a bay area landmark structure is preparing to come down. this is the result of a promise made long ago. good afternoon. i'm tori campbell. today is the beginning of the end for a jail. a demolition plan has been starting. in project has been decades in the make. it's taken the entire career of

the sheriff for this to happen. claudine wong has more. >> reporter: it will be a while. if you take a look at the building behind me, you can see there is a portion of it taken down by this wrecking ball. it this happened at 10:30 this moving. that's all that's gonna happen today. things are quiet. but there's a lot of work being done inside now. there's a lot of cleanup. but 32 years of a sheriff -- but 32 years after sheriff hennessey started, it's coming down. >> i think i'm ready to retire. have some fun. >> reporter: he may be ready but there's something that's been on his to-do list that he has do. he stood in front of the jail.

[ cheers ] >> reporter: the sheriff once said the jail was held together by duct tape. even a judge determined it was cruel and unusual punishment to house inmates there. it wasn't until now that funding was in place to clean the old one up and knock it down. >> this opened in 1934, the same year that alcatraz opened in 1934. alcatraz was closed down in 1963. this building continued to operate for another 30 years after alcatraz was shut down. >> reporter: there's still a lot of work inside to be done. >> there's a lot of asbestos in there so we wear a purified air respirator where we have supplied air on our back. >> reporter: so after today the

pro project follows to -- the project follows to the sheriff- elect. with the future uncertain, he's tackling this challenge with a bit of humor. >> there's a lot of thoughts floating around. here's a thought, another 49er stadium we could have here. it's in between santa clara and san francisco. >> reporter: so when will demolition actually begin, it will happen after cleanup, another eight or -- another eight or nine weeks. back to you. thank you. mitt romney won the iowa caucuses yesterday. just barely. he came in just eight votes ahead of rick santorum. ron paul was third, at 21%. >> we're all working together because of our passion for this concern and our concern it's

being led by a president who may be a nice guy but is just in over his head. >> what wins in america are bolded ideas -- are bold ideas and a sharp contrast and a plan for everyone. >> michele bachmann came in fifth with 5% the she announced this morning that she's dropping out of the race for the gop nomination. >> last night the people of iowa spoke with a very clear voice. so i had decided to stand aside. texas governor rick perry wases with already -- was also near the bottom of the vote-getters. he still plans to head to south carolina. president obama was in ohio in the last hour. he was in a defiant. he announced he's naming a

director of the consumer watchdog agency and bypassing congress while doing that. >> more of our loved ones would be tricked into bad financial decisions. >> at a high school in cleveland, the president named richard kordray. the senate blocked him. so the president used his powers to make the appointment. house speaker john boehner wasout raged and said the -- was outraged and said so. lawmakers have to solve the state's $12 billion budget deficit and governor brown has until january 10th to submit his budget to them. other hotly considered items should be whether to raise the state main mumm wage to 8.50 a

hour. a bill allowing -- minimum wage to 8.50 and hour. a bay area scientist has a new explanation behind the mystery of disappearing bees. it involves a tiny fly that seems to turn the bees into zombies. ktvu's kraig debro is live from sf state to explain how this happens. >> reporter: good afternoon, tori. the good news is they don't eat human flare -- flesh. the scientist found the bees. these bees have been called zombies. their final trips have been called the flight of the living dead. this could wind up saving the state's agriculture industry from huge losses. this video shows a honey bee frantically trying to escape being a host to maggots.

a team is credited with the discoverie. push -- discovery. >> the two possibilities that we're looking at is one that the ma -- that the maggot is controlling the bee, take control of his behavior -- taking ceil control of his behavior. >> reporter: another possible reason for the flight is the berealizes what's happening and flies out on its own to die somewhere else to protect the hive. europe honey bees are crucial to our food production. the problem has a head start. >> these are things we really

like, most of our vegetable crop, almonds. they all rely on honey bees for pollination. >> reporter: this discovery could be the greatest contribution to the field from this scientist, npr, the cbc, canadian broadcasting company, are line up to talk to the doctor. back to you. >> thank you, kraig. in just the past 30 minute, san francisco police ended an hour's standoff. we have been bringing you this story all morning. it started around 6:30 last night on lumbert street, north of coit tower. police responded to a home burglary and saw him and chased him near bushes. officers called in negotiators and set up a perimeter.

but now they've pulled most of the officers from the scene. >> we had the crime scene investigations go out to the apartment and they got palm prints and fingerprints. they will have to go back to the house and they will have to discount the people that live there. >> if the lab finds a name to match the print, police will issue a warrant for the suspect's arrest. sheriff deputies say a robbery suspect hiding near an apartment complex on moorpark avenue sur enderred -- surrendered just before 6:00. the suspect ran away after getting pulled over. he faces additional charges of resisting arrest. he's current any a santa clara county jail. some vallejo homeowners want the city to pay for

damages after a shooting. chopper 2 was overhead as s.w.a.t. officers broke down fences and ripped down several houses in november. the homeowners are claiming almost 11,000 in damages. they are determining if the city is reliable. facebook recently moved from palo alto to the old sun microsystems campus, just north of highway 101 in menlo park. right now, it has about 2,000 employees but has asked the city of menlo park to remove a cap that limits the campus to 3,000. east palo alto officials are concerned that facebook's plans to expand the site could create big traffic jams in the area and also negativity affect the

environment. yahoo! will have a new chief executive officer. the company has hired scott tom -- thompson. he will succeed carol bartz who was fired in september. he says he was somewhat surprised since his name never emerged as a top candidate e will yahoo!'s fourth ceo in less than five years. plans for a high rail system could be put on -- high- speed rail system could be put on hold. the costs are high. rail supporters say the project would generate thousands of jobs. a ktvu camera was right

there. you will see more after a truck burst into flames on the peninsula. mark tamayo still checking the satellite to see if there's any rain on the horizon. why a united states congressman wants to drain the lake of -- that's the primary source of the bay area adrinking water. bay area's drinking water.

[ sirens ] a ktvu camera was right there when a laundry truck went in flames in menlo park. that was just after 8:00 a.m. our crew was there when the truck full of towels pulled to the shoulder of the road with flames and smoke pouring out. no one was hurt. it's not known what's started the fire. several trucks caught on fire at a fed-ex facility in petaluma. firefighters spent about 15 minutes putting out the flames. firefighters put the flames out. there were no injuries and no packages were burned. also overnight a christmas tree was set on fire after it was left at the curb for pickup. our crew got video of the tree on fire just before midnight at

bay and mission streets in san francisco. a man walking by kicked the burning tree away from his scooter which appears to have suffered some damage. firefighters arrived on the scene and put out the flames. police and residents are on high alert after several arsons in sacramento county. a firefighter says someone has been setting dumpsters and trash cans on fires outside of homes and businesses in the north highlands and carmichaels area. there have been 14 incidents since new year's eve. investigators believe they are dealing with one more firebug. >> they can start a fire that easily and i don't know about it until i hear the fire truck rolling up, they can start it any place. >> investigators are looking into the possibility the fires were set by copycats in the wake of the los angeles arson fires. a 24-year-old boater in truckee fell into donner lake

while canoeing monday night. that triggered a massive rescue effort involving helicopters, search dogs and patrol cars. a man's girlfriend swam to safety. he was not able to make it to shore. pesticide have been detected in fish in san francisco. the epa said an covies collected in the lorinson channel in the richmond harbor have high levels. that channel and nearby park canal were dredged in 19 6 to remove tons of toxic slug. the epa is working on a new cleanup plan. a sacramento congressman, dan lun cen, is -- dan lungren is seeking to return the valley

to its natural state. there are many hurdles, the first one being where the drinking water would be stored. lungren has a zero rating from conservation voters. the first snow of the season, it wasn't much. there just .17. that that smacks it the smallest snowpack in 0 years, which -- 80 years, which has some concerned. >> we've already lost december. we're looking at looking january and then you start to think we're just not gonna catch up. >> californians don't have to worry about drought conditions. that's because our reservoirs

are above normal. we are looking for the rain but still the dry weather pattern is here to stay. a bit of haze out there looking out towards the golden gate bridge. more sunshine expected for your wednesday afternoon. the live doppler, not much in the way of it. in fact, no rain shower activity to be tracked. a few high clouds will be mixed with sun. the warmest locations are beginning to sneak up in the 60s out toward fairfield, concord, mountain view checking in at 62. look at san francisco downtown at 61 degrees. high pressure still firmly in command of our weather. as a result the storm track is being pushed to the north.

no rain clouds at least for the next five days to ten days. temperatures will continue to be on the mild side. in fact, the warmest locations they will be in the upper 60s. i should also mention the surf has been picking up over the past few days and then tomorrow we're expecting a major swell to approach our coast line with the possibility of high surf advisory. so the point is if you are gonna be near the coast, be extra careful withthe big jump in the waves expected for tomorrow and also into friday. here we go with our cloud and rainfall forecast. of course, we won't have any raindrops. a few rain showers to the north up the coast. as we take this into thursday, we'll start off with some patchy cloud cover up there and then a few high clouds will sweep into the region by the afternoon hours. but for today, we will be on the mild side, a lot of 60s by the 5:00 hour. still partly cloudy skies. temperatures back down in the 50s to right around 60 and then a few scattered high clouds

heading into the region as we head into the evening hours. forecast highs, san francisco, 63. pacifica, 60. san jose tops out at 64. san mateo, in the lower 60s. here's a look ahead to your extended forecast, there may be a few extra clouds for your thursday. but still not a big deal. we'll cool things off as we head into your friday by just a few degrees. if you are looking for the rain clouds, they will not show -- it will not show up in this forecast. and if we were to take this into next week, it would possibly be dry. >> thank you, mark. police say they've not yet closed the case of banana sam, the squirrel monkey, that disappeared from the san francisco zoo last week. someone snatched him. a man told officers he was walking in stern grove two days later and coaxed sam into his backpack before handing him over to the authorities. the "chronicle" reports that animal experts are skeptical of

this story and police are investigating further before they pay the $5,000 reward for sam's return. mayor reed is working on ending the battle on the city's pot club. reed says he's considering more pot clubts in the future. the city council recently reduced the ordinance from 100 to just 10. critics have collected nearly 50,000 signatures to repeal the law, saying it would lead to marijuana superstores that federal agents would eventually shut down. occupy protests in -- protesters in oakland are not planning to take down the teepee any time soon. the city grew the permit -- drew the permit. the permit stipulated that no cooking was allowed and they could not store things inside

of the teepee. they did and the permit was pulled.

pretty quiet day for stocks. the dow has turned around a little bit after the big jump yesterday. a lot of people say the january barometer during an election year, if the month of january is higher, that means the s&p will be up for the whole year. right now, the dow currently is

up 10, to 12,407. nasdaq is down just slightly and s&p is also flat. retailers are smiling about a really good post christmas. a mall trade group reports a flurry of post holiday shopping. sales increased by more than 5% during the final week of december. contributing factors including a rise in popularity of gift cards and a federal holiday on monday. this was boosted from 3.5% to 4.5% in 2010. joe torre has quit his job as a major league baseball executive vice president. he plans to join the group trying to buy the los angeles dodgers. the group is expected to submit a formal bid within the next ten days. torre was the manager of the dodgers and the yankees before becoming a baseball executive. the dodgers were put up for

sale by frank mccourt, five months after the team filed for bankruptcy. thank you for trusting ktvu. we're always on at ktvu.com and ktvu mobile. thanks for watching and have a great day.