now recording .10. that's very low even for background levels. i asked if we could record it when it gets here, but scientists say, probably not. blame the wind, it's blowing particles from the pacific toward us. >> i try not to think about it because i find it to be overwhelming. i can't watch the news anymore. >> it'll be very harmful. >> reporter: scientists disagree. today they set up a tarp to catch rain, the best opportunity to measure the amounts. this predict it is plumes first reaches california perhaps as early as tonight, but perhaps

tomorrow. scientists are looking for 10 chemicals. >> that's a really small number. it really won't be detectable because it's what you would see on a normal day just moving around. >> reporter: not detectable and causing no problems. today the advisory center is tracking the plume but only in the area near japan. let's come back live i can show you now we're at .12 per hour, that's still .11 still low for our traditional background in this area. lower than it was in fact, an hour ago. so we expect no problems here and we searchers say there is absolutely no health risk. reporting live, john fowler. federal officials said today they'll start testing some passengers arriving from japan for radiation. officials say they are starting

to monitor people and cargo arriving on japanese flights. but in san francisco international airport passengers arriving from japan told us they were not tested for radiation. >> they had, because they didn't do anything. so, yeah, everything was totally normal. >> reporter: and sfo spokesperson told us an hour ago that u.s. customs officials reported no unusual radiation levels among airport arrivals today. officials say they have several ways to monitor radiation exposures that may not be apparent to travelers. the first emergency charter flight has left japan. it is carrying less than 100 state department personnel and their family members. a second flight left japan about seven hours ago. japanese crews are using helicopter, fire trucks and water cannons in a last ditch effort to keep atomic fuel cool as a japanese power plant where three reactors face partial

melt downs. three cools pools containing nuclear fuel are of most concern. it's hoped that outside electrical power can be restored been the last few hours to power automatic water pumps. >> i'm blown out of the water, i never thought this would happen. i don't think a lot of my friends would think it was going to happen. i would love their thoughts if they are alive. >> this is the fuel pool. >> reporter: keoyoto once worked as part of an inspection crew. he now lives in martinez and he told us he was laid off in 1984 for reporting safety problems at the plant. he says the plant had the nickname for burro which is the word for old. and within an hour, a wall of water rose out of the ocean

and leveled entire towns such as this one. residents uno sumai had only minutes to try to get out of way because the quake knocked out the tsunami warning system. survivors are opening their doors now to complete strangers and offering whatever help they can. families are sharing food and their homes as shelter. 6,700 people have died. another 9,500 are missing. 1.6million households are braving the cold without power tonight. ktvu.com has a special section devoted to the japanese quake and tsunami. including a map. now to richmond where a church pastor and members of his family have been arrested after refusing to leave their foreclosed church. this was an hour ago at the

church. the church members have been sitting at the church since early yesterday morning. a day after receiving an eviction notice. church leaders defaulted on their loan but they say they are the victim of predatory lending. torrey pine bank say that they were not the victims of predatory lending. >> ken pritchett is live after witnessing a political tussle today. >> reporter: after getting the entire bill passed, that would be putting tax extensions on a june ballot. i will tell you, the senate did vote on the main budget bill and it passed. however there are several components on the budget that have not yet been voted on or have not yet been passed. governor brown expressed frustration with republicans who were voting down parts of

his budget. >> there is a world view that says don't cut and don't tax. and i want to understand that better how that works when you have a $25 billion deficit. >> governor brown was referring to assembly republicans who voted earlier today against several bills aimed at closing a $25,000 gap. already what remains stalled is the highly contested elimination of services and the governor's attempt for a tax extension. >> before we ask for more tax extensions we need to show that we can reduce something at the state level and we have known shown that. >> if cuts will double, they are cutting 13 billion, he says

that would double if those taxes are not put on a special election ballot or if voters reject those taxes. he needs in order to get that on the ballot, he needs full republican votes but the bill did not come up today. it likely will not come up until monday according to one isn't senator i talked to. he said the reason for that, is that the governors have a state convention here over the weekend. given that convention she says it would be very difficult for any senators across the aisle on taxes. the potential jury pool and the barry bonds perjury trial had to agree today to not use twitter or other social media to discuss the case. jury selection is expected to begin on monday. also today the judge ruled that bonds phone messages to his former mistress will not be allowed because they might prejudice the jury.

the messages show bonds was experiencing steroid induced rages. we have developing news, police are searching for a carjacking suspect who caused a crash that injured two children. news chopper 2 first brought you these pictures live about an hour ago. a man was driving car that had been high jacked last week. officers say they ran two stop signs then crashed into another car at 60th avenue and camden street. four people in the second car including two children suffered nonlife threatening injuries. the suspect climbed a fence then ran off. tonight police are still searching for him. a disturbing new crime trend might be emerging in san francisco. david stevenson is linked now and says it might be the áf linked to a increase of --

might be linked to an increase of white supremesis crimes. >> they were two cousins. they had gone out for a drink. and when they left the establishment, they were attacked for no reason. >> reporter: three of the five suspects have been arrested. >> it really has furthered our

understanding of white supremesis. >> they can come to the council and seek help. >> reporter: bail for the three men arrested in this attack ranges from $100,000 to $400,000 each. reporting live in san francisco, david stevenson, ktvu channel 2 news. many californians do not believe that immigration is affecting their quality of life. an exclusive new ktvu field poll shows 47% of voters see immigration as having no real impact on the state. 39% think immigrants have lowered their quality of life. and 10% think immigrants make things better. and surfers took to the water tonight to honor a surfer

who died last night. the father of two drowned after catching a 60-foot high wave. the 35-year-old had flown from hawaii this week after learning the waves after mavericks would be among the largest ever. transportation officials are scrambling tonight to repair a section of highway 1 in big sur. a 40-foot chunk of road fell into the pacific ocean last night. the mud slide is now cutting off all traffic to and from the town of big sur. the entire southbound lane is gone and the soil understood beneath the northbound lane is giving way. it's not clear when the lanes will reopen. and caltrans says it's not sure what caused the road to crumble. a year after the work began, they said it had begun drilling east ward. crews working from the west have already excavating a third of the distance. however we can't confirm any of

that. caltrans has not allowed us or any other independent photographers into the tunnel. saying levels of gas make it too dangerous. news chopper 2 is live downtown in san francisco where you can see a lot of people there are celebrating st. patrick's day. irish companies hope to find more green in the silican valley. the most influential irish execs here. and a beautiful day today but the rain showing up. i'll have the latest computer model, shows rain for tomorrow and for the bay area weekend. the details coming up.

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supporters of the pornography business protested today. the board for assigned names held hearings. the board says that it will be easier to block the searches and cost them money. oakland police were asked to make changes after the so called rioters case. the report states misconduct complaints were down 18.5% in 2010. and use of force incidents dropped by 19%. the department has implemented a number of changes including increasing transparency as well

as community and customer service and improved police training. and -- the puc demanded the documents after last september's deadly gas explosion in san bruno but says key records were not submitted by the deadline. there is plenty of green on the streets of san francisco tonight. we want to show you live pictures now from news chopper 2 over head front street where you can see there are hundreds of people celebrating all things irish right now. in the south bay, st. patrick's day is about more than just the wearing of the green. ktvu's maureen naylor live with how the silican valley is turning lucky for the local

irish. maureen. >> reporter: frank, take a look the party is taking place. but when you think of the area, you think of gigabytes more than drinks. >> the silican valley has been great to the irish tradition. >> you have to be here if you want to trade, no other website has succeeded being global if it didn't start here. >> reporter: the center expect that is number to double by the end of this year. >> for a tech company that's based out of ireland, it is in ireland, in europe, and we basically talk to those companies about really needing to be in silican valley because of the eco system that exists. >> reporter: ireland faces one big challenge -- >> the companies come up where

the people already are. for the most part, the people aren't in ireland. >> former san jose mayor is on the list of the most influential irish-american. >> they really didn't delie on invasion, i think they learned a better lesson and we all try to improve by learning from these bad lessons. >> reporter: they are handing out these green commemorative caps, the theme is trying to get ireland to think about the silican valley other than on st. patrick's day. things are changing quite a bit. here we had a nice one today. hope you enjoyed it. few sprinkles around the bay. things are thickening up. i already have south winds out

along the coast. that is an indication that things are starting to change around. we go to point rays, you can see the gusts are gusting south- southeast. so clouds increasing tonight. the winds are going to pick up a little bit out of the south. by tomorrow morning it should be raining in the bay. some details on this particular storm, it's a good one. it's a real wait winter kind of storm. it's a quick mover. it's going to hit between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. the early commute looks real good. south of the north bay, it's after 2:00 p.m. most people bail 2:00 or 3:00. it'll be raining. the roads will be wet. rainfall accumulations over an inch in the heavy spots, you notice a little more wind, a little gusty wind. the winds tend to be a little

stronger, you see how tight it is. here comes the front. these are easy when it does this. you see everything moving and you can almost time these out. 12:00 on friday. everybody is wet. san jose you're getting sprinkles. the afternoon commute in san jose you're getting wet. santa rosa says, we're drying out, but that's when we could see thunderstorms. tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. it'll be a quick moving front. it'll get out of here but it'll hamper the afternoon commute, your evening travel plans if you're going to the mountains. a winter storm warning for the day there. five day forecast with your weekend always in view because it's just around the corner. basically sets us up. look at that, late early march, looks more like february, huh julie. >> it does, i'm looking at all those rain drops. >> saturday looks like the better day. sunday looks real wet. >> a new survey shows home prices in the bay area remained

flat last month. median home price dipped last month that's down from $238,000 in january. home sales in february rose half a percent from january but sales dropped by 31% compared to december. predictions that the job market will recover this year received a boost today. the labor department says first time applicants fell to 385,000 last week. that's the third time that the number has declined in the last four weeks. analysts says the evident strong job growth is on the horizon. the jobless report may have encouraged investors to set up their fears about the nuclear prices in japan. a boost in manufacturing also boosted the stocks.

students and faculty from holy names unit spread out

around lake oakland to clean the lake. holy names was founded 42 years ago on the shores of lake merit. fred inglis is here. great games today in the ncaa tournament. >> this is the second round, but the bay area shut out for the first time in 20 years, but at least it gives us a chance to focus on the fantastic finishes of the day. we start in denver, 14 seeded morehaed state. town by two points that's d emonte hearter in the 13th. another close one out there today in tucson, temple in the white jerseys lost its last 11 ncaa tournament games. today against penn state, hernandez off balance he still

hits it. giving temple with the lead. and tied ball game, second left butler white jerseys and that's sean vanzant. he fall, throws the ball. butler just by a whisker of old dominion. 13th seeded princeton. dark jerseys on a mission to beat kentucky. kentucky didn't make a field goal until there. brandon knight and the wildcats avoid the upset. and the oakland a's meet the cubs today 6-5. giants play the angels tonight down there in arizona. >> that was a close game. >> yeah. >> that's the way they play

them. >> they are all good games. some experts now say as early as tomorrow, a nuclear fall out could reach the coast. are people around the bay area and emergency personal for that matter doing anything different as a precaution? the answer coming up in 30 minutes on bay area news at 7:00 on tv 36. that is our report for now. i'm frank somerville. >> and i'm julie haener. have a good night. >> good night.