complete bay area news coverage, starts right now. this is ktvu channel 2 news at noon. >> two businesses are targeted today with legal action, the aim is to put a stop to crime. good afternoon, i am tori campbell. the city of oakland is cracking down on prostitution by going after two hotels where many crimes occur. claudine wong joins us live from hayward where an oakland city attorney is going to court over this issue. >> reporter: court is still underway at this hour, the city

says it wants two hotels used by prostitutes shut down. we went to both the economy inn and the national lodge early this morning. the woman working at the front desk turned around and walked behind a closed door when she saw our camera. the clerk at the economy lodge a little more helpful. he told us despite the numerous cars in the parking lot they only had three guests and says everyone gets one of these flyers washing that prostitution is not allowed. >> has the problem gotten better? did you know there was a problem? what? >> i think it work. >> you think it is working. >> but people we talked to says prostitution is a long-standing problem here. one woman man who told me he was a john said he sees them. >> i see them, i guess they are

there. >> this is common. are there those on the strip you can go to? >> this is common here. >> we did see several patrol cars, this 1 stopped one suspected prostitute but the city attorney said prostitution, kidnapping and rape are ongoing problems that have not gotten better. >> we think we have to take drastic measures to address a drastic problem. >> taking the stand in court today residents and people who work in that area who say they are fed up and want their neighborhood back. >> this is a really important issue for our neighborhood, really important issue for our families so you know i am nervous but i am happy to do it. >> the defense says this case demonizes hotel owners doing the best they can, saying the problem is bigger than the hotels calling this an extreme case of scapegoating. >> eight redwood city school district employees are on leave while the district investigates how they handled abuse

allegation against a teacher. the alleged abuse happened between december and january at that preschool on the roosevelt elementary campus, alexia is accused of slapping and kicking and with withholding food and drink from special needs students. she is not a member of the school. >> the teachers do a great job. >> the case is being investigated by the school district and the district attorney. she was arrested saturday on nine charges and is free on $15,000 bail and is set to appear in court on march first for arraignment. a livermore police officer was injured this morning when someone threw a chunk of concrete that hit him in the

head. someone had been throwing rocks and concrete on to the street from the overpass and when the officer stopped to clear the mess off the street three to four people began throwing rocks and concrete at him. he was treated and released at the hospital, police hope someone will call them with information. in an attempt to ease the outrage president obama announced today he is revising his decision on a controversial birth control policy. the president now says religious oriented groups such as universities, hospitals and charities will not have to pay this cover birth control for their employees. instead insurance companies will foot the bill if the employer has a religious objection. mr.obama says the rule is intended to ensure all women have access to free preventative care. >> so that core principle remains but if a woman's employer is a charity or a

hospital that has a religious objection to providing contraceptive services as part of their health plan, the insurance company, not the hospital, not the charity, will be required to reach out and offer the woman contraceptive carefree of charge. >> president obama's announcement comes after republicans and a handful of religious leaders accused the administration of attacking religious freedoms, despite the criticism a recent pole finds the president's original birth control policy to be popular among catholics. according to a democratic pollster 40% support the rule, 51% give it average rating. the pole surveyed 1000 catholics nationwide. riders of muni's end juda line will have to make other plans on upcoming weekend, beginning february 24th the line will be shut down for six

consecutive weekends. they will be working on rail replacement projects. they will replace it between ocean beach and church street. riders will have to walk to the church station on market street to continue downtown and to cal train. san francisco transit officials want to add more cameras to muni buses to help speed up service. currently 30 buses have cameras that record license plates of cars parked illegally in transit only lanes. the chronicle reports the san francisco municipal transportation officials hope to outfit the entire fleet by next year at a cost of $800,000. more cameras could deter more drivers from parking illegally and that could keep lanes clear and buses on time. votes have just taken -- votes just taken have moved bart closer to providing service to livermore. details on that later in about 10 minutes. two east bay cities are considering a change to their parking policies, and it is a change that drivers will love

because it will provide a kinder gentler position to anyone rushing to need the meter. tara moriarty joins us live to explain what this change will mean. good afternoon. >> reporter: good afternoon. how many times have you fed the meter, checked your watch, run across the street to do some errands, then when you come out you are out of breath and there is the meter made standing there issuing you a ticket. most will keep writing you the ticket even if you are a minute late but in berkeley and oakland both considering ordinances that would forbid parking officers from writing tickets if the driver is present. in oakland city council woman jane bruner says she has been innundated with calls from residents since she introduced it. >> they are tired of the got you, they run out of a store and get to their car and there is one or two minutes late and there is a big fine on their

car. >> now the city collects $1.5 million each year from parking tickets. an expired one will run you 68 bucks, it is not a huge part of the budget but the main goal is not that but rather to stimulate parking turn over. >> i could use leeway. i think i am parked illegal now actually. >> do you feel like you are under a time crunch once you put those coins in. >> definitely, it is a race against time. >> they currently get a 5 minute grace period but if you park in a disabled space or a bus stop you will not get that ticket ripped up. as we mentioned the fine is steep to anything in this economy is welcome news, both counsel will take up the issue later. tara moriarty, ktvu channel 2 news. >> the occupy cal movement has set up tents again in the

plaza. six tents went up yesterday afternoon, two dozen protesters are there, mostly students and they say they don't want people to forget the goals of the occupy movement. >> economic justice, social justice, and at occupy cal we have the special message to keep tuition affordac you know to have accountability for academic administrations. >> this latest encampment comes three months to the day when they were evicted. they said they will not step in as long as most of the protesters are students and not large groups of outsiders. the man at the center of the child abuse allegations at penn state went to court today and spoke out afterwards. you will hear his own words when we come back. a few sprinkles falling outside. rosemary will be up soon to tell you if it will be wet for the weekend. >> flames leaping 30 to 40 feet in the air from an early morning fire yet firefighters were able to knock it down

quickly. i will explain what helped them coming up.

hundreds of people protesting new austerity measures in athens, leaders have spent the last days

haggling over reforms to secure a euro bailout but they say they are not enough. two more commissioners quit the government, that makes four in the past two days. the former penn state football coach accused of being a serial child molester went to court today hoping to get permission to visit his grandchildren. at the same time prosecutors want jerry sandusky ordered not to be on the deck of his home because it overlooks an elementary school. >> i have associated with thousands of young people over the years, and now all of a sudden, okay, because of allegations and perceptions that have tried and been created of me, now i can't take our dog on my deck and throw out biscuits to him. >> the judge did not rule on the motions regarding

sandusky's bail restrictions but he did set his trial for may 17th, sandusky has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from accusations that he preyed on young people sexually over a 15 year period. for the third day in a row investigators are searching a property for victims of a serial killer. a skull was found on that land near san andreas yesterday. it once belonged to a death row inmate. investigators are using cadaver dogs to search the property at this hour, officials were led there by a man that he sketched for them in prison. investigators say the skull they found probably belongs to cindy, believed to be one of his victims, she vanished in 1988. accused serial killer is making another appearance in a

courtroom today. he is scheduled to reenterpleas on charges he killed four northern california woman women and the judge is expected to discuss his competency and may also set a trial date. firefighters credit a sprinkler system with helping them contain a two alarm fire early this morning at a lumberyard in san rafael. as paul chambers reports things could have been worse if the fire had been in a different part of the facility. >> reporter: the store is boarded up after an early morning fire roared through part of the store. fire crews got the call for the fire around 2:45 this morning. once on scene crews say flames were jumping 30 to 40 feet in the air. >> they encountered a lot of flame and fire moving quickly, so they made an aggressive

attack. >> it took 55 35 firefighters to get things under control. the center is used for contractors to pick up items like doors and lumber. had the fire spread a different direction things could have turned out differently. >> it could have been a lot worse, it could have been or dry shed or something like that, that would not have been able to put that out too quick. >> why is that? >> dry timber in there, quite a bit of it too. >> they were able to maintain the bulk of the fire to the service center, crews had it under control and extinguished in an hour thanks in part to the quick work of the firefighters and the interior system. >> we had the advantage of the sprinkler system and the firefighters working on the inside of the building quickly, so there was some extension into the building but that was controlled. >> the rest of the building has only water and smoke damage, now they are working to figure out what caused the fire, especially since no one was inside. they will be closed for the rest of the day as crews work to clean up the water and

damage. the hope is to re-open in tomorrow. in san rafael, paul chambers, ktvu channel do news. >> antioch police say a shift in priorities has helped to reduce violent crime in the city. faced with staff reductions the police department made a decision back in 2010 to focus mainly on crimes in which residents lives are at stake, such as homicide, rape and robbery. the city reduced violent crime by 5.3% in 2011, over the previous year. but the change in focus may have also led to a 25% increase in property crimes over the same period. a new survey shows that more than 60% of antioch voters would support a bond measure to modernize the 58-year-old antioch high school. the bond measure is for a six dollar per month property tax on homeowners in the district that includes antioch high school. the money would be used to renovate classrooms, remove portable classrooms and improve campus safety. the school board will consider

placing the measure on the june ballot. the chp is investigating whether alcohol played a role in an overnight crash in richmond, they say a man was driving on richmond parkway around 11:30, when he swerved, overcorrected and went off the roadway. the chp tells us weather he crashed other drivers had called 911 to report his car swerving on the road. the driver was the only personal inside the car. there is no word on his condition but they say his injuries were not life- threatening. the plan to extend bart into livermore is moving forward despite a lack of funding for the project. yesterday the bart board of directors approved an environmental study as well as an engineering and ridership plan for the 5 mile extension and agreed to form a partnership with livermore and local transit agencies to split the cost of the $1 billion project. however the board is still

considering alternatives to the extension, including express buses and diesel commuter trains. italy's mount etna is spewing lava, making for a spectacular sight. it erupted on wednesday. lava has been trickling down ever since. an airport was closed down but is back open now. >> good afternoon to you, gloomy weather in the forecast for your friday afternoon. it will remain unsettled for part of the weekend. a live look there at the bay point area. you can see the gloomy conditions. the cloudy cooler than where we sat just yesterday, plenty of sunshine yesterday, 60s and 70s in the forecast. those days are gone. we are on the cool side. temperatures upper 50s, low 60s for the afternoon. winds light but variable out there, a few sprinkles here and again, i like to kind of call it the popcorn type cells because they just appear and

disappear and dissipate and break away. areas around clayton, concord, maybe a few light scattered showers, low 60s outside your door in concord as well as livermore, sprinkles near vacaville as well as fairfield. the north bay has the best shot at rain but pretty much anywhere down into monterrey it will take into the evening hours, one pulse went through, a second will follow so we will continue with this pattern. it will not increase the rain just keep this going on for the next 24 hours, 56 in san francisco, 53 reported santa rosa. the clouds will be around with us for the afternoon and lingering into saturday. it will be a mix of sunshine and clouds for your entire weekend. satellite radar here so that weak system again brushing across california. the second one right here. it is going to slide through late tonight and into tomorrow morning, the possibility of a few showers. let me show you what is going to happen for your weekend. we have got the clouds out there. they don't go away.

tomorrow morning we wake up. a few scattered showers over the pacific. then the afternoon mainly dry, so if you have outdoor plans, the chinese new year parade may be cloudy, may be cool but is exhibited expected to be dry. sunday night into monday morning make the showers will be back with us. let's get back to today, scattered light sprinkles in the forecast, partly sunny skies and temperatures cooler than where we saw yesterday in the afternoon. 59 expected for santa rosa. looking at 59 for oakland today. 57 san francisco. how about the south bay? san jose 60 for the afternoon, 63 morgan hill, 64 degrees expected in gilroy. the extended forecast those scattered showers will be light. some of us may not really even feel it. 20%, that is the opportunity we will get with this system. so again, slight chance for the scattered showers. perhaps tomorrow morning then drying out until sunday night. sunday night into monday it looks like we will get another

shot of rain. >> keep the umbrella handy. >> yeah. >> thank you rosemary. >> you are welcome. >> first lady michelle obama took the stage in des moines, iowa, leading thousands of kids in a fitness dance. it is part of a three day nationwide tour to promote her let's move initiative. the first lady also visited the little rock airforce base in arkansas, where they are providing more healthy eating options in the cafeteria. a former high school student from the bay school year is getting special national attention because of what he can do on the basketball court. a new concern for madonna and this is more serious than an obscene gesture during the super bowl halftime show. ♪ ♪

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stocks falling sharply after greece hit a road block on its way to a critical international bailout. it interrupted the dow jones industrial average climb toward 13 thousand, the dow currently down 134 at 12,756, nasdaq down 29, s&p down 13. a new report indicates american workers are now bringing home more money. the report finds the median household income went from $49,000 to more than $51,000 but it was still down compared to 2007.

a mental patient who once went to prison for stalking madonna is back in custody, he was convicted of stalking her and served 10 years in prison, after his release he had another run in with police and was committed to the state mental hospital and that is where he walked away last week but he was captured nearby. a bay area native has become a basketball star who is taking the nba by storm. palo alto high school graduate jeremylin is the newest star. he was cut before signing with new york, he has got quite a fan base and the knicks are rushing to get merchandise with his name on it. we told you earlier but the search for bodies of victims of a serial killer, tonight at 5:00 rita williams is checking out a possible link to the

hayward kidnapping of m kayla garrett 20 years ago. thank you for trusting ktvu champ do news. we will see you the next time news breaks, be sure to join us again at 5:00. also we are always here for you on ktvu.com and mobile ktvu.com, thanks for watching. have a great weekend. send comments to comments@captioncolorado.com captions by terry james, caption colorado, llc.