fox two news. >> the 11:00 news on ktvu. fox two starts now. >> one hour to go before crowds across the bay area ring in the new year. excitement building in san francisco for a big party. hello again and happy new year's eve i'm cristina rendon. first responders are preparing for a busy night tonight as people celebrate the start of 2025. the bay area's biggest party happening along san francisco's embarcadero. a live look for you here, where there is a heavy police presence tonight among the crowds for tonight's fireworks show. ktvu. joey shows us how everyone is counting dow. >> san francisco firefighters preparing for a busy night, with the department expecting 100,000 revelers to watch the fireworks along the embarcadero, attracting onlookers from near and far. >> the people here, just the whole excitement, the lights, you know, everything. the food here, i mean, san francisco, you

know, can't beat it. >> my new year's resolution is to try to retire at fireboat house. >> 35 firefighters are suiting up for any emergencies, including injuries from celebratory gunfire. >> any call that's active right now is going to be in red on this same night last year, fireworks would prove to be deadly on treasure island. unfortunately, it was an 18 year old kid and he had set off a firework, didn't go off and he went over to check over it, stood over it, and he succumbed to his injuries when it did go off. >> fireboats will be patrolling the water where the professional fireworks display will be set off. california highway patrol is looking for drunk drivers after making nearly 900 arrests statewide during last new year's maximum enforcement. >> we've seen lives ended. we've seen people hurt. we've seen families destroyed. >> officers are warning people to get a sober driver, take advantage of the free muni rides

in san francisco for new year's, or book a ride sharing company. >> whatever the cost is for that ride is going to be far less than a dui. >> christopher anderson is going to a disco party in the city and celebrating responsibly. >> we just took the ferry to get here, which is a nice way to come in, and then we're going to take an uber, and then after that i think we're going to walk. >> sam trans and caltrain are offering free rides tonight along with muni, those routes continuing until 5 a.m. here in the city. in san francisco, josé horta ktvu, fox two news. >> you can ring in the new year with a look at san francisco's fireworks show. from the comfort of your living room tonight, just tap into the fox local app at midnight for a live stream of the celebration. after downloading the free app on your smartphone or smart tv, select ktvu. rain failed to get in the way of new york city's new year's eve ball drop. a wet

crowd rang in the new year in times square tonight. crowds from that party are beginning to thin out this hour. in addition to police patrolling the area, law enforcement has drones in the sky to keep watch over activity around times square. [music] police say. >> they. >> new year's celebrations underway across the globe. this is a look at how people rang in 2025in paris, france. paris living up to its nickname, the city of light, with a spectacular light show and fireworks. reporter we are following breaking news in oakland this hour. there is a heavy police presence right now near the intersection of alice and second streets in jack london square. this is a live look at the area. police have been there since around 1030 tonight. we'll update the situation as soon as we get more

information about what is happening. all we can tell you right now is there is a large police presence at second and alice streets. new tonight restaurant owners in palo alto are on edge after several were targeted by burglars this week. ktvu tori gaines spoke with some managers and owners about the problem. >> it's been a rough holiday season for small business owners here in downtown palo alto, where several burglaries have been reported, one of which happened tuesday morning right here at coupa cafe. the holiday season brought burglaries, broken glass and stress for many restaurant owners in downtown palo alto. the police department confirming to ktvu that four downtown businesses have been hit by thefts in the past ten days, and some appear to be connected. video shared by the owners of coupa cafe shows a perpetrator trying to desperately break into a cash register around 1 a.m. on tuesday. the owner telling ktvu that the suspects made off with at least $1,000 in cash as the burglar pockets the cash. they

also appear to be looking around the floor for a safe. >> the thieves think that restaurants have cash on the premises. they have not kept up with the realities of restaurants where everything is credit cards and qr codes. >> just around the corner, restaurant local 271 was hit two days before christmas. management telling ktvu the burglars got to the businesses safe and caused thousands of dollars in property damage in the process. right across the street from coupa restaurant, nola was also hit by burglars the day after christmas. that time they made off with another safe full of cash. each of these locations less than half a mile away from palo alto police headquarters. >> although the police department had actually shown up to the space, but they only, like, flash our lights through the back door. even though the back door was wide open, they didn't actually enter the space. so i called them back and said, you need to go into the space. there is somebody who burglarized us. so then they said, okay, well, now we have your permission. now we can go. >> the palo alto police

department is holding a meeting with the palo alto chamber of commerce for business owners on monday. owners tell me they are hopeful that meeting will be fruitful. >> it's really time for palo alto to get organized to combat this type of crime. even after police are dispatched, the thieves still do their dirty work because they know the system in palo alto. >> tori gaines, ktvu, fox two news. >> a firefighter was injured fighting a house fire in alameda county. officials say this fire broke out at about 8 p.m. last night in the unincorporated cherryland neighborhood, near hayward. the firefighter's injuriesere not life threatening. fire crews say two elderly residents were displaced from the townhouse on sunset boulevard near oakland avenue. the cause of the fire is under investigation. the california insurance commissioner has released long-awaited emergency regulations, designed to help address the state's home insurance crisis. the regulations will require insurers to increase coverage in areas of high wildfire risk,

where some homeowners have had their policies dropped. in exchange, the insurers will be allowed to charge for the cost of reinsurance. those are policies that insurance companies buy to protect themselves from massive losses, such as wildfires. weather costs will go down, is under debate is going to make it infinitely easier not only to obtain coverage, but to get competitive bids from more than one company. >> when there are more options, there's more competitiveness in the marketplace and prices will tend to go down. >> there is no legally binding commitment in this document that they have to cover more people, but we're all going to be paying more. >> consumer watchdog says the rules are flawed and they expect to see rates skyrocket. they plan to challenge the new regulations in court. san francisco says new grants will pay for street city. excuse me? street improvements citywide. one of the projects will revitalize the stretch of powell street between market and geary. it will include wider sidewalks and cafe style dining, plus a

dramatic chandelier lighting feature over the cable car turnaround. the $36 million in funding will also include improvements at folsom and howard streets, and to improve the city's bus fleet. tolls on bay area bridges are going up january 1st on the seven state run bridges. starting tomorrow, drivers will pay $8, an increase from the current bridge toll of $7 for most cars. in addition, the mtc bay area toll authority voted to approve a series of toll increases starting in 2026. under the toll hikes, some drivers will be paying as much as $11.50 by the year 2030. the mtc says the higher tolls will help pay for bridge maintenance. the toll hike does not include the golden gate bridge. its tolls were raised in july. the city of vallejo is named its next police chief. jason todd, who has been serving as interim chief, has been chosen to serve as the department's permanent chief. todd took over as interim chief in 2022. he served for

over 27 years with the san jose police department before joining vallejo in 2021. the city says that he has helped to stabilize staffing levels, improve the relationship with the community, and help to implement state reforms. chief todd said he hopes to continue the work and momentum in elevating the vallejo police department. a standoff after security guards are shot in los angeles. that story next in tonight's west coast rap, and we'll show you how the san francisco sheriff stepped in to help a man working to bring attention o chal

at a target store who confronted the suspect for shoplifting. that tops tonight's west coast rap. this video, posted to the citizen app, shows some of the investigation unfolding outside the store. the suspect was taken into custody following an hours long standoff at an apartment complex not far from the downtown l.a. target, where the shooting happened. police say the suspect was trying to steal hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise in a suitcase, and opened fire on the security guards who tried to stop him. one guard remains in critical condition. the other has been released from the hospital. a washington couple is hoping for an arrest after someone shot out the window of their suv while they were driving on interstate 405. it happened in the town of renton this weekend. the couple

says they saw a driver wearing a hoodie shoot at them multiple times. they believe the incident to be a random road rage shooting. fortunately, the two made it out unscathed, but the car is left with a broken window and a bullet hole in one of the car's doors. washington state police are now investigating. and las vegas is getting ready to pull off one of the biggest new year celebrations on the west coast. a live look here tonight at crowds gathered on fremont street, ready to ring in the new year. another large crowd is gathered on the strip. at the stroke of midnight. fireworks will light up the sky over the las vegas strip. event planners expect about 400,000 people will celebrate with this party, and you can hear about the west coast top stories every weekday right here on ktvu. west coast rap with alex savage airs at 7:00 monday through friday, or you can find round the clock coverage at west coast rap.com. people with disabilities, such as those on the autism spectrum, often have difficulty finding

employment. a bay area man is trying to highlight the issue in hopes of changing it as ktvu is. andre senior shows us he received a major assist in his efforts from the sheriff of san francisco. >> say give it about 30s. >> weeks after life changing opportunity, adam sherman is contemplating next steps for a man who few have been on so far, he's fresh off the opportunity of a lifetime, serving as campaign manager for paul miyamoto's reelection bid for san francisco sheriff. >> make sure you just get out and vote. >> it's a multifaceted role. everything from helping to organize fundraising to putting out media blurbs and other forms of publicity. >> but in an election season filled with many campaigns and the people who had them. sherman's situation is different because he is on the autism spectrum, something he's proud to talk about, but one that's kept his ambitions tempered. and he's not the only one. >> there are 5.5 million autistics in america who are at that age where they can be working and professionals, and

yet barely one fifth of them are professionally employed. the rest are either unemployed or chronically underemployed. >> and sherman was no exception. graduating from san francisco state university with a degree in environmental studies with a special concentration in social justice, he found himself unable to find a job in his chosen field, so he took a job stocking shelves at trader joe's. but while he couldn't get the job he wanted, he donated his time volunteering with various community organizations. it was that effort that got him noticed by miyamoto's team. >> he was actually on one of the teams that were doing safety patrols in chinatown, and so his commitment to the community was already evidenced by that volunteer work, that commitment, and a reputation that preceded him, landed sherman that coveted job, leading miyamoto's critical reelection bid, helping the incumbent snag more than 80% of the votes. >> and trusting your election campaign to anyone is a big deal. but miyamoto told me sherman's autism was never a factor in his decision.

>> i don't think i even asked any questions about whether or not he'd be able to do things. >> the autism society and advocacy group hopes more companies and organizations actually adopt sheriff miyamoto's thinking, because they see hiring someone on the spectrum is actually good for the bottom line. >> we look at different ways of information processing and different ways of executive function. we might have folks who think in a very systemized way, but we might have folks that think from a bottom up sort of perspective, and that can bring a lot of creativity and other pieces. >> the organization cites research that shows companies that embrace neurodiversity are likely to have a competitive advantage, and businesses employing autistic individuals report increased innovation and problem solving capabilities. >> i think the idea that when we're open to bringing in neurodiverse autistic talent to a workplace, understand that there's sometimes let's figure out where the best fit could be. let's talk to the individual. where do you think your strengths are? >> it's a conversation that

sherman wants to grow in public discourse, dealing with the struggles in this book, living beyond normal an autistic autobiography. >> i really want to bridge the divide between the neuro typical or normal brained people of society with the neurodivergent or autistic people like myself. >> andre senior, ktvu, fox two news. >> and we're checking in on the weather tomorrow morning. there's a frost advisory yet again. third morning in a row. freeze warnings have been dropped, but there's rain back in the five day. i'll have that coming up. >> the gift of life. coming up, a bay area woman opens up about making the commitment be a

cisco's new year's eve celebration, crowds gathered

along the embarcadero are about 45 minutes away from a fireworks show that will help them ring in the new year. and we will bring in ktvu chief meteorologist bill martin for a look at our weather conditions. a clear night. bill looks like it's going to be pretty good to kick in the 2025 new year. >> a pretty nice night. you bet it could be raining right. here we are into into coming into january. it's typically a wet time of year but it's not tonight so it's working out for us. we could use more rain and we'll see more rain on friday. here's the highs from today. these are the highs from today and they'll be about the same tomorrow. not many big changes except that frost advisory will be in effect tomorrow morning for some of the inland bay valleys. these spots. but the freeze warning has been dropped. so all kind of low grade stuff really. our next chance for real weather in terms of rain. it comes on friday and this is the long range model. and you'll see it. there's friday right there. and then it ridges up again. see the big ridge of high pressure. and so we're going into an extended dry period potentially again long range models. it doesn't mean it's going to nail it. but it looks like after this

friday we kind of go semi or quasi dry for a while. so it might be our last chance to get some rain in here. and that doesn't look like a big rain producer on friday, but it does look like a typical cold front. so lower snow levels, lower snow levels, you know, the winds won't be out of control. it'll just be a friday event with clouds increasing all day friday and then the rain getting here by mid afternoon overnight and then gone by by saturday. at least that's the plan. so here we are. the rain is falling out north and that's kind of how this works out. the rain. this is the model. now the rain kind of stays north. there's tomorrow morning or tomorrow. that was tomorrow morning. this is tomorrow night. and then see the rain just stays up there. and then there's thursday morning and thursday night. and then here comes friday right there. so you know, is this a big deal. not really. not compared to what we've seen. but it's interesting that it's more typical. it's an extratropical weather system. so we're not looking at tropical moisture. we're looking at something from the more further north region. so a cooler weather system, which will have

less rain than we had been seeing, but rain nonetheless and more typical for this time of year. those are the forecast highs. these are the five day panels showing you a weekend that looks pretty nice with a wet friday. christina. >> sounds good. bill. thank you. here's a look at the stories trending tonight on ktvu.com. one of our top stories. newly surfaced video showing the moment someone drove a car through a crowd at san jose's christmas in the park. san jose police tracked down the suspected driver and arrested him. trader joe's looks forward to expanding its footprint in 2025. the grocery store chain has announced plans to open a dozen new stores in the new year. three of those will be in southern california, and a recent investigation finds an oakland police officer violated the department's policy on racial profiling. according to the community police review agency, it's the first time the agency has ever come to that conclusion. you can find these stories and more on ktvu.com. a bay area woman will make 2025 a

year. one california couple will never forget. coming up. z's bakery is looking to add a pizza oven, arissa's hair salon wants to expand their space, and steve's t-shirt shop wants to bring on more help. with the comcast business 5-year price lock guarantee, they can think more about possibilities for their business and not the cost of their internet. it's five years of gig-speeds and advanced security. all from the company with 99.9% network reliability. get the 5-year price lock guarantee, now back for a limited time.

powering five years of savings. powering possibilities™. comcast business.

the incredible gift of one first born child is all thanks to a south bay woman who agreed to become a surrogate. ktvu is claudine wong sat down with her to talk about her experience. >> leanne ortega says she wasn't sure what to expect when she began a two year journey that began late one night when she was scrolling on her phone. >> i was scrolling on tiktok super late at night, and i seen this girl talking about her experience with surrogacy. she actually went through the company that i went through with surrogacy first. and so she was talking about it, and she i think she was like eight months

pregnant and she was just telling her experience. >> the post convinced ortega to get online and fill out an application. >> i don't really know if it was really her story. i think it was more so me just wanting to have like some type of purpose or something. >> ortega is a single mother of two and describes her pregnancies as fairly easy, and she's pretty sure she's done having kids. so she says surrogacy was an opportunity to give another family a baby of their own. couples who may be struggling with infertility, which is a journey jeffrey hu and his wife know well. >> we went to four different countries, and eventually we were able to have our children through surrogacy. so i always call them like million dollar babies because literally it took us half a decade. and, you know, dozen, half dozen rounds of ivf before we were able to pursue surrogacy, to start a family. >> today, this is his family thanks to surrogacy. it is a journey that prompted them to create the company known as surrogate first. he says since

2018, they've had an estimated 300 live births. and while finding surrogates is a challenge, the journey can be more fulfilling than some realize. >> so for us in most agencies, there's probably a 3 to 5% qualification rate at the end of the day of someone that becomes a surrogate. she's had four. surrogacy is three of them with the same family. they're based in china. they've brought her entire family over for a one month trip. stayed at their house. >> it took a few weeks for ortega to be approved. but then the process began. and while the company will ask many questions to find a match on issues like termination, covid vaccination and how a surrogate feels about international or same sex couples, for ortega, the process of picking the family she would work with was fairly simple. >> to be honest, i only got sent one family. once i got sent that one family, i was like, yeah, i'll do it for them. >> the process after that involves hormone shots and the implantation of the couple's embryo. but the first attempt took and once again, she says

the pregnancy was fairly easy, but there was one very important difference for like from the very beginning, i like, mentally prepared myself. >> like, i'm like, this isn't my baby. it's somebody. it's going to be somebody else's baby because i didn't know i was going to work with them. so i just knew that, like, it was never my baby. >> she says her kids knew she was doing it to help people, and she got support from her family. but as her belly grew, people started asking questions. >> i'm like telling them like, oh, like i'm a surrogate, i'm going to have a baby. and then everybody's concern is, well, aren't you going to feel like attached? you're giving away a baby. >> she says she told the baby often that it was loved but never got attached. and as far as compensation, she prefers to keep that information private. but who says on average, in addition to medical expenses that are covered, there is a base compensation for surrogates that is paid over the entire pregnancy. >> so for base compensation, i think the average is probably about 50 to 55,000. but that can also go all the way up to 80 to

100,000, depending on the intended parent, what state you're in and you know, are you a repeat surrogate, etc. i would like to break one of the stereotypes, which is the number one reason by far, that the surrogates pursue surrogacy is to help another family in need. >> ortega says that is what motivated her, and she describes the moment that the baby she carried entered the world and met their parents. she says even in that moment, she knew she was delivering a baby that belonged to someone else. >> the parents are just sitting there and they're like, okay, so like, what's going on? i'm like, you guys should probably stand up. like, we're about to have the baby right now. they're like, oh, okay. you could tell they were going to like get emotional. but then they were like smiling like, oh my goodness, my child was just born. i feel like it's kind of like a full circle moment. it's kind of just like fulfilling for me. >> and as we sat with her just three days after giving birth, she was recovering in record time and already pondering the possibility of giving that same gift again. >> why would i do it again? i

don't know, i just, i just, i don't know, i just think that it was it's very fulfilling internally for me, a gift of family. >> she has just given one couple just in time for the holidays in san jose. claudine wong, ktvu, fox two news. >> pretty incredible gift. thank you so much for wrapping up your 2024 with us. the countdown, of course, to the new year is on. i'd like to wish you a happy new year, and also a reminder that you can watch a live stream of san francisco's midnight fireworks celebration on our fox local app. good night and happy new year! we'd like to leave you with a live look at san francisco along the embarcadero, as crowds are gathering tonight for crystal clear skies and the beautiful fireworks show that will light up the night sky to ring in 2025. best wishes for a great new year bay area for the last time in 2024. good night, bay area. we'll see you in 2025. [music]

yeah. >> hello. and welcome to like it or not, i'm dave clark. this is a show where we talk about things, about what you're talking about, the latest hot topics. what's trending now, this particular episode is all about ringing in a new year. and i've got some of the best people in the bay area here. i'm just saying are the cre