their ideal for maverick surfers but dangerous for everyone else. the warning about some big waves in the bay area this weekend. yes or no did you ever take banned substances to enhance your cycling performance? >> yes. >> why his confessions and apologies are not enough. good morning. thank you for joining us on this on friday morning, january 18th i'm pam cook. brian flores has the morning off but steve paulson is here with the friday morning and a little bit of the weather. for the weekend it looks pretty nice. >> yesterday temperatures warmed up. had 60s to 70-degrees down in santa cruz. 30s and 40s. 28 up in santa rosa. look for the temperatures to be in the 60s. we'll have your weekend

forecast in seven or eight minutes. steve, good morning. traffic right now looks pretty good. we have road work up on the bay bridge. you're looking at a picture of 880 that is looking good. also the morning commute is moving along nicely in san francisco. 4:29 let's go back to the desk. >> thank you, sal. topping our news this morning an elderly woman was take ton the hospital after firefighters found her after an apartment fire in hay wad. the fire started inside an apartment just about 9:30 last night. fire officials say the fire was put out quickly but they found an unresponsive woman inside. alex savidge just arriving on the scene getting new information for us and he will join us in a bit. also overnight news a car chase became a man hunt on foot when the car overturned in san leandro. the car ended up on its roof.

police searched the freeways and nearby streets. we do have calls into the police department to figure out if they found the suspect and why they gave chase in the first place. also overnight power has been restored to thousands of pg&e customers in oakland. pg&e says an under ground explosion and fire at park and mccar there are knocked out power to 5500 homes and businesses. that was about 2:00 this morning. that fire has been put out and power has been fully restored. new developments in the hostage crisis in algeria. the hostage crisis is ongoing and defense secretary leon panetta says the u.s. is working to assess what is happening. algerian helicopters stormed a natural gas plant yesterday in an attempt to free dozens of hostages. the hostages include americans and people from at least eight

other countries. their fates remain uncertain at this point. there are some reports that hostages escaped but were killed or are then still being held. we're still trying to find out more information. algeria state news reports that 18 militants have been killed. 4:31 is the time right now. oakland mayor jean quan is asking for federal help to combat crime in oakland while in washington, d.c.. she says she is meeting with department of justice to try to bring more enforcement law enforcement resources to oakland. we're also learning the reasons behind san jose police chief chris moore decision to leave the department. the 51-year-old chief last day on the job is tomorrow. moore says the last straw was when the city council vetted

against putting a tax on last november's ballot to help the police department's finances. chief moore said if he decided he didn't have the support of city leaders it was time for him to go. san jose has not decided on a permanent replacement for him. story of an attempted kidnapping in san jose is thousand being called a lie. the child's mother confessed to making up the story. coming up at 4:45 what is expected to happen next in the case and reaction from the community. the local cycling community is split on whether to believe lance armstrong's apology for using performance enhancing drugs. >> i made my decisions. they are my case. i'm sitting here today to acknowledge that and to say i'm sorry for that. >> armstrong's long awaited interview with oprah winfrey aired last night. after denying doping allegations for years he confessed to taking banned substances to win seven tour de

france titles. some local cyclists watching the interview request questioned the motives. >> we race clean, we race fair because we love to do it. >> other cyclists say armstrong should be remembered for overcoming cancer and establishing the live strong foundation. armstrong wants his lifetime ban from competitive sports lifted so he can compete. 4:33 is the time right now. san francisco 49ers leave for atlanta today ahead of nfc championship game. fans have been busy stocking up on anything red and gold. the team store in palo alto was busy yesterday. 49ers got in one final practice in santa clara. the team is looking to go to the franchise's first super bowl since after the 1994 season. >> i hope we can continue to win. i believe we will. but i'm just as excited to be here. it's exciting to be a part of

this team. and just contributing in any way. >> on the road the 49ers have a five-game losing streak in the playoffs but they are 4.5 points favorites this sunday. don't forget you can watch the game right here with us at ktvu channel 2. our coverage begins at 9:30 sunday morning with our championship play book show. followed by fox sports coverage. kickoff shortly after noon and point after show following the game. sal, is here for traffic. how is the friday commute? i think it looks pretty good. as a matter of fact, the traffic is moving along nicely on some of the areas where we have road work. we have road work on the upper deck of the bay bridge. let's go to the east shore freeway where we are starting off pretty well. the traffic looks good coming down to the mccarthur maze. we spoke about the bay bridge. one lane is closed but they will be picking it up pretty soon. it's not causing any traffic

jams. if you are driving in san jose northbound 280 traffic does look good getting up to highway 17. now let's go to steve. another cold morning. but temperatures have continued to warm up and it looks like they will top out not only today but right into the weekend. some mid 60s for a few as high pressure continues to win out. patchy fog systems aligning themselves north to south have no chance. maybe next week. middle of next week there is signs of possible change. 20s for a few. livermore is in there. santa rosa. 44 san francisco. a lot of 30s. keep our eye on fog out toward the valley. maybe some of that popping up a little later. usually does 7:00, 8:00. there is some getting closer to the coast. overall temperatures started the day off. now it's very, very cold. pattern is kind of stuck here. to the north things might change a little bit. but for us a little bit of patchy fog sunny and warm. hazy skies. everything is cane of stuck.

60s now. mid 60s to 70 down toward santa cruz. ordinary reason that it looks like a very quiet weekend. pam. thank you, steve. a high surf advisory goes into effect later today. it will last through most of the weekend. the incoming swells good news for making conditions ideal for this sunday's mavericks big wave surfing competition. that contest begins at 8:00 in the morning. speck tailors -- spectators not allowed on the beach because of the big waves. looks like a hijacking scare aboard an alaskan airways flight may have been a hoax. two military planes escorted the plane to sea tech airport. they questioned one man on the flight but did not find him to be a threat. president obama's reelection campaign is launching a new nonprofit group to support his second term

agenda. the new group organizing for action will be officially announced today. the group is looking to take the energy from the president's reelection campaign and turn it into support for his legislative priority. first they will push congress for tighter gun control. scalpers looking to profit from their inauguration tickets will be blocked from using craigs list and e-bay. they have agree odd re-- have agreed to remove listings. according to the committee some scalpers posted tickets asking for thousands of dollars. some 250,000 tickets were given out for free to the public from congressional offices. ktvu will have live coverage beginning sunday morning. ken and torrey campbell will be there in washington, d.c. so you can look for their live report starting on mornings on 2. 4:38 is the time right now. new concerns about the flu after the bay area's first

death. the event that is mourning that could help you protect yourself. and a new twist in the manti teo scandal. there is word he may have known his girlfriend never existed. why he never said anything. good morning, westbound highway 4 off to a decent start now. we'll tell you more about the morning commute and the bay weather. well, well, well.

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george -- good morning 20s and 30s and 40s on the lows. elderly woman was taken to the hospital late last night. firefighters found her after putting out a fire at her apartment. alex savidge is there at the scene with a look at the damage and more on the story. alex. >> reporter: this was an elderly woman who suffered burns and also smoke inhalation after she was pulled from her burning apartment. as we push in here, you can see

that second story unit that was clearly heavily damage the. this fire broke autoat second and east street. crews on scene tell us it was a fairly small kitchen fire. firefighters made their way through the unit they ended up finding this unit inside and she was unresponse i. firefighters dead say she did have -- firefighters did say she had a pulse when transported. >> we were able to extinguish the fire fairly aggressively. we did find a victim within the home. they found him in the bedroom during our primary search. >> reporter: aside from that one woman, no one else was hurt in the fire. although it's unclear if anyone else was inside the apartment at the time. that woman is being treated at eden hospital. her condition this morning is not being released. her name not being released either. as we bring you back out here

live we will work to talk with this woman some of her neighbors here as folks begin to wake up and understand what happened here last night. we will certainly be trying to speak with neighbors and get an idea about who this woman is and exactly what happened last night as this fire broke out inside her unit. live this morning in hayward alex savidge. as we have been reporting there is a high surf advisory going into effect later today. the big waves ideal for surfers but dangerous for everyone else. ktvu channel 2 reporter tara moriarty is in half-moon bay with more on the warnings at bay area beaches this weekend. tara. >> reporter: yeah we're here at other january know hotel in half-moon bay. preparations are getting under way for mavericks and the festival starting this morning. we do want to mention there will be no beach or bluff access come sunday which is when the competition kicks off. authorities are closing all

roads to pillar point and the national weather service has issued a dangerous wave warning which will go into effect this afternoon and last until late tomorrow morning. now if you remember three years ago at mavericks there were unexpected waves that broke on shore sweeping dozens of spectators from the manmade jetty at the southern tip of mavericks beach. within the past month waves have killed three people in the bay area including a man and his nine-year-old son that were swept off the rocks while fishing in marin head winds. waves can strike with enough force to knock beach twoers un- - beach goers unconscious. so again sneaker wave warning along the coastline. officials have also year ewed a high sur -- also issued a high surf advisory. folks are perhaps planning staying at home and watch the

game and watch the surf competition via online. if you do decide to come out here there will be a jumbo ton set up with the mafficks fest -- mavericks mavericks festival. the flu is wide spread in california and now one death is being reported here in the bay area. health officials say a 98-year- old woman in santa clara county died of the flu earlier this morning. the woman suffered from other chronic health problems. news of her death comes as several bay area pharmacies report running out of the flu vaccine temporarily due to high demand. >> this is not the typical time when you'd have surges in demand for flu vaccine but that is what we are seeing. >> the flu outbreak has reached epidemic levels with dozens of deaths reported. at least five flu deaths have been reported in california.

health officials say it's not too late to get the flu vaccine. washington hospital in fremont is holding a flu vaccine clinic this morning for children three years and older. vaccines cost $10. the event runs from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.. >> authorities plan to exhume the body of a lottery winner that who was poisoned. he died in july as he was about to collect $425,000 in lottery winnings. the 46-year-old's death was ruled to be natural causes. after a relative asked far deeper look full toxicology reports shows he was poisoned with cyanide. the time is 4:47. a san jose mother who is accused of lying about the attempted kidnapping of her daughter could be arrested as early as today. the mother claimed a man tried to snatch her three-year-old daughter outside their home.

san jose police say the story had inconsistencies and the mother admitted to making up the story when interviewed again. the cousin of michelle le says false reports hurt real victims. >> it takes police resources away, takes media time away. >> police did not give a motive and they have not yet released the mother's name but says she does have a criminal record. we are learning new twist in last november's deadly home invasion robbery. the san francisco chronicle reports that the victim hired a prostitute named raven dixon. dixon then allegedly gave an oakland gang information on his mansion. gang members planned the home invasion. three men have been charged with his murder. new program that will assign attorneys to investigate complaints for neighbors begins in vallejo today.

the neighborhood law program will focus on issues ranging from drug activity to squatting. city attorneys will meet with -- to discuss solutions to problems. attorneys will take attorneys to court if the problem cannot be resolved. uc under graduate students will likely not see their tuition go up next fall. they made that announcement yesterday. proposition 30 the uc system is expected to receive $125 million in state funding next year. that means there won't be a need to raise under graduate tuition. there is still talk of raising fees for graduate programs. we do have the first video of manti teo. he is training for the april nfl draft. he knew for weeks his stanford girlfriend never existed but he

perpetuated the hoax as notre dame prepared for the national championship game. let's go back to sal. how does it look? >> it looks pretty good. on 80 westbound we will start there and look at the traffic coming in from va lay -- vallejo and richmond. it doesn't usually stay this way for too long. now is your opportunity. at the bay bridge toll plaza the traffic is light getting into san francisco. and no trouble on the upper deck of the bay bridge. if you're driving on the peninsula 101 and 280 look pretty good here. driving on 101 down to the south bay. no problems there. we've been looking at the south bay commute pretty good. and looking at the livermore valley where westbound 580 comes in. it looks very light. 4:50 let's go to steve. sal, thank you. another quiet, quiet morning. 20s and 30s and 40s. maybe patchy fog popping up. 28 well was 28 livermore. 28 santa rosa.

still 20s coming in from the north bay to santa cruz mountains. not much has changed there. temperatures on the low side seem to be coming up one or two degrees. fog is trying to -- a little off the coast there is some inland. but for us it just looks like another day. if you enjoyed yesterday you will like today. sunny and mild to warm. temperatures 50s and 60s. looks like we are losing a little bit of that easterly component but still mid to upper 60s to near 70 degrees. livermore now touching 60 degrees. pam. thank you, steve. too popular for its own good. what happens now after the marin county buy back ran out of money. investigators are calling it something they have never seen before. the scam of gift cards for sale at grocery stores.

that are still on the store shelves. it involves thieves switching out the bar codes on the gift cards with another bar code from a gift card they have already purchased. once someone buys the card and puts money on it that cash goes to the thieves gift cards. investigators found dozens of cards that have been tampered with. so far no one has come forward to say they have been victimized. 4:53. a pilot for bakersfield is suing a burlingame hotel over a recent carbon monoxide leak. the lawsuit accuses the hotel owner hilton hotels of negligence. a state law requiring carbon

monoxide alarms does not go into effect until 2016. some of san francisco's most iconic residents are celebrating a birthday today. it's been 23 years since sea lions first showed up at pier 39 to mark the anniversary there will be free walking tours for people who want to learn more about sea lion. those tours are from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. every day through monday. 4:54 is the time. it should be a nice weekend in the city too. >> it sounds like it. sure does. we are checking san francisco just quince dentally on the freeways. it does look pretty good there on northbound 101. we had earlier road work. it looks like they picked that up. also the morning commute is moving along pretty well westbound bay bridge. the traffic continues to move along nicely into the city. no problems there. now if you are driving in the livermore valley livermore to castro valley it's a nice drive so far. let's go to steve. thank you. standing right in front of a

system but it's not over us. it continues to line itself north to south, south to north. there are just crazy temps again. some areas near 30 degrees. others near 40. it just depends if you get a breeze or not. it can be a cold one or a warm one. a little built of patchy fog. lots of sunshine. i don't see things changing in the the middle of next week. maybe some rain. more like lip end of the month. temperatures upper 50s inland to low and mid 60s elsewhere to 70 beautiful degrees in santa cruz. half-moon bay 65. los gatos 60. warming up we will carry that into the weekend. pam. >> thank you, steve. lake tahoe is in the running to host the winter x- games for three years. espn released a list of four eligible destinations.

they include aspen, colorado. park city utah, quebec city, utah. and lake tahoe. coming up new details about boeing's troubled dream liner. what japanese officials? found overnight. firefighters made a surprising discovery in an apartment fire in hayward.