another round of wet weather hit the bay area. the east bay got the brunt of the storm. lightning lit up the night sky in walnut creek, richmond and san francisco. good thursday morning to you. it's 4:30. i'm scott mcgrew. >> i'm peggy bunker in for laura garcia-cannon this morning. let's take you outside right now for a live look across the bay area at the bay bridge toll plaza. emeryville and san jose. what you need know before you head out the door. let's check in with meteorologist anthony slaughter. good news on the rain. >> we saw decent amounts.

we got about a quarter inch adding to the deficit of the drought that we're in but you'll notice right now as we look at the live radar, not a lot happening. a few sprinkles out there and drizzle once you start that morning commute. otherwise skies are going to clear out as we head through the day. so we do have fog, drizzle right now but as we head through the afternoon hours i do think we're going to see a good amount of sunshine. in san francisco visibility starting to improve but that drizzle really hanging on tightly. this afternoon temperatures top out in the mid-60s, so a few degrees cooler from where it was yesterday all because the cold front moving through. tomorrow back in the 70s and same for saturday. more rain arrives sunday. we'll talk more about coming up. let's check the roads. >> good morning. you have the overnight rain so we have wet roads to greet us for the morning commute. the bay bridge toll plaza, we'll show you full screen, the sheen on the roadway, the bigger concern was the fact someone was backing up in the hov lanes a

couple minutes ago. they cleared. don't do that. just advising don't go the wrong way on the freeway. everyone is going the right way, a smooth drive around the bay, the green, the yellow at 65 -- 60, sorry, on average. that means one or two slower cars this early hour. we have southbound 880 at whipple road. the off ramp partly blocked. one lane might be blocked by a fender-bender. a car hit something on the side of the road, probably a bush. we'll have traffic control around target exit. over to 380 eastbound, we have a fender-bender there. that is reportedly blocking the fast lane so we'll watch that. that's not heavy spot that the time of the morning. be careful. slick roads. >> new developments in the crisis in ukraine. lawmakers plan to hold a vote to decide whether the region should

become part of russia or remain part of ukraine. yesterday the country's prime minister said crimea would remain part of the ukraine. crimea's leader said more than 11,000 pro russian forces control the peninsula, they blocked all of the military bases that have not yet surrendered. the west has joined the new ukrainian leadership and demanding that russia pull forces. russia does not seem to be listening. in paris russian officials refused to sit down with ukraine's new foreign minister. >> i had no expectation, zero expectation, that today that kind of a meeting would take place. i did not expect it. >> protesters fought with police this morning in the eastern part of the country where ukrainian flags fly. ukrainians did regain control of the building yesterday and pro russian troops have been trying to take it back.

>> at home, investigators cleared the scene after deadly crash. last night police found a man unconscious on the ground. investigators say he was hit by a car. emergency crews were not able to save him. the driver stayed at the scene and cooperated. the crash and investigation closed the southbound lanes of almaden expressway for several hours but again, that area is now open to traffic. >> south bay detectives are looking for two men that stole an suv with a family pet inside and theft dog to die. michael's suv was stolen in gilroy about a week and a half ago. the 15-year-old dog was in the back seat for four days mckay and his friends searched hoping that whoever stole the suv let the dog out. when police found the vehicle in the parking lot with the dog's body in the back seat. the dog was left for days with no food and no water. >> to leave it in a car for four

days until it dies, that is probably one of the cruelest tortures you can do to an animal. >> gilroy police say these two men caught on surveillance video from the walmart are the persons of interest. they could face charges of auto theft and animal cruelty. >> a middle school will have psychologists on hand to talk to students after police arrested a teacher right in the middle of class. 32-year-old ron guinto is facing 14 charges of sexual misconduct with a student. officers arrested him in his seventh grade classroom at mira vista middle school yesterday morni morning. guinto left a school in the fall and hired while he was being investigated by richmond police. >> i do worry because i have a nab here has a seventh-grader here and i have one coming up into seventh grade. we need to make sure that the

people we hire are legitimate and trust worthy. we leave our kids here all day. >> neither richmond police nor making waves academy are answering questions about the investigation. >> san francisco deputies looking for a wheelchair bound man suspected of punching women, all happened near san francisco general hospital. in the latest incident the man punched a woman in the gut near 22nd street. the suspect is a black man in his 40s or 50s, with a partly amputated right leg. deputies say he has been treated at the hospital for psychological problems. >> san francisco has less than two months to respond to a claim filed by the family of lynne spalding, the woman found dead at sf general. it was filed on behalf of her daughter and son. the claim says the hospital failed to take care of spalding and left her alone after a doctor ordered staff to stay

with her at all times. >> as a written order by the doctor that says all, in capital letters, the word never leave this patient alone and they did and they lost her. >> if the hospital does not respond in 45 days the family will move forward with a lawsuit. >> a new ordinance goes into effect for gun owners in sunnyvale, illegal to own magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. yesterday a federal judge denied a last ditch effort to put the new law on hold. the judge ruled the ban would have little impact on constitutional rights to own firearms when it comes to self defense. the judge citing an nra report saying that american who is have to use guns for self defense fired an average of two shots. a lawyer for the nra will take the case to an appeals court. 66% of voters approved that ban. >> the superintendent of schools has a new job, xavier was approved to head a school board in el paso, texas.

he had been the top education official in santa clara county and halfway into his four-year term. in a phone interview with the el paso times he said he could start as early as march 17. details are being worked out now. >> turning to our microclimate forecast, many of us waking up to wet roads across the bay area. here is a live look at palo alto this morning. the good news is the rain seems to have moved off. >> yes. exactly. a little bit of accumulation. we're checking win anthony to find out. good morning. >> we did have a quarter inch in the north bay. a tenth or less in the south bay. every drop helps. today storm clouds will clear, we'll get afternoon sunshine even by midday, and then plenty of sunshine into the first part of your weekend. yes, it is friday eve, we're happy about that. warmer temperatures for tomorrow, and again, with the sunny skies you can expect a few 70s across our inland valleys. by the weekend, saturday will be

nice. sunday there is a shot of rain in the forecast. that looks to arrive late in the day so sunday evening i think that shower activity will push back in. there are the showers that moved through this morning, a lot of the activity the heavy stuff pushed out. we may get a little bit of light showers across the north bay as this secondary push of rain starts to pull. through really, we're not talking about more heavy rain for the rest of the day. skies will continue to clear and that will mean temperatures back in the upper 60s for our inland valleys close to where we should be for this time of year. we look outside right now you can see the storm clouds hanging on, visibility is starting to improve. in the last hour san francisco, at least the bay bridge has become more visible. you couldn't see it earlier this morning about 3:00 or 4:00. right now things are starting to improve t showers are pushing out. we'll see sunshine. decent amount of sunshine by the afternoon, 62 in san francisco for today, north bay back in the mid-60s, even in the south bay you'll be right around 66 degrees. so again, we have the chance of

rain. that's not going to arrive as we head into sunday night. the forecast does show temperatures across the board in the 60s for the most part, low 60s in san francisco, so it's not going to be overly warm but plenty of sunshine even toward the tri-valley where temperatures will get close to 70 degrees. here is a quick peek at the shower activity for sunday. stop the clock around 10:00 in the evening. you'll notice by about monday morning we may wake up to drizzle but i don't think this is a huge system as we head into sunday. let's check the drive. >> gee, gloomy on a monday, who would have thought. we're looking toward oakland. look at the lights, upper right-hand side. the flashing lights off 880, that's coliseum way, you see the lights in the parking lot. it's a smooth drive on the freeway itself. not a lot of problems by the crews. we'll zoom into the area by the

coliseum. no real slowing, just north of there down to 60 miles per hour. that light volume even one or two slower moving vehicles skews the data. the southbound side, the crash at whipple, the off ramp, sounds like a car went off a roadway. it got stuck in mud and grass. that's on the road on the side of the road. watch that slow lane as there is a tow truck arriving no. injuries reported. slicker off ramps because of rains. we'll watch for that. the south bay and the crews with the orange diamonds, construction crews out though we had rain it wasn't enough to keep them from doing their work. we're looking toward palo alto with a nice easy drive. taillights away from us toward willow avenue continuing up through san mateo, 280 moving at the limit. back to you. >> thank you, mike. >> still ahead a court ruling sparks outrage. the loophole that left a man who took photos walk free.

>> emotional night at a film festival. how the bay area is going to come together to honor the life after local hero killed in the 9/11 terror attacks.

4:44 on thursday morning. as we give you a live look at the western span of the bay bridge. beautiful in the distance. a celebration will be held tonight along the watt ear front in san francisco to mark the one-year milestone of the bay lights project. all 25,000 lights will go dark for 10 minutes. this will remind everyone what the city would look like without that installation. tonight also kicks off a fundraising campaign in hopes of keeping the lights shining to 2026. they have to come down next year for the bridge to be painted. >> a new survey shows the cost of college is keeping a lot of students from going to their dream school. the survey done by ucla researchers shows the percentage of college freshmen going to their top choice is at its lowest number in nearly 40

years. the study says about 3/4 of the students who applied to their top choice actually got in, they were accepted, but only 57% actually ended up attending that first choice school. experts say the cost of college appears to be the deciding factor. we'll learn more about how much last month's wintry blast across the country hurt the economy. for that and the rest of the news before the bell let's turn to courtney reagan. good morning. >> good morning to you. futures mostly higher after stocks closed flat on wednesday, report shows the private sector added fewer jobs than expected last month while the fed confirms severe winter weather hurt the economy. we get data on unemployment and labor costs as well as factory orders. the dow slipping 35 to 16,360, the nasdaq up 6 points to 4357. regulators or general motors to provide detailed information why

it took so long to recall 1.4 million cars for faulty ignition switches. gm linked to the 31 crashes and 13 deaths. the national highway traffic safety administration wants more than 100 questions answered by april 3 starting with why gm did not replace the switches when it noticed the problem in 2004. several retailers report february sales including gap and victoria's secret, a glimpse at thou winter weather affected business. forecasts call for total sales to rise 1.9% versus 5% growth last year. many stores still have winter merchandise on the shelves heavily marked down as they try to clear space for spring items. back to you. >> thank you much. what i can't figure south victoria's secret and the winter weather would that decrease price because it's cold or increase. >> you always need underwear. hot or cold.

right? >> yes. you know. most days. in san francisco right now we are waking up to cloudy skies, a little drizzle so the kind of weather that makes you want to stay inside and maybe stay in your underwear. you'll notice we have some sunshine on the horizon. we'll start to see the sun even by 1:00 temperatures in the 60s there, elsewhere you'll find cloud coverle hodding on, let's take to you the south bay. into the 60s but you'll notice it's not overly warm. we'll see plenty of sunshine this afternoon even though it's not going to be overly warm it will feel nice with that clear sky by this afternoon. you can see the rain move through. that cleared out the atmosphere. hazy particulates going to make for a beautiful afternoon and air quality is going to be very comfortable. you'll notice those as you look at live radar, still a few returns on the radar near morgan hill, gilroy. you may run into some drizzle even across the bridge gaps we

may see some. overall i think we're done with the heaviest part of this storm. a nice weekend shaping up once we get into tomorrow, plenty of sunshine and look at this, by saturday and sunday, 70s all across the board. the only place that will cool on sunday is the north bay as our next storm system starts to take shape. that will move flew into sunday night into monday. you can see that on the seven-day forecast. let's turn it over. >> thank you so much. a man who took cell phone photos up the skirts of women riding the subway in boston did not break the law t ruling of the massachusetts high court. the state court says the so called peeping tom laws prohibits people being photographed when partly nude. the way the law is written the court says it does not protect clothed people from being photographed in public areas. massachusetts lawmakers say they will work quickly to update the law. >> for the second day in a row oscar miss forrious's defense lawyers grilled one of the

olympian's neighbors. the lawyer says the witness and his wife changed their testimony to match one anothers in order to incriminate pistorius. both witnesses say they heard gun shots and a woman screaming but the defense claims the noise they heard was pistorius hitting the bathroom door with a bat and the screaming was the olympian yelling for help. pistorius says he shot his girlfriend by mistake thinking she was an intruder. prosecutors say it was on purpose. cinequest will honor a man hailed as a hero. >> a documentary about mark bingham will be screened at camera 12 tonight called "rugby player." bingham was on flight 93 on september 11, 2001. terrorists hijacked the plane. investigators believe they were planning to crash it into our nation's capital. before that bingham and others

stormed the cabin forcing the plane to crash in an open field. no one on the ground was hurt. >> still ahead, an east bay teacher has a special invitation for a hollywood star. >> i am a will ferrell, will you please chaperone the senior ball with me? >> oh, my. coming up his list of reasons for asking will ferrell to prom. >> awesome. over here across the bay, beautiful lights even from this side. we're looking at a smooth flow of traffic. we'll talk about the north bay and what to expect out of the tri-valley.

welcome back. sports fans hoping to experience the new 49ers stadium in santa clara can do so without breaking the bank. >> the first event at levi stadium features the san jose earthquakes against the sounders. tickets for that soccer match go on sale for the public next friday, they start about $45 apiece. the same at a 49ers game about $100. a seat license is 2,000 to $80,000. >> those are all sold. so good luck with that. speaking of the niners jim harbaugh reverted back to his basketball days. harbaugh drained a half quart

shot, there it goes, visiting the university of kansas basketball team. he was there giving the athletes a pep talk before their matchup against tex tech. the most impressive thing he made his signature shot in his signature game day look, khakis and 49ers cap. >> his poor wife. like please with the pants. all right. a serious question for actor will ferrell. will he go to prom? >> with him. in a youtube video chad points out he is a happily married man with two kids but his wife can't go to prom so he need as fellow chaperone. >> i've got a lot of good reasons for you. there is a chocolate fountain, we could ride on a school bus, all the way there with a bunch of teenagers. i promise to buy you a bootboot from a chain grocery store.

here is the picture of what i think of two us will look like at the dance. >> his list of reasons continues. for some time. he says both him and his students are huge fans of farrell and making the video they hope it goes viral. i can't siay viral yet. if he shows up he would probably, quote, probably cry and jump for joy. >> a for effort. mi nice video. >> a look at the traffic with mike. i'd go with him. quite an invite. >> it is. when i think of responsibility i think of will ferrell as well. over here we're looking at 580. a smooth easy drive now. a little glow to the light. overnight rain left wet roadways. dublin smooth but you have a lot of company. that's typical for 580.

actually coming out of the altamont pass into the livermore valley a smooth drive. a wider view of the bay. no major crashes. we have the car in the mud off whipple avenue. or whipple road i should say. southbound 880. here eastbound 80 reports of tire debris in the lanes. this may have been a car that hit that. speeds in the green including 37, we'll look at 101 with our live shot through san rafael southbound just the beginning of the morning commute. back to you. >> thank you, mike. still ahead, a disturbing story, a beloved dog found dead in a stolen suv. the surveillance video that police hope will help us catch this guy responsible. >> so sad. plus a south bay fire department says it will cut back on water use. find out how coming you up.

san jose's cinequest film festival will feature films. this is going to hit close to home that focuses on the south bay man who rushed the cockpit on united flight 93 on anyone/11. >> firefighters say they plan to cut down how much water they use. we'll explain that coming up. >> we saw a decent amount of rainfall that is moving out of the region so expect sunshine. we'll detail the thursday forecast coming up. >> overnight rains we have wet roads, a smooth drive across the bay. in the east bay we're following a commuter who is a stick in the mud. >> a live look outside, mike, it's thursday, march 6th. this is "today in the bay." good morning to you. straight up 5:00. i'm peggy bunker in for laura garcia-cannon. >> i'm scott mcgrew. we begin with the developing