a missing boy is reunited with his parents after a frantic search turns into a rescue. >> good evening. it's not every night that we can start with good news. but tonight, an autistic boy was returned to his parents. it was a neighbor who

eventually found the boy. >> reporter: we're in the hills where an autistic boy went missing for four hours. his parents are expressing gratitude to neighbors. around 1:30 this afternoon his mother liman sing said she was preparing lunch and saw her son playing in the yard. a moment later, he vanished. >> he ran a few times in the street as well, but he always came back. usually by the time i came to look for hill, five minutes or 10 minutes, i already see him on his way back. >> reporter: sing says her son has very limited language skills and is unable to ask for help. when she couldn't find him, she

asked her neighbors to call 911 and go to the fire department to ask for help. >> beside this area there's a spring. >> reporter: he said he got home from work around 4:30 and joined the search. he climbed down a ravine, called the boy's name and heard a noise down by the creek. >> he was playing and splashing in the water. >> reporter: dozens of firefighters were also looking for the boy. the alameda county sheriff's department spokesman credits lenore for finding the boy. >> the sun is going down, you have to rescue that child before sun fall. >> i couldn't imagine in such a short time, a large group of people searched. >> reporter: the boy's parents told us their son did not

suffer any injuries from this incident. now they are trying to figure out how to keep him from wandering off again. am amber lee, ktvu channel 2 news. an out of control wildfire is causing big problems tonight in southern california. firefighters say flames have destroyed a home southeast of baker's field. the fire started about 3:00 this afternoon and quickly scorched about 500 acres. officials say right now flames are still threatening another 150 structures. the small community of old west ranch has been evacuated. 00 firefighters are battling the fire from the air and the ground. about 50 miles north of takachape, a fire has charred 6,000 ache education and

destroyed six homes -- 6,000 acres and destroyed six homes. still no word on what caused it. in northern sierra, lightning strikes have sparked dozens of small fires in the past four days. firefighters have been scrambling and sources from the bay area have been called in. >> reporter: julie, dozens of fire fighters and tons of equipment have been sent out from the bay area to other parts of the state. firefighters, engines, helicopters and bulldozers have been sent out. but fire officials say the bay area is still covered. >> in our unit we have two

strike teams of engines which is 10 engines total that are gone. we have a total of 31 engines that are still staffed here. so we still have plenty of engined staffed around the county. calfire is scrambling to put out the fire set by lightning. the fires are burning valuable timber and weather conditions could make the situation worse. >> the low pressure system is probably going to bring it with some very gusty winds. so that could actually dry out any of the rain that occurred last night. as well as fan any flames that are still burning or any sleeping fires that can then blow up to life. >> it can be an e clash ride, yeah. >> reporter: the billet has been flying airplanes for 35

years. while his partners are flying his sister plane across the fire lines he's left behind. ready for actions should fire break out in the pay area. >> somebody stays back. tomorrow, i'll be the one out chasing around and jimmy will be here guarding the fort. >> reporter: even though we've been experiencing cool weather here, there's still plenty of fire season ahead of us. >> even though we're getting cooler temperatures it'll be easier for us to control. but it is still fire season. >> reporter: so far bay area firefighters have not been called in to action in those battling those fires in southern california. but, things can change quickly. live in santa rosa, ken wayne, ktvu channel 2 news. the belmont city council had a public hearing tonight to get input about a plant on licensing new massage parlors and massage therapists.

there are currently 10 massage therapy parlors in the city. a recent review found 37 of the city's 46 licensed therapists received certificates from schools declared suspect. housley faces multiple robbery charges plus a murder charge in connection with a july 18 shooting and a separate robbery last month. george huggins was arrested yesterday and is expected to face similar charges. police say the pair killed kang of virginia as they robbed him of just $17. kang had just arrived in the

bay area for a job interview at google. police say the couple also wounded a couple in june, injuring one of them. following the deaths of three of her children in an apartment fire, james pled not guilty. her sister leticia james who also lost a child in that same fire pled not guilty to the same charges earlier this month. the two women left the children unattended in an apartment with candles burning. there are lots of questions tonight following the killing of a bay area man in san quentin. shaffer was stabbed to death just days after arriving at the prison. he was convicted of murder in which a 9-year-old girl was killed. rita williams has our report. >> reporter: authorities now are investigating the first inmate killing here at san quentin state prison since 1997. it occurred in the prison

reception yard yesterday morning. when frank anthony suoza came up to shaffer in the prison reception yard and stabbed the shaffer. >> it's identified as a broken breaking weapon. it's very sophisticated. >> reporter: souza is facing a prison of life for killing a man. authorities say they don't know why there would be bad blood between souza and they say he kill, who had only arrived here at the prison 10 days ago. edward shaffer was a nine time drunk driving offender convicted of second degree murder just starting to serve his sentence of 24 years to life. his blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit when he plowed his motorcycle into a

father and daughter. shaffer was going almost twice the posted 35-mile an hour posted speed limit. 9-year-old melody asheroff died the next day. her father aaron lost a leg and is left with a lifetime of pain physically and emotionally. >> the amount of suffering that this individual caused is just tremendous. >> reporter: osteroff says shaffer's death brings no relief. that he would have rather spend him spending his life behind bars. >> i think it's violence yet more violence. i mean, my daughter died a very violent death because of shaffer. she was murdered by shaffer. >> reporter: and he says, a life for a life still will not bring back his beloved daughter melody. rita williams, ktvu channel 2 news. a rebellion by dozens of democrats failed today to stop the house of representatives from passing a $59 billion bill

to fund the war in afghanistan. the house sent the measure on to president obama. it would pay for 30,000 additional troops for after afghanistan. they were upset that many domestic stimulus projects were stripped from the final measure. helen tousher has told her staff that she has early stage cancer. she told her staff about the cancer in a memo published today by the website foreign policy.com. in the memo, tousher says she has started cancer treatment, that her prognosis is good and that she hopes to fully recover by next year. and what we're learning

about california's role in the future of genetically grown animals. will you be the first on your block that you have to plug in, instead of filling it up? coming up we'll show you the new models.

woman: did you bring the camera phone? man: i did. do you wanna go first? i've been waiting for this all day. ok, this is from... aunt stacey. introducing chase quickdeposit. just photograph the front and back of your check using the chase mobile app on your iphone, and hit send. it went through. this is so cool. this is so cool. you wanna try it? yea. ok. all right. who's next? make a deposit from anywhere, anytime-- with your iphone. to mister and misses walker. why would they send my parents a check? chase what matters. ♪ welcome back, temperatures today they warmed just a little bit. we saw lots of upper 70s. in livermore 77 degrees this time of year is still below the

average. fire dangers are down because the testifitures are so cool -- because the temperatures are so cool. fog as far inland as lafayette. we're going to warm up a little bit as we go through the next couple of days. all the way to the delta, vacaville, freemont, livermore. lots of fog tomorrow. it'll burn off while quickly, daytime highs tomorrow will be a few degrees warmer than the highs we had today. these are the forecast highs for tomorrow, i'll have your five day forecast, we'll see you in a bit. >> an abundance of food is making this a banner year for whales off the southern california coast. but it's also creating a navigation hazard. boaters have had to steer clear of whales. so many whales in the water puts them at risk of being hit

by boaters. one hump back whale was found dead possibly struck by a ship. >> one of the researchers from conversation science said they saw 62 animals. >> a bumper crop of small crustaceans known as crills providing plenty of food for a lot of whales. boaters are now being urged to watch out for the whales, including gray whales that have come into the bay. opponents say genetically engineers animals will only make profits more abundant and support the food can make you sick. what lands on your table could depend in part to a laboratory right here in california. maureen naylor has our special report. >> people have been breeding animals for thousands of years. but it is only now that science is prepared to genetically

engineer food from animals in the laboratory. >> it's just one more tool in our set of techniques to try and improve animals for agriculture. >> reporter: here at uc davis, researchers such as james murray are working on more than three labs to genetically modify large animals. they've already done so with these goats. >> most of our work is aimed at trying to add new genes or express more master genes that are already in milk to make it healthier for humans to drink. >> reporter: murray and his colleagues are finding themselves thrust under the spotlight. to make the first engineers food for human consumption. with 4 billion people on earth we can't feed them use ago true hunter gather strategy. >> reporter: they want to expand their research to cows

and point out work is already in the works for pigs. >> the part of the pig that we eat is totally the same as it w and yet you have a major reduction in a potential pollutant. >> reporter: not everyone in the science community is as enthusiastic. >> why are we doing this? >> reporter: j.d. hanson -- >> they are not genetically engineering animals for any other purpose to make them fit better into the industrial food system. >> reporter: hanson like many others opposed sea the condition in which we raise livestock need to be changed first. >> essentially our animal food system is animal concentration camps. >> reporter: hanson says rather than removing phosphates from pig waste we should change the way we raise pork. >> it only becomes a problem

when you are trying to stick half a million pigs together in the same place. in the united states, we have more pig poop than we do human poop in some states. >> reporter: and hanson says rather than genetically engineering milk to make it safer, it would be better to give children in developing countries clean water. as for salmon, hanson says people can eat other fish like talapia which already is over producing. ma2 news. and you can learn more about genetically modified foods at ktvu.com. just look for the special report tab. drivers heading across the bay bridge will soon see a giant tower rising in the

middle of the bay. caltrans's crews have begun to put into position some of the sections that will make the bay bridge tower. those sections arrived from china earlier this month. one is finished in 2013. the self-anchor suspension span will hold us roadbeds that will tie treasure island to the new span of the bridge. a city council committee meets tomorrow to decide whether to add the measure to the full council. baseball officials today offered a promise of help to pay for special election next spring if san jose postpones the vote until then. companies involved in the electric car industry held a open house today to show off new electric vehicles. while plug ins be the car of the future, can the current

ev's get you where you need to go? lloyd lacuesta has the story. >> reporter: all week in san jose, experts have been gathered talking about plugging this into that. tonight they showed the public what they are talking about. more than 1,000 people rushed into the mchenry convention center tonight to look at the latest in ev's. electric vehicles and here the steal. >> for me and my family, this is the vehicle for me. >> reporter: electric cars getting the biggest buzz tonight were the chevrolet volt. a $40,000 car that has a gas engine could generate electricity at 40 miles. >> i don't want a 40-mile range, i want to be able to go to san francisco or sacramento. and i think you could with it. >> reporter: and the nissan leaf which is all electric powered, a 100-mile range. >> i want to plug my car in at

home and be able to charge it. you know, but rather than going to a gas station. >> reporter: the crowd tonight also saw a preproduction toyota plug in, expected to be in showrooms next year. industry analysts say electric cars will require 5% of the nation's electrical generating capacity. >> electricity to power vehicles is much more efficient to power vehicles that we'll have 50% reduction. >> the cost of electricity is only equivalent to buying gasoline at 70-cents a gallon. that's why you would do it, you would plug it in because there's 1/4 of the cost of gasoline today. >> reporter: the obama

administration has set a goal of getting 1 million electric cars on the road by the year 2015. charging stations are also planned. live in san jose, lloyd lacuesta, ktvu channel 2 news. new developments tonight in a string of arsons. up next, two new fires even as the suspect is sitting in jail. it's the stuff of yard sale legend. a $45 garage sale find now worth millions. coming up, why this is not a story of easy money.

a week after the arrest of a prime suspect in a string of arson, two more fires were deliberately set last night and early this morning. the fires were in two bins. last thursday police arrested 25-year-old travis churchill in connection with a fire set on

telegraph avenue near the uc campus. a police spokeswoman said churchill may also be responsible for eight other fires. last night's fires may be an accomplice or copy cat. and bp is replacing hayward with an american, dudley. dudley today said bp will remain focused on cleaning up the gulf. after taking a $32 billion charge for the spill clean up, bp is claiming an almost $10 billion tax credit. two bay area cities tonight debated raising their sales tax to reduce budget cuts. the antioch city council held a

public hearing to rise their sales tax by half a sent for eight years. concord also considered a similar resolution for five years. residents in both cities would have to approve the tax increases on the november ballot. san francisco supervisors today debated to put on measure on the ballot. the transfer tax on property selling for less than $5 million would remain the same. but properties selling for between five and $10 million would have the transfer tax raised to 2% and sales of properties costing more than $10 million would be taxed at 2.5%. oakland voters may soon be making a choice between their pocketbooks and public safety. the city council last night approved a proposal for the november ballot. the council says if the measure passes it may be able to reverse the lay offs of 80

police officers. if it doesn't, another 120 officers are at risk of losing their jobs. >> i'm propolice and proprotecting the people, but i'm not progouging the people. we've been getting gouged every which way. >> people can decide to choose yae or nae but all i'm saying is be willing to live with the consequences. >> reporter: police officers must agree to make a 9% contribution to their pension funds. is it the work of an american legend or not? up next what anzel adams grandson is saying tonight about some photograph negatives that could be worth $900 million. and how a young boy --

the forecast tomorrow slightly warmer than today. there'll be less fog, it'll burn off. concord downtown, 70 degrees about lunchtime. upper 70s, almost low 80s by late in the afternoon. i'll be back here in just 15 minutes. i'll have long range forecast. ac transit managers today threatened to cut all weekend bus service unless the agency

union will reach an agreement. the grant money from the race to the top program will be split between 10 to 15 finalists. educators will head to california next month. making the final cut could be worth $700 million in grant money. activists protested outside of nancy pelosi's san francisco office. they demanded that she sign a bill lpgt people.

to the problem is especially severe for transgender people. >> this is a haven for lpgt community. there's a 60% unemployment rate for the transgender community. >> reporter: nancy pelosi said she will push for the pentagon' don't ask don't tell policy before she pushes for a lpgt bill. today republican candidate megawhitman announced she will participate in three debates. two of which democrat jerry brown has already agreed to. randy shandobil reports. >> reporter: for almost two months, democrat jerry brown has pushed republican meg

whitman to agree to dozens of debates. >> we believe the people of california should hear from the two sides at the same time and see a real interchange from the two candidates. >> reporter: that'sjerry brown's reasons. but jerry brown also has a strategic reason, since he doesn't have as much campaign money as whitman has and can't buy as many ads, he's hoping that debates will generate news and get him on tv. whitman with her money advantage had up until today agreed to only one debate. >> you know what i said to jerry brown, bring it on. >> but today she accepted three invitation, two of which were already on brown's list of ten. the first is set for late september in sacramento. >> we thought these were the strongest proposals that had come across. >> reporter: whitman turned down a faith form set for this

saturday. types of questions? >> describe a situation in your life where your faith helped you to overcome a challenge. >> it didn't work in our overall schedule. so we won't be attending. >> reporter: for faith based, the whitman campaign told us they had a scheduling conflict, they didn't tell us what the conflict was. >> it just didn't work -- >> reporter: that's code for she didn't want to do that one. >> we just continue work it into our schedule. >> reporter: what's the scheduling conflict? >> like i said randy, we weren't able to fit it into our over all schedule. >> reporter: there was only one in 2002. randy shandobil, ktvu news. consumers are getting more nervous about spending. consumer confidence in the united states dropped some 8%

in july to its lowest monthly levels since february. the continuous jobless rate has forced people to save rather than spend. strong corporate earning reports balanced out the negative news. one person's junk is another person's treasure. that could really be the case for construction worker and painter. he bought some items in a garage sale in fresno for $45 just to find out they could be worth 32 million. patti lee is live with the report. >> reporter: this is one of those, it can happen to you story. this is a man who went to a garage sale, spent $45 on a box of art equipment, and turns out

they could be worth millions and from anzel adams. >> i just happened to go to the box and saw the glass negatives which i had never seen glass negatives. >> reporter: he might have stumbled across some of anzel adams earliest work believed to have destroyed in a fire. matt adams, head of the gallery in yosemite tells us the find should be exciting news. >> here is her handwriting. >> you look at the handwriting

samples, here's douglas glazer,i-a-r. >> what i saw was $200 million. and i thought, isn't that interesting. >> reporter: scott williams says he's never heard of the experts and the art world is a small place. >> what i think we in the arts would like to see is that indeed they are anzel adams negatives. >> reporter: scott nicoles says there's a definitive source to originate the art work. a high speed crash caught on tape. coming up, pictures of a truck race that ended in a spectacular wreck. police open fire on a cow after a wild rampage at the

california state fair. but first, warnings to women after a sketch is released after two attacks at a state park trail.

state park police today released a sketch they say resembles a man who attacked two women. they describe the man as a latino man with stocky build. the women escaped unharped. police have posted warnings at the popular wilderness park advising hikers. many hikers we spoke with said they plan to be cautious and

aware of their surroundings, but they also vowed not to be intimidate. there is word tonight a mendecino county sheriff deputy shot and killed a man today at a marijuana growing site. it happened this morning at u.s. forest service land near the county line separating mendecino and akima county. one man was killed the other escaped. mendecino county authorities say they are finding unusually large amounts of marijuana this year. and warships powered across the water on day two of joint u.s. south korean military exercises. one group practiced live fire training on an abandoned submarine. china responded today with a rocket drill. today is the 57th anniversary of the truce that ended the

korean war. in mexico, newspapers published a picture today proported to be of a missing presidential candidate. the man is blindfolded and holding up a newspaper with the date of his kidnapping. in brazil, a truck raid ended abruptly after one driver lost control. his truck plowed over the other one tearing both of them apart. the tire lost its tire and landed on it roof. one of the drivers did need help climbing out of the twisted wreckage. could three life guards on duty have done more to save a child. the death of a 6-year-old boy at a bay area swimming more. and our meteorologist bill martin is back with our seven

day forecast. [trumpet playing "reveille" throughou

reviving the economy means reinventing the way we do business. here's to the owners showing us the way. [trumpet playing "reveille" fades to silence

we have just received word into the ktvu newsroom of a deadly accident in vacaville. about 8:30 tonight a vw jetta just east of pleasant valley road hit a tree. six people were in the car. one died, three were air lifted to hospitals and one of those is reported to have a broken leg. there's no word tonight on what caused that accident. elsewhere, invest investigators are trying to figure out how a boy died in a crowded public pool. it happened where three life guards were on duty. >> reporter: pool staff say it happened during the public swim period about 2:15 yesterday afternoon. there were some 44 visitors at the time. the parks general manager said there were three life guards on

duty. one of them noticed the 6-year- old boy was in trouble. >> jumped in, pulled him out. immediately began first aid, cpr. second responder came on board, started the aed. third responder called the paramedics and we were here shortly after wards. >> reporter: paramedics say when they arrived the boy was not breathing. he was taken to to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. >> reporter: today sheriff's deputies wer deputies were investigating the boy's death. >> we have been interviewing the life guards of people who were near by. any parents that were there, kid, we're talking to everybody that was connected with the situation so we can find out what -p happened. >> reporter: park district staff say according to pool rule, all children seven years and younger must be with an adult and with an arm's length

while in the water. tonight it's unclear if any adult was with the boy when he drowned. >> we feel terrible. our hearts are broken. you know it's a tragedy. >> reporter: pool staff say that all their life guards are trained according to american red cross standards. the district says it is conducting an internal investigation along with the alameda county sheriff's office. reporting from castro valley. a pregnant cow ran amuck and police say they had no choice but to kill it. the cow was a hosting cow like this one. it broke free around 9:30 this morning before the fair opened then went on what you might call a one cow stampede. veterinarians on hand tried to

tranquilize it but was not able to. the state fair veterinarian then gave the okay to shoot the cow. no humans were injured in the incident. the measure is aimed at doing away with secondhand tobacco smoke. but supervisors decided to wait for two weeks to see if smoking should be exempted. fewer cigarettes are being smoked in california. state tax officials say cigarette sales fell more than 8% during the past fiscal year. the number of packs of cigarettes sold in the state has fallen almost 66% in the past 19 years from a high of 2.8 billion packs in 1980 to 972 million packs last year. the california department of public health says the number of people who smoke has also fallen down 13% last year from

almost 27% in 1985. and it's cool outside right now, there's a lot of breeze and fog moving into your neighborhood. let's take a look at live storm tracker ii. 58degrees right now in concord. it's 59 degrees in san francisco. usually this time of night out in the valley, we'd be looking at numbers in the 60s, , 70s and 80s. clouds will push into your neighborhood. your weekend is going to be just a little bit warmer than it has to be. 56 in antioch, as you head out tomorrow morning, you're going to need a jacket because it's going to be cool. but that's no surprise. been like that all winter, all summer and it will continue that way most of this week. the fog will burn off more rapidly tomorrow. with the quicker burn off, it'll be a little bit warmer daytime highs. not much though.

thursday you'll notice an increase. but it's still not hot. it's still not going to be into the upper 90s, it's going to be into the upper 80s. air quality is good at the beach tomorrow, in the 50s. we'll stop you in the middle of the bay. you hop over the hill out toward lafayette 72. out towards martinez, clayton upper 70s. it's weird isn't it. 78degrees, 80 degrees in antioch tomorrow for a daytime high. these temperatures are certainly cooler than you would expect by as much as 10 maybe even 15 degrees. the forecast highs tomorrow, the heat is in the valley. but it's been very pleasant up in the central valley. there might be a few breaks. mavericks right here, just get your orientation. downtown half-moon bay at lunchtime just 57 degrees. cloudy and then 4:00. about 59 degrees, at best.

50 in fairfield tomorrow. 68 in hayward. forecast highs in morgan hill and in gilroy, they are cool. that looks like late spring to me. not middle of summer where you would expect these numbers around the bay to up 70s. the big upside to that is the fire danger is no big issue. the weekend is going to warm up a bit with temperatures touching to maybe 90 degrees. >> nice little warm up there. thanks, bill. >> mild though while we are in the week. san mateo supervisors overwelmingly voted to allow homeowners to keep poultry animals on their property. and what nasa has to say

today about who items that floated away from the international space station.

nasa officials say two objects are lost in space tonight after floating away from the international space station. the gadgets floated off during a space walk. one you can see highlighted there is believed to be a clamp left outside of a space walk

during a russian space walk. a food good night for the giants and another good night for buster posey. >> another winning night for the giants. yeah he extended his hitting streak. the major contributions from a couple of guys that have been on the down low. by that we mean their batting averages down low. does this make you feel old? 24 years ago, he broke in with the giants attending the game there tonight. there's buster. you have to have some left too. balls in for an rbi single. posey with 20 straight games with at least one hit. got that one up, josh johnson who's been excellent. juan uribe ticket to ride to break the 3-3 tie. his 14-4-3 after an aaron rowan

single. edgar renteria went deep. it seems a while since he got a homer. six of 12 games coming up against the first place rangers for the a's. they're either going to get their little bubble burst or sit up and notice them. tonight not what they had in mind. although you can't say th rangers made such a big statement. guerrero sensational year. his first one with the rangers. into the gap, that will put michael young in motion. in with the slide jury was just under suzuki. an unearned run here. as suzuki's signal misplayed. 1-1 for texas. 3-1 final, a's on the short end. for those who knew him away

from the football field, the a assassin was just a nickname who had nothing to do with the real man. the former raiders defensive back known for his extreme physicality throughout a stellar nine year career as a safety with the oakland raiders had suffered from diabetes and had his left leg amputated a few yearing as because of circu -- a few years ago because of circulation problems. today, willie brown, his good friend. >> he talked to anybody on the street. he's the type of guy who on the field was all business. you don't bother him, you don't run slants inside on jack. particularly on the weak side. me as a corner, i didn't have a

problem running on him. so me, i would say, go ahead buddy. go ahead. >> boy was he fun to watch too. >> not if you were on the other end. >> exactly. >> mark, thanks. that is our report for tonight. thanks for joining us. good night. >> good night.