. >> abc 7 news reporter leslie brinkley is live in oakland with the very latest. leslie? >> reporter: this is the fourth day of deliberations with this reconstituted jury panel after the three were dismissed for misconduct a couple weeks ago. as one defense attorney put it today, there are lots of questions about that and can this jury, can they recall all the details of testimony from all the way back in may. the five-man and seven-woman panel trooped back into the courtroom for 15 minutes after the end of their summer break. >> they seem introspective in the short period of time they were in court. they, therefore, are participating in, you know, the gravest portion of their deliberation. they're voting right now. >> reporter: such is the guess of derick almena's attorney but there's no telling how close they are to a decision. they face 36 counts for the 36 lives that were with only one alternate juror left there's a looming problem of vacations. the judge says one juror indicated they have a vacation plant with another juror indicating they're unavailable september 19

abc 7 news reporter leslie brinkley joins us live from the oakland hills with more on the sticker shock. leslie? >> reporter: the experts tell me what's unusual is that we may be entering a normal real estate market, that is a market that has stable prices without those prices rocketing upwards like we're all used to. here are the numbers. year to year median sales prices down 9% in oakland, 15% in san ramone, 18%. >> home buyers and home sellers are used to prices going up year over year that when prices drop or stabilize, some people are freaking out. >> reporter: here is what's going on. according to data from 34 east bay cities, many of them had more homes on the market in august when compared to last august. but 21 of them saw prices drop. some by double digits. with the lower prices you'd expect maybe an increase in sales or bidding wars. it was the opposite. fewer sales and homes sat on the market in 23 of these cities for much longer than usual. a year ago the average home was up for sale for 14 days. now it's 30 days. does that mean bad luck for sellers? not really. >> look at

in pittsburg, i'm leslie brinkley, abc 7 news. >>> kaiser mental health therapists are on strike fightingpatient care. one woman says kaiser needs to offer more. >> face-to-face contact like we're talking now is essential. it's not something you can cover in a 30-minute phone call. it's not ethical. >> we are hiring. we've increased by 30% since 2015. just since july we have opened up and are hiring 300 new therapist positions. >> but they say they aren't seeing an improvement. >>> always recalls from carmakers. tonight one from flour maker general mills. >> michael finney is here with more. >> this is voluntary. recalling five pounds bags with the use by date of september 6 of next year, 2020. the recall is being issued for the potential presence of e. coli discovered during sampling. they have not received any reports of a confirmed illness. >>> a group of investors have sued at&t. they allege senior management pressured their employees into creating fake accounts for their directv now service and they did it between 2016 and 2018. the suit claims it was an attempt to artificially infla

abc 7 news reporter leslie brinkley rode along with them on patrol today. leslie? >> reporter: like you said, it's all about communication, getting to know these homeless people by their names, learnheir m about their personal lives. so the officers can get them into the agencies or services that will help them get out of the spiral of homelessness. we rode along on patrol today. >> how is your day going? >> slow. >> yeah? >> anybody giving you money or food? no? >> reporter: what do you think when they come up o? fir i was wriedha they ask. >> last we spoke you were doing pretty good and you said there was housing coming and were you just waiting. i wanted to find out how we can move this forward. >> he's doing really well and i'm really proud of him. guess what, we're not getting six calls a day of a drunk laying in the cross walk, are we? >> reporter: try to get you help. >> yeah. they've been very nice to me. wave at me. stop traffic if i'm stuck in the crosswalk. the whole thing. >> reporter: 60% of the calls coming in to walnut creek police are now about tran

leslie brinkley has the details. >> reporter: new patio doors and windows, solar and seismic upgradesns and baths, 68 units here at this apartment complex got a facelift, funded by state tax credi credits, designed to create quality affordable housing for families making less than 74,000 a year. but there were unlucky families in this story of creating affordable housing. who is caught in the middle? >> if i were to pinpoint a particular population of people, it's the folks not necessarily low income or middle class. right there in that gap. >> gotbooted out were teachers, seniors, grocery store clerks, they had to move and pay more for less space. >> there were many people at leisure terrace who were overqualified. >> reporter: the president of the company that owns the apartments outlined a dilemma they faced. >> the people at the lowest economic spectrum, 50% to 60% of median income,e need to give them a voice at the table. that's why we used this program to benefit these people. >> we're looking at in the future, what would -- what could we do differently to try to avoid this? one

. >> reporter leslie brinkley joins us from hayward city hall to explain. . >> well, the income threshold for some of these affordable units at leisure terrace basically disqualified some current residents from being able to continue to live there. and in essence, they were getting penalized for making too much money. and others on the other hand got a chance to move in. for them, a hard to find affordable place here in the east bay. >> new patio doors and windows. solar and seismic upgrades, refurbished kitchens and baths. 68 units here at this apartment complex got a face lift. funded by state tax credits, designed to create quality affordable houtsing for families making less than $74,000 a year. >> we have two kids. it's just better to have two bedrooms so they can have their own and then we have ours. i don't know, i guess we're just lucky and blessed to find somewhere like this. >> but there were unlucky families in this story of created affordable housing. who is caught in the middle? >> if i were to pinpoint a particular population of people, it woul

. >> abc7 news reporter leslie brinkley has been following the case.he's live with the latest today from oakland. >> reporter: we tried today to talk to both derick almena and max harris but their attorneys said they're not yet ready to do interviews. we also know that all eyes will be on the city of oakland with an upcoming civil trial. we attempted to talk to the mayor. the mayor, we're told, is out of town and not available to comment today. i did talk to family members, though, and they say they're emotionally exhausted. david gregory shared these personal photos today of his daughter who perished in the ghost ship fire along with her boyfriend, alex vega. this family photo taken days before she died in 2016. he told me, it feels like we're never get closure. to money is going to bring back our daughter, he said. i i wanted criminal justice. many family members from the ghost ship fire are turning to how the city of oakland will respond to a civil lawsuit. >> you see the fresh flowers, too. >> reporter: outside the ghost ship warehouse today, oakla

in hayward, leslie brinkley, abc 7 news. >> key questions, leslie, thank you.cruz, a growing homeless population has forced some to camp out on marquee beach overnight. we've just learned a new rule takes effect immediately. chris nguyen has the story from the beach. >> reporter: for the santa cruz tre street performer, marty mere ball. >> i feel more freedom going about the things i want to do. >> reporter: but as of today that can no longer happen. >> it's upsetting when anybody asks you to leave any particular spot that you're comfortable in, you know? >> reporter: a new policy approved by the city council will force marty and others around him from camping out overnight. abc 7 news has learn the effective immediately the dry sand portion of main beach will be closed between midnight and one hour before sun rise for the next six months. however, that section can still be used to access the wet sand area, which will remain open 24 hours a day to comply with mandates from the california coastal commission. some of the homeless believe they're being unfairly ta

leslie brinkley has more on the plan. >> reporter: this industrial warehouse on clark avenue in pittsburg will soon house a cannabis manufacturing plant. to put it in perspective, there are only four cannabis distributors licensed in all of contra costa county. there are 113 in just the city of oakland. this is new territory for tinggeneraax revenue. the city projects 500,000 a year. the land was once part of the camp stoneman. this new facility operated by stoneman laboratories will immediately create 20 job, perhaps eventually employing 100. >> there'll only be distributing their manufactured products to licensed dispensaries or retail sellers. >> reporter: so no store front here. >> no store front here. >> reporter: those opposed refused to go on camera, concerned with homeless who camp out regularly here at night. but but they held out hope that the plant may bring added layers of security. the city reduced its buffer zone to 600 feet, something echoed by some neighbors. >> we live around here, too, not far from here, and kids know about that, young kids, marijuana, that's not good id

abc 7 news reporter leslie brinkley is live from the oakland courthouse as she has been many times over the trial. she'll explain the timeline and perhaps why so many few days to deliberate, leslie? >> reporter: dan, we have this reconstituted jury, this new jury possible that's only been deliberating for about four days after three jurors were dismissed for miss conduct a couple weeks ago and the question that remains is can this panel, can they really remember all the testimony they heard starting back in may? >> it was a really long trial and at this point, it was -- it ended over four weeks ago so, you know, it's -- any juror would be needing to sort of stress their memories a little bit, push their test their memory bank to see how far back they can remember what these first witnesses said. >> reporter: the five man and seven woman jury panel trooped back into the courtroom for 15 minutes this morning after 12 days off. >> they seem quiet. they seem introspective in the short time they were in court. they, therefore, are participating in, you know, the greatest push of their delibe

in oakland, i'm leslie brinkley, abc7 news. >> that's interesting. thank you, leslie.housing crisis really does affect us all, and it's why we dedicated a week to covering the topic. from issues for renters to homeowners to solutions for the future, you can find all of those stories online at abc7news.com/better bay area. >> so if you visit the west side of treasure island, you'll find that something new and unusual has arrived there. it may also look vaguely familiar. abc7 news reporter wayne freedman went for a look today. joining us live now, wayne, i got to admit, i saw some of your tweets. i'm looking at the rivets. i've seen this thing a million times, yet i have no idea what it is. >> that's right. that's it over my shoulder right there behind the palm trees. let's call this a person and object story. the object has a name. they call it signal. and yes, larry, you stole my line. it's riveting. it has been said that what goes around comes around, but never in this particular form. >> if you had not known what it was, would you know what it is? >> no. >> no. >> i

. >> leslie brinkley rode with them. >> reporter: not only the usual standby in oakland but red flag alert, two of the extra engines are for 24 hours patrolling the hills nonstop. also a state engine in oakland. >> with history in oakland with oakland hills fire and over last few years, we're always behind, trying to catch up. plan today having extra people and apparatus out, get hopefully a jump on anything that could set off a fire. >> reporter: day like this, spark could take off with terrifying speed. >> driving to and from on the 13 freeway, noticed how dry all the trees are. >> reporter: with red flag alert, oakland fire department closed down joaquin miller park to visitors, allowed a film crew from netflix to continue shooting but required to hire a separate fire watch team with them. >> pay attention to the weather, if the wind picks up, maybe not barbecue at that point. >> reporter: wants more phones. to sign up for alerts not just bringing in more engines, want people to give them a call if they see anything that could cause a fire. >>> breaking news, one lane of northboun

in oakland, leslie brinkley, abc 7 news. >>> in san francisco, city pools will be open for free again today because of the hot weather. normally scheduled activities like lap swim and swim lessons will continue as usual. one area of each pool will be kept open for anyone looking for a place to beat the heat in the water. sounds like a good idea today. the san francisco police department, they are stepping up traffic enforcement at 4th and bryant. the busy intersection turned dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists in recent years. mayor london breed says traffic collisions are unacceptable. >> the problem is we're having too many collisions that are occurring in our city that are causing harm to people an we need to unfortunately step up our enforcement. >> here's what she's talking about. we saw several motorcycle officers assigned to the intersection to keep an eye on drivers. >>> in santa cruz, the city council is considering on whether to allow cannabis lounges. there are already a few in san francisco. that's what you're seeing now. it's only legal to smoke pot in residencies in p

. >> leslie brinkley tagged along with two officers and joins us live from walnut creek to share her experience. >> reporter: those officers get to know the homeless by name, know their back story, so they can get them into the services they need. unfortunately, on our ride along today, we witnessed an arrest. >> that's approximately ten grams. >> reporter: 100 hits of meth in the possession of a homeless man living along the creek adjacent to broadway shopping center. these two police officers are day to day working to get the homeless clean and sober. if you didn't havguys, how would it be different? >> well, she looks out for us. feel like they keep it safe out here. >> how's it going, man? >> reporter: 66-year-old wayne was a guitarist, once upon a time, but since a stroke he's been homeless in walnut creek for a year. what do you think when you see these guys come up to say hello? >> at first i was kind of worried about it. not now. i do what they ask. as lhe tdoe ing pretty good, and you s there was housing coming. you were just waiting. i want to find out how we can move this

joining me now, leslie brinkley, my colleague. both of us have been here pretty much from the beginning. this trial started with jury selection in late april. >> i think the first day of testimony was april 30th. it's been running through the entire summer. >> this jury has been deliberating. two juries actually. we lost three jurors the last several weeks. it seemed today earlier that things might go for a bit longer. one of the themes that ran throughout the trial certainly from the defense side was the involvement of the city of oakland specifically the fire department and the number of times that various fire personnel were inside that warehouse. leslie, you heard a lot of that testimony. >> i certainly did. there were dozens over 37, 40 according to the defense fire personnel, police personnel who were inside the ghost ship, actually came in. one of the key moments, i think, this could have planted a seed of doubt in the jury's mind on some of this. because officially, the fire department had no record of checking the ghost s