The city reached out to the Community Organization to help provide that platform and to come up with a visual representation of the message at city hall. We have to take a step back from ourselves and think about what is the healthiest and best and most effective way to show the next generation coming up how to lead and how to actually create something that is going to be sustainable. I think this is an example of that. The artist behind the banners included the names of 575 black americans killed with the letters blm as well as the words voices, dreams, futures. Now back to the controversy with the Silicon Valley organization. The executive board has now launched an investigation into the picture. Our southbay reporter joins us live with the ramifications and also the fallout from that post. Jesse . Heather, good afternoon to you in a Political Climate where socalled october surprises and accusations of every type have become common. This was too far, and it has left many people scratching their heads not the least of which is the former ceo of the svo. In what could be a clear snapshot of ugly politics, this ad posted tuesday to the internet has led to turmoil. That was blatantly racist, completely unacceptable. The Vice President stands before the cameras thursday explaining the chamber of Commerce Organization launched a third Party Internal investigation into the posting. The attack ad attacks a candidate. Not surprised. There have been races undertones in a lot of what we have been receiving. The ad apparently shows brown and dark skinned men in an african country, perhaps engaging in violence. The caption reads you really want to sign on to this . A nuance referenced to the may 29 violent demonstration in downtown san jose. The first apology from the svo repeated the lie they made up about my policies as a justification for what they were trying to depict to the community. Thursday, the head of the svo fell on his sword and resigned. In an email he says in part, am very sorry for the completely unacceptable image that was put up on our website early this week. He continues the Ongoing Investigation will show a breakdown of internal process and control and i had no knowledge of the images posting on our website. America is very comfortable with using images and perceptions against voters. Ethnic politics experts say using race to invoke fear is not new. Willie horton murdered a boy. She points to a Willie Horton commercial as another representation of that strategy. White voters feel that blacks are going to take their property, their lives, and their means of production. In the wake of the ad controversy, and dozens of members are leaving the svo concerned it links them with racism. We can and do take a strong stance against racist actions and speak out when we see them. A councilwoman from the sixth district from whom the attack ad was posted for her reelection drive sent a statement saying i am ashamed with the pastor report i have received from the svo. The money donated by the svo to my campaign has been donated to a local nonprofit dedicated to fighting racism. A timeline for the completion of the internal investigation at the svo has not been given. This is not the end of it has several councilmembers have scheduled a meeting or a press conference at city hall tomorrow to speak out and call for reforms within the svo. We will head back to you. Jesse, if you can just clarify, is there anything that shows that the organization itself created this political ad or that they just posted it without really doing their Due Diligence in reviewing it . They did not create the image. The image was taken from somewhere else, a photograph somewhere on the african continent. We dont know exactly what it depicts. We just female in the streets and what appears to be some smoke. So, we dont know if it is violence. We dont know if it is a celebration, but the clear message behind it, is that there is some kind of disturbance, and it is unsettling and it was sent to the six district voters with the caption do you really want to sign on to this as a reference. I talked to matt today. He swears me he had no knowledge that this was being done or put on the website, but as the head of the organization, he is going to take complete responsibility for it, and he has stepped down, but it is not clear how many people within the chain knew that the web team was actually creating this and putting this up, heather. All right. Jesse gary, thank you. Five days to go now until election day and a. 5 million mail in ballots have been returned here in california. But, a few dozen have gone missing in contra costa county. Greg lee joins us with concerns from voters and also the explanation that we got. Greg . Good afternoon. Just in contra costa county, more than 370,000 ballots are ready to be counted. Some voters realized something was very wrong. Like millions of california voters, Zachary Adams captures the moment dropping it off at this ballot box on october 12. The problem is, he does not know where it went. We ended up with the situation where we did everything right in and have not been counted. He began to worry after posting about the issue online, zach realized he was not the only one in the dark. What bothers me the most is that other people may not know until now. Maybe they got that email or maybe they are seeing something. With rumors of impropriety swirling on social media, he wants to clear the air. Ballot boxes are emptied every day by a team of two people. Ballots were picked up on the 12th and on the 13th. We cant explain why we dont have the ballots that the voters said they dropped in the ballot box on tuesday or excuse me, monday the 12th. What is really important is that those voters get a chance to vote. This is a handling issue with some bollards at this dropbox on this one day. The box has been inspected, and there is no reason to believe it has been tampered with. Exactly how many ballots went missing is ongoing. They have contacted 40 affected voters and believe that there could be more. Voters should look at this as a success story. The system works. Voters voted early. They checked their status. They notified us, and we corrected the situation. Some people are not getting theirs tracked, and i wanted to put in the mailbox, but i waited a day or two too late. I wanted to make sure it got counted. Zach has requested a replacement ballot and is determined to vote. He hopes others will do the same. Vote early this week and get it done. Make sure your voice is heard. Here is the bottom line. If you returned your ballot to Richmond City hall on october 12, go online and check your status. If it has not yet been received, contact the Registrars Office immediately. Alex . Greg, thank you. Senator Bernie Sanders has endorsed Oakland City Council candidate Rebecca Kaplan for office. Kaplan is running for the at large seat on the council. Kaplan told the chronicle that she and the vermont independent make commitment to make sure our democracy is not for sale and that the needs of the workers in the community are protected. The president ial race is now focused on florida today with President Trump and joe biden both campaigning in tampa. The latest polling average shows biden with a seven point lead over the president. The race is much tighter in the sunshine state. The vote for President Trump is a vote for a better america. The first couple campaigning together in tampa, florida. I am thrilled to be here in my home state, florida. A must win state for the republican ticket with its 29 elect oral votes. The president was bolstered of a growing economy that has faced record hardship during the pandemic. We understood the disease, and now, we are open for business. The president s rally came hours before joe bidens dueling rally in tampa. First, he spoke in broward county. I am not going to shut down the economy. I am not going to shut down the country, but i am going to shut down the virus. They wanted to motivate their supporters to turn out to the polls on or before election day. The latest poll shows a tight race between the tickets. 51 of likely voters for biden while 47 for trump. If florida goes blue, its over. Its over. You have to get out and vote. We are creating the greatest red wave in the history of our nation. The data shows more than 7 million have voted in florida and across the country. That number, 79 million early ballots cast. Now, we have much more on the upcoming election on our website. There, you can find information about the statewide propositions, and there are a lot of them also and the congressional races and how to track your ballot. We have all of the latest election developments as they happen right there on our website at www. Ktvu. Com election. The number of americans seeking new Unemployment Benefits fell last week to 751,000. That is the lowest that number has been since march. It is a figure that remains historically high and indicates the pandemic is still forcing Many Employers to cut jobs. California also saw a drop in the number of claims with just over 152,000 people filing new claims last week. Economists predict that as temperatures begin to drop during the winter months, restaurants and bars will likely serve fewer customers outdoors, which could enforce employers to slash jobs. The nations economy grew in the third quarter. However, economists say keep in mind this comes after the gdp plummeted a record 31. 4 in the second quarter. The growth is only about two thirds of the output that was lost because of the pandemic. The Gross Domestic Product is the calculation of the value of all goods and services produced within the economy. On wall street, stocks finished higher today on the heels of that positive economic news. The dow gained 139 points. The nasdaq was up 180 in the s p finished the day up 39 points. I never had a gun pulled out on me, but to have several guns is devastating to me. An innocent man pulled over at gunpoint during a stolen vehicle investigation. The action he is taking against police and apology from the department. Also, dry conditions of fueling this historic year of wildfires. A look at where the state in the bay area stands when it comes to Drought Conditions, coming up next. We will talk about any chances of rain coming up as we wrap up october. Your weather is next. [ whispering ] whats this . Oh, are we kicking karly out . We live with at t. It was a lapse in judgment. At t, we called this house meeting because you advertise gigspeed internet, but we cant sign up for that here. Yeah, but im just like warming up to those speeds. Youve lived here two years. The personal attacks arent helping, karly. Dont you have like a hot pilates class to get to or something . [ muffled scream ] stop living with at t. Xfinity can deliver gig to the most homes. Woman after covid, my hours got so we cant pay our bills. And now our Family Budget is gonna be hit hard with prop 15. The yes on 15 ads say it only raises taxes on big corporations. Thats not true were all going to pay. 11 billion in new property taxes will get passed on to Small Businesses and farms. Theyll raise prices. Higher gas, health care, food. Even day care. We cant make ends meet now. Families cant afford 15. No on prop 15. Man pulled over is now taking legal action. He has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit over the stock. Henry, police drew their guns mistakingly thinking that car had been stolen. This man is a postal worker who says he was confronted by a police for driving while black. Police say they did apologize after realizing he had the wrong car. The man says he has suffered from anxiety and trauma and has taken a leave of absence from his job. This is Police Body Cam video showing Officers Holding the 55yearold at gunpoint on highway 101 back in august. Police believed that the white chevy he is driving with dolan. He had just gotten off work at the postal service. Come back to me. And officer orders him to walk towards him on a busy freeway. They put them in the back of a police car. They soon determine his car was not stolen. On thursday, he said he was still traumatized by what was happened what had happened. I never had a gun pulled out on me. But, to have several guns is devastating to me. In my mind, im wondering if im going to make it out of there. Im going to tell you, 5 to 8 minutes with guns pointed at you and you dont know whether any moves you may could result in your death. His attorney has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the four Police Officers involved. It is a case reflective of what happens to americans on a routine basis that creates a scar on the membrane in the body of the africanamerican communities. The card that had been stolen was a white chevy impala with black wheels. He was driving a chevy malibu. It was the wrong car. We made a mistake. This kind of mistake is rare, but it happens. It came in pretty apparent that it probably was not a match, so i apologize. So did chief, diana bishop. I know the words of my officers will erase the event or the impact it had on the driver. Now, carl bracy says he came across a dui checkpoint and drove a long way around it just to avoid any potential run in with the police. The Department Denies that race played a role in the case. The actual stolen car was found later in vallejo. Reporting live, henry lee, ktvu fox2 news. New data shows that Drought Conditions are expanding here in northern california. The just released federal Drought Monitor map shows 13 of our state is in extreme drought. That same map a week earlier showed just 3 . Here in the bay area the drought ranges from moderate to severe. Of course at this time of year, we are winding down in our fire season. That is not what we want to hear. We want to hear that we are going to see things improve and that we have rain on the way. Unfortunately, that is not exactly where we are at. I want to show you the national Drought Monitor map. You see the map there, and you can see there is some dry conditions in california, but it is not bad. You can see three months to now currently it is not just california but a good portion of the west, in fact mostly in the southwest where we are having these issues. It is because we have a lack of rainfall. Yes, we are in a severe route. You can see the extreme drought to the north and east of us. It all has to do with the fact that we have had High Pressure in control for a good portion of the last few months. What happens when that happens is that anything just shoot straight over the top of us. That is why like today, we have had blue skies and very little cloud cover. I will show you what happens when High Pressure is in control. It goes up to the pacific northwest. Again, you can see on wednesday the same story, so that is the problem. We cannot get any rain in here. A live look outside right now. I would do a quick look at your current temperatures. We are going to warm up a little as we head towards the weekend. I will have your halloween forecast coming up. For now, i will send it back to the desk 14 employees test positive and we will tell you about the testing underway today in the changes the hospital is making to prevent the virus from spreading. Woman after covid, my hours got cut. So we cant pay our bills. And now our Family Budget is gonna be hit hard with prop 15. The yes on 15 ads say it only raises taxes on big corporations. Thats not true were all going to pay. 11 billion in new property taxes will get passed on to Small Businesses and farms. Theyll raise prices. Higher gas, health care, food. Even day care. We cant make ends meet now. Families cant afford 15. No on prop 15. Restaurants, gyms, and places of worship would not be allowed to have people indoors. There are 26 to 28 new coronavirus cases reported in Solano County each day at the beginning of the month. Now, that number stands at a high. Hospitalizations are also up as well in the county. That is going to do it for us here on ktvu. Our coverage of thursday night football is up next. If you want more news, you can join heather and i over on ktvu plus. The falcons and the panthers will play football on thursday night. Give you my world how can i, when you wont take it from me you can go your own way xfinity mobiles fast nationwide 5g network meets the first iphone with 5g. Get the new iphone 12 on xfinity mobile. And right now get 250 off. Learn more at an xfinity store today. It is times like these that matter most. These are the days that stay with you. Do you want to go through the season or grow through the season. Pushing you to get better, work harder and to be great. Lets get this win. It is moments of excellence, but your short comings sometimes weigh you down. A heartbreaking loss for the atlanta falcons. Breathe, focus, lift yourself through them. When you embrace the highs and the lows, your opportunities will find you. As we continue to write the