today many catholitesh wednesday in an effort to build a better bay area and protect your health during this pandemic, the archdiocese has announced a few changes. abc 7 news reporter amy hollyfield is live at st. patrick s church with what we can expect, amy. reporter: good morning, kumasi. mass hasn t started here yet. it is early. but we know what ash wednesday is going to look like this year because we have got some images from rome to show you. and you re going to see the pope sprinkling ashes on people s heads today rather than placing them on the forehead. this is what priests around the world are expected to do today. so they ll stay safe and not get too close to people. as far as the service here in the bay area, indoor services are allowed in california. now that the supreme court has ruled that the government cannot ban them, but the church must limit capacity because of covid. so different churches will choose what they want to do, indoor or outdoor services. we
back to reggie. mike, thank you. happening today, president biden will turn his attention to getting the american economy back on track. overnight he announced an executive order to make sure all americans are actually getting their stimulus checks. two more executive orders include expanding food assistance for young students and increasing welfare to millions of low income americans. another order puts federal agencies on a path to a $15 minimum wage for federal workers. this morning, abc report er rer elizabeth schulz has more. reporter: president biden is laying up an ambitious agenda of how to get the pandemic dunner control. he s turning his attention to the economic crisis caused by the virus. president joe biden is overhauling the national response to the coronavirus pandemic. 400,000 americans died. that s more than died in all of world war ii. 400,000. this is a war time undertaking. reporter: biden signed 10 executive actions thursday, including using the
seemed to vanish from a supermarket parking lot. now her family finally has some answers after waiting years to find out the fate of their little girl. good evening, i m ama daetz. and i m liz kreutz. thank you for joining us. david misch has been charged with the kidnapping and murder of michaela garecht. misch is already in santa rita jail serving a prior murder conviction and is awaiting trial for a double murder from 1986. we have team coverage on this story tonight, so let s begin with abc7 news reporter medical melanie woodrow. police never closed this case despite decades with no arrests. they are hopeful today s announcement provides a measure of peace for michaela s family. just before thanksgiving in 1988, someone kidnapped 9-year-old michaela garecht in hayward. for 32 years there indeed no progress or resolution in the case. this is not just another one of those days. alameda county district attorney nancy o malley announced charges against 59-year-old dav
right now, and streaming on cbsn bay area, bay area scientists are tracking new strains of coronavirus. tonight, one of them is forcing new lockdowns in the uk. how concerned should we be here? good evening. tracking these mutations has actually been underway for weeks here locally. devin fehely is in san jose for us tonight. reporter: i want to make something clear, there is no evidence right now that this worrisome strain of the virus in the uk has reached california, that it is circulating here but we do know that there are different strains of this virus out to the community and out in the wider world. on the genetic level, scientists are able to identify the so-called genetic fingerprint of these different strains. and importantly, that tells them when the virus has mutated. think of it as an early warning system. an effort to monitor how the virus is changing or mutating overtime. we test anywhere from 5 to 10,000 samples every single day for mutations. reporter:
suspect, then a direct comparison through literally eyesight had to be made to compare the two prints. reporter: the da has charged him with murder and two special circumstances. specifically, kidnapping. her kidnapper moved one of the scooters away from the store, to the back area of the parking lot. he did so to isolate and be able to grab her. when she came to pick up that scooter. she has never been heard from or seen again. reporter: the remains have not been recovered. under california law, kidnapping does not end until the child is returned which is why he is facing murder charges. the evidence establishes that he was the kidnapper and that her body and she herself have never been seen. reporter: the father, 71- year-old ron, drove to hayward from his home in amador county for today s announcements. i m kind of relieved that they caught somebody over it, so now i don t have to come you know, they ve got come you know, they got to suspect that they can grill