yet, on the wall, they have a picture of dr. martin luther king. the pictures on the wall speak a magnitude of the culture of america. they call it the melting pot, but somehow not everything is melting. thanks so much for watching. i'm john quiñones. and we'll see you next time on "what would you do?" a california wildfire, pushing firefighters to the very limits, burning more than a thousand acres an hour, fueled by dangerous winds that are far from over. >> there's no point staying at a ghost town, you know. >> huge cuts are coming to one bay area university, including every single sports team. tonight, students are scrambling

to find a new school. >> a mountain lion preying on pets as neighbors desperate to scare it away. we're going to look at how the law is limiting their options tonight on abc seven news at 11. >> always live. abc seven news starts right now. >> it is exactly what southern california does not need another fast moving wildfire forcing thousands out of their homes tonight. explosive growth for this fire along the grapevine. but tonight firefighters are starting to gain the upper hand. good evening. i'm ama daetz. >> and i'm dan ashley. thanks for joining us. at one point this fire was scorching. this is incredible. more than a dozen football fields a minute. and tonight firefighters are starting to see some progress. thank goodness. despite dangerous and dry and windy conditions. >> the huge fire has burned over 10,000 acres and roughly 50,000 people are under evacuation orders. containment is at 14%. >> it's near santa clarita and castaic. so far, officials say it has not damaged any structures. the flames did come close to a water treatment plant, but firefighters were

able to turn it back. crews were ready because they had pre-positioned. for something like this. >> we were able to surge a whole bunch of resources thousands of firefighters, hundreds of pieces of equipment into this fire quick, because we positioned in the area just for something like this. so a lot of lot of crews here already. >> i-5 was closed for a while because of smoke but reopened around 6 p.m. so far there are no reports of any injuries. >> and those who live in the areas hit by the eaton and palisades fires are preparing for rain this weekend. that means getting sandbags to protect properties from landslides. burn scars are extremely vulnerable. even with just a light rain, there is the potential for thunderstorms, which could bring some downpours. that could be a real problem. officials are particularly worried about pacific palisades, where a lot of hills burned and there's just nothing to hold back the dirt. all right, first they have to get through another day of dangerous wildfire risk. however, yes. >> an abc seven news

meteorologist, andy patel, is tracking those winds and bone dry conditions, helping the hughes fire spread very quickly. sandhya? >> absolutely. and dan and ama, you know, the explosive growth has happened in a matter of hours, and we may see extreme fire behavior in the next 24 to 36 hours. let me show you the current conditions. the hughes fire over 10,000 acres, 14% contained. but those downsloping winds continue gusting to 34 miles an hour. look at the relative humidity 7%. when you have single digit humidity like that and those gusty winds. red flag warnings remain up until 10 a.m. friday. so that was extended. we have not only wind advisories, but wind warnings for southern california as those gusty winds continue. now we look at the hourly winds in just a moment, but current wind gusts, you will notice 38 miles an hour. camp nine. those winds are going to ramp up as we go, hour by hour. coming up into the 30 to 35 mile an hour range and then hitting 40 miles an hour early tomorrow morning to 43,

ramping up even more by 10 a.m. we're talking 50 mile an hour wind gusts, and that goes on into the afternoon. so unfortunately it is not a good situation with those strong, gusty santa ana winds and very low humidity combining with a severe drought. >> dan okay sandhya, thanks very much. well, moving on. uncertainty and outrage tonight after a major shakeup at sonoma state university, the university is cutting all every single one of its athletic programs and nearly two dozen degree programs. abc seven news reporter joe stone spoke with students who are just shocked by this, and now making plans to leave. >> if you think this area at sonoma state university looks empty now, it could be much worse come next year. in an emailed letter wednesday, the university president announced dozens of staff will be let go. academic departments dropped and the division two athletic program eliminated. >> i was in the dining hall and i like, couldn't help but overhear conversations. i think i heard like 7 or 8 different

groups, and i heard the word transfer like 20 times. >> all sports following to fall of 2025 will be eliminated. the entire sports department, the entire. all the coaching staff, faculty, athletic directors, the trainers, all that. >> athletes we talked with at the school shocked. >> my coach is out of a job now. the baseball coach just got here. he's out of a job now. our head trainer just bought a house here and moved his family here. and so it's really just heartbreaking to think about all the people that are affected by this. >> that's amari houston, a senior softball player at sonoma state. she says her coach sat her and her teammates down and made the announcement at practice wednesday. she'll get to play her senior year, but her younger teammates won't. >> we had absolutely no heads up at all that this was even a possibility. we had an athletic meeting with our president and the head of student affairs, where we had an opportunity to ask questions, and many

questions were asked, but none were actually answered. >> would you have gone to school there if they didn't have an athletic program? >> absolutely not. >> the school says they need to eliminate a $23.1 million budget deficit, and this will help them ensure, quote, long term fiscal stability. end quote. sasha says his environmental studies major is being eliminated and he'll likely be transferring just like many athletes. >> there's no point staying at a ghost town, you know, if there's no programs, no school spirit, and no anything to incentivize us here to stay at sjsu. what's the point? >> our sports team was really the only community building on our campus, and it's completely gone now. >> it's a really sad day. really sad day for the seawolves. >> j.r stone, abc seven news. >> well, it's not just sonoma state facing a budget crisis. the governor's proposed budget calls for the entire cal state university system to lose $375 million next year. huge blow. the csu chancellor says layoffs

and course cuts will be on the table if that budget is approved. san francisco state is preparing for cuts and may have to declare a financial emergency. cal state east bay is ending some of its smallest degree programs in order to save money. >> happening tomorrow president trump's executive order challenging birthright citizenship will face its first legal test. there are multiple lawsuits over the order refusing to recognize the citizenship of children born in the u.s. to noncitizen parents. tomorrow, a federal judge in seattle will hear a request to pause the order. >> and immigration remains the focus of the trump administration. the military is going to order more troops to the southern border. the first wave is expected to be about 1500. all previously approved refugee flights have been canceled as part of this executive order. the department of justice is directing prosecutors to investigate local officials who do not go along with the immigration crackdown. this is viewed as a warning to

sanctuary cities like san francisco. bay area leaders appear ready to push back. >> come at me. you know, i think we are here to protect the safety of our residents. california is a sanctuary state. it's critical that we continue to remain a sanctuary state merit. >> there's one more big move by the white house today. as of tonight, all federal employees working on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, often referred to as dei, are on paid leave. the trump administration is stopping plans to reform police departments, and it may affect the bay area. a memo went out to the department of justice about pending agreements with police departments, found to have a pattern of misconduct. earlier this month, the antioch police department and the doj department of justice reached an agreement to increase police oversight. it was the result of an fbi investigation which uncovered a racist texting scandal among the city's police officers. a bay area attorney

could have a big role in how this plays out. president trump has nominated san francisco based lawyer harmeet dhillon to be the doj's assistant attorney general for civil rights. >> president trump is also taking an unusual approach to pardons as he kicks off his second term. first, it was the january 6th rioters. now the president is pardoning the mastermind of silk road, the website allowing people to trade bitcoin for illegal guns and drugs. the fbi arrested its creator a decade ago inside a san francisco library. abc seven news reporter tara campbell spoke to experts about the impacts of this pardon approach. >> amid a flurry of executive orders, president trump's unprecedented pardons. >> certainly, pardons typically come at the end of a presidential term, not at the beginning. >> the president, already pardoning hundreds of people, including the january 6th rioters, and ross ulbricht, the san francisco man convicted of running silk road, a massive online drug marketplace. >> it's fascinating that the

president has taken on day one to go not only pardon the january 6th defendants in blanket, but also mr. ulbricht, who was facing a life sentence for being a major player in the distribution of drugs in this country. >> trump, pledging during his campaign to pardon ulbricht, who had been championed as a hero within the crypto and libertarian communities since his conviction in 2015. trump on tuesday calling the sentence ridiculous. >> this pardon sends the message that the next four years are going to be a very tense relationship between president trump and the department of justice. >> and because these pardons come so early in trump's second term, experts say it could cause chaos. >> how are people in the u.s. attorney's office going to look at this pardon that invested themselves not only in the january 6th prosecutions, but now in the ulbricht silk road prosecution? are they going to

feel that they're being undermined by the president, and they're not clear on what their directive will be? >> i think trump's signaling a couple of things with these pardons. one is that he understands his his base, he understands his core supporters, and he wants to follow through on his promises to them. >> and the experts say expect trump to continue being brazen. >> he doesn't care if folks are critical of that. he doesn't care if there's disagreement with his within his administration. trump's going to do what trump wants. >> tara campbell, abc seven news. >> tonight, governor newsom is calling for an investigation into the battery facility fire in moss landing. the fire broke out thursday and burned well into friday, leading to evacuations. the closure of highway one and a lot of smoky air. governor newsom's office says the investigation should determine the cause of the fire and ways to make these types of facilities safer. a local state of emergency was approved this week. >> and this comes as san francisco considers safety

changes to prevent lithium battery fires on smaller but dangerous, still dangerous scale. today, the san francisco fire marshal proposed his plan to the city's fire commission. he wants better fire protection in garages where electric vehicle charging stations are installed. he suggests using advanced sprinkler systems or walls. >> the idea is to put partitions up or firewalls so you only not only but you kind of only burn two vehicles you would not burn five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten and it would to contain it to a certain area until our firefighters can get in there and try to cool it until obviously, these lithium batteries cool down. >> he says the method can depend on the age of the building. the san francisco fire department recorded at least 15 lithium ion battery fires across the city last year. these involved electric cars, scooters, bikes and in one case, a leaf blower. >> a mountain lion on the prowl puts homeowners on high alert. the legal limits on what residents can do to protect their pets. >> a sophisticated burglary ring

only targeting a certain kind of homeowner. how neighbors working together helped south bay police make a big bust. >> there seems to be just one team that wants to stay at the oakland coliseum. the change of plans that could keep the ball rolling. >> first, a look at what's coming up tonight on jimmy kimmel live! right after abc seven news at 11. jimmy. >> thanks, dan. and to watch tonight we finally figured out how to do this. you live in new york, right? >> yes, but i was able to fly out here. >> oh, on a plane? >> yeah. exactly. i was going to do a boat, but they said

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number of pets and neighbors who want to scare the cougar off say they just don't have many options. this situation in the santa cruz mountains highlights a growing conflict over the way we handle predators. abc seven news reporter lauren martinez has the story. >> a home security camera captured a mountain lion walking away with a cat in its jaws. a woman living in the santa cruz mountains shared the video on facebook. she said a mountain lion has been going on and near her property for the last two weeks, sometimes more than once in a night. >> oh my god. >> i showed edgar guzman the ring video. he lives in the area. i asked if he finds it concerning. >> yeah, because i have a little dog. he's little, like a cat. >> we spoke with quinton martins, the principal investigator for living with lions. he said it's important to know if you're living in an area with predators. >> for example, to know that a mountain lion can jump 15ft high. >> martin said deer is really its prey. but if livestock or domestic animals are not in an enclosure, mountain lions will simply be the carnivores that they are.

>> unless you protect your animals, they are going to be targeted. >> in a move to protect the state's mountain lions in 2020, the california department of fish and wildlife expanded what's called their depredation policy. it prioritizes non-lethal measures to resolve conflicts with mountain lions. >> from a biologist point of view and conservationist point of view, i'd say yes. we have seen a significant drop in the number of lion mortalities. you know, i would imagine that some landowners feel that they are have their hands tied. >> martin said, trying to remove a mountain lion from your property is rarely the solution. >> if you're living in an area where you have predators and you remove the predator, but you don't fix the problem. another predator is just going to move in and take its place. >> josh rose, now with the mountain lion foundation, said the right kinds of precautions can prove successful. >> if you put in those bright lights, you put in those fences, you put in those noisemakers, you you teach the lion where

it's okay to be and where it's not okay to be. they learn. and so there is good evidence of that. >> mountain lions in the santa cruz mountains are part of an area being evaluated for endangered species consideration in the south bay. lauren martinez abc seven news. >> in the east bay, a warning tonight about an attempted sexual assault suspect. uc berkeley campus police say it happened yesterday between 730 and 8 p.m. near the baseball fields at the university village student housing. police received reports about a man stalking women on campus property in the same area. officers searched, but the suspect has not yet been found. in the south bay, san jose, police say they've made a break in a criminal operation targeting aapi households. today, they announced three suspects have been arrested. but based on evidence, the trio is only a small part of a larger burglary crew. they're accused of several home burglaries across several cities. police say the total loss is estimated to be around $1 million.

>> the oakland roots are giving up on their plans to build a temporary stadium. the men's soccer team now wants to continue playing at the coliseum beyond the 2025 season until they find a permanent home. prior to this season, the roots called cal state east bay home. the team had been planning to build a temporary stadium near the coliseum. they did not elaborate on the decision to abandon that plan. >> we are counting down to the 2025 chinese new year parade sponsored by toyota. we're less than a month from the largest lunar new year parade outside of asia. this year, actress and longtime san francisco resident joan chen kicks things off with the lighting of the ceremonial firecrackers as grand marshal veteran dancing with the stars judge carrie ann inaba will round out the parade as abc seven grand marshal for closing ceremonies. also, daniel lurie, the first san francisco mayor to hold his inauguration celebrations in chinatown, will serve as honorary grand marshal. >> this is what we look for as a chinese american. we're always looking forward to share our

culture with the world. >> abc seven is a proud sponsor of the 2025 san francisco chinese new year parade. you can watch the live parade saturday, february 15th, starting at 6 p.m. right here on abc seven and wherever you stream abc seven news. >> all right. happening tomorrow, the oscar nominations will be announced. hollywood waited a few extra days for this news because of the wildfires in southern california. they postponed the announcements. we'll have live coverage tomorrow on abc seven mornings. the oscars are still set for sunday, march 2nd. conan o'brien is the host. you can watch live right here on abc seven. >> all right, let's get to our weather. we need to find out what's going on around the region. >> yeah, a chilly morning again, but a lovely day once the sun really came up and warm things up. meteorologist sandhya patel is here with a look at what's in store. sandhya? >> yeah, and you know what? dan and ama, we're going to be basically seeing a continuation of the cold conditions tomorrow morning. but first i want to start with the fire conditions down in southern california. take a look at this time lapse.

this is from the hughes fire in southern california earlier tonight. and you can see how that fire was just going up the hill driven by strong gusty winds, low humidity, humidity and really critically dry conditions. so over the next 12 a.m. to 6 p.m. time period, definitely expect those winds to continue to ramp up as we head into tomorrow morning. 50 mile an hour winds out of the northeast, a very drying wind, so unfortunately things do not look good for them down in southern california. taking a look at our temperatures right now, they're in the 30s to 50s. we do have a frost advisory until 9 a.m. tomorrow for the north and east bay valleys. temperatures as low as the mid 30s. you can certainly count on some frost forming. you can see why skies are clear, the air mass is dry, and as we widen the picture here, high pressure is blocking any storms from getting here right now. so basically this pattern is going to hold as

we head through the next couple of days. we need the rain, there's no doubt about it. take a look at the rain this month for january. san francisco has received a measly 19 hundredths of an inch. that's 6% of normal, really, for this month, and it is right now slated to be the third driest on record you can see here. san jose 5%, oakland 6%. i mean, you're running really low considering this is one of our wettest winter months and the statewide snowpack is dwindling now it is just 75% of average. northern sierra is at 105, but this has been dropping notice. central and southern sierra have fallen behind where they should be. a live view from our sutro tower camera overnight tonight. chilly again. areas of frost tomorrow. sunny and mild to warm. and then saturday it is going to be windy in the hills and cooler weather potential for a few sprinkles now. tomorrow morning 30s and 40s to start the day tomorrow afternoon. bouncing back temperatures in the 60s and 70s today you probably notice that it was really a nice mild

to warm day with 60s and 70s, but we need the rain, no doubt about it. 33 tomorrow morning in napa, 34 santa rosa and livermore 35 in concord, 40s right around the bay and along the coast 43 san jose 38. in palo alto. we take a look at the high temperatures. you'll be in the low 60s to low 70s, once again, well above average for this time of year. now, looking ahead to the changes that are coming this weekend, friday, first you're going to notice an increase in the cloud cover. onshore winds. southern california gets higher humidity, which will help the firefighters along with the rain. but it's also going to prove problematic as there is potential for mudslides thunderstorm chance down there as well. the sierra will see some snow that continues into sunday and like i mentioned, a slight possibility of a few sprinkles here in the bay area. but when you look at the rainfall projections from this model, nothing really showing up. measurable. for the bay area down south, it's showing up los angeles 40/300 of an inch. the accuweather seven day forecast a cold morning, followed by a mild afternoon.

friday turns cloudier and cooler. gusty in the hills on saturday. a sprinkle chance certainly will be much cooler here. and then sunny and breezy and then next week increasing wind with dry pattern continu

i mean, i know how the fire affected me, and there's always a constant fear that who's to say something like that won't happen again? that's fair. we committed to underground, 10,000 miles of electric line. you look back at where we were 10 years ago and we are in a completely different place today, and it's because of how we need to care for our communities and our customers. i hope that's true. [joe] that's my commitment.

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to the legendary bill russell. the oakland unified school board voted unanimously tonight in favor of that resolution. russell graduated from mcclymonds and became one of the greatest basketball players of all time. of course, playing with the boston celtics and so many championships with

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on center. oh, they're ready to light the beam at the end of the evening. i did not have santos hitting four threes and a career high 16 points on my bingo card, but he played well. malik monk trying to get fancy without authority. he would make up for that later on. steph curry a season high 12 assists here to trace jackson davis the acrobatic finish. 11 points eight boards for tj d steph only took 11 shots but this one is spectacular here. the euro step into the floater. curry held to 14 x king buddy hield at the buzzer. dubs up 17 at the half. i mean what could go wrong. well demar derozan. he scored 19 of his 32 in the third quarter

alone. dubs scored only 20 in that period. this is what the warriors need from andrew wiggins 25 points. dubs up by four. just over four minutes left but 19 turnovers kill golden state. de'aaron fox hit only two shots tonight but that one was big. and monk with a dagger here. warriors lose to their norcal rivals 123 117. and yes they do light the been college ball. mike dunleavy jr. watching stanford take on miami is the warriors gm perhaps looking at maxime reno 28 points and 12 boards. that was pure jaylen blake after a steal. throwing it down. this game was over early but stanford still playing late anthony batson junior 360 slam. are you serious stanford rolls 8851. how about cal hosting florida state first half madi sissoko says who wants to be on my poster. throwing it down. he had 14 points, 13 boards and five blocks. jeremiah wilkinson led the bears with 18. corner three. splash and joshua

joseph adding 14 with authority. cal wins 7768. the a's have added a hall of famer to their staff. dave stewart will serve as a special assistant for player development. stu was the ace of the oakland staff in the late 80s. he's an oakland native who at one point was trying to buy the coliseum site. maybe stu can teach his infamous death stare to the pitchers. hockey is the only major sport that allows fighting, aside from obviously boxing or mma. this is a fight. mathieu olivier of columbus against ryan reaves of toronto. rock em sock em robots left and right and left and right and left and right. we will call this one a draw between two heavyweights. even i got a headache just from watching that. sports on abc seven, sponsored

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