The air quality has been so bad that San Francisco closed a number of services today. The Citys Department of Emergency Management closed down some coronavirus testing sites. The National Park service is shutdown alcatraz, fort point today. We are activating whether these centers for people who need access to weather relief. We will give you the Current Conditions on what to expect this weekend. First we take it to ktvus ann rubin with how people are handling the Health Effects with all of the smoke in the air. People are doing their best to stay indoors. Doctors say they are already seeing the impacts of all of this bad air. Day after day of awful air quality is starting to take its toll. I have had like three migraines this week. Carbon health, which runs care clinics around the bay area has seen an influx in complaints and not just for people with asthma or emphysema. What you miss is that there is a higher risk of things that are sinus related as well. The irritation of the air particles will cause you to have more frequent headaches. There are more serious impacts of the air quality too. At stanford, doctors are seeing increases in everything from cardiac complications to strokes. We have noticed an uptick of upwards of 20 in strokes for er visits. 10 increase in asthma exacerbations. This was after one week of when the fire started. Now it has been several weeks of this. A spare the air alert has been extended through monday marking 28 consecutive days of awful air. I worry about my sensitive groups. I do worry about healthy individuals as well and what kind of longterm, immune impacts this will have on us. Air filters are selling out. Outdoor supply hardware says people are doing what they can to circulate air and seal up their homes. We sold quite a few fans and masks and respirators. It seems almost like most of what we have been seeing is people trying to shelter in place and keeping their houses closed down. That has created one more health issue when Outdoor Activities are offlimits. Your Mental Health with everything shut down and we cant be indoors and we cant go outdoors. Yeah, it is definitely affecting Mental Health. One thing doctors want to point out is that in at 95 or k and 95 masks work best for filtering this kind of air. They say you should definitely try to limit exercise and stay indoors if you can. Good advice. Ann rubin reporting live for us. No word yet on whether the 49ers game on sunday will be played. Head coach Kyle Shanahan mentioned the a quality index has to be below 200 for a game to be played. The air quality index is the number measuring pollution in the air. It is unhealthy for everyone to be outside. We reached out to the nfl to find out if they are considering canceling the game or maybe even moving it to arizona. All they said was that they are monitoring the situation. Lets bring in mark tamayo with more on the unhealthy conditions plaguing the area. It looks like this will be sticking around through the weekend. That is right. There is nothing really that would clear out the smoke instantly. We seem to kind of noticed the changes a couple of days ago. The smoke was in the atmosphere. Over the past 24 hours the smoke layer has dropped off rapidly. We are trying to see what the air quality looks like in person or a firsthand experience. We are in the unhealthy range or the very unhealthy range. Air quality as you have experienced have been changing around not in a good way. Here is the wednesday satellite. This was the day the smoke was in the upper levels. Not impacting the air quality sensors. This was thursday. The smoke layer flattened out closer to the surface. This is today. A lower smoke layer as a result of air quality. They are really picking up on the changing conditions. Here is the live camera toward sfo. Has been a mixture of fog and also all of the smoke moving in. Look at all of the air quality centers. Not only in the bay area but down toward central and Southern California and up in the pacific northwest. Right now we are showing you unhealthy levels in santa rosa, napa, and fairfield. Very unhealthy with the purple showing up. The same could be said closer to redwood city and closer to san jose. Here is the satellite showing you some of the fires. It is showing you some of the smoke plumes have been impacting the bay area. As you heard the spare air alert has been extended. Tomorrow we are expecting unhealthy levels are very unhealthy levels once again in your saturday forecast. It is very difficult to forecast the smoke. Heres one of the forecasted models. It still lingers in your saturday. There may be a little bit of a change for the back half of the weekend as you can see the smoke moving out potentially. We have to say potentially moving out to the east of the bay area. Watching out for that but still i think the smoke will be a part of the forecast all weekend long. Well have more on you forecast coming up in a few minutes. In butte county at least 10 people have been killed in the huge wildfire burning north of orville making it californias deadliest wildfire this season. 16 people are reported missing. The north complex west zone fire has burned nearly 105 square miles and is only 5 contained. This fire has damaged or destroyed at least 2000 homes and buildings and is threatening 4000 more. Cruises a lower winds and cooler temperatures are helping the firefight. Governor gavin newsom offering his condolences to fire victims as he toward. Gavin newsom has been in State Government continues to surprise with what he said. He had a certain level of anger toward climate deniers. If you do not believe in science, i hope you believe in observed evidence. The 7718 fires that california has experienced so far have consumed about 3. 2 million acres. The fires have already taken 20 lives and 6400 structures have been destroyed. Yesterday, the august complex fire in Mendocino County 774 774,000 acres became californias largest wildfire dating back to 1932. Five of the 25 largest fires in the state entire history are raging right now. We are experiencing what so many people predicted decades and decades ago. All of that now is reality. The year is 2020 and by far it will go down as the worst fire season on record for lost acreage and two of the worst months still lie ahead. Right now, the governor says firefighters are in a pitched battle against 28 largescale mega fires in the states. Plus, many smaller fires. We are seeing impacts today that we thought would materialize by mid century. That is a really important point. We are experiencing temperatures, world breaking temperatures in the state of california. Veteran fire scientists such as professor Scott Stephen says last month lightning swarms astonished him. That really is unprecedented. I dont know if we have ever had Something Like that in recorded history. We had lightning in june 2008. That hit the Sierra Nevada in the klamath mountains. Not in the bay area. The we have done a lot in the last few years most scientists believe we have to far better manage visited vegetation as well as making people in communities fire safe. If we do not change there is no way we will get out of this mess. Mother nature is physics, biology, chemistry. She bats last and she thats 1000. The need for personnel is so great now that the governor also signed into law today a controversial bill that would allow former inmate firefighters to qualify for firefighting jobs as released citizens. With the way things are going we will need that. More details on wildfire burning in Mendocino National forest. The august complex fire is a combination of 37 fires sparked by lightning in midaugust. The fire has burned 490,000 acres or more than 760 square miles. Cal fire says the fire is not only threatening power lines but historic and prehistoric sites. The creek fire burning in the Sierra National forest northeast of fresno is 6 contained. That fire started one week ago near the community of shaver lake. It has burned close to 275 square miles and destroyed at least 60 homes. Cal fire says the flames are being fueled by dead trees killed during years of drought. For the latest on the wildfires burning in the west coast visit ktvu. Com. There you will find the latest on the damage , evacuations and how you can help fire victims. With the state Employment Office cracking down on friday at 5 30 why some lawmakers say the agency says the new policies may make it more challenging for people to receive unemployment benefits. More businesses and San Francisco been given the green light to open indoors. How childcare is playing a role in making sure the cities reopening is successful. It is the 19th year since the september 11 terrorist attack. How they gathered to remember victims in the age of the coronavirus. Plus help President Trump and joe biden marked the anniversary. Their developing cleaning plans for the pandemic allowing many to reopen. The childrens counsel worked to connect families with childcare precovid and are now carrying on with the same motion. There are a lot of places that are open and we have an Online Search engine that can help families locate what their options are right now. We have a lead to childrens counsel San Francisco for families looking for child care. San francisco is one of the first counties in the bay area to shut down and has been one of the slowest to reopen. The slowing spread of covid in San Francisco and the moving to a here is allowing the city to fully reopen. Bay area Tech Companies like twitter are coming to pays for those leaving the bay area get to work in another lessexpensive city and remotely. They can expect to see a cost of labor pay cut. They are considering pick up depending on where the employee considers to move. Federal Health Officials are warning cooler weather and more indoor activities could lead to another surge and coronavirus cases this fall. The cdc is issuing a warning about dining out and restaurants. They are recommending people stick to takeout orders. This comes after adults diagnosed with covid19 were more than likely reporting dining in restaurants. Obviously, we saw some links to bars in florida. That behavior would probably have been happening on private residences if it wasnt there. At the same time we do want to see all of those folks operate similar to how the restaurants have done. New york city announced limited Indoor Dining will resume at the end of the month. Bay area whether of course we continue to track the poor air quality levels. It looks at this pattern will continue. We are going back in time showing you wednesday. The key difference we had the strong upperlevel wind out of the north that transported the smoke way up above the had. That is why it is so dark and orange. What has happened is the wind has backed off. We continue to see the smoke fall so a weaker winds today. Smoke is lower and i think that would be the case as we head into at least you are saturday. Heres the live camera looking out toward sfo this afternoon heading into your friday evening. Here is the satellite once again showing you the milky skies over Northern California and the bay area. Not much in the way of real cloud cover. The smoke is impacting the skies today. Is impacting the temperatures. Belayer has thinned out a little bit allowing temperatures to warm up. Today one of the warmer days since the last heat wave last weekend. Right now it is 91 in fairfield. Half moon bay in the upper 50s. Heres what is happening. The area of highpressure sticks around as we head into the weekend. Smoky skies will be mild to warm but there is a system offshore. I wish it would bring us rainfall but it could bring some rainfall along the northern coast of california and into the pacific northwest. That would be a welcome change. For us we are tracking a few clouds in the westerner breeze. A could help push out the smoke into next week. There is a chance we could have improving air quality as early as sunday. Especially into next week by monday and into tuesday. Here is what we plan for tomorrow. Temperatures in the low 60s and 80s. You probably have to try to remain inside because the a quality sensors are forecasted to be in the red and purple in your saturday forecast. More hayes into your sunday. We will keep an eye and your fingers crossed into next week. Maybe the weather pattern can push out and push out. Between now and then be extra careful outside. No doubt. Yosemite National Park is open but because of bad air quality some people are canceling visits. This week the a quality ranged from unhealthy to hazardous because a wildfire smoke. Professional guides told the chronicle that they have canceled tours and one company cut a third of the adventure towards. I couldnt believe it was happening in broad daylight in the middle of st. James park. A man caught sexually assaulting a woman in a south bay park. After the break we hear from the witness and why Police Believe there may be more victims. In just a few months, weve learned a lot more about the covid19 virus. Its real. And its dangerous. So, on behalf of all of us working on the front lines, please take it seriously. And while we dont yet have a cure or a vaccine, we do know how to keep you and your loved ones safe. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Stay six feet apart. Do your best to stay out of crowded spaces. And get a flu shot, its even more important this year. We can do this. If we do it together. San jose Police Arrested a man allegedly assaulting a woman in a park. Now they believe he assaulted other women as well. This report may be disturbing for some of our viewers. Have you on video. Heavy on face. That is called Sexual Assault. That is what you are doing. No i am not. Still pictures showing alleged Sexual Assault taking place in the middle of downtown san jose. My first reaction i couldnt believe it was happening in broad daylight in the middle of st. James park. Roger, the man who recorded the video wednesday says the suspect got off of the victim and began chasing him. He then called San Jose Police who arrived minutes later. The suspect denies wrongdoing and refuses to come out of a public restroom in st. James park. Officers ultimately used tasers to make the arrest. The 41yearold is in the center clammy Santa Clara County jail. Investigators believe there may be other victims. The downtown area is very crowded. There are a lot of people there. Our hope is that there are no additional victims. If this post helps to bring in witnesses or other people who have been victimized we want to address those issues. Police say and on housed san jose resident has a criminal history but they will not elaborate. His victim also and on housed san jose resident was reluctant to come forward and talk to investigators about the crime. They may feel like they dont want to see them get in trouble or they made a bad choice but they may be very fearful about the person could do. He is being held without bail and have a superior Court Appearance monday. Maybe next time they will take action after seeing this. It helps somebody. A San Mateo Police officer has been cleared of wrongdoing in the nonfatal shooting of two robbery suspects despite concerns from the district attorneys office. Juan ramirez shot two women following a brief chase from the Shopping Center of september last year. Ramirez approached on foot. The suspect drove the car toward the officer and he fired 15 shots wounding both suspects. Officer ramirez should have stayed behind available cover and issued commands to the suspects but it could not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the shooting constituted a violation of the law. Coming up, the u. S. Budget deficit reaches record levels. How much money the government has spent in the past 11 months . Still ahead, the edd is addressing fraud concerns. How that could affect the thousands of californians struggling to receive unemployment benefits. The nation remembers 9 11 19 years later. I am Caroline Shively. I will have that story coming up. Experience the ultimate sports hub. Where you can find games, news and highlights. All in one place, right on your tv. The xfinity sports zone. Use your voice to search every stat, standing and score. Follow the teams you love. And, even get notifications with breaking news alerts and more. So youll never miss an update. With the xfinity sports zone everybody wins. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Click, call or visit a store for details. Propit provides property tax mostfairnessble. For disabled homeowners like cynde, stuck living with a broken elevator. Nineteen helps wildfire victims, like ellie, one of 24,000 whove lost their homes to fire. And seniors like pam who need to move closer to family or medical care, without a tax penalty. Prop 19 limits taxes on our most vulnerable. Yes on 19. The state Unemployment Development Department is taking steps to root out front. They say they are not doing enough to help those out of work because of the pandemic. Henry lee joins us with more on this. There is enough redtape with the edd as it is. The agency wants to root out those who are gaining in the system even as it tries to help those who are not. They are cracking down on scam artists. The agency is no longer automatically backdating new claims. They are also limiting multiple claims from the same address. That will block an awful lot of legitimate people from receiving legitimate letters. State Assemblyman Jim Patterson says he is concerned about unintended consequences created by an agency already criticized for delays in redtape. An effort to make it much more easier on the edd and its bureaucracy and making it much more difficult for californias unemployed. Critics say the edd is relying on outdated technology. Use older technologies. Hackers will always find a way to go through the technology. How it is an unemployed Web Developer who has been navigating the edd web tree. Edd has not change the system for 2030 years. Having an old system dealing with todays province makes for a very busy agency. It should not have a major impact. The former director of the edd says it is a must. Theyd differentiate between claimants and con artists. There is a balance in the system between a state of processing and the fraud opening up the front. It is no surprise the edd is a juicy target for thieves. It has paid more than 81 million in benefits since march. And particularly it is heightened during the pandemic just because of the money. Last month of the San Mateo Sheriffs Office implicated the inmates including in this game. It is unusual and a sense at which you have now they are more sophisticated. Sophisticated enough for inmates to crack the edd system when real folks in need cant. Reporting live, henry lee, ktvu fox 2 news. So many people are struggling with that system. Henry, thank you. An estimated 9 million americans have still not claimed their pandemic stimulus checks. The chronicle reports the irs announced it will be mailing out letters to people who have not gone online to see whether they are eligible for one. Yesterday the senate failed to pass a second stimulus package. Democrats voted against the bill because it didnt offer another round of checks for individuals or money for state and local governments. U. S. Budget deficits have hit an alltime high. The Treasury Department says the deficit has climbed to 3 trillion for the first 11 months of this budget year. The coronavirus fueled recession has cost millions their jobs which has push the government into massive spending to try and cushion the impact of so Many Americans out of work. On wall street it was a mixed day filled with sharp and downswings. The dow rose 131 point. The nasdaq fell 66 points. The s p finished up to points. On this 19th anniversary of the september 11 terror attacks San Francisco firefighters held ceremonies to honor the firefighters who died trying to save lives at the World Trade Center. Firefighters new to the department to turns reading the names of the First Responders lost their lives. The ceremonies took place at every fire station across the city at 6 59 to march the moment the south tower collapsed in new york city. This year the ceremonies were moved indoors because of the poor air quality. In the past 18 years and has been outdoors with a larger crowd. It is impactful. Again, this was a little bit more like a family. We brought it in. We have our members and we were able to reflect on this anniversary. We will not forget and that is the message we wanted to deliver. 412 emergency workers were killed on 911. Hundreds more including some San Francisco firefighters lost their lives from illness stemming from their time working at the World Trade Center after the attacks. There were a number of ceremonies across the country to remember the nearly 3000 People Killed on 9 11. As Caroline Shively tells us, President Trump, joe biden and running mates all pause to remember those who lost their lives. On this 19th anniversary of 9 11 President Trump honored the passengers and crew of flight 93. 40 tiring patriots rose up, took charge and made their stand and turned the tide. They change the course of history forever. Flight 93 crashed in shanksville, pennsylvania. It is thought that before the crew and passengers fought them down, the hijackers had been headed to the u. S. Capital. Congress members and staff honored the sacrifice and the nearly 3000 people who died in pennsylvania, new york and the pentagon with a moment of silence. A few miles away in virginia, this ceremony remember those who died when another plane crashed into the pentagon. Kamala harris spoke at this event for the Fairfax County fire and rescue. If we learned anything watching the heroes of 9 11, it is that the strength of the human spirit knows no bounds. Vice president mike pence spoke to survivors and their families in new york. They recited the bibles 23rd psalm. Joe biden attended the same ceremony where he and pentz shared a covid aware elbow bump. Later in the day, biden visited the shanksville site as the president did. This is a country that never gives up. That elbow bump is the closest any of these candidates have gotten to each other in quite a while in a row moment on a rare date of unity. It just gets better day by day. That is it. That is all i am trying to do. I knew coming in it was not going to be easy. The 49ers have a new defensive weapon. Later tonight joe fonzi sits down with ricky defensive tackle kim law ahead of sundays season opener. Kids still in need of School Supplies amid the coronavirus pandemic. How one east Bay Organization that that covid stop them from helping 1000 students. Also ahead by researchers at ucla believe the coronavirus may be infecting people in california much earlier than originally thought. Back to School Backpack giveaway was held today in the east bay city of richmond. Volunteers helping to distribute 1000 backpacks filled with School Supplies to students in a. The event was organized by the group bay area rescue mission. They have been holding the backpack giveaway for two decades and while this you did post some added challenges with the pandemic organizers say they were not going to let that stop them. Even in the midst of everything we are dealing with we still know that our children need to have School Supplies in order to be able to engage well for the school year. The event was cosponsored by chevron. Every backpack was stuffed with School Supplies like notebooks, pencils and erasers. Volunteers were masks and made sure everyone followed social distancing guidelines. The red cross and the Golden State Warriors teaming up for the drive city blood drive. Today was the fourth of five blood drives being held at chase center in San Francisco. The red cross is making a plea for donors of different ethnicities to donate. In some cases patients have a specific need to be matched with blood from someone with the same ethnic makeup. Struggling during covid the diverse blood donor base went down by about 50 . We are definitely in need of diverse blood. The next blood drive will be held next saturday, september 19. To make an appointment go to red cross blood. Org. The first transcontinental flight through the u. S. Postal service was commemorated today in the bay area. That was 100 years ago. A plane carrying sacks of mail from new york to the west coast with a series of stops across the country. The coasttocoast trip was reenacted this week and it happened this morning at buchanan field in concorde. 100 years ago a plane left long island with mail and for the first time they made it a crosscountry trip. They ended appear in concorde, california and eventually it will land at the San Francisco marina which is the final destination in 1920. Pretty cool. The final leg of this historic reenactment was grounded by the Poor Visibility due to the smoke in the air. That did not stop the mail. Instead there was a mail back exchange in concorde. Bart is asking for input on what to do with their old bart trade cars. They are swapping out old train cars for new up graded once. In january you can submit proposals on how to use some of those decommission cars. Most of the old cars will be recycled and some will be sold. Bart officials said they look forward to hearing proposals from all of the creative people here in the bay area about what to do next. The statues of confederate leaders have been torn down across the country. How one sculptor wants to replace the statues were also supporting black artists. The 49ers are getting ready for sundays kickoff and it would be a season unlike any other. After the break how the team is getting fans excited even though they cant go to the game. A the 49ers will host the stadium sunday. They are launching several new initiatives for a season like none other. There will be no fans because of the pandemic but you can buy a 149 cut out for the stands with proceeds going to the teams charity, the 49ers foundation. It benefits youth sports. They also plan to address social injustice and honor victims of systematic racism. Today we spoke to chief marketing officer alex chang explained the 49ers new slogan faithful to the bay. Places faithful and unfaithful now which is a campaign for several seasons. Really the emphasis was to come up with a new unifying rallying cry for the faithful and to honor the commitment to our team and our commitment to them and our shared commitment to the community. The team is offering more ways for fans to connect with the Team Including a live streamed pre game show with special guests plus virtual meet ups throughout the season where fans can chat with players, coaches and other fans. After the 49ers super bowl appearance earlier this year, fans are expecting the team will go far again. The 49ers are really hoping to take things to the next level with the help of their first round draft pick. Joe fonzi sat down with the ricky and has more on the upcoming season. The fact that the 49ers were number one mac last year in passing defense starts right up front. The defensive line is dominated by firstround draft picks and this offseason they substituted one for another. The trade of the buckner to the colts opened the door for another firstround pick. With no rookie minicamps or exhibition games it is up to cannot to adjust to the pro game in a hurry. I am making improvements. That is the main thing. Just get better day by day. That is it. That is all i am trying to do. I knew coming in it was not going to be easy. The 49ers have him listed at six foot five inches 311 pounds. That is not gigantic by nfl standards. Still, growing up he got used to being the biggest guy in the room. I am coming and i i was the biggest guy but just because i am big that doesnt really mean anything. Everybody is strong. Everybody is big. It is about technique for me. His defensive coordinator would agree. We always talk about the difference between the players as always. It is minuscule. It is the intangibles that make the difference. The study habits and understanding what teams are doing. He does not have to look far to find someone in the same place last year. For home things who worked out pretty well. He has also learning from the guys he is practicing against. The other day he wore me out. I am used to playing volleyball in college. Everybody is strong here. He is a part of may be the Deepest Position Group on the team but he could be the second ricky in this many years to have a lot to say about the ultimate success of the 49er defense. It is all about sunday. The 49ers play that day. Nfl coverage starts with a doubleheader here. At 10 am it is the Seattle Seahawks and Atlanta Falcons and then at one it is the home arizona cardinals. S as they the racing experiences returning to the sonoma raceway. The raceseries or nhra this year. The racing experiences running the racing school. It is available for anyone looking for a real racecar experience. You will not be driving cars like these. They use crossbows which have 300 horsepower ansi 200 people, the trainer and the student. The weekend is just about here. Unfortunately it looks like this weather pattern will be here through saturday. By sunday we could see a few changes other. Still, the smoke could be a part of the weekend forecast. Taking a look at the highs as the smoke layer is standing out in the upper atmosphere. It is allowing temperatures to warm up. One of the warmer temperatures of the week. Back from 80s and 90s to report fort fairfield. 93 degrees. Here is the live camera looking out toward sfo. We have a mixture of fog and a lot of smoke settling in. The last 24 hours a lot of unhealthy reports to show you for santa rosa, napa, fairfield and vacaville. A very unhealthy in San Francisco and oakland. Unhealthy levels for livermore and also for san jose. As you can see still some very unhealthy levels currently closer to redwood city. The numbers out there in the air qualities unhealthy a bit warmer as we showed you. Current numbers we have 84 in concorde. San jose 75. San francisco 67. The fog is doing its thing closer to Half Moon Bay in the upper 50s. Here is the satellite throughout the day. Still has the milky sky texture with the cloud cover not really cloud just some smoke drifting overhead. Overnight lows once again we start out your saturday morning. Some fault and some hayes and smoke. I think we will have some low visibilitys first thing tomorrow morning. Eventually this guy might actually help us out into next week. For a good portion this weekend especially saturday the area of High Pressure is sticking around. With that it will be miles to warm. Into next week the system approaches the coastline and probably no rainfall for us but maybe some rainfall along the north coast of california and up in the pacific northwest. That would be a welcome change. We are watching out for that to the north. This could usher in more of a refreshing breeze to help push the smoke out of the region. This forecast model is picking up on the rain chances into next week especially up along the california oregon border. Especially up in the pacific northwest. Highs for tomorrow 60s 70s and 80s. It would be a fairly warm afternoon. Unfortunately the unhealthy air will continue to be a part of the forecast into your saturday. Possibly into sunday and then into next week we could see possibly some improving conditions. No major heat at all. Temperatures in the mid80s around the bay. Mid70s and the coast and mainly in the 60s. Why we dont have that rainy the bay area at least it is nice to talk about the possibility to the north of that could be a nice change. We needed here. We really do. I cannot believe it has been so long. 20 days of this air. It is crazy. Thank you. We have been asking viewers to send us some signs of support for firefighters and First Responders to help think them. We have been getting a lot of signs of support. The castillo family sent us this photo of this may be sending his thanks. He wants to think First Responders especially his dad tom. We want to keep the think is coming. You can take a photo of your sign and upload it to help us honor First Responders all month long. You can do that by scanning the qr code that is right here on your screen or you can go to ktvu. Com to upload your photo. Confederate statues came toppling down after protests against Racial Injustice. I am Ashley Strohmeyer with some with what some sculptors will help with hope replace the statue straightahead. D throughe downs. My name may be on this building, but this place belongs to all of us. Virtual events are being released. The festival is scheduled for october 2 through the fourth. It will replace the and person concert in San Franciscos Golden Gate Park west was canceled due to the pandemic. The online festival is full of free music and concerts. Performers this years is gearing up to be like no other. A consumer watchdog accuses amazon of preying on customers during the pandemic. Research from the Nonprofit GroupPublic Citizen says amazon marked up prices on essential items like facemasks Hand Sanitizer and toilet paper. They say the company marked up prices by 76 up to 1000 . Prices for products like flour and disinfectant spray were also increased by thirdparty sellers. Amazon said they suspended more than 4000 sellers for price gouging but Public Citizens say amazon is not a victim of price gouging on the marketplace but rather a perpetrator. A ucla study finds doctors may have been treating covid19 patients weeks before anyone knew the virus arrived in the u. S. And analysis of medical records says doctors at ucla may have treated dozens of covid19 patients starting in late december. Doctors reported a significant spike in patients with respiratory problems but there is no way to determine if those patients had the virus. The First Official coronavirus case is recognized by the cdc in midjanuary. More political changes coming to twitter. The social Media Company wants to help protect voters from false claims and it will start flagging or remitting content it considers to be misleading. That includes tweets discussing the possibility of a rigged election, voter fraud and more. They will also try and prevent people from claiming victory before all of the votes are tallied. Outrage against Police Brutality brought renewed attention to the issue of Confederate Monument from alabama to virginia starches that stood for years came toppling down. Ashley explains what some activists hope to see replaced his monuments. Protests against Racial Injustice reignited the debate over confederate symbols. After being the subject of controversy for decades, monuments and other public statues across the country room and moved. Now, one big question looms. Who and what should take their place . Many sculptors like dana king Hope Communities will honor often forgotten black leaders by also supporting black artists. So much of the work that has been created on our behalf has been done by white sculptors. That is a problem. Kink is working to improve this representation by memorializing figures like black Panther Party cofounder huey newton. She says she does not want her work placed on the empty areas that once propped up symbols of oppression. They are poison. I think they should all be torn down after a time. In the meantime we should sit around them and we should talk. A story and say honoring black lives with sculptures is only a first step in the nations reckoning with racism. It has to happen. It has to happen in sync with efforts to broaden black representation in other aspects and not simply statues and monuments but also making sure there are black elected officials. Nationwide about the Confederate Monuments have been removed since 2015. Nearly 800 still stand. From bad to worse today the poor air quality around the bay area intensified into the very unhealthy range forcing the cancellation of Outdoor Services and an increased demand for air purifiers. This is the worst that i have ever seen. It was burned out in the 91 Oakland Hills fire. I grew up in fire country in the foothills and i have never seen it like this. Gray skies blanketing the bay area all across the bay yet again. The difference this time is that what we are seeing the equality across our region is the worst it has been all week. Good evening. I am cristina rendon. Thank you for joining us. As most people are well aware the unhealthy conditions are caused by smoke from the states historic wildfires. Take a look outside. The smoky hazy skies stretched the length of the entire bay area. Is is a live picture from san jose where you can hardly make out anything in the background. The scene is no different at San Francisco international airport. The smoke lingers over the control tower although no flights were impacted. Even here in oakland this is a live look of the estuary. It is hazy making it impossible to see across the bay to San Francisco which is normally clearly visible on a regular day. Air quality sensors across the bay area showed todays air is indeed worse than any other day this week. Take a look at this time lapse. It shows the unhealthy red areas make way for purple which is very unhealthy. The purple means an air quality index of more than 201200. Today marks the 22nd consecutive spare the air day and it has been extended through monday. We doubled the previous record