in san jose this afternoon, firefighters say they have a smoking gun in their battle with the city over budget cuts. >> reporter: i'm tara moriarty live at sfo, where faa investigators are trying to look into what caused a plane bound for australia to make an emergency landing. we'll hear from passengers -- coming up. the bottom line is our combat phase is now over. >> president obama speaks to troops and then later to the nation. those stories and more -- next

on the ktvu channel 2 news at noon. [ this broadcast captioned by erin c. mc clure ] good afternoon. topping our news this noontime, san jose firefighters union is turning up the heat in a staffing dispute with the city. this follows budget cuts that eliminated almost 50 firefighters. ktvu's kraig debro joins us now with more from a news conference that took place during the last hour. good afternoon, kraig. >> reporter: yeah, good afternoon, tori. firefighters released a transcript and a tape, actually a cd, this is the transcript here of what they are calling the smoking gun in this dispute with the city. firefighters are claiming that those budget cuts that they have to take actually are gonna reduce the response times and they challenge the city to prove them otherwise. from the day those laid off turned into their gear, there was a threat to public safety, they say. slower response time.

now they say the city knew that to and have an audiotape to prove it. >> when fire extends beyond room of origin, what the data tells us that's in the published materials, you get an eight to ten-fold increase in loss of property. >> reporter: the tape was a recording of a presentation given by katie, the research and development director for the fire department. the presentation was given in april at a conference in orlando, florida at an annual event followed navigator 2010. at the firefighters, firefighters say katie tells his audience about the negative impact budget cuts will have on response times. >> our current response times objective is eight minutes, 80% of the time. we're currently at 81%. we think we'll drop to 78. so we'll go below what is currently adopted as the standard for city. as i have up there, some of those districts are likely to

see a 20% reduction in perm performance, going to the 56th percentaisle. >> reporter: this was a bitter fight. the workers could have their jobs back but with a reduction of 9% cut in their pay. the day after the vote, firefighters say they responded to a house fire two minutes slower than they would have if they were at full staffing. today, firefighters say at least one city official knew that would be an issue. >> he they gassed and said the -- gasped and said the public will never accept that. i said, tom, that's the fact. i'm not being emotion a i'm tell you what the data says. >> reporter: the tom he's

referring to is tom manheim. we have not been able to get ahold of him to confirm the conversation. i did share an e-mail with the spokesperson for the mayor. she said the mayor probably wouldn't have a comment on it until he has heard the whole thing. but firefighters, their benefits and pay is double over the past decade, he says the layoffs wouldn't have been necessary if the city workers did and that is take a pay cut or benefit cut. robert handa will have more on this at 5:00. kraig debro, ktvu channel 2 news. >> thank you, kraig. the marin fire station in the marine hedlunds may be closed to save money. they are considering closing station 52 at fort cronkite. rodeo beach, the marine mammal center and the headlands ins student are serviced there.

a study showed the area could be purchased. over 200 airline passengers are scrambling to find another way to get from the bay area to australia today. this after their quantas plane lost an engine shortly after take-off from sfo, force everything the plane to return to the airport. tara moriarty joins us now with the latest. good afternoon, tara. >> reporter: well, good afternoon, tori. passengers say this is a pretty harrowing ordeal, one full of jolt, sparks and flames. they say it's an experience they are glad is over. quantas flight 74 bound for sydney, australia sat at the gate for most of the morning until crews moved it to a maintenance ramp. >> we were about a half hour in the flight and there was a very strong sound. >> reporter: he was one of 231

people on board. >> apparently there was some flames coming out of the right side of the plane. >> the plane started to shake a little bit. and -- yeah, an uncomfortable vibration. i felt something was wrong. >> reporter: the problem, one of the plane's four engines exploded. these pictures taken after an emergency landing at 12:45 this morning show a large gash through the engine. >> it could be anything from blades crack, wear and tear. they will look at maintenance records to see if the aircraft was maintained properly. until we can see what caused the engine failure, there is just a lot of speculation. >> reporter: although a 747 can fly with just three engines, if another engine were to malfunction during the journey to australia, that could spell to disaster. >> he made the right decision, the pilot, that's what his

training taught him. >> reporter: passengers were put up in a hotel until they could catch another plane. most said it was a flight they could never forget. >> everybody was a lot happier at the end, very relieved to be on the ground. >> reporter: most of those displaced passengers just boarded an american flight for los angeles and will be catching an evening flight to sydney. meantime, faa investigators will try to figure out exactry what went wrong so mechanics will work to fix it. tara moriarty, ktvu channel 2 news. >> thank you, tara. you can see more pictures of the damaged jetliner at sfo by logging onto the channel 2 website. you'll find a slide show on the front page at ktvu.com. there is an update this noontime to the arrest of two men suspected of testing a terrorist attack on an international flight from the u.s. the fbi continues to investigate but a u.s. government official is now saying it is unlikely the two

men detained in amsterdam were planning or testing a terrorist attack. red flags were initially raised when two men boarded a plane from chicago to amsterdam. their luggage, headed to a different location, contained what lome land security -- homeland security called suspicious items. they missed their flights and were booked to a flight to amsterdam. the luggage didn't make the flight and that's what triggered the concern. today marks the end to u.s. combat operations in iraq. president obama addressed the troops at an army base in texas. this evening le address the rest of us. at the oval office, he will declare the end of combat operations. >> we're still gonna be going after terrorists this are in --

in those areas. so our counterterrorism operations will be conducted jointly. but the bottom line is that our combat phase is over. >> reporter: about 50,000 u.s. troops will remain in iraq in a training and backup role. they will be what the pentagon calls advisory and assistance brigades. some critics say they are really still combat troops. they've just been renamed. >> it sounds like we all went home. but we are all still here. >> the troops say their new advise and assist mission means they are still going on patrols and convoys but any are following the iraqis now, not leading them. >> you can watch president obama's speech at 5:00 right here on ktvu.com. it is sed to start at 5:00 p.m. the fremont police officer wounded in the line of duty is expected to have even more surgery very soon, possibly today. doctors at oakland's highland

hospital there are signs that officer todd young is improving. his condition was upgraded from critical to serious. on friday, he was shot and critically wounded while trying to arrest a man on domestic violence charges. the union city man who done fessed to -- who confessed to shooting the officer is expected to be transferred here later this week. court documents show andrew barrientos has a history of running from police. in san diego, police arrested him just a few feet from the border. a 23-year-old man with barrientos at the borter was also arrested. a scary time for some when a mountain lion came into town. the bay area weather will

be warming up again. but will the temperatures last for labor day? also -- >> reporter: a shark sighting in pacifica was not enough to keep some people out of the water. i will bring you that story -- coming up.

a contract dispute between

ac transit and its drivers is leading to severe service cuts. ac transit plans to announce proposed budget cuts tomorrow. those cut also likely slash weekend service in half, eliminate all but two overnight bus lines and shorten service routes. previous cuts called for a 7% reduction. it's the opposite situation for muni. starting this saturday, 61% of services that was cut three months ago will be restored. riders can expect more buses that run more frequently and later at night. muni says the service fs are back in court because of a one- time funding allocation. the agency tells us that a proposal to restore all service is in the works. police in hercules are searching for the son of a man found dead in his home. investigators found the body of 73-year-old ricardo salas inside a home on kraig myrting

drive. a woman called the authorities when the two failed to show up for work. authorities are not releasing many details but say the victim suffered from one gunshot wound and there are signs of trauma at the house. >> basically, we know there was some level of altercation before the actual murder. >> police say the son is currently a missing person and is not a person of interest in the homicide. it appears the shark sighting is not enough to keep everyone out of the water at a popular pacifica beach. warning signs are up after a great white was spotted in the ocean about 200-yards from shore yesterday afternoon. as claudine wong, some surfers say -- as claudine wong report, some surfers are saying sharks are just part of the ocean. >> reporter: this surfer saw blood in the water.

>> i caught a wave. as i came back people were flagging -- >> reporter: you actually saw blood in the water? >> yeah, big blood of waters. >> reporter: that blood, according to witnesses, came from a sea lion attacked from a great white shark. one witness took this video. signs went up after that early- afternoon sighting warning people about the shark. most of the people we spoke to haven't heard about the warning. these two only heard about this after they got out of the water. >> i was wondering why there were far fewer facility water. >> reporter: did it seem like there were far fewer? >> yes. >> i probably would have gotten in yeahway. >> reporter: does that scare you? >> no, i try not to think about it. >> reporter: after looking at the signs, they didn't think much of it. >> that's not much of a

warning. >> reporter: i are not worried? >> no. it's the ocean. it's the time of the year. you just have to be careful. like i did yesterday, that was stupid. you shouldn't have to paddle the way out. that's how you gets in trouble. >> reporter: she'll still surf. she will just do it closer to shore. claudine wong, ktvu channel 2 news. there's a warning for parents and students in walnut creek. ktvu spoke to school officials this morning who confirmed that a strange man approached a fourth grade student at buena vista elementary school. the incident happened friday evening around 5:00 as a girl was heading home from an after- school program. police say she was not harmed and ran home and told her parents. the man is 55, blond hair and he drove a white convertible. police are urging students to walk in groups. federal officials are

putting residents on alert because of hurricane earl. fema says the category 4 storm is moving over the open ocean with 135-mile-per-hour winds right now. earl is expected to reach the carolina coast late thursday, or early friday before it heads north to eastern canada. let's check in on our own weather with our meteorologist, steven paulson. >> we had a lot of low clouds out there this morning. by about 9:00, it started to burn off. although, what was interesting is, it intended to hang out to the san pablo bay and the napa airport, a little longer than everyone else. now it's hugging the coast. you can see the directions. northeast, north 6 at vallejo 6 -- at val capacityville. san jose, 6. that's a sign of things to come. if there is a northerly breeze, that means the fog doesn't have much of a chance. it means we're going to warm up

and it means the fire danger will go up as we head towards tonight and tomorrow. we'll keep an eye on that. a little fog in the distance. a very nice 67 in san francisco. you can see on the satellite picture, everything is driving straight down out of the north. this is the leading edge of a high-pressure system which comes in and then more on thursday. and it starts to back off by friday. next week is looking really cool. san francisco in the 50s to start off with. we'll go for a high of 67. it's the fog right along the coast. so 60s by the coast. >> still too much fog although it's kind of retreating from the sonoma coast and then upper 80s as you start to work your way up. at the airport, i think they are about 68. san jose is at 76. there's your 67 in san francisco. oakland, berkeley, 68. palo alto, a nice of 7 -- a nice 73. 64 in tahoe the. were down to 23 this morning

and truckee's 28. we have 70 through 80 in the valley and through much of the interior and on the coast. 66 at l.a.x. and san diego. you can see one more system coming in. that's the mountain high that's starting to build in, build in, and it will send everything off to the east and miss us. warmer weather is on top today. we're near seasonal averages. tomorrow we'll ally get in the hot category, especially away from the coast the next three days we have a warmup, tuesday, wednesday, thursday. still some low clouds, fog out to the west but sunshine for everyone else. warmer, bayside inland. temperatures are starting to creep up a little bit here. we had a big warmup last week at this time. we were at 105. we kind, 60s, 70s tomorrow, near 90 for the interior. near 100 on thursday. a cooldown on saturday and a sunday. and a big cooldown next week by

this time. >> well, it's september. >> it's september so we'll get the wild flux wakes. it feels like we're ahead of schedule. drivers can high pressure adrive -- drivers can expect a lot of company on the road this labor day holiday. drivers will drive 50 miles or more from home. that's an 11% increase from last year. an a lot of bay area people will be headed this labor day, monterey, is the number one destination for people driving by car. lake tahoe, and big sur was the number one destination. and for those who are going to get away by plane, san diego is the number one top destination.

a tipster told ktvu news that police shot a mountain lion on cedar and virginia streets, that's just across the street from shops on shaddock avenue. it happened a few hours before sunrise. officials removed the body of the cat that officials shot. our real national pastime? saving money. and like baseball people love their stats. i started bringing my lunch to work -- 50 bucks a week in my pocket. here's a good one: state farm insures 40 million drivers. more than geico and progressive combined. i saved because i'm accident-free. of course, with so many ways to save

including discounts of up to 40%, having that many customers shouldn't be a surprise. so ask a neighbor about state farm, then call an agent at 1-800-state-farm or go online.

taking a live look at the big board on wall street, there was some surprising jump in consumer confidence and that gave stocks a modest lift. the biggest gainers were macy's and best buy. investors are really remaining cautious about the economy and a lot of traders are waiting and hesitating to make any move before friday's key monthly report on em ploim. the dow is currently down 27, at 9982, below 0,000, once again. republican candidate for governor, meg whitman, had to add one more thing to her already busy schedule -- jury trial. on monday, she was called for jury duty in san mateo county. she was asked along with other potential jurors whether there was anything that would prevent her from serving. she told the judge that she's

pretty busy running for governor. but the judge kept her in the jury pool and she may have to report again on thursday. ktvu is sponsoring the first debate in the u.s. senate race between carly fee fiorina and barbara boxer. we're going to carry that live tomorrow evening. you can submit questions at ktvu.com. look for the tab that says "send us your questions." how much noise can motorcycles make? well, it's now up to the governor to decide. state lawmaks approved a bill that punished riders whose motorcycles exceed federal noise standards. the law would apply only to motorcycles built in 2013 or later. violators will be fined. the governor who owns several motorcycles has not said if he plans to sign the bill. tonight, at 5:00, president obama will address the nation

about the exit strategy from the war in iraq. we will carry the president's address live from the white house and all of the day's news. that's coming up later this evening. thanks for watching, have a great day.