a suspect flees and nice a crash. why opd says that several agencies will investigate. and an advisory. the stranger danger. a new short cut will open to bikers in just a few hours. these stories and more. good afternoon.

i'm gasia mikaelian in today for tory campbell. a police chase ends in death today. the drive who was killed may have been running from police for a number of reasons. the man died when his car went off interstate 80 not far from the university avenue exit. kraig debro is live. >> reporter: police say that they will call different agencies for partiality. the man could not be helped by doctors. a white sedan crashed through a chain linked fence and into a tree into a facility operate by kaiser while being chased by at least one oakland officer. >> the driver lost control of the vehicle and slid off the freeway, slid into a tree. >> reporter: the unidentified

man crashed into a tree. word about the driver wept out about eight hours earlier. an officer approached the same man at 8:26 thursday night as he sat in his vehicle at west and 36th street. the officer thought that the man needed help but then developed suspicions. >> the driver threw the vehicle into drive and knocked the officer down by hitting him with the vehicle. >> reporter: the officer suffered minor scrapes and bruises. the two vehicles entered i-80 east bound. the crash occurred just before the gillman exit. the impact sent a street sign over a fence. later, police learned one of the reasons that the suspect took off. the vehicle was stolen and past trouble with the law. >> we believe he has a parole warrant and he is 38 years old. >> reporter: why did the suspect's vehicle crash? police are investigating all aspects of the case but they say that their officer did not

use a pitt maneuver, a technique that police sometimes use to disable a vehicle used by a fleeing suspect. the chp says that a spleepy driver likely cause add serious rollover accident in vallejo. it happened on the on ramp band of west bound 37. students were inside the toyota corolla what it flipped over and crashed. two suffered serious injuries and the other escaped with minor injuries. the accident shut daunte ramp for several hours. right now, the ramp is open. petaluma officers are reporting a stranger danger incident on wednesday. jade is live now. >> reporter: police say that a parent told them this incident happened near the school. the principal today is warning

parents about two men in a van targeting children. parents arriving this morning didn't know about an incident which a parent reported on wednesday. two chirp, the oldest a nine- year-old, a grant elementary student told police she was walking home with her little brother when they noticed a gray unmarked van with two men inside. the two children continued on their way home but the nine- year-old said after they went inside the house, one of the men got out of the van and rang the door bell. when she looked through the win toe, he stared back smiling. the precip paul said that the petaluma warning came too late in the day to send out a note. so she is crafting a note to send to the parents. the party also made an intercom address so parents knew why reporters were at the school. >> parents look out for their school. >> makes me feel very uneasy

and i want my kids to be safe. so, yeah, we would like to know more about what happened. >> reporter: what do you do if you see something who is suspicious or maybe you don't recognize. >> you get adult help. >> reporter: these grant students know what to do and they have been trained to keep an eye out. >> we have had a few accidents like. this we have to take precautions. >> reporter: petaluma police only had vague descriptions of the two men inside the van. the van is being described as a gray, older model van box file with no distinctive markings. in petaluma, jade hernandez, ktvu channel 2 news. we learned two hours ago that a federal jury has convicted a former street preacher of kidnapping elizabeth smart. he took smart at knife point from her home more than eight years ago. he held her captive until she

was found walking along the street with mitchell and her wife. she testified she had been forced into a polygamist marriage and endured almost daily rape. and sentencing sentencing phase has begun for a former member of the your black bakery. at his trial shall the defense argued that lewis was framed by two other defendants. prosecutors in the trial of a former your black must brim bakery has won a key battle. a judge ruled that prosecutors may see evidence of an alleged plot into the murder of chauncey bailey. the evidence backs up claims by the prosecutor that they were planning to have another witness killed. >> why a court decision that

just came down may help ease our state's budget deficit. also, how muni is cutting corners and that has someriders upset. and there are big changes in store for the weekend. chief meteorologist steve paulson will have the forecast straight ahead in just hours, this tunnel will open to the public but coming up, we'll take you i side. we'll show you why it's state of the art and why advocates say it's going to save lives.

. restructuring the san jose police department could save the city millions of dollars. the audit says that sjpd has a ratio of one sergeant for every 4.5 officers. that costs about $54 million amelie. shifting that ratio to 1 to 10 could reportedly save the city at least $33 million a year. we caught up with san jose's mayor chuck reed for his reaction. >> we are doing most things right. the fact that we are a little bit different does not necessarily mean that it's wrong. however, it is an opportunity perhaps to save some money. >> these findings will be presented to a city council committee. and a judge has cleared the

way for the state of california to selling some properties. some argued selling the property could be a waste of taxpayers money. the state would then lease the space in those buildings. president obama pre detected this morning that congress will approve the tax cutting compromise he reached with republican leaders. mr. obama who vestitied his daughter's private school spoke on national public radio. he conceded that angry democrats might make some changes but ultimately, he believes that it will pass. they have added tax breaks for energy-each cars and homes. the house has yet to take up a bill of it own. key information on more than 100,000 planes is missing and the federal aviation administration says it's going to fix that there are 457,000 planes and helicopters registered in the u.s.

government officials say that the missing information could lead to terrorists using those planes in attacks. the f.a.a. will require the owners of every commercial and privately owned aircraft to reregister their planes because of this potential security risk. in the north bay, drivers have a new reason to get out of their cars and get on to their bikes. a converted tunnel is officially opening just a few hours for now and it's specifically for bicycles. it connects san raphael to locksburg making it easier to commute. >> reporter: the last-minute work was still under way on this state-of-the-art pedestrian and bicycle tunnel. >> when you talk about what a mess it was, what kind of mess were you dealing with? >> just a solid collapse. you could not see through it. it was a solid wall of rock. >> reporter: the idea came in the late 1990s after advocates

say that people were tired after a treacherous stretch from dunn town san raphael and the ferry. >> this tunnel in and of itself it worth it because it's going to save lives. >> reporter: built in the 1800s, collapsed in the 80s, the hope was that this could be used for pedestrian and bicyclists tunnel. >> we checked it and it has never been done in the united states. >> is it because? >> regulation wise and engineering wise. this paste is open and the infrastructure there is. >> remember, we have a train whose operating on that side and we have two make sure that in case of an accident, not only do you have a structural wall but they have a firewall. this firewall provide safety from accidents and technology provides for safety in general. >> it's a coaxial cable that no

matter how deep you are in the tunnel, your cell phone will work. >> we have security, cameras up here and we also have this blue light. tell me about these? >> the blue light, if you feel you have an emergency, you push that and it goes to three different centers. >> reporter: at 3 this afternoon, this gate will open up and this tunnel will be officially open to the public. thousands of expected to use it every year. claudine wong, ktvu channel 2 news. meanwhile, more people are using their bikes to get around san francisco. the chronicle obtained a bicycle count showing it there were 400,000 bike trips compared to 50,000 years ago. muni drives are increasingly dumping their riders before their stops. this is a way that drivers make up time when dealing with long

delays and traffic jams. we spoke to win driver about the very situation just this morning. >> we want have this -- there could be more than one stop is it. >> yes. and what do people say what you say, hey, you have to go? >> they get mad. >> muni says there were a factor in the increases in the shortcuts. they included mechanical breakdowns and congestion on the streets of san francisco. steve paulson, a lot of people are feeling muggy out there? >> it's very muggy. just a hint of sun. temperatures have moved into the mid-60s for some, especially down towards mountain view and san jose but there ace little band of rain going through. patrick from redwood city says there is some rain. towards the inland area, it's not too bad. we do have mostly cloudy scales. san raphael, some fog. a lot of fog hanging around. there is still plenty of moisture in the atmosphere but

it's going to be a little bit warmer this weekend. we could have temperatures in the 70s, especially sundae. foggy, warm and muggy weekend. low this is morning never got below about 56 or 55. warm along the coast and each inland if low clouds burn off or even the high clouds. next one will be tuesday or wednesday. this is setting up to be a really impressive kind of more than a showery pattern. could be decent but that won't until next wednesday. you can see how the cloud cove, most of it is rotating north ward. heavy rain will be falling as this moisture will be coming up from the hawaiian island. we have gone from the cold of november to very mild tropical nussments -- numbers. san jose at 66. this little rain is coming by, dropping some temperatures. still rather mild to warm. 75 down in palm springs, 40s in the mountains. everybody is on the mild side. look at the moisture right down toward the hawaiian islands.

it comes up and over. but this is the ridge of high pressure which is building in for us. this is leading right to seattle on portland. this is going to get hit hard it between now and tuesday. seems like the projection is about 7 inches of rep. fog holding on, mainly around the bay. light drizzle. some moments of sun. if you get that, upper 60s for a few. we hold off to that 66. low to mid-60s. tomorrow, though, looks like a little bit sooner burn off on some of that fog. partly cloudy on monday. tuesday, cloudy and rain on monday. if you get the sun, that will be warm. >> that will be the first nice weekend in a while. four out of the last five, it's rained. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. the most famous department store santa is on the set. he starts his new job just down the street at lefty o'dool

after being sacked. the manager says he can tell any joke he wants. it was a ski joke that got him fired from macy's. some homeowners will show off their christmas decorations to support education. the tour funds scholarships and several science camps for local school girls. we have more information on how you can get a ticket on our website. just go to ktvu.com and click on web links. a health scare for treasury secretary timothy geithner. and why protesters may take to the funeral of elizabeth edwards this weekend.

an encouraging report saying that the tax cut bill will pass sent stocks soaring. growing demand for american goods overseas pushed experts to their highest level in two years. the dow jones gained on all three indexes secretary treasury timothy geithner is in the hospital. he will undergo a minor surgery for kidney stone. he began experiencing sea severe pain and went to george

washington university hospital. he expects to be back to work next week. according to the latest national data from the is census, people can expect to live 77.2 years, a month less than those born in 2011. the drop is so small, it's impossible to know if it's the beginning of a trend. women continue to live longer until about 80 compared to 75 for men a two-drug combination is helping women with breast cancer. about half of the 450 women in a recent study getting the combination saw their tumors disappear. just 20% taking either drug alone got the same results. members of a radical church say they will picket elizabeth he had wards' funeral. members of the westboro church

says that blaspheme led to her cancer. there were protests around the world against chime ya for its treatment of a chinese dissident who was unable to attend his open nobel prize. >> the lauriat can be here nor can his wife be with us. no medal or diploma will therefore be presented here today. [ applause ] >> imprisoned chinese dissent lui xiabo is serving a sentence in china. chime ya put his family upped house arrest to prevent them from coming to the ceremony, the first time in 74 years that the award was not given to the recipient actor richard gere joined a

protest on this matter outside the united nations in new york. the dissident was given the nobel prize but neither he nor his family were able to attend. prosecutors are trying to prove there is enough evidence to bring the 2 defendants to trial. they are accusinged in a brutal gang rape of a 16-year-old girl outside of a richmond high school homecoming dance last year. students at dianne feinstein elementary school are learning with the help of some new tools today. >> we are working on communicating and asking in a friendly voice. >> the new tools are called kimochis. that means stealing in japanese. the characters help children learn how to develop their emotional and social skills as well as building confidence and character. they were created as a response

to school shooting. >> what can we do as adults to help kids get along, help them be able to identify and express their feelings. >> reporter: dianne feinstein 'em tri is one of 25 schools nationwide involved in the pilot program. a cowboy with a lasso put an end to one reindeer game. we ha some pretty amazing video. it came from santa maria. the runaway reindeer scampered through residential streets, neighborhoods. police called in a local cowboy who rushed into town wearing his hat, booze and spurs. he did manage to rope the reindeer on his very first try. the rain deer, by the way, was nicknamed prancer and we are told that the animal was not hurt coming up today on ktvu channel 2 news at 5:00, customers of walgreen received a troubling e-mail from the retail giant today.

store officials said that someone hacked into an e-mail list of customers who receive special offers and newsletters from walgreen. find out what the hacker did with that information and how customers can protect their permanent data. that story is coming up on ktvu at 5:00. until then, have a great afternoon and thanks for watching.