you the job picture is turning brighter across the country as well as here in california. >> the national unemployment rate in february dipped a tenth of a point to the lowest level in nearly two years, 8.9%. employers added 192,000 jobs. in california the jobless rate also dropped one-tenth of a point to 12.4%. terry mcsweeney is live at the san mateo county employment development center with a closer look at positive local signs. >> the news was good here to start with. one of the lowest rates in the state at 8.3%.

over contra costa 10%, same story in santa clara county. here where they had good news they got even better news. >> one, two, three! (applause) >> and with that the new j.c. penney opened its doors and a long line of customers poured in. leland yee who was running for mayor of san francisco couldn't help but show a little envy. >> i have to aslur once i become mare we're gonna take it all back. >> this means 150 people that did not have work now do. vicki checky was tearing up as she told us her journey from unemployed to employed. >> it took me 11 months to find this job. i saw the sign j.c. penney was coming soon and i hit the brakes and i took a breath and i went home and online. >> jobs, jobs, jobs has been the

mantra of the new congress but also the month tra of state, county leaders also. >> the sales tax revenue which the city is going to generate in these lean economic times is extraordinarily helpful in terms of providing services that out residence desire. >> things are getting better but not as fast as we would like it. >> at the employment center there are smiles but not exactly jubilation. there are many people half been out of work a year or more and many going back to work are doing so at a reduced rate. >> occupations that were 15 to 20 dollars an hour five years ago are paying 11 or $10 an hour but at least there are more jobs out there today. i'm thankful for that. >> and vicki who just got that job after an 11-month search, she had been in the grocery

business for 35 years. that was going south so she regrouped and reentered the work force but she's elated to be there. >> here's to a new start for her. terry, thank you so much. if you're looking for a job we want to remind you about the next abc 7 job journal hire event. it's next tuesday at the hotel witcome in san francisco. you can find the address and hours at our website abc7news.com under "see it on tv." >> governor brown is hoping to get support for his budget plan. he's meeting with the executive council this afternoon. he wants voters to decide whether to extent sales taxes and vehicle fees for the last four years. they want to make concessions to help with budget deficits. >> a tractor trailer carrying a

large satellite got stuck on highway 101 this morning causing a major backup in san jose. the wide load truck had to exit on tully road but it was too tall to make it under the freeway. the chp had to shut down all lanes of northbound 101 at tullies so the truck could make a u-turn and finally get on the highway. traffic was backed up for over an hour. the fourth and final leg of the signature tower of the new eastern span of the bay bridge is now in place. take a look at this live picture here from sky 7 hd. beautiful. construction crews lifted the final leg into place 1:00 this morning. ahead of schedule. you can see how tall it looks. this started monday morning when the giant crane working on the first of four legs waking more than 1 million pounds each. better than expected weather helped speed up the project. >> starting to fire on all cylinders, you're seeing the suspension bridge, will they

come together. both the ends are being worked on at the same time. we've got a lot of momentum. >> the new tower now stands 480 feet high, just 45 feet away from reaching its final height, which is considerably taller than the current bridge structure. the entire project is scheduled to be completed in 2013. >> when it comes to high speed rail funding, it's official. transportation secretary ray la hood announced $2.4 billion intended for florida will be sent to other states, primarily california. this after they upheld rick scott's, the third republican governor elected in november to kill rail projects approved by his predecessor. the others were wisconsin and ohio. >> abc 7 news has learned that the f.b.i. is getting involved in the investigation of six san

francisco police officers accused in the possible coverup. san francisco's public defender says surveillance video from the henry hotel on 6th near mission shows an undercover officer entering a room without consent. the defendant says officers may have committed perjury by lying in court about it. the f.b.i. will be looking into possible civil rights violations or any other potential crimes. the department has launched an internal investigation, and district attorney george gascon's office will also be investigating. gascon was police chief at the time of the raids. >> an 84-year-old richmond woman survived some late night burglars over the weekend. two people broke in her home. she took quick action grabbing her .38 caliber revolver and firing a shot at one of the burglars scaring them off. then she called 9-1-1. >> 9-1-1, what's your emergency? >> i need the police. >> okay. what's going on there?

>> have to call. somebody in my house. you know. >> did you see them? >> yeah. >> are they still in the house? no, no. >> the bullet hit the wall. the woman says it was the first time she had ever fired the gun. both suspects are still on the loose. >> new bloody battles have broke out at libya's capital between supporters and opponents of leader moammer gadhafi. 18 people have been killed and 120 wounded. more refugees are flooding into neighboring countries and right now two u.s. air force cargo planes on are their way with food and water. >> as moammer gadhafi's government intensifies a bloody crackdown on survivors, president obama is putting pressure on the leader to step

down. >> moammer gadhafi has lost legitimacy to lead and he must leave. >> on the ground there are new reports on air strikes of anti-government forces, rebels including these regular troops are reinforcing their defenses as casualties mount. >> this is my job. this is my job. >> food staples are running low and so are reports to the obama administration. >> a lot of confusion on the ground. it is often difficult for us to sort through to get to what the actual facts are. >> fears of a humanitarian crisis has led to calls for drastic measures. >> if you want moammer gadhafi to go, then one of the things would establish a no-fly zone. >> robert gates says that's not so simple. it's an act of war. >> it begins with an attack on libya to destroy the air

defenses. >> in egypt and jordan and elsewhere demonstrators took to the streets in what they're calling a day of rage. the king wants the united states to rebuild egypt but also struggling to build two war zones in that region, it's another big job in another big country. >> forget about astrology. ahead why drinking more water may be the best way to make a decision. >> a setback for nasa this morning. the failed rocket launch that landed it in the pacific ocean. >> and along the shuttle [ mom ] yes.nte. oh, i'll borrow hailey's. you're downloading movies. fast! from here?

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>> two, one, zero with glory. >> it didn't last long. a rocket failed to reach orbit and is now in the pacific ocean. a protect tich shell atop the rocket separated the satellite as it was supposed to three minutes after launch. that left the spacecraft without enough speed to reach orbit. nasa says there is a contingency plan. >> pretty devastated. but we will recover. the team will bounce back because they're all professionals, and orbital

sciences will bounce back with the vehicle. >> glory was launched on the three-year mission to analyze how particles affect earth's climate. it was supposed to attract solar radiation on climate change. >> a series of a final outside of orbiter. six different cameras attached to "discovery"'s two solid rocket boosters reported view of the liftoff. >> one captured the launch at kennedy space center. wow! records, as you say, the rockets falling away from discovery leaving earth and a final shot takes you underwater as the boosters crash land into the ocean. whoa, hold on! let's keep watching that. there you go. meantime on the shuttle discovery, six astronauts are helping to unload a new storage unit delivered to the international spacetation.

discovery is scheduled to return to earth next wednesday. >> how long could you live without your i-pad, your smart phone, twitter or facebook.com? nonprofit calls reboot is betting you can do it from sun down today to sun down tomorrow . they're call for a national day of unplugging. organizers say we should take the time we spend online and use it to reconnect with nature, friends and family. >> we felt that there needed to be a balance brought back into life and that people can use a pause from technology. >> will you be taking part in the national day of unplugging? >> friday to saturday? probably not. >> there's even an app that sends a message to your online friends and family saying you're not available and tomorrow when you log back on, that message

disappears. you knew there was an app involved. >> look what's sitting on the desk? >> whose is that! >> let's sit on your computer. >> that's pretty good. >> mike is straight ahead with the forecast. >> let's take a look outside, yes. we'll talk about -- i didn't know we were going to have sky 7 hd. nice shot, gentlemen. we have some weekend rain. it's going to come in sunday and linger into next week. i'll tell you when it gets to your neighborhood and how much it's going to fall. >> how you can get a piece of some of these stolen items and help out a good cause. >> and lady gaga takes legal action against the london ice cream parlor, why she's upset about one of its flavors. 

♪ listen, you can help buy some of the hot items stolen by the bay area's most famous burglar, dusty, the klepto cat will be at the pet parade in may. you think of a national celebrity after stories we aired and the animal planet showed as a neighborhood thief. dusty has stolen hundreds of items from neighbors' yards. some of those will be up for

auction at the redwood pet parade. this time alone we can endorse the purchasing of hot property coming off the truck. it's okay. it's for the humane society. >> the animal police are there watching old dusty right now. >> wow! >> fell off the back of a kitty carrier. >> that's it. awesome. love that, mike. great weather here and in tahoe. >> really nice. take a look at both areas. good observation there. a lot of sunshine. look at the color of the water, the color of the sky. almost exactly the same. that's when you know it's a beautiful day out there skiing. we'll have more snow up here this weekend. i'll tell you about that in a minute. first let's focus in on our forecast. still flying around san francisco. beautiful picture of the golden gate bridge in the background, marin headlands. love it when we can get these pictures. we'll talk about the

temperatures. heading out for a little lunch, at noon 62 los gatos. mid to upper 50s and just about everywhere else, redwood city 52 right now. look at the monterey bay and inland. already the low to mid-60s. high clouds, a little sunshine -- all right, a lot of sunshine and a little high clouds. mild temperatures this afternoon. mostly cloudy tomorrow, light rain in the north bay and the rest of us scattered showers sunday into monday. we had fog earlier. mid to upper 60s for the rest of us. for tonight high clouds get a little thicker and hold temperatures up in the mid to upper 40s in most neighborhoods. oakland, san mateo, and san francisco near 50 with say some low 40s around santa rosa. two areas of high pressure dominating our weather steering this cold front to the north and west of us. you can see the blowoff and high clouds rolling off the top of this area of high pressure.

mainly sunshine today. pulling out, riding up the jet stream. you wanna know when it gets here? 7:00 in the morning saturday. just mainly cloudy by noon. cloudy but 6:00 the rain rolls in and during the evening and overnight hours rolls across the rest of our neighborhoods. sunday into monday just scattered showers. for sure saturday will be dry. these rainfall amounts, well, the radar returns were a little more impressive. tenth to a quarter of an inch around the babe. maybe three-quarters up in the north bay mountains. snow saturday and more so sunday in tahoe. seven-day forecast, temperatures drop 10 degrees by monday but sunshine and warming trend as quickly as tuesday. >> we just report these studies. if you have a big decision to make, wait until your bladder is full. these the startling conclusion by doctors in the netherlands.

in that study, subjects drank a lot of water and then they took the test. doctors said people who had to go made better decisions, possibly because of the increase of brain activity as they concentrated holding it in. it was published in the journal psychological science. >> singer lady gaga is taking legal action against a london ice cream shop. they began selling a favor called baby gaga donated with human breast milk. her lawyers sent papers demanding the name change. she called it nausea inducing. officials confiscated it this week fearing it would spread viruses. they made it because they say gaga was one of the first words out of a baby's mout

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 on 7 live, the digital detox and how some people are attempting to live unplugged for a day. at 5:00 the push by parents of one east bay city to hold local lawmaker he is accountable after they were to fix a dangerous intersection near an elementary school. john boehner dashing hopes

honoring the last world war i veterans who died earlier this week. >> we're learning more details about britney spears upcoming concert. crews will shut off two blocks of castro street between market and 19th streets on march 26. they have yet to decide how many people will see the concert for free. they'll i foot the bill for crowd the bill and rerouting public transit. spears will come in a few days early. we'll keep you posted on the details. >> unfortunately we don't have a live perfect pet segment this week because we are building a new set and we still have pets at home. this week's pet comes from the oakland spca duchess is a hound

mix and says she's well managed, she knows sit, stay and treat. words and commands. if you want to adopt her call the oakland spca or check out my weather blog. >> all right. and some good news, too. >> we wanted to let you know two-year-old brook from the humane society has found a new home in the east bay. even if you don't live in marin county, you can still adopt a pet from that area. >> that's for the weekend though, twitter -- >> please, how will you get your latest tweet on the beautiful saturday anyway. >> for all of