live, where you live. in is abc 7 news. good evening. thank you for joining us. i'm eric thomas. >> and i'm dion lim. an explosion in austin, texas, sent to men to the hospital. >> the men in their 20s are expected to survive. police have the site blocked off as they investigate the cause of the blast. the latest in a string of deadly exosions in the area this month. he said the last three package bombs which killed two people and injured two others were meant to send a message. >> the reward for information

leading to an arrest has increased. it is now at $115,000. >> meantime, the president today tried to discredit the russia investigation by going after its special counsel and a former fb deputy director. there is now concern from democrats and republicans that he's trying to shut down the investigation. abc news reporter has the latest from washington. >> reporter: tonight president trump escalating his attack, now targeting the very top of the russia investigation, tweeting his strongest rebuke yet at special counsel robert mueller. t there was no collusion and no crime. witch hunt. >> the russia story is a total fabrication. i call it the russian hoax. the entire thing has been a witch hunt. and there is no collusion. >> reporter: trump has consistently undermined the investigation, but this latest direct shot at mueller comes as his lead attorney is calling for the case to be shut down. lawmakers on both sides of the

aisle warning trump that firing mueller will have severe consequences. >> if he tried to do that, that would be the beginning of the end of his presidency because we're a rule of law nation. >> this would undoubtedly end in a constitutional crisis. democrats and republicans need to speak out about this right now. >> reporter: tonight mueller's team combing through new evidence. a source telling abc news fired director mccabe had questioned by investigators and handed over memos about his interactions with trump. >> you cannot stop the men and women of the fbi from doing the right thing. >> reporter: mccabe was axed ahead of an inspector general report that accuses him of leaking and then not being truthful when asked about it. he has denied wrong doing. he says he's been singled out in the aftermath of james comey's firing. trump blasted mccabe and his memos with a tweet. spent very little time with andrew mccabe, but he never took notes when he was with me. i don't believe he make memos

except to help his own agenda, maybe at a later date. same as lying james comey. can we say fake memos? his frustration nears a boiling point. >> if you've done nothing wrong, you should want the investigation to be as fulsome and thorough as possible. >> reporter: reporting for abc news, washington. u.s. lawmakers are demanding answers from facebook today to explain why a right wing political research firm was able to harvest data of 50 million facebook users. on friday facebook suspended cambridge analytical founded in part by former trump administration steve bannon. it develops personalities of american voters and influence their behavior. facebook did not inform users their data had been harvested. a minnesota congresswoman on the senate judiciary committee has demanded that mark zuckerberg appear to explain what facebook

knew. facebook is promising its own investigation. the polls are closed in russia. vladimir putin will continue his reign, and it wasn't even close. he received about 75% of the vote. the main opposition leader was barred from the race, so putin essentially ran uncontested. the bbc reports discrepancies like voting done before the ballots opened, had voters bused into specific locations and voters from being blocked from polling locations. putin is now the longest serving russian leader since josef stalin. people gathered to protest. they were at the cafe that recently posted its policy on social media which asks police to leave for the physical and emotional safety of his commerce and staff. one witness to the protest posted this video to his twitter account. the group, who call themselves

pro-president trump supporters then showed up at a farmer's market to confront oakland mayor libby schiff. those should support her decision also showed up to support sanctuary cities. we're seeing a respite from the rain but they'll be back soon. the skies were gray today. not this dark, but darker. >> the skies right now still dealing with partly to mostly cloudy conditions across the region. live doppler 7 showing you the overcast skies. no moisture, no rain drops falling from those clouds. in fact, those clouds are going to be out of here after midnight. the bus stop forecast tomorrow morning radically different with clear skies. a lot of spots will start out in the 30s. but our next storm system not too far away. you can see its it's spinning right there in the pacific ocean. this could linger for a couple

of days once it arrives. we'll show you where that rain stands on the form impact scale coming up in my accuweather forecast in a few days. >> thanks. the chp is investigating a road rage shooting that hurt one adult and a young girl. it happened on eastbound i-80 near willow avenue. officers shut down the freeway for more than four hours to collect evidence. they say four people were in the victim's car. the adult passenger received minor injuries and described the child's as major. chp is searching for traffic cams for the suspect. a public celebration of life will take place at the veterans home of california in yountville to honor the live of three mental health workers who were shot and killed by army veteran albert wong on march 9th, that's before he took his own life. jennifer golick was a therapist wife and mother to a 7-year-old daughter. jennifer gonzalez was nearly seven months pregnant. her husband said she'll always

be remembered for her unconditional love and her giving heart. christine lober dedicated her life to helping veterans heal. that memorial will be at the lincoln theater. and we'll carry it live on abc 7 and our platforms. check out this crash in dnavildn dnavil dnavil danville. police haven't said if anyone was hurt. the driver was shaken but appeared to be unharmed. fire crews shord up the ceiling to keep it from collapsing. a building that burned last night in san francisco has been deemed uninhabitable. the fire started at union at columbus damaging a half dozen businesses. cornell bernard has our story. >> looking at this smoking that was coming out of the window. >> reporter: inside michelangelo restaurant half eaten dinners are still on the counter where

customers left them saturda when owners told them to run. as a fierce fire engulfed the upper floors of this building on union street. six businesses below, restaurants and bars were heavily damaged by smoke and water including the liquor store this man has owned for ten years. >> you feel like you lost your kid. your business. this is a kid to me. love it. >> reporter: the building now red tagged by the city. inspectors are concerned the front of it could collapse. drone view 7 captured the inside of the building from above. not much left but charred debris and brick walls. remarkably no one was hurt. firefighters stopped the fire from spreading to nearby buildings, but san francisco's supervisor criticized the fire department's response saying it took too long to put water on the fire. >> with my own eyes, they completely, totally failed to address this working fire in a

quick, efficient way. >> reporter: fire chief jo anne hayes white. >> once we determined there were no more safety problems, we pulled everyone out. >> reporter: there was a fire in the same building back in 2014. they say that the upstairs apartments had been vacant since then. >> they are going to demolish the old building because it's not safe. am i going to survive? tell me. >> am i going to be okay? >> reporter: cornell barnard, abc 7 news. next at 9:00, a traffic warning those in the east bay will want to hear about tomorrow. >> a historic building comes tumbling down. >> later a couple that lost their

just like that, it's gone. the 12-story westchester plaza building in fort worth is nothing more than a big pile op rubble now. the building was imploded sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. the building first opened in the 1950s as luxury apartments. but over the past 20 years the westchester building was an assisted living facility. drives leaving alameda are being warned to stay away twr the posy tube during tomorrow's commute. crews are working to repair a damaged storm drain. cal transwill keep one lane closed most of the week. as if losing their house in the fires wasn't enough, a couple also lost their cat. >> the happy reunion with that cat they love so much. and the rain has let up, but not for long. drew tuma is up next with the accuweather forecast. march madness has never rang for true.

another number one seed upset tonight. florida state knock off xavier florida state knock off xavier with a late rally and move on

at&t has a network with thousands of best-in-class security experts. which means... more of the eye balls you want watching the network... & less of the ones you don't.

more experts preventing security issues... & less security threats impacting our customers. more of a highly secure network with more security products available for further protection... & less per month. switch to at&t internet for business. more & less - that's the power of &. well, packy the cat is back. >> yeah, you got to take a look at this. the fluffy feline went missing after his owners stayed with their daughter in berkeley in october after losing their home to the north bay wildfires. >> a group of dedicated volunteers spent the last five months helping in the search. last week a craigslist ad helped find packy and get him back to his rightful owners. >> we were just so happy. when we saw those pictures, it was like your heart starts beating and you just can't believe it. but we knew it was him. >> such a sad and compelling story with the fire and them

having to flee in the middle of the night with nothing but the two cats, then one of the cats disappearing immediately. we both wanted to help. >> when the cat is found, you feel like your cat has been found because you're so emotionally involved in the situation with the owners. >> how can you not smile at that? they added them to their sonoma home for a thank you lunch and a visit for the cat that brought them together. now your accuweather forecast with drew tuma. >> accuweather today, a dry finish to the weekend, but the clouds were stubborn to break for much of today. tomorrow a different story. lot of sunshine on the way to start off the new work and school week. live doppler 7 showing you the issues with precipitation. the next 24 hours will be dry. the sutra tower show clear skies and that has kind of slowed the cooling process tonight.

today, this afternoon, we're in the 50s. we haven't fallen too far from those numbers. still 54 in havevallejo. so we have the cloud cover right now. after midnight, it's going to get out of here. so we have clearing skies over the next 12 hour. once those skies do clear out, those numbers will rapidly fall. our coolest spots will drop into the 30s. 41 in san jose dropping to 33 in santa rosa. as get you into your monday, it's nothing but sunshine from start to finish. that sunshine, that march sun angle this time of the year really good at quickly warming us up. it will be a mild day, 65 in oakland. 64 in san francisco. up to 67 in livermore. get one more dry day on the docket, then the rain will return around here on tuesday. on the storm impact scale a light system. a level one storm moving in here on tuesday. so we'll track light showers,

light wind and most cities will wind up with less than a half an inch of moisture. future weather, we stop the clock at 6:00 in the morning. the bulk of the moisture is off shore. but it is a cloudy start to your tuesday. that rain will begin to fill in late in the morning. by noon on tuesday, it does look to fall south of san francisco with some of the heaviest rain in the south bay to start off the day on tuesday. in the afternoon and the evening, it's on and off scattered showers, but they're very light in nature. so total rainfall with this storm system, it could be one of the southern sliders where the southern half of our viewing area does end up with higher totals than the northern half of our viewing area. but a good estimate right now, most spots will drop less than half an inch of moisture. could see a couple of spots pick up a little more than that. but this is a weak moving system coming our way. the week ahead, we'll show you the rainfall, the heaviest does look to stay south of our region psocal does look to get soaked.

l.a. could see more than 3 inches of rainfall with a series of storms. that could cause issues over the thomas fire burn scar. the forecast, it's sunny and mild on your monday. spring officially arrives tuesday morning and it brings showers with you, on and off showers wednesday to thursday, even into friday morning can't rule out a shower. dry out for the upcoming weekend. >> now, sports with mike shumann. >> the madness of march continued today with several top seeds getting knocked off. top ranked xavier facing my seminole of florida state. 'noles trail by 4 in the second half. they go on a run to end the game. the putback tied at 68. a pair of free throws puts fs, down 2. he takes care of that with a three. xavier one last shot. air ball. florida state on to the sweet 16 for the first time since 2011 wa

75-70 victory. it wasn't the only upset of the day. aggies up 14 at the half against the second seed. and tar heels hogg with the three. denied by tony morales. robert william. easy dunk. texas a&m with the upset of the defending champs, 88-65 the final. nevada and cincinnati. the wolfpack trailed with 11 minutes left. they went on a run to close it out led by cody martin who had 25. but 13 seconds left. martin miss, josh hall rebound, puts it in. he had 14. nevada with a come from behind upset. 75-73. the coach with an interesting celebration shirtless that is afterwards. kansas stay takes on the university of maryland baltimore, but the dance is over for cinderel xavier's sneed steals it, finishes with the jam.

then clean ks up the barry brown mess. to send umbc home. k-state on to the sweet 16, 50-43 the final. at bay hill, rory mcilroy who hasn't won on the pga tour in 539 days was out of his mind. the place that arnie built. bay hill, tiger woods within a shot of the lead. but this tee shot on 16 is going to find a bush out of bounds. he would bogey that hole and 17 as well. but he'd finish up with a nice par putt on 18. 3 under on the days, 10 under for the tournament. finished tied for fifth. yesterday's leader henrik st stenson one shot back of mcilroy. he's scolding that titleist. rory hasn't won on the pga tour since 2016. chips in for birdie.

part of a four-birdie run in a row. bryson desham bault makes it interesting. rory took care of that. 8 under 64 on the day. birdied five of his last six holes. money. he's the winner at 18 under par. >> something clicked into place with my long game. obviously something clicked into place with my putting as well. and this is the result. just so nice to see everything come together finally. >> if you had asked me at the beginning of the year that i would have a chance to win two golf tournaments, that's -- i would have taken that in a heartbeat. >> what's next for tiger, the masters. according to sources silver and black seeing cordell patterson to new england along with a sixth round pick for the patriots fifth round pick this year. this saves the raiders $2.5 million in cap space.

he had 31 catches for 309 yards. now, if you can trade patterson, why didn't they trade crabtree? they just cut him loose. most people's final four also bit the dust today courtesy of syracuse. is this tournament fun or what? >> ra lot of tears in our newsroom. >> how are your teams doing? oh, sorry.

tonight on abc 7 news at 11:00, more issues with the sink hole at the posey tube. it's affecting more than those who drive. >> don't let those tennessee team members scare you with their height. >> the inspiration there.

meet the 98-year-old nun who is helping one college basketball team defy the odds and get to the sweet 16. >> she is my favorite story today. >> that's right. >> this weekend black panther became first movie since avatar to win the box office five straight weekends. >> now columnists from variety, "usa today" and hollywood reporter say it could be an oscar contender though others consider it a long shot. it is a box office star. >> it's now grossed more than 1.1 billion, that is with a "b," dollars globally. "black panther" earned $27 million this week. tomb raider with 23 million. faith-based film, "i can only imagine" debuted with 17 million. >> have you seen it yet? >> no, it's on my list. >> that's a long list, folks.

(upbeat music) - [announcer] it's the michelle meow show, the a to z, covering the lgbt, l-m-n-o-p, and everyone in between. (upbeat music) here's michelle meow. - welcome to the michelle meow show, your a through z, covering the lgbt, l-m-n-o-p, and everyone in between show. yes, you can hear it. i'm fighting a cold. so if you're at home right now, fighting the cold, good for you, and if you do get sick, be a responsible sickie. take care of yourself, and do not spread it. (laughing) february is black history month, and so that's what we're going to focus on tonight. we'll kick off with a special interview with maestro michael morgan, from oakland symphony. the show will focus and celebrate black lgbtq leaders. before we get into the interview,