Vic-netian: 1/30/11

Saturday, February 5, 2011

La Niña promises drier months ahead for California

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La Nina promises drier months ahead for California
Updated on: 2011-02-03 22:31:08

Story posted 2011.02.03 at 07:20 PM PST

ABC7 NEWS TO GO News

From unseasonably wet to incredibly dry. That sums up our rainy season so far this year. And with nearly half the season left and no rain in sight, is it time to push the water supply panic button?

What a difference a month makes. Before the new year, Northern California saw copious amounts of rain and snow. And then, as if someone turned off the spigot, it all stopped.

"We're in a La Niña," said UC Davis climatologist Bryan Weare.

Northern California's dry spell can be blamed at least in part on cooler ocean temperatures in the Pacific.

"People make so-called outlooks based on what's happened in the past during La Niña events and that outlook is for basically dry California, especially Southern California for the next couple of months," said Weare.

In January, statewide rainfall totals were just 30 percent of average for the month, but for the season 130 percent.

Meteorologist Jan Null says this water year will be defined not so much by what happened in January, but rather what comes next.

"I think it's a little too early to be worried," said Jan Null with Golden Gate Weather. "It's fairly typical that we have a mid-winter dry spell. I think it averages about 19 days of dry weather sort of sandwiched between our normal rainier periods."

What matters most is the High Sierra and whether the current snowpack will last, even if the rest of the season is relatively dry.

Currently, water content in the Sierra snow is 135 percent of average for this time of year. In the major reservoirs water supply is 111 percent of normal at Shasta, 109 at Pardee, and 93 percent at Folsom.

"There's a lot of carry-over storage from last year," said Jennifer Allen with the Contra Costa Water District. "There was a cool summer last year and we're optimistic that in the next couple of months we'll see some more rain and snow coming in."

Even with the optimism, water managers say it's always good for people to do what they can to conserve.

Story posted 2011.02.03 at 07:20 PM PST

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Víctor Lei

Bill aims to crack down on toll evasion loophole

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Bill aims to crack down on toll evasion loophole
Updated on: 2011-02-04 22:04:26

Story posted 2011.02.04 at 07:08 PM PST

ABC7 NEWS TO GO News

Electronic toll taking has made life more convenient for many people, but for some it has also made it a whole lot cheaper, too. A confidentiality law originally meant to protect police officers and other public servants means the state is losing out on millions in tolls and toll violation revenue.

Blow through a bridge toll booth without paying, and you will soon get a bill for it plus a $25 fine, unless you are one of the 1.5 million Californians protected by the confidential address program.

"The fact of the matter is it's very hard for us to find some of these folks," said Randy Rentschler with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), which manages Bay Area tolls and fines.

A bill working its way through the state Legislature aims to change that. A 1978 law designed to protect police officers and other public officials from harm keeps their home addresses secret, even from those government agencies who want to send them a ticket.

In Southern California where there are many toll roads, the confidentiality program caught the attention of Assemblyman Jeff Miller, R-Orange County, who says in the last fiscal year the state lost out on $13 million in uncollected tolls. He has authored a bill to change that.

"The goal is not to diminish any of the protection to any of these individuals, it's to simply make sure that nobody is above the law and that they pay their fines just like everybody else," he said.

There was a time when anyone could walk into the Department of Motor Vehicles with a license plate number and walk out with a home address for someone not in the confidentiality program. That changed after actress Rebecca Schaeffer was killed by a stalker who did just that. Now everyone's address is protected.

However, the program remained in place and continued to grow. The covered categories now include not only sworn and non-sworn law enforcement employees, politicians and bureaucrats -- their spouses and children -- but also categories like museum guards and park rangers.

"Oh, it's outrageous the amount of categories that are out there that are protected by confidentiality," said Miller.

In the two-year period from June 2008 to May 2010, more than 4,000 drivers in the confidentiality program went through Bay Area bridge toll booths more than 27,000 times without paying. Only about a third of those were collected. One of those drivers skipped a $4 toll and the associated fine 467 times in an 18-month period.

"There's very few, maybe a couple dozen folks who clearly know that they're not paying their toll," said Rentschler. "They use the bridges every single day and they're ether asking the state and us for an interest-rate loan or trying to get out of paying."

Miller's bill would make them easier to find.

"My bill would simply require a business address be put on the DMV form so in case they did get a ticket and did have confidentiality, they would have a business address to be able to mail the ticket to," said Miller.

"We don't believe that anybody is above the law," said Ron Cottingham, executive director of the Peace Officers Research Association of California, a lobby also known as PORAC. "We would support something that says we're going to collect this fine from you."

Miller's bill will be making its way through committee starting in February or March.

Story posted 2011.02.04 at 07:08 PM PST

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Víctor Lei

Friday, February 4, 2011

IDTV 2011 Behind The Scenes - YouTube Playlist

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year, I wish everyone have a brilliant and prosperous year. Kong Hei Fat Choi!

Punxsutawney Phil predicts an early spring

Story posted 2011.02.02 at 06:13 AM PST

ABC7 NEWS TO GO News

The world's most famous groundhog predicted an early spring Wednesday, but wasn't willing to go out on a limb to forecast whether the nearby Pittsburgh Steelers will win Sunday's Super Bowl.

Punxsutawney Phil emerged just after dawn on Groundhog Day to make his 125th annual weather forecast in front of a smaller-than-usual crowd who braved muddy, icy conditions to hear his handlers reveal that he had not seen his shadow.

Including Wednesday's forecast, Phil has seen his shadow 98 times and hasn't seen it just 16 times since 1887, according to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club's Inner Circle, which runs the event. There are no records for the remaining years, though the group has never failed to issue a forecast.

Two years ago, Phil's forecast also acknowledged the Pittsburgh Steelers' Super Bowl XLIII win the night before. This year, Sunday's game was mentioned in the forecast but no winner was predicted between the Steelers and the Green Bay Packers, who meet in Dallas for Super Bowl XLV.

"The Steelers are going to the Super Bowl," Mike Johnson, vice president of the Inner Circle, said just before the forecast was read, drawing cheers from the clearly partisan crowd gathered on Gobbler's Knob, a tiny hill in this borough of about 6,100 residents some 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

The Groundhog Day celebration is rooted in a German superstition that says if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on Feb. 2, the Christian holiday of Candlemas, winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow was seen, legend said spring would come early.

In reality, Pennsylvania's prophetic rodent doesn't see much of anything. The result is actually decided in advance by 14 members of the Inner Circle, who don tuxedos and top hats for the event.

The celebration usually draws 10,000 to 15,000 spectators when it falls on a weekday, Groundhog club spokesman Luke Webber said. The area was under a winter weather warning and while heavier snows and sleet never materialized, rain falling in about 35-degree temperatures made for a below-average crowd, said Webber, who offered no specific estimate.

Story posted 2011.02.02 at 06:13 AM PST

Víctor Lei

Job ad fronts for scam targeting unemployed

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Job ad fronts for scam targeting unemployed
Updated on: 2011-02-01 22:04:21

Story posted 2011.02.01 at 07:01 PM PST

ABC7 NEWS TO GO News

A Bay Area woman fell victim to a scam targeting the unemployed. With millions of people struggling to find work, it is a growing problem -- con artists are going after job seekers.

This is an old scam that has found a huge new pool of victims -- the unemployed. They should be warned scammers are out there taking advantage of the fact many folks are desperate to find work and they're taking what little money these job seekers have left.

Karina Jennings has been unemployed and searching for work for nearly a year now, all the while struggling to support her two year old son.

"It's been tough, I'm willing and ready to try anything," said Karina.

So Karina got pretty excited when she found a ad in the San Francisco Chronicle. It was an opening for a flight attendant, offering full training and an excellent salary package.

"I immediately jumped on it and got excited, 'Oh, something different…flight attendant,'" said Karina.

Karina called the number in the ad and with that seemingly harmless act, she took her first step into a big trap.

"Everything sounded great, the benefits, the money," said Karina.

The man on the phone told Karina she'd be a stewardess on a chartered jet, carrying wealthy passengers to private cruise ships. She'd earn up to $1,150 per week and be home each night by 6 p.m. So did she want to fly to Miami for an interview?

"I said, 'Wow, that sounds cool. Definitely, I'd would be very interested,'" said Karina.

With that, she took the second step into the trap. The man said she could buy her own plane ticket to Miami, or he would buy the ticket for her, at a reduced price of $372. Karina found the cheapest fares were well over $1,400.

"So I said, 'You know what? Let me just go ahead and call back and ask him what was the other option one more time,'" said Karina.

That was mistake number three. Karina agreed to let the man buy her plane ticket. He told her to wire him half the fare, $186. The man said she'd be reimbursed when she arrived in Miami.

"Gail Maxwell would meet me at the gate when I got there, she'd have a black suit on and as soon as I shook her hand, she'd put the reimbursement of the money that I just wired in my hand," said Karina.

Karina went to the nearest Western Union office and wired the $186 to Orlando, Florida. And yes, that was her final mistake. Later, when she checked the flight that was supposedly purchased for her, she found, there was no such flight. There was no such charter jet company. There was no such job.

"I had been officially, first time scammed and it hurt," said Karina.

Karina went from elation over believing she had finally landed a job, to the depths of realing she'd been conned.

"It really upset my husband and I," said Inez Jennings, Karina's mother.

Inez couldn't stand the idea that someone stole money from her struggling daughter and her grandson.

"I said to my daughter, 'We really need to call Seven On Your Side," said Inez.

Next >>

Víctor Lei

Survey: SF ranked as vainest city in U.S.

Story posted 2011.02.02 at 05:56 AM PST

ABC7 NEWS TO GO News

San Franciscans spend more money on looking good than people anywhere else in the country. That's according to a new survey by the website "The Daily Beast."

It looked at things like time spent in a spa, hours in the gym, dieting, tanning and grooming.

San Francisco residents spend an average of $111 a month on personal care. 50 percent are not overweight and 20 percent belong to a gym.

As for other cities rounding out the top 3 - people in Boston spend about $106 a month, followed by New York.

Story posted 2011.02.02 at 05:56 AM PST

Víctor Lei

Google unveils next-gen Android platform for tablets

Story posted 2011.02.02 at 07:07 PM PST

ABC7 NEWS TO GO News

Google was doing a full-court press Wednesday morning to provide developers to create new applications for tablets. The company is unveiling Android 3.0 Honeycomb, the latest version of its mobile platform, designed specifically for tablets. In a demonstration for media at its Mountain View headquarters, Google is showing that it is anxious to take on Apple's iPad, currently the market leader in tablets.

"Well, I think it's an entirely different experience; Android is different from all the other platforms out there, we have our unique character, and you'll see that continued in Honeycomb as well, and we hope that users enjoy it," Google Director of Engineering Hiroshi Lockheimer said.

Honeycomb appears to be strong on graphics and video. It can handle both 2D and 3D graphics. Google has redesigned its email service, GMail, so it is more fluid on the tablet screen. It will support both a front-facing and user-facing camera. A game maker is already working on adapting existing games to take advantage of Android 3.0's features. CNN gave a sneak preview of its forthcoming Android app for accessing news and for creating user-generated content for its iReport service.

To encourage developers to jump on board, Google announced that it is adding a web-based version of its Android Market for purchasing apps.

"You can buy an app on the web and it magically shows up on your device a second later, so that integration... that cloud integration that Google likes to talk about so much, I really like what it does for the user," Disney Mobile General Manager Bart Decrem said.

Disney Mobile was at the event to announce it is bringing three of its popular apps to Android -- Radio Disney, Jelly Car and Tap Tap Revenge 4. Disney Mobile says it has sold 60 million mobile apps on other platforms, and it is looking forward to expanding to Android-powered devices.

Disney Mobile, like ABC7, are part of The Walt Disney Company.

Disney Mobile is also demonstrating a new trend in purchasing mobile apps, known as in-app billing.

Story posted 2011.02.02 at 07:07 PM PST

Víctor Lei

Sunday, January 30, 2011

"King's Speech" Director Wins Top DGA Award

LOS ANGELES - Tom Hooper pulled off an upset win Saturday for the top film honor at the Directors Guild of America Awards for his British monarchy ...

Additional information: Here

Sent from CBS News on iPhone.
Download CBS News for iPhone here.

Víctor Lei

Comcast takes control of NBC Universal

Story posted 2011.01.29 at 01:59 PM PST

ABC7 NEWS TO GO News

The nation's largest cable TV company, Comcast Corp., took control of NBC Universal after the government shackled its behavior in the coming years to protect online video services such as Netflix and Hulu.

The deal closed shortly before midnight EST on Friday.

The takeover gave the cable-hookup company 51 percent control of NBC Universal, which owns the nation's fourth-ranked broadcaster, NBC; the Universal Pictures movie studio and related theme parks; and a bevy of cable channels including Bravo, E! and USA.

The combination had raised fears that Comcast might abuse its control of NBC Universal to favor its most valuable customers: the 23 million who rely on it for cable TV service and the 17 million who pay for Internet connections.

But the Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission imposed conditions that prevent Comcast from keeping to itself NBC Universal's popular shows such as "The Office" and movies including "Despicable Me" for the next several years.

NBC's "30 Rock" on Thursday night spoofed Comcast's impending takeover from General Electric Co. As a clock bell sounded, a neon "GE" atop an office building fizzled out and was replaced by a "K" inside a swoosh resembling Comcast's logo.

"Wow, out with GE, in with Kabletown," said Tina Fey's character, Liz Lemon. "Seems like one of us should sing 'The Circle Game' right now."

Conditions imposed on Comcast were serious, though.

Regulators forced Comcast to make the full suite of NBC Universal content available as a single package to online competitors on terms comparable to those reached with more established rivals such as Dish Network Corp. and DirecTV.

NBC Universal is also expected to match new deals for smaller chunks of programming between other media firms and online video providers if it has comparable programming on hand. As an example, NBC Universal might have to make the Bravo channel's "The Real Housewives of New York City" available to Netflix Inc. if Viacom Inc. cuts a similar deal for MTV's "Jersey Shore."

The company also had to give up the decision-making power associated with its 32 percent share of Hulu, the online video service it co-owns with The Walt Disney Co., News Corp. and Providence Equity Partners. Hulu is one of the services that makes viewing "30 Rock" possible online.

The rules highlight the new battleground for entertainment in the home between traditional power players such as Comcast, which has lost subscribers in the economic downturn, and companies such as Netflix, which added them with its cheap service and compatibility with a range of devices. Netflix ended the year with 20 million customers after adding 3.1 million during the fourth quarter, by far the most during any three-month period since its service launched in 1999.

In the deal, Comcast paid General Electric just under $6.2 billion in cash and contributed its pay TV channels such as E! Entertainment Television and The Golf Channel, worth $7.25 billion, to NBC Universal.

GE's stake in NBC Universal fell to 49 percent from 80 percent, but GE plans to diminish that to zero by being paid out from the venture over about seven years. Earlier this week, GE bought out the 20 percent stake held by France's Vivendi SA for $5.8 billion in order to complete the deal.

As part of Comcast's takeover, NBC Universal changed its corporate logo to NBCUniversal -- without the space, the peacock or the globe silhouette. Officially, the company's name is still NBC Universal, but the space-less design is meant to represent the unity of its two main divisions.

Ahead of a town hall meeting with their new corporate bosses on Thursday, some 25,000 NBC Universal employees each received a certificate for 25 Comcast shares, worth $22.84 each on Friday; a family pass to one of the Universal theme parks; and other materials, including a "Big Idea Book" in which they were to record their own.

Story posted 2011.01.29 at 01:59 PM PST

Víctor Lei

Social Security charges man $180 from 1990

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Social Security charges man $180 from 1990
Updated on: 2011-01-27 22:45:02

Story posted 2011.01.27 at 07:39 PM PST

ABC7 NEWS TO GO News

Imagine hearing from a federal agency that you owe them money from two decades ago. That's what happened to one Concord man.

Bill Sexton was having a very old issue with the social security administration.

"I got a letter in 2009 that they had overpaid me $180 back in 1990," he said.

Now they want their $180 back, and now bill was given an opportunity to seek a waiver and he did and got it -- or at least should have.

"The only things that they would send me back were these letters that said, 'we are not going to take the money,' but I would write them back and say, 'you have already taken the money and I want it refunded,'" he said.

They waived the charge and took the money anyways. Sexton went to the Walnut Creek Social Security office and got everything straightened out. He received more letters, but no refund and he contacted 7 On your side. We quickly went to work and now he has his money back.

"In a way, I am sorry I started this whole thing. I mean this is only part of the paperwork, for this money, I should have just said all right forget it and be done with it," Sexton said. "But $180 is $180.You did great, you did great and I am really happy with it."

Social Security deals with millions of checks each month, and I like knowing they pay attention enough that they want overpayments from 19 years ago.

Story posted 2011.01.27 at 07:39 PM PST

Víctor Lei

Survey: SF among places where it's cheaper to rent

Story posted 2011.01.27 at 05:33 PM PST

The survey from the real estate search engine Trulia confirmed what most already know-- it's generally more affordable to buy than to rent.

However, San Francisco may be one of the few exceptions.

The survey looked at the 50 largest cities in the United States.

In 72 percent of them, Trulia concluded home ownership is more affordable than renting.

The exceptions are New York, Seattle, Kansas City and San Francisco.

Trulia reached its findings by comparing the median list price in a city to the median rental price.

Story posted 2011.01.27 at 05:33 PM PST

Víctor Lei

Walmart to launch 'tween' make up line

Story posted 2011.01.27 at 04:30 PM PST

You may not recognize the tween that might live next door to you, or maybe even in your own home.

Walmart has come out with its line of tween make up. The use of mascara by tweens has almost doubled from 10 percent in 2007 to 18 percent in 2009. Girls we talked to love it, but one psychiatrist isn't so positive.

"The use of make up in some way can be addictive. And what these children would be addicted to is the pursuit of perfection. The superficial, skin deep, I'm only as good as I look," psychiatrist Dr. Henry Paul said.

Tweens spend roughly $24 million a year on beauty products.

Story posted 2011.01.27 at 04:30 PM PST

Víctor Lei

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