so the main characters charmaine and stan begin the story living in their car. so what gave you the thought to set the book in this way with these characters in this situation? - well i started off with the idea-- so stan and charmaine are living in their car it's really awful. they did have a house, they did have jobs. they ended up losing those and they're in their car and it's a very unpleasant place to be because there's also no social controls and there's people roaming around trying to get their car away from them. - right the world around them - it's very dangerous. - [evan] has really kind of fallen down. - yeah no social structure. so then they see an ad on television. and the the ad on television says sign up for our project which promises full employment for everyone. - [evan] right. - you get sort of a digital tour of what you get and you get to live in a real house again, you get fluffy white towels. now the inspiration from that was, do you remember those leona helmsley hotel ads with the towels? - [evan] oh of course. oh yes of course. - those wer

one house on here and sondra and one on charmain. sky 7 was over head minutes after this crane accident happened. we're told the boom was extended at 190 feet. it was working being operated by contractors for pg&e. the residents had their power turned off while this wor being done. they tha they thought everything was going fine. the crane that fell over smashed two sheds in the backyards of homes. then it crashed into the roof of the house. you can see how bad the destruction is. given the reach of the 190-foot boom this is a lot of heavy weight and could have been catastrophic. no injuries were reported. we did talk to a woman whose house did have damage. the crane fell into a shed in her backyard and we talked to a baa abattalion chief on how thi happened. >> it was a huge crash. >> did it shake the house? >> it didn't shake our house that i remember. i ran outside to find out that everybody was okay. that was the main concern. everybody was fine. nobody was hurt. >> they believe the boom was extended to 190 feet when it was doing

and charmaine says they are in trouble. >> they have no power and the food is limited now and everythingas to be cooked and they have babies there and the babies need milk. >> we spoke with what toy and saw these views from her living room. she took an entire family into her second floor apartment. after the home was flooded. that means four adults and five children are stranded in her home. >> our parking lot was flooded yesterday. and the roads, the main roads were flooded and a lot of us couldn't get to the markets once they opened. we are pretty much stuck. >> you guys are running out of food basically? >> yes. >> latoya says that making matters worse rescuers were making their way toward her apartment building and turned back fearing for their safety. we are reaching out to people to come and get us. >> anyone time a boat comes someone comes out. >> the worst part is the feeling of helplessness, knowing she can't help her loved one. >> i hope they get the help they need, there is ale lot of people strapped there. >> we found that latoya williams and her daughter were evacuated. we a

it was so long it reached the house one street over on charmaine drive. fire officials say there were no injuries. the damage was limited to one house, two sheds and a fence where people say the sound of it probably was indescribable. . >> i heard a loud crash or boom. something like i've never heard before. . >> i was shocked to see all of the damage that happened. >> right now, they are saying it was a hydraulic problem with the crane. not the operator. >> we found two investigations in the passed two years involving the king crane service company. authorities say they are also waiting for a damage estimate for two of the properties and ball. >>> life on the streets could get tougher in the north of bay. how santa rosa is planning to crackdown on the homeless. >>> our cool pattern will continue tomorrow. we'll have a look at the numbers and what you can expect for your weekend coming up. keeping up. it takes hard work, tight budgets and a little support. and pg&e is ready to do our part. our care program can save you 20% or more on your monthly bill. it

one house on here and sondra and one on charmain.ad minutes after this crane accident happened. we're told the boom was extended

crane clipped two backyard sheds before crashing onto the roof of a house on charmaine drive.n what caused that crane to fall. reporting live in campbell, matt keller, abc7 news. >> thank you. if you're heading out to b.a.r.t. this morning, trains are running as normal. last night, though, equipment issues caused big problems. dozens of passengers were stuck waiting for the train around 11:00. b.a.r.t. said there was a 20-minute delay at the powell street station. the san francisco fire department responded to reports of smoke there. the equipment problem affected trains headingyro fm point, sfo daly city. >> on to developing news. southwest airlines saying everything is back to normal this morning after a computer glitch caused some delays last night. a live look at sfo right now, officials say they experienced an issue with the system that delivers data to planes which prevented flights from leaving. it affected 120 flights in all. all but seven took off. four in orange county where there's a curfew. the others had crew rest legality issues. >> new developments in an effort

novelist and creative writing teacher charmaine craig sees a disturbing trend. explains in tonight's "in my humble opinion." >> in addition to being a novelist, i teach fiction at a university. and something that drives me crazy is students rejecting a piece of writing because it's not "relatable," or because its characters aren't "likable." recently, i was teaching "anna karenina," and one of my brightest graduate students wrote off the novel because she found the characters' thinking to be too different from her own. well, maybe literature isn't here to hold a mirror up to our own way of thinking. the word "relatable" is relatively new, and it strikes me as more than a coincidence that its rise correlates with that of facebook and its culture of "likes." when we say we like something, we're really describing ourselves more than the thing we like. that character, that photo, that idea reflects my preferences, my outlooks, my tastes, me. there's nothing wrong with liking or disliking, but when we only like things we find relatable, or we are only interested in p

the crane clipped two backyard sheds before crashing on the roof of a house on charmaine drive. >> it wasn't much of a crash. it was just a loud boom, and kind of a thump. i was mowing the lawn. i heard and felt it. so i mean, that's pretty drastic. >> a subcontractor for pg&e had been working to remove a power pole from the backyard of a house on saunder way. it's still unclear why the crane fell. no one was hurt. power was out in this neighborhood yesterday, but it looks like it hasniee b checked didn't show any outages here. and it looks like a few lights are on. reporting live in campbell, matt keller. >> thank you, matt. >>> new developments overnight. police have arrested a murder suspect wanted for a shooting in belmont. officers took 27-year-old jovan alexander stewart into custody at the union city b.a.r.t. station just before 12:25 this morning. stewart's accused of killing 24-year-old dijon jones early saturday morning in an apartment complex on rolston avenue. investigators say the gun believed to be a semiautomatic hand gun, has not been recovered. >>> police have identif