never had to use it to protect my life and i really wish i didn't have to. >> the man accused of stabbing a teenage boy to death at a park tells his side of the story from behind bars. >> a fire investigation on the peninsula takes a surprising turn. why officials say someone set a house on fire to cover up another crime. >> california's earthquake early warning system put to the test in southern california. we'll tell you if it passed. >> taking a live look outside this morning to san francisco, that bay bridge. good morning on this tuesday, march 18th. this is "today in the bay."

good morning. it's 4:30 a.m. i'm peggy bunker. >> i'm laura garcia-cannon. lots to get to. let's check the forecast with christina. >> hey, good morning to you, peggy, laura, everybody at home. it's a chilly start but we're going to see a spring-like finish even though we're a couple days from the official kickoff of the new season. spring arrives on thursday. and temperatures are going to climb until then. we're keeping that rain in the forecast for next week and i can tell you right now it's looking really promising for upwards of an inch. we'll tell you when that arrives and what the changes will hold for tuesday. it's a traffic tuesday. let's check on that now. >> all right. it's also 4:31 and 30 seconds, toward the coliseum is light but we warn folks there is still construction going on northbound 880, that's the direction we're seeing the headlights traveling toward us, at hagenberger outside of our shot. reports of one, maybe two lanes traffic, we see it on our

sensors. there you go, north past the coliseum, yellow means coming down to 60 miles per hour, below from my reading of the areas before and after the coliseum. and again, one lane lost, so that shouldn't be a major issue. the rest of the bay good including the dumbarton and the san mateo bridges. a look at the speeds, southbound your commute for 101, no problem there is including 37 westbound from vallejo. talking about the san mateo bridge you can see the traffic off of the high rise coming toward is very light flow across the bay. no wind advisories. calm situation. back to you. >> it's 4:32. investigators are deciding whether a deadly stabbing at a popular park was self defense this morning, we're hearing from the man police arrested in the case from jail, todd tells nbc bay area he was being attacked by up to six men he believed to be gang members when he says he pulled out a knife to defend himself. police found him badly beaten in the park.

16-year-old ivan was taken to the hospital with a stab wound where he later died. todd admits he stabbed the teen but says he was defending himself. >> definitely because i was on the ground probably about 45 seconds to a minute, that whole time i was getting hit in the head, kicked in the head, hit with a bottle. >> at a vigil last night friends said he was not a gang member. >> this is a 16-year-old boy that we all know and he is not like that. he is not gang affiliated and would never throw a first punch. if anything he did self defense. >> diaz' friends say tharpe is trying to get out of trouble by claiming self defense. tharpe hess he can't imagine what the family is going through. >> this morning the driver is under arrest, concord police

arrested tyler larsen of antioch at his home last night after they got a tip from chp. they say they found evidence and damage to his pickup truck. take a look at this video. it shows pushing a shopping cart before police say she was hit by larson. the crash happened sunday night. investigators say she was on the sidewalk when larsen's truck swerved and hit her. >> also in milpitas police are looking for the driver who hit an 80-year-old man on sunday night. it happened at south park victoria drive and canton drive. that victim is in critical condition but should survive a. witness spotted a newer gold pickup truck speeding away from the scene. >> a man accused of trying to run down two san francisco officers will be back in court today. jeffrey ruano was pulled over and allegedly tried to back into them. one of the officers opened fire and may have accidentally shot his partner. police originally thought ruano

shot the officer but he was never charged with that crime. >> police in mountain view are looking for someone they think set a fire to a home to cover up a burglary. we told you about this fire yesterday on fordman way. a man driving by called 911, then went door-to-door warning neighbors. after the fire was knocked down investigators realized some of the items were missing. we're told the homeowner was out of town. the owner's car was also taken. investigators say it's a 2003 blue audi with a california license of 5 hjm 491. >> three east bay teens are credited with saving a woman from a burning home. a neighbor says he saw smoke and tried to grab the woman but couldn't do it by himself tflt teens came to the rescue. >> pushed me aside and went in, grabbed her in the chair and brought her out and the dog out on the leash and everything. at the same time brought her oxygen tank out.

so they happened to be by. and they were playing hooky i guess so they get excused today. >> another woman in the home was able to get out without help. it took firefighters about 45 minutes to put out the fire. >> new developments on the missing malaysian plane. the chinese ambassador said background checks into the chinese citizens uncovered no links to terrorism. we learned the turn made by missing malaysian flight 370 was preprogrammed into the plane's computer system. that means someone had to type 7 or 8 key strokes into a computer between the captain and first officer instead of manually operating the plane's controls. the search area has also expanded to 2.4 million nautical miles about the size of the continental u.s. >> at 4:36 a new recall to tell you about possibly tied to tainted meat. health officials recall crave

garlic pepper jerky. it was produced in january of last year through january 7 of this year. january 1-7, it was shipped to stores nationwide. that variety of jerky may contain bad beef from the rancho feeding corporation. earlier this year the slaughter house recalled 7.8 million pounds of beef because it processed diseased animals without proper federal inspection. >> 4.4 earthquake in southern california put an early warning system to the test. it worked. a network of seismic sensors gathered data about the quake from what's call a t wave sending researchers an alert that the shaking would be coming. that warning arrived about eight seconds before the ground shook, seismologists say sensors in the bay area could also provide

advanced warning. >> some areas like the bay area where we have enough stations where it will work just as well as we saw in los angeles. >> seismologists at usgs would like to give the public access to the early warning system on smart phones but the system needs about $80 million of improvements before it's ready. >> eight seconds is a considerable amount of time. >> it is to get under the desk as you saw the morning anchors do. >> duck and cover. train for it in california. >> turning to the microclimate forecast as we look outside at san francisco. boy, that's beautiful. >> isn't it. what a lovely way to start your tuesday morning. mondays are gone. don't forget downtown san jose, clear out there. let's check the forecast with meteorologist christina loren. >> hey, good morning to you. 4:38. you know what, we're going to have a beautiful day today. we've got rain in the forecast, quite a bit of rain as we head into next week so enjoy. the stretch of spring-like weather as long as it lasts. hope you had a great st. patrick's day. back to the real world, today is

going to be easy weather wise. temperatures comfortable. we have really nice air coming off the ocean this morning. though not a lot of fog, so as we progress throughout the morning we expect temperatures to climb. this is what you can expect. a little patchy fog to kick off the day. by lunch time complete sunshine in the forecast. so just watch out for low clouds. we expect our fog to settle in throughout the next couple hours along u.s. 1. sunny, though, by 10:00 a.m. what a beautiful day shaping up. warming really kicks in so today is going to end up 5 to 8 degrees warmer than where we ended up yesterday. mostly clear by tonight. the temperatures start to drop off as we head into the evening hours. look at the temperatures today in san francisco. 67 degrees. 74 in the south bay, tri-valley at 74 for today. that's a warm day when you consider you are typically in the upper 60s. north bay 75 degrees for you, 74 along the peninsula, and check this out, mike, east bay, breezy through the hills but 70 degrees straight up. hard to beat that.

>> it is. so midday looks great for a lot of folks around the bay. bay area is great anyway. as far as the weather. traffic, well, we're looking here and this is the bay bridge on the incline. you see the flashing lights. those bright white lights near the center coming eastbound off of the deck and getting up on toward the treasure island area. you have flashing lights. both sides have one, maybe two lanes blocked coming around the bend. doing some road work below the road work on the bay bridge. no problems as far as surprises. look at the map. we see an easy flow across the bay. on the bay bridge, the commute direction toward san francisco. getting a wider look, the approach out of the east bay. across the san mateo bridge. a nice flow of traffic in the green zone. you have your typical overnight road crews for 680 around alum rock, 101 around capital expressway. another around a live look at

palo alto, 101 there, no problems for the bayshore. same for 280. possible fog along 1 and the coast. we're looking at 580, at speed through livermore and into dublin. a blurry look, sorry, this is approaching. it's not your eyes but it's -- it might be all of our eyes. let me rub mine. >> a lot of people had guiness yesterday. >> still ahead on "today in the bay," a special honor for san jose's own polina edmunds. >> also a report released shedding new light on the deadly shooting that took place at l.a.x., what we're learning about a lack of communication between first responders.

welcome back everyone. it's 4:44. despite warnings from much of the world russian president putin is expected to tell lawmakers russia should take over the crimean peninsula. japan announced it is joining

the u.s. and european union in opposing sanctions on russia. yesterday the u.s. froze assets against 11 russian and ukrainians including some in putin's inner circle. critics say it's not enough. >> i don't know when the president and his advisers are going to wake up to what putin is really all about. >> our focus continues to be on supporting economic and diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the situation. >>ukraine is calling up 40,000 reservists to fight russian troops in crimea. the u.s. may help but the white house insist there is will be no boots on the ground. vice president joe biden arrived in poland today and will later travel to lithuania. he hopes to reassure our nato allies and send a russia to not go further. >> more than 60 years after being killed in action during the korean war a bay area man is recognized for bravery. president obama will give corporal joe the medal of honor, back in november 1950 he drove

back troops for an hour as grenades exploded around him. one of them ended up killing -- almost ended up killing him. he is one of 24 honored at the white house this afternoon. his brother will accept the medal on his behalf. tonight san jose will recognize the city's star polina edmunds. the council will present a commendation during its meeting at 7:00. the sophomore placed ninth in her olympic debut at sochi proving that she will be a serious contender for the next winter olympics in 2018, also on the agenda more discussion on the pilot program to release vacant motel rooms to house the homeless. >> a high profile legal battle between a bay area start-up and the beasty boys has reached a settlement. an agreement to dismiss a claim filed by goldie blocks against the ban was filed yesterday in

san jose. terms of the settlement were not disclos disclosed. it's after a youtube video with a parody of the hit song girls really had copy right infringement complaints. the video was later edited without that song. >> they did well, that company. 4:47. checking in with christina loren getting a look at our tuesday. >> you know, we've got a good day. want to start with the wind. what a difference 24 hours make in this department. no wind to tell you about. this time yesterday we had the 20 to 30-mile-per-hour wind speeds sustained and it was gusting even stronger. so, things looking up on a tuesday morning. a good looking day shaping up as you get ready, getting the little ones ready for school, dress them for the two parts of the day. much colder this morning than 24 hours ago. we lose the wind, we lose that warmth. 74 degrees in the south bay for today. it's going to be nice down here.

74 along the peninsula, east bay at 74 degrees. and here's the deal. we head through tonight into tomorrow we get this brief offshore flow event. and that means we're going to see a brief warm-up. take a look at the next five days. temperatures are going to continue to climb through thursday, the first official day of spring. then this weekend you notice your temperatures are dropping off friday and saturday as an area of low pressure rides closer to the california coastline. this is going to bring us rain it looks like tuesday into wednesday. our futurecast models are in agreement. hopefully this chance will get betterment i expect the system to track to the south. hopefully and possibly right now likely looking to produce 3/4 inch of rain in san jose. we have a lot to go over. stick with us, a long show and we're with you all morning long helping you get ready. back to you, peggy and laura. >> the new head of microsoft will hold a news conference next week. there are reports he will unveil

a version of office for the ipad, for that and the rest of the news before the bell we turn to bertha coombs live at cnbc world headquarters. good morning to you. >> hey, good tuesday morning. we've got breaking news, vladamir putin addressing the russian parliament says that they have recognized crimea but don't believe those who think that we have designs on all of ukraine, we just want to get the people from crimea who want to be with us and that has helped the futures turn around. there has been a lot of concern that russia is going to incrementally try to piece things back together, but right now the market is taking some so lis from the fact that it doesn't appear or putin says he doesn't have greater ambition. the dow breaking a five-day losing streak. traders say the fact that the crimea vote happened without major incidents is one of the reasons, also good data on industrial output ji jumped the

most in six months. the fed starting a two-day meeting today and expected tomorrow and janet yellen has her first conference to say they are going to continue with their cutting back on stimulus efforts, that the economy is strong enough. the dow will start at 16,247, a higher start than that, the nasdaq at 4279 after rising 34 points. sony pictures reportedly is expected to announce today layoffs across its studio operations, sony interactive will also be hit by job cuts. in november sony hired a firm to help identify more than $100 million in cuts. the company plans to reduce marketing costs for films. and microsoft's new ceo will unveil a version of office for the ipad. he is set to speak to media and executives next week on moist 27, reports say microsoft has an ipad and iphone version of office, they had it for several months but delayed the release due to internal and they have

undergone a big shift and a lot of revisions. still restructuring going on. back to you. >> sounds like -- thank you for the latest. a new report on last year's shooting says that emergency responders had no idea where to go. that report released says there was a serious lack of communication between agencies and also says it took the police and fire department about 45 minutes to come together from separate command posts. also tsa, when the agent was shot and also three others wounded in the november shooting. >> a truckee based contractor facing two counts of involuntary manslaughter following the death of two men. the victims san jose man and los gatos man died from carbon monoxide poisoning. the prosecutors say 41-year-old curt showming, the president, did not have proper permits for work done on the home. the investigators say an

employee cut an exhaust pipe and that vented into the home. prosecutors say his negligence play add significant role in their death. >> 4:51. still ahead on "today in the bay," keeping the a's in oakland, a major step forward in the push to build a new waterfront ballpark. >> your live look at the maze, the traffic off the curve to the right, that's the berkeley curve, that's smooth now but we have a new issue toward the dublin interchange. i swung the camera around.

4:54. the port of oakland is backing a plan to build a new water front ballpark for the a's. next week port officials are expected to approve teaming up with a group of businessmen to lay the groundwork for a stadium at the site of a shipping terminal. the group which includes the ceo of clorox is proposed to deposit for land appraisaappraisal. the co-owner said that the proposed stadium would not pan out. >> have you seen this a 3-year-old youtube sensation from san jose. >> he's got a job offer this kid from ellen. she wants to retain him as her attorney. >> no. >> look. linda, linda, look.

>> such a great video. it went viral arguing with his mom, linda. more than 4 million views. again mateo, you can believe it is 3 years old. we showed you a small part. he is arguing because it was like a case of an emergency. the emergency was is that he wanted a cupcake for dinner. he was like linda, honey, you need to listen to me. it was adorable. you can watch mother and son today on ellen on nbc bay area. >> you know when you need a cupcake you need a cupcake. there is no messing around. i side with him. you know. >> linda, linda, honey. >> goodness. >> you know, it was definitely the case of not want a cupcake, need a cupcake. >> there's a difference. >> why there was the need. correct. looking to the westbound, not a great shot, but i saw flashing lights. you see regal cinema.

fire trucks cross the freeway and get off there as well. just passed the on ramp a crash, looks like the flashing lights just cleared the shot. the slowing cleared the sensors, that may be better news. sounded like minor incident. they had to move. there is the flow for the north bay no. slowing around the bay but we're starting to build. >> thanks so much. 4:57. still ahead t future of the iconic dome theater going up for debate in san jose tonight. why the city's mayor says they must go. >> plus t high flying cars could one day soar through the bay area. what must happen tonight to make this dream a reality.

hours ago russian president vladamir putin made new moves to make crimea part of russia. the latest in a live report. >> plus, what one peninsula school district is saying after reports that a student was able to alter their grades.

>> and we're getting into the last two days of winter. good thing is we are going to warm you up, a nice clear start to the day. temperatures 5 to 8 degrees milder this afternoon. we still have that great chance for rain. we'll take you through your full forecast. >> that weather looks great. the speeds are coming down. we'll talk you through them and the flashing ones i saw traveling through the area as well. >> a live look outside on this tuesday morning, always love that shot. never get tired of the beautiful bay bridge. clear out there. nice way to start our tuesday morning, march 18th, this is "today in the bay." a very good morning to you. thanks for joining us. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> and i'm peggy bunkerment we have new information on a developing story. just moments ago vladamir putin told the russian parliament the country should take