the story is from lyanne melendez. >> she was a high school student with no college aspirations.ut she discovered she had a passion for social justice. >> we are facing those challenges. we live in poverty. a lot of people are not employed. a lot of people are fighting. a lot of people are killing one another. >> they went to this institute. here at the urban garden in richmond. she organized the community and trained local youths to appreciate agriculture. >> my role in this, i'm tryingae people can come in and take leadership of it and there is no one person that is in charge of everything. >> today she is a site coordinator of this garden. she engages teens from the richmond community to take ownership of the the space. >> it earned her the brower youth award. there was a total of six winners they received $3,000 prize. these two michigan high school students are trying to change one of the ingredients in girl scout cookies. palm oil is cheap. >> i suggested canola oil blend as an alternative to palm oil. >> it's basically the most brightest eco activists all around north amer

lyanne melendez explains how it works. >> attending uc berkeley has a price tag of more than $32,000 a year that is with room and board. while 40% of students get help from the state and federal government, the middle class is having trouble affording cal. >> we don't want challenging economic times to be a barrier to access to what we believe is one of the nation's premier public universities. >> reporter: enter mcap which stands for middle class access plan. families earning between $80,000 and $140,000 qualify. here is how you it works. say a family makes $100,000 a year. the most they will pay is 15%. in other words, $15,000. their son or daughter will also have to contribute by taking out loans or using some of their savings. berkeley will then make up the difference. the university will rely on philanthropic donations to fund the program. >> out-of-state students pay higher fees and some of the revenue from that is going be used to provide resources for middle class access. >> reporter: the university says a quarter or close to 6,000 middle class students will benefit from the

lyanne melendez tells us how they work. >> he has dementia. his wife reached out to an organization called asci village that provides volunteers and audio version of his life was recently completed. >> i feel good about the whole thing. >> the village has 170 senior members and 60 volunteers serving berkeley, albany, pleasanton and a small portion of oakland. >> they offer assistance inome , cooking, gardening, dog walking. whatever people's needs are that helped them to continue living independently. >> it's not cheap. $750 a year per person, about $62 a month. those who can afford it the say they get a lot of support. bob's wife takes a course every thursday night. >> i don't like leaving bob alone so i asked for a volunteer. >> currently there are other villages nationwide with about 11,000 senior members. san francisco already has two. >> if they fall and break a hip, nobody knows that is going to happen until it is too late. >> a report from the city and county of san francisco points out that in 2008 there were about 150,000 seniors or 2

lyanne melendez, "abc 7 news." >>> you know fog contains a lot of water but how much. as wayne freedman reports a researcher has set out to measure it and in the process study the consequences of climate change. >> we have been told there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. on this day, dr. dan fernandez is going to big sur in search of something. >> water that is airborne. >> fog, mysterious and right about now, so far below. >> there is a water in the fog. >> how much? >> in a cubic meter you might have about a gram. >> doesn't sound like out? >> there are a lot of cubic meters of fog out there. >> the doctor does research at california state university monterey bay. when we met to fog by satellite, the stuff behaves like water. it flows and fills valleys as if were basins which led him to wonder. >> can we measure the fog. how much water in the following and how much is necessary plants and fauna to survive. >> when the mist comes in it accumulates on the grids and driosts down on collection areas. a heavy day might yield a couple gallons. >> one of the ques

lyanne melendez reports. >> reporter: she works for the federal government. was denied health benefits for her wife. doma prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriages. >> i have to pay through a separate policy i'm lucky i can even afford when all of my colleague that has are legally married put their spouses on them. >> obama administration says doma is unconstitutional. with that said, her attorneys are asking the courts to rule in her favor. >> this case is really about thinking about it differently. >> here is where the house of representatives and advisory groups stepped in. advisory group is comprised of five house members, including john boehner, a minority leader nancy pelosi a democrat. that is advisory group voted 3-2 along party lines to defend doma in court and ask that her case be dismissed. in court the attorney for the house advisory group said, congress gets to draw the lines of which benefits it wants to give and has done so. >> in the meantime, even though the justice department argued lawsuit is unconstitutional, it must continue enf