closed captioning by closed captioning services,inc good morning i'm kristen sze. and i'm cheryl jennings. thousands may not have a holiday meal. desperate call for help is out today from the alameda county salvation army. >> reporter: here's what concerns them. see this gap in their warehouse? there is supposed to be food here. it is too empty in here and the issue is keeping the business manager up at night. 1600 families have signed up for groceries for a holiday meal and toys for christmas gifts. at this point the salvation army has enough for 500 of

those families. not even meeting half of the need. >> i got up this morning at 4:30 making a list in my head. >> reporter: john has no idea why donations are so low this year. he's not one to cry wolf. he did not make this plea last year. >> last year was decent we had enough toys and food. we were able to produce another 1500 families last year. >> reporter: a few churches have donated toys. the food bank has given food. he can't ask them for more. >> now we are looking to the public to help us provide the rest what we need. >> reporter: not only does he need a lot of food, he needs it right away. the families are scheduled to pick up their donations tuesday. >> i will make this happen, within way or the other. we've committed to these families. -- i don't want them to show

up tuesday and i have to say sorry, i don't have food for you. by hook or crook i'll figurer out how to make this happen. -- >> reporter: the salvation army wants nonperishable food. they can't handle a bunch of turkeys they give out a gift card for that. there's locations in hayward and oakland we've posted that information on abc7news.com. they would love a check at this point. they feel like they have grocery trips in their future. they've got a lot of shopping to do. they are hoping everyone will help them pull this off. amy hollyfield, abc7 news. >> the second harvest food bank of santa clara and san mateo counties asking for your help. it only has a quarter of the food and cash donations it was counting on. the number of people served has increased by 50% in the

past few years. the need is so great if you would like to help you can join us all day thursday for share the holiday food drive we will be raising money for all food banks throughout the bay area. in sacramento in the next hour the finance director will release the forecast for this fiscal year determining how big a cut the state will need to make to education funding and state services starting january 1st. groff nor brown and lawmakers hoped for four billion dollar increase in tax revenue last summer. the budget included mid year spending reductions known as trigger cuts if revenue reductions aren't met. the state will collect less than expected. new poll shows 60% of likely california voters support the governor's plan to increase taxes on the wealthy and raise sales tax to help fund schools and public safety departments the governor wants

the proposal on next november's ballot. californians continue to give elected officials extremely low approval ratings. back to business at the port this morning. occupy protesters claimed victory early today and then packed up to let workers get back to work. port officials say there is a heavy backlog. protesters targeted the port twice yesterday once in the morning and a larger march in the evening and prevented workers from getting into the port for this morning's 3 a.m. shift. mayor quan denounced that process -- that protest as economic violence claiming it harmed workers trying to make a living. employers advertise fewer jobs in october indicating a drop from a three year night september. labor department says companies posted more than three million jobs in september. october's level was the second highest in the past three years despite that positive news, experts say there is

still heavy competition for each job, nearly 14 million were unemployed in october, four out of work for each available opening. the nation's unemployment rate is 8.6%. california 11.7%. people who ride shuttles will notice seat belts with safety signs and hotline numbers to report dangerous driving. these changes follow a july crash in which a 52-year-old ucsf psychiatrist was thrown from a vehicle and kill. currently california law does not require shuttle buses to provide seat belts. jerry sandusky will go straight to trial on child sex abuse charges. this morning in a surprise move he waived his preliminary hearing and avoided a face-to-face confrontation with his accusers. katie marzullo is here with the latest. this is unfolding as child

abuse takes center stage on capitol hill. >> reporter: since there was no hearing sandusky was in and out of the courtroom in mites. most of the legal drama unfolded on the steps of the courthouse. on capitol hill, lawmakers, advocates and victims talked about how to protect children. reporters shouted questions at jerry sandusky as he left the courthouse. he stopped and made this statement. >> we fully intend to put the best possible defense that we can do. >> reporter: sandusky's defense team insists there will be no plea and today's move was tactical. >> it would have been very help first lady to have had a hearing today but it was a trade off -- when we got concessions from the prosecutor last night about things we were going to do and things they won't to in the future we felt last night this was the best thing to do. >> reporter: prosecutors see

things differently. >> based on our readiness, the strength of the case, i'm not that surprised. >> reporter: as attorneys in the sandusky case wrapped up in pennsylvania ray hearing got underway in washington, d.c.. >> i speak as a mother, grandmother and senator from the largest state in the union, believing that there must be zero tolerance for crimes against kids. >> reporter: senator barbara boxer introduced two bills to strengthen reporting requirements to better protect children from abuse. the former nfl player testified about being sexually abused by a coach in canada. he said he didn't tell anyone for 10 years because he didn't think anyone would believe him. >> in my case my abuser was international hockey man of the year in canada that gave him almost god-like status. sound familiar? >> reporter: in pennsylvania an attorney read a statement from sandusky accuser number 4, a statement of defiance from a young man who no longer wants to wait to tell his story.

>> regardless of the decision to waive the hearing, nothing has changed and i will stand my ground, testify and speak the truth and he underlined the word truth three times. >> reporter: jerry sandusky is scheduled to be back in court for arraignment january 11th. the santa clara city council expected to approve a billion dollar financing deal tonight for a new 49er stadium. 850 million dollars of the total comes from a loan secured by the city and the 49ers. the rest will come from two sources, 150om the team and 75 million from the city redevelopment money and hotel tax if approved, santa clara would have to cover twice as much debt as initially reported to voters to build the stadium. the 49ers have pledged to cover any debt the city could not if the stadium runs into financial trouble. 'tis the season for more emergency room visits. something you will likely be doing in the coming days that

could injure you. >> reporter: i'm terry mceeney live in palo alto. facebook is launching a new program today designed to save the lives of people who are thinking about suicide.

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a teenaged girl who sparked an amber alert last week now faces criminal charges for filing a false police report the authorities launched a multi-agency search

for her last friday after she claimed she had been kidnapped and being held hostage. police say she has admitted to making up the story to get sympathy from her family. facebook launched a new program to provide instant help to people considering suicide this is the latest attempt to tap into its massive power to improve safety for its users. terry mcsweeney is live to show us how this works. >> reporter: this program is available to facebook's 800 million users. it allows them to hook-up immediately with a crisis counselor in a private chat room. take a look at video while i explain. if a friend expresses suicidal thoughts you can report it to facebook by klinking a link next to the comment. facebook sends an e-mail to the person. encouraging them to call the hotline which is staffed by suicide prevention experts

click on a link to begin confidential chat look at the aftermath of the story tied to this. this is from the east bay last month. a man posted a suicide note on facebook before killing his wife, his in-laws and then himself. some say what facebook is doing is an invasion of privacy. tech experts disagree. within says maybe that should not be the -- one says maybe that should not be the number within concern. >> when it comes to saving lives you have to right or advertise saving a life over a possible privacy violation. being deal with that hater. you can't undo a suicide. >> reporter: this morning i spoke with a man, one of the people who approached facebook years ago when there was a series of teenaged suicides in the south bay. he wanted facebook to do something like this. he's in the santa clara prevention oversight

committee. 150 suicides on average per year here in santa clara county. terry mcsweeney, abc7 news. as you might imagine we are getting reaction to this new program. angie: i think is an awesome idea i lost a loved one to suicide. >> this sounds promising if one life can be saved then it is totally worth the effort. >> you too can join the conversation at facebook.com/abc7news. new federal report shows many head start preschool programs are full of safety violations. the report looked at 175 facilities in seven states, 13 in california. some were shocking, machete and hedge trimmer found near a play area. 90% of the facilities had toxic chemicals and cleaning supplies easily accessible

more than 70% had open or broken gates and fences. almost all failed to conduct criminal background checks on all instructors. some of the facilities have had their headstart funding revoked. most have corrected the problem. is that fog or haze? >> a little of both, absolutely. it is slowly lifting which is good news a lot of sunshine in the forecast. one small chance of rain and getting smaller by the minute. also, government issues a warning about ads promoting a popular weight loss device. remember the hundreds of balloons left in san francisco bay? the promotional idea that has resulted in a big fine. ♪ [ ukulele strumming ]

♪ [ folksy whistling ] [ man ] quitting is a fight you can't let yourself lose. it can take many tries. but keep trying, you will beat smoking. honey, you okay? yeah, i'm fine. ♪ [ ukulele ]

a state lawmaker will unveil legislation that he says could help college students save billions. senate president pro tem wants to put textbooks for most courses online for free. he plans to introduce bills to create a digital library. some students are announcing an online petition today targeted at lawmakers and professors urging them to support the bill.

you put your content out there for free on so many different platforms. >> all of us do. twitter, facebook, whatever it is blogging. look outside hazy. we've been talking visibilities all morning. thankfully didn't have accidents or negative affects of some of the freezing fog around novato this morning and dixon now it has kind of lifted some of the moisture behind a little pollution that's why we have hazy sunshine as we look northbound from sutro tower from south beach towards oakland hard to see a lot is moisture not a spare the air day even though it looks like be. down south, i want to update you, waterspouts and funnel clouds around l.a. and san diego the threat of that is waning as the system moves toward the baja heading towards phoenix causing flight delays. check our flight tracker at abc7news.com. it is at the bat tom.

temperatures still in the 40s in the north -- north bay valleys, redwood city, livermore. monterey bay inland upper 40s to low 50s salinas the exception 54 mostly sunny hazy sunshine today cool, dry there's a maul chance of a shower thursday getting smaller -- with each computer run i wanted to throw that out there the next 8 to 14 days past our seven day forecast also look dry. this is going to go down as a very dry december. let's talk about temperatures mid to upper 50s in the south bay. peninsulah t same type of temperatures mid 50s along the coast into downtown south san francisco north bay beaches maybe a little cooler low to mid 50s, mid to upper in your valleys. mid to upper 50s east bay shore into the east bay valleys and down around the monterey bay mid to upper 50s mainly upper 50s as you head

inland. state forecast scattered snow showers along the sierra already starting to fall apart most of the rain around southern california around san diego now with light mountain snow above 4500 feet heading that way, don't worry grapevine is fine. toght near freezing are below in the north and east bay valleys we could have a repeat of this morning around the bay shore and out to the coast upper 30s to low 40s san francisco 46°. couple areas of low moving from us north to northeasterly breeze on the back side of this that's yes where seeing the clearing trend today and -- and that's why we are seeing the clearing trend today and tomorrow. storm system looks impressive through mendocino county but never makes it into the bay area by 9:00. when it does after that you can see how it falls apart as it slides down the coast scattered shower possible most likely near the coast. other than that, thursday will be mostly cloudy, temperature

the same as right now that is low to mid 40s along the coast mid to upper 50s for the rest of us once we get past that look at all that sunshine friday, saturday, sunday and monday. a stunt that polluted bait going to cost the company. san francisco's water quality control board is fining a marketing firm trash talk $7,000 for releeing hundreds of red latex balloons -- last march that ended up in the bay. it turned into an an environmental debacle when the balloon sank. trash talk did help clean it up and has agreed to pay the fine. the fda issued a warning about advertising for the lap band stomach restricting device used to treat obese the fda says the ads are misleading they don't provide

essential information about the risks and side effects of the lap band. federal officials say the risk information on the print ads and billboards is so small it may be unreadable. the company has 15 business days to correct those ads. consumer products safety commission says holiday decorating injuries are on the rise, including falls from ladders while stringing lights and cuts from broken gas ornaments. more than 13,000 people were treated in emergency rooms for such injuries during the last two months of last year. up from 10,000 in 2007. the agency says christmas tree fires are blamed for four deaths a year and 18 million dollars in property damage. definitely watch out. >> be careful out there. @

today at pacific, broadway legends on their show at the san francisco symphony many then at 4:00, michael finney shows us the stores with policies that could turn your holiday presents into pains. even if you use a headset the new recommendation to eliminate all cell phone use while driving with one exception. those stories later today with >> looks like someone has eliminated the rain for now. >> and the snow also which is unfortunate for those folks they have to make it by hand. >> thanks . >> thank you for joining us. >> who wants to be a

millionaire is next. millionaire is next. have a great day. closed captioning by closed captioning services,inc