charges. they sold methamphetamine, steroids and other drugs. >> considering whether to arm city police officers with tasers. commissioners will consider a proposal to research it and the cost of a taser pilot program. the vote 11 months after the same commission voted 4-3 against a similar proposal. since then there have been at least two high profile shootings that officers say may have gone differently if they had the use of tazers. supporters home the decision of three new commissioners means today's vote will turn out differently and ed lee says tasers should be considered. >> i'm looking at technologies in any way possible. if it it offer an alternative, i think we should take a look at

it. >> if that proposal does pass tonight, the police department return to the commission a later date to ask for a full authorization to use the devices. >> the officers, prosecutors and judges responsible for putting three kidnappers in prison are coming to coming to san francisco to ask the men be released. the three were convicted of the school bus kidnapping. it took the children and bus drivers to a quarry and buried them in a van hoping to get ransom. since their conviction, all three men have been called model prisoners. officials say there's no good reason to keep them locked up. >> a candlelight vigil for two walnut creek students in a rafting accident. they drowned after trying to raft down a rain-swollen creek

saturday. both were students at the high school. the vigil was set to begin 6:00 tonight near walnut creek. >> apple is meeting in cooperate talking about their future and steve jobs. expected to review the i-pad next week. >> terry mcsweeney is monitoring these developments and joins us from cupertino. terry? >> this just in. apple shareholders moments ago voted down a proposal that would have required the apple board to unveil its line of succession should steve jobs not be able to continue as chief executive. shareholders voting not to show their cards. the reason they're voting on it the first place is their anxiety of job's health and a video. take a look at that video that causes such concern. it comes to us from radaronline.com. jobs unsteady and thin going to

a café. jobs diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004, a liver transplant in 2009, now on medical leave and he's been seen at a cancer clinic at stanford. it is this kind of uncertainty that has investors jumpy. but most are not jumpy, a stock hold he shall from mill valley. >> the i-pad was started ten years ago and put down when they started working on the i-phone eight years ago. he has stuff in the works so amazing that we haven't even dreamed of that will keep things going on many years. on the deathbed he probably drew things on a napkin. >> if you take it away from apple, does apple change that much. it's got a good culture. i think apple's going to do quite well with or without steve. this is video of steve jobs after the liver transplant but

sounding strong and looking very thin. this is one year ago with the i-pad release, again one year ago right about this time of year. now we're going to look at an invitation to next week's announcement set out today. some people are saying is there any way steve jobs could show up there? no mention of jobs' health out here today. the shareholders' meeting, he is certainly not here. apple officer tim cook is handling questions and he is giving a glowing report how apple is doing. the apple the company is healthy, even if its iconic leader is not. more at 5:00 and 6:00. terry mcsweeney, abc 7 news. >> terry, thank you. >> president obama is planning to call new zealand's president later today to reiterate u.s. support for the country devastated by a powerful earthquake two days ago. >> teams are rushing in with

help. jenelle joins us with the latest. >> it's now 8 a.m. thursday morning in new zealand. search and rescue teams continue looking for survivors. anyone trapped under the rubble has now been buried 43 hours and counting (screams) >> new pictures emerging showing the horror of the 6.2 earthquake and aftermath as dust covers the city. >> oh, my god. >> you can hear this man' panicked voice as he runs outside with his camera to see the devastation. >> my gosh. people are in there? >> and pictures from the epicenter of tuesday's quake hones the story of must have had and debris covering the roads. crews rescued 120 people. some needed limbs amputated to free them from the rubble. the search continues for

survivors. more than 300 are still missing. >> hello! >> tragic news the death toll now at 75 and counting. police believe dozens are buried inside buildings across the city, including this tv station. in this case police say they are 100% certain nobody inside is still alive and have moved crews to search other locations. >> the same factors we're moving from this site to other sites, there's survivors at several other sites. at the end of the day we have to make that choice. it's a hard choice. >> the prime minister of new zeal land declared the christ church area a natural disaster. damage is around $12 billion. >> thanks a lot. the white house spokesman says president obama also strongly condemning the escalating bloodshed in libya and will

consider sanctions. hundreds of americans boarded a ferry to get them out of the chaos in libya. large crowds are waiting in lines at libya's main airport in the capital of tripoli where some of the worst violence has been. the state department believes there's several,000 dual u.s. libyan nationals and 6700 private u.s. citizens in libya. both sides are engaged in fierce fighting now for control. protestors trying to overthrow qaddafi say they've taken over control of one of the largest cities. mercenaries and hired soldiers are reportedly shooting anyone in sight. hundreds have been killed. qaddafi remains defiant and says he will fight to the end. another bombshell, the exjustice minister told a swedish

newspaper he approved qaddafi ordered the pan am bombing over lockerbie scotland that killed over 100 people in 1998. >> trading for an orange prison suit. the judge

. today a major project starts on the golden gate bridge. it could have quite an impact on cyclist. live with more on what will be done. amy? >> for all of you out there who have had to paint your house, you know what a daunting project that can be. you have to scrape off the old paint, put on the new. can be a daunting project. can you imagine having to do this on these enormous cables holding up the golden gate bridge. this scaffolding was delivered to the golden gate bridge in the middle of the night. lanes of traffic had to be shut down for the massive shipment. the delivery kicks off a huge undertaking. >> we are now renovating the main cables for the golden gate bridge. the two massive main cables that go up and over the towers and holds the roadway are being repainted. >> you'll soon see a tent on the west side midway across the bridge. underneath the tent workers will

literally be chipping the old paint off and will be repainting the cables. this is quite an operation compared to the usually touchup paint job. >> the main cables on the golden gate bridge can't be replaced. they have to be periodically painted. it protects the 8,000 miles of wire inside there from corroding. bicyclist use this sidewalk in the afternoon and on the weekends. but workers will have to narrow the sidewalk by 3 feet. >> there's too much confusion for people passing. and there's a safety hazard. we may ask them to walk. we don't know yet. >> we think it's a fantastic experience. i wouldn't come here if i couldn't ride my bike. >> there's two sides to the bridge. seems like they could come up with some solution. during 9/11 what they did was have vans bring bikes across.

that was a bit of a hassle. >> some aren't thrilled with all this. they are working with the bicycle coalition to make this as painless as possible. >> los angeles a judge told actress lindsay lohan he would send her to jail even if she accepts a plea deal on charges of stealing a necklace. he said he was treating her like any other defendant and he wanted her to get the case resolved quickly so she could move on and reach her full potential. after the hearing the judge says he did not expect lohan to take that current plea deal which was originally proposed to keep her from doing time in jail. >> the oscar menu has been released for the after-dinner. puck says the meal will be

filled with international flavors. there will be a sushi ap advertising bar, a little spanish ham. then, of course, there's the dessert. >> then for dessert we have the fabulous raspberry lemon cake with chocolate and beautiful flowers on top made out of chocolate. >> and whether you win or not, everyone at the dinner will leave with a mini chocolate oscar statuette. coverage begins on the red carpet at 2 p.m.. the awards show begins at 5 p.m. followed by a post-award special. sure hope some of those actresses will eat the food. >> i know because they have to keep slim for their dresses. >> what a waste, huh? let's talk about what's going to happen tomorrow and friday. winter storm watch already in effect for parts of the bay area. we'll talk about when the snow gets here and how low

elevationwise we can reach accumulation. >> pets are getting fatter, too. the new study about the growing problem and how you can protect your animals. also a royal bachelor party. prince harry's

♪ the royal buzz is out about

prince william's bachelor party. william's brother harry is planning the big bash. his plan includes one of the best water sports countries in the united kingdom. they will enjoy a full day of fun with ski boards, weight boards and water skiing. on the last weekend before the april 29th wedding. the guest list includes 20 good friends of the future king of england. (laughter) >> water sports by day, crawling by night. i'm sure there will be good stories to tell. >> they're not going to vegas. >> what's up with that! >> so snow on all our mountain tops and apparently it's going to snow in save. >> mount sutro, twin peaks and some cars, elevated surfaces. that kind of a system. i won't say once in a lifetime but once in a third lifetime.

time we had snow atop twin peaks was 1976 and we had 5 inches. 1962 we had 3 inches in the sun set. rather quiet as we look from south beach. kind of to the south and west. you can see it's partly cloudy outside and a little breezier than yesterday. temperatures are running in the mid to upper 40s around napa, san rafael, livermore and redwood city. monterey bay and inland either 50, 51 or 52 degrees. partly cloudy today and a little breezy. winds could gust to 30 mph around open bodies of water. chilly showers come in our forecast tomorrow and it will snow tomorrow in the north bay and drop for all of us down to 500 feet. today low to mid-50s with that partially cloudy sky and the westerly breezes 10 to 13, gusts to 30. same conditions inland. temperatures mid to upper 50s.

the extra clouds tonight, not quite as chilly as this morning. livermore, fairfield, mid-30s napa. low to mid-40s the rest of us. all that cold air pooling, banking along the stationary front to seattle. it's going to start moving later this afternoon and by tonight you can see most of the showers still well to our north. tomorrow morning's commute will be fine but during lunch that's when the light rain moves into the north bay. the north bay the snow levels will slowly drop down thursday evening as all of us are getting rain. snow levels could be around 1500 to 1,000 feet. the rest of us see the snow level slowly drop 3,000 feet to 1500 feet. friday evening it drops again down to 500 feet and that's when we could get that light dusting of accumulation on some elevated surfaces. now, as far as watches or warnings, we have the winter

storm watch for thursday evening through friday afternoon. 1 inch of snow down to 1,000 feet. 2 inches 1500 feet. 1 to 2 feet at lake level, 2 to 4 feet of new snow above 7,000 feet. we'll have low 50s tomorrow, mid-50s for friday. the rain/snow should stop by 6:00 tomorrow morning. we'll see increasing sunshine. >> i see a snowball fight with the kids in the future. >> getting warmed up right now. >> don't hurt yourself. >> we've been talking about food during the show, not just americans, pets are too. more than half of america's 170 million dogs and cats are overweight. one-fifth are classified as obese. the study is by association for pet obesity prevention.

veterinarian's say it can take years off their life. >> i'm talking about maybe 8 to 10 years. the life span about 3 to 5 years. >> if you can't feel your pet's ribs or if you see a hanging belly, your pet may be too fat. it's important to stop giving from treats, measure t are you trapped and don't know how to escape your addiction to cigarettes? one out of two regular smokers will die prematurely from smoking. you don't have to be one of them. escape the trap. say "enough." for free help to quit smoking, call the california smokers' helpline at 1-800-no butts.

today at 3:00 ordaining a married daughter of two. at 5:00, the lengthy sentence given to the former director of napa state hospital convicted of molesting his adopted son. police get a break in a series of robberies. those stories and more later today at 5:00. >> break out your snow chains to drive in the city. (laughter) >> yeah, it's going to be tough. check out my weather blog for the snows we may have in san the snows we may have in san    

[ suspenseful music plays ] hello, frank.

funny time to be coming to work, mr. osgood.