Transcripts For KGO ABC7 News 400PM 20161229

Destroyed eight units and displaced 22 people. Yeah. Weve learned some of the fire victims are also theft victims as well. Abc 7 News Reporter katie outies katie utehs is live with more. Reporter its injury on top of injury, a family had things stolen moments after becoming fire victims rather. Now, as the fire marshal investigates the cause, im here to tell you what you can do to help the fire victims. Residents of the condo complex in concord sift through rubble. A fire last week displaced 22 people. Just happy that they made it out alive. My husband had to actually wrap my doubtered and little puppy in a blanket and run through the flames. Yeah, hes my hero. Reporter medics transported Jennifer Ballard eats 5yearold daughter malia to be treated for smoke inhalation and while that happened someone swiped the familys remaining belongings, including a laptop. Not did they take it and got into it and used my account numbers and my visa online to make purchases of their own. Reporter the president of the Homeowners Association says families like jennifers need help. We still have four families that are living in motel rooms. Reporter stacks of clothing and toys have been donated. Now a gofundme page is up and running. They have lost everything and they are trying to get on their feet and they are looking for housing, and so the Gofundme Campaign is really about helping folks get what they need and get their deposits and their rents together and be able to replace Household Goods to get them back on their feet and get them out of the motel rooms first and foremost. As jennifer shows us, her daughters charred doll hanging from her balcony. Shes reminded about what most of the most. Things are things. They can be replaced but loved ones cant, so thats how im trying to keep, you know, the thought. Reporter weve posted information about the gofundme page on our website, abc7news. Com. In concord, katie utehs, abc 7 news. Graphic new cell phone video has emergeled showing former San Francisco 49er ray mcdonald in a tense domestic standoff with the mother of his child. Let me warn you, this is pretty intense. You may find it disturbing. Stop stop stop reporter thats the end of a fourminute video that appears to show mcdonald chasing the mother of his child while she was holding their then 2monthold son. The attorney for mcdonalds ex says this happened last may in santa clara. Mcdonald was arrested and charged with Domestic Violence and false imprisonment, but a grand jury declined to indict mcdonald and the charges were then dropped. The woman is now in a custody battle with mcdonald. Mcdonald was let go by the niners because of his mounting legal problems and hes currently not playing in the nfl. The Alameda County Sheriffs Office now says a murder this summer was a murder for hire involving a woman who is a selfdescribed marijuana entrepreneur. Abc 7 news Melanie Woodrow is outside the office in san leandro with how investigators put it together. Melanie . The investigators focused their attention on the victim in all of this, who they realized had ties to the marijuana Grow Business and ties to a former associate who according to deputies here wanted him out of the picture. This was the scene at blossom way in july. Deputies called the homicide an ambush. Someone shot and killed 38 years aidan kutani as he was driving his red pickup truck. Our investigators on the scene had to put it in park. And soon after Johnny Wright and chariot burks of tennessee were arrested. Like the attack was targeted. Like they knew his lifestyle. Reporter but they werent sure why a couple from tennessee would want to hurt a california man. We noticed a connection between him and a woman need takeisha upshaw. Reporter who also goes by the fame of tikisha ang. In abc 7 she cass described as a cannabis entrepreneur. I think this is a great concept for women to get together. Reporter deputies say she was in business with kutani and they had a falling out. Mr. Kutani became a target for miss upshaw. Wessley brown is facing murder charges. Mr. Brown was instrumental in organizing and getting hit team out here to california. Reporter when deputies arrested upshaw, they say they noupd a sophisticated illegal marijuana grow in her home. What they havent found to this day is the gun used to kill kutani. In san leandro, Melanie Woodrow, abc 7 news. Were looking live over the city from our sutrow camera. People in San Francisco woke up early this morning complaining of a mysterious odor. Pg e received at least 50 calls reporting smell of rotten eggs or sulfur. Nob hill and the tenderloin and mission were affected. The odor dissipated by 7 00 a. M. Officials are working with the city to determine what caused that smell. And were just soaked in sunshine on this wednesday and a nice little warmup occurred earlier today. Look at this. 24hour temperature change. All locations right now running warmer than they were this time yesterday by nine degrees in mountianview and 5 in concord and 6 degrees warmer in san jose. Its a winter beauty out there. Well take a live look from the mt. Tam cam and not a cloud to be seen with baby blue skies and evening forecast and plenty of stars out there. Youll notice were very cool to slow down and by 10 00 were still in the 40s. Not until midnight that we start to see a couple of 30s pop up inland. As we head towards the holiday weekend. A few changes to the forecast. Were seeing increases chances of showers are especially saturday so well talk about what that means for your new years eve and the best chance to see the showers coming up in the full accuWeather Forecast. Drew, thanks very much. Moderate earthquakes and a series of aftershocks hit western nevada. The usgs recorded two magnitude 5. 7 quakes hit hawthorne just after midnight. Thats about 70 miles southeast of lake tahoe. The third quake, a magnitude 5. 5, hit just after 1 00 a. M. People in the central valley, sacramento and lake tahoe area reported shaking and so did one abc 7 news viewer in San Franciscos soma neighborhood. No major damage or injuries are reported. Happening today, a former east bay drug dealer serving a 35year sentence will be released thanks to president obama. 48yearold Darryl Lamar Reed had his sentence commuted by the president in the august. Reed was 20 years old when he was found guilty of distributing crack and cocaine in 1990. He was a kingping in oaklands crack cocaine drug trade. As part of the reagan eras war on drugs reed received a stiff sentence of 35 years in prison. We talked with a former al immediatea county deputy district attorney. He said hes shocked and says reed should stay in prison. A nasty crash in san jose on 280 left two people thursday morning but really the remarkable thing is that they survived at all. It was bad. Abc 7 News Reporter matt keller has more on this wrong way crash. This looks bad, horrific, possibly tragic. Even the chp when officers arrived on the scene said it looks like a possible 1144. That means fatality, but within the crushed metal a voice gave hope to san jose firefighters. Someone inside this red chevy was alive. Well, i can tell what you one of the fire captains told me. They said when they got here and heard the lady in the red car screaming, they took that as a good sign, you know, shes screaming, shes shes you know, shes still alive. Majority of the damage was on the passenger side of the vehicle, so the the drivers compartment was pretty well intact so we had just a little bit of extrication to do on the driver and we were able to get her out of the driver. The driver, identified as a 24yearold livermore woman was taken to the hospital with major but nonlifethreatening injuries. Chp investigators blamed this crash on the driver of this cray volkswagen glove. Officers identified her as a 23yearold who lives in North Hollywood and is originally from cupertino. Officers say she was driving the wrong way, northbound, on southbound 280 around 3 30 in the morning when her car smashed into this red chevy. Then the golf was rear ended by a white bmw and the driver of the bmw wasnt seriously hurt and look at this. This is the volkswagens engine sitting in the middle lane of 280. The fact this happened is actually a good thing. That saved the driver from potentially suffering more serious injuries or even death. When pieces come out like that, it actually helps to disperse the Kinetic Energy so its actually getting rid of that energy hopefully before it gets to the driver of the passenger of the vehicle itself. The chp says the wrongway driver was arrested for felony dui. I san jose, matt keller, abc 7 news. Petaluma police are searching for a man who robbed a Sporting Goods store. The suspect was caught on the Surveillance Video on north mcdowell boulevard. An employee told police the suspect took this beretta air pistol pellet gun and left the store without paying for it. The man ran off when employees confronted him outside the store. Petaluma police want to hear anyone with information about the theft. A lot more to come on the news hat 4 00, a massive geiser flooding a california street this afternoon. What caused this gusher. Also, the search for the wouldbe burglars who slammed into a police car and damaged an east bay business. And flames devour a wellknown landmark in tahoe. Next, the investigation into what happened. 7 on your sides michael februariy is taking your questions on facebook and twitter. Just tag them with the questions ask finney. Hell answer the questions live a little bit later. And lets take you outside for a live look at the san matteo bridge on this wednesday. People trickling back to work in many cases or doing some gift returns. As you can see its moving smoothly in both directions check how the this video from los angeles. Gushing water from a water main break shot over the top of a power line and over a traffic light this. Happened this afternoon in the boil heights neighborhood which is just east of downtown l. A. Some big rig traffic managed to get through, as you see there, and can you see the treats around the area were flooded until city workers managed to shut off that water. An an bay donned uhaul, a highspeed chase and smashed up police car and damaged east bay business were all part of an overnight robbery at a motorcycle and jetski shop. This Afternoon Police are looking for three burglars. Abc 7 News Reporter Amy Hollifield has the story from heyward. It was almost 3 30 this morning when heyward police got the call that an alarm was going off at east bay motorsports that someone had broken in. When they arrived they found three men in a stolen uhaul. The suspects tried to get away and purposefully rammed one of the Police Officers in their vehicle. The officer inside the car was okay. The officers on scene did not draw their weapons. The officers didnt feel that what had happened at that moment justified the need for deadly force. They rammed the vehicle and they ran the police car and continued on. Reporter the chase ended at 12 and willow and heyward. The two passengers ran away but the driver was peacefully taken into custody. They got him when they tried to help the other two escape. They had slowed down to let one passenger leave on foot and the second pats jer and by the time driver tried to do the same the officers were there there and stopped the vehicle. Reporter Hayward Police are looking for the two passengers. The driver who they took into custody is a 20yearold oakland man now in charge being held on a number of charges including assault with a deadly weaponin and evading arrest. California drivers be sure to get a mount for your cell phone before the knew year. Starting january 1st its against the law to have a develop phone in your hand while driving. Texting and calling without a handsfree device is already banned, you know that. Expanded restrictions will now include checking gps or changing songs. You cant hold it in your hand. Cell phones must now be mounted to the Center Console or windshield without obstructing the drivers view and only splitsecond finger taps and swipes are allowed. Lots of tickets are Still Available for the bay areas only bowl game. The foster farms bowl starts in a little more this an hour. Tonight 19th ranked utah battles indiana in the foster farms bowl at levi stadium. The utes finished third in the pac12 division finishing 84. The hoosiers are playing in consecutive bowl games for the third time in school history. Kickoff is at 5 30. Well, its time, believe it or not, to start thinking about recycling your christmas tree. Abc 7 news was at Civic Center Plaza as ecology workers showed how they chop up and repurpose the trees. Folks can put the trees on the curbs during the first two weeks of january. Just remember to take off the stand obviously and all the decorations. Always hard to get all of them off but try to do that. The trees dont go in the green bin because they cant be composted. They are hard to compost because of that acidity, so better thing to do is to put it out at the curb on your regular Collection Day so that we can take it down to the transfer station and chip it. The trees chips are converted into biomass and used to generate electricity. Lake tahoe fire investigators are looking into the cause of a raging fire at a popular ski resort. The fire broke out at homewood mountain resort. Anchor kristen sze is here with dramatic pictures and new information. Kiss ten . Dan and ama, check out this picture provided by the north tahoe Fire Protection district. The blaze really devoured a ski lodge at homewood and forced the resort to turn away holiday skiers today. The fire broke out around 3 00 a. M. In the south lodge, a place where skiers to get food, hot chocolate and rest. It quickly went to two alarms and despite firefighters battling for house, the blaze burned the lodge to the ground at the small west tahoe resort. Its been a difficult building due to the size and the and the volume and loading inside of the structure. And theres no casualties or injuries. The north tahoe Fire Protection district tweeted this picture of firefighters working hard to keep the flames to just the one structure and lafayette resident greg worley sent us the video when his family was turned away from skiing. Homewoods website has a message of thanks for the firefighters saying its trying to get the resort up and running tomorrowed and in this part here, i say that skiers, they should still check the website before they dry out just in case. Dan and ama . Indeed, lets talk about the Weather Forecast as we inch closer to the new year. Thats right. Meteorologist drew tuma is in for spencer and has the forecast. Over the weekend were tracking the chance for rain. timing for the fireworks and all the festive tis coming this weekend. Live doppler 7 showing you a gorgeous day. Clear skies and tons of sunshine and you like today, youre going to love tomorrow. Out there we go. Emoryville camera showing us a beautiful sunset is under way. Were looking westward towards the city of San Francisco and barely a cloud in the sky and tomorrow once again its going to be total sunshine. You step out there right now and its rather comfortable. We have mild air overhead. 61 in hayward and 60 in san jose and 58 in San Francisco and san ramon checking in with a temperature of 60 degrees. We carved out a slice of nice. Clouds to the north and clouds to the south and were going to sit in the sweet spot once again tomorrow and a lot of sunshine on the way for your thursday. That means overnight tonight heres the call. Plenty of stars right around the immediate bay waters. Hitting close to the freezing mark. Concord and antioch dropping to 39 in san jose and 42 in San Francisco overnight and 40 in oakland and a chilly 30 degrees in santa rosa. Well bounce back nicely in the afternoon and tons of sunshine. A real nice looking afternoon. 63 in san jose and about 61 san raffaele and 59 vallejo and Half Moon Bay mild at 63 degrees. Future weather will start to see changes to our sky starting on friday. Friday morning theres a storm system to our south. Well not get any moisture from it and what it will do. It will add cloud cover to our sky on friday. Friday is not as bright of a day as it will be on thursday, but by saturday it does look like we have a chance for a few drops. Future weather picks it up Early Saturday Morning and the clouds will increase first and saturday morning does look dry. The system has limited moisture and it drops in from the north so future weather saturday afternoon. 4 00 in the afternoon and it is indicating that we could see a few drops around here and the early indication does look like this is a pretty weak and quick system. Hour by hour we go and break down new years eve. A lot of cloud cover. By 4 00 its just a slight chance and really limited moisture. The early call. Already by 8 00 and by midnight as we welcome 2017 it does look dry at this time point and temperatures falling in the 30s and 40s. Best way to do the abc 7 news app. Accuweather sevenday forecast tomorrow. Beautiful sunny and mild, partly cloudy on friday and kind of a day of transition. Saturday you notice the temperature drop and theres the chance of a shower and a chilly start to 2017 and monday, tuesday and wednesday, some spots drugling to get out of the 40s. Thanks, drew. Awaiting little chicks. A bald eagle is about to have some babies. Well take you there live. Hand not getting bang for the buck. A penny doesnt buy much but the coin is costing the u. S. Mint a fortune. Lets look at live traffic outside. This is in san rafael on 101. No two american bald eagles in ft. Myers, florida, have become live stream internet stars. Thats because harriet and her partner called m15 are expecting. Thousands have flocked to this south florida eagle cam anxiously awaiting couples eaglets. You can see the mom keeping their eggs warm. Nearing the end of their incubation period and should hatch any day now. Go to abc7news. Com for a link to the live eagle cam. Thats really cool. From cute to really hard to wrap your mind around. Research theers at the Stanford Institute for materials and Energy Sciences have created the worlds tiniest wires, incredibly only three atoms wide. Scientists use a new technique that bonds various tops of atoms in a legglike fashion. Copper and sulfur atoms form a core of semiconducting materials and microscopic diamonds or diamondoids function as an insulating shell. The small wires could lead to more efficient electronics. A penny doesnt buy much, but the coin is still costing the u. S. Mint a fortune. The cost of producing a onecent coin is close to 1. 5 cents costing the u. S. Mint an additional 45 million a year. At the Farmers Market merchants avoid pennies by rounding up but they arent ready to get rid of the coin yet. Still have value, of course. I dont carry them around in my pocket unless someone gives them back to me. They are pretty useless. Kind of round things up, but our money is good money so if i get pennies i dont complain. Congress has looked hat cheaper ways of making the coin with little success. Right now the penny is sync with ap core coting. Coming up on abc 7 news at 4 00, tensions rising again this afternoon between israel and the Obama Administration over a controversial u. N. Vote. Plus we want to just create something where they can do that. Fans in hollywood this afternoon are remembering carrie fsh we are her own star. This comes after her mother Debbie Reynolds was rushed to the hospital just hours ago. And later tricking your kids into eating healthier. A cook book offers your son or a cook book offers your son or daughter oooh. Wowww. There it is. Its the red tag sales event and people are excited to bring in the new year with a new chevrolet. Im a huge chevy fan. How would you feel about starting 2017 in a new chevy . It sounds wonderful. Honestly, i would take any one. Oh heck yeah i want to get one tomorrow. Fantastic turn it on, lets go. During the red tag sales event get two deals in one. Find your tag for an average total value over ninetysix hundred dollars on Chevy Silverado all stars. Hurry, the red tag sales event ends january 3rd. And here are the stories making headlines at 4 30. Police in concord are lock being for a person who stole from a family and lost their home in a fire. Items salvaged were put on a sidewalk after the fire. Someone stole the familys laptop and managed to get into the familys Bank Accounts taking all their money. Theres a gofundme account set up to help them. Go to abc7news. Com for a link. Today, a menorah arrived from the east coast to replace the one stolen from Washington Square park in San Francisco. Abc 7 News Reporter Melanie Woodrow tweeted this picture that you see here of the new menorah as it was put together this afternoon. It will be brought to the park for the final night of hannukah saturday. Coming up at 5 00, abc 7 News Reporter Carolyn Tyler answers a question many san franciscans want to know. Why didnt your muni driver show up for work . What a city audit found out might be behind recent sick calls. Breaking news in beverly hills. Actress Debbie Reynolds has just been rushed to the hospital a day after the death of her daughter, Carrie Fisher. She was reportedly planning her daughters funeral. Her son todd fisher says his mother is, quote, not okay. Dania backes shows us the tributes happening around the world. Reporter as fans of Carrie Fisher continued to process the news of her death. I was stunned. Reporter they cant help but share why they fell in love with her. Show was amazing. First, she was princess leia, and then she was Carrie Fisher, you know. She was a role model for people with messed up lives. Reporter known by the role for her role as play yeah, her influence spread well beyond star wars. I grew up going to that movie. I saw the first one in the theater and makes me sad. I thought she was a really smart woman, a feminist. Said what she was feeling and thinking and fought for Mental Health issue, so a loss all around. Reporter tributes to fisher are happening across the country. In San Francisco, as lucas film headquarters a statue of yoda looks down on the messages left by her fans and in hollywood weve seen fans Walking Around and talking about her and having flowers but no real place to actually go and set them down and pay their respects for her. Fans looking to boy homage to the actress surprised she doesnt have a star on the walk of fame. We wanted to just create something where they can do that. So they gave her. And across the country in new york people dressed in star wars gear, a way to honor the woman who they came to admire both on and off screen. Fishers funeral arrangements are still being finalized and her brother says we can expect her memorial to be a celebration of her life because carrie always liked a good party. Abc 7 News Entertainment reporter don sanchez spoke with fisher when she performed her onewoman show wishful drinking at the berkeley pep tory theater back in 2008. She recalled her rant about growing up with celebrity and growing up with her famous parents stage theater through comedy. You shouldnt care about my story any more than you should know, anybody you know, you shouldnt, no, but i want to make you laugh because otherwise my life wasnt funny it would just be true and thats unacceptable. You can watch the full interview on our website, a abc7news. C abc7news. Com. On sunday a light saber tribute will glow in honor of the beloved princess leia. Donald trump tweeted today doing my best to disregard the many inflammatory president o statements and roadblocks. Thought it was going to be a smooth transition. Not. However, this afternoon when he appeared outside his florida estate donald trump said he just had a nice conversation with president obama and things are going smoothly. He phoned me. We had a very nice conversation. We had a very general conversation, very, very nice. Appreciated that he called. There appears to be some competitiveness between the two. President obama recently said he wouldnt he would have beaten donald trump in the election. The president elect tweeted in response no way. And today a gallup poll found president obama the most admired man in the u. S. For the ninth year in a row. The president had the 22 of support to the president elects 15 . John kerry has called out israel saying that nations Prime Minister is undermining hope for peace with palestinians. Now Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is firing back. Abc 7 News Reporter Kennett Moten has the details reporter fight against expanding israeli settants. No American Administration has done more for israels security than barack obamas. Reporter secretary of state john kerry defended the Obama Administrations move to allow the approval of a United Nations resolution calling israeli settlements in the disputed west bank illegal. Kerry says the settlements nearly 100,000 built since 2009 jeopardized the twostate solution between israel and palestine and condemned palestinian violence and terrorism. If israel goes down the onestate path, it will never have true peace with the rest of the arab world, and can i say that with certainty. Reporter israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called kerrys speech skewed and obsessively focused on settlements. Israelis do not need to be lectured about the importance of peace by foreign leaders. Israels hand has been extended in peace to its neighbors from day one. Reporter netanyahu promised to provide proof to the next president that the u. S. Orchestrated the u. N. Vote. President elect donald trump on twitter, we can not continue to let israel be tweeted with such total disdain and disrespect. Stay strong, israel. January 20th is fast approaching. The Incoming Administration signalled they will take a different path. That is for them to decide. Reporter kerry pointed out the Obama Administration was following a u. S. Policy on israel thats been in place for decades and the supported by the international community. Kenneth moten, abc news, washington. Facebook users in bangkok were falsely alerted to an explosion in the thai city after the social network activated its safety check. It allows users in danger zones to mark them as sav but this time the alert was triggered when a protester threw firecrackers. Facebook says it relied on a trusted third party to confirm the incident, but alert labeling misled many online as people shared false news of the blast. Facebook has recently faced criticism for allowing fake news to proliferate on its site. Security has heightened at shopping malls across the country still on alert following a second night of mayhem and disturbances in at least nine states. Police now confirm social media helped fuel the pan nick some of the incidents. Heres abc 7 News Reporter Elizabeth Hur in new york. More chaos and confusion at shopping malls. Just a day after more than a dozen disturbances were reported in malls across the country. At first i thought it wasnt really real because weve israel alarms go off and stuff. Reporter police in wisconsin had to evacuate the Fox River Mall tuesday night over the report of a person with a gun. Kind of freaking out. Whats going on, you know. Something this big has never happened before. Reporter that person was never found but police say they are still investigating. Meanwhile in pennsylvania. They were running around. They were shouting, yelling, screaming. Reporter police say they had to break up a large fight inside the food court of the philadelphia mills mall. These teenagers, these juveniles, were able to get on social media, specifically snapchat and they were able to all meet up at this location. Reporter in aurora, colorado, on monday, dozens of officers responded to another fight inside a mall fooled court and this involving as many as 500 people. Authorities say they dont know yet if all the incidents are related but do believe social media posts promoting fights at the malls sparked some of these brawls. In response malls across the country are stepping up security and some are even implementing a new policy preventing grids shopping without adults. Elizabeth hur, abc news, new york. All right. Still ahead on abc 7 news at 4 00, star quarterback cam newton helps a 10yearolds Christmas Wish come true. And heartwarming reunion. See some of the best soldier surprises of 2016. Im Michael Finney. Ask fipy is just ahead. Still taking your questions on facebook and twitter. Pose them with the askfinney, and ill answered them here in just a little bit. And im meteorologist drew tuma live from our east bay hills camera. A gorgeous evening under way. Clear skies and we do have chances for rain ahead. If we could be all be as lucky during this particular commute. Noah foreman claimed he achieved an unforgettable feat. While driving through manhattan he hit 240 consecutive green lights. No. Isnt that wild. You cant get three in San Francisco. No. Heres proof from his dashcam. Now this obviously happened overnight. Green lights in the big apple last anywhere from 45 to 120 seconds. Boy, thats lucky. Yeah. Christmas wish came true for a 10yearold battling a severe heart condition. Whats going on, buddy . How you doing . Doing all right . Whats up . You doing good . He seems pretty happen he, right . All he wanted for christmas was to meet Carolina Panthers and former alabama auburn tigers quarterback cam newton. His teacher post that had dream on facebook and as you can see it came true yesterday. Newton reportedly chartered had a flight to atlanta to meet the boy. This was posted to the auburn tigers official social media accounts. The best gifts dont come wrapped in boxes and pretty bows. Sometimes a surprise reunion is all it takes. Take a look at some of the best surprise homecomings of 2016. Welcome home. To see more of the surprise reunions or post your own just go to the abc 7 facebook page. Ham i wednesday. A quiet scan. Tomorrow equally delightful with tons of sunshine and really comfortable temperatures. 61 and 50 in oakland and 59 the high in vallejo. Changes are coming into the weekend. Future weather will jump ahead to saturday morning and well watch a weak system drop in from the north. Saturday morning at 4 00 its estimated we could see a light shower. Its likely out of here by midnight just in time for new years day and another system looks to move in on monday hand give us another chance of some wet weather. The accuweather sevenday forecast shows both of these systems very weak. Dont even rank a one on the storm impact scale and thats how limited the moisture is and what youll notice its going to get cold as we welcome 2017. Temperatures drop well below normal in the 40s and lower 50s. All right. Thank you so much, drew. Well, still ahead on abc 7 news at 4 00, it can be hard to convince your kids to eat Healthy Foods up. Next, the best ways to trick them into actually enjoying whats good for them. 7 on your sides Michael Finney, im still taking your questions on twitter and facebook and just post zero really can be a hero. Ds get zero down, zero deposit, zero due at signing, and zero first months payment on select volkswagen models. Right now at the volkswagen sign then drive event. Heres a question. Is it a good idea to trick your kids into eating Healthy Foods . A well known cookbook author says its practical if youre willing to learn some recipe tips. I would never ever use kale in pancakes, im sorry, but today we did it. This woman took an unusual cooking class called sneaky blends. If you tell someone this is really health he, especially a kid or your husband, sorry, they dont want it. Reporter this is the seventh book in the sneaky blends series for cookbook author missy chase lupine, 1,500 blends for the recipes. Starting cooking for kids and realized adults appreciate blends, too. Mom were eating the blends and purees straight up and found they are feeling better than ever. Reporter todays blend is frozen blueberries with baby kale and a can of black beans which she put into veggie tacos and flourless chocolate cakes. The blends can be used in recipes as an ingredient or consumed as they are like a soup or smoothy. I make a blend a week. Recipes produce enough for three days but can be frozen. Im not a cook by any means. I have absolutely no kitchen experience and to be able to come here and learn thetic nbc that missy utilizes in her recipes was really cool. Reporter jessica castro, abc 7 news. We spoke with at least one dietician who said sneaking healthy ingredients into Popular Foods could be more effective in the long term if parents share the recipes with the kids after they are used to eating the recipes. Lyft has released popular destinations. Taco licious and the caltrain station was the undisputed king of train stops and the Ferry Building and the alamo draft house was named as a trending destination and now we know. Time now for ask finney, 7 on your sides Michael Finney is answering questions sent to him via facebook, email and twitter. What is pest advice you have for saving for college . Has a great question, titus family, because college isnt cheap. You know, that of course. The best advice it is to start now and a good way to do is that is through a 529 savings plan which allows you to grow your College Savings money without paying any taxes on the money youre earning and this is a great thing especially around the holidays, a little late for that and coming up on birthdays because anyone can contribute, parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and rather than get a gift that youll use for 15 minutes and then forget about, ask them to put some money in your 529 plan and maybe that will help them pay for 15 minutes of college or something. Make it 10. Thats the rate. So expensive. Staying with our Financing College theme here, michael. Radha asked whats the best way to waive your Student Loans . My loans are really high and im going nobody a lot of debt. Oh, yeah, youll be in debt for a long time. Thats the american system now. Its hard to get out from under that student debt, but there are a couple of options out there, but they dont happen overnight. Youve got to plan for them, for instance, if you get a government job or one with a Nonprofit Company or agency, then you pay your bills on time for ten years every single month in a row and that means you get half that have money you dont have to pay. Theres also as program for teaching in schools that serve low income families for five years. Once you do that it allows you forgiveness up to,17,500 in student debt. People have to start working on it and right now thats about it. Okay. Caitlin from pleasanton asked im planning on visiting my grandmother in las vegas and wondering if theres a best weekend to do it. Ah, im glad youre asking because what you want to pick is the price, not where you want to go. Right now you picked the time. People are busy with the holidays and its cold and its not really on their radar right now. Actually other than new years eve. Thats on everybodys radar. But a round trip ticket from the bay area will cost you about 120 if you really nail it this time of year, january, even into early february. Its not very crowded. You can get great deals on rooms there as well if youre not going to be staying with grandma. Now, of course, the downside, not exactly lounging next to the pool this time of the year. Thats true. How can people get ahold of you . So glad you asked. If you have a question that we didnt get to, go online and conley tact me at abc7news. Com or call my hotline. Great. Thanks, michael. In todays wellness report, Health Care Spending for u. S. Kids has in the past 20 years has really jumped. Yeah, and if youre out of sorts over the holidays could be family jet lag. Heres jane king. The cost of keeping kids physically and mentally healthy increased 56 , between 1996 and 2013. The Kaiser Family foundation says Health Care Expenditures jumped from nearly 150 billion in 96 to 233 billion in 2013. Routine newborn care in the hospital accounted for the largest share of spending over that time. Next highest attention dev tut hyperactivity disorder or adhd and routine dental care including checkups and braces. When you return from your holiday travels it can take days to return to your regular routine. The New York Times and psychologists call this family jet lag t. Disrupts your normal schedule and family jet lag adds another layer of emotions, both happiness and anxiety. Physicians say good planning and proper sleep can help ensure you have as little disruption to your life as possible and shoppers are starting to actually read the food labels and guess what . Fatfree is out and glutenfree is in. Food purchases are less driven these days by whats written on the front of the box than whats listed as ingredients. 612 of people say the shorter the ingredients list the healthier the product. From the nasdaq, im jane king. Heres to your health. Abc 7 news at 4 00 does continue. Up next otters are on the comeback at an East Bay Lake and not everyone is happy. Little guys are snatching fish right out of fishermens lines. And kristen is here with a look at whats coming up at 5 00. Coming up next, left in the lurch, why a San Francisco bus drivers are frustrated and leaving passengers without a ride and advice from the coach. What raiders jack del rio says is the top priority for quarterback matt mcgloin. And would you prefer to eat food offer an ipad . One bay area here is your primetime lineup for tonight here on abc 7. At 8 00 you can check out the gold bergs followed by speechless and at 9 00 its modern family and at 9 30 check out blackik, at 10 00 watch match game and stay with us here for abc 7 news at 11 00. An animal that was almost driven out of existence in california is making a comeback in some unusual places. Abc 7 news anchor eric thomas takes to us a busy part of vallejo where there have been recent sightings. Cast a fishing line in this lake and you may have competition for the small trout youre trying to hook. You can see them chasing fish, but you can see them rarely and see them like every now and then. In fact, Darius Thomas says he spotted a river otter in the lake moments before we arrived and we saw every other kind of wildlife, swans, squirrels, ducks and cormorants but not the elusive otter. They would just come up for a few seconds and swim off in this cove right here. Fortunately the marinbased river ecology projects is keeping track of sightings around the bay area and the map shows three in lake chabot and more than 1,700 around the bay area. This video is from the projects website. The probably a good sign that the environment is improving. The river otter ecology project agrees scything wetlands and restoration for the growing numbers. The theers who live here obviously dont mind loud noises because the lake is right in the shadow of six flags. Fishermen seem to like having the otters around like this gentleman who normally throws back his catch but this time he made the offering of a free lunch. I just let him go and i guild these so i figure, well, they are just going to go to waste and i can leave them for the theers. Pretty good treatment for a species that was almost wiped out by hunting and pollution in the 1960s before protections were put in place. In vallejo, eric thomas, abc 7 news. And you can report river otter sites where you live. We have the link on the website at abc7news. Com. Thanks for joining us at 4 00. Im ama daetz. Abc 7 news at 5 00 starts right now. Two families ripped apart by violence meet for the first time. Coming up the Court Confrontation as tempers let loose. Explosive new video of a former 49er allegedly beating up his girlfriend and the custody battle that led to its release. A bay area family first devastated by fire and now by thieves. The Ripple Effect after a firefighter tried to do the right thing. And did your bus driver show up for work today . Why so many muney operators are leaving passengers prus traded. Were nearing the end of 2016 and approaching the possibility of showers. Ill have your new years eve forecast coming up. We begin with emotions after a killing on christmas eve. Good evening, im kristen sze. And im dan ashley. A stormy scene in an oakland courtroom as two brothers made their First Court Appearance in the stabbing death of Tyrone Griffin in a heyward target store on christmas eve. Abc 7 News Reporter Laura Anthony is live in oakland with the story. Laura . Well, high, dan, the wife of the victim in this case, Tyrone Griffin jr. Became emotional in court and started screaming at one of the defendants in the courtroom and she had to be removed by the bailiffs and in the meantime the father of the defendants told us theres another side to the story. They were attacked. This man did not want us to show his face, but hes the father of two brothers arrested for the murder of Tyrone Griffin jr. Stabbed to death in a target store on christmas eve. They are portraying them as thugs or something going into the store and its not even like that. You know, they are always home with their family. 22yearold Frankie Archuleta and his