>> reporter: good morning. i'm christie smith live in san rafael where there has been a string of suspicious fires and this isn't the first time in recent months. we'll have the story coming up. >> we're kind ever expecting to be able to say no, that wasn't my mom's train, and this time it was. >> a woman born into the railroad business dies on the tracks, the latest on that fiery crash that claimed her life. and prayers pour in on line for a young boy run over in his own driveway. what his mother was doing when she stepped on the gas.

monday, june 27th, this is "today in the east bay." >> good morning. i'm scott mcgrew. it's 4:30. let's go to the traffic and mike inouye. good morning. >> good morning, scott. we'll take you to highway 4. no full closures for the westbound direction. i have an overnight accident out of bay point into concord around willow pass road west. east is where you saw the speed sensor. west is here where there is a minor fender-bender. this is not a big deal. the traffic is light but we'll track this portion approaching the area because over the last ten days we've seen major slowing so we'll watch this. >> thank you. this morning we're going to begin in the north bay where firefighters say three suspicious fires may be linked. christie smith has the latest. >> reporter: good morning. i wanted to start by saying the

location of these fires is right down these railroad tracks here, kind of hard to get to, sort of a remote location off francisco boulevard west. haven't had a chance to look for ourselves. now, this string of suspicious fires might not be a big deal except for this isn't the first time it happened. there were three last night when firefighters arrived. they found them behind rab motors and old borders book store near a possible homeless encampment. the cause is under investigation. there have been several similar fires like this in recent months. in june a 38-year-old transient was arrested on suspicion of starting two fires in may there were several suspicious fires in the area. no one hurt in this but all of these quite suspicious. i have calls to san rafael fire and as soon as i hear from them i'll bring that information to you. reporting live in san rafael,

christie smith, "today in the east bay." >> thank you. also this morning a 4-year-old boy is fighting for his life after being run over by his mother. according to a facebook page for brendan he went into surgery, is still unconscious. doctors think the boy will wake up. police say the boy was playing in the front yard, walked over to the driveway as his mother was backing into the street to help jump start a service truck working on the house. >> injury, crashes, unsafe driving, bald tires, we're getting word that a nevada trucking company face add slew of safety violations before friday's fiery collision with an amtrak train. we know six people are dead including the truck driver, the conductor and four people on the train. but it could be more. this after a semitrailer truck slammed into a railroad crossing and two passenger cars, 70 miles

east of reno. five train passengers still missing. the ntsb investigators say they will be on the scene for the next ten days gathering information but say one key piece of evidence may never be found. >> ordinarily, many of these trucks have an engine data recorder which provides a fair amount of information to the investigators, in this case, however, because of the extent of the fire we don't really expect to find much if anything of any data recorders available. >> since september last year safety officials have randomly expected the john davis trucking company and found violations turning up in seven of those checks. >> that train's conductor among the dead was a one-time ticket taker at the martinez amtrak station. her love for the railroad business started much earlier in her life. as kimberly tere reports the conductor was born into the business. >> reporter: loretta lee was the glue that held her family together. her loved ones are trying to

come to terms with the unexpected death of a woman they say was so full of life. she was the conductor of the amtrak train hit by a big rig friday morning east of reno. >> we've always been able to say no, that's not my mom's train. she wasn't working today. and we're still kind of expecting to be able to say no, that wasn't my mom's train. and this time it was. it's hard. it's not something you wish on anybody at all. >> her family says while her death is difficult for them, there is some solace in knowing she died doing what she loved. the railroad was her life and in many ways her des that tee. she was born into a railroad family with all working in the business. >> she came home and goes, i'm going to work for the trains. and she did.

and she made her way from the first job selling tickets to on board services and then becoming assistant conductor, then conductor and that's what she loved doing. >> reporter: lee went to school to become a train engineer but loved interacting with people too much to give up what she was doing. >> we heard stories of her going up and down the train singing to people. she was a very big person with a very big voice and a heart about three times bigger than her voice. >> as strong as her personality could be at times she was also very well known for her generosity and her great caring for other people. and we're very happy that she'll be remembered that way. >> after living in concord lee moved to lake tahoe two years ago. it was suppose today be a prelude to retirement. she is survived by children and grand children who range from 2 to 29.

kimberly terry, "today in the east bay." >> there are a few days left until the end of the fiscal year. california's budget still about $6 billion short. governor brown met with democratic lawmakers, some of whom are frustrated by the governor's veto of their earlier budget that the governor said relied too heavily on borrowing. brown is working to get a handful of republicans on board for a special election for voters to decide whether to extend vehicle sales and income taxes. what was a $26 billion budget shortfall in january has been whittled down to a fraction of that. >> we've had revenues more than people expected. we're down to 7 billion. the legislature passed something else, a couple of other increases cut to the 5.8. it can be done. >> nbc bay area analyst larry gerston there. even if a budget isn't in place

by friday the state has enough cash on hand to avoid handing out ious. >> gas prices are going down. the national average for a gallon fell 11 cents over the past two weeks, the average price in the u.s. $3.32. of course in the bay area prices are higher in oakland a gallon of regular will be 3.82, compared to 4.06 a month ammo. a year ago it was $3.15. if crude prices hold gas prices are expected to drop 10 more cents by the middle of the m. if you drive a hybrid car you can enjoy your last days of freedom in the carpool lanes. on friday those yellow clean air stickers will no longer let you zip through traffic with just one person in the car. the dmv is giving out white stickers for low emission cars but those are tougher to get. only electric cars or cars with compressed natural gas or

hydrogen fuel cells qualify for those. let's get a monday morning forecast, back to work forecast with christina. >> call it what you want, it's looking good today. high pressure moves in and as it retreats off to the east a little bit, we're going to see a few more clouds. it's majorly in control of what we're going to see today. low 80s, upper 70s in the east bay, gorgeous weather and this morning it's mild out there already we're in the 50s, 55 in fairfield. 50 in santa rosa. 52 if you're headed to san francisco. pretty uniform conditions, you're not going to find a great temperature difference. this is what we're headed for later, the big weather story is rain on the way even for the east bay. i'm going to break that down for you. today, help you plan everything, 79 in santa rosa, 79 in concord, 83 in fairfield. that's about as warm as it's going to be. 80 in livermore. a gorgeous day like we had over the weekend and the change is coming into play tuesday, wednesday and thursday. i'll break that down for you

coming up. right now it's 4:39. let's get to you work on time with mike inouye. >> good morning. some folks have been at work overnight. that's why we have the maze, approaching the toll plaza, fine and a light volume of traffic. i'm going to zoom in north of jack lenon square. 880 to eastbound 980 t connector ramp we'll see that, overnight construction so be prepared to take the detour they have for you. castro over to eastbound 880. they are repaving a number of ramps here down to the coliseum. we have a live look south of where the construction zone ends. no problems as far as the flow there. but they are putting on more asphalt on the top. that's great news south toward san mateo bridge no issues. smooth over the water. >> 4:40. coming up a danville teen trapped under a mountain of sand. how he survived for 15 minutes

without air and what doctors are doing. they came, they hacked and they conquered. now they are no more a. group of computer hackers calling it quits. is your personal information any safer? you're looking at a live picture of the toll plaza there. we'll be back with mike in a minute.

>> this is just in video of a hotel fire in orlando, florida. it looks like a two-level motel, this is near the walt disney world. hopefully people were able to evacuate. this is just a gigantic fire that we try to learn more about. it's near disney world's animal kingdom in orlando. we'll keep you updated on this. it looks horrid. >> this morning a danville teen seriously injured after a sand tunnel collapsed on him at a watsonville beach. the teenager and another friend were digging a hole six feet into the sand during a church group visit to the sun set state beach on saturday when the tunnel collapsed. the boy was trapped under the sand for 15 minutes and was not breathing when life guards and church group members pulled him out. doctors sedated the boy while they continue to clean sand out

of his system. the other boy was not hurt. >> today is the last day companies are allowed to sell drop side cribs. safety officials banning the popular cribs because their design can lead to strangulation or suffocation. the new rules are the first change in crib standards in third years. hotels, motels and day care centers will be allowed to use the cribs for another 18 months and then they, too, must comply with the tougher standards. >> a new report finds violent shows and nighttime tv could be part of the reason your preschooler can't sleep. the study followed 600 3 to 5-year-olds are tied to trouble falling asleep. non-violent shows didn't have a connection to sleeping trouble. you can check out the study this morning in the journal pediatrics. >> a group of internet hackers says it is disbanding but will that end online attacks? for more on that and news before the bell it's nicole lapin. good morning.

>> good morning to you. futures are relatively flat ahead of the u.s. open as investors a bit concerned about greece. the greek par la lament started a now round that they need to pass in order to secure a bailout package from the eu. asian markets on the news fell but europe is slightly positive. we get some of our own data on personal and government spending and several reports out this week on the health of the u.s. consumer in general, home prices, consumer confidence and unemployment so that could drive us. to recap on friday the dow fell 115 points to close at 11,934 t nasdaq lost 33 to 2652. also making headline, citigroup says about 3400 of its customers who had their credit card info stolen by hackers lost $2.7 million. citi disclosed the losses when briefing the government on that cyber hacker attack. last week the bank said 360,000 credit card accounts in north america were affected by the

attack which detected back in early may but is now telling us about. and lowell security is getting out of the hacker business. the group announced it is disbanding. one member ser says they are not breaking up, he says the press are getting word of us and we're getting word as well. the parting shot, the group release add grab bag of documents and log ins from gaming websites and servers including at&t. so i don't think we're getting word of it just yet. i think we're going to talk about it for some time to come. >> i'm sure. nicole lapin, thank you. christina loren with our forecast. good morning. >> good morning. we've got major rain on the way for this time of year, the middle of the week, we'll talk about when. let's get to the good stuff first. we have a nice day on tap. looking good, high pressure sits

over the four corners region. you can see the storm track arcing up and around that ridge but look at what's headed our way, a pretty significant well-organized system of low pressure. it's going to bring us rain possibly up to a half inch even in the south bay as we head through wednesday. looks like i think that everywhere in the east bay at least .1 inch. 57 in concord, 54 livermore right now. we're headed to the upper 70s, low 80s again, similar, pretty much the same as we saw on friday. so 83 in fair field, 79 in concord and 78 in fremont. this is what's headed our way. looks like the timing is going to shape up like this. low pressure is going to continue to push to the coast of california as we head through tuesday and wednesday. periods of rain start tomorrow afternoon. they are going to intensify overnight and we could see thunderstorms because it's going to be so warm so we're concerned about gusty winds, possibly hail and take a look at your seven-day outlook. a little bit of everything on here. 79 degrees today.

we drop to 69 with rain and thunder tomorrow, rain early wednesday. and then temps sky rocket over the weekend, it's going to be a hot one, 95 by sunday. so, we've got interesting weather this week. >> a little of everything in there. >> a little of everything. a mixed bag of tricks we call it. >> 4:49. amaz amazon.c amazon.com's favorites. the list of top 10 books of 2011. don't tell tina she is first because in the list it's alphabetical order according to the author's last name. >> coming up, the man accused of beating a giants fan at dodger stadium no longer in l.a., we'll tell you where he is and why he has not been charged in that attack. have you hugged a blogger today? the on line feature that shares the love.

>> i'll take a like on my page. we're looking at traffic i think you'll like. a nice drive for 580. hasn't built up yet. the latest on an accident in the east bay.

>> 4:52 as we look at the control room there. crews searching for a man who they think may have fallen out of a boat.

someone reported the man fell overboard sunday afternoon. rescuers don't think he was wearing a life jacket. crews searched the area near dylan beach last night. his aluminum boat was found washed ashore south of dillon's beach. the man suspect fd beating bryan stow now in state prison in san diego. giovanni ramirez will serve 10 months for a weapons charge which violated his parole. the l.a. police chief says he is confident that ramirez will one day be convicted in the stow case but admit there is is not much evidence. there have been no official charges against ramirez for the beating. bryan stow remains at san francisco general hospital, his condition upgraded from critical

to serious. let's check in with marla where we're following a number of developing stories. >> reporter: good morning. we're taking a look at the watch the clock because in about 90 minutes an asteroid is going to buzz by earth that is going to come close. how close? let's say some satellites are farther from earth. we're also following that big rig amtrak crash investigation. i know you talked about it a bit. where a handful of passengers are still unaccounted for. plus, a fatal crash into a san jose nursing home by an elderly driver over the weekend is raising questions and concerns about how old is too old to be driving? and it's almost july and the ski season is in full swing at mammoth. we're going to show you the conditions there. it's all ahead. stay with us. >> very, very strange. thank you. >> the latest animated movie to come out of the bay area's pixar driving droves of fans to the box office. >> hey. >> nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you too. >> "cars 2" raced to the top of

the box office pulling in $68 million in its debut. that's very solid about what "up" did. that was enough to beat out "bad teacher." "green lantern" was third. >> so, there you got -- did you take the kids? >> we did. it was between my son and i duking it out. he wanted to see "bad teachers." we saw "cars 2." we had a great time, for the family it was wonderful it we had hot dog for dinner. nice. we're looking at the carquinez and benicia bridges. a lighter flow right now. but then we move to the accident i told you about, clarification from the chp. port chicago highway on ramp to eastbound highway 4, that's about as opposite your commute as you can get. a car spun out. waiting for a tow truck.

over to the maze, the rest of the commute, we saw this earlier. one of our photographers is live at the toll plaza, watching for anything weird going on. nothing weird except for the fact i'm taking this cool shot of the bay bridge. back to you. >> thank you. wikipedia one upping facebook with a feature designed to spread the love. on wednesday the website will launch love buttons so readers can flag articles they like. the button is all about bosstive reinforcement. they say people are more likely to post when they get positive feedback instead of criticism and warnings. you'll be able to choose what icon to use to show your love. anything from a star to a beer. coming up, fired for wearing a head scarf, the lawsuit against amber krbercrombie & fitch. check it out and search the nbc bay area morning news. we have a live look at 880 near the coliseum this morning in

oakland. today in the bay and marla tellez starts in two minutes.

>> reporter: several suspicious fires break out overnight in san rafael near a homeless encampment. this isn't the first time in recent weeks. we'll have the story coming up in a live report. >> plus, a bay area state senator gets ready to move forward with her plan to abolish california's death penalty. >> reporter: i'm bob redell live in san jose on a very early morning quest to find people who are chronically homeless and help them get a home. we'll have that coming up. >> a live look at oakland. it's monday, june 27th. this is "today in the bay."