Emails and 95 billion phone calls every month its one thing to say this is an outof control agency, its another thing to see the quantity of what theyre collecting. Ifill those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Charles schwab, proud supporter of the pbs newshour. And the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff gusty winds in Southern California died down today, and that gave firefighters a window of opportunity to bring nine wildfires under better control. The fires started tuesday and burned through more than 9;000 acres in san diego county. The fastmovin
Right now with breaking news. Breaking news now in pittsburgh where another brush fire is burning. We want to show you a live picture at the moment, a little hazy but you can see quite a bit of smoke there in the center of the screen kind of close to the ground. It looks like rather thick gray smoke. A contra costa fire Spokesman Says some bushes caught fire on hawthorn street near harbor street, and thats about a mile and a half from the site of yesterdays grass fire, which burned about four hours before crews could get it out. Now investigators suspect yesterdays fire was caused by people either by accident or deliberately. That fire near the pittsburgh power generating plant threatened electrical lines and burned about 40 acres. Today contra costa fire crews did take extra precautions to make sure that fire did not flareup again. No one was hurt in that fire, and pg e crews said no power lines were damaged. We will be continuing to follow the current fire that is burning in pittsbur
Yet but its much stronger than it was yesterday that is for sure. And low clouds are up there making a pretty good little push inland and covering most of the coast. So we call it fog, sun. It will be cooler. A little breezy for some inland. Probably down about 510 degrees overall for a few which means upper 60s and low 70s. 50s and 60s closer to the water. Here is sal. Steve, happy friday. Here we are. And traffic is getting a little busier now that we are getting into the 6 00 hour. I do want to mention the traffic at the toll plaza has become a little bit more crowded. The drive time is up a little bit. Its about 20 minutes including a 1015 minute wait at the toll plaza. About 20 coming into San Francisco. That is your drive time. There are no major problems on the way out from San Francisco to oakland. This is oakland now at the coliseum. And traffic in both directions looks good. Southbound 880 on the left there from downtown oakland is taking less than fivemies. 580 has been a me
The scene. Behind me you can see their vehicles. Were told some will remain overnight to keep an eye on hot spots. A large column of billowing black smoke is an ominous sight. It could be seens for miles. It was a lot of smoke. When we came, when we drive down the street here there was fire there. A lot of fire. Reporter the first call came in at 3 15. Flames burned near pg e lines in the field surrounding pittsburg power plant. Im scared, im scared because it was continuing right there and now it seems to be spreading. Reporter workers who came to the scene to monitor the situation. This is very unusual for fire to be burning this aggressively in late march. Reporter fire inspector says Drought Conditions fueled this fire. Just over 40 acres. Not large but perhaps a long fire season to come. Its not that hot. We havent had rain for some time. Thank god its not the houses. Reporter people believe the fire was started by humans. All that smoke, it was here you couldnt even see the roads
Neighborhood association here to listen to those Police Officers and firefighters. Now, these Police Officers claim that in as little as two years, there will be about 100 fewer officers than there are on the streets of san jose today. We did confirm the numbers with the police department, which says there are about 900 officers on the streets now. But project that the number will go down. The union says by 2016, there could be as few as 800 officers when you include the officers on disability. The union sun happy with city council, in particular councilman sam lacardo who proposed hiring a couple hundred more officers in the next few years. They call his plan a political move in an election year, but the councilman adds hes confident his plan will help the police force grow. In addition to that big problem, we have retirements escalating that will make the math just not add up. If you want to add 200 Police Officers in that period of time, we dont think thats possible, and we think th