horrible memories of san bruno resurface here in this town after another gas pipeline ruptures. we'll tell you all about it coming up. president obama talks taxes in his state of the union address. what he wants to do that he says will level the playing field. and some co-founder of a small start-up was in the audience last night. why he was invited. and a live look outside this morning, golden gate bridge on this wednesday, january 25th. this is today in the bay.

good morning, everyone. let's check the forecast. >> it is hard to get over the hump on a wednesday but the weather isn't going thoeld you back. in fact, it is rather mild out there already. chilly conditions though, temperatures in the 40s. the warmest day of the week shaping up. first let's talk to mike inouye. >> a light volume of traffic as you might expect at 4:31 but over here on the peninsula, two separate accidents southbound 101 near avalon blocking two lanes right now. we'll see how lon the lanes are blocked. we're waiting on chp for an update. because of the light volume, no slowing at the scene.

two other incidents to tell you about coming up. 4:31 right now. no, not again. a new gas leak stirring up fears from the past in san bruno. >> a construction crew hit a small service line sending gas fumes into the neighborhood. today in the bay's bob rovell. >> reporter: gas escaping from a ruptured two-inch gas line right under neath that plate in front of the driveway in that home on chestnut avenue. some workers who were replacing a sewer line on this street accidentally ruptured a two-inch line with their backhoe early yesterday afternoon. several homes were evacuated for 45 minutes while pg&e shut off the line which has now since been repaired. after speaking with a neighbor this morning, it appears service has also been restored to the homes affected on this end of the street. you can imagine why this

received so much attention. in september 2010 in another neighborhood in san bruno eight people were killed, more than 30 homes destroyed when a much larger transmission line ruptured and exploded. coincidentally, assemblyman jerry hill of san mateo will be holding a public gas safety forum later today. the idea is to let representatives from pg&e and the cpuc update the public on what's being done to make neighborhoods safer in terms of gas line replacement and testing. bob redell, "today in the bay." san francisco's embattled sheriff says he is not going to step down after meeting with mayor ed lee, he says he can do his job while he defends himself against misdemeanor domestic violence charges. he says while he won't take a leave. absence he will suspend his pay while he is in court. he added this controversy is not affecting his performance. however, it is affecting his

family. by court order he cannot see or talk to his wife or son until the trial is complete. the trial is scheduled to begin later next month. 4:33 right now. the pleasanton school board approved the use of drug sniffing dogs in three of its high schools. the plez tonight police department of will bring in the dogs at no cost to the district. it all happened with random searches in parking lots and locker rooms at the schools. the searches would not be done when students are around. the board voted to delay starting the program until they can develop a policy by the end of february. occupy oakland planning another takeover this weekend though organizers won't say exactly where. the protesters are planning a rally and march on saturday. they say they will hold a two-day festival this weekend as part of a mystery takeover. in the south bay, occupiers planning their own day of action. occupy san jose kicks off its wall street wednesday protest

today. it is meant to replace the group's financial friday demonstrations targeting banks. occupiers say wall street wednesday will focus on a broader range of establishments including other businesses. activities begin at 4:00 p.m. in front of city hall in san jose. president obama takes off on a five-state tour today after laying out his vision for the nation last night. state of the union address. much of his speech focused on the economy. president obama announced a special group of prosecutors to investigate risky mortgages and new opportunities for homeowners to save up to $3,000 a year by refinancing. he also talked about a minimum 30% tax on millionaires. >> you can call this class warfare all you want. but asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? most americans would call that common sense. >> the president also pitched some ideas that failed in the past, including ending oil subsidies, getting rid of

underperforming teachers, and putting the brakes on college tuition increases. republican presidential candidates were listening rather closely to the president's remarks. mitt romney spoke with nbc's brian williams last night and gave his take on the speech. >> well, he said a number of things that i thought were interesting. basically adopted a lot of thoughts that we've had on the campaign trail. unfortunately, what he says and what he has done are so dramatically different that you have to be a little surprised. the biggest difference of course is that he seems to think america's on the right track and things are going well. >> coming up on the "today" show this morning, fellow gop candidate newt gingrich and vice president joanne give their reactions to the state of the union address at 7:00. a couple of bay area residents were in the audience as the president spoke. one of them, the co-founder of a social media start-up. instagram created an app last year to share pictures on your iphone and so far has over 15 million users including

president obama himself. the co-founder mike kreeger was amongst invited guest in the first lady's box. we talked to him via facetime last night. >> you're starting to see folks, everything from celebrities like justin bieber communicating with their fans to barack obama's re-election campaign getting the word out about what he's up to and what he's interesting in promoting for the next four years. >> also in attendance, steve jobs' widow was also in the audience in the first lady's box. 4:37 right now. i want to get a look at the forecast. clear skies? >> not so clear this morning but they will be later on, laura. it is those clouds overhead this morning that are keeping us nice and mile so we like that. 47 degrees in oakland. 47 this morning in san mateo. and 44 degrees in livermore. high pressure in control of our weather pattern. we will see a few clouds make their way through that big ridge of high pressure later on today but overall, we'll see a lot of

clearing. we don't have a lot of fog out there just yet. i think tomorrow morning we'll deal with significant fog formation. for today, cloudy conditions to start, by tomorrow dropping off a few degrees. overall looking pretty comfortable throughout this week. temperatures today might blow your mine -- in places like morgan hill and gilroy, we are expecting 70s. upper 60s down through the south bay. san jose 68 degrees today. we'll see plenty of upper 60s all the way from the east bay to right by the water. 65 degrees in pacifica today. of 66 in san francisco. overall looking nice and comfort article throughout the day today. by noon temperatures in the 60s but we will see pretty significant fog develop widespread tomorrow morning, pea soup fog in the forecast. we'll talk about that and when rain returns all in my seven-day. first, mike has your drive. >> we have a couple other incidents we want to update you. the disabled vehicle getting off of the upper deck in san

francisco just off the skyway there. sounds like it should just be off of the roadways. watch for flashing lights if you're getting into san francisco via the bay bridge. also if you're using the bay bridge, there's construction, a little extra construction westbound this morning. third lane that was closed overnight should be picking up. we don't see any major slowing. eastbound we have your typical two lanes closed for maintenance work as well. a very light volume of traffic is what's keeping things moving smoothly through those areas. no major problems on the east shore freeway. further north we have a disabled truck getting off of the richmond san rafael bridge eastbound 580 heading to the richmond side right at canal. reports of a truck that may have lost its hitch and trailer. that may be affecting the fast lane. i'll let you know if any lanes are blocked. still an easy drive according to the speed sensors. >> little hitch in its giddyup. thanks. new 49er stadium in santa clara is a go. in a heated city council meeting lasting late into it night,

leaders finally decided the new 49er stadium would not be put back on the ballot for another vote. the decision took over two hours to reach. the group santa clara plays fair submitted a petition on the project saying all finances were not disclosed until last month so voters who approved the stadium ballot measure in june of 2010 didn't have complete information. but the city council voted to reject that petition. it is 4:40 right now. apple starting off the new year with a monster earnings report. we'll find out how it is affecting the markets today coming up in business. and 13 players dismissed from their high school basketball team. was it justified? hear from one of the players just ahead. one year later, how egypt is commemorating the anniversary of a revolution that changed the face of the country. and for all your news, weather an traffic updates, check us out on searchbc b n facebook. search nbc bay area news. help us with an experiment for febreze fabric refresher;

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the u.s. figure skating national championships are going on all week long, a beautiful thing on ice. check it out today if you have some time. 4:43. thousands of egyptians are gathering in cairo's tahrir

square this morning marking the one-year anniversary of the uprising that led to the ousting of former president hoseny mubarak. egypt's military ruler lifted the state of emergency tuesday that's lasted for decades in the country's first democratically elected parliament in 60 years held its first session earlier this week. a barge carrying a crane and other equipment has attached itself to the stranded cruise ship off the coast of italy. le barge will be used as part of operations to remove a halfful dollars of -- gallons, rather, of fuel from the grounded cruise ship. actual pumping of the oil is not expected to begin until saturday. the fuel remove is going on while divers continue their search for bodies in the ship. 16 bodies have been found so far. 17 are still unaccounted for. concerns over fires in the chevy volt sparking a hearing on capitol hill today. a house subcommittee will review the investigation conducted by the national highway traffic safety administration.

lawmakers want to know why the agency waited months to report fires that occurred during testing. general motors is making some design changes but says the cars are in fact safe and there have been no fires while customers were driving their volts. apple reported some huge earnings this week and we do mean huge. it is playing a major role on wall street today. for more on that in the news before the bell, let's go live to cnbc world headquarters. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. futures are mixed this morning, though the tech-heavy nasdaq is tracking higher. that's likely due to apple's blockbuster quarter. more on that in one moment. stocks closed off their lows on tuesday deflated a bit by europe as a standoff over greece and its debt woes continues. asia was higher overnight, europe is in the red. data comes out on penning home sales today and the dow fell 33 points to 12,675.

the nasdaq edging up to 2,786. apple's quarterly profits doubled smashing wall street's forecast thanks to the holiday sales of the iphone 4s and ipad 2. that helped swell apple's cash war cleft to nearly $100 billion, more than enough to pay the u.s. december budget deficit. apple sold roughly 133 million iphones and ipads last year. if you laid them end to end they'd stretch half-way around the world. stock trade holds above $450 today. apple will pass exxon mobil to be the world's most valuable company. facebook is forcing users to switch over to a new profile format featuring time line. the realtime scrapbook of your entire life. many people have switched but facebook hasn't made it mandatory until now. users have a week before timeline is automatically activated. >> looks like we all have a little work to do then.

always a friend to us. >> i get to be a fair weather friend this morning. we actually have a great day shaping up, temperatures in the 70s in some cities. you can't beat that as we are in the heart of winter. temperatures this morning running on the mild side as well. it is not frigid out there. cold start though, temperatures mostly in the 40s. areas of patchy fog will likely develop especially through inland valleys as we head throughout the next few hours. this afternoon tons of sunshine, a warmer day overall and we keep that dry trend in place all the way through this upcoming weekend. you can get outdoors and enjoy some mild temperatures. 47 degrees in san mateo this morning. 42 in napa. by noon temperatures already warming up into the mid 60s in some cities like fremont and san jose, 63 degrees. as you break for lunch, we'll round out the day in the upper 60s and low 70s. 70 in morgan hill. 67 milpitas. 63 in dublin. 62 in alameda. overall staying nice and mild today.

tomorrow we'll shave off a few degrees because i believe we'll start out with very widespread dense fog. 66 by friday, warming back up just a touch for the end of the week. this weekend looks good, staying dry both saturday and sunday. good options for you to get outside at the coast and by the bay with temperatures really warm in the 60s. monday and tuesday it starts to get interesting around here. few more clouds roll in on monday and then tuesday, we get a really good shot of rain. so if you like the rain, you like the sun, we got it all in your seven-day forecast. power trip or discipline? students at a high school in san jose are divided over whether the boy's basketball coach did a right thing or went too far in dismissing 13 varsity basketball players. >> ryan tran was a junior point guard for the team. he says coach mike allen suspended he and other players for lack of respect, bad attitudes and being late to practice.

whild tr while trand admits they've been late, they say they've never rebuffed the coach. the whole team decided to walk out. >> i've always wanted to represent our school in the best way possible, whether it be academics or through athletics. and to just have that taken away from me, it is really hard for me to deal with. >> coach allen has since moved up the freshman and sophomores from the junior varsity and they have not won a game since. coach allen and the principal were not available for comment. 4:49 right now. still ahead, the america's cup race clears another hurdle in san francisco. you'll soon see a giants theme cable car on the streets of san francisco and, no, it is not going to be the orange and black giants. we'll explain coming up. >> oh, someone lost a bet. you can bet on good traffic for 101. we'll follow up on that earlier

accident reported further up on 280. the latest is coming up.

welcome back. live look outside, bay bridge approach this morning. pretty light traffic though picking up just a tad. we'll check the morning commute

there for you there and across the bay area with mike coming up. 4:52 right now. not exactly smooth sailing but they are moving forward. the san francisco board of supervisors unanimously agreeing to host the america's sailing race. the long awaited decision comes even after an environmental impact report was challenged. the sierra club and others claiming air quality an water pollution issues were not adequately considered. mayor ed lee applauding the board's decision saying the events will create jobs and generate more than $1 billion in revenue. now what is clear sailing -- san francisco pitcher tim lithikum will be paid an average of more than $20 million a year, setting the record for arbitration eligible players with less than six years experience. based on his stats, that's almost $83,000 per strikeout. very nice gig. the giants like the two-year

link because they're not trapped by an expensive multi--year deal. 4:53 right now. raider nation welcoming a new era this morning. the nfl network reports dennis allen has sign to become the team's new head coach. allen was the broncos defensive coordinator last season. once the signing is official, allen will become the raiders' first defensive minded head coach since john madden was hired back in 1969. san francisco mayor ed lee says he's going to make good on a bet with new york mayor michael bloomberg come super bowl sunday. the mayor agreed if the giants beat the 49ers in the nfc championship, he would decorate a cable car in giants team colors, red and blue. mayor lee's office says the cable car will be decked out in red and blue flags for super bowl sunday on february 5th. i bet no one will ride it. mayor lee also agreed to provide sour dough bread to bloomberg in the event of that 49er loss.

it is the bread bowl. >> now beat it! scram! 4:54 right now. let's check the roads with mike inouye. >> i justify by saying if we lose to the team that wins the super bowl, then we came in second. looking over here to 280, we'll give this a couple second to clear but we do have round-robins going right now. it's when the chp travels back and forth across the lanes to slow traffic. those two separate accidents southbound should be cleared in the next few minutes but i will track that rate now. the sigalert has yet to be cleared all the way off the chp reports. a disable vehicle off of the skyway is cleared now and just construction remains heading across the bay bridge. looking at a smooth flow despite a little bit more overnight construction likely because of that impending closure and the shift over the oakland side. things are moving normally right now across the bay and across the bay, oakland, 880 past the coliseum, nice easy drive northbound with the taillights southbound with the headheadlig.

flashing lights off to the right are all on surface streets and not affecting freeway traffic. back to you. we can't feel it but the biggest solar storm in years is pounding the earth right now. >> thought i felt it on the way in but i guess we just hit a skunk. this from nasa, the latest storm this size hit back in 2005. this year's blast of charged radioactive particles hasn't caused any serious problems for us earthlings though some airlines rerouted airlines along popular routes. the storm also produced some spectacular northern lights. that looks like lava, a little magma on a wednesday morning. still ahead on "today in the bay," preparing for disaster. how pg&e is teaming up with one city to practice emergencies. the pleasanton school district votes to bring drug sniffing dogs on to school campuses. when the change could take effect. for all your news, weather,

traffic updates and all kinds of good stuff, check us on on facebook, nbc bay area news. live look outside, golden gate bridge. you can count the cars out there. at least right sit i stinow.ll it is sll early. 4:56. but stick around, we'll be here all morning. are you crazy? i would never go out without my covergirl. i want to look natural, not naked! but look! with covergirl, all you need is 3 little things to make beauty powerful for you. lashblast for voluptuous volume, outlast -- to keep your lips beautiful and not come off if you kiss... simply ageless foundation to help you look young. see? just three. easy breezy beautiful covergirl. ♪

new this morning, pleasanton becomes the latest bay area school district to fight drugs on campuses with dogs. i'll explain what's behind this decision coming up. i'm bob redell live here on the peninsula with another scary reminder of the san bruno gas pipeline disaster. that store coy coming up. dozens of workers about to lose their jobs. the difficult decisions facing one bay area city today. we give you a live look outside. that is the golden gate bridge. smooth sailing so far this morning. looks like a little being a out there with flashing red lights.