so i want to thank the judges for putting forth david louie as a finalist. for janana hero. we've grown up with jan. evening magazine from the mid 1970's to the 1990's, all. great wonderful shows that she's sponsored, pacific fusion and others. and you know jan is all around the bay area. all around the san francisco communities. she's helped us on engagement with our public and helping us dialogue with a difficult -- with difficult topics and being moderator or immediate -- mediator and hosted so many nonprofits and being there for every important fundraiser like the ones we've had with kristi yamaguchi and always dreaming foundation and being part of the osaka sister city association, founder member of course, and asian-american journalist association, again, others following her. for david and for jan, if you look at television today, no matter what channel you turn to, there are asian americans on the journalism positions. and i believe and i know it's because of both david and jan's work behind the scenes, in front, bringing just that whole professional care to what the

. >> straight ahead, technology reporter david louie with a new game from a san francisco company this>> besides the oscars, your weekend plans may be playing games with friends. there is a new one with a familiar name. here is david louie with the details. >> you might call this a game factory but zynga calls it a studio where dozens of people test social games. this is the newest. bingo to the quarter million monthly uses. they won't say how many team members worked on it but it has access to 2,000 employees and 800 more in new york and austin, texas. nicole is the executive producer. >> talent in different locations and committed to the mission and so we're on the same page and use great communication tools. >> social games like bingo let total strangers compete like they would in a casino. farmville may be the best known game. >> one in five americans has played a game online, 35% are new to this kind of play. growth potential could turn it into a 54 bye industry in the next three years. zynga is tight-lipped about future plans but it provides a clue with the creation of zynga casi

david louie offers a unique perspective there. >> and also, high-priced campaign strategy mitt romney is using to knock down opponents. we'll show you the money. >> and is it a giant smart phone? or a tiny tablet? it left experts at a loss for words. you can see >>> good evening, once again, apple has given abc news access to its contractor assembly lines in china that is the result of mounting criticism conditions there. over the years david louie visited several factories in china he's here with inside perspective. >> americans would scoff at a 60 hour worker at $1.78 per hour, and workers are fed and get a dorm room. but pressure is building on both sides that conditions could be better. >> we first went six and a half years ago. criticism mounting then, that conditions were hash skpsh pay was low. tens of thousands flocked to escape poverty and make money. here is what a toy factory worker told us. >> working in this job, you can have enough money, it's okay but not to be very, very rich. >> fast forward to today. and bill weir found little changes. lots of representative work and

at the world ag expo, david louie abc 7 news. >> and still ahead, a las vegas restaurant priding itselfserving bad for you food earns its name. >> in sacramento, one state lawmaker wants to crack down on food trucks that may be banned from locating near schools throughout california. >> news at 4:00 continues right after this. >>> what a gorgus shot this is. you can see marin headlands just spectacular weather. we'll have an update coming up here shortly. and one state lawmaker wants to keep popular food truck as way from schools where students are loued to go off campus for lunch. we are live from sacramento with the story. >>> a city ordinance began this week banning food trucks from selling near schools. now, a lawmaker wants to take that idea state wide. in n effort to fight obesity, public schools spent the past few years banning junk food and bringing in healthier choices for kids as mandate bid national standards but school administrators say a new trend is undermining efforts. mobile food trucks. some districts are pauled they pull up to the school selling food students can't ge

david louie joins with us the story. david? >> here in the bay area, triple a reports a gal yochb regular unloaded -- unleaded costs 20 cents more than last week that. means a 12 gallon fill costs $2.40 more there is concern they'll possibly hurt the recovery. >> gas prices hit $4 last year but the highs riz has been rapid. >> what to you think of the prices? >> way too much. just way too much oo. higher pump prices putting a squeeze on the budget there. san indication consumers are thinking to cut back on spending. >> do you think this might hurt the recovery? >> definitely. if you spend more money on gas, you're not going spend more on other goods. >> the bench mark oil price hit $105 a barrel today, one year ago, it was $89. and energy department says it leads to a four-tenths of a percent drop of the gross domestic product. and terry connelly says it creates a domino affect. >> so what happens? we've had a nice run nupt stock market, you can see analysts down grading and saying you're not going to be making as much money in

at the world ag expo, david louie, abc 7 news,. >>> interesting stuff. a gel mat for the cows. i like that. >> amazing. >> of course, they cannot control the weather in farming. >> no o, they can't. >> spencer christian here with the forecast. >> but things under control today. imagine a milder more spring like day in the middle of winter. unbelievable. cold overnight, though. clear skies as we see right now, in the live view from the high definition camera looking over san francisco. clear skies at the moment and skies will remain clear overnight but temperatures are going to drop and we are going to have frost in some spots. right now, though, it is still pretty mild in some locations. 53 degrees in san francisco and oakland. and in antioch. some upper 40s in parts of the north bay at 41 is the cool spot at half moon bay. these are the highlights. clear and cold tonight with patchy valley frost. tomorrow, sunny and mild and a chance of rain. a slight chance friday night. here is a look at our projected lows for tonight. 29 degrees at napa. 30 is santa rosa. 32 livermore. 3 mo

more tonight on this ipo from abc 7's business and technology reporter david louie. >> reporter: for a company that started in a dorm room, facebook has hit the big time in just 8 years. the $5 billion initial public covering dwarfs the $1.6 billion raised by goinged in 2004. the money can go to expanding services, hiring more employees or buying smaller tech startups. it will make founder mark zuckerberg a billionaire. >> he has to answer to a wider audience in a sense and so i notice he did switch off the hoodie for a tie when met with president obama. so when ends up at some point in testimony before congress or for some antitrust issue or some other concern of the business it will be an interesting test to see whether he is ready for that. >> reporter: however, he dresses, zuckerberg laid out an ambitious future for facebook and its 845 million users. in the championship'company's d the scale of the technology and infrastructure that must be built is unprecedented. we hope to strengthen how people relate to each other and connect to businesses and the economy. we hope to change h

david louie, abc 7 news. >>> a couple of important health items injure. for the first time there is clear evidence that colonoscopies with save lives. doctors long felt the test was beneficial but removing polyps can cut the risk of dieing from colon cancer in half. deaths from colorectal cancer are on the decline because people are getting checked in greater numbers. screening is recommended at the age of 50. >>> new research shows that women would h get migraines are also more likely to develop depression. researchers looked at women for 13 years. the link is not clear but researchers think that hormones may play a role. >>> to politics. the republican contenders battle it out at tonight's debate in arizona. less than a week before that state's critical primary. it is the 20th debate of this election season if you can believe it. and it may have been the last chance for candidates to try for some sort of game changing moment. here is abc's karen traverse. >> reporter: it is a two man race for the republican nomination right now and at tonight's cnn deba

as david louie explains, pg&e is deny hag they have to say. >> reporter: the two whistle blowers worked for contractors helping pg&e with the pressure testing last year. one of them, marshall with 48 years experience as a welder told the state puc the quality of the wells inside was truly terrible. he cited defective route passes, burn you throughs and internal cuts. we went to the welding training center operated by the plummenners and pipe fitters union to explain why route passes sore important. it is the critical first step to weld two pieces of pipe together. >> if that is no there, that is how you determine there is no route pass in it. the edges wouldn't have any penetration to them. >> so does that make the pipe weld questionable? >> yes. >> reporter: another welder with 25 years experience provided the cpuc with photos he took of a section of line 132, the line that runs through san bruno. mike mixish testified "the majority of the wells we saw on line 132 were defective and showed extraordinarily poor workmanship." pg&e says it is looking in to the complaints but stands by its

david louie is live at face book headquarters tonight. david? >> you learn a lot about a company once it decides to go public, facebook made a profit last year. and will be a lot more open and transparent as it tries to raise $5 billion in its ipo. for a company starting in a dorm room, facebook hit big time in just eight years. and the public offering dwarfs google's in 2004. money raised can go to expanding services, hiring more employees or buying up smaller tech start ups. it will make mark zuckerberg a bill yiin yair. -- billionaire. steve diamond is a securities law professor he does now have to answer to a wider audience in a sense. and so i noticed he did switch off the hoody for a tie when meeting with the president. so when he ends up at some point before congress or antitrust issue or other concerns, you know it will be interesting to see whether he's ready for that. >> however he dresses zuckerberg laid out a few tour for facebook and users. the ipo filing he said quote the scale of the technology and infrastructure that must be buil

business and technology reporter david louie explains why. >> convenient to your capitalists investedion into green technology last year. at the same time government is cutting back. >> research and development are being squeezed, even the california level we had the public interest research program that was through the california energy commission. the legislature was not willing to even fund that. >> reporter: chuck reed told business leaders they saw the goal to create 25,000 clean tech jobs, but the current number is 7,000, but many are highly automated manufacturing doesn't require a lot of workers. >> they'll have a million dollar machine and few technicians managing the machine, they are manufacturing. cost of labor is relatively small. >> reporter: cleaner job growth may come from companies focusing on energy efficiency. cypress systems is a five-year old start-up that retrofits older buildings. 70% of them mostly built before 1997 don't have systems to monitor energy use or boost energy efficiency. harry simms is creating service jobs, he has 37 employees now but he projects

here is david louie.naut in 2008 doing a space walk to unjam a joint to get solar panels to face the sun. today two months into a six-month assignment. and he has come up with a better way to drink morning coffee or tea without having to use a straw. there is using a sheet of plastic he came wupt answer. >> but this because of the shape and has a cross section and that is makes a channel where forces will move the fluid up that channel and just park it next to the lip. >> here is proof this design works. he tofts a space agency astronaut with hot tea. there is a serious project that consumes their time. they may not yield results for five, 10, or 15 years. the crew keeps in touch with mission control and get to check in with families. >> and we can talk with families and make our phone calls and so... i don't feel isolated. >> this week, there is a chance to see the station while it's in low orbit 220 miles overhead and appearing like a bright star tuesday and thursday, after night fall. to get the best s

david louie has the story. >> organizers say they've completed 250,000 petition signatures and hope they will be forwarded to the ceo, tim cook. >> i love my products so much more if i knew they weren't being made by workers suffering from abuse autos critics believe employees in china stand long hours and suffer from prepet tiff motion injuries. apple's web site features a section on a supplier code of conduct and posting an annual audit. apple issued this statement, quote, we insist that our suppliers provide save wrking conditions, treat worker was dignity and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes where ever apple products are made. one management expert at santa chaira university has visited many facilities in kina. he thinks change will come though there are obstacles. >> there is more people applying than there are openings. >> so... in that case, you know to play devil's advocate the company doesn't have a strong incentive to want to do much better. >> apple is working with a nonprofit fair labor association auditing apple practices and make findings public. appl

david louie joins us live now with the good and bad news. david?they're saying it's earlly to celebrate. that what the two sponsors of the 2012 index have to say. joint venture sill hi convalley and the community foundation say they did see job growth but they see a need to address falling income. the first sign of recovery is on the jobs front. the 2012 index says 42,000 jobs are added in the past year. and an increase of 3.8%. that translates into 1.2 million people working in 2011 nearly matching 1.3 million in the work force prior to the recession. it doesn't take an economist to see people are working. >> you can see traffic. once freeways start getting busy you know there are more people going to work. >> the leading job creation are doing cloud computing, internet and social and new media. employment is up and there is income down 3% from a year ago. households making $100,000 or more are on the rise, there is concern over a nearly 4% decline in families making under $100,000. russell hancock is ceo of joint venture silicon valley. he says t

abc 7's david louie has the story. >> the issue of working conditions in china is resonating. joining a protestor, couper teen yoz dent thinks share holders are the key to making change. >> i think that they need to apply pressure and they need to stop looking for more and more, i guess growth and money. >> this week, abc news night line took americans inside of a factory in china ipads and iphones are made. the factory is operated by fox con, a contractor to apple and other company autos when you're the biggest corporation in the world it's true other companies have manufacturing in china that is the justification you'll hear but you know, be the he'd yes, right? do the right thing. >> cameras aren't allowed inside of the meeting. after a business meeting that lasted 30 minutes six people got to ask question autos long line of people to talk and i thought that would be a big issue. it wasn't. >> donna was surprised china didn't come up, understanding why pressure is building. >> it isn't only apple. it's all electronics and apple is one they think can make changes. >> apple's

speaking of earlier, checking out this you tube video provided by david louie of rainfall on highway 101 there is our rain rainman capturing this. and... it was coming down heavily there at times. pockets of showers on 101 today. right now looking at live doppler 7 you can see there is not much happening in the way of rainfall. there is another little patch of showers near saratoga and some triple -- trickles into santa cruz mountains but that is it at the moment. right now, temperatures skies that are becoming partly clear. mainly into upper 40s to low 50s around the bay area. going to get chilly tonight. there are winds gusting in some spots. and there is are high litsz, mainly clear skies overnight. chilly conditions, breezy, cool tomorrow. there are he r.high surf advisory until 3:00 tomorrow afternoon and projections of 12-14% and you can see strong rip currents accompanying high surf. and on we go which shows the low pressure system brought us today's active weather is moving south ward and just about out of here now. so set our maps in motion at 7:00 this evening we'll see low

the company is about to open a plant, here is abc 7's business reporter david louie. >> there you can see them on the freeway and neighborhood. 650,000 of these so called medium duty trucks on the road, making deliveries and shuttling people around around. many getting only six miles per gallon. motive hopes to change that. it's developed a power train to let them operate. this 28-year-old put his phd on hold to create this start up. >> you can plug any device into this. like a hard drive. this just works. we provide that same thing for electric truck autos this shuttle bus is the prototype developed for under $2 million funded in part by a grant from california energy commission allowing chassis builders to deploy whatever batteries and motors they want. >> trucking industry like their technologies to be proven before they adopt them. they just want their trucks to work. so they're interested in this electric trucks but need something that is going to work with the eco system. >> and there is another state grant to open a plant for new power system. power intelligence transportation

david louie explains how it works. >> reporter: this is the first of 25 mobile units pg&e will deployo detect gas leaks. under the bumper is a stainless steel pipe that detects the air and analyzes the air for methane. results are displayed realtime. >> methane detection equipment is revolutionary. it is unlike anything that exists in the world today. >> reporter: pg&e this is revolutionary just by driving these cars around it can speed up the leak detection process. >> we'll be able to have a five fold increase at probably no additional costs and less costs than it takes to do leak survey now over five-year period of time. >> reporter: they make instruments to detect greenhouse gases but discovered the leak application almost by accident. that is because the device can distinguish from methane coming from a landfill and methane coming from a gas line. >> we're taking this measurement to sub atomic analysis and doing it in realtime. >> the device known as the surveyor was able to pinpoint on a google map where it detected a gas leak created by a hose with an open valve. units are rugg

david louie abc 7 news. >> a legal victory for san francisco sheriff ross mirkarimi tonight. the judge granted him the right to visit his son while he fights charges of domestic abuse, he's been prohibited from seeing his son and his wife since he was charged nearly a month ago now this, morning a judge approved an agreement between mirkarimi and lopez allowing him to supervised visits with his son for two hours on weekdays and up to six hours on weekends. >> we have a routine well. had a routine. that has been interrupted now, i want to be reunited we're doing everything to make this happen. and make this just nightmare go away. >> mirk ream gee accused of grabbing and bruising his wife during a new year's eve argument. >> and heavy fog and blamed for a dozen crashes this morning along a mile long stretch of road in the north bay. the accidents forced closure of the highway 37 near sonoma, solano county border, lanes were shult down three hours, the chp says fog and motorists driving too closely caused a total of 11 collision autos the woman behind me was able to stop. the w

. >> david louie has visited several of them in china and is live with an inside perspective. >> employeese 1.78s ands hour and work 78 hours per week, and that is an improvement compared to years ago and assembly lines i visited. we went to the factories six and a half years ago. criticism mounting then, conditions were harsh, pay was low and work, hard, but tens of thousands of rural residents flock to the cities to make money. here is what a toy factory worker told us. >> in this kind of job you can earn enough money, it's not okay. >> fast forward to today. abc news night line anchor found little changed. >> it's mostly hand work. the same repetitive motion, soddering the same chip and wiping a screen of three, or four, 5,000 times per day, a 60 hour grueling week. >> workers told weir said they were happy but wanted higher pay. and the fire labor association began doing an audit. the executive director on globalization. the think thank tank believes the scrutiny may produce change at the same time workers are becoming restless. >> there is growing political pressure from below from pe

abc 7's david louie is live outside of the apple store with more on this for you. >> apple is in the cross hairs to improve working conditions in china petition signatures were turned in today, however, apple main tains it's once of the most pro active tech companies in silicon valley. the organizers say they've collected 250,000 signatures turning them over to the store general manager hoping they'll be forwarded to tim cook. >> i love the apple products more if i knew they weren't being made by workers suffering from abuse autos critics believe workers stand long hours and suffer from repetitive motion injuries. apple's web site features a detail web site on supplier responsibility, listing contractors and posting an annual audit. a quarterly signatures are difficult to ignore. >> 250,000 petitions that are suddenly revealed to the public is a dramatic -- more dramatic than to take information you could amass in po years ago. >> apple declined an interview, issuing this statement, quote, we insist our suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat worker was dignity and use envir

and david louie is live near their campus with the facebook ipo. >> we're across the street from facebookallowed on campus today. and those speakers -- figures you just mentioned is new information because they have not disclose that had in the past but facebook is going to have to be more transparent, more open as a result of the $5 billion public offerings. >> the $5 billion figure isn't etched in stone. securities experts say it could change in the weeks ahead as facebook's financial records are reviewed and evaluated. santa clara university law professor explains why this process is complex. >> if they overprice, and then, they don't meet expectations they face risk of lawsuits and just investor disappointment f under pricing it means they leave money on the table. that they don't bring into the company this, is new cash into the business. >> whatever the final figure, it's money they can use to expand services, hire more employees or acquire start ups with technology it wants or needs but that puts competitors at a disadvantage.

abc 7's business reporter david louie explains why. >> companies such as this injection moulding plastic plant had a tough time with manufacturing going to china. >> a year ago we did layoff a few people. >> but outlook is starting to change. he added 12 employees because a small start up decided to ship manufacturing from china two to the us use just a lot of international customers which has been kind of the bulk of our initial success were saying they wanted usa brand. >> cali bowl is a product preventing accidents like this, a small lip inside of a rim eliminating spills, the design makes it easy to scoop up nuts. the bowls and packaging now pro claim made in the usa. it first outsourced to china because that is what everyone else did. but they had to order large quantities. manufacturing her here, costs have gone up 5% to 10%. >> the quality is much, much better than it was out of china. we're yugsing better materials and kruk. -- construction. everything is much better than what we witd out of china. >> they found ways to trim costs of packaging. the manufacturer found ways to boos

david louie is live with more on this. >> there is how consumers and auto makers are starting to embraces now, shuttle buses get six gallons -- could be next. we're going give you a first look at a prototype that says the technology is ready. you see them on the freeway. and in your neighborhood. california has an estimated 650,000 of the so called medium duty trucks making deliveries or shuttling people around. many get only six miles per gallon. foster city based motive developed a power train to let the trucks operate electric vehicles. the 28-year-old put his program on hold to create this. >> you use a kpurter you can flug any device into it. it just works. and we provide that in electric trucks. >> and it is funded in part by a grand from california energy commission. it allows chassis builders to deploy whatever batteries they want. >> they like their technologies proven before that he dopt them. and so they're interested but they need something that is going to work with the he whole seeko system. >> there is another state plant and it will get three of them operating a fleet for