wi anthem blue cross, yore free to enjoy value like never before. ♪ present obama is in afghanistan right now. a surprise visi to deliver a personal message of appriation to america's troops. >> the president received a rousing welcome from service members of all mility grab muches at the air force base. the president thanked the troops for their courage and sacrifice, especially during the holiday season. >> thanks your service we are making important progress. you are precting your country. you're achieving your objectives. you wi succeed in your mission. >> the president's visit comes exactly a year after he approv pentagon plans to wind down military operations.

also day before the release of a pivotal review about the nine-year conflict. a meeting with karzai was scrapped becae of bad weather. >> the army and marines say letting gays serve openly during wartime would be difficult. general james amos and army chief of staff general george casey testified before the senate armed services commite. they challenged a study that says the risk of doing away with "don't ask, don't tell" wou be low. >> my suspicions are that the law will be repeeled. and all i'm asking is the opportunity to do that at a time choosing when my marines are not single arly what they're doing in a very deadly environment. >> general casey testified changing the law now would add another level of stress to an

already stressed force. if the policy was implemented properly, it wld not prevent the army from doing its job. democrats promised a vote to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" but its chanceses of passing this year are consider to be slim. >> vice president joe biden says today's weak jobs rept is disappointing and assigned the economic recovery is fragile. it climbed to 9.8%. it was 9.6 in october. employers added 39,000 jobs in november, that's well below the analysts' expectations. california's unemployment is 12.4. the economy needs to add up to 300,000 jobs a month to bring the unemployment raid do significantly. the vice president sayit's critical that congress extend unemployment benefits before the end of the year. republican john boehner says congress must ac now to cut spending and extend those tax cuts for everyone.

if you are looking for a job you might find one at th next job journal hire event. it's next tuesday from 11:00 to 3:00 at the windham hotel in san jose. >> the meers of the president obama budget deficit committee voted in favor of a plan to flash the nation's growing deficit but the pl did not get the supermajorityecessary to automatically put it if in front of congress. the plan would cut $4 trillion from the budget over the coming decade though through accommodatioof tax increases and spending cuts, those include raising the retirement age, freezing the pentagon budget and ending tax breaks on healthcare and mortgage interes >> the man accused of the a child sexual assault that has shocked the bay area is waiting to hear the charges against him now in superior court in fremont. eugene ramos is accused of raping a toddler two days ago inside a dollar tree store in union city. terry mcsweeney joins us now from the courthouse in fremont. >> eugene ramos is here at the

superior court building here in fremont for his arraignment. it was scheduledor this morning at 9:00. it has been pushe back until this afternoon. whenev occurs he will fails a slew of charges. he was here above normal security. he has a 2:00 arraignment and we have pictures where those in kurtdy are brought to court. 1:00 wednesday aftnoon ram moles was in the dollar store in union city. a two-year-ol girl and her grandmother were there. they got separated for less th a minute from the grandmother and when she found the little girl ram moles was sexually assaulting her there in an aisle. investigators are at a loss to explain such an act performed in such a way. >> not concerned aut who's going to witness the event. this has us baffled. >> i have two kids, six years old and two. and it's scary for everyone.

>> after this afternoon's arraignment, ramos will be returned to jail where he's held on $63,000 bail. ramos is in what they call administrative seegation meaning he's in a cell by himself. he can only leave it one hour a day. that's specia protection for a man charged with such a heinous crime and a man already convicted in 2003 for assaulting a seven-year-old girl in hayward. thomas ramon is down here. he'll be inside the courtroom. he'll have it at 5:00 and 6:00. >> terry, very motion case there. former bart police officer johannes mehserle returns to court today in los angeles. his attorney will ask a judge to let mehserle go free on bail while he appeals his conviction. last month mehserle was sentenced to two years in prison for involuntary manslaughter in

the fatal shooting of oscar grant. the former bart police officer claims he made a mistake thinki he was firing his taser at gra's back instead of his firearm. the attorney will argue the judge should release the client because he has a good chance of overturng on appeal. >> what do you think about this defens >> i think it's possle mehserle could be released pending appeal but it seems extremely unlikely. >> let's look at the factors the judge considers before he decides to set bail or not. >> the defennt has the burden of proof as you might expect. he has to convince the judge and that's the burden, by clear and convincing evidenche has to show he's not going to flee the jurisdiction, not likely to reoffend and th he has some substantial issues that might result in the reverl of his conviction. >> you don't think he's going to be let out at all. >> looks good on paper.

if ever there was a homicide defendant who could me an argument for bail, mehserle would be it but i have never in my career seen a convicted felon convicted in a homicide crime released pending appeal. >> whether or not you call it fleeing the jurisdiction, h did leave the area and go to another state briefly before he was charged. will that play into this factor? >> certain. it's not as if he fled the country but he went to another state. that means he has commuty ties in another state and can leave the jurisdiction and might have to be expedited to be brought back into court. >> so itidn't look good. >> it didn't look good. possible in any other homicide case, i would sayt's just not on the table at all, not in the cards but this case maybe. >> all right. we'll be watching. gene johnson, thank you for joining us. >> investigators are trying to figure ou what caused an early morninfire of fine boats

docked in oakley. nobodyas on board the boats that burned; however, two people on nearby vessels jumped into the water to avoid all the heavy smoke. they were rescued by the coast guard. >> this may surprise you but reelected senator barbara boxer not only beat her opponent, she outspent her. the numbers straight ahead. >> saving young lives proposing new rules that would eliminate drivers' blind spots. >> a histoc demition. the wrecking ball drops on san

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>> the transportation departmented wants to require rear view rror cameras in all vehicles in 2014. it's to eliminate blind spots and prevent drivers from accidentally backing over children. it will help assure drivers know when it's safe to back up. >> when you're talking about the type of situations here where very, very young children are being injured or killed, i mean, something needs to be done. this is not a small problem. >> the governme estimates nearly 300 people are killed and 18,000 are injured each year because of backovers. nearly half the deaths involve children under the age of five. >> well, on to something a little different.

crowdsf children and adults in san francisco are watching a peels of history disappear before their very eyes at a wrecking ball starts dells troys the old trans bay terminal. the wrecking ball is on that lead crane. that is called big red. it has a lot of concrete to pound through on mission street. theresa garcia is there watching history crumble. >> this is a significant point in the demolition ofhe old trans bay terminal building to make way for the new trans bay project center here. take look behind me this is is some of the afternoon math that you see the work is paused for now bu we're going to share with you the histic first round of wrecking ball strikes. what you hear and see is 8,000 pounds of a ball of ste slamming into the front of the 71 trans bay terminal on mission

street. this morning's construction activity is drawing crowds of spectators. they are o the sidewalk and watching from above in offices of surrounding downtown buildings. the wrecking ball will be used many more times over the next two months for demolition work. construction will begin forhe sleek $4 billion terminal built of steel and glass and it will serve 4 million passengers a year. what is ing demolished is not going to waste. >> the raw merials of the building, e concrete and the steel, all the steel beams and rebar are being segregated and taken away for recycling into new products. the concrete material itself we're gog to be crushi here on-site and using that to back-build the basemt. that will be our working platform after which we start our construction. >> the regional transit hub will connect the public with the first high speed rail station in the u.s.

it has seven high rises, 2600 housing units and even a rooftop city park. back out here live from the perspective of sky 7 hd, you can see this is the area dubbed the grand central statn of the west. aside from serving commuters, it's stimuling the economy generating more than 134,000 jobs in all. the landmark new transit center is scheduled to open to the public in 2017. live in san francisco, theresa garcia, abc 7 news. >> all right, theres thank you. >> meteorologist mike nicco is ahead with our forecast. >> what do you say we look outside and see what mother nature is offering us. cloud conditions and flight arrival delays 35 minutes. waves of rain will roll through the weekend forecast. i'll give you a timetable and how much to expect in your neighborhood. >> mike, thank you. alsohis year's most popular baby names. the girls have a new number one.

♪ well, not only did senator barbara boxer beat her opponent at the ballo box she outspend her opponent. it according$28 million and to filings with the federal

election commission. republican carly fiorina raised $26.3 llion and spend $22 million. that includes a million she lent to her campaig and it was repaid. remember initially democrs were worried that fiorina's personal fortune would give her the advantage in this race. >> sacramento california's new chief justice will take her oath of office in less than half an hour. a 12-year term during last month's electi. the 51-year-old is only the second woman and the first minority to serve as chief justice of the state premium court. she previously served on the appeals court inacramento. >> time to take a look at the weather forecast. mike was showing us the view outside. a little gray out there. >> a little gray just about everywhere but the sky a little calmer than it was this morning. could open up from time to time but nothing like what it was going to do this weekend. heavenly valley they could use some more snow.

right now they are kind of qui and the advisory from this morning expired at 10:00 but more snow is on the way this weekend while we're getting our rain and the snow level rather high, aroundix to 7,000 feet. look at sky 7 hd. line over sr. san francisco. that's not pollution as much of a mixture of humidity. a sohwesterly flow above the northeasterly flow of the surface kind of overturning the mixed moisture. it looks pretty hazy outside. live doppler 7 hd, nothi going on. rainfall amounts in the overnight hours from one-one hundredth in dubl and 1500 in napa. 800 mill valley and the same in petaluma. temperaturespper 40s. low to mid-50s for everybody else except mountain view. warmer 57.

inland mid to upper 50s. scattered light sher chance today. the greate coverage sunday. briefly dry monday afternoon through wednesday morning. down in the south bay upper 50s to near 60 degrees today. the same type of temperatures on the peninsula as you head over to the coast. we'll have mid to upper 50s and those upr 50s will spill into downtown and south san francisco. mid to upper 50s through the north bay. this would be the best area for any organized shower activy but it could b anywhere today just like it was yesterday. mid to upper 50s on the east bay shore, 60 fremo. low to mid-60s not only around the bay but inland. tonight mostly cloudy, drizzle. a few low 50s around the bay shoreline. here we are at noon. you can see radar showi the best chance up in the north bay. during the even hours maybe a little drizzly. cloudy and not a washout by any

mean tomorrow morning wake up to maybe a scattering of showers. that is numbe one. that will start to taper a little bit saturday into sunday morning before the stronger storm system starts to roll in sunday afternoon and through the evening hours. rainfall amounts about a quarter to a half inch around the bay. the heaviest in the santa cruz mountas. the least likely amounts in the south bay up to a third of an inch. heading to tahoe, expect snow showers once again each and every day above 7,000 feet. seven-day forecast, temperatures remain mid to upper 50s throughout the forecast period. after that dry weather monday and tuesday, anoer chance of rain on wednesday. >> thanks, buddy. enjoy your weekend. >> you, too. >> what about me? >> you have work to do. >> i do. the top baby names for 2010, for the girls a new number wen, sophia. charlotte, ava, addison and oliv.

babymes.com compiled that list. as for the boys aidan is still the clea favorite. it's been at the top of the list the past seven years. liam, noah, jackson and ian round out the top five. popular literatu influence all the baby-namin trends. >> fans of the world series champion giants can lock up tickets today to some of next season's home game a limited number of tickets to 33 games went on sale about an hour and a half ago. these are bleacher seats between april and june. these are are matchup against the reds, the braves, the a's. the sale ends december 12th. if you don't get your tickets now you have to wait until they go on sale february. >> hottest picks around. >> yo bet. >> friday's perfect pet. >> mike's going to introduce us

>> today on opra at 4:00 when your mom is a no coreious killer. wikileaks struggles to stay online. lap band surgery for the obese. the fda could lower the critea necessary to qualify for this risky procedure. >> right now perfect pet time. >> we have mike and rutherford. >> rutherford. sort of doing the dog version of

hurrying. look! he's enjoying you. >> thank you. thank you, mike. >> from the oakland spca. tell us a little about rutherford. >> rutherford is a chihuahua mix. not sure what else. maybe terrier. >> nice coat on him. >> yes, he does. he is about the same size, weight as he is in age almost. he's about seven and a half and weighs about nine pounds. he found his way on to th spca grounds himself. >> no kidding? >> he kind of felt he needed some help i guess so we gave it to him and got his teeth taken care of and all clead up and well fed. now he's ready to go home with somebody. part of our club second chance which means adoption fee is half price d extra little bennys that go along, too. >> you want to expre and go are cheryl? he's looking over there.

>> good for somebody that wants a little lap guy. doesn't need a lot of exercise. lots of love and snuggly. >> how can you look at that face. you gotta call the spca. give rutherford a home for the holidays and beyond. nice seeing you. happy holays. >> happy holidays, mike, great to s you, too. >> thanks, mike. >> f

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