And rural tunes from Keith Urban, your local
You're watching KSBW Channel 8, Salinas, Monterey, Santa Cruz. Now, coverage you can count on.
This is Action News 8.
A nasty accident in Salinas paramedics rushing at this hour to save a mother and her baby.
California passes the toughest master's law in the country. Will it help you rest a little easier tonight?
And our top story, a local service station owner and his fight to lower gas prices.
Good evening everyone, I'm Dan Green.
And I'm Erin Clark. We are beginning, new at 11 tonight, with a gas station owner taking on a giant oil company, Shell.
Medni Shabazi owns this gas station in Marina and claims Shell unfairly jacks up prices.
Shabazi has been in a legal battle with both Shell and Andretti Oil for three years now.
Well tomorrow he finally gets his day in court. Action News reporter, Terisi Ewen, is in our Salinas newsroom tonight with more on the case that many are calling David versus Goliath.
Medni Shabazi has been selling gas for 30 years. But he says he can't compete if he has to pay more than other dealers.
Shabazi says he often does because of greed. Greed is the name of the game. Everybody, every chairman of corporation want to make more money for their corporation.
And there is no limit to greed unfortunately.
Shabazi's franchise agreement requires him to buy from Shell and Andretti Oil, a company he claims increases his prices with little or no justification.
When there is no competition, there is monopoly. When there is monopoly, the oil company can take the price as much as they want.
Many customers are fed up too.
I think it's ridiculous. Did you notice before Labor Day you could not find a gallon of gas for under $2.
And I knew it was going to go down after the Labor Day weekend. Now what's that about? That doesn't have anything to do with what's going on over in Iraq.
It's just the big gas companies making money.
I feel like there's not much I can do about it so I just get my gas and go. We all have to drive to California.
But for Shabazi, taking on big oil companies means he has to prove price increases weren't justified.
But he also hopes the suit will force big companies to change the way they do business.
Mehdi Shabazi knows it's a long shot.
Hopefully I don't lose it. Hopefully I exist. But I'm 61 years old and I don't know what happened to me.
Now both Andretti and Shell representatives did not return our calls for this story.
Although all be in court tomorrow for the hearing, and Mr. Shabazi says he will continue to fight as long as it takes, Aaron.
Alright, Teresa, thank you. Shabazi filed a lawsuit actually three years ago.
He tells Action News it has taken many years to get his day in court because of a lot of back and forth legal battles.
Shabazi will represent himself tomorrow.
New at 11, a nasty car accident in Salinas. Five people seriously hurt.
The two car crash happened at East Laurel in Constitution a little more than an hour ago.
Police tell Action News a mother and her baby were not wearing seatbelts and were thrown into the windshield.
Medics flew them to Nativadad Hospital where the mother is in critical condition at this hour.
Both will be on the move to San Jose Medical Center soon, we're told.
Three other adults were taken by ambulance to SVMH. Major damage to the cars and light poles in the area.
Police have shut down the intersection right now. They're trying to clean up the accident.
Big back up along Highway 68 this afternoon and police are now blaming it on a drunk driver.
It happened around 2.45. A three car accident near Toro Cafe.
One car flipped onto its side. Police arrested and charged the driver of the mangled white car with a DUI.
The good news here, no one was seriously injured.
Police diverted traffic to the eastbound shoulder of the road. Cars were backed up for a couple of hours.
New at 11, a high speed chase near Los Angeles with a dramatic ending. Three men in a stolen car taking a joyride through a neighborhood in Carson.
LAPD was chasing them on the interstate for a long time before this, sometimes at 100 miles an hour.
When the chase got to this neighborhood, the men drove the vehicle around in circles.
Residents got involved trying to block the car. One kid even threw his bike at it.
In the end, the driver lost control and slammed into that pickup truck.
Cops wrestled the men to the ground. They were arrested. The driver of the pickup suffered minor injuries.
Music
On the Crimewatch tonight, the gang violence sweeping Salinas has one councilman calling for a local state of emergency.
Five gang related killings this month alone has Councilman Sergio Sanchez making the bold recommendation.
He hopes the emergency declaration will get the attention of state and federal officials who will provide extra resources to combat the violence.
And he believes Salinas has a pretty good case.
We have five kids that are dead. That's what makes us special. We need special attention.
We have more murders than a city that has a million people.
That's going to ring somebody's bell, especially if the governor is looking at Salinas.
Maybe if he's never heard of Salinas, he will hear of Salinas now.
Last week, Sanchez was talking about having the governor declare a state of emergency.
Well, instead, he is now taking his proposal to the city council.
He hopes it will declare a state of emergency when it meets next Tuesday.
Also on the Crimewatch tonight, we hear from the former Ben Loman man accused of killing a puppy with a golf club in June of 2001.
Stephen Jackson today took the stand in his own defense.
He's facing charges of animal cruelty and attempted witness intimidation in the death of the four-month-old puppy.
Jackson says he complained five or six times to the mobile home park manager about the dog
and says he was only protecting his young children who were being, in his words, terrorized by the dog.
I just wanted something long to make sure that the dog didn't come and bite me, the children or anything like that.
But I didn't want to get my $200 plus out there.
Jackson claims since the death of the puppy, he is the one who has been the victim.
He says somebody wrote puppy killer on his van and then he was evicted from the mobile home park.
The prosecution will continue to cross-examine tomorrow.
Santa Cruz city leaders are set to discuss the demolition and remodeling of the Coast Santa Cruz Hotel.
A plan calls for crews to knock it down and then start construction on a larger hotel and conference center on the same site.
The new hotel would increase by about 75 more rooms and include 15,000 extra square feet of meeting space.
A meeting is scheduled for February 24th to talk it over.
Commitment 2004 coverage now and tonight the Democratic candidates for president were facing off in South Carolina.
All the candidates agreed they will give President Bush a run for his money in the South.
The real fireworks came when Howard Dean openly questioned front-runner John Kerry's effectiveness as a U.S. Senator.
19 years in the Senate, Senator Kerry sponsored 11 bills that had anything to do with health care, not one of them passed.
For the most part though, the candidates focused on the issues like the war in Iraq, the economy, health care, foreign policy and what they would do if they were in the White House.
I would be a president who is on the side of workers in this country.
There are enormous strides, enormous strides that can be made in America and as president I will move us forward dramatically.
I'll be the solution to the problem.
Lying into the American people is not the way you run a country.
The biggest thing we can do to create more jobs in America is to vote George W. Bush out of office.
South Carolina is just one of seven states up for grabs in Tuesday's primaries.
On the school watch tonight, have you seen the price of college textbooks lately?
One consumer group is trying to do something about the prices and they're getting some support from members of Congress.
A report released today found that the average college student is spending about $900 a year on textbooks.
Students say they really have no choice.
Much of what they're, and they say much of what they're required to buy, they don't use anyway.
I still can't figure out what the stencil was for, but I put in the CD once and the study guide I used fairly, fairly much.
You don't want to buy a five-year-old science book. You don't want to buy a five-year-old accounting book.
Everything changed after Enron.
The report points out several reasons for the high cost.
Books are updated every few years, which makes used books obsolete.
And some books come as packages with CDs and other items that drive up the price.
At least one lawmaker is now drafting a bill meant to lower the cost.
Meantime, a bill making its way through the California legislature would ban the name Redskin as the title of a high school mascot.
The state assembly passed the measure today.
Many Native Americans find that name offensive.
At least five counties around the state have schools that use the Redskin mascot.
If passed, the ban would take effect in 2006.
California Meantime, just approving the strictest mattress standards in the country.
Beginning next year, mattresses, box springs, and futons sold in California have to be flame resistant, open flame resistant.
Currently, mattresses sold here meet national standards, which is resistant to smoldering-type fires caused by, say, a cigarette.
Under the new standard, flames on mattresses would be slower to spread, they say, and would eventually extinguish themselves.
The State Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation developed the standards.
They hope to extend the same protection to mattress pads, comforters, pillows, and other bedding products.
The Scott Peterson murder trial could be delayed for at least two weeks.
The attorneys for both the prosecution and the defense submitting proposals to delay the trial.
The delay would require a judge's approval, however.
Both sides also asking to have cameras banned from the courtroom and to have juror names and witness lists kept confidential.
Peterson's double murder trial is supposed to begin on Monday.
The California Supreme Court may hear the appeal of a California man who is trying to keep from being executed.
In 12 days, Kevin Cooper is scheduled to be put to death for the 1983 murder of a Chino couple, their 10-year-old daughter, and an 11-year-old house guest.
Today, Reuben Carter, who spent 20 years in prison wrongly convicted of murder, asked Governor Schwarzenegger for clemency in the case of Cooper.
And that's all we're asking here, Governor Schwarzenegger, is time.
Human lives are critically affected by laws.
That human lives are literally at stake.
Cooper's lawyer says evidence that proves somebody else committed the murder was never shown to a jury indicates Schwarzenegger is expected to decide on clemency soon.
A controversial article in Vanity Fair is raising more allegations about Michael Jackson.
The article claims Jackson showed boys pornography on the Internet.
The article also says he seduced boys by giving them Coke cans filled with wine.
This young man who currently made the allegations says that he was given wine in soda pop cans, and it was called Jesus Juice.
Wine was Jesus Juice, and red wine was Jesus Blood, and allegedly Michael said if Jesus drank it, it ought to be good.
The magazine also says Jackson checked into rehab clinics in both London and South Korea after aides feared he was addicted to painkillers.
Jackson's criminal attorney Mark Geragos says he wishes he could comment, but he can't because of the court's gag order.
Meantime, California may soon have a new slogan to fight litter.
Don't trash California.
Today, it was approved by the Assembly.
It now goes to the Senate.
The bill is a playoff of a very successful Texas litter campaign from 1986 called Don't Mess with Texas.
California spends $300 million a year on litter pickup.
The slogan would appear on fast food containers, trash cans, plastic bags, and billboards.
The AT&T National Pebble Beach Pro-Am is less than a week away, but tournament organizers say they're ready to start the competition tomorrow if they had to.
The tents are up, the grounds are almost ready, and the kitchen is gearing up to fill 800 special orders and feed more than 5,000 people a day.
It's fun. A lot of adrenaline.
You just run all week long, and when it's over, you're happy that you've gotten through it and a great feeling of satisfaction.
Organizers are still confirming the celebrities who will play in next week's tournament.
Tennis player Pete Sampras confirmed last night he will indeed be here.
They're still hoping that Bill Murray makes it back from the set of his new movie in time to play on Thursday.
Still to come tonight on Action News, cable rates.
Do you remember what you were paying 10 years ago?
Do you know what you're paying today?
We have the numbers.
You may be surprised.
You may be mad.
And a crook so bad, even the cops call him the Clown Bandit.
Is it funny or is it boy-bashing?
The controversy over these T-shirts.
More of that coming up.
First, though, Lee's in for Jim with your wake-up weather.
Well, we got a few changes coming on the way, and by tomorrow morning, we'll have more clouds in the mix.
Temperature's not too bad, though, mostly in the low to mid 40s along the coastal areas.
Inland section's about the same, maybe some lower 40s as you head down towards the Salinas Valley, about 40, 41 there in Greenfield, King City, and San Ardo.
Clouds will be on the increase, and we will have some fog to start off the day, so you might want to get an early start on the morning commute, northwesterly winds, and then maybe some rain later in the day.
I'll tell you about that as well as the weekend forecast coming up in just a little bit.
What's new with you?
Maybe it's those new shoes, tip-tap toeing to the beat of your new mixer, whipping up a new recipe that will win a new heart tonight.
It's all new. It's all you.
It's all at Macy's Super Saturday.
Why buy your next car, truck, or SUV from the Gilroy Auto Dealers?
They made it so easy to buy, with no hassle prices.
Get the car you want, with payments you can handle.
Drive a little and save a lot, you bet.
Seven locally owned and operated dealerships, 18 factory makes, and lots of happy customers.
Isn't it time you drive a little and save a lot in Gilroy?
Remember when you were a kid, you always wanted do-overs.
You rolled badly, do-over, you hit a foul.
Do-over.
Well, now when people come to H&R Block for the first time, I give them a second chance.
I double-check their past returns for free to see if I can find them any more money.
And when we find something, it averages about $1,500.
$1,500? That is a humongous do-over.
Double-check. Another advantage of H&R Block.
With a power rear door and an elegant interior, the Lexus RX is luxury.
At your fingertips.
See, Lexus Monterey Peninsula.
What else is new with you? New gets you noticed at Macy's Super Saturday.
Save on fall and winter fashions for her and great looks for him.
Save on cool clothes for kids and everything for your home.
Shop Preview Day Friday and save.
You're watching KSBW Action News 8 at 11.
With Dan Green, Aaron Clark, Dennis Lennon, sports, and Weather Watch 8 with Jim Van Der Zwaan.
Now, Action News 8 continues.
News across America, dumb crooks.
This would be Robert could actually write the book on what not to do.
Watch carefully.
Police actually call him the clown bandit because of the comedy of errors he committed during a recent burglary.
After making a run for some booze, he slips and falls in the aisle.
Then after grabbing an X-rated magazine and some cigarettes, he actually takes time to bag up his loot,
but ends up leaving empty-handed when his bag of goods broke and scattered during the getaway.
Say your daughter shows up, she's wearing a t-shirt, sporting the slogan,
boys are stupid, throw rocks at them, funny or offensive, depends on who you ask.
The company says it is just meant to be quirky and sarcastic.
An activist for Father's Right says he sees no humor in it.
He has mounted a campaign against the line of girls' clothing.
So far, three retailers, including Tillies in Southern California, have agreed to pull the stuff.
Big twist in the Martha Stewart trial today.
The judge has put the proceedings on hold until Monday,
just as the government's star witness was supposed to testify.
The judge criticized the prosecution for withholding information that might undermine the witness's credibility.
They handed over the information to the defense just last night.
Defense attorneys say the new information raises doubts about the circumstances of Stewart's stock sale.
The Florida boy who killed a girl while imitating wrestling moves was back in court today.
He's Lionel Tate. He struck a plea bargain, was sentenced to time served,
but he will have to do a little more.
He spent three years behind bars for killing six-year-old Tiffany Eunuch when he was 12.
Eunuch's mother says she has forgiven Lionel, but she does not want people to call her daughter's death an accident.
She says it was murder.
The judge at today's hearing was the judge who originally sentenced him to life.
He told Tate not to blow his second chance.
He will have to wear a monitoring device.
He will be on parole or probation for at least another 10 years.
He says he wants to finish high school and study culinary arts.
A new computer virus is spreading fast, and Microsoft is offering some big bucks if you can catch up with it.
The MyDoom virus installs a program that watches what a PC user is typing,
including credit card numbers and other personal information.
It is spread by email, and the virus is designed to launch an electronic attack on Microsoft's website on Tuesday.
Microsoft is offering a $250,000 reward for the capture and prosecution of the person responsible for it.
Experts say beware of emails you get from unfamiliar people, especially emails with attachments.
Well, you may have cable television if you're watching us right now, and you know that cable rates have gone up over the past 10 years.
Now we have the exact numbers.
The Federal Communications Commission has released a report detailing just how much rates have jumped.
From 1993 to 2003, cable rates were up 53 percent, more than twice as fast as inflation, and then some.
Cable providers say the increases are justified because they offer more channels and services now.
More people are choosing other options these days, though, like satellite TV.
Ten years ago, three million people had satellites. Today, it's 24 million and climbing.
Coming up after the break, Lee's in for Jim with a look at our forecast.
First, let's check out the view of Skycam 8 Monterey tonight, high atop the Embassy Suites and Seaside.
There are your local conditions. We'll be right back with that forecast.
Help Watch 8 is sponsored by Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula.
Now, Weather Watch 8 with Lee Solomon.
Well, another beautiful day across the Central Coast. Lots of sunshine and temperatures back up into the upper 50s up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, 57 in Boulder Creek and Ben Lomond, 61 in Watsonville today.
A bit of a spread along the peninsula, 50 in Monterey, but up to 68 in Carmel Valley this afternoon.
That's really nice for the end of January. Lots of 60s around Soledad, Greenfield and King City, and not too bad up towards the San Jose, Morgan Hill, and Gilroy.
They were all in the upper 50s to around 60 degrees.
Right now, we'll check in on our current conditions, courtesy of our Weathernet 8 stations around the local area.
Forty-six right now in Aftos at Cabrillo College, down to 44 in Felton at San Lorenzo Valley Junior High School,
and sitting at 50 degrees in Soledad at Main Street Middle School right now.
Winds basically on the light side anywhere from about four to five miles an hour.
Fifty-two in San Francisco right now, down to 46 in Santa Barbara, middle 40s across the inland valleys, and in the 20s up in Lake Tahoe.
And we do have a lot of cold air across the nation, arctic air, very dangerous stuff actually.
Fifteen below in Minneapolis, six below in Omaha, one below in Chicago.
Yeah, the wind on top of those numbers, and that takes wind chills down to about 20 to 30 below.
So if you're traveling outside of California towards the Great Lakes, you really need to bring the appropriate clothing.
Not much in the way of moisture, just a little bit of snow flurries across, let's say, the Central Appalachians,
and some heavy thunderstorms. You notice the greens and the yellows showing up across the Gulf Coast.
That's some heavy stuff down there. They're getting inundated with a lot of rain, lightning, and even the possibility of some tornadoes.
That all basically ends tomorrow. Traveling to the east looks pretty good.
Out over the west, we'll have some snow up going in the northern Rockies.
Nothing really all that unusual, maybe six to twelve inches of snowfall there. A great ski season really for the entire west coast right now.
All the mountains receiving a lot of snow.
Across California, we have some changes coming. You'll notice we had clear skies earlier today and right through the evening hours.
Now we have this next front. It's starting to push across northern California.
You'll see increasing clouds there, and even a couple of rain showers starting to show up on the radars just offshore.
All this is attached to an area of low pressure.
The system itself is headed up into the Gulf of Alaska, and the trailing cold front is actually extending all the way down.
This is what we'll look for to pass through California over the next twelve to twenty-four hours.
That'll give us a chance for some more showers. You see the low pressure system's here.
If that was to slide south, we'd get a lot more rain. We just have the cold front here.
There's not a whole lot with it, but it will be colder behind it.
We'll have that for the weekend, and it will be drier.
But first, we have to get through the rain, what there will be of it.
Most of it will be up in Oregon and Washington. Again, increasing clouds for us and maybe just a chance of a couple of passing showers tomorrow.
Really, overall, not a big deal. Maybe about a tenth to a quarter of an inch for the wettest spots tomorrow.
Temperatures will be back down into the upper thirties and middle forties tonight.
Tomorrow, back up into the fifties to around sixty degrees.
We'll be a little bit cooler tomorrow because we'll have more clouds in the way of the sun.
And then we'll be back in the sunshine for the weekend, but we'll have to get through some partly cloudy conditions tonight and some fog.
That will start your day off tomorrow. Maybe the chance for a shower or two.
So you just grab the raincoat as you head out the door tomorrow morning.
And then that all clears out for the weekend.
But we'll be chilly behind this next cold front with partly cloudy conditions.
A little bit of sunshine Saturday and Sunday.
And then it looks like a heavy rain event Monday and Tuesday. At least that's what the models are showing right now.
Of course, we have a few more days to work on that.
You bet.
All right. Thanks a lot.
Hey, Dan.
Hi, guys. Just ahead, we've got some local hoops for you.
We're going to find out if Stanford is still unbeaten.
And it begins a week from today at Pebble Beach.
We'll see what they're doing this week on the tour.
We'll come back in about two minutes.
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Now, Action News 8 Sports with Dennis Lenin.
We begin with basketball tonight. A light schedule in the NBA.
It was the Sacramento Kings over the defending champions Spurs, 96-91.
Hot rumor going around the NBA this week from ESPN's website.
It's a proposed trade, proposed trade between the Warriors and Blazers.
The rumor says the Warriors would send Nick Van Exel and Eric Dampier to Portland for Rashid Wallace.
Rashid Wallace not long ago described by one NBA writer as the biggest jerk in all of professional sports.
Again, though, that trade is just a rumor.
Closer to home, high school hoops.
Salinas High Cowboys at home against the Hollister High-Hey Baylor.
Salinas Coach Joe Chappell would probably tell you this is not his best team he's had at Salinas High,
but they are competitive. Number 23 for Salinas.
Kelly McCarty is their top scorer. Two in the lane right there.
Hollister battling on the boards right here. They're going to get a third shot at it.
And third try right here. Kyle Sharp scoring. He had 26 lead all scores in the game.
Switch in now, and Salinas High is going to score. Two-pointer coming here from Eric Cri.
It looks like a three, but they say that's a two-foot on the line.
And they could have used a couple more of those because Hollister High wins this game on the road.
Kevin Zinella from the outside for the Baylor's. They come over to 49-45.
Win over Salinas High in the Tri-Counter League now.
Hollister is three and one. Salinas High Cowboys are two and two.
Other games. Montevista Christian over Alvarez by 20.
Pacific Grove still unbeaten in the Mission Trail League. They top Anzar.
Alisal High knocked off Monterey. Jaime Castro had 24 for Alisal.
In Pebble Beach, RLS beat Gonzales.
Seaside North County also played, but those schools don't tell us their scores so we can't tell you.
In college ball, number one ranked Duke over Florida State by seven.
Number two, Stanford still unbeaten. 17-0, the Cardinal winning up in Oregon.
What? It has Stanford losing? I'm sorry. Stanford won. Stanford won that game.
Cal Bears beaten by the Ducks up in Eugene. I'm sure of that.
San Jose State loses. I'm sure of that. They've gone 16 years without a winning season in San Jose.
They're going to make it 17. Spartans are five and 14 on the year.
In golf, first round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am begins one week from today.
Practice rounds for the pros and celebrities begin Monday at Pebble Beach, Poppy Hills, and Spyglass.
This week, the PGA Tour is down in Phoenix for the FBR Open.
The leader is Scott Burplank. This tournament played at the TPC of Scottsdale.
And the 16th hole on this course is the loudest hole in professional golf.
The fans like to go nuts on this one. Here's Paul Azinger on number 16.
Oh! Oh. Oh.
Shot of 71. Azinger has a shot of 71. Phil Mickelson won to Bob Hope last week.
He's right up there again. Mickelson alone in second, seven under par.
Just one shot behind Scott Burplank. 27 players didn't finish today because of darkness.
One of those right here. Check out the chip by J.J. Henry.
Thank you, beauty, it's a joy forever. So, tell me this though.
On a beautiful day in Scottsdale, how come half the field couldn't finish their round because of darkness?
Slow. Slow play.
And baseball major league owners approving the sale of the Dodgers to Boston developer Frank McCourt.
He's the one on the far right. His wife is in the middle. Mr. Dodger, Tommy Lasorda, is on the left.
The court buys the team from media mogul Rupert Murdoch for $430 million.
That's $119 million more than Murdoch paid when he bought the team six years ago.
So, six years, $119 million profit.
Pretty good profit. I think it's better than my eye already.
Yeah, he did okay. He did okay.
Thanks, Tim. What's up?
Well, we might get a few raindrops tomorrow. Not a whole lot though, but we can use a little bit more.
It's been dry, somewhat dry this month anyways.
Areas of fog tonight, partly cloudy conditions, and then the chance for just a couple of showers tomorrow, mostly hit and miss.
There'll definitely be more to the north, so if you live down in the southern part of the area, you probably won't see too much at all.
And then we clear that out of the way for the weekend, and right now we're looking for partly cloudy Saturday and Sunday.
Very good.
Thank you.
Finally, roll it. Roll it. He's rolling.
It is an Indian holy man known as the Rolling Saint. Others call him the Human Tired.
He is rolling from eastern India, 1,500 miles to the border with Pakistan.
He's done this before. He went 2,400 miles in 1994.
Why does he do it? We're not really sure. How does he do it?
He does not eat, but will occasionally take a sip of water, and to the surprise of many, will smoke an occasional cigarette while rolling.
I don't know how. That is our report for now. Thanks for joining us.
Make sure we give us your choice for News at 11. We'll see you tomorrow. Till then, take care.
Thanks for watching the number one news team on the Central Coast.
KSBW Action News 8.
Nothing handles the winter elements like a G4x4.