since the explosion has died. jimmy franco he had been hospitalized. the san mateo coroner is conducting an autopsy to determine the cause of death. >> reporter: top officials from pg & e were invited to answer to lawmakers. our washington bureau reporter carol hann is live with details on what happened today. >> reporter: good evening frank. san bruno's mayor was the first to break the news that an eighth person has died. he told me he has a lot of things going on but he took time off to give a face to the

tragedy. lawmakers got the picture thanks to the city's mayor that it's time to beef up gas pipe laws. >> out of sight out of mind, but we have to bring attention to this problem. >> reporter: the mayor gave us a look at the investigation. the agency said it'll take a year to figure out the cause because it plans to look at everything from pipe corrosion to possible damage. then there's also this issue it's investigating. >> an hour and a half to turn off the valves. there's no question that turning it off sooner would have resulted in less damage. >> reporter: even the president of pg & e admitted -- >> shut off valves in that instance, assuming they would have worked would have turned it faster than we could have. >> reporter: the cpuc fell on

its sword admitting -- >> something went wrong we were all doing our jobs and the explosion happened any way. that means something else has to happen. >> reporter: better move fast, that was what's senator boxer said to the council. >> we can't wait for another accident. this one cut deep into a community. you were there, it stops your heart. >> reporter: a growing number of california lawmakers are pushing for a bill that among other things would require automatic shut off valves, but the bill is still in the beginning stages, that is pushing regulators back home to move first and require more inspections not wait for congress to act. live in washington, carol hann, ktvu channel 2 news. federal investigators are looking into whether the san bruno pipeline is tied to a problem in the south bay.

pg & e lost e electricity to a pipeline. the outage happened just hours before the pipeline explosion. the ruptured line originated in milpedas. the outage could have blocked pg & e from regulating the pressure in that line. coming up, ktvu's consumer editor tom vacar has more on what the investigation found. the alameda fire department says a 6-inch wide high pressure pipeline was accidentally ripped open by contractors just after 2:00 this afternoon. pg & e crews expect to have the leak capped within the next few minutes. authorities evacuated a dozen homes and an elementary school and sent out reverse 911 calls urging people in a four block area to shelter in place.

as of now there are no reports to damages in local buildings. in the race for governor less than an hour to go now before candidates meg whitman and jerry brown go face to face for the first time. the stage is set for debate at uc davis' mondabe center. and we have what's happening inside and outside of the center, ken. >> reporter: right now we are outside the mondave center, right now you are seeing people who are lined up ready to enter into the debate hall. there are also people, this debate starts at 6:00, there are the people who want their voices heard. we have people, it's the area of dominated by supporters of jerry brown. a lot of democratic supporters here are expecting some of the campus republicans to make their way here shortly. that also here, mixed into this quad of supporters and protesters were candidates left

out of tonight's debate and students who wanted to make it clear that education should be a key topic of tonight's discussion. >> if this is a democracy they should have the other candidate. the other third party candidate who represents various opinions of issues. >> we want to make sure they bring forward all the issues. not a lot has been said about education. we want to make sure we're at the forefront of what's being discussed. >> reporter: the protest will wrap up in time for the debate inside the mondave center which seats up to 1,800 people. a moderator will lead the candidates through a series of questions. the candidates will have 90 pháeups 90 -- 90 minutes to

answer questions. this debate will be watched statewide and there will be several watching parties here at the uc davis campus and we hope to hear from students and get their reaction about this debate. this is the first debate, it is often the most watched which makes tonight's face off all the more important. and it will give undecided voters in what is a tight race. the candidates are hoping to sway the voters. at uc davis, ken pritchett. and again we will bring you that debate live here on ktvu. you can also watch clips of tonight's debate by going to ktvu.com. you will find them and all the very latest election news under the election 2010 tab. it could be the first execution in california in almost five years. it is scheduled to happen at 9:00 p.m. on thursday. but will it go off as planned.

there are legal battles going on in several fronts. we're learning what the condemned inmate is spending his full-time hours. rob roth is live with our report. >> reporter: here outside the gates of san quentin state prison, the first anti death penalty protest has just broken up. over the last few minutes, marin county deputies have arrested several protesters. the protesters peacely stood in front for more than an hour. cars lad to be diverted to another gate in the ison. the protesters said they wanted to send the message that the death penalty needs to end in california. >> we believe that death is wrong. >> reporter: the clock is still ticking toward the execution scheduled for thursday two days

from now. prison officials have already moved albert greenwood brown to a segregated cell where correction officers watch him around the clock. brown's relatives and friends have been visiting him. >> he's been staying calm and collecting his thoughts. >> reporter: we're told brown was not always an ideal inmate since he first entered san quentin. he was often moved to a probe b. he has recently been assaulted

another inmate. >> he has been a problem until the most recent four years. >> reporter: brown's attorneys filed briefs with judge fogel. fogel was ordered to reconsider. he must now compare the state's new lethal injection procedures. >> reporter: either side can appeal, and a separate appeal is working it's way through the state's courts. rob roth, ktvu channel 2 news. it's now been a record 90 days without a state budget and today the so called big five abruptly called off budget cuts after disputes of union pensions. the talks are continuing at the

staff level. the governor's is demanding pension reform. >> the public employee union bosses are determining -- >> democrats want the governor to win through collective bargaining before they consider his proposal to changes to the pension system. there's good news on the home sales front. sales rose from june to july. here in the bay area prices were up half a percent. but the report says prices are expected to decline in the coming months now that the federal tax credit has expired. after an early dip in

staging, wall street had a come back. investors shook off the disappointing sales report. the market's ended this day higher with the dow jones up 46 points at the closing bell. the nasdaq closed up almost 10 points. today the other shoe drop at cal berkeley. for a while now there's been criticism that the athletic department isn't doing it's part when it comes to the athletic department. so today, they dropped eight sports. ktvu's sal castaneda is live on the cal campus with our report. >> reporter: california men's baseball is perhaps the most high profile team to be eliminated. uc berkeley called these cuts a painful reality of the economic times. today the university gathered student athletes together to announce the news before it was

announced to the public. sandra barbara says the university tried to come up with other alternatives before deciding to make the cuts. >> again these were all very painful decisions. as i said to the students earlier today, deciding which programs was the most difficult part of the plan. >> reporter: the university says the move will caught the teams from 29 to 24 and save the athletic department 4 million a year. the chancellor says he doesn't think that it will change the number of contributors. >> i know from our mayor donors that they are going to support us, that they believe we're acting responsibly. >> reporter: along with

baseball, cal will also eliminate the men and women's gymnastic teams and women's lacrosse. 163 student athletes will be affected and 13 full time coaches will be laid off. student reaction on campus was mixed. >> that might not be the best decision because i know the school gets a lot of allumni support from the athletics program. i think a lot of people will be upset about it. but if it has to happen it has to happen. >> personally i don't care. >> sports foster a lot of school pride and community, it's sad that it has to be cut. >> reporter: most say they are surprised by the e will elimination of the baseball team that has produced some

major names. live in berkeley, sal castaneda, ktvu news. today was sizzling, next how this red hot weather is bringing some green here to the bay area. yeah, another hot one around here. i'll tell you how hot it got in your neighborhood, and i'm tracking the fog. i'll let you know when it'll get to your town.

today was actually a little hotter than yesterday. we have team coverage tonight on the heat. bill martin is tracking the heat and he has news that people will probably appreciate. but first we go to david stevenson looking into the connection of the heat and the tourism industry. >> reporter: that's right, the

the city hopes that the heat will improve the tourism industry. the heat beat down on the 40th annual car ringing contest. the high heat was another attraction for tourists today. temperatures soared into the 90s by noon. >> the weather is sensational. it's just like in sidney where we're from. >> reporter: lefty odoules counts on the heat. >> lately they've been coming in drinking our margaritas and bloody mary's because they are

great summer drinks. >> reporter: the warm fall season is increasingly becoming more important as the hospitality industry rebounds from the recession. >> this will be our busiest times for meetings and conventions. the tourism time, the busiest time is in the summer that's when people are in vacation. but the fall and summer have been growing for san francisco. >> reporter: at an electronic convention. mayor gavin newsom urged visitors to move here permenantly. >> what's tourism being driven by? it's not only the beauty and hill, it's also because people are coming here for business. >> reporter: the san franciscoconvention of visitors bureau says the heat brought in people from the valley, people trying to escape to the heat.

more words broken throughout the bay area. very, very hot inland. temperatures well above 100 in the real hot spots. let's go outside, i'll show you the records, a few of them any way. look at live more 105 degrees. breaking numerous records today. temperatures are changing around though. i mentioned the fog is just sitting offshore. that fog will be moving into the area late tonight early tomorrow. and that's beginning of that very slow cooling trend we've been talking about. temperatures will trend down, should trend down as we head into the weekend to near normal. there's a weather system offshore that will bring clouds and more fog. the inland areas really experience the heat. 101 in fairfield. spare the air days, looks like we're not going to have one. the forecast is for along the coast from 70s into the 60s. there'll be cooling but mainly

along the coast and bay. the winds aren't there which is good news but with these higher temperatures and lower humidities. so things are cooling down. if you're sick of the heat, things are starting to cool down. the high pressure is weakening as we speak. there's a high pressure down here that will slide up. as it sets up shore, it will trend temperatures down. temperatures dropping off wednesday and into thursday. so we'll see cooler weather as we go into those periods of lessened fire danger. when i come back, i'm going to show you more records. i'll show you where the fog is getting close. i'll show you where it is in your city. there are some hopeful signs tonight that the two hikers being held in iran will be released bid this weekend. a delegation from the gulf state of iman is getting ready

to visit this weekend. an iranian newspaper says that if bower and pattal are released they will be allowed to leave with the iman. an exclusive new, ktvu field poll shows how americans feel about obama. who's getting to hit the books this time?

californians have more confidence in fact, in the job the president is doing than the rest of the country. a new field poll shows that californians are more confident in the job the president is doing than the rest of the country. 53% of californians are happy with his work. that number is down from a high of 65% in march 2009 shortly after he was elected. here in the bay area support for the president is even stronger, 66% of voters approve of his job performance. a majority of californians are also happy with the president's leadership in after afghanistan. this is a change from the last field poll in july, then only 47% approved of the president's

handling of the war in afghanistan. now 53% approve. 55% said the nation is on the wrong track while 34% says the headed in the right direction. one of the president obama's key aids will soon be leaving the white house and we could know for sure by the end of the week. the president's chief of staff rahm emanuel is thinking about a mayoral run for chicago. no word yet on who president obama would have replace emanuel if he decides to leave. most of the 23 campuses in the csu system did not admit

new students for this year's spring term. university leader said in july they were waiting until the state passed a budget before deciding about the spring enrollment but ultimately decided they said to remain optimistic and allow the enrollment. the value of its investment portfolio is improving. the portfolio rose 14.4% in the last year. sanford credited it's improved standing to better decisions. the commitment the city of san francisco made if it gets picked to host the america's cup. plus -- >> reporter: the oakland police chief is calling it a high priority case. a 6-year-old girl killed inside h her house as she slept.

the connection between her and the target. and protesters outside the upcoming governor's debate which is being held at uc davis. a debate that you will see in one-half hour here on channel 2. it is the first of eight, it is a very important debate. we'll have it for you coming up in about 35 minutes and more on the protest coming up in just a few minutes. ring ring ring ring. hey, your chicken noodles ringing.

ring ring progresso.

hi, may i speak to my oggy please? thank you. i'm sorry, who? my grandma. this is obviously her chicken noodle soup. only hers tastes like this. just put my oggy on the phone. thanks so much. hold one moment please. another person calling for her grandmother. she thinks it's her soup huh? i'm told she's in the garden picking herbs. i'll hold. she's holding. wha? [ male announcer progresso. you gotta taste this soup. ring ring. look for great deals on progresso soups this week at safeway. shop now and save. protesters are gathering right now on the uc davis campus where meg whitman and jerry brown are poised to face off in the first debate of their campaign. that debate will be held live before an audience of 950 people. but the action right now is

outside the mondavi center on the uc davis campus where protesters as you can see here are rallying at this hour. third party candidates are there as well voicing their frustration of not being invited today. but there are also union groups and other protesting the debate. the debate is 30 minutes away and you can watch it here live. >> and what happens inside can shape california for years to come. ktvu's political editor randy shandobil live now, and a lot of people are calling tonight's debate pivotal, is there really that much at stake tonight? >> reporter: yes, there really is that much at steak tonight. a poll shows this race dead

even. 41% for meg whitman, 41% for jerry brown. some voters will start voting just a few days from now. mail in voting starts next week. so tonight's debate could be one of the last things that many people see about the candidates before they mail in their ballots. so it is indeed very important. >> randy, let's talk about winning because that's what everybody talks about these kind of things. what does brown have to do to win this debate, and what does whitman have to do to so call win this debate. >> reporter: brown has to demonstrate that he still has fresh ideas and that he's just not as meg whitman says a career politician who's endebted to all the special interest groups. meg whitman is pretty much the opposite challenge since she's a complete newcomer to politicians, she's never held elected office and in fact, she says that she's often neglected

to vote before getting involved. she has to demonstrate that she's really truly committed, that she's not as some democrats claim just a rich woman trying to show that she can be governor also. they have an opposite challenge. they both have to show commitment. brown has to show he's still fresh, whitman has to show she knows what she's doing. >> they certainly have different solutions for the state, but they have different styles. >> meg withman whitman is a conservative candidate and a conservative strategist. jerry brown is so confident, he

actually sometimes goes stream of consciousness and ad libs. that can get him in some trouble. he often makes verbal slips. >> randy shandobil live there in davis. we'll be watching that debate starting here at 6:00 on ktvu. former president jimmy carter will spend the night in the hospital. mr.carter is touring the country to promote his new book white house diary. the former president spoke to president obama on air force one who said carter sounded great. mr.carter turns 86 on friday. he is expected to resume his book tour later on this week. dozens of bullets fired into a home and one comes very close to killing a 6-year-old girl who was at the time tuck away in what you may consider the safest place of all. mike mibach live in oakland after talking to investigators and the sister of that little girl. >> reporter: detectives tell me

today that the neighborhood i'm standing in filled with gang activity. now the house behind me, that's the home that was hit in front of it not one, but two unmarked opd units, they've been here all afternoon and into the evening. this house has been targeted at least twice before but this time the gunman connected hitting a 6-year-old girl as she slept right next to her parents. >> the scene was scattered with evidence markers, dozens of bullet holes. the time was 2:15 a.m. >> it's very alarming considering that this family is just inside asleep. >> reporter: karen ramirez says ten members of her family were asleep including her 6-year-old sister who was inside her family's bedroom. >> i was sleeping and i heard a lot of gun shooting. i heard my mom screaming and i went to her room and i seen my little sister. >> reporter: 6-year-old leslie ramirez was shot. the bullet entered her arm

traveled into her chest missing every major organ. >> painful, sad. >> reporter: police say the 1600 block of seminary is a known gang area. and ramirez says that she thinks it's her brother who was targeted. and she hopes the shooting of her little sister opens his eyes. >> he needs to not only think about him but people around him. >> reporter: police visited to drop off a teddy bear and visit with the little girl. the case is high priority for the department. >> kids should be able to grow up in their community would be being afraid that they are going to be hit by a stray bullet or some gang members shooting up their community. >> reporter: detectives will continue to interview the ramirez family specifically the 18-year-old son. at this point no description of the gunman that's been

released. live tonight here in east oakland, mike mibach, ktvu channel 2 news. firefighters are looking p -r the cause of a fire that sent three people to the hospital -- firefighters are looking for the cause of a fire that sent three people to the hospital. three residents were taken to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. the fire ended up displacing nine people in all. witnesses say flames were coming from windows and doors and then spread to vehicles parked outside. >> it's heart stopping just to see the flames came out the front door through the window, seeing the suv on fire. >> the red cross is helping the family find a temporary place to live. san francisco officials announced a quarter billion dollars plan today to try to get next america's cup race to be held in the bay area. mayor newsom and city leaders say they will help raise contributions to help offset

the cost of the race. newsom says the america's cup would be a huge win for the bay area. >> it means $1.4 billion to the regional economy. it means 9,000 jobs, it means putting san francisco front and center in the bay area on the map internationally. at least for the next three years. if the bay area does win the bid, the rogoto would include a series of rogoto races starting next year. stepping up into new sprawling office space in san francisco. the company is expanding to 270,000 square feet. jenga makes video games. the deal is a sign that the

city is still a place to do good business. a moment of silence today for survivors of priest abuse. and the new action that's been taken against a defrocked bay area priest. & % f 0

families in richmond, hayward and los angeles have won an appeal against the state. the ninth circuit court of appeals ruled yesterday that the state was hiring highly qualified teacher interns and placing them in low income schools. president obama was talking about education and the economy today. the president spoke to a group at a backyard meeting in . republicans want to cut federal aid to education in order to retain tax breaks to the wealthy, said obama. >> when you ask them how would you pay for this stuff, one way they would pay for it is cut

back our education spending by 20%. >> republicans say in a weak economy eliminating the bush tax cuts would discourage business expansion and hiring. survivors of sexual abuse held a moment of silence to bring attention to new legal action against the former bay area priest. the survivors network of those abused by priests over wise known as s.n.a.p. says an unnamed female has filed a claim. >> as children we are powerless, as adults we can take back our power through the legal system. >> reporter: steven keisel is currently married and living in walnut creek where he is registered as a sex offender. marriage is apparently not recession proof. in the first set of 2010 census

the government said just 52% of american adults are married. that is the lowest level in more than 100 years. 57% were married during the last census. for the first time, the number of unwed have outweighed the married. more adults are opting to live together as opposed to tieing the knot. thinner much thinner is better when it comes to solar cells. normal solar cell, those made of silicone can only trap a limited amount of light. now stanford scientists think that ultra thin of a light absorbing film can increase the solar cell by 10. keeping the light inside the solar cell longer and generating more electricity from the sunlight. well texting while driving bans are supposed to make roads

safer. now a new study finds it may have the opposite effect. plus -- >> reporter: two interesting theories about what caused the explosion here in san bruno. i'm tom vacar, the power outage still ahead. i'm tracking fog, it's not that fog offshore. some regions along the beach already cooling off pretty rapidly. i'll tell you how your city will do in the next 24 hours.

back now to the pipeline

explosion in san bruno. earlier we told you how the mayor of san bruno tried to put a face on the destruction. tom vacar is live tonight with more on that part of the story, tom. >> reporter: that part of the story boils down to one question, did a pg & e power outage cause this gas explosion? a few hours before the san bruno gas line explosion there appears to be a power failure at this milpedas connector. >> the pressure rose right before the explosion. >> reporter: spears says that the pipeline that usually runs at about 375 pounds per square inch was just above that pressure when it exploded. >> the federal limit was 400psig pg & e lowered that

further and is at 375. the livermore based kobiashi failure analysis firm says that such pipelines usually have a safety factor three times the federal limit. in other words if the federal government limits. more interesting a couple of years ago a sore line passing underneath the pipeline was enlarged. >> it's right at the location of the explosion that the sanitary line is underneath the gas main. and that rings a real strong bell for me. >> reporter: to avoid digging up the shoreline, there are reports that the contractor ran a widening ramp through the pipe. obliterating it to make a wider line. the concern --

>> damage to the gas main that would result in leakage. >> reporter: we're going to be taking a look at those probabilities in the future. tom vacar, ktvu channel 2 news. a new study says laws that ban texting while driving don't reduce wrecks and might actually increase the risk of getting into a crash. the insurance institute for safety compiled data immediately after and before driving texting was banned. found the number of crashes after the ban actually increased. the increase might be the result of drivers trying to keep phones out of view of law enforcement officers while they go on texting. coming up next at 6:00, the

first gubernatorial debate right here on ktvu. then we're going to look at how the two candidates did and highlight some of the best moments. julie haener is live now with some of the other stories we're working on. >> more on that sad news coming out of san bruno where the death toll from the pipeline explosion went up today. also a by area county is drawing a line on the sand with federal immigration authorities. the policy that's at the center of that dispute and what happens now. plus continuing coverage on the news. the seven sports that were dropped today. it's all coming up at 7:00 right after the debate. on to our weather now and boy it was another hot one today. bill everybody wants to know when is it going to start cooling off. >> it's already begun, frank. that cool air is moving north and that's the beginning of the cool down. it was hot today, the hottest

day of the week. let's go outside, forecast shows that fog, i will show you the fog right here at the coast. you can see it trying to make its way in. as that fog moves up the coast, it's going to provisit massive cooling along the beaches. 20degrees of cooling. mostly clear tonight, the fog comes in really dense at the coast. it's still hot inland tomorrow. the extended forecast is for that cooling trend we've been talking about. temperatures still cooling. high pressure there tomorrow but it's weakening. so a little cooler tomorrow then much cooler as this low pressure doesn't come from here, comes from the south and as it moves up, it's going to bring a little southwesterly wind and it's going to drop temperatures into the mid-80s by the bay area weekend. it's going to be a cool weather forecast for the coast. big changes, today is the last day or should be the last day of the heat. you see this here on the

satellite or computer model, temperature map. see that big bite of cool air. you still have heat in the valley but the cooling will begin for us tomorrow. that's what you can get ready for. no spare the air day tomorrow. still hot, livermore 95, that's nothing to sneeze at. but san leandro at 77, gilroy at 90. don't accept any records tomorrow. temperatures at the coast in the 60s. the air quality gets better, the fire danger takes a little bit of a break. and my friends at the coast are going to see the fog come back big time tonight. and visibility pretty nasty. be prepared for that and it's been a nice run of heat. i'm glad to see it come to an end. >> when we talk about fire danger and the fact that summer has been really good when it comes to fire danger. now with fire danger being up. generally do you consider october to be the biggest

concern. >> that's the big month for us. we're not out of the woods by any means. but indications are that it's been a cool summer and we should continue it into october. >> meg whitman and jerry brown go face to face in just a few minutes. this is a live look of the protesters that gathered to meet them for their first debate.

a high tech telescope set aside to search for asteroids that may hit earth has made its first discovery. the asteroids could hit the earth in the year 2026 and has the ability to destroy a city. okay, six games to go all of them at home and with a one game lead over the padres. it is all on the line tonight at at&t park. joe fonzi is there tonight. i imagine that both fans and players pretty pumped up this evening. >> absolutely frank. doesn't get any closer to this. in all likelihood, there are three teams that are vying for

the play off spot. the giants and padres. the giants make a little tweak in the pitching rotation as they move tim lincicum up a spot. that means it'll be zito, cane and then sanchez again this weekend. freddy sanchez, he had an mri today he was replacing the line up by mike fotnel. he was acquired from the chicago cubs mid-season for situations such as these. >> whenever they need me to get in, any position in the infield i'll be able to do that. try again to get some hits. you get out there and the game is on the line, that's fine. especially when you get a big hit once in a while. you know come through in those situations that's why you want

to play this game. >> we are the san francisco summertime weather around these parts they call it play off weather. giants hoping that will become a reality. we'll find out by the time this weekend is over. reporting live, i'm joe fonzi. >> coming up here in just a couple of minutes now, the gubernatorial debate between meg whitman and jerry brown. we have a live look now of what's happening at the campus of uc davis just outside the mondave center. you can see protesters gathered here. we heard minutes ago saying there are more brown supporters than whitman supporters. we'll see if that changes as the debate gets closer to starting. we'll air the debate live in its entirety right here for you on ktvu channel two. we'll have that coming up next.