an urgent cry for help from bay area agency that cares for hundreds of dogs and cats. >> i'm eric thomas. >> and i'm kristen sze. a dire situation a no kill animal shelter in pleasanton. nick smith is live at the agency that may have to close it's doors soon. >> the story is straight forward. valley humane society is in trouble and they are appealing

to the public for help. >> right now we are dealing with a tough financial situation. >> the executive director of valley humane society in pleasanton and she has seen the financial situation go from serious to dire causing her to appeal to the public for help. >> you do not get significant help, you have to do what? >> forced to close the doors. >> budget is $500,000 a year and 90% come from public donations which is down this year. >> unfortunately, we really need help. >> in an effort to reduce costs, they have lowered the number of animals they care for. the nonprofit only staffs two full time employees and relies on more than 250 volunteers. as the only no kill shelter in pleasanton serving the entire tri-valley this remains the only place to surrender her unwanted pup. >> i didn't want to go someplace

where he would be put down. >> the goal is to teach young people humane treatment of animals. after 25 years in operation, if they don't raise the $125,000 in 30 days, hundreds of dogs and cats will find themselves with one leslie brinkley safe place for adoption. >> a dollar, any amount. if everyone knraif gave us a dollar, we could stay open. >> donations as small as one dollar are tax deduct i believe. for more information go to abc7news.com and click see on on tv and see how you be donate. >> in washington, d.c. this morning, the tea party came to town to pressure conservatives

in the battle over the debt limit and the budget. house speaker john boehner put off a vote on his proposal to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending while senate majority leader harry reid has a competing plan. congressional budget office is weighing in on both proposals. >> as if there wasn't enough pressure on john boehner and house republicans in the fight over the debt ceiling, tea party members rallied outside the capital demand they hold the line on taxes and the debt ceiling. >> we are in a crisis as every year when they want to spend more money. folks, we to have hold the line. we have to stand strong. we're being attacked by the left for not having the right proposals. >> but they have yet to submitted a single bill about this issue. >> boehner told rebellious

republicans in colorful language to get in line behind the plan. he says it would cut $1.2 trillion out of deficit but the congressional budget set it would close to $850 billion. reportedly house republicans don't have the votes to pa pats the bill. also democrats have their own competing plan. >> there is only one bill in congress that is a true compromise. we're running out of time and it's time to get serious about finding a compromise. >> senate majority leader harry reid offered the competing bill that boehner criticized earlier this week. once again the congressional budget office disagreed agreed saying that reid's plan would save nearly $2 trillion. meantime, the august 2nd deadline, if the congress and president obama doesn't agree by then, america could default on the debt for the first time ever.

>> you saw the debt at $14 trillion. you see the countdown clock right here showing five days and just about ten hours until that debt ceiling crisis occurs. economists say it could be catastrophic to the country's aaa credit rating. and it could mean higher interest rates for consumers if they don't raise the debt ceiling by august 2nd. >> we want to help you tell your story. "abc 7 news" wants to hear how the economic downturn has personally changed or impacted your life. record your story on your cellphone or digital camera and upload it to ureport or e-mail it to us. bay area air quality officials are doing more environmental tests to ensure safety after massive fires led to potentially toxic smoke at a fairfield plant. they are in cleanup mode at a

plastics company where a fire injured three firefighters. amy, any air quality warnings remaining? >> reporter: it was scary for a while. consider what was burning, the plastic bins behind me, no there are no shelter in place right now. initial tests show everything is okay. look at the aftermath. now there a is a lot of cleaning up to do. >> the fire at macro plastics was so hot and intensity demanded an incredible amount of manpower and water where 120 people showed up. they were using 3,000 gallons of water a minute and foam to try and cool off the burning plastic. >> it was actually creating its own wind and the heat that was occurring inside was sucking into the fire. >> they were concerned about the black smoke over fairfield and issued a shelter in place order.

staying home wasn't an option for barbara childers who suffers from asthma. >> we went to the mall because we just had a hard time breathing. >> initial tests show there is nothing to worry about. it's safe to go outside. >> some residents were concerned with air quality issues downwind. and similar to a grass fire in the area. >> there is some cleaning up to do. workers at mobile home park tried to get the ash out of the pool. since the city insists the smoke wasn't toxic, they hope it's safe for swimming. >> i don't have any complicated testing equipment. they said it was can. >> otherwise it appears to be business as usual. barbara is not afraid to to be outside. neither is dave wilke or his crew. >> yesterday the sky was black.

you couldn't even see the sun. it's probably gone now, yeah, i think it's okay. >> firefighters are feeling proud because they kept the fire to this back lot and it did not reach the main building at macro plastics. they think it was an accident, just an employee out doing maintenance work back here on this lot. no major injuries. three firefighters suffered minor injuries and they were treated at the scene. live in fairfield, "abc 7 news." 29-year-old oakland man is in grave condition after she was shot and he and his wife and two young daughters were feeding the homeless. it happened this morning. the man, his wife and daughters were talking to a homeless man where someone in a passion car opened fire hitting the father. second bullet grazed the wife's

shoulder. the father is said to be on life support at a highland hospital. crime stoppers is offering $25,000 reward for information leading to the shooter. a brief high-speed chase involving the highway patrol ended in the death of a young man overnight. officers spotted a white honda driving erratically on international boulevard at about 1:20 this morning. they tried to stop the car but the driver took off. he crashed existing 880 on 29th avenue. he died later at the hospital. chp says an open alcohol container was found in the car. walnut creek police are looking for a car thief that made off with valuable giants paraphernalia. the owner of nonata went in to get coffee leaving the key in

the ignition. the thief drove off with the car and including bats and balls autographed by willie mccovey. >> family of missing student michelle le will hold a slij i will to remind the public she vanished two months ago today. she was last seen kaiser permanente in hayward on may 27. she told co-workers she was going to her car. the car was later found locked in a nearby neighborhood. the family continues to believe she is alive and they have organized several searches over the past couple of months. hayward police say their evidence leads them to believe she was murdered but have never found her body. $100,000 reward is for information leading to her whereabouts. it will be mount eton park at 6:00 p.m. tonight. >> ed lee is changing his mind whether he will run in november.

he says he is now considering a run. senator dianne feinstein she has talked to the interim mayor about running full term. she believes san francisco needs his leadership and unifying presence. she has spoken to supervisors that asked him to run. still ahead, closing walter reed, after more than a decade. who will be running it. >> i didn't know what to do. >> her young son falls more than 60 feet down a cliff while on a family outing. how his father save

a goodbye ceremony was held at walter reed hospital in washington, d.c. staff members and patients say the facility's closure in august will be bittersweet. it will be turned over to the state department and a district of columbia in september. most of the operations will move to two navy hospitals in virginia. government commission voted back in 2005 to close the hospital as part of a cost cutting move. it opened in 1909 as an army hospital. hundreds of thousands of war wounded have been treated there from world war i through today. a legal victory today for supporters of embryonic stem cell research. they dismissed a lawsuit that threatened to end all federal

funding of stem cell research. they say the research funded violated a 1996 law prohibiting taxpayer financing for work that harmed an embryo but the court decided with obama administration. researchers hope the research can some day cure parkinson's disease and other ailments. >> the father saved his little boy's life after he fell down a cliff. he was on hike when he tumbled and fell 70 feet down the cliff. the boy's father jumped the railing. the mother says she turned away for just a second. >> i put mine down and i said look. as soon as i turned around he was over and had fallen. >> i didn't know where going to

land. >> the father says he slid as fast as he could and held on hoping to avoid the base of the 177 foot falls. bystanders at the bottom of the cliff helped them down safely. turn away one second. >> that is all it takes. >> depending on where you live, you will see a little warmup but we have low clouds and fog. cool coastal temperatures. >> get out and vote for your favorite park. a campaign to get california parks more money. 

yosemite, joshua tree, which park is your favorite? coca-cola is sponsoring a national contest america is your park and you can vote. top vote getter a $100,000 grant. second place gets $50,000 and third place wins $25,000. you can earn extra points for your park by uploading photos on facebook. >> that is going to be tough. but the weather will be nice for that if you are going today. >> in some places.

here is a look at mount diablo and vollmer peak is where the camera situated. clear sky and temperatures in the upper 70s. one of the neighborhoods in the east bay, concord and livermore is feeling the warmup by the delta and parts of the north bay. elsewhere, not much change, still a lot of sunshine. you can tell where the fog is, oakland still patches of fog. also the coast, half moon bay. marine layer is situated all the way up and down the coast. 66 in redwood city. 71 in santa rosa with 70 in fremont so getting brighter in parts of the east bay. sunshine today for the time being. we may see the fog linger throughout the coastline. we'll see a little sun late in the day but we'll keep the fog with us along the coast. it will come back overnight and temperatures will peak, we're talking 3-4 degrees over the weekend. you may not see any 90s out there. we're going to nudge every so

slightly. we have a westerly wind. it's weak so that is allowing for numbers to come up a little bit. as long as we have the onshore flow we're going to be looking at that cool marine air and some of that fog, it will conti out n bay, parts of marin county. almost 80 in some spots. so if you are traveling and you are heading into the central valley or sierra nevada, definitely feeling like summer. 80s in fresno but mid-70s big sur. 80 in los angeles. here is what is going on. the trough is lifting out but winds are awfully light. we are looking a little bit of warming, still our sea breeze and ridge of high pressure to build ever so slightly just about into the east bay, not shutting off our low clouds and fog and sea breeze. we'll stay with temperatures

pretty comfortable. we're not looking at any heat wave by any means. few 80s in the south bay. upper 70s on the peninsula. it will stay pretty breezy and foggy here near the coast. that is why san francisco will stay in the 60 baes's but you'll see sunny skies. he north bay,w mid-80s. berkeley and oakland, usual spots a little cool. mid-70s union city and out over the hills. here is where things are warming up. 89 in concord and 78 in pleasanton and sunshine, might have to wait a bit in monterey, sunny down in san luis obispo. so very modest temperatures. scientists in northern california have a theory about how gold fish in new zealand were able to survive for 130 days without food and a tank

filter. owners were allowed back in this month after an earthquake and they found the fish were okay. biologists say the bacteria may actually have kept the water clean and the fish probably

today at 3:00, director of joy luck club and his new movie.

then at 4:00 and 5:00, if you are racking up a lot on your credit card you could have trouble claiming those points. these stories and more at 5:00 and 5:00. >> all right at google headquarters, some of the world brightest kids or going head to head on their knowledge of the globe. three teams of students are at mountain view based google. finalists right there. that is the canada team and french team is in it. jeopardy host alex trebek is asking the question about physical, can cultural and economic gee graphy. u.s. team tied for fourth. you can see trebek, he is sitting down. apparently he is in crutches. he was chasing a burglar out of

his hotel this morning. he told the audience he is okay. >> long recovery time. we wish him the best. lisa argen has another check of the weather. >> we're going to see a little bit of warming. elsewhere 50s and 70s out there. look ahead much of the same, warm inland. >> thank you very much. >> no question where we are in