Now, Channel 7 News with Van Amber, Suzanne Sonjes, Dr. Dena Down, meteorologist Pete
Giddings, and Don Sanchez with sports.
Good evening.
Here's what's happening.
There's big labor troubles as we start the big Labor Day weekend, a big question mark
about the end of an era in the city of Emeryville right now.
That's true, judge and steal, and Emeryville Landmark for over 104 years shut down near
the end of the day shift yesterday, said that's it, it's all over, started banking the furnaces.
But workers there think that could be a contract negotiating ploy, and some of them are not
buying it yet, with details on that situation.
Here's Channel 7's Aaron Edwards.
The melt shop, the rolling mill, and the huge scrap yard that's been a familiar sight here
in the East Bay were all closed with practically no warning or notice.
Companies on the morning shift were stunned to learn about an hour and a half before quitting
time that their jobs were over and the firm was closing down at once.
When the two o'clock shift arrived at the gates, they couldn't get in.
They had no notice at all of the plan to go out of business.
And the United Steelworkers Union says it's highly unusual that they were not officially
notified of the company's plans.
This morning I received a call from one of the members of the negotiating committee informing
me that Judson Steel had notified all the employees yesterday afternoon that they were going out
of business.
He says there was no talk of pension benefits or severance pay, and some of these employees
have worked at the mill for over 40 years.
The union and Judson Steel have been engaged in negotiations trying to renew the contract
that expires this Sunday night.
But several employees refuse to believe that Judson will stay shut down.
They're saying that similar threats to close the plant were made during contract negotiations
to gain concessions three years ago.
And further they say the company has just put in a million dollars in capital improvements
just in this last year.
If the company is serious this time about closing down the steelmaking operation, many
will be left in a state of shock.
I don't know what I can do now.
My age I wouldn't stand much of a chance of going out and looking for another job.
In Emeryville, Aaron Edwards, Channel 7 News.
Well Judson Steel's history is legendary in the Bay Area.
It helped build the Golden Gate Bridge, the Oakland Bay Bridge, and also the San Rafael
Bridge and I worked my way through college on a crane in that place.
They don't think it is going to be shut down yet but the talks could go on.
Meanwhile more winery workers walking off the job this time this afternoon at the Bronco
Winery near Modesto, the fifth winery to be struck in two weeks.
More than 600 workers are now off the job as the harvest season gets underway and today
federal mediators call the two sides to the bargaining table.
The union controls more than 2,000 workers including those at Giant Gallo Wines.
The Wine Employers Association is calling for pay cuts in some job categories and freezes
in others and reduced fringe benefits.
The union is scheduled to start next week.
The Merrill Island ferry is no more.
The 132 year old two minute run across the Napa River from the Navy shipyards to Vallejo
quit less than two hours ago.
But as Channel 7's East Bay Bureau Chief Bill Van Amburg reports, that last run was filled
with well-wishers and lots of memories.
If this looks a bit like a water-borne cable car with riders hanging off its sides, that's
fitting because not these boats but this service is older than the city's hill climbing pride,
older than the Civil War.
This ferry run has made its way every day between Vallejo and the Navy's yards on Merrill
Island since 1854.
Though in recent years it hasn't been nearly this crowded.
There's a lot of memories.
My grandfather bought it in the early 20s.
It's been a tradition.
For half the ferry's existence, Rob's family has run it.
It was the logical water tie between Navy and city.
Mike Golson remembers from the 30s.
I can't get in the whole name of it but I can get in Merrill and ferry.
Got down here, Vic's brother, his name was Nay, he says I can't catch that ship.
He says that sucker will be steaming out here.
He says I can get up the pop guard.
Just get me out there.
I'll show you how to get aboard.
Is that what he did?
No he didn't.
I got 30 days restriction out of it too when I went back.
They were mean in those days.
So you have fond memories of this.
Oh yeah.
Most Navy people haven't missed their boats or work though thanks to this run.
Worn by the bell that lunch is over, skipper John Ambrosini remembers World War II.
Watch your ears.
We ran around the clock and this was like a beehive with 55,000 people a day.
But those days ended today, fittingly as full as during the hay days.
Sadly after 132 years neither family nor Navy could agree anymore on service or equipment.
Maybe both sides were too stubborn but they just called it off.
So Vallejo loses a piece of history, it's Merrill Island ferry today but it's not losing
ferry service because as of next Tuesday a brand new ferry run by the red and white fleet
will run from Vallejo to San Francisco.
And actually that new ferry may point out the new directions for this town.
This is the Vallejo the ferry thrived in circa 1920.
But this is Vallejo today, more white collar, growing and no longer so tied to the Navy
yards which is why the ferry's demise hits workers here twice.
Ferries run for 132 years, what about the yard you know?
Are you going to shut it down next or what?
Is that worrying that this might be next?
It's a possibility you know, looking at it, something to think about.
In Vallejo, I'm Bill Van Amberg, Channel 7 News, East Bay Bureau.
Well for its part tonight the United States Navy says it regrets the loss of service.
Those boats are going to continue to run Sunday tours in the city of Vallejo.
Meanwhile let's go to Stockton because that's a town divided tonight with emotions running
very high over the Board of Education's firing of the first black superintendent of schools
back on Tuesday.
The board met again last night, it was confronted at the time with talk of lawsuits and boycott
of classes, we've reported on that.
Reporter Craig Prosser covered that heated session for Channel 7 and here's the details.
Black board members wore black armbands, so did many in the overflow crowd in a silent
protest to the firing Tuesday night of James Northridge, the district's first black superintendent.
There was vocal protest too, city councilman Ralph White, away from his Monday night arena
at City Hall lectured the board on parliamentary rules and warned of a lawsuit against the
four member majority who voted to ask Northridge.
Punity damage you're not immune from, I hope you're checking because each one of you will
have to have a lawyer, I guarantee you that.
The three black board members have retained attorney Al Ellis to take the matter to court.
They contend the firing is illegal, charging that the majority decided the matter in advance
in violation of the state's open meetings law.
Blacks in the community have demanded reinstatement of Northridge and are urging a student boycott
of classes if he's not.
You will no longer sit on that racism and insist to stop him as I'm sure you'll see
next week.
I'm here tonight to ask all the parents and encourage all the people in all of these districts
to join us in the boycott.
The board majority agreed to appoint district research director Roger Reimer to run the
30,000 student system until a new superintendent can be found.
One by one black members abstained when the vote was taken.
There will not be a party to the action that was taken on Tuesday night nor a party to
the action that you are just taking tonight.
With the threat of a school boycott next week facing the Stockton school board, members
must also deal with a budget at their next meeting and that budget is a whopping $130
million package.
Now, last year the student test scores went up in the city of Oakland and now that school
is getting ready to start all over again they held a big pep rally today.
It was a very big, big meeting.
7,000 people, teachers, administrators, other employees of the Oakland schools.
Now usually these groups have separate meetings but this year they were called together.
They wanted to meet that way because the message they have is one of togetherness.
Teamwork is going to be the focus this year.
We're not going to improve student achievement the way that we need to unless every member
of the Oakland Public Schools team is working together towards a common mission and towards
a common objective.
One of the things they did today was banish any kind of preference for parking places
and everybody has the same.
Most of the teachers like that.
The group effort will include setting standards for students, teachers, and administrators
and seeing that those standards that are going to be set up are met in the Oakland Public
Schools.
Meanwhile, the man authorities believe was behind a decade of bloody Oakland drug wars
and killings was buried today and police hope his passing is going to bring to an end an
era of brutality in Oakland's turbulent history but even in the end this funeral today was
flashy and controversial and the city really couldn't do anything about it.
Channel 7's Ed Leslie has details for us.
Right along in here I need just a little bit more room.
Just when the East Bay thought one of its most notorious hoods was gone forever, he
came back to star in a funeral production fit for a king.
Alas, it was his own.
Thirty-two year old convicted drug racketeer Felix Mitchell was stabbed to death last week
in his cell at Leavenworth.
Mitchell was convicted in San Francisco Federal Court earlier this year after allegations
that he was the kingpin in an East Oakland heroin dealership that featured fancy cars,
flashy parties, and murders.
Murders including victims who had nothing to do with Mitchell's mob, innocent people
who were killed merely by accident.
His neighborhood however was divided today on whether Felix Mitchell was a hero or a
villain.
The family has a right to private fuel.
I don't think they have a right to force this kind of thing on the community in Oakland
and I'm very upset about it.
Felix dealt in drugs over here in the village for years.
He used young kids to deal with drugs.
I don't think any of us here want our kids to be brought up that way and I think this
is a good example of what happened when you deal with drugs.
You put some jabs here, maybe we won't have this on the streets of Oakland.
That's what it takes, you understand?
I know what he done.
He was a good man.
And we need to tell the city officials that if they get the jobs out there then maybe
it wouldn't be so much drugs in Oakland.
There were others interested in the garish parade that made its way right down San Pablo
Avenue tying up traffic and amazing onlookers.
And they were the detectives who helped send Mitchell to prison.
We're heading towards Lake Merritt.
They were looking for Mitchell's possible successor and their somewhat ostensible vantage
point was Mitchell's favorite red Ferrari seized by the government under a new law.
At the church hundreds of people were turned away from the sellout funeral but many were
lucky enough to get souvenir programs.
Others just watched quietly wondering how to explain all this to their children.
The services were strictly private as family and friends said their last goodbyes to Felix
Mitchell now at last a victim himself.
In Oakland, Ed Leslie, Channel 7 News.
Well those pictures that police were taking there are going to be gone over very closely
to see if anybody was there who should not have been there and maybe help them focus
in on trying to find out who's going to try to power their way down the same path that
Mitchell did.
Coming up next here at 6 on 7 tonight we'll have the latest on that daring Berlin Wall
escape at Checkpoint Charlie and we'll also look at the new one hour house as they start
putting them up in the Bay Area.
I'm not an actor.
I'm just a guy 30 years old who had a heart attack.
I'm okay now but I want to tell you one thing I learned from my doctor.
Medical studies prove that a diet low in fats and cholesterol with foods like Fleischmann's
margarine can actually help reduce the level of cholesterol already in your body and that's
one way you can help reduce your risk of heart disease.
I thought you'd like to know that.
Take care.
Fleischmann's margarine.
Ask your doctor.
Those are the sounds you'll always hear when you purchase fresh vegetables at Safeway.
It's my job to guarantee you, our valued customer, only the freshest and best quality vegetables
possible.
We buy from local growers and go worldwide to bring you the finest available and what
a selection.
From everyday to the exotic, Safeway produce departments have it all.
Looking for fresh vegetables?
It's a snap.
When you shop at Safeway, America's favorite food store.
Are you sure?
Yes.
Really?
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Right now your Nissan dealer is saying yes to great deals on new cars from Centra's
and Stanza's to the awesome 300ZX.
And Nissan is now making it even easier to own a new truck by saying yes.
With 5.7 Nissan sponsored financing or saved with $500 cash back from Nissan.
So come on down to your Nissan dealer now because he's going to say yes.
The name is Nissan.
When you go on vacation, the criminals go to work.
So don't carry cash.
Carry American Express travelers checks.
Don't leave home without them.
Strike black gold.
Now save up to $3 on Texaco's Havalent Supreme motor oil.
And special sale at these stores on participating Texaco retailers.
Well as we showed in our documentary in the Berlin Wall, it's a tough place to get through
but there was another daring escape through that infamous wall today.
It happened at Checkpoint Charlie when an East German mother and father and their little
girl crashed a seven and a half ton dump truck loaded with gravel through the barriers and
bounced into West Berlin in a hail of gunfire.
Nobody injured.
Everybody seemed happy except for the guards on the other side.
There was also another escape over the fence near Frankfurt today.
A married couple climbing into the West there as East Germans still get away from East Germany.
The Soviet Union is pushing very hard at a brand new public relations campaign right
now on nuclear disarmament.
The Russians held a rare news conference in their embassy in Washington today and for
the first time offered to open nuclear test sites to American inspectors saying verification
need not be a problem.
There exists every necessary prerequisite now for halting nuclear fever through Soviet
U.S. moratorium on nuclear testing and we believe that an agreement with the United
States on ending nuclear tests under effective verification is possible and can be reached
speedily.
Also in Stockholm today Russia agreed to allow aerial inspection of military activities in
parts of the Soviet Union which border Europe.
Diplomats say that is a very important concession from the USSR.
Meanwhile U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat fighters chased Soviet planes out of the area of military
exercises in the Bering Sea today.
That's according to the United States Navy.
The exercises led by the USS Carl Vinson are reportedly the biggest in the Bering Sea since
World War II.
The two day long maneuvers were conducted because of increased Soviet activity in Alaskan
waters.
At the same time the U.S. aircraft carrier Nimitz was greeted by a flotilla of protesting
Norwegian whalers today in Oslo.
That carrier is leading an American task force into Norwegian waters to start NATO maneuvers.
The whalers were demonstrating against the anti whale hunting policy of the U.S.
This summer the United States Trade Department had threatened to impose economic sanctions
against Norway unless officials there agreed to comply with the International Whaling Commission's
ban on commercial whaling.
Today they threw up a flotilla around one of our aircraft carriers.
Meanwhile the commander of the U.S. forces in Europe said today that there is solid evidence
that Libya may be planning new terrorist attacks.
General Bernard Rogers also said that the United States, if that happens, should once
again strike militarily.
That's if Libya decides and carries out any plans for terrorism.
Bernard declined to give details on the information he has suggesting that Libya had planned attacks
on Europe.
At the same time King Hassan II of Morocco has renounced a treaty with Libya against
Muammar Gaddafi.
Muammar Gaddafi accused him of treason and that was for last month's meeting with Israeli
Prime Minister Shimon Peres.
Hassan says Gaddafi's remarks offended him and he's now no longer going to honor a two-year-old
treaty with Libya that included a mutual defense pact.
U.S. officials heard that and applauded Hassan's decision to break ties with Gaddafi and his
country of Libya.
At least 160 labor and political leaders are under arrest in Bolivia tonight and that country's
president imposed a state of siege.
That's been going on for a couple of days.
Yesterday 7,000 striking miners marched on the nation's capital to protest government
layoffs.
Military troops surrounded the workers after Bolivia's president said labor leaders were
planning a violent overthrow of the government.
Many of those arrested are going to be sent to remote labor camps.
Back in this country archaeologists working in the Sierra Nevada have uncovered what could
be the oldest structure in these United States or in North America for that matter.
The discovery was made in the Stanislaus National Forest at the site of a proposed hydroelectric
dam.
After centuries of dirt archaeologists were able to find a compact clay floor that contained
a small pit used to make fires.
If this site is as old as it has a potential to be it will be the earliest dates in the
high Sierra Nevada.
You saw it archaeologists found stones, rock art and tools at the site.
They believe it could be as old as 10,000 years but won't know for sure until they get
the results from carbon dating that will come back late this fall.
They better hurry.
Government figures show released just out show that new home sales are down again tonight
for the fourth straight month.
Figures show that new home sales are down to the lowest level since October.
For July sales are down more than five and a half percent for the previous month and
down almost 29 percent since March.
Experts say they expect new homes to start selling well again thanks to declining interest
rates.
You know this is the era of fast food, fast cars, fast planes and now fast houses.
Fast houses is right.
It's taken three years to develop the brand new technique and Channel 7's Ron Nasso has
details on how they do it.
Houses under construction on a hillside nothing unusual about it.
You see it all the time but how often do you see modular type homes being built in your
neighborhood?
Well here in the Sun Valley section of San Rafael there will soon be 16 single-family
homes with a 125 ton crane and construction workers directing the operation they began
piecing together a four-bedroom 2400 square foot home.
Basically an hour and a half you can have a house sitting on a foundation that you can
walk into and conventional stick framing and that you're anywhere from 30 days to 60 days
before you can even do that.
So in a three-month period we have say seven homes that will be set with a basic crew of
eight people working.
Construction on this project began in May of this year.
Weather permitting it's moving right along.
At least three modular homes have already been erected.
The price of these homes range anywhere from $316,000 to $360,000.
The developer says a buyer can save about $80,000 when buying one of these homes.
Saving on the interest.
The house goes up faster.
You've got a little bit of cost savings in that.
Your labor savings because you're using fewer guys.
It's going quicker and it breaks down to the total end that you can pass it off.
You're not carrying the house for an extra three or four months while you're building
them.
You can have a project built in a quarter of the time.
They already have one home that's been completed and being used as a model.
All are built from custom-made plans.
In addition to the four bedrooms there's a good-sized living room, a dining area and
a large kitchen.
But if for some reason you don't like the design.
These basic homes here we can modify and change around in many different directions.
For me at times only take an hour and a half to fully erect one of these homes.
But today for some reason it took almost an hour just to do one section.
In San Rafael, Ron Nosso, Channel 7 News.
Everything included in that price that Ron was talking about including the land and the
sewer hookup.
One thing that still takes time though they say is making the money to pay for all of
it.
We have more business news to report tonight and for that we're going to switch live to
the newsroom in Cheryl Jennings.
Cheryl?
Thank you, Van.
The Navy just told the Topps Bubble Gum Company to stop making Garbage Pail Kids stickers.
The Garbage Pail Kids are a parody of the famous Cabbage Patch Kids but with a ghoulish
kind of humor.
Well the makers of Cabbage Patch Kids didn't think that was funny.
And today they won their first round in court by getting a temporary injunction to get Garbage
Pail Kids off the market.
The United States Navy says American shipping companies charge too much and it wants to
start using ships from other countries.
The Navy contracts almost two billion dollars in shipping each year and by law it must give
American companies first crack at the business.
The Navy brass is trying to change that but US shippers are fighting it all the way.
New government figures show the average American earned four and a half percent more in 1985
than in 1984.
The average salary last year was over $19,000 and that compares with about $18,000 the year
before.
An advertising survey shows Chicago Bears football player Walter Payton and Celtics
basketball star Larry Bird are America's favorite athletes.
The research is to help advertisers decide how to give out lucrative endorsement contracts.
By the way 49ers quarterback Joe Montana didn't even make the top ten on the list.
Joe met his current wife during a shaving commercial.
Chrysler is matching General Motors low auto financing rate with an even lower one.
Chrysler announced today that it will charge 2.4 percent on three-year car loans.
That's for 1986 models.
Yesterday GM announced a 2.9 percent rate and now Ford says it's considering a new lower
rate as well.
Well those low interest rates have scared a lot of investors and the automobile stocks
took a beating on Wall Street today.
The Dow was down slightly for the day although it ended up for the week over 26 points.
The average price of a share was also up today.
Back to you Van.
Okay thank you Cheryl.
It's time for Money Matter to talk about tonight an amazing story of riches to rags.
It's coming out of Dallas and that city is buzzing about the Hunt family with all of
their billions trying something unheard of.
It's called bankruptcy.
Maybe you didn't hear what I said.
I said Placid Oil Company filed a Chapter 11 petition this morning.
Nelson Bunker and Brother Lamar Hunt are in bankruptcy proceedings.
They want to hang on to their Placid Oil Company and its real estate holdings but they're behind
with about a billion and a half dollars in loan payments.
The Hunt brothers charge the 23 banks that conspire to wreck their empire.
They're suing the bankers for count them 14 billion dollars.
We have an outstanding report about local television news tonight.
It's a new national roper survey that shows that Americans believe local television news
reporters are hardworking, professional and fair and balanced in their reporting and they
also register strong approval of the contents of local television newscasts.
One other thing the survey found that people do have a desire to know and they don't feel
over-news.
Coming up next, the latest on the really big eye in the sky in the fight against drugs.
The BMW 735i is one of those rare luxury sedans engineered by driving enthusiasts.
While other luxury sedans announce to the world you've arrived, the new BMW 735i offers
you the considerable advantage of arriving a bit sooner.
Contact your Bay Area BMW dealer for a thorough test drive.
Remember that special feeling called summer?
Remember the taste of summer peaches?
So cool, juicy and good for you?
Summer, summer fruits from California, first from the tree, taste them and see.
They have a special sweetness that only summer can bring.
But like summer, they'll soon be just a sweet memory.
Summer, summer fruits, it wouldn't be summer without them.
This year the sophisticated Parisian will be running red while the young Bostonian is
wearing pink.
I'm gonna miss you Jane.
Saying goodbye is never easy.
Jane, telephone, America.
But with AT&T International Long Distance, it's easy to say hello because a 10-minute
call to France can average just 71 cents a minute.
So are you sophisticated yet?
Sort of.
Only AT&T keeps you this close anywhere in the world.
Does anything make more noise and less sense than new car deals?
Well, the only thing that makes any sense, they don't talk about, the bottom line.
Well, it's bottom line time at your Hyundai dealer.
Hyundai Excel starting at $49.95.
Eight models under $7,000.
All with more standard features than anything in their class.
Hyundai has the bottom line deal that makes sense.
Ben?
Without all the noise.
Call toll free for the Hyundai dealer nearest you.
Get the bottom line deals that make sense.
Well, the story's been buzzing all day about the federal government wanting to enlist the
Goodyear blimp or a number of Goodyear blimps to help them in the fight against drugs.
But Goodyear heard about it, thought about it, and has scrapped the plan saying it wants
to withdraw from that plan.
Customs agents confirmed that they were going to try to fly a week's worth of surveillance
tests off the Texas coast with the blimps.
The idea was to use the blimp as a platform from which agents could scan the horizon for
boats and planes headed into the United States with illegal cargo.
In addition, they wanted the blimp to carry a lighted message reading, report drug smuggling.
They thought about it for a while and said, no thanks, we'd like to pull out.
So that has been scrapped tonight.
President Reagan's drive to keep federal employees free of drugs got a boost today.
A major insurance carrier offering increased rehabilitation benefits for workers who try
to kick a habit.
The federal employee health insurance carriers have said yes to drug and alcohol rehabilitation
programs for federal employees who want to say no.
Blue Cross Blue Shield, which is the largest health insurance carrier covering 40% of federal
employees, will for the first time offer inpatient treatment for drug and alcohol abuse rehabilitation.
Critics of the announcement today say the cap of $3,500 on inpatient rehabilitation
will go very far considering the cost of hospital care.
And so they're kind of upset about it, but the plan seems to be going through.
This was scheduled to be the state legislature's last day of this year in Sacramento, but now
it appears work is going to continue through most of tomorrow.
Still to be settled are a school construction bill and bills which would allow out of state
banks to do business here in California.
And the most controversial measure is the revived AIDS discrimination bill, a rewrite
of one of the governor has already vetoed.
The governor says AIDS discrimination is already covered and he doesn't want that kind of bill.
Until there is language to view, we see no difference than the bill that has already
been vetoed.
The language has been changed.
I have not seen any change in the language myself.
Personally, my sense is that the governor, as he said along the North Coast is, there
is no reason to change his position.
What's changed the circumstances since the veto was an administrative law judge ruled
that AIDS was not covered and therefore it needs some clarification in the law.
And that's what this bill does.
It puts AIDS in with the other diseases that have been covered by law in the past but have
not been stated in the law.
It's only been done through administrative practice and it's now time we stated it clearly
in the law so that everybody knows where they stand with the various diseases.
Well, the state senate passed the agnose bill yesterday.
The assembly may vote on it later tonight, but it does look like there's going to be
a lot of work through tomorrow.
Meanwhile, it was a victory for homosexual rights advocates today in their battle over
health insurance.
Great Republic Life Insurance was in court today defending its policy of requiring single
men without children to fill out a special health questionnaire before insuring them.
The company wants to keep down costs of insuring groups at high risk for AIDS.
Channel 7's David Louie was there and asked a big question.
Is there discrimination against gays going on by Great Republic?
No, we don't believe so.
Many homosexual rights advocates say only certain groups are asked to fill out the questionnaire.
They talk about antique dealers, interior decorators, people who work in the jewelry
or fashion business.
They're clearly stereotyping and scapegoating the gay community.
Judge Lucy Kelly McCabe apparently agreed she refused to throw out the suit against
Great Republic.
One of the anti-discrimination lawyers then reacted to that.
For the first time in California history, a court in California has confirmed that it
is illegal in this state to discriminate on the basis of sex, marital status, and sexual
orientation in the offering of insurance.
The anti-discrimination groups are trying to set a precedent throughout the United States
for the granting of health insurance to homosexual men.
No trial date was set.
While we're on AIDS tonight, Hayward politicians are finding the business community there taking
a stand on AIDS and that is not to take a stand on AIDS.
The Hayward Chamber of Commerce is sending a clear message to the city council in a letter
that says it does not want the city of Hayward to have an AIDS anti-discrimination ordinance.
The council shouldn't mind its own business, the chamber says, and it should table the
anti-discrimination ordinance that's coming up for approval next month and it should do
that indefinitely.
No comments coming out of the Hayward City Council yet.
Los Angeles County efforts to regulate homosexual bathhouses to try and prevent the spread of
AIDS are effectively crippled tonight.
A superior court judge considering the regulations patterned after San Francisco's guidelines
has refused to order LA bathhouses to post AIDS warnings and to expel patrons engaging
in high-risk sexual activity.
The judge agreed with arguments that such policing would drive customers away from the
relatively safe bathhouses into public parks or restrooms for sexual contacts.
Those same arguments were brought up in challenges in the city of San Francisco in the regulations
in the city and according to the city attorney's office in San Francisco, they were rejected.
Wheat and corn farmers may get six times, be six times more likely to get cancer because
of a commonly used weed killer.
That's the word we're getting tonight according to a National Cancer Institute researcher.
She said the herbicide known as 2,4-D may cause a type of lymphatic cancer.
The researcher suggested wearing protective clothing to cut down on risks.
However, a professor of weed science at Kansas State University said farmers had been using
2,4-D for 40 years with no noticeable effect on their death rate.
There is worry though about the herbicides they use.
Everybody's heard the phrase post-surgical complications, right?
Dr. Dean Adell tells us one type of complication can be caused by a very simple item.
Here's the report.
In this age of modern surgical miracles, this may be one of the most important new innovations
in a long time.
A rubber glove?
That's right.
Let me explain.
One of the common complications of abdominal and gynecological surgery is adhesions.
An adhesion which can take years to form is scar tissue that forms around the intestines
and the internal organs.
They can cause pain and blockage of those organs requiring further surgery.
Now the cause is irritation during surgery of the internal tissues.
One reason is rough handling during the operation.
Frankly, some surgeons aren't so gentle.
They get the job done but they're a little rougher than other surgeons.
There's no way you can know that or do anything about it.
But another important cause of adhesions can be helped.
It's powder on the surgeon's gloves.
The powder gets there during the manufacture of the gloves.
Let me quote you a recent article.
It says surgical glove powder shed during an operation is potentially hazardous.
The powder can cause a mild peritonitis or inflammation when it gets all over your organs
and that can mean trouble.
Now surgeons will do different things to try and remove that powder.
Here for instance a Russian surgeon dips his hands after they've been gloved into a bath
to get rid of the powder.
According to this research the only thing that will get rid of powder on gloves is a
heavy 60 second scrub with an iodine soap solution followed by a 30 second rinse with
sterile water.
Frankly, most surgeons are not going to take the time to do that.
Which brings me full circle to this, the rubber glove.
Well this is a new kind of rubber glove.
It's called pristine.
That's the brand name.
It's kind of corny.
But the pristine glove is the only glove in medicine that's made without powder.
And if I were having abdominal surgery frankly I'd ask a surgeon about it.
I'm Dr. Dean Adell.
What if it's an emergency?
I mean you go in and the guy's doing it.
Carry your own maybe.
I think that they can scrub for a minute and a half and rinse for 30 seconds.
He said maybe most doctors wouldn't do that.
I think they can do that.
You think they better do that is what you're saying.
I heard that in your voice.
Labor Day weekend weather with Peter Giddings coming up in just a moment.
Right now your Toyota dealer has cars, cars and more cars.
So you're going to save cash, cash and more cash.
It's the biggest summer selection in Toyota history.
Save on the full line of America's number one selling import.
Groomy Camrys, reliable Corollas, even low-priced Turcells.
Check out the special prices your local Toyota dealer is offering today.
Just to save cash, cash and more cash you got to do it while he still has cars, cars
and more cars.
Toyota, the right deal right now.
Come on guys, Kentucky Fried Chicken got a real meal deal.
Right now $8.99 gets you nine pieces of chicken and all the fixings.
Enough to feed four people.
It's a real meal deal.
All for $8.99.
It's the great Pennzoil Jeep giveaway.
And for 20 lucky winners, something wild is going to drive into their lives.
To enter, round up the entry forms that are on every bottle of quality Pennzoil motor
oil.
Or look for the Pennzoil display for all damn details.
The great Pennzoil Jeep giveaway.
Enter today.
And a Jeep Wrangler is my drive into your life.
Build your dream home at Discovery Bay.
Hi, this is Lon Simmons to say that your own custom-built waterfront home or golf course
home is affordable at Discovery Bay.
Custom golf course lots are priced from just $80,000.
And custom waterfront lots also from $80,000.
You'll enjoy boating, water skiing, tennis, and 18 of the most challenging holds of golf
anywhere all right at your doorstep.
Build the home you've always dreamed of in the heart of the California Delta.
Discovery Bay by the Hoffman Company.
Look for ads in your Sunday paper.
Time for all the weather with our meteorologist Peter Giddings and you got it.
And a pretty picture I'm going to show you.
I'm going to take you out to Pier 45 where tomorrow if you'd like from 9 to 7, from 9
to noon or from 2 to 7, you can get to see the Diwaruchi's Band and Ship.
This is the Indonesian Naval Training Ship.
Listen, you'll enjoy.
So you get a chance to see one of the tall ships and it will be at Pier 45 from 9 to
noon, 2 to 7.
It leaves on Sunday for Indonesia.
So if you want to see it, see it tomorrow.
On the weather map we've been watching that cold air come down around the high pressure
system.
It's finally started shifting to the east.
But look what's coming in.
A trough of low pressure.
It's gathering up all the energy in the central portion of the country.
It'll jump over the Rockies into the plains and will probably wind up having another blast
of chilly air coming down.
Only warnings that we have today are in San Francisco Bay and from Point Pino's down to
Point Conception, small craft advisories.
We could let this run for about 10 minutes, but instead I'll just fill in the cities that
I could fit on the map and tell you that from as far north as Concord, New Hampshire where
they went to 32 to Savannah, Georgia where they went to 57 all the way over to 70 degrees
at Galveston to 57 at Wichita Falls, Texas to 43 degrees up at Dubuque and all the cities
in between.
The coldest morning they have ever had in the history of weather records.
We're going to take you back to New York where people were bundled up to show you how cold
it was there as both they and Philadelphia dropped to 50 degrees this morning.
It was chilly.
Did they expect it?
They should have.
It's the second day and they had plenty of warning.
But out come the mufflers and on go the coats.
What about rainfall amounts?
Well, the southeast gets hit once again.
Three quarters of an inch was reported at Savannah, Fort Stewart and Alma, Georgia and
again at Tallahassee, Florida.
And there was also some rain up in the Seattle area.
They got two hundredths of an inch of rain.
That ended after 42 days, no rainfall.
It's not a record though.
51 days back in 1951 was the record.
And during the time since the week began, anywhere from three to seven inches of rain
has fallen in the southwestern corner of Texas and had considerable flooding from that.
The cool spot this morning was 25 degrees.
That was at Bradford, Pennsylvania and the warm spot this afternoon was 114 at Death
Valley.
Nationally, we were just about as far apart as the northeast went to 50s and down the
southwest we went to hundreds.
With our state, as you can see by the colors, having a little bit of everything.
On the coast, the cool spot, it was Crescent City at 66.
And as we go down south, Palm Springs was the warm spot at 108.
The coolest this morning I could find was Bernie up in the northeast.
They went to 37.
Mount Shasta went to 42.
Big Bear went to 41.
It was chilly all over.
114, that warm spot down in Death Valley.
And if you're heading up to Tahoe, don't let any of those numbers scare you.
Heavenly Valley went from a 52 this morning to a 77 this afternoon.
We were much colder here in the Bay Area as Napa proves.
44 degrees this morning.
Up to highs of 82 at Pittsburgh and Concord.
Beaten out by Danville going up to 85.
And the cool spots, Livermore and Pacific, at a pair of 54s.
If you're heading down to Santa Cruz from 51 up to 75.
For San Francisco, normal would be from 55 to 70.
We went from 55 to 64.
So I expect we'll hit that 70 tomorrow.
62 right now with 87% humidity.
The pressures 29, 98 and falling.
The winds are west at 10 and gusting to 22.
From out in space you can see that the fog is indeed only patchy.
The thermal low is in place.
But it is going to be beaten apart by a gigantic high pressure system that's slowly building
its nose in and is going to give us an offshore flow.
And by next week we should start experiencing September weather.
That means you don't get the fog and the jet stream is still well to the north.
For tomorrow, let's pump them up a few degrees.
From 74 to 78 in the north.
From 76 to 78 in the south.
The East Bay 80 to 84.
San Francisco a 70 and Oakland a 72.
And for those of you that have followed my numbers over the years, you know that I am
indeed a very conservative person.
They'll probably be way too low.
But it's better to be too low.
And for tomorrow, it is Friday today.
So go do it.
Fog will be less each day on the coast.
Till by midweek you'll be able to roast.
Look for temperatures popping up anywhere from 10 to 12 degrees from where they have
been.
And our letter from home today is by Nicole Hoover.
Seven years old.
Goes to the St. Francis Solano School in Sonoma.
And I would say that Nicole is probably in the first, second or third grade.
And it's a beautiful picture titled, Sunshine.
Today is nice.
I like today.
She said on top of the picture.
On top of the picture.
It was nice.
You know that we had the largest opening day at the circus that they've had on any opening
day in San Francisco.
Well, because of the accident last night, right?
People went out to, oh sorry about that.
And we made over $10,000 for Little People's fishing program.
So we're really cracking a nut for next year.
I gotta say, the clowns looked good when we went out there live last night.
That looked fun.
Getting to be a daily event in Palm Springs.
Another earthquake.
The latest in hundreds of aftershocks of last month's big earthquake.
Early today it was 4.0 on the Richter scale.
It caused dozens of people to call to authorities and say, what's going on?
They said, well, the earth is moving.
And they said, okay, no reports of injuries or damage in Palm Springs.
We have word tonight that two schools built with the money donated by all you Channel
7 viewers to help get Mexico City back on its feet after last year's devastating earthquake
are finished now.
The work is finished on the schools.
The start of the school year in Mexico is Monday, and that's when those schools are
going to open up.
Last March we showed you pictures of the groundbreaking ceremonies attended by Channel 7's Rigo Chacon.
Rigo is going to go back to Mexico City next week as the Mexican government says thanks
to all of you for making the two new schools possible.
They open again on Monday.
Don Sanchez has all the sports.
We'll have that in a moment as we continue tonight.
Labor Day weekend just became the best time ever to get a new Toyota.
Here's why.
No payment until 1987.
At Auto West Toyota in Fremont, every Supra, Celica, Corolla, Toyota truck, even 4x4s are
available for only $79 delivered.
And no payments until next year.
Auto West Toyota will make all your payments until 1987.
$79 delivers and no payments until January on any Toyota in stock.
This weekend only.
Only at Auto West Toyota in Fremont.
Now at Furnishings 2000.
Major appliances, televisions, video recorders, stereo systems, all top name brands, grand
opening sale prices, the lowest in San Francisco and the Bay Area.
Furnishings 2000.
Plus our lowest prices ever on a huge selection of quality home furnishings.
Now at Furnishings 2000.
Furniture, appliances, audio video.
One can have a dream, baby.
Two can make that dream come true.
One can wish upon a star.
Two can make that wish come true.
But it takes two, baby.
Just as two to make a dream come true.
Easy Match, the newest scratch-off game.
Match two like amounts and win up to $100,000 or a chance at the big spin.
It takes two, baby.
Play Easy Match.
The Thoroughbreds are back.
Come and enjoy the thrill of Thoroughbred racing.
At Bay Meadows.
It's family entertainment.
Magnificent horses.
Colorful silks.
Five different restaurants.
Sunshine, playgrounds and music.
And the chance to pick a winner.
Bay Meadows opens this Saturday with a special Twilight 5 p.m. post.
Racing Sunday and Labor Day 1230 post.
The Thoroughbreds are back at Bay Meadows.
Don Sanchez standing by with all the sports tonight.
He's got the latest on what happened to Goose Gossage today, huh?
He started talking and he is out for a while anyway, at least the rest of the season.
He won't be in a San Diego Padres uniform for the rest of the season.
Gossage has been suspended without pay after he took verbal potshots at the Padres' owners
and management.
Team President Ballard Smith says Gossage's statements were not in the best interest of
the club.
Gossage has said Smith doesn't even care about the team.
But Goose said he'd rather play for George Steinbrenner than Ballard Smith.
Gossage has posted a 5 and 7 record with 21 saves this season.
That suspension is going to cost him about $250,000.
That's how much he'll lose the rest of the season.
This almost sounds like a repeat of last night.
The A's and the Orioles are in a double header.
Again, the makeup of a rain postponed game.
Game number one started early shortly after 4 o'clock.
It is tough to get a lot of people into the Coliseum at that time, especially with the
getaway crowd.
But an in-carny Lansford Singles in the first run, a 1-0 lead for the A's.
It is now 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh.
And during the pregame, Bill Mooneyham, the pitcher, and Rusty Tillman, the outfielder,
collided.
They were shaggy some balls.
And Tillman was knocked unconscious.
Both have been taken to hospital for tests.
And we understand they're okay now, but obviously shaken up just a bit.
Giants game in the sixth inning.
They're trailing the Phillies rather 5-4.
And tonight's Padres' Exposed game has been postponed after an explosion and fire in the
unfinished tower at Olympic Stadium.
That is where the Exposed play.
There's no cause for the explosion yet.
Teams will make up the game by playing a doubleheader tomorrow.
At the U.S. Open, Jimmy Connors had to struggle.
John McEnroe and Peter Fleming were eliminated from doubles because they showed up late for
their match.
They were caught in traffic.
Couldn't get there.
They're 15 minutes late.
That's all one of those kind of days.
Stefan Edberg and Kevin Curran in one of the singles matches.
Edberg fourth seed.
Edberg in the near court.
And this match was not easy.
Edberg had to come from behind in the third round to get ahead.
And that was a match point.
Edberg says he just had to outlast the challenge presented to him.
The other match today is Jimmy Connors fighting hard against Claudio Pistolese.
More of a battle than Connors bargained for.
Connors has won here five times.
Pistolese is ranked 170th in the world.
A three-set match.
Connors 45 unforced errors.
Look at this long, almost nonstop volley.
We picked it up halfway through.
Connors will win the point eventually.
Watch this.
One more and that's it.
He wins the point and the match.
Tom Gullickson, a wild card entry who says he's planning to retire, was the surprise
winner today.
And Matt Anger, pleasant and defeated, Wally Major of Australia.
The European track and field championships continue today.
There is a showdown eminent between British rival Sebastian Koh and Steve Cram.
Both qualified in heavy, heavy rain for the finals of the 1500 meters.
It will be their second major clash in four days.
This is Cram sprinting to the finish line in the heat.
Cram's time, 340.66.
Last night, Koh out-spritted Cram to win the 800-meter final.
And Cram went on to take the bronze.
And now they will meet each other again.
Quite a rivalry between the two British.
The PGA Tour stops in Memphis this week.
It is the Danny Thomas St. Jude's classic, Fuzzy Zeller.
Nice putt for a birdie on 11th.
Zeller, one of the names at this stop.
It has not drawn a lot of the big names on the PGA Tour.
Leader is Howard Twitty here putting for par on 11.
He finished the day at five under par.
That gives him a three-stroke edge.
One of the veterans, Hal Sutton on 12.
A nice chip shot here.
This is probably the kind you see on TV and you figure, okay, well, it's a cinch when
I get to the course.
I'd like to do this, but try to repeat something like that.
Twitty has the edge over Payne Stewart and John Sindelar, who are three under.
Sindelar puts for a birdie on 13 here.
Round three, that's a beauty.
Round three tomorrow.
You get motorcycle racing in the Bay Area tracks quite frequently, of course, but there
is nothing quite like the type that we saw last week at Baylands Raceway.
190-mile-an-hour drag bike.
Racing teams battle side by side from a standing start to nearly 200 miles an hour in the quarter
mile.
Takes less than eight seconds.
The racers, of course, have their hands full just controlling the handlebars.
The number one top fuel drag bike rider is Dale Walker of Santa Cruz.
That is obviously a quick way to get across the country.
Drag bike racing.
Drag bike racing.
It's tough and fast.
Yeah.
Not hard to say, but then again.
Well, it was a little difficult for me, but at the end of the week like this.
I understand.
As we continue tonight, we're going to go up to the top with a helicopter for a late
look at getaway traffic, and we have a report on what the CHP is doing to truckers who drive
too long.
Right now you can clean up, because your local Chevy dealer's cleaning house, everything
must go.
If you've been wanting to make a great deal on a new Chevy car or truck, now's your chance.
It's year end clearance time, and we intend to get rid of everything we've got.
But hurry.
If you don't move fast, there will be a whole lot left.
Save during the Chevy man's year end clearance.
The men's warehouse exposes competition.
Grotens.
Grotens, you never know what you're going to pay for this wool suit.
The regular price is $350.
Sometimes it's on sale for less.
You never know.
But at the men's warehouse, the same suit is always on sale for $199.99.
That's as much as $150 less.
Those are the facts I guarantee you.
Twelve Bay Area locations including Walnut Creek, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Pleasant
Hill, Newark, and now open in San Leandro.
It's the racing showdown we've been waiting for between old Spick and Span and new no
rinse Spick and Span.
And they're off.
Heck, Don, I gotta say, I'm real impressed with new no rinse Spick and Span.
It's got the same great cleaning power but doesn't streak like you know who.
There are the whole stretch.
And old Spick and Span's in a tailspin.
It's going back to rinse.
That makes new Spick and Span our winner.
It's faster to the finish because there's no rinsing.
There's just two kinds of cars in the summer.
Those ready to stay one step ahead of blistering heat and those that aren't.
Don't get caught.
Make tracks for the Max.
Make tracks for the Max Crank it.
Turn her up right with a well-strengthy ignition tune-up kit now only $3.99.
Make every start sure with a new Megatorque 40-month battery now just $29.88.
The new Guardian brake shoes and pads are only $6.88 for axle right now at Dragon Auto Parts.
They say it was only a half pound but when that experimental rocket fuel being tested
today exploded it killed one man and seriously injured his supervisor.
Now that rocket fuel was being tested at the Aerojet General Compound 25 miles east of
Sacramento.
25-year-old veteran engineer Edward Edson had just put the solid fuel into a steel barrel
when it suddenly blew up.
The substance had been tested that way before at the site with no incident.
The injured supervisor lost his hearing temporarily because of the blast but he's hospitalized
in good condition tonight.
The explosion now under investigation.
An Amtrak officials are still trying to figure out why a train jumped the track in Southern
California today.
The train was on its way to Los Angeles when it derailed about 60 miles to the east of
Rialto.
Only two passengers suffered minor injuries.
Four of the 11 cars on the train continued on to Los Angeles.
Passengers on the other cars finished the trip by bus.
As we've been saying this is getaway night for the big Labor Day weekend so we're going
to switch live up to the helicopter for a look at traffic.
Let's turn and see what's going on.
Now this is Interstate 80 at the Albany curve as the traffic eastbound, north and eastbound
starts to stack up there.
They say it has been kind of slow and dragging all evening long as people try to move out
and get up into the Sierra or areas where they're going to go.
This that you're looking at right now is similar to scenes all over this Bay Area.
On one of the big getaway days of the season as they head to the last day of summer and
you can see right here it's very slow and very dragging but it is moving and that of
course is good news so if you're going to go out there be very careful.
That of course at I-80 and Albany but there have been reports of the same thing all over.
Meanwhile the California Highway Patrol has been out cracking down on over tired truck
drivers and the word is really getting out about it.
It's all because of the big increase in truck accidents and truck driver fatigue may be
a big factor in it.
Channel 7's Tony Rusamano has details for us tonight.
It took only a couple of minutes for the word to spread among truck drivers via their CD
radios.
What's going on at the weigh station?
Doing a documentary, you want to know how good our CHB is doing.
They got camera crews and everything.
They're checking everything you got.
Yeah, crazy.
Everything.
There was hardly a truck on the road throughout the entire western United States that was
not pulled over for an inspection today.
Police in California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona staged a surprise crackdown
on driver log violations.
We look for drivers that don't have logs and the assumption has been for years if you don't
have one then you can't tell whether the guy's out of service.
Secondly we can tell whether the driver's been exceeding his hours of service.
Truck drivers are supposed to rest at least 8 hours in every 24 and never drive more than
12 hours continuously.
They have to keep an up-to-date log as proof.
I had not brought my logs up.
It was just a simple oversight on my part.
I know better.
The primary purpose of today's crackdown was not merely to write tickets but to develop
data for a study on the relationship between driver fatigue and truck accidents.
Well it doesn't make my day but I understand the reason for them.
They do keep the brakes in good condition.
The gentleman here makes sure that our vehicles are safe.
We don't have anything against them but it doesn't really make our day.
Today was picked for the crackdown because police believe truck drivers tend to push
themselves to get their deliveries completed on the Friday going into a three-day weekend.
It also gives the CHP a chance to make a broader statement that applies to everyone out driving
this Labor Day holiday.
We want people to enjoy the holidays.
We want to make sure they get where they're going in return.
And so first of all I'd say if you're going to be driving make sure you get plenty of
rest, be alert and drive defensively.
Look out for the other guy.
Don't expect him to do the expected.
Expect the unexpected.
Of 554 trucks inspected in this area, 28 citations were issued for logbook violations and four
drivers were found to be so overtired they were ordered to park and go to sleep for a
while.
The CHP says the results will be compared with numbers obtained from across the country
to determine if driver fatigue is a major contributing factor in truck accidents.
In Gilroy, Tony Rusimano, Channel 7 News.
In the late 70s only 5 percent of all highway accidents involved trucks.
Today that figure's jumped to almost 10 percent and over half the time the truck driver is
at fault.
The CHP's trying to find out why and it may be fatigue.
That's the crackdown.
It's been fast and furious.
We'll be back in just a moment as we continue tonight.
Looking for a good laugh?
Tell me you can look right down the couch.
There it is.
Right there.
How about some good music?
Give us your talented charming.
Now to make them more attractive I like to dress my weenies in a three-piece California
casual tuxedo.
The Good Time Cafe, Saturday at 7 on 7.
She's funny, she's caring, she's real people and when she talks it's straight from the
heart.
She's Oprah Winfrey coming to Channel 7 weekdays at 3 starting September 8th.
So how badly did you want fresh fish?
You can't scare the fish.
What fish?
Maybe we're using the wrong bait.
Maybe we should be fishing at Sizzler.
But I wanted fresh fish.
Sizzler has fresh fish.
Fresh, fresh fish?
Fresh, fresh fish.
Now at Sizzler you can get fresh fish, broiled to perfection.
Today I caught a fish that big.
Uh-uh.
Nearly that big.
Uh-uh.
Nowhere near that big.
Sizzler.
Tango Argentino, so elegant, exciting, explicit, explosive, and
passionate, provocative, daring, so sexy.
Tango Argentino, now at the Orpheum Theater, six weeks only from September 7th.
To charge by phone call 474-3800.
Tango Argentino, let yourself go.
You are about to witness a crime.
Two pickpockets moving through a crowd of vacationers.
There, that guy.
Which guy?
In the red shirt.
Yeah.
Waiting for just the right moment to strike.
It could happen to you, so don't carry cash.
Carry American Express travelers' checks.
Authorizing refunds 24 hours a day.
Don't leave home without them.
Hi, this is Pete Wilson in the newsroom.
Tonight at 11, motorists heading off for the holiday, apparently being watched by fellow
drivers tonight who are using their mobile phones to report drunk drivers and other emergencies.
The lavish funeral of that Oakland drug king sparked a night of discount drug sales on
a report.
We'll check on that.
And the investigation of Bay Area guerrilla expert Diane Fossey takes a new twist.
The suspect has surfaced in Los Angeles.
All that at 11.
Now back to you, Van.
Okay, we have a little time left on what has been a good newscast, not a bad one to end
the week.
I want to remind you that my hour-long documentary on the deadly legacy of the world's first
three atomic bombs will air here on Channel 7 starting at 6 on Sunday.
Really like you to take a look at it if you can.
Now I'm expected to say goodbye, but I'm not going to say goodbye, just that I won't be
saying hello to you from here anymore.
Have a great weekend.
Good evening.
And thanks for joining us.
We'll bring it on, and while I do hope you'll enjoy the movie...