with this backup at the toll plaza already, a hit and run approaching the maze. things are slowing down. i'm trying to get you where you need to go on time, today in the bay. good morning. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> and i'm brent cannon. we begin with rob checking out your forecast. a little short, teeny-weinie heat wave. >> we've got low clouds this morning. it will be a little warm inland. breakfast time, lunchtime, that looks pretty nice out towards the tri-valley. upper 70s to low 80s. 78 san jose, 65 san francisco. but the seven-day forecast puts us in a weather u-turn. you might need the umbrella this weekend. we'll explain why coming up. and new this morning, governor schwarzenegger will get his first glimpse in person of the devastation in san bruno. he is returning from a trip to

asia. he was there working to bring more jobs back to california. in san bruno this morning, investigators zeroing in on what could have been done to prevent the disaster. some state leaders think the shutoff valve should shut off automatically and that may have saved some lives. just one of many accusations being leveled at pg&e charged with putting lives at risk. this morning we have information on a whistle floer tablower tak to court. bob redell is live this morning. we understand this lawsuit was filed weeks before the deadly gas line explosion. >> reporter: you can correct, a few weeks prior. good morning to you, laura. it should be noted this whistleblower has never worked on the gas pipeline that exploded here in san bruno, but mike wiseman, from los altos has worked on other pg&e gas lines for ten years. he claims that the utility giant often ignored safety rules in violation. he's quoted as saying one of the jokes in my department is pg&e management put the safety cap on

during safety meetings and takes it off when we all hit the field. that's mike wiseman. in one instance pg&e sent workers into a ditch, the one that you see wiseman standing in, to repair a gas line. the problem is, according to wiseman, none of those workers had proper training. when he'd bring up these concerns with his supervisors, wiseman alleges that they retaliated. he claimed that one time pg&e detained him overnight in this stockton hotel, pressured him to hand over his car keys, threatening to fire him if he didn't, he says, and then drove it to a locked location. >> pg&e has bonuses that are tied to safety, and when you have an incident or if you have somebody get hurt, then people start losing their bonuses. so this leads to supervisors covering things up. >> reporter: mike wiseman filed his whistleblower lawsuit against pg&e, as we mentioned, three weeks ago.

in response so far pg&e has said this. the company has absolutely no tolerance for retaliation. every employee is expected to stop the work in process and raise his or her concerns if there is an unsafe situation. reporting live here in san bruno, bob redell, today in the bay. >> interesting to hear. thanks, bob. meantime, people who survived the blast are slowly trying to piece their lives back together again. there are many stunning stories of survival from thursday night. people like betty, who is pregnant, have amazing stories of survival to tell. >> i don't even know what's going on, but we just ran. we didn't have any shoes, you know. the kids were -- we had to borrow all this stuff from our neighbor. >> betty grabbed her three children and did not look back. now, last night she got to go back home for the first time. she and her family members had to wear white safety suits and search for mementos that would remind them of the life that they had before the blast. she says that her children are

still afraid. >> sometimes it's heartbreaking because my 3-year-old still keeps on praying for our safety every night because she said that if i don't pray for our safety, the fire might come back. >> their house is still standing but badly damaged. many victims say that the neighborhood is never going to feel the same again. some say they are afraid to rebuild. oakland police will soon be armed with their own cameras to monitor their behavior on the job. >> that new gear comes as a lot of people accuse officers of excessive force. today in the bay's christie smith is live in oakland with what's in store. >> reporter: good morning to you. well, oakland police believe that having these cameras out there will reduce the number of complaints against them because they'll basically be recording everything. now, in the past they had tried in the car cameras but apparently they didn't work very well and were rather expensive compared with the ones that they're talking about now. other departments use this and they say that it keeps everyone on their best behavior. the cameras that they're talking

about clip right onto the police officers. san jose police are using a similar system now. oakland has been testing out about 15 of the clip-on video units this summer. now, they record video and sound and data is downloaded daily. when an issue comes up, they can just go back and review the tape. union city had an incident recently where a guy was complaining about a police officer being rude to him. when police reviewed the tape, they found it was actually the accuser who was swearing and cursing at the police officer. they showed him the tape and he just walked away saying never mind. now some privacy rights grupoup are concerned the whole interaction might not be recorded and they certainly want that to happen. still, opd wants about 350 of these cameras to the tune of about $540,000. there is some federal funding available and apparently they'll use some of the money they had set aside for those in-car cameras to help pay for it. reporting live in oakland, christie smith, today in the bay. this morning police are investigating a deadly home

invasion in san francisco. it happened at a home on 2010 palu avenue near rankin street. one of the people living there is dead after at least two robbery suspects broke in around midnight. right now police remain on the scene trying to determine if the attack was random or targeted. police have detained two people for questioning. tea party candidates take a major step toward power in the republican party and scott mcgrew is here to explain. scott. >> reporter: good morning to you. perhaps the biggest upset last night in these nominations was in delaware. christine o'donnell beat veteran congressman mike castle to become the republican nominee for the senate. o'donnell surged to a win after getting an endorsement from sarah palin and a lot of cash from a tea party group. in new york, a candidate sympathetic to the tea party won the republican nomination for governor. millionaire real estate developer carl paladino will now take on democratic attorney general andrew cuomo. now, paladino is a newcomer to

politics. he becomes one of the first tea party candidates to win a republican primary for governor. also worth noting, embattled new york congressman chuck rangel sailed to a win. the democrat has been dogged by ethics charges, including not reporting income and assets to the irs. he still faces a trial before the house ethics committee. rangel will not face opposition in the general election. now, as we talk about the tea party wins today, we should be clear these candidates ran for and won republican nominations. the tea party did not run candidates on the ticket. those republicans are sympathetic to and funded by the tea party, but, brent, there is no tea party party. >> the tea party movement but it's not an actual political party. there you go. police officers in the east bay will bike their way to san francisco this morning to raise money for families in need. a little video from a new years ago. they do this all the time.

in fact this is the 27th annual turkey ride, which kicks off this morning. officers travel more than 210 miles in three days. they ride to raise money to buy food for berkeley families who are in need during the november and december holiday season. >> hard to believe it's around the corner. one transit agency is asking for your help to make sure its major service change is going smoothly. ac transit recently moved some of its routes and stops. they say the process was very complicated and some of the signs may have been missed. they're asking riders to report anything from signs in wrong places or with wrong route information. meantime, it's 6:08. checking your commute. >> ac transit reporting on time but throughout the east bay where i live and my wife works, we see those signs being adjusted all the place. get that word in there. meanwhile word about the bay bridge, we still see a backup but now it's spread out across the cash lanes. bottom of your screen where we saw more significant backup but it looks like all cash lanes

have opened at about 6:00 as we typically see, but now more folks heading here off of that east shore freeway and the berkeley curve. still, about 18 or 19 minutes off that carquinez bridge. we had a hit and run westbound 24 at 580. you might see a little activity but it sounds like chp has wrapped things up there. no cars. if you did see that incident, call that into chp as well and let them know. travel times throughout the maze and approach looking really good despite the accident out of the caldecott tunnel over to 480. 580 coming up through oakland as well as 880 from 238 out of san leandro, close to the limit there. san mateo bridge, no issues. a nice clear view and drive along the peninsula. a light jacket for the morning, but shed it by this afternoon? >> yeah, probably right around lunchtime, laura, you'll be able to wear some t-shirt weather in san jose. right now that's probably tough to believe with low clouds hanging over downtown. 57 degrees.

not much wind around the south bay. oakland 58, southwest wind at 7. san francisco 58. foggy across the midspan of the golden gate bridge this morning. i do want to point out the reason why the forecast will be changing big-time as we head to the weekend. rain tomorrow an chances on the increase through the weekend. 78 san jose, near 70 for oakland, 65 san francisco. ukiah close to 86 degrees. nice afternoon off to the north but look what happens here. seven-day forecast brings in a chance of showers, ukiah northward for friday and spilling across the rest of the bay area saturday and sunday along with cooler temperatures. back to you. the san jose earthquakes are going to try to shake up the competition tonight for a run at the playoffs. the quakes are taking on the philadelphia union after a 0-0 draw with fc dallas. tickets are still available for tonight's game. it starts at 7:00 in santa clara. if you can't make it to the game, you can still watch it on

tape delay on comcast sportsnet right after the a's game. the quakes are tied for seattle for seventh place in the playoff standings. it's 6:10 right now. a google engineer accused of tampering with people's information. plus the emotional reunion of sarah shourd and her mother. and we'll talk to a member of the state department about what's next in the case. and i'm chris sanchez in san jose where the talk about the high-speed rail is should it go underground or six stories in the air. the latest on that coming up.

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good morning. it's 6:13. live look out at the east bay. some of the temperatures you'll see all around the bay area today overall fairly mild, but there are changes in store and rob will have that for you coming up in just a few more minutes. new this morning, today marks the first full day of freedom in more than a year for american hiker and cal graduate sarah shourd. late last night she arrived via private plane to greet her mother in oman. she had to leave behind her fiance, shane bauer, and friend josh fattal who remain behind bars in iran. we turn to the deputy spokesman for near eastern affairs at the state department. we thank you for joining us this morning. >> oh, thank you for having me. >> now, america has very strict rules regarding the transfer of money abroad. in this case america doesn't allow money to be transferred to the iranian government and those who serve as the go-between can actually be prosecuted. but we also understand oman was

involved in this process somewhat. where did that money come from, do we know, and exactly how was it transferred? >> well, as you know the iranians released sarah shourd yesterday morning, and we can't be happier. we're very pleased that she has been released finally after a year of detention, a little over a year. one can only imagine the grief and the heartache that the family has experienced. at the same time, we thank the omanis and the swiss who through their diligent efforts helped to secure this release. while i can't get into whatever arrangement may have been made since we, the united states, were not a part of the discussions, i can say that we, the united states, did not pay any money of any kind. i'll have to let the omanis and/or the swiss speak to whatever arrangements. but again, we are very happy that sarah has been reunited with her family. >> so the united states has paid some, just to clarify that?

or you cannot say. >> the united states has not paid. >> okay, okay. just wanted to clarify that. does the state department feel iran is using the hikers as pawns in a tug-of-war with the united states? >> we don't know the. with the iranians it's very difficult to read. it's like reading tea leaves to get inside what's going on in their heads. you know, our position through all this has been clear, that these three hikers, let's not forget that while we are very pleased and happy that sarah has been released, unfortunately her companions, josh fattal and shane bauer, remain in detention. our position has always been that these three were innocent tourists, innocent hikers, who have been wrongly detained. and whatever issues we have with respect to iran and other issues such as their nuclear files, these three cases is a

completely separate matter and one that we consider to be of a humanitarian nature. >> all right. and of course their families as well are anxious for them to be released. we thank you for joining us. >> oh, thank you. meantime, one of the strange economic stories in the downturn is just how much money companies have. >> billions and billions in the case of cisco systems. $40 billion. cisco wants to give some of that money back to the investor in the form of a dividend. that news has investors interested in cisco stock, which was the whole point of giving a dividend. what can we read into this? cisco tried to pump up its stock price higher in stock buybacks. that didn't work particularly well. they used a lot of its cash to buy other companies. there are people at cisco whose full-time job it is to welcome new people to cisco from other

companies every single day. that worked to some degree. high-tech companies are usually reluctant to pay dividends because they look a cool factor. old stogy companies pay dividends, not hip, high-tech companies. google said it fired an engineer from the company after he peered into people's private data. some published reports say the man based in seattle accessed teenagers google voice and google e-mail. some influential bloggers like tech crunch are pushing for google to go beyond just firing and actually press criminal charges against this fellow. this is the one disadvantage to this cloud that we always talk about. you know, all of your data being at some company, assuming everyone at that company stays out of your private data, it remains private. but it's offsite. >> every now and then you get one of these and that's when people get worried. human remain found in yosemite national park might be those of a livermore man who was last seen seven years ago. he was on a hiking trip by

himself back in 2003, but the 43-year-old never returned home. he was an experienced outdoorsman and backpacker. a forest ranger foundry mains on september 4th. the bones are undergoing dna testing. one of the 33 miners trapped underground in chile is a new father this morning. his wife gave birth to a baby girl and he asked his wife to name her esperanza because that means hope. relatives recorded the delivery and they're going to send the video down so he can see it. also more good news today, crews have recovered a piece of broken drill and that means that drilling can now resume on the rescue shaft today. 6:19 right now. high-speed rail cars could soon be zooming overhead in san jose. city leaders are on track to approve an aerial railway through downtown. today in the bay's chris sanchez is live in san jose with more on where the track would run. good morning, chris. >> reporter: good morning to you, laura. i'm at the station here in san

jose and this is along the proposed route for that high-speed rail right near downtown. as you look at the skyscrapers in downtown san jose, in the future possibly you could see the high-speed rail six stories high zooming through downtown. that's the talk and that is the study that the city of san jose is going to do or have its staff do in the coming couple of weeks. we're talking about n elevated rail that would soar as high as 60 feet into the air along that downtown route. the stretch is likely to go between highway 87 and alma street to where highway 87 connects with interstate 280. now, some people say that's just going to be an eyesore and it's going to be way too loud, but on the other hand it could be a real money saver over digging a tunnel and putting it underground. because the high-speed rail runs up and down the state, the high-speed rail authority has to sign off on it. they have to agree to let the city of san jose study the elevated option and that decision could come in the next two weeks. the city of san jose voted last

night one night after palo alto's council asked to focus environmental studies. palo alto may sue the agency over those studies. still a lot of decisions ahead for the project and the price tag right now stands at $43 million. so we'll have to see what happens. in san jose, chris sanchez, today in the bay. >> i want to wait and see if i see it in my lifetime. meantime, today marks a special birthday in san francisco today. claude, the albino alligator, who lives in the california academy of sciences in the golden gate, turns 15. check him out there. he gets 15 cupcakes made of protein pellets, but apparently that's his favorite snack so that's good with him. and if you want to join claude for the celebration, admission to the academy is free every third wednesday of the month. guess what, that happens to be today. so you can get in free today. i don't think you get a free pellet cupcake. >> bring your own pellet cupcake. he looked pretty comfortable

there. >> he looks so young too. >> doesn't look a day over, say, 14. >> there you go. you know what the problem is, there's no sun damage to his skin and that's why because he's used sunscreen spf like 450 or whatever for albinos. it's early for any major backup. east shore freeway giving you a break approaching the toll plaza. a live look at the toll plaza itself, we're seeing a lot more cars but the backup that was in this cash lanes disappeared. all the cash lanes presumably opened but now all the lanes, including the fast track, showing a steady stream of cars. the metering lights will probably turn on right about now. so we'll show that. meanwhile we'll take you back to the maps and show you that approaching the area westbound off of the carquinez bridge still smooth. there was a minor accident reported eastbound right around highway 4 heading through hercules that may cause a distraction but it's just

property damage. two cars on the side of the road. big slowdown coming through antioch. by the time you get to horizon, things have cleared up. a little slowing through bay point. i'll show you livermore in a second. let me show you sunol, a live look where some folks will see slowdowns out of pleasanton and heading down the hill into fremont. more in a few minutes. back to you. 6:23. sharing your dreams by becomi becoming -- we'll show you the hot spot where it may inspire drivers every day. we're just hours away from crowning a winner on nbc's "america's got talent." last night the four finalists had their chance to impress the judges and fans. those finalists, 10-year-old opera singer jackie evango, comedic performer prince poppycock, singer michael grimm an p arm pfo tercee anupd romena fi aghting gravity. gh

as governor, he cut waste got rid of the mansion and the limo budgets were balanced. $4 billion in tax cuts. world class schools and universities. clean energy promoted. 1.9 million new jobs created. california was working. i'm jerry brown. california needs major changes. we have to live within our means; we have to return power and decision making to the local level-closer to the people and no new taxes without voter approval. jerry brown the knowledge and know-how to get california working again.

welcome back, everyone. 6:25. here's a look at some of the expected high temperatures. walnut creek 77 degrees, livermore warmer, 82, fremont 76 degrees. every day hopes and dreams are going to be turned into art at the south bay today. artist christopher baker will unveil an interactive video that will play on a four-story canvas in santana row in san jose. people have been answering the question what is your dream for the future? they can do that via facebook, twitter, e-mail, text message or voice mail. then tonight baker will display those responses in realtime. he says it will create an ever-changing story of how the silicon valley envisions its future. >> pretty interesting there. 6:26 right now. what's in the future when it comes to our forecast? enjoy today. >> yeah, some big changes,

probably a lot of folks not envisioning a future in september that includes showers for the weekend but we've got that coming up. this morning no worries about that. 50s outside around san jose. you can see here on the satellite the clouds which are off to our north today and tomorrow will bring a chance of showers a little further south as we wrapup the week. 80s around livermore. there you see san francisco 65, and to the east way you'll see 82 in concord and pittsburg, 78 around san ramon. seven-day forecast shows a cooldown for the weekend. best chance of showers, by the way, looks like saturday evening into early sunday. back to you. 6:27 right now. a move today could block a plan that might make your nights out more expensive. and we'll show you how the oakland police department hopes to set its reputation right.

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dispatch tape shows chaos and confusion in the moments right after the san bruno explosion. we're going to talk live to investigators coming up about what they figured out so far. did pg&e try to cover up safety problems with its gas pipe line? that's what one whistleblower alleges. we'll hear from him coming up in a live report. and true to form, the metering lights and the backup are on here at the toll plaza and a new accident on a major east bay freeway causing more problems for your morning commute. i'll show you where, today in the bay. good morning, everybody. thanks for joining us. i'm brent cannon. >> and i'm laura garcia-cannon. lets get right to rob who has a look at our forecast. >> this morning it's a jacket and cool temperatures. 50s through breakfast time and your forecast through 8:00.

then by noon we'll get low clouds to break up inland so t-shirt weather for san jose and livermore, 70s and 80s inland. 60s for san francisco. a look at some wetter changes for your seven-day forecast coming up. new this morning, cal grad sarah shourd is out of tehran for the first time in more than a year. she's resting in oman after the surprise bail deal set her free from an iranian prison on spy charges yesterday. she was arrested along with josh fattal and shane bauer who remain behind bars in iran. they crossed the border into iran from iraq on a hike. looking for clues among the ashes in san bruno. as they continue their search for clues neighbors are adjusting to the shock of it all. governor schwarzenegger is set to tour the explosion site this morning. so far four people are confirmed dead and four others are still missing. meantime there are new allegations surfacing charging pg&e with putting lives at risk. today in the bay's bob redell is

live in san bruno where a whistle ploblower filed a lawsu against the company. and he did that before last week's deadly explosion. >> reporter: this whistleblower, brent, did not work on the gas pipeline that exploded here in san bruno, but mike wiseman of los altos, that's his name, has worked on other pg&e gas pipelines for the ten years he's been with the company. he claims that the utility giant often ignored safety rules and violations. he's quoted as saying, quote, one of the jokes in my department is pg&e management puts safety cap on during safety meetings and takes it off when we all hit the field, unquote. in one instance pg&e sent workers into a ditch. the one that you see wiseman standing in right there, to repair a gas line. the problem is, according to wiseman none of those workers had proper training. when he'd bring up these concerns to a supervisor, wiseman alleges they retaliated. he claims that one time pg&e detained him overnight in this stockton hotel, pressured him to

hand over his car keys, threatening to fire him if he didn't and then drove his car to a locked location. >> pg&e has bonuses that are tied to safety. and when you have an incident or if you have somebody get hurt, then people start losing their bonuses. so this leads to supervisors covering things up. >> reporter: mike wiseman filed this whistleblower lawsuit against pg&e about three weeks ago. the company in response has said that the company has absolutely, quote, no tolerance for retaliation. every employee is expected to stop the work in process and raise his or her concerns if there is an unsafe situation, unquote. that's the response from pg&e. reporting live here in san bruno, bob redell, today in the bay. >> all right, thanks a lot, bob. actually in the moments after the san bruno explosion, there was a lot of chaos and confusion everywhere. from those of us watching in horror to the first responders rushing to get inside the inferno. this morning radio scanners give

us a chilling sense that the emergency crews felt on the ground and they felt just as helpless. the heat was so intense the inferno so massive it took nearly half an hour for the first responders to realize this was no plane crash. >> this is not an aircraft down, it appears this is some sort of natural gas explosion. >> for some firefighters it hit very close to home. >> i grew up here. i worked here. and it's my family. >> and for some time they had no way to fight the fire. >> we think we've got a broken water main down here so they need to lay in from the corner of san bruno avenue. >> there's a hearing in washington, d.c., about the explosion starting at 7:00. a congressman from walnut creek is part of the house committee asking experts about what happened. we'll stream that hearing live for you on nbcbayarea.com. oakland police will have a new set of electronic eyes. that move comes in response to community cries over alleged

police misconduct. today in the pbay' christie smih is live at police head quarters in oakland with what they're doing now. >> reporter: good morning to you, brent. we're talking about a camera that clips right on the police officers's uniform. so say if you're pulled over, there's a disagreement and things escalate, in theory the whole thing can be caught on tape and the police chief thinks this will improve officer safety but also give him a way to monitor interactions with the public and cut down on allegations against the department. right now san jose police are using a similar system and oakland is testing out about 15 of these cameras. the data can be downloaded at the end of the day. if someone claims the officer was way out of line, the department can go back and review the tape. these will replace the car cameras that were a bust and very expensive. the company that made them went bankrupt. opd wants 350 of these personal cameras. it's not cheap, though, about $540,000 at a time when the city really doesn't have a lot of

money and just laid off a bunch of officers, but money is apparently coming from what's left of that car camera fund and some federal dollars may help out as well. the full city council is expected to take up the issue at the end of the month. christie smith, today in the bay. >> thanks for the update there. 6:36 right now. the giants take a step back from the playoffs. we'll show you the embarrassing mistake that could cost them a shot at the world series. and sarah shourd is on her way out of iran this morning. we'll check in with nbc's jim besada live. protecting the people who care for your children. some bay area moms stand up for their nannies. and i'm rob mayeda tracking some temperatures but also a chance of rain for the weekend ahead. live view of a foggy start to san jose this morning, today in the bay.

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but what really happened? cnn -- not me -- cnn says his assertion about his tax record was "just plain wrong." jerry brown went out there and took credit for the fact that the people of california voted for proposition 13, which lowered taxes, which he opposed. and now he's going around taking credit for it. he raised taxes as governor of california. he had a surplus when he took office and a deficit when he left. he doesn't tell the people the truth.

and welcome back. 6:39 this morning. let's show you the temperatures we're waking up to. 50s across the board and the bay area. mostly cloudy skies this morning and a pretty good sea breeze getting into fairfield. i want to show you the reason why for friday and the weekend ahead we'll see some changes. these clouds off to the north will spill toward the bay area as we show you your seven-day forecast coming up. keep the umbrella on standby. not today, though.

78 in san jose, 60s for san francisco and a pleasant 76 today around petaluma. seven-day forecast shows the change for the north bay late on friday, showers in parts of the bay area for the upcoming weekend. let's see how your morning commute is shaping up. a big accident in the east bay i was going to tell folks about, 580 westbound at grantline road causing some slowing but it's moved to the shoulder. you might buy some benefit through livermore. but the bay bridge toll plaza, no benefit there because the metering lights are up. backups to west grand avenue. there's a sig alert that's been called at the benicia bridge. i'll give you more updates coming up in just a few. new this morning, san francisco mayor gavin newsom says he will veto an alcohol fee approved by city supervisors. supporters say the fee will only raise the price of a drink between 3 and 5 cents. the tax only applies to wholesalers and amounts to 35 cents per gallon of beer, $1 per gallon of wine and $3.20 per gallon of hard liquor.

bar and restaurant owners say the fee will be passed on to them and hurt business. bay area moms are rallying for their nannies. about 4,000 mothers in san francisco are trying to get exemptions from residential parking rules for their child caregivers. many nannies have to drive to the city from cheaper neighborhoods and so they're forced to move their cars every couple of hours or else they rack up hundreds of dollars in parking fines. the moms want to get some special annual parking permit and city leaders will look into that sometime next month. we'll check in live with the ntsb and the latest on the san bruno explosion investigation. plus sarah shourd is free from iran and is in the air this morning. we'll have a live report on where she is headed and that'srl behind bars.

as governor, he cut waste got rid of the mansion and the limo budgets were balanced. $4 billion in tax cuts. world class schools and universities. clean energy promoted. 1.9 million new jobs created. california was working. i'm jerry brown. california needs major changes. we have to live within our means; we have to return power and decision making to the local level-closer to the people and no new taxes without voter approval. jerry brown the knowledge and know-how to get california working again.

it is bittersweet. we are so happy that sarah is with nora, but i want josh home and i know cindy wants shane home. >> words of heartbreak and hope from josh fattal's mother on the "today" show this morning. she and shane bauer's mother sit down with matt lauer to talk about how they feel 13 months after their children were first imprisoned in iran. today in the bay's jim maceda is live now. he's in london. jim, you have the latest on sarah shourd and where she is today and her journey home. >> reporter: that's right, brent. sarah shourd is spending her first full day out of an iranian prison in oman where she's reconnecting with her mother and uncle and trying to be as low profile as possible saying from the moment she arrived in that emotional reunion last night in oman, how she wants the focus away from her and onto those two other americans, her fiance,

shane bauer, and her fellow hiker, josh fattal. even as iranian authorities relewd shourd on compassionate grounds, the court extended the detention of those two two more months. spying charges have been filed and prosecutors are now saying that those cases could move quickly into the courts. meanwhile, brent, it's unclear just how long sarah will remain in oman. she's reportedly seeing a doctor today. her mother, nora, has said that she does have some serious medical issues, including a breast lump and precancerous cervical cells, so we're watching her, monitoring the movements and wondering if she'll take a direct flight from oman to los angeles any time soon. >> wish them all well. thanks a lot. jim maceda live for us this morning. 6:45 right now. time to help you get out the door if that's where you're headed with a look at your morning commute. >> we'll check the benicia bridge. we have a sig alert. that's just around the toll plaza, an accident.

a car went into the sound wall there. now, there's an ambulance heade to the scene. the extent of the injuries i don't know. it's been significant enough to call a sig alert so southbound coming across the benicia bruj you may see slowing. also a slowdown heading towards highway 24. that's pretty typical about this time of day. highway 4 westbound, that's typical for the slowing there but a new accident there coming off the antioch bridge right around hillcrest. reports of a motorcycle accident. those are much more of a spectator issue for folks. i don't know the extent of those injuries. that just came in about a minute and a half, two minutes ago so there's additional slowing through antioch. we'll follow that very carefully. westbound 580 at grantline road. the earlier accident is off of the roadway. there's some slowing through the scene. 21 minutes registering. sunol might be a little easier the next 20 minutes. it's an easy drive so far through low clouds. so far pretty pleasant for 680.

the backup at the toll plaza pretty standard, back past west grand avenue now. rob, there's low clouds all over the place. >> all the way inland, actually out to the altamont pass we're seeing low clouds. right now 57 degrees in san jose. pretty tame today but we're going to go from warm to just plain weird with the weather by the time we get to the weekend. right now high pressure winning the battle between today and tomorrow, some 80s inland, sunny skies inland later on during the day. low clouds hanging out on the coast. here's the pattern change for friday and the weekend ahead. the jetstream will drop to the south pushing in moisture in the north bay friday and across the rest of the bay area saturday evening into sunday. today san jose about 78 degrees. notice the temperatures around morgan hill, livermore and pleasanton, some 80s further inland. 76 for petaluma. here now your seven-day forecast. tomorrow looks pretty tame with morning clouds, afternoon sunshine. friday chance of showers north of santa rose avmt then saturday evening, sunday areas san jose northward we'll see a chance of showers with temperatures

cooling off for the weekend. back to you. scott joins us now with a look at the markets. >> reporter: good morning. certainly wall street all abuzz about a lawsuit that was just filed against goldman sachs by the women of goldman sachs. they're trying to seek class action status claiming discrimination. meanwhile dow industrial is down 36 points this morning. nasdaq down 11. we're watching cisco systems up better than 1% after that company yesterday announced it would start paying a dividend eend of its fiscal year. do watch microsoft as well. that company is announcing new web browser technology in san francisco later this morning. >> good to know. >> thanks for the update, scott. new this morning, one new drug to fight obesity could be approved but another one could come off the market entirely. an fda panel of experts will weigh in on the risks and benefits of meridia. the drug has been linked to higher rates of heart attacks and strokes in patients with heart disease. then tomorrow fda advisers will consider whether an experimental

drug called lorkasurin should be placed on the market. researchers say it had very few side effects in clinical trials where patients lost 17 pounds over a year. we have information about a man taking pg&e to court over alleged safety violations. bob redell is live in san bruin oh bob, this whistleblower actually filed suit before last week's deadly gas line explosion. >> reporter: yes, three weeks prior to the explosion here in san bruno. good morning to you, brent. alleging that pg&e is lax when it comes to the safety of it's gas pipelines. for instance, letting workers with little or no training make a repair to such line. mike wiseman, who has worked on pg&e gas lines for ten years, claims that when he complained to supervisors they retaliated. in one instance he said pg&e made him stay here in this hotel in stockton and locked up his car. now, pg&e has responded saying the company, quote, absolutely has no tolerance for

retaliation. every employee is expected to stop the work in process and raise his or her concerns if there is an unsafe situation, unquote. again, that was the response from pg&e. it should be noted that mike wiseman has never worked on the gas pipeline that exploded here in san bruno. he does point out that the gas lines in this neighborhood are old. he wouldn't be surprised if that didn't contribute to this disaster. reporting live, bob redell, today in the bay. >> thanks a lot, bob. meantime, a house committee hearing is set to get under way pretty soon in washington, d.c. congressman john geremendi will ask experts a lot about the explosion. it's the committee on transportation and infrastructure. it's slated to start any minute so we're watching that. you can see it on our website, nbcbayarea.com. we'll stream that live for you. christopher harr is with the national transportation safety board and is leading the investigation into the explosion.

he joins us live from san bruno to update us. thank you for joining us. i know you're so busy out there, so much to look for. we spoke to the family of one of the victims, elizabeth torres. >> her transmission is intermittent. >> it sounds like he's having trouble hearing me now. >> hopefully. >> can you hear me now, christopher? >> yes, yes. >> okay, good. i was talking about the family of elizabeth torres. her family claims she called pg&e because she smelled gas. we've been talking about this a little bit. they say she was waiting for them to come out when the explosion happened. has anyone come to you with a report that they told pg&e that they smelled gas? i know earlier you were having trouble contacting anyone. >> no. we've had almost 90 e-mails in response to our request for that information. so far only one of them has said they called pg&e but that was two or three weeks before and pg&e responded to that. so we're looking for information regarding gas leaks immediately prior to this because that can help determine the cause of this

explosion. >> can you delve into pg&e's woman because elizabeth torres perished in the fire. >> yes, that's one of the things we asked them for as well as operators of the 911 line and the police station, the fire station and the puc. anybody that might be called with this information we've asked all of them for that so that we can ascertain the accuracy, whether these rumors are accurate about smells of gas immediately prior. >> i would imagine that people have been pretty forthcoming about what they saw and heard even prior to the explosion? >> we've gotten a lot of information. the 90 e-mails have been quite variable from you're doing good work to there's dead vegetation to providing videos to lots of things. i'm an engineer of such and such and i'd like to help. we've gotten lots of responses, but only one that has talked about calling pg&e and then pg&e responded to that one. >> interesting that you hear more. what about from pg&e themselves. we just heard briefly from a whistleblower who had a lawsuit against them. are you hearing from any

employees that perhaps want to remain anonymous? >> we have not heard but if there are reports, any such reports, we would welcome them. pg&e itself is one of the parties to this investigation and has been very cooperative, as have been the federal and state regulators and also the city of san bruno. >> all right, christopher hart, we know you're busy and the report will be extensive and take a long time. thanks for joining us this morning. >> thank you for having me. switching gears, the future of california's high-speed rail through the south bay could actually be up in the air, literally. >> yeah. city leaders are on track to approve an aerial railway through downtown. they had to debate between that and going underground. chris sanchez is live in san jose with a look at where that track would run. chris. >> reporter: good morning, brent and laura. i'm at the san jose deardon station and the question is will it go six stories above my head or below my feet. that's something the city of san jose staff is going to are can. they voted last night to discover the possibility of

doing a 60-foot high aerial track instead of a tunnel along downtown san jose. i'm talking about the stretch of roadway between highway 87 and all ma street and where highway 87 connects with 280. some people say it would be loud and an eyesore but it could be a real money saver as well. >> i think the elevated makes sense. a lot of cities have done it and it's definitely less money, which given that i'm a taxpayer seems to make sense to not spend more than we have to. >> reporter: the high-speed rail authority has to sign off on the study, a decision that could come in the next two weeks or so. by the way, the city of san jose voted one day after the city of palo alto asked the rail authority to focus its environmental studies there. that city may decide to sue the agency over those very studies. by the way, the current price tag for the high-speed rail project, $43 million. chris sanchez, today in the bay. we are keeping tabs on your forecast this morning. kind of an interesting one.

>> it is. >> a warm day followed by a not-so-warm day. >> i have the cruise buttons usually locked in this time of year but things are changing up. this morning is pretty typical. low clouds, misty skies on the coast, 50s across the board for breakfast time. right around lunchtime the low clouds inland will start to break up and you'll see temperatures climbing toward the tri-valley, mid-70s by noon. even yael low 80s inland. 78 san jose, 82 los gatos, 65 around san francisco. now, let's walk you through the timing on the seven-day forecast. no problems tomorrow, just morning clouds. friday areas north of ukiah have a chance of rare september showers. the most interesting part of this forecast, late saturday into sunday looks like a chance of some outright rain for the north bay and possibly some scattered showers as far south as san jose by sunday morning. so that's something we'll have to watch. obviously very unusual for this time of year. a cooler weekend with extra clouds but may need to dust off the umbrella this weekend.

mike has a sig alert to tell us about. >> yes, for the southbound 680 coming across the benicia bridge. there is an accident involving one car. it sounds like it went into the sound wall. it may be moving off but still consider the carquinez bridge your alternate if you're heading down towards highway 4. highway 4 will experience big slowing coming out of antioch because of a motorcycle accident. but the driver is reported up and walking around fully dressed in safety gear and that did help in this accident. westbound 4 very slow coming out of antioch 8th street all the way over to horizon lane and another slowdown coming through pittsburg at bay point. the metering lights are working because the upper deck is moving smoothly. there are those low clouds that rob told us about. a guess a lot of folks heading to the city tonight for the giants game. >> absolutely. as a matter of fact, the giants are a game and a half out of first place in the nl west this morning and the wild card race as well thanks to a rough one against the dodgers. a costly error right here led to

the only run. that allowed the dodgers reed johnson to score. it was the only run in the game so the dodgers wenlt on to win it 1-0. of course it always hurts to lose tower rivals from los angeles, but when you're in a real tight playoff race and a half a game or game here and there really adds up. they play again tonight. >> do it the right way. thanks for joining us this morning. the "today" show is up next. >> of course local news update coming up in about half an hour. have a great day. thanks for joining us. we'll see you back in a little bit. [ female announcer ] at the jcpenney appreciation sale save an extra 15% on all regular, sale, and clearance items. everything! no exclusions! plus if you use your jcpenney card, it's not an extra 15%, it's an extra 20% off. go to jcp.com to see everything on sale. jcpenney.

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