comprise the new home for 780 laguna handa patients. laguna handa patients are lining up to make the move. there are now no more than three people to a room. more than a decade ago the federal government declared the old hospital good but the ward context outdated. >> i am completely excited. the rooms are going to be big, roomy and clean. >> reporter: still there's a lot of sadness to what used to be home to a lot of people. >> i like the ward set up, i like these ladies down here. and the ladies on the way out. >> reporter: koina has been a nurse here since 1977 and says she will miss the old place. >> i learned everything about l aguna handa in the old building so it will always be in my

heart. >> reporter: the money is from a settlement in a tobacco settlement lawsuit. >> we're the safety net, the service of last resort for many many people. >> reporter: many more people could be served but the city hasn't been able to raise the money for more beds. officials are working on it knowing that san francisco's population isn't getting any younger. live in san francisco, jim vargas, ktvu channel 2 news. the national transportation safety board says layers of failure are what led to a 2008 helicopter crash in northern california that killed nine people and injured seven others. the helicopters was overloaded when it crashed in trinity county. the ntsb said carson helicopters, the company that leased it to the u.s. forest service lied about it's lifting ability. investigators also blamed the faa and forest service for overlooking safety issues.

an oakland man is now in critical but stable condition after an explosion brought his homecoming crashing around him. a surveillance video caught the explosion. firefighters believe it was caused by natural gas. but pg & e says it was not caused by equipment failure. the man is being held at the burn center in san francisco with burns in 80% of his body. assemblyman jerry hill has introduced a bill with several tough new restrictions in the wake of the san bruno explosion and fire. the proposal includes sharing information, prioritizing certain repairs. a san francisco man pleaded not guilty this morning to assaulting a priest who he says

sexually abused him. 44-year-old will lynch is charged with one count of assault for beating 61-year-old jerry lindner. a preliminary hearing is set for the february 7th. lynch claims the priest raped him and his brother when they were little boys. the priest has repeatedly denied the allegations against him. pleasanthill police announced a telephone tip line to get more information about accused child molester thomas -- they are asking anyone with any information about the case to call 925-676-1273. you will also find that number on our website ktv u.com under headlines. we have new information tonight involving the dragging death of a woman in antioch. just a short time ago, police released new details in the

case. paul chambers is now live in antioch with the latest on what happened. >> reporter: i just confirmed the name of the victim in this case with antioch police. let me tell you quickly about the suspect. he has a violent past. he's a 50-year-old man who resided in brentwood. he's here they believe legally and he just confessed to murdering shelley baker. >> the act which was perpetrated on the victim was clearly intentional. >> reporter: antioch police say this man, 58-year-old lucio rivera avia is being held with the murder of a woman. he and the woman met overnight. just before 2:00 this morning they were arguing in a parking lot. >> she exits the vehicle. you can see the dispute happening and looks like some of her property is being either pulled or thrown out of the vehicle. >> reporter: police say surveillance video taken from an area store which they will

not release shows avia backing up. she was taken to an area hospital where she was pronounced dead. officers later found avia's truck at a rite aid parking lot. as they were inspecting it, avia came up to police to see what was going on. avia has prior run ins with the law. >> this suspect was convicted of a felony, assault with a deadly weapon which was in that case wasn't a firearm in san francisco county in june of 1994. >> reporter: now avia was originally arrested in that case for assault and false imprisonment. tonight he will be transported from here to the contra costa county jail. let me once again speak about avia. we know he's from el salvador. police are trying to figure out about his visa, but they say he's been in this country for about 20 years. live in antioch, i'm paul

chamber, ktvu news. antioch police are investigating a violent carjacks in a neighborhood that is not known for violence. investigators say the victim of 40-year-old man was sitting in his mercedes benz last night when an armed man approached him. the victim is expected to survive. police have not released a description of the gunman. dozens of bay area residents rallied protesting the killing of jones. the rally started about an hour ago, then many protesters went inside whether they hope to speak at oakland's city council meeting which is going on right now. 37-year-old derek jones was shot and killed after responding to a domestic dispute. the police department says that officers thought he had a gun but it was later determined

that he was unarmed. elizabeth edwards, the estranged wife of john edwards has passed. her death comes one day after the family issued a statement saying doctors had advised that further cancer treatment would be unproductive. elizabeth edwards was 61 years old. governor elect jerry brown today announced the first two aappointments to the upcoming administration. brown has asked finance director anna montesantos to stay on. brown says she has what it takes. montesantos says she's honored to stay. duley is currently president of the california children's hospital association and was brown's legislative secretary in his first administration. you probably heard a lot about those things called earmarks. popular with politicians to bring money to local projects. but at the cost of billions of

the dollars. now there's a new way to see exactly what your congressional leader wants to spend and where. ktvu's maureen naylor is live in san jose to explain. >> reporter: it's also this new website, with a click of a mouse you can see where leaders want to put your money. and the numbers are big. the south bay's biggest earmark request, $38.6 million to demolish the federal courthouse in san jose and build a new one. then there's an upgrade to milpedas. >> some of the projects don't belong and don't deserve to be funded by the local government. >> reporter: the new website ending spending.com details all

projects. >> in the past it's been behind closed doors, somebody find out something, a bridge to nowhere might have happened. so just making the process more transparent is a good step. >> reporter: this political science prover says earmarks can be perodoxical. which next year includes requests for $188,000 to expand al albequerque's hot air balloon museum. now the site also gives ear makers titles of hooligans,

many lawmakers have that title. but none were titled big spenders. on mount diablo late this afternoon, military veterans gathered to light a beacon in honor of the japanese attacks. they also marked the anniversary of the pearl harbor attacks. six survivors were honored for their service. one recalled the fateful day says he had just gotten off his shift when the japanese attacked. >> i felt the shock when the arizona blew up. that's how strong that -- that's 8 miles away from where i was. and when that bomb went off, it

really shook the building. >> the ceremony also included a gun salute and a wreath dedication to honor those who have lost their lived in the attack. wikileak's founder julian assange will stay behind bars in london after a judge denied him bail. the judge ordered him to stay in jail until a hearing. meanwhile a wikileaks spokesperson says the release of documents will continue to flow. john tumey also known as santa john had been a macy's santa in union square for 20 years. he says the department store fired him on saturday after a couple complained about an

inappropriate joke. tumey says it's a joke he's been telling for 20 years and he only tells it to adults. macy's would not comment. and needy families will have something to eat these holidays thanks to a donation from wal-mart. the money will go toward backpacks, school and food for 2,500 children in the bay area. for more information just go to our website ktvu.com and look for a link under holiday charities. san francisco supervisors want to keep hiring close to home. the action they took today to guarantee local jobs. a bay area man restores the damage sculpture. the cost of vandalism in golden gate park, coming up. also ahead, san francisco flips the switch on a new solar power plant. the new direction the facility is taking the energy's grid. and rain drops back on the

radar. we have showers to talk about. this system will impact your day tomorrow. absolutely both commutes will be wet. i'll have specifics coming up.

a bay area man is on a loan mission to restore part of golden gate park with his own hands -- lone mission to restore part of golden gate park with his own hands. he says he wants to restore what vannals vandals -- vandals have done in the last month. >> reporter: this is what's left of a horse sculpture. it's made of concrete but as you can see the entire middle is gone. an apparent victim of vandalism in a world famous park.

john spiro of redwood city is a stone mason by trade. but for months now he's been donating his time and money to restoring this sculpture built in 1937. spiro says the project was vandalized but it's unclear when. >> they just picked at it little by little. and you know, it's almost like a jigsaw puzzle when you take a puzzle apart, it just comes apart in pieces. >> reporter: spiro expects to finish the restoration in about a year. he says he can protect it from the weather but he can't protect it from vandals. officials say vandalism has been a persistent problem in golden gate park. vandals often cover art with graffiti.

the cost to clean up after vandal, hundreds of thousands of dollars. >> people would like to see more hours in their swimming pools and rec centers. if we're spending money trying to combat vandalism, that's less money we have for key services. >> reporter: the horseshoe has been renovated thanks to a charrable organization called the guards men. officials say perhaps one way to reduce vandalism is by closing the park late at night. reporting live in san francisco, rob roth, ktvu channel 2 news. san francisco mayor gavin newsom joined other leaders to switch the largest municipal solar project. experts say the panels produce enough power to power 1,100 home, tripling america's supply. >> just gives you a great sense

of pride and expectation and hope that similar projects can be done not only through san francisco but all across the state and all across the country. >> reporter: the mayor says he wants all power in san francisco to come from renewable sources in the year 2020. we'll have more on this -pl cooing on bay area news at 7:00 on channel 36 -- we'll have more on this coming up on bay area news at 7:00 on channel 36. let's go to chief meteorologist bill martin now in the weather center, bill. >> reporter: showers back in the forecast, we had a couple of dry days. remember sunday was wet. monday not bad. today a nice day as well. the clouds have increased. you noticed them today. here is the result of that, at least up north: you see this curvature right here that's the extend of the radar beam. that's as far out as the radar can hit. there's more behind that red line, but that did bring showers south tonight. will impact your morning commute and your lunchtime

commute and your afternoon commute. here's the system. the thing i noticed is it's pulling apart a little bit. it's not really focused. it's not a real -- super powerful storm. but there's some moisture being infused here at the bottom. what it really means is rain. showers all day tomorrow into the evening commute. it could linger into thursday morning as well. there's going to be wind with this as well. southwest winds can go 35, maybe 20 miles per hour. that's not a lot for a storm. that's about average actually. and we're looking for, wednesday and thursday to be a bit wet. thursday not so much as wednesday. so here's how the computer model goes. you see wednesday 7:00 a.m. there's your morning commute. here we are at lunchtime. so that's everybody is wet, here we are afternoon commute, that's wednesday. we get into thursday now, there's going to be overnight residual showers and there's

your thursday commute. sun breaks, sprinkles up north then a break. here's something we're noticing on the forecast model, 8:00 a.m. friday and then gone. don't sweat that, your weekend still looks good. here's the thing we know, tomorrow is going to be showery and wet. maybe .25-inch, maybe half in some locations but it will really slow down your commute tomorrow. snow levels are at 6,000 feet. but they'll get a foot of snow from this. so the five day forecast keep coming. this has been a productive fall. we're still in fall. we've had every five day forecast for the last month or so has had some rain in it. and this is no exception. >> it's amazing what .25 an inch can do for the morning commute. the san francisco board of

supervisors is moving fast to demand that contractors hire locally. they would have to make sure 60% of workers are san francisco residents. the local hire mandates will be phased in in five years. starting with year one where 25% of the workers would have to come from san francisco. >> it's time to put san franciscans to work. it's time to do away with good fate efforts. today the compromise was necessary to protect americans and our economy. democrats do not want tax breaks for people with high incomes, so farther not buying into the president's argument. nancy pelosi said today discussions with the president about the matter will continue in the days ahead.

stocks on wall street started out strong because of that tax cut compromise. but that quickly changed after reports that regulators are stepping up their investigation into insider trading. at the closing bell, the dow was down three points, the nasdaq was up just about four points. santas helpers hope to spread christmas cheer during these hard economic times. the way you can fulfill a child's holiday wish.

in san francisco, santa's helpers gathered at the postoffice to respond to letters addressed to the north pole. postal officials say many of the letters are from children who's parents could use a little extra help this holiday season. if you would like to fulfill a child's christmas wish, there will be one more chance to pick letters at the evans avenue postoffice next tuesday december 14th. well mark is off tonight. joe fonzi joins us with sports. >> reporter: try something new, a season with inconsistencies. this is only alex smith at quarterback in carolina when he

was sacked and suffered a dislocated nonthrowing shoulder injury. smith was replaced by carr, but since then the troy smith had been the quarterback. but alex smith is expected to be named starting quarterback. toby gerhart makes it twice of going to the bowl. >> i think it speaks volumes where this program is headed. i'm just excited about the whole thing. what happens happens and whoever wins is going to deserve to win.

so i'm just excited to be a part of the discussion. >> reporter: so far it's been an offseason of more misses than hits for the oakland a's. a 30 day negotiating window. but the a's failing to come to a contract agreement with iwakuma. he was looking for barry zito like money. no deal could be reached. he will return to his japanese team. wouldn't we all like barry zito money. >> thanks for joining us tonight. good night. >> good night.