we'll have the very latest. good morning. i'm christie smith live in ma rip county. it may not be raining now, but the effects of the weekend storm are still being felt. we'll tell you who is still in the dark and when their power is going back on. the home run king is back in san francisco. the trial begins today against barry bonds. i'm damion trujillo. last coming up next. here's a live picture of the bay bridge. it is 6:00 exactly. lots of rain ahead. and good morning to you. thank you so much for joining us. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> i'm scott mcgrew in for brent this morning. we'll start with the forecast and meteorologist christina loren. good morning, chriina. good morning to you. well, today is the first full day of spring.

and as we head through the next few weeks and months we'll start to notice that the days are longer than the nights. we had the equinox yesterday. something we see that is not spring-like is the weather, and that will last for at least another week. san francisco is seeing steady rain. a pretty good-looking cell heading to san jose. the north bay desperately needs it the most. they are finally getting a bit of a break. that's where our own christie smith is this morning. as we head throughout the morning we'll see the showers push ashore. we have a system of low pressure sitting off the coast. our temperatures today will not be all that warm. in fact, we are looking to a ten-degree spread with temperatures ending up in the mid to upper 50s. some cities will only break the low 50s. we have your full forecast on the way. but first, we'll get you to work on time. good morning, mike inouye. good morning, christina. i have good news and a not so good news situation in antioch. we have all lanes of highway 4 blocked in the westbound commute direction.

a motorcycle accident was reported $. we have lanes blocked here. it is very slow. everyone backed up from harbor street to antioch is going to send them over to concord and the 680/24 interchange. that could result in unusual slowing, but so far it is resulting in lighter flows of traffic through the maze because of the folks held up. we have a new accident, bad news at the toll plaza. a couple vehicles are blocking the right lane. this is not a major issue but more folks are heading to the toll plaza. there's the incline with slower drives there. that could affect you reaching the incline as well. we'll track this for you carefully. we are watching the new storm making its way to the bay area. some households are still waking up without power. christie smith is live in mill valley joining us with the very latest. good morning, case christie. >> reporter: good morning to you. we are starting with the good news. some of the pg&e customers in the east bay have been without power, and their power should be coming on as we speak just in

time to turn on the coffee maker. it is not raining in marin, but the effects of this weekend's storm you can see out here this morning. like this puddle, kind of hard to see, but it runs all the way down this frontage road on 101. at least 100 feet here. the road isn't closed but you need to be careful as you head out this morning. the storm knocked down power lines and trees and toppled them on to cars and houses. transformers failed as well. this morning nearly 5,000 pg&e customers in the bay area are still in the dark. 660 in the east bay. again, they should be coming on right about now. 300 in the peninsula and the south bay. they should be back on by about 8:00 this morning. the worst of it, though, in the north bay where about 3,800 customers are still in the dark. some of them since saturday night. we are told they should have their power back on some time around noon. reporting live in marin county, christie smith, "today in the

bay." christie, thank you. rain caused problems up and down the coast this weekend. southern california got hit with so much rain part of the pacific coast highway is now closed. the highway' westbound lanes are closed in malibu after numerous rock slides. a dozen homes had to be evacuated. about 30 people were taken from their homes to a nearby fire station. no reports of any injuries, though, from the rock slides. in tahoe this morning highways 80 and 50 are back open. changes are still required, chains, that is. 80 was closed for low visibility this weekend, 50 for avalanche control. highway donner is also still closed. the main highway between northern and southern california is also closed. interstate 5 known as the grapevine was closed at 7:00. heavy snow made the roadway impassable. this is what it looked like further down the hill yesterday. so far no word on when the highway will reopen.

it is a main thoroughfare. there's also a wind advisory on interstate 5 through fresno county. 6:04. the barry bonds perjury trial is underway this morning. jury selection begins in the next few hours. damion trujillo is live in san francisco with more on that. >> reporter: good morning, scott. the jury selection begins in about 2 1/2 hours here at the federal courthouse in san francisco. that's about all we will see for the rest of this week because selecting a jury to try bonds on perjury charges will take some time. now, number 25, the home run king, is very familiar with this courthouse. he's tried unsuccessfully to have all the charges dropped against him. he had the dismissal of audiotapes bonds left for his mistress. prosecutors said the recordings showed bonds reacted to roid rage, a system of taking steroids. and greg anderson won't be here for the trial either.

he's bonds' personal trainer who refused to testify during the grand jury proceedings. he spent several months in jail for his refusals. former giants catcher bobby estella and jason giambi will be here in court. prosecutors have dropped the number of counts against bonds from 11 to 5. they are hoping one of them will stick. again, they have to select a jury of 12 men and women and several alternates to see if bonds actually committed perjury in that case. we are live outside the federal courthouse in san francisco, i'm damion trujillo, "today in the bay." it is 6:06 right now. opening remarks, meantime n the trial for the man accused of killing an oakland journalist. they are also expected to start today. court es perts experts say the defendant is a charismatic

leader and the other a loyal follower. antoine mackey and yusef bay iv are accused of murdering editor chauncey bailey in 2007. a third accomplice pled guilty on manslaughter charges in exchange for a 25-year prison sentence and he'll be testifying against the two men. allied forces made it clear that moammar gadhafi is not safe from air strikes. his compound was blasted during the night. it is not known if gadhafi was there when they were hit, but we know there were 300 supporters inside. it is not known how many were hurt or killed. new this morning operators were evacuated from the fukushima nuclear power plant after gray smoke erupted from one of the reactors. the power companies worry the smoke is a sign the water level is low and there could be an increase in radiation. so far there's been no spike in radiation at the plant.

we would like to thank everyone who helped nbc bay area and comcast raise money for the disaster relief efforts in japan. a great outpouring of support from the community. because of that we were able to raise $416,540. now, if you did not make a donation, you can still help. donate to the american red cross at redcross.org or text redcross to 90999. each text donates $10 to the red cross' humanitarian effort. we want to check the forecast now. another rainy ahead. any breaks, christie pennsylvania? christina? >> we'll start by giving you a break with the secret word of the day. each enevery day we'll give you the secret word and 40 of the luckiest viewers get a chance to get a premier ticket to the screening of the movie "hawk." the secret word of the day is easter. remember that, easter. log on to nbcbayarea.com and

just type in hawk if you know the secret word. then you can be entered into the contest. we'll announce the winners next week. that's what we'll be doing all week. we'll start with the good and transition to the bad, which is the relentless rain that continues over the bay area. it is not all that bad in the north bay this morning, which got hit the hardest on friday. that's the good news this morning. they are getting a little brief opportunity to dry out, but we have a lot more moisture pushing in. that little system of low pressure staying stationary kind of driving this wrap-around moisture through the bay area is starting to slide to the south, but very slowly. and as it continues to move slowly we'll see the sun come up. opportunities for our atmosphere to get very warm. we do have kind of an explosive atmosphere out there. that means that we could see strong storms develop. we are not going to see widespread thunderstorm activity but we could see a few isolated very strong cells just like we did on friday. so this is something we'll keep watching for you. our chances are not as good as it was on friday but still all

the ingredients are there for thunderstorm formation throughout the day today. right now we have a pretty good cell headed down 280 and redwood city is getting hit pretty hard. san jose is getting light scattered shower activity. snow levels are at 5,000 feet. weather headlines show you for this morning, spotty showers. once we hit sunrise, which is usually at 7:15 now with the time change, that's when we'll start to see the daytime heating. and that's when we'll see the possibility for strong storms. we'll watch this all day long. we have rain chances each and every day this week. if you need to get outside, i think you have the opportunity to do so in the first part of tuesday. 45 degrees in san mateo right now, 41 in novato, and 50 degrees in oakland. turning over to the mid-50s, not a lot of daytime heating today. that could be helpful when it comes to the poor mags of thunderstorms, but enough breaks of sunshine, especially along the coast. we could see that happen once again. 56 degrees in oakland. 56 in fremont. and 56 in san jose. of course, traffic and weather

go together. do we have any problems out there, mike? not directly attributed to the wet weather, but we are watching the fog you are talking about and the thunder and lightning. folks are distracted by that. we have an issue on the bay bridge, the upper deck. this will affect you traveling through treasure island. we have reports of a two-car fender-bender as well as a big rig. for some reason a big rig is stopped in the tunnel. we are watching for major slowing because of the flow into san francisco. so far no major issues aside from the tunnel issue. the metering lights are not yet on. here's the approach through the maze. here's a live look at the toll plaza, volume is increasing as you typically see about this time of the day. that's the slowdown starting. and now all the folks from antioch near highway 4, we had the earlier accident at harbor street clearing from the lanes. that's much better news. all lanes are clearing in the commute direction, but all the folks held over in antioch are making their way over to pittsburgh bay point and concord. that will affect the walnut

creek interchange and highway 24 through lafayette in the next hour or so. we'll watch that and their chopper heading out to the scene. they are following 680 through the area heading north of danville and up to highway 4. it looks like the approach to the interchange is looking good. we will see this out of pittsburgh and for highway 4. back to you. 6:12 right now. still to come on ho "today in the bay," he won the national spelling bee. he's won a press tinlgous award for what he can do in math metrics. next, he will join us live. plus, some unlikely teams still in the hunt for the national title.

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welcome back, everyone. a good monday morning to you. it will be a soggy start to the week. and a wet one ahead. a live look at oakland this morning, we'll have the latest on the morning commute picking up coming up. the ncaa tournament is down to 16 teams. there's history being made as well. >> four teams that are 10th seed or higher are still left in the sweet 16. that's the first time it has ever happened. as far as our "today in the bay" bracket challenge goes after two rounds, brent is leading with 50 points. we'll give him credit for choosing butler over pittsburgh. i'm coming up next, quickly, with 47 points. followed by christina at 43. mike's brewers fell out of it, but he's at 41. still bitting, scott mcgrew at 30. >> consistent. consistent. >> consistent loser or what? >> yeah. >> not this guy. >> no, we are joined by a bay area teen that's a big winner in

his own right. evan is here with us, the most recent winner of the intel science talent search. evan, do you know anything about basketball brackets? >> no. >> neither do i. any help you can give us? you got a nice award to tell us about. >> i got a $100,000 scholarship. >> good for you. that's so impressive. the thing is that evan won the national spelling bee. we talked to you two years ago about that as well. and mathematics competitions? >> yes, i have won a mathematical competition three times? >> basketball, apparently. >> that's okay. >> you are going to take this money and go where to school? >> harvard. >> yay! good for you. what did you the do to win this one? >> first i had to do some research where i was given a math problem and i worked on it

for a long time. it was about a year before i started working on it intensively for two weeks getting a lot of data on the computer. and then it was several months thereafter i kept getting the form las. >> i have a problem for you, i'll give you my checkbook and see if you can figure that one out. >> he doesn't work on really big numbers. >> there are not a lot of zeros there. >> thank you for coming. >> we are so proud of you. and the triple crown of smart competitions. >> fantastic. >> good for you. congratulations and thank you for coming. good luck. >> wow, what a champ, huh? >> top that, christina loren. i'm thinking about bringing him in here with me to do a little science on the fly, huh, evan? we have science happening right now. we'll get the realtime lightning strike. there it is, yep. very moisture-rich atmosphere overhead. it is also very unstable. we've got a lot happening out

there. and as a result we could see another round of strong storms this afternoon. now our chance is not as good as it was on friday when we mad the actual front coming through. today the setup is a little different. you see we have a low pressure system just off the coast here. and wrap-around moisture is feeding into the bay area. the good news is it is sliding south. that's giving you a break in the north bay where the rain relentless and heaviest over the past few days. heading into this week we have rain chances each and every day. once the system drop fos drops to the south another one is behind it and several pulses sit behind the next system. we'll see a pretty wet week. this is the first official week of spring. it is just not going to feel like it, but next week looks good. every long-term model i look at does show a dryer pattern shaping up, finally, starting next tuesday. right now redwood city is getting pretty good shower activity. morgan hill, watch out for slick conditions on 101 there. spotty showers continue throughout the morning. then our next concern will be

the possibility of some strong storms developing, especially towards the coast. the closer you live to the coast the better your chance is throughout the day today. you saw where the system of low pressure is spinning up the showers. now this week rain chances each and every day. i think the driest day will be the first part of tomorrow. if you need to get outside, if you have to do the yard work, tomorrow you have the opportunity to do so. 46 degrees in hayward. 44 in livermore. turning over to the 50s, you'll need the jacket and umbrella today. let's find out what you're facing on the roadways with mike inouye. we will check in with mike coming up in a little bit. it is 6:19 right now. a santa cruz man's daughter is on her way back to the u.s. from japan. find out how a good samaritan made it happen. >> more in a minute. he's a live picture of the guadeloupe river.

good morning to you. here's a live look at the bay bridge, the upper deck, that's a shot from san francisco. you can see the folks coming westbound across the deck. we'll update that in a second. meanwhile, i have a slowdown for livermore in the east bay. this is one of the first areas of slowdown, westbound 580. the speeds are in the 40s coming through livermore then holding steady until airway where things clear up a bit heading to the dublin interchange. no big surprises but it is heavier than we typically see on a monday because folks could be driving slower. slick conditions and fog

drifting through the area. we have a big accident throughout the lanes of highway 4. all lanes are cleared now, but we have a burst of speed through concord and the walnut creek interchange. we'll get a live look from the chopper out in the area. you see another incident following something near the center divide. the accident itself is blocking all lanes involving a motorcyclist. this does not look like the vehicles reportedly involved, but we have slight delays near antioch for highway 4. a live look at the maps where we see travel times approaching the bay bridge toll plaza. sensors are close to the limit throughout the area and the approach to the bay bridge. good news for folks heading over there. the bay bridge itself is seeing the metering lights turned on. i'm confirming this with chp. they were turned on before 6:15, that's an early start. the heavier volume is evident around the bay. scott, you mentioned that you saw it in your drive at 4:30. we are talking about a new

company, at&t mobile, right? >> that's a good way to put it. at&t said they would like to buy out t-mobile. a major reaction in washington and among consumers this morning meaningless choice for the consumer itself. what we have to wait and see is whether the ftc and the justice department clears the way for all this. they have to sign off on the nearly $40 billion deal. t-mobile is owned currently by deutsch telecom. we have seen strange deals in the past, odd mergers, for instance, comcast and nbc were allowed to merge by the government. that was a weird one. we are owned now by that new company. it will take about a year for the t-mobile user. i suppose it will eventually mean you will get the apple iphone. but the merger is at least a year away, meaning if you really

want the iphone, your t-mobile contract will probably expire before this merger is approved and you can move to at&t or verizon. if you just signed a two-year contract with t-mobile, obviously you didn't want an iphone to start with. the other big question will be what happens to this girl, the t-mobile girl, if they will keep running the ads critical of at&t and its disappointing cell phone service. you know, the pink dress one? it is kind of strange when you think about it, t-mobile says it is loyal to its customers making fun of at&t and then all of a sudden they are trying to sell itself to at&t. we will see. thank you so much, scott. 6:25 right now. coming up on "today in the bay," the santa cruz harbor is still closed from tsunami damage. and anyone who tries to go in there faces stiff punishment. meantime, the trial of barry bonds starts today. find out what will and will not be talked about coming up next in a live report. and a live look outside.

traffic is really picking up out there. this is a look at 880 in oakland. we'll check the morning commute and the weather. they go hand in hand. stay with us, 6:25 right now. this is your captain speaking, we are fourteenth in line for takeoff. looks like it's bumper to bumper on the interstate. i gotta get to cleveland! remove your belt, your watch, your shoes. i wonder what gas costs today. seven dollars for a pillow! an extra bag costs what? i hate traffic! ♪ [ child ] the train is now arriving. [ male announcer ] the train has arrived indeed.

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coming up on "today in the bay," santa cruz wants to be ready for the next tsunami. there's movement outside the federal courthouse in san francisco awaiting the arrival of the home run king, barry bonds. i'm damion trujillo, his trial begins shortly. and a live look outside at the bay bridge. a soggy week on tap. it is monday, the first full day of spring, march 21st, "today in the bay." good morning to you. thank you so much for joining

us. 6:28 right now. i'm laura garcia-cannon. brent is off this morning, scott mcgrew will rejoin me in a few minutes. but first, we'll look at the forecast now with christina. good morning to you. we still have shower activity. the relentless rain continues. the good news, a bit of good news that i can bring you right now when it comes to this particular system, is that the north bay is getting an opportunity to dry out. but basically everywhere else along the peninsula, the south bay, even the east bay, is seeing good shower activity right now. and that will continue throughout the morning hours. now, our next focus will be the possibility of some strong thunderstorms developing later on today. if we see enough sunshine that chance is there. we'll take you through that and talk all about what's to come this week, but first let's get you to work on time with mike inouye. good morning to you, mike. good morning, christina. if you want to get to work on time in antioch, hit the road early because we have a bigger backup than typical because of the earlier accident. all lanes are cleared for westbound 4 but we have the

tie-up at harbor. once that kicks off it makes things harder and continues throughout the morning. it is okay through the walnut creek interchange. 680 approaching the bay bridge, a new accident is just reported involving a big rig. our chopper is heading over there right now. but we do have reports in the second lane, two vehicles, maybe four vehicles in another lane. we have another lane affected right now. here's a look at that in a second. here's the senior high school youm in oakland. back to you. 6:30 right now. the perjury trial for former home run king barry bonds kicks off this morning. the jury selection begins in a couple of hours. damion trujillo is live in san francisco joining us with the details. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, laura. those proceedings begin at 8:30 this morning here at the federal courthouse in san francisco. this is where lawyers for both sides will pick their men and women who will decide the fate of the home run king. bonds is facing perjury charges after his testimony to a federal

grand jury reviewing the balco steroids investigation. prosecutors say bonds lied under oath by saying he did not use steroids knowingly. they plan to prove he did even though the judge has thrown out a lot of the evidence, including audiotapes of an irate barry bonds. prosecutors contend the obscenity-laced recordings were bonds on roid rage, a by-product of using steroids. they have also dropped several counts against the number 25, the evidence they do have will be up to the jury for now to decide if bonds lied under oath and if he'll go to prison for that. but bonds has high-powered attorneys on his side led by san jose's allen ruby. the team picked away at the evidence over the last two years with an aggressive cross-examiner expected to go after bonds' mistress and several other ballplayers, including bobby estelleya and

jason giamba. allen ruby, if he was on the east coast, he would be one of the ten top lauder lawyers in the country. he defended ron gonzalez and the nfl on one of their cases. a lot of drama here in san francisco. i'm damion trujillo for "today in the bay." thank you. 6:32 right now. a santa cruz father is breathing a sigh of relief this morning. thanks to one of our viewers his daughter will fly back here from japan. john tillman's daughter lynn lives with her mother in japan. it took several days for him to get ahold-his daughter. that's when his ex-wife decided it would be best for his daughter to come to california to stay until it was safe to return to japan. a plane ticket did seem out of reach for him until a generous donor contacted us after seeing tillman's story on nbc bay area. >> i just want to say thank you

and it is a blessing that there are good people out there still. and i want everybody to give their vibes and their positive healing vibes to all the kids out there in japan. >> the donor has five kids of his own and says if any of them were in lynn's situation he hopes someone would step in and help the way he is. members of the santa cruz community will get together tonight to discuss the danger of future tsunamis and how to be ready for them. this is video from a couple of weeks ago as you well remember when a tsunami caused an estimated $26 million in damage to the santa cruz harbor. tonight's meeting is part of the national tsunami awareness and preparedness week. it will be held in the community room at the santa cruz police department from 7:00 to 9:00. the santa cruz harbor remains closed through tuesday after waves swept through the port ten days ago. it sank boats and ripped apart the docks. the launch is off limits with limited dock access in both the north and south harbors.

if anyone is caught entering the harbor they will be charged with a felony and could pay up to $25,000. the san francisco unified school district has one less option to provide affordable housing to its teachers. the property at the hay ashbury neighborhood will become a childcare center instead of teacher housing. the demand for childcare is high in the area. the district has one other property admission street it can develop. a recent report says nearly one-third of san francisco public teachers live outside the city. san francisco leaders are holding a hearing to restrict the distribution of the yellow pages. the board of supervisors wants to ask residents and businesses if they want a copy before leaving it on their doorsteps. board president david chu says it will reduce waste costs. the hearing will take place at 1:00 in the afternoon today.

we'll go to christina loren. it has been a rainy, blowing weekend. it looks pretty bad even into the end of the week. >> i like your scientific terminology. good morning to you. we are looking okay right now, but our concern comes when the sun comes up and we see the warming, which will actually make for the possibility of some strong thunderstorms. once again over the bay area, it doesn't look like anything we saw on friday, but the potential for a couple of the strong cells to come onshore once again today is certainly there. we have already noticed a couple of real time lightning strikes just offshore this, mo. now we are entering into the coolest part of the day. our real concern comes from the daytime heating that starts at 7:15, 8:15 a.m. that's when it could get active around here. we'll continue to update you throughout the day today. if anything happens we'll bring into coverage and let you know. we have quite a bit of shower

activity across the bay area. san francisco is getting moderate rain indicated by the yellow inside that cell there. redwood city has had steady rain for the past 15 minutes. you can expect that the next 15 minutes as the cell is situated over you. the system of low pressure is slowing sliding to the south. it will mostly impact southern california for today, but it is definitely creating an unstable atmosphere for us, so the possibility of strong thunderstorms firing up later today are certainly there. we have rain chances each and every day this week as the pineapple express continues to drive all of the low pressure systems right into the bay area. temperatures right now are mostly in the mid to upper 40s. 46 degrees in san francisco. it will turn over to 55 degrees today. 55 in san rafael. 56 degrees in oakland. spotty showers throughout the day today. and the possibility of those thunderstorms really starting up at 8:30. and that will be the case all the way throughout this evening. now today is the first full day of spring. we saw the equinox yesterday at

4:21. as a result, our days will start to become longer than our nights. that will continue to be the case as we transition into the summertime. 59 degrees for tuesday. 57 degrees on wednesday. if you are trying to get outside, if you've got to get outside, you'll have a chance to do so for the first part of tuesday before yet another system drops into the bay area. mike, you have been pretty busy this morning, what's happening out there? so far things are calming down a little bit. we are looking at the bay bridge toll plaza with an accident working there. we have slowing at the berkeley curve. pretty typical this time of the day. the bay bridge toll plaza camera is active showing the big backups there. the issue with us was just to the left of the area, we have two lanes blocked. one of those is cleared now, but the second is having issues with a couple vehicles. no major issues. the fast trax lanes are moving

okay. none of the other feeder roads are having a problem. eastbound 24 coming into the tunnel, there's a slowdown. the chopper is over the area as well. we are approaching the maze that i just showed you. the chopper arrived on the scene showing the backups in your commute direction. this is at the interchange -- i can't see clearly, it is either 24 approaching the toll plaza. that's near the grand avenue exit. there you are. a tough drive over to the city there. >> that looks like a mess. thank you very much. boy, a mess through the sierra this weekend. a lot of rain here almost always means snow up there. >> the mountains were hit so hard both 80 and 50 were closed for parts of the weekend. >> brian hickey is live in blue canyon this morning with how things are looking up there. good morning. >> reporter: get out! go now! interstate 80 shut down

yesterday for the whole day. i know a lot of bay area folks stranded up in the sierra. if you are watching us, get out while you can because the road is open. it still has chain controls in effect, but it is in really good shape. as long as you are ready for winter driving, that is. even at 5,000 feet the snow continues to come down and is accumulating here. the storm is not done yet. the winds have died down, now it is just a nice, steady snowfall. a good safe winter driver, no problems coming down the mountain to get back to work or home. i say stay there, the skiing is great. it is coming down, but no major problems this morning on interstate 80, highway 50 is also open with the chain controls. yesterday i was in south lake tahoe, 5 it is hours to get from south shore to fulsom. a live drive with two kids in the backseat. not the most stable drive. i had to dig out the blue canyon

newsroom. i was worried after this big storm piled up the snow, but my little shelter of sticks down here has survived yet another one from mother nature. and if i have told you before, these christmas lights, i put these up three winters ago. i have never done anything to them and they keep on ticking. i'll send them back to you. >> that's a man cave. that is a man cave. >> a reinforced man cave, we hope. >> thank you so much. 6:40 right now. still to come on "today in the bay," an allied air strike took out a gadhafi compound in libya overnight. the latest in a live report from washington. and hybrids are flying off the lots acr t sewhcountry. see why it is not just the gas prices putting the cars in high demand. it's a symphony best appreciated... at full blast. the moment you've been waiting for has arrived. springs best event. from cadillac. with zero down, zero due and zero first month's payment

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the u.s. and five other countries ordered attacks on the compound holding moammar data fee. this morning many wonder how hong long america plans to be involved. tracie potts is live with more on that. >> reporter: coordinated is the key word because the u.s. insists we will not be leading this mission and we won't necessarily be in it for long. defense secretary gates says in a matter of days this will be turned over to the british, the french or a nato coalition of which the u.s. will be a member, but not a preeminent member. overnight british forces hit gadhafi's compound. 350 people there, unclear if he

was among them. the u.s. says its goal is not to take gadhafi out but to enforce the no fly zone that the united nations authorized and to stop the killing of the libyan people. the united nations saying the community, the international community has to act with one voice on this. it is a humanitarian emergency. they are also noting the support of the arab league. and i should note this morning that turkey has announced the four new york times journalist captured during the fighting have been released to the turkish ambassador and should be crossing the border later today. tracie potts for "today in the bay." thank you. >> 6:44 right now. rising gas prices but the auto plant shutting down in japan is causing people to snap up the hybrid models here in the u.s. one dealer sold 60 prius' a

month ago. toyota, honda and others hope to resume production of the hybrids next week. a peninsula community is coming together to try to save a teenager's life. bryce was recently diagnosed with a plastic anemia that is a require condition that causes the bone marrow to stop making enough blood cells and platelets for the body. over the weekend burlingame's synagogue held a marrow drove for the san mateo teenager. >> while we are waiting bryce is getting some supportive therapies to help his immune system try to fight back. he was just in san francisco packard for a treatment called atg, and we won't find out for another month or two whether or not that's working to help his immune system to keep him supported until we find a match. >> this is so simple to find out if you are a match.

totally painless, just a cheek swab. go to the national marrow donor program website for details. >> it could make a big difference. 6:45 right now. with a few days left in spring training the giants continue to figure out their opening day roster. they play colorado today and one of the big stories at camp today is the injuries to closer brian wilson. he'll be e evaluated by team doctors today. he strained a rib cage muscle and could be out for an extended period of time. sergio romo could take over as closerer, we will see. meantime, the lady cardinals hold st. john's tonight at 6:40. the winner gets a ticket to the sweet 16. well, spring has sprung in the bay area, although it doesn't feel like it. but, yes, you can go ahead with

the spring cleaning. i'm not going to stop you. this morning our atmosphere is kind of getting a cleansing out there. we'll have good air quality in the areas that picked up the most rainfall. santa rosa is getting a break right now, which is good news because they had heavy rain over the weekend. a bit of a break won't last long, though. we are expecting more of the showers to continue to spin up even in the north bay heading throughout the afternoon. we have a system of low pressure sitting offshore. that's stirring up all this activity. and once we see breaks of sunshine today because we will see a couple of the breaks of sunshine starting at 7:15, and our atmosphere is able to warm up, we'll have conditions conducive to the formation of thunderstorms once again. so we'll be watching those for you. the difference in the setup is that the fact that we had a front come through on friday. a really strong front. today we have the core of low pressure just sitting offshore. it is not that unsable overall, which means our chance for thunderstorms is not quite as good as it was friday, but all it takes is a couple cells to do

damage around here. we are not dropping our guard for a minute. spotty showers throughout the day today. strong storms possible this afternoon. then rain chances each and every day this week. our temperatures this morning are on the cool side. you'll need the umbrella and jacket, 45 degrees in san mateo. it will turn over to 55 degrees later today. our temperature readings along the peninsula are in the mid-50s. 55 in santa rosa up in the north bay. and 55 degrees in fremont. here's where we are headed throughout the remainder of the week. we'll see a built of a change for tomorrow. we'll start out mostly dry with another round of rain moving in heading through the latter part of your tuesday. periods of rain wednesday into thursday. the light at the end of the tunnel is the fact that next week starting tuesday looks dryer and warmer as a whole. so you'll have to wait until then. but there is good news at the end of the tunnel, laura garcia-cannon. >> a week and a day. we'll have to wait for it. coming up, people your

premium or regular? what you want to know about gas grades and whether it pays to use premium. we are getting a brief break from the rain but not the weather-related problems. thousands of pg&e customers are still in the dark. cise smith. i'll tell you when their lights might be going back on. sm

good morning to you. here's a live look outside the guadeloupe river this morning. we'll see if it will rise at all with a lot of rain in the forecast. we'll check the numbers with christina coming up. safety advocates want parents to change the way they provide protection to their kids in the car. the national safety, highway and safety traffic administers and other groups are updating guidelines on children's safety saying toddlers should use the rear-facing seats until the age

of 2. the group also says kids under 13 should sit in the rear while some should continue to use booster seats until they have well outgrown them. the advice comes from evidence from crashes. good advice there. 6:52 right now. we'll check the morning commute. it has been messy out there, mike. >> a couple of big accidents and overall more folks commuting this morning. maybe they got adjusted to the time change from last week, finally. we do have the slowdown at the berkeley curve. it is slowing it down out of berkeley through emeryville approaching the bay bridge. we have the incident at the toll plaza blocking one lane last we checked. now all the lanes are reopening, but a disabled vehicle, a new one, at treasure island. that's creating slowing. the chopper moving south to oakland 880 and the nemitz freeway. a smooth flow of traffic. look at the cars, a lot more lights than we typically see on a monday morning. back to the maps, a slow drive

through antioch, highway 4, the accident clearing a half hour ago at harbor street. but now there's a slowdown through pittsburgh and bay point. concord is holding steady through the area. 580 is seeing a slowing through livermore into pleasanton and dublin. speeds averaging just under 40 at a 23-minute drive here. folks heading south through sunol, a live look shows you traffic slowing right around the sunol grade approaching the express lane. there's the volume of traffic. we saw heavier volume an hour ago. that could be an issue for the south bay, but so far it's not so bad out there right now. it was pretty rough across the bay area this weekend weather thewise, and a new storm system is making its way here. christie smith is joining us from mill valley with the latest. >> reporter: good morning. luck is on our side this monday morning because it has rained here in marin county while we have been here, but it has not

dumped on us during our hits. when we first got here this puddle you see behind me was extended way out beyond the white line, but it has receded considerably. still the weekend storms still have an impact this morning with thousands of pg&e customers without power. some of them in the north bay without power since saturday. rain and wind knocked down power lines and toppled trees on houses and cars. 3800 customers won't have power in the north bay until at least noon today. so it looks like you'll have to go out for coffee this morning. in the south bay and peninsula, still 300 pg&e customers without power. they should be back on by 8:00 this morning. in the east bay, about 660 customers were without power overnight. a transformer failed in that area. it took some time to repair, but we are told that that should be back on right now as we speak. reporting live in marin county, christie smith, "today in the

bay." thank you very much, christie. almost a year after the bp oil spill that caused over 4 billion barrels of oil to pa lute the gulf coast, a new patch of sludge arose. this was reported to the coast guard over the weekend. tests of the sludge show it is most likely sediments brought down from the mississippi river. the coast guard said it has investigated reports of an oily substance washing up in louisiana. they are testing samples but do not believe it is from the bp oil spill. well, some car manuals tell you that premium gas is recommended for your car and experts say you may want toic ignore that recommendation if you are looking to save money. if your manual says premium gas is required, don't try it, but it is only recommended if your car can adjust to lower fuel grades. >> we used to have engines that would knock if you put in lower grade fuels so people were looking for higher octanes and

higher grades of fuel so the cars wouldn't knock. but now there's so much computerization that the car tunes itself as it goes. >> pay attention to your car if you are going to experiment. if there's any drop off in terms of performance, you can always go back to the premium fuel. time to check in with scott with news about gmail. >> well, good morning. google believes that the chinese government is interfering with its e-mail services. users in china say they are having problems with their gmail accounts. google believes chinese engineers are limiting access but trying to make it look like a technical problem. google insists that there are no technical issues in america. china has some of the world's most strict internet controls blocking many popular sites. the country has upped restrictions in the wake of the unrest in the middle east. speaking of google, that's the place to work if you are a young professional according to a survey but a business consulting firm. one in every four young

professionals wants a job at google. twice the number that want to work at apple according to the survey. apple was second on the list followed by walt disney, the u.s. state department and ama n amazon.com. if you are one of those people that knows that farmville is a giant time suck, look out. zyng harks has rewardville, a program that doles out game products and credits to be used by virtual goodies to buy them on existing games. 250 million people are playing zynga's all-consuming games. >> do you play them? >> the farmville account is mine where i logged on good enough to get video. >> a farmer you are not. >> nor a basketball picker. >> that's true. we have been playing all the brackets here, brent is in first place, but that won't be for long. i'm in second.

christina, then mike and scott. check it out at nbcbayarea.com. thank you for joining us this morning. the "today" show is coming up next. we'll have a local news update for you in a half hour and every half hour after that. have a great monday morning. never in my lifetime did i think i could walk 60 miles in 3 days. 60 miles compared to what a cancer patient goes through

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