a woman is killed on the highway and several lanes are still shut down. we'll have the latest live from the scene. plus new this morning, fast track changing the way it handles your personal information. what's being done to protect drivers' privacy. good morning, everyone, it is thursday, the 9th of december, i'm sydnie kohara. i'm robert lyles. juliet goodrich has the morning off. it is 4:30. a deadly accident in the east bay shutting down several lanes on southbound 880. let's go to lee ann where she just spoke with investigators. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, syndii. a woman has died on the highway about an hour ago here on south

880. here's the accident scene here behind me. obviously a lot of officers investigating right now exactly what happened. but from what it appears at this point, according to officers, there was a subaru driven by a woman here on southbound 880 right by lu eling boulevard, just south of 238. what it looks like is that she hit a wall there on the right side of the highway, careened out of control, landed in the middle of the lanes and was then hit by another vehicle. the car badly, badly damaged and she is being taken away by the coroner. you can see the coroner's van there. the driver of the other vehicle, the vehicle that hit her subaru forester does appear to be okay. chp still trying to exactly figure out the chain of events here. and right now three lanes are closed on southbound 880, very close to san leandro right now.

the only good news in this accident is that chp officers believe they will have this cleaned up within about a half an hour and will be able to reopen these lanes. >> ann, thank you very much. that is a major commute route, and rain is making the roads slick out there again this morning. so let's go to liz to figure it all out as you head down 880. >> reporter: this is where the accident is. it's between washington and lueling. right now our center is picking up good speeds. one lane of traffic is getting by. no need for an alternate. speeds averaging 69, 70 miles per hour. the accident southbound 880 just past washington avenue, ann just told us she spoke with investigators. they hope to have all lanes reopened in a half hour. if that is not the case and lanes remain closed longer than that, you may want to consider using bart or westbound 80 to

get around. we will start to see some slowdowns on our sensors. that, of course, is our hot spot. but also want to let you know about a fog advisory for the bay bridge. so watch out if you're heading into san francisco right now. we'll have much more on your morning commute coming up. in the meantime, let's check your forecast. here's tracy. >> thank you, elizabeth. more rainfall in the bay area again this morning. take a look at your high def doppler. you can see that it is essentially in the north bay, so that's where we'll move in and take a closer look. rain illustrated by the green and begoda bay. all of this is pushing off to the east. so your forecast for this morning as you head out the door, cloudy conditions, dense fog expected, especially well inland and even around parts of the bay. showers will be in the forecast this morning and also some fog along the coast. temperatures essentially in the 50s. don't put away the umbrella just

yet. a continued chance of showers in the forecast through the afternoon and highs today in the lower 60s. coming up we'll take a look at the weekend forecast. it is just a couple of days away. i can feel it in just a few moments. back up to you guys. >> a lot sunnier too. get an early start, everyone, because it's going to be very wet out there. tracy, thanks very much. 4:34. new privacy rules taking affect next month for about a million bay area commuters. those commuters use the fasttrack or clipper card systems, but a law taking effect january 1st means less chance of their personal information getting into the wrong hands. the examiner reports the mtc is changing its policy to comply with the law. the abc managing the fasttrack and clipper card systems both of which require credit card and other personal information. starting next year, the mtc will destroir that information if an account has been inactive for more than 4 1/2 years. sfo is in talks with cab drivers about dropping its

shorts program. what is shorts? it refers to short taxi rides to destinations near the airport. cabbies who return to sfo within 30 minutes of picking up a fare move to the front of the taxi line. the problem is some of the drivers manage to get to downtown san francisco and back to sfo within 30 minutes. >> they're flying. they're going 100 miles an hour, that's what they are doing. >> the problem coming back so quickly is that first off, speeding is unsafe. we've had citations go up, we've had complaints from passengers. it's inherently unsafe and we don't want it. >> sfa might replace the shorts program with a $17 minimum fare for any rides starting at the airport. some experts say pg&e should change the way it expects national gas -- inspects national gas pipelines. the utility's inspection found to find problems with the pipeline that blew up in san bruno in september. this morning the examiner reports that some experts at tuesday's legislative hearing

suggests more complex testing methods instead of the ones pg&e typically uses. the cause of the san bruno blast is still under investigation. 4:36. the city of berkeley proposing a resolution that would declare the suspected wikileaks source a hero. private first class bradley manning is suspected of leaking classified information to the wikileaks website. while the federal government calls manning a criminal, the author of the resolution calls manning a patriot who deserves a medal. >> things that have come out, including collateral murder show americans committing war crimes, and nobody is prosecutorring the war criminals. -- prosecuting the war criminals. >> these things weaken america's position and it makes america look weak to people who are not necessarily open to negotiation. they think in terms of strength and weakness. >> a city commission has already approved the resolution. the city council will vote on

it tuesday. the websites for mastercard and visa are up and running again today after falling victim to cyber attacks. as prethi arlo reports, the whistleblowers appear to be behind the mischiefs. >> reporter: a cyber war is being waged by wikileaks and its founder julian assange. wednesday reporters of the whistleblower website claimed to launch attacks that cut ties to the organizations. the targets mastercard and visa which saw processing payments to the site and the swiss bank which froze assange's account. it's being called operation payback. >> the group that's taking credit for this is a group called anonymous which is a very well known dark side hacker group. >> reporter: the latest target, sarah palin. cbs news has confirmed the former alaska governor's website and personal credit card information were also hacked. palin is a sharp critic of

wikileaks, accusing it of being anti-american. besides visa and mastercard, a string of american companies include being amazon.com and pay pal have also cut ties to the organization amid intense government pressure. >> the u.s. government basically wrote a letter saying that the wikileaks activity were deemed illegal in the united states. >> reporter: wikileaks sparked a wrirld outrage -- worldwide outrage after publishing hundreds of thousands of secret u.s. documents. assange is currently in a london jail, fighting extradition to sweden over a sex crimes case. but u.s. officials are also looking into whether he can be prosecuted for other charges like espionage. still that isn't stopping his organization. wikileaks plans to keep publishing classified documents, only a fraction of which have been released so far. cbs news, washington. it is 4:38. this morning the u.s. senate is expected to vote on a bill aimed at giving young illegal immigrants a chance at

citizenship. rallies were held yesterday at the house -- as the house passed the dream act. it's geared toward foreign-born youngsters who are illegally brought to the u.s. before they turned 16. under the bill, they'd be allowed to earn u.s. citizenship if they meet certain requirements, including enrollment in college or the u.s. military. it is unlikely to get the 60 votes needed in the senate to avoid a republican filibuster. senate democrats have delayed a vote on whether to repeal the don't ask don't tell policy on gays in the military. a test vote had been scheduled for yesterday, but it appears there would not be enough votes to pass. so democrats want more time, hoping to strike a deal with some republicans. 4:39. one south bay city giving drivers a break when it comes to towing cars. plus how long has it been since you've been to the mechanic? how the economy has some people putting their safety on the road at risk.

and, omg, it's not just teens spending hours on twitter, how many adults are getting in on the fad and what they're tweeting. ,, today, we gather to recognize the selfless decision of one of the most influential women of our time. the woman who, after having one too many drinks, chose not to drive home buzzed. here today to honor rachel

is the family whose lives she spared.

south and east locations dry for now, but north bay more rainfall this morning. light rainfall through petaluma, begoda bay and a batch of heavy rainfall heading into invern es right now, heading towards nevada and the 101. more of your forecast today, and with the rainfall -- and will the rainfall be stick around through the afternoon? we'll take a look in just a few moments. >> a messy, messy commute. tracy, thanks very much. 4:42. a woman in the east bay city of pittsburgh trying to repair her car yesterday morning was crushed underneath it. police say the woman jacked up the car to reattach something that came loose and that's when the vehicle fell on her. she's hospitalized in critical condition. police say she had apparently done this amateur repair

before. bay area mechanics say that they are seeing more and more people putting off needed auto repairs or trying to do it themselves. as mark sayer reports, the tough economy means some tough choices for many drivers. >> reporter: as the tires come off luis' car, it's pretty obvious there's a serious problem. the right front tire is down to the steel belts and ruiz says she knows it should have been fixed several months ago. >> tires are really important, weather and everything, so times, i mean, you have to do it right away. but i had to wait, hold off a little bit. >> reporter: like so many families, ruiz is facing hard financial times and coming up with a few hundred extra dollars for new tires is not an easy thing to do. >> the economy is pretty tough right now. there's no jobs, no money out there. i have to wait a couple weeks to get my tires fixed on my car. >> reporter: here at sml automatic performance here in san jose, long-time mechanics

say they're also seeing the trend of people waiting too long for needed repairs or cutting corners in other ways. >> the economy is real bad right now. people just don't have the money. >> reporter: lee burkett has been in the auto repair business for more than 20 years. he says people are also bringing in vehicles that they have first tried to fix on their own. in the auto repair business, they're called backyard mechanics. >> backyard mechanics is somebody that acts out of their garage and they don't actually know what they're doing. and then when they get the job done, then they bring them to us because they leave bolts loose, you know, they put bad mounts or something. >> reporter: in a recent national study, aaa says it found the economy is specifically linked to poor tire maintenance. aaa says since 2001, 20% more cars on the road have at least one bald tire. in san jose, mark sayre, cbs 5. >> san jose might be the next city in the bay area to change the way it deals with

unlicensed drivers and their cars. it's been a long-time policy for san jose police to have those cars impounded for 30 days. but the mercury news reports a new policy would allow the cars to be picked up by a licensed driver, not held for a month. san francisco, oakland and berkeley all have made similar changes. it is 4:45. there's a new product recall after traces of salmonella were found in the herb cilantro. pab lo's produce which is base inside southern california issued the recall. it involves cilantro sold between november 24th and december 2nd. the product has a white twist tie with the phrase pablo's produce of usa in red and green writing. there are no illnesses reported. the company detected the contamination during routine sampling. it's mostly young adults who tweet. a pew research center study finds about 8% of american adults who use the internet use twitter.

the biggest percentage of those are 18 to 29 years old. now, get this, here's what the chronicle reports people tweet about. 72% post updates about their personal lives. 62% put out messages about their work life, activities or interests. 55% pass on news links and 54% post comments about life in general. >> if i was tweeting right now, i'd say this new 4:30 show is a little bit early for me, takes some getting used to. glad to have you here, robert. >> thanks so much. it is 4:46. some drastic cuts coming to one bay area school district. the closures that could have a devastating impact on some families. plus one of the most popular diet programs is changing the way it counts calories. what the new system means for some of your favorite foods. ,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,

take a look at this, dramatic video of a cruise ship

emergency near the antarctica coast. the ship's engine was damaged and lost power in those heavy seas yesterday. powerful waves also knocked out windows and the ship's communication system. another ship stayed with the damaged ship until they could get help. all 88 passengers are from the u.s., none, though, are hurt. but one crew member suffered minor injuries. north koreans leader kim jong-il and bay sying's top -- beijing's top official is in agreement. kim met with state counselor today and had in-depth talks. china has been under pressure to diffuse tensions between the two koreas ever since the north's recent attack on south korean soil. it is 4:49. the obama administration says democrats should support a new tax cut compromise because otherwise the nation could fall back into a recession. congressional republicans like

the deal that they made with the president. mr. obama agreed to a two-year extension of the bush-era tax cuts. in return, republicans agree to extend unemployment benefits for 13 months. liberal democrats against the proposal say it's tilted too far in favor of the wealthy. >> i don't think that the president should count on democratic votes to get this deal passed. >> i'm very hopeful and optimistic that a large majority of members of the republican conference will find this proposal worth supporting. >> the white house, however, said it did not have any other option. some democrats are especially unhappy with the change that set the estate tax at a level preferred by republicans. governor-elect jerry brown is calling california's budget condoleeza rice a "worse problem than ever." that was his message yesterday at a budget forum in sacramento. about 200 state and local government officials attended

that meeting. brown projects the deficit for the next fiscal year will be $28 billion. that's with a b. >> it goes back probably more than a decade, but i'm determined to do everything i can to get us back on the track. >> brown expects the solution to be painful. he predicts the budget problem will stretch into 2016, a year after his upcoming term ends. san francisco's largest school district may have to slash money for adult education programs to get back on track financially. santa fe unified is one of six districts involved in the metropolitan education district. the mercury news says metro ed would have to close two of its three schools if santa fe unified cuts its share of the funding by 2/3. we've got more rainfall out there this morning, and it is concentrated in the north bay. for now let's take a look and

see what's going on. light rain from vacaville through fairfield. more light activity into girnville, santa rosa and petaluma. look at the yellow and the darker shade of green. that's where we have some heavy rainfall moving towards invernes, headed towards petaluma and that's what we're expecting for the morning. some rainfall heavy at times, primarily in the north bay for now, but we will include the entire bay area for this morning. so your forecast as you head out the door, cloudy, fog also a big concern this morning, especially inland and our valleys around the bay as well as along the coastline. and those showers will remain in the forecast. temperatures, as you head out the door in the 50s. a chance of showers still in the forecast through the afternoon with temperatures in the lower 60s for our daytime highs. here's a look at what's going on. satellite showing we've got a nice jet stream pushing everything through the bay area. all these clouds that you see still off the coastline and well off to the west, they're holding some rainfall. so that's why the chance of showers will be in the forecast throughout the day today and as

well as tomorrow. but by the time the weekend gets here, we will have improving conditions. the sierra forecast, a rain and snow mix expected today, except above 7000 feet and a chance of snowfall in the forecast friday and saturday. but take a look at those temperatures during the day, more likely not to see it stick so much, but overnight, yeah, you'll see some fresh powder over the sierra. here's your forecast, rainfall expected today, a few showers well into the afternoon. more leftover showers in the forecast for friday, and just in time we'll see plenty of sunshine saturday, sunday and monday with warming temperatures and another round of showers will move back into the forecast tuesday and wednesday. so another wet morning. liz, what you got going on? >> reporter: we're still following this really bad accident, in san leandro. a woman was killed. this is a fatal crash, happened just after 3:00 this morning. right now three left lanes are still blocked southbound 880

right after washington avenue. so one lane is getting by. you can see traffic there just squeezing by in that one far right lane. emergency crews have been on scene. we still don't have a specific time estimate for when they're hoping to clear this accident. a reporter in macko vic is there and investigators told her five, it may be closer to 5:30. tow trucks are on scene now. if this continues to look this way and they have the lanes blocked for a while, expect traffic to back up on the nimitz freeway. let's talk about alternates. for right now just a small backup approaching the accident scene. but, again, if this continues for a half hour or longer, you may want to consider eastbound 580 and then you can cut around, use 238 and get onto southbound 880 from there. it sounds like the accident is just north of 238. this is obviously our hot spot for now. but as tracy mentioned, fog is another big issue this morning. so here's a live look at the

bay bridge toll plaza. in fact, they have a fog advisory issued for the bay bridge and daley city. we'll have much more on your commute coming up. in the meantime, back to you. >> elizabeth, thank you very much. it is 4:55. the holidays are usually tough -- no, it's very tough on dieters. now one of the most popular weight loss plans has gotten a big makeover. dr. kim breaks weight watchers new points system down. >> some of you are probably wondering why did weight watchers make this change. >> reporter: it's the unveiling of the weight watchers new points plus program. members are seeing it for the first time. >> as they say, change is good. if it works, then that's good. >> reporter: nancy lost 20 pounds on weight watchers which controls calories by assigning points to food. dinah baker dropped 25 pounds. >> is the points program has worked well for me. >> reporter: one of the biggest changes for weight watchers is that all fruits are free now and carry no points. weight watchers leader john brooks says the new program is designed to make dieting easier. >> it will keep you satisfied a

lot longer than your carbohydrates and fats. >> reporter: a new example of the plan is a slice of bread used to count as one point, now it's three. a glass of wine goes from two points to four. a piece of carrot cake was 16 points. now that will be 18. >> if they use the all-points value within the system, they're not going to be successful. >> reporter: it's a whole new numbers game for weight watchers, a snack bar and an apple that both have 100 calories used to have equal points. not now. >> we want you to go to more natural foods. >> they are continuing to do research and continuing to advance, so i would assume it means that they're staying on top of things and staying current. >> reporter: and with this new system, members are allowed more points based on a complex formula that considers the food mix of proteins, cashohydrates and fats. basically processed foods have higher points and that translates to should be eaten less. so eat more apples. even a single cigarette is

one too many. at least that's the word from a new report from the surgeon general. it says that even just a bit of social smoking can block your arteries and cause a heart attack. damage to internal organs begins immediately, even for people who inhale secondhand smoke. the report concludes that there is no safe level of exposure. >> i just can't imagine that an apple is somehow giving you extra points. >> well, it used to under the old system, but now it doesn't. so instead of eating that 18-point piece of cheesecake, robert, you could eat a couple of apples. >> i say just eat it. 4:57. a mij milestone for the bay bridge. how cruz on the new span is taking a step forward this week. plus new information in the wikileaks web warfare, the latest on the hacked website and how sarah palin became a target. >> reporter: and a woman is killed on highway 880, but they're about to reopen the highway just in time for the morning rush hour. we'll be right back.

more rainfall out there this morning, especially in the north bay. it's going to be a slippery morning commute. how much rainfall expected through the day? we'll take a look at your forecast in just a few moments. and in addition to that fatal crash on 880, we're also watching fog. in fact, a fog advisory issued for the bay bridge. keep you updated right after the break. ,,,,,,,,,,,,