>> reporter: good morning. it will be a difficult day for the san jose police department as dozens of officers get ready this morning to turn in their badges. the ritual that may have contributed to a deadly house fire in the east bay. and the dramatic increase for some drivers on the bay area bridges just ahead of the 4th of july holiday travel. it's all ahead here on the ktvu morning news. good morning. thank you for joining us on

this thursday morning june 30th. i'm pam cook. we are getting closer to the holiday weekend. so for the weekend weather forecast let's check in with steve paulson. hi, steve. hello, pam. we have patchy low clouds around once that burns off sunny and warmer today. 60s, 70s and low to mid-80s. the weekend holiday forecast in about five minutes. steve, right now westbound highway 4 is off to a nice start. it is a nice drive toward concord and there are no problems reported by chp. also this morning we're looking at the commute here on interstate 880 and the traffic looks good in both directions. it's 4:31. let's go back to the desk. in just a few hours 68 san jose police officers will turn in their badges. ktvu's claudine wong joins us from police headquarters to tell us why this news comes at a scary time for san jose. claudine. >> reporter: well, good morning, pam. certainly this is not a day that the san jose police department has been looking

forward to. this morning 68 police officers are waking up knowing that in just hours they're going to be coming here to the san jose police department to turn in their badges. it's something the union president is say tag is the most dangerous thing that san jose could do. as we all know san jose is facing a difficult budget crisis at this point. and the battle has had a lot of twists and turns and officers agreeing to a new contract that saved hundreds of jobs but could not save these. in an opinion letter this morning the union president blames city leadership. when you consider san jose's homicide rate is on pace to pass a 30 year high, he maintains the city can no longer proactively protect citizens and says "all i can say to the major, council majority and city manager is this. you were warned whatever ill befalls san jose next is your own doing. you own it ." harsh words for a difficult time. the mayor has called this a sad day but insists the gap in the budget needs to be closed.

68 officers lose their jobs this morning. we expect them to start arriving here at the san jose police department at 8:00 this morning for this very difficult day. live in san jose, claudine wong, ktvu channel 2 news. there will soon be more police officers patrolling the streets of oakland's highest crime area. the police department there is planning to expand its force in east oakland in response to a surging homicide rate. oakland is also dealing with a big budget crisis. but police leaders there say they can still increase patrols with a more efficient use of the officers already on the force. this morning the investigation continues into a deadly house fire in el cerrito. a 98-year-old woman from el salvador was killed. that fire started yesterday evening on king drive in the hills above el cerrito. now neighbors took video of the fire. you can take a look there. still no official word on the cause but investigators are looking into the possibility

that it may have started from candles tipping over in a shrine inside a closet. >> she's religious. they're from el salvador. she is originally. and she used to light candles and pray in her room. >> now the victim's 50-year-old son suffered minor burns trying to save his mother. his 10-year-old daughter was not hurt. the search for missing nursing student michelle le has reportedly led detectives out of state. the television station in san diego, le's hometown, reports calls were made from le's cell phone after she disappeared. one call was to reno, another to somewhere in arizona. now the news report says hayward police went to arizona to interview a woman there, but it's still unclear whether or not that woman knows anything about le's disappearance. the city of alameda has tapped a retired state fire marshal to review the memorial

day drowning at crown beach. reuben has a website offering public safety consulting services. now he will issue a report on the ineffective response that led to the eventual death of a suicidal man. alameda's fire chief says crews didn't go into the water because they're not properly trained in water rescues due to budget cuts. starting tomorrow it is going to cost more to get around the bay area for many people. if you are driving across the golden gate bridge, it will cost $13 for cars pulling a trailer or three axle trucks. that's up from $9. commercial truckers will pay $22 to drive a five axle ridge across the gate. the tolls are increasing on the state owned bridges. fellow drivers in hybrid cars won't be able to use car pool lanes on the bridges or anywhere else. that's starting tomorrow. the yellow stickers expire at midnight tonight. the white stickers for all electric vehicles will still be

valid in car pool lanes. and fares for several transit agencies are also going up. san francisco's muni fast pass will cost $1 more for use and seniors $2 for everyone else. cable car fares also going up a dollar. golden gate transit fares increase between 50 cents ask cal train hiking fares and parking fees as well. 4:35 is the time. speaking of driving and parking, let's check in with sal. how's the commute so far? it's going well. i want to mention highway 101 is open again. they closed it overnight to do work on a pedestrian bicycle bridge between hillsdale and rollston avenue. they just reopened it. it was a detour it was pretty light now the freeway moving well in both directions. let's go out and take a look at what we have now with the east shore freeway. that looks very nice coming to the macarthur maze. and the metering lights are on. no major problems this morning

getting into san francisco. also the morning commute looks okay if you're driving on 280 northbound getting up to highway 17. traffic is moving along very nicely there. at 4:36 let's go to steve. thank you, sal. very good morning. patchy low clouds but after that burns off sunshine and warmer weather. fog will try and hang out by the coast but it will be nice there as well. our system is gone. there it goes. there it goes. very, very impressive for the end of june. but now it's out of the picture. it did leave behind a lot of low level clouds yesterday and some very cool temps. and late in the afternoon some clearing took place and we'll continue that theme today. a little school for some. a lot of low to mid-50s. 52 san rafael. 53 livermore. mountain view 54. one system dives in and high pressure will slowly build in. i mean it's building in, but it's going to take a couple days. we'll jump up today. the warming trend will kick in more so on friday and into the weekend and also into the 4th. temperatures well inland will

be maybe mid-90s but around the bay it will still be in the 70s and 80s. fog, sun, warmer, lots of sunshine. breezy at times. highs today are coming up. so 60s, 70s close to the coast and bay and then upper 70s low to mid-80s inland as temperatures take probably a good seven to eight degree warm up over yesterday even ten degrees for some. warmer weather take us into friday, saturday and also right into the holiday weekend, pam. all right. well, time now is 4:37. we are learning this morning that three american soldiers died during a rocket attack on a u.s. military base in iraq. that happened yesterday close to the iranian border. u.s. intelligence blames the strike on a shiite militia group. the names of the soldiers have not been released. the deaths come at the end of the bloodest month in iraq in two years. the body of a sacramento area soldier is now back home. the plane carrying marine corporal sing landed in sacramento yesterday afternoon. his family and marine honor

guard were there for that somber homecoming. corporal sing was only 21 when he was killed in afghanistan last week. he was on his second tour of duty. today the senate will vote on president obama's nomination of general david patraeus to become c.i.a. director. the 58-year-old general is expected to be easily confirmed. patraeus has been in charge of the u.s. and nato troops in afghanistan and he is credited with turning around the war in iraq. patraeus replaces former california congressman panetta moving onto become secretary of defense tomorrow. today is the last day on the job for the current defense secretary robert gates. president obama will speak at a tribute in honor of gates at the pentagon this morning. disturbing images of cruelty against a young pig. the action a major grocery chain is now taking in response to that video. and why some efforts to help people in haiti did more harm than good.

good morning. northbound 101 traffic looks pretty good approaching the downtown area. we'll tell you more about the morning commute straight ahead. (

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good morning. patchy low clouds, once that burns off sunshine for everybody today. 60s 70s coast and bay. upper 70s low 80s inland to a few mid-80s. well, the first tropical storm of the season has made land fall in mexico.

arlene touched down this morning near coo bo are ho with winds of 65 miles an hour. the storm is expected to weaken later today and dissipate on friday. the main threat is from heavy rains that could cause flash floods and mud slides. another earthquake in japan this morning. the 5.4 magnitude quake hit about 100 miles northwest of tokyo. japanese officials say at least seven people were hurt in this morning's quake. that also caused cracks in a samurai castle one of japan's national treasures. there have been a number of smaller earthquakes in the area since the deadly earthquake and tsunami back in march. scientists are presenting the strongest evidence yet that it was u.n. peacekeepers that brought in cholera to haiti last fall. the outbreak killed more than 5500 people as the nation was already recovering from a major earthquake. the study suggests that u.n. peacekeepers from in pal brought in the disease and it spread through the water.

it says the troops came from an area of nepal that was experiencing a cholera outbreak at the time. well, safeway is no longer buying pork from an iowa farm following the release of some undercover video. we want to warn you the images in this video are graphic. the animal rights group mercy for animals recorded this video at iowa select farms. shows workers tossing and kicking pig lets and pregnant pigs living in crates so small they can barely turn around. mercy for animals released the video to pressure costco, safeway and other stores from buying pork from other farms like this one. >> in a civilized society it's our moral obligation to prevent cruelty from all animals including mother pigs from needless cruelty and violence. >> safeway released a statement saying "safeway does not tolerate animal abuse of any kind and find the images and animal handling practices contained in the mercy for animals video in violation of

our animal welfare policies." now our channel 2 website has more information about the group behind that video. there's also a link to the entire video. but, again, be advised it is very tough to watch. look under the right now section of our website ktvu.com. an oakland animal shelter is trying to find homes for 21 rabbits that were found in a backyard. the rabbits were discovered in an apartment near lake merit malnourished. investigators say the rabbits were stacked on top of each other in two small wire cages. the owner of the rabbits was apparently raising them for food and is now being investigated. the rabbits are now at the oakland animal services shelter. well, contra costa prosecutors are asking a judge to charge a concord man with murder after his pit bulls fatally mauled a 2-year-old family member. so far he has been charged with two felonies. last july he was out playing tennis when his step grandson wandered into the family's

garage and was attacked by the dogs. the judge is expected to decide on the possible murder charges next month. walnut creek police say they have never seen a scam quite like this one. a 30-year-old man is facing felony charges for allegedly forging bogus receipts from coin counting machines. now coin counting machines like coin star and coin master have become almost as common as atms at supermarkets. prosecutors say matt harris was getting hundreds of dollars out without putting in a dime. >> it's pretty unusual. a lot of times these machines may get broken into, but it's pretty savvy for someone to create a good enough receipt to get by the cashier. >> police won't say exactly how they think he did it, but they say harris successfully made off with $1400. they say he couldn't -- he could have kept going if it wasn't for a few keen eyed employees who noticed something about the receipts didn't quite add up.

overstock.com and amazon are cutting all ties with thousands of california affiliates. that's because new state budget requires online retailers to charge sales tax to california customers. the change could raise $200 million in new taxes, but amazon has already removed california based associates from its site. amazon is also hinting it could sue to have the law declared unconstitutional. governor brown still hasn't signed the main budget bill passed by the legislature tuesday night. now the governor is expected to sign that bill today. the new fiscal year begins tomorrow. brown vetoed the first bill presented to him by lawmakers last week but then he worked with democrats to come up with a revised version. we are now learning that lieutenant governor gavin newsom voluntarily gave up his salary to join in with state lawmakers who forfeited theirs until they calm up with a balanced budget. newsom says he believes all elected officials should be

held accountable but probably didn't suffer too much financially from a few days of not getting paid. according to the san francisco chronicle, newsom is the wealthiest elected official in california. redwood city is canceling its 4th of july fireworks show for the second year in a row. it would cost about $65,000 to put on a fireworks display. the city says it just doesn't have the money in these tough economic times. one redwood city family told us they piled into the car to go see fireworks last year but won't be doing that again. >> we try today go to foster city one year and it was just traffic was terrible. everybody in the whole bay area i guess was heading to foster city and there was no space. >> now there will be an independence day parade and festival on monday. street closure signs went up last night in redwood city. the star of the show will be the redwood city fire department as it celebrates 150 years of service. that festival starts at 9:00 a.m. parade starts at 10:00 . time now 4:48. a bay area community files the first appeal against the 2010

census. the unusual reason it is disputing the count. and a gruesome discovery made in a public pool that has a whole community in shock this morning.

welcome back to the morning news. time now is 4:50. and 30 public swimming pools in massachusetts are now closed after a woman drowned in a pool but wasn't discovered for several days. the body of 36-year-old marie joseph was found floating in the pool by some young people who actually jumped the fence for a swim while the pool was closed. investigators are trying to determine if joseph had been in the pool since sunday. >> my kids go to that pool. my kids are 4. so if they wasn't paying attention to a 36- year-old, what makes you think they going to pay attention to a kid? >> now police say a 9-year-old

boy says that joseph was -- the 9-year-old boy joseph was watching at the pool told them that she slipped on a water slide and went under water. now officials say they will review safety and operational procedures while the pools are closed. the only jurisdiction that filed an appeal against the 2010 u.s. census is here in the bay area. the san mateo county town of cool ma is disputing the census saying workers may have counted too many people. now the census determines how much money each community gets anded mayor says he wants to make sure the funding gets into the right hands. three dozen communities have questioned the census but it's the only town saying their count is too high. some of the state's biggest air polluters are getting breathing room from state lawmakers. refineries, power plants and other major polluters will now have until 2013 to comply with new emission standards. the program will give financial incentives to facilities that

cut greenhouse gases through a cap and trade frame work. volunteers are needed in vallejo for an all day community event. three nonprofit groups are teaming up on july 16th. vallejo outreach needs people help host a health fair and distribute food and backpacks. fighting back partnership needs volunteers to paint over graffiti and clean up parks, rebuilding together will be sprucing up the homes of some senior citizens in need. that is a very nice event. coming up on 5:00. let's check in with sal. you're checking out the bridges huh, sal? that's right. we're going to check out a few, pam. good morning to you. right now traffic is moving well across bay area bridges. we're going to start with golden gate bridge. and you can see right here that the lane workers are out there. you're wondering what are they doing. well, they're going to switch the configuration. they usually in the middle of the night have a couple lanes not usable but now they're going to switch the lanes to four southbound and two northbound. so if you're driving here any

time soon please be careful. please slow down and give these guys a little bit of room to do their work. don't speed by them. first of all it's illegal and you might get a ticket but only common sense. those are the lane workers right now out on the golden gate bridge. let's go to the westbound approach to the bay bridge which includes the east shore freeway. if you're driving let's say from the richmond bridge down to berkeley the traffic is doing very nicely on 80 all the way down to the macarthur maze and to the bay bridge toll plaza. when you get to the toll plaza, there's a very small delay there. no major problems coming into san francisco. there are no problems on the bridge either. they're clearing up some roadwork eastbound bay bridge and couple lanes have been closed. now those cones are being lifted and lanes are open. let's talk about the peninsula where traffic is moving along pretty well. want to tell you that southbound 101 is open again after some overnight road work that closed the freeway between hillsdale and recallston southbound 101 to build a

pedestrian bridge or bicycle bridge. those lanes have been reopened and traffic is now recovering in that area. for a while traffic was diverted onto el camino but everything is open again. let's go to steve. thank you, sal. very good morning. patchy low clouds will be out of here pretty fast. then we're good to go. sunshine for all. keep a cloud over nelson. we have high pressure building in. 52 at napa. san rafael says so are we. same for santa rosa 52. livermore close redwood city 52. mid-50s little cool for the end of june. little chill in the air after that big whopper of rain at the end of june we had on tuesday. system moving into the north will kind of hold the high in check but it will start to build in slowly today and then more -- i think more pronounced on friday and into the holiday weekend. if you're inland it will be hot, by the coast it will be nice. fog, sun, warmer. lots of sunshine. breezy at times but nothing compared to last couple days. it's still a sea breeze. still a component of it. it's not a rip roaring one or

anything. some mid-80s inland. 70s, upper 70s to mid-70s around the bay and then 60s and 70s closer to the coast and warm to hot as we go into the holiday weekend. all right. thank you, steve. there is a lot of excitement at the monterey bay aquarium. a rescued sea otter pup is the aquarium's newest star. look at her. she was rescued by state fish and game on a beach two months ago and nursed back to health by a surrogate mom. the aquarium hopes the pup will increase awareness about threats to the otter population such as pollution. cute as can be. a flight from san francisco to boston makes an unexpected stop in nebraska. the problem that prompted pilots to make an emergency landing. and dozens of san jose police officers turn in their badges today. the impact the latest cuts will have on public safety.

the investigation into a deadly house fire in el cerrito continues. the clues discovered inside that home that may point to a cause. an emotional day for the san jose police department as almost 70 officers get ready to turn in their badges. a san francisco flight bound for boston makes an

unexpected stop. the mechanical problem that forced that plane to land in nebraska. and fewer people will be getting away this holiday weekend. the reason travel is down for the 4th of july. it's all ahead here on the ktvu morning news. good morning. thank you for waking up with us on this thursday morning june 30th. last day of june. i'm pam cook. and good morning. i'm day clark. let's check weather and traffic. here's steve. thank you very much, pam and dave. we have patchy low clouds around. once that burns off we'll have sunshine for all and temperatures warming up. maybe a good eight to ten degree jump for some after yesterday's mostly cloudy day. today mostly sunny and warmer. here's sal. right now on the san mateo bridge traffic looks pretty good getting out to the high- rise with no major problems. also this morning's commute on interstate 880 in both directions is nice. at 4:59 let's go back to