from covid. several pandemic headlines tonight. >>

>> expect a challenging day in oakland schools tomorrow as more teachers are planning a sick out. the district is responding to ongoing pandemic problems. >> inflation is the highest it has been in years. >> how the holiday weekend is looking, coming up. abc 7 news at 11:00. >> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc 7 news. >> groceries, gas, gas, gas, ga, up. inflation is up 7% year-over-year. in the already pricey bay area, it is forcing business owners to make very tough decisions tonight. good evening. thank you for joining us. i am dan ashley. ama: i am ama daetz.

dan: ryan curry has more. ryan: gas prices, meat, and baked goods are more expensive. inflation is the highest it has been in decades. in the bay area, there has been an immediate impact. the bureau for labor statistics says average prices for goods and services increased 4.2% in just one year. >> it's a lot of things all at once, everything from supply chain problems to what has been an extraordinary strength in demand. ryan: it is putting a strain on small businesses. russell runs his wife's bakery in martinez. he says prices on banking ingredients has increased. in order to run their business, they had to increase their prices. >> she wants to get quality products but that does influence the price. that also includes our labor costs as well. ryan: they first started their

business in their home and recently opened their storefront. he says it is harder for small businesses right now because they don't have the luxury of working with suppliers the way large chains do. >> bigger businesses get more discounts as they order a lot more stuff. we cannot order that much stuff so we are paying a little bit more for quality products. ryan: it is a similar struggle for quinn mccormick. she says she's constantly having to reevaluate the prices of her products. >> there's definitely a lot of math and planning and strategizing and comparing to previous months. ryan: she says it is difficult for her to determine how much to sell each item but knows that if the prices are too expensive, customers might not want to buy from her store. >> you definitely have to have a good balance of what your purchase price is and what your markup is. what people are comfortable buying at. ryan: they encourage people to

buy from small businesses despite the inflation issue. in martinez, ryan curry, abc 7 news. dan: along with the economy, all of us are focused on the pandemics impact on education and how bay area school district's are grappling with so many covid issues. in that vein, teachers at several oakland schools say they will stage a sick out tomorrow to support students who are demanding more covid safety measures. the mercury news reports teachers from six schools will take part in this. those demands include kn95 m m m and n95 masks for all students. parents and students shared their concerns at tonight's meeting at the oakland unified school board. >> we would like to go on distance learning until we have all the materials to come back. it does take a mental health toll. >> listen to the community, the students, the educators who are telling you they do not feel

safe. dan: a district spokesperson says schools are among the safest places for students. earlier, the district said it ordered enough kn95 masks for all students. late today, the district announced it has reached a tentative agreement with the teachers union regarding covid safety provisions which includes extended covid leave. ama: oakland high school students will have access to a -- two donated kn95 masks. -- to donated kn95 masks. >> the sense of security you can feel when you have something like this during a time like this is invaluable. as a business owner, if i had access to this, it is my duty to help spread that security to my community. ama: he also donated 15,000 masks to oakland emergency responders. his kids also attend oakland schools. dan: kids continue to struggletf

classrooms. the west contra costa school district superintendent even stepped in to teach as other educators called out sick. dr. chris herz says it gave him a renewed appreciation for the job teachers do. the district is seeing about 265 of its 3400 educators call out sick every day. >> mentally tired of being a little bit overworked with the whole covid situation. students not showing up, teachers not showing up, everyone worried. dan: the district is giving every teacher two kn95 masks a week for the rest of the school year plus added three testing sites. ama: covid-19 related estrogens are increasing in sonoma county but so far, other counties are holding off on doing the same for now. melanie woodrow has a look at the decisions being made. melanie: tighter restrictions are underway in sonoma county as the fight against the omicron

variant continues. >> you do what you got to do. >> everything we have done since the onset of this pandemic has been to protect the health and self the -- safety of our residents in sonoma county. melanie: the move is to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed. people should shelter-in-place. other counties are not amending their health orders. libby schaaf says while she has not heard of any changes in alameda county, she is limiting her out of house appointments including canceling her registration to the u.s. conference of mayors and washington, d.c. > it will be my last annual meeting in d.c. as the mayor but i do not think it is prudent to travel and to be around a lot of people you do not know. melanie: contra costa county tells abc 7 news it is carefully monitoring case rates and hospitalizations but has no plans to change health orders at this time. karen county health officials say they are committed to a more targeted approach, restricting

spectators to 50 people, 25 per team. the county implement and that restriction with the goal of keeping schools open. napa county is considering additional health orders. they anticipate the omicron search will be a tall, thin spike and don't believe additional restrictions will make a difference in the spread of omicron. other counties also say they are not implementing additional restrictions. >> i think we are not going to see the large-scale shutdowns that we had in the past ever again. we are smarter, we are avoiding infection. we know how to handle it when we get it and for god sakes, get boosted if you are not already. melanie: melanie woodrow, abc 7 news. dan: governor newsom says the state continues to expand testing and will add 30 more mobile testing sites from optimum serve. >> 90% of the population is within 30 miles -- a 30 minute drive of a site. while that is impressive, we recognize it is not good enough.

nor is the fact that there are lines appearing in sites like this all across the state. dan: there are 50 sites and there'll soon be 80. 80 more national guard members are also being deployed. there are 200 at various testing sites to help things move a little more efficiently. ama: the white house is sending medical teams to six states to help hospitals overwhelmed by covid cases, reports usa today. new york, ohio, michigan, and new mexico. moderna expects trial data for children aged two through five in march. if that data is promising, moderna says it will move forward to seek approval from the fda. a small study out of the university of central florida in orlando says wearing a face mask can possibly reduce the distance droplets travel when someone is speaking or coughing by half. those are some of the top covid headlines today. morgan norwood has details on recent research that gives new

insight tonight into the omicron variant's strengths and how transmissible it is. morgan: new findings on the omicron variant tearing through the country and more evidence it causes less severe illness. the first major study in the u.s. showed the risk of dying was 91% lower compared to delta and that people are half as likely to be hospitalized with an omicron infection. a review of nearly 70,000 california patients found that people tended to have shorter hospital stays and none needed a ventilator. >> for unvaccinated people, who are high-risk, they are still getting quite sick from this. but it does show that omicron seems to have less of an effect on lung disease and that is hopeful. morgan: the rapid spread of omicron is engulfing 99% of counties in the u.s., all reporting high transmission. your to knock down the surge, the governor of california announcing new testing sites. >> we have attributed across the

state of california 200 national guardsmen and women. morgan: in the lab, shouldering much of the nation's pcr covid tests, hit with a one-two punch. their workforce sickened with the virus they have been tasked with tracking, leading to delays. their latest aimed at keeping schools open. >> we are taking additional actions including sending 5 million free rapid tests to schools each month, providing another 5 million lab-based tests each month. morgan: when it comes to masks, a new study from the u.k. estimates the virus loses most of its ability to infect within the first five minutes of leaving someone's body. the findings heightening the importance of masks and how quickly the exposure can happen. the cdc planning to update its masked guidance to reflect the different options and levels of protection. >> the best mask that you where is the one that you will wear and the one that you can keep on all day long. morgan: abc news, los angeles. ama: if you want to stay

up-to-date on the latest covid headlines, we have more information on our website. headed to abc7news.com/ coronavirus. dan: neighbors taking action to solve a pothole problem. how they are doing it without the city and with the city is saying about it. ama: a bay area beer tradition. dan: a popular bay area company stuck around for decades. now, it's leaving california after more than 40 years. >> cooler tomorrow. i will let you know if this trend will carry on

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dan: this group of vallejo residence is fed up with the

number of potholes in their city so they are taking matters into their own hands, going around town on their own time with their own asphalt, filling potholes. they call themselves the vallejo pothole gate vigilante. a fun riser on go -- fundraiser on gofundme has collected enough of the group of volunteer to buy supplies. >> we wanted to avoid people driving over potholes and damaging their vehicles or having to avoid potholes and damaging other vehicles by causing accidents. dan: earlier this week, the city sent a stop work notice. they are worried about the environmental impactspltork tips apart and goes down storm drains. volunteers say they have no plans to stop. ama: some of san francisco's best attractions could become free for people who live here. london breed is proposing legislation to make admission free of charge for city residents. both are in golden gate park.

mayor breed says every san franciscan should have access to the city's public spaces and cultural institutions. dan: san francisco's annual tribute to dr. martin luther king jr. has been canceled unfortunately for 2022. the spike in covid cases has shut down this year's mlk march and parade which was scheduled to take place on monday, the holiday. organizers say all indoor events will be moved online. the cancellation comes just days after organizers of the mlk parade in hayward said their event is being postponed. ama: to wait longer to open a bottle. it was set for february 4. select bars and restaurants will receive kegs on february 7. bottles will be available at group pubs starting march 25. dan: a beloved sticker company in the north bay announced it is significantly downsizing and moving out of state.

as abc 7 news anchor liz kreutz explains, it is a change that is obviously emotional for both the owners and their loyal local customers. >> we have probably 250 people a day visiting. >> for nearly 30 years, this quiet petaluma warehouse had been a bustling, colorful factory. >> we used to have all of our stickers listed up here so everyone could see every sticker made. >> today, the walls are bare and the printing machines quiet. >> jason is stacking boxes filled with roles of memories. >> it is externally sad that we are closing up. >> jason is the owner of misses grossman's paper company. his mother, andrea, the original misses grossman. after decades in the bay area printing millions of stickerrinf kids and customers, he decided it is time to downsize. the company is moving out of state to utah. >> the pandemic changed things and i just found moving out of this state easier for business.

i need everything easy now. i'm getting old. >> we are very sad to see it go. >> michelle leopold owns a mom-and-pop shop in san francisco that has been selling those stickers since the company began. it started with this red heart, her first sheet of stickers printed in 1979. over 40 years later, it is still a customer favorite. >> i love the story of my father-in-law, who met up with andrea when she came into the store with a roll of heart-shaped stickers and said, ok, here is a crazy new product. do you have any interest in selling this at the five and 10? my father-in-law, who took chances with vape pens and hoops -- bic pens and hula hoops said let's give it a try. >> they have printed enough stickers to go around the world. >> we touched a lot of lives

with a silly little sticker. >> they are so innovative and fun and whimsical. >> that is the thing about the stickers. even though times have changed, more people now using emojis rather then pasting a sticker on a handwritten card, these little pieces of art are timeless, beloved regardless of your age or generation. >> we got grandmothers who gave it to their daughters who then gave it to their daughters, so it just keeps going. >> misses grossman's will keep going, only sold online. in petaluma, liz kreutz, abc 7 news. dan: hate to see them go. so much change these days. that's talk about the weather. ama: meteorologist sandhya patel is here as we push towards the weekend. sandhya: we are experiencing some changes. let me show you a stunning sunset from our emeryville camera. the sun went down at 5:11 tonight and you may have noticed

all that color because of the high clouds, the haze that has been around. stagnant air with the temperature inversion underneath the area of high pressure, leading to air-quality issues. have moderate air-quality coming your way the next four days. right now, you will notice it is moderate from santa rosa to san jose heading into concord. rio vista is reporting poor air quality for sensitive groups so just be aware of this. visibility is being impacted not just by the haze but also by a little bit of fog around concord, where it is down to four miles. i want to show you live doppler 7. hire clouds up above. they have been increasing throughout the day because of two systems. the first one is down to our southwest. next one is coming into the pacific northwest and that will bring us the cooler weather so i want to show you the hour-by-hour timeline. onshore breeze is coming up tomorrow, 5:00 a.m. tomorrow. a lot of cloud cover tomorrow, patches of fog. the clouds will fit in out a little bit but they will still

be around. tomorrow, those temperatures don't fall a whole lot. they are in the 40's and 50's as we check out a lovely view from our east bay hills camera. you are looking at the port of oakland. drive for the holiday weekend and there are still no signs of rain next week. even with the latest computer models. our holiday weekend forecasts, temperatures rebounding on saturday. if you are the kind of person who likes mild weather, bright skies sunday after a little bit of fog and martin luther king jr. day. we will see extra clouds around. if you are heading out of town, going to tahoe, bright and dusty on friday. as you will notice here, 40's and 50's for the hides but the mornings will be chilly in the teens so be aware of that. it is certainly going to be nice weather for skiing or boarding. temperatures in the 40's, 50's. high temperatures tomorrow coming down by a couple of degrees. today, we were in the upper 50's to upper 60's. tomorrow afternoon, 58 in san

francisco. 60 in napa. 63 in san jose. 59 degrees in antioch. you're accuweather seven-day forecast, a little cooler tomorrow. dusty offshore winds on friday. minor warming trend starts off the holiday weekend. we are expecting temperatures to hover near average through the middle of next week. these midwinter dry spells are pretty common here in the bay area in january so no need to panic just yet. dan: we will panic when it is time. time. sandhya: sounds good. there's this feeling we chase... like someone upped the brightness on the entire world. a full-body endorphin rush we'll chase again and again. feel the hydrow high. - hi mommy! - hi honey! oh i missed you! you just want to video call the kids. ok. ♪ hush little baby...♪

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ama: 1960's pop icon ronnie spector has died. her sultry, quavering voice was behind numerous hits including "be my baby" and "walking in the rain."" her family announced she died peacefully after a brief bout with cancer. they said they will remember her spunky attitude and wicked sense of humor. spector

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>> abc 7 sports, sponsored by river rock casino. dan: jimmy g. has quieted his critics for a week after leaving the 49ers to victory in overtime in l.a. on sunday. his inrehu.ldcard pps nd in theuimea d. clutch with the season on the line is what you dream about. >> as a quarterback, those are the moments and drives you live for. you want to have the ball at the end of the game. you don't want to leave it up to -- as much as i trust the defense and special teams -- you wanted as a quarterback, as a competitor. >> he is a real good quarterback. how quickly can get rid of it despite the protection. he has made good decisions. jimmy has done a real good job of being able to get rid of it, always being able to hold onto it which allows you to succeed

in those situations. >> the worriers have back-to-back games. the defense is probably going to suffer. the problem is offense. steve kerr says the worriers, especially steph curry, they are taking tough routes that are turning into shot turnovers. worriers tinkering with rotations. >> we will shuffle the deck and try some different combinations and try and get everything in order in the playoffs. >> sticking with the program, a pretty good record right now and nobody likes losing. it is a nice little shock to the system. dan: the trail blazers, their season circling the drain with this news. damian lillard needs abdominal surgery and could be out for up to two months. the pride of oakland aggravated that injury at the tokyo olympics last summer. college hoops. cal at washington. jordan shepard with a steal on one end, the dunk on the other.

deja davis played at stanford, transferred to uw. he can throw it down as well. roberson at the buzzer for a seven point cal lead. terrel brown junior leaves him on the floor. that move is savage. uw wins

ama: that is it for tonight. thank you so much for watching. i'm mama dates. dan: and i'm dan ashley. we appreciate your time.

on jimmy kimmel, david spade. have a good night. >> lou: from hollywood, it's "jimmy kimmel live"! tonight, david spade, alana haim, and music from jay wheeler. and now -- jimmy kimmel! [ cheers and applause ] ♪ >> jimmy: hi, everyone. thank you. oh, very nice. i appreciate it. i am jimmy. i'm the host of the show. welcome. thanks for watching. that's very nice. i don't know why you're hire, there's covid, you know, there's covid. [ laughter ]

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