different direction and hire someone else to the post. but it's unclear yet if oakland should be celebrating. >> i need to have concrete conversations to see if i fit what they want to do. it's not only a fit for them but it's also a fit for me. and so as we move forward i have to know that we're in agreement along those lines. >> reporter: as ktvu first reported two sundays ago he was one of two finalists for the city's chief position. the upshot of all this is that bats may not be staying here in oakland in the long run. as i sat and talked to him it was clear that he was unhappy with the amount of support he's received from city leaders in oakland. >> i think i question if the city itself and the city government is willing to do anything that it takes to keep all the citizens inside the city safe. i've challenged the city and i continue to challenge the city, are you willing to do anything that it takes to keep the young

people in the city safe? >> reporter: bats also told me he's challenged his command staff to step up their game and if they do will depend on his decision to stay or go. a big part of the problem is the number of officers. john sasaki, ktvu news. there are new questions tonight about a communication break down in a speed chase in oakland. communications between officers and the 911 dispatch center broke down after equipment failed at the scene. the driver took off running and a passenger got out with a gun. officers asked him to drop his weapon, he refused so they shot and killed him. today mayor quan talked about the break down. >> so far we haven't found a

mechanical reason why it didn't work. they think, if we can work with the officers we can find out what happened that night. we need more time. >> reporter: 19-year-old martin buena of oakland was the suspect. a one-year-old boy remains in children he's hospital in oakland tonight after he was shot in the neck outside a liquor store. police say the attack happened about 9:30 last night outside cal park grocery and liquor in stockton. the child's parents went inside the store along, when they came outside, they found someone had shot at their vehicle. when they spotted the man, he shot at them. search teams handed out

fliers and talked to homeless people in the park hoping to find 53-year-old debra smitz. she hasn't been seen since last wednesday. investigators say some time ago smitz volunteered at a soup kitchen and mentioned that some day she wanted to stay in the park to experience what it would be like to be homeless. and police called off an extra patrol search. harry lee apparently fell overboard on saturday during a solo fishing trip in the delta near oakley. divers have been combing that area ever since. his boat was found drifting in the water with the keys still in the ignition. right now the california public utility's commission is at a dinner party being thrown by utilities. >> reporter: since the explosion here, the deadly explosion a lot of people have

questioned the cpu's ability to fairly regulate the utilities. all four cpuc commissioners are expected to attend tonight's dinner commending the cpuc's 100th anniversary. but a utility commission is paying for it and will raise more money in the future. >> i just learned about this event yesterday so i'm not prepared to comment about it. i understand the commissioner of pge -- commissioner peavy is the person who worked with the conference. >> it's to pay for programs, and scholarships. >> reporter: fair profits for

utilities and pun issue pun issue tillties when they -- punish utilities. >> for this foundation to be more than a slush fund for the puc or for utilities, it needs to include consumer representation. >> it's going to look like it's just another tool for the utilities to move their agenda. >> reporter: and critics say in the wake of the death and destruction in san bruno timing could have been much much better. reporting live, tom vacar, ktvu channel 2 news. ktvu.com has a special section on the san bruno fire including calls for more transparency and better

recordkeeping for pg & e. new restaurants may be moving into one san francisco neighborhood. a 24-year-old ban blocks new restaurants from opening in the city's upper fillmore district. but with the bad economy that may change. >> it's an outdated piece of legislation. it's been in the books for over 20 years this ban. what has happened, is that in tough economic times you have retail or other stores shutting down and nothing willing to come in to replace them. >> the ban was originally meant from preventing eateries to draw too much traffic. the full board of supervisors may vote on lifting the ban in march. a plan to replace toll collectors with electronic machine social security one step close tore reality tonight -- electronic machines is one step closer to reality tonight.

many of those toll workers expressed their concerns. >> i'm the friendly face that greets each driver as they enter my lane, after they've crossed the bridge and before they enter san francisco. >> reporter: the district school board is set to vote on the plan tomorrow. mortgage rates are inching up. freddie mac said today the average rate on a 30 year fixed loan hit 4.8% this week. it was 4.74% last week. rates hit a record low in november of 4.17%. interest rates have done little to convince future home buyers to make a purchase because many believe prices are still coming down. and pending sales rose in november, marking the fifth increase in six months. the economists caution because people are buying forclosed

homes. take a look at wall street, stocks managed to tick higher pushing the dow to it's highest level since summer of 2008. the dow gained four points finishing just shy of 12,000 points. the nasdaq picked up 15 points closing above 2,070. it appears drug smugglers are getting creative. several people prepared a catapult and launched packages over the fence along mexico's border with arizona. mexican authorities reportedly disrupted the catapult operation and found 30 pounds of marijuana. >> how about a stroll through the garden? john fowler joins us now with remarkable research into why house plants could one day be used at security check points. john. >> reporter: this could radically change your experience here. scientists say forget the explosive sniffer machine, even

dogs that genetically modified plants like this one is even better at detecting explosives. instead of lengthy waits and inclusive checks, just walk through the garden. we visited the uc berkeley laboratory. >> it is possible because a plant to respond to all sort of things in the environment. >> reporter: he showed us these arabadoptis plants who are able to respond to low light, drought and salt. now they respond to minute amounts of explosives. the plants blanch white when encountered tnt. with genetic tweaking, plants could signal leaking gas or any pollutant or chemical. >> with the genetic engineers or synthetic biology, a lot of

so called pipe dreams might come true in the very near future. >> reporter: the trick for explosive detention will be engineering rapid response and rapid detention. students at an oakland school today received the gift of music. sounds pretty good. fidelity investments prosited $26,000 worth of new -- provided $26,000 worth of new instruments. organizers say the program is especially important during a time when cuts to education are rampant. >> when things get cut the funding for these arts programs usually is what gets hit first. >> reporter: the gift is a part of fidelity's future stage program which aims to bring music education to public

schools? coming up, new evidence governor brown's budget plan is gaining support from voters. the city fought to have two fire houses but that may soon change. google earth gets up close and personal with the bay area. the new view you will get of landmarks, such as the golden gate bridge. i have the latest computer model that shows rain for your bay area weekend. i'll be back here.

n-opooal.. i'a n !pooal.. e ysexdo llev wt emo? within the next half hour, san francisco fighters and paramedics are expected to pack a meeting to discuss what they say is plaguing if department. the firefighters union complains that to this date no formal policy is in place allowing paramedics to move up in the ranks. the issue is not on the agenda

for tonight's fire commission meeting but the commission told ktvu union members will have an opportunity to speak. there is a fight tonight to keep fire houses open in penol. paul chambers is there with the reason why the city is considering handing off firefighter duties to another city. >> reporter: officials say if an accident happens, crews will respond within minutes. but if penol has to shut one of their two fire house, more than likely you will have to wait a lot longer for help. tonight one of penol's fire houses was shut down because of brown outs. if things don't get better it might close for good. >> we knew we needed more than the single fire house,. >> we can't sustain this level of service with the number of tax dollars that are coming in. >> reporter: penol has a few

options. one is to have rodeo hercules new fire chief over penol county. they could make the group more official, however that might not save enough money. >> the possibility of joining the other districts is not very good, or the other fire departments because they are just as bad a shape as we are. >> reporter: at the end it's the taxpayers who decide how much security they are willing to pay for. >> if you don't have adequate coverage you're going to have a longer response time. that's a consideration if -r -- consideration for the city of penol and the city council to decide what kind of service they provide. >> reporter: and a meeting is scheduled for next week to see

if the fire chief of rodeo will take over penol county. david stevenson, ktvu news. -- the district already has a $332 parcel tax. most california residents say that they are satisfied with the governor's plan to cut spending and extend taxes. 29% are dissatisfied. still an overwhelming majority 75% are at least some what concerned about these spending cuts. hundreds of inhome care providers rallied at the capital protesting proposed cuts. the governor wants to cut almost $500 million from inhome

support services. supporters of the program say the cut would be devastating and cost the state more in the long ru ihss services serves more than 400,000 people throughout california. residents across the northeast are digging out tonight from another major snowstorm that slammed the region. the latest in the series of storms brought more than a foot of snow in many areas. the snow triggered a domino effect at airports across the country. our onlyconcern out there is a little bit of fog. we go to our chief meteorologist bill martin. >> reporter: gilroy 74 degrees and your wind pattern is changing. they've been this direction for the last week. winds tomorrow are going to start coming out of the westerly direction which marks the beginning of a change. it'll be a cooldown number one, number two it'll bring some showers to the bay area as we get into sunday.

here's how it looks today or looked today. 71 in morgan hill. the fog in the valley. check out fairfield. that was the daytime high. 48-degree. it didn't warm up much at all. especially if you're down toward stockton or modesto. our story tonight will be more fog. your friday morning commute. you get hit with fog. visibility is down to less than a quarter mile in many north and east bay locations. in the weekend we're more about cooler and higher chance of showers. tonight high 30s, low 40s. we're going to see coastal fog show up and valley fog. you can get some nasty visibility. that's when we had the cosco busan incident. the issue hitting the bay bridge. the visibility gets really bad. tomorrow could be one of those mornings with bad visibility. also the bay bridge and also inland north and east valleys. dense fog advisory through

tomorrow morning. visibility easily below .25- mile. the fog is not only here but in the central valley. high pressure weakens on saturday then this is what moves in. it's a weak weather system but enough to stir up the fog. friday afternoon here come the clouds, here comes the on shore flow. and here comes the rain. saturday night you notice it, saturday night late into sunday morning widely scattered showers, it's not a big deal. it's just a change. the atmosphere will change, the fog will start to plow out and we hopefully set up for a little moisture pattern as we move through next week and weeks beyond. right now looks a little bit dry after this weak system but something change and hasn't changed for a good 21 days. we haven't had a significant rain event here for at least 21 days. so there you go, friday forecast, wet on sunday, fog is the headlines tomorrow morning as you drive around on your friday. >> be careful.

>> all right. thank you, bill. berkeley's proposal on plastic bags is on hold tonight until a study is done on the benefit of paper. and google said today 3d models have been made for tens of thousands of buildings and landmarks. every day users help developed the 3d portion of the satellite imagery tool that lets you fly right in between buildings. the goal is to ultimately create a 3d model of every building in the world. mac enthusiasts created masconi center for the opening of mac world 2011. iphone fans came looking for accessories for their iphones, ipods and i pads.

organizers say they expect to draw 150,000 people before mac world ends. and 10 new heart sculptures have been released. the table top size hearts will benefit the san francisco heart organization. >> it's very great to see the impact the program has. >> reporter: the foundation named four community leaders being honored as heros. the four will be presented with community service awards at next month's luncheon. an out of this world arrival. the south bay high school experiment that is now in orbit.

it was a stellar arrival, this was the scene at the international space station early this morning when a japanese transfer vehicle arrived carrying a science experiment made by 22 students from valley christian high school in san jose. the project examines plant growth in zero gravity and that could help scientists survive in space in future missions.

this is the first high school science project to be sent into the international space station. >> that should be very exciting for those kids. and we have mark ibanez with the latest on tiger woods. fans got to see him today. >> he started on the back nine so this is number 12. and he will lay it up nicely. as it will finally fall. right near the 10 he set himself up for the birdie that will follow his first of the afternoon. later to go 3-under about 30 feet from the cup. it is down for a birdie. and shoots for 3-under five behind the leader kang from south korea. man we have a lot of college hoop all over the bay area tonight. one of the squads off to a

great start. in fact, very surprising. the usf are off to a very good start. coach walter who recruited him loved what he saw. >> do they really care when they lose that game in some small gym in july? if they do, they're the right type of kids for us. they love to win, they hate to lose. those kids are going to help you win a lot of ball games. jeff fisher out after 16 years with the tennessee titans. fisher the longest tenured coach in the nfl at 16 years but no super bowls. a little bit of a surprise there because early in january, the owner of the titans confirmed he would be back. eventually a little falling out

since then. that's the sporting life at the this hour, and come 10:00 we'll have lots of college hoop for you. the disappearance of a man in arizona has friends and family concerned here in the bay area. coming up on news 36 at 7:00, his friends and family are holding out hope for his safe run. that is it for our safe return. thanks for joining us. good night. -- that is it for our report, thanks for joining us. good night.