25 percent a few times a month. Keep it at 6. Reporter regional leaders say toll payers may not like it now, but theyll like it later promising less traffic on bay area bridges and freeways. They say the money would go to improve Public Transportation like bart, buses, and the ferry system. The money would also fix choke points on some busy highways. They say everybody wins. I think its fair overall. Its the democratic system we have. Reporter this assemblyman represents parts of Alameda County, ask help compares it to and he compares it to renters voting to raise property taxes. Its an approach thats worked and its in our tool box that we need to help address regional congestion. Reporter a bunch of voters are calling it basically a taxed, and they say why not have a tax on everyone to make it fair . But legislators say that would be difficult to pass, but this measure is easier to pass when people dont have to pay for it. Da lin, kpix 5. New at 6 00a i suspect has been arrested, accused of two mail bombings, including one that targeted an east bay police officer. Elizabeth cook has the details and a possible motive for one of the attacks. Liz . Veronica, that second package was delivered by the Postal Service last month. It went to the officers home in alameda. The officers wife opened it, it exploded, and it burned her. Police say this man from oakland is responsible. He was arrested in 2013 by the very officer he targeted. Investigators say he mailed the bomb in retaliation against the officers. They say they used dna found on a battery from the first bomb to link him to the crimes. The first bomb was sent to a home in east palo alto. The man who opened it suffered burns to his arms and legs. Investigators released the photos of them a short while ago. He faces charges for mailing an explosive device with intent to injure or kill. All right, liz, thank you. Sky drone 5 over googles next real estate project. It could be the home to 4500 new employees. Two New Buildings along caribbean drive would add over a million feet of office space for google. Heres more on their ambitious expansion plans from devin fehely. Reporter yeah, google has gone on a billion dollar shopping spree in the area, meaning a dramatic change for the area, but there are still lingering concerns about the impact on traffic and housing. Although significantly smaller than the proposed san jose campus, the sprawling 1 million Square Foot Office park google wants to build in sunnyvale was nonetheless transform the moffat park neighborhood. They want to spread out, con sol late theyre spread out, they want to consolidate, but theyre also anticipating a lot of growth. Reporter the tech giant filed an application with the city yesterday, including these images of what the proposed campus could look like. But theyve already gobbled up more than a billion feet of free space in the area. Theyre our fifth largest employer, and well adopt to work with them continue to work with them through the processing of this new application. Reporter google is planning to build a 6 million square foot campus in roughly a decade. They hope to break ground in three to four years in sunnyvale, but would do so without tax breaks from the city. The city of sunnyvale doesnt offer Development Incentives to any applicants. Reporter but the campus in Mountain View and plans to expand in sunnyvale and san jose, is there any risk they could overextend themselves . Analysts say not likely. Now googles proposed campus in san jose would house roughly 15 to 20,000 employees, fewer here in sunnyvale, and although both projects are located near transit, theyll likely drive up both traffic and housing costs in the area. Devin fehely, kpix 5. Meanwhile a top google executive is stepping down. Scmidt helped build google into a Search Engine super power. No reason given for the change, but hell apparently remain on the Google Alphabet board and take on a role as Technical Advisor to the company. And heres the numbers on the a tax cut before the end of the year. In only ten days well have dramatically different tax rules. The state and local deductions are capped at 10,000, so paying taxes now before the cap kicks in could be the smartest move, and its already happening. We send out bills in october and you get the bill for the entire year of 2017, and you can pay it in two discrete installments. The first by december 10th, and the other on april 10th. Reporter to deduct taxes in 2017, you have to pay them in 2017, not waiting until april of next year. The San Franciscos Treasurers Office says theyve been a 9 percent increase in the number of people paying their full tax bill now for a total of 41 million. Certainly we were surprised at the 41 million number, that its increased that much over last year. Everyone is scrambling. Reporter when it comes to tax law, rob wood has literally written the book. He says the law seems to allow people to pay 2017 taxes early. If its 2017 income taxes that youre paying, my read of the law is that is okay. Its quite clear if its 2018 taxes youre paying, its not okay. Reporter this also goes for state income taxes. With tax brackets changing, he says we should think about making charitable donations right now. People are in general better off making a donation this year than they would be next year. Reporter and next year there will be a new lower tax rate for certain revenue streams, so people with qualifying income should think about creating a company to enjoy the lower tax rate. For the regular person, one of the biggest changes i think that will ripple off businesses and a lot of households is the socalled pass through income or flow through income. Reporter he says even Small Businesses could benefit. A lot of jockeying i think will be over who qualifies and many sort of little businesses run out of somebodys garage are going to qualify i believe. Reporter so to recap, here are some ideas to discuss with your tax professional. Paying your 2017 state and local property taxes before december 31st. Paying your 2017 state income taxes before december 31st. Donating to charity by december 31st; and seeing if creating a corporate entity will help you in 2018. Now Alameda County is now activity encouraging people to pay property taxes early, and today a Santa Clara County supervisor sent out a press release saying the same thing. Also marin county sent out a reminder that you cant prepay 2018 taxes. Kpix 5. Right now a candle light vigil underway for San Francisco mayor ed lee. This is a live look at the gathering in china town. Mayor lee was San Franciscos first chineseamerican mayor. Many of the causes that he fought for took root in his connection to that community. Tonight the community is remembering him by honoring his service and legacy to the chineseamerican, and Asian Pacific islander communities. Working with him was so amazing because not only did he care about what happened in china town, he cared about what happened to all people all over our entire city. Among these intending, the acting mayor. Proking to carry on mayor acting mayor, promising to carry on his plans. Chilly weather around the bay area. Looks like not everyone had enough layers on for shopping today at walnut creek. Right on time for the first night of winter. Cold weather warnings. Chief meteorologist paul deanno is here with more. Yes, stores open late, you might need to go grab a winter coat. One of the coldest nights tonight weve had this calendar year. A freeze warning in effect for places like santa rosa, and oakland, and vallejo, and martinez, and san jose, and fremont. Yes, all of those areas. Specifically san jose, 32 is the forecast for you tonight, right at the freezing mark. Last time you were below freezing in san jose was on january 6th of this year, 348 days ago. Now numbers. 31 tonight for vallejo. Fremont 33. 29 in redwood city. Fairfield 25, and livermore 28 degrees. This is where we bottom out. This will be the coldest night. Subtle changes toward the weekend and christmas holiday. More about that and rain chances coming up in about 7 minutes. All right, paul, thank you. A bay area town said no to cell towers in their backyard, and now a surprise decision. How neighbors fought back and won. They thought they dodged the north bay wildfires, now theyre being evicted. How tenants claim their landlord is taking advantage of the situation. And iphone owners taking apple to court. They they want the company to pay for deliberately slowing down older models. Tonight. A short time ago the city nixed plans to build 16 cell phone towers in the upscale area. As kpix fives kiet do explains, residents of hillboro is celebrating a win tonight. The city nixed plans to build 16 cell phone towers in the area. The decision came as a surprise. Reporter pretty lively atmosphere out here in front of city hall where this is a big deal for the neighbors. A lot of hug, hand shakes shakes, and high fives. Its hailed as a significant victory by neighborhood opposition groups. The city manager says the contractor verizon hired to do the work never got an environmental review, so all xvi towers were so all 16 towers were denied. The steep hills beautiful, but they block cell coverage, so verizon wanted to install 16 towers to blanket the area. However neighbor Patrick Shannon whos an attorney that specializes the government regulation pointed out that city policy requires an environmental review. Shannon also says the city never gave proper notice to the neighbors and never held community meetings. He says he first learned about it in a letter just days before the project was approved even though the city knew about it months acing. The issue isnt over. What we need now is to reform our process of government so citizens have a meaning opportunity to participate in the process and well seek reforms to ensure it happens. Reporter and the city managers decision is final, but verizon can appeal to the full city council within 15 days. Heres getting a new look at sierra lamars killer. Torres was sentenced last week to life in prison without parole. A jury had convicted him of rape and murder. Her body was never found. But her dna was found in ar. And his the 15yearold disappeared in 2012 near morgan hill. Her body was never found, but her dna was found in the suspects car. A deadly crash shuts down a busy east bay freeway. The wreck involved a fedex truck and honda sedan. Chopper 5 was over the scene on interstate 880 in oakland. Chp says it happened just before 3 00 this morning when the sedan and the fedex truck crashed into each other. The fedex trailer ended up on its side. The driver of the sedan died on the scene. All lanes reopened just after 8 00 this morning. Cph is investigating the cause of the crash. Heres a live look at sfo. The airport said today is its busiest day for christmas travel. Sfo expects to see about 167,000 travelers flying in and out of the airport today. Heres some of the long lines there at the ticket counters. It was pretty busy, um, i actually came on a stand by flight and i know that there were at least five people that missed the flight i luckily got onto. Sfo says today is its busiest day. Fishes at the oakland and san jose officials at the oakland and san jose airports say tomorrow is their busiest day. And reservoirs are lower than a year ago, one of the driest starts in a quarter century. Heres more on the impact. Reporter its cold, dry, and windy reeves very just outside windy at the reservoir just outside the city. But after record rains last winter and dry conditions this fall that sparked huge wildfires, the question is whats going on with our weather pattern . Meteorologically weve had High Pressure in place that shuts down the storm track well north of northern and central california. Reporter this man is a meteorologist with golden gate weather services. And any time we lock in High Pressure for an extended period of time, we get these extended periods of dry weather. Reporter here at lexington reservoir the water levels are far below where they were at the peak of the rains earlier this year, but thats by design. Right now its only holding 28 percent of capacity because a lot of water has been released downstream in order to recharge the ground water supply. This year we have an abundance of water because of the occurrences earlier in the year, so were in good shape. Reporter and water managers say the public is continuing to conserve, and combined with robust rain and snowfall last winter, were in good shape for now. Its way too early i think for anybody to be concerned for water. Paul is always on the lookout for rain. We like balance and sunshine, but we need the balance, and this time of year the balance typically swings toward wetter. This december hasnt. But dont panic, january, february and march still to go. Highs today after a very cold start 61 degrees in petaluma and concord and ocean beach. Sunnyvale 57, danville 55, and foster city 56. How chilly do we get tonight . A lot of 20s, including 28 in petaluma tonight, 28 in livermore morgan hill dropping down to 29. A little bump in the snow pack from the snowfall that came about 48 hours ago. 32 percent, we have 68 more to go to get back to normal. So snow pack not doing that well, and we have another ridge of High Pressure building in, so no snow. We have the departing low, and the ridge building in is giving us the flow from canada, why its so chilly tonight. But watch this. There are storms out there. This storm, if it had the opportunity to go west to east, it would and give us rainfall, but instead this ridge is blocking it, and set to go to alaska instead. Its not a lack of storms. Speaking of that ridge of High Pressure, it stays close enough. No rainfall on christmas or the day after. We stay dry each of the next seven days. Freeze warning for most of you tonight. 58 fremont and vallejo. Sunshine in napa, 60. San jose 60. Sevenday forecast. Getting cloudier this weekend meaning milder nights. Mostly cloudy on christmas, but rainfree. Toward the middle of next week, no storms making it through the ridge. The next seven days staying dry. All right, paul, thank you. Thanks paul. Think twice before flying though with smart luggage. Why a growing number of airlines are banning the high tech suitcases. And the nfl weighs in on indexcard gate. Lets go, baby. And we take you inside jimmys huddle next. Of the week award. Kyle shanahan h man, it keeps Getting Better for jimmy gt offensive player of the week award. Reporter have you decided what youll get the patriots for christmas . No, i havent, but theyre on my good side right now. We know he plays it cool around the media, but whats jimmy like in the huddle . He was miced up sunday. Lets grab it huh . Lets get one. Finish this shot. Do you what time it is . Keep playing physical. Theyre running the clock. Protect the ball no penalties unbelievable and the jaguars come sunday, kickoff set for 10 5. The suck mess of the 10 5. The success of the jacksonville defense is pretty good, but the quarterback has thrown for 900 yards and 7 touchdowns in december. They beat houston 457 last week. Despite that clowney of the texans called bortles trash. If thats trash, im fine being trash. [ laughter ] the raiders might be eliminated from the playoffs be i the time they could have by the time they kickoff against philadelphia, and a lot of blame falls on the shoulders of derek carr. His touchdowns down, his interceptions up. Thats bad timing after signing that megacontract before the season, and despite rumors of sizings in the locker Room Division in the locker room, his teammates voted him as the player in the year in the locker room. The contract didnt change me. Even the elite, most elite quarterbacks of all time werent good every year. Derek is a good football player, and well win a lot of games together here. And ahead of officiating for the the head of officiating for the nfl told the referees theyre no longer to use index card to aid in measuring 1st downs. On sunday raider nation was upset when they put the folded car between the ball and stick, and the raiders think thats part of reason they lost the game. The index cards took a beating on the stock market today, did you see that . [ laughter ] never seen that and never will again. [ laughter ] so true, thank you. Dennis, thank you. Coming up in the next half hour, first the wildfires, and now eviction notices just days before christmas. Why dozens of renters in the north bay are getting forced out. High stakes drama at the capitol. Down to the wire. The late night vote to avert a government shut down. And a new tribute to Robin Williams in the bay area. A devestat youre watching kpix 5 news. People who thought they dodged the north bay our top story at 6 30, a devastating surprise for people who thought theyd dodged the north bay wildfires. Just four days before christmas they find out theyre being evicted. Only on 5, Susie Steimle on the increase in eviction notices and allegations of rent gouging in wine country. Just got a notice. Reporter around 8 00 last night david found this eviction notice taped to his front door. Why do you think theyre doing this . Money. Pure greed. Reporter some units in the apartments where david lives were destroyed by the wildfire, but davids survived. Turns out hell lose it anyway. We thought we were fortunate escaping the fire, but its just a delayed reaction to eventual eviction. Reporter david and his neighbors arent asloan. The sonoma alone. The Sonoma CountyDistrict Attorney didnt know about davids story until we told them, but theyre investigating 180 cases of price gouging. They say in most cases theyre kicking people out to raise the rent. We believe its against the law to give somebody a notice to vacate when your intention is, your purpose in doing that, so to take the rent up. Reporter this is the executive director of legal aid of Sonoma County. Shes working with people like david to fight no cause eviction. Overall weve seen a 20 percent increase in the number of evictions case justs since the fire. Reporter she points out santa rosa already had a housing crisis before the fire, and she says shes not surprised to see landlords taking advantage of the situation. We want to make sure its not happening, and the only way we can help is in people step forward. Reporter i did reach out to the lawyers who dropped off the eviction notices, and they said they had no comment. I reefed out to the reached out to the apartment managers as well and got no response. Susie steimle, kpix 5. The das office says theyll look at whats happening at the apartments where david lives, but they havent opened an official investigation. Heres a live look at the u. S. Capitol where they passed a late measure to keep the government running. Yes, the Senate Passed a stop gap measures to fund the government hours after a similar vote in the house. They were up against a tight deadline today to avoid a partial shut down at midnight friday night. The bare bones spending bill will give the government operating through january 19th. 2 bill provides the bill provides temporary extensions of Health Care Programs for children and veterans as well as warrantless survey programs that were about to expire, but it pushes some unresolved issues into january including health care, immigration, and more. Including dreamers brought into the u. S. As children in we need action. We need it soon. It should be bipartisan. I think miss pelosi is holding the defense of the United States hostage. As we miles per houred they did mentioned, they did sign it. Today senator feinstein reversed course saying she couldnt back the bill saying its absolutely terrible that republicans are leaving these items out of the bill to fund their government. Other issues pushed until next year includes aid for victims of the recent wildfires and hurricanes. They passed a relief bill in the house, but the senate didnt take it up saying it should be part of a broader bill. All right, ken, thank you. The United NationsGeneral Assembly voted to condemn president trumps decision to recognize jerusalem as israels capital. Before the vote the un ambassador ni kki haley condemned them. And even close allies voted against the United States. The vote was 128 to 9 with 35 abstentions. Haley reminded other nation that is america is the uns biggest contributor and they can cut the funding any time. The United States will remember this day in which it was singled out in attack for the very act as exercising our right as a sovereign nation. The un vote was nonbinding, and haley says it doesnt change the plan to move the u. S. Embassy to gentlemen reduce legal. And Vice President pence jerusalem. Reporter jerusalem. And Vice President pence made a surprise trip to afghanistan. One more hassle to worry about at the airport. Why more airlines are banning the smart suitcases with built in batteries. And more colorful lights to show you tonight. Here are shots of homes very decked out. This is in berkeley. And not just homes. Check out the trees along the road with trunks wrapped in lights. Do you have an awesome light display to share . Show it off post photos and videos on our kpix 5 Facebook Page and we might just show them on our newscast. Really . Really . Really . Really . Really . Really . See zero in a whole new way. Get zero down, zero deposit, zero first months payment, and zero due at signing on select volkswagen models. Now with the people first warranty. But a growing number o its the latest convenience in airport travel, and likely a hot holiday gift. But a lot of airlines are banning the smart suitcases over concerns the batteries could catch fire. United and Hawaiian Airlines are the latest to announce theyre banning them. Michelle griego has more on the apparent danger. Reporter the internal battery that could be a fliers dream, could become a travel nightmare in january as theyre being banned because of the batteries that cant be removed. The carriers worry the checked bagged could catch fire. We though many of them will no longer be permitted to fly on american airlines. Reporter american was the first to ban the bags. If it has to be checked, you must remove the battery and bring it into the cabin of the aircraft with you, but if the bag is checked and the battery is not removable, we cant accept the bag. Reporter earlier in the year the faa urged regulators to ban large Electronic Items with the batteries. Smart bags use their batteries to power on board bps, sync with an app, weigh and lock themselves, plus charge your phone. Some even propel themselves putting them on many holiday wish lists. Bags with the batteries removed will be allowed on board. But extensive features like the ability to track it wont work. In a statement blue smart said we did our Due Diligence to make sure we complied with all International Regulations defined by d. O. T. And faa. Its a stepback for travel technology and improving the way we travel. Its worth noting the faa and d. O. T. Dont certify projects as approved batteries. One leading manufacturers says 75,000 of their smart bags could be grounded. Bill gates hits another home run at secret santa. How the billionaire made this womans holiday. Maybe around here were just getting santa welcome to come to the bay area, because its going to feel like winter outside. A freeze warning is a big deal for us. We have one tonight. How low the temperatures go and when well warm up, and will we ever see rain again this year . The answer next. Kpix 5 weather sponsored by mancini sleep world. Iphone users are suing apple for intentionally slowing down older models of phones. They acknowledged yesterday they did a Software Upgrade to prevent unexpected battery shut downs or 6 models. Users complained it slowed every feature down. At the lawsuit accuses them of slowing down the phones to encourage people to buy new ones. Apple say it is goal is to deliver quote the best experience for customers. Golden gate park sharon meadows has a new name. Its now Robin Williams meadow. The Parks Commission voted unanimously to rename it because of comedy day in the park where williams made appearances for 20 years. They say many years when they were short on funds, williams would privately donate the money to keep it going. Thousands of kids in san jose wont go without a visit from santa this year thanks to a massive toy drive. Thousand children today. Parents Sacred Heart Community service handed out gifts to more than 6,000 children today. Parents showed up to play santa picking out specific a temperatures for their family specification items for their specific items for their families. Knowing theyll be able to bring joy to their kids, especially at a time where rent is going up, theres a lot of natural disasters that happened this year, we want to make sure everyone can enjoy this time of year. The toy drive continues tomorrow, and they still need about 4,000 toys. For more information head to our website. Mr. Gates. O bill now b billionaire bill gates played secret santa and made one woman very happy this holiday season. Mr. Gates, maybe i should call you bill now because were like bffs, but i have to tell you this is easily the best Christmas Present ive ever gotten. Gates participated in a gift exchain, and she was a cat lover, so he gave her a large stuffed cat and a dozen other items. He included a photo of himself next to the stuffed animal to prove it was him, and he made three donations to her favorite cat charities. Thats his Christmas Card picture. [ laughter ] all right, were cooling down outside. Its going to be the coldest night for some of you since early january of this year. Were down to 44 in livermore. Down to 48 in concord. Quickly into the 40s in santa rosa. Now proximity to the water will help you out a bit. Tonight more 20s than any other range of temperatures on the map tonight. Fairfield 25, concord, livermore all below 30 degrees and 31 in san rafael tonight. Air quality will become an issue once again as yet another ridge of High Pressure is building in. When you see a spare the air day in wintertime it typically means no rainfall. Spare the air days for friday, saturday, and sunday. A lot going on in the weather map, ill explain coming up. Departing low, building ridge. The air is coming down from canada. Then the ridge will slide closer taking the next two storms and prevent them from hitting the bay area. You heard me talk about that in early december. This one wont hang out for two weeks, but long enough to keep us mainly dry into and through the christmas holiday. Heres the change for the weekend. Clear skies, very cold tomorrow. Cloud cover beginning to increase as soon as tomorrow evening, and by saturday morning with more widespread cloud cover much like you put a blanket on your bed to keep you warm, the blanket keeps us warmer. Were likely dry on Christmas Day as this storm, even with the ridge south of los angeles, that storm will likely be deflected to our north. A few drops of rain up to the north, but thats it. Were perhaps dry for the remappedder of the year. We could stay remainder of the year. We could stay in the four spot for driest winter ever. And napa 60 tomorrow, San Francisco 56. Upper 50s for oakland and Mountain View and san jose. Heres the sevenday forecast through the holiday weekend. Last minute shoppers, clouds, but pleasant weather to get outside. You and about a million other cars this weekend. And heading toward the return time after christmas, thats dry as well with highs in the upper 50s to low 60s. Food for bay area families drive, heres todays check presentation from san jose. Reporter were here at Second Harvest food bank in the warehouse where a lot of donations come in, the fresh produce, and we have a big check. Rita is here from intel. Oh, wow, a check for more than 144,000 donated by intel. So rita, how did you collect all the money . A lot of our money comes from employee donations, executive support, and were also sponsors for this years Holiday Campaign for Second Harvest. Reporter and why is it so important to donate to the food background . Well, i bank . Well, intel, were problem solvers, and we want to help solve the problem of hunger in the area. Reporter what are some no noes of what people shouldnt put in here . Were really focused on healthy and nutritious food. No candy or soda. Low sodium stews are great to donate, healthy Meat Products like canned tuna, and now we have more focus on fresh produce. Reporter yes, all the these onions they came straight from the central valley. Reporter donated straight from the farm. Wonderful. And theres a way all of you can help. Find out the locations of some of the bares by going to our barrels by going to our website. All right, coming up, High School Students that have a lot to celebrate this holiday. Their ivy league dreams are coming true. The secret of the schools track record of success. And coming up at 10 00, a dog with a new lease on life. After losing his legs, hes back up and running. Theres at 10 00 on kbcw. It feels good to be back. [ splash ] [ horn sounds ] dang ok, i gotta run. Hey, wait, theres something i need to tell you dang. Dang dang dang. Dang. See zero in a whole new way. Get zero down, zero deposit, zero first months payment, and zero due at signing on select volks now with the people first warranty. Theyve gotten some College Christmas has come early for students at a small school in louisiana. Thats right, theyve gotten some College Acceptance letters few would have thought probable. Thats until you meet them. Reporter at landry college prep, the holiday separations started early. [ cheering ] celebrations started early [ cheering ] reporter one student learned hed been accepted to stanford. Another to harvard [ cheering ] reporter then wesleyan, dartmouth and brown. 10 students accepted to ivy leagues in a week. They share their success one student says. Its like a family. The students are not cookie cutter where everybody has to do the same thing at the same time. Reporter its a family under the guidance of michael and tracey landry. They founded the school 12 years ago. When my wife and a started the school, people laughed at us. Reporter the skepticism is because its a no frills school located in an old Fabrication Shop in a low income area near lafayette, louisiana. Tuition costs up to 675 a month. Teachers, but no textbooks. No homework and no specific class schedules. Students from kindergarten to high school. I would find the answer to this. Reporter help tutor and encourage each other to learn. This is the mother of james dennis to works part time at the school to help pay tuition, and she was there when her son was accepted to yale. I was grateful, i was thankful, and i was proud. Reporter why are you crying . Because i never thought this was possible. We have no sports, we dont have homecoming, prom. So for me thats like seeing your child just win the game. That tells me that were changing people. Were changing society. Were giving home. Com. An what a great story. Amazing. You can only hope that model spreads. Absolutely. Teachers and people who care. Parents too. All right join us for night beat at 10 00 and back here at 11 00. Good night. Its every parents worst nightmare. Your child is born with a deformity a face no one wants to see. In poor countries, over 200,000 children a year are condemned to a life of pain and rejection, hoping for the miracle that will change their lives forever. Imagine if your child was born with a terrible deformity a cleft lip or cleft palate a gaping hole in the lip or the roof of their mouth. All it takes is a simple surgery to repair, but what if youre too poor to afford that surgery . Youd be helpless, left to watch your child grow up ridiculed and rejected. Thats the heartbreaking reality for parents and children in the worlds poorest countries. Their only hope is to somehow get this lifechanging surgery for free, and thats exactly whats happening through a remarkable Organization Called operation smile. In the next few moments, i want to show you how a childs life is transformed. Its an experience thats changed my life, and i believe it could change your life, too. This is caritas hospital in venezuela. Today the operation smile volunteer medical team has come from around the world to perform free cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries. Hundreds of parents have brought