A crew of seven is looking for a helping hand.
Next silicone or saline. When a decision could be made about the future of breast implants.
Also how the surveillance video helped catch two violent robbery suspects. Live at 11.
Number one in central California. This is ABC 30 Action News. Live at 11.
Well, you know, they say pain has a way of, you know, changing a lot of our behavior.
Record prices at the pump, but will the soaring cost of gas make Valley drivers think twice before buying SUVs?
That is our top story. Live at 11. Good evening. I'm Graciela Moreno.
And I'm Warren Armstrong. Local car dealers say they're already feeling the impact of California's record high gas prices.
Nationwide Ford Motor Company reported sales of sport utility vehicles dropped 8 percent in February compared to the same time last year.
General Motors reported SUV sales off 9 percent.
Action News anchor Gene Hankinson is live in North Fresno tonight with how gas prices are forcing some Valley drivers to make changes. Gene.
Well, Warren, big SUVs, of course, cost a lot more to fill up now with high gasoline prices.
And as you said, there are signs that consumers are becoming more.
Bergen car shopping. I'm in real estate business. I'm on the road all the time and it's eaten me alive.
Barbara says her current SUV gets from 14 to 16 miles per gallon. She's looking at a hybrid Ford Escape, which does much better.
I get two and a half times better gas mileage if I went with a hybrid.
Hybrids are attracting a lot of interested car lots all over town.
Sales manager Jesus Escobar says hybrid sales are rising, but he's still moving the regular SUVs.
Been a little bit of change, but we're still selling a lot of them.
Car makers are offering thousands in incentives to keep the regular SUVs moving because nationwide sales are slipping.
Sales of economical cars and hybrids are jumping.
In fact, demand is so high used Toyota Prius hybrids are often selling for more than new.
Economist William Rice says sticker shock at the pump is the reason.
But when we see a gas price go from one ninety nine to two fifty nine in a matter of weeks, psychologically that has an impact that is profound to us.
All of a sudden that's our pocketbook. That's a reality that we see.
Rice believes the real hit will come when gas reaches three dollars a gallon.
They say pain has a way of changing a lot of our behavior.
Barbara Bergen is feeling the pain right now and thinks more than doubling her gas mileage with a hybrid may be the way to go.
Absolutely couldn't turn that down at all.
We're here at the Ford dealership where they say or the woman who was looking at the hybrid car.
I'm sorry. She decided not to buy one today, but she's still very, very interested and hybrid sales, as we said, picking up throughout the area.
Now, high oil prices are expected to go higher, meaning gas prices should go over three dollars a gallon sometime this summer and then eventually come down.
Reporting live from North Fresno, Gene Hagginson, ABC 30 Action News.
Thanks, Gene. The average price for gas in California is currently $2.53 a gallon.
And to find the cheapest gas in the Fresno area, log on to our website, abc30.com.
Two suspects have been arrested in a string of violent Fresno holdups.
The security camera video shows the suspects entering one of the 13 stores they robbed over a two-month period.
The robberies occurred all over town at all hours, and the robbers were often violent.
All of the suspects terrorized workers or employees as well as customers with guns and threats of violence
and taking money and merchandise from the business as well as personal property from the employees and the customers.
The two in custody are Eddie Robinson and Tyree Devil Jefferson.
Two suspects remain on the loose. They are identified as Quint Hayes and Andrew James Thomas.
Police say both should be considered armed and dangerous.
Anyone with information about the suspects is urged to call Fresno police.
Merced police now say a 14-year-old girl's story of rape and kidnapping appears to be made up.
The teenager told police she was abducted at Knife Point last week while walking down Highway 140,
then put in a trunk, driven to rural Merced County and sexually assaulted.
After an investigation, police say the girl has now recanted all of those claims.
Governor Schwarzenegger is coming under fire again for changing his stance on a controversial issue, this time parole reform.
Starting today, parole violators will be sent back to prison instead of getting alternative rehabilitation,
something Governor Schwarzenegger used to support.
State officials say they scrapped the controversial parole reforms because they simply were not working, not because of public pressure.
The governor's approval rating has slipped to an all-time low of 43 percent.
The governor is also taking heat from California teachers in an ad just released.
Of course I'm upset about Governor Schwarzenegger breaking his promises on education.
He said he'd never shortchange Prop 98, which guarantees minimum funding to our schools.
The ad claims Governor Schwarzenegger borrowed two billion dollars from education and has not paid it back.
The teachers say the money is needed to reduce class sizes and keep quality teachers.
The California Teachers Association helped pay for the ad. No comments so far from the governor's office.
More shocking testimony today in the Marcus Wesson trial.
For the second day, jurors listened to recorded interviews police conducted with Elizabeth Wesson.
In the recordings, she told police she blamed herself for leaving her children with her husband, Marcus Wesson.
She told officers she saw her husband holding their 17-year-old daughter in a rear bedroom.
She said Marcus Wesson told his wife to come into that bedroom,
but she got scared and ran away without telling her daughters to run too.
The trial was cut short today after a juror became sick.
Now to read our Action News reporter trial notes from inside the courtroom, go to our website, ABC30.com.
The mother of a boy who once got millions from Michael Jackson in a lawsuit
told jurors today that Jackson pleaded with her to allow her son to sleep with him.
The woman said that she at first refused until Jackson tearfully begged and asked why she didn't trust him.
She said Jackson gave her an expensive bracelet the day after she agreed to let them share a bedroom.
The mother of Jackson's current accuser is expected to take the stand tomorrow.
Two Fresno County firefighters injured in a big traffic accident over the weekend are now at home
and are expected to return to duty soon.
Their fire truck was totaled when a small car ran a stop sign at American Intemperance in Fresno County,
causing the truck driver to swerve and then lose control.
There are currently stop signs in just two directions at that intersection.
Fresno County's policy on four-way stop signs includes intersections with five or more collisions in a year's time,
and twice in the last four years this intersection has been the scene of five or more wrecks.
Presently, Fresno County has this location under study prior to this collision,
and we have made, as of last week, improvements to enlarge the stop sign, put in cross-traffic doesn't stop signs.
There are plans to install rumble strips on the roads to alert drivers to the stop signs,
but four-way stop signs are not in those plans.
In the last five years, there were nearly as many accidents at Temperance and American
as four other nearby intersections combined.
An emotional night in a packed Fresno City Council chambers tonight.
That's where the 2005 murder victims quilt was unveiled.
Action News anchor Maureen Naylor joins us with the family's emotional stories.
It's an annual event, rather, that most never imagine having to attend until the unthinkable happens.
As part of National Victims' Rights Week, hundreds turned out to remember loved ones killed in Fresno County.
And while it was an emotional challenge for some, it's a key part of the healing process.
Please unveil the quilt.
Decorated with pictures and names, the 2005 Victims' Memorial quilt was revealed
with 16 new patches remembering 18 new victims.
Joel Robles Ibarra, Israel Lalo Serna.
Name by name, each lost life was remembered.
I can only hope that my son Johnny Michael Hernandez will turn out like his father.
On one of the patches, Kevin Vang, the 12-year-old Fresno boy, shot to death while riding in a truck with his dad back in June.
His mother broke down during the ceremony, and his uncle, a former police officer, shared his reaction to Kevin's death.
I've been through so many crime scenes, interviewed so many suspects, so many victims, but when I hit home, it's totally different.
People of all races and ages filled the council chambers, each with a painful loss.
To give me strength, because I've never been through this before.
It gives them some closure and also some empowerment, and helps them get through this very difficult process.
It's a slow process, but it's really helped myself as well as the family to recover.
He will always be in my heart and my inspiration, but most of all, he will always be my big brother, Robert. Thank you.
The quilt will be taken to Sacramento tomorrow for a Victims' March on the Capitol.
It will return to Fresno City Plaza lobby with the other quilts. It will be on display there for about two weeks, guys.
Hosts with the healing.
Well, the valley is cooling off tonight after a warm, sunny day.
Here's Angelo now to tell us if we can expect more great weather tomorrow. Ang?
Indeed we can. We hit a 73 today in Fresno for the high, and many other parts of the valley hit some upper 70s,
and we're expecting about a degree or two degree warm-up during the day tomorrow over the central San Joaquin Valley.
You can see we've depicted some precipitation over the Pacific Northwest, and that'll be the case tomorrow,
but some of it, some of the precipitation will be sliding into northwestern California,
and by tomorrow night it'll come a little farther south.
So not tomorrow, but by Wednesday we're expecting some changes toward cooler weather and perhaps some precipitation.
By 5 p.m. tomorrow, 73 degrees, a seven-day forecast in just a few minutes.
All right, Angelo, check back. Thank you.
Some students in the Bay Area today took time to support a walk for humanity that started right here in Fresno.
These green ribbons are how these Armenian students are supporting the March for Humanity.
The goal of the march from Fresno to Sacramento is to raise awareness of the Armenian genocide.
April 24th will mark the 90th anniversary of the genocide.
Some of the Bay Area students are also planning to travel to Armenia.
Having learned about the Armenia's beauty and its culture all these years,
finally getting to make that two-dimensional picture into a 3D sight, it's a pretty big deal to me.
An estimated one and a half million Armenians, more than half the total population, were wiped out between 1915 and 1923.
Those students leave for Armenia on Saturday.
Fresno City College basketball coach Vance Wahlberg could be coming to Bulldog basketball after all.
Sports director Dan Taylor is here now with this story.
We'll see what takes place. Not a done deal at this stage. He did not get the head coaching job.
But could Vance Wahlberg be jumping across town to Fresno State just the same?
Wahlberg, Fresno City's and Fresno State's new head coach Steve Cleveland.
It's going to be tomorrow to talk about a spot on Cleveland's coaching staff.
It'll be the second such meeting between the two on that matter.
Former Glover's West High standout Chris Hernandez has declared for the NBA draft.
He's a junior. He'll leave the option open to return to Stanford if the scouts don't bring encouraging news.
And the latest in the recent line of prized Giants pitching prospects makes his triple-A debut tonight.
Just how dazzling was 21-year-old Matt Kane at Grizzly Stadium?
We'll tell you about it and have much more when we have more sports later in the newscast.
Oh good. Thank you, Dan.
Would you eat a hamburger from a cloned cow?
Coming up on Action News, what a new study says about the differences between regular and cloned beef.
Also ahead, the right to die debate in California.
What the guidelines are for assisted suicide under a proposal at the state capitol.
But up next, a visit to the Valley's new Pot Store where medical marijuana is being distributed.
And who's trying to shut it down? Action News continues in one minute, live at 11.
You already know Storm 130 is the fastest, most powerful weather tracking system in central California.
But do you know Storm 130 has the power for live Doppler radars across the state?
With Doppler radars in Hendrick, Monterey, Sacramento and L.A.
Storm 130 has the largest digital Doppler network for the best live coverage of storms headed our way.
Storm 130, only on ABC 30 Action News.
ABC 30 Action News, live at 11, continues with Graciela Moreno, Warren Armstrong,
Angelo Stallas with the exclusive AccuWeather broadcast and Dan Taylor's sports.
Taylor has become home to the state's latest medical marijuana dispensary. As at charity caregivers,
you can get marijuana if you have a prescription.
But the city says it only gave the facility a permit to hand out information about medical marijuana and not the drug itself.
Owner Shane McLean says state law allows him to dispense the drug as long as he's a certified caregiver.
The city now says an ordinance needs to be put in place to regulate distribution of marijuana.
But it could be some time before one is passed.
Tomorrow California lawmakers will take up the issue of doctor assisted suicide.
Under the bill, patients must be of sound mind and have less than six months to live.
Two doctors must agree on that terminal diagnosis.
Only the patient can request the lethal medication and they must administer it to themselves.
There are two cooling off periods, the first 15 days, the next 48 hours.
At the state capitol today, opponents said assisted suicide is against the physician's oath.
But supporters say people should have the right to choose.
This is not a legitimate role for physicians. It never has been and it never should be.
You're allowed to live your life the way you want to live it.
Why not allow you to die the way you want to die with dignity that we all deserve?
Oregon is currently the only state with an assisted suicide law.
Another equally contested health debate is underway at the nation's capitol.
This fight is over breast implants.
In 1992 the FDA took silicone gel breast implants off the market and limited their use to clinical trials.
Now two companies are asking for approval to sell them once again to the general public.
Hundreds of women from across the country came to capitol hill,
some arguing against the silicone implants and others arguing for the right to choose.
Please support public health safety and not the industry poisoning the public.
We have a right to decide what is right for our own bodies.
One FDA estimate suggests up to three quarters of implants will rupture within ten years.
However, other studies have shown little health risks even with a leak or rupture.
Worried about the meat and milk produced by cloned animals?
A new study says don't be.
The University of Connecticut study found the meat and milk are essentially identical from normally reproduced animals.
One difference is slightly higher marbling content in the cloned beef, but that's actually considered a benefit in beef.
The Food and Drug Administration says it will review the study,
but will keep cloned products from the grocery store until the review is complete.
A Fresno student won top honors and a big check today in Washington, D.C.
Edison High School senior Joshua Pepper placed second in a nationwide science competition.
His prize? A $35,000 scholarship.
Pepper's winning project was titled Asthma Disparities in the Fresno Unified School District.
Among his discoveries? That students from affluent neighborhoods are more likely to be diagnosed with a chronic lung condition.
The 17-year-old senior competed against 650 students from all over the country.
Well, it's Monday, but do you already have Friday on your mind?
Check out this live nighttime picture from our ABC 30 Skycam in downtown Fresno.
Coming up, Angela will give us our first look at the upcoming weekend forecast.
Plus, surfs up how this SUV ended up body surfing on the beach.
That story on tonight's winning lottery numbers when we come back.
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It's the thrill of the hunt that keeps shoppers coming back.
To celebrate finding a treasure. To rejoice in a bargain.
Here's to shoppers who say yes to Tuesday morning.
Yes to the finest home accessories and gifts in the world.
Yes to the very smartest closeout savings.
Discover Tuesday morning and you too will be saying yes.
Now isn't that just great?
Up next, Angelo Stallas and the exclusive Accu with a forecast featuring Storm 130,
the fastest, most powerful storm tracking system in central California.
We'll be right back.
No day at the beach for the owners of an SUV.
Check it out. This is how Jacksonville, Florida beach goers found the vehicle this morning right there in the surf.
Turns out a group of water enthusiasts drove the SUV into shallow water.
Sure it was. To use it to tow a jet ski out of there.
Unfortunately the wind whip waves just too much for it.
The beach goers had to push the SUV out of the water, stuck in the sand.
Push! No thanks. One, two, three.
Alright, things warming up a little bit for us.
Yeah, we're going to get another degree or two warming tomorrow.
We had about a 78 today in places like Colinga. Gorgeous day.
Great.
Gorgeous day.
We're going to give you a look at Storm 130.
There is a little bit of rain over the west coast,
but you have to travel up to Washington and Oregon to find any of that precipitation.
And really most of it is not very heavy.
They're still at a deficit up there.
65% of normal places like Seattle and Portland, they need more rain.
They continue to have a favorable storm track.
It's just that the rain they've been getting the past week and a half or two has not been all that heavy.
Meanwhile here's the pattern now on the bigger picture.
You can see one system is poised to move into the Pacific Northwest.
Once again the tail end of that will bring some rain to northwestern California tomorrow morning.
And we'll see some high clouds out of this particular system.
The next system coming down the pike is due tomorrow night into Wednesday.
That should cool us off considerably so on Wednesday down to the mid-60s once again.
Plenty of cold air with that.
Some cold air cumulus clouds right behind this system.
And so this is the one that has a chance to bring some rainfall as far south as the Fresno area.
It's not really in our forecast.
It's just that we expect a slight chance of a shower on Wednesday.
And you folks in Merced may be picking up a few hundreds of an inch of rain.
The farther north you travel on Wednesday expect some shower activity at least during a portion of the day on Wednesday.
And expect some cooler conditions.
As we look at Courthouse Park in Merced with our live Skycam Network, good evening to you folks up there.
You've got a 52 at this hour.
The winds are out of the northwest seven miles an hour in your town.
Here in the downtown Fresno area we are experiencing 50s.
58 degrees it is at the airport, relative humidity 71 percent, northwest winds at 12.
Breezy it is in Visalia with your live picture there as we take a look out due north from the downtown area.
This camera in Visalia, this live camera located atop the Hotel Radisson.
And your current conditions out at your airport, 56 degrees, winds at the airport, north northwest at just six miles an hour from the top of the hour in our weather computer.
Right now at Madera it is 52 degrees, Hanford at the Weather Service 58.
Lemoore you've got 55, Porterville with a 52.
And the temperature change is showing the warming trend in some spots over the San Joaquin Valley.
So we expect about a two degree warm up on average tomorrow.
We hit a 73 officially for Fresno today, 49 last night.
The record for this time of year mid 90s and the average high is 73.
So we hit the average right on the money today.
Across the United States severe thunderstorm watches and tornado watches have expired at this hour.
But they were posted for a good part of the day.
It's just that they're going to get plenty of precipitation, especially over the southeastern United States over the next couple of days.
The northeast will remain dry.
Look at the numbers at this hour, 35 in Denver it is with Chicago reporting 54 degrees, Atlanta 64, New Orleans at 64 degrees, and up at Portland just 41 at this hour.
Good air quality on tap for us tomorrow and for the Sierra.
It should be 57 to 62 degrees tomorrow and the foothills at 2000 feet 65 to 70 breezy tomorrow and 50 for our overnight load tonight.
And here we go with the seven day forecast 74 tomorrow.
Grizzlies are playing at about noon tomorrow.
It's going to be beautiful.
Beautiful.
Nice.
Baseball weather tomorrow.
Maybe a little breezy, but not too bad.
You know, we're going to be hitting the 70s sometime during the afternoon tomorrow.
See at the ballpark.
Yeah.
Thanks, Anne.
Here's a look ahead at some of tomorrow's headlines in the Fresno beam.
Water releases from Millerton Lake have filled the normally parched section of the San Joaquin River.
Read more about the Edison High School senior whose study of local asthma rates won second place in a national competition.
And two Fresno women recount their battles with polio and pay tribute to the 50th anniversary of the polio vaccine.
Well, coming up, what past and present football stars honored some young Valley athletes tonight.
Plus all eyes on the mound how one of the Giants top prospects pitched tonight in his Grizzlies debut.
Dan has sports next.
Don't miss a day at the zoo.
Since the 1920s, boys and girls, moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas have enjoyed the exotic world of animals at the Chaffee Zoo.
Discover why generations of central California families treasure the Chaffee Zoo experience.
Don't miss a day at the zoo.
Fresno's Chaffee Zoo.
You know what I love about Subway restaurants?
Same thing you do.
Great tasting food and lots of it.
They've got tons of choices so you can get something different every day and you get your money's worth.
Hey guys, are we done yet?
I'm going to go check out what deal they have today.
Now this is a deal worth walking all the way across town for.
The 249 Daily Special.
Every day a different delicious 6-inch Subway Sub on fresh baked bread for only $249.
Heck, just saying the price makes me hungry.
Subway. Eat fresh.
Music.
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Introducing the most powerful mid-sized truck, period.
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All of you who wanted Vance Wahlberg with the Bulldogs may, and I say may, still get your wish.
We'll know a lot more in about 24 hours. We'll see what happens.
New Bulldog Coach Steve Cleveland will meet tomorrow with City College Coach Vance Wahlberg.
Their topic? Wahlberg's interest in moving across town and joining Cleveland's coaching staff.
The two met about that topic Sunday and agreed they will discuss it a little bit more tomorrow.
One of Wahlberg's former Clovis West High players, Chris Hernandez, is going to test the NBA waters.
He's declaring for the NBA draft. Hernandez has a year of eligibility left at Stanford.
And he's going to keep his eligibility and not hire an agent.
He wants to go through pre-draft camps to learn what his chances are.
20-year-old pitcher Matt Kane made his Grizzlies starting debut tonight against the Portland Beavers.
Giants 2002 first-round draft pick.
Fired six scoreless innings, allowed just three hits in his very first triple-A start.
In the third, the Grizzlies up three-nothing and one out. Doug Clark hits a bloop to left, gets under the outfielder's glove,
brings home Todd Linden from third, Fresno on top four-nothing.
Matt Kane struck out seven on the night, picking up the shutout victory, his first in triple-A ball.
Fresno beats Portland four-zip, same two teams in a day game that gets going at 12-05 tomorrow.
At Recreation Park, the Visalia Oaks fall to Bakersfield, losing it seven to five.
A prospect the Oakland Athletics once traded away, came back and spoiled the home opener at the Coliseum tonight.
Eric Hinsky, two years ago the Rookie of the Year with Toronto, gets the Blue Jays' scoring going with his two runs.
Here in the top of the first, when the night was done, Hinsky had three hits and Toronto would score eight more times, winning it 10-3.
Like the pregame balloons, the Texas Rangers' late lead in their home opener flew away.
The Angels' Darren Erstad belting a home run at the top of the ninth to tie things up.
And in the tenth, Orlando Cabrera belts this home run. The Angels come back for a seven-to-six win.
A sight for sore eyes in Boston, long-suffering Red Sox fans see a championship banner raised and World Series rings doled out a first time in 86 years.
Making it even sweeter, the arch-rival Yankees had to watch.
Loving salt in the Yankees' wound, it ain't one defeat. And Doug Mirabelli, the former Grizzly with a two-run home run, that's one of the highlights in the Red Sox run.
In the fourth quarter tonight, down south, some Laker fans no doubt wondering why their team hadn't played like this all season.
I mean, look at the shot Karon Butler throws in. He's trapped. He's going to toss it up over the backboard, get the bounce, and it goes.
And watch Kobe dry, go up and throw in the reverse slam.
The Lakers led the Phoenix Suns with just minutes to play when the Suns went on a run and pulled it out 108-97.
All-Stars past rubbed elbows with all-Stars of the present.
Players who will don the pads in this summer's City-County All-Star game were honored tonight at a team introduction banquet.
Players from years past like former Raiders great Darrell Lamonica were also saluted.
Tennessee Titan quarterback Billy Volek, himself a one-time participant in the game, shared thoughts with the All-Stars.
Those on hand also paid tribute tonight to legendary Valley coach Bill Sparks, who passed away late last week.
His son Mike will coach the county, and Clovis West coach Jim Hartigan this city.
A lot of talent in that room. Tremendous talent in that room. You bet.
Thank you, Dan.
Well, it fell from the sky and made more than a few hearts go racing.
Up next, look out below where this bag may have come from before its big plunge.
Education must be included in Section B, along with a complete history of employment.
Is that it? Is that all they want?
That's it, Dad. Can I go play?
You can go play.
If you know someone who struggles with reading, we can help.
Please call the Walmart Literacy Helpline, 1-800-929-4458.
Finally from us tonight, the sky was falling on a Northern California golf course today.
Or at least that's the way it seemed to golfers.
It fell about 10 yards in front of the guy I was playing with, Al Kornblom.
And it bounced and we couldn't believe it. We were scared to death. What happened, you know?
Well, this bag seemingly fell from the sky.
It turns out it's a military cargo duffel bag that missed its target by a mile.
The bag weighs 30 pounds and could have been lethal had it hit someone.
Officials are investigating, but they say a gust of wind blew it out of a crew member's hands.
Four? Oh, gee.
We should have interviewed Al also.
Maybe. I bet he had a story to tell, too.
I think so.
Well, that's all for this edition of Action News Live at 11. Thanks for joining us.
Nightline is next. And be sure to join us tomorrow for Action News AM Live. Have a great night.
Good night.
We'll see you then.