abc's emily rau has the latest from washington. good morning, emily. >> reporter: good morning, kendis and maggie. we are now hours away from the next step in the process of judge kavanaugh's confirmation and as you mentioned, kendis, the supreme court nominee now saying he might have been too emotional during that testimony. after a week of silence, following that explosive testimony -- >> this is a circus. >> reporter: -- judge brett kavanaugh now defending himself in "the wall street journal" writing, my time in high school and college, more than 30 years ago, has been ridiculously distorted in addressing what some have called his disqualifying temperament last thursday. i know that my tone was sharp and i said a few things i should not have said. kavanaugh's op-ed coming at the end of a tense day in washington. arrested as senators took turns combing through the fbi report on the sex assault allegations against kavanaugh. with only nine witnesses interviewed kavanaugh and christine blasey ford not among them, democrats are calli

emily rau has the latest on the seven for survivors. >> reporter: good morning. the president and mrs. trump will see the devastation of hurricane michael firsthand. it's one of the stroefpbngest ss to ever hit the u.s. >> it took a tre mennomendous h. >> we are starting to see more power get on. >> reporter: it could take weeks for those crews to fully restore power. and right now search and rescue missions continue for the 46 people still unaccounted for. >> it's been very traumatic. i can't hardly eat. and i can't hardly sleep. >> reporter: one family looking at an interactive map and spotting this, the word help spelled out in logs. >> i contacted emergency services. they went out there to do a welfare search. >> reporter: they found all three people in the home safe and sound. on sunday president trump signed another disaster declaratiodecl. they will leave for florida later this morning. emily rau, abc news, washington. >>> one of the easiest ways to donate to people affected by hurricane michael is through the american red cross. you can make a $10 donatio

emily rau is live in washington with details. emi emily. >> reporter: good morning, reggie and jessica. president trump says it's a scary is time for young men in america. and he spoke at a campaign rally in misssipast night surs chaweankanaugh. tuesday night in mississippi, getting laughs from the crowd as he openly mocked christine blasey ford, when claims brett kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while drunk at a high school party in the early 80s. >> how did you get there? i don't remember. where is the place? i don't remember. how many years ago was it? i don't know. i don't know. >> reporter: while his son, don jr., denied the president was mocking blasey ford, her attorney sending this scathing quick, calling the remarks a vicious, vial and soulless attack, going on to say he is a profile and coward else. blasey ford's team saying they have sent letters and e-mails to the fbi with no response, calling the situation in conceivable, demand to go speak to the agent in charge. overnight, the "new york times" releasing this 1983 he

in washington, emily rau, abc 7 news. >>> thank you, emily. there are new developments every day. you can be the first to know about them with our abc 7 news app. make sure to enable push alerts on your phone or other smart device. >>> one thing that made the cut, a controversial measure that allows bart to build new housing on their property. abc 7 news reporter amy hollyfield is live in walnut creek. amy >> reporter: hi, jessica. yeah, asphalt parking lots, like the one i'm standing on right now, could soon become obsolete. they could be turned into transit multiuse centers next to bart stations. it allows bart to do what it wants wi wants with its own property. they said local government should be making decisions about what communities look like, not the state. riders say they understand the need to create housing and get cars off the freeways. >> in a place you can live and work and not have to drive, it kind of makes a lot of sense, you know? unfortunately, the -- what is it that bully mentality of we're going to do this without your -- um, it kind of irks people. but in the

abc's emily rau has more from washington. good morning, emily. >> reporter: good morning, maggie. president trump says it's a scary time for young men in america, and speaking at that campaign rally last night in missishi tuesday night in mississippi getting laughs from the crowd as he openly mocked christine blasey ford, who claims brett kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while drunk at a high scol party in the early '80s. >> how did you get there? i don't remember. where is the place? i don't remember. how many years ago was it? i don't know. i don't know. >> reporter: while his son don junior denied the president was mocking blasey ford, her attorneys sending this scathing tweet calling president trump's remarks a vicious, vile and soulless attack going on to say he is a profile in cowardice. blasey ford's team now saying they've sent letters and emails to the fbi with no response calling the situation inconceivable demanding to speak to the agent in charge. overnight "the new york times" releasing this 1983 letter from kavanaugh to his prep school friends ahead of a trip to the

abc's emily rau is tracking all the developments from washington. good morning, emily. >> reporter: good morning, kenneth and stephanie. it has now been two weeks since jamal khashoggi was last seen alive and after fierce denials from the saudis, there could be a shift coming. "the new york times" is now reporting that the royal family is considering saying that all of this was an interrogation gone wrong. this morning, secretary of state mike pompeo arriving in saudi arabia. president trump sending his top diplomat to meet with the saudi royal family about the disappearance of "washington post" columnist jamal khashoggi after the president himself called the king on monday. >> the king firmly denied any knowledge of it. he didn't really know, maybe -- i don't want to get into his mind, but it sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. who knows. >> reporter: that denial despite turkish officials claiming they have proof the saudis interrogated, tortured and then murdered khashoggi. a saudi citizen and former royal family insider t

emily rau from d.c. for us. >>> in the meantime, the former fbi director james comey calls the one-week time limit imposed on this investigation idiotic. >> but a "new york times" op-ed comey says, quote, the fbi is up for this. it's not as hard as the republicans hope it will be. >> and we spoke with a former fbi special agent. steve gomez, and we asked him how the fbi can pull off this investigation with the time constraint and such a divisive climate. >> they can definitely do this investigation in a week because the fbi is going to allocate every agent, analyst and professional staff member to this investigation. it's going to be the highest priority investigation during this week-long period. so as far as resources, they have them, but then it's a matter of making sure that all the witnesses are available for these interviews to ensure that they are able to get as many leads covered as possible and they should be able to do it, but you just don't know what is going to come up during these interviews

emily rau has the new details. good morning, emily. >> reporter: good morning, kendis and maggie. we are now officially counting down the hours until senators vote on kavanaugh's confirmation, and right now this morning it is still unclear if republicans have the votes they need. a late night motion in the senate officially kicking off the countdown to a crucial vote. >> i'm filing cloture on judge kavanaugh's nomination. >> reporter: with brett kavanaugh's lifelong appointment to the nation's highest court on the line, the full senate could vote on his final confirmation this weekend. the decision could come down to a handful of undecided senators including republicans lisa murkowski. jeff flake and susan collins along with democrat joe manchin. >> i want to look and see what it says. the investigation says. >> reporter: all four condemning president trump's mockery of christine blasey ford at a campaign rally. >> how did you get home? i don't remember. how did you get there? i don't remember. where is the place? i don't remember. >> reporter: senator flake on nbc. >> i wish he h

abc's emily rau has the 411 on those jaw-dropping jackpot numbers. emily. >> good morning, kenneth. i guess we're all here at work today, so that means we didn't win. i have a losing ticket right here and despite that mad dash to buy tickets yesterday, nobody matched all six numbers in last night's drawing, and with the jackpot now breaking records, it's fueling a lottery mania across the country. from chicago's south side -- >> this is the ticket. i only needed this one ticket. >> reporter: -- to the suburbs of houston. >> oh, yeah. planning it right here, the winning ticket is right here. >> give me the winning ticket. fincdespitterrible odds. with no one matching all six numbers tuesday night, the mega millions jackpot now smashing its previous record swelling to $868 million. the prize money building since july when a group of california co-workers split 543 million. >> we're trying to get some money so we can get out of here. >> reporter: 83-year-old elsie morgan in washington, d.c. hoping family birthdays will be the lucky numbers she needs for winning so big she'd instantly b

emily rau there in d.c. for us. >>> a new poll shows majority of americans oppose kavanaugh's nomination. but the nation is sharply divided by gender. when it comes to men 49% support kavanaugh while only 40% oppose him but among women, only 37% support his nomination while 55% oppose. >>> it was an emotional night in las vegas where crowds gathered to mark one year since the concert shooting massacre that left 58 people dead. the famous welcome to las vegas sign and marquees along the strip went dark just after 10:00 p.m. marking the moment gunfire broke out a year ago. earlier a downtown healing garden was officially dedicated. survivors and victims' families paid tribute to the lives lost. president trump has now reaffirmed his commitment to those so-called banning bump stocks like those used by the vegas devices. the devices thabl a semiautomatic weapon to fire like a machine gun and he says that ban is coming soon. >>> students at a high school in georgia are stunned after the death of a football player

in washington, emily rau, abc 7 news. >>> thank you, emily.u can see, new developments on kavanaugh's supreme court nomination every day. and you can be the first to know about them with the abc 7 news app. be sure to enable push alerts and you get them sent right to your phone or mobile device. >> the governor was very busy signing and also not signing a number of new laws. >> one thing that did make the cut, a controversial measure that now allows bart to build new housing on their property. abc 7 news reporter amy hollyfield is live in walnut creek. amy. >> reporter: hi, jessica. yeah, fire up the construction equipment. bart can now start building transit villages and housing on their parking lots like the one i'm standing on right now. even if local officials oppose it. and some of them did oppose this bill. here is video of some in the east bay. they held a press conference last month pleading with governor brown not to sign this bill, arguing local leaders should have the say of what their communities look like, not sacramento. the gove

emily rau, abc news, washington. >> abc 7 news app is where you can get up dates on the confirmation process. we will update you as soon as the vote take place >> a quick update on weather and traffic for you. let's start over, right, mike? ithlease.esrt s for, right? i got a little coffee in me. hopefully that helps a little bit. visibility lesshan a mile. we talked about fog being an issue. here it is from santa rosa to sll please be careful. this is east bay hills camera. because of the dryer air and the lack of clouds, yeah, we're starting in the mid-tpourdz to mid-50s. low to upper 60s to the coast, bay, inland. this afternoon pretty much the same as yesterday. 60 at the coast. low to mid-70s elsewhere. grab a coat this evening. you'll need it. back in the 50s and 60s. how is traffic starting this morning, alexis? >> i think i got the gremlins out of my system here too. we're looking live at emeryville. no issues to talk b. west bound 80, no trouble there. no metering lights at this early hour. and it's friday, so prepping for friday light. tracy to dublin, 30 minutes, n green.

abc's emily rau is in d.c. with the political backlash. >> reporter: with weeks to go before the mid-term elections president trump rallied supporters in iowa tuesday night. >> this is truly a historic week for america. going after democrats including california senator dianne feinstein and her denial that she leaked the letter sent by christine blasey ford who accused justice brett kavanaugh of sexual assault. >> how about senator feinstein, that's another beauty. did you leak the documents? well -- >> the president also warning the democrats will attempt to undermine the new justice. >> last month they are saying we'll impeach him. impeach him for what? >> reporter: from a rowdy crowd in iowa to another in hollywood, politics also popping up at the american music awards, from the fashion choices of host tracy ellis ross to multiple acceptance speeches. >> el paso, texas, shout-out, beto, i love you guys, peace. >> reporter: khalid mentioning texas democrat beto o'rourke who is running to unseat republican sen

emily rau, thank you very much. there are new developments every day. you can be the first to know about them with our abc 7 news app. be sure to enable push alerts and you get them sent right to your phone or mobile device. >>> a former berkeley professor is awarded the nobel prize in medicine for discovering a new cancer treatment. this is video from the announcement in sweden overnight. james allison, he's on the left, received the award, along with hanjo on the right. the two men discovered a cancer treatment, immune check point theory. it uses the body's own immune system to attack cancer cells. this was first started in a lab in berkeley in the 1990s. allison was a professor there. from 1985 to 2004. he now current live works at university of texas cancer center in houston. >>> happening now, crews working to shore up cracked steel beams at the salesforce transit center in san francisco. the materials they are using to shore up the $2 billion building were delivered over the weekend. fremont remains blocked between mission and howard. trap sit off

abc's emily rau has the latest on the search and recovery efforts. good morning, emily. >> reporter: good morning, stephanie and kenneth. president trump and the first lady will leave washington later this morning and they will spend the day in florida seeing that devastation from hurricane michael firsthand. it's one of the strongest storms to ever hit the u.s. the number of dead continues to rise and thousands more now homeless after hurricane michael. >> we have already took a tremendous hit. this is some of the worst damage i have seen in my career. >> reporter: fema director brock long touring the damage sunday with florida governor rick scott. >> we're seeing the power get on. we have about 17,000 utility workers working on power around the state. >> reporter: it could take weeks for those crews to fully restore power. abc's rob marciano has been in the florida panhandle since michael made landfall. >> what is most striking about this hurricane damage is not just the thousands of homes that are damaged, but these retail storefronts that are comp

. >> emily rau reporting live from washington, thank you so much.n stay on top of the newest developments on the kavanaugh supreme court nomination with abc 7 news app. be be sure to enable push alerts on your phone or smart , police in livermore issued a warning after two teens died of suspected opioid overdoses. >>> amy hollyfield live in livermore. amy. >>reporter: hi, reggie. livermore police want parents to talk to their kids. they say one teenager died on sunday. another one died on monday. they want people to know that there could possibly be bad drugs out there on the streets. they put out a social media post saying they need to spread the word. >> if we can get one person to rethink what it is that they're taking, maybe that's success. the only way to do that is do some edcation and get it out in social media and out having people talk about it. >> reporter: police say it could take a couple of weeks to get the toxicology report and confirm causes of death. they decided not to wait because they said they needed to educate people. this is ju

abc news reporter emily rau isa. emi emily. >> reporter: good morning, reggie and jessica. president trump says it's a scary is time for young men in america. and he spoke at a campaign rally in mississippi last night where supporters chanted, we want kavanaugh. president trump spent his tuesday night in mississippi, getting laughs from the crowd as he openly mocked christine blasey ford, who claims brett kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while drunk at a high school party in the early 80s. >> how did you get there? i don't remember. where is the place? i don't remember. how many years ago was it? i don't know. i don't know. >> reporter: while his son, don jr., denied the president was mocking blasey ford, her attorney sending this scathing quick, calling the remarks a vicious, vile and soulless attack, going on to say he is a profile in cowardess. blasey ford's team saying they have sent letters and e-mails to the fbi with no response, calling the situation in conceivable, demand to go speak to the agent in charge. to the agent in charge. overnight, the "new york times" rel

here is abc's emily rau. >> reporter: justice brett kavanaugh took his seat on the supreme court, hisly in the courtroom, he heard his first oral arguments. neither case is especially controversial. kavanaugh asked his first question about 15 minutes into the argument. >> on the supreme court, i will seek to be a force for stability and unity. my goal is to be a great justice for all americans. >> reporter: as the junior justice, kavanaugh is seated next to justice elena kagan who actually hired him to teach at harvard. kagan and the other seven justices were present last night at kavanaugh's ceremonial swearing in ceremony at the white house. despite the divided court with five conservatives and four liberals, the justices have a tradition of civility. before taking their seats, each justice shakes the hand of every other justice. that's 72 handshakes. >> the supreme court is a team of nine and i will always be a team player on the team of nine. >> reporter: and kavanaugh made good on a promise he made during his confirmation hearings. >> i'm proud that all four of my newly hired law

emily rau, abc news, washington. >>> an advocacy group says it found traces of a pesticide in every oatit tested. the environmental working group says residues of glyphosate were found in quakers and cheerios. it has been linked to cancer. the group says general mills brushed off their findings. >>> amazon go has now gone to california. >> the state's first go location is open for business in san francisco's financial district. that brings the grand total to three nationwide. amazon hopes to open as many as 3,000 of the cashier-less stores by 2021. reports say there is a go store planned for new york city here across from the world trade center. >>> a sea lion on the go, in the meantime, in san diego. >> but it wasn't going as fast as some people might have liked. that sea lion flopped its way into the street in point loma on monday and stopped traffic. at one point, bystanders serenaded it with the song "kissed by a rose" by seal. >> oh, i get it. >> officials aren't sure how the 160-pound animal made it on to the road. a group from seaworld managed to capture it, get it into a nearby

abc news reporter emily rau reports the focus is on a handful of senators still on the fence. >>> gooding, reggie and jessica. we are just hours away from the first vote in this process to possibly confirm judge kavanaugh. and this morning it's still unclear if the republicans eventually have the vote they need. >>> officially kicking off the countdown to a crucial vote. with pwreplt kavanaugh's lifelong appointment to the nation's highest court on the line, the full senate could vote on final confirmation this weekend. the decision could come down to a handful of undecided senators. the white house is now debating the release of the findings of that fbi investigation as attorneys for kavanaugh's first accuser, christine blasey ford, attack its merit, releasing this statement saying a supplemental investigation that did not include an interview with her, nor the witnesses who corroborate her testimony, cannot be called an investigation. we are profoundly disappointed. white house saying overnight they are fully confident that judge kavanaugh will be confirmed. president trump tweeting