the news starts right now. >> a new wave of federal workers facing a midnight deadline with their jobs on the line. good afternoon. thanks for joining us i'm kristen z. people in several cities across the nation rallied in support of federal workers as the trump administration cuts government jobs. a new round of workers facing a midnight

deadline to justify their role by listing five tasks they completed at work last week. abc news reporter reena roy has new developments. >> when we fight, we win. >> from connecticut and maryland to the nation's capital. federal workers taking to the streets, fighting against the mass firings of government employees. as the trump administration works to shrink the federal government. >> i've got a very clear message for donald trump, elon musk and maga. hands off noah. >> hundreds of scientists with the national oceanic atmospheric administration are among those recently let go. noaa provides weather forecasts and storm warnings, as well as climate monitoring. >> this is such a dangerous thing. you're playing games really with potentially life saving information to go out to people and making it harder to get out to people. >> thousands of workers receiving a second wave of emails demanding by monday night to list five tasks they completed at work last week. elon musk saying those who

failed to respond will be fired. the department of education also giving workers a monday deadline to accept a payment of up to $25,000 to voluntarily resign or retire, according to a memo obtained by abc news and the social security administration, which provides key benefits to older americans, saying it plans to cut 7000 workers. new york governor kathy hochul hosting a roundtable today with some impacted government workers. >> i served my nation for 20 years in the army. i raised my hand again to accept this job in the in the federal system, thinking that there would be some stability in it. >> the governor saying new york has 7000 available jobs, encouraging those who have been let go to apply. >> new york does want you. new york needs you. come work in the greatest state in the nation. >> the department of government efficiency says it has saved $105 billion. but experts say that number cannot be verified, that the site has only posted what the agency says is 30% of the supporting receipts. reena roy, abc news, new york.

>> a bumpy ride today on wall street. the dow tumbled nearly 650 points as president trump confirmed tariffs on mexico and canada will start tomorrow. mr. trump said that he is imposing 25% tariffs on canada and mexico. he said he would end the tariffs if those countries build their car, plants and other businesses in the united states. trump said he was using tariffs to punish countries that he says are taking from the u.s. economy, without giving enough in return. so here's a look at the impact on the markets. the dow sank to 43,191 points. it's down 1.5%. the nasdaq lost 497 points, down over 2.5%. the s&p 500 posted its worst day of the year, down 105 points to close at 5849. new developments in the case of an embattled south bay politician, former san jose city councilman omar torres pleaded not guilty today to charges of sex crimes with minors. he faces

three felony counts of child sexual assault. torres resigned from city council last november. a special election is set for april 8th to fill his seat. ballots started being mailed out last week. a man died this morning after his motorcycle collided with a semi truck in millbrae. it happened this morning on northbound el camino real between park boulevard and santa ynez boulevard. the video shows the san mateo county sheriff's office worker moving traffic cones after the road reopened. the man driving the truck stayed at the scene and spoke with police. no word yet what caused this crash? a dramatic crash left a car mangled on the sidewalk in oakland this morning. look at this. the vehicle practically split in half after slamming into the traffic light pole. miraculously, the driver survived and was taken to the hospital. it happened just after 4 a.m. at the intersection of 54th avenue and international boulevard. police are investigating and still working to figure out the cause of the accident. now to the mystery surrounding the death of gene

hackman and his wife. abc news reporter alison kosik has the latest from investigators and an expert's theory on the actor. >> overnight. legendary actor gene hackman remembered at the oscars. >> our community lost a giant, and i lost a dear friend. gene hackman. >> the 95 year old two time oscar winner and his wife found dead alongside one of their dogs at their home last week. >> there was no indication of a struggle. there was no indication of anything that was missing from the home or disturbed. >> both have tested negative for carbon monoxide poisoning, but because their bodies were found at least nine days after their deaths, based on hackman's pacemaker activity, experts say an autopsy will be needed to rule out carbon monoxide. >> the longer that time goes by without carbon monoxide being tested, the less likely it is to show up. it may have diffused

out of the body. >> but there are other theories about what could have happened. >> his wife, uh, was found in the bathroom from the scene and from what's been said is that she found her husband in the mudroom, went to the very excited, went to the bathroom to get his. the high blood pressure medication and fell down. pulling a room heater down with her and spilling the pills on the floor and that she may have struck her head on the way down. >> as for those autopsy results, we're told it could be three months before they're released. alison kosik, abc news, new york. >> in the east bay, students at oakland high school walked out of class today for a day without immigrants. it's part of a national day of action to protest the trump administration's mass deportations. a group of students marched from the school to lake merritt for a rally. they're also calling on other immigrants rights supporters across the bay area to rally in

their communities. today, grade school students in san francisco can ride muni to school for free this week. the sfmta is also running two muni related contests to try to get more kids on board. the transit challenge asks kids to log their rides online through march 10th for the chance to win prizes for themselves and for their school. there's also a muni inspired art contest starting today. students can submit designs for a muni mascot similar to the giants lucille or bart's anime characters. they can also submit ideas for ways to redesign the transit vehicles. the winning art submission will be displayed on the inside of some muni busses. sfmta will continue work on a water problem that's shut down the central subway tunnel. crews are repairing a leak at the chinatown rose park station. that station, along with three others, will be shut down for repairs through march 14th. the t bus will replace trains while the work continues. now to the accuweather forecast and a bright and brisk day in the bay area. abc seven weather anchor

spencer christian lets us know when we can expect some rain to return. yeah, so kind of gusty. >> yeah, it's getting gusty right now. kristen. in the afternoon hours we had the winds pick up a little bit, but you described the day quite nicely. bright and brisk. and we have some unsettled weather coming our way. periods of rain developing over the next few days. here's a look at the satellite radar composite image a low pressure system up in the pacific northwest in the gulf of alaska, to be more precise, is drawing in some of that pacific moisture that's mov our direction. you see this huge mass of clouds and moisture moving at us. now, we're not talking about heavy rainfall coming this way, but there will be some rainfall developing. right now, though, we're looking at gusty winds pretty much all around the bay area, but especially near the coast and the bay. we have gusts up to 36mph at sfo right now, 26 in novato and 25 at san mateo. so pretty breezy out there. the winds may not be tapering off significantly until later in the evening. despite the wind gusts. though, we have warmer weather right now than at this time

yesterday by about 2 to 4 degrees in most locations. so let's move along and take a look from sutro tower out over san francisco, where it's currently 54 degrees 59, in oakland, hayward and san jose, both at 5758. redwood city, 55 at half moon bay. nice view. interesting view. in fact, from mount tam you see some clouds up at the mid-levels and lots of blue sky out over the bay, 63 degrees up at santa rosa, petaluma right now, 55 degrees 60 at napa and low 60s at fairfield, concord and livermore. let's check out our forecast animation, see what's coming our way over the next day or two. so clouds will be increasing going into the evening hours 11:00 1130. tonight it will be mostly cloudy, gets even cloudier overnight about 7:00 tomorrow morning we'll see the arrival of some light rain or drizzle sweeping through rather quickly. and by early afternoon we'll see that tapering off. but clouds will linger and more patches of drizzle will follow going into wednesday. now we start the day on wednesday with mostly cloudy

skies, but later in the day we'll see the arrival of a little frontal system, bringing in some rainfall that will sweep through pretty quickly wednesday night into thursday. so again, unsettled weather for the next couple of days. and we don't expect any sunshine until, i mean a really sunny day until later in the week. the rainfall estimates from the approaching system by 11 p.m. wednesday, only a few hundredths of an inch. as i mentioned, this is not going to be a significant rainfall and impactful rainfall, but there will be some wet weather, some slick roadways. overnight low temperatures, mainly in the mid to upper 40s tonight. highs tomorrow upper 50 to about 60. not much of a warm up until much later in the week, but let's take a look at that. here's the accuweather seven day forecast. so level one storm on the exclusive abc seven storm impact scale for wednesday. thursday we start the day with morning clouds giving way to some afternoon sunshine. then the sun shines brightly on friday and saturday and we get nice little warm up with high temperatures near the bay and inland climbing into the mid or even mid to upper 60s on saturday, but going into next

weekend. oh by the way, don't forget to spring forward as we get into daylight saving time starting on sunday. light rain returns also on sunday and then next monday looks like rainy and cooler all over again. as i said earlier kristen, it's unsettled. >> okay. thank you spencer a new issue is coming to light in california's home insurance crisis. some homeowners say their insurance company dropped them over problems that don't even exist. sev

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ahaha! cash brothers! yeah! cashback like a pro with chase freedom unlimited. how do you cashback? chase, make more of what's yours. (♪) if passed. measure a would change the county charter and give the board of supervisors the ability to remove embattled sheriff christina corpus. it would take 4 or 5 voting supervisors voting to remove the

sheriff if they find cause to do so. corpus is accused of corruption, nepotism and retaliation within the department. she has consistently denied those allegations and has called the special election a political attack. a bizarre twist in california's insurance crisis, raising questions about the non-renewal process. seven on your side stephanie sierra investigates homeowners who got dumped by their insurance over problems that didn't exist. >> california homeowners are getting dropped by insurance companies for some pretty bizarre reasons. i'll show you what i mean. we're in san francisco's potrero hill neighborhood. policyholders here are getting dropped, citing aerial footage like this. everything from having mold and algae on their roof, which is not there, to having a pool in their back yard to something as simple as having a storage shed on their property. well, as we found out, the list of non-renewals is growing and may surprise you. from the city to the countryside, the

relationship between california homeowners and insurance companies is starting to feel like a bad romance. just ask susan gadwa and her goats. >> this is poncho. >> she lives on a farm in penngrove, a small sonoma county town. >> we do everything ourselves. >> in an attempt to impress triple a, she invested $44,000 to fireproof her home. not to mention. >> they keep the grass down and eat a bunch of brush. >> yet, triple a. >> they just said, you know, we're dropping you. >> no text, no call. the cold rejection came in this letter. like a bad breakup. after more than 30 years of timely payments and zero claims. >> i've been a loyal customer of yours. and now you're going to dump me. i was really upset. >> even her goat sugar. she had to shake it off. and the worst part? triple a cited a slew of reasons that didn't even exist. turns out she's not alone. >> unfortunately, we are unable

to continue coverage. >> seven on your side reviewed more than a thousand cases to find the top reasons california homeowners are getting dropped. >> their sleepless nights. >> the unromantic truth across the bay area. >> i just felt this sense of betrayal. >> and calling and not getting any answers. >> plus, so we're inside the build of this concrete home. what you can do to protect yourself. we spent the day with a company that specializes in disaster resistant structures like this one to find out. seven on your side investigates tonight at six. stephanie sierra, abc seven news. >> he is facing another blow more than a year after the devastating wildfires. how leaders are now

♪ dreams begin here. welcome to the goodnight club.

says the phrase aloha means goodbye. well, that's been true of maui. unfortunately, lately, since its devastating wildfire 18 months ago. check out these new numbers just out. they show the number of travelers have

dropped sharply, especially from the bay area. the number of passengers flying from san jose to maui dropped nearly 8%. comparing this past january to january of last year, and the drop for sfo to maui is nearly 6.5% in the same period. joining us live now to talk about a new initiative for maui to get travelers back, james tokioka, director of the hawaii department of business, economic development and tourism. james. aloha. nice to see you. >> aloha, kristen, and happy girls day. >> yes, indeed. let's talk about maui. it is not all bad news. i don't want to make it sound that way, but it's clear visitors are not returning to the island as much as you like. talk about the overall numbers that you're looking at. and then let's focus on the bay area. >> yeah. so, you know, especially oakland and san jose, it's down a lot. so the governo, who has been very supportive of the visitor industry, he took away some restrictions from our department and dbd to help the

industry with the marketing campaign of $6.3 million to get wholesalers to continue to blitz the west coast and, you know, the united states, to get visitors specifically to maui for this campaign because we know the numbers from maui are down. and, you know, over from 2019 to uh-, compared to 2024, it's down by 700,000 visitors just on maui. so we know that our focus is there. you know, the us mainland has spread out their trips to kauai, oahu and the big island. but maui is certainly down. so we need to focus on that. and that's where that $6.3 million is going to go to. >> so does that mean tv ads, you know, things on our tiktok feed? and just like letting us see everywhere that maui is a good place to go visit right now. >> yes, yes. well, can you you can imagine what happened with the fires in lahaina. yeah. what

happened in los angeles. but yes, all of that. okay. wholesalers. you know, people don't really know this, but costco is one of the biggest wholesalers throughout the entire country. and we just want to make sure that our message is out there. our requests for people to come visit maui is out there, and maui is open for business. so that's what we're the campaign is going to be for, and we look forward to more people from the bay area to come to hawaii and all of california. >> yeah. and the california market represents what percentage of your overall tourism? >> about 42%. >> wow. okay. so i understand why l.a. has been a little bit down right. not as much as here. you know, they certainly had the wildfires to contend with themselves recently. so january i can understand, but why do you think the bay area is down by so much? in particular, why are we not visiting? are we going somewhere else? >> well, that's what the numbers show. we don't have all the

exact data yet. yeah. but, you know, so right after the fire, a lot of the travelers were saying from maui. and, you know, maui is one of the heaviest traveled islands of all of the islands. but they were saying they wanted to respect the people who live there. and, you know, a lot of it is timeshares. >> yeah. >> they were going to come in another year, not last year, but we're hoping that that picks up again this year. >> so let me just ask you then, if tourists come, are they no longer taking up space or housing. you know. or that would go to the locals who were impacted by the fire? is the reconstruction all done? and then if they can get rid of the guilt part, what will they encounter when they visit in terms of places that are open or closed? >> i think they will encounter i'm always specifically, you know, there's a big portion of the community on maui that, you know, want the visitors to come and have enjoyed, you know, relationships that have been built over decades. you know, a lot of the timeshare families,

they come almost every year or every other year at least. so, you know, they'll be able to expect that one area that the hoteliers and the government has been working on to change what happens is the illegal vacation rentals. they're not registered with the state, they're not registered with the county, and they're renting their rooms without permits. and so we're we're we're certainly taking a look at, at stopping those vacation rentals, because the hotels that are operating, they are there, they are there. they're waiting for people to come and they're they're legal. >> can i ask you real quick? we don't have much time left, but i do want to address this. is there a silver lining at all to fewer tourists? because i understand over tourism and, you know, locals saying, hey, we don't have enough, like, water resources. and, you know, the parking is crazy. that that was becoming a problem. is there a happy medium in are you not there right now? >> i would say we are not there as far as you know, getting

having too many tourists. certainly not. not on maui. but what we're doing is, you know, at hta, the hawaii tourism authority, we're changing our focus to be more of a destination management area. and in hyena and waianapanapa hana on kauai and waianapanapa on maui, we've set up the areas so that there's better traffic, there's better parking, there's better facilities, so that when the tourists and the locals go there, it's a better place for everyone to enjoy. and those two areas are shining examples of what the industry partners can do, as well as something that the local people enjoy as well. >> all right, james, we're out of time. but real quickly, what's the website people should visit to get all things hawaii tourism information? >> the state of hawaii and dbedt on the back of the screen. well, you got you. you have this one too. >> we got it right there. give

you a chance to say. >> though, james tokioka, director of the hawaii department of business, economic development and tourism. thank you so much. mahalo. >> thank you very much, christine. have a great day. tell larry biel we said hello in hawaii. >> all right, we'll do it. happens to many of us. you're scrolling on your phone and you see an ad for something you didn't even know existed, but can't live without. up next, the

this wednesday ahead of tax day. get your questions answered by tax professionals by sending them in now. just go to abc seven news.com and click seven on your side and you'll find the form right there. then watch on wednesday right here on abc seven. the bay area has some work to do when it comes to

closing the gender pay gap between men and women. troc info net compiled new data in honor of women's history month. it found san jose ranks fourth on the list of large u.s. cities with an earnings gap. women earn $0.72 to every dollar that men earn. and in sunnyvale, which the report labeled a mid-size city, the disparity is even wider. women earn $0.56 to every dollar that men earn. well, since those cities are in the silicon valley, something for the tech industry to think about. ever scroll on social media or just be looking online when suddenly an ad pops up and you unexpectedly find yourself shopping? there's now a growing movement to combat that impulse buying. abc news reporter rebecca jarvis has a closer look at a story we first saw in the new york times. >> online shoppers like cassandra orakpo are joining a growing movement and social trend called no buy in 2025, turning off the temptation to shop inside social media apps. >> i mean, they make it so easy,

like you see something you can buy directly in the app. and especially, you know, with the wallet feature, you don't even have to type any numbers, any, any digits, any anything. so it's just it's that simple. >> so simple that cassandra decided she needed to kick her shopping habit. >> just like i don't have any more space. like, yes, you may want more things, but, like, it's kind of borderline hoarding. like, you don't need this. >> a 2023 survey found that over 12 months, americans spent $71 billion on social media. impulse buys and brands are taking note. in 2025, businesses are expecting to spend nearly $103 billion on advertising on social media, a 62% increase since 2021. >> we don't realize is when we are online, we are being tracked via cookies. retailers and brands are able to have a very specific picture of who you are, what your interests are, and they are able to sell products to you that much more

effectively. >> to stop buying and start saving, cassandra took to tiktok and made a pledge. >> look at me. in 2025. self control is in the room with us. okay. >> she says she's cut back by unsubscribing from brand emails and texts, and changed her tiktok settings to avoid personalized ads. >> i'm just feeling so much more at peace and honestly in more control. >> rebecca jarvis, abc news, new york. >> thanks for joining us. i'll see you back here tonight, breaking news. we're tracking this new major cross-country winter storm. 115 million americans on alert for dangerous driving, blizzard conditions, high winds, from the midwest to the south. the great lakes, right to the east coast. and the real tornado threat tonight. we're also watching it. ginger zee is standing by. also tonight, the new images here, the wildfires burning out of control in south carolina.