Transcripts For KPIX KPIX 5 News 20141221 : vimarsana.com

KPIX KPIX 5 News December 21, 2014

Last few cities in america in the running to host the olympics. Were getting very close here but theres one thing that could be holding us back. Were going to talk about what that is. Its rather large, believe it or not. A lot of people sit in it and it gets a lot of attention. First a look at the weather. Were having a drizzly morning all around the bay area. You might notice that if you head out this morning. Your windshield wiper action. Live look at the golden gate bridge, temperatures relatively speaking warm in the upper 50s now. If you like dry weather, we are going to see it next week. Good for travel. Cloudy this afternoon, dry and mild days ahead. Well look at the 7day forecast coming up in a few minutes. Two new York City Police officers are dead after a gunman opened fire in broad daylight. Ambushing them as they sat in a patrol car. Hundreds of officers saluted ambulances carrying the bodies from a hospital in brooklyn. Police say the suspect Ismaayil Brinsley shot the two men in the head yesterday afternoon. The suspect then ran to a nearby subway station where he shot and killed himself. Four detainees from Guantanamo Bay are now back in their home country of afghanistan. Its part of an effort to respond to requests from the new afghan president. Obama Administration Officials say this is a sign relations between the two countries are improving. They say more transfers are coming soon with the goal of eventually closing the prison. Monster waves are coming soon to a beach near you. Along with the possibility for flooding. They are called the king tides and will peak the next three days. The superhigh tide is a warning to prepare for flooding in low lying areas. Todays tide is expected to peak about 10 15 this morning. Thats a look at the top stories. Back to you. In a few hours the Oakland Raiders are going to play what they were thinking could be their last game ever in the coliseum. Their lease is up and are not taking deposits for next season. That has a lot of people worried. Their bluff is being called. Theres still no indication though of whether or not mark davis might extend the lease at the coliseum or move the raiders to a new city. Two mentioned are los angeles and san antonio. The raiders came here from l. A. In 1995 and the last couple of years say theyve been trying to get the city and private investors to fund a new stadium. So far no solid plan manedmade and now overnight it looks like l. A. Is not going to be hosting a team in the near future. That appears to be out. It looks like theres a good chance that the raiders are going to be staying here, in part just because they dont have another place to go. Leaving the fans hanging until the last minute thats the raider way sometimes. Were going to be broadcasting that game on cbs later today. San francisco officially in the running to host the summer olympics in 2024. Now its up to 107 people to choose which u. S. City has the best shot. The chair of the committee is larry probst who runs Electronic Arts in redwood city. So maybe theres a local connection, maybe a little edge. Also more predictable summer weather than some cities, say like washington, dc or boston. Another city in the ring, l. A. But theyve already hosted the olympics twice so the Olympics International may be looking for a new place to go. One thing lacking here in the bay area . A centerpiece stadium. The centerpiece of the summer olympics is the olympic stadium. The opening ceremonies, closing ceremonies, track and field which is the signature event of the Olympic Games has to be held in this stadium. Right now we dont have one. The plan is to build a 350 million popup stadium in brisbane. This is an artist rendering. To be torn down when the games are finished. The Olympic Committee will make a decision on which city to go forward with early next year. The ioc picks the final winner in 2017. When you look at the different cities and the security challenges of washington, dc, the boston weather, the fact that los angeles already has done it and the fact that the usoc is saying lets go make a bid, San Francisco and bay area looks pretty good. Its not going to come cheap though. What has been called a hidden gas tax is about to go into effect. Weve been enjoying cheap gas prices lately but californias cap and trade Program Expands on january 1st. Some experts are predicting gas prices could jump between 12 cents and 76 cents a gallon. Cap and trade includes a new carbon tax on gas and diesel that could be passed on to drivers. Part of a sweeping 2006 law aimed at reducing Carbon Emissions requiring industries to buy permits covering what they put into the air. Companies that produce gas havent been forced to buy the permits but that is going to change on january 1st. The air Resources Board denies a spike in prices but some lawmakers are skeptical. We really do believe that the people of the state of california have essentially been misled, they do not understand and have not been fully informed by their leaders of the impact this is going to have. State republicans say the fight against cap and trade isnt over even after it goes into effect. They predict higher gas prices will make a lot of people mad who will then pressure their elected representatives to repeal that part of the program. Its going to be interesting to see what sort of effect the lower prices weve been paying will have on that. We may not notice a huge spike since its been so low. People always watch what is going on at the pump. Its like your own individual stock market. I talked with sven borenstein at the uc energy center. He predicted about a 10 bump in prices out of the gate. It remains to be seen but everybody is going to be watching and everybody is going to make you aware of every bump there is. Trust me, this is the story for next year. Mange changes in store of the government of the bay areas largest city. San jose mayor elect is set to be sworn into office in less than two weeks and already the fur is flying. He made big moves last week replacing the city manager and temporarily filling a vacant city council seat. Critics including labor unions who opposed his election say the mayorelect is being too heavyhanded. . Its unprecendented, its dishonest, unethical. There are people who would like to rehash 9 last mayoral election, i get it. The city manager appoints Department Heads so this could set the stage for more moves in the future. It looks like licardo is also embracing his fiscally conservative agenda. A lot of people are annoyed he did it before becoming mayor but you cant blame him because right now hes got so Many Council Members on his side before the new ones are sworn in january 1st. The city council does meet and they can do these things and im going to tell you, you strike when you have the tools. You just do. In politics you make your move. If you sat back and waited, he wants to get off the ground with his agenda as new mayor, hell make the moves and not wait until hes officially in. That trick as old as willie brown. That reminds me of the old gavin newsome, whether you like it or not. New opportunities are in the works as the u. S. Adjusts to the idea of cuba no longer being offlimits but there are still concerns including some from one local politician who was born there. Im conflicted but i am pleased. San francisco District Attorney george gascone left cuba with his family at age 13 and visited there last year. Its also important to recognize that the cuban government is a tatorship. Dictatorship. My umpingle went to prison for his union activities. I also recognize what we have been doing for the last 50 years really hasnt worked. My hope is by having this kind of opportunity well will mean in the long term the people of cuba will be better off. That is the mayor of berkeley, a city that has been in support of recognizing cuba for the past three decades which is sort of interesting. Berkeley is this liberal bastion that they would be in support of a dictatorship. Its a generational shift. When they started in their support of it there was lot of row plantcism about romanticism about cuba as the socialist republic. Its a very interesting move the president has made. Uber killed my daughter. Thats what with a local mother says as the former uber driver accused of hitting a 6yearold with his car prepares to go to court. 57yearold said musasphir of union city will be arraigned tomorrow on vehicular manslaughter charges. Police say he ran down sofia liu last new years eve but the family is blaming both the driver and uber itself saying the driver was decision tracted by the uber app prior to the accident. They filed a wrongful death lawsuit saying uber makes drivers look at their phones as part of the way it does business. The District Attorney, and the los angeles District Attorney just filed suit against uber raising concerns about how well they check out their drivers. They say they use the highest standards. Gascone says no, i want to see fingerprints and work done there. Keep your eyes on that story. That will roll out in the next couple of months. Theres another app that is now featuring an option meant to make riders feel more comfortable. You can choose if you want a woman or man to pick you up. But users tell us most of the drivers just appear to be men. The feature is in addition to sidecars current marketplace model released in february which lets passengers review driver ratings, types of cars and current locations and pricing. I can see a lot of women that would want a woman driver, not a creeper bothering you while riding but as a woman driver, men can choose to have a woman driver and then you can have a creeper in the back seat. You have a way of putting things in perspective that is totally unique. On that i think well be back in main. ,,,,, female announcer get three years interestfree financing on brand name mattress sets. Plus, get free delivery, and sleep trains 100day low price guarantee. Sleep trains interest free for 3 event ends sunday. Your ticket to a better nights sleep mark does weather welcome back. Lets look at the sunday morning forecast for today. Heres a live shot of the bay bridge. It is cloudy, foggy and a little drizzly out there for much of the area. Heres what you can expect today, a cloudy morning with some areas of drizzle. Its going to stay cloudy later on this afternoon. But then it is looking dry through christmas. Well look at that in a moment. First our highs for today, well be 62 in San Francisco. 64 in mountainview. The same for oakland. 1 degree warmer further in the east bay. Concord 65 degrees. 64 up in santa rosa. So today mostly cloudy, of course we have the winter arriving today, 3 03 this afternoon. Then monday were going to start seeing a warming trend with the temperatures climbing and then by Christmas Eve a few extra clouds rolling in and cooler in our second half of the week there as we roll into the holiday. Today heres our gameday forecast. Buffalo bills against the Oakland Raiders, today 1 125. Thats being broadcast here on kpix 5, it will be mostly cloudy and 61 degrees. The head of the state puc addressed allegations of back room dealings during his final meeting at president. Michael peevey is step down leaving after 12 years as the president. Hes been under fire in connection with the series of e mail exchanges between Commission Members and pg e executives. The commission itself has been marred with questions about whether or not its been doing its oversight job especially in the pipe safety that resulted in the san bruno explosion. Joining us is state senator jerry hill who has been a longtime observer and critic of the puc. What do you expect the governor to do next . I expect and hope that he will look at someone that will take charge of the puc and make some changes. First of all the main focus is that he puts public back in the puc which is where its supposed to be. And p doesnt stand for pg e. It stands for the public. So the public needs to have a greater role in that. It also has to have a leader, there are over 1,000 employees at the Public Utilities commission. Someone who can lead them. One of the things, these ongoing questions that san bruno and pg e pg e exposed is the inner workings, and some things that are not working. This is an agency that oversees everything from Pipeline Safety that were seeing here that didnt go right to limousines, uber cars, cell phone technology, rates for your phones. Is it too much for one organization to be 457bdling . Should we break this thing up . I think so, there are too many, its become more complex over the years. When it started it was just railroads and dealing with oil. Today there are so many things. Were looking at taking transportation out of the puc bringing into a different agency. Its too large, its too complex and too cumbersome. The puc takes so long to operate and so long to move. Its like a heavy train speaking of trains, we have oil coming in by train. Who is going to be overseeing that . The federal trade commission does. We have some bridges that we watch but they have to take a stronger role. As far as safety and how we handle it once it crosses into the state, in much larger numbers, is that the puc again . The pr uc is puc is supposed to monitor it and inspect it for the federal Railway Administration and they are not doing the great job they are supposed to. We have to change the struck tower to take the power out of one person. The dictatorial approach that hasnt worked. Some people say that approach did work especially after that energy meltdown. Remember 12 years ago, people tend to forget where it was pulled back together. That was the case again of the question about whether the puc was watching that was one instance. Since then its not worked. We looked at renewable energy. Theyve done a great job but its been mandated by the legislature. We told them what to do. Energy efficiency, its not worked, the commissioner two months ago said he dont know how we didnt know how we got into this mess. The commissioner are appointed by the governor. He controls that. Ive got safety questions. Then you say in addition they are supposed to be looking into clean energy, supposed to be regulating the rates we pay on our phone service. Now you said cars and limos. Again this just appears to be a bureaucracy that has so many tentacles its a question that anyone can pull it together. One person certainly cant. That is why the previous commissioner who left earlier this year said there should be subcommittees of commissioners to spread the authorities, the recommendations out, among commissioners. Do the utilities and rail lines and these people want a strong oversight . Certainly they would like the strong overnight sight theyve had. That is why when we had the meeting last week wall street was there talking about how great mr. Peevey was over the years. Of course because the utilities got everything they wanted. As long as they get what they want they are going to be happy. Were going to have to keep an eye on them. Definitely. I think this is one of the most important appointments the governor is going to make. Do you have any idea what he is looking at . We sent him a letter, hoping for someone that will be more sensitive to the public and really put the public back in puc. Its so critical. You have to look at someone that can then tie the organization together and that is where its been, kind of going adrift with not in a good direction either. Thank you for joining us. Well be right back. , [ female announcer ] get your taste of the season, at raleys, bel air, and nob hill. Interview after a north ko group threatened moviegoers. Sony cancelled the release of that movie the interview after a north korean group threatened movie goers. The hackers also leaked sensitive documents. One group we have not heard much from about this is hollywood. We sat down with our political insiders willie and carla from the chronicle and says why are the usual voices about free speech so silent . I love it how Arnold Arnold schwarzenegger and all the action heroes are great with the phony guns hitting the bad guys but when it comes to the real thing they all cave. Sony caved, every hollywood actor, George Clooney tried to get them out there to protest on this. Nowhere. I dont think its a matter of caving. I think its a matter of people making a decision about what is in their best corporate interest. I dont think frankly anyone did it out of any form of fear other than the fact they would not make the millions they normally make. Thats a fear. Once again the lawyers had the role in getting rid of basically going down the slippery slope and caving because of fear of litigation. Let me tell you, you got to understand that if something similar to what happened in colorado occurs in some Movie Theater every Single Person associated with that production, all the way down to the janitor could virtually be a defendant. And any defendant will need somebody to represent them. What the lawyers did would say, this is exposure you have, you make your own decisions. Who gets to decide what we see . Are we going to let the lawyers and the litigation fears basically end our system as we know it . In terms of artistic freedom . You work for a newspaper that determines what we read. The chronicle with regularity makes a decision to do your story, or phils store story or someone elses story. They do the editing, they do all of that. That is what is occurring in hollywood today with reference to the movie called the interview. I enter viewed an entertainment lawyer about this this week and he was very concerned about what were seeing here. He said this would absolutely have a Chilling Effect on hollywood, on artists, very concerned with what this will mean for writers of future movies. I think it may be a bit of an overstatement. I think sonys decision was made for the utmost safety. No one wants a terrorist attack. Its a fine line though between fear and i am with mark. I think it would be in the back of your mind whether anybody says it or anything it will be unspoken. Do we

© 2025 Vimarsana