abc7 news contributor phil matier is in the newsroom with his unique insight. that in just a moment. first let's go to anchor liz kreutz breaking down both events on a night like we've never seen before. >> whiplash for voters who had to go back and forth between the two town halls. you saw two different town halls , no surprise, given we have two different candidates. both the president and former vice president biden were asked about a range of toippics, starting with covid-19. vice president biden was in philadelphia and president trump in miami for dueling town halls. the president was asked about covid-19. when his last negative test was before contracting the virus. he wouldn't say. >> okay, and you don't know if you took a test the day of the debate? >> possibly i did, possibly i didn't. >> later answer's george stephanopoulos asked biden to respond if he will demand the president take a test the day of their next debate. >> by the way i came up here, i took another test. it's just decency. >> the town hall with biden was calm and substantive in contrast

phil matier is reporting that the store's shelves are empty or nearly empty.ning products are locked up behind plastic theft guards. the walgreen's will close officially on november 11th and get this, this is the seventh walgreens to close in the city this year. you can read phil matier's columns in the chronicle on sundays and wednesdays. >>> caltrans has cleaned up a massive homeless encampment in berkeley. there's so much debris at the encampment along interstate 80 at the university avenue overpass that the state brought in an excavator to clear it up yesterday. the work forced the closure of westbound i-80 on-ramp and the city tesays no tents will be removed. >>> there's a new effort to make part of san francisco's great highway permanently car-free. the examiner reports that the great highway park initiative got more than 2,000 signatures online since the launch in june. the plan would transform the great highway into a park. the city temporarily closed part of the road to cars in april due to the pandemic. >>> the mountain lion cub rescued from a wildfi

the chronicle insider phil matier reports the overall settlement is 100 million.is going to pay for 52 piles to be drilled into bedrock to shore up the structure that is leaning by about 14 inches. millions more will go to the kond condo owners whose propert values plummeted. >> there were questions about that tower at the beginning, whether the foundation was properly installed. whether it should have gone on landfill. whether they should have drilled down to bedrock. there were questions about the transbasin. was it too big? you put those things together, maybe at 30 million dollars we got off lightly. >> you can read phil matier's column in the chronicle on sundays and wednesdays. >>> quibi is calling it quits. the streaming service built on short videos has shut down after just six months in business. the los angelesbased company struggled since launching during the pandemic. quibi says subscribers will receive notifications regarding the last day they can access the platform. the streaming service failed despite the backing of some of hollywood's biggest name

. >> reporter: abc 7 news contributor and chronicle insider phil matier is talking about the alameda county fairgrounds here in pleasanton. the city of oakland sent alameda county a letter on october 14th aasking to use the fairgrounds as a homeless shelter. yesterday alameda county responded and in a roundabout way said they'd like to help but not necessarily when it comes to using this county-owned property. >> i mean, homelessness, is it a city problem? a county problem? a state problem? a national problem? all of the above. but when it comes to actually having to deal with them in the front yard, that's when everything gets local real quick. >> reporter: nate miley is an alameda county supervisor. >> i just think it is preposterous for the city of oakland to be proposing to send unsheltered homeless individuals who have rvs and campers out to the fairgrounds. >> you would all feel like this is a not in my neighborhood issue, that the people of pleasanton don't want to take on a homeless population that doesn't exist in the area? >> i do not feel this is a nimby issue whatsoever.

chronicle insider and abc7 news contributor phil matier said there was a marked difference between harris and pence. >> mike pence used to be a talk show host. so he had that certain unflappable attitude, a quiet, lower demeanor. he had an advantage because he's in lock ststep from the preside. kamala harris, we saw more emotion coming through, flustered at times, and it was just a couple months ago she was running against joe biden. >> the fact checkers were hard at work again during the debate to find out which of the claims hold up. head to abc7news.com. >>> the coronavirus outbreak at the white house continues to grow. in fact, abc news confirmed new cases overnight, a significant jump. jobina is at the live desk with more on this. >> yes. an internal mem move o obtainedc news says that 34 people tested positive for covid-19, that's up from 24 yesterday afternoon. we're learning the white house is facing unprecedented criticism from the "new england journal of medicine" over the administration's handling of the pandemic. they wrote that u.s. leaders should be voted out and have taken

>> chronicle insider and abc7 news contributor phil matier said what he thought both candidates need to do. >> his job was to reach into his base and reach into whatever undecideds were out there. he was calm, measured, some would say he was slow. he was. he was also long-winded on answering questions. trump was the polar opposite. he was quick, snappy, confrontational, but he was also being grilled. i'm not sure trump accomplished the goal sort of deflating that eccentric image we had in the first presidential debate. >> if you want to find out which claims hold up, go to abc7news.com. >>> developing news on the coronavirus, the u.s. is on the verge of another grim milestone. 8 million confirmed cases. it comes as the white house task force announced not a single state is still in the green safe zone. hospitals in ohio, texas and new mexico are on the verge of running out of icu beds. the centers for disease control and prevention predicts the death toll could reach 246,000 by next month. one of president trump's closest allies, former new jersey governor chris christie now urging p

we asked phil matier if that worked. >> you know, it's embarrassing. the idea that we had a presidential debate where you had to mute the microphones? i mean, come on. if that's where we are starting from that, it's not a good place to be. it controlled both sides. it also gave joe biden his two minutes to get out there and say what he wanted to say. it gave trump his. they still ran over each other's times. >> abc news was fact checking both candidates during the debate. to find out which claims hold up go to abc7news.com. >>> a boost to businesses in alameda county and more people will be allowed inside places like restaurants, movie theaters and gyms today. the economy is a big focus for us here at abc7 news in our effort to building a better bay area. amy hollyfield is live in the east bay with what we can expect today. amy? >> hi, good morning. restaurants can now serve more people here in alameda county, they have the outdoor option. now they can open inside to a limited capacity. they can let in 25% of their capacity starting today. that's an op