coming up tell you what firefighters found that made them so suspicious. oakland police respond to shooting and killing a family pet labrador. that story coming up in just a moment. decades in the making a live report ahead on ktvu channel 2 news at noon.

good afternoon. we begin this noontime with the investigation into a fire that ripped through an east bay high school early this morning causing between $1 million and $2 million in damage. the two alarm fire burned a kitchen, a cafeteria at the high school on valley view road in richmond. ktvu's claudine wong explains why the cause appears to be suspicious. >> reporter: as kids arrived at school this morning, they were met with this sight. the charred remains of what used to be the cafeteria's kitchen. he just keeps thinking about how much worse it could have been. >> a little bit, yeah. since it's right next to the band room. that's like my favorite place in school. >> reporter: firefighters say the 911 call came in just before 1:30 this morning when someone spotted flames shooting out of the building. the fire station is just three blocks away and firefighters say they got on scene quickly. it didn't take them long to get the fire out. they were able to contain the fire to the one building. and the damage is mostly in the

kitchen where they believe the fire started. the damage to the kitchen area is significant. but it's what firefighters found in the dining room of this cafeteria that made them suspicious. take a look at the floor and you can see a powder. firefighters saythat powder is from fire extinguishers when they are used. we saw at least three fire extinguishers in and around the dining area. >> there was quite a bit of that on the floor of the lunch area. so that's a concern for our investigators. our fire investigators are working with the police department to determine the exact cause find out who may have been inside the building prior to the fire. >> reporter: fire investigators want to know who was using the extinguishers and how they got into the building. all the doors were locked when the crews were first on scene. >> i think it's interesting. we are here at open house last night and we actually watched the custodian lock the building. it's amazing to see how somebody got in here.

>> i think it's vandalism. my dad lives just down the street and he said he heard suspicious noises last night. he said when he got home the trash cans were knocked over and people on bikes. >> reporter: the investigation continues as the school day began. crews worked quickly to clear it up. at this point it doesn't look like the old building will be fixed up. that's because construction is already underway on a new store. although that won't be completed for a few years. in richmond, claudine wong ktvu channel 2 news. the search continues for a gunman tied to an overnight standoff in an east oakland neighborhood. s.w.a.t. teams with flash grenades and tear gas moved in on a home around 1:00 a.m. there was no sign of the man believed to have fired several shots just hours earlier. we spoke to one neighbor who did not want to give her last name. >> we heard shots earlier

probably around 6:30. probably about five shots. >> several people living in the area were forced out of their homes for several hours. we're getting new details this noontime about the unfortunate death of a family's pet shot by an oakland police officer. the devastated family wondered why a fatal shooting was necessary. ktvu has the police response to this story. good afternoon, preya. >> reporter: good afternoon. we just came out of the doors from the police department here in oakland. we spoke with an officer about the shooting that took place yesterday morning. the shooting happened in the foothills of east oakland not far from bishop o dad high school. an oakland officer respond today a burglar alarm and found himself facing the family dog. a labrador named gloria. the officer said the dog was menacing and charged at him. police say it's their policy to try first to stop animals using pepper spray or another deterrent rather than shooting it. but in this case there simply

wasn't time. >> when you have to make split second decisions, it's unrealistic to have officers switch and put away his handgun to try to pull out pepper spray or a taser. that just increases the time and the officer could have been injured. >> reporter: oakland police offered their regrets to the family over the shooting. you may recall a few months back oakland police shot and killed a small deer. citizen outrage followed and oakland police have changed their policies since that time and can no longer shoot wildlife. they're currently reviewing the policy of shooting dogs. but the review is expected to take several months. we're going to have much more reaction coming up on the news at 5:00 this evening. live in oakland, ktvu channel 2 news. tomorrow meg whitman and jerry brown will try to win over latino voters in their second debate of the governor's race. the two candidates will face off at fresno state university in the first ever gubernatorial debate broadcast in spanish. the timing is interesting for

whitman because of the controversy over whether or not she knowingly hired an illegal immigrant as her housekeeper. whitman now says it is possible that her husband did see a letter in 2003 from the social security administration about the housekeeper. but he did not understand the implications. he asked the housekeeper to look into it and forgot about it. that was after gloria, the attorney for whitman's former housekeeper, showed the letter at a news conference with a note scribbled on it from whitman's husband. you can see the letter for yourself at ktvu.com. just look for the election 2010 tab on the front page. vice president joe biden appears this morning at a campaign event for oakland congressman. biden spent the night at the claire mount resort and spa in oakland where secret service agents swarmed the hotel overnight. this morning's 9:00 cam spain stop was closed to the media. biden was then off to southern california where at this hour he's scheduled to attend a

fundraiser for democratic u.s. senator barbara boxer in orange county. president obama is giving his chief of staff a big send off today. but it is a bittersweet good- bye for his top advisor. the president announced the departure of rahm emanuel in a ceremony at the white house. he praised emanuel as an energetic and well-qualified white house manager who will be greatly missed and wished him well in his new venture without going into details about emanuel's plan to run for chicago mayor. >> in the last 20 months rahm has exceeded all of my expectations. it's fair to say we could not have accomplished what we've accomplished without rahm's leadership. from preventing a second depression to passing historic health care and financial reform legislation to restoring america's leadership in the world. >> the president also announced that peter russ will take over the job at least temporarily. he was the president's chief of staff in the senate and top

white house aid. the project to build a tunnel at the notorious double slide along the coast is reaching a milestone today. the project on highway 1 just south of pacific a will take traffic through a mountain and away from devil's slide which is prone to weather and mud slide problems. jade hernandez joins us now with more on what's being accomplished today. good afternoon, jade. >> reporter: good afternoon. crews will break through the tunnel today. it's a month ahead of schedule. you can see a lot of activity going on out here. there's going to be an event at 1:00 p.m. . this tunnel runs through the mountain. next week they'll break ground. this is what they say it will look like. the length about three quarters of a mile. 14 years ago san mateo county residents voted in favor of the conducting the twin lane tunnel. the stats are alarming. crews work seven days a week eking out about ten feet a day

for three years. each will have a lane of traffic and an eight foot shoulder. this is a $325 million project which includes a pair of arch bridges on the north end and an operation center on the south side. >> once we punch through here we're going to finish up the tunnel and looking for completion some time 2012. >> reporter: today i asked them as residents how they felt about the tunnel knowing what happens when the rains come and cal trans is forced to close devil's slide. >> i think it's going to cause more traffic for us. >> it will be better for everyone all around actually. but increase traffic going north. >> i think it's going to help the slide in the wintertime. but like everybody else said it's going to bring more people. >> reporter: again, the tunnel should be completed and ready for drivers in early 2012. interestingly this is the first highway tunnel since the third

bore of the scald cot tunnel. to explain a little about what's going to happen behind me there will be an event at 1:00 p.m. what's going to happen it's called the breakthrough. crews are going to break through the tunnel there and that's going to be the first momentous part of this project complete. and next week the second part of that project the south end of the tunnel will also have a breakthrough. so a lot of interesting things going on here. quite a sight this afternoon. ktvu will cover that. more for you on that tonight at 6:00. live jade hernandez, ktvu channel 2 news. thank you, jade. the u.s. government is apologizing for a medical experiment on people that happened 60 years ago. it's the beginning of a new era at the former muni auto plant in the east bay. the weekend is almost here. our meteorologist will tell us if it will be a cool one or warm one. also. doing something extra getting out of the office. kids need changes to run around in a safe place.

>> at this hour more than a dozen doctors are rolled up their sleeves and are performing an operation on our bay area playgrounds.

latest report on a pipeline

disaster in san bruno and allowed photographers to take pictures of the fractures pipeline at its lab in virginia. the catastrophic failure may have started along a weld or in a weakened section of the 54- year-old pipe. investigators are also looking at corrosion and the possibility cracks on the pipeline may have grown over time. this is arraignment day for phillip and nancy garrido. they're due in a placerville courtroom to be formally charged with kidnapping jaycee dugard. today's appearance follows the indictment earlier this week. there are reports the cole will be arraigned together. last week the judge suspended the court proceedings that came after phillip garrido's attorney raised questions about his mental competency to stand trial. don't call it the munni plant anymore. for now the bay area based electric car company will use just a small portion of the

complex to build its model s sedan. 50 former workers had already been hired by tesla. the company plans to hire 1,000 more in the next 18 months. 4700 workers lost their jobs when the plant closed last april. >> they won't replace all the jobs that were lost at the site. but it's a very exciting company. there's a lot of buzz about it. we're looking forward to the first car rolling off the line. >> tesla is not holding any celebrations to mark the takeover. they're more intent on building a car so it can celebrate when the first one rolls off the assembly line. the u.s. government has issued a rare apology to quality mall will guatemala for experiments. infected prisoners with

syphilis to treat the disease. the controversial 1946 experiments were recently exposed by a historian. secretary of state hillary clinton issued a statement that she was "outraged such research could have occurred under the guise of health." the uc berkeley graduate recently freed in iran. the president met with her yesterday along with her mother and the mothers of the other two americans still being held in iranian prison. the white house says the president wanted to personally welcome her home but the president told the visitors that her homecoming is bittersweet because shane and josh remain in prisoned. play structures at eight elementary schools in novato are closed while the school district investigates six injuries. the equipment cost $1.6 million to install and meets all safety standards. but the playgrounds will stay closed at least until next wednesday. the school board is scheduled

to take a meeting on tuesday to talk ain't. parents with questions or concerns are urged to attend. and in san francisco dozens of pediatricians attending a conference rolled up their shirt sleeves for volunteer work. about 50 pediatricians gathered at walter haas playground and the nearby park this morning for maintenance work. they helped paint equipment, worked on landscaping and other projects as a way to give back to the community hosting the conference. one doctor from florida talked about why they decided to fix up playgrounds instead of other service. >> i think it's the idea doing something a little extra getting out of the office and getting into some of the other needs the community might have. >> dr. needle, that's his real name, says the playgrounds are important for the community and the health of the children. let's take a look at the weekends forecast.

mark, good afternoon. >> good afternoon. it will be cooler this weekend. nothing like last weekend. remember last weekend we had the significant warm up. this weekend the complete opposite. developments once again to our south and thunderstorms around southern california closing in on l.a. and fairly close to santa barbara as well. back here in the bay area we're picking up clouds and at least higher clouds and fog but we're used to that for the summertime months. still dense fog towards parts of oakland and hayward and also hugging a good portion of the coastline extending towards san francisco. looking out toward the ballpark, a big game for tonight. we'll have the forecast in a little bit. right now san francisco checking in at 60 degrees. as far as more numbers livermore 71. san jose at 69. fairfield checking in 62. weather story is this with coastal and bay fog for today we will continue to cool off for your weekend. sunday will be the coolest day of the upcoming period.

then the extended forecast we gradually warm things back up. as far as temperatures from today at least for this afternoon no triple digits, no 90s. the warmest locations barely make it up into the lower 80s this afternoon. once again you can see all the activity down to our south down towards southern california. there's a slight chance we could pick up a few isolated showers primarily just to the south of the bay area closer to monterey county. but the main impacts for us at least today temperatures cooling off good five to ten degrees. higher clouds moving in and still some areas of fog showing up coast side. numbers this afternoon santa rosa 78. concord around 80. and san francisco in the lower 60s. san jose 79. and morgan hill tops out 81 degrees. giants try to wrap up at least win the division for tonight you can still see patchy fog. bundle up if you are headed to the ballpark for this evening. temperatures in the upper 50s. end of the weekend sunday

easily the coolest day as you can see for the next couple days into monday partly cloudy skies. looks like the warmest locations at least by that time frame only in the low to mid- 70s. then warming back up a bit by tuesday and into wednesday of next week and also some gusty winds. an amazing transformation. just a few daysing a talking record heat and triple digits and this weekend 60s and 70s for the most part. >> is it fairly seasonable for this weekend? >> it's probably a little below. >> on the cooler side. next week are we looking at warmer? >> we are looking for a warm up but nothing like this last week. >> okay. thank you, mark. the magic number down to one now for the san francisco giants. the team only needs one more win to lock up the team's first playoff appearance since 2003. if the giants win tonight's game against the second place padres, they would win the national league west and advance to the playoffs. the giants beat arizona 4-1 yesterday completing a three game sweep against the

diamondbacks. torres who homered yesterday had this prediction about tonight's game. [ indiscernible ] >> keep playing hard. try to do our best. and tomorrow we're going to play like it's our last game. that's how we've been doing all the time. >> a lot of energy. if the padres manage to sweep this final regular season series though there would be a one game tie breaker monday in san diego. programming note, tomorrow's giants-padres game airs right here on ktvu at 1:00. san francisco muni riders have something to celebrate today. they're getting a break from the transit agency. new movie opened to revolution in the computer world with a lot of bay area ties. ♪

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taking a live look at the big board on wall street. numbers have been up and down a little bit today. but they look like they're closing -- getting ready to close on a positive note. there is some growth that's shown. little bit slower than some analysts would like. ford says sales are up lifted by redesigned vehicles. nasdaq is up 5. s&p 500 is also up 5. now a report out today on the may 6th stock market plunge called a flash crash says it was triggered by one large electronic trade. you may remember the day the

dow dropped 1,000 points in less than half an hour. saw the big board going like that the securities and exchange commission today said the so-called flash crash was caused by a computerized cell order for 75,000 contracts worth more than $4 billion. the report did not name the trading firm but someone close to the investigation said it was based in shawnee mission, kansas. getting a jump on the competition. >> talking about taking the entire social experience of college and putting it online. >> the movie social network that had first showing at midnight. the producer says it's the story of facebook founder who made 500 million friends along the way but also a few enemies including two former harvard classmates. twin brothers claim he stole their idea. and unlike him they say the new

movie is an accurate portrayal of what happened. >> it's laughable that you could make a comment on the veracity of a film without having seen it. so until he does it's not really credible. >> the brothers sued him and facebook and reportedly got $65 million. but the settlement is currently tied up in appeals. in san francisco, muni is putting a controversial 25-cent surcharge on hold for people who buy temporary transit passes. officials say the fee was causing confusion about the transition to the new plastic reload bl cards. they say the fee was only supposed to cover the cost of issuing short-term paper tickets but some viewed it as a fare hike. according to the chronicle they will no longer charge that fee beginning today. rain is now falling in the boston area as a storm that drenched much of the east coast moves into new england. six deaths now blamed on the storm including one this morning near philadelphia. the heavy rain washed out roads

and cut power to thousands and caused lots of flight delays. coming up at 5:00, it's called the perfect drought. what scientists say is happening in our atmosphere which could produce a dry winter. and check in with our ktvu meteorologist to see what he has to say about it. thatment cooing up in our next newscast. ktvu channel 2 news at 5:00. thanks for watching. have a great weekend.

our state is in a real mess. and i'm not going to give you any phony plans or snappy slogans that don't go anywhere. we have to make some tough decisions. we have to live within our means. we have got to take the power from the state capitol and move it down to the local level, closer to the people. and no new taxes, without voter approval. we have got to pull together not as republicans or as democrats but as californians first. at this stage in my life, i'm prepared to do exactly that.