>> aant final note tonight. remembering a true. abc news legend. our friend suzanne or tony. he was a beloved abc news cameraman for more than four decades. early on, he captured searing images like these from vietnam. he braved the dangers in the field alongside sam donaldson, peter jennings, ted koppel. >> this is ted koppel. abc near camelot, south vietnam. >> david muir, each of whom considered tony a news legend in his own right. he will be missed. that's nightline. you can watch all of our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here monday. thanks

for staying up with us. good night america. have a great weekend. >> more americans choose (discouraged) so expensive. i mean, i'm helping my mom out, i don't have that kinda cash. - ugh, i know. but you can get

financial help now through covered california. it's totally affordable. you'd be surprised. they've got this calculator thing that shows how much you'll pay. - for real? - yeah! what are you doing not having health insurance, man? - hey, i know, i know... - here, let me show you... - we all have questions. covered california has answers and can find a health plan that's right for you. covered california. this way to health insurance.

is through symptoms. >> a new warning tonight about the spread of bird flu. what's happened with the virus that is alarming health officials. the heated debate over h1-b visas that involve some of the biggest names in tech. and someone is $1.2 billion richer. tonight, we'll tell you where the jackpot winning mega millions ticket was sold. spoiler alert it's in california. >> always live. abc seven news starts right now. >> and good evening. thanks for joining us tonight i'm dan

ashley. we're going to start with the weather. a live look outside tonight. not a bad way for a start to the final friday of 2024. but things are changing for the weekend. abc seven news meteorologist sandhya patel is here. sandhya, a little bit of everything in your forecast. absolutely. >> dan. so let's first start with the rain and then we'll talk about what's ahead for the weekend. so you will notice the atmospheric river is aimed at the pacific northwest. northern california is getting the rain. we just in the last hour or two, started to pick up a little bit of moisture. showers moved through the north bay and parts of the east bay now on the peninsula. very light stuff. page mill road across parts of the peninsula as we look to our north. urban and small stream flooding continues in sonoma, so a flood warning is now going until 7 a.m. so just sonoma county is under that flood warning. it's a light level one system for the bay area that is going to impact us as we go hour by hour. notice that heading into tomorrow morning, there will be some wet weather in the north at 6 a.m. at 9 a.m, some

showers showing up around san francisco, and then a little lull in the activity. but then as we head into sunday morning, some downpours begin to show up as widespread rain arrives. the other thing we're tracking are the waves. this is a live view from santa cruz and the surf is up still high. surf advisory in effect, 20 to 30 foot swells expected until 4 a.m. sunday. the swells will remain high, so be careful. it's dangerous swimming and surfing conditions. a full look at your weekend timeline is coming up. dan, i'll tell you this much. it's not going to be a weekend washout. >> no, that's good to hear, sandhya. thanks. see you in just a few minutes. as sandhya mentioned, the high surf advisory. check out this video of the choppy waves and hazy skies in pacifica. officials are warning people the conditions could be dangerous for swimmers and surfers. the surf is still pretty rough. here's a look at now at the tahoe area. if you are heading that way. it is smooth sailing tonight for those traveling to and from the

sierra. no chains are required on interstate 80, and highway 50th may get more hectic if you're there tomorrow since it is expected to get windy. so keep an eye out for that and you can follow along as the forecast evolves. with the abc seven bay area app, it gives you access to the same live doppler seven sandhya and our weather team use every day. we'll also send you alerts with important updates to keep you informed immediately. new at 11. there are new warnings about the bird flu. tonight. the virus has mutated in a human patient. so how concerned should we be? and are we potentially facing another pandemic? abc seven news reporter tara campbell spoke with an infectious disease expert. >> warnings tonight from some of the country's top infectious diseases. doctors, worried not enough is being done to slow the spread of bird flu, particularly from human to human. and while there's no record of it yet, ucsf's doctor peter chin-hong says the train has already left the station, so it's not a matter of if it would happen, it's when it would happen.

friday, the cdc confirming the bird flu virus mutated inside a patient in louisiana. scientists say such mutations may make it easier for the virus to wreak havoc on the respiratory system. >> the more transmissions that occur, the more these mutations would happen. by chance, the virus isn't trying to mutate, it's just not very perfect and copying itself like covid. >> president elect trump's former white house covid response coordinator sounding the alarm on cnn. >> do you think it's just a matter of time until there's just a full fledged pandemic here? >> well, certainly we're setting ourselves up for that potential. >> doctor deborah birx says it's imperative to take the lessons learned from the previous pandemic. >> right now, we're just looking for symptoms. again, we should never be tracking viruses through symptoms. you don't see a virus through a symptoms, you see the virus through the test. and we know from covid most of the spread was asymptomatic. >> the doctor calling for more aggressive and accessible testing. >> we're still not testing. and we should be providing tests

free of charge to dairy farm workers so they can test anonymously weekly. >> meanwhile, doctor peter chin-hong, pointing out the severity of illness could also look like the last pandemic because we haven't been used to seeing these kinds of infections because they've been mainly in birds, we may get very sick, kind of like the early days of covid. another primary concern is the coexistence of the human flu and bird flu, one making it much more easy for the other to mutate. >> you want to minimize any chance of mixing genes with the bird flu, because that will give it opportunities to enter our body. >> and that's why he says, this is the best way to keep yourself and others safe. >> the first thing people should do is get your flu shot. it's not too late. >> tara campbell, abc seven news. >> president elect donald trump is asking the supreme court to delay a ruling on a potential tiktok ban until after he takes office. he wants his administration to pursue a political resolution to the issue first before the legal route. the request comes as

tiktok and the biden administration file opposing briefs to the court. the company arguing the court should strike down a law that could ban the platform by january 19th. the biden administration insists the statute is needed to eliminate a national security risk. silicon valley finds itself at the center of a raging political debate that could dramatically impact its workforce. it is pitting some of the biggest names in tech who happen to be supporters of donald trump, against the president elect's base. abc seven news south bay reporter laura martinez with a look at the clash over work visas. >> an online debate between big tech and politics continues into the weekend. at the center of the issue, the h-1b visa program. it's a gateway for skilled workers from around the world who specialize in areas that include mathematics, technology, engineering and science. 65,000 visas are issued each year, with an additional 20,000 given to those who have

master's degrees or higher. ahmed bonafe is an engineering professor at san jose state. >> this thing about having this limit of 65,000, i mean, we could miss someone. >> trump's new ai advisor has advocated for the u.s. to remove country specific caps on h-1b visas. tech industry leaders and trump advisors vivek ramaswamy and elon musk both made long posts on x on how their businesses rely on h-1b workers. ramaswamy pointed to the american culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad. maga supporter laura loomer tweeted, the h-1b program takes away jobs from american stem students. in a post, musk said there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in america. >> look at musk himself. he is one of the products of the h-1b visa. i mean, we don't have elon musk. you agree disagree with

him. we're not going to have tesla. we're not going to have spacex x uh- starlink. >> abc seven news insider phil matier weighed in on musk's support for the visa program. >> he's not only in favor of these high tech visas, he's also talking about expanding them to where if someone completes from outside the country, comes to america and completes a four year college program, they should automatically get a green card that's bringing a competitive workforce into america that will be competing with native born americans for jobs. >> on friday, marjorie taylor greene made the case. young people are spending all their time trying to be, quote, the next youtuber, content creator or social media influencer. instead of pursuing a useful skill set. trade education. so what will happen to h-1b visas during trump's second term? that's unclear. trump restricted the program in 2020 during his first administration in san jose. lauren martinez, abc seven news. >> a vigil tonight for the whistleblower researcher of openai who died last month. it was held in milpitas for 26 year

old suchir balaji. there are a lot of questions about his death. his parents hired a private investigator just yesterday. they don't believe their son would have died by suicide. >> yeah. i was the last person to talk to him. he was happy mood. he is not depressed or anything. and it was his birthday week. >> he made plans of going to ces in january. that was the last phone conversation he had with anyone. he went into his apartment. he never came out. there was no suicide note left, and there was nobody else in the scene. that doesn't mean they can just come to conclusion. and we have seen the blood shots in the bathroom. signs of fight in the bathroom. >> vigil organizers say they're honoring balaji's bravery and raising awareness to corporate accountability in artificial intelligence. in the east bay, the california highway patrol is going to keep a presence in oakland, and the police department is certainly glad to

hear that this has been a huge impact. today was the third extension, and it came just four days before the chp surge was set to expire. governor newsom extending it one more month, but he's calling on oakland's police commission to change opd's pursuit policy if it wants continued help from the state. >> someone that literally puts people's lives at risk. that occurs right in front of an officer in a vehicle. that officer cannot, under this extreme pursuit policy here in oakland, pursue that suspect. this commitment from the state can't continue unless we see commensurate changes. >> current opd policy only allows officers to chase someone if the suspect committed a violent crime or has a gun. abc seven news insider phil matier says the governor is becoming increasingly frustrated with oakland's police commission. >> they've ignored him. they

basically just said, buried it and said, no, we're not going to do it. and he's had it. he says, look, there's only so many highway patrol. there's other cities that want them and are willing to, to do it. but in oakland, it's they're the only ones that are doing the pursuits. oakland police don't. and they say it's sort of amazing when they stop people and they have bags and bags of stolen goods in the car that they said, hey, you weren't supposed to follow us. you weren't supposed to chase us. you're breaking the rules, right? this is an extreme outlier. >> public safety drove the recall vote against the former mayor and district attorney. as a result, phil says the city council may overrule the police commission if it won't cooperate with the governor. coming up here. look closely the next time you're in oakland. there's a tribute to rickey henderson. we'll tell you who is behind it. will santa cruz rebuild the portion of the wharf that collapsed? city officials tonight giving us a hint about what's in store for the future. and that massive mega millions jackpot was on the line tonight. and we have the winning numbers.

all of that's ahead. but first, here's a look at what's coming up tonight on jimmy kimmel live! right after abc seven news at 11. >> jimmy, every time you watch an angel gets chicken wings, you can look up your primal astrological animal. >> keith urban is a panda. >> keith is a panda. >> by the way, have you seen that panda? >> that's a

going up all over oakland. this is one of several billboards honoring rickey henderson. the a's great died last week. as we reported, last dive bar is behind the tribute. if you have purchased anything from them recently, this is where that money is going. henderson's family is still working out funeral plans two santa cruz now and the aftermath of that partial wharf collapse today, city officials gave an update, and there is a chance the portion that fell into the ocean may never be rebuilt. we're also hearing from the lifeguards who helped save lives on monday, when a 150 foot section fell

into the water. abc seven news reporter zach fuentes has been on this story from the very beginning. >> take a look at this video showing the moments powerful swell sent this portion of the santa cruz wharf collapsing into the ocean in these very moments, watching it happen in real time were two lifeguards, myself and lieutenant hoffman could see the wharf collapsing into the ocean. lieutenant isaiah mullen and sam hoffman had seconds to act, and on jet skis, rushed toward the debris. >> we could see the true scope of what had happened, the amount of wharf that was in the water, the buildings and structures that were still standing on it, and two individuals standing on the wreckage waving us down for help. >> all the while, the two lifeguards were still dealing with the powerful waves. >> it caused the tide to suck in, sucking underneath the platform, kind of pulling us towards the structure. >> miraculously, the lifeguards were able to save two construction workers. a third pulled themselves to safety. no

one was seriously injured. now, days later, attention turns to those most affected by the indefinite closure of the rest of the wharf, home of more than two dozen businesses owners who have already taken huge hits. >> i did own the dolphin. yeah, up until the 28th of last year, we had swells like this and we lost some some pilings and that collapsed the floor of the dolphin. >> that was the portion of the wharf under construction at the time of the collapse, with work planned out to be done between september and march, the city friday shutting more light on why work was being done during a time of year where high surf is now expected. >> we are bound by a number of permits and regulations, part of which is through the california coastal commission that regulates our ability to do major project work and maintenance. >> on the wharf. friday, debris cleanup was well underway, including the removal of the restroom facility that washed away to the mouth of the san lorenzo river. back at the wharf, the city said friday that it's not sure if it will rebuild. >> i don't think we can speak

with any confidence at this point as to whether rebuilding that section of the wharf is feasible, or the appropriate thing to do in light of the increased frequency and power of these storm events that we're experiencing along our coastline. >> the city of santa cruz has declared a local emergency, which opens the door up to federal and state funding. the city said they'll also work to determine if the contractor who was doing construction at the end of the wharf has any accountability in what happened in santa cruz. zach fuentes, abc seven news. >> an iconic san francisco oceanfront restaurant has sat dormant for years, but it's finally making a comeback. the seal rock in restaurant has overlooked the sutro baths for 50 years, but closed for the last four due to raised rent. a longtime chef and san francisco resident, alfred shilling, sold his catering company to take over the business. as a native of france, he's been busy turning the space into a parisian bistro. opening day

will be january 1st. following the story of the first free furniture friday event at the east bay silicon valley habitat for humanity restore in oakland, a lines wrapped around the building as people seized the chance to get free or heavily discounted mirrors, couches, desks and more. items marked with a green sticker were free for people to just take. it was a way for the restore to clear the their inventory and for the community to close out the holiday season with affordable household items. >> i think it's beneficial to the community because especially nowadays with inflation and stuff being so expensive. i mean, it's like good at giving back and getting rid of stuff. >> it's the first time this particular restore hosted a free furniture day, but other stores across the country have held similar events in the past. all right. someone is $1.2 billion richer tonight after hitting that huge mega millions jackpot.

the winning ticket was bought in cottonwood, california. that's a remote area off i-5 just south of redding. five people matched five numbers as well. those are worth nearly $800,000 each. that's a nice way to ring in the new year. two of them were in california as well, but not local. all right, check your tickets. here are the winning numbers three, seven, 37, 49, 55 and six. a billion bucks. not bad. all right. let's go back and talk about the weather forecast for the weekend. meteorologist sandhya patel is here with the changes in store. kind of a varied weather forecast. sandy. >> yeah. and, dan, you know what? we can't win that jackpot, but we can win the jackpot in terms of the snow. if you're a boarder or a skier, this is just a delight to see from zephyr cove. the snow is coming down tonight as we check out live doppler seven. earlier it had quieted down and now the snow is picking right back up again. as you can see, it is raining at

lake level, but snowing in the high country. the one thing that i do want to warn you about is high wind. watch begins sunday morning until sunday night. gusts to 65 miles an hour. ridge gusts to 150 miles an hour, damaging winds and difficult travel is expected. so i would not try to go up there on sunday. your better day is going to be tomorrow. so tomorrow. shower chance. windy 44 degrees, gusty, heavy rain and snow on sunday. you're looking at clouds to sun on monday and believe it or not, it is going to be dry for new year's eve celebrations. 38 degrees on tuesday, santa cruz. earlier today we had those big waves and this is just really a look at how it looked out there. high surf advisory is still going until 4 a.m. sunday, so watch out if you are going to be at the coast this weekend. on live doppler seven we have a lot of cloud cover and a few showers have developed tonight. they were very light crossed over from the north bay to the east bay and parts of the peninsula. we're going to be seeing more of

that. visibility down to three miles and half moon bay, where they have been dealing with some heavy fog. looking at the wider perspective, atmospheric river is going into the pacific northwest. you can see that plume of moisture. we're not going to get the atmospheric river in northern california. the pacific northwest will, but we'll get some wet weather out of it. and we certainly saw it the last 24 hours, a good soaking over an inch in santa rosa, almost two inches. ben lowman 6900, san francisco 8000/200 in oakland. look at that. almost an inch in napa, hayward, san jose, livermore. about a third of an inch of rain. your temperatures right now in the 40s and the 50s. the clouds will keep us insulated with a nice holiday. view from exploratorium through tomorrow. scattered showers sunday. soggy start, brief downpours and new year's eve and new year's day. it's going to be dry and a dry start to 2025. not tonight through sunday though. it's a light level one. spotty showers through tomorrow. widespread rain, gusty winds sunday. dangerous and rough surf will continue so the winds pick up sunday morning out of the south over 30 miles an hour along the

coastline and the higher terrain still gusty at 9 a.m. and then the winds will subside a bit as we head towards the afternoon hours. so let's time the showers out for you tomorrow morning, 4:00. you see some wet weather in the north bay as we head towards 9 a.m. could see some around san francisco, but really most of the day is going to be clouds. a little bit of fog. and then 11 p.m. tomorrow night, you see a few more showers developing. here comes the steadier, heavier rain between sunday, 6 a.m. and 9 a.m, the most widespread at 9 a.m. by 11 a.m. it's in the east bay and the south bay, and then by 3:00 it's all done. so in terms of rainfall, we are expecting anywhere from about a 10th of an inch in the southern part of our viewing area to about a half in oakland, one and a half in ukiah and about 2000/700 in san francisco. your morning temperatures, 40s 50s have the umbrellas handy tomorrow afternoon. you'll need the shades as well. 50s and 60s. and if you're going to be at the niners game against the lions at levi's stadium monday night, you can watch it right here on abc

seven news as well. clear and crisp, low 50s dropping to the mid 40s by the fourth quarter. it's going to be chilly. accuweather seven day forecast. spotty showers, level one tomorrow. rainy start to your sunday. also a level one, but it is going to dry out for the niners game for any of your new year's eve. new year's day plans will be chilly in the mornings, and it will be crisp and cool during the day. dry thursday friday could see

community groups put on their annual kwanzaa celebration. was held at the minnie and lovie ward rec center in the ocean view neighborhood. this celebration brings in traditions from across the african diaspora. they focus on their ancestors and love for community. organizers say it's also about community economics, supporting everyone as a village, as a family to move

forward together. this is the second night of kwanzaa. it runs through january 1st and a beautiful celebration there tonight. well, the warriors were without steph curry this evening. did they have any chance in la? sports director larry beil is here. larry. >> dan no steph and no draymond. so you're thinking blowout but no jc came to play jonathan kuminga flying through

sandhya patel, larry beil, all of us. we appreciate your time. i'm dan ashley right now on jimmy kimmel, jeremy strong and keith urban. have a good night and a great weekend.

host: hey, bay area, it's time to share some amazing stories and feel good. we could all use some inspiration right now and you've come to the right place. this show is all about good food, good people and good living. [♪♪] on today's show, the magic behind skeleton crew's visual effects. a communal market brings vendors and families together, rock star coffee beans elevate the caffeine experience and a remarkable hearing restoration journey. but first, a restaurant that dives into its creative dna. [♪♪] merchant roots is a multi-course themed dining experience. but first, a restaurant that dives into its creative dna.

we change our themes four times a year and every time we do we try to basically think up a restaurant that couldn't otherwise exist from scratch. we design and make a lot of our plateware, we try as much as possible for this to be a new restaurant every time we change our theme. the more you can engage with the theme, the more you'll get out of it. [♪♪] we're in selma, we're close to civic center, we're tapped into all these different neighborhoods in san francisco, which, i love san francisco, it's just a great place to be. [♪♪] ultimately these dinners tend to be near 12 to 20 courses depending on what we're doing. we want to create as much evocative experience as possible within each dinner. so we're currently doing a menu of color theories, so each course is served in monochrome. we change the lights in the room, we change the projection in the room. we have a few other kind of like really silly

little multimedia effects that try as much as possible to just amplify the experience of that color. we serve foods that eyes closed, you would say they taste green or they taste purple, and it's all about just an exploration of how color affects us and how we interact with color. [♪♪] so we're going to be making green, which is our late summer pea salad with spinach fonduta flower pot. we pretty much just kind of fill right into the top of the mold. after it freezes, you can carefully take it out of the mold, and this is like an herb coulis, so it gives us the opportunity to make like a super green, green goddess dressing. the little green beans that we poached, they just kind of go in the flower pot. it's a very organic presentation. we just try as much as possible with each menu, with each course to kind of go somewhere totally crazy, totally different. [♪♪]

when i was a baby chef, you know, it was all about flavor, and then someone opens your eyes to the importance of presentation. so then it becomes all about precision, and you know, beauty, and all of these things being like perfect. we're building our black forest cake. so the first thing you want to do is kind of like fill the mold with chocolate mousse. we have this like super dark devil's food cake. this is an amarena cherry filling. that's going to go in the middle. we've got another piece of cake for the top. seat the top of the mold, fill it to the top. put it in the freezer, and when we get it out of the freezer, we now have this like really cool, perfect little ball of chocolate mousse cake. this is our activated coconut charcoal mirror glaze.