alan wang is in sonoma. but we begin with ama dates in santa cruz where the san lorenzo river is now threatening the boardwalk there. >> reporter: carolyn, if you look behind me, everything looks great as it normally does. it is what is on the other side of the sign that is causing all of the problems. the san lorenzo river normally goes right by the boardwalk and straight into the ocean. but now it has taken a right turn right behind the boardwalk and on to the beach area, and then it snakes out to the ocean. now, fortunately there is a large retaining wall on this side of the boardwalk, so it is a good situation here. here is where the problem is. this is where the retaining wall ends. what they have done is they have taken a lot of sand and they have built it up and pushed it up against where the retaining wall ends and it uses the sand bar, if you will, to guide the river out to the ocean. basically there is enough sand that is controlling the flow of the water going into the ocean. but it could be a pro

alan wang is in sonoma. but we begin with ama dates in santa cruz where the san lorenzo river is now threatening the boardwalk there. >> reporter: carolyn, if you look behind me, everything looks great as it normally does. it is what is on the other side of the sign that is causing all of the problems. the san lorenzo river normally goes right by the boardwalk and straight into the ocean. but now it has taken a right turn right behind the boardwalk and on to the beach area, and then it snakes out to the ocean. now, fortunately there is a large retaining wall on this side of the boardwalk, so it is a good situation here. here is where the problem is. this is where the retaining wall ends. what they have done is they have taken a lot of sand and they have built it up and pushed it up against where the retaining wall ends and it uses the sand bar, if you will, to guide the river out to the ocean. basically there is enough sand that is controlling the flow of the water going into the ocean. but it could be a pro

that's where alan wang is in oakland for us. alan? >> this is one of the many scenes near highway 13 in oakland. pg&e crews are on the scene, and it is still unclear how some high voltage power lines trapped a passenger inside. >> when the high voltage power line fell on top of an ac transit bus, the passengers did the right thing. they stayed on the bus. pg&e crews say park boulevard from highway 13 to estates drive will be closed until 2:00 a.m. there was another close call in pittsburgh around 7:30. the chp says they were responding to a three-car collision on westbound highway 4 in pittsburgh when another car lost control and crashed into the scene injuring one of the drivers who was standing next to the guardrail. >> she was between a vehicle and the guardrail. >> she was siting on the guardrail? >> she wasn't sitting, but she was outside standing. >> then what happened? >> the vehicle that spun out of control struck her vehicle and then moved it and pinched her between the guardrail and her car. >> it was enough to cause a small

that's where alan wang is in oakland for us. alan? >> this is one of the many scenes near highway 13 in oakland. pg&e crews are on the scene, and it is still unclear how some high voltage power lines trapped a passenger inside. >> when the high voltage power line fell on top of an ac transit bus, the passengers did the right thing. they stayed on the bus. pg&e crews say park boulevard from highway 13 to estates drive will be closed until 2:00 a.m. there was another close call in pittsburgh around 7:30. the chp says they were responding to a three-car collision on westbound highway 4 in pittsburgh when another car lost control and crashed into the scene injuring one of the drivers who was standing next to the guardrail. >> she was between a vehicle and the guardrail. >> she was siting on the guardrail? >> she wasn't sitting, but she was outside standing. >> then what happened? >> the vehicle that spun out of control struck her vehicle and then moved it and pinched her between the guardrail and her car. >> it was enough to cause a small

alan wang took it for test drive. >> it's just a big green button that guides you to the nearest openarking spot in san francisco. >> there it is. >> david designed voice park. it uses data from existing parking seven stores installed by the municipal transportation agency which designed the app but he thought it was too difficult to use while driving. >> you have to type in what is available and not available and you have to navigate. >> voice park uses realtime information on more than 19,000 parking spots in eight pilot areas around san francisco. >> there are 838 available. >> it knows when commercial spots are open and refreshes every 8 seconds. >> if somebody snags, it are recalculate and take you to the nearest one after that. >> to see how good it was, we decided to let an expert use the app. the parking vallet. >> i picked up a spot on pine street and went around the block and there was spot open. twa that easy. >> you about it couldn't keep up with u-turns and sudden direction changes. it doesn't anticipate temporary construction zones either but he says its work in progress

alan wang is live in fairfield. alan, students are not happy about this. >> not happy at all. dan oftentimes the first to suffer from education cuts are the smaller city and community colleges. tonight a room full of former and current students fought to explain the importance of their athletics program. many of the students and community members packed the solano college boardroom to save the football and aquatics program. >> i don't feel i am being treated well here. somebody told me there was no layoffs, don't worry about your job. >> former and current football players talked about how the two-time conference championship teams offers them to get somewhere they might not have been. it helped gibson who is now an offensive lineman in the envelope. >> for me coming from a family that was not wealthy and couldn't pay for college. i went to community college for two years and then wept to a uc and then was drafted to the nfl. >> if it were not for the solano community college's football program i would not be a professor of sociology currently at solano community college. >> t

as alan wang reports, his books on the taliban are used extensively by american analysts. >> they are able to put something like 25,000 fighters into the field. >> the best selling author and journalist paints a bleak picture of a resilient force. it is an economy that could collapse if u.s. forces leave. he also makes comparisons to vietnam. >> any guerrilla force that is able to maintain sactuaries and safe havens in a nay are boing country -- in a neighboring country cannot be defeated. >> but he believes the u.s. can have success when they are scheduled to leave in 2014. >> if you want to end this war before you leave, you have to make an attempt with reconciling the taliban with the current government. >> despite atrocities by u.s. soldiers on the afghan population, he believes the taliban still wants to negotiate a possible power sharing deal. he says the 10-year conflict has depleted their resources and morale is low. >> they are fed up with pakistan and the manipulation they have been under. >> he says al-qaeda would be determined to sabotage any negotiations. he speaks again

as alan wang reports, his books on the taliban are used extensively by american analysts. >> they are able to put something like 25,000 fighters into the field. >> the best selling author and journalist paints a bleak picture of a resilient force. it is an economy that could collapse if u.s. forces leave. he also makes comparisons to vietnam. >> any guerrilla force that is able to maintain sactuaries and safe havens in a nay are boing country -- in a neighboring country cannot be defeated. >> but he believes the u.s. can have success when they are scheduled to leave in 2014. >> if you want to end this war before you leave, you have to make an attempt with reconciling the taliban with the current government. >> despite atrocities by u.s. soldiers on the afghan population, he believes the taliban still wants to negotiate a possible power sharing deal. he says the 10-year conflict has depleted their resources and morale is low. >> they are fed up with pakistan and the manipulation they have been under. >> he says al-qaeda would be determined to sabotage any negotiations. he speaks again

alan wang is live in fairfield. alan, students are not happy about this. >> not happy at all. dan oftentimes the first to suffer from education cuts are the smaller city and community colleges. tonight a room full of former and current students fought to explain the importance of their athletics program. many of the students and community members packed the solano college boardroom to save the football and aquatics program. >> i don't feel i am being treated well here. somebody told me there was no layoffs, don't worry about your job. >> former and current football players talked about how the two-time conference championship teams offers them to get somewhere they might not have been. it helped gibson who is now an offensive lineman in the envelope. >> for me coming from a family that was not wealthy and couldn't pay for college. i went to community college for two years and then wept to a uc and then was drafted to the nfl. >> if it were not for the solano community college's football program i would not be a professor of sociology currently at solano community college. >> t

that's where alan wang is live for us tonight. alan? >> this is where it happened in the chevy's restaurant. apparently the undercover operations go down all the time, but they don't always fall apart and put the public in harm's way. >> i just got here. i was coming to have lunch and a little happy hour and study. >> they didn't realize an undercover atf operation was going down in the parking lot and it was about to go sour. >> the suspect posed a definite threat to the agent. the agent called for the cover team, and the cover team came in and shots were fired. >> i life on the ground, and i ran into the back of the restaurant for more protection and more cover. >> one suspect dropped what appeared to be a handgun. alcohol, tobacco and firearm officials say the undercover agent was attempting to buy illegal firearms from three suspect in this chrysler 300. but they had no intention of delivering the goods. instead they pulled a gun on the agent and tried to make off with the cash. >> next thing you know the guy is on the ground and th

alan wang is here with a look at the questionnaire potential jury members have to fill out. alan? >> reporter: carolyn, normally we don't see a jury questionnaire in a misdemeanor case like this. but this one involves the sheriff, and it has been highly publicized. now we are seeing how the questionnaire could offer a hint into how this trial could unfold. late this afternoon potential jurors were called to the hall of justice in the case against san francisco sheriff ross m mercurini. they obtained this questionnaire that asks potential jurors if they were involved in a disagreement on child custody, or support. >> we may well hear testimony that disputes the care or custody of the son was the thing that lead to all of this. >> the prosecution argues that the couple's son was present during the argument which lead to this bruise on lopez's arm. abc7 legal analyst dean johnson says the witness list includes a forensic pathologist who has testified in the past on the origins of scrapes and bruises. >> i would suspect she is going to testify probably as a defense witness about what

alan wang is here with a look at the questionnaire potential jury members have to fill out. alan? >> reporter: carolyn, normally we don't see a jury questionnaire in a misdemeanor case like this. but this one involves the sheriff, and it has been highly publicized. now we are seeing how the questionnaire could offer a hint into how this trial could unfold. late this afternoon potential jurors were called to the hall of justice in the case against san francisco sheriff ross m mercurini. they obtained this questionnaire that asks potential jurors if they were involved in a disagreement on child custody, or support. >> we may well hear testimony that disputes the care or custody of the son was the thing that lead to all of this. >> the prosecution argues that the couple's son was present during the argument which lead to this bruise on lopez's arm. abc7 legal analyst dean johnson says the witness list includes a forensic pathologist who has testified in the past on the origins of scrapes and bruises. >> i would suspect she is going to testify probably as a defense witness about what

alan wang is live with the latest from investigators. alan? >> reporter: it is still an active crime scene as you see behind me. most of the customers and ememployees have gone home but they were asked to leave their vehicles in the parking lot which is now a crime scene. we saw a it tech 9 handgun laying on the ground after a shootout between an undercover atm official and three suspects. the suspect in a chrysler 300 had no intention of delivering on the goods. instead they pulled a gun on the agent and trying to take his cash. shots were fired sending one suspect to the hospital, another apprehended and a third suspect ran off but police arrested him 30 minutes later. >> the suspects posed a definite threat to the agents. the agent called for his cover team and the cover team came in and shots were fired. >> and everyone was on the ground so i'm like i dive on the ground and i start running to the back of the restaurant for more protection, more cover, more protection. >> reporter: the atf says the undercover operations are highly scrutiniz

i'm alan wang. >> and i'm ama dates. thousands of students and educate you ares -- educatorses from all over california will descend as part of an occupy education rally. lilian kim is live from uc berkeley tonight. lilian? >> ama, many of the protesters will be traveling to sacramento by bus. one of the meeting places will be here on the south side of the uc berkeley campus. >> she got as much studying done as she could because tomorrow she will be taking part in the education rally in sacramento. there will be buses campuses eae morning, and in there will be thousands of students, teachers and administrators ready to protest at the state capital. >> i am working two jobs this semester. since i started as an under graduate my tuition quadrupled. >> tomorrow will be the culmination of a series of rallies that began last week. dozens have been marching from the bay area toward the capital since friday. they passed through late this afternoon and the demands are simple. no more cuts to education. instead they want a in mil

i'm alan wang. >> thank you, alan. >>> super tuesday is history, and tonight it looks like mitt romney has won the big prize, the key state of ohio, but just barely. romney also took idaho, massachusetts, vermont, virginia and wyoming. rick santorum claimed wins in north dakota, oklahoma and tennessee leaving newt gingrich with a single victory, his home state of georgia. john alston has more on the hard fought contest. >> super tuesday usually has the effective thinking out of the ranks of candidates, but apparently not tonight. so many states split among the candidates, the beat goes on. >> he took the home state of massachusetts along with vermont, virginia and idaho. >> tonight we are doing some counting. we are counting the delegates for the convention, and it looks good. and we are counting down the days until november and now it looks even better. >> rick santorum picked up wins in tennessee and oklahoma. exit polls show he was the top choice among those whose religious views are most important. >> this was a big night. lots of states. we are going to win a few. we are going to

i'm alan wang. at this point police will not say if the case is a murder-suicide or if all five people were killed by someone who is still at large. investigators spent the spire -- entire day at the house, and tomas roman is there with the latest. >> reporter: this whole tragedy happened in this orange house on howth street. san francisco police aren't saying whether the killer is one of the victims inside the house or whether that individual or individuals is still on the loose. what they are saying is that this family was specifically targeted. >> tape surrounds the house where five people were found murdered. the tape cloz other houses on both sides of the scene. police say investigators were forced to come back again today due to the scope of the murder scene and number of victims. >> too much for them to process in one day. >> reporter: investigators spent the entire day inside the home on howth street across from city college. the woman who safford the bldy scene said the victims were her par

i'm alan wang. >> thank you, alan. >>> super tuesday is history, and tonight it looks like mitt romney has won the big prize, the key state of ohio, but just barely. romney also took idaho, massachusetts, vermont, virginia and wyoming. rick santorum claimed wins in north dakota, oklahoma and tennessee leaving newt gingrich with a single victory, his home state of georgia. john alston has more on the hard fought contest. >> super tuesday usually has the effective thinking out of the ranks of candidates, but apparently not tonight. so many states split among the candidates, the beat goes on. >> he took the home state of massachusetts along with vermont, virginia and idaho. >> tonight we are doing some counting. we are counting the delegates for the convention, and it looks good. and we are counting down the days until november and now it looks even better. >> rick santorum picked up wins in tennessee and oklahoma. exit polls show he was the top choice among those whose religious views are most important. >> this was a big night. lots of states. we are going to win a few. we are going to

i'm alan wang. >> i'm ama dates. the san francisco police believe they have their man. the police chief held a news conference this afternoon to announce the arrest of this man in connection with the murders of five people inside an engel side home. thomas roman is there live with the latest. thomas? >> ama as you can see behind me police are guarding the crime scene and they are relieved the suspect has been caught. today abc7 news was given some cell phone video of police preparing to make that arrest. >> this is cell phone video taken by a neighbor yesterday afternoon. in it you can see a dozen heavily-armed s.w.a.t team members getting into position to enter a home. the neighbors tell us s.w.a.t used a battering ram to enter a townhouse on the 700 block of hay street in the western edition. the police chief announced the results of the raid today. >> the arrest was made early this morning and it ir on going. >> arrested was ben ti look who was arrested in the raid on saturday, but police are not stoping there. >> luck is a resident of san francisco and he is in char

tonight abc7's alan wang spoke with a local man who grew up near the epicenter. >> the epicenter is located populated area about 115 miles from:00 caw poe co and -- acapulco and -- >> i talked to my sister and she said it was really strong. like i told you, all my family in hua huh caw is fine. no damage. >> robles who teaches art at san francisco's cultural center says earthquakes are so common that the ancient aztecs delivered a symbol for them. >> we always have earthquakes. it is part of the fault. >> the quake struck at midday local time and felt miles away in mexico city. buildings swayed and the windows shattered and cracks appeared throughout the capital. rattled workers scrambled to get out of the offices and people poured into the streets and afraid to go back inside. this woman says, "is is sounded like thunder. we tried to stay calm and not trample each other." tourists evacuated the highrise hotels. >> we were on the 28th floor and everything started shaking and the windows were shake expig sat on the floor, and it was very scary. i never felt nothing like that before. >> the m

tonight abc7's alan wang spoke with a local man who grew up near the epicenter. >> the epicenter is locatedsparsely populated area about 115 miles from:00 caw poe co and -- acapulco and -- >> i talked to my sister and she said it was really strong. like i told you, all my family in hua huh caw is fine. no damage. >> robles who teaches art at san francisco's cultural center says earthquakes are so common that the ancient aztecs delivered a symbol for them. >> we always have earthquakes. it is part of the fault. >> the quake struck at midday local time and felt miles away in mexico city. buildings swayed and the windows shattered and cracks appeared throughout the capital. rattled workers scrambled to get out of the offices and people poured into the streets and afraid to go back inside. this woman says, "is is sounded like thunder. we tried to stay calm and not trample each other." tourists evacuated the highrise hotels. >> we were on the 28th floor and everything started shaking and the windows were shake expig sat on the floor, and it was very scary. i never felt nothing like that before.

i'm alan wang reporting in richmond, abc7 news. >> thank you. >>> the man accused of killing five people in san francisco made his first court appearance. 35-year-old luke is accused of killing three women and two men. today his arraignment was postponed because of a possible conflict of interest with the public defender who was also representing luke's brother, brian. abc7 news learned that they tracked him down after finding his phone number on the cell phone of one of his victims. the victims were killed in four areas of the home, th entryway, the garage and two bedrooms. after the murders the killer poured bleach, water and paint over the scene to damage evidence. he is facing charges of special circumstances of robbery, burglary and lying in wait. the enhancements make him eligible for the death penalty. >> we are going to treat this case as a death penalty case. if we are appointed -- my understanding from the district attorney is they are going to have a review of the case shortly, and they will make a determination as to whether or not they will have the death penalty jie. luke i

i'm alan wang. berkeley's police chiefs apologizing tonight after ordering an officer to pay a mid-michigan visit to a reporter to get him to change this story. sergio quintana is live in berkeley with the details. >> reporter: if you pick up the saturday edition of the oakland tribune and turn to the local section, you'll find this story written by reporter doug oakley. the original version of this story is what the police chief had a problem with. and then right next to it is this story, this is about how the police chief sent out a police officer to doug oakley's house to change this story. this all happened thursday night after a iraq cuss meeting in berkeley put together by city leader. the employs chief took pointed questions about how the department responsibled to an attack on aing a oakland resident. the reporter filed his store. two hours later sergeantmer kusmiss, a spokesman, showed up at his hours. >> she said she was mortified she had to be there and was very appallingityic but told me

i'm alan wang. in tonight's headlines, police in san francisco are still investigating the brutal murders of five people. police say the violence was not a random act and one person or more were targeted. the escape was so gruesome the medical examiner is still trying to determine the cause of death. >>> in morgan hill a teenager has now been missing for more than eight days. friends and family searched the fields near the home of the 15-year-old who was last seen earl monday morning. >>> around will fall in the bay area through tomorrow night. slick roads have caused accidents and falling trees have crews working overtime to clear debris. >>> there's growing outrage of the death of florida teenager, trayvon martin. people rallied across the nation calling for the arrest of george zimmerman, who shot the unarmed teen. >> reporter: exclusive new details about george zimmerman, the man who shot trayvon martin and unleashed protests across at the criminal tri. his local advicer saying he knows simmerma

i'm alan wang. >> i'm ama dates. 16 afghan villagers were shot to death as they slept. tonight we are learning more of the man accused of opening fire on them. she a u.s. army sergeant with two children. she on his third tour in iraq and first in of afghanistan. surge yea -- surgeon yow has more -- sergio has more. >> investigators collect shell casings in one of the homes targeted by the soldier and villages watch as they are carted away. united states and nato allies are trying to figure out what set the soldier off. afghan official told cnn that locals will want the soldier to stand trial in an afghan court. >> this is not something they can wash away by saying i'm sorry or forgive me. the afghan people when it comes to murder, those words do nothing. >> as villagers mourn the loss of their loved ones president barack obama issued condolences saying "this incident is track jibing 1k3* shocking and does not represent the position of the military." the he says this insurance department adds to an increasingly difficult relationship with of a iman stan. -- with afghanis

i'm ama dates.Ñi alan wang has the night off.people were hoping to play in the snow, but they were told to turn around. the highway leading up to theÑi summit was closed to the general public. a big disappointment for those who wanted to enjoy the last few days of winter. lilian kim reports from mount hamilton.ç >> in less than 24 hours, a fresh blanket of snow covered the top of mount hamilton. the observatory is at theñr center of it all. but as pretty as it may seem, conditions are pretty harsh. >> any weather is accompanied by a lot of wind. that's what we've got right now. that's what we have had the last couple days. we are ready for spring to come. >> we are at the summit at 4200 feet. it started snowing yesterday and continued this morning. about six inches have fallen so far. despite the cold and blustery conditions people have been clamoring to get to the top. they didn't have a chance to go to tahoe this season and said this was their onlyÑi opportunity to see some snow. >> we noticed the snow because the mountain cle

just got an e-mail from our alan wang he starts out with wow!aid they felt the split second roll then the big shake it was enough to wake he and his wife up but everything is okay. he says the baby slept right through it. >> great, babies do that. one of our folks who watches us and sends pictures all the time chris says he felt a big shake not too far from the epicenter and sal land you are right about the east and north and folks in palo alto like katie marzullo did not feel a thing. here in the studio we are the city shaking a little bit. >> 5:58. shall we take a break you guys? okay we'll keep going. we are getting -- we got a call from guerneville up north felt the quake do we have that person on the phone? >> not right now. they didn't report any damage just the shaking not too many things fell off shelf there is. we did hear that happened in some places in the east bay. just to recap: at 5:33 this morning, we felt the studio shake and we confirmed with the usgs there was a magnitude 4.0 quake based one mile north of el cerrito where the e