the letter is apparently from the social security administration. >> meg whitman and her husband deny receiving the letter, but look at the bottom of the letter. on it dr. harsh has writ quote, nikki please check this. thanks. >> reporter: in santa monica today denied seeing the letter and says that her housekeeper may have intercepted it so that the letter would not have been found by her boss. >> we did not see the letter. nikki did sort out our mail. >> i am so proud of nikki. she is a hero in this story. she is the courageous rosa parks of the movement to win

dignity for latino's. >> reporter: today whitman says it's possible he signed something not understanding it implied that diaz was illegal and forgot about it because it was seven years ago. whitman suggests jerry brown is behind the allegations. >> i think jerry brown should be ashamed of what his allies tried to do here. >> reporter: the brown campaign had alerted us that whitman had housekeeper problems two weeks ago. >> they know exactly what's going on. i think there's very clear evidence that this is brown motivated. >> reporter: the brown campaign today denied having anything to do with the housekeepers allegations and denied having anything to do with gloria alred. what they alerted us to two weeks ago they say was rumors. randy shandobil. >> reporter: the owners of the agency that whitman used to

hire their housekeeper says they use resources to figure out the legal status. the owners added that they bought the agency two years ago, long after diaz started working for whitman. you can find more on this story on our website including more video from the press conferences with gloria alred and meg whitman, just go to ktvu.com. a man accused of shooting an officer last month pled not guilty today. barriettos is charged in eight offenses. many of young's fellow officers were in court today as

barrientos stood before a judge. -- this robber has surprised officers with the tactics that he's using. robert handa live in san jose tonight with more on this, robert. >> reporter: frank, we're outside the chase bank on capital expressway where the attempted robberies took place. police believe the suspect in both crimes is the same man. hartman of san jose was surprised to say the least to see the chase bank has been the site of two robberies. especially as hartman put it, everybody knows there's cameras around the bank. >> it's a shock that our economy is getting so bad that we're having to watch our backs at the atm. >> reporter: police released these pictures from chase bank security camera video on august 28 around 6:40 a.m., a man shrouded in dark clothing

attacked a woman from behind in the midst of her transaction. >> the man placed his arms around the woman. he asked for money, the woman complied and he took off running. >> reporter: the video camera showed the suspect walks up to another woman. the man is described as an african american male, 5'six ridges to 6', the police alert has customers such as leila hartman thinking about how distracted someone can be conducting business at an atm. >> i'm in there and i'm fumbling over my glasses, keys, wallet then i realize you can

really see how this happens. >> reporter: a chase bank spokeswoman says the bank is reviewing all security measures and police say they hope the new pictures will generate new leads. live in san jose, robert handa, ktvu channel 2 news. it is now been one week since a major demolition and clean up effort got in the way at the san bruno disaster area. we'll show you what the area looks like today. there is concern that toxins could create drainage problems. the september 9th pipeline disaster killed eight people. in virginia, federal inspectors have begun inspecting the pipeline from the explosion. pg & e says the pipeline was installed more than 60 years ago. the company has said it was not on its list of 100 high risk

pipeline sections to be replaced. if you are doing a job that was due three months ago and it is still not finished, you would have some serious explaining to do to your boss, that's exactly what's happening with the state budget. every day that the budget is not passed is hurting a lot of hard working people. ken wayne has the report. >> reporter: after two days away from the negotiating table, the governor and legislative leaders, the so called big five met today and resumed those negotiations, but the optimism expressed late last week that a deal was at hand, today that optimism is missing. the budget clock outside if governor's office keeps ticking, the budget is now 92 days late. republican leaders said nothing as they arrived for budget negotiations, senate president steinburg had little more to

officer. >> working, working, working and hoping, hoping, hoping it's long due obviously. >> reporter: there are a few significant issues to resolve in closing to $19 million budget gap. governor arnold schwarzenegger continues to push for pension reform which will require concessions from california's largest unions. democrats are trying to maintain social programs and school funding. >> in order to do that we need to make sure that the noncut part of the budget stands up. >> reporter: the big five met for several hours this afternoon, took a break and they should have resumed at least this was the schedule, should have resumed those budget talks right about now. at last thursday there was word from the legislative leaders that a frame work deal was near or was it hand and would be announced monday. that didn't happen and now talk of a frame work has faded as they continue these negotiations. in sacramento, ken pritchett, ktvu channel 2 news. the clock is winding down for governor arnold

schwarzenegger to sign major health care bills aimed at bringing california in line with federal reforms. the governor has until the end of the day to sign or veto a dozen health care measures. they include two flag ship bills of the state's health care reform efforts. one sets up a web based health insurance exchange. the other bill allows young adults to remain on their parents health insurance plan until they turn 26. yesterday the government vetoed7 new reform bills. the computer maker named former sap chief checktive officer leo apotheker to take up hp.

57-year-old apotheker stepped down a month ago. wall street ended the month with its best september performance in years. stocks rose sharply at the beginning of the session but they lost ground later in the day as traders pulled out profits. the dow ended up falling 47 points closing at 10,788. the nasdaq was down about eight points, for the month though, the dow saw an almost 8% gain marking it's best september since 1949. go to ktvu and click on the business tab. a big shake up is expected at the white house tomorrow. white house chief of staff rahm emanuel is expected to step down. >> the president will have an announcement tomorrow at 11:05 a.m. from the east room.

we will save the specifics for then. >> the white house credits emanuel for its aggressive actions at the white house. narcotics investigators today uncovered a huge marijuana growing operation in east count tra costa county. it was concealed within a corn field in an unincorporated area just outside of brentwood on ore road. the operation was busted during a joint operation with contra costa narcotics and sheriffs. they found marijuana with a street value of $6 million. no arrests have been made and it's unclear tonight who owns that land. the magic number for now is two. we are talking about the first place san francisco giants who completed the sweep of the arizona diamondbacks this afternoon on the way to a possible play off spurt. fans we spoke to had some

thoughts about the team's winning ways. >> we can hit the ball a little bit more, but definitely the pitching. >> reporter: the giants showed up today with three home runs, enough to impress even fair weather fans. >> they told us that they had bought tickets to the ball game and i thought, oh no. but when they were in first place, i thought yes. >> and the giants only need one win against the padres in this final home stand to clench their first postseason since 2003. one bay area city is going to be sending you a bill if you cause an accident on their streets. that story and more coming up after this break.

well as toy recalls go, this is a big one. fisher-price is recalling 3 million toys. tom vacar is at a toy store with more of what you need to

know. >> there's lots of stuff in a toy box. for a child it's but for a toy maker, it's livelihood and  liability. >> reporter: barbara lilicks says fisher-price toys have always been a main stain. >> everybody knows fisher- price, their a big baby boomer operation. >> reporter: a recall of 10 million toys has raised small concern. >> i think it adds for credibility, admitting there's a problem. >> reporter: play areas have valves that could come off and choke a child. next another choking hazard, 128,000 small wheellies cars have wheels that can come off. only the green and purple mini

cars present a threat. next, more than 7 million tricicles many different styles have large kids that lacerated ten kids. finally a million high chairs have protruding pegs that cut 14 childrens legs, seven requiring stitches. less than 15 minor injury, more than 10 million toys recalled. >> number one they do it because they want to keep the name that they have. and number two, they have to to protect themselves. >> it makes me feel good as a parent, better safe than sorry. seems like a fine company, it's surprising to hear. >> reporter: regardless of brands, some parents told us they don't want to buy anything made in china. >> i think 100% of the toys recalled recently have been from china. it's something that i try to avoid. >> reporter: not so much the brand but the origin. >> i think they have become one, in many people's minds.

i know in my own. >> reporter: if you have a defected toy, go to the website and you will find information on all of the toys recalled. many differences in them say you need to figure out exactly whether or not you have the toy involved. tom vacar, ktvu channel 2 news. if you cause a car crash in san francisco the city will soon be sending you a bill. the fire department will start collecting fees in two weeks to recoop the cost of cleaning up car scenes. the motorists who cause an accident face a fee of up to $10,000 which is expected to be charged to the city of san francisco. it's expected to raise over $266,000 a year to help close the fire department $13 million budget deficit. vallejo fire crews were busy this morning helping clear

off an accident scene. crews had to use the jaws of life to open up the truck. the truck lost the load because it was not properly secure. several vehicles then hit the cable including a honda accord that flipped over. >> i seen two big rigs their lights were flashing, so i looked ahead to see what was going on. and little did i know, i had already hit whatever it was, it was a big block of wire. as soon as i hit i flipped. >> were you wearing your seat belt? >> i was wearing my seat belt, i thought it was dead. >> reporter: all lanes were opened at about 6:00 this morning. wine makers say this year's harvest can result in what they call the strangest vintages in recent memory after a cooler than normal summer then some record breaking heat. grapes weren't ready to pick, but then those recent high temperatures accelerated the harvesting process. wine makers say that even

though harvesting is weeks behind what's considered normal, the potential upshot is it could end up being one of the state east finest in years. absolutely beautiful today. this is the kind of weather that's great, not too hot, not too cold. >> i think the days we had before were oppressive. much cooler today. we have fog, you may see it in san bruno. you look to the west you will see it. we come in close and there's salsalito you see fog there. the fog out toward mira beach and up toward the richmond district in san francisco then we come in close here out toward the bay bridge. and the fog is shooting through that gap but it's not quite to the bay bridge. it will be there and it will be into your neighborhood most likely tonight as we see further cooling. and the fog really is just a

symptom of what's going on. instead of being hot with that high pressure, the high pressure weakens and the fog becomes more of a player and cools everything down. so this weekend, this type of weather pattern continues. we're looking at upper 70s in the hot spots, maybe some low 80s on friday and saturday. over night low to be the, nice. yesterday was nice too because we had the high 60s in some places. last night you probably slept better. i know i did. tomorrow night you're going to sleep better as well if you like the cooler temperatures. you're going to find upper and mid-50s. there'll be fog at the bay and subsequent days we'll see more fog as we move toward the weekend. this pressure center now becomes a player in the forecast. it's going to work it's way north, as it does, as it works it's way north we're going to see increasing clouds. i don't think we're going to see showers.

but we will see fog along the coast, breezy conditions and continued cooler into friday, saturday and sunday. specifics on your five day forecast, i'll give specific with which city you live in and how it'll be for the weekend, back here in just a bit. former president carter left an ohio hospital today after spending two days recovering from a viral infection. former president carter waved as he was leaving the hospital today. mr.carter has resumed his schedule flying to washington, d.c. today for a long planned meeting. he's been on tour promoting his book "white house diary." and a memorial is scheduled tomorrow for tony curtis. tony won acclaims in drama including "the sweet smell of success" he was nominated for

an academy award for the defiant one. curtis battled alcoholism, married five times and had three children. curtis died of a heart attack yesterday at 85. a high profile nod of approval tonight for perrata when it comes to his run of mayor of oakland. find out what hundreds of people were waiting for earlier today. pleas for help after a child's tragic death. but the child on the picture is alive and well. how the boy on the picture may have been included in the scam. and two rival gangs, one bay area neighborhood. a long list of crimes, the weapon granted just hours ago for families caught in the middle and living in fear,

tonight at 6:00.

a new report out today shows jobless claims dropped unexpectedly. the number of people filing first time claims fell last week by 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 443,000. that more than reverses last week's increase. the pace of lay offs could be slowing. the number of continuing claims also declined followed by 83,000 to 4.44 million. hundreds of people looking for work lined up outside of a job fair early today. the event was held on 12th street. it was hosted by several state and local agencies including the state's employment development department. job seekers say it has been extremely tough. one engineer said he's ready to take pretty much any position to help pay his bills. >> the market kind of changed and made the even paid for hire

tough so just trying to do the best i can. >> reporter: employment experts offered participating free resume critiques. companies that participated today were comcast and target. perrata announced today he has backing from several prominent democrats -- meanwhile oakland voters will have to choose between 10 candidates. it's likely to come do to a three way race between perrata, quan and kaplan. the white house apologized today to the family of a medal

of honor recipient. the family was turned away because the veteran's 10-year- old grandson was wearing shorts. while his family was in d.c. they were invited to the tour but they weren't let in because of what the boy was wearing. he wasn't the only one turned away. another winner of the military's top award tomas shaward didn't get in because he wasn't cleared for the tour. headed for fall, why some brand new playground equipment is suddenly off limits in one north bay city.

>> you worry about your kids all the time and you want them to be safe. after several children have hit themselves on new school playground equipment in marin county the district is taking action. that means those new playgrounds are off limits for now. and some parents wonder if they'll ever be safe for their children to play on. sal castaneda live where there are a number of concerns tonight. >> reporter: i want to show you this brand new playground equipment. you might imagine how tempting for children it is for children to have this new equipment here. they want to play on it but now the school district says not so fast. today at rancho elementary school the brand new playground equipment was not available much to the disaappointment of children. the unified school district officials say six children have been injured, a higher number than normal. some have suffered broken arms after using the new equipment unveiled for the new school

year. nevado school superintendent says the incidents concerned her and she ordered the equipment roped off until an investigation is completed. >> until we can get the manufacturing out here and we can have a meeting, i thought it was better close down the equipment for now. >> reporter: districts officials say the equipment is state of the art and complying with all safety standards. they say part of the solution will be to closely supervise children who use the equipment. but at least one parent is worried if the district bought equipment that was too advanced for the children that will use it. >> i am glad that the district is closing it and doing the findings. >> you always wonder because you worry about your kids all the time. you want them to be safe and,

if they're making dangerous equipment, it's always a concern. >> reporter: school officials say the equipment will be off limits until at least next wednesday. they urge parents with questions or concerns to attend the school board meeting which is next tuesday. live in nevado, sal castaneda, ktvu channel 2 news. a san mateo family is now suing the state of california after their young daughter was hurt by a tree. the 3-year-old was camping with her family in lahonda when a tree fell on her and crushed her skull. they are now suing for damages. it won't be until sometime next year at the earliest that one of the 700 or so inmates will be put to death. greenwood brown was scheduled to die at 9:00 tonight but that execution has now been called off.

the state also no longer has a supply of one of the three drugs used in the lethal injection process and the company that makes that drug says it will probably be a couple of months before it can supply the state with more of that drug. currently foster children lose benefits when they turn 18. foster care supporters say that cut off leaves many young people vulnerable to poverty and homelessness. the governor faces a midnight deadline to sign or veto about 250 other bills. ackerton police say a car struck and killed a 52-year-old bicyclists today. the accident happened at isabella avenue. a preliminary investigation indicates the bicyclists was in the crosswalk when he was struck by a toyota. he says the driver has been stopped and has been

cooperating with investigator. the victim was pronounced dead at the scene. investigators closed down the road to investigate the accident. it is a big day in freemont tomorrow. who is moving in to this abandoned plant. more than 4,000 workers in san francisco could be out of a job very soon. why the pay behind their paychecks is getting cut off. 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. progresso soup is only 99 cents when you buy 4 this week at safeway. shop now.

the price of a first class stamp will not be going up. the postal service failed to prove the need for a price hike when inflation is so low. the postal service is predicting a $8 million deficit as customers turn to the internet to pay their bills and send communication. a federal program designed to get people back to work expires today, gavin newsom is making efforts to save jobs that could suddenly be lost. the jobs now program has been funded by federal stimulus money. in san francisco, city officials say jobs now has helped put more than 4,100 people to work. major newsom says it doesn't make sense to end the program because thousands of people will return to the unemployment line. the mayor says that will end up costing the federal government

more. >> we'll keep trying to get this extended. at the same time we'll deal with the reality, tomorrow we're going to redistrict $9 million. i probably have 2.1, 2.2 million of new money. i'm going to redistrict existing job saving money toward job subsidy money. >> reporter: figures show the federal jobs now program pumped $55 million into san francisco's economy. officials say 82% of the participating business reported higher efficiency and 72% reported increased sales. congress wrapped up its session early as midterm sessions loom. but they're leaving capitol hill without signing key legislation including the bush tax cuts. >> reporter: the house and senate both adjourned after midnight thursday. democratic leaders then paid one last visit to the white house to talk strategy with the president before heading home to hit the campaign trail in

advance of november's contentious midterm elections. >> our numbers left last evening in the spirit of optimism. >> reporter: but congress also left without voting on bush era tax cuts. >> i think we could have done middle class but the republicans weren't interested. >> reporter: republicans argue that the real issue that democrats themselves are divided. >> even with the existence of a clear bipartisan majority and the support of the american people we could not get a single up or down vote. >> reporter: the gop says democrats didn't schedule a vote because they were trying to save face-to-face because many in the government would have voted against the president. >> i don't think a candidate needs a vote to necessarily say what they support. >> reporter: according to the latest fox news opinion dynamics poll, lawmakers could

run into frustrated dynamic constituents back at home. 65% say they think congress should have taken action before the midterm elections so they could be held accountable for their vote. jennifer davis, fox news. tesla motors is scheduled to take over the nummi plant tomorrow. production at its new sight could result in about 1,000 jobs. tesla says it will use that factory to build vehicles including the model s sedan. the plant was used as a venture between gm and toyota. gm withdrew from that partnership and nummi closed that plant in april leaving thousands of employees out of work. how about got gold? the u.s. mint says it has run out of one ounce 2010 american buffalo coins as the price of gold hit a new high. some sobering news about

our country's mental health. almost one in ten americans is depressed. the u.s. center for disease control and prevention found more than 9% of adults suffers from depression and about 1/3 of them have a severe form of the mental disorder. researchers say the main factor affecting depression, the person's employment status. adhd may be a genetic disordered that's the direction new research is going in. a study today says that children with adhd are more likely than others to have missing or duplicated chunks of dna which may predispose them to the condition adhd. researchers say uncovering adhd's bilogical. the heads of johnson and

johnson gets a grilling today on capitol hill. and there's more fog out there today. temperatures have continued to cool. we're headed for the weekend. how cool will it get in your neighborhood? i'll have the details coming up. please for help after a child's tragic death. but the child on the photo is alive and well. how the photo may have gotten involved in the scam. and two rival gangs one bay area neighborhood, a long list of crimes, the weapon granted just hours ago for families stuck in the middle and living in fear. tonight at 6:00.

today there are new developments following the newest recall of children's medicine. you will soon be able to buy children's tylenol and soon.

tonight the pennsylvania factory that made children's liquid tylenol is still shuttered after investigators found filthy equipment and contaminated materials back in may. the head of johnson and johnson apologized. >> i know that we let the public down. >> reporter: wade apologized over that recall but still it was not enough with members of congress. >> there's some funny business happening here and nobody is happy about it. >> reporter: some called for the economy to call for greater -- >> you're at the top of this

group and you knew nothing about it? really? >> having not seen those documents, i believe they should have dealt things better. we as a company have learned from this process. >> reporter: members of congress targeted their anger at the food and drug administers accusing that agency from being too cozy with the company and not doing enough to regulate them. the test used the same materials that shazad used. shazad said that he had wanted to quote join my brothers in

jihad ever since the september 11th attack. alameda county firefighters say a discarded cigarette is to blame for a fire this morning. investigators say the fire started on a second floor deck and quickly spread to a deck below. no one was hurt. but several tenants were displaced because of smoke damage to their units. firefighters say the person responsible for the fire will not be sited. coming up next at 6:00, three students have committed suicide in the past week across the country. and they all had one thing in common, something that's facing a lot of students here in the bay area as well. julie haener is looking at some of the other sties we're working on. the bay area mother who says someone is using the picture of her son to fool people into thinking he's dead. but that's just the beginning of this story. will it work, the move made today against 41 people. what they will no longer be able to do in one section of a bay area neighborhood.

plus the bay area city where if you cause an accident you will now be forced to clean up the scene and that could run into the hundreds of dollars. we'll see you at 6:00. thank you julie. marin county says it has spent more than $5 million to protect endangered salmon over the next weeks. the report comes as the county is facing a lawsuit from the nonprofit group spawn which claims marin has not done enough to collect the cohost population. the group spawn wants marin to stop construction at a stream next to where the population breeds. today you could find that too, if you were at the coast it was too hot and if you cold

and if you were inland it may have been too hot. but tonight it's going to level out. if you look at a map you'll see that the golden gate bridge is really one of the only sea level gaps along the california coastline at least in northern california. what happens is the fog as you know makes it way through that low lying gap. and it'll spill in tonight. that fog is going to do this, it's going to be into most neighborhoods overnight tonight. it's going to cool everybody, and tonight will be a cooler day day than it was today. not as hot as yesterday, we were triple digits yesterday, the day before that we were records. tonight it'll be cooler, lots of 80s. what i noticed, the air quality is a lot better. santa clara valley areas out toward walnut creek and

clayton, the temperatures are down. here's the weather system we're watching. the seasons are changing and we're moving toward the winter months. this low pressure center is going to work its way north over the next 48 hours. there have been thunderstorms in southern california. where those thunderstorms make it this far north. don't think so. but as that low comes up, it's going to scoop up that moist air and get it out over the area. that's going to cool temperatures quite a bit. we're looking for forecast highs tomorrow mid-80s. today we had low 90s, tomorrow mid-80s. it's just not going to be as hot as we've been seeing and even last weekend, remember how hot that was. downtown, lessen fire danger 85 degrees in walnut creek. your forecast for tomorrow, the fog in the morning when you

wake up, more inland extent. it's over in livermore valley. fog pulls back to the coast and we go most of us in the 70s tomorrow. but the warm spots in the 80s. the cool spots in the 50s and 60s. this is friday's forecast, this week flew by. 78 in san jose, cool along the coast. and this is the time of year where the fog kind of starts to go away. fog is going to be there, but along the coast pacifica, daily city, half-moon bay i know this time of year you're counting on a little bit more sunshine because the fall is going to be at the coast. cooler here,lessened fire danger. we're at the heart of the fire season and it's not happening, that's great news. >> we talked about the wine harvest, they had that little blast of heat that we got the last week did so much for the crops there that they are able to pick now. >> if you've been up there, the

leaves are all changing color. we mentioned it, they're going to have an interesting crop this year. i don't think they even know what they're going to have because we had such an unusual year. because when our weather is weird, it changes the output of that crop. >> this really has been a surprising summer and now an unusual fall in the sense that it's so hot and it really cools off. >> and you know it's going to be an interesting winter. i don't have anything to go on other than it's been an interesting year. mcdonalds and health officials are denying a report that mcdonalds is planning to cut insurance for workers. mcdonalds executives say they are committed to giving employees competitive play and insurance. now that congress has approved a $19 billion budget

for the space agency, nasa has planned just two more shuttle missions to the international space station including november's launch. but now with the budget in place it can add one more to that list. an unusual tragedy in the east bay. where a family says they came home to find a note from police saying that their dog was dead.

are a new law is now in the books to protect the privacy of california drivers who use fast track. agencies will have to purge information when it's no longer needed for billing or law enforcement purposes. the bill's officer is democratic senator joe smitty. a family says police took the life of their beloved dog and they want to share their story. >> we would love for no other family to go through what we're going through because it's heartbreaking. >> reporter: the hallecks say a neighbor called police to report that their burglar alarm was going off. police came to the house where the yellow lab gloria was in

the yard. the lab barked at the officers and an officer had to shoot the dog. the officers left a note to let the family know what happened. >> i was surprised that they didn't use a taser, because if they had it wouldn't have killed her it, it would have scared her away. >> reporter: the family says they wished police would have used pepper spray instead to scare her away. ktvu channel 2 news at 6:00 is next. and the picture of a bay area boy is being used to defraud pick.

that story and more coming up next on ktvu channel 2 news at 6:00.

it is a scam that police say is designed to pull at your heart strings. and in this