west end apgar streets declared unsafe last year, but there were people inside yesterday. eight people inside were able to escape, one was treated for minor burps. the oakland fire department says the property was red tagged in

april and november. neighbors have been telling local politicians the property is a problem. a tenant says the owner charged people $10 a night to sleep inside. >> he was trying to get money from people who didn't have any, basically. >> the owner has been what i would say, to put it nicely, less than cooperative in keeping people out of the building. >> abc 7 news was not able to reach the owner for comment. part of building a better bay area includes making public transit more reliable and accessible. today santa clara vta rolled out its redesigned bus and light rail, a project that's been in the works for the last three years. buses and light rain trains now run more frequently along 20 routes. service on lower-ridership routes has been eliminated or changed. >> we have a threshold of about 15 boardings per hour. anything lower we had to take a

look at, whether it was worth putting out resources in those areas. >> to get people used to changes, vta is offering free rides today through tuesday. the defense reveals its possible strategy in the death of the brother of niners quarterback c.j. beathard. why the suspect's attory says he had no choice but to stab the men and the possible evidence the defense thinks will support its case. losing control. the story behind thi

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more for those already getting it, and new help for many who haven't gotten help before. so check to see how much you could save. it only takes 5 minutes. the last day to enroll is january 31st. so get covered today. the man accused of killing the brother of c.j. beathard is claiming self-defense. michael mosley is in jail accused of stabbing and killing

clay ened to beathard and another man outside a nashville bar. mosley's attorney says he's looking for security camera video from outside the bar. >> i may be wrong but i believe it's going to show that mr. mosley is trying to get away from a crowd that might have been waiting on him outside when he walked out. >> c.j. is sharing an emotional tribute via instagram where he posted a photo album. he says quote clay has the biggest heart of anyone i have ever known. terrifying moments for a team of state troopers in lubbock, texas, when a runaway semi nearly ran them over. the crash happened yesterday afternoon at the scene of another accident. the big rig barreled into cars while troopers ran for cover. the truck flipped over on itsard right in front of a news camera. a trooper was hit, another person was trapped inside their car. both are expected to survive.

today a nasa astronaut reached new heights. as the saying goes, it's the journey, not the destination, and that's exactly what has placed this astronaut in the record books. find out just how long her spaceflight has lasted. if you have evening plans, it's dry, nothing to worry about. get the wet weather gear ready, you're going to need it most of the day tomorrow. now here's what's ahead on abc's world news at 5:30. the air crash killing at least five, including a sports reporter ebb route to today's major college playoff game. the big winter storm gaining strength. the kidnapping scare

itreat them all as if, they are hot and energized. stay away from any downed wire, call 911 and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe.

an astronaut has set a new record, the longest single spaceflight by a woman. u.s. astronaut christina cook broke the record today, logging 289 days on the international space station. that breaks the record of astronaut peggy when it sun, who

spent 288 days in space. the electrical engineer will stay on the station until february 2020. fa falls just short of astronaut scott kelly's 340-day u.s. record for men. a russian cosmonaut holds the world record, 15 months in outer space. christmas may be over but kwanzaa celebrations are under way. abc 7 news was in san francisco at the boys and girls club in the western addition. kwanzaa is a celebration of african coal tour that focuses on seven key principles. there were events in different neighborhoods. today's event was one of many to help enlighten the public. >> the purpose of kwanzaa is to teach children and anyone who may be sort of a layman to the terms of kwanzaa actually is. >> kwanzaa begins december 26th and runs through january 1st. over 30 million people worldwide celebrate each year. if you're celebrating

kwanzaa here, you're going to get wet tomorrow. >> yeah, get ready for the rain. it's coming our way. here's a look at live doppler 7 and the satellite. a gorgeous day but clouds are increasing right now. and that's because we have a cold front heading our way. here are the forecast features that you need to know today and this week. so basically we'll start to see increasing clouds overnight. and so tomorrow morning we're going to have milder temperatures. it's not going to be as cold because the clouds act like a blanket. tomorrow we have this fast and cold-moving storm, 1 of 5 on our storm impact scale. new year's eve, well, it's going to be dry. nothing to worry about. but get ready for the wet weather. here's a look outside right now as we look from sutro tower toward san francisco, a gorgeous evening. temperatures will cool down once again, just not as cold. another live shot from the exploratorium cam shows a beautiful bay bridge and temperatures did warm up in spots. even right now gilroy is 60.

but san francisco 54. oakland 53. san jose 54. cooler half moon bay 50 as well. check out this pretty picture as we look from the east bay, emeryville toward the sky. you see maer's tails, a storm headed our way. you see these temperatures. abc 7 storm impact scale, the storm tomorrow is ranked a 1. it's 1 of 5. it's a light storm. this starts tomorrow morning, continues throughout the day and evening, and ends early hours monday morning. light to moderate rain expected. there is a slight chance of thunderstorms more likely along the coast. the snow level drops down to 4,000 feet because this is a very cold system. there is even a slight chance of hail. here's the forecast animation. 9:00 tomorrow morning some rain, more moderate rainfall. the areas of yellow through parts of the north bay. in the afternoon it sweeps through the bay area. more moderate rain, especially

along the coast. that's where the best chances of thunderstorms are. it's not over in the evening. it still sweeps through 9:00 tomorrow night. it's going to be wet throughout the day off and on. it clears out by early monday morning. rainfall totals range from .25 to .55 inches. isolated areas that might be more but we'll see how it plays out tomorrow. overnight lows will be a bit milder. there could be patchy frost north bay, temperatures in the 30s. more clouds and fog, temperatures in the mid 40s around the bay. some upper 30s in parts of the north bay. then it's going to be a cold day tomorrow with rain in the afternoon. we'll have a tough time making it into the mid 50s for highs. lake port warming up to 48. accuweather seven-day forecast. we have a rainy day tomorrow, a 1 on our storm impact scale. temperatures cool, low to mid 50s.

monday more sunshine by the afternoon. notice it will be dry for new year's eve if you have plans out. we're warming up toward the end of the week. we have a very slight chance, i'm talking maybe 20% friday night into saturday. and it's looking more likely that will hit the north bay than the rest of the bay area. >> all right, frances. and our friends on the cruise ship will get a sample of how different bay area weather can be. sports is next. that joe borrow, he's pretty good. >> it's like he wants to be the first pick in the nfl draft, the way he's playing. the niners and the seattle seahawks, we'll preview that game. and joe borrow, just how many points did

now abs 7 sports with chris alvarez. >> an entire season has led to this moment. in 24 hours the 49ers and seahawks kick off. for the niners the win earns them the number one overall seat. final seconds in november, seattle kicked that game-winning field goal to end the niners' perfect season. san francisco has been challenged by some of the league's best in the second half of the year. they're ready for the playoff-type atmosphere. >> the level of tensity, it's real. i think if you don't know that going in, you're going to be in a bad spot. i think the mindset, the last time we played these guys was monday night, that was a hell of an atmosphere too. you kind of know what you're getting into. >> it's not the catalina wine

mixer, remember that movie? it's not the biggest deal in the world, not that we don't understand what's at stake and how exciting it can be. but when you show up sunday, you're so prepared, you're so on point, you're so on your details. you play to the best of your ability. wherever the cards fall, they fall. to make bit them is not the approach you ever want. earlier this month lsu quarterback joe burrow won the heisman trophy. put up a historic game against oklahoma en route to a blowout win. a big game for number 9. first quarter scoreless, justin jefferson the recipient of that touchdown, 19 yards, 7-0 tigers. late first, 14-7, borrow. pretty pass. jefferson again. 35 yards. 21-7 lsu. early second quarter, burrow out of the gun steps up, rolls right. scouts like this. look at this throw to jefferson, right on the money, 42 yards,

28-7. late second, play action pass. this is easy. terrence marshall jr. 49-14 at the half. parents love that. he threw for seven scores. early third, sneaks it in. 493 passing yards accounting for eight total touchdowns. lsu wins big, they'll play the winner of ohio state/clemson january 13th. penn state/clemson. early first quarter, penn state down 3-0. watch journey brown what a journey this is, all the way to the house, will not be denied, 7-3 penn state. late third quarter, memphis down two. brady white fumbles it and right into the hands of garrett taylor out of the air, 15-yard pick notre dame/iowa state in the camping world bowl. late first quarter, notre dame up 3-0. pool what a catch. 10-0 fighting irish.

early third quarter, notre dame running away with it. tony jones jr. off the left tackle, and he's gone. 84 yards. 33-9, and we are going to be right back.

new on abc 7 news at 6:00, the close call on a snowy highway and the warning from the highway patrol, take a look at that. the final performances of beach blanket babylon. we'll have reaction from fans as the final curtain nears for this san francisco institution.

a large herd of elk on the move made for quite a sight, take a look yourself. this herd was captured running across foggy hills thursday near denver, a lot of them. wildlife officers say colorado is home to over 287,000 elk. that is the largest population in the world. that number took a big dip in the 1920s but it was restored in part by bringing in elk from yosemi yosemite. that's quite a herd of elk, i suggest you let them go where they want. >> by the way, chris? you know what joe burrow wishes he had said after that win today? >> i don't. >> later, sooners. >> oh, that's good. >> that's it for abc 7 news at 5:00, see you back here at 6:00.

tonight, the breaking news as we come on, the deadly plane horror. that aircraft slamming down near a louisiana post office. bursting into flames. at least five people dead, including a sports reporter. the daughter-in-law of an lsu football coach. those on the plane said to be en route to today's major college playoff game. that coach wiping away tears on the field. the deadliest aviation accident there in ten years. the big winter storm gaining strength, marching across the country. millions in its path. that semi-truck losing control in heavy fog. sheets of ice sending this school bus skidding. winter weather alerts from the rockies to new england. no survivors. new details coming in on that fatal chopper tour, crashing in hawaii. the concern tonight for rescue teams.