announcer: building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc 7 news. >> i'm kris wait talk with experts abou issues important to the bay area and get answers for you in real time. we live in earthquake country, seismic experts say there is a hidden flaw in many california home that pose a serious risk. thankfully there is a program to help you reduce the risk. also, you voted and francisco has an official animal.

they reveal about us. first, governor gavin newsom visiting alabama today, continuing on his tour of some southern states. he has billed as an effort to build red state democrats but is there more than that joining us to talk about the political headlines is phil matier. phil: it has been an interesting week, especially the government opening up his campaign southern states like arkansas, alabama, and mississippi. he has had the road the idea of bringing what he calls democratic principles to deep red it states that are reading -- being ruled by authoritarian politicians. it is a chance to statement and increase his profile nationally. the campaign for democracy will be putting this together and opening up a nationwide pack to

raise millions of dollars for new campaigns in those states enter back candidates in the next election that otherwise might get less then an enthusiastic support from democrats who will be concentrating on swing states. kristen: he is helping red state democrats dropping money on a new pac. but the question is always will he or won't he? what is happening. what do you think? phil: right now he is not running for president but standing very tall in case president joe biden doesn't run and, lagares doesn't run. gavin newsom can't run and says he doesn't want to and said it we virtually impossible to go up against an incumbent. but he can make a difference and that is what he is doing. he is not going to swing states or places where democrats are

probably going to play heavily in the next election. he is going to states that democrats have given up on and for good reason. they haven't one elections there in decades. he is going out and saying we can change that. he says ok come he is taking california to alabama and that will make a change? maybe, maybe not. at the same time he is opening up a political action committee om around thedependt of pitit io increase the roles of numbers, donation lists people get to this campaign and if something happensp the national stage himself, he will be able to tap into that as a group of already identified voters who are inclined to contribute and help newsom. he has two things going on, his

move to bring california ideals to the south and also his move to bring his own ideals to the forefront. kristen: i believe this is what the insiders would say is laying the groundwork or foundation. phil: yes, it would be. the building that goes on the foundation remains to be seen. he is putting down the asphalt on a road. where it is going, we will see. i have to say, it is the first time we have seen somebody do this kind of move. usually if a are interested increasing their political profile, they can do that. newsom is going where other democrats don't go and that will get more attention than going to a new york or a massachusetts. kristen: and he harps on the red

state governors, he could talk about the efforts in those states to curb abortion rights, reproductive rights, and may be banning books or lgbtq support. those are things that he can work off of. if he does enter the national arena, what are the things they can ding him for? when you look at san francisco, of which he is mayor and now he is the governor, there are a lot of social issues with crime, homelessness and drugs. surely that will weigh heavily on him. phil: let's get honest. gavin newsom is what we call seizing the message, laying the groundwork on his terms. he is going to the states and meeting selectively, going to black churches, civil rights museums, meeting with lgbtq's. he is not going to meet regular voters and doing rallies or anything like that, he is controlling the narrative.

if, however, he moves into the national stage, the fact that california has one third of the nations homelessness right here in the state of california, a 20 percent increase over the past five years, the fact that the fentanyl is claiming 15 to 20 lives a day on the streets of california cities, that is going to be hitting him. the fact that test scores for schools are low on the total. that will hit him. all of those things that you and i see daily are going to come back and come at him. but he is not dealing with that right now. he is dealing with it in the state but not on the national level. on the national level, talking about lgbtq, abortion, and those things which have national traction. if he gets on the stage, they are going to come after him is what we see on the streets of california daily. kristen: that is something he is

focusing on. in san francisco, mayor london breed is helping the -- asking the feds to help curb the drug problems. we expect them to step in and what could they do? phil: they have stepped in the past. david anderson was the u.s. attorney here under the trump administration and he stepped in when the district attorneys were not inclined to prosecute to the full extent drug dealers. they would charge them and later plead down. he got some 250 people arrested in off the streets because he brought the fbi, the drug enforcement agency and various agencies into san francisco and had them work it as a task force. that was met by its at city hall but now with the demonstrations in washington and the u.s. attorney and a democrat in san

francisco, the mayor is coming to him and saying, let's do it again. let's take your resources and your court system and let's go for it again. it is going to be interesting to see if the u.s. attorney goes for it but last time it did make a difference and 250 cases were brought up and it helps clean up the tenderloin. but it has to be maintained. unlike the past, the district attorney in san francisco is on board for it as well and that is something we haven't seen in the past that reflects nationally. democrats, as we saw in chicago, the democratic incumbent mayor lost her seat in the first round of the election, largely over public safety. the new mayor of los angeles is pushing for homeless cleanups and public safety. we have democrats in some of these cities sitting around and

singing a new tune, this is t ouabpu they know it because that is what the public is interested in. kristen: i want to ask increased prosecution is a piece of the puzzle, but what about tough or penalties in terms of laws that may be changing? in the legislature, there doesn't seem to be too much of an appetite for that. phil: in this past week we saw moves to enhance or strengthen laws for penalties for selling fentanyl hit a dead end in the state legislature. they didn't want to go there and have a return to what they call the failed war on drugs. so they are setting that aside. the san francisco strip attorneys went up there asking for it. one of the things they wanted was written admonishments given out for people convicted of selling fentanyl that says they now know that this drug is

deadly and can kill people. the idea is that if you receive that admonishment and continued selling it, you could be liable for tougher penalties like manslaughter. sacramento is not interested. san francisco is pushing hard to crack down on the sale of fentanyl which they say is nothing like what we saw on the war on drugs. this is a killer drug, not a recreational drug. san francisco not interested in putting more people in jail. kristen: thank you so much. phil: all right. kristen: coming up next, the style of your home put you at greater risk for earthquake damage. a woman who works to help homeowners to help design a hidden flaw in y here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps.

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kristen: there is a hidden and common danger to homes in the bay area that makes you more prone to earthquake i even death. a pilot program is giving some homeowners dozens of dollars in grants to do retrofit work. join us live to talk about the program is the chief litigation officer. thanks for coming on the show. >> thank you for inviting me. kristen: it is called soft story. what is it and why are they so dangerous? >> people have heard about soft stories because the mandatory programs to retrofit apartment complexes that tuck under apartment buildings. we have seen that in san francisco and a lot of cities

are mandatory ordinances adopted. we have the same problem in single-family dwellings. it happened with the introduction of the automobile and the garage. we took out the elements that resist earthquake forces which are walls and wood frame civil family dwellings. kristen: we have a lot of those in the western portion of san francisco where the garage is underneath and sometimes it is remodeled for more living space but it is this cavernous not supporting space. it tell us about this program. it will provide $5 million to homeowners in the form of grants to fix this. how many homeowners and how much money can they get? >> we anticipate we will be able to award 375 grants. we have a number of cities throughout california that include san francisco, oakland, berkeley, los angeles and pasadena. it is a pilot program.

it is to utilize the $5 million and attract additional fema funding. this is a partial or full collapse kind of damage we are talking about, tremendous disruption and eight safety issue. we are excited to open this program. we need contractors to be on our contractor directory for simple cues to see if they have this kind of house. the retrofit is simple and it is all done in the garage and the space around the back walls with very special elements along the front wall. kristen: are you telling me you would not need to move out? i know people are scared of that prospect. >> that's exactly right. the beauty of this retrofit is that it is all done on the ground floor with the intent of strengthening the ground floor into the underside of the second

floor. you will certainly hear noise but nobody is in your living space. kristen: here is another design flaw i want to talk about in single-family homes, purple walls. what is that -- cripple walls. what is that? >> you may have this problem if it is pre-19 80 and you will have it if it is pre-1940. it is a short walls around the crawl space not braced with plywood and may not have sufficient anchor walls. we have a program that we have had open for 10 years now and retrofitted almost 20,000 houses. this will be a sister program for a different vulnerability but with the same intent, to keep people in their houses, decrease the likelihood of damage and increase the likelihood they can shelter-in-place after an earthquake. kristen: how many people can get

that? >> up to $3000 for a retrofit. kristen: with the 50%, 75% of it? >> our agreement with fema to provide the grants that we max out at up to 75% of the total retrofit cost come up to a maximum of $13,000. i mention these are more in the neighborhood of $14,000 to 28,000 dollar retrofits. we are not providing entire retrofit but a tremendous amount of help and information about how to do it properly. kristen: i am going to guess that even if you are saying this is a sizable investment, if you get the kind of earthquake damage in a big lake we are talking about, that is going to cost way more? >> exactly. we are talking with partial and full collapse is of thousand dollars -- hundreds of thousands

of dollars. this soft stor completely destructive to a house or at least you are going to be out of your house for years, extremely disruptive and expensive to repair. kristen: can i touch and other types of damage, old chimneys, houses may be built on hillsides, mobile homes? they each carry a different kind of danger. touch on what people should know. >> we did work with fema to create a document and you can find information on those vulnerabilities you just described at strengthenmyhouse.com. there are visual cues and videos , pictures, all kinds of things to help people identify if they have one of these vulnerabilities and what they should do to mitigate the damage. kristen: for folks who want more

information, where can they go? >> kristen: thanks for showing the website and talking about this program. >> thanks for your time. kristen: san francisco has an official animal in the selection has sunk in the hopes of some folks in the city cap, and it was controversial. i will talk with the culture reporter who knows all about the winter and the controversy surrounding the top

kristen: everything is always controversial in san francisco when there is a contest involved. this has to do with the official animal. after much angst and voting in brouhaha, we have an official animal, sort of. some people don't like the

selection. joining us to talk about is the chronicles culture editor who wrote an article about the official animal of san francisco contest. thanks for coming on the show. peter: it is my pleasure. thank you for having me. kristen: what is our official animal? peter: drumroll, it parent. it was close -- caret -- rrot. it was closed between them in the sea lions. the p i wrote the sea lions win article in full and had to write a parrots kristen: who was behind the contest?

we went through 100 50 years of existence with no official animal. how did this come about? peter: i host a podcast with my colleague heather and we were going to have an animal month. we were going to do animal themed podcasts and heather found out there is no official animal of san francisco. the city of saint francis, the patron saint of animals, has official band, flour, two official songs but no official animal. so we put it to a vote. kristen: i thought we just had i left my heart in san francisco. peter: there is also one from a movie back in the 1940's. kristen: how did the pa become one of the choices? what is argument for them? peter: they were one of the first ones. we love the idea of a parrot.

they are very invasive and non-native but i am too. they are colorful, loud, like some of our favorite san franciscans, robin williams, harvey milk. none of them were born in san francisco, but colorful people who made an impact and became part of the city. i think it is the perfect choice. kristen: i don't see why not hear it how close with the vote? what were some of the others? peter: the vote. thursday night as the boat was closing, the sea lions work ahead until the afternoon -- lions were ahead into the afternoon. alligators and crabs were in the final four. we had a lot of others. siegel's got knocked out early -- s

early. kristen: you off. peter: we had coyotes and corgis. kristen: there is a good argument to be made for all of them. so san francisco had no official animal until now so now it is not totally official. there are more steps, right? peter: there are more steps but people seem to be on board. the san francisco public library is going to make a card out of the winner. we'll see the wild pa card. and some on the board of supervisors have pledged to bring this to a real resolution so the official animal can become official. kristen: y

non-native. how did the come to be here? did they travel over on a boat from somewhere? peter: wild parrots where a documentary where they became famous. without they came in late and a lot of different theories. i think the strongest one is a pet store escape and once they got out there they started squawking and other parrots heard and came are a couple different breeds out there. late 1980's is when the first ones appeared. kristen: i am not sure if we saw pier 39 that pushed hard for the sea lions. i get it. people go to see them. yes they almost got there but didn't quite make it. before we go, what responsibilities do the parrots have now they are the official

animal of san francisco? peter: that is a great question we haven't been asked that. i think handing out the key to the city. i think a new athlete comes in, the giants get a new player, i think the parrot should show up. it is mostly ceremonial but i think there are a lot of things for them to do. kristen: you can train them to say more and they may be better ambassadors than the sea lions. you and heather always do interesting stuff. thank you for joining us. peter: thank you

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kristen: thank you for joining

us. we will be here every day at 3:00 answering questions with experts around the bay area. >> tonight breaking news. former president donald trump here in new york city to face criminal charges. what the country will see play out tomorrow. already tonight the surreal scene playing out on live television today. cable news tracking the former president leaving mar a-lago arriving in new york city. a motorcade driving trump through manhattan to trump tower. the indictment still sealed in an investigation linked to the hush money payment paid to stormy daniels just before the 2016 election. at least two dozen separate charges expected. it is still unclear what those charges are and how much of this arraignment americans will see. today the split screen. president biden at a