it is fat tuesday, march 8th, "today in the bay." good morning, everybody. thank you for joining us. it is straight up 6:00. i'm brent cannon. >> i'm lure ra garcia-cannon. we are going to check the forecast with christina. we have a little bit of dense fog leftover. and we had really dense fog this morning generating mist, but that situation is really starting to improve. and our roads are getting a chance to dry out. we'll check with mike in a minute, but i want to point out places like novato, you are down to a mile and a half. reduced visibilities across the south bay, so give yourself plenty of time. be sure you are careful through the foggy conditions. we'll go to mike to see how the weather is impacting your drive right now. good morning, christina. you had the sprinkles and

drizzle that you talked about. we have wet roads in the east bay. we have the earlier issue with a semitruck and another truck on the shoulder. so slowing approaching north flynn road. the buildup for the westbound commute through livermore is typical, but a new accident involving three cars near the dublin interchange is on the shoulder approaching 680. that could be a big distraction. we'll follow this and get another look at the travel times approaching the meatz. an easy drive close to the limit and here at the toll plaza itself, no major issues, but this is the beginning of the build-up throughout the east bay. we'll follow the east shore freeway travel times. so far they are close to the limit near berkeley. back to you. and we begin with developing news out of the east bay where a man is dead after police had a standoff that ended a short time ago. the neighborhood is still on edge this morning. "today in the bay's" christie smith has been following the story all morning long live in berkeley with the latest. >> reporter: good morning to you, brent. despite all that's gone on here for the last 8 1/2 hours, it is

relatively quiet here this morning. i just took a walk down to the home where all of this happened a couple of minutes ago. there are two berkeley police officers out front. also crime scene tape. they are telling me what they told me when i went down there is that they are waiting for the coroner to arrive. that's the van out in front of the home. investigators may be here for quite a while. this is the 1800 block of marin avenue near the alameda and the solano shopping district. this started at 7:30 last night. reports of shots fired from a home. berkeley police say the man inside fired in their direction, the first two officers that showed up there, and they backed out. they ordered neighbors out of the neighborhood for safety. then hostage negotiators were brought in to establish contact with the man inside the home. they found out he was in there alone, but what was said and why he was so distraught police aren't saying this morning. but around 4:00 a.m. they

decided to go ahead and go inside the home. they found the man dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. they are not releasing his name yet this morning. that's the latest from here, reporting live in berkeley, christie smith for "today in the bay." thank for the update there, kristy. >> this morning police are looking into the overnight shooting. someone shot and killed a man sitting in a car near 37th street and mcarthur boulevard at 10:00 last night. two other people were in the car when it happened. they were not seriously injured. the east bay law enforcement scandal could impact several other court cases. one suspect who is accused of dealing drugs could be back on the street this morning. the man is charged with selling marijuana and is scheduled to appear in court this morning, but his case could be thrown out because narcotics officer norman welsh investigating that case is accused of stealing drugs from the evidence lockers and selling them back on the streets. this is the first of what could be many cases that end up getting tossed.

welsh pleaded not guilty to stealing and veling the drugs and is out on $400,000 bail. 6:03 right now. with the unrest in the middle east continuing this morning gas prices all over the country continue to rise. and no one is feeling the pain at the pump worse than here in california. aaa says the average price for regular gas in california is $3.89 this morning. area cities have seen higher prices, just pennies under $4. with no end in sight, many are turning to alternative fuels as a possible way to offer a little relief to their wallets. one bay area company, in fact, is at the forefront of that movement. marla tellez is live in fremont where tesla motors is getting ready to roll out a new electric car that could triple the range of its nearest competitor. good morning, marla. >> reporter: good morning, laura. that competitor you speak of is the nissan leaf. that goes about 100 miles per charge. well, tesla motors that now owns the former plant here in fremont

has the new all-electric plug-in sedan. take a look at the car. it is a good-looking vehicle if i do say so myself. it is called the model s sedan. i believe we have video you are looking at right now that shows it cruising through some country roads. tesla says it will go zero to 60 in less than six seconds. no gas is required. it has a top speed of 125 miles per hour. as far as the battery life is concerned, this is where it gets impressive. starting at the top. the signature series model comes with a 300-mile battery, that means drivers will get 00 miles out of a single charge. it comes with a price, though. the price tag of $77,000. tesla says there will be a middle-level model to last about 230 miles. then there's the basic model priced at $58,000. the basic version has a driving range of 160 miles.

now, each vehicle, keep in mind, comes with a $7,500 federal tax credit. production will start next year in 2012 at this fremont plant. they hope to roll out several thousand vehicles next year and roll out many more in 2013. this means more jobs as they plan to hire 1,000 employees short-term. i logged on to the tesla website this morning and jobs are posted here for the plant in fremont. if you are in the market for a new job as an engineer or designer, whatever it may be, take a look. live in fremont this morning, marla tellez for "today in the bay." >> i wonder if there's a waiting list for the car themselves. >> reporter: that's a good question. i have yet to find that out, laura. >> thank you so much. faulty risk analysis as well as faulty pipelines in san bruno, the new evidence this morning sheds a little bit more light on pg&e's decisions not to

repair that flawed pipeline. the mercury news has found a pg&e report from 1992 that says most of the pipe that ran through san bruno did not need to be replaced saying that the welds met current standards. but federal investigators found more than 150 welding defects in january and many of them date back half a century. faulty welds may have led to the deadly blast that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. sad news out of afghanistan this morning where a san jose soldier was killed. army staff sergeant mark wells died on saturday when he stepped on a hidden bomb in the helmand province. wells was deployed to afghanistan in august after a 14-month tour in iraq. he leaves behind a pregnant wife and a toddler. the funeral service for wells is expected to be held on st. patrick's day in phoenix where his wife's family lives. san jose's city council votes today on a new contract with the firefighters. now the firefighters union

approved the contract this past weekend. and the city is now expected to approve it today. the contract cuts firefighter pay and benefits by 10%. and it reduces the number of firefighters on a fire truck from five to four. mayor chuck reed is now calling on a city's other 11 employee unions to strike similar dealsle. redwood city is doing what it can to save the redevelopment money. the city council voted to transfer $36 million from its redevelopment agency into city accounts. they say they have the authority to transfer redevelopment money between agencies. we are waiting for it to warm up a bit this morning. and christina has a peek at the forecast. >> good morning to you. yeah, if you can see out there, we have some really dense fog in many cities across the bay area. i'm really kerped about the south bay this morning because we don't see fog this dense. it is so dense in some spots it is generating a mist. so take it easy out there. we have slick conditions.

high pressure is actually come pressing all the moisture that came through yesterday and over the weekend. hence, we have the fog, but what it is also doing is keeping a storm track well off to our north. you can see the showers evaporating as they collide with the big ridge of dry pressure. for today it is looking pretty darn nice as we get through the sneaky showers this morning. they are mostly in the south bay at this time. we have reduced visibility in the north bay, a mile and a half up there. pretty much everywhere you head you will encounter dense patches of fog. give yourself plenty of time. the man to tell you where the safest drive is right now, we'll bring him in, mike inouye. the safest drive probably from your garage to your garage. that's the safest if you don't start the car. otherwise you are at risk for anything going on right now, but we are letting you know so far the maze is doing just fine. no major accidents. the slick roads are an issue throughout the area on both sides of the bay, all around the bay you have been talking about highlighting the area christie smith has been reporting on.

this is berkeley. if you use the buchanon ramp near albany, marin avenue is what it becomes. that's where the police activity is. avoid that and use gilman for the next hour or so as the police continue the investigate there. a live look outside shows you what oakland is like. 880 northbound with the headlights is moving smoothly, but the gray skies, the wet and misty conditions at times throughout the 880 to san jose, i got a lot of mist. i had to use the windshield wipers. we'll check the south bay with speeds looking good for the northbound routes, but i'll move those speed sensors out of the way. you can see the blips near 87. that's typical this time of the morning. the accident is northbound 101 at highway 87. it is moving off to the shoulder, but for the time being as you are passing guadeloupe parkway you may see a lot of flashing lights clearing in the next 10 to 15 minutes. i'll follow this and let you know about that. thank you, mike. >> the time is 6:10. still to come on "today in the bay," librarians and music teachers could lose their jobs in the east bay. we'll tell you about the cuts

that could be coming to one school district. plus, we are headed to new orleans to check out the celebration on this fat tuesday. and we are going to show you how to get some mardi gras flavor in your life today. and a live look across the golden gate bridge. not one of those places where they are seeing the heavy mist. we'll be checking your traffic conditions all morning. [ male announcer ] yiayia may not approve of michelle's wardrobe.

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good morning, everybody. a nice looking shot across the bay bridge this morning. but we do have some low-lying clouds depending on where you are. and you might run into a lot of mist out there today. we'll keep you posted.

this morning the mount diablo school district is looking to cut $22 million from its budget. it could eliminate most librarians and music teachers just to do it. state trustees expect the governor's proposed tax extensions won't make it on to the june ballot or will fail. 180 teachers and administrators could lose their jobs if state funding falls through. the trustees will vote on march 15th. santa clara is scrambling to save redevelopment money set aside for the proposed 49ers stadium. city leaders, the stadium authority and the redevelopment agency will hold a special meeting tonight to move assets from the redevelopment agency into the stadium authority to protect the money if the state plans to shut down local agencies and redevelopment agency passes. the full assembly and senate will vote on the state budget proposal tomorrow. in the meantime, today is fat tuesday, the party is already underway in the big

easy. >> and "today in the bay's" bob redell is live in new orleans this morning. good morning, bob. >> reporter: good morning to you, laura and brent. we are above bourbon street, which is probably about three hours off of last night's party. they have cleaned the streets out here waiting for the partiers to show up again today for fat tuesday. of course, fat tuesday being the climax of what's been a couple of weeks of mardi gras celebrations. what's interesting about this year compared to years past is officials we have spoken to think this could be the largest mardi gras celebration ever. there were over a million people last year. they hope to top the number this year in part because of the mild weather. yes, it is raining out here, but temperaturewise it is very comfortable. and also, mardi gras is later this year, brent and laura, so it is coinciding with spring break. you have a lot of spring breakers that are coming down here to bourbon street, to new orleans, instead of heading to the beach. one thing that i'm noticing out here in the early mornings, it is around 8:00 here on tuesday,

there are beer delivery trucks. apparently they ran out of beer last night which came as a complete shock and surprise. unbelievable. >> it looks quiet behind you on the streets right now. >> i can hear cheering. i can hear cheering. >> reporter: yeah, that's intermittent news. it is very quiet right now. i can guarantee you in a few hours this place will be hopping again. i mean, until around 5:00 local time there were still hundreds of people jammed all the way down there and here doing a thing with the beads, a lot of partying and drinking, that sort of thing until the street sweepers came in to clean it up. they will do the same thing tonight, but instead of letting the party die out on its own this morning. at midnight police are coming in to shut it down to clear out bourbon street in time for ash wednesday, which is the start of lent. >> what a way to kick it off. >> you didn't have to raid your

christmas tree for the beads, bob. >> they look like ornaments. the bulbs are big. your friends are calling you, too. >> reporter: it looks like we have some early morning bead throwers. of course, there's santa obama. it wouldn't be mardi gras without him. the things i have seen out here have been for a man to have to witness the trauma has been unbelievable. in all seriousness, a great time. there's a viking, santa obama, samurai, i have seen it all. >> thank you, bob. a lot of fun. there's a peek on what's happening in louisiana today. you can still eat what they are in the french quarter there right here. we have a couple authentic cajun dishes. >> we have the rock band, a louisiana rock band called the radiators playing. this will get you in the mood a

bit. you can hear their music as we talk to vince this morning. thank you for coming by. >> you're very welcome. >> let's start with what makes cajun food cajun. >> it has its origins in french and spanish food. these are two classics, the chicken and sausage gum bow and a creole here. >> can a guy like brent eat that? >> i don't know about you. >> all right. very unique. tell us about -- you describe your truck, it is louisiana territory, it is a spicy stepchild of rosemary and time. tell us about the truck, it is neat. >> we used to own a restaurant called louisiana territory that closed in san jose. ever since we closed it people have been rooted for us to open it back up. i really didn't want to take on a new restaurant, so when this new food truck craze came along it was time to start up louisiana territory again. so now we just drive around.

>> it is fat tuesday, i have to find out where you are. >> we are right around the corner today right on junction. every day we have a different -- two different spots. you can find us at thelouisianaterritory.com. >> it is cool. if you need a little spice in your life, you can find them. >> talk about what you put in yours. is it different? is it a traditional thing? or do you mix it up a bit and say i have my own special take on this? >> i did, long ago, i put my recipes together to take into consideration what california likes but trying to keep it as a authentic as possible. i don't use the stalk that you do in louisiana, but it is palable to the california pallet. as far as recipes are concerned, i picked up 20 to 30 cookbooks and compared ingredients and then decided what i would use

out here. >> would this count as a new orleans dish? >> this is a spanish dish. that's jumbiliyah. >> it could be a little spicety for breakfast, but i can try it. >> never too spicy for breakfast. come on. >> thanks a lot. >> thank you for joining us. for more information, go to the website, thelouisianaterritory.com. hunt him down and follow the truck around. >> that's a way to get you warmed up. if it is cold and foggy where you are, have a little spice and warm yourself up. go for the gumbo in this ca case. we have a shot of the golden gate bridge just 15 minutes ago. it was completely clear. now when i take a look at the same shot it is completely socked in with fog. so fog is a factor this morning. and we'll likely see it a factor

until 9:30 a.m. in santa rosa, a half mile of visibility now. we have reduced visibilities all across the bay area. even in cities that don't traditionally see the dense fog in the south bay, you will wake up to find it this morning. 52 degrees this morning. your temperatures are comfortable right now 567891 in san mateo, 56 in san mateo. it is not bitterly cold. this afternoon once the low cloud cover breaks apart we'll see a second half of the day with temperatures in the mid-60s. 63 in concord. and 63 degrees in san the save jose. midweek the ridge breaks down. late wednesday into thursday that ridge will be well off to our east. then the showers arrive late thursday. but we are going to get a couple of really nice days before our next system arrives. today and tomorrow look downright pleasant. 62 degrees by thursday. and then, hey, maybe on friday you have been having giants withdrawals.

you can catch them here at 6:05 p.m. on nbc taking on the padres. late saturday night into sunday, we don't want you to forget to spring forward. daylight savings time begins. back to you guys. >> boo! honestly, you lose an hour, right? >> how was the sample there? >> fantastic. spicy in the morning. >> for you, good. 6:22. coming up, we'll take you back out live to the scene of the deadly standoff in berkeley. plus, cleaning up apple's store. is that possible? how the world's most minimal store may get even simpler. and as you travel through the north bay, you'll be met with fog and lower visibility. we'll see how things are going on near the bridges as you meet. i'll sort out my speech what else as well as the traffic coming up.

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all right. 6:25. welcome back. we'll take you to the east bay. livermore has had a trouble spot there around northern flynn road. an earlier accident and sigalert kicked off the slowdown. we have a steady flow with all lanes open. a 19-minute drive through area there. we have another accident on the shoulder here, three cars, non-injury, but it is at the dublin interchange and westbound 580 making the transition to southbound 680. the speeds approaching the area are looking good for both 580 and 680. no problems near the castro valley.

880 is holding up near 63 near the san mateo bridge. fog and visibility could be an issue heading over to the peninsula and definitely along highway 101. the east shore freeway, a 19-minute drive to the bay bridge toll plaza. the metering lights were just turned on. back to you. you have problems because of the gumbo, don't you? i knew that. i knew that. >> you have problems. the apple ipad for $200. scott mcgrew says it is possible. >> it really is. a used ipad, but that's still a great deal. e-bay says the ipad is the best selling used tech gadget ever. and we can assume most ipad owners are selling the old one to buy a new second-generation ipad. that's good news for apple for two reasons. first, it is a sign people want to upgrade. but the old ipad will get in the hand of others who wouldn't have bought one and will see how much fun it is. they will join the apple fan base. talk this morning that the minimalist apple stores will get more minimal.

the website slash gear says apple plans to get rid of the boxed software and other stuff sold near the counter so apple can sell more apple stuff. that's bad news if you are one of those companies that makes speaker docks or ipad cases. from the very simple to the complex, a very complicated trial gets underway in new york city. raj rotnum, one of the richest men in america, is accused of insider trading getting secrets on e-bay, google and intel. several people in silicon valley were implicated and lost their jobs. some did face criminal charges. now this is one of two insider scandals to shake silicon valley. this trial gets underway today and we'll continue to watch to see what other nuggets we can find in this. there could be big news coming this week. >> names in other places, you're right. more details on barry bonds upcoming trial will be hammered

out today. and police hope this picture will help catch the man known as a serial bank robber. a standoff with an armed man in berkeley finally comes to an end this morning after nearly nine hours. i'm crisis tee smith. christie smith. i'll tell you what happened and why negotiators were called in. a live look at the beautiful bay bridge this morning. kind of cloudy, misty and foggy in some spowefutsl t so i u.you.

new this morning, shots fired overnight from a berkeley home. i'm christie smith. we'll tell you why hostage negotiability negotiators were called in and how it ended coming up in a live report. police say this man robbed a bank in the east bay and don't think it is the first time he's done something like. this. and a bay area company gets ready to roll out a first of its

kind, an all-electric vehicle. what's so special about this one that could take away the pain at the pump. that's coming up. a live look outside this morning, it is fat tuesday. a little bit of a gray start, a little cloudy start to the day. march 8th, "today in the bay." good morning, everybody. thank you for joining us. 6:31 right now. i'm brent cannon. >> i'm laura garcia-cannon. we'll check the forecast with christina. good morning to you. well, high pressure is building back in, and that's going to make for a really nice day once we get rid of all the low cloud cover and fog we are seeing this morning. you are down to a half mile his visibility in santa rosa. five miles in oakland. and in san jose you have visibility near a half mile and two miles. so you do want to take it easy out there. we'll check with mike inouye to find out if the fog is impacting

your drive thus far. it is a concern for folks in the north bay. we are down below a half mile for santa rosa coming into san rafael. watch it for 101. the approach to the maze, the only issue is the metering lights are turned on. the backup is holding steady at the end of the parking lot there. the fast track lanes are filling in faster than the rest of the folks. that's a typical pattern. to the south bay, we talked about fog, but i'm talking about a fire. we had an earlier accident on northbound 101. this is not an impact of a gasoline fire, but an electrical fire is causing smoke. it may blend in with the fog, but it could be an issue near guadeloupe parkway or highway 87 past downtown. overall, the slowing is not a major issue. things are sorting out for 101. speeds are in the 50s coming up to the airport. overall, you are close to the limit for most of the northbound routes through the south bay. back to you guys. 6:32 right now. this morning we are sfol lowing developing news in the east bay. an overnight standoff with police in berkeley has ended but

neighbors are still reeling this morning. christie smith is live in berkeley with a look at what happened. >> reporter: good morning to you. well, berkeley police are still here 11 hours after this happened. the alameda county coroner is here as well that just arrived 30 minutes ago. despite all the activity that's been going on here with the streets being blocked off, the neighborhood just starting to wake up and has been fairly quiet overnight. despite some neighbors being evacuated. they may be coming home very soon. here's what we know. this started at 7:30 last night. reports of a man with a gun inside the home on marin avenue near alameda. the man fired in the direction of the officers who arrived on the scene. they backed up and called for help. oakland and berkeley s.w.a.t. arrived. berkeley negotiators tried to contact the man. why he was distraught they are not saying, but when they entered the home finally after 4:00 this morning they found him

dead of a self-of self-inflicted gunshot wound. they hoped it would come to a better end. >> we do everything possible that we can to try and resolve this peaceably. and if that means talking to somebody for hours, that's what we'll do and we'll sit out here and continue to try to negotiate to bring about a peaceful ending. >> reporter: berkeley police now telling us they plan to wrap up the investigation here very soon. so far they have not released the man's name. he was inside of the home alone, so no one else injured. reporting live in berkeley, christie smith for "today in the bay." thank you for much, kristy. >> meantime, the fbi is looking for what appears to be a serial bank robber in the east bay. the chase bank in danville was robbed yesterday and the man got away with about $20,000. they have this surveillance video of him. now they say a man matching the robber's description also robbed a concord credit union and a hayward bank last month.

he may have also robbed a ma rip county bank as well. 6:34 right now. we have a better idea of what's going to happen in the trial of barry bonds. a hearing this afternoon will decide if jury questions will be released publicly. when the march 21st trial starts a former teammate and ex-girlfriend are expected to testify. they are expected to say bonds told them he took steroids. greg anderson, his trainer, refused to testify but other baseball players are expected to say anderson gave him steroids. a big milestone for toyota. it has now sold more than 3 million prius hybrids. they first sale in 1997 and were the world's first mass-produced hybrid. the prius is the most popular. toyota is trying to rebound from a series of recalls over the past few years that have tarnished their image. the prius could be the most popular, but a bay area automaker is about to enter the market, tesla. they have the all-electric car with a major claim of its own.

marla tellez is live there this morning with what their new sedan can do. marla? >> reporter: good morning, brent. tesla motors here in fremont is very excited about the new vehicle, its new project. it is the plug-in all electric sedan called the model s sedan. now this is only the second vehicle produced by tesla. the first was the roadster. tesla plans to start delivering the sedan beginning in the middle of next year, so in 2012. and it has plans to produce various models for various pocketbooks. at the top of the line is the signature series said to run 300 miles on a single charge for a price of $77,000. i guess on the flip side you never have to pay for any gas. now, tesla says there's a mid-level model and a base level

priced at $58,000 that will run about 160 miles on a single charge. each vehicle comes with a $7,500 tax credit. production starts here in fremont in 2012 and tesla hopes to ramp up production to 20,000 vehicles by 2013. of course, this is good news for the economy and especially the local economy here meaning more jobs. tesla hopes to employ 1,000 workers here at the plant. so perhaps some of the laid off workers can return to their old stomping grounds. marla tellez for "today in the bay." >> i would like to do the math on that and see if you come out ahead. $77,000 for the car, but no gas. how long until you hit $77,000 worth of gas. >> figure out if you can fit a lot of people in it. get a start on that. here's christina looking at

our forecast. >> any sedan in your family will get its use. maybe you are hopping into your sedan headed to work, watch out for dense fog across the bay area. it is kind of drifting around now. we have reduced visibilities pretty much everywhere. the south bay, east bay, peninsula, no exception this morning. you are down to a half mile in santa rosa. we just showed you the golden gate bridge. that's looking socked in right now. heading throughout the next couple of hours that will be a problem. i would say by 9:30 or 10:00 a.m., no more fog. in fact, we'll have partly cloudy conditions and a beautiful day on tap with temperatures in the mid-60s. but right now we are in the 50s. 52 degrees in san francisco. turning over to about 63 in the heat of the day. 63 degrees in san jose today. and 64 degrees in gilroy. now, coming up i'm going to show you the extended forecast. you'll be happy with temperatures tomorrow if you are looking for a warm day. then we have more rain on the way. i'll show you exactly when coming up. but first, we'll get you to work on time with mike inouye. good morning, christina.

we are doing all right despite the slick roadways. we are talking about the overnight mist, rain and fog. the maze is looking nice with metering lights at the toll plaza. let me show you what's happening in berkeley. a call out to where christie smith is doing her report. if you use the buchanan street exit off the east shore freeway through albany and head over to berkeley, you can take marin avenue. more folks are hitting the roadway and that area will get a lot more activity. stay clear of the intersection and head down to gilman or use the off-ramp near gilman. that's your alternate off the east shore freeway. coming up, we'll take you to bob redell far look at the fat tuesday celebration. and people are reducing

their credit card debt. we'll have a live report from washington coming up next. th

twizzlers. the twist you can't resist. good morning, everybody. a live look outside. look at that shot from the south bay. you can see that bank of clouds in the distance just really hugging the ground. that's what where i say tina christina is talking about. folks are literally driving in the clouds. you are going to see a lot of fog and mist out and about this morning.

we'll check in with her to see when that will change coming up. new numbers on consumer borrowing while overall borrowing was up in january, credit card debt actually fell. tracie potts is live in washington with how the bay area stacks up. good morning, try zee, tracie. >> reporter: good morning, everyone. that's true in the bay area where the average person holds just over $4,000 in bank credit card debt. we are not talking about retail cards or stores here. only bank cards. that amount is actually down just over 3% from a year before. lots of other cities in the country ranking above san francisco specifically when it comes to debt. now, as you said, the average nationwide is about $4,200. and the federal reserve now says credit card debt is going down at its lowest level in over six years. although borrowing overall is going up, mainly because more people are buying cars. lots more auto loans last year than the year before.

the auto industry starts to rebound. also credit reporting agencies are finding people use their credit cards differently, those in their 20s typically tend to make minimum payments. those over 50 tend to use their cards less and undergraduates, college students, tend to have the highest balances. thank you, tracie. >> new trouble for charlie sheen this morning as he has lost his tv show and a girlfriend. rachel olberland standing next to sheen has left him. over the weekend sheen mentioned her absence during his webcast, but he said she would be back. well, access hollywood reports she has left for good. warner bros saying sheen is officially fired from "two and a half men" but the show is not canceled. no word yet on how they will put that together and what the plans are for the show in the future. james franco is back home in the bay area working on his

latest project. he is doing a documentary on his mom's play staged at the stanford children's theater this week. in addition to acting franco is a student at yale and planned to do the project as part of his degree there. but his plans changed. >> yale, turns out not to be the most friendly to innovative projects, so i decided not to do it at yale. we are going to do it at nyu and also do this play. so yale is the big loser here and palo alto and nyu are the big winners. >> the play is considered a modern adaptation of a classic called "metamorphosis" opening this weekend. the giants face the mariners later today, but last night it was the rangers in a rematch of the world series. the first time they have met since then. the bay area's pat burrell hit a two-run homer to beat the

rangers 4-1. the a's lost to the mariners 6-3. st. mary is waiting on the powers to decide if they go to be the big dance. they lost to gonzaga in the wcc championship. that means we now have to wait to see if they get an at-large bid. good news for the gales, top bracketologists say they should be a possible ten seed. we'll find out on sunday. good morning to you. what you can barely make out there is the san mateo bridge socked in with fwog this morning. we have dense fog all across the bay area. and it is drifting around so you may walk out your front door to a completely clear sky. then you hit the road and find the fog on your travels. mike inouye is along in a moment

to help you navigate. but we are talking about the weather department right now. high pressure is building in. it is keeping the storm track well off to our north, but it is condensing all the moisture that we picked up yesterday morning. we also picked up moisture over the weekend. so the fog is back. that will be a factor until at least 10:00 a.m. this morning. you are down to a half mile of visibility in santa rosa. as i said before, even though your city could be reporting clear visibility, fog is kind of drifting around. so take it easy out there. 53 degrees in sunnyvale right now. you don't need the heavy jacket. leave it at home as temperatures today are going to end up in the 60s. we are looking to a comfortable afternoon, partly cloudy skies. tomorrow, warmer, more sunshine. but today not too shabby. 65 degrees in redwood city and los gatos. 62 degrees in napa. 63 degrees today in concord. high pressure finally breaks down and moves off to the east as we head into thursday. that's going to bring some showers our way, but a couple nice days to get through before that. 69 degrees tomorrow. a few showers late thursday.

then friday, after you get off from a long day's work, turn on nbc to catch the giants game. especially if you are having withdrawals like myself. of course, everybody's favorite time of the year, spring forward saturday night into sunday morning at 2:00 a.m. back to you guys. 6:48 right now. as we get ready for march madness we have a couple amazing shots to show you this morning. and we'll be checking in with bob redell who is celebrating fat tuesday in new orleans. ♪ going to the bank without going to the bank... that's a step forward. with chase quickdeposit on your smartphone, you just snap a picture, hit send and done. chase quickdeposit.

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spread the love around in four fabulous flavors. spoon in a little new philly cooking creme. here's a live look outside overlooking san jose. look at the clouds hovering. i guess it is okay to have your head in the clouds today as you do across much of the bay area.

6:50 right now. the guinness book of world records called steve sokol the world's most fit man. he was killed in a car accident yesterday outside of his home. sokol had held 30 world records including the one you see here. it was for sit-ups and he set it here in our studio. steve was a regular here and we miss him. our thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family. san jose city leaders will limit the number of medical marijuana businesses. they say the problems of having too many of the kind of marijuana shops outweigh the benefits. council members point to an increase in crime. a drain on city services is a so-called gray area of the law. they want to limit the number of collectives from more than 100 to 10. we want to check the commute right now. it looks good on the golden gate bridge. let's see how it looks

everywhere else. >> there is low visibility through santa rosa now, a half mile. we are watching for patches where it is tough to see there. so far the speeds on the sensors are all right. we'll continue to look at the east bay where the volume of traffic is the issue. a 21 more minute drive off the berkeley curve. here's how things are shaping up after five minutes of a backup. most of the lanes are backed past the 880 overcrossing. you will see that build to the foot of the maze the next half hour. livermore and 580 westbound is your commute. that's a 24-minute drive out of the altamont pass. all lanes are cleared near the dublin interchange. we see a break approaching the interchange just basically from the b.a.r.t. stations that becomes effective. we'll get a live look out there to show things near oakland. we have the foggy, misty conditions. watch it, folks, it could be slick out there. we give bob redell all the tough assignments and this morning he has one of the

toughest of them all. >> today is fat tuesday. he's live in new orleans with what's going on in the big easy. >> look at those beads. >> reporter: hey, good morning to you, brent and laura. i want to apologize to the people, i accidentally traumatized people in the process of earning the beads. they are at the hospital being treated for shock. but i understand they will be okay. here you go, just before 9:00 tuesday morning after one of the biggest parties in new orleans. the street cleaners are out here trying to clean up the streets. apparently people actually spill drinks when they are out here. that was a complete surprise. i didn't see that coming. there's delivery trucks out here pulling up to the bars. apparently they ran out of beer last night. a complete shocker again. it could be the fact that there are so many people out here. officials are saying they could be seeing the largest mardi gras celebration ever in part because of the weather that is very mild, very comfortable out here. and also because mardi gras is later than it has been in years past. it is coinciding with spring break, so you are seeing a lot

of college kids coming out to bourbon street instead of having to head to the beach. so fat tuesday today. the culmination of a couple weeks of mardi gras celebration. it ends tonight at midnight. when i say it ends tonight at midnight, we understand that the city means it. they will be pushing people off bourbon street in time for ash wednesday and the start of lent. brent and laura? >> your wife called and wants to know if your going to go to mass and when you are coming home. >> reporter: i'm sorry, i just lost my ear peels. i couldn't hear you. i thought you send my wife sent me her best and told me to have a great time. is that what you said? >> you better get on the next flight. thanks a lot, bob. you don't have to go to new orleans to celebrate tonight. there's a party in san francisco's fillmore street with a fat tuesday parade, live jazz music, face painting and the beads. the free festivities kickoff at

5:00 and will run well into the night. >> and in the south bay the poorhouse bees stroe in san jose has special music in honor of fat tuesday. the tribute to the meters will play from 5:00 to 9:00 tonight. then in the east bay they will celebrate the big easy bash at pican in oakland. it will feature the zydeco band at 8:00. tickets are $59 at the door and proceeds benefit st. augustine's high school in new orleans. there you go. pretty good. we already have the beads working here. >> i think scott is getting into the act a little bit, too. >> yeah, that's not going to happen. there's a new viral video that has jennifer aniston in it. coca-cola is trying to push the smart bottled water. it came up with the idea that is making fun, in fact, of viral videos. it is getting a lot of play on youtube. i think we have it right here. take a look. >> hi.

i'm jen aniston. and i'm here to talk to you about smart water. but in this day and age apparently i can't just do that, can i? i can't just tell you that smart water is the smartest best tasting water out there. i have to make a video, apparently, that turns into a virus. >> viral. we need the video to go viral. >> right, sorry, viral. thank you. this is why i have these three lovely internet boys here to help me. >> the video continues on with things like puppies, eventually a double rainbow will somehow get involved. all poking fun at the concept of the viral video. now, where they get the most links is they decided to title the whole thing jennifer aniston's sex tape. >> that will definitely go viral. >> that has done the trick more so than the puppy dogs. >> i'll bet. >> thank you, scott. i think. it is almost that time of the year when college basketball takes the spotlight, but some players are not waiting for the

tournaments to turn heads. >> check out this video from a senior at illinois college. a division three school. look at that. jacob tucker tried to get into the ncaa slam dunk contest. so he put together a video for youtube. he's getting a lot of attention for it, too. he has more than 300,000 views. tucker is 5'11" and claims to have a 50-inch vertical leap. i don't know if there's fancy editing there or not, but it looks pretty good. >> pretty amazing. to get your fat tuesday off to a sweet start, we have a traditional cajun december set here for you from vince. he runs the louisiana territory truck. find it to get your fill of fat tuesday today. >> everything on our menu is available today. here's your dessert. this is what you do with the week's old bread. turn it into bread pudding. and we checked to make sure you are both 21 because we did put a bourbon sauce over the top of

this. >> good thing it is the end of the show. >> yes. this is a classic leftover dish of leftover breads and raisins. >> we are going to try that here in a second. in the meantime, thank you for joining us this morning. [ ryan ] i got this new citi thankyou card and started earning loads of points. you got a weather balloon with points? yes i did. [ ryan ] points i could use for just about anything. ♪ ♪ so i used mine, to get a whole new perspective.

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