Of using the environmentally friendly Lawn Equipment. Thats where the friendliness ended. On the other side of the park, a battle of a. I. Verses used, sheep verses robot put to a vote. This seems like its funny, but its not. Reporter it wasnt serious at all. The competition pitted a flock of sheep from uc davis against an autonomous lawnmower, which acts like an outdoor roomba cutting the grass automatically using a gps sensing tower. What it does, it talks to the gps and it talks to the base station. Then you draw points along the lawn, and it makes a little square and knows where to go. Reporter the advantages it could mow any time day or night will make no noise and will automatically find its way back to the charging station when the battery gets low. The first part looks like a car and a black panther or Something Like that. Reporter it causes a lot less shock to lawns. No cost because youre running out of battery and they do no damage. The lawns are much healthier. Reporter not everyone is sold on the technology. You want to watch me vote . Look at that. Here we go. Vote for the sheep. Sheep mowers kick robots butt. Reporter she has had enough of the robot. The uc davis professor says her sheep has something that trumps hightech. Theyre cute and kind of fun to watch. Lets look. Lets look at the people watching, photographing the sheep. Oh. And then there is the robotic mower. Do you see anyone . Or is it hidden in the corner with no one watching . Reporter the sheep could graze on terrain. Watching them has a calming effect on people. But it was the cute factor that seem to be swaying the public vote. Well, theyre cuter. I mean if it has to be something cute for me in order to win because yeah, i like cute stuff. I just voted for the sheep, organic medal. Reporter the 8yearold voted for the robot because he likes ai better than sheep. But he was wondering if there wasnt some way to combine the two. You could always just get a robot or like a hybrid version of the sheep and we could curl their fur faster. You could have infinite fur machine that will last forever. Reporter this is no popularity contest. Actually it was. So it wasnt a big surprise when the votes were counted and the results were announced. The sheep verses robot competition is 20 to 103 and the sheep won. [ cheering ] by a lot. Reporter so score one for organic matter over metal. The sheep seemed happy about it. But the robot sat quietly on its charging station. Waiting, patiently waiting. So why did atherton pit the sheep against the robot in the first place . The city says it is a way to remind people that the state of california has banned gas powered Lawn Equipment effective july 1 of this year. Tomorrow cbs news bay area presents earth day, a special look at how bay area scientists and everyday people are working together to protect the planet. Our earth day streaming special airs on kpix. Com. The free cbs news app and on pluto tv. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the oregon case involving homeless encampments. The ruling could directly impact the similar battle in San Francisco. San francisco has been banned from clearing encampments since late 2022 when the coalition on homelessness sued. Arguing it is cruel to sweep the encampments. That lawsuit is on hold until the Supreme Court rules on the oregon case. Final decision is expected in july. Coming up tonight at 11 00, we asked a constitutional law professor about the potential ramifications here in the city. And a live look at sfo, mayor breed touched down a few hours ago, returning from her week long trip to china. She announced from beijing the giant pandas are coming to the zoo in San Francisco. All part of chinas deployment of the panda program. It was a trip to stimulate Economic Growth and expand tourism in the city. We held a Business Forum of people who have interest in not only doing business in San Francisco, but investing in San Francisco. Assigned an agreement to bring pandas to San Francisco. We are aggressively moving towards the agreements that would allow us to move in that direction. Reporter the mayor met with a number of chinese airlines, discussing plans to increase the number of flights from the region to San Francisco. Bustling streets downtown san jose this afternoon. People came out for viva calle, where the city closes miles of roads, so people of all ages can bike, skate, walk, or just play in the street. Locals say it is a chance for people to connect with neighbors. It is such a fun way to get out, see parts of our city that we may drive by or we may not drive by, but its our city and we are used to seeing it in a different perspective as you would get to see a lot of people from the different backgrounds and all just hanging out, being friendly. Viva calle was facing the blocking cuts last year. But they adjusted their amount of days to keep the event alive. And in honor of the event, the City Organization planted 35 trees in the area. The volunteer Group Provides free trees, all across the city as part of their cool and green communities initiative. San francisco toilet bowl celebration for the brand new public bathroom drew an international mockery in 2022. The city said they would cost about 1. 7 million to build a small restroom. The price tag ended up being 200,000, and da lin was at the celebration with this story. Reporter people made a stink about it when they first learned it would cost 1. 7 million to build a small bathroom like this one here. The public outcry forced the city to flush that idea down the toilet, so they came up with this. Reporter its a celebration fit for the most infamous toilet. One that almost cost the price of a house. Lets hear it for our not 1. 7 million bathroom. [ cheering ] reporter so event organizers decided to have some fun with it. Everything toilet themed. Even this bed renamed to American Standard at least for the day. We couldnt get toto here. Reporter Leslie Crawford organized a toilet bowl celebration. When everybody laughs at you, youve got to take the power back and laugh at yourself. Reporter San Francisco deserved all the poop it got when the city announced the 1. 7 million price tag. People thought it was the perfect example of government waste. It is proprosperous. I thought it was a little ridiculous myself. Everybody did. Yeah, thats crazy. [ laughter ] reporter a private Company Ended up donating this bathroom. But the cost still added up to 200,000. The city says Union Workers had to connect the plumbing and do a bunch of other stuff to get it ready. I asked the folks who used it how did it go . Im flushed with excitement. It gets a ten out of ten for me. Its great. Its a relief. We can relieve when we have to go. We dont have to go to the stress. Lovely, very clean. It was spacious and clean and wonderful. It is a relief to be able to go finally. Reporter leslie is happy there is no more bathroom jokes about San Francisco at least for a short while. This is a great ending to our story. Reporter i havent covered too many bathroom stories, 22 years in the business. Actually this is the only one. I have to give it a try. My review, strong flush, very functional. Got the business done. The city says the bathroom is about 50square feet and cost 250,000 to build. That is about 4,000 a square foot. Still ahead here at 6 00. Going dark to keep the heat on. How a historic east bay theater is trying to stay afloat as its power bill skyrockets. Later a drug induced trip at the doctors office. Could that help ease anxiety and trauma . I think the impact could be profound in terms of giving people another option. Another legalization of psychedelics in california, but this time for a specific purpose. Speaking of highs, it will be warm again tomorrow. Ill have the forecast coming up in a minute. Now not that highway, but another major highway in the north bay is expected to reopen tomorrow morning all weekend long. Westbound 37 has been shut down between vallejo and to your point. For pavement repairs. They say to expect another shutdown for next weekend. That will be followed up with two more weekend shutdowns, but those will be in the eastbound direction. If you have ever driven highway 24 at night, youve seen the orinda theater lit up. Its been there since 1941. But skyrocketing power costs are forcing the theater to go dark two nights a week. Just to keep the lights on. Derek zimracks love for music blossomed at a young age. But now hes the owner of the orinda theater. One day i said you know, im going to own a movie theater. Reporter but owning the theater has not been about the glitz and glamour. Its been tough to keep them turned on. First it was the pandemic. Now its those bills. And there is actually, you know, around 4,200 to 4,800 and jumped last month to 6,200 plus. Reporter that averages out to 240 a day to pay for the electric and gas. He had one word to describe the shock of seeing the latest pg e bill. Wow. Reporter so derek is trying out several things to help keep his business open. I mean if your income is not going up, you have to reduce your expenses to stay alive. Reporter one of the expenses is to close the theaters on monday and tuesdays. Days where they see less than 30 customers a day. A lot of people dont know, but the studio take anywhere from 60 to 67 of your ticket sales. So to cover 240 is 240. That would be at least 47 moviegoers to cover that bill. Reporter just like many of us are doing at home, derek is turning off the lights to see where he could save a few bucks. You know, we havent been turning on our beautiful marquee because we really want to see what we can do in terms of reducing electricity costs to see what our bill is. So it will be another month before we actually realize, you know, what really works and what doesnt. Reporter the dark marquee though is something residents are having a hard time getting used to. It is kind of sad because it does more than just advertise the theater. Reporter derek has also added a very popular tiki bar to generate more revenue. Hes trying everything he can to keep the doors open and says hes been overwhelmed by the community support. But whether theaters like his stay open, ultimately depends on moviegoers. You have to go to the movies, you have to help at the Concession Stands or whatever you can do if you want, you know, this art to stay. Reporter one thing that could help derek, warming weather. He says his biggest expense is heating, the 750seat theater. Its a gorgeous theater. It is beautiful. Can you imagine trying to heat that thing . No. That is a big theater. A reminder how back in the day they could fill that theater week in and week out before television. I mean were watching movies on phones and televisions. Its a total solar eclipse. Nothing like being in the movie theater. The way it should be seen. Speaking of the sky and the solar eclipse. I dont know why it has gotten a lot for the lyrid meteor shower, the peak today. The killer of a meteor shower is a full moon. You need really dark skies. You can do certain things to try to minimize the effects, but there is not much you could do besides it is not a big deal. Lyrids, maybe 15 an hour. Im not getting up at 3 00 in the morning for 15 meters an hour washed out by the full moon. But you may if you would like after midnight tonight. Appearing in the nighttime sky. Maybe as i say one meteor every what, four minutes . If it is faint, you wont see it because of the full moon. At least the weather is not too bad. Concord is 82 degrees. Oakland at 67 right now. Warmer than what it was yesterday at this time. Numbers have climbed up 3 to 8 degrees. Warmed it up today, and we will get one more warm day with High Pressure off the Central Coast before low pressure will carve a notch out of that. The marine layer will return tomorrow evening. You can see it pull in to the shoreline by about a quarter till 7 00 tomorrow night. So the fog will return. Temperatures will cool. The rain might come down later on in the week. First thing is first tomorrow. Were looking at temperatures in the upper 70s for san jose. A little bit cooler than that, but very pleasant with mid70s for the forecast highs by early tomorrow afternoon, and then the marine layer will come in and temperatures will cool down. Other thing that might come down because of the low heading south by the time we would get to the end of the week, we might have some rain late thursday. In between now and then, tomorrow is still nice, you know, fairly warm. And then tuesday, wednesday, thursday, the numbers will come down, the low clouds have returned to the shoreline, so a cooling trend. But yesterday the chance of showers had spiked up about 60 . Today, the latest models are showing only a 25 chance on friday. What will probably happen is the marine layer will thicken on thursday night with some drizzle out of it with a few light showers, but its not going to amount to too much. So one more warm day tomorrow. Highs near 80 inland. Sharply cooler by tuesday morning. And then that cooling trend will continue on wednesday through friday with below average readings and a chance for light showers that are possible by late thursday and friday. We will turn the corner on. Overnight tonight, the numbers will be in the 50s and a few upper 40s with mostly clear skies. Tomorrow, it looks nice. Still in the 80s for concord and livermore and only at 63 degrees. San francisco, very nice at 66. The extended forecast will look the same except for the numbers. Thats tomorrow thats nice and then we increase clouds on wednesday and thursday and true for the north bay where the numbers will peak tomorrow in the mid70s before cooling in the mid60s. The east bay as well. Near 80 and then the numbers plummet into the 60s. It will still be nice. But not as warm as today. That is weather and now, mr. Sports. Bing. Straight ahead in sports. The big area big league clubs, dealing with new york teams. And the nba playoffs without the golden state warriors. Sounds strange when it comes out of my mouth. Temperatures cooling down as we head into the weekend and stronger onshore. Ah, i stepped off the coast again. The winds are really picking up. Fog spreading farther inland. And in the north bay, youre gonna get soaked. water splashing [narrator] presenting the bay areas only virtual weather studio. Next level weather. As i lift this, you can actually see. [narrator] on kpix and pix . wind blowing its that real. water splashing lets move on to the sevenday now. Norman, bad news. I never graduated from med school. what . But the good news is. Xfinity mobile just got even better now, you can automatically connect to wifi speeds up to a gig on the go. Plus, buy one unlimited line and get one free for a year. I gotta get this deal. Thats like 20 a month per unlimited line. I dont want to miss that. Thats amazing doc. Mobile savings are calling. Visit xfinitymobile. Com to learn more. Doc . A split is going to have to do and no giant or fan feels good about the Series Finale with arizona. Oh, the spirit was willing. He followed the first hit of the fifth with the tworun homer. Giving them a 21 lead. And they replaced jordan hicks, giving up the single as they took the lead back 32. The bottom of the 7th, pinchhitting with the bases loaded. Stepped up, had a chance, but grounded out to third and killed that threat. Boy. It is still a onerun game in the ninth. He stepped up, doubled into left. That brought in a run. Now watch it is bob melvin who was annoyed. They said some bad words and they got ejected. The diamondbacks won the game 53. They split the series. The giants now 1013. They host the new york mets on monday night. They finished up in San Francisco. And they served up, got just enough of it for the 10 guardians league. They were down 20 in the fourth where they made a little noise. They just cleared it to cut the lead in half with their fourth homer. The bottom of the 7th, where they found a hole. One strike away from getting out of the inning, the bases clearing blow. They won it 62 and swept the series. Now managed by the former as who would have an American League best record of 166. They will visit the yankees on monday. The nba playoffs, lets go. Round one openers. The clippers without Kawhi Leonard hosted the dallas mavericks. The game one, clippers in blue and they would get james harden. Leading by as much as 29. And they liked it. They won the game. In the east they hosted miami for the fourth time in five years. Jalen brown. What a baseline move. Miami was going without jimmy butler, so that hurt. Scoring 23, added 10 rebounds, 10 assists. The first resulted in the 11494 win. The master champion, does he ever lose . The second hole of the heritage in south carolina. His chip in for eagle, the master champion here. And when play resumes, the number one player would roll in to save par, maintaining the fiveshot lead before play was called for darkness. The final round will resume tomorrow as he is looking for the fourth win in five events. And the first lpga major. Woodland, texas. The touch at the 10th. Hey, how about as from da . Boom. And in the quarter, they would roll in a birdie to win. This is more than just a major where they would ice the record tieing fifth straight win. Tieing nancy lopez for that. She will get to put that 1. 2 million check on her bank account. The second career major title. I was definitely trying to feel it on the back nine. Just the nerve setting in. It is a major thing. Its everything that i always wanted as a little girl to lift that major eutrophy. As i said, i could finally breathe now and enjoy the moment because i was nervous. I feel sick to my stomach. She doesnt sit around much. Shes playing tennis or ice hockey. I need a step stool just to get up there to interview her. How is your stool Instagram Account going . Just getting legions of follow ors, you dont even know. Coming up in our next half hour, the efforts to legalize psychedelic drugs back again. How they could be used as a form of therapy. California has dna samples from millions of babies on file. The emerging battle over just how that sensitive material is handled. There is no greater low risk, very high consequence issue in the bay area than the next great quake. Lets find out how ready you really are now at 6 30, a new push to get shrooms and other psychedelic drugs legalized in california. This time it looks a lot different. Last year Governor Newsom vetoed a bill that would have decriminalized psychedelics. A scaled back version focused on using those drugs and therapy is making its way through the legislature. Our kenny choi shows us why it could make a big difference for those struggling with Mental Health issues. Reporter nina ulmstead has struggled with anxiety most of her adult life. The first ketamine assisted session proved to be a breakthrough. It gave me a sense of selfforgiveness and understanding that is kind of what i was trying to cultivate through therapy. Reporter years of therapy and taking antianxiety medicine didnt work. I just found psychedelic therapies and like alternative therapies are a really powerful substitute for those kinds of medications. Reporter lindsay is a trained psychedelic assisted therapist. They lead oneonone ketamine journeys. We are finding with the psychedelic approach that people are actually getting into the root cause, being able to process that fully, so they are not requiring them anymore. Reporter cultivating the practice for 20 years. It was only four years ago when they added the assisted therapy using ketamine. It will just deepen their ability to heal and to enrich the therapeutic process. It gave me a more passion for what im doing because it really is feeling like im moving the needle with people in a way that is hard to do. And they are legal in california. The mushrooms and mda known as ecstasy are not. The state senator is trying to change that. It is technically a crime, so the primary goal is to bring it out of the shadows. Reporter the push to decriminalize the psychedelic drugs came to a bright halt with the governor last fall. This revised bill wouldnt make the Recreational Use legal, but rather open the doors for the psychedelic assisted therapist. We want them to be able to be certified beyond the sunlight and not have to worry about getting arrested. And that is really one of our goals here. Reporter the California Coalition for psychedelic safety and education, one of the most vocal critics of the last bill now support this latest version. We felt that the therapeutic regulated access should come first and then we should learn from that before we explore e decriminalizing Recreational Use. I think that impacts could be profound in terms of giving people another option to heal and to have that done in a very regulated safe environment. The combination of working with the ketamine and the traditional therapy kind of fused things for me in a way that was impactful. Reporter for nina, the shift she has experienced is enough proof for her. The bill passed a Major Committee hearing last week. Greg burt with the California Family council is one of the people fighting to shoot it down. A part of what it does, it will make you lose touch with reality. Now sometimes people have good reactions with that and a lot of people who have terrible reactions. They think that they could fly and they dont know where they are and they would have violent reaction to this. If signed into law, the bill would create a licensing board and require the drug facilitators to hold at least one medical license. In other news and happening tomorrow, opening arguments in the criminal trial against the former President Trump set to begin in new york. Its the first ever criminal trial of a former president. Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying Business Records as part of a hush money scheme involving former adult film actress stormy daniels. On friday, an Appeals Court judge denied a request by trumps attorneys to delay the trial and move it out of new york city. Cbs news legal analyst ricky says tomorrow will be a critical first day. There are studies that say 80 of jurors and their minds are made up at the end of opening statements. The former president has said he is willing to take the stand in his own defense. The Oakland Police department is mourning the death of the former officer who died yesterday from injuries he suffered if a crash while on duty in 2018. Officer jordan wingate was a walnut creek native. He joined them as a cadet back in 2013 and awarded rookie of the year in 2018. In august of 2018, officer wingate was responding to a call when his patrol suv crashed with another car. It then hit a parked semi truck near the port of oakland. The injuries forced him into medical retirement in 2020. The Department Says wingate is the 55th Oakland Police officer killed in the line of duty. This week San Francisco marked 118 years since this. The greatest disaster in its history. The 1906 earthquake of april 18. Thousands of people were killed in that quake and the fires that subsequently broke out. One thing we know about big quakes, they need to be not only physically ready, but mentally ready. My close associates, tara fields is a licensed marriage and family therapist. Look at this still as a choice. Dr. Fields has spent a career asking tough questions. Are you in or are you out . Reporter i paid her a visit. Hi. To see if she could answer one. Where is your earthquake preparedness bag . Oh my gosh, you put me down the shame spiral or you just saved my life and my dogs life. Well, come on in. Reporter turns out tara and her husband are kind of prepared. See where all my china is in the armory . We have the earthquake retrofitting kit with the straps, but it hasnt been installed. Reporter how long have you had the kit . A few years. I think i should get partial credit. Reporter dr. Fields does have the basics. Medication. I have cash. I have anything that i would need for 24 hours. Reporter do you know where to turn your gas off if there is a gas leak . Yes, about a year ago i would have my husband go through how do you turn off the gas . You know, all those major things. Reporter for a complete list of what tara should have on hand. Seismologist ross stein. A complete earthquake hit would look like this. Its got a lot of water and a mask and a cold pack, heat packs, lithium batteries, flashlight here. Utility knife. Youll need to be able to cut things. Now that looks appetizing. This brick is food. Im not going to vouch for the quality, but its got to be filling because it will weigh a ton. The most important thing is that it will all fit in the backpack and you throw it in the trunk of your car and it is there when you need it. This is the practical stuff. Coffee. You would think that youre ready and you think you have all these practical steps. But when you are running a lot of stress hormones, it is very hard to think clearly. Reporter so you should be prepared mentally as well. There is one big thing that could help. Just take a breath. It is wonderful for any kind of anxiety. That you would need to breathe in for four and to the nose and you would hold for four. Then you exhale for eight. Reporter oh, guess what we found . Wait a minute, brian hackney, you may have saved the day. I had no idea where it was. Now is the time to get ready. It is my j. Save the day. Still ahead here at 6 00. More evidence of the swiftie effect. How the super stars impact is making its way into welcome back. A 22yearold uc Berkeley Student has won a seat on the city council. The first undergraduate to fill that role. Cecilia vega parra got the votes defeating her opponent, berkeley alum, james chang, beating him by 93 votes. In a statement she says our movement for progress, representation, and leadership has prevailed. District seven includes peoples park, luna parra disagrees on developing that for student housing. Some other uc Berkeley Students are taking their love for taylor swift into the classrooms. Teaching artistry. The class is less about the music though with plenty of singing and focus on the business side from swifts battle to regain control of her master recordings to her worldwide tour. Boosting local economies. Taylor is so strategic in all the things she does. When you think of a brand, thats all they ever want. They want loyal customers. Thats what taylor has. There is a reason why they are studying that to know there is a trend. Another student also says theyve learned the implications shes had on legal issues like how the frenzy to get tickets to her tour led to legislation in the ticket industry. Its not just cal last summer that we introduced you to a stanford student who created the pop singer and each of her albums and, of course, her latest album, the tortured Poets Department came out this past friday. Coming up for the last decade, weve been digging into californias collection of dna samples from all newborn babies in the state. How there is a new push to lift the secrecy surrounding that program. People have a right to choose how their dna is used and how their childrens dna is used. Well cover that when we come back. Traditional drummers put on a show at the 46th annual festival in san joses japan town. Thousands of people came out to celebrate the festivities and those festivities are aimed at preserving japanese traditions here in the bay area. Our own Ryan Yamamoto mcd todays event. It was a Beautiful Day for festivals. Anything outdoors. Yes, it was nice today and nice tomorrow. Great. It will be cool again. You know how we could never catch a sustained warm spell . Something we said were kissing them goodbye. But were not dipping back into the 50s, are we . No, but it will be below average in the mid60s with the light rain coming in. Why is that happening . Why not . That sounds good. You know in spring, there is a battle with winter going out and summer coming in, locked in a battle. The only way to put it. Outside today, summer won because weve got sunny skies and temperatures that were in the low 80s inland. And tomorrow will be warm as well even now in concord, its 82 degrees. 81 at livermore and San Francisco. San jose 78 and santa rosa at 79. But beautiful finish to the weekend. The numbers are warmer than they were last night out of fairfield. 8 degrees warmer in San Francisco. Petaluma, 90 degrees warmer than yesterday. One more warm day out of it. Tomorrow, that is going to change as we would get towards the end of the week. First thing is first what happens overnight is that we dont get too many low clouds along the shoreline. By tomorrow evening, look at the marine layer back in along the shore, down through San Francisco and down through the santa cruz coastline. Thats tomorrow night about this time. Thickening marine layer. Numbers have come down, but not until tomorrow night. For the day time, very pleasant. San jose will hit 78. Santa rosa in the mid70s. But it will cool down fairly quickly because of the plains, santa rosa under the influence of the marine layer as well, back with a vengeance tomorrow fight. Then later, this low pressure will carve a notch out of the High Pressure that is offshore and that means the numbers will come down by friday. A few light showers will come down as well. Actually thursday night, it looks like thursday night, well be getting light rain. Not much and probability is not high. Probably not much more than coastal drizzle on thursday night and friday. So summing it up, another warm day tomorrow. It will be sharply cooler by tuesday morning. Then we will continue to keep the temperatures below average through the end of the week to maybe get wet on friday. Overnight lows tonight, we will be in the 50s for the most part. I want to quickly mentioned if you just tuned in. I dont know why, but theyre talking about the lyrid meteor shower because the lyrid meteor shower will peak tonight. Its not a great night because theres a full moon out as you need dark skies to get the best out of any shower and tonight is not an ideal night. I wont hold you back. I love this stuff. But 3 00 in the morning is the best stuff for this. And it is not going to get me out of bed. But the forecast highs for tomorrow, 88 in fairfield and antioch and 81 at livermore. 80 for san jose. So monday looks very pleasant and it is a cool down, not a big deal for the rest of the week. More low clouds along the shoreline near San Francisco and oakland. For the north bay, ditto. Numbers will be down into the 60s. For the east bay as well after a warm day on monday. We will get from 80 down to the upper 60s by the time we would get to just tuesday and again, maybe a few light showers moving in by the end of the week. All right, thank you, brian. Up next, how they handle materials collected from newborns and why the were in the middle of. Livin large and having a big day in the middle of being the fun uncle in the middle of being a kid again beep beep theres something for everyone in illinois. The middle of everything finally tonight Genetic Testing Companies like 23 and me have to get your permission before they store used or sell your dna, but your State Government does not. If you are related to someone born in california since 1983, a portion of your dna is likely in the newborn genetic biobank. Now after a decade of reporting it, refusing to say who else has access to those samples. Explaining how lawmakers pushing for transparency are facing an uphill battle on the capitol. It is a very cute baby who has a lot of hair. Reporter ronnies dad has memories of seeing his son for the first time. What happened next was an afterthought. Like every baby born in the state, he got a heel prick shortly after birth. The newborn blood filled six spots in a special cart used to test babies for dozens of disorders that if treated early enough could prevent severe disabilities or death. A couple days after taking their seemingly healthy boy home from the hospital. And we got a call. Reporter they learned the heel prick revealed a rare disorder. He was diagnosed. Reporter it is known as the bubble boy disease. The first infection could have killed him. Instead he was rushed to ucsf where he received life saving gene therapy and where he met dr. Puck. I could never have developed a newborn Screening Test for skid if we hadnt had stored dried blood spots. Reporter he created the test that saved his life and the first using distracted dna from the leftover blood spots stored in the massive biobank. You see, doctors only need a few spots for their own life saving test. The rest becomes property of the state. Storing blood spots from every baby born here since 1983 and could now test newborns for more than 80 Rare Disorders thanks to Research Using the blood spots. And the largest stockpile of the blood spots in the country. The handful of states that will store them without asking for parents permission. Were you aware that they were storing your childs dna . No. Do you think you should have been aware . Absolutely. There inlies the concern. Instead of getting permission or letting you know you could opt out of storage or research, they send you home from the hospital with a pamphlet. I feel like that is something that should have been discussed with us in person and they gave us the other pamphlet. And they are identifiable. Public records reveal the blood spots are also used by Law Enforcement as we found four court orders for identified blood spots. And that is before they made genetic genealogy a common Law Enforcement tool. Since then from cold case murders in california to a cold case rape in new jersey, Law Enforcement is using blood spots to solve crime by committing parents before their kids were born. But when we recently asked the Health Department for an updated list of research and Law Enforcement request, the Agency Denied us, saying it is no longer tracking the information like they used to and it is not required to create a record telling us who will have access to our dna. What are they trying to hide . Reporter from the watchdog to the detectives, people will have the right to choose how their dna is used. Reporter for years, they warned the secrecy could harm the biobank. Several states have had to destroy their blood spots after being sued. That is a travesty. We need to find ways that parents can consent without harming research. And that is what some have been trying to do. They passed the bill last year that would give them the option to opt out of storage and research before the state stores their dna. And they never got to vote, why . Money in politics. You see, the state Health Department claimed it would cost millions to give them that right, so it was sent to something where in a budget deficit, they will go to die. Even though and this is important. It wouldnt have cost them a dime because researchers will pay for the program. So now there are two new bills. One prompted by the new york reporting would require the state to publicly disclose who is using their blood spots. The other would require them to get their permission before storing or sharing your dna just like Consumer Companies already have to. But the powerful medical lobby worries too many parents would opt out if given the choice. We wouldnt have existed today. If the treatment was not there. Reporter ronnies dad supports parental consent and the biobank. That is the key here. Reporter thanks to the other stored blood spots, hes not only surviving, but hes thriving. We appreciate you watching. 60 minutes is next. Well see you back here [announcer] our world is constantly changing, and every day Stanford Medicine advances our understanding. Our World Class School of medicine and adult and Childrens Health systems work together, expanding what we know and sharing what we discover, to make breakthroughs both possible and accessible. Stanford medicine, advancing knowledge, improving lives. gentle music this is just good business. Commerce secretary Gina Raimondo is a fastrising star in the democratic party,