abc seven news reporter lena howland explains what happens next. >> she is toast. we say tao is toast. >> the group behind the recall effort, known as oust or oakland united to recall xiang tao, says they've collected more than 30,000 signatures in the past three months. that's 5000 more than the 25,000 needed by july in order to get the recall on the november ballot. they want to collect at least 10,000 more before turning them over to the registrar of voters. the extra signatures could be vital.

live in studio lena howland, abc seven news. lena. >> thank you.he big sur area. amanda highway one is about to reopen to one way traffic 24 hours a day. yeah, reggie, at 630 this morning, caltrans will activate new traffic lights on a section of highway one that has been basically closed for about six weeks. >> just twice a day, a convoy, primarily for residents, has been bringing people in and out of that area. now, those new lights will allow residents and tourists to drive through a section of the road that partially collapsed in 24 hours a day. now it's going to be one way traffic because the southbound lane is not fixed yet, so you will still face delays if you're driving in that area. but this is a big deal for businesses, and it's a few days ahead of schedule. >> but the biggest benefit to us is it gives us the time as well as our hospitality neighbors to get on social media, call and email our guests and try and get the word out. as far and as wide as possible. that all of big sur is open before memorial day weekend, and that everyone can

lena howland, abc seven news. >> thank you. lena. this morning there's relative calm across the country after a week of tense and sometimes violent protests on college campuses, police are still moving in on these protesters in some locations in fact, less than three hours ago, nypd started to clear out this encampment at nyu. the university requested the assistance from the police department to break up what school officials are calling an illegal encampment. encampments at other universities are being dismantled after police moved in. gloria, we're learning that thousands of protesters have been arrested. >> yes. and, you know, last night was so different from what we've seen unfolding earlier this week. and that includes the scene yesterday morning at ucla, where 130 people were arrested after two nights of violent confrontations with police, according to new data compiled by the associated press. more than 2100 people have been arrested in pro-palestinian demonstrations nationwide since april 18th. while last night was much more

lena howland, abc seven news. >> thank you. lena, we've been committed to this case since it broke right here on abc seven mornings in october of 2022. make sure to stay with us for updates throughout the day, and you can catch up on the entire timeline of the case. it's on our website, abc seven news.com. >> this morning, that second pro-palestine encampment that just popped up, just blocks from uc berkeley's main campus is gone. police moved in, facing off with protesters just 24 hours after they started to occupy a historic university hall across from people's park and amanda. some arrests were made. >> yeah, kumasi those police officers started moving in around 830 last night. there were some tense moments as they confronted protesters. a school spokesperson says people were arrested for trespassing, breaking and entering and vandalism. the group began occupying the building on wednesday, and the property was quickly declared a crime scene. protesters made the same demands we've heard from so many others, but this group was

lena howland, abc seven news. >> lena. thank you. a sidewalk mural originally made to oppose israel's military campaign in gaza is being defaced by hate speech in san francisco's noe valley neighborhood. the mural is on a building near nowy street and 24th street. it's been vandalized repeatedly since its creation, with messages that appear to support both pro-israeli and pro-palestinian positions. at least one parent from a nearby daycare told us they don't think it's right that their children have to see these images every day. some neighbors we spoke to disagree, and they don't want the mural touched. the jewish community relations council says they have received numerous complaints about this mural. >> the message is outrageous to form a blood libel against the jewish community. the bloody visuals, the droppings star of david replace the star with a dollar sign. it's a classic trope that jews control the government or some form of manipulation, and it reads like textbook anti-semitism. >> as to what comes next, that's unclear. th

lena howland, abc seven news. >> thank you. lena. a sidewalk mural originally made to oppose israel's military campaign in gaza is being defaced by hate speech in san francisco's noe valley neighborhood. abc seven news reporter j.r stone is following the story and has more on this contentious back and forth. >> it's a very one sided. it is very violent and it is not a call for peace. >> matt, who has asked that we not use his last name, is giving us his opinion about this mural in san francisco's noe valley, one that he walks by every day with his child and one that reads, stop the genocide in gaza. now he'd like to see a message conveying a cease fire and release of hostages, as matt showed us the section that angers him most. >> so that dollar sign replaces a jewish star and historically for all time replacing a jewish star with money has been patently anti-semitic. >> the jewish community relations council says they have received numerous complaints about this mural. >> the message is outrageous to form a blood libel against the j

lena howland abc seven news. >> thanks, lena. this morning there is relative calm across the country. after a week of tense and sometimes violent protests on college campuses, police are still moving in on protesters less than two hours ago, nypd started moving in to clear out an encampment at nyu. the university requested that assistance from the police department to break up what school officials are calling an illegal encampment. encampments at other universities are being dismantled after police arrived. gloria, we're learning that thousands of protesters have been arrested. >> reggie, last night was so different from what we saw unfolding earlier this week, including the scene yesterday morning at ucla, where 130 people were arrested after two nights of violent confrontations with police. and according to new data compiled by the associated press, more than 2100 people have been arrested in pro-palestinian demonstrations nationwide since april 18th. while last night was much more calm, protests are still happening across the

lena howland abc seven news. >> thanks so much, lina.amily members are asking federal officials for help in getting their loved ones who were wrongfully detained in other countries. back home, they held a roundtable discussion with the white house or with the house foreign affairs committee. i should say, hoping to bring some urgency. the release of wnba star brittney griner was addressed during the meeting. >> how do we cherry pick hostages? and that should not happen. we should not have a celebrity like brittney griner being brought out by poorly will and left behind and i do give the administration some credit, but i also want to raise issues. >> for instance, we traded victor boot, one of the world's most notorious arms dealers, called the merchant of death, for brittney griner, a basketball player who had a vape pipe. if we're going to do trades, i think the trade should be a fair trade. >> there are family members are among the 49 americans wrongfully detained in places like afghanistan, syria and russia. griner's exclusive intervi

all right, again, our reporter lena howland will be doing a full report on this. she's in berkeley talking to different sides to this. and assemblyman ting, don't go away because i know you're joining our next conversation, so stick around. i'll let you get a drink of water here. meantime i'll tell folks what's coming up. up next, the fight to end legacy college admissions. it's taking on new life here in the bay area, in part due to assemblyman ting's bill and also a recent stanford grad is leading the charge on college campuses. more on that next. out on campus, demanding their university and legacy admissions, that is, giving preferential treatment to the children of alumni and big donors. now, there are two efforts underway to end the practice. there's a bill in the legislature, and a stanford graduate has started a national organization to involve students in the fight. joining us live now to talk about it, the co-founder of class action and stanford graduate ryan lachowski. and assemblyman phil ting is back with us. welcome. assemblyman ting, your ab 1780 ha

. >> abc seven news reporter lena howland talked to the owner of the company and shows us the damage. >> flames shooting from the roof of economy lumber sunday night, putting off a smoke plume that could be seen for miles. >> it spread so fast. by the time the fire department came, the building, the fire was shooting on the top of the roof, already flanked by a gas station on one side and railroad tracks on the other. >> oakland firefighters quickly called for this lumber yard fire to be four alarms, bringing more than 100 firefighters to the scene. >> the fuel load here was tremendous. >> the fire burned through the night. come monday morning, excavators were brought in to tear one of the lumber yard buildings apart, not stable. >> it's too dangerous. we can't send crews in there. we have floor collapse on the second floor, and there's also hot spots right now. so right now, the excavator is now tearing the building down so we can get water to some of the hot spots. john bacon, president of economy lumber, could only watch as his family's business burned. >> it was just too dangerous

abc seven news reporter lena howland has the details. >> absent leadership and a lack of any grants, management policy, that's what a new 37 page audit released this week says contributed to the city of oakland missing out on more than $15 million worth of state grant funding to help fight retail theft. >> there was no one who made sure that deadlines are met, that the specific task were completed at specific times. >> michael houston is the acting city auditor for oakland and the author of the report. he started working on it after the community demanded answers, asking the city auditor to look into what was obviously a lack of coordination. >> obviously a lack of leadership. >> houston found that ultimately the city of oakland prepared, but did not successfully submit an application for the organized retail theft prevention grant. what we found is that there was a poor communication within departments and between departments. >> there were was, no project management and no one really took charge. >> robert l harris of the naacp oakland branch says it's not acceptable. and he blames

abc seven news reporter lena howland explains what happens next. >> she is toast. we say tao is toast. >> the group behind the recall effort, known as oust or oakland united to recall xiang tao, says they've collected more than 30,000 signatures in the past three months. that's 5000 more than the 25,000 needed by july in order to get the recall on the november ballot. they want to collect at least 10,000 more before turning them over to the registrar of voters. the extra signatures could be vital. you'll recall organizers of the effort to recall alameda county district attorney pamela price gathered more than 123,000 signatures. however just under 75,000 were valid. >> it is going to be on the november ballot and voters in oakland will be able to let the mayor know that we are not pleased with her leadership. >> brenda harbin forte is a retired judge from the alameda county superior court and president of oust. >> i could be doing a lot of other things in my retirement, but this is important to me. >> mayor tao's firing of oakland police chief laurent armstrong, th

abc seven news reporter lena howland is there. and lena, the demonstration has been mostly peaceful so far, but there was some sort of incident last night. >> hey, reggie. that's right. and things are calm here right now. but uc berkeley police say at least two people were hurt overnight following a loud confrontation between dueling protests. right up until last night, things had remained peaceful here at uc berkeley, a contrast to arrests and turmoil we have seen at other schools across the country. the daily californian, which is the campus student run newspaper, is reporting a pro-palestinian protester tried to grab an israeli flag from a counter protester. this happened just before 7:00 last night. that's when they say someone from the free palestine encampment reportedly punched one of the israel counter-protesters, which prompted paramedics to be called to the scene. earlier this week, we reported that some jewish students have been told to request chaperons if they're worried about walking on campus as a jewish student. >>

abc seven news reporter lena howland talked with the owner of the company and has more on the damage. >> flames shooting from the roof of economy lumber sunday night, putting off a smoke plume that could be seen for miles. >> it spread so fast. by the time the fire department came, the building, the fire was shooting on the top of the roof, already flanked by a gas station on one side and railroad tracks on the other. >> oakland firefighters quickly called for this lumber yard fire to be four alarms, bringing more than 100 firefighters to the scene. >> the fuel load here was tremendous. >> the fire burned through the night. come monday morning, excavators were brought in to tear one of the lumber yard buildings apart. >> not stable. it's too dangerous. we can't send crews in there. we have floor collapse on the second floor. and there's also hot spots right now. so right now the excavator is now tearing the building down so we can get water to some of the hot spots. >> john bacon, president of economy lumber, could only watch as his family's business burned. >> it was just too dangero

. >> and we'll begin our coverage with that story in abc seven news reporter lena howland. >> buying a home may soon be in closer reach for folks in berkeley. as long as you're okay with living in someone else's backyard, i think that people just need a place where they can start right? >> that's the whole point of a starter home, and this is a great way to be able to do that. >> this week, berkeley's city council unanimously approved the first step of opting in to a new state law, which gives people the ability to buy an adu or accessory dwelling unit known as a backyard cottage. >> sometimes they're as small as 500ft■!s. they can be as big as 1000ft■!s in the city of berkel, but any size of a backyard cottage is typically smaller than a single family home here, so we expect the sale price to be lower as well. >> according to zillow, the average price of a home in berkeley now sits at around $1.5 million. that's why rashi kesarwani, a berkeley city council member, spearheaded bringing this proposal to the city council. >> a lot of times it's, you know, existing homeowners who had an

abc seven news reporter lena howland was there as local business leaders shared their wisdom. >> generationsf women uplifted, inspire and empowered. >> it's just nice to see such a diverse group of women their experiences, and i think that mindset of like, yeah, you can, you can do it all. i'm loving it. actually taking a lot away on self care, making sure that i'm taking care of myself. >> the 35th annual professional business women of california conference was held at the historic fox theater in redwood city on thursday. it sold out to 1200 people and included a keynote address from entrepreneur and media mogul martha stewart, who candidly talked about the confidence behind posing for a sports illustrated swimsuit shoot in her 80s. this year, for their 60th anniversary, i posed again with all those fabulous swimsuit models katie brown, pb tsay board president and chair, says the gathering is about networking, empowerment and self-confidence. >> so today's conference is really it's bu, which is really about authenticity and being yourself and bringing your whole self to work or in anything

abc seven news reporter lena howland explains what happens next. >> she is toast. we say tau is toast. >> the group behind the recall effort, known as oust or oakland united to recall. shengtao says they've collected more than 30,000 signatures in the past three months. that's 5000 more than the 25,000 needed by july in order to get the recall on the november ballot, they want to collect at least 10,000 more before turning them over to the registrar of voters. the extra signatures could be vital. you'll recall organizers of the effort to recall alameda county district attorney pamela price gathered more than 123,000 signatures. however, just under 75,000 were valid. >> it is going to be on the november ballot, and voters in oakland will be able to let the mayor know that we are not pleased with her leadership. >> brenda harbin forte is a retired judge from the alameda county superior court and president of oust. >> i could be doing a lot of other things in my retirement, but this is important to me. >> mayor tao's firing of oakland police chief laurent armstrong, t

but as abc seven news reporter lena howland explains, some residents don't want it. >> this is where chick fil a is hoping to set up their second walnut creek location. if the city gives the green light a standalone vacant former bank that wouldn't have a drive thru in the citrus marketplace shopping center. >> everywhere you go, you'll see , you know, lines, cars, you know, backing way out onto a main road. >> but since getting a conditional use permit from the planning commission, a group of neighbors mobilized and sent an appeal to the city opposing the project. stanley chow, a neighbor who lives within 300 yards of the proposed site, says he worries about how this could make an already congested area worse with more spillover of traffic onto side streets. >> what i'm anticipating is that, you know, delivery drivers, you know, making just just trying to, drive through the neighborhood as fast as possible, for no other reason than to get to chick fil a. >> the city of walnut creek commissioned a traffic study for this site, comparing it to other chick fil a locations, including the

lena howland, abc seven news. >> coming up struggles for swimmers. they're not getting to compete in this weekend's championship meet. plus middle of my shin to my feet, stuck through the bars. >> which in prison, you don't really want to stick your leg and arm through bars. >> she endured ten months in that russian prison and now wnba star brittney griner speaks out for the first time about what she went through and what life is like now a super thin, flexible patch with maximum otc strength lidocaine that contours to the body to relieve pain right where it hurts. and did we mention, it really, really sticks? salonpas, it's good medicine. type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. ♪ ♪ i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. i'm lowering my risk. adults lost up to 14 pounds. i lost some weigh

lena howland, abc seven news. >> san jose is asking its residents to do their part to build a better block program. >> residents can sign up for this pilot program and adopt a street in their neighborhood and their commitment is to pick up any litter or trash they see on their block. if every street had one person adopt it and be willing to pick up litter once a week, we would have an incredibly clean and beautiful city. >> volunteers will get to receive a kit which includes a litter stick, safety vest and gloves too. >> all right, just ahead, saying goodbye to a super thin, flexible patch with maximum otc strength lidocaine that contours to the body to relieve pain right where it hurts. and did we mention, it really, really sticks? salonpas, it's good medicine. if you have heart failure, entrust your heart to entresto. entresto helps improve your heart's ability to pump blood to the body. don't take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serio

lena howland, abc seven news. >> all right, one last check on that weather tonight. >> we check backw with meteorologist sandyha patel. hey, sandy. hi, there. >> yeah, and julian and umma, we have some fabulous weather for the graduates tomorrow. graduation ceremony taking place for terra nova high school in pacifica. and at 3 p.m, it's going to be in the upper 50s. the temperature will drop off into the mid 50s. if anything, it'll just be increasing cloud cover later on in the day. so congrats to those graduates. and if you're going to bottlerock in napa the next three days, which is friday, not tomorrow, friday, saturday and sunday, it's going to be beautiful weather, but cooler than where we were today. so looking at clouds to sun and breezy friday 72 degrees dropping to 68 and then coming back to recover into the mid 70s on live doppler seven. all is quiet tomorrow afternoon. we'll have a few high, thin, wispy clouds, upper 50s to low 80s so that cooling continues on saturday. those numbers will drop well below average, only low 70s for the warmest spots, and you will notice by s

>> abc seven news reporter lena howland takes a look at how oakland is helping make sure that no childer break for students in oakland. >> any child within the community is welcome to show up and receive a meal. >> starting this week, more than 50 sites for the city's summer food service program have opened at places where kids are already spending their summers. this includes churches, summer camps, rec centers and community centers across the area. program manager michael okonji says this comes at a time when 35,000 kids already rely on free or reduced lunches. in oakland alone during the school year, i witnessed it up close. >> i've seen the several food deserts and the lack of accessibility to fresh nutrition . >> that's why their goal is to serve more than 120,000 meals over the next few months. >> that hot lunch is what families depend on during the school year because of the, you know, what's going on, the inflation prices are going up. it's hard to pay bills now. >> daniella spends her weekdays racing between at least a dozen sites a day to make sure no child goes hungry. >> th

. >> but as abc7 news reporter lena howland explains, some residents already want to block the plan.> this is where chick fil a is hoping to set up their second walnut creek location. if the city gives the green light a standalone, vacant former bank that wouldn't have a drive thru in the citrus marketplace, shopping center. >> everywhere you go, you'll see, you know, lines, cars, you know, backing way out onto a main road. >> but since getting a conditional use permit from the planning commission, a group of neighbors mobilized and sent an appeal to the city opposing the project. stanley chow, a neighbor who lives within 300 yards of the proposed site, says he worries about how this could make an already congested area worse with more spillover of traffic onto side streets. >> what i'm anticipating is that , you know, delivery drivers, you know, making changes, just trying to, drive through the neighborhood as fast as possible, for no other reason than to get to chick fil a. >> the city of walnut creek commissioned a traffic study for this site, comparing it to other chick fil a loc

abc seven news reporter lena howland looks at the plan officials hope will make a difference in a really tough housing market. >> buying a home may soon be in closer reach for folks in berkeley. as long as you're okay with living in someone else's backyard, i think that people just need a place where they can start, right? >> that's the whole point of a starter home. and this is a great way to be able to do that. >> this week, berkeley's city council unanimously approved the first step of opting in to a new state law, which gives people the ability to buy an adu, or accessory dwelling unit known as a backyard cottage. >> sometimes they're as small as 500ft■!s. they can be as big as 1000ft■!s in the city of berkel, but any size of a backyard cottage is typically smaller than a single family home here, so we expect the sale price to be lower as well. >> according to zillow, the average price of a home in berkeley now sits at around $1.5 million. that's why rashi kesarwani, a berkeley city council member, spearheaded bringing this proposal to the city council. >> a lot of times it's, you kn

lena howland, abc seven news. >> tonight, a jeopardy!be crowned right here on abc seven on the line, a $500,000 grand prize and a trebek trophy. james holzhauer is the defending champion, looking to go back to back, but the other two competitors are holding their own. ken jennings is the host of the show and knows a thing or two about what it takes to win, and yogesh have not played as much jeopardy as james holzhauer has, and the shock of the masters is these two players we didn't know very well are now playing at or above his level. >> we got three like james holzhauer, level geniuses, slugging it out tonight, which means it's anybody's game. jeopardy is a three way sport. odd things can happen out there. >> the competition so much at stake. you can watch jeopardy! masters tonight at eight right here on abc seven. >> if i have to face james holzhauer cowering in fear. >> smoked. >> yeah, i know what the outcome would be. well, yeah. thank you. 45 years after mad max zoomed into theaters, there's a new installment and it's coming up. >>

in orinda, lena howland, abc seven news. >> lawmakers have until the end of august to pass one of the through each house. only one needs to pass in order to go on to the governor for his signature. >> much of the us has been working to ditch plastic since the early 2000. san francisco led the way, becoming the first city to ban plastic bags in 2007. then california passed the first statewide ban in 2014. since then, plastic bag use has declined 70% within the state. now, california is moving towards requiring all packaging to be recyclable or compostable. the goal is to meet that requirement with 65% of all single use plastic by 2032. >> coming up, the future of flying. we have some hot new innovations to show you and summer movies and sum when your dream becomes a pursuit. and with vitiligo, the pursuit for your pigment is no exception. it's time you had a proven choice to help restore what's yours. opzelura is the first and only fda-approved prescription treatment for nonsegmental vitiligo. proven to help repigment skin over time. restoring what's yours. it's possible with a steroid

abc seven news reporter lena howland was there as martha stewart and local business leaders share theirree generations of women uplifted inspire and empowered. >> it's just nice to see such a diverse group of women their experiences, and i think that mindset of like, yeah, you can, you can do it all. i'm loving it. actually taking a lot away on self-care, making sure that i'm taking care of myself. >> the 35th annual professional business women of california conference was held at the historic fox theater in redwood city on thursday. it sold out to 1200 people and included a keynote address from entrepreneur and media mogul martha stewart, who candidly talked about the confidence behind posing for a sports illustrated swimsuit shoot in her 80s. >> this year, for their 60th anniversary, i posed again with all those fabulous swimsuit models katie brown, pb, wc, board president and chair, says the gathering is about networking, empowerment and self-confidence. >> so today's conference is really it's bu, which is really about authenticity and being yourself and bringing your whole self to w

lena howland abc seven news. >> a fugitive on the run for 16 years was captured today here in the baythe bad breath rapist fled massachusetts in september of 2007. twin kit lee was on trial for the kidnaping and rape of a young woman in 2005, danville police got involved after several leads that lee was staying in the area. today, the u.s. marshals service arrested him. >> alameda county district attorney pamela price raised some eyebrows over a scheduled announcement that was canceled today. her office said she was going to announce her chinese name in honor of aapi heritage month, but that didn't happen. when we asked her office why the event was canceled, no reason was given. price has been accused by some of having a rocky past with the asian community. the news about her canceled plan got mixed reactions, kind of at this point that it didn't go through. >> i was hoping that she will have an opportunity to reach out to at least the asian american community in chinatown to be able to publicly announce that she has now a name that we can identify her. >> i think it is ridiculous. it

. >> and we'll begin our coverage with that story in abc seven news reporter lena howland. >> buyingon be in closer reach for folks in berkeley. as long as you're okay with living in someone else's backyard, i think that people just need a place where they can start right? >> that's the whole point of a starter home, and this is

in orinda, lena howland, abc seven news. >> warmer temperatures off the coast are creating fierce stormstal erosions. building a better bay area means understanding what's happening now, and also understanding what is likely to happen in the next 25 years. >> every coastal city and county in the state is now beginning to think about what are our options, and there aren't very many. >> the multi-billion dollar crisis on our coast that is undermining the ground beneath communities up and down the state. watch the abc seven originals bay area to 2050 now streaming everywhere you watch abc seven and airing this saturday at 8 p.m. after coverage of the stanley cup playoffs. >> coming up next, we'll get a look at our weather forecast for the rest of the week. see what to expect when we golden 1 credit union sees, you're crushing it. you nailed that audition. you perfected that plate. your team's inspired. whether behind the scenes or center stage, you've never chosen the easy path. instead, you make your own. golden 1 checking works for you with every day simple checking. so you can keep shini