Time when President Donald Trump suspended h 1 b visas to the end of this year. So canada is putting it out there. Their doors are open in Silicon Valley and ceos are seeing the impact. Sitting in board members, ceos have related theyre trying to hire programmers from russia or other parts of the world. Reporter how worried should Silicon Valley be, with them trying to poach talent from our area . We should always be concerned that we are protecting and preserving our competitive advantage as the hub of the innovation economy. Reporter the pandemic and immigration halt has take an toll. But the pay in canada still does not compare to Silicon Valleys. On average, the tech workers here in the United States in Silicon Valley can make almost double what theyre making in some of the tech hubs in canada. Reporter but the hope is that when the pandemic ends, the talent comes back or holds on. Or theres always canada. In San Francisco, luz pena, abc7 news. Making the bay area a better place to live is challenging during the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced many businesses to close. Hundreds of them may not reopen, and thats the topic of the latest column by San Francisco chronicle insider and abc7 news contributor phil matier. And phil joins us live. Its been about two months since some businesses were allowed to reopen. How many local businesses were able to do that. How do you have a handle on it . We have the smaller retailers that were allowed to open and people go in. Then we have the restaurants that said well, we can open but youre going to do outside dining. So dan, how do we define whats inside, whats outside . What we define it by is credit card activity and how much money is going through. According to data analyzed by the San Francisco chamber of commerce, 1200 store fronts are open in the city right now. But thats only half of the citys total. What is is interesting is that is made up of mostly i would i would businesses, small mom and pop operations, restaurant, retail. So they dont have that sort of ability to go back to a corporate business to ride out this pandemic. Reporter and so its a big question about can they do that . Once the business is reopened, what can we do to make sure the doors stay open . Thats a big question. And one that is out there to be checked out. I talked to rodney fong about that, as well. Lets see if we can pull up that clip right now. Its going to take all of us and San Francisco to step up and help our local businesses. Be supportive of government where we can, and put our foot down where we think we need help and accountability. Reporter its going to be an interesting balance because as we know, the bay area is a very expensive place to live. We pride ourselves in a high wage for our workers, and many benefits for them. And theres a question about whether these smaller businesses can do that while still facing rents up to 10,000 a month. Questions about parking and the ongoing challenge of the internet. So what about people who have been wanting to get into business, phil, is this maybe not the best time or is there an opportunity here . Well, there is always an opportunity, and im sad to say sometimes a disaster brings it on to those people that can wait it out, or those that havent gotten into it right now. Rodney is staying optimistic about the future of local businesses in San Francisco, and he actually says this might be a prime tooich primetime. Lets take a listen. I think its a great opportunity Going Forward for entrepreneurs, for people wanting to open a business. Ive been referring to it as a renaissance in San Francisco, the small business, the arts, bringing your passion to business. Reporter lets take a look at that a little bit. Heres the paradox. If youre in business now, youre hurting. Youre paying the rent, you have the stores up, your inventory, your restaurant. Its already built out and its empty or near empty. If youre coming into business, or youre thinking of opening one, you wait this out. And theres going to be a lot of spaces out there, a lot of empty restaurants out there that you can get at a really reduced rate. So its a good time if youre not in the business to maybe come to San Francisco and keep your eyes open for getting into it. But if youre in the business right now, its one of the toughest times weve ever seen. And its going to probably take more federal help, because theyre waiting to see how much longer that will take, and its going to take local help to get people to open the stores and i was out on the streets, like polk street the other day. Its not that stores are open, its that people arent out yet. How do you get people back out on the streets for these Small Businesses . Theyll show up at the malls and big stores, but how do you get them out and about and spending that little extra money they might have . Thats going to be a long time until we see it happen. Its a tough time to be in business and a great opportunity in terms of rent and lease structure for people who get into business. But the toll is pretty brutal here. Thank you very much. Read phils column in the San Francisco chronicle on sundays and wednesdays. Lets turn now to another economic issue, evictions. Lawmakers are looking at extending rent protections for those impacted by the coronavirus crisis. But even with the moratorium in place, some wonder how they will ever be able to pay back the relate. Chris nguyen has this story. Reporter tonight in downtown mountain view, this once popular restaurant sits empty after ongoing negotiations between the tenant and land lord cam to a halt. We were going back and forth. I pleaded my case and i said i cant afford that. And i offered a very fair deal. Reporter alex holt, owner of bay area based flights, says his family was served with a lawsuit as they tried to rework the terms of one of their leases. I was at work, and my wife called me crying and said someone was banging on the door. She thought it was someone coming to arrest her. Reporter that time of retaliation is what the Santa Clara County board of supervisors may try to prevent as they consider expanding the Eviction Moratorium through september. Our job, really, is to be as protective as we can of our community, and that requires all of us. So its not just government. Its government, its nonprofits, its the business community. Were really asking everybody to work together. Reporter in addition to the impact on local businesses, a recent study coauthored by the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, found that more than 43,000 families county wide will be at risk of homelessness if current protections arent extended. Maria ruiz says she was fired from her job as mcdonalds after demanding that ppe be provided to employees. Shes now two months behind in rent. The stress overwhelming as people try to make it in Silicon Valley. Sandy perry of the Affordable Housing network, says more needs to be done related to rent forgiveness. With the pandemic, and the layoffs related to the pandemic, people are absolutely destitute. They have no way to pay the back relates. Reporter but Property Owners are also asking for assistance, and say they too need to be a part of the conversation. Some have gone months without receiving payment from their tenants and are now at risk of foreclosure themselves. A lot of them are trying to do everything they can to support their tenants in this time of need, deferring payments, waiving late fees. But the bills have to be paid and theyre struggling to pay without that rental system coming in. Reporter Community Members caught in the uncertainty of what will happen next. Im going t survive and make sure my family gets fed no matter what. But theres a lot of other people that dont have that ability. Reporter chris nguyen, abc7 news. Happening today, the first day of school for oakland unified. Some parents describe it as a mild disaster. Classes began online for the districts 37,000 students. Reginald mosley says his three kids had a hard time longing on to zoom because of connectivity problems. None to have chrome books worked on my wifi. It could be because i had so many other things on the wifi, just didnt have the band width. So i was going around trying to shut everything off. It was a busy day for reginald. Teachers struggled, as well. Its not easy to get kindergarteners to get students to warm up to their teachers. Then theres the issue of how many hours of live instruction teachers will deliver. The district and the union have been trying for more than a month to work that out. So far no luck. Meantime, in Contra Costa County, classes begin on thursday. As what Distance Learning looks like will be the product of negotiations between with the teachers. Heres laura anthony. Reporter back to school in districts throughout Contra Costa County will look a lot different this year. In contrast to the abrupt shift to online in the spring, administrators believe this falls Distance Learning will be much improved. We are going to be offering a more robust and interactive experience for our students. Reporter much of what students and parents will see this fall grew from Lessons Learned last spring. That was part of the feedback we got from parents during our surveys last spring, that the kids needed to have more scheduled time that was similar to a Typical School experience. Reporter in many districts, an elementary student will be in school from 8 00 a. M. To 2 00 p. M. At least several days per week. In a given class period, we expect 50 to 60 of that time would be the teacher directly talking to the kids, instructing them, working with the kids. The rest of that time, while kids are in class, maybe independent learning, group learning, one to one time. Reporter in lafayette, there will be time to be offline. We also are going to be watching and making sure we have a balance so kids respect on a computer screen all day long. The biggest thing is its looking at what developmentally is appropriate for a student. So were going to have less time on a computer than we would than with a 5th grader. Reporter School Administrators know their Distance Learning plans are no substitute for inperson teaching and realize its a work in progress. Were all experiencing a new normal, and its frustrating and its hard to predict at times, because sometimes when we think we get a handle on it, then the ground shifts from under us. Reporter in Contra Costa County, laura anthony, abc7 news. All this week, join abc7 news for a special series of stories and guest interviews, exploring what role the bay area is playing in the race to develop a coronavirus vaccine. Well look at the players and potential vaccines in the pipeline. And next, new at 6 00, we dig into the data issues flagging californias coronavirus response. Why are there so many problems with this Vital Information . Im spencer christian. Were in a brief period of cooling right now, but there is some intense heat coming our way later in the week. Ill have the this virus is testing all of us. And its testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. So abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need. And until this fight is over, we. Will. Never. Quit. Because they never quit. woman chattering [narrator] ordering dinner for the family . family gasps rewarded with a side of quiet. baby murmuring grubhub rewards you, scooter horn honking get a free delivery perk when you order. doorbell rings [group] grubhub. President trump was abruptly escorted out of the White House Briefing room because of what was happening outside. There was a shooting nearby while he was addressing the media. The president was taken to the oval office, but the secret Service Returned him to the Briefing Room ten minutes later. He immediately gave an update on what happened. But there was an actual shooting. And somebody has been taken to the hospital. I dont know the condition of the person. It seems that the person was shot by secret service. So well see what happens. The shooting happened just blocks from the white house. The suspect as well as one secret Service Officer were taken to the hospital. The suspect is said to be in critical condition. Our health is one of the most important parts of building a better bay area, and its especially significant now amid tst coronavirus pandemic. While californias state data systems continue to have issues, new numbers are reported every day. The number is above average, 7,751. The number of hospitalizations is below average, and went down by 110 patients in the past day. 66 people have died since the last update. Thats actually below average. But we dont have the full picture, keep in mind, at least not just yet. One of the states top Health Officers abruptly resigned days after we learned more than 250,000 of californias covid cases were underreported. Governor newsom is not giving too many details about the departure of dr. Sonia angel, who also worked at new york citys Health Department and the cdc, as well. New at 6 00, abc7 News Reporter stephanie sierra breaks down what we know about the technical issues and how it could have been prevented. I accepted her resignation. Were all accountable in our respective roles for what happens underneath us. Reporter the governor skirting around questions today about why one of the states top Health Officers, dr. Sonia angel, suddenly resigned. Was it tied to the fact more than 250,000 of the states covid cases went underreported . He was asked five times, but there wasnt a clear answer. Im governor, the buck stops with me. You want accountability, its with the state, the governor. Reporter there were two big mistakes. First, how ready the states data Monitoring System didnt have adequate capacity to track cases. Second, the state failed to renew a certificate to receive data from commercial labs. It was called a technical glitch. We hear that often. This is a glitch. Its not a glitch. Reporter jeff hudson, the ceo of Cybersecurity Firm venify specializes in data collection. There wasnt enough attention paid to the machines that keep this from happening. Reporter the state managed the quadrupling monitoring over the weekend. This means theres four times as many certificates to be renewed. But he worries the state isnt prepared. There isnt a good system in place to make sure this doesnt happen. Its not a glitch. Reporter hudson says the state should have a system in place to ensure these certificates, required to monitor this type of data, are automatically renewed. We have reached out to several bay area tech ceos who are serving on the Governors Task force to see if and how they are helping. Stephanie sierra, abc7 news. The data discrepancies and turnover at the top of the states public Health Department is just part of what the governor addressed today. Melanie woodrow has this story. Reporter for unemployed california residents, an additional 600 per week of Unemployment Benefits expired at the end of july. President trump signed an executive order that wuld give 400 a week in enhanced federal Unemployment Benefits through the end of december. Now Governor Newsom says california wont be able to contribute the states required 25 . There is no money sitting in the piggy bank of the previous c. A. R. E. S. Act to be reprioritized for this purpose. It simply does not exist. Reporter he said even a state as large as california cannot absorb that burden without massive cuts. We need the federal government to front those dollars. Reporter the governor did not say how or when californians who need that money will get it. Meantime, 3 4 of renters have fallen behind on their rent, with the majority being in the latin x community. Dr. Mark elly provided an update on californias data system failure. 295,000 backlogged records were processed over the weekend. The cases are now ready and available to local entities to be processed. Making sure the positives are really positives, the negatives are really negative. Reporter the cases will be reported by the state once finalized in the next 48 to 72 hours. The governor said the trendlines continue to look favorable, melanie woodrow, abc7 news. On abc7 news at 4 00, we spoke live on the air with california congresswoman Jackie Speier to get her take on the president s actions in regards to unemployment. I think it was dead on arrival. But he wanted to do something at his golf course with all of his golfers looking on. So it was a bit of a show, frankly. And i think what we need to do is just get the negotiations is completed. Today, we spoke live with California Assembly member david sm shu. We dont know where this money would come from. Up like washington, d. C. , the federal government, which literally can print money, we were 54 billion in the hole. So we had to massively