>> good morning. thanks for being with us. i'm marla tellez in for jon kelley. >> i'm laura garcia-cannon. a lot to get to. first let's check the forecast with meteorologist christina loren. good morning. >> hey, good morning to you. really big day for nbc bay area. of course those olympics kicking off tonight, and we are kicking off the weekend pretty soon. that's the great news. temperatures are going to be comfortable today. 59 degrees to start you out in san jose, 57 in livermore. 55 in san francisco. headed towards the 70s and low 80s. the warmest cities again today, and then things change. we'll take you through the forecast coming up. let's check that drive on a friday morning. here is mike inouye. >> pretty light. to the north bay into the east bay, this is eastbound 580 we have construction which we don't typically see overnight. 580 around canal. they are blocking two lanes but we don't see slowing off of the bridge heading to berkeley t east shore freeway is fine.

on the san rafael side a look at the traffic flow. you should see an easy drive in the southbound direction. no slowing reported on chp so we'll end it here at the maps and send it back to you. >> thank you very much. we begin the olympic countdown to the games. finally, right now just hours away from the start of the opening ceremony. >> raj mathai is covering the summer games in london and joins us with a look at the growing anticipation. >> reporter: seven years of planning and seven years of hype but it's finally here t opening ceremony of the olympics. for one bay area athlete, there's a lot of pressure going into tonight. >> i am so excited although i'm pair annoyed as can be about what to wear to the opening ceremonies to sit in the first lady's delegation because usually for the opening ceremonies they give you your uniform. it's stressful trying to decide what to wear next to michelle obama. >> reporter: the focus is on getting fit.

>> tell her about the bay area sports initiative, how awesome it is that as a woman in the white house how important activity in young girls and young kids' lives, and you know, anything i can do to help with that is important to me. >> reporter: she is very active not only in london but back in the bay area, speaking of which she is here with us at nbc as a soccer analyst. we'll see her tonight at the opening ceremony. i'm raj mathai. back to you. >> thank you, raj. we'll talk to raj 18 little bit throughout the morning, in fact. also in london mitt romney's campaign doing damage control this morning. during an interview with nbc's brian williams about the games, romney said, quote, it's hard to know just how well it will turn out. well, that caught the attention of the british prime minister who said london would show doubters that britain can deliver. romney backed away from his remarks saying i expect the games to be successful.

but the controversy is not dying down. late last night at an olympic lighting ceremony london's mayor poked fun at romney. >> i hear there is a guy called mitt romney who wants to know whether we're ready. he wants to know whether we're ready. are we ready? are we ready? yes, we are. >> that sounds like a big old yes. you can watch the opening ceremony here on nbc bay area starting tonight at 7:30. >> at home an olympic memory tarnished for a fremont teen who went from having the best day of his life to a nightmare. the 19-year-old carried the olympic torch through the town of andover in england. after he and his family continued on to rome. that's where thieves sole a family suit case at the train station. it held the photos and videos of the teen's torch run. >> i realized that my gosh, that's the bag that has the camera, the video camera, all of our pictures and videos, stuff i

haven't even seen yet. >> the story got worldwide attention. when people heard about it in andover they started e-mailing him pictures and videos on youtube. got a lot of good shots. his uniform and torch were not in the stolen bag. he is expecting them to arrive by mail to his home in fremont today. >> 4:35. new details as employees try to track down a man accused of killing a san jose couple in front of their children. we know what kind of car the suspect is driving. police say 31-year-old pedro medina is likely driving a black nissan maxima. investigators believe he is in los angeles and could be headed for mexico. he is accused of shooting pedro and marybel jimenez to death in their home early monday morning. police say he once dated marybel and perhaps acted out of anger

or jealousy. the police officers association is asking for donations on behalf of the victims' three children all under 8, to contribute visit sjpos.com. >> in the east bay the search is on for four smash and grab thieves who burst into a mall and started shooting. at least one of the suspects fire add machine gun. when the group walked into the store yesterday. fortunately, no one was hurt. look at the damage. the suspects smashed displays, grabbing jewelry. >> today is the day a bay area business learns if it's card room bet pays off. after months the operators of casino matrix should learn if they can open their doors. stephanie chuang is live at the high rise home to this card room. good morning. >> reporter: marla, good morning. yes, in months it was supposed

to open in april, the owners hoping that they may get the green light today. it depends on the police chief of san jose, whether to finally approve this opening. it was on monday when the city's gaming administrator richard tang gave his recommendation to open the main floor, the card tables here on the main ground floor. but only if the casino meets specific requirements. for example, better monitoring of the card room, that would mean a final inspection of the surveillance system. tang wants access to data from tracking devices that are supposed to be installed on the bulk of the card tables. those are street keep track of who the dealer is, who is winning, who is losing and how many hands are dealt each hour. the owners of bay 101 which is across the bayshore freeway here, also sent the chief a letter with some of their concerns, for instance, they don't want casino matrix to

feature massages or other services that would entice players to keep playing. no comment from the chief on that. if approved today, we don't know what time this would come, but the owners of casino matrix said they would hope to open the doors in mid august. live in san jose, stephanie chuang, "today in the bay." >> major change is in the works in the wake of a tragedy that claimed the lives of two teens. the teenagers drowned in february last year when they tried to raft down walnut creek. in response the county hired an engineering firm to investigate safety improvements. this morning the findings are in. the recommendations include the installation of racks, net, cables and escape ladders. and a restore agency. there are flooding concerns to high costs. >> donors who made contributions to keep parks open want their

money back in response to the discery last week more than $50 million in surplus funds had been hidden away in accounts managed by state park officials. the donors demand refunds or a promise from lawmakers to spend the money on parks. the state attorney general's office is investigating. experts say half the money could have been spent to avoid park closures brought on by budget cuts. >> i want to check the forecast with meteorologist christina loren. the weekend is upon us. we can't hear you, sunshine. mike check. what's going on? you know what, maybe we'll take a break and figure that out as we know you have a look at the forecast. i think there is a warm-up on the way. let's move on to mike. a look at the commute. >> right here, 280 northbound around the off ramp i'm tracking an accident reported. reports of an overturned car, no injuries or none we know of now. and no slowing at the scene.

we'll keep tracking this and let you know if it affects your drive. the rest of the freeways are moving. heading southbound, at the gilroy truck stop there is a disabled vehicle in the right lane. what i told our crew about, because bob redell is heading to the gilroy garlic festival. expect a lot of slowing, traffic in morgan hill into gilroy, christmas hill park. all weekend. we'll get a look out to oakland as well. a live look outside. 880 northbound past the coliseum, a smooth drive, construction just to the north of there and no problems all the way to the bay bridge toll plaza. a look at the golden gate bridge where there is a smooth drive as well. looking at the lights i can see them across the bridge so meteorologist christina loren, i see no major fog there. what do you see for the morning? >> yes, i'm looking out into the morning, we're expecting

extensive low cloud cover and f. 59 degrees in san jose. can you hear me now? we've got good conditions for the weekend. it's going to be a little warmer, so if you are sick of the low clouds, the cooler weather at the coast, you're going to get a treat as we head through saturday and sunday. 51 degrees in sunnyvale, 55 in san francisco. headed towards a comfortable day, courtesy of low clouds in the area of low pressure. very unseasonal area of low pressure sitting to our north. so we stop the clock on the future cast. dealing with quite a bit of cloud cover from san francisco over the bay bridge into the east shore. stop the clock at 2:00, dealing with the cloudy conditions. in san francisco, so one of those days you're not going to see a lot of sunshine in the city. temperatures will be comfortable as we head into the weekend. you're going to get better conditions bay side at the coast today, though, it's the inland cities that are getting treated to the best of the best. 76 degrees in san jose. 80 in livermore, 83 in fairfield. major changes, 48 hours away

now. we'll take you flew those numbers in my next report. 4:41. back to you ladies. >> thank you. coming up, start brushing up on that resume. we'll tell you about the new store coming to the bay area from overseas bringing 500 new jobs along with it. >> sounds good to me. can you make out what city this is? this is the south bay, san jose. it's 4:42. >> for all of your news, weather and traffic check us out on facebook. search nbc bay area or any of us individually. we'll all log on. we'd love to hear from you. [ female announcer ] now get high speed internet at home

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>> counting down to the olympic games. we are here, a live look at london where no doubt thousands of people hard at work putting those final finishing touches on tonight's opening ceremony. they got to be ready by now. also hard at work this morning certainly the olympic athletes. >> olympic soccer is in play. today it's all about the archery that's going tstart today. the u.s. has a good shot at the gold. this guy here, 22-year-old brady ellison, he is from arizona, ranked number one in the world. the contest will take place at the famous cricket venue, the

lord's cricket ground at st. johns wood in london. the venue will have two weeks to get the fields back in shape in time for a five-day match between england and south korea. >> caltrans turns the lights on on the new span of the bay bridge giving drivers a new look at the system that will light the drive. the system will use 48,000 led lights. the system can flood the roadway with light but drivers are not expected to see glare because the lights shine from behind. designers say the lights are like nothing else in the world. >> l.e.d.s which are individually aimed and visored, so you create basically the ability to paint the roadway surface as opposed to just kind of throwing a bunch of light at it, you can be more sophisticated in what you are trying to do. >> pretty cool. the poles on the fixtures also

said to be unique, built extra thick to stay standing during an earthquake. if you drive across the bay bridge tonight you'll see the lights going on and off. they are starting lighting tests while crews continue to install this system. >> if you are looking for a job this is good news. a new department store is opening in san francisco, bringing with it 500 new job openings. the place is called unique low. it's going to open one block from union square. the store is very popular in japan. right now in fact, new york has the only u.s. store. the new san francisco store will be 29,000 square feet. today, at city hall, the company will announce a $25,000 donation to the bay area chapter of the red cross. >> 4:47. help is on the way for midwest farmers whose profits are parched by drought for more on that and the rest of the news before the bell we turn to kayla tausche. good morning.

>> hi, good morning. we do have futures in the markets that are flat this morning following yesterday's monster rally, stocks surged on comments largely from the head of the european central bank telling a financial conference in london the ecb will do whatever necessary to protect the euro and member nations and that renewed optimism there may be programs on the way. there was good news on u.s. unemployment and durable goods and we get data on consumer sentiment and a first look at how the economy performed this spring. growth is expected to have slowed. the dow jumps yesterday to 12,887, the nasdaq rising 39 to 2893. eric cantor says lawmakers may take up legislation next week to help farmers and ranchers hit by the drought. it's likely to focus more on livestock producers and corn and soybean farmers are partly protected by crop insurance from

drought damage. but few livestock producers have insurance and a federal disaster program for them expired last year. we'll keep you posted on that program. for now back to you. >> thanks very much, kayla. >> heavy storms rolling out across the east coast. >> one woman went out to record the show. it got too close for comfort. i'd say. that lightning bolt appeared to hit next door. the woman says it was so close she could feel the heat from that bolt of lightning. >> that was a thick bolt. >> the woman who knows all about those dangerous lightning strikes, meteorologist christina loren. we don't have any of that. >> no. quite the contrary. crisp dry ocean air. you saw science in action, that lightning rod comes in very handy.

one strip of metal on the roof can do so much. here you don't see a lot of lightning rods. you see some of that when it comes to the four corners region where they get the monsoonal moisture and some thunderstorms firing off today in the south, we're talking about comfortable conditions right here. i'm going to show you that. 55 degrees to start you out. good morning in san francisco. at 59, it's friday in san jose, excited about that upcoming weekend. so there is that ridge of high pressure. that tends to pump in unstable air, moisture coming in from the south. we expect a few thunderstorms down in the southern california region. mostly in the desert southwest. we're talking about comfortable conditions, 50s and 60s, lots of cloud cover right at the coast. talking about the potential for flight delays, yesterday we had quite a few. today likely the same. until about 10:00 a.m. then you're going to be mostly cloudy in the second half of the day as well. right by the bay. you have better weather right around the corner. i want to point this out as well. we're all in the good range. you want to open up the windows

because you'll be able to give your ac a break in san jose, 76 degrees there, feel free to do so. good air quality. looks like that will be the trend throughout weekend. then that will start to suffer as temperatures start to soar. look at where we're headed sunday into monday. 90 to 92. we get the sinking air, that's what leads to bad air quality so i wouldn't be surprised if by wednesday to thursday next week we are talking about sparing the air. enjoy that healthy air quality out there today, and temperatures far below their seasonal averages because these change as of tomorrow. >> but you made at gold medal monday. thank you very much. it's 4:51. nba announced the golden state warriors will open the 2012 season in phoenix. >> it's the first time in more than 10 years the team will open on the road. they are scheduled to play their first game against the suns on halloween. october 31st. the warriors' home opener will be against memphis on november

2nd. former palo alto star now golden state guard jeremy lin will make his first appearance in oakland on february 12th. mark that on your calendar. the warriors play 15 of the first 24 games on the road, end the season in portland. >> as for the miami heat, their first game will happen where they won last season's nba title at home, lebron james, dwyane wade and the heat will raise their championship banner october 30th against the boston celtics. ray allen will face his former team. >> call me maybe. the remake of the casting song. >> plus, watch your back. we'll tell you about the olympic athlete getting a trim courtesy of her team usa partner. >> we're looking at a trend on the roadways, a smooth drive with road crews and other stuff to watch. i'll show you where you're tapping the brakes.

>> you're going to see so much great coverage on nbc. live look at london right now where the olympic games are set to start, opening ceremony tonight at 7:30. >> usually your olympic teammates have your back. >> in this case missy may-treanor better watch her back. check out this instagram photo

tweeted out. yeah, that's walsh trying to give her teammate a trim, i'd say, kind of a hack. during a training session. we're not sure where she got the scissors. a lot of fun. >> no haircuts for the u.s. soccer team but beauty treatments on their mind. >> a day after winning their olympic match hope solo took to twitter to fill you in how they are spending down time saying not a bad way to spend the day. ladies day out. shopping, cappuccino, makeup and eyebrows done. it's a good thing she is enjoying her down time now. team usa plays colombia tomorrow. >> u.s. olympic swimmers have a different way to spend their down time. >> they are making music videos. ♪ hey this is crazy but here's my number so call me maybe ♪

♪ here's my number so call me maybe ♪ >> i think everyone's made a video. that's the olympic swim team having fun before the start of the olympic games. between practice labs, warming up, athletes found some time to do the call me maybe lip sync.

>> good friday morning. thanks for joining us. 4:59. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> and i'm marla tellez in for jon kelley. we begin with you know what t countdown to the london olympics. we do have a live look across the pond. there it is, london this morning where we are just hours away from the opening ceremony of the 2012 summer games. no doubt the anticipation and excitement is building this

morning as the city gets ready to put itself on display for the world. >> today in the bay's raj mathai has a bird's-eye view of the stadium and joins us live with a look at all of the big build-up to the big night. good morning, raj. >> reporter: good morning you guys are just waking up, again i've been waiting for you to wake up. we are eight hours ahead. we woke up this morning, a beautiful sunset or excuse me, a beautiful sunrise. here is the headline in the local paper. it says "let the games begin." that's exactly where we are. a lot of excitement in london as you can imagine. you saw the olympic torch running through the street on the way here to the stadium. just about two miles from where we are now, as we speak, a very special visitor. take a look. first lady is here. michelle obama meeting with team usa and spreading the word about a program she is very near and dear to her heart, childhood obesity. she'll meet with t