. if you're thinking about leaving for the bart station don't. there are systemwide delays because of an equipment problem in the east bay. some of the stranded bart riders. the transit agency is telling people to fin some other way to get around, not the trains. lee ann is live at the fruitdale bart station with more. >> eric, this is the end of the line for many passengers comi from dublin, pleasann and fremont. it all started at 7:50 this morning at the lakeerritt statio during the peak commute time crews reported a smoking cable. that put one track out of commission and what made matters worse was bt telling

passengers to take alternate transportation. no buses were eve put in place. this affecd passengers on the richmond line coming into oakland from richmond and berkeley. >> i took a cab from berkeley here to the bart station. >> that's expensive. >> yeah. about $30. >> i'm going to a doctor's appoinent. they know about the inconvenience on the bart so it's going to be okay. >> the good news, the morning commute is over. the bad news, bart doesn't know when service will be restored. crews are working on the problem. i'm live from the fruit dale bart station in oakland. >> all righ thank you very much. the bay area is getting ready for what could be a week of rain. the chp is investigates wheth wet roads caused it big rig crash. it crashed about 12:30 this morning. the driver suffered minor

injuries. and ashe rain falls here, the snow is falling in the sierra. chains or snow tires are required for highways 50 and 80 and some predictions say the sierra could see 10 feet of new snow in the next week. mike has the latest. >> we open the flood gates to the warm, moist air this morni with a round of showers. kind of dissipated on live doppler 7 hd. heading out of the east bay we have some around livermore, dublin into the altamont pass to the sunol grade. a little along the san mateo bridge and that's about it. as f as the best radar returns. go up to the north bay. seeing some, this is more just cloud cover and the humidity hanging in the air but the rainfall amounts are impressive from 1400 to napa to a quarter of an inch in mill valley. concord abt the same. south bay that's where the first push of wet weather came through. it's pretty quiet except for stray showers. rainfall amounts here are pretty

impressiveor south bay standards. a nth in san jose, nearl a quarr in sunnyvale. cupertino and los gatos about 1200 redwood city. big picture, looking to the west you can see more radar retus developing and that's our next push of weather that could bring us 2 to 4 inches of rain over the weekend. urging residents to be prepared for possible flooding. jenelle wang is live in san carlos to continue our storm coverage. >> mike, i'm at a sandbag station in san carlos where cities are offering free sandbags to the residents. this one somne is loading up now. probably much bigger this morning. residents have come by all morning collecting free sand bags. the problems are in full swing. >> this is a sign what's to come. rain started falling early this

morning and the accents soon followed. during the morning rush hour a multiple vehicle accident tie it had up traffic. in palo alto police are lookin to see if wet roads and speed were factors in this c which left a whi mustang smashed beyond recognition. officers say the 24-year-old male dver hit a telephone pole and a terry along san antonio road near middle field just before 6:00 this morning. when police arrived th found the driver unconscious. >> the fire department arrived and transporte the victim to stanford hospita at this time the victim is in surgery with signifint injuries and it is unknown what his status is. >> the rain could also cause serious problems forome and business owners. stanley kirkland of chilton auto body came to pack sand bags this morning. he's hope to protect his shop from flooding like it did last year. >> everything got all wet. computs. this year we're going to try not

to, get it corrected. >> back live, police want to remind drivers that the roads are slicker than you think, especially on the first day of rain after a dry period that's because the engine oil in the road rises to the surface. reporting live in san carlos, jenelle wang, abc 7 news. >> thanks, jenelle. if you're flying out of san francisco, expect big delays because of the weather. right now officials in san francisco international airport -- that's wha you're looking at -- say arrivin flights are delayed more than two and a half hours. ght now there are no major dela at san jose or oakland but that's expected to change. so your advice call yourarrier before heading to it the airport. for up to the minute information and security wait times, check out our flight tracker at the bottttom of the front page of o websitabc7news.com. stay with abc 7 for storm coverage. if you take pictures or video of any interesting weather scenes, we'd like to see them. you ca upload them.

just go to: a bart police officer fired in the wake of the oscar grant shooti is now being given her job back. a state arbitratoras ordered bart to reitate the officer who was fired last march. she was one of the officers at the fruitdale station platform when grant was shot and killed by officer johannes mehserle. she was fired at the preliminary hearing. mehserle w convicted of involuntary manslaughter early this year. bart believes we did the right thing in acting on the independent internal affairs investigation's recommendation to terminate her employment. the arbitrator made a different decision. it is now out of our hands. the tough economic times are taking their toll on thousds of people in san frcisco as well as the organizatis trying

to help them. people began lining up in the rain last night to receive a free bag of groceries from glide memorial chur this morning. each bag contains a chicken or turkey and items to make a holiday meal. traditionally they hand out 6,000 bags but this year it only had raised enough money for 5,000 bags. still those who received one were very appreciative. >> i'm very grateful and i'm very happy that i'm gonna have a meal for me and my kids and my family. >> thank god for glide for us poor people. i'm a san franciscoian, i've lived here 63 years born and rais. >> a lot of people that have no home and certainly no food unless they get food today and get love and get tohe know they have people who ce for them. >> the giveaway wouldn't have happened without the help of more than 300 volunteers. a single largest beneficiary of

the bernie madoff monsy scheme, a major settlent. the millions the victims will get back. congress passes a sweeping tax bill. and... >> president obamaakes a special visit to an elementary school today. the lesson he had for them on american history. [ male aouncer ] whether you're new to california or you've been grooving here for someime now, you ow that value comes in many forms. for some is a classic car, for others a profession that lets them give back to the next generation for many californians, it's a medicare plan that gives them more for eir money. wi anthem blue cross, you can get a medicare advantage ppo plan thatffers $0 premiums and prescription drug covege, you can see any doctor who accepts medire, even the ones you already know and trust. plus members always talk with a real pern when they call, nosome computer system. that's what we used toall grooving.

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>> the victims of ponzi scheme master mind bernie madoff expect to get some of the $20 billion they lost. the settlement calls for $7.2 billion to be paid to the victims from the estate of jeffrey pickyour. he was the largest single benefiary of madoff's scam but never charged. it included individls, banks, hedge funds and nonprofits. bernie madoff remains in prison serving a 150 year sentence. in less than three hours president obama will sign the bill extending the bush era tax cuts for two more years. it paed on a bipartin vote late last night after getting hours of bipartisan criticism. john hendron reports >> it was an all-night rhetorical assault. >> the greedy will prevail. >> the guns pointed at the head of our taxpars. it will go off january 1st unle congress acts. >> after hours of heated debate,

the house passed the bill exteing the bush tax cuts and adding a few more, easily as it turned out. >> the yeas are 277, the nays are 148. the motion is adopted. >> the warning did not pass it were near apocalyptic. >> paychecks and jobs will burn while washington fiddles. >> our small businesses will be crushed. >> this tax increase will basically hit economic growth, hit pr in this country like a category 5 hurricane. >> the warnings about passing it were equally catastrophic. >> unemployed were being held as hostage. the 112 congress will say insufficie funds. it engangs the very fabric of social security. >> warns it willow be tested. the bill will extend all the bush income tax incuts for two years, cut the payroll tax, extend unemployment benefits for an additional 13 months, reduce

inheritance tax from 55 to 35% and there will be no tax on estates under $5 million. all told it i object creases the national debt over $800 billion and now heads to the president's desk for his signatu. president obama has been keeping up the pressure. this afternoon he signed the tax cut bill crossing off the top line on his chstmas list. meantime democratic leaders in the senate are trying to force votes this weekend on a crowded agenda of legislative priorities. harry reid said today senators could finish workn a nuclear arms treaty, a bill to keep the government runng and a repeal of the military's "don't ask don't tell" policy. president obama turned up at a virginia elementary school to read from his new children's

book. >> havi told you that you're part of a family. a man named abraham lincoln knew that all america should work together. he kept our nation one and promis freedom -- >> the presiden as you heard read chapter about abraham lincoln, albert einstein and jackie robinson. it's a picturbook in the form of a letterto his daughters portraying the lives of 13 great americans. he sigd and left a copy of the book at the school libry. he also read twas the night before chrimas and answered questions about life as president. a case of nature stranded by nature. a coyote hangs on for dear life in the middle of a freezing lake. the rese effort to reach the animal. police officers from one bay area city trade their badges for a different uniform today to bring holiday cheer to dozens of children. >> here's a live look from emeryville back towds the marin headland. the low clouds are returning and

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take a look at this. a coyote was rescued today afr floating on a sheet of ice in chico's lake michigan. now, normally the fire department doesn't rescue wildlife from lake waters but because amal control responded

so quickly to the emergency call, fire crews decided to use a fire boat to brin the animal control official out to the coyote. they say the coyot apparently was sniffing around some fish when the big chunk of ice it was sitting on broke off and drifted away. plenty of rescuers on that boat though. >> well, les see. >> is there a break in the rain? a little bit. >> but it's coming back. >> kind of the way it's going to be. won't be raining every single minute of the day. it will come in wave and we happen to be in between waves. here's a look at heavenly where the flakes aren't quite as fat as they were earlier this morning but they're still very big. and thick and they still have a lot moisture with them. so if you can get up there now before the sun sets, it might be a great idea because once the sun sets those roads are going to become icy. a good batch of rain before the mornin rush. live doppler 7 hd showing how

scattered the rain is right now. best in the north bay right around the heart of the bay into -- well, the dividing line between contra costa county and alameda county where you see a lot of the wind machines, the electrical wind machines a down into the south bay. electrical generating wind machines. here's a look over the last three hours. you can see the winds coming from the south. that's a very moist flow. temperatures are running mid to upper 40s most neighborhoods. around the monterey bay and inland even milder with temperatures low to mid-50s here. we're going to have waves-rain throughout the entire weekend. heavy rain and a breezy wind will look like the nighttime hours will be the best for those. stronger storms tuesda and wednday, the one i'm more concerned with, flooding and possible power outages. today upper 40s to low 50s. clear lake and ukiah maybe cooler in the mid-40s. around the monterey bay rain,

you bet, and temperatures upper 50s monterey bay and salinas. tonight more rain, drizzle. going to be damp. maybe some fog forming. temperatures mid to upper 40s in our inland valleys. here we are at noon. you can see the scattered showers continuing as w head to 5:00. look how quickly they come back and how robust they get in such a quick nature during the evening and overnight hours. by midnight you can see pretty healthy rains o there. as we head into tomorrow morning may get a small break bere more rain starts to develop during the midmorning and mid afternoon hours. during the evenin you see it ramp up once again and into sunday morning. by sunday afternoon we're looking at still pretty much a rainy day. in fact, i think sunday will be the wetter of the two days. rainfall amounts ver impresve. you see the green at least an inch. could get up to 2 inches around the bay, 3 inches the north bay mountains, 4 inches in the santa cruz mountains. maybe a little higher in some isolated areas.

look at the purple here. that's over 8 inche of water equivalent. if you use a ratio of 1 to 10 for snow, that's how you get over 10 feet of snow in the sierra. the wintestorm warning, around tahoe we'll get that 6 feet of snow it's as you head south wards yosemite, those a the places where we could get up to 10 feet of snow. we have rain in the forecast just about ery day. it won't be quiet as heavy at some times like monday before that next system comes in. tuesday, wednesday, that's the one where the ground saturated, that could cause power outages. thursday we see the whole system wind down. temperatures the 50s the entire time. >> santa claus made an early visit to children in oakland this morning. under that santa suit is a traffic officer. the officer arrived on a police motorcycle to pass out toys. some 75 gifts were given to

children. thiss the fourth annual toy give away for the traffic's division. it's with money donated fro the oakland police motorcycle drill team. and there was plenty of holiday cheer at verdi elementary in north richmond. the staff was handing out toys to more than 300 students, all part of survisor john joya's giveaway. two individuals adopted the school and purchased to for every student. how can santa be in two places at one point? next up, friday's perfect pet. mike is going to introducus to fairbanks. honey...? [ mom ] yes.

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>> an update on our breaking news stories. bart has just restored service to its system after an equipment proble in the east bay but delays could last at least until noon, possibly even longer. today at 4:00 just in time for christmas, oakland's ultate favorite things. at 5:00, the grinch who stole christmas, a northern california toy drive ripped off. and a new study uncovers a possible link between living your freeway and autism. this and friday free stu all coming up on abc 7 news at 5:00. time for a trip to fairbanks. >> a nice trip at that. not cold, not snow which. kind of big and loveable.

hi, jen. >> how are you? >> i'm good. this is fairbanks who we call gentle gian tell us a little about him. >> fairbanks is a lovely gentle giant. you might think you need a lar car for this gentle giant but he sat on my lap over here. so no special access sorries needs. perfectly house trained. >> he's staring a your hand. can i have a piece so everybody can see his face. fairbanks? now everybody can see you. oh, there we go. >> good man! >> you say he doesn't necessarily like little dogs but -- >> right. he does do a lot better with larger dogs. or an only dog in the home. he's very gentle and easy going. doesn' need a lot of exercise but stil is placeful. he really wants belly rubs more

than anything. >> is that what u were doing when we went to commercial. he is so cute. any unique story how you got him? >> no unique story. i took a look and unfortunately we don't have much of a story. >> okay. >> but we kno he's perfect. >> hopefully can find him a home. if you're interested in adopting fairbanks or any of the animals that need hom during the holiday season and beyond, call the san francisco spca at 415-554-3000. nice meeting you. thank you for coming. >> you bet. >> from all of us here at abc 7 news thank u for joining

save $523! 16 minutes could save you 16%! come on... isn't it timan auto insurer gave it to you straight? that's whyou should talk to state farm. but not yet. fit, talk to any one of the 40 million drivers who already have state farm. 40 million. yeah, that's more than geico and progressive combined. by a lot. 40 million drivers. more savgs.