♪ president obama landed in oregon within the past hour. the latest stop after his quick visit with silicon valley ceo's. >> he'll continue his push to

keep spending on hi-tech initiatives even as republicans move to slash the budget. terry mcsweeney joins us from san francisco international with more. terry? >> yeah, very short stay for the president. he came here to the bay area to talk about education and jobs. he's going to portland, oregon, to talk about education and jobs and he'll take a tour. we'll take a look what he's going to be touring in a few minutes. a tour of what they describe as the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing plant in the world. it's just outside portland. check out the company's initiatives to encourage young people to become hi-tech scientists and engineers. maybe not such a great idea for california considering oregon is ratcheting up a hi-tech corridor up there and while he's there he's going to ask for help. under cloudy skies president obama left sfo about 8:45 just 16 hours after arriving. this was an official visit to the bay area to talk to heavy

weights in the silicon valley about job creation and education. he's on his way to the semiconductor manufacturing plant to create a job himself. mr. obama will appoint intel president and ceo paul otallini. interesting since otallini criticized policies and failed to create jobs or boost consumer confidence. two interesting pictures from last night's gathering to show you the venture capital at woodside. it shows the president and a virtual who's who of silicon valley. steve jobs, mark zuckerberg, john chambers of cisco, google's schmidt and there are others. the white house spokesman said much of the group discussion last night centered on ways to

invest in innovation and job growth in the public sector. republicans are quick to point out ten of the 12 people at the kinnear last night here in the silicon valley are contributors to president obama and they say this is really a poorly disguised campaign swing, albeit an early one, for the next presidential election. they also have trouble with some of the money he wants to spend on all his projects. terry mcsweeney, abc 7 news. >> thanks a lot. oakland police say they're now closing an investigation into allegations of sexual acts involving second graders inside an oakland elementary school classroom. the incident happened last month. oakland police tell our media partner the oakland tribune that no criminal charges will be filed. investigators believe students were telling the truth but found no evidence adults participated in the acts. a teach was put on administrative leave. >> an east bay private

investigator are expected to make first court appearances this afternoon to face drug charges. they are scheduled to be arraigned on 25 felony charges, including possessing, transporting and selling marijuana, methamphetamine and steroids. the two were arrested together by federal agents on wednesday after an undercover investigation that began in january. welch is the commander for the state central contra costa county narcotics enforcement team and is accused of selling drugs possibly from evidence lockers. his arrest has prosecutors and defense attorneys questioning whether hundreds of arrests made by his task force may have to be thrown auout. >> demonstrations continue to spread in the wake of egyptian and tan nearby shan protests that toppled those countries' region -- regimens.

>> the president is deeply concerned about the governments to show restraint and respect the rights of citizens who are demonstrating peacefully. he also expressed condolences to the families of those killed. more violence and deaths on the island of bahrain as soldiers t anti-government demonstrators marching to landmark square ignoring a government lockdown. that is the same spot where police launched a violent ambush killing five people and wounding hundreds of others. today protestors took a break from demonstrations to bury some of those killed in that attack. >> a libyan website is saying congress there has now held sessions indefinitely and will

take steps to reform the government when it reconvenes. calling for qaddafi to step down. in yemen protestors are calling today a day of rage, the 8th straight day of anti-government demonstrations there. four people are dead and there are countless injuries. in the west bank, palestinians clash with their own palestinian employees. they're calling for unity between the dividing palestinian factors. all these demonstrations inspired by the revolution in egypt where there's a much different picture than the rest of the region. an estimated quarter million egyptians packed the square for a rally and a day of prayer to mark the fall of long-term president mubarak one week ago. protestors are offering words of encouragements to possible uprising around the world. >> keep going, keep going.

>> the revolution in egypt has also prompted protests in algeria, iraq, iran, jordan all this week and today about 6,000 people turned out for a demonstration in the tiny east african nation of jabuddi. >> thank you. a moderate earthquake hit baja, mexico, this morning. it hit 12 miles from guadeloupe, mexico. that's near the border. no surprise how people in southern california and arizona felt shaking. but there's no reports of any damage or injury. >> turning our attention to the latest winter storm to hit the bay area this week. >> caltran video here of i-80 and truckee shows the snow has not let up and strong wind gusts. chains are required, those on interstate 80 and highway 50 unless you have a four-wheel drive with snow tires. >> the bay area is getting another good dose of rain. downtown san jose is one of the weather spots this morning.

definitely a wet start to our president's day weekend. the latest from meteorologist mike nicco. >> a live look at downtown and san jose. the way it looks right now, you can see it's still raining down there, raining for the better part since midnight. also to show you the circular area of the radar returns and because of that most of this in the north is not making it. that's just the radar hitting the tops of the clouds. let's focus in on the green area in the south and the yellow where we've had moderate rain in the santa cruz mountains and snow at 25 feet at times. at the bay moderate rain moving northward toward san francisco. flight arrivals about 65 minutes. everything you see here is not making it to the ground in the north bay but it will as the afternoon unfolds. we have more rain in the forecast for the weekend. i'll have that in a minute. here's cheryl with more news. >> there's a lot of excitement in west dublin for commuters

suffering along the 680 corridor. a brand new bart station is opening and the ceremony is underway right now. amy hollyfield is there for the trains to start running tomorrow. >> cheryl, there's just another bart station a mile down the road but officials can point to several examples why they need one right here and the first example is behind me: more parking. this station is going to have 1200 new parking spots. at the next closest station, all of the spots are usually full by 7:30 in the morning. it's going to ease some heartache right there. the ceremony is full of highway officials. safeway headquarters are right here. there's also the oakridge mall here. so expect this station to get plenty of use. they predict there will be about 4300 riders every weekday. some of those future riders were actually here today to check out the new station. they tell us that they like what they saw. >> i live down the street so

i'll be using it. i'm glad they finally opened it up so i can get to san francisco, oakland, downtown and other parts of the bay with some flexibility and some availability. >> the pedestrian bridges here actually are what held up this project. it took more than four years to build the station because of questions over the strength of the bridge. you do need the bridge because the station is right in the middle of interstate 580. but despite having problems getting to this point, there are plans for more. eventually they want to build a transit village here so people can live here. they won't need a car. they can hop on bart to go shopping or go to work. for now the focus is on the opening and the first train is scheduled to run out of here tomorrow morning at 5:45. live in dublin, amy hollyfield, abc 7 news. >> amy, thanks very much. wisconsin state police are now involved in a state budget battle that's attracted thousands of protestors and sent some legislators into hiding. also the political back and

forth over breast-feeding. why (speaking in international language) and he said unto them go ye into all of the world and preach the gospel preach the gospel  ♪very creature in the world. (applause)

>> an effort to push through an anti-union budget bill in wisconsin is prompting another mass protest today. thousands are gathered outside the state house in madison right now. they're angry over the republican governor's budget proposal that will do away with collective bargaining rights for nearly all state workers and cut benefits. democratic lawmakers are also outraged. >> this governor has proposed in just a mere four days to strip away people's life on the pretext of a budget crisis. a crisis entirely of his own making? >> we don't have 15 months to balance the budget. we gotta balance it now. for those unions that say they want to negotiate i think it's

pretty disingenuous. >> democratic leaders say they could stay in hiding for days or even weeks. the governor has sent state troopers out to look for them. >> well, the federal government may be heading towards a shutdown. democratic leader nancy pelosi said this morning she thinks the shutdown is more likely than not. as her party battles budget cuts. social security workers are already preparing for possible furloughs because the house spending plan to cut that agency's administrative budget by $125 million. >> first lady's push to promote breast-feeding is political fareder for sarah palin. she spoke to a group of new york business owners and took a swipe at the first lady while complaining about the recent increase in food prices. >> no wonder michelle obama is

saying you better rescue your babies because the price of milk is so hard. for economic reasons! >> mrs. obama has been a big proponent of breast-feeding as part of her campaign. most groups have advocated breast milk to be superior to formula for babies. >> mike nicco is back. >> trying like everybody else. just suffering through it. try to be here and help you get through the weekend. let's show you what's going on downtown where the steady rain hasn't made it yet but you can see the thicker clouds are already starting to develop. live doppler 7 hd not only here but also 2 to 4 feet of snow they've already received in the sierra. >> still ahead, a female high school wrestler makes a little history in iowa after her opponent for fits. 

♪ in a state where wrestling is king, they just made history. kathy girkman became the first girl to win a state match yesterday when her opponent forfeited. he defaulted because he says

wrestling a girl would conflict with his religious believes. he is not talking to the media until the tournament ends. >> it's violent at times and my son doesn't belief that girls should be engaged in that way. >> they hope for a title. when she lost to the quarter finals she was pinned in a consolation match and now is out of the tournament. >> holiday weekend but skiers are loving the sounds of that. >> if you can get there, you're gonna have a lot of fun. 2 to 40 feet since wednesday, still expecting more tonight and into tomorrow morning. let's take a look outside and show you what's going on. heavenly, one of the areas that has 2 to 3 feet of new snow from the base all the way to the top runs and doesn't it look absolutely inviting right now. let's bring it back home and show you what's going on. here's a quick look from emeryville up. you can see the clouds hanging around and they are lowering,

thickening and eventually be to the north bay. live doppler 7 hd is showing the lightest of blue over the north bay which means your rain's not making it to the ground but where you see the greens in san francisco, that's making it to the ground. light rain in the east bay, even snow up top of mount diablo, mount hamilton. the snow level has risen quite a bit since this morning. so the snow this afternoon may not be as big a problem. let's put this into motion. and we can see that this all started about three to four hours ago down a little farther to the south and since then it has really picked up speed and moving to the north. it's just a matter of time before it makes it into the north bay. even though you may be dry right now, watch out. things will be getting more interesting as the afternoon unfolds. the big picture shows where the strongest storms are. look at the red, the oranges down around santa barbara heading over towards bakersfield and all that, guess what, going

right up to the sierra and that's why they're going to have a pounding of snow this evening just when everybody's trying to get up there. temperatures 37 in san rafael with most of us low to mid-40s. haven't changed much since this morning, especially the monterey bay where it seems like it's been raining nonstop 24 hours now. our highlights. rain today, the heaviest will fall in the south bay and also the east bay. the showers tomorrow, they'll have thunder and hail with them. it will be dry so cooler than average sunday before another chance of showers and lesser chance monday. roads around the jet stream, one coming in right now, one set to come in later tomorrow and the third one coming in on monday. and that's the one that could make president's day a little wet but it's also looking like the one that will stay out to the -- in the ocean the most. here we are at 12:00. you see the rain moving into the north bay, the snow, the wintry mix and the pink and also the white. notice by 1:00 in the morning,

that's when the heaviest will fall in the mountains. 8:00 tomorrow morning scattered showers around. they'll hang around until 4:00, 5:00. looks like the beginning of the chinese new year's parade, it will be dry. tuesday and wednesday of next week and thursday maybe even the driest with temperatures mid to upper 50s. >> the big apple would like to add a slice of silicon valley to its academic menu. the mercury news reports new york city is inviting stanford to consider creating an engineering school there. stanford's president announced the project yesterday. new york lacks a tough-ranked science and research graduate school right now. it's third behind the bay area and boston in an effort to attract high-tech firms. >> next friday's perfect

>> today on oprah at 4:00, the seven-year-old who tried to kill his mother. governor jerry brown moved to eliminate those freebies the state gives out known as swag. rain and snow enough to put our water supply in good shape through the summer? those stories and more at 5:00. >> the new pet. >> a couple new friends. we have jamie part of the san francisco spca. nice to meet you. she brought a friend with you named brock. i was a little intimidated in the beginning but he came up and laid his big wet one right all

over me. he seems loveable. >> brock is a year and a half years old. >> that's it! >> he is an american staffordshire terrier, also known as a pitbull. he's been living with our trainer and family as part of his foster care program. now he's back in our shelter. he's a wonderful dog, has a lot of agility and training. great companion dog. probably with older kids in the household. loves to run and fetch and cuddle. he's a wonderful animal. >> how about other dogs, would he get along with them, a danger to smaller dogs? >> no! he's pretty friendly to all dogs. a pretty friendly dog. >> nice! he's part of a special program you have coming up. tell us about that. >> we are do pit stick for the month of march. we're going to be offering free spayed neuters for all pitbulls

for san francisco residents at the san francisco spca. >> if you're interested in that or brock -- he's so loveable, just call. thanks for coming, jamie. >> thanks so much. >> back to you guys. >> thanks, mike. >> we gave him a doggie treat for giving mike a big wet one. for all of us here at