♪ announcer: building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc7 news. >> hi. you are watching getting answers. we asked experts to get answers for you. with inflation out of control, you are looking at spending several $1000 more this year for the same stuff you bought last year. how can you stretch your dollar now? some advice from the consumer expert. also, the battle over redistricting gets ugly, accusations and walkouts over who is getting more political cloud and who is getting less. a reporter joins us to talk about the stakes.

first, police are still looking for a man who opened fire in brooklyn this morning. 10 people were shot. this comes as they tried to track down on ghost guns and contain violent crimes. joining us now to discuss this and other issues, covid, ukraine, the supreme court, jack sees. -- congresswoman jackie spear. great to see you. how are you doing? you tested positive for covid. i'm sorry. how are you? >> i feel fine. i have been vaccinated" did. i got the variant that was prevalent on the east coast, which is 75% more contagious than what we have seen before. i urge everyone to wear masks when you are with people in closed areas in whom you do not

know, because this does actually have a powerful effect, and i am quarantining it i am supposed to come when i have lots of things i should be doing, so you don't want to have to quarantine. wear a mask and get double boosted. kristen: yes, yes, indeed. you talked about the transmissibility of the new variant. that's probably why we are seeing an outbreak in washington, d.c., in philadelphia just brought back an indoor mask mandate, but san mateo saw a pretty big increase last week, right? congresswoman jackie spear: yes. 800 in each county of new cases. i think we got too casual and cavalier about not wearing masks , and when i saw the gridiron

dinner results in washington, d.c., where 68 people tested positive, i started wearing my mask again, but it still got me. kristen: all right. we are glad you are not feeling too terribly and hope you will test negative soon. i want to talk to you about in terms of gun violence. sacramento last weekend, and today, the new york city subway. what needs to happen to stop firearm deaths? congresswoman jackie spear: we already have more firearms in this country than people. we have this unbelievable need to be armed, and the result is that sometimes these guns get stolen, and in many cases, people are buying ghost guns and assembling those themselves. i went online today and was able to get a do-it-yourself book

from amazon and could have purchased a kit on line. none of those should be available, and as a result of the proposed rule by president biden that will be final in 120 days, you will not be able to sell those kits without having the person to whom you are selling it have a background check. having said that, california has the toughest laws on the books. they have laws that say you cannot assemble a gun and not have the serial number imposed upon it. there is a new one that will require they are sold through an actual firearms dealer. 60% of all the ghost guns that have been taken by atf, the alcohol tobacco and firearms administration, 65% have been in california, so as tough as our

laws are, our borders are porous, and that means these ghost guns are getting through. you can purchase them online and there needs to be tougher standards. kristen: you mean in terms of other states or the southern border? rep. speier: other states. you can go online and buy them, so hopefully with the president's rule that will become effective, these companies will be shut down if they continue to sell these kits without doing background checks on the purchasers. kristen: got it. the doj can take action. any chance of getting something through the legislature, congress, given the politics we have right now that would increase accountability or reduce the high capacity, if you will, or the semiautomatic, automatic type opens? rep. speier: that is one of the most frustrating elements of congress. technology moves forward quickly.

we are still stuck in a mindset of 25 years ago, because we have not even passed a comprehensive background check measure, because we passed the background check law before the internet and before gun show sales and before personal one-on-one sales, so that is where we are. we are stuck 25 years ago. we can't get that passed, so you can imagine how difficult it would be to make permanent the rule the president announced yesterday, but because it is a rule done by executive order, it is one that could be overturned in another administration, but it is frightening to think that you can just assembled these guns, taking no lesser no more, i should say, then an hour to do so, and you can use that and it

cannot be traced. kristen: we could do a whole show on that. i went to bring up the horror in ukraine. it keeps getting worse. we've seen images of brutal civilian killings by russia and russian troops, and president putin promised the war will go on. it can be done further to support -- what can be done to further support ukraine? rep. speier: we have to do more than we are. it is not that we are not doing a great deal, because we are, $13 billion. we will probably be hearing tomorrow another $750 million of weapons. they need surface to air missiles. they need antitank weapons. they need to be able to have the firepower to counteract what the russians are going to use, and they are going to get serious in the donbass area, as they are organizing with the new syrian

general who is known for his treacherous conduct. as if we have not seen enough, 10,000 people dead in one city, civilians, children's lives lost over and over again, thousands of children who have probably been taken to russia. we cannot verify the results, but they appear to be orphan children who have been taken to russia. all of this is horrific. it does really take us back to the late 19 30's and what germany was doing. -- late 1930's and what germany was doing. kristen: are we seeing ace depth up in the sophistication of the weapons we are sending -- a step up in the sophistication of the weapons we are sending to ukraine? rep. speier: yes. the problem is that you have an air force that russia has that

over the long-term, ukraine will not be able to defeat, so it will be a war of attrition, a war that will not be over in weeks or months, it will probably be years. he will extract as much land as he can to reclaim, and it will be continued bloodshed. i have to say that president zelenskyy has shown the world what a true leader is all about. kristen: indeed, look, i wanted to talk more about justice jackson. i know you have been excited by her confirmation, not only being the first black woman to hold that seat, but soon she will only be the fifth woman in u.s. history to be on the bench, but all the stuff you said about her is out there. we have about one minute left and i wanted to talk about something that you do for the young girls here in the bay area. it is an annual event that is now coming back in person? rep. speier: yes, i am excited

to announce on may 7, we will once have when i grow up, for girls ages 10 to 16, and we just announce that we have already had 150 rsvps. i encourage your viewing audience that if they are interested and have someone in their life in that age group, this is an aspiring program, and we bring in women who have really broken all kinds of barriers, whether nasa scientists or local celebrities or various individuals. kristen: fire, engineer, you have had all of those people. that is fantastic. i'm glad people can go to your website and sign up for that event for girls, and just remember, if your speakers ever back out, i am always there as a

backup. you can always call me. rep. speier: we will count on it. kristen: congresswoman jackie speier, always great talking with you and hearing your thoughts on the time the issues and i'm glad that you're doing well and again i hope that you get that negative line or no line very soon. rep. speier: thank you. kristen: take good care. next, inflation continues to rise.

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because 16 were injured, 10 shot. they are still looking for the gunman. they found a van. this is a developing story. when this happens, we will go to it. in the meantime, we want to get some information from our guest talking about inflation. the march numbers were released today, jumping 8.5% annually year over year, the fastest pace since december 1981. the executive director of consumer watchdog joins us now with tips on how to make your dollar stretch. thank you so much for joining us. >> absolutely. it is an important topic for everyone. it hits our pocketbooks. kristen: it does. 8.5%. i don't know if that is unprecedented or something we have not seen in 40 years, but the san francisco chronicle did the math. the average person in the bay area will spend $4400 more this year on major goods and

services. talk about what that means two people. that is a huge amount. >> it is a huge amount of money, something that most low income and middle income californians can simply not absorb when you are talking about a family making minimum wage or close to minimum wage. that is months of work in order to make up just the cost of inflation. that is an average across the state, so some of us by watching what we spin can pay less, but nonetheless, that is a huge number and it means inflation is a serious problem for california. kristen: some of these things you cannot cut back much, right? if you drive, you need gas. everybody needs to eat. give us some suggestions on ways to save some money. >> you are right. the things that are most subject to inflation are the things we cannot avoid the rent, food, gas, so there are some easy ways

that consumers can think about comparison-shopping to protect their pocketbook both in gas prices and food shopping. um, we have the luxury right now that the internet, which consumers might not have had four years ago when we last had inflation that was this high, and so you can determine from your living room couch the cheapest gas station in your neighborhood. i'm going to give everyone a hi,. it is likely to be a station -- a hint, it will be a local station or something else or one of the big box stores like costco. they usually have the cheapest gas in your area, so comparison-shopping gas, and you can do the same thing with food prices. if you plan ahead and compare prices across stores you can likely save yourself a significant amount of money. we often also tell consumers to plan your meals in advance. if you know what you are intending to get in the store, you can find the cheapest price

on those things and you can also make sure that you by the amount of food you need so that you do not waste. kristen: that is a good idea, a little planning. how about skipping out on the extras or luxuries or deferring maintenance on your house or delaying big purchases like a new latest tv or what he think about things like that? >> i think things like that are smart. although inflation seems to be perhaps hitting a peak now, gas prices are moving down slowly for all of us, but moving down, so it makes sense to delay purchases you do not need to do right now. if you need a new tv, if you need a new car, some of those things that are dependent on commodity prices that are high right now, delay if you can. kristen: what about people saying i would just put it on my credit card and run up a debt? 40 thing about that option? -- what do you think about that

option? >> big warning. everything is inflating, and interest rates. it is a better idea to not rack up that debt because interest rates are going up as fast as inflation so your credit card will cost you more in the future than it does today. obviously we cannot always pay in cash, but be aware of this interest rate charges. kristen: you will have to pay like double in a few months, that is true. our salaries going up with these prices? we have a labor shortage. >> we do. consumers know that should know that is a power they have. employees are at high demand, low unappointed rates, and the market is very competitive, so if you are hurting and did not get a raise last year, maybe in the middle of covid, ask your employer for a cost-of-living raise to help offset some of these huge charges, because it is certainly a workers market. kristen: ah, right.

i just say ask, because if you don't ask, the answer is no, right? [laughter] rep. speier: exactly. you will stay where you are if you do not ask. kristen: these are useful tips. the executive director of consumer watchdog, thank you for joining us and hopefully this will help our viewers save a few dollars or maybe even a little bit more. i appreciate it. >> absolutely. good luck, everyone. kristen: all right. next, by the way, we are waiting for that new york police news conference, and if it should happen during this program, we will bring you that live, in the wake of the terrible shooting this morning on the subway but also if that does not happen, we want to bring you an important local conversation, the battle over redistricting in san francisco. we will chat with our media partner, the san francisco

districts are redrawn in san francisco based on the senses. that is happening now, and the meetings are contentious to say the least. this is the draft final map created by the redistricting task force. there are nine members, three appointed by the mayor with by the board of supervisors, and three by the elections commission, the deadline to set new boundaries is this week. the san francisco standard is following this issue closely, as having representation is part of building a better bay area. joining us now live to talk about this controversy is a reporter from the standard. great to see you. reporter: thank you for having me. kristen: this is a complicated issue. it is important. these lines have to change because the demographics change, and there is always a battle because the people in the districts will vote for supervisors, and the supervisors have representation, so tell us

why this years task has been so heated in such a battle. reporter: redistricting as a process happens every year to ensure everyone in san francisco has relatively the same amount of people living there. we know we only have 11 supervisors. so, san francisco is so diverse. we have our asian-american community in chinatown, african-american community in bayview, latino, so easily san francisco 10 halves dozens or several dozens of different communities in there is always media interest, but we only have 11 supervisors, so no matter how you draw the line, there will be communities that are separated, so that's where the controversy is coming from. kristen: are there some existing supervisors who may lose their

seat or be more in danger, if you will, once these lines are redrawn? reporter: yes, for now, district six may have tenderloin in another district but the new maps because i covered the press conference by the south asian community in the filipino community, and they want to stay together, and also the lgbtq community also because of the split, and that might change the political dynamics in district six. kristen: ok, so based on the final draft, is it obvious who is gaining cloud, if you will, and who is losing it when you look at the whole city? reporter: yes, there is some criticism from the progressives saying that the new map is weakening people of color in the minority voting power, but also the nine members of the task force, they are appointed by the mayor and the supervisors and also the elections commission,

so it is a nonpartisan process, so they have different opinions. kristen: we heard that the different opinions resulted in several members actually walking out that a marathon meeting that started saturday and ended sunday. how does about that. what happened there? reporter: yeah, so, it was one of the meetings that lasted over 19 hours was a really unusual, so what happened was is that at saturday's meeting, and it was so long that it got into sunday morning so it was already like 2:00 a.m. in the morning, so several other members trying to vote on merging neighborhood blank into bayview, which is district 10, and the attempt failed, but half an hour later, one of the members changed her mind and tried to rescind the vote, and that triggers a lot of members thinking they are losing the faith of this process and they think there is something else going on, so they walked out of

the meeting in protest, and five members stayed in the meeting and voted to pass the final draft, and then the meeting was adjourned at almost 6:00 a.m. in the morning, and that is like a really long, 19 hours, which is very unusual in san francisco politics. kristen: so what is next? is the meeting tomorrow when everything gets finalized? reporter: yes, there will be a final meeting on wednesday tomorrow and they will vote on the final map, so the legal deadline by the city charter is friday, but tomorrow's final meeting, they will be voting on this, and the public will have time to view the map. kristen: do we expect any surprises or changes can still be made? reporter: i would expect tomorrow's meeting will be superlong. we already have a lot of press conferences and also rallies and hours of public comment, so tomorrow, they will still have a big battle of moving different neighborhoods, moving

borderlines was blocked this way, that way, so it will have a big bottle -- battle, so let's see. kristen: thank you so much. don't go away. i want to talk more with you on our break on facebook live, but folks, we have links to the san francisco standard original reporting on our website, abc7news.com. and watch more segments featuring the san francisco standard's city-focused

on this interactive show getting answers. we will be here every week day at 3:00 on air and on bike stream answering your questions. world news tonight is next.

today, he is in brooklyn with the latest updates on the terrible subway shooting. stick around for that. thank you for joining us. i will see you tomorrow. ♪ tonight, a special edition of "world news tonight" from brooklyn. the manhunt under way at this hour for the gunman who opened fire inside a new york city subway. shooting at least ten people, five in critical condition. the attack. police say the suspect riding the train during rush hour, puttinging on a gas mask, pulling out a smoke canister, unleashing it on passengers. smoke filling the subway car. the suspect then began shooting as the train pulled into the brooklyn subway station, headed for manhattan. those ten passengers shot, many more injured, rushed to area hospitals. strangers helping victims. schools sheltering in place. tonight, abc news learning the gun might have jammed, saving lives. police recovering a gun, magazines, and a bag filled with more smoke canisters. and late today, police closing in on this u-haul, possibly