school was of sound mind. the leader of the free world and some of the biggest titans in silicon valley. i'm bob redell live with one of the most exclusive dinner meetings taking place in the bay area tonight. a live look outside this morning. we'll check in with meteorologist christina loren to find out how today's weather is shaping up. it is february 17th. this is "today in the bay." good morning. thank you for joining us. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> i'm brent cannon. time to check your hour-by-hour forecast with christina. it is wet and cold for parts of the bay area. >> yes, it is cold and wet. significantly colder than yesterday by 5 degrees. we actually have enough instability for early morning thunderstorm activity. that's what we are noticing right now. this is the realtime doppler

radar. thunderstorms are producing some lightning that's pressing towards hayward, oakland, danville. you can probably hear it in your city if you are waking up in the east bay. it looks like heading throughout the next 15 to 20 minutes this cell will completely fall apart. it was bright red here a moment ago and much larger. it is losing momentum making its way over the bay right now. what we can count on throughout the day, scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms. we'll let you know when the rain will cease coming up. here's how your drive looks this morning with mike inouye. your story is my story as well. windy and now rain and thunder and lightning. distractions for the east bay. a live look at the san mateo bridge here. the camera is shaking mounted above the toll plaza. gusty winds at times, keep that in mind crossing over to the peninsula side. livermore has an accident involving two big rigs near the truck scales near vascal road. they should be moving off the shoulder quickly. a crew is there, but so far we

are at the speed limit approaching. there are wet roads, use caution. back to the desk. president obama is headed to the bay area this morning. he is going to meet with the chief executive officers of some of the bay area's most innovative companies. and "today in the bay's" bob redell is live now at san francisco international airport where air force one is going to touchdown in just a few hours. bob? >> reporter: good morning to you, brent. when the president and his air force one arrives here this evening at sfo, san francisco mayor ed lee will be here to meet him, before the president is off to a dipper meeting. the location is unknown with some of the most well-known leaders of silicon valley. the topic of discussion according to the white house, invasion innovation and job growth. steve jobs is currently on a medical leave of absence, mark zuckerberg, eric schmidt, and among others, ge ceo jeffrey

emmill as well. the president just announced his budget earlier this week calling for billions more for education, which the president argues will create more jobs. when you are trying to boost employment, who better to meet with than the leaders of silicon valley who know a lot about job growth. >> i think he is looking for support. these tech giants in many ways pushed him into doing the investment in solar energy and in the internet. he is now looking to the tech giants to back him up driving this budget through congress. >> reporter: of course, the ceos are expected to ask the president for help in return, requests like lower corporate taxes and a smoother process for patent approval. the leader of the california republican party is criticizing obama's visit to the bay area telling one newspaper that tonight's meeting with the stars of the business world are, quote, a 2012 re-election campaign photo op. this is a very short trip.

the president will be in town for less than 24 hours. tomorrow morning he's headed north to oregon where he'll tour a plant still under construction that is supposed to be one of the most sophisticated. bob redell for "today in the bay." 5:04 right now. the convicted mastermind behind a murder for hire plot will ask the judge for a new trial. paul garcia hired a hitman to kill the owner of a bar back in 2008. he was on saysed with the bartender dating the man at the time. a new witness lined up who says drugs, not romantic jealousy, were the real cause of the man's death. two doctors will give their

opinions today about the menial state of a peninsula teenager accused of bringing bombs and weapons to his school. 18-year-old alexander ushock brought ten pipe bombs to hillsdale high school in 2010. he is pleading guilty by reason of insanity. doctors have determined that ushock is mentally fit to stand trial but new medical reports will now be used and filed today to look at ushock's mental state at the time of the alleged crime. if ushock is then found guilty in court the jury could use this information and these reports to reach a verdict concerning his sanity and sentencing. this morning the jury screening process in the chauncy bailey murder trial is over five days ahead of schedule. the jury says there are enough qualified unbiased people in the jury to go to trial. the 25-year-old yusef bay wanted

chaup cy bailey dead after working on a story about your muslim bakery. at the time yusef was the leader of the bakery. final decisions on the jury will be made on march 21st. san francisco's city attorney is cracking down on smoke shops accused of smelling crack pots and pipes. dennis herrera claims that an undercover investigation found the shops were selling illegal drug paraphernalia. the city has been cracking down on new smoke shops the past couple of years. in 2009 the city prevented new shops from opening in the ashberry neighborhood. and last year special permits were required to open a smoke job on polling street. a bay area doctor who survived a mail bomb attack by the unibomber died on sunday.

they will remember the life of charles epstein who died of pancreatic cancer on tuesday. he did research on down syndrome and gained notoriety 18 years ago when he opened a package that turned out to be a mail bomb sent from ted co zin skooe cosinsky. stating like florida, wisconsin and ohio are dropped their projects because of state budget crunches. florida's decision could send $2 billion in construction funding to california. but that still leaves our high-speed rail project more than $40 billion short. rail officials say they can secure the remaining money in time to run bullet trains between san francisco and anaheim by 2020.

i want to check the forecast right now. we have some wild weather, a lot of hail in parts of the city. let's go to christina. >> good morning to you. a pretty strong cell just passed over san francisco. all part of this wet weather system of low pressure just off to the north creating a lot of instability. here's that cell. we did have embedded red which is an indication of the heavy rain associated with this particular thunderstorm cell. about ten minutes ago that was. at this time it is collapsing a bit, but we have lightning strikes produced from this cell all the way across the bay. the east bay is probably hearing the thunder from the like. so if you are going to be heading out and about, take it easy. it is associated with the pop-up storms we'll see throughout the day today. gusty wind, pea-sized hail and also heavy downpours. so they will be brief, but heavy at times. you could lose visibility because the rain will be coming down so hard. take it easy out there. and associated with the heavy downpours, localized flooding.

54 degrees in oakland today. 55 in san jose. 58 in almaden valley. snow levels this morning have fallen from 2,500 feet last night to 2,300 feet this morning. heading throughout tonight they will fall even further. 2,000-foot snow levels tomorrow morning. we'll find out how we are doing on the roadways with mike inouye. so far the light volume of traffic is keeping things moving smoothly. no major flooding reported throughout the maze, but we had a lot of debris blowing around the roadway. a wind advisory for the bay bridge heading into the city. a couple issues here, we are going to talk about the water main here with an accident reported near the same marker. 280 at san jose avenue. slowing is also showing up into daily city in the southbound direction. a new accident near 101 near 280, northbound there at the interchange we have a closure of all but one lane into the city. i moved the maps too fast. wither in fremont now, the

clover leaf is where a car slid off the roadway. that indicates how slippery road conditions are throughout the bay area freeways. keep that many in mind. windys coming conditions here. the headlights are north out of san leandro headed to the coliseum. you can see the water on the roadways and the lens, it is very wet and windy out there. be careful to lower the speeds. thank you, mike. it will soon be a little easier to travel between the bay area and the big easy. starting this morning united airlines will have drekt direct flights between sfo and new orleans. the flights were suspended after hurricane katrina back in 2005. the first flight from new orleans is expected to land just before 10:00 this morning. it is now 5:10. reviving cold cased. why the largest bay area city is looking at unsolved crimes.

enand a piece of history makes a stop in the bay area today. and a big win for watson also means a big win for a local company. and a live look outside this morning across the golden gate bridge. one of the places where it is a little soggy as you head out. so maybe add a little extra time to your commute this morning. switching to progressive could mean hundreds more in your wallet year after year. feed me! saving you money -- now, that's progressive. call or click today.

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good morning, everybody. here's a live look outside from oakland. a little bit of shaking to the camera indicating a bit of wind. overall, it is pretty chilly. and it is wet out there. a lot of rain. we'll update your forecast in a few more minutes. in an effort to fight crime, the new district attorney is bringing back the cold case unite. it will use unsolved murders, race and violent assault. the d.a. jeff rossen says the chief of police and the county crime lab signed on to the agreement to give investigators

everything they need to crack the cases. the unit was dismantled in 2007 was now is back. new this morning california's supreme court will rejoin the battle over gay marriage. and the state could change its position on the ban against gay marriage by the end of this year. the state supreme court originally upheld the 2008 law that banned gay marriage. but in august a federal judge struck down that ruling and gave time for appeal. supporters of the ban did appeal but there were legal questions on whether those supporters really had the right to make the appeal. so now there could be a hearing on that controversial decision as early as september. a rare church artifact is making its next stop in berkeley today. a glass encased tibia bone will be on display at the saint magdalene parish. the relic viewing lasts until later tonight. the bone was discovered in france over 800 years ago.

the bible says saint mary magdalene was the first witness to the resurrection of jesus christ. high winds are finally easing a bit. we have video from the country's north coast. cyclone carlos, australia's second largest cyclone in the past couple of weeks, dumped more than six inches of rain in just one day. and it had wind gusts of more than 60 miles per hour. that storm uprooted trees and knocked out power. schools in darwin are still closed this morning. and the airport is expected to reopen a little bit later on. we have been talking about one after another after another. they have really been hammered. >> they really have. we want to check our forecast right now with christina. >> good morning to you. the forecast continues to stay wet. we have an unstable air mass overhead. and as a result we have some like strikes this morning. you are hearing thunder in look

oakland, livermore and hayward. all this cold air and moisture is coming up from the pacific. that's the case throughout today. the only difference between yesterday and today is it is colder this morning. and we have more instability in our atmosphere. so we are going to see more in terms of the isolated thunderstorms as we head throughout the morning. and particularly this afternoon as we pick up the daytime heating. the ingredients are ripe for thunderstorms. this is what we are looking at right now with a storm falling apart. a little lightning near san leandro. you'll see moderate rain over the next 15 minutes in san francisco. then it will subside 15 minutes later with light scattered showers. we'll see light rain this morning. it is pretty wet in san leandro to union city. hayward right now seeing a bit of wet weather, but it looks like the thunderstorm cell is falling apart before it makes its way over the bay. so you don't have to worry about heavy downpours coming over you in the east bay any time soon. 55 degrees in concord.

58 degrees in almaden valley. we are doing realtime forecasting for you today with the thunderstorms happening on our clock this morning. it is pretty rare. we'll let you know where they are throughout the morning, so stay tuned. we will really track those rain showers and thunderstorm activity to the point all morning long. we'll talk about something happening next week. we want to make you aware about this as well. this is a big contest we are doing. we want to send you and a guest to either tribeca in new york, the dallas film festival or the los angeles film festival. also we are giving away a package to our own local sinequest here in san francisco with two tickets and premiers inclusive in the package. if you want to find out more and get a leg up on the competition for next week, log on to our website or just wait until we show you the secret word next week. mike, what's the word of the day? oh, no, how about laura, last

the word of the day? the word of the day, well, i guess stay-cation caught my eye. ours seems to be going to the backyard. >> wahoo! i get to work in the yard. no contest, machine beats man at their own game. >> watson, the ibm super computer, easily beat the two best jeopardy players. the machine won more money than ken jennings. ibm researchers can also take a bow because they created watson's brain. the program says that machine represents a break through in the computer's ability to understand the human language. ibm is sending that super computer now to a number of university hospitals for field testing. it will assist doctors in processing large amounts of

data. but hospital officials say unlike jeopardy where there's one clear-cut answer the medical field can often have multiple diagnosis and solutions. so that's different. and we should point out during the competition wattson a couple of times got the answer wrong. the human would say the wrong answer and he repeated the same one. he didn't understand and repeated the same answer. it is not perfect. 5:20. the brainiest city in america is not here. we'll take a look at the new list at which bay area cities were left off. and apple's ceo steve jobs is back in the public. what right does the public have about his health? plus a bay area police officer was supposed to keep drugs off the street but now he's behind bars. we'll take a look at wha

good morning to you, folks. first, make sure your wipers are this good condition and have fluid in the washer as well. we can see things cleared up for westbound 580. just starting to show a slowdown. a 14-minute drive out of the altamonte pass. we have gusty conditions that could pull your car to one side or the other. we don't want that on the

venetian bridge. chp issued a wind advisory for the bridge. i'm going to extend that to the cartinas bridge. they share the same air. westbound highway 4 your connector over to westbound 880 is affected by a tree that fell down across the connector. it sounds like they have to close that. maybe get on eastbound and loop back to the next exit. that's an indicator of saturated soil and windy conditions. we'll see more of that reported throughout the bay this morning. we'll watch the santa cruz mountains especially with wet conditions near 17. approaching the bay bridge, a 19-minute drive off the cartinas bridge through the east shore freeway. we'll move over to the city real quickly to show you an incident progressing northbound 280. i told you about the accident with one lane closed. two lanes are open and they expect to open the remaining two lanes in a few minutes. no major injuries but that will affect your drive out of daly city heading to the 101 interchange. here's a live shot of the bay bridge. water on the lens there, water is all over the roadway.

that's an indicator of what you are dealing with all over the bay. looking at the volume in the middle of the screen approaching the toll plaza, we have pretty big puddles there. plan for a wet arrival. back to you. "forbes" magazine has a list of cities attracting the most brain power and no bay area cities are on the list. >> but there could be good reason. the magazine looked at the number of new college graduates moving into cities around the country and ranked them by the percentage gain. since the bay area is home to a lot of college grads it is difficult to increase that percentage. >> here's a look at the list of the smartest cities of the future. it is new orleans at the top. that is due to dramatic changes in the city after katrina. a lot of people are locating there. raleigh, north carolina, is number two. it has become a very popular spot for tech companies who are looking for a less expensive home and they relocate there followed by austin, texas, nashville, and kansas city.

there are reported pictures of apple's ceo steve jobs entering a cancer clinic. now, granted, they are in "the national inquirer" but wall street is debating if we have the right to know that much about the health of a private individual. >> it is a shunlg debate. huge debate. a private individual who also happens to run the country's second most valuable company. another good question this morning, is whether those pictures which have not yet run in the newspaper are legal under california law? radaronline broke the news of jobs returning to the cancer clinic. "the national inquirer" has the pictures. if they were taken on private property, johnson could have a case against the newspaper. california has a very restrictive anti-pop rat sa law. one way or the other, apple has more money to pay lawyers than any newspaper does. apple stock took a dive on rumors that jobs was back in the hospital.

further ammunition for those who say mr. jobs' health should be a matter of public record. apple has been closed mouth about jobs. shortly before he took the leave of absence the second time, apple attributed his gaunt appearance to the flu causing a great deal of disappointment among reporters who felt they were lied to. >> whatever the case, we hope he's well. a bay area man who spent two decades in jail for murder is now back on trial. we'll show you the case that could end upsetting him free. and what's happening next on the bay bridge? we'll have the latest. and a woman who worked at the checkout counter at san orr accused of stealing credit card information from hundreds of people. ♪ [ male announcer ] not all steel is created equal.

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a narcotics officer in jail this morning charged with selling drugs. good morning. i'm christie smith. construction on the bay bridge moves ahead of schedule. we'll tell you about the key piece of the puzzle coming up in a live report. and the snow just keeps falling. a live look outside this morning from the high country, the sierra getting blanketed. we'll look at how much they will get coming up in a live report. and a live look outside in the south bay this morning. you can see slick roads out there. some hail in parts of the bay area. meteorologist christina loren will tell us where the next storm will hit. it is thursday, february 17th. this is "today in the bay."

>> good morning, everybody. thank you for joining us. i'm brent cannon. >> i'm laura garcia-cannon. thank you for joining us. here's a quick look at the forecast with meteorologist christina loren. good morning to you. we have reports of hail this morning. just pea-sized hail. nothing too heavy, but enough to startle you if you are in your car and it is coming down over you. and also we had quite a bit yesterday. i just ran a query for the east bay, and over the past six hours all we have picked up is moderate to light rain. but one cloud to ground lightning strike makes me think we need to keep our guard up. if you are close enough to hear the thunder, you are close enough to get struck by lightning. if you hear the thunder stay indoors. we'll tell you where the storm is headed and where to expect the thunderstorms throughout the day coming up. right now we'll check your commute and see how the wet

weather is treating your drive. we are both very busy this morning. thank you for your help. we are looking to the peninsula where we were hit hard this morning. take 101 up into the city right now because 280 is very slow out of daly city. the incident here, 19 minutes at san jose avenue with an earlier accident. all lanes should be cleared over the next ten minutes approaching san jose avenue. still very slow before you get to the 280/101 interchange. use 101 if you can. a pretty clear shot of the bay bridge. we'll have a live shot coming up. a new plan is on the way for the bay bridge to allow construction crews to complete the work on the bridge sooner than planned. we want to check in with "today in the bay's" christie smith live on treasure island this morning with an announcement bay bridge leaders will make today. good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, laura. it is a tough day weatherwise to show you what's going on with the new bay bridge, but the bottom line is that you may be able to use more of it a little

bit sooner than expected. and that's because of some changes you are going to see very soon right near the toll plaza. a series of upcoming lane realignments and detours that will allow what's called the oakland touchdown to be completed ahead of schedule. caltrans and the bay area toll authority will give us a tour later this morning. but what it all means is that the detours allow crews the work between the existing bridge and the new bridge to complete the eastbound lanes a little bit sooner. the eastbound traffic will use the lanes in may of this year, westbound traffic will start using it in early 2012. the oakland touchdown, a new 1,000-stretch of road to keep the expansion plan. that's important because it was expected to be the last piece of the was puzzle. reporting hive on treasure island, christie smith for "today in the bay." thank you.

we are also following the preparation for president obama to visit the bay area today. he's going to touch down at san francisco international airport later this evening. he'll talk to business and tech leaders about strength anything the economy, creating jobs and promoting american innovation. reports say that the president is going to meet with mark zuckerberg and leaders from cisco, e-bay and twitter. he'll also reaffirm his commitment to clean energy. it will be a short stay. he arrives just after 6:00 this evening and then he leaves from sfo on friday morning. the president visited the bay area last in october for a democratic fund-raiser. the commander of a contra costa drug task force has been accused of selling drugs. norman welsh has a stellar career in law enforcement in contra costa county. he along with officer christopher butler were arrested in venetia held on allegations they conspired to sell drugs. michael cardoza is welsh's

attorney. >> all of this is sad. i mean, it is really a case of sadness. we don't have the discovery the case. we simply have allegations. i'm going to wait to see what the charges are. >> both men are accused of districting distributing meth, marijuana and steroids. they have not been formally charged yet. an accused credit card thief may have checked in your bag at san francisco international airport. santa clara county prosecutors say an american airlines ticket agent stole credit card numbers and hundreds of thousands of dollars. the 49-year-old woman stole more than 350 credit cards and took the numbers from unsuspecting travelers. she then used the numbers to make counterfeit credit cards. detectives say she used the cards at safeways to buy gift cards that used the gift cards to buy electronics. she allegedly sold the items on e-bay and pocketed the cash. one victim says she was shocked to see charges on her bill.

>> but it just happened that the charges were made while i was on the business trip, so this caught my eye. i looked closely to check the statement and realized it was not my charges. >> investigators say that johnson scammed almost half a million dollars. they also say her former boyfriend is the one who tipped them off and called safeway who then called police. this morning a retrial for a man who was convicted of murder 21 years ago. 41-year-old maurice codwell was sentenced to life in prison for shooting a woman in 1990. the judgeover turned that judgment in december that a witness was not interviewed in the first trial. now calledwell was said to be uninvolved in the shooting. the trial will continue this morning in san francisco. we could see it all from snow to hail and maybe some rare lightning. marla tellez is live in the santa cruz mountains this morning with driving is pretty

tricky already. it could be trickier today. >> reporter: yes, i'm sure you can see the rain coming down to an angle here. that's one of the mornings where the weather is going to dictate your morning commute. to give you an idea where we are, highway 17 behind us off in the distance here. i think you can see headlights and taillights behind me here. this is the lexington reservoir here at the foothills of the santa cruz mountains. we took a trip up the summit to get an idea on the driving conditions. it is wet and slick out there this morning. chp issued a fog advisory but you know what? the fog is lifting. it is not -- the visibility is pretty good out there. but i did speak to the national weather service and like christina is telling you, hail could hit the bay area once again today during yesterday's morning commute. about 9:30 the peninsula and east bay got hammered by bizarre hail to surprise a lot of people. >> and i was like, what is going

on here? i was thinking it was a fire happening, and i'm looking at the ground going, no, that's hail. >> reporter: and last night another bizarre hailstorm hit the peninsula once again. 280 southbound/northbound traffic almost stopped. chp had to come out to throw sand on the roadway to help the drivers get on with their evening drive. again, more of the same could happen today. bottom line, brent, you just need to slow it down no matter where you are heading in the bay area. the foothills of the santa cruz mountains, reporting live, marla tellez, "today in the bay." >> if you are planning to hit the slopes for president's day weekend and are leaving today, be careful. storms have blanketed highway 50 this morning. snow-covered roads forced the drives to completely abandon their cars along interstate 80 last night.

these are live pictures from this morning. you can see the big rigs parked to the side. the storm actually dropped three inches of snow in the sierra mountains. caltrans says chains are required today on both interstate 80 and highway 50. so we are seeing it all. we have more storms moving through our area kind of on and off. as we mentioned, you could see it all today. we'll go to christina. >> yes, you could leave your front door this morning and it will be nice and dry and clear. then you hit the highway and the next thing you know you are in a hailstorm. that's what we are seeing this morning. we do have lightning firing off in the bay area. you can see the realtime strikes here this morning. let me zoom in to show you where we are most concerned. we have a pretty strong cell right now pushing past san leandro. this is a setback from an hour ago. you can see the lightning strikes fire off. heading throughout the next 15 to 20 minutes this systemmove over san leandro. get ready for pretty heavy rain. we already have reports of

pea-sized hail out there this morning. so take it easy. we don't have widespread thunderstorm activity. these are just isolated pop-up storms. that will be the case heading throughout the day today. you could get caught in one or may not. 55 in san jose. 55 in los gatos. heading throughout this afternoon the pop-up storms will become a little more widespread because of the daytime heat. that is a look at your weather. we'll continue to track your realtime doppler all morning long to let you know if the storms are headed to your highway. right now over to you. we'll take it. if it is your highway, it will be an issue. right now highway 4, you know the speeds are slow, but actually they are better than we typically see at 5:40 on a thursday. the wet roads, folks are using caution to allow more extra time. that's what we want heading over to 680. the interchange is smooth down to walnut creek. coming off the venetian bridge, either direction, the wind advisory is issued by the chp over the cartinas bridge. use the caution. bottom of your screen on the left side we see a tree down.

that's westbound highway 4 at interstate 880. an accident resulted as the tree went down because folks department know about it. avoid the area. the connector should be closed. you'll be rerouted by chp. here's the bay bridge toll plaza. there are the wet conditions. soupy, sloppy conditions. now over to the city side with a sigalert issued for northbound 280. an earlier accident has two lanes blocked. slick coming off the venetian bridge. back to you. the time is 5:41. the department of homeland security enlists the help of a california university. we'll tell you how you can benefit coming up. plus, crime apparently does pay. california inmates taking your tax dollars. a live report is coming up. ♪

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crime pays offall, at least for inmates who cashed in on millions of dollars in undeserved federal tax refund by claiming phoneny deductions and phantom jobs. kristen dahlgren is live in washington, d.c., with how it happened and how much that tax scheme cost states like california. kristen? >> reporter: hey, brent. we are talking about the wasteful spending in washington, and a lot of people will be surprised by this one in a report to congress where the irs admitted to paying out $39 million in fraudulent returns to inmates. 29 of them got about $50,000. they claimed they bought electric or fuel alternative cars while in prison. they are also making up these phantom jobs saying they had those and false deductions. so at lo of money paying out. california, georgia and florida were the worst states for that. in california there were 169,413 inmates in federal and state

prison. they got $2.7 million in fraudulent returns in 2009. the government says they are trying to do what they can to stop that, but it is returning to legal challenges with how much the irs can share with the government as far as information about prisoners. also, the irs says it is trying to get the money back but they think it will take time to do that. back to you. thank you, tracy. >> amazing is our weather. let's check the forecast with christina. oh, guys, we have a lot of active cells out there. here's the overall picture right now of the entire bay area getting hit with heavy rain, moderate rain and lightning strikes in some areas. here's what we are contending with. we have lightning fires off to the east of san francisco. we have a strong cell falling apart. but associated with the cell we did have one cloud-to-ground

lightning strike. so that threat will be something we have to deal with all day today, especially this afternoon as we pick up more daytime heating, which is an ingredient that makes thunderstorms very conducive. we have a lot of instabltd in the atmosphere. we are also watching this sky here to the east of fairfield. that's a strong cell as well. then i'm watching this in berkeley with a heavy downpour here near one inch her per hour. take it easy out there as the heavy downpour just saturated your ground. 55 degrees in san jose. 58 degrees in almaden valley. 54 in oakland. as i keep pointing out, with the daytime heat the instability increases so the possibility of thunderstorms this afternoon and this evening, more likely than what we are experiencing this morning. now we want to get a check on what's happening from kcra, our sister station, how is it looking in elderado county?

>> reporter: this is a great time to be driving if you are headed to the mountains because this is a nice lull that we understand could last for a good couple of hours in elderado county on your way to lake tahoe and the ski resorts this morning. take a look at the ground. when you see the wet roads, this is not the only sign of precipitation you see at this particular hour. over the last couple of hours the story was the same as we made our way up the mountain. just know if you are heading up right now, we were at a 3,000 foot elevation. they are now headed up, the caltrans crew, to the 4,000-foot elevation. that's good news for drivers. back out here live, just know as it starts to snow later again today the patrols will probably move back down the mountain. come prepared. back to you.

it is 5:47 right now. with about a month and a half left in the season the warriors already are ahead of where they were last season. monte ellis has taken control scoring 5 points, 35 points, leading the jazz. that's the 26th win of the year for golden state. it's the same number as they won all of last season. spring training is underway in arizona. day two for the oakland a's. pitchers and catchers are getting to know their new pitching coach, ron romanek. the full team is already working out for the giants, but there were notable names missing. brian wilson is out, he has a stiff back. and tim lincecum is out. he has neck pain and a headache that goes with it. he needs to loosen up a little bit. since the giants are the defending world series champions everyone is gunning for them,

but one opponent took it too far. >> the padres' pitcher took it too far. he teamed one a nonprofit to sell three autographs all signed "i hate sf." they each sold for almost $300,000. the proceeds go to the alumni association. that's not very nice. time could be up for a free sunday and evening meter parking. we'll take up the proposal and other parking suggestions will be brought up tonight. the city wants to encourage people to use city-owned garages and have prime spots on the ground available to those willing to shell out money for them. we are talking about the weather we have been seeing lately. we'll go to mike inouye to take

a peek at the roads this morning. >> you are talking about free parking potential in walnut creek. that's up here on the map. down here this is what folks refer to as a parking lot. that's 580 starting to slow down. windy and wet conditions out of the altamonte pass. not so severe. we see a 16-minute drive through livermore and pleasanton. highway 4 is jamming up out of antioch. a look at the wide view of the maze with a lot of folks heading here before the 6:00 hour. no major slowing but the volume is increasing heading to the toll plaza. no major backups, but a lot of water on the roadways heading over to the metering lights. a sigalert is in effect at san jose avenue approaching the 101 interchange. the slowdown we saw has cleared up. we have two more lanes that remain to be clear. the two center lanes are getting back after earlier activity. 101 will completely stay clear of the area if you can in your connector there from 380.

it is pretty smooth near the city right now. there's a look at the golden gate bridge. it is a wet commute, but a steadty flow of traffic. the wind is parallel with traffic here. but that means it is perpendicular to the san mateo bridge. we are catching that sideways across the water. look at the wind shaking the camera. we have slippery conditions with a wind advisory continuing for the east/west bridges. 5:51 right now. parents should be able to lay their kids down to sleep and walk away with peace of mind, but a new report shows a startling number of children are being seriously injured in their cribs. today a congressional hearing will hear from advocates who want to hold manufacturers responsible for building safe cribs. a new study shows on average 26 kids go to emergency rooms every day for crib-related injuries. >> most of these were faults from the crib when the child climbed out. one-fifth were injuries to the head, some were concussion. those can be quite serious among

young children. >> the study also looked at children injured in playpens and bassinets and comes on the heels of a recall of bassinets manufacturered by burlington basket of iowa. uc davis scientists are working to change an invention to use it to help with national security. they created a scanner to test bottles of wine to see if they turned to vinegar. now the department of homeland security wants the technology to check bottles of things like sham pooh and water for explosives during airport screenings. if it works that could soon mean that you're going to be able to go through airport security with a full bottle of water or a tube of toothpaste or baby formula. dhs is paying for the research. the senate republicans are vowing not to back jerry brown's tax increase extension. while democrats took control of both statehouses governor brown needs a few republicans to reach a two-thirds majority vote to bring the measure to the public. instead of taxes senate republicans want sweeping

reforms for both public and private sectors to erase the $26 billion budget deficit. the tax extension expires this july and governor brown wants to extend it another five years. a ten-year push in oakland to make city services available to chinese and spanish speakers may take effect soon. the city and several advocacy groups reached a $400,000 settlement this week. a lawsuit was filed when a non-english speaking couple was robbed and there were no officers to speak their language. and the couple was not able to read the crime report because it was only written in english. as part of the settlement keep city documents will now be translated into other languages. san jose city leaders want the public to come to watch the mayor's state of the city address. mayor chuck reed and the city council are honoring outstanding people in the district and several city employees. the event is free to the public being held in the evening to encourage the public to stop by after work.

it is being held at the downtown civic auditorium recently renovated. scott told us about borders filing for bankruptcy yesterday. today the chain says it is closing 200 stores nationwide, including 11 in the bay area. here they are, a couple in san jose, two in san francisco, and one in los gatos, san mateo and alameda. other stores set to close are in fremont, pleasanton, union city and san ramon. most of them are going to have sales this weekend to try to move out the inventory. then the closing dates happen within the next few weeksle. if you have a gift card to borders, now is the time to use that. >> yesterday was the time to use it. we have been talking about the growing tension between taxpayers, teachers and firefighters. and it is getting worse. >> yes, let me take you to madison, wisconsin. take a look at this video. this is the birthplace of local government union chaos at the state capital. and the wisconsin lawmakers considered a vote to repeal

previously written agreements with teachers unions. now the teachers conducted a stickout closing the school that emboldened lawmakers. the lawmakers want teachers to pay 6% of their own retirement. they currently pay nothing. why do you care about wisconsin? well, what happens there could spread. a victory against unions by republican governors could encourage other states and cities to encourage others to take similar action. we talked about growing pressure to get concessions from san francisco unions, the mayor is quoted as saying without them the city would be bankruptcy without them. remember prop b, that would force other city workers to pay more for their retirement, it lost in the ballot box, but a far more restrictive law could hit the ballot this november. so with much bigger cuts one columnist calls it the son of prop b defeating the first prop b being the worst thing to

happen to city workers because it could get worse for them. >> it is a huge issue all over the state. >> particularly, you mentioned jerry brown, if he doesn't get the tax increase, then everything is on the table. >> oh, yes, big time. >> you can't pay for some of the pension if you don't have the money. thank you. it is 5:56 right now. buy a car, help out local schools. the city of concord is partnering with 14 of its car dealerships to encourage people to buy a new car in concord. the dealers will then make a donation from this week's sales to local schools including the mount diablo music education and the united mount diablo athletic foundation. to see a full list of participating dealers, go to buyconcord.net. the bay area is full of distinctive destinations but only a few make the national trust official list of the country's best places to visit. sonoma in the heart of wine country ranks high among the

national trust. the seaport town of eureka also made the list, but they didn't come in first place. that goes to alexandria, virginia. home to george washington. other cities on the list also include colorado springs, colorado, chapel hill, north carolina, and san antonio, texas. all right. prince's welcome to america tour is coming to the bay area. >> he just announced two dates at oakland's oracle arena. tickets go on sale tomorrow. it comes on the heels of six shows in new york. he's been tuning crowds with terrific shows lately. tickets start at $49.50 and go as high as $250. you have a chance t 5:57. ince. we'l. we'll be right back.

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