mountains. but the ground is not saturated and that could be a big help when the storms come in. work crews from many different agencies are out in full force today. the water district has been removing debris from creeks and will be monitoring gauges that measure watt every flows. >> sometimes you can see that those water levels are rising pretty quickly. we're watching those numbers as well. and we're ready to do whatever we can to minimize the problems. >> reporter: some much needed sand for sandbags sandbags were delivered today to the disaster center set up at valley church's united in the santa cruz mountains. mountain residents began to fill up bags with urgency but no panic. >> i'll probably need about 30, just to take the water that comes down the hill toward the house and direct it around the

house. pretty basic. >> i want people to be checking the drains. and making sure a new neighbor may not have changed the landscape around them because that could change the flow of the water. >> they stock up on candles, heaters and lamp oil and other types of fuels. >> reporter: one big concern is how storms will affect this weekend's christmas project by valley churches churches united. more than 500 families in need are supposed to receive gift packages, and the rains could bring changes. in time the flood gates are open in two major california dams as state water officials prepare for the incoming storms. water is being released at 30,000 cubic feet per second. it is normal to release water at the fulsome and nimbus dams. but such a large release this

time of year is unusual. >> we want to make sure that we have rooms for the storms that are forecast to come into the area. >> it's been a few years, thises the second year where conditions have been improved where three, four years prior we were in drought situation. >> reporter: fulsome lake is twice as full as it was this time last year. ktvu chief meteorologist bill martin has been talking about this upcoming storm for days. bill, where's that storm front right now. >> there's a lot of storm fronts. we have multiple weather systems, this is the general pattern out in the pacific, this is going to bring us copious amounts of rainfall. in the next four, five, six, and maybe seven days. these storms are all lined up. you can see where they are focused. you see that low to the north. that's some cold air, the air to the south obviously a warmer moderate air. they are going to link up over the central california region over the next week. the first storm comes in

tomorrow. then we have big rain expected saturday night into sunday. >> thank you, bill. ktvu.com has live radar 24 hors a 24 -- 24 hours a day. and police are seeking a driver's cell phone records to try to pinpoint what she was doing when her car plowed into another vehicle killing a little girl. rob roth spoke to the little girl's grandmother. >> police say they are nearing the end of their investigation. today they went to the hospital and spoke to the mother of 2- year-old caley murray who was killed in a crosswalk. caley's mother, lynne murray is still recovering from a broken pelvis and other injuries. >> lynne cried her first tears, which is to me a great step in

healing. >> reporter: ling's mother-in- law says she doesn't remember the accident but somehow feels responsible. >> she told me, momma, i'm sorry my fault. i said no, it's not your fault. not at all. and she struggled with it. >> reporter: police say caly's death and ling's i think juries are because of holloway. >> the driver did admit to being distracted by use of the cell phone through those records and her statement we'll determine if there was any incoming, outgoing phone calls and text paging. >> reporter: police say they hope to wrap up their investigation and turn the case to the district attorney. using the cell phone while driving is against the law. caly's family won't comment publicly on what they hope to see with the case. but they hope some good will come from a tragedy. >> hopefully it'll get people

to get off their phone and quit texting. put the phone in the backseat. >> reporter: a memorial for caly is scheduled for sunday. a fund has been set up for the family, you can get it on ktvu.com. ár. five people are recovering tonight following a crash in san francisco involving a ucsf shuttle bus. emergency crews responded to the corner of 22nd and potrero avenue around 11:30 today. a car traveling at a high rate of speed rear ended another car which then slam into another shuttle. witnesses say no one appeared seriously hurt. friends and family are mourning the loss of a student who was shot and killed. police say justice apollo was stabbed. his mother believes a confrontation may be related to her son's death. police say they have looked

into that story but cannot confirm it. police hope people who may have witnessed the stabbing will come forward. a dna expert took the stands and linked genetic evidence to some but not all of the defendants. rita williams was in court today and she joins us now live from martinez with the details. >> reporter: with seven defendants, the preliminary hearing here is taking a long time. >> we're winding down. >> reporter: today each defense attorney tried to pick apart the dna evidence presented by this man, dave stockwell. the 19th witness to testify. >> long testimony day. >> reporter: stockwell says he received dna from all of the

suspects. the strongest evidence stockwell testified is connected to the oldest defendant, 43-year-old crane. sperm found on the victim's body as well as a broken condom. trace dna found on the same condom was linked to peters 18, and stockwell said sperm of manuel 20 was found. there is apparently no dna evidence linked to the three other defendants. but investigators found dna at the scene from four males who have never been identified. >> you'll be done by christmas? >> i think we're going to be done by tuesday, wednesday next week. >> reporter: there's only one

witness left in this hearing to determine if there's enough evidence for the men to stand trial on any, some or all of the charges against them. reporting live in martinez, rita williams, ktvu channel 2 news. new details revealed that state regulators warned pg & e about natural gas pipeline problems a year and a half before the deadly san bruno explosion. san francisco chronicle obtained a february 2009 letter sent to the utility by the state inspector. persistent pipeline problems are putting the public in danger. pg & e chairman admitted it's been a difficult year for the company. including the san bruno explosion and protests to the smart meters. >> certainly there's been more events this last year than we usually have experienced. it's been a year of some challenges and set backs. >> reporter: the commission this week said pg & e worked

quickly to correct the actions pointed out. the september blast killed eight people and destroyed more than 30 homes. construction workers on the bay bridge are working around the clock right now scrambling to get some critical pieces in place before the rain arrives. they are working to finish the third level of the tower on the new eastern span. yesterday crews started lifting four massive steel columns into place on the south anchored suspension. the second phase of the construction of the temporary transbay terminal in san francisco is now under way. that means some changes for nummi riders. the agency has relocated several bus somes stops in the area to make way. calling on bank of america and other large banks to clean

up the foreclosure status. they reenacted the biblical scene of mary and joseph trying to find shelter, comparing it to modern day banks forclosing on homeowners. the median price of the bay area home is down 2% compared to this time last year. according to mda data quick, the median price of a bay area home is now $380,000. that's down from 387,000 in november of 2009. the firm says slow sales and the region's market tipped the sales for cheaper homes. according to government figures, food prices rose 1.5% in the bay area this year. outpacing the over all pace of the inflation. tomatoes, eggs, fish and seafood saw the biggest jump in prices. for next year, economists

predict a 4% increase at the check out aisle. stocks closed higher today on news of the labor department. the dow rose 43 points to 11,500. the nasdaq went up 20 points. the cap and trade business, the action that's needed to put the sweeping greenhouse gas legislation into practice. one agency says it is months behind when it comes to cleaning up this type of problem. we'll unveil the reason for the slow decline. and honda is recalling more than a million vehicles tonight. the reason why honda says the problem can be fixed.

the man accused of kidnapping a 12-year-old girl and fleeing to san francisco is set to be arraigned tomorrow in virginia. 32-year-old jeffrey easley is being held in jail without bail. easley was slated to be arraigned today but the appearance was postponed because of weather. san jose graffiti teams are pounding the pavement targeting an increase in taggings this year. maureen naylor spoke to those staff members asking why taggings are on the increase. >> reporter: once taggings go up, others follow. the san jose dentist isn't just on the look out for cavity, he's also spotted new graffiti outside his office window that went up over the weekend.

>> it just detracts from the over all appearance of the neighborhood. >> reporter: san jose's anti graffiti -- >> when i started this program, we were receiving 30 calls a day on average. right now we're receiving 60 to 70. >> reporter: crews were out today with their paint sprayer, covering up new graffiti. in the 2009 year, they spotted 19,000 sites of graffiti. that number jumped to 29,000 this year. >> i think that the economic times have created an opportunity where people are out of work and there's not as much going on for them. they have a lot of time on their hands. >> reporter: 101,000 tags were removed in san jose in the 2009 fiscal year. data for just . .75 of the 2010 year reports an increase.

>> i see it, but it seems like the next day it's painted over. so i think they are keeping a good control on it. >> they are six to eight months behind schedule for graffiti removal. they blame that on bad weather and furloughs. 26 protesters were cited on obstruction charges. the veterans for peace rallied against the war in afghanistan and against the money being spent to fight over seas. demonstrators staged a die in representing troops and civilians who have died during the war. organizers say they issued the citations after demonstrators refused to disperse. >> what i want to do is to bring our war taxes home. you know, we're all paying too much for this war, it's not

schools. we need to pay for schools. we need to pay for health, we need to pay for housing. >> reporter: today's rally comes as the white house released a review of president obama's afghanistan strategy concluding that american troops can start coming home in july. the president today stressed the scale of u.s. troop withdrawals will depend on conditions on the ground. the air resource board met today and will meet again tomorrow. beginning in 2012, the law will require companies to cut greenhouse emissions. companies can sell credits to polluters exceeding their cap. >> we see it as a regulation that's going to drive innovative technology, it's going to drive low cost and cost effective solutions to find out how to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that

we're putting into the atmosphere. >> governor arnold schwarzenegger stopped by today's meeting to show his support for the bill. air quality regulators want to reduce california's greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. well everybody has been talking about it. the rainy weather heading to the bay area. let's go straight now to bill in the weather center. >> again, it's not one storm it's a series of storms. this is going to be an accumulative event as we go through the next five or six or everyone days. here's the first one. the showers begin late tonight. they last through tomorrow. especially into the afternoon commute. so we are getting into some wet weather, a wet weather pattern. so think about that as you travel around the mall, friday is a big get away day. morning and afternoon. it's going to be wet in the morning roads, it's going to be wet in the afternoon roads, there's going to be a winter storm warning. this kind of weather is going to last right through the week. overnight lows will be in the 40s, low mid-40s. tomorrow we start off with

showers in the morning. they progressively pick up. this will bring a major event. forecast highs tomorrow mostly in the 50s. the morning commutes is wet, the afternoon commute is wetter. the afternoon commute will have a lot of water on the roadways. this is long range now. at 5:00 i showed you the 24 hour forecast. i'm going to take you right out through saturday and sunday. here we are friday morning. you see the showers, that's your commute. there's lunchtime, it's raining. snow into the mountains. there's your afternoon on friday. see how it's picking up, the darker greens. that's rain. your friday night commute is going to be a big deal. then we get to saturday morning, a little break, right. then saturday afternoon, it lights up again. that's the heat of it. saturday 7:00. that's probably the brunt of this storm. then as we get into saturday, sunday morning it's still going. and if you noticed the mountains never let up. it keeps going, snow levels at

about 5,000, 8,000 feet. the timing is going to change. that's just an idea of how it's going to go. as we move into tomorrow night i'll have a change on the timing. but you get the idea. it's a wet pattern. it sticks with us next week. and we talked about this, if we get the breaks in there we'll be fine. the amount of them, the accumulation of all these could be an issue as we get into next week. >> as they go back to back. >> back to back. >> bill, thank you. state health officials admitted they lost medical and other personal records for more than 2,500 in home workers. the information was kept on a magnetic tape that disappeared in the mail. the west covina branch sent the tape to the east branch. but when the envelope arrived

it was empty. the agency says all 2,500 people have been notified. so far there's been no reports of identity theft. and honda is recalling 143,000 cars sold in the u.s. the affected vehicles were manufactured between 2001 and 2007. the competition to host the world's most famous sailing races is heating up. bmw oracle wanted a deal signed last saturday with san francisco but the city did not come up with a final plan until tuesday. the venue decision is due by december 31st.

good evening and welcome to the last larry king live. it's hard to say that. >> at this hour, larry king is hosting his final talk show.

king will sign off for the last time this evening. it's the last of 30,000 episodes of larry king live. king who is 77 years old will still host four cnn specials a year. the a's are still staying busy. >> what a week, i can't remember a winter when they were just this busy, another day, another deal for the a's. this time adding a little more hitting punch to a soarly needed line up. this time pretty good outfielder headed their way from the washington nationals. his name is josh willingham and he'll come over for a couple of minor leaguers. 56 rbis for willingham but he did miss the last month and a half for the season with knee surgery. closer to home, we're getting close to the bowl game series.

kerry wood has agreed to a one year deal and he has signed on with the chicago cubs, the team that he originally started with. as you know he's had a lot of arm troubles for the year. kerry wood after his great career as a starting pitcher, now very much a relief pitcher and now for the cubs again. the bowl season is just about under way in the san francisco come january 9th. we have got none other than the craft fight hunger bowl -- kraft fight hunger bowl. thinking ahead already to life in the nfl it will feature colen kaepernick. >> right now you see michael vick is doing amazing things. and i think over the years it's kind of developed that way

because that's another threat that defense has to worry about. i think going into the next level, i'll be able to do whatever an nfl team asks of me. >> speaking of nfl team, the 49ers are trailing the chargers 7-0, thursday night football. it's still early as they say. >> absolutely. >> mark, thank you. one of america's most controversial restaurant chains is under fire in california. we'll have that story coming up on bay area news at 7:00 on tv 36. that is our report, i'm ken wayne. >> i'm julie haener, good night.