Strike. This is kpix 5 news. We dodged a bullet with bart, but tonight another Transit Agency is getting ready to go on strike. Good evening, im elizabeth cook. Im ken bastida. Here we go again. We sent our kpix 5s Christin Ayers to check in with ac transit this time. Theyre the latest agency to threaten a strike. What did you find out, christin. Well, ken, i did check in with ac transit. I didnt hear back from them. Both sides seemed more interested in talking around the bargaining table than the media, but we did track down a driver who told us what he and his colleagues are up against. Kevin reid has been driving an ac transit bus for nearly 13 years. He says its a dangerous job. At the bus and stuff, drivers have been attacked. Last month, ac transit drivers in the midst of their own labor dispute kept driving even as the bart trains came to a halt, but now ac transit is threatening to strike as early as wednesday. Im glad they fighting for us. We need it. We havent had a raise in over eight years. Its been the last its been take take take from the district. Reid makes 26. 65 an hour, nearly the maximum that an ac transit driver can make. Ac transit has offered the union a 9 raise over three years and wants workers to pay 10 of their premiums for medical. The unions want a 10. 25 raise and have resisted changes to medical. Reid believes closing that gap could mean adopting some of bart workers tough tactics. Its how you play. I dont know if its they can work for you or work against you. Now, ive been covering both strieks, and i have to say the tone of these talks seem different than the bart talks. There hasnt been a lot of fighting or finger pointing that weve seen and, again, ken, both sides seem very cautious about courting the media. Yeah. It sounds very encouraging and not that far apart in cash. Thats always a good sign. Christin, i got to know whats the latest on bart tonight. Well, as we all heard yesterday, the trains are running again. Talks are on pause at least for the next week while Governor Brown brings in an independent panel to take a look at what the union and bart management are haggling over. That panel will meet for the first time on wednesday, and the next step could be a coolingoff period. That would be a 60day cooling off period, ken, so it could last until october. All right. Christin ayers in oakland with the very latest. Thank you. Heres a look on whos on that bart inquiry board. Jacob applesmith, Senior Advisor to the governor. Micki callahan, and robert, used to be president of the state building and construction trades council. They will each be paid a hundred bucks a day for their work. Right now Many Airlines are having big computer problems. This is because sabre, a system that more than 400 airlines use is down, and in some cases, airlines cant check people in. In others, you cant book any tickets on their web site. Here are just some of the airlines affected tonight, american, alaska, jet blue and virgin america. Red eye flights leaving the bay area for the east coast are all delayed. Sabre tweeted that it is working to fix the problem but gave us no idea just how long its going to take. Probably should check with your airline. No bart strike, but the commute was still a nightmare today because of this. A big rig carrying sushi and other food caught fire while coming off the bay bridge this morning. The lanes were closed for nine hours and 34 minutes and traffic was his or her rend us. We asked joe vasquez to find out what took so long to get it cleaned up. 5 45 this morning, a big rig thad just crossed the bay bridge into San Francisco burst into flames. Ten hours later, the heat of frustration was still boiling over as these folks at the toll plaza got out of their cars and into each others faces. For most of the day, westbound bay bridge traffic was at a standstill, backed up for miles. Its crazy. The cops say some drivers couldnt hold it any longer and ended up using the bathroom on the freeway. Many others ran out of gas. Officially the cops declared the crash scene clear around 3 00, although we still saw long lines into the 5 00 hour. Ironic on the very day the bart strike was averted. Right. And even with bart, theres still traffic jam. Right. I get it. You get it. Yeah. Its funny, but its not funny. So what took so long to clear the scene . First of all, chp tells me it took quite awhile to put the fire out and then let the smoldering wreckage cool down, then they had to bring in a huge tow truck to take the big rig away, then they had to bring in heavy equipment to clean up the debris, which included sushi and rice and other groceries being carried by the truck. The chp had to conduct an investigation, which included taking pictures and measurements. Finally, cal trans had to take some time inspecting the roadway making sure its safe before giving the green light to get traffic back to normal. Joe vasquez, kpix 5. The truck driver pulled over because he thought he had a flat tire. Next thing he knew, the rig was engulfed in flames. Still no word on what caused the fire. There is a growing memorial on the boardwalk in venice beach tonight after a driver slammed into a crowd of people. Candles and flowers line the sidewalk for the victims of saturdays horrifying crash. Surveillance video captures the driver plowing full speed into beach goers and vendors. He swerved around barriers and continued down the path leaving a quartermile path of destruction. 32yearold, a newlywed from italy, was killed. 16 other people were injured. The reason for that explain what happen and what what i feel so i twoont come back with her. She was remarkable young woman, really bright and shiny person. The suspected driver, 38yearold Nathan Campbell turned himself into authorities a couple of hours later. He is being held tonight on a 1 million bail. The woman who was killed on her honeymoon, her husband of one week saw the whole thing and the family is making arrangements now to take her body back to italy for a funeral. We hear a lot of stories about corrupt politicians, but this one was a doozy. A bay area politician who was a liar and extortionist. After years of hard times, hes back in San Francisco, and tonight linda yee tracked him down in an unlikely place. After serving five years in federal prison, ive learned that former San Francisco supervisor ed ju is now living in a Halfway House here in the citys tenderloin. Hi, how are you guys. In 2007, six months after ju took office, the fbi raided his city hal offices, his china town flower shop and homes in San Francisco and burlingame. Federal prosecutors said they had videotape of ju accepting 40,000 in 100 bills in an attempt to shake down the chinese immigrant owners of tap owe yeah drink shops in the citys sunset district. After being suspended from office, jew pled guilty to bribery and extortion charges. Jew is also accused of lying about living in San Francisco when he ran for supervisor. He and his family actually lived in burlingame. I did talk to him briefly by phone. He say that is under the rules of his reentry program, he is not allowed to do any interviews with media until his sentence is fully served. That will be some time next year. In San Francisco, linda yee, kpix 5. Jew will remain at the Halfway House for a few weeks and be on house detention for the rest of his prison term. Right now in southern california, crews are close to knocking out a 1500 acre wild fire in the lake area of river side county. Large clouds of ash covering the sky creating a brown haze. Oh, yeah, i was worried there wasnt much i could do because i was stuck on the 91 freeway up to the 15. Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their homes, but so far, no houses have been destroyed. Chevron has agreed to pay almost 2 million in fines for that big refinery fire in richmond last year. Chevron will plead no contest to six criminal charges because of the fire that sent toxic black smoke into the sky. 15,000 people went to local hospitals. 19 employees were injured. Tomorrow marks the oneyear anniversary of that fire. Coming up, the tricky things some bay area detectives are doing to put away the bad guys. Why some fruit can be labeled organic even if its not completely true. And wait till you hear what some bay area parents are willing to spend to send their kids to preschool. Another chilly afternoon throughout the bay area. 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San jose police have come under scrutiny for a technique that they practice when questioning suspects. Our kiet do tells us it all starts when the handcuffs come off, the pen and paper come out. Hes about the put the final nail in your coffin, my friend. Youre done. Its a familiar routine in hollywood and in real life. The bad guys crack under pressure during the interrogation and confess. Where is he . I want to talk to him right now. Seems like a slam dunk conviction, right . Not yet. A training bulletin titled obtaining a letter of apology has appeared in the vanguard, the official publication of San Jose PoliceOfficers Association its a howto guide for officer saying an apology letter is one more nail in your coffin for your case. Do not ask the subject if he want s to write the letter. Simply provide pen and paper. Sell the letter as a means of remorse and say im going to give you an opportunity ive given everyone that has sat in the same chair and theyve all taken me up on it. This is something that we cant reasonably expect to keep a secret. San jose police say apology letters are common practice. Offices have to be careful not to promise leniency. We dont promise them anything in return but give them the opportunity, and its really more of, you know, getting it off their chest, hey, this is something that may help you mouf on from this. Whether or not you go to prison for it, whether or not that person and you have contact again, you get your opportunity to say youre sorry. Thats really what is concerning isnt the writing of the letter. Its the manipulation that leads up to it. Defense attorney served as a public defender for six years and says defendants write apology letters because theyre told it might help them. Its not asking someone to show true remorse. Its manipulating someone into confessing to a crime, and thats the only goal. The police union had no comment. The Consulting Firm who wrote the bulletin did not runner my phone calls. In san jose, kiet do, kpix 5. Strawberry season is in full swing and most supermarkets give you a choice these days, conventional strawberries and organic but before you pay more for organic, check out what linda yee found out only on kpix 5. Its a summer favorite, strawberries, but theres something about the organic ones that consumers dont know. Theyre actually not a hundred percent organic. Just ask jim. Theres a gray area in the rules. Hes been growing strawberries without any pesticides for decades, but they are not raised from scratch here. He buys the starter plants from the northern part of the state where huge nurseries use toxic fulltime gants to grow their crops. Federal and state organic regulations allow organic farmers to buy those nonorganic plants when theres no other choice, and they still get to call their strawberries organic. Thats what were trying to do is have it be organic from the very beginning. Its going to take some time to get to that point. The reality is that growing these little guys in large quantities without fumigants is really difficult. Strict commercial food guidelines say these have to be a hundred percent disease free. Thats a very exacting standard. Currently the only way we can guarantee that is with fumigants. Professor is researching new ways to grow strawberry plants without the toxic chemicals. One ongoing experiment involves flooding fields with water and rice bran, but professor admits. Were expecting something that is extremely hard to achieve and, you know, its very hard to achieve in a nonchemical way. This conventional strawberry grower says hes tried no pesticides, and its more than hard. Its impossible. Economically speaking, 100 dead. Doesnt work for you. Doesnt work, no. Miguel ramos tried a natural biopesticide on one section of his 45acre apartment with drastic consequences. So far hes pessimistic about any organic alternatives. I, myself, dont like chemicals. Theyre expensive. Theyre a nuisance to use. If they say they have an effect on our environment, i do believe it, but they are necessary tools. Organic farmers like jim cockran disagree. Its really a different ball game. You cant expect to catch onto it overnight. The organic farmers are banding together to come up with a solution to close the organic loophole. Linda yee, kpix 5. Even though organic strawberries start off in fumigated fields, farmers and researchers tell us the berries themselves are pesticide free. Its funny. When we look at this forecast, its hard to believe this is the beginning of august. Whats going on. Yeah. Wrong month. The on shore flow makes it to the city and makes it to the bay. Rarely does it go this far and this strong, but thats whats been happening, and i really dont see an end in sight. If anything its going to get chillier. Ten Straight Days below normal. Live look outside tonight. Low clouds are back. When you wake up tomorrow, get ready for work. The drizzle will be back. The fog will be back, and how about this tomorrow we are actually going to be colder than the north pole. You might be wondering how is that possible . Well, when you consider north pole is in alaska just south and east of fair banks, theyre having a heat wave. Theyre going to be 81 degrees tomorrow, north pole, alaska. We will only hit a high of 78, one of our warmest spots. We will be colder than the north pole. Now, what happens when the marine layer goes far inland it kind of limits that big temperature spread we get around here. Pittsburgh 77 degrees for a high today. 61. 35 miles but only 16 degrees separating the two. Lets look forward now with our microclimate forecast. San rafael another cloudy start for you. Afternoon sunshine, high of 71, even cooler on wednesday. Thats when we bottom out with a high of only 70 degrees. Well below normal for past week and a half staying below normal for at least the next week. These things behind me arent moving. High pressure off to our east not much of influence on our weather. What is. Over the next couple days its going to get chillier. Inland areas will not hit 80 tomorrow or wednesday. Lots of clouds, fog, drizzle in the morning, especially away from the water. Youre still going to be 5 to 15 degrees below avrng in this very chilly for august pattern nooz end in sight. Livermore 78 for you tourm. Ten degrees below average. San jose 75. Palo alto only 71 with cloudy start. 67 for hayward. Pittsburgh tomorrow 78. Walnut creek not even hitting 80. In the city tomorrow only 62 and even st. Helena will only hit 80 degrees tomorrow. Extended forecast, temperatures begin to climb back on thursday and friday. The weekend will be milder but iven mid 80s away from water will still be below average. That is your kpix 5 forecast. Back to liz. All right. Paul, thank you. We want to tell you about an amber alert. It started in San Diego County but just went statewide. James is accused of killing a woman and abducting her two kids. One is eightyearold ethan. The other is 16yearold hannah. Police are searching for a blue nissan versa, california license plate 6wcu986. Well be right back. , farmers presents fifteen seconds of smart. So you want to drive more safely . Stop eating. Take deep breaths. Avoid bad weather. [ whispers ] get eight hours. [ shouts over music ] turn it down and, of course, talk to farmers. Hi. Hi. So you want to drive more safely . Of smart. Stop eating. Take deep breaths. Avoid bad weather. [ whispers ] get eight hours. [ shouts over music ] turn it down and, of course, talk to farmers. Hi. Hi. Dropped the hammer on Alex Rodriguez and. The worstkept secret in sports, this whole biogeneralics nonsense. This is two that have caused severe suspensions so at what point is enough enough . After weeks of speculation, Major League Baseball finally dropped the hammer on Alex Rodriguez and other players linked with the biojenisis lab in florida. Arod was suspended total of 211 games and carries through the entire 2014 season, but hes going to appeal, and he can play until that appeal process is complete which probably wont be until the end of the season meaning he could be in uniform the rest of the year. His debut tonig