>> this is abc7news. kristen: you are watching getting answers. everyday day we are talking about issues important to the bay area. flights across the country have resumed after an outage caused flights to be held. to explain what happened. incentives to convert office

buildings into housing. tells abc7news she has told her democratic colleagues she is running for the senate. specifically the seat everyone expects diane feinstein to vacate. katie porter became t throw had into the ring. we remain on storm watch. very latest. >> as you know, we have another stormy day, let me give you a look at live doppler. heavy concentration of rain and downpours.

let's close in on the north bay. marin county. across the heavily. in san francisco, downpours the major highways. they are all getting lots of heavycommuters should be carefu. we've downpours and further south. it's raining heavily, steadily.

although it feels heavy right now, we expect the steadiest rain and wind until the storm. animation. some heavier, steadier the santa rosa area. this will blanket the whole area. steady rain across the just beginning to ease up near the coast. finally after 6:00 pushing out here. by 9:00, we are left with what conditions. tomorrow morning we get some bright skies and sunshine. rainfall totals from quarter of an inch.

into the late afternoon and early evening hours. flood watch until noon tomorrow for the north bay. the entire bay area. gusts up to 35 miles per hour. at times they will be stronger but is that moves out, the wind diminishes just a little bit. there are concerns about flooding. by 3:00 tomorrow we expect the river to crest.

if that's the case, minor flooding is possible. we don't expect major or catastrophic flooding. rainfall totals for this time of year. we're doing well in terms of normal rainfall, but if you remember last winter, we had three months of dry weather. we will keep monitoring how things stand here. the next rainfall will probably arrive early on friday. we will talk about the seven-day forecast a little bit later. kristen: thank you. but always track the storms on the streaming at. the app is available on road and

enjoyed. now, the battle over the u.s. senate seat held by diane feinstein. although the oldest person has not announced she will call it a career, it is widely expected. a source close to barbara lee tells abc 7 she has told her colleagues she is running for that c. joining us to discuss this political reporter. nice to have you on the show. let's start with barbara lee. she did not formally announce anything but a source has confirmed she has told her colleagues. any surprises?

>> she has seat for a while, to the extent this is a surprise, it's only that she was seen for a while as the top contender to be appointed. i think it's only been it has become clear that she was looking at running in her own right, while she has not formally announce, there is little doubt she is in the race. kristen: >> unorthodox is not like that supposedly has gotten a blessing? >> i know she spoke to senator feinstein. i don't know if she gave her blessing. everyone right now under the assumption that dianne

feinstein is not running for another term, in addition to the steady dissolution a lot of democrats feel with her. there are real questions about her cognitive state and they have only gotten louder. while there are still some folks who are holding back out of respect until she says what she is doing, it's clear been lining up and they are starting to break. kristen: as more hats are in the ring, that puts more pressure on the next person. who are the others? >> adam sure thing is you are going to find. he spoke to sandra feinstein last year to tell her he was interested in the seat, they are

known to have a fairly close relationship. the congresswoman from sil valley is seen as being in the mix. he continues to say he announce his decision in the coming months. you're starting to see the main contenders coming in. likely adam schiff. kristen: feinstein's she is more to the right of most of her colleagues. is it safe to say whoever ends up being the senator from california will be more progressive? >> by virtue of the california and national democratic politics have gone in the last generation, it's almost guaranteed. senator feinstein ideology of a more centrist europe.

also, some of the people running our bona fide aggressive. darling of the left with her rulings of executives. not just larger trends in democratic politics, given the contenders, i think it's a safe that the next senator will be further to the left. >> quickly because i want to touch on the other stories, governor newsom announces budget which will include drastic cuts, loss of tax revenue. which areas will be the biggest losers? some say climate and transit. >> absolutely. this is a preliminary puzzle, but given the numbers we have now, as you noted, some of the

biggest proposed cuts would be in areas like climate change and transit. the governor is looking to slim down $54 billion to $48 billion. that's a huge outlay, but it is significant amount less spoke by percentage and dollar amounts. the right environmental and climate advocates who are not too thrilled. kristen: i wonder if it's extra tricky for having proposed prop 30, the ballot tax to fund clean cars. it got defeated. >> he cut ads against it clearly doing what he could to defeated, and add to your form, the budget proposes to cut money from electric vehicle infrastructure. this wednesday he made in order to phase out sales of new bit -- gas powered cars.

he said he is confident the markets and auto industry are moving in that direction, but there is no doubt will backing that said we need to ensure the funding is there for when the budget cycle is not as healthy, and here we are. kristen: a lot more on that. thank you so much. coming up next, and fa outage. what went wrong? what went wrong? an aviation expert [narrator] everyone needs quality health insurance, even if you're healthy and active. covered california is a free service to help you get covered. 90% of members have received financial help. and every plan offered is comprehensive, covering preventive care, doctor visits, emergency care, and more. regardless of your income, check today to see how covered california can help you. and if you have questions, there's free assistance every step of the way. covered california, this way to health insurance. enrollment ends january 31st.

go to coveredca.com.

are slowly getting back on

track. flights within the u.s. stay grounded for a couple of hours. we will always err on the side of safety. having said that, we have to make sure we understand everything there is to understand about the situation. so we can be sure it doesn't happen again. kristen: that was pete buttigieg explaining why the faa issued his first total ground stop since 9/11. it forced airlines to delay more than 7000 flights and cancel more than 1000. joining us live is an aviation expert to help us understand what happened. nice to have you on the show. the computer system that what does it do? >> that connects just about

everybody w the place you are going, runways might be close, taxiways. all of this is very important. over time, it has grown from a system that was a teletype machine to one that has so much information that has to be guarded all of the time. kristen: it ever failed? >> i am not aware of the system in the last 20 or 30 years. it appears from what t secretary was reporting, they have a rather archaic system or backup system that was not running in parallel which is when you have two systems, one

is online and the other is running at the same speed. this was a capability the faa did not have. the system has grown like topsy over the years. it is systems on systems on systems and what happened with one did not work right and was a cascading your. we have to find out the details of why. kristen: do they suspect a cyberattack at all? >> indication that might be a possibility. there is always something that lurks in the background that we might not know, but in this case, i don't think it has anything to do with anything but an internal -- failure. kristen: it's interesting because it parallels of >> happening with southwest failures.

interesting the transportation department has been criticizing that. houses should be careful throwing stones. what it comes down to is yes, that 35 years ago it would have been a debate. now, it's a moot point. we are dependent on electronics. the faa has to modernize. what happened with southwest is complex. in essence, it was a system that was too old and i think we have the same kind of situation here with the faa. one of the things, it' important to note. this is not a matter of who to

blame. finding out what happened because that can get us to the point everything. kristen: it wi i want to ask you if you thought the ground stop, which is so rare. the last time was 9/11. i talked to one pilot who said it's like shutting down the freeways on the amber alert signs are not work. you can get this out -- information from other means. >> you always have to hear on the side of extreme conservative caution when it comes to safety. this morning they were not sure that the system was spitting out the correct information. you don't want to influence the decision-making of the pilots and dispatchers.

i think they did the right thing. it's catastrophic to the extent that it created read on the flight towards which is still going on, will other be two days before recovers. but, we would rather do that then end up with a situation where somebody rushed as a result of bad information. kristen: thank you so much for your insight. coming up. turning offices into housing. it can be one solution for downtown san francisco. an incentive that may get things going. going. you go by lots of titles. veteran, son, dad. -it's time to get up. -no hair stylist and cheerleader. so adding a “student” title might feel overwhelming. but what if a school could be there for all of you? career, family, finances and mental health.

it's coming along. well, it can. national university. supporting the whole you.

bounceback, we are getting an idea of how empty it is. one firm found a vacancy

the city is looking to turn empty space into housing. sweeten the pop conversions. joining us live is for our media partner. nice to have you on. this new and analyst office. what is it suggesting? >> they wanted to research san francisco can do to make it easier. what they found is the board supervisors has a lot of tools at its disposal.

they can consider getting rid of things in pot, make it easier and encourage developers to do these conversions. kristen: you mention something more controversial. >> that would closely align two separate ballot initiatives which was streamlining the ability to approve this housing, it would not have to go through environmental review and hearings. the board of supervisors and voters were split on this issue and both of those initiatives fail. i and many others would

how likely that would be. >> some other ideas developers going. how many more units or how much more housing could this generate for san francisco? >> that's a good question. are utilizing these successfully. the report points to cities who have implemented these types of policies and encouraged thousands of new units. these are not happening all over the place. in san francisco, just one project has made that conversion.

we have talked to developers, and they have said expensive. the cost of land, building materials. the uncertainty of a project like that making through the planning process. that is why the strategies are getting rid of barriers. still, we have skepticism economists and builders potential economic downturn is not the best time to be getting into high-risk objects. kristen: have you talked t stakeholders? want these options on the table.

we're are in a housing crisis and we need to think about every strategy. they have shown a willingness to consider the ideas, especially the ones with data-gathering or collaborating to pick apart the policy and figure out what exactly standing in the way not just these conversions but all housing in the city which is at a slow pace. >> thank you so very much. you can check out more on the website.

(vo) at wells fargo, direct deposits come up to two days early with early pay day. what if everything came two days early? (hero) have a good weekend! alright now... have a good weekend. (co-worker) but it's wednesday... (co-worker 2) see you monday! (co-worker 3) am i missing something? (hero) it's the weekend baby... see you later. (vo) like getting things two days early? when it comes to payday, you can with wells fargo. (co-worker 4) what are you doing this weekend?

life's more fun when you join forces. ready for an adventure? eee! hulu and disney+ better together in a brand-new bundle. all for just 9.99 a month. aren't we a fine pair? hehe. save big when you bundle hulu and disney+

joining us. world news tonight is coming up next and we will see you back here. tonight, breaking news. the chaos and concern at america's airports. the catastrophic faa computer failure causing the first nationwide ground stop since 9/11. just in tonight, what they believe might be behind this. the federal government investigating how the antiquated system crippled air travel across the country. late today, a senior official telling abc news what might have caused the problem. for a time, pilots unable to receive critical flight safety information, planes halted from taking off. more than 10,000 flights delayed or canceled. and at this hour, what we're now learning about similar problems now being felt in canada tonight. but they're backup is working.

gio benitez standing by. also tonight, new