. a landmark votsparks celebration in the bay area all about the military and it's future. a night of rain left clean um work to do today for caltrans crews. several accidents on the highway with more rain to come. >> and a heada schedule the work completed just today on the new eastern span of the bay bridge. >> complete bay area news coverage starts right now.

this is ktvu channel 2news at six. >> good evening. i'm heather holmes. >> the world's largest military power will allow gays to serve openly in its military. today at the united states senate cast a historic vote overturning the 17 year old don't ask don't tell policy. eight republicans crossed party lines to join the democrats in passing the measure. 65-31. supporters celebrated the vote saying it parallels the military's decision to end racial segregation in the 50s. they say by eliminating it could weaken the armed forces. in a statement the president said i'm absolutely convinced that making change will only under score the professional i sm of the troops as the best led and trained fighting force the world has ever known. >> closely watching today's

vote will the military veterans who are gay and their supports. there were cheers when the bill was approved but not by everybody. we are live with reaction to the end of the 17 year old policy. >> reporter: this is the hornet. a decommissioned air craft carrier on which gay people couldn't openly serve. some time soon they will be able to come out on all military vessels because of the historic vote. >> the motion is concure and the house -- to hostries lotion 2965 is a don'te >> reporter: leaders gathered at san francisco's gay center to watch the senate vote unfold. >> this is a water shed moment in the 21st century civil rights struggle. that's the struggle for equality. >> reporter: among the people on hand were two retired

commanders including a former nuclear commander. >> i had to live this divided life but you can never get rid of that constant thought that somewhere, someone seeing you or making a rumor and you always live with will i get in trouble? >> reporter: the other retired commander challenged tonight ask didn't tell early on and won serving another 13 years openly. >> after 18 years working on this i witnessed the end to the policy and these are tears of joy. i have to tell you. >> reporter: we caught up with her before the vote at her home where she showed photographs of her years on duty. >> i created greater bonds after because i could be who i was. >> reporter: all the no votes came from republicans. tom whose daughter is in the air force is vice chair of the state republican party. >> my problem is as a father of someone in the military are

they politicians making the decision before christmas because they want to make the base happy or are they doing it because they think it's best for the country? >> reporter: during the news conference the opponents of don't ask don't tell recited the pledge and all of them said it felt just a bit different today. . >> now it could still take up to a year to put in place the appeal of don't ask don't tell. the bill requires it to be certified from the joint chief chairman that the military is ready. that won't happen until the defense department conducts training education for all forces. in the meantime they will warn gay members to not openly declare their orientation until the policy is put in place. >> republicans voted down a bill that would have established a pathway to citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants if they enrolled in college or joined

the military. sponsors of the dream act fell five votes short of the 60 needed. california senator barbara boxer said it's a sad day for our country when we turn our backs on some of the best and brightest. she promised to continue to fight for the dream act. >> it was a wet day around the bay area as the latest in a series of systems bears down. we are in the channel two weather center. >> reporter: in between systems we still have rain showers, moving across the area. we still have activity on live storm tracker two. you with pick out the coverage. the most recent -- we have at least moderate rain reported around haywood and you can see the signature on the radar with the darker shades of green. we will go head and move the map up to the north bay and you

will notice this shall coverage here up toward sonoma and marin. san rafael showing you some showers right now, over the past 24 hours picking up 1.19 inches of rain and you can see we are adding to the totals from mill valley to san rafael. move the maps down to the south bay and we have the clouds in place. we showed you the activity, right around haywood, you can pick out the -- at least some rainfall to report in this area. we will back the maps out and you can pick out closer to monterey bay, this area has been the target area picking out over three inches of rain over the past 24 hours. the terrain lifts it up and you get more rain out of the area. you can pick out on the satellite quite a bit of activity off shore with in that flow. i'm tracking the next weather system. ly tell when you it's expected and how much we can expect as

we head into sunday. >> thank you mark. brief break in the weather today. didn't equate for caltrans or highway patrol. the dry window let some people prepare for the next big blast. >> mike about an hour ago the rain was coming down pretty good, we have a drizzle in the east bay. the rain was on and off all day. this morning there was a break- in the rain and for highway workers and even shoppers that break was an opportunity. >> the sound of traffic on interstate 880 was muted, by the roar of this cal trans vacuum truck. two lanes of 880 flooded near downtown oakland, traffic showed slowed was the drained were unclogged. this was one of several spots uncleared. >> we had flooding last flight and between cal trans and a lot of the units we were able to

clear a lot of the drains and keep the flooding at a minimal >> reporter: we met kerry grimes on westbound interstate 880 this afternoon where he was directing traffic around a three car crash that upturned this mini cooper. it was a minor injury accident. conditions that will exist for membership of this week. >> please check your tires. make sure they are properly inflated. it has a lot to do with how you can control your car in wet weather. >> reporter: in oakland several residents were quickly loading sandbags and preparation for the wet rain. >> i need the bags desperately. >> reporter: howard grabbed 20 bags after a night of rain. >> just -- save me from foundation erosion and my house sliding down the hill. >> reporter: shopping bags and

umbrellas a frequent sight. a lull in the rain this morning was welcome to those shoppers, jeremy said his family is going to try to time out their shopping on dry days between now and christmas >> we saw the weather and knew it would rain. we hoped would lighten up. >> reporter: timing out your shopping to avoid the rain this week will take a close ride on the forecast. here at bay street despite the rain it's fair to say we have had a good size crowd throughout the day. that basically the shoppers have been undeterred by the weather. ken pritchett. >> the weather is delaying some flights out of san francisco national airport ask sfo saying short hall flights up and down the coast are delayed about 30 to 60 minutes. other flights aren't affected. bad weather in the uk has lead to most flights being canceled

in and out of britain. the duty manager is urging everybody heading to the airport to call airlines for the latest information. operations at san jose and oakland are running smoothly. >> it's slow going to the sierra where up to two feet of new snow has fallen. a combination of course rain, ice and snow is making for less than ideal conditions. there was a steady stream of traffic late this afternoon on interstate 80 as you can see here. chains are required tonight on i-80 from king vail to donor lake and on highway 50. for all the latest on the series of wet weather systems heading toward the bay be sure to log on to the website and there you will find live radar maps and locations to pick up sandbags. that's all at ktvu.com. >> just in time before that next storm arrives construction crews today finished stacking those massive steel collums in to place for the new span of

the bay bridge. officials say they are now one week ahead of schedule. a race against the storm blowing in crews decided too start placing them on wednesday. for folks working on hoisting the collums 300 feet gusty winds made for tense moments overnight. >> last night though we had over 50-mile an hour winds that the crews had to sort of suffer through. they did, we showed the look down and didn't start lifting until 4:00 this morning. >> caltrans expects the new bridge to be done in late 2013. >> new figures show more people are expected to travel this holiday than last year. want to give you a live look at interstate 80 in emoryville. look at all those lights. traffic is backed up in both directions. more than 90 million people will travel 50 miles or more during the holidays. that's an increase of about 3%. most of them will be on the road about ten and a half million expected to drive here in california to get to their

holiday location. to keep drunk drivers off the road aaa is offering it's tipsy tow service. from six on december 24th to 6:00 a.m. on the 25th driver who have been drinking can get a free tow of up to free ten miles. it's also offered on new year's eve. the service only lets for a one way ride for the driver and his or her vehicle totterier's home. >> a record number of seniors got bags of groceries because of the charity of local firefighters. each year the random acts organization collects food donations to ensure local seniors have enough to eat for christmas. this year the department collected 14,000 pounds of food. each senior will receive an 18- pound bag that includes

chicken, fresh fruit and vegetables, rice, beans and bread. >> it's grown from about four or five hundred people to 700. we about 700 on the lift this year. it's about a massive movement of food. >> firefighters spent the morning bagging up the groceries and delivered them to each senior. >> more than a hundred prisoners escape from a mexican prison near the border. hear who was helping them behind the scene with their break. >> and see what has these protesters so angry that they brave the cold weather in san francisco's castro district.

. in news of the world mexico police are looking for 141

convicts who escaped yesterday from a prison just across the border from texas. the prison staff allegedly let them walk free. police sources say the gulf drug cartel may have arranged it. the department of public safety is urging people not to travel to mexico because of a rise in kidnappings and robberies. in london the leafiest snow fall in 29 years is causing chaos tonight. nearly a foot of snow fell in the last 24 hours in the north of england. snowstorms all across europe have been causing delays at airports in france and other countries. >> bank of america cut off services to wikileaks, mastercard and pay pal have already stopped handling payments to the website. the bank of america announcement comes one day after the founder said the

website will soon release documents involving banks. in the past he has said they possess data that shows unethical banking practices, mainly from bank of america. >> activists took over the sidewalk outside harvey milk a former camera shop to protest the new tenant. they say the two issues go hand in hand because the law they say is unfair to gay youth. they say they make up 40% of the city's homeless population. they say the new tenant of the location, the human rights campaign is not doing enough to help the gay community. >> i mean talk about being in a weak position to being preyed on, to being weak to aids, to all kinds of things. >> reporter: the city law took effect yesterday and bars people from sitting or lying on sidewalks during the day. the human rights campaign said

it's inspired by harvey milk and his vision of hope for the gay community. >> a busy day of boxing up gifts for children. how busy? 3,000 toys were wrapped up. the police and fire department collected toy donations for families that might not have been able to put anything under the tree. it's a yearly tradition of giving by the department which coordinate with the united states marine corp toys for tots program. this morning the volunteers were not convinced by the wet weather and arrived early to get to work. >> they bared the cold weather and the rain and everything else to be here and once they get the opportunity to come inside they are gracious and humble and they are happy they are able to provide through the foundation. >> one officer we talked to said the toy drive is a great opportunity to give back to the community and help those in need. the saint anthony foundation reopened it's kirk side drop off today. the organization is taking

food, cold weather clothing. they will go to family who attend the christmas day dinner. you can donate until christmas eve at 105 golden gate avenue. its open from nine to three tomorrow and then eight to six during the week. >> many bay area stores opened early and think will stay open late tonight toen tice shoppers to stop by for super saturday. today is the last saturday before christmas and it's considered to be the next biggest shopping day behind black friday. it it's less than a week and it's thought that 37 million people are just now starting their holiday shopping. retailers count on it for a third or more of their yearly sales. i was shopping and need that umbrella but then i didn't. it was off and on rain. >> let's check in with mark. it'll pick up tonight? >> that's right. it would be a good idea to

collect several umbra bellas with multiple storms. i can show you the like storm tracker two, coverage has been increasing, still light to moderate cells marin, stretching across san pablo, closer to vallejo, move the maps and show you this view. at least the southern half of the bay area from haywood to fremont and san jose there is the activity to san jose. looks like darker shades of green. that corresponds to the area around campbell and as we move closer to the santa cruz mountains this area has been the persistent area getting the most significant rainfall over the past 24 hours with that southwesterly flow in place and that will remain the case. more significant rainfall over the next 12 to 18 hours. the overall weather story is this across the area as we take a look at this. for tonight the rainfall will slowly pick up throughout the course of the evening. heavy rain for sunday,

especially for the morning hours, long range forecast features more storms. the next one for tomorrow. the expectations about three quarters inch of the inland valleys, this will be the target time for tomorrow. winds could ramp up with dusts around 35, possibly approaching 40. we are tracking here this stream of moisture all the way back to hawaii and with that -- that will continue to move in to the west coast with the subtropical moisture. that's working in this area of low pressure. that circulation providing the dynamics. multiple storms, heavy rain with the possibility of thunderstorms, once again the target time with the heave which rain first thing tomorrow morning. periods of rain for monday, then wednesday heavy rain possible. this will be a snow producer, already is one for the sierra and a winter storm warning in place until 4:00 monday. snow fall measuring in the feet from three to six feet. here is the forecast model. you will notice the activity beginning to be on the increase

and by five, six seven here we are covered by 9:00. heavier downpour, we are pick up the moderate to heavy rain and then into the afternoon we will still hold onto the rain shower so we scale back on the coverage and the intensity. projected highs in the 50s mainly. not a big change. half moon bay 51 and the looka head we have quite a few rain. then tuesday still showers likely. we will wait for the next major system and if you are looking for a day without rain you can't see thursday -- just one day, thursday possibly friday but then just in time for christmas day another storm. >> wow. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> the brave lady who tried to disarm a gunman with her purse makes headlines again. see what she is doing with her now famous crime fighting handbag.

. the purse used to try to stop a gunman at a florida school board meeting is being auctioned off on e-bay.

bidding has reached more than $1,200 for the purse. it was used to try to disarm clay duke as he threatened the bay district school board on tuesday. the proceed from the auction will go to the salvage santa charity run by the security guard who shot the gunman. >> that is quite a story there. snowy we talk a little college hoops. >> transition season. got a good little measuring stick. stanford in indianapolis just like butler the team that plead it to the ncaa finals. mack taking the ball away, the easy lay up as the bulldogs broke the tie with the 16-2 run. cardinal made just seven field goals the entire first half action one of them by owens who went for 14 points in all. stanford 28% on the floor. the three by green. then just before the half the bulldogs add insult to injury.

howard to smith to beat the buzzer, it was 41-22 at the break. howard benefits the long pass, gets the hoop despite the foul. he went for 27. butler rolls 83-50. stanford 6-3 after the loss. cal with the 61-41 winner. saint mary's got a career high 28 and improved to 9-2 with the win over long beach state. in one fell swoop the nba's magic dramaticly remade its roster. arenas goes to the magic from washington, the wizards get lewis. the magic made a deal with the sun. turkoglu returns to orlando, as richardson. in exchange for them the suns get vince carter and another former wary ear, they play

tonight in portland. college football's bowl season got started today in illinois. the quarterback got in the end zone twice against fresno state in boise. the huskies win 40-17. 11 games for the first time -- the bowl run down for you tonight at ten. the championships and the sharks who lead st. louis 3-1 in the second. we will see you tonight at ten. >> that is the report for tonight. >> for all of us, thank you for joining us. the next newscast is at ten. >> see you tonight.