what looks like a very clear conditions, but radar showed light rain coming through the area. steady flow with the headlights and the lights of the bridge itself fine as you're approaching san francisco, but a look at the toll plaza shows it a little darker that we typically see. some of the streetlights right around the parking lot area look like they're out this morning. as that rain comes through, wet roadways as well as a darker approach to the bridge may be an issue for traffic. keep that in mind if it is for part of your commute and it is for much of the bay area. sweeping changes could be on the way for the nfl. the league is cracking down on vicious hits and a safety meeting is going to begin in new york city this morning. the results will likely trickle down all the way to youth football leagues all across the country. bob redell is live in san jose. he has a look at how brain injuries are changing the culture of football. >> reporter: good morning, brent. if you look at it on the scale of the nfl, there are roughly one to two concussions per game, so it's certainly a significant issue. later this morning in new york

city the nfl's brain, head and neck medical committee will be meeting today and tomorrow to look at ways to cut down on concussions and traumatic brain injury that say take place on the field. this meeting comes after a youth sports summit in d.c. yesterday during which the national athletic trainers association agreed to team up with the nfl to push for laws that will better protect young athletes. now, the kbidea is for each sta to have a law similar to the one enacted in washington state which requires young athletes and parents to sign forms acknowledging the risk of a concussion. players with a concussion must be removed immediately from a game and can't return to play until they have been cleared by a doctor. now, this issue has been receiving a lot of attention lately. just a few days ago, heath miller of the pittsburgh steelers suffered a concussion after a very vicious hit during a football game. this past sunday brett favre was hit from behind and taken out of the game for what turned out to

be a shoulder injury. you might recall locally during last year's big bone game, san jose's matt blay was almost killed when his head was slammed into the ground. it took three surgeries but he's doing much better. he's not alone. every day roughly 8,000 kids end up in the e.r. with a sports-related injury. of that number, 45 of them die. reporting live here in san jose, bob redell, "today in the bay." the man accused of using a stun gun on a deputy and forcing a preschool into lockdown could face charges today in santa cruz county. investigators want to charge 24-year-old maurice ainsworth with attempted murder, escaping from custody, armed robbery and battery. he was in custody getting treatment at a lockdown medical facility when police say he escaped by granning the deputy's

stun gun and using it on her. he fled to a preschool, pointed the stun gun at the teacher and demanded her car keys. investigators say william hancock was the middle man in a plot by a san francisco police officer to accept bribes from taxi drivers. drivers allegedly got a passing grade on a portion of the driving permit test if they paid hancock bribe money, which he would then turn over to the police officer. he is currently in custody with a bail of $40,000. stunning new numbers out this morning on the dropout rate in bay area schools. many districts are seeing more and more students dropping out. according to the state department of education, santa clara county's dropout rate increased to nearly one in six students. in oakland, four out of ten students drop out of public high schools. san mateo county's dropout rate increased 3.4%. now, there is some better news for the san francisco unified school district.

it saw a nearly 50% decrease in the dropout rate. that study used numbers from the 2008-2009 school year. the fate of a south bay neighborhood is still in limbo this morning. the city of san jose has voted to annex the area but they will delay the implementation until campbell can make a counteroffer. the area is unincorporated and a lot of people who live there would rather become part of campbell. san jose has the right to annex the area but many have been fighting the change. >> i'd like to ask that you consider reopening discussions with campbell and see what you can come up with. please act like elected representativ representatives. >> the city of campbell is asking the city of san jose to discuss all of its options. so far the annexation has been put on hold six months. talk about the 11th hour of the 11th hour, i think annexing

this property but directing staff not to register it for a six-month period is a good compromise at this point. >> if san jose does annex the neighborhood, it would streamline municipal services in that area and bring in more than $300,000 of revenue to the city of san jose. san francisco hotel workers will hold a vigil tonight. they are fighting what they call unsafe working conditions and unfair contract negotiations. religious leaders will join with workers at 5:00 tonight to protest the loss of health care for worker families. the contract with the hotel expired 16 months ago, leaving some 9,000 workers in limbo. protesters will light eight life-size candles in union square and deliver a large holiday card to hyatt hotel management. in his last days as san francisco mayor, gavin newsom is signing a deal for a daily

homeless care shelter in the tenderloin district. it will offer a wide range of services for homeless people, including housing, legal help, dental work and medical care. the lieutenant governor-elect signed a $400,000 contract allowing the program to operate 40 hours a week. more than 6500 people are estimated to be homeless in san francisco. a bay area hiker is safe this morning and telling her story after being lost for ten days in the santa cruz mountains. 58-year-old debra collins left her house on thanksgiving day for a hike in nearby fall creek state park, but she fell into a ditch and was badly injured. she did have some extra clothing, some gloves and plastic bags which she used to collect spring water to drink. she survived frigid temperatures but finally heard her neighbor's voice calling out. >> he looked up, you know, and said "are you okay, do you need help?" i said, "yes, i need help." he said, "are you debra

collins?" and i said "yes!" i was so shocked that he knew my name. i'm found. >> collins plans to return to her outdoor activities and doing things like hiking, but this time she plans to leave a detailed note about exactly where she'll be going. oracle ceo larry ellison could control prime waterfront real estate by the end of the week but has to pass a couple of tests. first the city's budget and finance committee will discuss plans to bring the americas cup sailing race to san francisco. if the committee approves the contract, the full board will then meet early next week for a final vote. ellison gets to choose where the next cup is going to be held because his team won the last race. he wants to have development rights and a 75-year lease of the waterfront real estate rent-free. he also wants rights to the pier and parking lots near at&t park. a cup of hot sider and filet

mignon sandwich sound pretty good. morton's steak house is giving that meal deal free to people who donate non-perishable food. curbside service is also available. all you have to do is pull up to the restaurant. they'll take your donation and then pack up your meal. it benefits the second harvest food bank in san jose. you can pick up your free lunch between 11:00 this morning and 2:00 p.m. this afternoon. president obama is taking a break from the podium to appear on an episode of "myth busters" tonight. >> figure this out and report back to me. >> the president will join the bay area's jamie hineman and adam savage on the discovery channel show this evening. they'll try to bust the myth that the greek scientist used the sun's reflection on mirrors to set fire to invading roman fleets back in 214 b.c. at monday's white house science fair, the president told reporters that he taped his

appearance, although he did not get to blow anything up. kind of a cool show, though, and it has bay area ties. it is 5:08, we do want to check the commute. >> we have an accident in the north bay. this is southbound 101 at westbound highway 12. that transition ramp is open but one of those lanes is blocked by the accident. the reason i mention that is because rob will tell you about some rain coming through this area. 101, this corridor especially affected, but the speeds continuing down into novato still at the limit but rain will affect your commute. get on the roadways and make sure the wipers are in good condition. some good advice because rain is on the way. we want to check in with rob, find out how much and when and where. >> mike really pinpointed those areas in the north bay seeing some of the most substantial rain this morning. we've got an east wind at 8, light rain nearby but the radar is starting to fill in in terms of showers, some hit and miss showers around san jose.

hayward. mt. tam seeing moderate showers. showers moving into santa rosa, so from the north bay eventually spilling into the south bay we will see rain off and on 4 afternoon. look at our temperatures today, running a bit cooler than you'd expect with mostly cloudy skies and rain off and on. today and tomorrow morning will be the wettest part of the seven-day forecast with big waves on the coast. we start to dry out friday and will be warming up inland around san jose for the weekend. the time now is 5:10. a midwest business posts a sign banning african-americans. why the owner says he has the right to do it. and remembering john lennon 30 years after his assassination. we will hear from the bay area journalist who spoke to lennon just hours before his death. plus the bad santa has a new job. we'll tell you who has hired the

macy's santa who was fired after making what some call an inappropriate joke. reporting what matters to you, you're watching "today in the bay" with laura garcia-cannon, brent cannon, business and technology with scott mcgrew, and traffic with mike inouye. [ female announcer ] dry, cracked hands? gold bond ultimate concentrated cream heals and protects like lotion can't. gold bond concentrated therapy. real medicine, ultimate healing.

welcome to the neighborhood. ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you say... can you believe it's been 20 years since college? ♪ [ male announcer ] nothing says "you're special" like boursin, a creamy, crumbly blend of real cheese and savory herbs, boursin makes any moment more memorable. even if you're saying... my mother has the kids tonight. ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you say boursin? come on... isn't it time an auto insurer gave it to you straight? that's why you should talk to state farm. but not yet. first, talk to any one of the 40 million drivers who already have state farm. 40 million. yeah, that's more than geico and progressive combined. by a lot. 40 million drivers. more savings. and discounts up to 40%. where else you gonna get discounts like that? call an agent at 1-800-state-farm or go online.

come celebrate exciting cars that are stunning to look at, exhilarating to drive and worry free to own. celebrate this holiday season with the gift of platinum. jaguar platinum coverage: five years or 50,000 miles of complimentary scheduled maintenance, and no cost replacement of wear and tear items. visit your bay area jaguar dealer during the platinum celebration for a $599 lease offer on the 2011 xf.

good morning, everybody. a live look outside the bay area this morning. fairly clear, as you can see a long way, clear past the bay bridge this morning. rob tells us that rain is on the way and we'll be checking the changes coming up in your forecast all morning long. buddhist monks are praying for safety as a bridge reopens in cambodia. that's where more than 350 people died in a human stampede last month. government leaders joined monks at the somber event. the government insists there will be a master plan to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again. on november 22nd, hundreds of people were taking part in an annual celebration and they were crushed as they tried to get off the bridge. it began to sway because there were too many people on it at the time. also this morning,

colombians are starting to bury the dead after a massive landslide killed many people. the president of colombia says he is declaring a limited state of emergency for at least 30 days. that will allow the government flexibility in securing the money for the rescue and the reconstruction. an offensive and racist sign is causing a lot of controversy for a new business in the midwest. a wisconsin man plans to open a gentleman's club in clark county on friday. he has a sign in the window saying "no african-americans are allowed." the owner says he will not take it down, claiming he has had problems with black people in the past. >> stick to my guns because i think i have the right as a business owner to reject service to anyone. you know, it's not all the black people, there's just a few bad

ones. >> the sign used to be on the side of the street but the city told the owner to move it so now it's in the front window. a legal expert says once the club opens for business, then the man will be in violation of the civil rights act. the owner says he doesn't care and he's willing to take the issue to court. family and friends are paying tribute to elizabeth edwards who lost her long battle with breast cancer. in a statement the family says we have lost the comfort of elizabeth's presence but she remains the heart of this family. she told supporters through facebook that there was nothing else to do to fight the cancer. her passing is now evoking strong memories from people who knew her. >> the strong memory of elizabeth i'll take with me forever is the power of a positive attitude. >> president obama called edwards a tenacious advocate for fixing our health care system and fighting poverty. no funeral arrangements have been announced yet, but in lieu

of flowers, donations can be made to the wade edwards foundation. 30 years ago today john lennon was assassinated in new york city. there will be a somber remembrance this morning. marc barger talked with a journalist who was one of the last people to speak to lennon before he was killed. >> reporter: the news was stunning. >> he was shot and killed late last night outside his apartment building on new york city's west side. >> reporter: the world was shocked. dave sholin was devastated. >> you feel every possible emotion, anger, sadness. they all come hitting you at one time. >> reporter: that's because he had interviewed the former beatle for three hours earlier that very same day. >> i would like to be a happy, contented person. i don't want to have to sell my soul again, as it were, to have a hit record. >> he made it very clear that really for him, he was really beginning a whole new stage of his life and felt great about

it. >> reporter: he had flown with three colleagues from san francisco to new york to interview lennon about his life, his career and his new album, "double fantasy." >> he did everything he could do in a matter of minutes to make us feel comfortable and at ease. >> reporter: in fact when the group left for the airport that afternoon, they wound up giving a ride to lennon and his wife, yoko ono. >> we dropped him at his studio, raced to jfk, landed in san francisco and turned the radio on and heard this news. >> reporter: and for sholin, the passage of time has made that day no less bittersweet. >> i try to folk us in on how great that afternoon was. at the same time, you know the end of the story. >> reporter: an ending that came too soon. marc barger, nbc news. >> and one of sholin's colleagues actually talked with

chapman was they were packing up their gear, gave chapman a copy of the album. later lennon signed the album. a few hours later, chapman gunned lennon down. we have a follow-up to a story we told you about yesterday. the macy's santa who was fired for what some say is an inappropriate comment now has a new job offer. lefty o'doul's has offered him twice the pay to help with their toy drive. he was fired last week after a couple of shoppers complained about one of his jokes. toomey explains what happened. >> i said do you know why santa is so happy and jolly all the time? no, santa. i said because he knows where all the naughty girls and boys live. >> toomey says he only tells adults that joke and nobody has ever complained in his 20 years as being santa. now he has another job and more money. the time now is 5:19. we want to check in with mike and get the latest on the

morning commute. >> we'll focus on where other folks spend a lot of money, that's the bay bridge toll plaza. a nice easy drive so far around the east shore freeway but coming around the berkeley curve, you'll find darker conditions. it looks like some of the street lighting is out. of course we know they're working on the administration building and the parking lot is closed and that might be affecting the lighting. but at the toll plaza itself, you have an easy drive through the toll plaza and no metering lights, although those are being powered now so you won't have a problem for that portion of your morning commute. approaching close to the limit for 580, 880 and the east shore freeway as we talked about. coming through antioch, you're at the limit for highway 4 but this will change dramatically the next 20 minutes. we always show the first signs of the east bay slowing coming up around 5:40. a little more gradual change for westbound 580, which is also at the limit coming out of the altamont pass. this might be affected by rain that is drifting through the area and is going to hit the

entire bay area. rob has a look at your forecast coming up with more details. you'll want to stick around for the changes that he has in store. viva las vegas. a woman is glad that a bay area doctor took a trip to sin city because he ended up saving her life. we will show you what made this event even a little more out of the ordinary.

good morning to you right now. 5:23. you're looking on the other coast right now. live pictures around the space x launch site. this is a spacecraft that is scheduled to launch in the next hour or so and is seen as perhaps one of the replacements for how you can get cargo up to the international space station. this craft part of a private venture that will be getting into space. it will orbit the earth a couple of times and make a splash down in the pacific. we've got clouds and some rain nearby. not so much in san jose where it's 52 degrees. san francisco, notice the wind, east at 14. 53 degrees. some rain nearby n oakland right now, 53 degrees. got a bit of an east wind there too. some of the weather headlines this morning, we'll see today of the next seven days probably being the wettest day. rain off and on, locally breezy. thursday and friday less rain, just scattered showers mixed with sunshine and a dry weekend

ahead. this will impact your morning commute in terms of the rain. not so much in san jose, but you see the rain around the san mateo bridge over towards hayward. as you get north of san francisco across the golden gate bridge, you can see the richmond-san rafael bridge. a pretty good cell that is moving off towards pinole. as we continue on to the north bay, the locations you see from novato northward will likely see 1 to 2 inches of rain between now and tomorrow morning. some of it coming down pretty good from calistoga. you can see all the clouds over the bay area right now. that is the reason why we'll be fairly cool today. the raindrops and the clouds keeping our temperatures mostly in the 50s. there's one more component we'll talk about for the coast coming up. today, obviously, the rain is the big story. highs in the 50s, a little breezy at times. for the coast we'll see wave heights perhaps getting up to 15 feet. thursday and friday will be drier than today's forecast. as you can see here, north bay certainly getting most of the rain over the next 24 hours.

up to 2 inches in a few spots. mid to upper 50s today. san jose northward as you get to san francisco and our north bay valleys, highs in the low to mid-50s so we'll go from off and on rain to sunny breaks and showers. then the weekend we dry out and warm up in spots to wrap up the weekend. thanks, rob. a woman who passed out in a las vegas restaurant was all shook when a bay area doctor saved her life. he rushed to her aid. the woman collapsed and hit her head but she noticed that the san francisco doctor was dressed as elvis. dr. palma had just finished the rock and roll half marathon and he ended up performing cpr. >> i hear my wife yell, my husband's a doctor. i look to the back of the restaurant and there's a lady laying on the ground. >> you know, at first i don't think she knew what to make out of me. i don't think anybody else knew

at the same time. some stranger dressed up as elvis doing cpr. >> now, as you heard, he said his wife had seen stuff. his wife hadn't been his wife very long because during the weekend of events they got married. they got married during that two and a half -- during the mile two of the marathon. so it was a very busy weekend. the marathon, getting married and saving someone's life. it's 5:27. an east bay police force stretched very thin. we'll tell you which city is struggling to stay on top of recent strings of crimes. angry words three months after the san bruno explosion. people are still waiting for answers. we will show you what happened during the latest meeting with the public utilities commission.

new this morning, governor-elect jerry brown is already working on the state budget. what he is doing today and the results of a new report on when tough times could be over in california. >> reporter: good morning. i'm christie smith. new high school dropout rate numbers are out for the state of california, and it's not pretty for oakland schools. they lead the pack here in alameda county. we'll have that story coming up. and a live look outside from the south bay this morning. again, we're seeing some clear skies for now, but it may not last. it's december 8th, 2010, on "today in the bay." from nbc bay area, reporting what matters to you, this is "today in the bay."

good morning, everybody. thanks for joining us. i'm brent cannon. laura is off on assignment today. we'll get you started with a quick look at your forecast. rob is here and he says changes are in the works. >> changes are happening actually right now in the bay area. you'll notice today the main accessory will be an umbrella. you don't really need a winter coast because we are starting off in the 50s. this is going to impact your morning commute, mike. you can see in the east bay starting to see the rain fly around the bay bridge and it's on the approach to the south bay. we'll let you know how long you need the umbrella as part of our full forecast coming up in a few minutes. a bleak picture for oakland public schools. they are in need of help and fast. a new report says four out of every ten students drop out. christie smith is live this morning in oakland. extremely disturbing news from this new report. >> reporter: yeah, that's right. good morning to you, brent. it's really quite sad. you have to wonder where these high school students are even going. in one year, the year of the

report, 1400 students, high school students here in oakland just stopped coming to class altogether. they quit. and if you look closely at the numbers, it's possible that it may be getting worse. so it's kind of hard to get an exact science out of this due to a new data reporting system that may not be all that accurate. for instance, dublin schools showed a 99.9% dropout rate when the year before, the dropout rate was just 10%. now back to oakland. the district's dropout rate was between 28 and 38%, so they think that this 40% number is probably more accurate, more true to what's going on here. so what do you do to keep kids in class? well, it turns out some students don't even realize until around the 11th grade, pretty late in the game, that they're not even on track to graduate, so the district is going to be watching ninth graders much more closely trying to steer them into career

academics, internships and the right classes that they need to graduate. unfortunately, though, oakland does come on top here in alameda county with a 40% dropout rate, followed by berkeley and then emeryville. and in contra costa county, it shows that the top three school district for high school dropouts are pittsburg, antioch and mt. diablo, although that school district did show some improvement. piedmont had the lowest dropout rate. reporting live in oakland, christie smith, "today in the bay." the man accused of sexually assaulting a toddler in a bay area discount store will be in court today asking a judge to free him on bail. police say convicted sex offender eugene ramos who was out on parole grabbed the 2-year-old girl in a union city dollar tree store and sexually assaulted her as her grandmother

was shopping in the very next aisle. police arrested ramos after a group of people, shoppers and employees, pinned him down and held him until police could get there. ramos faces rape, kidnapping and lewd acts with a child. three months after a gas line decimated their neighborhood, survivors in san bruno are still fearful and frustrated. many people blasted city leaders during a forum last night. they are upset, claiming that city leaders are holding nearly $400,000 in donations instead of distributing it to needy families. city leaders say they want to make sure that the money is used for expenses that pg&e will not cover. residents are also upset with the state puc, saying that they don't trust that agency to protect them from future explosions. they want more transparency and more questions answersed. >> three months have passed and we have no idea what happened. we have major gas lines going through our neighborhood that we were not aware of.

and we don't feel safe. >> the public utilities commission promised to add more inspectors and take a closer look at accident trends and pipeline explosions. check out home surveillance video of the gas line explosion we talked about yesterday that destroyed an oakland home and left a 61-year-old man in critical condition. 98 po m neighbors say the man was renovating his home. it happened on 87th avenue on monday. investigators with pg&e say that fire does not appear to be due to any kind of faulty gas line. an unusual spike in violence in antioch has police stretched thin. since monday morning there have been two homicides and two pairs of shootings that injured two men. they include yesterday's hit and run dragging death that we told you about. the increase in crime means officers that are not normally assigned to investigations are having to help out.

other law enforcement agencies are pitching in as well. antioch city leaders say that the crimes do not appear to be connected and so they do not expect that the trend will continue. governor-elect jerry brown will not take office until next month but he is already working on the state's new budget. he will meet with state lawmakers and finance leaders in sacramento to talk about the big challenges that lie ahead. brown takes office january 3rd, but he has to have his first budget one week later. the legislative appear list's office says that california faces an estimated $19.3 billion gap for the 2011-2012 fiscal year. and another new report out today says that tough times are far from over. the national conference of state legislatures say that many state governments are going to have to continue cutting back on services for at least another three years. and specifically in california, the projected shortfall is expected to balloon to $25.4 billion. last year's shortage forced the

state to issue ious. there were furloughs for workers and temporary increases in taxes. a controversial pot farm in richmond is no longer on the drawing board. richmond has spent the past three years getting public input on ideas other than a casino. they have been analyzing proposals which range from medical marijuana farm to a ballpark and last night the city council decided that none of the ideas were good. what happens next is up to the incoming richmond city council. they will be sworn in next month. don't be surprised if you get a phone call today asking you to support the dream act and repeal the don't ask, don't tell policy. organizers for american volunteers in oakland will take part in a phone bank calling on people to reach out to their members of congress. congress could vote on the dream act as soon as at that and would provide undocumented students who grow up in the united states

the chance for legal immigration status by completing two years of college or military service. the giants player on the disabled list for the time being after he had surgery, freddy sanchez, is recovering this morning after arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder. it's the same shoulder that he had surgery on last year. it is on his non-throwing arm, though. the giants say that barring any complications, he should be ready for the beginning of the season. now, "today in the bay" traffic with mike inouye. >> all right, 5:38, folks. as you get to the roadways, some folks heading through hayward are going to use this, foothill boulevard, heading up toward the castro valley y. there was an early morning report of a fire in an apartment building in grove way. no injuries and a lot of smoke reported but right now we still have traffic control by chp just for a one-block area so you'll

be rerouted a short distance. foothill boulevard also known as state route 238 approaching interstate 238. the rest of the castro valley y, 580, 238 and 880 coming through at the speed limit. approaching the san mateo bridge, no problems coming through the connector. a look at the sap n mateo bridg itself, and no problems there. there's some mist, maybe drizzle on the bay bridge as well with lower lighting there. some dimly lit areas. we might see some rain there and that could affect your commute there, wet roads and poor lighting conditions. >> i can tell you across the midspan starting to see the winds pick up a little bit. east wind at 14. 53 degrees so kind of a mild start this morning. but we're starting to see the rain fill in. once you get into the darker greens and yellows, that's going to cause a little ponding on the roadways. not so much on the south bay but mike pointed out the bay bridge toll plaza. you're looking at a little light rain there. more substantial rain is falling along highway 101 as you go from

novato. you can see pretty substantial rain out of the north bay and this is the pattern today. mostly cloudy with periods of rain off and on as we go through the afternoon. highs will be fairly cool today, mostly mid-50s from the south bay into the north bay. truckee and reno, we should see snow levels pretty close to 6,000 feet. so showers into tomorrow morning and we dry out just in time for the weekend. the time now is 5:40. a popular show on mtv is being linked to increased pregnancy among teen girls. we'll show you which one. and a close call, two packed jets come too close for comfort on a runway on one of the busiest travel days of the year. we'll show you the quick thinking that averted a potentially deadly disaster. plus celebrity credit cards or bank account money suckers. the secrets that banks don't want you to know about regarding prepaid cards and if they're really worth buying. reporting what matters to you, you're watching "today in the bay" with laura garcia-cannon, brent cannon, business and technology with

scott mcgrew, and traffic with mike inouye. [ woman on tv ] if you won't let me in,

you can't really love me. i know about gayle. i don't know what you're talking about. if you just tell me what happened... [ ding ] [ man ] 35th and archer. next stop hamilton. [ brakes hiss ] ♪ [ male announcer ] u-verse brings you entertainment across all three screens on your tv, smartphone and online. now get up to $300 back via promotion cards. at&t. rethink possible.

good morning, everybody. a live look across the golden gate bridge. 5:43 right now. you do see a little water on the roads. we do expect more rain coming through. rob will update your forecast in just a few minutes. vice president joe biden heads to capitol hill today trying to convince reluctant democrats to support the president's tax deal. brian mooar is live now in washington, d.c. brian, some lawmakers want to change the deal, but that could put us right back to square one. >> reporter: absolutely, brent. there are a lot of democrats here on the hill who range between just disappointed and hopping mad. and the president really responded in kind yesterday. he let loose on his own party in an impromptu news conference. and the president said that this

country was founded on compromise. but in this particular case, he didn't really have any choice. he had to go along with republicans and grant them a full extension of the bush-era tax cuts, even to the wealthy, and democrats are not happy about that. they feel that the president didn't compromise here, that he just caved. so vice president biden will have to make a lot of phone calls and a lot of office calls today to try to soothe the frayed nerves and heal the intra party wounds. republicans here are not happy that this bill isn't exactly paid for, but they aren't complaining too much. they got most of what they want. democrats got some of what they wanted. a temporary increase in unemployment benefits and there are a lot of democrats who want to see more, but basically they're in a rough bargaining position here, brent, because they can't vote against it because if they do, taxes go up for all of us on january 1st. >> a very tough thing, tough

negotiations. we'll see how it plays out. thanks a lot, brian. new this morning, australia's foreign minister says the u.s. is to blame for the release of thousands of diplomatic cables on wikileaks, not the site's founder, julian assange. he says it raises questions about america's ability to keep important information secret but also calls the release of the cables grossly irresponsible. the time now is 5:45. good morning, everybody. thanks for joining us. i'm brent cannon. laura is on assignment this morning. we'll get to traffic and weather in just a couple of minutes, but first we are talking about some b big changes on the way for football. they could begin this morning when the nfl begins a series of player safety meetings addressing vicious hits in new york city. today in the bay's bob redell is live in san jose with a look at how this decision by the nfl could trickle all the way down to youth football. bob? >> reporter: good morning to you, brent. well, it's especially concerning

when you consider the amount of concussions and traumatic brain injuries that occur on fields like this, youth football fields, each year. 8,000 kids each year end up in the e.r. with a sports-related injury. 45 of them die each year. so as you mentioned, yes, at the professional level, the nfl meeting today. they have a special meeting today and tomorrow in new york city with their brain, neck and medical committee meeting trying to figure out ways to reduce concussions. this comes on the heel of an agreement with the nfl and another organization yesterday where they're going to try to push for laws that will make the field safer for your kids when they get out there and compete. coming up in about 15 minutes, we'll go into detail about that and tell you what kind of laws they're trying to push for. reporting live here in sban jos, bob redell, "today in the bay." good morning, folks. 5:46. right on schedule we see the

slowdown, at least as far as the color indicators going on through westbound highway 4 in antioch. there's still a speed reading of 65 right around l street the, but coming off of hillcrest we saw speeds below 40. also a little slowing right here. benicia bridge heading south towards highway 4, sudden slowing the last two or three minutes. there may be some rain coming through the area and that might affect your commute coming out of the north bay. benicia bridge incident-free so far as well as the carquinez bridge. 18-minute drive heading off this bridge and down past hercules and towards the bay bridge toll plaza. a note, dimly lit toll plaza so watch the lighting is not so great. no metering lights either. smooth drive but rain definitely affecting you. 101, this corridor heading down towards san rafael, close to the limit but wet roadways continue all the way down into the city where we get a look at the golden gate bridge. look at that live shot, we have at least some moisture and i'm not even technical with the whole thing. >> that's a lot of moisture

coming in right now, mike. let's show you this view. we've got the clock on the screen. you can see some of the heavy rain approaching the coast within the last ten minutes. when you see orange and red on the radar, you'll see red on the roadways too. people slamming on their brakes due to ponding on the road. mike just showed you the golden gate bridge. same story on the bay bridge. down towards hayward you can see pretty good rain there. the 580/680 interchange looking at rain as well. you can see a pacific ocean garden hose just aimed at us today. we'll probably see just under an inch or less between now and tomorrow morning for the rest of the bay area, so the rain obviously moving in for your morning commute. it's going to stick around through lunchtime and your evening commute, still plan on some rain so factor in an extra half hour to an hour today as you head out. probably a little more rain into tomorrow morning but the trend will turn drier as we head towards friday. for the weekend, we'll clear out and warm up.

some spots on the coast there may even get close to 70 by the end of the weekend. the wettest day of the week. then things improve for the weekend. brent. a new video released by the taliban shows a man believed to be american specialist bo bergdahl. he's the only known american service member being held in captivity in afghanistan. the u.s. based intel center says another man appears to know the taliban commander who once threatened to kill him. they have held the soldier since june of 2009 when he disappeared in eastern afghanistan. he appears only briefly in the video and is not the main focus of the release. the military is now trying to work to verify that the video is authentic. shots fired once again from north korea this morning. the south media saying that the north fired an artillery round off its west coast, but it appeared to be part of a military drill. the move comes as america makes a strong show of support for its ally. the chair of the joint chiefs,

general mike mullen, is in south korea this morning promising to strengthen the relationship between the u.s. and the south. >> certainly be here to commit and be very visible in the strength of that relationship. so it's a real pleasure for me to be back, even in difficult times. >> mullen also criticized china for not condemning north korea's attack last month on a south korean island. four people were killed in that attack. a couple of popular mtv shows are having an unfortunate effect on american teenagers. the show "teen mom" and "16 and pregnant" are looking for new cast members. they are reality shows that follow teenage girls who find out they're pregnant. according to a celebrity blogger on popeater.com, mtv is finding a lot of young girls are so eager to be on the show that they are actually trying to get pregnant on purpose. experts are encouraging teens to

remember that parenting is a lifetime commitment. a quick-thinking veteran air traffic controller is being hailed as a hero today after helping prevent a collision on the runway at boston's logan international airport. the close call came the night before thanksgiving on one of the busiest travel days of the year. a jetblue pilot instructed to turn left on an inactive runway and headed toward the gate. but as you can see on the map, he makes a mistake and he turns right. while talking to another pilot, the air traffic controller notices that something is wrong and seconds count, so he reacts quickly. >> check blue, 1264 hold. jetblue, 1264 hold. >> jetblue admitted the pilot of 1264 did make a mistake. the air traffic controller is up for an award for what he did. big jump in consumer borrowing. new numbers from the federal reserve show consumer credit

rose during october. that's the largest jump in two years and follows an increase in september as well. analysts say the jump is due in large part to a new law that makes the government the primary lender to students. auto loans also rose as lenders loosened their criteria. good news for job seekers. job openings rising in october. there were 3.4 million jobs advertised at the end of october, which is a 12% increase from september. the labor department says that reverses two months of decline and is the highest since august of 2008, but that number is still a million short of the number in december of 2007 when the recession began. man behaving badly. a new study looks at what causes men to mind their manners. the study found married men tend to behave better than their single peers. the data was cleollected from me twins. the difference appears to be

twofold. member with lower levels of hostile behavior between the ages of 17 and 20 or more likely to be married by the age of 29. meanwhile marriage itself appears to lower the rates of aggressive or illegal behavior. researchers also found the effect of marriage on hostile behavior was stronger in good marriages. the kardashian sister gets flak on a daily basis but recently made headlines for promoting a prepaid debit card with outrageous fees. they reacted by quickly cancelling the cards. but it turns out the kardashians are not the only celebrities backing predatory card marketed to teens. tom sinkovitz looks at why you should think twice about plastic under the christmas tree. >> reporter: 'tis the season for gift giving and prepaid debit cards are more popular than ever. >> i use them for my daughters for presents. >> reporter: dozens of these

cards are targeted toward teens, featuring some of their favorite celebrities, like the characters from the twilight series. >> my parents gave it to me. that's free money. i'd go crazy, i'd go shopping. >> reporter: but consumer activists say it's far from free money, plus with huge hidden fees. >> these fees are buried in the fine print. they're very deceptive and designed to rip off the parents of the children getting these cards and using them. >> reporter: here's how some of these cards work. say you get the twilight card. every month you'll have to pay a $4.95 fee for a monthly membership. the company issuing the card, plastic cash international also charges you $4.95 every time you want to load money onto the card and $1.95 for an inactivity fee. they also charge 75 cents every time you check your balance at an atm. and $1.50 every time you get cash out of an atm.

>> if you're a parent considering one of these prepaid cards, really stop and think before you give one during the christmas season because it's going to be a plastic lump of coal in the stocking. >> reporter: new rules restrict fees on gift cards, but those rules don't apply for these prepaid debit cards which are not the same thing as gift cards. >> when the card act was drawn up, prepaid or store value cards were not a priority. and perhaps it's the case that banks are responding to the card act because a loophole exists and they're trying to load a card up with fees and send that out in the world with the way they can no longer do with credit cards. >> reporter: one things that will never have added fees, cold, hard cash. tom zippisinkovitz, nbc bay are news. >> to avoid some of the fees you have to sign up for an automatic direct deposit from your bank account to the card. a private company could soon take over delivering supplies to the international space station

if today's test launch goes as planned. the company is called space x. it's launching its dragon spacecraft for the first of three planned demonstration flights today. the company has $1.6 billion in contracts with nasa to start supplying the international space station. that's because the shuttle fleet is being retired. under the contract, space x is required to fly three demonstration flights before it can begin the 12 supplied missions. the first launch is scheduled for monday, but that was delayed after engineers discovered cracks in the nozzle of one of the booster rockets. you don't want to be starting something with the company behind a newly released michael jackson dance video game. anybody foolish enough to play an illegally pirated copy will be greeted with vuvu-style horns. that's the video with the blaring footage on a pirated

copy of michael jackson, the experience on the nintendo ds. in addition to the horns, that drove soccer fans crazy at the world cup matches this summer, the game will be unplayable. the company reps say it's a creative way to try to discourage piracy. it's 5:57. coming up at 6:00, the wikileaks fallout could keep you from handling some online business today. we'll see which websites hackers took down this morning. plus we have new figures on high school dropout rates. we'll see how different bay area schools stack up. those stories, plus traffic and weather coming up next on "today in the bay." [ male announcer ] how do you say...

welcome to the neighborhood. ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you say... can you believe it's been 20 years since college?

♪ [ male announcer ] nothing says "you're special" like boursin, a creamy, crumbly blend of real cheese and savory herbs, boursin makes any moment more memorable. even if you're saying... my mother has the kids tonight. ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you say boursin? stunning new