closed captioning by closed captioning services,inc wicked, blustery conditions drove the flames that destroyed a plex overnight and threatened four lives. >> that storm brought plenty of rain this was 280 near the 92 split no crash dozens ofs delayed drivers. >> let it snow. the winter storm is dumping much needed snow in the sierra drivers need chains on parts of 80 and highway 50. good morning i'm kristen sze. and i'm cheryl jennings. we have live team coverage. meteorologist mike nicco is tracking the storm. >> let's begin with amy hollyfield near highway 101. >> reporter: we've been tracking all kinds of problems,

including a tragedy this morning in the rain, a 48-year-old man died. police believe he lost control of his vehicle because of the wet roads. there were so many calls for service during the storm that chp officers who are assigned to territories had to leave their area to go and help each other respond to everyone who called in needing help. drivers had a tough time dealing with the wet roads this morning. from rollovers to fender benders and to a fatal accident the calls for help seemed endless. >> chp has been extremely busy all over from oakland to san jose, redwood city. there's been one collision after another. >> reporter: investigators believe the fatal accident in san mateo can be blamed on driving too fast. >> the driver's side impacted a metering light pole which the party sustained fatal injuries. >> reporter: you would think the rain would have been an asset to firefighters dealing

with a duplex fire in san jose overnight. but they were battling the fire and the weather. >> even when it is raining or moist like this the winds can drive the fire which is what it did here. >> reporter: the roof was on fire when they arrived after 3:00 this morning it caved in. firefighters were worried about trying to save the duplex they were also concerned about the rest of the neighborhood. >> we had to have crews downwind to do an ember patrol check making sure we didn't have any other fires started. >> reporter: four people living here got out okay. back out on the roads, officers think there were so many accidents because drivers have bad habits even when it is dry and sunny. you add the rain and they say the problems add up. >> people are still doing the same thing, tailgating driving too fast in a hurry. we encourage people, leave earlier. >> reporter: she drove home the point, you can't blame the

rain. you have to blame the divers. we have to adjust how we are driving out there, especially when the rain is coming down as hard as it was this morning. mike nicco picks up the story he has a weather report. i was really heavy at times. -- it was really heavy at times. we are in the south bay we can see radar returns still light rain as you saw the sun is popping out in some areas. that's going to warm the ground, it going to warm the atmosphere, that will create more instability and we could see showers developing across the north bay here you can see live doppler up there onmont st. helena picking up scattered showers that -- that will not be as intense as the rain this morning. nor are the winds, winds were gusting 25 to 45, now 10 to 15 they will get up to 20, 25 this afternoon. steady rain to our south with the cold front where it stays. we will have showers in the

forecast not only today but tonight and tomorrow and snow on some of our mountains. complete forecast in a minute. strong winds complicated efforts to fight a massive house fire overnight. that fire started 9:00 last night in a large home of a woman who runs an antiques business in napa. she, her husband and two dogs escaped the flames. she said a 67 throu book library and large collection -- a 6,000 book library and a large collection of antiques may have been destroy. >> rain stopped a lot of coffee lovers from getting their cup of java in san francisco. a drainage problem caused a tar bucks to close for the day. water -- backed up -- he they say it comes from sewer

back-ups that are common during storms. >> rain we saw is nothing compared to the storms pounding the midwest. tupbls and rain blamed for killing -- tornadoes and rain blamed for killing nine people. 16 tornadoes have hammered towns from nebraska to illinois in one case an entire strip mall was reduced to rubble. crews are still searching for victims who are believed to be in collapsed buildings. a powerful storm blew from the rockies watches and warning are being issued for much of kentucky and tennessee. the judge aij%4ááqqr'g the domestic violence case against sheriff ross mirkarimi is hearing pretrial motions. terry mcsweeney joins us outside court. lopez thought she was protected by attorney-client privilege? >> reporter: was the argument by the attorney for eliana lopez that the statements,

videotaped statements and video of the bruises should be kept out of this trial because it is protected by attorney-client privilege that is not the way the judge saw it. these pictures pulled from the video taken that night. the attorney for lopez told the -- told the court she went to her neighbor's house to document bruises and tell the story of ross mirkarimi losing his temper, she went there because the neighbor graduated from law school. the neighbor never passed the bar. lopez's attorney claim that doesn't matter because in venezuela where lopez is from people become attorneys upon graduation from law school and lopez treated madison as an attorney. no cameras were allowed in a courtroom. >> i want you all to think about what this means. the entire fabric of this judicial system is dependent

upon attorneys holding up our responsibilities. which includes keeping a client's confidence to ourselves. >> reporter: neither mirkarimi nor lopez in court today. again the judge ruling saying the attorney-client privilege was not in effect. there was a motion to dismiss the case by lopez's attorney. the judge ruled lopez has no standing since lopez is not on trial. also a proposal to punish the district attorney's office for releasing the pictures because they should not have been released they could contaminate the jury. speaking of which they will be filling out questionnaires, potential jurors are starting at 2:00 this afternoon, vic lee will have more at 4, 5 and 6:00. terry mcsweeney, abc7 news. hewlett-packard is cutting 275 engineering jobs and other positions at its web os

business saying it no longer needs many of those engineers and other related positions. they let go more than 500 employees last september that followed a decision to stop production of the company's touch pad tablet another web os based product. different story at apple the cupertino company's market value reached 500 billion dollars shortly after trading opened today and 506 billion by late morning. only four other companies have surpassed that mark none have stayed there. apple is already the world's most valuable company growing more valuable as traders anticipate the launch of the ipad 3. yesterday apple sent out invites for a big announcement next wednesday. 60s teen idol who just died. modest step in the right direction. major announcement on north korea's nuclear program. local students get a

special visit today from japanese student as affected by last great idea. so we'll switch to u-verse tv and internet... that's just what we need... i got accepted into juilliard. [ dad ] that's great! can we talk about wireless plans? now we can video-chat. and faster internet... [ female announcer ] with at&t u-verse, you can build a personalized bundle to fit your needs. even when they change. call now to bundle two, three, even four services. bundles including u-verse tv, internet and home phone

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an ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ davy jones the lead singer of the popular rock group the monkees has died. his publicist says he suffered a heart attack this morning in florida. jones joined the money kaoels in 19 5 -- the monkees in 1965

they became heartthrobs and had a number of hits. davy jones was 66. south korea's welcoming north korea's agreement with the u.s. to suspend uranium enrichment and put a moratorium on missile tests. the first sign of progress in years. u.s. efforts to persuade one of the world's most isolated and authoritarian countries to abandon its nuclear program have all stall before. secretary of state clinton says the u.s. still has profound concerns to make sure they are enforcing the moratorium inspectors will visit the complex. >> today's announcement represents a modest first step in the right direction. we will be watching closely and judging north korea's new leaders by their actions. >> in return forending its nuclear weapons test the u.s. has agreed to provide

240,000 metric tons of food aid. from elementary school -- some elementary students got a less san from japan. japanese students who survived last year's tsunami came to share their story. >> reporter: the students and staff at rosa parks elementary raised almost $7,000 to help tsunami survivors. this morning they got to meet some of the people themmed students from 50 miles south of the fukushima nuclear plant. the lesson required some translation. everyone in the second grade classroom at rosa parks elementary was on the same page. >> i was sad because -- [ unintelligible ] i'm glad they got to survive. >> reporter: these students in a bilingual programming and learning to speak japanese

have been studying last year's quake and tsunami. this morning they were able to ask questions of survivors. they asked where were you when it happened? what happened to your school? what happened to your house? >> first water up to their knees inside the house. >> reporter: the entire school helped raise almost $7,000 for tsunami relief. >> it feels good. i like helping people. >> reporter: their teacher says it is important that the kids understand what is happening in the world, even the scary stuff. >> something that a lot of these kids probably have never experienced. the idea that you couldn't get something out of your fridge because your fridge there. you had to go to somebody else's house. >> reporter: lessons you can't learn from a book. [ applause ] >> reporter: those japanese teenagers arrived last friday they are here until march 4th. right now they are serving

lunch to seniors at the japanese cultural center. meteorologist mike nicco very busy today with all the rain. a lot of rain everybody driving through, touched by it. more showers developing we'll show you where and how much more snow the sierra is going to get. speaking of which mike, funny you ask, we are looking at a live picture of heavenly now. we'll take you live for the snow outlook, next. a leap year couple. the great grandparents sell grating their

today's storm is bringing much needed snow to the sierra and it is a sight for sore eyes. here's this morning's snow on the way up to tahoe you can see it is tough for drivers. heavenly's director joins us live from the slopes. russ, if my eyes don't deceive me that lift is running what is it like for skiers? >> lift behind me is running just to prove -- my buddy took off behind me two feet of snow on the ground. the snow dance you have been doing has been paying off, great conditions here come on up and enjoy it with us. >> seems like -- [ unintelligible ] this weekend should be good for families too, right? >> absolutely.

great time for mom and dad to come out and get their ski legs on. good time to put the kids in ski school. we'll have plenty of snow. we are expecting another foot or so tonight and another dumping tomorrow. the snow keeps falling and piling up and we couldn't be happier. this is music to our ears. >> honestly until now it has been dismal. is this going to do a lot to the -- a lot to extend the season a little? >> march is typically our snowiest month we have an extra day in february. hopefully the storm door is open and just keeps flowing through. we are super excited about what the rest of the season holds. a lot of ski time left we are open until april 15th so get up here and test it out, it is going to be fun. >> thank you russ. take care. visibility a little tough, blustery too but people are

skiing. >> i can see you putting your skies in the car now with the kids. >> good boyne still only late february. -- good point still only late february. >> a lot of snow one to two more feet before noon tomorrow. you will need to take the chains not only during the day at night and tomorrow probably all the way through friday afternoon when they can get sun and clear the roads. quiet out there as we look back from vollmer peak this morning winds have died a little no more 35 to 45 mile per hour gusts still seeing a few around 10 to 20 going to kick up a few showers right now it is raining according to the airport as we look at san jose. also over at moffet field. 3/4 inch cover detail, santa rosa, nearly 3/4 in napa then it tails off about a third in oakland less in san francisco almost a half in

concord. record is 35/one for this -- 35/100 for this leap day. you can see a little snow mixing in on mount hamilton. scattered showers to the north. sliding to the south as the upper level winds are coming more out of the northwest and winds at the surface are coming out of the west to southwest bringing that cool damp air mass and more moisture from the gulf i should say from the -- i from the ocean. upper 40s now santa rosa and san rafael. 49 gilroy everybody else in the low to mid 50s around the monterey bay and inland. showers breezy today and tomorrow. tomorrow warm and sunny this weekend. clear lake mid to upper 40s the rest of us in the low to mid 50s more sun more instability to the atmosphere more likely showers today mid

50s around the monterey bay mid to upper 50s this afternoon inland cooler in the 40s except santa rosa cloverdale and clear lake mid to upper 30s there. snow level 3,000 feet overnight cold front down to our south now that will take the steady rain with it. look at that 155 mile per hour jet stream going to create lift unsettled air mass will hang around another 30 hours through 6:00 tomorrow. the front moving down you can see scattered showers around even snow on mount st. helena and hamilton overnight same areas will get a couple of inches of snow. steady rain 7:00 through 11 tomorrow then it becomes showery look how quickly it moves back to the south once it is out of here it gone for a while. a 10th to 2/10 of an inch of rain temperatures in the 50s tomorrow low 60s from the

coast friday away from the coast saturday and sunday near 70°. spring will be back, in days. speaks of days and years, this is unbelievable. it has taken 80 years for an australian to celebrate their 20th birthdays today. they are both leap year babies born on february 29th, 1932. they found each other in their hometown of liverpool living street as part. >> we were together from the beginning and we haven't changed. >> two peas in a pod. i was born on the 29th i said to you so was it. >> at first he didn't believe me. >> they are so cute. well, the earth travels around the sun every 365 and a quarter days as you probably know that's why we end up with an extra day every four years.

they will have to wait another four years to turn 21. cheers to good health. a milestone they hope to share, we hope they do. >> their hearts leaped the first time they saw each other. i bet they make it to at least

today michael finney takes us to the test track with information you need to know before you buy a car. at 5 top fish and game

official under fire for hunting this big cat. response to demands he resign. we'll have those stories and more later today at four and five. >> that will do it for now. for all of us here thank you for joining us. >> who wants to be a millionaire is next. >> keep track of the latest breaking news on twitter. >> and you can talk about it at ...with a two-year-old at home. i have two daughters. we have five boys and a large family. i couldn't imagine not having at&t u-verse. like, if we're watching a movie in mom's room, and mom doesn't want us in her room, we just go in the living room and continue watching it. [ female announcer ] call to get u-verse -- now with free hd -- for only 25 a month for six months -- that's our lowest price ever! plus get hbo and cinemax free for three months. if i need to pause something as it happens. diaper. he can start screaming. i can stop the show and then pick it up on a different tv somewhere else in the house. we can record sesame street for her,

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