the shopping rush is not over just because christmas is past. people are heading stotts -- people are heading to the stores for year-end deals.

good afternoon. the 49ers head coach has been kicked out. mike singletary was fired yesterday after the team lost their shot at the playoffs. this marks the end of a disappointing two-year ring. tara moriarty is live from santa clara with the very latest. >> reporter: well, jana, the press conference just got s tarted here. we're expecting them to make an aofficial announcement that t he -- them to make an official announce plant that jim tomsula is going to be taking over as the interim head coach. >> this is jed york. >> whether we were a 7-9

division contender or not, didn't matter. i wanted to make sure that the 49ers had a chance to compete for the super bowl. when that was not realized, i wanted to make sure we were s etting ourselves up for the remainder of the season, but more importantly next season. when we look at other things, there are a lot of u ncertainties. the labor issues. i'm not sure when the players are gonna be back next season. i wanted to make sure we didn't have a coaching change going into that. i wanted to make sure we're focusing on our players. when i look at jim tomsula -- h e's.jewel -- he apologized for me for not -- for not having a tie on. that's the type of guy he is. he is the kind of guy that grinds every day and.

he's the kind of guy that will make sure our team is focused every week and i hope he's here with the 49ers for a long, long time. i'm going to turn it over to jim very quickly and then answer any questions you guys have. first, off, i don't know if you read any books to prepare you for these type of things. mike singletary is a friend. mike singletary is a good man. okay? everybody in the locker room, we all -- we all own some of it, some part of it. own a performance-based b usiness, and performance is our product. and we fell short in that area. i would like to thank jed and

the york family for having confidence in me to come in here and -- and go through this -- this process. okay? in terms of the players, i think you all have been around the players and it is a -- it is a really good group of men, a really good group of men, guys that work, guys that are dedicated, guys that fight through sick together -- stick together. the win/lose column is not where it needs to be and we all take our share of that r esponsibility. so we will go into this week, the coaching staff, okay? good men. and i think we all -- i think i can speak for the players and the coaches -- >> reporter: you've listen listening to jim tomsula, now the current head coach of the san francisco 9ers. he will take over for mike

singletary. singletary has apologized for not coming up with enough wins during the past years roughly as head coach. the 52-year-old was fired after yesterday's loss against the st. louis rams. now, if you watched that game, you know that the 9ers s quashed their chance of being in the playoffs. no team has ever recovered from an 0-5 start to reach the p layoffs but the 9ers would have clinched if they had beaten the rams and won next sunday. so it was a very frustrating season. many people picked san francisco to win the division. >> nobody is upset. nobody is sat. most people thought this had to be done. most people are speculating on who should be next. who should be it? is it gonna be john gruden? jim harbaugh? >> reporter: we caught up with harbaugh himself as his football team -- loaded up on the bus today. they are loaded -- headed to

florida for the bowl game. >> anybody contacted you about the 49er coaching position? >> we're talking about the game in miami. thank you. >> reporter: as far as singletary goes, many said they knew his firing was coming. they won less than half of his games. in any case, he still has two years and $5 million left on his contract but jed york the 49er president says that money is no object the object here is to win a football -- is to win football games and the next line of business will be to find a general manager because the team does not have one. tara moriarty, ktvu channel 2 news. an unrelenting blizzard on the east coast is paralyzing many forms of transportation for the second day in a row. right now, new jersey has nearly 30 inches of snow on the ground, making it very difficult for drivers to get

around. and amtrack only has partial service between boston and new york because of the heavy snow on the tracks. the biggest column is with air travel. in the new york area, all three major airports are closed and with more snow expected today it could be days before stranded passengers can return home. >> we did our best to accommodate them with cots, pillows, blankets, food and water. so the hotel la guardia is up and running. more than 1,000 flights are grounded at this hour. even when airports are reopen, rebooking could take until friday. passengers here at sfo are feeling the freeze, too. some of them got to san francisco international today only to find out many of their flights heading east have been delayed. we just found out there's thick fog causing more problems with flights from los angeles that are being cancelled. kraig debro is live at sfo with the latestle travel conditions.

>> reporter: good afternoon. flights to and from louisiana b eing delayed up to three hours. not only united and american but other carriers. this is the security line. it's very thin. but don't let that fool you. i gist found out, we hope earlier this morning, that afternoon flights heading to new york and on the eastern seaboard would be able to leave. we've just learned that flights have been cancelled. the the fog has diverted thirty flights. there are not any firm numbers yet but officials say it's not as bad as yesterday. airlines were forced to cancel roughly,000 -- 2,,000 flights yesterday. as the snow tapers off and runways clear up, this u nexpected weather delay is now affecting the bay area t ravelers. >> kind of ironic that the weather here is what delayed us. >> reporter: the fog forced the diversion of dozens of arriving

flights. maggie arrived at sfo to meet her sister. >> i got here about 9:00 for a 9:30 arrival and it turned out she -- my sister got rerouted to monterey which is actually closer to where i live. >> reporter: fog and communication were both part of the problem. this man is waiting for his mother from dallas. >> they had not mentioned that mo me -- that to me. >> reporter: two illinois teenagers made it flew the fog. >> we got lucky. >> reporter: but it's not -- it's not just the fog here. flights are being delayed and cancelled. >> los angeles in southern california is starting to having problems with position and we're seeing ground delays with stops to los angeles, orange county and possibly san diego. >> reporter: just because we're focus on the fog here doesn't mean the snow there isn't a ffecting travelers.

>> we passed security and two minutes after we see security -- we see the sign, flight cancelled. >> reporter: it looks like the fog situation is improving in in at sfo. it he tells me it looks like the fog is littling back -- rolling back in. the guy we talked to earlier was headed to charleston, south carolina. it should have been all systems clear but he -- but he was going through new york. as by told you, both new york airports is closed. laguardia is still openby jfk and newark were closed at last check. they weren't supposed to open until 4:00 but now we understand that that might be 6:00. runways are not a problem now. crews paid so much attention to the runways back east that they forgot to clear the roads. that's one reason why people were -- flights were delayed because people can't get to the airport. we'll have more on the news at

5:00. reporting live from sfo, kraig debro, ktvu channel 2 news. thank you. and you can find all of the latest weather conditions right now with our weather tracker that's at ktvu.com. police have released the name of a prime suspect in last week's fatal shooting of a pittsburg man. police say he's wanted for the death of 24-year-old arnold m uckleroy. muckledy roy was found fatally wounded in antioch. authority say the suspect is -- suspect is known to frequent the bay area and sacramento. anyone on information about his whereabouts is asked to contact the authorities. still ahead -- how you can dispose of your christmas tree in an environmentally friendly way. w t ileororr li irore

according to the chp traffic deaths over the holiday weekend were down. here in the bay area, there were no fatal crashes reported between 6:00 p.m. friday and 6:00 yesterday morning. 85 drivers were arrested

statewide. 507 drivers were arrested during the weekend. that's about the same as last year. california had three traffic deaths down from 12 last year. a suspected dui driver is in jail after leading police on a chase through oakland this morning. police say the driver was s werving on highway 580 around 3:30 this morning near lakeshore and park. the driver was pulled over but police say he renewed to roll down his window and later sped off. pursuit ensued on multiple freeways on the 580 freeway, 24 and 980, several city streets. the vehicle became disabled, luckily for us. >> police say the man jumped out of the car and ran away. he was later arrested. repairs on a large sinkhole on highway 101 are not expected to be completed until 3:00 this afternoon. it opened up around 11:30 in the southbound lanes just before will dorf avenue near --

wilford avenue. the closures did cause delays for drivers trying to pass through the area. >> gas prices are now at their highest point in two years, b ucking a trend of low prices for december. according to triple-a, the average gallon is up -- >> analysts say the unexpected increase is likely due to the u ptick in the economy and the drop in crude oil supplies. high gas prices are not expected to keep shoppers away from the car dealers this week. this is typically the biggest selling week for auto retailers because many people are off work and they have time to shop. experts say many dealerships often get up to 70% of their december sales between christmas and new year's. jd power and associates predicts a good month for cal deal h erships with a 14%

increase in sales from last year. bargain hunters are packing bay area malls and they are p unt -- they are hunting down the post holiday deals that people are pushing this time of year. here's claudine wong. >> reporter: this morning even before the retailers opened their doors, debra and her mother were making their list and checking it twice. >> i'm shopping for myself. good bargains out here. >> reporter: that seems to be the theme for the post- christmas top are shopping rush -- p ost-christmas shopping rush. >> this is my first time going out. >> reporter: how were the c rowds. >> it's okay. i just went yesterday for a little while. >> reporter: not bad? >> not bad. >> reporter: retailers are h

oping for more shoppers. in this post-holiday crowd, we definitely saw more women -- than men. >> reporter: you don't like to shop? >> i'm sorry. >> reporter: i will buy anything they tell me to but to go looking for it -- >> reporter: that's not you're deal? >> no. >> reporter: this retail holiday shopping season has been a success. thanks to people like debra carry. >> this year i've been saving all year i spent way more than usual. >> reporter: but you are still digging deeper to spend more. >> that's right. that's right. >> reporter: retailers love you. >> i love retailers, too. >> reporter: retailers re-- we talked to today said they expect to slow down over the next couple of days. they are hoping they ramp right back up to take them to the weekend, hoping for a strong finish in 2010. m emeryville, claudine wong,

ktvu channel 2 news. >> retailers are keeping a close eye out for fraud as many people head back to the stores as people try to return unwanted holiday gifts. the national retail federation is expecting about $15 billion of fraudulent returns. they usually come with items plaintiffped with -- come with items of returns. the sun is out this noontime around the bay area. but it's shining after a very cold and overcast morning. steve paulson is tracking the fog and some wet weather coming our way. >> reporter: well, jana, this morning, we started off with a lot of fog. temperatures were in the 40s. if it wasn't for the fog, we probably would have had a couple of upper 30s. but there's still plenty going on. a lot of moisture in the air. hazy sunshine some mid-50 the today. that next system will be in here late irtonight and then

more likely rain tomorrow morning. some of that dense fog held temperatures in check but the lows this morning did dip to 41. palo alto checked in at 41. redwood city was there. concord and livermore. the fog started in the north bay and then everybody started to report fog. the thick fog this morning, probably patches of it in advancement of the system. rain moves in tuesday. moderate to heavy. ep then the cold air arrives on wednesday. we'll see a dry wednesday and then it looks like rain moves back in but that system looks weaker. concord, livermore to a third and then .50 kentfield. gilroy picked up .75 on the season. everyone is doing great accept for san jose proper. what's unusual is that san jose has only reported 3.95. they've had upwards of 9 inches

of rain something seems to be disconnected. sanfrancisco is 100% of normal. santarosa is way up. they had 16.75 of rain which is far, far above average. one system moves out. the next system is getting closer. that's the one that's gonna drive some rain on us by tomorrow. it has a lot of cold air s upport. it's already beginning to take shape. today, mostly sunny, lingering fog, hazy skies, forecasted h ighs mid-50s for some. a few upper 50s but that would main be confined to the south bay. the fish-day coming up, cold air arrives with showers wednesday and clear and breezy and increasing clouds on thursday. it looks like rain on friday and saturday. san francisco city officials are urging residents to recycle their christmas trees instead of throwing them in the trash. the city's department of the environment kicked off the 24th

annual curbside christmas tree recycling program. the trees will be picked up for free and then put in a tree chipper for mulch and that will serve as biomass fuel. >> these res -- trees are gonna be chipped and mostly used for boiler fuel which is a biomass to make energy, make twiss. the curbside tree pick up begins next week, the week of j anuary 3rd and runs for through -- runs through j anuary 514th. put your tree out of the curb and be sure to take the decorations off or crews may not be able to take it away. coming up, we'll have the latest on an injured sea lion in the bay area as mammal experts hope to save his life.

the dow jones industrial average, is down by .13. well, a group of hearing i mpaired parishioners in the east bay are gonna have to find another place to worship. union city's holy family ethnic mission held its final service. the church is closing because it's in need of major repairs.

it's one of the few that offer an interpreter for the hearing impaired. >> i've been looking around and it's hard. i spent a lot of time looking for a church and this is the only church that helps us deaf people. >> the price tag for renovations $500,000. biologists at the marin center in sausalito say they may have to euthanize a sea lion, silent night, after suffering a gunshot wound. they will determine if the other eye is working. if not, the animal is blind they will have to find a home for the animal called silent night at a zoo or an aquarium. if they can't, they say they may have to put the sea lion down. >> that blizzard on the east coast has paralyzed much of the region, beginning to ease off at this hour, but many travelers are still stranded. we'll have the latest as a big

digout begins. in marin county, crews are w orking to shore areas as officials are warning of m udslides. our next newscast is the news at 5:00. thank you for joining us. have a great day.