california is taking on oil giant exxonmobil, blaming the company for the plastic pollution crisis along the california coast. good afternoo. i'm kristen sze. thanks for joining us today. california attorney general rob bonta,

alongside several environmental organizations, announced a lawsuit against exxonmobil. this is all over the company's plastics recycling program. the suit claims exxonmobil deceived the public into buying single use plastic products that cannot actually be recycled. >> this lawsuit is the first of its kind to hold exxonmobil accountable for the immense harm its decades of misleading claims have caused our environment and the people of california. >> our environment and our health should not be sacrificed for exxon's bottom line. if we're going to clean up these mountains of plastic, exxon needs to clean up its act. >> the lawsuit claims that for decades, exxonmobil has knowingly used misleading marketing practices to convince people that recycling was a cure all for the company's plastic waste. this comes following a two year investigation into fossil fuel and petrochemical industries for their role in causing pollution. in a statement to abc news,

exxonmobil says in part for decades, california officials have known that their recycling system isn't effective. they failed to act, and now they seek to blame others. instead of suing us, they could have worked with us to fix the problem and keep plastic out of landfills. the first step would be to acknowledge what their counterparts across the u.s. know. advanced recycling works and another development in the state's fight against the plastic pollution crisis. you won't be hearing the question paper or plastic for much longer. a new law will ban plastic bags at california stores starting in 2026. governor newsom signed the bill yesterday. now, this means if you don't bring your own bag, you'll have the option to pay for a paper bag at checkout. thin plastic shopping bags were banned in california a decade ago, although shoppers can still get bags made with a thicker plastic considered to be reusable. environmental groups including oceana, say the idea behind the heavy duty plastic bags just didn't live up to

expectations. >> these thicker plastic bags actually led to more waste going to landfills around the state, as people weren't taking them back to the grocery stores to use for shopping. so saying no more plastic bags at checkout will make a big difference for not only our ocean wildlife, but also our beaches, coastline, as well as our communities and climate. >> she says sea turtles will sometimes mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, their favorite food. in an interview with the l.a. times, the american recycling plastic bag alliance calls the new law disappointing. in the past, the group has said, bans forced stores and shoppers to switch to other products that are more expensive, and that increased costs will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. climate change could be causing changes in our coastal fog. you may have noticed it was missing for a while, but it seems to have returned. abc seven weather anchor spencer christian is here

to talk about it. yeah, we've definitely been noticing the fog in this past week, and i mean, i'm all for it, but what's going on? >> well, i knew you were going to ask me that question, kristen, because i'm a forecaster. so rather than trust my own memory of how this summer has played out, i contacted the national weather service and it confirmed what i already believed, which is that because we've had so many hot days, the marine layer has been not quite so prominent. it doesn't come roaring in in the late afternoon as it does on a typical summer day. so because of the heat extremes, the marine layer burns off earlier in the morning and forms later at night. so we can't quite blame it on climate change. yet although you might blame the more frequent heat waves on climate change. so here's a look at our heat advisory that is in effect until 8:00 this evening for the east bay hills and valleys and the santa cruz mountains, the santa clara valley, and the eastern santa clara hills, that will also be in effect tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. for only the east bay hills and valley. so right now we're looking at the

heat. moderate the heat risk. i should say we have a moderate to severe heat, the major heat risk for most of the bay area. moderate risk in the areas covered by orange a major heat risk in the areas covered by red. that, of course, is mainly the east bay and the south bay. so let's move along. take a look at the 24 hour temperature change. it is significantly warmer right now than at this time yesterday. 10 to 15 degrees warmer across most of the bay area right now we've got temperature readings inland in the upper 90s and right now, 102 at saint helena, we've got upper 80s to near 90 around the bay shoreline. that's pretty hot for afternoon readings around the bay. and these are our forecast headlines, the headlines. this heat is going to linger into tomorrow nearly as hot as today. middle of the week will bring a sharp cooldown on tuesday wednesday, wednesday, thursday rather. but it will warm up again towards the end of the week. generally, we've got a more fall-like pattern developing after tomorrow's heat and then into the weekend. temperatures rebound a little bit. it'll be mild to warm, but not hot. so tonight look for low

temperatures mainly in the mid 60s. so that's pretty mild for overnight temperature readings. generally we expect 50s to be our lows. highs tomorrow nearly 100 degrees in many inland area. once again around the bay shoreline again tomorrow. look for mid to upper 80s to near 90 degrees. and the accuweather seven day forecast shows that sharp cooldown. i mentioned that we can expect on wednesday. it will be nice and pleasant on thursday as well. a little bit of a warm up on friday, but nothing like the heat we've seen the last 24 hours and then going into the weekend and early next week, a more typical fall pattern. >> kristen spencer, thank you so much for that explanation too. all right. today, san francisco mayor london breed addressed the huge challenges facing the city's public school system. the mayor's office is sending a team of officials to go through the district's finances to try to find a way to balance the books. on sunday, the school board held a rare closed door emergency meeting to address those issues, which include a $421 million deficit, possible staffing cuts and school closures. the looming

threat of a state oversight and questions surrounding leadership, the president of the school board reached out to breed's office, asking for help. >> the school district is facing some serious financial challenges and our plan is to go in and to make sure that by the end of this year that we help them with a balanced budget, that we help them make the right decisions based on facts, based on data based on real numbers. >> yesterday's meeting ended with the school board committing to working with the superintendent. a strike involving 1600. or actually make that 1500 hotel workers in san francisco is in its second day. they walked off the job and onto the picket line over the weekend, with demands for more money and better working conditions. abc seven news reporter gloria rodriguez has the story from the picket line >> if you're visiting union square, you'll notice it's a lot

louder than usual. for the second day in a row, some 1500 hotel workers in san francisco striking. these employees are picketing outside the westin, saint francis and union square for 24 hours a day. we also saw a group outside grand hyatt nearby, and employees from hilton san francisco union square are also striking. nicholas javier has been working as a server at the westin saint francis for the past ten years. >> we are striking until we win and that's it. yeah, no other option at this point. >> so you're prepared to strike for days? weeks? >> that's right. we are. yeah. until until we win, we won't go back in until we win. >> the union unite here. local two says employees are asking for higher wages, fair workloads and affordable health care from three major hotel chains hilton, hyatt and marriott. we are hoping for a fair and just contract that reflects the realities that we are all living under and the realities that we've had to the burden that

we've had to shoulder as hospitality workers in the city. this follows months of contract negotiations and is a continuation of a three day strike over labor day weekend, when thousands of hotel workers walked off the job in several u.s. cities, including san francisco and san jose. abc seven talked to people staying at the affected hotels. >> when you're in the building, you don't hear any sound, so i think they've been peaceful. it appears that they're very well organized. they're making their points without hassling anyone who's walking back and forth. >> so workers decided not to strike. last week during salesforce's dreamforce 2024 conference, especially as the city recovers to bring back business after the covid 19 pandemic. >> we want people to come back to san francisco. we want people to come back to the bay area. we believe in san francisco. we are all in for san francisco. >> hyatt saying in a statement, we are disappointed that unite here local two has chosen to strike once again while hyatt remains willing to continue bargaining in good faith, we

have contingency plans in place to minimize impact on hotel operations related to strike activity, westin, owned by marriott, saying the westin saint francis remains open. we remain available to meet with a local union negotiating committee to reach an agreement that is fair to all parties, and a strike has been authorized in oakland and sacramento. but it is unclear if the employees there will go on strike in san francisco. gloria rodriguez abc seven news and shows should go on as scheduled at the san francisco symphony. >> a third day, three day strike for the chorus is over, although the bargaining is still going on. the strike was only scheduled for three days, beginning last thursday. it forced the cancellation of several days of shows, though chorus members want more money and more hours. among other things, the labor negotiations won't impact the symphony's opening night gala, which is scheduled for wednesday. sfmta is holding the first of two open houses today to share the final

design of the new valencia street bike lanes. we've been following this story closely for months. the center bike lane has been blamed for hurting businesses along valencia stree. after a lot of backlash, the city agreed to make a change. business owners get to pick between two options depending on whether they want a parklet. today's open house is from 4 to 6 p.m. at the valencia gardens community room. construction on the redesign will start early next year celebrating the debut of its new modern electric train service. there was a special launch party at caltrain stations across the peninsula this weekend. >> these tracks have been been in use for 160 years. they are the oldest continuously, continuously used rails west of the mississippi, and for the first time in that long and glorious history, it's all electric. >> the trains are better for the environment as well as faster. caltrain says the commute between san jose to san francisco can be done in less

than an hour. the man suspected by the. by the fbi of planning to kill former president trump last week appeared in federal court today. the new chilling evidence linking him to the crime. and later. if you can't afford to buy a home, how about splitting the cost with some friends and family? we're talking to the founder of a startup that's

pennsylvania this week. and today, the man accused of trying to kill former president trump in florida makes his case to get out on bail. abc's christiane cordero has the latest from washington. >> the man accused in the

apparent assassination attempt on former president donald trump back in a federal courtroom in florida today. ryan ruth was denied bail as he awaits trial today. federal law enforcement. sharing this note, they say ruth wrote months ago, making his intention clear. it starts with dear world. this was an assassination attempt on donald trump. but i'm so sorry i failed you. and officials say ruth visited the area around the golf course and trump's mar-a-lago resort multiple times in the month before his arrest. >> that obviously raises a host of questions. specifically, when that exact letter was written, he also visited mar-a-lago and the golf course, multiple times. was he just scoping out? was he potentially with that rifle? had he failed actually, previously in carrying out an assassination attempt on donald trump? ruth was taken into custody last sunday after a secret service agent spotted the barrel of a gun poking through the bushes on the course where trump was golfing. >> trump now has increased security. he's on the trail today, back in battleground pennsylvania over the weekend, trump in critical north carolina

and notably absent the republican gubernatorial candidate he endorsed. cnn was first to report mark robinson made racist and inflammatory comments over a decade ago on a site, including calling himself a black nazi and expressing support for reinstating slavery. abc news has not independently confirmed the report, which robinson denies as he defends his candidacy. today we are not going to let cnn throw us off of our mission. >> our mission is to win this race. >> also, over the weekend, vice president kamala harris challenged trump to another debate in late october. trump says it's too late because voting has already started. christiane cordeiro, abc news, washington. >> and coming up next, a new strategy to becoming a homeowner is gaining steam. we'll be talking to the founder of real estate startup hot

maybe not for everyone. consider this in 2022, almost one third of women had never been married, compared to less than 1 in 5 in 1960. so that's a big difference, right? so it makes sense that more and more people are looking for different home ownership arrangement. our media partner, the san francisco standard, has a new article out taking a look at hot friend compounds making real the dream of let's all buy a house together. joining us live now is the founder of the real estate startup live near friends, which is behind hot friend compounds phil levin. phil, thanks for joining us. >> hey, thanks so much. >> all right. so what's the big idea behind hot friend compound? what is it and how is it different? >> yeah. so the big idea here is that we would be happier, healthier and more connected living near friends and family. and so this is, i think, especially true, if you're, if you're raising, raising kids.

and, you know, the surgeon general just released a report just a few weeks ago saying that parents are some of the loneliest people in the country right now. and like, the loneliness epidemic is most most acutely impacting them. so we've come out with a service, as live near friends, which helps people essentially buy properties that are a good fit for living with your friends. and family, and so we look at how people buy things like duplexes, homes with accessory dwelling units, and, and sets of apartments, where they can, they can move a friend or family member near them and have sort of that social support around them. >> so, you know, before and as we look at this website, you know, walk us through how people can come to what kind of co owning arrangement or living arrangement works best for them. because like you said, there are different types, right, and maybe there are different types that are right for different demographic groups or different goals. >> absolutely. absolutely. yeah.

so like you know, we talked to users who, you know, goal is they want to buy a duplex with their sister, and one lives in one unit, one lives in the other unit. we talked to groups of friends who all want to rent, like apartment units on the same floor of a building, and, you know, sort of support each other socially, we talked to people that want to, like, have two, two homes on the lot, and so we support all these. and the way we do this is, is you can sign up and we will essentially send you a list of properties that we already sort of think are a good fit for this, and then we'll help you sort through the financing, the legal questions, and get you set up with a real estate agent who can sort of help you actually do the transaction. >> is this concept gaining popularity also because of the cost of living? >> yeah, absolutely. i think it's the cost of living and the cost of childcare, both of which are very high in the bay area, and so, you know, you the cost of owning a duplex as two people is much about 30% less than the

cost of owning two single family homes. so we people, we think people can save money this way, but mostly we think they can live a better life. so i get this whole idea of wanting to be near your support system. >> you know, your friends or family, and i get this idea of trying to buy together. but why would people need a service? like, couldn't they just look for, you know, like two units in this apartment or in this building or perhaps two homes in this subdivision on their own? >> yeah, it can be tricky to find these places, and so, you know, a lot of the most popular search services, for example, don't even allow you to search for, like, a duplex or a triplex, and so we sort of do all the legwork of figuring out, like, what are all the properties right now in san francisco or the east bay? let's say that are a good fit for this, and we will do the legwork of basically laying out for you how you would do it for this specific property, why this property is good or bad for it. okay, so you don't have to do that work on your own. >> we've talked about the

benefits of living in that kind of arrangement. right. let's talk about the challenges of such a thing. because what if, let's say you go in with some friends and the friendship breaks up and now you've got three people instead of four paying the mortgage, or you got to find someone to replace them. seems hard. >> yeah. i think it's important to set up structures, that that allow for graceful exits. and so we think we think it's important to, to sort of go about this in a very thoughtful way, that being said, we've we've seen a lot of these, almost all of them end up working out very well for people, and they end up doing it again, but it's certainly something you need to you need to think about. but we think the problems of the problems of social connection are better than the problems of being lonely. and so we think people will be better served often, even if there's a bit more risk. >> okay. yeah. i mean, definitely legal and financial considerations, but real quickly we got to go. but how do you see this trend evolving in the bay area. and metropolitan regions in the future? >> yeah, i think because, housing laws are changing, we're starting to see a lot more two,

three, four unit, developments. and we think these are the perfect sort of places for friends and family to share with each other, so i think with all these new housing units coming online, this will be a great opportunity for folks to do that. >> phil levin with hot friend compounds, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> in honor of national hispanic heritage month, we'll take a

earlier today on midday live, julian glover and i talked with an exploratorium astrophysicist and expert in cultural astronomy, doctor isobel

hawkins, about their big annual event coming up this weekend. >> yeah, it's our silver anniversary. can you imagine 25 years of amazing engagement with our latinx communities in partnership with the society of professional hispanic engineers, or ship? so we have an event that is fun for the entire family. you don't have to be an engineer. you don't even have to be a scientist. just come on over and enjoy, enjoy, inquiry, enjoy engagement with expert panelists, with young people who are engineers who can share their aspirations and their journey, how they became successful engineers in this beautiful world of the bay area. and we're all latinx, just like de cordoba, argentina. i'm from argentina, so you'll hear a lot of our spanish language. you'll see a lot of fun, engagement and opportunities for the whole family to have fun and learn about stem in a culturally appropriate way. >> let's talk about your path and journey. doctor hawkins, as you mentioned, you. we know you

grew up in argentina, and that's where you fell in love with astronomy and astrophysics, and now you're inspiring others. tell us about your path to being that little girl. curious about the stars and the world around us. to you now inspiring others. >> thank you so much for that question. i'd love to think back at a time when i was eight years old and i used to spend all summer uh- in a cattle ranch in cordoba, argentina. very remote area, very underserved community in which we would have no electricity and no running water in this place. and so we had to, you know, pull the water out with the bucket and then at night you could literally not see the hand in front of your eyes when there was no moon outside. it was that dark. and the stars were just absolutely engulfing us. and so it was so hot in the summers. i would just tell my cousins, hey, let's go pull out the mattresses and sleep outside. and that's what we did. and i encourage families to reconnect with the night sky, reconnect with the love of the stars, because there's nothing like feeling like you're part of

a greater solar system and universe beyond latin x engineering day is happening this saturday at the exploratorium. >> for more information, just visit exploratorium.edu. oakland is celebrating one of its most famous residents martial arts legend and revered actor bruce lee. the intersection at broadway and garnet street, near oakland's auto row, is now known as bruce lee way. that's where lee ran a martial arts studio before hollywood found him, and he rose to stardom. lee was born in san francisco, raised in hong kong, but he called oakland home. city leaders proudly unveiled the new street sign in honor for the famous local. lee died in 1973 at the age of 32. the 40 niners are clocking into the facility today with a losing record for the first time in two years. the niners led a 10.4 quarter lead. get away or fourth quarter lead, i should say getaway in a last second loss to the rams in l.a. it's just the

third time in 11 tries that the rams beat the 40. niners. players were disappointed in letting the win slip away. >> it was unacceptable. you know we can't do that. we can't beat ourselves. can't make those type of mistakes again. all three phases got to play better. we'll look at the tape, fix it and move on. >> the niners returned home to play the patriots this sunday at levi's stadium. if you want to watch more football, tune in to abc seven news. tonight, the bengals take on the commanders on monday night football. our coverage starts at 5:00. kickoff is at 515. tonight, several breaking stories as we come on the air. growing concern of an all-out war between israel and hezbollah. tonight, hundreds of deadly air strikes on lebanon. the u.s. now sending additional troops to the region, given the rising tensions. also tonight, the u.s. bracing. the tropical system set to become a hurricane headed right toward florida. first tonight, israel launching hundreds o