welcome to "assignment 7". today on our program, only in san fransco, the service the city's homess receive from the public libry system. at one family found when they went looking for relatives who should have been buried decades ago. ps, the future of robots, dancing isn't even their most impresssive talent. we begin with a new burden facing the housing industry, starting next year, all new single family homes built in california must be equipped with sprinkler system nanette reports on the lives that could be saved and what it will cost. >> reporter: the housing industry saysrices of new homes in califoia are about to go up, not because of an economicurn around, but because of the sprinkleraw

adopted by the state building standards commission. single family homes built after january 1, 2011, must have a fire sprinkler syste >> so it's clear to us that sprinklers save lives, they reduce injuries d protect millions of dollars in property. >> this comes probably the worst time. >> reporterhome builders say they built hos in east of the lastwo years since they began keeping records. it's hard enough selling nw homes in this recession. mandatory sprinklers would bot prices higher. >> andn a per home basis, we're probably looking at 5 to $6,000 of increased costs. >> reporter: bob points out older homes are the proem. not new ones. their numbers show the majority of home fire happened in residences built before 1952. >> we primarily feel it would be better dollars spent to focus on gettingard wire smoke detection into the existing housing sck.

>> reporter:ut the state says their nuers show the extra cost is worth it. with almost half of the fir department's reporting to the state,4 deaths occurred in homes without sprinklers last year. while no deaths occurred in homes wi sprinklers. there were fewer injuries, too, nearly 400 in homes without sprinklers. less than thr dozen in homes with sprinklers. this fire department demonstration, flames begin grow in this makeshift room and soon as the fire debts intee, spriners quickly douse it. >> our typical respoe times are fro three to five minutes. the sprinklers are essential for homes because it's like having the fire deptment at your house 24/7. >> reporterthere is virtually no chance to fight this new regulation. once the sprinkler law was included into the national standard, california requir the state to follow. in saramento, abc 7 news. >> san francisco is trying something new when it comes to services fo the homeless. as abc abc 7' carolyn tyler reports, the main library offers

somethi you'll find nowhere else. >> you couldn't go and feel safe. >> reporter: barry is talking about san francisco's main lirary. it opened in 1996 across from the old builng in civic center plaza. there were elabore ceremonies and crowds waited in long lines to tour the 376,000 square feet, multlevel structure. it's still popular. 6 million people are expected to visit this year, including many who are homeless. they come to read, use the internet, and the bathroom, or just as a sanctuary to get off the street. city librarian calls the library one of the most democratic initutions you'll find. >> we don't ask if you're homeless. we don't ask your status. it's absolutely open and free to everyone, but inome instances en we have issues of individuals needing some help, it's an opportunity wh a soal work tore provide that referral.

>> reporter: that's rht. a social worker. there are other libraries in the country that are also havens for the homeless. but no one else takes this approach. this woman is a psycatric social worker here 9:00 o'clo to 5:00'clock, monday through friday, walking from floor to flr. >> i say hell and somehow they tart to feel more comfortable and they start talking. how is it goin >> ay. >> reporter: as e tries to link patrons with servic ranging from housing to meal health counseling. not everyone is on board. woulyou do something if she came throug and offered you some? >> not all. i'm completely capable of takin care of myself. >> we can not help everybody. people have their own time and terms of when they want help and we haveo respect that. >> reporter: as she has been on theob for just over a year, her salary paid by the library. bere she arrived, the situation w getting out of

control. frightening some patrons and staff. >> people taki showers or people brushing their teeth in the bathrooms. there was so concern about people who might overdose. people who are using drugs in e bathroom. >> report: this is a pschiatrist with the city's health department. the library turned to him and other heth professionals who then came up with a novel idea to hire leah, rather than traditiona homeless outreach workers. >> what we found out was that a lot o the homeless folks who come here, they come here to get away from bei homeless and i think that's - we found a lot of t folks we spoke with did not really want to engage with an outreach worker at that point >> reporter: bu many help. e has help 250 people at the library since she started, including garyray. >> somebody told me that there was a socia worker upstairs, that gond talk to, maybe get off the street.

i did. that's how i met her. >> reporter: he was living under a freeway overpass and now has support of housin a place to call his own. >> strawberries. >> it's not a total turn around at the library, but the staff says there has been a noticeable drop in inappropriate behavior. >> it's great since she started because i think it helps them and helps the libraries. >> seral libraries around the country, atlanta, and others, have told san francisco they're considering replicatg the program. >> thank you for your time. >> reporter: in san francisco, carolynyler, abc 7 news. >> many people might consir a hard core vegan diet too extreme a solution, but that could be changing. caryn johnson reports. >> don't forget the mango. >> reporter: richie doesn't just preach a strict vegan diet, he

credits it with savin his life. he says he had beguno develop diabetes whene decide to eliminate all animal products and processed ods from his diet. >> i wound up losing 40 pounds. i rid myself of all the symptoms of diabete i was 100% raw vegan. >> reporterhe sells prepared vegan meals for a livin he admits the lifestyle is still lacking mass appe. >> i would like to see people eat 100% raw vegan, but i don't think that's realistic at all. i think that if folks were even 80% raw and 20%. >> reporter: now a diet ung about that formula is getting natnal attention. all because of a popular food critic from the "new york times." mark bitman. now perhaps better known as the vegan before 6:00 o'clo. >> i don't really proselytiz i say, is what worked for me. >> reporter: he had some of the

same health solutions. >> i made this rule for myself, which was okay, i need to be a vegan, a really strict vegan, until 6:00 o'clock at night or untii eat dinner. i'm going to eat whole grains, fruits and vegetables, legumes. that's it until 6:00 o'clock >> reporter: he came up with daytime recipes using the kind of ingredientsou can find at ole food and farmers mark and still at at restaurants several nights a wk. >> after three months, my cholesterol w normal again. my blood sugar was normal. i lost 30 pounds. >> report: mark bitman started his ownlog as well. we have a lk for you at abc7news.com, along with links to other vegan sources. in the news room, carolyn johnson, abc 7 news. >> the sight of a horrid discovery 26 years ago. >> i would like to see at least something that says this is a memorial area for a sacred place. >> a family relives the pain ter loved ones who were

supposed to b buried decades ago

>> it was 1984 when the discovery of human bones and ashes of thousand of people was made on a remote hillside. 26 years later, there is new controversy. here is abc 7's vic lee. >> you okay, mom? >> yes. >> reporter: nding the property where the cremated remains had be illegally dumped would have been difficult without the help of marcella fox, her mother, judy, and aunt janet. >> a lot of this was overown with needles and the path into he wasn't cleared. but we cleared what we could. >> reporter: it was 26 years ago when the ghastly discovery was made here on ten acres of land near the mothload town of elecic creek. white aes and fragments of human bones were strewn in heaps four feet high. they were the remains of some

9,000 people. the propey belonged to pilot b.j. elkin, who contracted with a nepne society and dozens of funeral homes to scatter the ashes at sea and over the sierra nevada. >> instead, he put them in a truck and broht them up here and dumped them in piles. >> reporter: those piles, the ashes of antonio, judy's father, she broke the news to her mother. >> having to tell her that, it broke my heart because they had been marri for 42 years. >> reporter: her sister's remains were dumped here. elkin was eventually convicted of commingling human ashes and fined $600. he served no jail time. but the judge ordered his property tranerred to the state cemetery and funel board, whichwould act as conrvator. >> this actually looked like somebody had camped and had fires over the years.

>> reporter: marcella says her famil had been trying for deades to find this place. she succeeded early last year after contacting the cemetery board. >> they had no idea what i was talking out at first. it took them a few days to figure it out. >> reporter: even these directions whic the agency faxed misspelled the me of the road leading to the property. >> ther was garbage strewn all over. it looked like people campe her >> reporter: it was obvious the cemetery board had not maintained the land. more disturbg to fox and her family was anoth discovery. bone fragmts after almost ree decades. >> i was walking around going well, that'sstrange. one of those little white rocks are. it dawned on me those aren't rocks. that was a shock. >> reporter: we discovered more bone fragmts on our visit and found these memorial stones left by other families. it was the only clue that this remote hillside was the resting plac of thousands. >> we thought at it was supposed to be accessible to the

family members and -- maintained? >> and maintained or protected and that it was supposed toe some sort of memorial park. >> reporter: did you expec for instance, a fence o markers or soething? >> something. something. tre was nothing. nothing but trash. >> i wouldike to see at least something that says, you kn, this is a memorl area or a sacred place. >> the judge said no, we're not going to allow a memorl to be put up because the decsed did not want marks or memorials in the traditional sense and so he felt it was important to honor those wishes. >> reporter: russ is the spokesman for the cemetery reau. he says the judge ordered the agency to protect and preserve the property in its natural state. even $100,000 which the judge put into a trust fund to maintain this cemetery remains virtually untohed, eaing so

much interest that it's now doble to 200,000. >> you get a nic wind up here. kind of comforting. >> reporter: since the state won do it, fox and her family say they will continue trimming the areand cleanin the litter d started a facebook pe for those with relatives and friends here. >> the importan thing is that other families can come here if they wh. >> reporter: fox hopes tey, too, may find some comfort in the tranquility of the sierra foot hills. this final resting place of their loved ones. vic lee, ab 7 news. >> when "assignment 7" ntinues, "7 on your side" examines those tiny urs that link you from one web site to another, the curity threat that could pos to your computer. a high-tech election experiment, a bay aa county is the first

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if you're in the twitter, facebook or send lots of e-mails, this report will interest you. are those tiny url's safe? michael finney has an answer. >> reporter: let me show you how these things work. you put in a web site link and shrink it. a smalle link is created, a more manageableize and it can be more easily use on social sites like this on and in e-mails. convient, but there is a concer. >> i don't click unknown lis to things -- i don't know where it's going. >> reporter: this scientist run has successful healthy eatin web site summer tomato. she posts shortened url's and still shs concerned. as i turns out, with good reason. >> there is a possibility, a dangeus potential there of

peopleaking a url and masking it effectively with a tiny url. >> reporter: ryan run has social media management site that provides shortening. he says they check every site it shortens. >> it looks at the url, compares it to a known database o bad url's and bad web sites and will flag it. >> reporter: click on a troubled rrl and a pop up warns against going on. they offer protection, but not all sites do. so should we be concerned? computer security firms h been looking into that. >> we got well over a million users who go through our crowd every day. so we can see real traffic to see out of those people who is clicking on tiny url it's are those good bad. >> rerter: that's the ceo. this appears to be the first major study of its kind. >> so we took a sample, a decent

saple, 1.3 million url's, tiny on and looked to how many of them are malicious. the results are .06% >> reporter: an amazingly low risk, espeally he says, in the on-line world. >> i believe that. it's yu don't want to be -- you don't want that one time to be you and have it ruin your whole operating system for the day. like who has time for that? >> i'm micha finney, "7 on your side". >> the use of touch screens for registering voters. david louis reports. >> reporter: this could be the beginning of the end for this kind of voter registration drive, the kind that uses paper anden. in this era of smart phones, elaine davis recalls the last time she filled out a form that way. >> probablymy voter registration when i moved. i think that's the only thing i ca think of i do on paper. >> reporter: he is the new way, using touch screen mobile dices such as the ipad. santa clara county is the first

inhe state to approve new technology developed. >> touch screens become more prevalent and by one estimate, one out of every two people in the country will have one by 2014, we think everody will benefit from this and use this. >> reporter: co-founder says his registration system uses encription to safeguard data and the signature. electronic signatures are permitted under the state government code. they aren't mentioned in the state elections code which may provide a loophole. >> anhing that makes it easier for voters to get the kind of services they like and deserve, then we're in favor of it. >> reporter: touch screen registration may save money. a recentudden said oregon spent $6 per pers for voter registration. the company thinks it cod shave it down to a dollar or two. >> the ipad is create to do replace paper. if we're going to use it to replace paper, why not in different ways like register t go vote? >> reporter: ill there are some who say they'reot

convinced this is safe. >> i'm stl more comfortable doing thgs with paper and pen an putting my social security ou there is still uncomfortable for me. >> reporter: while she m be reluctant, the company is going ahead wth contacting other counties across the state to get them to start registering voters in time for the november election. in san jose, abc ab 7, money sc. >> do you remember the cartoon, the jetsons where robots did almost everything? one menlo park company unveil what could be one day, the closest thing yet. here is lisa with more. >> reporter: it can grab, stand up and walk. this is pr 2, a $500,000 robot that can also dance. the robot isn't just for entertainment. engineers at willow garage in mens with lo park are hoping pr 2 will change the world. >> it can help disabled people sort of filling in the gaps with

wherever their disabilities are. >> reporter: the robot can already do some helpful tasks. >> it's modeled to have a range of motion that's useful. >> reporter: it can fold towels. but it took six months for it to learn it. development is slow now but will soon be in overdrive. that's becaus they're donating 11 robots to universities and research oups to push pr 2 is quite possible. >> what they will do for grad students is give them sething to work on immediately. otherwe building one of these robots from scratch could take yers. >> if they want to work on the brains of the robot, the mechanical and electrical part, they can right away jump in. >> reporter: uc berkeley peter will now have his chance to work on pr 2 for two years. caltanford and universities in belgium, japan a germany will all get their own robots and ch has a goal. >> i'll be happ if the robot

can bring us cofe or sort of try to do clean-up tasks. >> reporter: it may sound trivial,but in japan, the elderly make up 20% of the population. robots could make life easier for the aging. t with so many minds at work, the psibilities for these robots goes far beyond the basic. in menlo park, abc 7 news. >> from robots to carnivorous plants, the man eater rern to plants, the man eater rern to chomp at the city by the bay were prese i want you t >>

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alleges shop of horrors has nothingn exhibit now displayed at the conservator are you in golden gate park. don sanchez shows his second installmt of chomp 2. >> they are beautiful and deceptive and deadly if you' an insect. man eating plants. they're hungry for attention at the conservatory of flower like the venus fly trap.

>> it's in the crevice. >> reporter: when an insect gets in there, it triggersthe closure. watch this. >> look that! >> reporter: these plants are seductive, eecially if you're a bug. glistening dew and anything like thatar offer a one way trip. they can grow two feet tall. >> some are so big, that they'll attract small frogs or mic >> reporter: here is one where they cut off the top, that's a cockroach being overcome by the plant. this may look like pond scum. it can ge baby fish in a small time. >> the speed ishat's amazing foromething that looks so simple. >> reorter: chomp 2 is a sequel to the fst show three years ago. it's a great experienc for kids to learn more about the intrie and mystique of carnivorous plants. this is what they look like in natu. none of them has growto this size. thiss a costume they entertain childre with this. just to ma sure they don't get too close.

like this fly did, trapped and squeezed by the little hairs on the sun dew. there is a message here. a cll to save these plants. >> around the world, about 95% of the habitats where they used to thrive have been reduced or eliminated through development or pollution. >> reporter: cho 2 shows through halloween. in san francisco, don sanchez, abc 7 news. >> pfect. that's all for this editionf "assignment 7". i'm eric thomas thank you for joining us. e'll see you next time. [ female announcer ] to do well, kidseed to eat well. enough whole gra and calcium. g and general mills big kid cereals can help. did you know it's the only leading line of d cereals with at let 8 grams of whole grain and a good soue of calcium? cereals they alrdy love, like lucky charms and cinnamon toast cnch. give your kids more of what they need to be their best. grow up rong. with big g kid cereals. ♪