president barack obama arrives in the rainy bay area today. just ahead the details we have uncovered about his visit. good morning. i'm christie smith. a key piece to the puzzle for the new bay bridge is coming together quicker than anyone expected. we'll explain coming up in a live report. and a place in the bay area that serves millions, the victims allegedly cheated out of thousands of dollars, but they may never know it. plus, a live look out. you may want to grab your umbrella, it will be a soggy day. it is thursday, february 17th.

this is "today in the east bay." good morning, everyone. i'm scott mcgrew. it is 4:30. we'll get right to the east bay forecast and christina loren. good morning, scott mcgrew. while it is still raining in some spots over the east bay, and we have a little bit of like as well, this is the overall picture right now. as you can see we have cold air moving in. showers coming down in northern california, and for the bay area that means heading throughout the morning it will be a slippery, dangerous commute. you really want to give yourself plenty of time to get to your destination this morning. take a look at this. we have a thunder cell to the east of san francisco associated with the thunderstorms we have seen lately. hail, yes, pea-sized hail reported yesterday. we'll show you some of that. we have video. it looks like we'll see more heading throughout the morning hours. and this afternoon thunderstorms become more widespread than yesterday. we'll talk all about this coming

up. right now we'll get you to work on time in the east bay with mike inouye. yes, active overnight as well. can't wait to see that video. right now we'll sew you this map and the speeds moving nicely. the overview of the approach to the maze, eastbound 580 at high street, we have a car in the median just before the merge. we have a live shot of oakland where you see water glowing on the roadways as the headlights bounce off of the freeway. if we can get that live shot of oakland and 880, you can see the camera shaking a bit. scott, back to you. we'll talk about that in my next report. the bay area is getting ready for a big visit today. president barack obama will touch down at san francisco international airport this afternoon to talk about strength anything the economy, creating jobs and promoting american invasion. reports say the president will meet with facebook ceo mark zuckerberg, and leaders from

cisco, e-bay and twitter. he will also reaffirm his commitment to energy. the president has not been here since last october. good news for the drivers on the bay bridge. construction is moving ahead of schedule. kristy smith is live on treasure island. i have to tell you that i felt sorry for myself in the 15 seconds it took to walk from my car to the door. thank you for being out there this morning. >> reporter: scott, i don't feel sorry for you at all. i have to say that this is probably not the best day to be out here showing you what's going on with the new bay bridge, but bottom line here is that it really is good news. and that is that it will open sooner than expected. and that is thanks to a series of lane realignments and detours going on just west of the bay bridge toll plaza. and this will allow what they are calling the oakland

touchdown, that has nothing to do with football, but it will be completed quicker than planned. it is a 1,000-foot stretch of the bay bridge on the east side. by using the detours for two years the bridge ultimately opens up just a little faster. the detours allow crews to work between the existing bridge and the new bridge to complete eastbound lanes. eastbound traffic will use the detours starting actually this may. westbound will start using the traffic in early 2012. now the oakland touchdown will keep with the suspension span instead of being the final piece of the puzzle. the east span will open to traffic in both directions in the year 2013. there's a press conference at 10:00 this morning with caltrans explaining more about it. that's the latest from here on treasure island, christie smith, "today in the east bay." santa clara prosecutors say an american airlines ticket

agent stole your credit card numbers. this woman is accused of stealing 350 credit card numbers from travelers at the san jose airport using them to make counterfeit credit cards. detectives say she used the cards at safeway to buy gift cards and then used the gift cards to buy electronics. this is not the woman in question. she allegedly sold the items on e-bay and pocketed the cash. one victim, this woman, was shocked to see the charges on her bill. >> but if this happened while i was on a business trip, it caught my eye and i looked closely and checked the statement to realize those weren't my charges. >> the woman skimmed almost half a million dollars. her boyfriend called safeway who then called police. the commander of the contra costa county drug force has been accused of selling drugs. he has a stellar career in

contra costa county. he was arrested in venetia held on allegations to conspiring to se selling drugs. this is his attorney. >> all of this is sad, it is really a case of sadness. we don't have this discovery in the case. we simply have allegations. i'm going to wait to see what the charges are. >> both men are accused of distributing meth, marijuana and steroids. they have not apparently been formally charged yet. time may be up for free parking in downtown walnut creek. the city council and transportation commission will take up a proposal to end free sunday and evening parking meters at a special meeting tonight. just one way for the city to raise more money. tonight's meeting is at 7:00 at walnut city creek hall. the city of concord is partnering with 14 car dealerships to promote people to buy a new car. the dealers will make a donation from their sales to local schools including the mount

diablo music education foundation and the united mount diablo@threatic foundation. dealerships including the acura of concord and toyota. the event ends on monday. starting next month drivers in contra costa county have one fewer option in driving from pittsburgh to antioch because of the widening project on highway 4. century boulevard will be closed for two months in pittsburgh as crews widen the road on the freeway segment near somersville and love ridge road. drivers will be detoured onto california avenue and north park boulevard to the north leland to the south. mike will have all that information as it happens. a ten-year push in oakland to make city services available to chinese and spanish speakers may finally be taking root. the city of oakland and several advocacy groups reached a $400,000 settlement this week. the lawsuit was prompted when a non-english speaking couple was robbed and there were no

cantanese speak iing officers. get ready for more wet and wild weather. another storm is headed to the bay area bringing more rain, wind and hail. take a look at this. our latest cold storm left quite a visible trail. this is the oakland hills of rain turning to hail. hail hit throughout the area. christina has a look at what we'll see today. good morning. my earpiece fell out. >> that would be the earpiece to tell her she's on television. let's go to mike if we need to. go right ahead. we have some hail coming down right now. good morning to you. not in the east bay, but headed over to san francisco, some places like livermore, oakland, take a look at this. a little bit of thunder firing off. those are realtime lightning strikes. heading throughout the afternoon today i think we'll see more in terms of thunderstorm activity.

we are already seeing it this morning. so, yes, thunderstorms in the forecast today associated with the thunderstorm gusty winds. we'll have an unsettled air mass overhead creating instability, but thunderstorms today from time to time. not widespread thunderstorms throughout the day today, but we'll see isolated pop-up storms that are more frequent than yesterday. temperaturewise it will be chilly. grab the umbrella. we don't have a lot of change for the next few days, but i know when the rain will stop. we'll find out that the snow from mount hamilton is causing problems. is it open, mike? it is open. it is a really good question. sometimes just a little snow cause that is to close. state route 130 is still open, but use caution. it is very cold up there. they could close it any time inclement weather comes in. the altamonte pass out of the lower hills we have a smooth

drive, but wet conditions do continue. a 14-minute drive out of there. but be aware that you might get a gust of wind catching you and pushing you from side to side. it is a rough night to be construction, so that may have cleared up. i have to talk to chp. we'll give you an update when it happens. so far the wind advisory for the venetian bridge has been issued. we have sloppy conditions again this morning for the commute. back to you. coming up, a new report regarding the health of apple ceo steve jobs. by friend and coworkers have new reasons to be concerned. plus, a discovery to help men all around the world. the possible cure for baldness discovered accidentally. and before you pop open a daily cola, the new concerns

over what say is an unnecessary ingredient. and here's a live look from san jose. it will be another rainy day. 3q

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it is 4:43 in the morning. we are seeing a steady stream of traffic on the bay bridge. it is nice and slow. do keep it slow today. it is wet and rainy and yuck. take a look at this dramatic rescue of a horse that fell into a canal in arizona. crews used ropes to pull this 1,500-pound horse out of the water. the horse's owner said they were walking along the bank and the animal got spoofed and went into the water. the horse is expected to be okay. a strong winter storm blanketing the sierra is causing dangerous conditions. some drivers were forced to abandon their cars along interstate 880 last night. a lot of people were forced to stay at a rest stop and to wait it out. it is not all bad news, they do expect to reopen in time for the holiday weekend with fresh snow.

christina loren is looking at the latest snow. there could be snow down in the mountains. >> yes, mount hamilton is getting a little slow fall. snowfall. this morning we are focused on the east bay because right now we have thunderstorms approaching your area. i can zoom in here for you and show you the cell creating the like strikes you see pressing towards san leandro and hayward. basically this system is pushing off to the northeast at 15 miles per hour. so you are probably already hearing some of the thunder in oakland right now. and it looks like that cell is headed your way. if you are going to be headed out right now, just take it easy out there. it is associated with these thunderstorms. gusty winds, pea-sized hail. you saw the video from earlier. it looks like we'll see more of the pop-up storms heading throughout the afternoon than what we saw yesterday. this is creating a lot of instability. the pop-up storms will be a

factor and could intensify throughout the afternoon. turning over to the 50s heading throughout this afternoon. we'll have more on what's to come. we have more rain on the way. we'll find out how your roads are faring this morning with mike inouye. good morning to you. we are doing better than folks on 280 last night where it was closed because of hail. right now all the freeways are open but very wet. pretty much everywhere all over the bay area we have soaked conditions. i'm going to call it now coming through 580, we have debris there. we'll zoom in there near westbound 580, that's your commute direction. reports of metal in a couple lanes. you will definitely have to slow down and watch for slowing lights. overall, looking pretty good. the camera is shaking a bit because of the gusty winds. we are talking about that crossing the bay area bridges. the wait roadways are a factor as well. here's a shot from our mass cam.

we are looking at the bay bridge. you can see the water on the lens. sparkling lights and water continue to hit the lens. it will be sloppy conditions all around the bay that we are tracking all morning. back to you. new information out this morning from the national retail federation that says we'll be spending more this year. they expect sales to go up 4% over last year. they say it is a sign that the economy is continuing to grow. for more on that and news before the bell, we'll go to the anchor of the worldwide exchange, nicole lapin. >> reporter: good morning, scott. well, it looks like in your neck of the woods the los gatos-based netflix is going to get a challenge from redbox. we are hearing that the company known for the big old red dvd kiosks is set to unveil a digital streaming service. it will be subscription-based and users pay a monthly fee to get access to movies on mobile

devices as well as the redbox kiosks. futures are slightly lower ahead of the u.s. open. this is after stocks posted pretty decent gains yesterday. oil prices are a touch higher. we are watching the ongoing unrest in the middle east. budget data is out this morning. 8:30 in the morning we get a check on consumer prices while still looking ahead to unemployment. at 10:00 in the morning, eastern time, we'll have manufacturing conditions. the dow rising 61 points yesterday to 12,288. the nasdaq composite adding 21 to 2825. also making headlines out of cnbc, more hotels are going smoke-free. "usa today" says nearly 13,000 hotels and motels are getting rid of smoking. that number could actually be much higher as aaa only rates about 31,000 hotels in many local and state governments

recently spanning banning smoking hotel rooms all together. back to you. 11 borders stores are going to close here in the bay area. they have already started to shut off the lights there. the 40-year-old company has been losing about $2 million a week. the stores will hold big sales this weekend. actual closing dates occur over the next few weeks. the stores closing here are near all me a idaho, pleasanton, union city, san ramon, los gatos, san mateo and two in san jose, two in san francisco. wall street reacting to news that apple's ceo steve jobs has been spotted going to a cancer center several times. radaronline says jobs has been seen visiting a treatment center

on a regular basis. the revelation rekindled the debate over how much information the public should have about mr. jobs. he does have the second most valuable company in the world. the apple co-founder is on his third medical leave from the company in seven years. he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004. he is scheduled to meet with the president tonight. by the way, jobs turns 56 next thursday. every tech company in the valley is picking fights with apple. lately it has been verizon with the latest iphone. and i believe we are going to talk about technology. there's a scientist who is working on technology to turn your byfocal glasses here by just swiping your finger on the

side. tickets go on sale tomorrow for two big shows next monday and wednesday. we'll tell you who it is and how you can get your hands on those tickets. also, a huge ski weekend coming up. it is a three-day holiday for a lot of folks. all the major ski reports resorts are reporting lots of snow. we'll have live reports from lake tahoe and mammoth coming up. a new study says a child's inability to control his hand movements could be linked to adhd. severe cases of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can affect muscle response, so a group of children were asked to tap the fingers on one hand, but those who were adhd would do it on the opposite hand. the study also found boys were more likely to suffer from the disorder than girls. and an unintended discovery could help men all over the

world. doctors were investigating a new treatment for gastrointestinal disease and found possibly the cure for baldness. scientists were testing a new compound on mice after being treated with daily injections of the anti-stress hormone for five days. the mice were returned to their habitat three months later when doctors came to look at them and they had more hair. doctors are not sure if this could happen with humans but they are hopeful. a can of soda could taste refreshing but the way it looks is alarming researchers. kristen dahlgren is telling us why they want the government to take action. >> reporter: for many of us a daily drink of cola is pretty common. but the center for science and the public interest has serious concerns over dark-colored so days and is now asking the sda, fda to ban coloring caramel.

>> the contaminants in caramel could be cancerous. >> our caramel sauce is now done. >> reporter: melting sugar to make a sweet confection. caramel coloring is made by reacting sugar with amonia. that type of caramel coloring can also be found in things like soy sauce, wiskey or dark beer. they say it is all unnecessary. >> caramel coloring doesn't add nutritional value, it is not a preservative. it is only there for the coloring. >> reporter: as part of a broader law, california is considering warning labels on soda cans. the beverage association of america says the cspi is using scare tactics insisting there is no evidence of carcinogens in soft drinks. and some doctors say there's really not much danger. >> you would have to drink about 10,000 bottles of coke a day for

a lifetime in order to get that amount to see any effect. >> reporter: for the cspi any risk is too much. and they are hoping caramel color use soon fizzes out. the food and drug administration told us it is now assessing any potential risks and would then decide whether regulation is needed. kristen dahlgren, nbc news, washington. christina loren takes a look at the very rainy forecast for us. good morning, christina. >> good morning, scott. yes, the rain continues. we have the wet setup. the pineapple express is back. this morning and today we'll see a lot of wet weather, but it will be hit or miss. it is not consistent or steady by any means. we are more concerns about the lightning strikes pushing into the east bay right now. so here's the realtime doppler radar. it looks like this thunder cell just fell apart, but you are still seeing a bit of the lightning in the area near san leandro. you are probably hearing the thunder this morning. that means you want to stay

indoors if you can. take extra caution on the roadways if you are heading out. we have seen hail associated with these thunderstorms as well as very gusty winds and frequent downpours. so that's what you can count on heading throughout the morning, just isolated pop-up storms. scattered showers pushing ashore throughout the day today with breaks of sunshine. just a repeat performance of what we saw yesterday. it is colder out there meaning the snow level has fallen from 2,500 feet to 2,300 feet. it is snowing on mount hamilton right now. 55 degrees in san jose today. if you are waking up in the east bay and heading to the south bay, take it easy out there. we have a lot of ponding leftover. i haven't had a chance to really dry out because the rain has been consistent. this is what you can expect heading throughout the next few days. 53 degrees for tomorrow. kicking off the weekend with showers. breaks of sunday and monday looking dry. back to you. the warriors go into the all-star break without anyone on the nba all-star team. monte ellis had a game high of

35 points. he simply took over in the fourth quarter last night against utah. the warriors passed the jazz 107-100. the a's continue their workout today in arizona. day two of spring training in the desert for pitchers and catchers. the new pitching coach ron romanek is excited about the new members. full practice takes place later this week. finally the raiders signing richard seymour. the nfl's richest defensive player, two years, $30 million. almost $1 million per game. coming up, the trial over the killing of a well-known bay area journalist. we'll have the latest on jury

selection for the murder case and whether there are enough unbiased people in the jury pool left to go to trial. brent and laura are coming up on the other side of this break.

new this morning, a case for insanity. doctors are expected to decide today if the local teenager accused of trying to