14 territories are going to the polls. Well have team coverage. First the latest on the coronavirus. This is the latest area to declare an emergency due to the coronavirusout break. This allows them to get aid. We reported a short berkeley reports its first. You see 16. Now 17. The number of death has spiked to nine in the United States, all of them in washington state. More states report positive test results. North carolina is the latest to confirm a case, and well go down the list here. In florida, a woman traveled to italy. She tested positive. Her sister travelled with her and she also testified positive. Chris nguyen joins us live in the north bay. Reporter that brings us to 11 total countywide. Health officials are trying to determine how they came into contact with it. New details from the Santa Clara County health disepartment. The highest risk Group Includes people 80 and older. Were recommending people at higher risk avoid Mass Gatherings such as parades, sporting events, and concerts where people are at arms distance from one another. They opened an Emergency Operations center this afternoon ensuring Emergency Services will continue as more coronavirus cases are confirmed. Our plans are up to date, take into account everything we know about the virus and how its emerging, and as the mayor indicated, were ready to move to the next stage if and when we receive guidance that thats appropria appropriate. In downtown san jose, more than 1 million are expected to be at this event. Making sure we dont have visitors coming in from highrisk countries. Their films will be leer and were not having visitors come in from communities in the United States that might be at risk either, such as washington. While concerns grow over the coronavirus, businesses hope customers will show still show their support. You have to get out you. Cant stay home because of the virus. People, take your precautions, but understand one thing. Life goes on. City and county officials urging the public to not panic. Santa clara county Health Officials are also saying this afternoon that organizations that primarily serve seniors should start canceling mass gathering such as bingo nights or movie screenings. Were live in san jose. Im chris nguyen, abc7 news. It has Global Contractors and nonprofit groups scrambling to deal with patients, public information, data analysis. Reporter the response to coronavirus shows how laborintensive it is to treat patients. As the outbreaks grow, listings on glassdoor are growing. Its not surprising to see openings for nurses. However, glassdoors economists did find other kinds of specialties in demand. Im was surprised to see the Global PublicHealth Response does mean more demand for workers such as Communication Specialists or consultants who can help organizations craft the right Public Health response. Reporter also in that realm there were funds from the bill and Melinda Gates foundations. South asia was hard hit. It would be hard to find specialists in any field right n now. That being said, theres a lot of attention on the outbreak and that will make it easier for organizations to find the right talent very some posting the jobs have not yet been funded meaning some of the employers are thinking longer term, not knowing when the coronavirus will resolve itself. They want to have plenty of resumes available to fill future jobs. In southeast, david louie, abc7 news. The fed slashed its benchmark rate by a half percentage point. The largest cut since the 2008 financial crisis. It took 15 minutes for the small rally to evaporate. The dow dropped 785 points, nearly 3 . The nasdaq and s p 500 both finished down around 3 as well. Google is giving free access to its advanced hangout Video Conferencing features in response to the threat of the coronavirus. It will allow employees, educators and students to work from hangout meets for free through july 1st. Google has also banned nonessential travel for employees and theyre pulling the plug for the cloud meeting and it will only be available online. There had been an event planned for tomorrow at the bill graham auditorium. It brings Community Services together in an effort to help those who are living on the streets. The city hasnt said when it plans to hold the event. Gucci has canceled its upcoming San Francisco fashion show. The cruz 2020 fashion show was canceled. Just last week Georgio Armani held its fashion show without public present. Youve heard the advice, wash your hands, use hand sanitizer, sanitize your environment to keep you and others healthy. Theres one habit that cannot be broken with soap and water. Were shown why its so important to stop touching your face, luz. I know. This is kind of my routine. I get to work, touch my i. D. Tunld this door handing and come in and touch so many surfaces and thats how this type of bacteria can spread. We all do it. One, two three, four, five five times, five times in 36 seconds. Reporter according to the cdc on their website they list several things. One is avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth. We did a little experiment. We all touch our face. I touch my face maybe five times in the last minute. I want to know how many times you do it. Were about to interview people. In one minute you touched your face once. Did you notice . No, i didnt. I guess it was natural. Im try never to touch my face. Sometimes its just instinctive. With the coronavirus, oh, yeah, i heard im not supposed to touch my face, its true, but i have been washing my hands a lot. Reporter you should. Just wash your hands and leave it at that. But also avoid our face. Never touch your eyes, nose, our mouth with a bare finger f you need to itch, use a tissue, cover it up so you have a protective barrier. Reporter with no vaccine, the best way to avoid illness is to avoid being exposed to the virus. According to a study publishing in 2015, we touch our face an average of two dozen times in an hour and 44 of that turning including our face, nose, our mouth. In San Francisco, luz pena, abc7 news. Thank you so much. Weve dedicated one page on our website to all of our stories go. To abc7news. Com. Youll find todays headlines as well as practical information about how to protect yourself. In the south bay an investigation is under way in connection to a san jose cold case homicide. Investigators began digging a hole behind gar dinos restaurant. This morning a large hole could be seen under a canopy along with a pile of dirt. San jose police are looking for something connected to the cold case, but its still unclear what exactly theyre looking for. Residents say theyre concerned. If there was a homicide there, it would be hard to believe. I dont understand how somebody could be under that concrete. Really sad bad things happen in the world unfortunately. Right now theres no word if police found anything. An area is blocked off for the investigation, but traffic is not impacted. A hate crime incident at a San Jose Elementary School sunday investigation this afternoon. Mount pleasant Elementary School district Officials Say a racial slur was written on a poster at Robert Sanders el men tre school last week. They were brought in to investigate. Last year there were two similar incidents at other schools. These hateful actions are not going to intimidate us or set us bck. A new Video Surveillance system will be put in at all district campuses. At a reunion today, the high school was open but not at their original campus. Theyve spent nearly two weeks split up due to the discovery of a cancercausing chemical in brown water under the campus. For now, all of the m students have been moved elsewhere. Price gouging. Our coronavirus coverage continues with a look at the skyhigh prices for items in high demand. Roaming the park, the new addition to the herd and what makes this a big deal. Another sunny warm and dry day is winding down in the bay area, but we see an end i cant believe it. That chad really was raised by wolves . Which one is your mother . Thats her right there. Oh, gosh. No, i cant believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my Car Insurance with geico. Its really great. Well, im just so glad to have met your beautiful family. And we better be sitting down now. Believe it geico could save you fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance. California getting its wish today. We spot people voting. As you can see behind us, in san mateo, san jose, and oakland. The govern signed legislation to move the primary to march so california could play a more influential role in the president ial election. Camera crews caught up with the governor at a polling station. He declined to say who he was voting for but said recent endorsements to joe biden are a huge boost. Joe biden just won virginia, one of four States Holding a primary. Voters will not only be casting their ballots, but some will be registering to vote, taking advantage of new rues in california. Abc7s Chris Wray Y Kris reye with more. There were some questions that kept coming up. Got you some answers. At different polls stations around San Francisco and in san mateo county, a steady stream of voters. Some of the more common questions. This is the first election this has happened in california. People can register to vote at their polling places if theyre another registered to vote. They can change their Party Preference too. Sign the ballot. Get it to us. If youre going to mail it today, make sure its before midnight on election day, and if it gets to us by friday at midnight, we will be able to actually tabulate that. Reporter voters casting their ballots for different reasons. Abraham field voted because of his grandmother. Shes 60 years my senior, but we still had a lot in common. Thats what brought me out today. My biggest issues are climate change. I work in climate change. Work for the city. The most important issue is presidency. Im voting democrat, of course. It doesnt really matter who the leader is. Reporter we didnt see any longer lines than usual, but this voter says you still have to be patient at the polls. His mailin ballot didnt arrive. I found there were several people in that same situation and there was so much frustration and confusion that they just ended up walking away. Reporter all right. It is getting busier now that people are getting out of work. If you want to get really strategic, you can go online, look at wait times at different voting centers, and we should see preliminary numbers tonight. All right. Kris. Thank you. The former mayor and Assembly Speaker willie brown hosting movers and shakers as well as active and retired politicians for lunch at johns grill. He displayed displeasure at how things have been conducted. He would have preferred town howl meetings instead of National Debates which he described as reality tv shows. A fire hydrant caused a big mess this afternoon. Take a look. You see this watt every gushing up. This is crazy. They stopped the water from gushing, but some minor flooding did remain on the embarcadero. We do need water from the skies. We do. Not going up, but down. It was almost warm enough to take advantage of water sports, not that was a water sport. You know what i mean. Insure no rains on the way. Ill get that in a moment. Dry conditions, sunny skies across the bay area right now. Its been a mild to warm day. This is a lovely view from sutro tower looking out over San Francisco where it is now only 67 degrees. It was 70s earlier. We have 70s at oakland and gilroy and 65 at pacifica. And looking toward the golden gate, you can see weve got a little hint of some low clouds offshore right now. 8 heres a beautiful view from our rooftop camera. Skies are blue. This is a list of our forecast features. Warming trend peaks tomorrow. A much cooler pattern will develop by the end of the week and this long dry spell is likely to end on saturday. But how long a spell has it been . Last rain we had, measurable rain in San Francisco, the 28th. From the 29th to now, weve had 35 consecutive dry days, getting close to the record this time of year of 43 days set back in late 2014 to early 2015 and in 2016, 43 consecutive rainfree days. Heres what may bring us in a dry spell. Friday evening shows rain moving into the area, showers overnight into saturday morning and even into saturday afternoon. Looks like were going to get enough wet weather to officially end the dry spell, but we dont expect to get a lot of measurable rain. Just enough. Overnight, clear skies. Well see a few patches. Overnight moving in the mid to upper 40s and tomorrow well be able to experience the peak of this warming trend with high temperatures near 80. Numerous inland locations will see upper 70s. 78, 79 degrees. Mid 70s around the bay shoreline and then we start to cool down a bit on thursday with sharper cooling, further cooling with high temperatures reaching only into the upper 50s in most bay area locations. Only a few inland spots on friday will top out at or above 60 degrees. Saturday it gets even cooler along with the possible of rain. Heres the accuweather sevenday forecast. Once again, quite mild to warm. Increasing clouds friday. Light rain or showers on saturday. Dont forget to spring forward to Daylight Saving times saturday night into sunday. Clouds will linger into sunday. Well have brighter skies and milder conditions early next week. Maybe well start another dry spell. Im hoping not, but could be. 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The defense tried to deflect attention away from reynolds and instead shine a light on a coworker. He along with reynolds faced eight accounts of animal abuse reduced to seven. Now he received one misdemeanor account. Today the defense attorney tried to establish that the overcrowded and dirty conditions of the Training Facility where the result o o o o o not his client. Closing argument could begin as early as tomorrow morning. A u. S. Senator is calling on airlines to waive the fee for travelers in light of the coronavirus outbreak. Senator Richard Blumenthal of connecticut wrote open letters to several Major Airlines urging them to allow travelers to make the best decision o for their Health Without the burden of high fees. Those are his words. Some airlines are already waiving fees. Not all flights and dates get this special treatment. Check first. Ive got a list of all of those policies posted on our website, abc7news. Com. I think this is going to go on for a while. But please check. Not every date, not every flight. You could get caught. You made a great point. The airlines if people are looking that im going to have to pay the fees, they may not book at all. Right. Until the airlines are betting things are Getting Better in the future. Otherwise youre not going to book. Google canceled their big event. The Airlines Need people to keep booking. Thank you, michael. A sflaan franciscobased company that make shoes out of resielked plastic bolts is now making handbags. Theyre using their water bottle yarm and plastic to make the bags some of far rothys has used more than 50 million plastic Water Bottles for it shoes and bags. Its remarkable. And they look great. They do. The lastminute Campaign Stop in the east bay for wherever we want to go, we just have to start. Autosave your way there with chase. Chase. Make more of whats yours. We choose to go to the and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. President kennedy knew settling for halfmeasures wasnt good enough. So when candidates say we cant guarantee health care for all, make College Affordable for all, combat climate change, or create a world at peace, remember that america is best when we strive to do big things, even when its hard. Im Bernie Sanders and i approve this message. Its super tuesday. Were expecting a special report from the network as soon as the polls close. Well bring that to you as soon as it happens. Of course, the big issue, the democratic president ial candidate. President ial candidate joe biden made a lastminute stop near jack london square. Reporter the former Vice President walked into the diner and ordered one of his