Good morning, everyone. Im Carolyn Tyler. Thanks for joining us on this sunday, december 10. Lets start with a quick look at the weather with our meteorologist lisa argen. Hey there, carolyn. Good morning, everyone. Once again under a big dome of High Pressure keeping our weather pattern pretty much unchanged. A spare the air alert today with poor air quality in the north bay, the coast and central bay, but we do have some breezy, offshore central winds that have temperatures to run the gamut to 64. 50 in oakland. Youve come up quite a bit. Speaking of the east bay, emeryville, 34 in santa rosa with low 40s over the east bay hills. From our peak camera, you notice a little bit hazy out there. Temperatures will climb into the 40s and 50s. By noontime, were in the 60s. 4 00 this afternoon, upper 60s once again and well talk about the extended outlook in a few minutes. Carolyn . 3,000 city workers who walked off the job in oakland last week will continue their strike tomorrow, but there is a positive Development Last night. The union and the city agreed on a mediator. They plan to meet tomorrow. Joining us now to talk more about that is oakland mayor libby schaaf, and so, welcome to you, mayor. Thank you. Where do we go from here. Youve got the mediator but the union says it will still keep striking. We certainly hope to get our workers back to work because that is how they earn their paychecks. But more importantly, its how some of our most vulnerable families are served. Oaklanders need their potholes filled. They need to rely on daycare at our Head Start Centers and afterschool care at our rec centers. And thousands of people who rely on our libraries each and every day. We want our workers back at work, and we want to settle our differences because we just deeply respect our workers and really want to continue serving the public. But you have this impasse, and some of it is about working conditions and some of it is, of course, about money. Its a twoyear contract, is that correct . That is correct. The first year everything is o okay, a 4 increase. Then you get to the second year. Thats correct, and what we have on the table right now for all siu workers is a guaranteed 1 raise, but it could be a 2 raise if we meet certain revenuv pro projections. But for some of our lower paid workers, we have a 10 raise for them. Our sewer workers, our custodians, our dispatch, our Fire Prevention and building inspectors, we have an 8 to 9 raise on the table for them. And we also have premium pay for the workers that have to go and clean up the homeless encampments. We recognize that that is hard work. In addition to that, we have agreed to 75 different work condition improvements and procedures and things like uniform pay, so we made a great deal of progress over these seven months. The primary issue remaining is the basic wage increase. That 1 that youre offering the 1 to 2 , the union would like to see that the sicu would like to see that at 4 . Sdp they say every time they get to this point, there is the sick rigmaroll from the city, we dont have the money. Well, we dont have the money. Lee is announcing budget cuts for the city of San Francisco. We received official notification from calpers that over the next seven years, our pension is going to go up 47 . We already have an unfunded liability of 2. 8 billion. These are real financial facts. And we cannot afford its not good for the workers or the residents for us to give raises that will result in us having to cut services and lay off workers. That happened to us in 2010. We eliminated one quarter of the work force. And what happens to the remaining workers is that their workload becomes just unbearable. And thats one of the issues in dispute under this contrac. So you come to this impasse. Somethings got to give. Well, the state law has a process, and thats what were following right now. We did request mediation and were very pleased that sciu agreed to state mediation. But this is nonbinding. It is nonbinding. The next step, if we dont reach an agreement, is that sciu can invoke back finding. Thats a longer process. It can take five to eight months but it involves outside experts that do the financial analysis. At the end of that, again, a nonbinding recommendation gets made to the parties. The city can either choose to accept that or it can impose a oneyear contract as we get back to the bargaining table. So this has been eight months, i believe, the head of the union was quoted as saying, eight months of bad bargaining or bargaining in bad faith. Why so long to get to this point . Well, rob is brand new to the negotiations, so im sorry that he hasnt been involved for most of those seven months that actually have been very congenial and productive. 75 agreements. And again, the most recent offer does put half a Million Dollars on the table to convert some of those temporary parttime workers to permanent. As well as start to give the sciu a place at the table around how were dealing with illegal dumping. Thats another issue theyve brought up. But we cannot afford to make irresponsible decisions. We cant spend money that we dont have. Its not fair to the workers and its not fair to the residents. Talk a little bit quickly about the impact its having on your city garbage start to go pile up, all those offices closed. Most garbage is picked up by waste management, which is an outside contractor, so you should not see a big impact certainly to your own garbage service. We do have oncall contracts to address emergencies with regard to sewers and drainage, street lights, emergency tree limbs falling down. Anything like that, we do have the ability to continue to address those emergencies. But what pains me the most is the 400 families that rely on our Headstart Centers every day for their youngest children. Again, hundreds of families that rely on rec centers. Our frail seniors. Now, we have set up an alternative location to at least continue to provide meal service to 250 frail seniors. But the Senior Centers that often are elder care for families are closed down. Those are the impacts that pain me the most. Madam mayor, when you talk about not having the money, some of the Union Workers also look at the fact that oakland is in the middle of a building boom. We read about how oakland is growing. So if youre in the middle of this building boom, how do you deal with these workers with huge cost of living increases as well . I just want to be clear that in our last contract we gave our workers an 8 raise. Were now offering them a 5 to 6 raise that actually exceeds it actually exceeds the cost of living increase even here in the expensive bay area. And i wish we could offer them more. Im not in any way saying they dont deserve it, they do. But our revenues are prepared by Union Workers, by local 21 workers. The financials are the financials. And if you look at our actual revenues, they have not been growing at a pace that can outpace our rising costs in health care and pension benefits. And so we are certainly hopeful that over time all the cranes in the air will result in much higher revenues for the city, but that has not happened yet. Well, we wish you and the union good luck tomorrow with the mediation. Hope it goes well and that the impasse is broken. We will hear from both sides tomorrow. Thank you for joining us this morning. Great. Thank you for having me. Have a good sunday. Thank you. Moving on to other news this morning, a decadesold cold case involving a north bay kidnapping is one step closer to being solved. A suspect in that case was flown into San Francisco early this morning in a story youll see only on abc 7 news. The suspect is accused of kidnapping a nineyearold hillsborough girl back in 1995 and then hiding from authorities for 22 years. Abc 7 News ReporterLonnie Rivera has the details. Reporter back in december 1995, nineyearold Christine Chu was kidnapped outside her south Hillsborough School as she walked to her home across the street. The kidnappers demanded a ransom from her family and held her captive for nine hours. They gave up and released her when they learned her parents were away in taiwan. Fast forward 20 years later. Detectives arrested one of three people suspected in the kidnapping in Southern California. That suspect, kevin lin, brought back to the bay area. Hillsborough police took him into custody in l. A. You can see on his inmate locater page, hes being held on a 5 million bail. Lonnie rivera, abc 7 news. What happened to kenny lin . He recently applied for a passport in his name. They were able to match his photo with a wanted picture that they had from back in 1995. They then notified authorities in the bay area and asked if they were still looking for him. Officials confirmed they were, and federal officials placed a hold on him. Developing news in Southern California. Firefighters are working tirelessly trying to get the upper hand on six major wildfires. Here is a live look right now well, we wanted to give you a live look. Well tell you about the thomas fire. Its burning in ventura and Santa Barbara counties. It has grown again overnight to 173,000 acres. That fire remains 15 contained. Abc News ReporterMarci Gonzalez has a look now. Reporter this morning firefighters in Southern California working tirelessly to tackle the flames and keep a hold on the progress made over the past couple days. Firefighters are taking advantages of breaks in the wind. Reporter four of the six wildfires now more than 75 contained. The main focus now on the massive thomas fire that grew overnight in ventura county. It is only 15 contained. Right now firefighters are intentionally burning some of this dry brush to try to control the wildfires direction before it reaches these active power lines. Nearby as flames move closer to homes, new Evacuations Ordered saturday while others were lifted. Teresa bula returning to where the home shes lived in for more than four decades once stood. Nothing left of the room that my dad built by hand. Reporter 15,000 other homes remain at risk. Some of the evacuated residents allowed to briefly return to grab belongings. Were very, very lucky. The house is still standing. A lot of the neighbors around us are not. Reporter smoke lingering in the area bringing air quality to hazardous levels and fires again today considered an emergency. its a horror. We cant minimize it, but we want to recover from it as quickly as possible. Reporter more evacuations were ordered this morning can concern the flames could spread more. As you can probably see and hear, the winds are expected to gust up to 50 miles an hour today. Marci gonzalez, ventura, california. In Southern California, that smoke has reached all the way to the bay area. A spare the air alert is in effect through today. That means you should stay indoors, especially if you have asthma. Sky 7 shot these pictures of smoke on the horizon. Remember, no woodburning during spare the air days. Victims of the north bay wildfires face an important deadline tomorrow. Monday is the last day to sign up for federal disaster relief. People can apply for fema to cover losses that are not covered by their insurance policies. Businesses and nonprofits can apply to the Small Business administration for low interest loans. You can find more information on our website abc7news. Com. Well, lisa here now talking about our chilly start to the day. Another frosty start out there. And hopefully you slept through it over here in the east bay. Started out at 37 in oakland right now. How about 50 degrees with some hazy sunshine . We are in the upper 40s in san jose. Still plenty of 30s in the valley, so another mild afternoon with some haze around. Ill have a look at the accuweather 7day forecast next. Thank you, lisa. Cloaked in secrecy, less than a week until the new star wars movie comes out in theeterthee theaters. Star wars took over downtown l. A. Last night. The World Premiere of the last jedi was held in the Shrine Auditorium to a select group of vips. The movie is one of the years biggest releases. Nick watt spoke to the stars on the red carpet. This is not going to go the way you think reporter the last jedi so cloaked in secrecy, im not thinking anything. And cairo put out his hand. Does he . He does. Ive seen the trailer. Show me my place in all of this. Reporter john vega a little train trouble in real life. I didnt think you were going to make it. In your face. This all picks up where it left off. But no one is talking. You quite enjoy keeping the secrets of these films . I do. I do. Reporter can you confirm youre actually in this film . No, i cannot. Reporter are we going to get answers here or just more questions. Youll definitely get answers and some more satisfying ones. Reporter walker is back. What could happen to this guy that he would Say Something like that . Corp carr reporter carrie fishers leai in it, filmed before she passed. Heres the new director. I think youre nervous. Ive been doing a bad job of pretending im not nvls. We wanted to find someone that didnt feel like they belonged in the universe. If that gives you any hints. Reporter there is a new guy playing chewy. Youre quite tall. Im 7 feet. Reporter ill just get back up here, then. Mre emotion than ive ever seen in any star wars film, and ive seen them all. This is a spoilerfree zone, but i can tell you there will be stormtroopers in this movie, and cameos in those moments include Prince William and harry. Next week, youll be able to see the movie, too. Abc news, los angeles. Disney is the Parent Company of lucas films and abc 7. Good morning to you. Live doppler 7 showing our huge ridge of High Pressure, our persistent ridge. The stagnant weather pattern that continues over the bay area and a red flag warning with those gusty santa ana winds blowing through the canyon through about 8 00 tonight. You follow the color contour and these east Winds Continuing to channel in the very, very dry air. 25 to 30 miles an hour through 10 00, then there will be periods of some gusty winds. But it looks like this pattern is going to remain in place until next friday. So that would be 13 days of this offshore wind component. Then eventually it should shift around to an onshore component. Really, its going to be touch and go with periods of gusty winds. Walnut creek, you can see some blue skies. San francisco 52, oakland, 50. 47 in Mountain View and san jose. Even novato and napa warmer than yesterday because of those easterly winds. Heres santa cruz. We were in the 40s, today in the 70s. I think points south of san jose could even see a few records, and temperatures in Southern California have been in the 80s. 34 in santa rosa, 50 in napa. Thats due to that east wind. 52 in novato. Same deal there. 58 by the delta. Livermore, numbers were in the mid30s this morning. So breezy, upper elevation winds north to northeast. You can see 20 to 28 miles an hour from Oakland Hills to mt. Tam. That is in line for relative humidity to be very dry even for this time of year. So sfo nice and sunny. The poor air quality continues, though, looking at chilly nights and a dry pattern into next week. So as we look at our forecast animation through the week, all the systems push to the north wednesday, thursday, eventually friday as it wants to shift a little to the south. That will shift our wind component, hopefully helping the entire state out to recover with some of that dry fuel. More upper 60s on the peninsula with 65 in san mateo. Hazy conditions San Francisco. 65 for you. Nup t up in the north bay, well be looking at 55, 60s. Big dramatic swing with that dry air. 68 in hayward. You head inland and we have more mid60s from concord to pittsburgh, and tonight another frosty one from the north bay, low 30s. East bay, mid30s and the breezy winds keeping things much milder around the bay. 40s in oakland to upper 40s in San Francisco. We have more sun, more mild air, more cold nights, and download our accuweather app and you can keep track of those temperatures which has really been the story the past several days. Were keeping it dry, perhaps a pattern change maybe right before christmas, so things do change, of course, in that extended outlook, so well be watching. All right. Thank you, lisa. Well, just ahead how technology is helping an injured sea turtle have a chance for a better life. An injured sea turtle has a chance for a better life thanks to 3d printing technology. The turtle was found partly paralyzed four years ago with a gap in its shell. That gap became a serious problem as the turtle grew. Researchers in san diego teamed up with a Digital Media lab to build the turtle a brace using 3d printers. The brace is made of plastic and precisely fits the turtles shell. The turtle will need another brace when fully grown. Still to come here on abc 7 mornings, the final push for the Alabama Senate seat. Roy Moores Campaign is tapping into the president s support while dealing my name is jamir dixon and im a locafor pg e. Rk fieldman most people in the community recognize the blue trucks as pg e. My truck is something new. Its an 811 truck. When you call 811, i come out to your house and i mark out our gas lines and our electric lines to make sure that you dont hit them when youre digging. 811 is a free service. Im passionate about it because every time i go on the street i think about my own kids. Theyre the reason that i want to protect our community and our environment, and if me driving a that truck means that somebody gets to