now at 5:00, a mystery on san francisco bay. dozens of sea birds, some alive, some dead, all covered in a mysterious substance. we'll take you to the facility where the birds are receiving care tonight. >> >> bill cosby back in california. the comedian's first performance in the state since the allegations of sexual assault. >> >> tomorrow will mark the last trip for the bay area freedom train. we hear from one man who has been riding the train for more

than 30 years. good evening, i'm ken wayne >> and hello, i'm heather holmes. an alarming trend along the east bay shoreline. more than 60 sea birds have turned up, covered in a mysterious gun-k the unknown substance can damage the bird's ability to remain water proof, which can lead to hypothermia. so far, dozens have died. those that have survived are at a center. noelle walker is live, there. >> reporter: they have no idea what is going on. but i can tell you in the last five minutes, more birds were brought? here to alameda. the director's gut feeling is that this is a man made

substance that looks similar to rubber cement. it's not oil, but it's a lot harder to clean than oil. at bird rescue in fairfield -- >> looking for injuries >> trying to minimize the pain. >> reporter: no day of rest. water birds are being examined. >> attitude is bright alert and responsive. so we'll put a label on him. >> reporter: and tagged for admission to a masked unit. >> this is a room that is not really used unless we are activated for an oil spill or another emergency event. >> reporter: this is an americansy and an unsolved mystery. >> some kind of sticky contaminant. >> reporter: the birds were pulled from the east bay. the sticky goo is not oil or algae. >> some gray gunk, very inert,

sticky on the feathers, difficult to get off. >> reporter: cleanser is notate canning it alone. volunteers are adding baking soda and vinegar. >> if we are not able to get it completely off and get them rewater proofed, they won't make it through. >> reporter: dozens have died. >> by the end of the day, it's likely to be over 100 birds. it's a tragic event. >> reporter: the hope is when they are done it is a happy ending. so, each bird could take weeks to rehab. international bird rescue, if they knew the source of the contamination, they could send a bill. until then, they are having to foot the bill for the rehabilitation of the birds. they are looking for donations. we have a link on our website where you can help. >> >> another march to protest

police brutality set to get underway in oakland in two hours. last night, four people were arrested at an east oakland mcdonald's after a march from the bart station to the substation. protest one of several in the bay area aimed to honor dr. martin luther king's birthday and to voice out rage over recent shootings of unarmed black men in missouri and new york. >> >> demonstrations beginning in san francisco. homeless advocates holding a two-day rally to protect the civil rights of homeless people. kristina randone joins us at market where people are expected to gather. >> reporter: they just started to gather at 5:00. people are still setting up. waiting for everyone to show up, but they are asking everyone to gather at the cable car turnaround near market and powell. organizers say the demonstration is about

protecting the civil rights on homeless people. their way of commemorating dr. martin luther king, who advisory for housing and guaranteed income for the disadvantaged. this group is planning on having entertainment. they will have speakers and they plan to sleep out here until 5:00 tomorrow morning. they said if authorities ask them to leave, they might take their demonstrations to the streets, but they anticipate this to be a peaceful gathering. >> people are not allowed to lay down and rest. they are not obstructing everyone. they are not breaking laws. they are getting ticketed, and eventually getting jail time for being too poor to have a place to live. we are saying that is wrong. >> reporter: this gap plans on sleeping out here on the sidewalk until 5:00 in the morning and then they weather have a breakfast and take the bart to the dr. martin luther king march at 11:00 am. all of the bay area demonstrations we are seeing is

-- the march starting at 11:00 am at the fruitveil station. >> armed robbery of a couple walking. they say they were walking on walnut boulevard just before 4:30 this morning when three people approached them. they believe one of them was carrying a gun. robbers two men and a woman took the valuables and fled in this older model car. the three suspects might be involved in two other recent incidents. >> >> investigators still sorting through the details of a deadly officer involved shooting in freemont that happened at 2:00 friday afternoon at harvey park on the west side of interstate 8 0. today, we learned the victim is a 48-year-old man from hayward, police are not releasing his name. the man was threatening and chasing two people in the park

with a knife. >> >> the widow of a sheriff's deputy killed in the line of duty will be at the president's state of the union address later this week. the sacramento bee reports his wife, susan, will attend tuesday's presidential speech as a guest of democratic congressman. susan oliver plans to create a foundation in her husband's memory devoted to improving relations between the police and the public. >> >> shots came from a car driving on a public road outside of the secured perimeter of vice president biden's home. it's not clear if shots were fired at the home. the vice president and his wife were not there when it happened. secret service said the driver was caught and taken into custody. he is being questioned as a potential suspect. >> >> developing news in europe

where many nations remain on high alert following last week's terror attacks. debate continues among u.s. lawmakers about how to stop this from happening here in america. amy kellogg has more from paris where french police are investigating suspects. >> reporter: the investigation continues following the terror attacks in paris. french police released two women, but are still questioning nine others. north of paris, one of the gunman who attacked the offices of charlie hebdo lays in rest. >> reporter: returning home to carry out terror attacks on their home social, some officials linking that to the recent rise of anti-semetic sentiment >> . attack of a jewish

supermarket is chilling. >> reporter: it has u.s. vowing more cooperation to make sure the attacks don't repeat themselves in the u.s >> see how widespread it is from france to belgium to germany. you have to assume that's a risk we have to consider. >> reporter: 10 people killed in two days of protest. here in france, the president here says the country is at war with terrorism and he has deployed 10,000 troops along with police to protect the streets. in paris -- amy kellogg, "fox news." >> the new editor in chief defended the satirical magazine's decision to public cartoons of muhammed. >> >> translator: every time we draw a cartoon of a prophet or

a cartoon of god, we defend the freedom of religion. we declare god must not be political or public figure. he must be a private figure. we defend the freedom of religion. >> taking over at chief editor after his predecessor was among the 12 people killed in the attack. despite the killings. they did not miss an issue and published their weekly magazine on schedule. >> >> estimated six million people gathered in manilla to attend an open air mass by pope francis. earlier today, the pope met with young people including a 12-year-old girl that grew up on the streets. she wept as she asked the pope why god allowed children to suffer. the pope said the world needs

to learn how to cry with those in need. >> we need to care for our young people, not allow them to be condemned to the lives on the streets. >> many in attendance cheered and wept as the pope passed by, a 13-year-old said he saw god in the pope's eyes. >> the pope's visit to philadelphia coming up in september is throwing a wrench in wedding planning. the vatican announced the pope francis is scheduled to visit september 26th and 27th. organizers are expecking more than a million people to flood the area for the event. discouraging couples for planning their big day on that weekend. >> >> an incredible story of survival. massive pileup that a man sandwiched between two big rigs and how he managed to walk

away. >> >> bill cosby in northern california at performers showed up at his performance in colorado. after some stub born fog this morning, some sunshine this afternoon. clouds moving into our weather picture, coming up, we'll let you know if there is any rain clouds to talk about. we'll let you know when the low 70s will work their way back into the forecast. introducing the new subway "simple 6 menu". it starts with six of our best six-inch subs- now in made-just-for-you meals- for just $6 every day. you've really got it made. ♪ take your pick from six of our best subs,

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tickets for cosby's show

tonight are sold out. they were sold before all of the allegations his race? >> well, i think kamala harris is hoping her jumping in is going to be a huge consideration. money is clearly a huge issue here. i've heard everything from 20 to 40 million dollars as just an entry point to really be a player. which obviously makes someone like tom steyer a natural fit. >> he'll find that in his sofa probably. pocket change. >> and villaraigosa has national connections and has done a lot of work with the democratic party nationally. so i think he also has sort of that ability at his fingertips. but you know -- >> let me ask you a question about him, though, because he made his money in finance. he's gotten very involved in environmental issues. can somebody like that -- there's the old saying that california politics is littered with rich people who ran for

statewide office and lost. al checky is the classic example who ran in 1998 -- >> we don't have to look back that far. meg whitman. carly fiorina. >> exactly. >> i think that's something that steyer has carefully considered. he has waded in more slowly than some of those folks did. but i think that's why he's putting his feelers out to see what does the democratic base think where is the support? because i don't think he wants to be another one of those. >> those on that list. join that list. so of course you have to say, and both party leaders are saying that this is a tough race, even though it's two years down the road, for a republican to win. nonetheless, there will be republicans in this race. there's talk about neal kashkari, of course who ran for governor. millionaires, right? fresno mayor ashley swearingen. also she ran and lost for controller. what's at stake do you think for republicans and the republican party in putting up someone who's credible?

this should be a seat theoretically that they should be able to win, but it's tough. >> it is tough. and i had i it's also important for california that we don't have just a one-party race. the dynamics we're going to be talking about a lot is the open primary system and the fact it could be very likely that there isn't a republican in the november election. >> i'll just say what that is. it's the top two where parties don't nominate a candidate anymore, it's the top two vote getters regardless of party affiliation. >> right. i think that's one thing that back to kamala and gavin they were looking at do we want to -- this could be a two-year knock-down-drag-out race. so i think the republican party's going to be looking carefully but there's a lot of schisms within that party in california and i think that's why there's sort of this laundry list of folks with nobody really at this point rising to the top. >> what has kamala harris done to say hey i'm ready to be u.s. senator? what's going to be her main are talking point, if you will? >> clearly the law enforcement angle. she came up as a district attorney first in alameda san francisco. she's worked very hard over her first four years as attorney general to really build

relationships with law enforcement around the state who did not support her first run. the mortgage settlement that she and a handful of other attorneys general intervened to nationally really bucked the obama administration on is going to be huge for her. and i think she's going to talk about the sort of nitty-gritty stuff she's done in the a.g.'s office to make it -- bring it into the century on a technology level, to improve the crime labs, to assist in investigations. but i think that's a good question. she has a fairly narrow scope. >> and just quickly, what do you think -- what should california be looking for in a u.s. senator? barbara boxer's been there since 1993. you know, what does it take? >> well i think what you've seen with our two senators is very different approaches. right? finestein i think has been a little more middle of the road. boxer's been more about talking about things. she's been a progressive voice. >> she's an advocate. >> she's an advocate. and i think likely if someone like kamala harris wins that seat we'll see that continue.

but yeah, the scope of experience is important. i think their ability to connect with other people within both their party and across the aisle is going to be important. so those sorts of, you know, abilities to really navigate what's going to be a very different world in d.c. than in california -- >> and of course the ability to either raise or write a check for 30 40 50 million dollars. >> unfortunately, yeah. that's the entry level point, he will really. >> marisa lagos thank you very much. and i don't want to let you go before i say welcome because today's your last day with the "san francisco chronicle." you're going to be joining us here at kqed covering california politics and government. so i'll be able to call you a colleague in just a few hours. >> i'm very excited. thank you for having me. and we'll be talking more i'm sure about this race and many others. >> no doubt. thanks a lot. >> thanks, scott. >> and speaking of the "san francisco chronicle," the paper made some news of its own this week when it appointed audrey cooper as editor-in-chief. she's the first woman to hold the position in the paper's 150-year history.

cooper joins the "chronicle" nine years ago as an assistant metro editor and has been rising up through the ranks ever since. she takes on her new role as the newspaper industry struggles to redefine itself in the new media landscape. audrey cooper is here now, and welcome. >> thank you so much. >> first of all, congratulations on your new post. >> thank you. >> you're taking on this job during a time of great disruption in the newspaper industry. what are the biggest challenges the "chronicle" is facing? >> i think our biggest challenge is probably our need to reach new readers. we have a very loyal readership in the bay area right now, but like anybody if we want to grow we're going to have to get people who are just coming into their civic consciousness who just now want to know about their community and do something about it. so really it's reaching those people and telling them why we're the best source of news for them. >> how are you going to do that? >> i think you have to do it lots of different ways. once upon a time we could deliver a newspaper to everybody's doorsteps.

you can't do that anymore. we have to reach them through e-mail, through their phone, through whatever device they want to read it on and we have to make it really clear what is differentiating us. >> many of your paper's offerings, from sports to entertainment to weather, even politics are easily found in other multiple online sources. given that why do you think people should read the "chronicle"? >> well we have the largest newsroom between the tehachapi mountains and seattle. i don't think we do a very good job of explaining that to people. we have more people covering the news than any other media outlet. and i think that's really important because there's power in numbers. we have that influence to demand answers from people in power and to demand answers even from, you know movie stars and movie makers to sports figures too. so we really can be more definitive than others. >> so what will you do? what will the changes be? what can we expect under you to make that happen? >> well, we've already started taking a really hard look at what we do. this last year we've totally redefined our business coverage.

we added a bunch of new talent to our staff and gave a really hard look at with everything that's happening in the bay area with tech how do we do the best job of really putting the critical eye on that? to explain the benefits of the tech boom but also to say what's not so great about it so we can have a civic conversation about it. the other thing i think is absolutely critical is we really need to reinvest in our investigative resources. i don't know about you, but i became a journalist to speak truth to power. and we do that through our investigative journalism. so that's something you're going to need to see from us starting this weekend. >> the "chronicle" hasn't made money in years. in fact the whole newspaper industry is struggling right now to survive. what will you do to keep the "chronicle" afloat? >> well actually, i'd correct you right there. in the last two years we have been solidly profitable. so we are making money. and that's a really good place for us to be right now. we're projected to make more this year than we did last year.

so i'm really very bullish on it. i think there were some dark times and we're getting through them and you know part of it is to talk to people about what we're doing how we do it why it's better than everybody else so that they see value. we also need the support of our community like everybody. so you know, we want people to consume the journalism and if they consume a lot of it to pay for it. >> there's a lot of talk about digital models, and i know that you say the paper is making money. it's still operateing in a tough economic environment. print ad revenues down 50% in just the past five years. is there any thought of perhaps cutting back on the number of days that you have an actual printed paper or eventually maybe going to an all-digital model? >> i mean, you can never say what's going to happen. but we will continue to print the paper as long as people want it. i don't know how long that will be. i think it's pretty safe to say at some point there will be no

such thing as a printed monday through friday newspaper anywhere in the united states. i think we're pretty far away from that. you know the word i started to use recently that i never really had to in journalism school was diversified revenue streams. and that means we have events around our news coverage, we have an ipad app we have other apps. we have to have a lot of different ways to make money in this business right now. >> a lot of people think sfgate.com is your paper's website. but in fact it's not completely true. it's operated by the hearst corporation, your parent company. sfchronicle.com is your website. and it has the pay wall. how can your newspaper site compete when sfgate is clearly so dominant? it gets something like 24 million people globally a month. >> well, sf chronicle has two websites. the newspaper, the people in 901 mission do produce sf gate.

it's a place to go to get the temperature of the city. the snacky stuff the news you that don't have to spend 30 minutes digesting. sfchronicle.com is where we put i call the journalism with a capital j. and you're right. we've done a really good job over the last 20 years since we started sf gate of thoroughly confusing everybody. and we need to do a really good job of explaining to people if they want the best news then that's sfchronicle.com. >> a drop in the pay wall to get more people? >> i think you'll see in the next couple weeks some really interesting things happen there. i can definitely tell everybody we're going to start a free trial. so it will be a form of dropping the pay wall. and i think we're going to experiment with a lot of things. we only started the site two years ago. it's a complete evolution. we're trying new things. the industry hasn't been very good at trying things and abanged them when they don't work or tweaking them had they

don't work. i don't see any reason why we should be afraid to change things. >> and just quickly i have to ask you about willie brown. he's a columnist for the "chronicle" and until this month he was a registered lobbyist with the city of san francisco. are you concerned at all by the ethical issues that that raises? >> we -- i would say yes, but i'm confident in our editors that we put willie's column really through the ringer. he probably gets more editors' calls than anybody else on staff just to make sure that we're being ethically sound. i think our readers -- he's extremely popular, and i think our readers know willie brown is still a politician. but he is the closest thing we have to a current-day herb cain and he's extremely popular. >> sounds to me like you're planning to keep him then. >> yes. i don't think we're going to have a lot of changes there. >> all right. well congratulations again. >> thank you. >> and you started during a great week. you also get to go to a birthday party. >> that's right. >> the "chronicle" actually

turns 150 years old today. >> that's right. we're going to have some champagne and cake in the newsroom later today. >> good way to start your new job. good luck to you. >> thank you. >> and for more of kqed's news coverage please go to kqednews.org. i'm thuy vu. thanks so much for joining us. have a good night. ♪

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>> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, january, 18: the president finalizes a plan to increase tax breaks for the middle class that would be paid for by the rich. a new study shows just how many schoolchildren across the country are growing up poor. and in our signature segment, an ambitious program to count all of the elephants in africa >> you can't fight a war to save something if you don't know how many you are trying to save. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: