>> the trip was made despite objections from the u.s. state department. >> governor brown will reveal his budget for the new fiscal year this morning the first spending plan since voters approved a hacks -- a tax hike funding and is looking for billions in cuts. he had to make $5 billion in cuts after taking office and cut $16 billion. the tax hike will bring in $6 billion a year for education with more money going to poorer school districts and allowing other districts more spending flexibility. >> an at risk 96-year-old man disappeared yesterday. he is 5' 2" and 165 pounds and speaks only korean. the family says he is for getful and has dementia but is used to using public transportation to

the san jose korean center but did not arrive yesterday. he was wearing a blue and white checkered shirt. >> 4:32. a man who lit a woman on fire in san francisco in bayview will be arraigned today after being arrested in oakland on monday for the attack on starr lamare a woman he was dating and faces charges of attempted murder and arson after he doused tar star with gas and society her -- set her on fire. they were arguing before the attack. starr lamare is expected to survive but faces months in the hospital. >> we are learning more of the death of a home intruder at the hands of a resident. it was a conspiracy by an estranged wife that backfired. our reporter has details on that. >> apartment residents identified the couple in a series of pictures.

together they have an 8-year-old daughter and five-year-old son. >> i seen them with the kid, picking up the kid. he was a nice guy. >> i come home on my break and i would see him but i never saw her. >> police say the wife told her husband she was cheating on him and wanted him out of the house but he wasn't moving fast enough. >> this angered his wife and she plot add burglary with the boyfriend in an effort to scare him and persuade him into leaving the residence. >> but the plan backfired. she gave the key to a 54-year-old, a man with an extensive criminal history and convinced had imto break in while her husband was home alone. the neighbor upstairs her the commotion. >> someone was getting in a fight. >> he stabbed lindsay in the

back of the neck killing him and police arrived they got the two accomplices who confessed. >> very extreme to do something like that. >> police arrested the wife, 28-year-old and her 22-year-old boyfriend, matt parker and the two accused accomplices, the suspect's brother. they say he was justifiably killed. police say they still are interviewing more witnesses so we could learn more in the days ahead. >> it is 4:34. the gun violence task force is holding a second round of meeting today at white house. the meeting includes the national rifle association and other gun rights groups. leaders in the gaming industry are expected to attend along with walmart, the largest gun

seller. biden met with gun control advocates and crime victims. they are looking for new ideas on curbing gun violence in the wake of recent mass shooting. >> president obama is expected to nominate white house chief of staff jack lew today as the next secretary of the treasury. he is a federal budget expert who is known as a tough bargainerring. if confirmed he takes the job as the administration is preparing for a new confrontation with congressional republicans over debt and deficit. he replaces geithner who is moving back to new york to be with his family. >> the stage is set for the hollywood award season. in an hour the oscar nominations are announced. expect historic based films to get a lot of attention with "argo" and "zero dark 30" and "lincoln" and daniel day lewis will get surely another

nomination and jennifer lawrence is also up. keep it here for the oscar nominations coming up after 5:30 like here on the abc7 morning news. we will stream the announcement like at abc7news.com and you can see would wins on sunday, february 24 when the oscars are announced like right here on abc7. seth mcfarland is the host. >> any favorites? >> i like them all. >> so diplomatic. >> mike nicco is not wrong this morning checking out the showers he predicted. no showers? >> the showers are over the ocean but they are straying ashore in some areas. you can see most of the coast is clear but we are getting close around san francisco and half

moon bay but all eyes on the santa cruz mountains where you can see highway 35, the radar is colored to show you where the know is falling on 35 where it intersects highway nine, the best chance of snow. snow level is around 1,500 in the santa cruz mountains. we could get a couple of inches between now and now above 2,000 feet. north of that, it turns over to rain towards to sunnyvale and cupertino and mountain view and fremont avenue, and 85 to mountain view and 237. all that area is getting light rain right now. as we look at the big picture it is sliding to the southeast and it will hug the coast so on the coast above 2,000 could see a dusting. you can see one shower moving through it turns over to snow in

sonoma county. look what is upstream to the northwest today: more scattered showers and more chance of snow above 2,000 feet. >> the first look at the bay bridge toll plaza where it is slowing nicely. no major problems. no stalls or accidents around the bay area. that is good news. road work as we move to the san mateo bridge in the westbound direction, you are looking good with road work on the dumbarton bridge eastbound until 6:00 a.m. this morning and eastbound 4, that down to one lane because of road work, and westbound, though, leaving antioch to pittsburg is moving at the limit in the commute direction. eastbound 380 the ramp to north 101 is closed until 5:00 this morning, in another 20 minutes. southbound 880 in san jose area there is road work there until

7:00 a.m. this morning. >> former penn state football coach sandusky returns to court and toning a he should never have been convicted. >> what authorities say an alligator was guarding at someone's home. >> the highly anticipated pebble watch was unveiled on day three of the consumer electronics show in las vegas featuring a special screen that can be paired with droid and iphone devices. we got a look. >> i liked it. it is simple with not a lot of bells and whistles and brings you alerts on the watch to see would e-mailed you, the text, or the same thing for text messages. >> it goes on sale in the next few months. getting a lot of attention is the new battery that allows users to charge the smartphone

just by placing it on top of their tablet. an app lets users, particularly women, see long term effects of alcohol on their appearance what they would look like after a few years of a few too1111111

>> novato, oakwood, sunny veil and all the bay area, this is abc7 news. >> good morning, at 4:42 on thursday morning. this is embarcardero and it is dry here. it is clear. it is a cold morning. mike is noticing along the coast especially you could be getting showers and the possibility for snow is possible, snow levels coming down because of the cold. the full forecast is coming up. >> lawyers for former penn state football coach sandusky will be in court to appeal his convictions. he was convicted on 45 counts of

molesting ten boys over 15 years and sentenced last october to thrown 30 and 60 years in prison. the attorneys will argue there wasn't enough evidence to convict the 68-year-old and the defense didn't have enough time to prepare for trail. the judge has not yet said when he will rule on the appeals motions. >> in colorado a judge decides whether there is enough evidence to put the aurora, colorado, theater shooting suspect on trail. the 25 jeer old holmes is accused of opening fire last july killing 12 people and wounding 58 others. the prosecutor told the judge holmes intended to murder everyone inside the theater and didn't care would he killed. >> we have heard of guard dogs but a man is accused of using a guard gator to protect his marijuana stash. the sheriff deputies sent out this picture of a 5' long alligator discovered during a probation check on tuesday.

officers say they also found 34 pounds of marijuana. the suspect used the alligator, named "mr. teeth" to deter pot thieves. mr. teeth is at the oakland zoo. >> scientists could unlock the secrets of the unit years. the larger of the two moons orbiting mars, and we are introduced to engineers who are hard at work on a new kind of rover. >> you can see a hopping and tumbling motion. >> this is early stimulation of a robot that could look like this, a ball covered in spikes. the professor at stanford called it a hedge hog that could explore mars' biggest moon which is about the size of san francisco bay and has almost no gravity.

>> nasa mars rovers have wheels they may not work on this. >> if you tried a wheel system in low gravity you could flip it over and you could just completely lose control. >> rather than rolling, the students are making hedge hogs tumble and hop using spinning motors sealed inside. they have started with this two dimensional model of how it will work in gravity. >> i let it go and slowly it drifts back down. as if this were the ground. >> the next prototype is in three dimensions and researchers use a small model of the giant shipping crane at the port of oakland to stimulate microgravity on a miniature model. >> apply little force i can move this entire system. >> the partners at nasa are working on a full-scale model to study hopping on different surfaces. we looked at doing this on concrete surfaces and on sandy surfaces and rocky surfaces. >> they can carry cameras and

microscopes and send findings to an orbiting satellite to learn where it came from and whether humans can land there. >> it could be key to proving or disproving on how the universe began. >> at stanford for abc7 news. >> don't think i saw our moon driving into work. did new. >> no. i did not notice. >> no. i didn't, either. >> you cannot see it because of the clouds. >> no, you cannot. good morning, everyone. all eyes to the sky to morning but from the east bay hills camera all the way back across emeryville to san francisco.

live doppler 7 hd tells the story today, we have spinning up north checking out the showers coming from the northwest and when they pass to the south we have radar closest to the snow so we will use that and zoom in. skyline boulevard shows the possibility of snow this morning and we have a winter wet advisory for the santa cruz mountains with a couple of inches possible on the grassy surface until 1:00 o'clock. the next batch coming ashore is south of daly city and headed to half moon bay and that will slide right down 280 and 1 so those areas could get wet. if it is above 2,000 feet, some of it could turnout to be snow. our freezing temperatures at the reporting station are at napa and santa rosa at 32 degrees and 37 in san rafael and upper 30's, mid-to-upper 30's around conquered -- concord and

livermore and los gatos. the cold front, you can see the sharpness, to the south and we are now in the cold and unstable air that is over warmer waters. that is why you see the showers. with the northwest flow they will hug the coast as they did overnight. they will continue to hug the coast through the morning into the afternoon. one will slide further inland, bump into the higher elevation and the possibility of snow exists. it is just a dusting outside the santa cruz mountains. in the afternoon it fades away and tonight is brutally cold with freezing temperatures everywhere but the coast tonight and tomorrow night and we also have heavy snow if you are headed to the sierra right now.

it will be dangerous travel up there. slight chance of showers for saturday. it becomes dry monday, tuesday, and wednesday. >> in the sierra both on highway 50 and 80 you need to have your chains or four-wheel drive. close to home, road work approaching macarthur maze eastbound and westbound due to be picked up at 5:00 this morning. i do not see delays. san rafael, south 101 past the marin ymca, light conditions with no road work through mar were county but on the northern portion of the golden gate bridge. fruitvale, there is road work until 5:00 a.m. eastbound dumbarton bridge, two right lanes there in the reverse side.

shoreline highway to oregon expressway, road work for the next ten minutes. kristen and eric? >> thank you very much. new this morning in the last ten minutes, san jose police found a missing at risk 96-year-old man who disappeared yesterday. investigators say they found him last night alive and well at the caltrain station in sunnyvale. he was disoriented and wandered there. the missing man, a 96-year-old, was found in the caltrain station in sunnyvale and appears okay. >> competitors who lost out to patrick dempsey in a bidding war over a coffee chain hope to resuccess state their chance. a company that teamed up with star backs to buy actually's is challenging the winning offer made by dempsey saying they bid more than $10 million compared to dempsey's $9 million.

another claimed the rules changed. ought best gadgets from the consumer electronics show in las vegas are aimed at you. lg has a refrigerator with several doors for easy access and extra energy saving features. they have a new smart stove, too, that interacting with your smartphone. >> we have recipes that are build in the phone. a favorite recipe is potato and cheese bake. i can actually send this recipe to our range and it will communicate and automatically set the preheat time and temperature and when it is done preheating it will set the cook time and temperature. you just hit "start." >> there are plenty of games, including a new exercise game to help you keep fit and a new game controller for the ipad that makes it play more like an old

pinball machine for those would remember such things. >> kids are saying, what is a pinball machine? >> exactly. >> new details on the unruly passenger who was duct taped to the seat. >> we take you to a look at the star panda cub to make

>> good morning, everyone, on thursday morning. it is beautiful but very cold. mike will have...possibly some snow. >> about 2,000 feet right now and the closer you are to the showers the more likely you will to get snow and the best chance is near the coast. live doppler 7 hd shows the

showers hugging the coast. and the higher elevations in the north bay, not sure the showers will be close enough to diabalo to get you snow but they are closer to hamilton but the santa cruz mountains are the hot spot if the snow. in the sierra you can see snow showers there and more showers to the north coming our way throughout the morning and the early afternoon hours. in matter where you travel you will see a lot of snow at higher elevations. if you are headed to tahoe we have the winter weather advisory . it will snow, maybe up to 7". >> chains are required on 15 and 80 so have those or four-wheel drive of the on the bay bridge we have a high wind advisory so grab the wheel tighter with light traffic conditions and no issues on the upper deck at this

hour to san francisco. you have good speeds out of the central valley headed up and over the over the pass and sout0 san jose there is road work until 7:00 a.m. >> new images of the unruly passenger on the new york bound flight from iceland. the passenger was so drunk and out-of-control he was strapped to his seat with duct tape. >> that is the passenger in the newly released cell phone video fighting again the duct tape. the airline confirms he accosted and hitting people and passengers say he tried to choke the person next to him. he was taken into police custody

but no one has pressed charges. >> at the zoo the public gets the first chance to see a new baby panda now five months old. all right, everyone, his name in english is "little gift," and now he makes the public public day about. there was a special review. they are spending their days outside, the baby and mother, after spending months in a berthing den. this is the sick -- six the panda born at the san diego zoo outside of china. >> new safety concerns over boeing's dreamliner days before the bay area launch and some question whether the aircraft is safe to fly. >> deadly flu strain is spreading like wildfires hitting people in more than 40 states. we will have

>> live from the kgo tv broadcast center, this is abc7 news. >> good morning, 5:00. how is that song, "baby it's cold outside." >> i am kristen sze. >> i am eric thomas and now, mike has the weather. >> here you go. we will smart with live doppler 7 hd with a winter weather advisory for the santa cruz mountains. the entire area is highlighted right here in the white. that is where we are going to have possibly up to 2" of