and we will hear from two men who decided to help catch the suspect. >> reporter: and news is slowly spreading among customers. tonight the two customers that chased the suspect are being called heros by police. >> i just decided to help her, because she was holding her half naked baby in her arms. so i decided to help her and chase him. >> reporter: jackson saw the commotion and followed. >> i just tackled him and sat on him and dialed 911. >> reporter: ramos sexually assaulted a 2-year-old girl in the aisle of the store. investigators say she was with her grandmother and aunt and went to return a ribbon to the next aisle when ramos pinned her down in the store.

the girl was out of the relatives site for just 20 seconds to a minute. >> these were not unattended parents or grandparents, these were parents who were keeping close eye, and this happened as the child rounded an aisle at the store. >> reporter: ramos is a registered sex offender in union city and had sexually assaulted a 7-year-old girl in hayward in 2003. the incident is serving as a reminder for parents to not leave their children out of their sight. >> i let my kids go in the restroom because they're older. i let them go in by themselves, but now just knowing what's going on i would never do that. i would always be with them 24/7. >> reporter: police say surveillance video did not capture the assault on camera. so they are asking anyone who might have witnessed this crime, to give them a call. reporting live from union city, janine de la vega. we talked with the suspects

mother today and he says eugene ramos failed to take prescribed medication yesterday. ramos is supposed to take medication regularly for depression and anxiety. sáe called him quote -- she called him quote a good son who is sad and depressed and she apologized to the 2-year-old and her family. >> i am very sorry. he did that not intentionally. maybe something went wrong through his mind. that he didn't know what he was doing and he did that. i only -- i'm very, very sorry. >> reporter: ramos served five years behind bars and in a mental association a mental institution for five years. and a man is behind bars

for the death of his 2-year-old son. police say the father loaded and placed the mother's gun in an unsecured drawer just this morning. just a few hours later, the 2- year-old and his 4-year-old brother were playing in the bedroom when a gunshot was heard. >> anyone who has a weapon in their house, a handgun they need to make sure that has a trigger lock on it, if it doesn't have a trigger lock, that needs to be in a safe away from kids. >> reporter: the 2-year-old boy died soon after in the hospital. transcripts from jaycee dugard's case -- several media organizations have requested a

court order to make those documents public. theysay a single tree is providing real healing power by giving new reasons to be thankful during this holiday season. ktvu's maureen naylor is in san bruno now with the story. >> reporter: the sense around where the homes used to be, and two families who used to be here used to have a friendly competition to see who's christmas competitions went up first. so when the henzel family put up this christmas tree on their empty lot, the family across the street knew what they had to do. >> reporter: the christmas tree went up in this family's home. >> we thought it would bring us spirit, and normalcy. >> reporter: the couple still trying to return to normal after their home of 42 years was destroyed in the fiery

september pipeline explosion. >> our ornaments that we are picking up. >> reporter: most importantly they have their dog brandy and each other. >> we keep thinking of the people, like across the street from us where is where all the deaths were. the one family, that the mother- in-law died and the son and law and daughter are still in the hospital, from what we understand. >> reporter: at the neighborhood where their home still stood, 35 empty lots remained fenced off and covered with newly grown grass. >> it's going to be a lot of emptiness around here with the holidays coming. people were around here like in the neighborhood decorated their homes and stuff. there's really nothing here accept vacant lots. >> reporter: but in the middle of the emptiness, one loan tree. >> i get up every morning and i look out that window to the corner and it's hard to believe

it happened. >> reporter: and some neighbors told us, their christmas wish this year is to have their takes return and rebuild, maureen naylor. >> meantime lawyers for pg & e met behind closed doors with attorneys of the victims of the san bruno explosion. eight people died and 35 homes were destroyed. stores in downtown oakland tonight are boarding up their windows in anticipation of tomorrow's bail hearing for mehserle. outside the fruitvale station where mehserle shot and killed oscar grant. community members today pledged to protest if the former bart police officer is freed. mehserle's attorney wants a judge to grant his release while his involuntary manslaughter conviction is appealed. the hearing is set for 1:30 in los angeles. we will be there for the

decision. chief anthony bats says commissioners are excited about the oakland's justice system. the chief bat's plans would roll out mentoring programs. >> we're dealing with crime in a different way. we're focused on prevention of harm, the prevention of harm for that community as a whole. >> bats says he wants to start with middle schools first then expand to other grade levels. many drivers who were stuck on the bay bridge during an incident last month are receiving tickets in the mail. but today caltrans says it will take care of the problem.

>> reporter: after that day, you may understand why people were very upset that people were charged to cross and did not even get to cross the toll plaza. >> bottom line, the point of a toll to cross the bridge is to cross the bridge. it's not to make a u turn. >> wait a minute, this is not, i didn't intend to get caught up in this situation. so i wouldn't be held accountable for what happened that day. >> it's entirely understandable that they are upset. hopefully by this time they've all received the notification that the violation has been dismissed. >> reporter: many wonder why violations went out in the first place. >> all it would take is

basically shut the cameras down for certain amount of time. >> reporter: you would think, but toll authority officials say for now the system can't be turned off in case of an emergency closure. they say software engineers may add that feature in the future. what if you had fast track and were charged? >> all of the charges on that day from 7:15 amuntil 9:00 a.m. have just been reversed. again, toll authority officials say you don't have to do anything, but if you just don't quiet trust them -- quite trust them you might just want to check your bill. sal castaneda. high speed rail may arrive in california's central valley. the board of directors unanimously approved the plan to build the first 65 miles of track. it'll span $4.3 million to do so. local officials cheered the decision. >> the number that we have

heard is 80,000 jobs. we haven't seen that quantified, but what we do know it's going to be thousands so you're talking about valley residents going to work and that's a big win too. some argued the rail way's first start and end point should be in more populated areas. construction is not set to begin until 2012. on wednesday, brown will host a forum in sacramento with the governor's current director and analyst. brown says he wants quote everyone works from the same set of facts about the budget. california is facing anest estimates a $40 million shortfall. from sa kra men to sacramento to washington, d.c. a bill is heating up. students rallied at the state capital this afternoon in support of the dream act. it would allow immigrants who

came to the united states as children illegally to become citizens if they spend two years in college or the military. students say, criticism of the bill's potential cost is short sided. >> it's shown, it's proven that people who are educated are less likely to rely on social services. >> house republicans have vowed to block the bill if it comes up to a vote before the lame duck session begins. this is a phenomenal finding. bay area scientists find a new form of life, but there's still one big unknown. and it's raining out there right now, take a look at live storm tracker 2. mainly in the north bay but more showers are coming our way. i'll let you know which cities will be the wettest.

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bay area researchers say they made a stunning discovery. they said they found a new life form in northern california. john fowler joins us now. he's in oakland with the research. >> reporter: researchers say microbes found in northern california mud redesign life as we know it. due east of the bay area near yosemite, the sierra's volcanic lake, full of arsenic where these bacteria thrive. turning life science as we know it upside down. >> this is a huge deal. this is a phenomenal finding. we're talking about taking the fundamental life and replacing one of them. >> reporter: phosphorous the very like form of life is

replaced by arsenic, it's the only life form known to do so. discovered by felisia wolf- simon. >> and if there's organism doing something different, we've cracked open the world to what's possible in other worlds. >> reporter: it's hard to overstate the impact of finding life operating by different rules. >> how is it that these organisms cannot be poisoned by arsenic at these high concentrations. that's a major research, how do organisms cope with toxins. >> maybe we'll be able to find et now, because we have more information on what we're looking for. >> reporter: scientists say they might refigure planetory science experiments, a more earthly use will be to try to develop microbes that will actually eat arsenic. arsenic is a mayor polluter of

drinking water. john fowler, ktvu channel 2 news. a palo alto medical foundation is cutting more than four dozen staff positions. a staff person confirms they will lay off workers in an effort to cut costs. the foundation said it made several efforts to minimize those job cuts. for a second day in a row it was a very good day on wall street. investors reacted to good news of jumps in sales and that world leaders will move to help troubled banks. the dow is up 106 points. the nasdaq was up almost 30. the bay area discount clothing store ross is posting increased sales despite the sluggish economy. the company reported better than expected sales in november, up 10% compared to a

year ago. ross is predicting sales will dip though in december 2% comp store sales last year. facebook is becoming the divorce attorneys new best friend. the survey by the american academy of matrimonial lawyers say, 56% of cases now include evidence from facebook. they found that facebook was by far used more frequently. well, a rainy night here in parts of the bay area. over now to our chief meteorologist. this seems to be a storm that is hard to predict by the hour. >> it's not really one easily identifiable storm. we've had showers north, i have both radars working. you see the sacramento radar going through the screen into the south. so i'm going to turn off

sacramento's radar so you see the coverage change. then we come in close. if -r the most part the showers have be north of san francisco. we're beginning to see showers up toward hayward, to montclaire. these showers have been light. i'm having a tough time picking up rainfall totals. .10 of an inch. .25 of an inch. here's the satellite loop, it's a tough one to forecast. here's something, i shouldn't tell you this. i was going to show you the computer model but it's so messed up i don't want to show it to you because it does have rain at times it doesn't make any sense based on what i'm seeing. so come back tonight at 10 10:00 we'll give you the latest computer model. tomorrow is going to look a lot

like this morning, remember this morning before there were any showers, that's tomorrow. there might be a new sprinkles mainly object north bay. tomorrow clouds maybe a few sprinkles. saturday, mostly dry, sunday looks like it's going to rain now. so that's a big change. clouds and showers in san jose possible tonight and maybe tomorrow. tomorrow, i think you're going to have more dry roads for your afternoon commute. these are your forecast highs in the 60s. it doesn't equate to anything in the mountains. there will be flurries. this thing is just kind of streaming through. so we have -- you see basically each day for the next three days, i have chance of showers. right now the bulls eye if you're thinking real rain would be sunday is how it looks. we'll watch. come back tonight at 10:00. >> thank you, bill. employees at frick middle school says the heat is back

on. students have been shivering in their classrooms since the return from thanksgiving holiday. the problem has now been fixed. san francisco's popular streetcar fleet is adding another historic vehicle. car 1021 ran back in the 1940s. it has been fully restored and will be in service in a few weeks. also today many unveiled a new canopy at the streetcar line that will protect the streetcars when they are not in service. until now those historic cars have been stored out in the elements. the u.s. geological service is offering gift wrap. >> it also brings people in

here. it's a public awareness of what the california geological survey has to offer. >> you can pick up some maps, wrap your gifts at the usgs minlow campus. announcements today concerning the bigst sporting event in the world

ladies and ladies and gentlemen, will be organized? russia. that was the reaction when russia was announced to host the world cup. the world cup is the most watched event. this year's events were a big event for south africa. lebron james returned today for the first time to cleveland. and fans let him know just how upset they are.

fans in cleveland are still furious that lebron left. and they were not happy when he did his chalking. he announced that he was switching teams and heading to miami. so far things are not looking so good in cleveland. >>early general. they were really pumped up. but miami's superb talent. but let's change the topic, got great hands and ford says the more success he has as a receiver, the more quarterbacks have confidence in him. >> it definitely helps. because that allows everyone to get into a rhythm.

myself included and quarterbacks. it gets the flow of the game going. any time you can get a rhythm going, it's good for the offense. i think that we played with both of them a good time of receiver. as long as we go out there and execute the way we know how to. to run the right rout at the right depth. tiger woods doing something he hasn't done in a long time, lead a tournament. woods on 12, great round 7- under 65. he's got a one shot lead looking better than he has in a while. meantime a little baseball stuff. the time of year the deals really start getting down and out on the baseball agencies. dunn is done. he's a power guy, 103 rbis for

the nationals. big contract $56 million with the white sox. and the sharks are up in ottawa tonight leading 2-0 in the second period. full highlights tonight at 10:00. that's the sporting life right now. >> mark, thank you. coming up on bay area news at 7:00 tonight. breaking news, a mother and father have been arrested after the shooting of a 2-year-old boy. we'll tell you what happened coming up on tv 36. that's the news for tonight. i'm julie haener. >> and i'm frank somerville. good night. >> good night.