>> reporter: i'm tara moriarty live in sacramento, where a dad sees his daughter for the first time since she was brutally attacked. we'll update you on her condition. the mother yelled that the guy -- the guy that touched my daughter -- >> reporter: how that led police to arrest the man accused of assaulting an 8-year- old girl. >> reporter: and a federal judge hands down a decision which is expected to send the healthcare reform debate to the

supreme court. we're live with that coverage. good afternoon. topping our news this noontime, we're learning more information about the weekend attack on two siblings in a vacaville home, including a change in the condition of at least one of the young victims and who the 14-year-old suspect knew at that house. ktvu's tara moriarty has more on that and reaction from the children's father. good afternoon, tara. >> reporter: well, good afternoon,er tory. we've been receiving updates from the victim ally father all morning long. now, he only learned a few hours ago that his 13-year-old daughter was viciously attacked yesterday. we just spoke to him by phone. he tell us that his daughter is doing better. she's talking to him and has been upgraded this from critical to serious action. >> i'm just shocked. i can't believe it. >> reporter: martin perez and

his daughter deanna were driving by this house when they heard this morning the news. >> to do something like that to my little girl? how can a guy -- i don't know. >> reporter: police say early yesterday morning, the girl and her 18-month-old brother were home alone sleeping in bed together. someone broke into the house and started stabbing the girl in the back with a knife. >> unfortunately, the girl wases also sexually assaulted and when the 18-month-old woke up, he was assaulted and stabbed. >> reporter: authorities say the suspect is a child himself. >> he's a 14-year-old. that's insane. >> reporter: police say the 13- year-old girl was extremely brave after being stabbed more than 30 times inside of her house she grabbed her baby brother, her cell phone called 911 and ran to this house.

police left phone messages w arning neighborhoods as the s.w.a.t. team left messages. the suspect was sleeping inside. he was eventually taken in and booked into juvenile hall. >> reporter: we're told the girl was baby-sitting her brother. the mom was out. >> she was a single mom so when she would go to work, the older son would watch the siblings a lot. at this particular time from what i've heard, he's actually locked up in juvenile hall so he's not home. >> reporter: the mother shared custody of with -- custody with the -- of the girl with perez. police say the suspect is not cooperating. they say they don't have a motive but they have an a --

they have a connection. he's an acquaintance of the g irl's older brother. back to you. >> thank you. a pleasant hill man has been arrested in connection with two recent robberies in the east b ay. 27-year-old gram hill was taken into custody after investigators searched this home and found evidence linking him to a bank robbery in martinez and another in la fayette. police say pool is also likely linked to another robbery in the sacramento area last month. we've just learned that there has been a delay in the preliminary hearing for the seven defendants accused of gang raping a richmond high school student. the hearing was supposed to continue this morning but because of a personal emergency involving one of the attorneys in the case, the session now won't be held until wednesday. there are only two more witnesses left to take the s tand, the lead police and a dna expert. once the hearing wraps up, a judge will determine if there is enough evidence for the men

to stand trial. >> we're learning more information about a brutal attack on a child at a discount store. this happened at a walmart in san leandro. here's more about how the suspect was caught so quickly. >> reporter: good afternoon. police are saying this afternoon that during a holiday time like this, the predators look at this as an opportunity. it happened behind me at this walmart. this is the davis street w almart. police are praising the good samaritans who involve -- who got involved. an 8-year-old girl was here with her family on friday flight and they say the girl got separated and a man came up behind the girl and stuck his hands down the -- >> around the holidays, i think these predators are aware that families are out shopping with their young childrennd.

it's easy for children to walk away from their parents. so our feeling is that he was waiting for an opportune time too commit such acts against children in these busy stores. >> reporter: police arrested the 29-year-old man. they say he had taken off a coat and hat and was wearing -- that he was wearing during the assault. police believe he did that in order to conceal his identity. it department work. the 8-year-old girl told her family someone picked her up and touched her inappropriately. the mother yelled. the suspect ran out. two people who heard the call for help pursued and helped police. >> i'm not saying we wouldn't have caught them. but they sure helped out a lot. i thanked them personally to thank them. what they did was e xtraordinarying. it's nice to see that people

get involved to make our community safer. >> reporter: the 29-year-old is arrested. he's not a registered sex o ffender but police say he has prior arrest history for violation and making terrorist threats. police say he will be arraigned tomorrow. when police got the call, they say it behinded -- it reminded them of the rape case in union city earlier this month. police say -- it only takes a second for a child to be a ssaulted. reporting live in san leandro, kraig debro, ktvu channel 2 n ews. >> all right. thank you, kraig. san francisco mayor gavin newsom reportedly will introduce more legislation at tomorrow's board of supervisors' meeting aimed at curbing violence. the examiner says newsom will

call for standardizing hours. in the past, he's called for parks to close between 1:00 and 5:00. one homeless man said it won't work. >> are you gonna have a security gate? have dogs? that's not the answer. what the answer is helping these kids get a job, instead of t urning to alcohol and drugs a nd -- drugs and the government don't want to help them. >> two supervisors are also h olding hearings today to. suburban-- to examine i ncreasing patrols and lighting at city parks. federal express forecasts this will be the buggest s hipping day of the year and expects -- bus i -- busiest s hipping day of the year and that could be a sign wall street is picking up. carriers such as fed-ex, say

the busiest shipping period is between thanksgiving and christmas and expects volume up 11% this year because of last, largely because of increased shopping. last year's high volume day, december 14th set a record at 14.2 million packages. on an average day fed-ex ships about 8 million. late this morning a federal judge ruled that part of the new healthcare reform law is u nconstitutional. so what does this mean and how will it impact the healthcare of most americans. jade hernandez joins us now after spooking with an expert at st. mary's college about the decision. good afternoon, jade. >> reporter: good afternoon. >> reporter: we're live where we spoke to a suspect who analyzed the decision handed

down this morning. >> there will be cases in florida. there is also a case in michigan all on this mandate question. so the supreme court will have to sort out all of these sessions. >> reporter: we spoke to dean bolford about the federal decision in virginia this morning. henry pud son -- hudson ruled against the -- learn called the mandate about purchasing health insurance by 2014. >> one of the interesting questions is whether the justice department will appeal this decision to the fourth circuit, the -- the appellate federal court which already has

one other virginia case. the way i would say it, is this case is not about health insurance. it is not about healthcare. it's about liberty. the judge said as much in his order. >> president obama signed the patient protection and a ffordable care act in march. the aim was to help uninsured and uninsured americans get affordable care. but opponents say americans should be -- shouldn't be forced to buy insurance from a certain company. today's decision could mean the beginning of two to three years of uncertainty. jade hernandez, ktvu channel 2 news. >> thank you, jade. president obama signed a bill into law today that's designed to provide healthier meals to school children. he appeared with first lady

michelle obama at a washington elementary school this morning. the first lady has been a l ong- time supporter of the bill as part of her fight against childhood obesity. the program will cost 4.5 billion but the president says it is fully paid for and will not add to the current deficit. some of the funding comes from rolling back a temporary increase in food stamp benefits or "snap" starting in the fall of 2013. >> president obama promised to work on restoring those funds to "snap" in the near future. a key vote is due today on the president's tax cut deal but house democrats threaten to stall the measure. find out why the stalemate is about more than just income taxes. will the gray, mild weather stick around? mark mark toe my hoe will have

the -- mark -- mark tamayo will have the forecast.

a reminder from palo alto p olice, that you should be aware

of your surroundings after a woman was robbed in front of her house over the weekend. it happened on saturday night at 7:00 when a woman was's urning to her home. police say -- was returning to her home. police say a man snatched her suspect in a black, four-door sedan. police are checking to see if this is connected to other recent robberies in the area. the 18-month-old baby found floating in the lobby of the hyatt regency has died. he was what his twin sister, mother and nanny wednesday afternoon when he apparently fell into the 2 feet deep full of water. he was taken to ucsf hospital where he died on saturday. the family was at the hotel taking pictures of the holiday decorations. we just learned that the hotel still has the fountain taped off an -- and they are working on a permanent safety plan. >> today the san jose city council will hold a special m eeting on pot clubs. many people are demanding an

end to the recent raids. on friday night medical marijuana supporters held a fund-raiser to help pay expenses styed to the recent raid. the u.s. senate is scheduled to take a procedural vote today on the tax cut compromise worked out between president obama and republicans. that would lead to a vote on measure itself tomorrow or wednesday. however it still faces an u p- hill climb in the house of representatives. jennifer davis has more from washington, d.c. >> reporter: the tax-cut compromise has its first real test with an afternoon vote in the senate. the senate remains confident it will pass but most of the actions still remain in the house where democrats have been rebelling about the package the president put together. >> i think we'll pass the bill

as opposed to not passing anything. >> but steny hoyer says he t hinks members will first try to amend the measure. >> i know some believe there is a compro nice available. but we'll have to see where the votes lie. >> reporter: as it stands now, the measure extends bush-era tax cuts that are set to j anuary 1st to all americans. >> if the democrats in the house scuttle this deal, that will be the first thing we do is prevent these job-killing tax increases and we'll do it retroactive after the first of the year. >> reporter: many americans say they don't want a rise in taxes but they do want some action, especially in a state package that is too generous for the wealthy. >> i think most people just believe that on this issue the administration did get out and negotiate it. >> reporter: democratic leaders say members would like to get home for the holidays.

so they are hopeful they can conclude business about a week before business. crews in indiana have safely rescued 70 drivers caused by the weather. in illinois, the loads have been very difficult to navigate because of the near whiteout conditions. so far there have been 11 weather-related deaths. the storm is also causing sob proems in air travel as airports try to get back on track from about 2,,000 cancellations over the weekend. we also checked with all three major bay area airports to see if the storm in the midwest is affecting travel here. sanfrancisco is experiencing delays of about an hour but those are due to local weather. >> the big blizzard has also produced some scary scenes, the heavy snow caused the

inflatable top of the minneapolis metrodome to cave in. the giants -- the vikings g iants' game was moved to detroit's ford field. that game will begin tonight. people started to line up for free jics -- tickets this morning. 30,000 predicts were given out in just 90 minutes. the fans who travel from new york and minnesota will get prime seating. let's check in now with our meteorologist, mark tamayo for bay area weather. it's cloudy out there, mark. >> that's right. still some lingering clouds. we could soon be talking about a couple of rain showers across the bay area. i can tell you on live stormtracker2 a little bit activity where we could have a few sprinkleslying in the -- a

few sprinks falling. santarosa, currently checking in, 58 degrees. a look outside, looking out across the bay, a cloudy and foggy bay. can you see all of the overcast and keeping it cool for the region. so for today we're expecting this across the bay area. for this afternoon, mostly cloudy skies, temperatures near 60 degrees. for tonight, the possibility of a shower and the extended forecast, we's fracking more rain chances and those forms have the potential to produce heavy rain. here is the halt, down toward monterey, even approaching monterey bay as well. for the most part it's dry. we had the dense fog this morning but it will be begin to weaken as this most moves in for your tuesday. so beginning tonight we bring in the chance of a few light showers. tuesday a pretty good bet of a few light showers pushing into the region. here is our forecast model. by tonight at 10:00, you can see a little bit of activity approaching sonoma county and

then we'll take this in to mom morning at 7:00 and also in the afternoon. that rainfall coverage on the increase. primarily for the northern half of the bay area, gradually h eading to the south. for this afternoon, cloudy s kies, for this evening, mostly cloudy, the chance for a shower. as far as the afternoon mys, you can see the upper 50s to the lower 60s. losgatos, 62 and half moon bay, 59. here is a look ahead. your five-day forecast and quite a few clouds in place. mostly cloudy skies for wednesday. partly cloudy on thursday and the latest forecast models bridging in more rain for f riday. even beyond the point we could be stalking about a series of storms that could produce heavy rain across a good portion of the state. so the big travel period. >> a week before christmas.

>> yeah. >> thank you, mark. still ahead, an a rteriesty -- an art mystery about the mona lisa. do her eyes have something to say? find out about the symbols that have just been discovered.

this is a critical week in

san francisco's effort to host the america's cup yacht race. today the city's budget and finance committee will hold the final hearing. the full board is expected to vote on the agreement tomorrow. sanfrancisco has been warned it will lose the right to host the next america's cup unless a deal is signed by friday. america's cup organizers say san francisco has violated several key points of the initial agreement. something new has been found in one of the worldor most famous pointings. historians discovered tiny numbers and letters in the eyes of the mona lisa. they are say they were placed -- they say they were placed there by the artist. the images were just revealed due to magnification techniques. one of the images are said to contain the artist's initials. coming up at 5:00, what

will the new child nutrition bill mean for bay area schools? hear what parent and students have to say about the push for healthy eating. those stories and mere coming up in our next newscast, the channel 2 news at 5:00. thanks for watching. have a great day.

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