tv ABC7 News 300PM ABC September 2, 2024 3:00pm-3:30pm PDT
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>> more than 10,000 hotel workers across the nation are on strike, including many here in the bay area. good afternoon, i'm kristen z. happening now. workers from boston to san francisco are on the picket lines. >> today we show the bosses how we celebrate labor day in this city. >> in san francisco and san jose, union members mobilized today, holding rallies and then marching through city streets. it's day two of a hotel workers strike. these employees say hotels have not lifted pandemic era practices that save them money, but come at a cost for workers. abc seven news reporter gloria rodriguez heard from both striking workers and hotel management. reporter it was striking. >> hotel workers are rallying outside the westin saint francis san francisco, on union square this labor day. more than 2000 bay area hotel workers went on strike yesterday over wages, health care and workload. this
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is part of a national movement. at least 10,000 workers at hotels nationwide have walked off the job as contract talks stall between top hotel chains and the workers union. workers, from desk staff to housekeepers, are striking at hyatt, hilton, marriott and omni hotels in eight cities from san francisco and san jose to boston, demanding a share in what they say are record profits. >> this is an industry that has been that has been coming back from the pandemic. they've been making their profits fine, but they haven't shared any of that with us. >> nicholas javier is a server at the westin saint francis and is on strike. workers also want a reversal of staffing cuts made during the pandemic, including the restoration of automatic daily room cleaning, which was scaled back during covid and better health care. >> i want to make sure our health care benefits are accessible and affordable, wait. wages increase. wage increases.
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we want our we want our our retirement to be a good, dignified retirement. >> in a statement, the head of labor relations for hyatt americas says we are disappointed that unite here has chosen to strike, while hyatt remains willing to negotiate. hyatt hotels have contingency plans in place to minimize impact on hotel operations related to potential strike activity. hilton telling abc news that they are committed reaching a deal with workers, but also committed to serving customers during any work stoppage. these workers tell me they will be on strike until 10:00 tomorrow night, and oakland workers could also join in on this strike at union square. gloria rodriguez, abc seven news. >> san francisco district attorney brooke jenkins says her office will make a charging decision this week in the shooting of 40 niners wide receiver ricky pearsall. that decision is expected tomorrow or wednesday. the 23 year old rookie was released from the
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hospital yesterday as he continues to recover from a bullet wound to his chest. now, police say pearsall was shot saturday in union square during a robbery attempt. and we just learned a short time ago that the 40 niners have placed pearsall on the reserve non-football injury list, meaning he will miss at least the first four games of his rookie season as he recovers. sfpd arrested a 17 year old who was also hurt during the incident. charges are expected to be filed in juvenile court. mayor london breed denies that the shopping district was understaffed at the time of the shooting. >> even a holiday weekend there. officers all around union squar, more so than any other community in the city >> the san francisco police officers association says in a statement. given our severe staffing crisis, however, there's only so much we can do.
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this is just another reason why we need to implement strategies to retain our veteran officers quickly. learn more about crime in your community with our abc seven neighborhood safety tracker. our interactive tool has a wide variety of data for san francisco, oakland, and san jose. you can find it all right on the front page of our website, abc7 news dot com. the harris campaign is reaching out to union workers on labor day in key battleground states. and we have a first look at a new political ad that donald trump released today. abc news reporter perry russom has the latest on the road to the white house. >> the harris campaign on a labor day blitz with rallies in wisconsin and michigan. good afternoon. detroit. vice president kamala harris making a push in the battleground states, reaching out to union workers standing on stage in detroit with labor leaders on labor day. >> and every day we celebrate the dignity of work, the dignity of work. we celebrate unions
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because unions helped build america and unions helped build america's middle class. >> harris, also in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, today campaigning with president biden. it's their first official campaign event together since biden dropped out of the race after former president trump's controversial visit to arlington national cemetery last week, where he was accused of political activities on cemetery grounds. harris, writing online it is not a place for politics. >> vice president harris, i ask you, why won't you return a call today? >> trump posting this campaign video with family members of soldiers killed during the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan. >> president trump has called president trump shows up. >> it comes as a new abc news ipsos poll finds harris leads trump, 5246, among likely voters. that is outside the margin of error. >> let's not pay too much attention to the polls. let's know, like labor always does.
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>> we are out here running like we are the underdog in this race because we know what we are fighting for. >> no campaign events today for former president trump in a statement today for labor day. trump says the u.s. was an economic powerhouse when he was in office, and claims harris and biden have undone all of that. perry, russom abc news, washington. >> a berkeley native who was one of six hostages found murdered in gaza over the weekend, was laid to rest today. a procession took place to honor hersh goldberg-polin before his funeral. the 23 year old israeli american was taken hostage when hamas attacked a music festival on october 7th. goldberg, poland's family, became international champions in the struggle to free hostages today. his mother bid an emotional farewell to her son. >> finally, my sweet boy. finally, finally, finally, finally. you're free. i will
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love you. and i will miss you every single day. for the rest of my life. >> the bay area community is invited to a candlelight vigil tonight to honor goldberg-polin. it begins at 6 p.m. at the russian speaking jewish community center in san francisco's richmond district. shifting gears now, those new bart faregates designed to be evasion proof will be installed at more stations. bart is set to begin putting in the gates at san francisco's 24th street station tomorrow. they have already been installed at the west oakland and civic center stations. the hope is this style of gate will not only cut down on fare evasion, but also improve safety and be easier to maintain. bart is planning to install them system wide by the end of next year. teenagers can pay less to travel up and down the peninsula. now, caltrain is launching a new fare program to help young residents get around. starting this month, caltrain will have $1 all zone, one way youth fares, or that's for riders age 18 and under and for
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$2. the mobile app will have all zone day passes. caltrain says this is a permanent change to encourage people to get into the habit of riding transit early and young. all right. to the accuweather forecast. abc7 weather anchor spencer christian lets us know when we can expect a blast of summer heat for this labor day. >> look for sunny and mild to warm weather. generally speaking, tomorrow and thursday, though sizzling summer heat. tomorrow through thursday, i should say sizzling summer heat will settle in and there's a moderate heat risk, meaning overexposure to this kind of excessive heat can have ill effects on your health. we expect triple digit temperature readings in our inland areas for that three day period, at 100 or above in the hottest spots, so a spare the air alert will be in effect tomorrow and wednesday. only moderate air quality in most locations and poor air quality expected the next two days in the inland east bay and in the santa clara valley. let's move along and take a look at what we expect later. this afternoon with good air quality. high temperatures will reach mid to upper 60s on the coast, a
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high of about 71 expected here in san francisco, right around the bay shoreline. we'll see mainly mid 70s up in the north bay. look for highs of 80 at napa 85. santa rosa 82 san rafael. the inland east bay about 84 to 86 degrees at livermore, concord and antioch and then moving down to the south bay. 76 will be the high in palo alto, 81 at san jose, morgan hill 86 degrees. now, overnight, we'll see the return of some low clouds near the coast. it won't be a very deep or expansive marine layer, but they'll be patches of coastal clouds overnight with overnight low temperatures, mainly in the mid to upper 50s. relatively mild for much of the bay area. here's the accuweather seven day forecast. i've told you about the sunny and mild to warm weather today. here's a look at the kind of heat we can expect over the next three days. inland. highs at or above 100 degrees in the warmest spots right around the bay shoreline. we'll be looking at high temperatures in the upper 80s to around 90 degrees. now. on friday, the heat begins to ease just a bit, but it will still be quite warm with inland highs in the mid 90s and up to about 80 around the bay shoreline, but
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346mi■!s of the sierra nevada ad burned hundreds of homes. fearing more such disasters and slow evacuations. a first of its kind study using ai has just taken a closer look at the speed of getting people out of the tahoe basin. that analysis, commissioned by tahoe clean air.org, found an alarming result. public agencies may have grossly underestimated how long it might take for people to get out with no notice. here to talk about the findings and potential solutions, doug flaherty, president of tahoe clean air.org. doug, thanks so much for joining us today. >> you bet. >> tell us about the study and what you set set out to find. >> well, we set out to analyze uh- more accurate evacuation data using eye on the california side of the lake. we in placer county, they currently show evacuation times of 3.7 hours. our independent analysis shows
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evacuation times from 9 to 13 hours. and that's a 6 to 9 hour increase in evacuation times. similarly, on the nevada side, we actually projected, anywhere from nine hours uh- or 7 hours to 9 hours, which is a three hour increase in evacuation times. >> wow, that is stunning. we have a good graphic that you guys produced that shows the tahoe basin and the area that we're talking about. so let's go ahead and put that up. and while we look at this by the way folks, the kind of chartreuse green area that's the basin, the area that we're talking about. and of course, you see the two halves of the lake, the california side, nevada side that you were talking about. but how do we go from, you know, previous estimates of about three hours to get out of that area? if there were an approaching fire to the 9 to 14 hours that you now forecast using ai and the experienced firefighters like what did you put into that formula to spit out such different results? what do you think a you know, accounts for this? >> good question. so we used a
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software company called ladra software. they employed their proprietary advanced modeling capabilities to simulate hundreds of potential evacuations from around lake tahoe. and they leveraged leveraged the vast amounts of data to better quantify and identify evacuation, routing dynamics and escape times. >> but what is it that they were really missing before? right. you know, is it something that we're not realizing about the choke points? is it something about the chaotic nature of kind of an evacuation? >> yeah. the current, estimates from the counties and trpa tahoe regional planning agency use uh- source data that was at times six, 6 to 8 years old, they didn't have ladders capability. they the existing estimates did not analyze background traffic. they didn't analyze parking. and of course, separately, there was
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no discussion on the 1000 to 3000 people a day that are using, like the east shore trail out of incline village. >> okay, look, we don't want to get too deep into the methodology, but bottom line, safe to say that, you know, we've seen a huge influx in tourism and, you know, talks of more development and climate change making these wildfires more likely. so when you take those factors and combine it with your finding, i guess, what are the solutions? what are your proposals? what do you think policymakers should do? >> we're hoping that the tahoe regional planning agency and land use planners go forward to consider more accurate wildfire evacuation data to inform land use planners and the public when it comes to, when it comes to reviewing new projects and new code amendments that allow increased height, density and coverage here in the lake tahoe basin. >> look, i know climate and air
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environment, those are your primary goals. but might there be some people who say, hey, these results could be used to stop development and it could be anti-development. >> we've never asked to stop development. we're not anti-development. we're just asking for a cumulative impact. environmental impact report. to, inform the 2012 tahoe regional planning agency regional plan. all we've asked for from the beginning, in the last three years is a supplemental environmental impact statement. we've never drawn any conclusions about development. >> well, doug, no doubt they'll be taking a closer look at the results and we'll see whether there's any follow up to that. but doug flaherty with the tahoe clean air organization, thank you so much for joining us with the study. >> thank you. >> we're talking money with a closer look at consumer spending and
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the numbers are giving us a look at how americans spend their money over the summer, and the view could impact what happens to interest rates later this month, reporter emily schmidt explains what this could mean for you. >> reporter in summer terms, the 4th of july may feel like a lifetime ago, but in economic terms, what was happening then is just now coming to light. >> consumer spending was strong in july, 0.4% for the month, just below 3% year over year. >> commerce department figures released friday show stronger than expected spending, with the personal consumption expenditures, price index, or pce inflation gauge holding steady. that's also better than expected. >> it means continued movement in the right direction with easing inflation. you may have noticed one sign already.
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>> we are actually seeing relief at the pump. so $3.35 national average. that's a reduction of about $0.50 since last labor day. and the lowest labor day gas prices we've seen in three years. >> the numbers in the commerce department report are likely to play out on the campaign trail over the next two months, as both inflation and borrowing costs continue to be top concerns for voters. >> i'm very proud of the work that we have done that has brought inflation down to less than 3%. >> together we will deliver low taxes, low regulations, low energy costs, low interest rates, low inflation, so that everyone can afford groceries, a car and a home. >> but the most critical result of the pce could become clear in just a couple of weeks, when the fed announces if it will or will not cut interest rates for the first time since 2020. in washington, i'm emily schmidt reporting. >> a california company has come up with a way to grow cocoa in a
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lab to help offset supply challenges during a warmer climate. california, cultured in west sacramento, is growing cocoa from cell cultures. they put cocoa beans or bean cells that is in a vat with sugar water, so they reproduce quickly and reach maturity in a week rather than 6 to 8 months. that a traditional harvest takes. the company says the lab cocoa is genetically identical, though not harvested from a tree. california culture plans to start selling its products next year, so climate change is impacting the chocolate industry by uh. >> first of all, making it too warm for many species to, to prosper. and that has led to massive drops in yield around the world. we find a rare and desirable cocoa species around the planet. we then take a cutting of the cocoa bean, put them onto plates, and we trick basically the cocoa cells to grow and divide. and after a
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certain level of growth, we're able to harvest that and transform that into chocolate. >> some chocolate companies are looking to bolster the supply with the cell based cocoa, or by using alternatives made from products ranging from oats to carob that are roasted and flavored to produce a chocolate taste, experience the thrill of high speed cycling on a unique urban course. we'll learn about elite bike racing held every labor
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pedaling by us here at abc7, near the embarcadero and around levi's plaza. the event is part of the california cup for men and women of all age groups. now, the final race of the day has just gotten underway, and here to talk about all the excitement is robert lebel. the race organizer and founder of velo promo. robert, thanks for joining us. >> oh, thank you very much for having me. >> hey, so how did it go today and how's it going right now? it's still going on, right? people are just whizzing by those fast cyclists, right? >> right now we're in the 60 minute uh- pro-am race. uh- the final event of the day. it just started about ten minutes ago at the most. >> well, this is, you know, for people who don't know, i think the 49th or 50th year of the running. right >> it's the 48th year. it started 49 years ago, but we had a non-covid race year. >> okay. my math was still okay. but look, you know, it was a different name before, and i think that's why people don't realize what a tradition this is, that it's really been around
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a long time. i just want to share a picture with you because i know it was called the san francisco grand prix when i took part in this celebrity race. i know you probably can't see the screen, but in 2002, with the late and fabulous robin williams and we did this one mile thing up and down the embarcadero and robert, it's just been so much fun all around for all these years. >> well, we've had a lot of top riders here. greg lemond, who was world champion for several years, won this race. uh- lance armstrong was here. and kristen faulkner, who just won the gold medal at the olympics, has raced this and won it twice in 2000, 17 and 18, i believe. >> yes. i mean, you do get the top people not just from here in the bay area or california, but from around the world. and you know what i find is interesting is that these types of races are super popular in europe, but they've always been kind of niche in the u.s. in california, do you think that's changing? >> yeah, i think there's a lot more cycling events going on in
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the last several years. there was a hiccup with with covid, of course, but uh- numbers are up in gravel races and in mountain bike races, road races, cyclocross. so, you know, lots of different aspects of the cycling sport. >> well, how many people took part? how many people took part today, racers. >> uh- we'll have about 330 riders. i think, altogether. >> wow. and that's the race right now. >> has. go ahead, go ahead. >> the race right now is what the. >> the race right now has, i think 60 riders in it. >> fabulous. and folks don't know how quickly they're taking those tight city turns right. and san francisco in particular has such shall we say, challenging streets. do you think that's partly what people like about riding here? >> yeah. i mean, it's a popular sport in general in the bay area and in san francisco particularly. but the race course has been a number of different places in the area over the years. at one point it came over lombard street and down the twisty part of lombard,
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down all the way down to columbus, and then around behind on bay street. so it's been lots of different courses, but here on this loop around levi strauss plaza for the last 20 years. >> all right. and there they go. every time they go by, it's such a, you know, just a boom. you feel the air and the excitement. robert lebel, congratulations on another gerald to san francisco. and congratulations to you. wow >> great. >> thank you very much. and we're having a race in oakland in two weeks. >> all right. folks should go check it out. thank you. and folks, thank you for joining us today. world news tonight with david muir starts right now. i'll see you back here at 4:00. take care tonight, anger and grief boil over in israel, after the deaths of six hostages. as pressure on prime minister netanyahu grows. two american servicenn
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