>> good morning, i'm christie smith, live in oakland. there's a chronic problem with absenteeism. ha the school plans to do about it. coming up in a live report. an east bay cop. radar finds a small plane after it crashes. the pilot is still missing. the desperate search for a local wine maker. a live look at the bay bridge on this friday, may 20th.

this is today in the east bay. good morning, everybody. i'm marla tellez in for scott mcgrew this morning. it is 4:30. let's check the east bay forecast with christina loren. good morning. >> good morning to you. we are happy it is friday. we have a little fog out there. we are expecting more to develop over the next few hours. we have a great weekend on tap. for now, let's get you to work with mike inouye. good morning, mike. >> we haven issue. the maze moves smoothly. just past there, coliseum at high street, a truck was blocking lanes. chp just cleared that. the taillights at the high street exist. we scanned the area.

we could not find anything going on. we are following this. we don't want anything to be a surprise for anyone on 880. the oakland school district has an early warning system to keep students from being chronically absent from school. christie smith has a look at how teachers are trying to keep kids in the classroom. good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you. if you are not attending classes every day, you are probably losing ground against the students who do. a new report is suggesting there's a problem with chronic absenteeism in oakland. a number of districts across the state. students missing nearly four weeks of school per year. one of every seven students did last year. this includes excused absences. there's no clear picture on the problem. school officials aren't required

to keep tabs on chronic absence. for oakland, a new report showed the highest percentage were from west oakland, an area that's economically distressed. the district is being proactive about it and is having an alert system so the school can intervene, talk with the family, offer parties to classes with the best attendance and dealing with students as individuals. the district could get an extra $1.1 million from the state if the absent students actually showed up. reporting live in oakland, christy smith, today in the east bay. >> thank you very much. a cop accused of corruption will be allowed to leave contra costa county even though the case against him is ongoing.

they will let him leave the county to get special medical treatment on his foot. he's pushing back the plea date to next month. the san ramon police officer is on leave and charged with stealing cash, drugs and guns from police evidence lockers. his lawyer says the wait is hard because prosecutors aren't revealing the evidence they have against him. the fbi is also involved. >> this is difficult for a career law enforcement guy to be on the other side and have all sorts of allegations out there, many of which are false and not have the discovery to be able to sift through and see what is fact and what is fiction. >> lombardi is due to be back in court june 23rd. welsh, a former private investigator will join him. they face charges of running a drug ring. closing arguments in the

chauncey bailey murder trial will pick up on monday. lawyers are accused of ordering the killing of the oakland journalist. they questioned the credibility of the key witness for the prosecution. he's accused of ordering the killing to keep bailey from writing an article about the family business. a wine maker is still missing after his plane went down in the sierra. robert brown left wednesday, headed for his hometown of tracie. the single engine plane never made it. kimberly reports the radar tracked the plane as it dropped, but the search is on to find brown. >> what scared me is he's alive

and capacitaed. >> reporter: he took off at 3:30 wednesday afternoon headed for the private airstrip. brown was the only person aboard the experimental plane that looked similar to this one. the flight normally takes him only an hour. at 7:00, his son noticed he hadn't arrived and alerted police. his father mentioned bad weather yesterday. >> he wasn't one to take chances. i read reports where stranger things have happened. >> a search and rescue team scoured an area within the forest. >> i know he didn't have survival equipment. >> the plane lost altitude from 15,000 to 12,000 feet then quickly fell off radar. it's half way between mindon and tracy. >> they have planes searching

the grid pattern and the county sheriff is doing a ground search with eight or ten volunteers. >> he lives in gardnerville, nevada. he owns two wineries in california. they donate a portion of proceeds to breast cancer research. he took up the cause after his wife died of the disease. >> pray for us and pray for his safe return or at least we can find him. you know, that would be helpful for our family. >> that was kimberly terry reporting. he's a wine maker, but also the master mind behind the water slides, a huge attraction in the valley. a nice start to friday. let's hope the nice weather sticks around. is it going to?

>> we are looking forward to a comfortable weekend. spring cleaning might be pleasant. the great news is you can give your pg&e bill a rest. you don't need to run the heater or ac. this is what we are looking at now. this system of low pressure is pushing in. it is going to drive in the on shore flow. this morning, we are expecting a significant round of fog. the marine layer will push in where you are this morning. watch for that. it's going to keep the temperature similar to where we are yesterday. we are starting out mild. 53 in oakland. 54 in hayward. this is where we are headed later on today. the 70s. once again, 77 in concord. 75 degrees in fremont. livermore 74. the full forecast is coming up for the weekend. a little bit of a change on the way for next week. it's 4:38 now. i'm guessing construction is

slowing somebody down out there? >> it's slowing them down from getting to their weekend. an early start for this portion of 580. a note out of the area eastbound as well. 580 or 680, the bridge. the full closure is in place. do a reroute. i'll put the link to the reroute on waytotahoe.org. we have construction on eastbound 580. we have overnight work going on there through mid june until 5:30 in the morning. a live look at the bay bridge toll plaza. including the east shore freeway, no major problems. friday light, but we'll have a back up there. back to you. >> thank you, mike.

4:39. the top assembly democrat is letting a lot of people believe a lie. many reports and news articles claim assembly speaker john perez graduated from uc berkeley in 1991. perez is a college drop out. a spokesperson says perez has been up front about his school history and is too busy with budget negotiations to address the issue. two other california state assembly members do not have a four-year degree. a democrat and republican, the second highest ranking republican in the assembly. coming up, the power plant next door. the controversial construction plan, just ahead. plus, he's behind bars, but about to get a big buy out. $250,000 for an accused attacker. he's no dope or is he? new accusations against the

seven-time tour de france champ, just ahead. a live look at the bay bridge this early friday morning. it is 4:40. we're going to check the traffic. stay with us.

welcome back. at 4:43, if you want to see who does all the hard work around here, take a look at the live shot of our control room. thanks, guys. 4:43. the state is green. two new power plants to be built in the east bay despite complaints they are not needed. one is in oakley and one in alameda. the california energy commission approved the plan. critics say the plans are unnecessary because the state has a surplus in electric power. landslides are a fact in california. state geologists know where they are going to happen and if your home is at risk. experts spent months working on the risk. the darker the color red on the map, the higher a risk. it's assigned a number one through ten. east bay hills were the most

recent landslide damaged homes. it's just one of the spots with a ranking of nine. check out the map. we have it on our website. log on to www.nbcbayarea.com. mcdonald's takes a stand for their red-haired mascot. for more on that and the news before the bell, let's turn to nicole lapin live at cnbc world headquarters this morning. good morning. >> very good morning to you marla. the dow rising 80 points to 12,960. futures are lower this morning after wall street saw that rebound in commodity prices. they are reacting to last month's fed meeting. they were going to tighten monetary policy. asia was higher. europe is in the green. we are looking ahead to a little

bit more market action in terms of economic news as well. we'll continue that conversation in a moment. you are absolutely right. send in the clowns or keep them around for a little while longer. mcdonald's is sticking by their red-haired mascot. they have come under pressure saying the image is outdated. mcdonalds and the shareholders are supporting the clown. they say ronald is a good ambassador for them. they are standing by their clown. how about that? >> you can't blame them. without the mascot? really? it wouldn't be the same. >> it wouldn't be the same. the mascot did scare me when i was little. that's my own issue. >> people are used to it. thanks, nicole. 4:46 this morning. the fbi is looking for a link

between the unabomber and the tylenol problem. seven people in the chicago area died in 1982 after taking the pills, which had people across the country on edge. >> anyone could be a victim. it made it extremely fightening back in 1982. today, it would be called domestic terrorism. >> kaczynski denies involvement. he's asking for them to take items from his cabin. it might clear him from the killings. throwing him under the spokes. seven time tour de france champion, lance arm strong. appearing last night, olympic gold medalist and admitted doper said he saw arm strong inject

himself with drug performing drugs. armstrong's attorney is dismissing the claims saying hamilton is just trying to sell a book he's working on. armstrong writes, never failed a test. i rest my case. good point. let's check the weekend forecast with christina. >> good morning. it looks good this weekend. if you want to get outdoors, you can do so. all cities will see temperatures in the 70s saturday and sunday. that's great news. this is what's happening. the satellite shows we have a little system right here. it's pushing in. it's driving in the on shore flow. the marine layer is not that deep, but deep enough to push in and make for a cloudy start. all the clouds will break apart. by 11:00 a.m., we'll see the sunshine through. the temperatures are in the mid-50s.

they will climb to the upper 70s in the east bay. 77 degrees is the forecast high in concord. 72 in the north bay. more mild up here once again. it's where we are expecting the densest fog. this is what we are looking toward for the rest of the weekend and, of course, next week. always looking ahead. 68 degrees by monday. next week, overall, looks warm and dry. finally, a good stretch of spring sets in for the area. maybe a few light showers toward the end of next week. it's looking like saturday and sunday. we have to wait awhile to get there. enjoy the fair stretch of weather. back to you. >> thank you. one of the horses in the race this weekend has east bay roots. sway away made a debut in pleasanton. it's his trainer's hometown. you can say winning is in the horses blood.

his sire won in belmont stakes in 2005. you can catch the second leg of the triple crown here, saturday, that's tomorrow at 3:19. how is that for precision. the favorite is kentucky derby winner, animal kingdom. how a daughter's tweet saved her mother's life.re trouble on the mound for the oakland as.

i was told that i was at risk for sudden cardiac death.

i was 23 years old, i wasn't overweight. i never dreamed this would happen to me. when the doctor told me i had three blocked arteries, i felt like i was punched in the gut. i found out that one in three women die from heart disease. how did i not know that?

. welcome back. we are coming up on 4:53. a live look at 880 past the coliseum. we are going to talk baseball as well as traffic. marla, over to you. >> thanks, mike. a new bill working through the state capital could keep parks open for a little while. it's easier for nonprofit groups to take over. they must now veet on the plan. unless additional funding is found, 70 state parks will close by july of 2012. now, a look at what's coming up later on today in the bay. today, our tech guru joins bob redell and laura garcia-cannon out on the road as they meet their maker in san mateo for may around the bay. a preview of the latest inventions at the maker fair. we will not stop there. bob redell will take us to a

galaxy far, far away here in our own backyard. >> i just realized, i don't have a microphone for you. r-2, can you help me out? thank you. >> bob shows us the r2d2 workshop in the bay area. it has been a rough stretch for as pitchers. the as will most likely have to go without ross as well. just seven pitches into yesterday's game against the twins, ross left the game with an oblique injury. it all went downhill from there. the as got bombed by the twins, 11-1. tonight, they take on the giants at 7:15 here on nbc bay area. former as slugger jason giambi

has a good night. a career high, seven runs batted in against the phillies. at 40 years old, he is the second oldest player to hit three home runs in one game. 40 years old? really, that old? a former football star is back in oakland this week. he's spreading the word against bullying. >> i grew up in a neighborhood where i saw a lot of obstacles in life. i felt it was important to give back to the youth and come to areas where i'm familiar with. the bay area is somewhere i spent a lot of time. i wanted to come back and show the importance of making a difference in your life. >> he will spread the message again today at palo alto high school. it's going to be busy later traffic wise, right mike? >> yeah. get over between the bay.

the oakland folks are going to head to the city and see the game at at&t park. the bay area divides for this series here. here, where the roads come together, 680 and 580, an earlier accident. it sounds like it has moved to the shoulder. it is out of the connector from what i understand. a smoother drive toward castro valley. construction is picking up on 92 between 880. overnight construction going on there. crossing the bay between the east bay, 880 and the peninsula side, 101. the taillights away from us. the camera is holding steady. no problems as far as wind goes. it's friday light, we don't expect a lot. >> thank you, mike. this morning, on the "today" show, the life-saving twitter. a woman was running out of

options when her daughter turned to twitter for help. it took one tweet. within days she got help from a complete stranger with a big heart. you can watch the entire story coming up this morning on the "today" show. the powers of technology. a bay area man throws a puppy against a wall ring an argument. should he be locked away for al life?

- working out can be totally cool. - that's right, so we've got a list of things you can do to get active. - like jumping jacks. - or how 'bout push-ups? - sit-ups? - uh, maybe jumping rope? - yeah. or jogging. - uh, how about like a wheelbarrow race? - oh, yeah, that's a great idea. - but imagine actually trying to use him as a wheelbarrow, like stacking bricks on him and doing, like, doo-doo-doo. you know what i mean? - or yoga. - which is actually peaceful and quiet and not a lot of talking, so... - exactly. is he still looking at me?

20 communities in 20 days. this friday morning, we are bringing you to san mateo. good morning to you, i'm laura garcia-cannon. we are coming to you live from the san mateo events center. it's where makers fair is going to kick off this weekend. we have a lot in store from wildly creative minds. we have them all for you this morning. first, a look at the forecast.