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tv   KTVU 6 O Clock News  FOX  December 27, 2011 6:00pm-6:30pm PST

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the hospital to be checked out. a horrible accident shut down a highway in pacifica. the motorcyclists was killed. both north and south bound lanes were shut down while crews responded to the accident causing a major traffic back up. the chp just reopened the lanes before 5:00 p.m. crews say repairs should be wrapping up to fix a water main break in a busy street in downtown walnut creek. a 6-inch water main valve broke in olympic boulevard at about 9:30 this morning. the break flooded the crate and barrel basement. it looks like american consumers have gotten more confident this december. new numbers show consumer confidence dropped 10 points in
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just one month. will the good news last? patti lee live in alameda tonight with more on that. >> reporter: we talked to shoppers in san francisco, daly city and here in alameda on why they would be willing to open their wallets and spend this holiday season, what they tell us gives new meaning to those new consumer confidence numberless. >> reporter: across the bay area and the country -- >> i spent way more than this year. >> reporter: shoppers were in the mood to buy. >> i spent over $200 on gifts. >> reporter: analysts say slightly better jobs numbers and a rebounding stock market contributed to a surge in the consumer confidence index. up 25 points over the last few months. the result higher than expected forecast for holiday sales. >> higher sales is a good sign. but what's really driving those sales? >> brand strategist samar says the perceived evidence of selling more merchandise may be misleading. >> this has been one of the
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biggest years where retailers have had to discount by really high margins. and big retailers tailers can really sustain that trend. but when it comes to small retailers, they've really been killed in this economy. >> reporter: after all, housing prices in most cities are sliding. >> i don't see very many buyers right now. people can't cash out of their smaller home and move up unless they have a great job. if they have a masters degree and their company is doing well, great. but there's not a lot of those here. >> reporter: the calderon siblings plan to spend money at postchristmas season sales but only because they're getting more for it. >> i think it's because of the sales. it was a good deal so i bought it. >> reporter: you can see people are still out shopping, they are still enjoying and taking advantage of these holiday sales. it's too soon to know if the
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surge in consumer confidence is lasting or will fade shortly after these holiday decorations come down. reporting live in alameda, patti lee, ktvu news. it appears those latest numbers didn't apply to the sears holding company. officials today announced that company is going to close at least 100 of its sears and k- mart stores after the first of the year due to poor holiday sales. no word yet on which stores will be closing but officials tell us stores in the bay area are outperforming those in other parts of the country making itlikely they will stay open. sears says it also plans to cut inventory at those stores that remain open. a main break sent water up 100 feet in the air. they found two pipes weren't connected properly. today the commission's assistant general manager called it a design flaw. >> it wasn't a material flaw
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that this pipe was a bad pipe, two pieces of pipe literally just came apart at the joint where they were connected because it wasn't restrained, it wasn't held in place. investigators determined that six pipes to be connected together were not. pg & e says the outage was sparked by a blown fuse and down wire near white head lane. that knocked out power to nearly 6,200 homes and business. power was restored late this afternoon. crews are still in the area looking to bring back power to all affected. it was a magnitude 2.2 quake it happened just before
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2:00 this afternoon. the epicenter was near berkeley creek. officials say that a deputy was trying to pull over a teenage driver for a traffic violation when the teen sped off. the driver crashed into a power pole. the teen ran and was tased by a deputy before taken into custody. the passenger was also arrested. the car was apparently stolen say deputies. police say a man is in critical condition following a shooting last night. this happened not far from the fruitvale station. the man was behind the wheel of a red truck when someone shot him in the neck. police shut down three blocks of international boulevard searching for suspects and evidence. governor jerry brown took a look back today at his first year in office. ktvu's ken pritchett is live in sacramento where the governor announced that the state's budget cuts were really the biggest issue of the years as
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far as he's concerned, ken. >> reporter: governor brown says that a lot was accomplished in his first year back in office. republicans said quite the opposite. it was another year of intense gridlock in the legislature over the question of new taxes and that gridlock resulted in unprecedented deep cuts. >> reporter: it was a casual governor brown who sat down with reporters outside of his office. joking aside the governor sited the budget which was on time as an accomplishment. >> we cut the budget from 26 billion in half in one year. and this coming year that will again dominate certainly the first six months. >> reporter: but that budget was passed without republican support for a vote on taxes. so it wasn't all cuts budget that slashed billions from higher education and social service programs. brown promised deeper cuts if his tax initiative is not passed by voters next year. an initiative which will be unveiled soon. >> we have an initiative.
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it's now being analyzed by the attorney general. money is coming into the bank account. and we will give the voters a choice. >> reporter: republicans say brown is taxing voters to bail out sacramento. and countered today by saying brown's first year was weak leadership left without any significant accomplishments. brown said he would not grade how future would grade his return to office. >> i said dad, history doesn't pay attention to the former california governors. >> reporter: january will be a busy month for governor brown, he will detail his tax initiative proposal that will go before voters in november. that would raise the sales tax and the income tax on wealthy californians and next month he will also unveil his budget plan guaranteed to have billions of the dollars in new cuts. in sacramento, ken pritchett, ktvu channel 2 news. we now know the name of the
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2-year-old antioch boy killed after his father accidentally ran over him. malcolm died at the hospital yesterday. new at 6:00 ktvu's john sasaki at that event and tells us why this family has a very special place in those firefighters life. >> reporter: this is a party where hundreds of people are coming together for that family in need. it's all because of 15-year-old enrique. tonight at don ramon's restaurant they are helping a modesto family after a young life was lost. >> it's amazing, a lot of wonderful peek.
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>> reporter: the family is four days removed after enrique's death. >> she called me and said, you have to go to the hospital and bring some blankets to my kid. because he's dead, i know he's dead. >> reporter: enrique fought leukemia while his family stayed at the family house which houses families of people who have cancer. humberto which was enrique's brother was his bone marrow donor. >> he was a great brother. he always was. he loved to do outdoor activities. >> reporter: last friday enrique died. his family can't afford a burial so once again the toy drive has stepped in. >> they don't have a lot of money, they are very rich in family and love and caring but we know they needed a lot of help. and they didn't have any money to bury their son. >> reporter: any money raised
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beyond the $8,000 burial cost will go to the family to help them get back on their feet. tonight's event here runs through 9:00 p.m. live in san francisco, i'm john sasaki, ktvu channel 2 news. bay area emergency rooms are braising for more patients than usual this weekend because new year's eve holiday falls on saturday night. when bars and clubs close at 2:00 a.m. that's when the patients start to arrive. >> it's automatic. everything that comes in is alcohol related. assaults, motor vehicle accidents, and unfortunately the most unfortunate patients that come in here are the ones that haven't been drinking and are coming home from a late night at work and get involved in these type of accidents. >> reporter: san francisco general is also preparing it's trauma center for an influx of patients. last year when new year's eve fell on a friday that emergency room saw a 50% increase in parents compared to the year before. some bay area transit agencies are also getting ready
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for the new year's celebrations. nummi and san francisco will offer free rides from 8:00 p.m. new years eve until 6:00 a.m. new year's day. free rides on caltrain will run until 2:15 new year's morning. the santa clara transportation authority will have free service between 7:00 p.m. new year's eve and 4:00 a.m. new year's day. also b.a.r.t. plans to extend service until 3:00 in the morning. there was hope or wishful thinking that some rain will fall in the bay area this week but now that is all pretty much evaporated. robert handa is live to tell us how the dry spell is spelling trouble. >> reporter: we're here above a trickling guadalupe river. you can tell why so many people were hoping to get some rain before the new year. south bay reservoirs and ponds are far from dry but in the midst of what the water district calls the third driest december since 1940 there is
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some cause for concern. worse case scenario, the dry weather goes into the new year combined with a spark snow pack. >> we may have to start thinking about conservation. >> we always encourage conservation but we may have to do some extra efforts in con srer vase -- conversation if we have an extra dry year. >> reporter: that means a ban on outdoor burning is going to stay in place indefinitely. >> it has a great chance of reducing the fires we have to deal with. it's important that we continue following that note. until we have a significant change in the weather. >> reporter: the bay area quality air management district was hoping to see some rain that could have washed away some of the air pollution caused by wood burning fireplaces. today one official says the agency fully expects to ban wood burning for the new year's weekend. >> one burning fireplace can make unhealthy air quality for the entire neighborhood. so it impacts all the neighbors. >> reporter: the santa clara
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county says without rain it'll be impossible to help that unhealthy air. >> this is you breathing in these toxins and they irritate your eyes and get into your lungs. >> reporter: again the bay area air quality management district told us today there is a strong chance the ban on burning wood in fireplaces will go into effect on new year's eve through new year's day barring some very unexpected change in the weather. live in san jose, robert handa, ktvu. no spare the air day alert has been issued for today. but bare area quality officials are asking residents to avoid burning wood today. san francisco is turning used christmas trees into bio fuel. crews chipped dozens of trees at civic center plaza today as part of the 25th annual tree recycling program. the chips will be shipped to a
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waste management plant in tracy. they can't be composted because of high acidity levels in the needles. and throwing them in the trash is not recommended. curb side recycling begins next week. san francisco's tree recycling program was one of the first in the country. the national christmas tree association now estimates there are more than 4,000 such programs across the country. and we've put together a list of places you can go to recycle your christmas tree here in the bay area. just go to ktvu.com and click on tree recycling at the top of the home page. with a week to go before the iowa caucus, republican presidential candidates are flooding the state. >> i got the deal done, it
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wasn't 120% pure. but it worked and we had a liberal democrat to sign welfare reform. >> reporter: rick perry focused on border security and his experience as texas governor. recent polls show ron paul has a slight lead. >> republican voters may not be satisfied with the choices out there. that helps ron paul because he has those supporters that will turn out. >> reporter: mitt romney is expected to arrive in the state tonight. he has a full day of campaigning tomorrow. some say california voters may have a say in the outcome if the presidential rain is close. >> the primary in june could have a role in deciding the contender. >> reporter: the republican race reminds him of the lengthy
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contest between hillary clinton and barack obama, that nomination wasn't decided until june of 2008. investors and traders could soon be taking bets on the outcome of u.s. elections. the north american derivative exchange is officering trading. the commodity futures trading commission has until january 4th to reject the application or ask for more time. travel websites are getting big competition now from google. the internet giant is putting search research from its own ticket search service ahead of results from other sites such as kayak and orbitz. google sites launched in september. google tells ktvu the response to its flights feature has been overwhelming positive and it is experiments now with different formats and placements.
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christmas day was a huge day for companies that sell applications for android phones and devices. the mobile app company flurry says 6.8 million android apps were downloaded on christmas. that is up 353% increase from the average number of down loads for the first three weeks of december. flurry says more than 10 billion android apps in all have now been downloaded. and we are still waiting on the rain. i'm grasping at anything here to give you an indication that things are changing around. what i'm grasping at at this point are these winds. they are coming out of a more westerly direction. you will notice more clouds the next few days. maybe a drizzle or sprinkle but not to shut your plans down. that's an indication that things are changing. remember those freezing nights, the freezing frost warning and freeze advisories those are
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done. they are done for a while because the winds are starting to move on shore. and as we move into next week there are indications we could be in for some significant rainfall. but that's next week, that's at least eight days from now in most of the models eyes. in the meantime we have valley fog to talk about. mild overnight lows, mid-30s to mid-40s. maybe a few sprinkles into thursday night, friday night. overnight lows look like this, because of all the dryness and cold and frost my utility bill is going to be nuts. everybody has had the heat on. utility bills are really going to take a hit at the end of december because of this. as we head into wednesday. patchy coastal fog. they're starting to come in and
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widdle down that freezing zone. that's 9:00 tomorrow night and that's a little bit of rain, no big deal. but it chisels it down, it weakens it. this is how it works, then yet another one hits it and knocks it south. this one looks like it does a pretty good job. perhaps precipitation chances friday afternoon. when i say precipitation drizzle, we're looking at what it's going to take to get rain in here and it's those three weak events that could set us up for next week. right now that's what we're hoping for and it's been dry. this will end up being one of the wettest or driest decembers on record in the bay area. and records in the bay area go back to 1849 in san francisco. bay area weekend in view, some of the longest, obviously the longest weather records on the west coast. so it has definitely been dry. and december goes down as the
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fourth driest on record. >> so keep our fingers crossed. >> january 4th and 5th looks like we'll be seeing something. the auto maker says it wants to ensure that none of the water logged cars will be sold. more than 700 people died in the worse flooding the country has seen in half a century. honda says about 1: 1: one -- 1:10 of its cars were damaged. you have to be in it to win it. that's what i tell myself if you don't come down and play you don't know if you'll be the winner. i don't want to watch somebody else win when i could have had a chance myself. the jackpot for tonight's drawing has grown to $265 million. that's the third highest jackpot of the year. this morning there was a long line for tickets at world's fair donuts in hayward. you can bet there were long lines at other shops as well. tonight's drawing is at 8:00 p.m. the odds of winning that
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jackpot are one in 176 million. and coming up on bay area news at 7:00 on tv 36, the last minute mega millions rush happening right now at one store some people call an especially lucky location. also we're monitoring clean up efforts at broadway plaza where a water main break is impacting traffic. join us for these stories and more coming up at 7:00. at one point he was very close to death. why he's being recognized at the tournament of roses parade.
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a san francisco firefighter got a big send off today as he heads to pasadena for the tournament of roses parade next week. the fire captain will ride in the one more day float. he'll ride on a float with 27 other recipients, donors and family members. joe fonzi is in now for mark ibanez.
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and the 49ers make a change. >> reporter: the team short on healthy receivers and this time of year edwards released. edwards has been plagued by injuries. hurt in week two in dallas. and a shoulder injury later, totals just 15 catches. the 49ers have not announced any roster additions. the division champion 49ers are very well represented on the play bowl roster. plays like this one by justin smith to secure a win in philadelphia have been typical of the 49er defense this year. met with three other defensive players was named to the nfc 's starting line up. joining smith, willis, rogers and goldson. gore has run for over 1,200 yards this season with one game to play. he's named to the probowl for
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the fourth time in his career. joining gore is joe staley, andy lee and david akers. 10 additional 49ers were selected as nfc alternates. the raiders have three first teamers named to the probowl squad. they were led by seymour allowing them to stay in the play. joining him is janikowsky. we'll see you tonight at 10:00. >> i know there were a lot of questions when they picked janikowsky first, he has been money this year. >> interestingly enough, he had never made the probowl. so this is an interesting year for him. >> really this is his first time. he's having that kind of a
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season. our coverage continues online on ktvu.com and mobile ktvu. >> you can also follow ktvu on twitter for today's top stories and major news developments. >> thank you for joining us tonight.
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