,,,, smokers celebrating in a big way in san francisco. new changes in store for this year's big smoke out.. at golden gate park. good afternoon, im kenny choi.. michelle is off. happening now at noon marijuana smokers celebrating in san francisco. the new changes for this year's big smoke-out at golden gate park.

good afternoon, i'm kenny choi. michelle is off today. chopper 5 over golden gate park. hippie hill, thousands of people expected to partake in a massive pot party there. kpix 5's jessica flores on what makes this year different than the past. >> reporter: the smoke-out started early. you woke up this morning first thing you did? >> um, i took a dab, just have fun, smoke some weed and get high. >> reporter: but at the annual "420" at hippie hill, some new features, gates, long lines, it's not officially city sanctioned but for the first time san francisco issued permits to vendors to oversee the event. so when the gates didn't open on time, some in the mellow crowd got heated. >> not right. it's our freedom to go to our park! >> reporter: this process is new. for the first time security guards are checking bags and coolers and there's a long list of things you can't bring in. no large coolers, no barbecue grills, and no glass bongs, but

the sponsors, merchants and businesses are providing porta- potties, security and hauling away trash. >> this is an event that's happening whether we, you know, with or without a permit and what we're trying to do is provide the infrastructure to support that it happens safely so for the people, the park and the neighborhood. >> we have two ambulances on site. we have an emt tent. >> reporter: and although it's still illegal to smoke marijuana at the public park, police won't cite anyone for lighting up. >> yeah, i mean, that's cool that they let us do that, but san francisco you can smoke anywhere as it is. >> reporter: in san francisco, jessica flores, kpix 5. after five weeks on the run, a tennessee teacher who reportedly kidnapped and fled with a teenaged student has been arrested in northern california. police say that 50-year-old ted cummins disappeared with elizabeth taylor on march 13. they fled a few weeks after

another student saw them kissing in a classroom. cummins faces charges with sexual contact with a minor and aggravated kidnapping. two people arrested for trying to shoot an 11-month-old baby monday at a mcdonald's restaurant on washington avenue in san leandro. no one was hit. the motive is unclear. police are having a news conference at 1:00 to disclose more details in the case. the man suspected of killing three white men in a racially motivated attack in fresno is expected to be in court for an arraignment tomorrow. detectives say that kori ali muhammed fired a total of 17 shots on tuesday. cell phone video showing the gunman running down the street and opening fire. police say that he was already wanted in connection with the murder of a security guard at a motel 6 last week. >> um, was that once he saw he was wanted for murder he was not going to go down for shooting a security guard for disrespecting him. but that he was going to kill as many white men as possible.

and that's what set out to do that day. >> after his arrest, muhammed took police to the crime scenes and gave accurate accounts of what happened. an update from the coast guard. crews have found the body of a missing boater in marin county. 54-year-old juki dang from oakland had been missing along muir beach since yesterday. the boat he was on somehow capsized a half mile off muir beach. someone spotted it and then called for help. crews were in the water searching within minutes but weren't able to locate the body until last night. it's still unclear what made has boat capsize. right now in mountain view a search for a 13-year-old girl who many been seen since yesterday after leaving crittendon middle school yesterday afternoon. she is 5'1", 100 pounds, might have taken public transit after leaving school. call police with information. muni could possibly stop

accepting cash on cable cars after an operator was arrested for stealing fare money. 61-year-old albert williams was arrested yesterday at the turnaround at bay and taylor in north beach. sfmta telling us that an audit revealed missing money and an investigation led them to williams. he now faces felony embezzlement charges. it's unclear how much money was stolen. sfmta said, going forward, we'll immediately enhance management and oversight of our cash fare transactions and will explore long-term options such as eventually removing cash as an on-board payment option for our cable car system. conservative pun did ann coulter still says she will speak on the cal berkeley campus next year bee state to the university canceling yesterday. the university said they couldn't guarantee safety. cal officials are afraid of more riots and violence like

the ones surrounding milo yiannopoulos back in february. that caused $100,000 in damage to the campus. since the cancellation, coulter has been calling cal out. >> i am giving the speech. um, i don't know. what are they going to do, arrest me? um, they can put me in the birmingham jail. so i agreed to all of their demands and then wake up this morning and they send out a letter saying how much they love the first amendment and freedom of speech and they are so committed to it but we're just canceling her anyway. >> a spokesman for the berkeley college republicans says that this is the third conservative speaker that the administration has shut down. north korea is issuing a warning to america early this morning saying it could launch a strike that could wipe us all out! craig boswell has the trump administration's response. >> reporter: fighter jets in the sky as the u.s. and south korea are holding joint military exercises on the korean peninsula. >> the purpose of the exercise specifically is to strengthen the cooperation between the

u.s. and the koreans in order to provide a combat-like scenario as real as possible. >> reporter: the threat of a real war got slightly closer to reality thursday when north korea warned of a, quote, super mighty preemptive strike that would wipe out america. the pentagon says it will conduct two tests next months of a missile defense system it's setting up in south korea and the u.s.s. carl vinson is finally heading towards the korean peninsula and expected to be on station next week. the trump administration says previous administrations have tried to buy off rogue regimes with nuclear ambitions. they say president trump won't make that same mistake with north korea or iran. >> an unchecked iran has the potential to travel the same path as north korea and take the world along with it. >> reporter: the u.s. is conducting a 90-day review of the iran nuclear review despite acknowledging iran is complying with the deal. secretary of state rex tillerson says more sanctions could be coming because iran is a state sponsor of terrorism. >> evidence is clear iran's provocative actions threaten the united states, the region

and the world. >> reporter: thursday morning, iran's foreign minister called the u.s. accusations worn out and says america must live up to its obligations. raig boswell, cbs news, the white house. >> the obama administration kept iran's sponsor of terrorism away from the negotiations over iran's nuclear deal staying would make it hard to get a deal. secretary of state rex tillerson says that that was a mistake. new at noon, a data breach involving hotels in the bay area is bigger than first reported. the intercontinental hotel group says hackers stole credit card numbers, expiration dates and security codes from 100 locations. they own holiday inn, crowne plaza and candle wood suites which all have locations in the bay area. the breach involves guests to stayed at the hotels between december 29th of last year and this year. we'll show you the small towns in colorado pulling in big profits from pot shops plus why the spring could get extra

itchy. a closer look at what could be a very busy mosquito season. >> also, next, the sierra snowpack from space. new numbers and images from nasa. >> we have some snow flurries in the high sierra overnight. and did you hear the rain on your rooftops? and now check it out. sunshine across the bay area. but! the big change for the weekend that you need to know about. the full forecast on the other side of this brief time-out. ,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

a russian spacecraft successfully lifted off in kazakhstan this morning. it's carrying a u-s astronaut the engines firing up to flight speed and liftoff. >> a russian craft successfully lifted off in kazakhstan this morning carrying a u.s. astronaut and russian cosmonaut

to the international space station. it was a short flight. the two landed just six hours after take-off. china heading to space today. one of the country's unmanned aircraft blasted off early this morning. it's heading to china's second space station to help finish construction on that facility. new data shows that legal marijuana is bringing in a lot of money across the united states. sales reached nearly $6.7 billion last year. experts predict that sales could reach nearly $50 billion per year by the year 2026. in colorado, legal recreational and medical pot hit over $1 billion in sales last year. cbs news' barry petersen reports that colorado communities are dealing with a windfall and the stigma that comes with it. >> reporter: a small denver suburb of flags and front porches, it's all american. and oh, by the way, it has six pot shops. this town of 5300 is generating

$1.4 million in sales tax revenue from pot. that's 20% of its annual budget. money for repaving 12 miles of streets. and the old city hall will soon be replaced by a new $10 million complex. hjstalt is city manager. how much is pot money? >> if it remains legal all of it. >> reporter: denver marijuana shop owner tim cullen wanted to give back to the community by donating $200,000 to a nonprofit. several said thanks, but no thanks. he believes it was the stigma of pot money >> i was shocked. honestly i was shocked. it was more difficult than i thought it would be. >> this is where the pavilion will be. >> reporter: he took us to a denver park where the city accepted his donation as part of a private-project to build a pavilion for free concerts. about 110 miles south of denver, pueblo county is also

benefiting from marijuana taxes. money now giving college students a first in american history pot funded scholarships. >> i don't think without this scholarship i would be able to continue my education without taking out loans and worrying about how i'm going to pay them back. >> reporter: every graduating high school student in pueblo county will qualify for a pot scholarship to be used at local colleges. those scholarships and other benefits will be hurt if the trump administration bans the sale of recreational pot even if it allows the sales for medical use. pot advocates say, people will still buy pot for recreational use on the black market. and cities and states will get no sales tax. barry petersen, cbs news, denver. >> and a cbs news poll this morning shows the number of americans in favor of legalizing marijuana has reached a new high. 61% of people surveyed think that pot should be legal. it's a 5 point increase over last year. more than half of all states

have legalized medical marijuana while 8 states along with the district of columbia allow marijuana for recreational purposes. caltrans getting a jump on earth day. crews are out collecting litter along the highways around the bay area. the group is working along 880 between coleman and alameda in san jose. agency says the message goes beyond beautification. >> we are actually trying to raise awareness of and clean up litter as much as we can today in order to show commuters that we do have an issue and that we would like to have them try to be more aware of litter and uncovered loads. >> workers are also cleaning up highways in alameda, contra costa and devil's slide. the chp is also issuing tickets for truck drivers with uncovered loads. earth day april 22. mosquitoes are coming out in force in the bay area. it's because of all the standing water from the recent rains. "sky drone 5" showing us what we're dealing with right now. health officials say that they are expecting a higher-than-

average mosquito population this year. they say that the insects can spread dangerous viruses like west nile. vector control is trying to control the larvae population. let's check the powder in the sierra. this is a live look at "sierra at tahoe." data shows the snowpack levels are larger than the last four years combine. water content of snow in the tuolumne river basin in 2015 and 2017. lighter blue indicates less snow. deeper blue more snow. according to nasa, this year's snow water equivalent was 21 times greater than 2015 which was the lowest snowpack on record. that's hard to believe. >> how about that. >> amazing. >> we get to take a look at some of our satellite photos. but first how about this beautiful picture looking out from our kpix 5 studios

broadway and battery street. looks like a west wind and increasing winds a little ripple effect on the bay waters even a few whitecaps out there with at least five different currents going on. in the last 24 hours. this disturbance is impressive. quarter inch of rain in ben lomond, three-tenths in santa rosa. liver almost a quarter inch. look at the totals to san jose. we are barely expecting a trace in san jose. this is gorgeous. look at the clouds over mount vaca. temperatures now settling into the 60s but factoring in the breeze this afternoon, makes it feel a little cool. 13-mile-per-hour winds in oakland. five in vallejo. wind up to 9 in santa rosa. winds are fluctuating and more consistent west 10 to 15 miles per hour. dana our weather watcher in novato she is reporting just over a quarter inch of rain in the past 24 hours. thanks, dana. that's helpful and useful

information. here's our satellite and radar. that's the passage of that weak disturbance. right there, that's where we are right now. that clear slot. we are concerned with this. as i expand our satellite and radar image, this is an area of low pressure. it's brand-new. and this is going to impact our weekend. our futurecast does illustrate that we will see some increasing clouds but i'm going to hold off the rain for the weekend. let me show you what i mean. we pass to your thursday into your friday. boy, gorgeous conditions on really a cloudless sky until late day. here's your saturday by the afternoon hours. we see the clouds thicken. they progress from the north to the south. but no rain associated with it. it's been snowing this morning in the highest elevations of the greater lake tahoe area. we have bluebird skies for friday's snowboarding and skiing. a lot of places are closing this weekend. so make sure you check in with your resort before heading to the high sierra. 60s and 70s across the board today. 7:50 is the sunset. i guarantee it will be gorgeous! a beautiful sunset. you will be able to see it maybe a couple of clouds on the

horizon. there's your extended forecast. huge jump on inland temperatures on friday with a strengthening ridge of high pressure. there's your increasing clouds from the system to the north of us on saturday knocking back temperatures almost 10 degrees. but dry weather pattern each day through wednesday. >> the next few days is awesome. thank you. >> i see golf on the horizon or suffer or cycling. let's check the dow. it's up 198 points. still to come, making huge strides in the fight against aids in african-americans. hear from the east bay woman who made it her life's mission to help. ,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

12-perce 's popu african-americans make up 12% of alameda county's population, but they represent about half its hiv cases. but as sharon chin reports, this week's jefferson award winner has made it her mission to bring those numbers down. >> reporter: this lunch warms the body and soul for people living with hiv and aids. >> this is a good protein. >> reporter: the meal is a safe place to socialize, get nutrition counseling, and be yourself. >> have some more. >> reporter: it's part of the aids ministry gloria cromwell has led at allen temple baptist church in oakland since 1994. >> who wants seconds? >> reporter: alan markert hiv- positive for 20 years, felt so welcome, he volunteered. >> that's the way everybody is here. we don't think about the illness. >> reporter: the federally

funded aids ministry helps more than 1200 people a year. many are african-americans, who tend not to get hiv tested until they are very sick. >> most people of color still believe that this is a gay white man's disease when we know very differently. >> reporter: gloria has worked on the front lines in the fight against hiv and aids in alameda county for nearly 30 years. the oakland native helped start the city's first aids residential care program in 1993 before protease inhibitor drugs allowed patients to live longer. she helped launched the city's aids walk in 2004, and gloria led volunteers to zimbabwe every year for a decade bringing medicine to hiv and aids patients at an orphanage. dietician kathy gehlken praises her outreach and prevention work on the local, state and federal levels. >> she deeply cares about this community. she is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that people get what they need to be well.

>> reporter: for gloria, it's simple. >> if we were jesus, we would really welcome everybody into our doors and make sure that all of the sick got the help that they needed. >> reporter: so for decades of ministry to people with hiv and aids, this week's jefferson award in the bay area goes to gloria crowell. sharon chin, kpix 5. >> one of gloria's aids ministry trips became an international incident seven years ago. nominate your local hero for a jefferson award online at cbssf.com/hero. we'll be right back. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,

it's it for kpix 5 news at noon. big game for the sharks tonight. game 5. >> oh, yeah. we need a healthy couture and no spearing! >> we want the 3-2 lead in the series. go sharks!

♪ >> bill: so, how's it look? >> brooke: like it always did. like it belongs there. >> bill: well, that's how you look to me. close enough to touch. which is exactly where you belong. >> eric: unbelievable, carter. these are obviously stolen forrester designs right in the middle of the spectra collection. >> carter: yeah, it may be obvious to you and me... >> eric: no, no, everybody can see it. come on. >> carter: the length is different, the shoulder treatment... think of running shoes. 3/4 of them look alike. except for color, logo, the heel pads, the inserts...