filled up at the old dublin pleasanton station, commuters had nowhere to go but not anymore. that's good news for the city of dublin. >> this whole area where the b.a.r.t. station sits is ripe for redevelopment and revitalization. we are expecting to build 1100 units in this area over the next several years. >> reporter: at today's new west dublin pleasanton station, the ribbon cutting began a few moments ago and just wrapped up. we'll tell you what they come to praise. the 44th station to be put on line. the new station cost $106 million and four years to build. it includes more than 100 parking spaces and garage. there was a 10-mile gap of unripted trek of tracks since 1997. now that gap is just a mile and a half. this station had been discussed ten years ago but due to costs

will to be postponed. >> because of this station, thousands more people will be taking public transportation every day. the people that are coming in from cast for valley or dublin pleasanton and beyond, they were not able to take b.a.r.t. because our parking lots were full and the station shuts down when the parking lots are full. >> reporter: the bad news, this project was over budget by 20 million-dollar and delayed more than a year. a b.a.r.t. spokesman told me that b.a.r.t. set aside 10 million extra dollars for that reason alone and another 8 million or so came from the city of did you blip, pleasanton and the tri valley transportation system. i want to bring you back live. you can see people walking from the new west dublin pleasanton b.a.r.t. station. b.a.r.t. expects more than 8500 riders a day will use this station and the trip will cost $5.40 to san

francisco. and the first passengers will start tomorrow. president obama is on the second part of his west coast trip today and is wrapping up remarks at the campus of intel. mr. obama said that intel had, quote, placed its bet on america. the president also defends intel's initiative to encourage young people to become scientists and engineers. mr. obama arrived in oregon a few hours ago, touching down on air force one at portland international after spending last night in the bay area. will obama lifted off from sfo at aren't 8:45. he attended a denar at the home of a venture capitalist. the dinner guest list was a who's who of bay area high-tech superstars, including the ceo of twitter, the ceo of oracle,

steve jobs of apple and mark zuckerberg of facebook got some one on one time with mr. obama. we have video from the top of mount hamilton in santa clara county that was e-mailed to us. the cal tran truck is equipped with a snow plow but at last check, mount hamilton road was closed. skyline boulevard in santa cruz county and mount st. helena got snow. ski conditions are expected to be the best this winter but with even more snow coming down later today, roads will be tough to navigate. one chain installer said this morning that people need to keep their foot off the gas pedal, especially drivers who think they are the safest. >> slow down. the reason why we have all these spinouts and the road

closures are people with four wheel drive. they have a false sense of security. they get going too fast and slide. once you slide, four-wheel drive doesn't do you any good. >> be sure to bring your chains. they are required on 80, 488 for all vehicles, except four- wheel drives with snow tires. highway 88 is also closed between silver lake and the carson spur due to avalanche control. we want to head to the ktvu weather center right now. rosemary, any avalanche in the forecast? >> yes. it started today. it is pretty widespread across the bay. the snow continues to come down to right about 4000 feet. you're going to need those chains in addition to the winter storm warning. we'll detail that in a little bit. you can see off the south bay over the last couple of hours,

even some heavy rain falling right around morgan hill as well as los gatos. it has lightened up in the last hour or so. let's take a look at where we are actually seeing a little bit of snow. mount hamilton seeing some of that. with mount hamilton peak reaching above 4,000 feet or so. you may even see a little bit of mount diablo. san francisco oakland, looks like we are seeing light to moderate rain reported there. we are going to see only ask the erred showers. it's going to be the north bay. take a look at petaluma. sonoma dry at the moment. light showers that will last a half hour to 45 minutes. the north bay getting scattered showers. rest of us seeing some pretty steady rain. we'll talk about how much you can expect to get out of this rain, including for the chinese

new year's parade. we'll have coverage online. to track the weather in your neighborhood, go to ktvu.com. as rosemary mentioned, a lot of people are hoping it won't rain on the parade tomorrow. the annual chineseey chinese new year -- chinese new year parade will happen tomorrow. >> people are hoping that it won't rain on our parade. we are inside pier 27. a lot of anxiety. people are still working on it, painting it with pearl essence. they want it to look like silk. you can see workers over there putting things together. let me show you a chinese toy they handed me earlier. sometimes, you wonder how the floats get built. look at this. when you see it on saturday night, that's what it will look like. that's when they get their

idea. this year's construction is coming down to the wires. crews are putting together floats in about half the time they usually have. >> guys are drilling, sawing, throwing more glitter than you can shake a stick at, doing all the beautiful touches that we want for the parade. >> reporter: this year, the parade's master builder says that float sponsors were a little finnicky about the design. one float sponsor -- not necessarily the one that you are looking at now, made 60 changes. as a result, crews have 21 days to work on the parade. europely they have 6 -- usually, it's 60 day. one thing that won't change is the first float to go out will be the tiger: he entered in a

recession. i think it's recovering a little bit but i think the bunny will get all the credit. the san francisco chinese new year parade started back in 1860. local chinese wanted to celebrate their new year and share a little of their culture with the 49ers, not the football team but the gold rush miners. and then for for the first time, when the mayor's car rolls through, a chinese man will be sitting in. >> we could not help but shout out, we're going to give you a great parade. >> i'm proud of it because that's such a big thing for the city as a whole, not just the chinese community. >> reporter: if you have ever won wondered where they get their vehicle, one the floats, southwest float, they bought a truck that they chopped off.

they put it underneath. the person who had the truck had a security system put in that required a credit card to be put in before the car could start. when it fell out one year, they duct taped it and hope that will hold through tomorrow night. hopefully that duct tape will hold. thank you, craig and you can watch tomorrow's parade live right here. our coverage begins at 6 p.m. and you can go to ktvu.com for more on the new yearparade route and changes. click on the weekend tab. contra costa's top narcotic is in court to face charges. he is accused of getting drugs off the streets and reselling

them. public defenders are taking a second look at some cases looking for a possible dismissal. minutes ago, congress made a controversial vote dealing with planned parenthood. a new law is coming to a bay area city dealing with energy efficiency. first, rosemary will be back with more on what you can expect with the weekend weather and an amazing sight. we'll show you more of a new flying camera that look leak a humming bird. bird -- that looks like a hummingbird.

in bar rain, thousands demonstrators defied a government ban on gathering in the main square and soldiers opened fire. at least 50 people were hurt and some medics fought the effects of tear gas as they treated demonstrators. this came hours after demonstrators held funeral service for three men killed in a predawn confrontation yesterday. demonstrators are calling for the down fall of bahrain's ruling monarchy. meanwhile, thousands of egyptians are gathering in tahrir square for what they are

calling victory celebration. this is the first rally since the fall of hosni mubarak one week ago. organizers want protesters to put more pressure on the military. pg&e wants to pass on some of the expenses. the utility expects to spend 2 to $300 million more than expected for things like pipeline tests and records searches. the hoe tall tab could hit $363 million by year's end. rate payers had mixed reactions. >> they already have been paid to fix that when it exploded. now, i'm paying for it twice? if they would have fixed it, it would not have happened. >> i certainly want to live in a safe environment, and, again, if they're truly maintenance items that rate payers should

participate in, i think that's fair and we should share the burden. >> it has not been determined how much pg&e can ask for. eight people died because of that explosion. san jose mayor reed did not paint a pretty picture. he says that san jose currently face as projected 1,110,000,000- dollar deficit -- 110 million- dollars deficit. he wants the union to make some concessions: our hope, dreams, the quality of life, the very reason we choose to make san jose our home are at great risk. >> he says he is open to other alternatives. all labor contracts are under negotiations and the budget is due in june. in just the past hour, the budget battle on capitol hill heated up. the house approved a republican proposal to strip federal

spending for planned parenthood. however, that amendment faces an uphill fight in the senate where democrats are still holding the majority. >> the house is adjourned until 9:00 a.m. >> reporter: now, republicans and democrats are back at it, debating a resolution. >> this' job killer. >> lawmakers debated over $120 million. >> my objective is to defund it entirely and stop its implementation. house republicans are vowing to cut more than $60 billion. democrats say that the gop-led house is going too far. >> you didn't listen to the people of this country. you have been here six weeks, eight weeks and you have not done anything. >> we have been listening and the american people in november says it's time not only to defund this but to repeal this

measure. >> reporter: other amendments include cutting federal dollars for plant parent hood, the corporation for public broadcasting and blocking money for the e.p.a. to implement new rules. >> thinks the dirty air act because if they pass it, that's what we'll get is dirty air. >> with all the republican amendments, it's unlikely that the democratally controlled senate will pass the bill. and with the house and senate in recess until next week, it's up likely they will pass the -- it's unlikely they will meet the deadline for the budget. >> and the house also blocked the passage of a green gas law.

let's talk about what's going on outside your door right now because, most definitely, you are likely to need that jacket as well as the umbrella. this is where it could be just hit or miss showers for today. the south bay, san francisco, oakland and off to the east, we are looking at rain moving through. let's head south once again where we are seeing some moderate rain. morgan hill reporting pretty good rain. san jose seeing .10 to a quarter inch. santa cruz dealing with a little bit of rain. we head in and around oakland, daly city. looks like we are getting pretty good rain here. this will continue on and off. evening drive will be soggy and slippery and a tough one. fridays are usually tough, anyway. if we get toward san jose, petaluma, it's hit or miss because the system is finally moving south. notice we roll through friday. we have got just steady rain. it's into the overnight hours.

we'll begun to see a break. here we are, 1, 2, 3:00 in the morning. it has passed on through but look at what is here to come. showers in the forecast, more likely the possibility of thunderstorms, we are even likely to see some sunshine in between. not that steady rain but definitely going to be unsettled for part of the weekend. the forecast here, this again is moving its way south. we are seeing some severe rain over southern california this morning. we could get an inch to two inches of rain south of this storm with scattered showers to the north and rain to the south. you are headed to the weekend for a little bit of snow play perhaps. we have that winter storm warning in place for about 10:00 this evening. 12 or 2 feet of -- one or two feet of snow expected this afternoon. take a look at what's going on. we're going to warm to about 50 degrees in many cases for today from santa rosa down into san francisco and farther south, we are looking at 51 degrees.

54 mountain view. the five-day forecast here, again, bring along the umbrella today. you will definitely need it. by tomorrow, scattered showers, possibility of a thunderstorm. we're going to see some sunshine. sunday looks to be dry. we're going to be cool. you're going to need your coat but then as early as monday into tuesday, the possibility of more rain under way. >> thank you, rosemary. >> you're welcome. the mayor of san francisco acted a new law designed to make commercial buildings more energy efficient. >> there you go. at a ceremony, mayor ed lee signed the new bill into law. lee noted that adobe and other businesses are already working to make their properties more energy efficient. >> it's the campus that's created around here where all the buildings are working together with great ontime information as to how the

tenants and managers of the building and the owners of the property can actually reduce energy consumption. >> lee said, under the law, city officials will work with building owners. it is a hummingbird spy of sorts. a california company invented this, a tiny spy plane. they have action of images of the video. and they are showing it to the pentagon. they can fly forward and backwards. the biggest issue, the drone can only fly for about 8 minutes. still ahead, a move by apple has attracted unwanted attraction from the u.s.

justice department.

there are new reports that the justice department is looking into possible antitrust violation by apple subscription service. earlier this week, apple announced it would take 30% of all fees from any subscription service that does business through its i tune stores. it also requires those services to charge the same price or

less at apple stores. the government and apple are not commenting. stanford is being asked if it wants to build a new campus in new york city. new york is inviting stanford to think about creating an engineering school. new york does not have a top ranked science research and graduate school. some stanford officials believe that building a center of innovation in one of the biggest commerce centers in the world would bring more prestige to the university. coming up on ktvu at 5:00, tens of thousands of medical pot users in the bay area rely on one large dispensary for their marijuana but a new irs crackdown is threatening that supply and the sierra is awash with new snow and the crews are in the mountains all day. we'll have the latest pictures and road conditions for your getaway. those stories and more coming up on your next newscast. have a great weekend. thanks for watching.

♪ teacher, teacher, now we're back in school ♪ ♪ are you smarter than you used to be? ♪ foxworthy: hi, everybody, i'm jeff foxworthy,

and welcome to a special-delivery edition of "are you smarter than a 5th grader?" all right, kids, you ready to meet your new classmate? all: yeah! xworthy: she's a 35-year-old stay-at-home mom who attended thomas more elementary. please welcome arden asmar! [ cheers and applause ] ty: yeah! yeah! foxworthy: arden, how are you? welcome to the show. arden: thank you. [ laughs ] foxworthy: had it going on back then. arden: i did. foxworthy: working that 'fro. got it puffed up there high. what kind of student were you? arden: i was pretty good, actually. foxworthy: a pretty good student? never got in any trouble in school? arden: i wouldn't say that. foxworthy: you got a baby on the way. you're due in, when, like, a month? arden: i am due in a month, yes. foxworthy: you're like normal with this basketball right there. arden: yes. it's a big basketball, though. foxworthy: and you get to the last month. are you ready? arden: i'm ready. i'm over it.