in his own rocket next week, he won't be alone. going with him, three passengers, including 18-year-old oliver damon. >> i am super excited to go to space. >> damon, whose father is the founder and ceo of a private equity firm, will be the youngest person ever in space. his father had bid in the auction but lost out to the highest bid of $28 million. that person can't go because of a scheduling conflict. blastoff. that's "nightline." you can watch all of our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right b

you are going to havegoing

wear masks again indoors, for several counties around the state. what does this mean for the bay area? how young people are working to max the vax and break the vaccine hesitancy in their communities. your weekend forecast is coming up. abc7 news at 11:00 is starting right now. >> unvaccinated people are driving this pandemic for us. >> i made a new spike in cases across the country, county will reimpose a mask mandate indoors . >> l.a. may only be the first. sacramento, yellow and fresno county's all say they are recommending people wear masks in all indoor public settings. our reporter spoke with local experts about what this could mean for the bay area. >> reporter: los angeles county will take a step back,

reissuing its endura mask mandate, even if you are vaccinated. the guidance goes into effect at 11:59 p.m. saturday. health officials in the nation's largest county blaming increasing transmission of covid-19. across much of the country, the spike in new coronavirus cases is fueled by the delta variant. the cdc says cases are on the rise in at least 45 states, with the u.s. back to an average of 1000 new cases reported every hour. >> unvaccinated people are driving this pandemic for as. >> reporter: even vaccinated people are going to have about a 5% risk of infection. that population should feel comfortable, yet remain cautious. >> it is not 100%. it is pretty close to 100% effective. but even a small percentage of a lot of people can be a lot of people. >> reporter: alameda and marin

county health officers are considering specifically recommending masking for everyone. san mateo county is considering changes to its guidance. other health departments we've reached out to are planning to stick with state guidelines, which do not require indoor masking for vaccinated people. >> i do think that, in certain situations, it might be helpful to suggest indoor masking. i'm not sure about a mask mandate yet. >> reporter: i took the question to twitter. in just a few hours we heard from more than 240 people. about 79% saying they are going to keep the masks on and about 20 saying they will not. >> let's see what happens in the next week or so. in may this virus only represented 60% , now is is at 70%. san francisco is stepping

up efforts to close the vaccine gap >> i am scared for the black community, people who are 25, 40 years old. i'm scared for people who are refusing to get the vaccine. >> reporter and vaccine team member kate larson spoke with a group of advocates who have launched a campaign to get their communities vaccinated. >> reporter: there is a new front line in the fight against covid. a us-led campaign to address health, equity and the well-being of people of color in san francisco. >> i got my second vaccination two days ago. >> reporter: deonna thomas works five days a week at vaccine clinics in san francisco general hospital to get the right word out about covid vaccines. >> i talked to a couple of my friends, i was hesitant.

>> reporter: what convinced you to get the vaccine? >> going back to school and in person again. >> reporter: there working to shatter the myths about covid i the group launched account. >> i was extremely hesitant, because i felt like i was getting misinformed from the internet. >> reporter: speaking to a trusted dr. convinced her to get a covid vaccine and now she is trying to pay it forward. >> i think there is a seof ar. it will help your children and your grandmother and it is something really important to the black community.

the u.s. surgeon general issued an advisory today, saying misinformation about covid vaccines is now an urgent threat in the fight against the pandemic. >> two thirds of people that are not vaccinated either believe common myths or believe some might be true. >> dr. murphy is calling on social media companies and politicians to take more responsibility. students are up against a deadline to get vaccinated, if they haven't done so already. all students, faculty and staff must be vaccinated for the fall term. some exemptions will be allowed. and all other unvaccinated people won't be able to participate in in person on campus activities. at san jose state a mass policy is in effect. y vaccinat people qu to wear ma unvaccinated people must mask

up indoors and outside. canada may soon reopen for tourist. the countries prime minister said today if the positive trend continues, the country could welcome travelers by september. sfo is stepping up to monitor covid-19 variants. international travelers will be provided with free covid test kits. also tonight, los angeles county's health officer is urging people to reconsider travel to states with high levels of covid cases. the fbi announced tonight that two bay area men have been charged with plotting to blow up the democratic headquarters in sacramento. federal prosecutors say napa resident ian rogers and jared copeland of vallejo had hoped the bombing would be the first in a series of politically motivated attacks. both men face multiple charges, including conspiracy to destroy by fire, or explosive, a

building. rogers is also charged with unregistered destructive vices and three counts of possession of machine guns. in january law enforcement officers searched rogers home and seized 55 rooms, thousands of rounds of ammunition's and three pipe bombs. authorities believe they ever did another mass shooting after they arrested a suspected prowler. 32-year-old wesley charlie martinez was taken into custody friday after a campbell business owner reported someone lurking around her parking lot, peering into cars. the business owner shared surveillance video with abc7 news. police detained martinez and found an arsenal of weapons inside his truck including a pipe bomb, two illegal ar- 15 style rifle, and a manifesto which stated a desire to wipe out the black, hispanic and jewish populations. >> a lot of bad things could

have happened. things could have played out completely differently. he could have shot at the cops and try to get away. a lot of different scenarios. >> martinas has been charged with seven felonies and is being held on $300,000 bail. cal fire has updated the size of the dixie fire burning near the 2018 campfire. it has doubled in size over the past 48 hours, to more than 4900 acres. it is burning in steep and inaccessible terrain, yet firefighters are making progress. it is now 7% contained and is burning away from populated areas. a mandatory evacuation order remains in place for the high lakes and philbrook areas in plymouth county. the states largest fire through another 5000 acres today, also in plumas county. the backrest fire is more than 157 square miles. this video shows the strong wind

howling as the fire raged nearby. pretty scary. tonight, the national weather service is warning of possible thunderstorms and lightning in the bay area. >> let's check in with eddie with a look at what we can expect. >> we are talking about the potential for dry lightning sunday and monday. thunderstorms over the monsoon area. the southwestern u.s. bringing the summer monsoon there. they have been seeing quite a soaking with flash flood watch as for parts of arizona. some of that moisture is going to move into our direction. the surge of monsoon moisture could bring in the chance of dry lightning. the best possibility will be southern california and the sierra. but we have a slight chance of the moisture trail beginning to increase across our region, given that our drought is exceptional to extreme. bettors to be warned than to be

caught off guard. volunteers and coworkers continued the search effort today for a missing berkeley man. 37-year-old philip kreyci went for a run in pleasanton park six days ago and hasn't been seen since. police ended their search yesterday. his family believes he may be on someone's personal property near the park. starting tonight bart will run four limited stop trains from the embarcadero station at 11:30 on thursdays, fridays and saturdays. they will make a total of eight stops. bart will resume the for full late-night schedule august 2nd. amid

medicine, bay area cubans concerned about their families back home. and it's a medical miracl

new details, former 49ers player richard sherman is out of jail, after being arrested for allegedly trying to break into the home of his wife's parents. police released home surveillance video of the incident. this was early wednesday morning. a judge today found probable cause that sherman committed four misdemeanor charges.

sherman has another hearing tomorrow, but isn't required to appear. bay area cubans are loudly demonstrating their solidarity with the people in their homeland. this crowd, protesting in oakland tonight, they say they are concerned for their families, who are facing widespread shortages of food and medicine. >> we have family there, we have everything there and we are here on the loudspeaker to say what's going on in cuba right now. >> i have been calling them and they are great and i'm worried about them too. >> president biden says cuba has cut off internet access. he is looking into whether the u.s. is capable of restoring it. it has been an amazing summer of advancements for brain researchers in the area. recently profiled a system that is allowing patients to type using signals from their brain.

>> another team is hoping a similar, but different technology, is helping severe stroke or paralysis patients regain a form of speech. >> reporter: you won't hear his voice, but this stroke patient is essentially speaking for the first time in 15 years. or more precisely, his brain is. it is sending signals would normally reach his vocal cords. instead, they are intercepted by researchers at ucsf using a network of electrodes implanted in his brain. >> we take that neural activity- >> reporter: the electrodes are connected to the part of the brain responsible for speech. sophisticated machine learning software is able to recognize the signals and decode them. the team has built up a vocabulary of about 50 formed words. >> when he is prompted with a sentence and trying to say each word in those words are being

decoded from his brain activity. >> reporter: the approach is significantly different than other computer/brain interface systems . in a project we profiled earlier this summer, a research team at stanford used the technique successfully to allow a patient to type by thinking about writing out the letters. >> when we are taking it's a different story. >> reporter: ucsf neurosurgeon dr. edward chang says both approaches offer advantages. but he also says his team's goal would be to translate the brain signals for all the cells we use, to produce words and natural human speech. >> someday we just want to think about how we synthesize oral speech, the way you and i are talking right now. >> reporter: he says a device to decode human speech in real- time is probably still far in the future. but hopefully a breakthrough that patients who can't speak

for themselves now, will ultimately be able to tell you about. >> it's just incredible. the team recruited epilepsy patients who agreed to have lebron signals mapped, while they were undergoing treatment. >> the work helped isolate and identify brain signals associated with speech. in the north bay petaluma is enacting fines for waterway restrictions. repeat offenders could face penalties of up to $1000. the city could shut off water service for anyone who continues to break the rules. petaluma has asked residents and business owners to cut water use by 25%. the drought just continues and even though it's not blazing hot right now, we do have to remember we're in a very serious situation. >> absolutely. and i think september it will be going back up. >> this upcoming weekend we

will notice the heat returns in the bay area, but we are not expecting it to be very extreme here. the drought, that is extreme. let's take a look at our dry lightning chance. thunderstorms sunday, monday. and risk of new wildfires and given that our drought is so severe, exceptional to extreme, any dry lightning could trigger new fires. the best chance will be in the sierra nevada and summer in northern california. every few years we get the thunderstorm activity moving into the bay area. in this case it is expected to be a chance this weekend. here is a look at hurricane felicia, while southwest of cabo san lucas. let's see you the differences between last august 2020. we are talking about the remnant and monsoon tropical moisture that joined forces and the lightning sparked multiple wildfires around the state. this weekend, wethattu

it's just the monsoon surge, so that the merchants will remain low in the bay area, but serious enough to mention it to you, given our situation with the drought. >> tomorrow the flash flooding will continue. as we head into sunday and monday lightning could spark fires in our state, so keep that in mind. switching gears now, look at this stunning sunset at 8:30 tonight. it was just absolutely gorgeous. live doppler 7 showing the fog has been pushed into the east bay. it was cooler today. tomorrow we will start to see the numbers coming up a few degrees. 56 mostly right now and gray skies over san francisco. fozzie and drizzly start on the morning. warm through monday. the possibility of dry lightning sunday and monday. tomorrow morning, watch out, it is misty and drizzly along some parts city. as we had a 7 to 8:00 a.m.

he will see the damper roadways. for the afternoon was a little more clearing. temperatures in the morning, 40s, 50s with the drizzle and the fog in the afternoon. it is warmer tomorrow, especially inland. upper 50s to 60s cow siding in the 60s. it will be an easy one. it does feature that drizzly, foggy morning. sunny and warmer for the weekend. we have the heat returning, low to mid 90s. breezy with the heat midweek, but until then i think it is

i love it. in the east bay music filled the streets of downtown concord tonight after a year off, due to the pandemic.

the music and market event returned. this year's theme is the greatest comeback of all time. music and market events are every thursday through september. each features a farmers market and live music from cover bands. aman's bold move to ward off bears landed him in custody. the man said his own car on fire this morning, near the california/nevada border. he was yelling about beers, but there weren't any nearby. larry beale is here with sports. >> how many of baseball's all- stars are going to test positive for covid? the yankees now have a breakout. plus, what is

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sports on abc7 is sponsored by your local toyota dealers. >> good evening. it was the major league baseball all-star game, was at a

mini super spreader event? the yankees now have several nonpositive cases and several other players were under health and safety protocols because of possible exposure. aaron judge, grew up in the central valley, is also the be quarantine right now as the yankees try to figure out how many positives they do have. team usa will not have bradley beal in tokyo for the olympics. he tested positive. team usa's game with australia is scheduled for tomorrow. cancel now. more reminders this pandemic is far from over. >> we were all hoping there was an end in sight and it kind of doesn't seem like there is. it is still costing people the opportunities of a lifetime. so it sucks. we all came here hoping we wouldn't be affected by it. >> to golf, around one of the

british open at royal st. george's. jordan spieth at under 16. louis , second place finish at the u.s. open. he is the leader at 6 under part. bryson dechambeau called out cobra, the company that makes his driver and says that club is terrible! a shot in 1/71. looking for his ball left. one more baseball item, the struggling chicago cubs have become their selloff. have traded joc pederson to the braves for a minor-league prospect. peterson grew up in palo alto, 11 homers, 39 rbis this year. warriors start klay thompson turned into captain clay again today, cruising along and answering questions on ig live. when are we going to see steph curry on the high

seas? >> steph is busy, man. he has a pham and business to run. i would love to bring dylan out though. it's nice out here today. i'm not drunk, i'm sober as a gopher. are you crazy? >> sob

the critically acclaimed 10 part documentary about michael jordan's last championship season and iconic dynasty with the chicago bulls is coming to espn plus. streams image award-winning series, the last dance, beginning on monday. >> that's fantastic. >> thank you so much for watching. >> for all of us, we appreciate your time.

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