abyss. today, folks again desperately searched for work in california aunemployment assist -- u nemployment assistance offices. jobs are just hard to come by. >> all of the jobs i'm applying for are lower-end jobs so i have to dummy my resume down. >> after months and months of d oing this online, you don't hear nothing, you don't hear no results. you get frustrated and tired of it. >> reporter: to the senators who each make $17,000 a year plus benefits, it's another missed opportunity but to these folks, it's devastation. when you get cut off, depends on when you collected benefits. until yesterday, your initial employment provided 26 weeks. the first exsecond, another --

extension, 26 weeks. the third, 14 weeks. the fourth six weeks and the final 20 weeks for a grand total of 99 weeks. as of today, whatever extension you're in now becomes your final one. so if you are, say, on your second extension, when it ends, so do your benefits, period. >> people are gonna be looking deeper in the net for whatever other resources and supports are there. obviously. >> reporter: a change of the senate's mind is not guaranteed. >> it probably won't happen fast enough for the hundreds of thousands of individuals in california who have lost their nefits and the many more who are going to be losing their benefits. >> what are they gonna do? you've seen the shelters. some of them are full. the food lines are full. wait until that happens. >> reporter: more on the human impact of this coming up at 6:0 0. i'm tom vacar, ktvu channel 2 news. could be a sign that the economy is inching toward

recovery. the cyber monday sales hit a new high. cyber monday is the day after thanksgiving where people do much of their shopping online. this year the sales topped a billion dollars. at the same time, revenue at brick and mortar stores were flat. but store traffic rose 2%. on wall street, stocks s tarted the month of december with a huge gain. [closing bell ] >> an encouraging employment report and hopes that europe's debt crisis may ease boosted the major indexes way up. the dow closed up nearly 250 point. that's a gain of 2.24%. the nasdaq added 2%. right now oakland police are looking for two men they believe robbed and sexually

assaulted two women. we have suspect catch -- sketches of the suspects. here they are. both are described as african- american, in their mid-20s, police say the men robbed and sexually assaulted a 26-year- old woman at gunpoint in the -- gunpoint in the early morning hours where they forted her to take them to her home where they sexually assaulted two other women. more than of the -- half of the witnesses have taken the witness stand in that richmond gang rape preliminary hearing. rita williams has been in court for much of the preliminary h earing and she's live to lay out the case against the s uspects. rita? >> reporter: frank, by the end of court today, 13 of an e xpected 19 or 20 witnesses had testified in the alleged gang rape case here. here's where it stands.

that's the way the prosecutor described how it went today. ending with this police officer describing interviews he had with some of the defendants and other witnesses at richmond high more than a year ago. six of the seven defendants are charged with crimes that could send them to prison for life. the exception is 23-year-old elvis torentes. so far the only evidence p resented in court about him came from a statement another defendant made say he heard t orentes poured alcohol on the 16-year-old alleged gang-rape victim and fondled her. cody smith shared brandy, he allege lid -- he allegedly stole her and walked her to a secluded area of the school. one said smith fondled the teen. there's been less said about

marcel tau peter. police-- marcella peter. most of the testimony so far has come from statements, a drunk 20-year-old emanuel ortega gave police when he was arrested running from the scene a that he ripped off the girl's underwear and repeat lid a punched her in the face. no witnesses described seeing anyone that looked like the o ldest defendant 44 -- 43-year- old john crane but police say his dna matched dna at the scene. the witness said the last defendant, jose montono, 19, was the first to have sex with the girl. >> i regard to m r. montono, the case is o vercharged. >> reporter: the judge will decide what charges the men will be tried for, whether some of those charges will be dropped and then the defendants are likely to ask for separate trials. rita williams, ktvu channel 2 news.

the santa cruz county sheriff's department said today the inmate who beat an officer and got away during a medical exam likely faked the injury in the first place and planned his escape. according to the sheriff's department, maurice ainsworth overpowered an officer earthier this week after getting an -- earlier this week after getting an mri, then used her taser against her and took her gun. the sheriff's department said he likely knew how he would get away because he knew would be u nshackled. >> i want to make sure that. [inaudible ]

an unusual lawsuit this evening about a bay area card room and youtube cell phone video. allie rasmus is live to explain what's going on. >> reporter: one of the youtube videos shows a man fighting with a patron. company representatives wouldn't tack to us 24 afternoon but in the suit the

owners of lucky chances say the video paints their chances in a negative light. >> the way that people come in here and they really can't afford to. i'm surprised this doesn't happen a lot more often. >> reporter: this man who didn't want his face shown says many cardroom regulars have already seen the video. we showed it to him again. >> seeing video like that would that make you not want to come in here? >> no. >> it doesn't look good. >> reporter: we also showed the video to golden gate university law professor. >> my first impression is it's not somebody taping the fight. it's somebody taping the security camera taping the fight. >> you can see a time code on the screen. in the lawsuit lucky chances claim the people who got ahold of this video filmed it

directly from their card room surveillance cameras. lucky chances says when the youtube posters -- posted this online, they were essentially stealing from them. >> this is a big area of internet law and privacy. >> reporter: and the law professor says there is will be many more lawsuits like this -- >> if you are normally taking out -- if you normally take out your phone and film whatever is there, you may be filming something you don't have authority to do so. >> reporter: now the openers of lucky chances don't know the identity of those people who posted the video. a youtube spokesperson said over the phone, that the company would reveal the identity if a judge ordered them to do so. live in colma, allie rasmus, ktvu channel 2 news. late this afternoon, a number of people living in pittsburg were evacuated from their homes because of a bomb scare.

around 3:30 this afternoon, residents were evacuated from an apartment complex from meadow brook. residents said they saw a grenade and called the police. the bomb squad was called and confirmed it was a grenade. it was unearthed, manying many of the -- meaning many of the explosives were taken out. the state department of pesticide regulation approved the use of chemical that will be used for another chemical being phased out for international treaty. there's concerns that the knew fumigate will harm food and water. the mavericks surf contest is on but changes are being made to avoid the kind of problem that wiped out a lot of the fun last year. that story is up next. right now, i'm tracking showers in northern california,

they will move into your neighborhood. i will let you know when that will happen.

the commercial fishing season for dungeness grab opened today. this comes after the opening two weeks ago for the counties south of there including the bay area. commercial crabbers here have been reporting large catches and above normal-sized crabs. the window for a w orld- famous surf contest is now open. mavericks saw some of the top surfers to our area and this year there will be changes for the competitors and for fans. robert handa is live in santa cruz with more. robert? >> reporter: well, gasia, the window is open for the new mavericks surf contest what, a beautiful window it is. as always, the surf will rule. but this year there are going to be some new rules that will affect how fans watch the

competition. many were here monday for o pening ceremonies at pillar point near half moon bay. surfers are essentially on call and when the waves big -- get big enough competitors have 24 hours to show up. >> this is on. all we need is a big swell. >> reporter: the contest is now called big wave in-- i nvitational. >> we will be watching the s urfers as they come in.

>> in the past they brought the brushes and tried to push too many people out too a place where they couldn't hand $. >> we learn people don't always follow the signage and do the right thing. >> reporter: fans we talked to want to see the contest up c lose. >> you need to be somebody out there aware. i think it's a public beach and the public needs to watch the top surfers in the world out here -- out here. a white house official said the administration has decided

to keep an oil drill ban in place. before the deepwater horizon spill dumped the oil into the gulf, the obama administration considered lifting the ban but an official said today this still raises new questions about safety and prompted the decision to put new drilling on hole. florida's governor called the decision wonderful news. the gulf oil spill not only r anked among the world's ever in environmental disasters, it also ranked the worst on computers. it was the most searched term. the word cup soccer tournament was the second most searched term followed by miley cyrus

and kim kardashian. a a spare the air alert is in effect right now. air quality officials say a first violation brings a warning label and then the second w arning could be a fine as much as $250. all right. bill's here we're looking a at the weather. >> you you've seen the clouds all day. they will thicken up tomorrow. this is gonna be a north bay event from thursday to thursday night. bego get to all of that. the showers showing unslightly as you go -- go into the north portion of the state. here's the cloud cover. this is the satellite loop. it shows all of the moisture streaming in off the pacific. you see the -- you can kind of

see the back edge of this cloud ban. what i'm seeing here is a little bit of a curvature. that's one of the reasons that rain is getting pushed north. you can look at the clouds, like if they were rotating this way. there's low pressure coming in. when you see an arch like that, you can -- it's a small ridge. it's gonna gonna keep us dry in the south bay certainly through tomorrow. showers easily in the north bay as we go into tomorrow afternoon and evening. not a lot of rain, showers. friday looks to be the main event for rain. when i talk rain event i'm t alking been 25. maybe .50 further north. what we're picking up are the clouds, warmer night lows as well. the temperature, 42 in santa rosa, 42 in napa. 44 in concord. still cool but above freezing. you might see a little frost in some of the inland valleys. hot and cool. that's your thursday forecast.

the winds are light. temperatures are coming up into the mid-50s. i will get the computer mole loaded up and get -- model l oaded up and ready to go. deadly storms have left a path of destruction in several atlantic and southeastern s tates. the storm system brought destruction to georgia. warnings are posted for virginia and parts of virginia. flooding damage is being r eported as far north as new york. the central valley city of lodi might be wondering if they are the victim of a holiday curse. last week, someone vandalized the white christmas tree the night before it was supposed to be put up. and then in rocklin, volunteers

donated a tree but when they went to move it, the limbs fell off. a retired san francisco police officer on the on the wrong side of the law. and what the wikileaks website is calling for when it comes to secretary of state hillary clinton and why the white house is calling this ridiculous. ♪ >> that's sarah shourd what she hopes to accomplish with her new song.

uc berkeley graduate sarah shourd released a music video in honor of her two friends still in prison. ♪ >> sarah shourd, shane bauer and josh fattal were jailed in iran 17 months ago. she wrote the song "peace of time" she was freed for health reasons and promised her two friends she would show the world what it was like in

prison. >> and it's like to lose everything and everyone you love and have no idea when you are gonna get it back. >> shourd, bauer and fattal are scheduled to stand trial in february for espionage charges. the scandal of the latest wicki leaks release is heating up. at the very center of storm, secretary of state, hillary clinton. secretary trialed to quell any concerns over the -- tried to quell any concerns over the l eak. >> it will not in any way interfere with diplomacy on our ticket for continuing iortant work. >> in an interview with "time" magazine, the founder wicki leaks said hillary clinton should resign if it's proven that she asked for the gathering of documents. today, robert gates called that statement ridiculous and says american has nothing to fear

from wicki leaks. >> we should never be afraid of one guy who popped down $35 to buy a website. we're a stronger country than that. we're not scared of one guy with one keyboard and a laptop. >> now, jullien assange has serious problems of his own. he's been placed on the m ost- wanted list over alleged accusations of sexual misconduct in sweden. camel cigarettes is under fire for a new ad campaign which critics say targets youngs people. a group demanded that r.j. reynolds scrap the adventure campaign. the promotion features cities including san francisco on packs of camel cigarettes. reynolds says the promotion is meant for adult smokers. a retired san francisco police officer and a taxi school operator have both been charged

with bribery. the district attorney says the officer in charge of writing the exam for taxi licenses took bribes to give applicants a p assing grade and. he's currently free on bail. san francisco city hall i s -- is lit a crimson color tonight. find out the event the lights are meant to commemorate. >> find out why the next couple of days, the oakland police chief is lobbying lawmakers for nearly $6 million.

the majority of our h.i.v. infections are gay man. >> he's talking about in san francisco, where it's estimated one out of every four men have h.i.v. just one of the sobering facts on world a.i.d.s. day. despite all of the progress m ade, people are still dying and there's still a long way to go. david stevenson is live in san francisco. >> reporter: take a look behind the dramatic skyline. sanfrancisco city hall was lit this crimson red color. city hall one of about 80 major buildings that are lit in red tonight, marking a somber world a.i.d.s. day c ommemoration. ♪ >> sheltered by a tent and t rees, people gathered to mark world a.i.d.s. day at the grove at golden gate park. >> the grove was -- obviously, it was created during a time when a community was devastated

and a great place of darkness, destroyed conspiracy and d isillusionment. >> reporter: the 19-year-old grove is an earthy memorial for the men and women who died in the early outbreak of the a.i.d.s. epidemic. this man came today to remember lost friends. >> of course today is better. i'm alive and benefiting from the therapies. but there is a they men douse loss that we have to honor. >> reporter: -- they men douse loss that we have to honor. >> reporter: public health officials say there are up to 1,000 new h.i.v. cases in san francisco county each year. >> the ma -- the majority of our infections are among gay men. when we look at the population of the men in san francisco, about 23% are infected. >> reporter: they say the a.i.d.s. day commemoration prompted more people to come in for a test. >> oh, yeah. it's been pretty busy all day, sings i got here.

>> there's much more awareness now. i think kids in school. my son being in gh school, kids are much more educated, i believe, on these issues. >> reporter: he says much has changed since his brother died 15 years ago from a.i.d.s. >> our family comes every year. kind of a big day. >> reporter: one more look at san francisco city hall, glowing red, the red light thats that were switched on -- lights that were switched on 45 minutes ago remind people of the treatment, and research for a.i.d.s. a group of deaf and hard of hearing moviegoers has filed suit against the sinny -- c niemark chain. the lawsuit asks for unspecified damages and will order them to install the

devices. it operates under several brand. a new report today shows that california's budget is s howing signs of growth but it may need more help in coming years. according to the national governor's association, the state's general fund while still in the red is slated to grow by $570 million in the next fiscal year. the state is bridging in additional revenue -- bringing in additional revenue. but in the year 2012, those federal dollars will be gone and more state programs will be on the chopping block. >> they are gonna look at p risons, transportation, university, education fund understand are going to be -- are going to be somewhat vulnerable to cuts simply because everything is going t o -- to have to be on the t able. oakland police chief is --

oakland's police chief is hoping to get money to help keep the community safer. that's why he was in the capitol today. >> reporter: oakland police tracked down this boy as he j umped in this truck and took off. they found drugs. for this very reason, anthony batts says the department needs to focus on students at the middle school level before they get in trouble. >> the middle schools are looking to become our ground zero to make an impact in community policing in the city of oakland. >> today, chief batts is l obbying lawmakers for nearly 6 million in order to place six police officers each at four different middle schools i ncluding right here in east oakland. two of the officers would be assigned to the "our kids" or "okay program "the four would

be assigned to security. >> kids are very vulnerable at this age, the age where they decide if they are gonna be a gang or resort to violence. >> reporter: back home parents and students are positive about the proposal. westlake is another school benefiting if chief batts is successful. >> that's good. that's healthy. we need the protection. >> like one or two maybe. >> reporter: why? >> because there are a few f ights. people do get in trouble a lot. >> reporter: this sixth grader and honor roll student already sees the importance of these school security officers. it's up to officers -- two bay area cities, san

jose, ranked number 7, oakland came in number ten, on the list based on recent census data. boulder, colorado came in first. the rankings are cal cue c liented by looking at the highest education level on average achieved by the people who live there. the federal government is trying to help you stay anonymous on the internet. it's a giant step forward for the plan to bring the america's cup to san francisco. what the city did today that p its two san francisco sites against each other. and how the nationwide d o- not-call list is aimed at high- tech trackers.

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

person two areas of san francisco's waterfront are now going head to head with the hope of hosting a prestigious sailing race. the san francisco port commission has unanimously approved two competing proposals if san francisco is

chosen to host the 2013 america's cup s ailing race. one proposed site would focus construction on san francisco's northeastern waterfront around pier 27. the other site would be located on the southeastern side between pier 32 and pier 50. >> the focus on the northern waterfront is i think the appropriate focus, it seems things are moving towards that direction. it provides exciting viewing for the public. the proposals now go to the board supervisors, it's next meet something scheduled for december 8th. all major automakers reported a strong boost in sales. ford says its sales rose 20%. double-digit increases while toyota marked by a string of safety rules reported a sales drop. analysts say the solid sales number show the consumers who kept their jobs in the economic downturn are feeling confident enough to spend money.

>> verizon wireless plans to launch its new service sunday. initially, it will work on laptop computers only. today one bay area hospital reached a distinct milestone that only a few hospitals have achieved e california afghanistan member center has -- california pacific medical center wins for top safety. california pacific is one of only three hospitals in the united states to win the award five years in a row. if you have trouble sleeping or snore, new research shows you might be at a risk for heart problems. researchers for the -- say

studies who a -- say adults w ho -- a new study on obesity says even being a little over weight can increase your health issues. researchers say those overweight were still likely to die. this study is published in the new england journal of medicine. we're at mount diablo state park, one of many cutting services today. their ultimate goal is to keep the doors open for the public. and right now, i'm tracking some showers, they are north of here but they are headed our w ay, i will tell you which cities will get wet.

uc berkeley researchers released a report saying r educing the minimal wage would not raise employment. the federal minimum wage is 7.25 an hour. here in california, it's $8 an hour. the ax fell today on state parks because of the serious budget problems in sacramento, changes are coming to parks throughout california. so what is that going to mean here in the bay area? ken pritchett is live in mount dean -- on mount diablo tonight with our report. ken? >> reporter: well, frank, we are at the state park here and

the gates are open here in the park and they will remain open here at mount diablo and all our -- automatic owl of our state parks that's despite deep dug cuts but parks are reducing services to ensure they stay hope. this is a new site. the roof is leaking, the tarps and sandbags are temporary. the fix -- unfunded. >> all of our infrastructure is in dire dire straits. >> reporter: the district superintendent pointed out concrete filled tires roped to the roof. >> the tires are up there -- >> to hold the roof down. >> reporter: but for decades money has been lacking for infrastructure repair. now there's not even enough money to take out the trash on a regular basis. >> we don't have the

maintenance stuff. diablo and many other state parks are cutting services s tarting today such as reducing trash pickup and the closure of some rest rooms to deal with a $ 15 million cut from the state park budget. >> reporter: i can see cut -- making cuts other places. >> ed leroy says he's concerned about cutbacks and how it will impact diablo state park. >> just riding my bike up the top here, i thousand a -- i saw a couple people throwing garbage out the window. >> reporter: some may not notice this because some parks already had this reduced statewide. >> last year we did service reduction of about 150 parks. we may be expanding that. >> reporter: some parks will be closing campgrounds, some parks will be closing rest rooms and some parks will -- will have changes you may not notice at

all. your best best is to head online to see what cut services are cut at your park. we have that under ktvu.com under the "right now" section. ken pritchett, ktvu channel 2 news. the u.s. environmental protection agency is giving san francisco's mid plaza the national award. mint plaza in downtown san francisco used to be the old jessie alley t was converted two years ago into a public plaza and festival space. coming up at 6:00, it's c alled "operation second c hance." 1700 people here have take advantage of it and avoided spending time in jail over the holidays. we'll explain how it works and who qualifies for it. julie haener is in the newsroom with a look at some other stories. also, at 6:00, will the as

stay in oakland? also ahead they don't cause a -- they don't call them man's best friend for nothing. why this dog is being called a hero -- hero tonight and how it almost lost its life in the process. and a new development in a horrible crime against three women. what police released today in hopes of catching the two suspects. see you the 6:00. ever look in the night sky and wonder how many stars are up there? well, the answer may be a lot more than scientists previously thought. in a new study, they put the number at 3 and then followed by 23 zeros. the latest studies questioned the previous count. onto our weather now.

we were talking about rain. and since then things have changed. >> yeah. these these things -- these things change. the model is keeping the showers north. we mentioned it last night. it looks like they are gonna linger farther north for a longer period. that means south bay you are pretty much dry. we go outside. i want to show you the cloud cover. of course, the story here has been that it's kept us warm. daytime highs today were warmer because of the clouds. overnight lows were warmer because of the cloud cover. here is the satellite loop over the last 24 hours. you will see some -- let's go back 24 hours. let's go back. there's some showers that showed up. we get a little bit of ridging here. you can barely see it. that's one of the mechanisms to the ridging that's gonna keep the showers mainly north. this week we've had clouds and very cold, cool weather. that spare the air day stays in effect until midnight tonight. as we go through time, the high pressure weakens. this is what brought us the clouds and the cool.

the high goes away. as that moves away. the low-pressure system center moves in. the low pressure system is gonna drop in here and bring showers to the bay area but mainly north. okay. we'll go to the computer model. the rain looks as though it's gonna be north of san rafael through friday or through thursday night into friday morning. so the forecast for san jose tomorrow, cloudy, 57 at lunch time, 62 for a daytime high. here is the commuter model. thursday morning, okay, this is what's crazy about this thing. it doesn't trajz late. watch. see. 7:00 p.m. thursday. who is getting rain there? santarosa, petaluma, novato, maybe, po day ga bay -- bodega bay. there is your friday into saturday morning early. this is your best best for showers -- best bet for

showers. right now it looks like friday showers for the afternoon commute. the big change, everything wants to stay north. i mentioned this last night but it looked as though it was gonna drop south. it looks like we'll see showers north thursday. nothing for the rest of us until friday morning early into friday midmorning. so forecast highs tomorrow. upper 50s, some low 60s. 62 in san jose. 62 in morgan hill. a five-day forecast that includes some showers and none of this is major stuff. these showers will be light, there are be snow flurries in the mountains. nothing like the last few storms we've had. it's tough to call this a storm, the way it's falling apart. the rain will be focusing north. friday showers for us, probably for the morning commute. obviously the weather is fluid, could things change more? >> they could. but it's looking more and more likely -- that makes me -- it is looking like it won't change

that much. on december 1st, 1955, rosa parks refused to move to the back of a city bus in montgomery, alabama and was arrested. that led to a year-long boycott of the city bus system by blacks and a court ruling to d esegregate buses. some call her the mother of the civil rights movement. she died five years ago at the age of 92. we're about to take a quick break. as we do -- >> this has been a top complaint to the fcc -- >> we want you to listen very carefully. because for years, many people nationwide have complaints that commercials have come across louder than the programming. if you think that's true, you are gonna love this next story.

the top songs are out -- okay. question for you. are tv commercials too loud? apparently many think so and now congress may take steps to turn down the volume.

>> this has been a top complaint to the fcc for decades for almost 50 years. >> bay area congressman says it's a common concern that when a program goes to a commercial, the volume seems to jump. she's esponsorring a bill that would require volume to be lowered on ads. >> one of my colleagues said there won't be fights in the house anymore for the race to the mute button.

ktvu channel 2 news at 6:00 is next. >> this these files are thousands of uncleared files.

oakland makes another pitch. we will tell you what's going on and the big obstacle still to come. if these sketches look familiar, police want to hear from you right away. good evening, everyone. i'm frank somerville. >> i'm julie haener. a critical meet something just getting started right now in downtown oakland. its focus, keeping the as in oakland. a big part of that deal depends upon whether the team will get a new stadium. right now the city's planning commission is considering a site north of the stadium. mike mibach is