. a terrible bay bridge commute on the first workday after the new lane configuration. we asked caltrans if that's the reason. the commute was terrible for much of the morning on the upper part of the bay bridge. new at noon, we're live to explain what caused this serious backup. alex? >> reporter: good afternoon, tori.

well, caltrans blames this backup on a metering light malfunction, an issue they are still working on. but drivers who got stuck in this mess, well, they think it was caused boo people slowing -- caused by people slowing down as they approached the new area of the bridge. traffic slowed to a crawl. it was -- this is 580. but things were backed up at 880'sing toward the toll plaza, too. commuters have no doubt this had something to do with the new portion of the upper deck of the bridge worked on over the weekend. >> we knew it was that. >> not knowing what to expect, taking it slow. >> is that how you took it? >> oh, yeah. >> reporter: there are cautions to show up. but a caltrans spokesman told us this morning's backup wasn't

the result of drivers slowing down, it was a technical issue at the toll plaza. >> the backup this morning has nothing to do with the detour that we put put in place as the -- the backups are from the lights. we have a technical team working on it. >> reporter: bart nay says the metering light issue and the traffic just pack for the holiday weekend led to a nasty commute. this woman just back from the holiday weekend. are you making it in time? >> no. [ laughter ] >> luckily, i have a flexible schedule. >> reporter: we just checked in with caltrans a few moments ago, they told me they are working on the lights.

in the meantime, they are running those metering lights manually as they try to deal with this incredible backup from earlier this morning. we're live from oakland, back to you. >> thank you. coming up a bit later, another incident on a busy bay area road this morning caused major traffic delays. we'll tell you why smoeld dering garbage was spread out on the road. that's coming up in 11 minutes. bay area gas prices have risen above the $4 mark. this morning $4.19 was the cost at a chevron station in walnut creek. nationally prices have risen 18 cents in the last week. analysts blame the rise on iran to limit exports. earlier, one man had a sense of humor about the situation. >> you have to just about mortgage your house to get a

gallon of gas. bring a credit application. >> there was a station selling gas for $4.99. we called to ask if there was a special reason for that price but have not gotten through. a battle is brewing calling for offshore drilling off the california coast and along the entire shelf. this would require opening the california, florida, and east coast to oil and gas drilling to help pay for highways. house republican leaders created the drilling provision as part of an attempt to fund a $270 billion transportation bill. stock market hit a milestone this morning for a brief time. the dow jones industrial average crossed $13,000 for the first time since may of 2008. the dow had gone as low as 6,7

47. that was back in 2009. the 13,000 level is a psychological milepost. taking a live look at the big board, you can see the dow down 3 at 12,946. the nasdaq is also down 12. s&p is down 1. as i mentioned, greece may have avoided the huge financial crisis today. earlier today, finance ministers meeting in brussels reached an agreement to give greece more bailout money. the euro nations will loan greece another 170 billion. greece also reached a separate agreement with private investors. the deal comes weeks before cease could have gone bankrupt. hayward police are

searching for a domestic violence suspect who slashed his own throat. this is jose hernandez. he's 5'8" with short black hair. police say he probably has bandaging around his -- bandaging around his neck during an alleged fight with his former girlfriend. police arrested him immediately after saturday's incident. he was supposed to be released into custody but he was inadvertently set free. the search for more victims of the speed freak killers could be expanding. there's more information about where more remains could be found. allie rasmus has more. >> reporter: well, convicted murderer wesley shermantine has revealed the location of another well where more victim remains may be found. he revealed that information in a phone calm he had with leonard padilla, he's a bounty hunter who offered to pay

$30,000 to shefermentine for the information. according to padilla, this well is located within a quarter mile of a phone tower near lyndon. this aerial give us a better view of what we're talking about. the bottom line, we don't know which one is exactly the well shermantine was talking about. shermantine and his accomplice herzog, are suspected of killing many people. many of the victims' bodies ha not -- have not been found. >> he should look at the overall picture and do two things. allow them to bring shempentine out and point out where the bodies and -- shempenshermantine out there and have him -- shermantine out

there and have him oint out where these -- out where these bodies are. we've contacted the sheriff's department 0 see if -- department to see if any of the searchers will be going out there. they've not returned our call of back to you.

. two people narrowly escaped the two-alarm fire in daly city. flames broke out at 8:30 near the century 20 movie theater. fire officials say they initially received the report of someone jumping out of the window but they were not able to confirm that happened. one tenant says she was getting ready for school when she heard tapping on the win dope. i thought it was raining. my landlord was banging on the door telling me there was a fire and to get out. >> no one was injured. there's no wor yet on the cause of the fire -- word yet on the cause of the fire. tortoises were the part of a story about a fire this morning in the east bay. you will hear how that happened. bay area temperatures, warming up fast. rose mare i -- rosemary will explain in her forecast. and the story of a little

girl who went on a date with a really big sports star. wow, look at this bed! this nightstand! this wardrobe! what are you doing here? you're in ikea. my dream bedroom is in ikea? yes. what's that bedroom over there? that's your husband's dream bedroom. whatever your style, take home your dream bedroom together. ikea. the life improvement store.

. a fire in a garbage truck

that was carrying 40 tons of household waste. emergency crews had to disconnect the trailer from the tractor. investigators say they don't know exactly what sparked the fire. >> it's fairly common for garbage or waste trucks to catch fire. it can be anything from people putting in charcoal briquettes or firewood, there could be any amount of stuff that gets into a garbage can. >> no one was hurt. fire officials say caltrans will put the garbage in a dump truck and haul it away. one firefighter is recovering from heat exhaustion. the homeowners were housing some chickens and a pair of tortoises in the garage. they say the fire started because of a malfunctioning heating pad used to keep the tortoises warmed. the animals were not harmed.

they escaped in the backyard. >> for turtles, they escaped pretty quickly. >> when it's warm, they are very fast. you don't association that with them or -- associate that with them or think about that with them. >> the injured firefighter was transported to eden hospital and should be okay. it took about ten minutes to put the fire out. estimatedded damage about $50,000. the cause of a fire at a contra costa county homeless count is under investigation. it happened underneath the willow pass and diamond boulevard bridge in concord. firefighters quickly responded and put out the flames. no one was injured. in san joaquin family the family of -- county, the family of sandra cantu is planning a celebrates for what would be her 11th birthday for march 8. there will be a lot of kid- oriented activities. it's for kids to have fun, to learn about safety and to

remember sandra. melissa huckaby killed her and is searching a life sentence. demonstrators demonstrated the because of an improper use of the korans. reportedly, korans once used ended up in the trash. >> i offer my sincere apologies to the president, to the government but most importantly to the people, the noble of afghanistan. the books were removed from the prisoner's lie bay area -- prisoners' library. in the future drivers may

reach for their mart phones when they get pulled over. there is a provision, a bill, that would require insurance companies to send proof of financial responsibility to a smartphone or ipad at the driver's request. reduced bus fares for antioch seniors is offering to give the city 5,000 bus tickets a year for the city's senior program. the city can help the tickets for seniors for whatever price it wants. right now seniors pay 50 cents for a ride. under the earlier plan they would have paid $2.50 for a ride. almost a year after floodwaters devastated parts of capitola there are still several lawsuits. a drainage pipe ruptured in heavy rains and businesses in capitola village.

the lawsuits claim the city failed to properly take care of underground pipes. the santa cruz sentinel reports, one homeowner is suing for $130,000 in damage. residents of the san francisco zoo got a shaky wakeup call. the survey says there was a 2.2 magnitude quake about four miles from the zoo in the pacific ocean. it struck before 1:00 this morning. the usgs had a depth of about 5.5 miles. there were no reports of any damage or injuries. the u.s. supreme court said it will hear a case concerning affirmative action in college admissions. the lawsuit was brought by a white woman because she said she was denied admission. back in we 2003, the -- back in 2003, the high court --

the rues postal service plans to close more than 200 of its mail processing facilities because of budget problems. that will lengthen delivery times, meaning if you don't get your ballot in on time, it may arrive too late to be counted. more than 50% of californians voted by mail in the past two elections. >> it just hursts to encourage -- it just hurts that we encouraged it an now that can result of -- and now that can result in their ballot not being counted. a young colorado girl is still enjoying the weekend of a lifetime. she was invited to an awards she in los angeles and her date was denver broncos quarterback tim tebow. >> he was a thousand times nicer than you think he is.

>> she has nf-1 ady order that forms tumors under the skin and ther in ferns from the brain -- and ther in ferns from the brain and -- and the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. >> she's gone through a lot. when we got the notice for this. she was shocked and my husband last night said the whole weekend she's never -- he's never seen her smile and be as happy as she was. >> tebow gave her several souvenirs, including an autographed football. good afternoon to you. outside our doors, partly to mostly sunny skies. and a warmup underway. it's going to feel like spring. giving you a live look we have high clouds drifting overhead ridge of high pressure building in just a little bit of -- just a little bit of haze for some of us out in the bay.

winds are light, could pick up a little bit over the course of the afternoon. the light offshore breeze at sfo, west-southwest. 55 in santa rosa. 54 in napa. so temperatures from 24 hours ago not a huge change but we are going to see that as we move into the second half of the day. wednesday, thursday should be warm. 63 in concord. san francisco and oakland reporting 53 degrees right now with a few scattered clouds out there. we're gonna back this off. definitely a notable power change happening in the last 12 to 24 hours. the last bit of rain, this ridge clearly southeastern her. you can see how the -- southeastern area. you can see this. we're gonna be dry and our temperatures will be near 70 in some cases. high clouds in the forecast will be anywhere from 5 to 10

degrees warmer than yesterday. the winds, anywhere from 5 to 10 miles an hour. maybe 15 for some of our breezier spots. expected for the afternoon today. 65 in oakland. nova doe, santa rosa checking in upper 60s for concord -- novato, santa rosa, checking in 60s. gilroy for the afternoon, your extended forecast shows you an even warmer day for wednesday and thursday. widespread low to mid-70s. approaching the weekend into friday, we do see temperatures cool back a little bit with the coolest weather in store for the weekend. upper 50s, low 60s with partly to mostly cloudy skies. at this point, still holding off on any possibility of rain. story -- tori? >> all right. thank you. >> a big party is underway in new orleans right there as

revelers take over to mark mardi gras. thousands have lined the streets as fat tuesday gets under swing. fat tuesday is the last big party of the kristin season. mardi gras festivals will take place here in the fillmore district. tonight's celebration begins at 5:00 on fillmore between eddy and geary. we have more gatherty grau coverage -- mardi gras coverage on our website. look for the special second up the -- under the top story pox at ktvu.com -- story box at ktvu.com. ahead -- you will hear new data on whether american shoppers are continuing to accept online shopping in a big way.

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yes...but i want my own invisible cord. you already have one. oh. ♪ . the dow made a run at 13,000 today for the first time in four years powered by a long- awaited pailout deal for greece and strong corporate earns at home. the dow is -- earnings at home. . an annual customer shopping survey shows total e-commerce sales jumped 16%. the american customer

satisfaction index shows shoppers spent more than $194 billion for online shopping in 2011. amazon remains the top online retailer with customers saying they like amazon's low-cost shipping and the use of new technology. overall, customer satisfaction increased by 1% to a score of 80 out of a possible 100. later this hour, the oracle racing team is taking to the water for a practice session in the bay in preparation for next year's 44th america cup. the route goes along the em bauer da kerr row before circling in front of treasure island angel island -- embarcadero before circling in front of treasure island, angel island. remember these pictures, the miracle on the hud son? tonight we're learning --

hudson tonight we're learning what was on there may not be on all plane. thanks for watching have a great day.