. a frightening ordeal for a kidnap victim who still had enough wit to help lead to her rescue. >> good evening. police are still investigating a bizarre case of a kidnapping, high speed chase and a crash that ended with sonoma county sheriffs deputies shooting and killing the suspect. eric rasmussen is live with more. >> reporter: she was able to send text messages to a friend while she was in the suspect's car. now, in the last hour, we've determined that car is registered to a man from san jose. we still don't know whether this victim and the suspect knew each other or what led deputies to shoot and kill the suspect, just moments after they rescued the woman about 20 miles from here in geronville. this was our first look at the

suspect's toyota, windows blown out as a tow truck hauled it away this afternoon. a wild chase and deadly confrontation with deputies ended in this wooded area of geronville off highway 116 after 11:00 last night. >> i suspect that he knew where he was going and was trying to evade the police. >> reporter: bob reeves owns the house nearby, but didn't know what happened until this morning. last night, investigators say a woman sent a text message to a friend in san rafael that she had been kidnapped. >> that she was concerned for her safety and being driven to sonoma county against her will. >> reporter: more text messages helped deputies spot the suspect's car on geronville road in santa rosa, setting off a high speed chase through winding roads. it ended down odd fellow's park road in a park development. >> he eventually lost control of his car and crashed into an embankment, at which point the deputies were able to assist the female victim from the car. >> reporter: the woman was not hurt, but the sheriff's office says one of its deputies shot and killed the suspect while

trying to arrest him. investigators have not identified him or said if he was armed. people here are crediting the victim for keeping her calm and finding a way to call for help. >> communication is a wonderful thing, isn't it? saved this woman's life perhaps. >> that was eric rasmussen reporting. a 23-year-old hayward man is facing charges for breaking into a house and leading police on a chase that ended in a multicar crash. news chopper 2 was over the scene of the collision on highway 24 in orinda. police were pursuing 23-year- old brian battles just before 11:00 a.m. when he crashed his car into other vehicles. he tried to run, but was taken into custody. battle's car was linked to a burglary early this morning. there are no reports of any injuries. santa cruz police officers went back to work today, putting aside their grief.

robert handa is live with more. >> reporter: santa cruz took some of its first small steps in returning to normal today. the police headquarters lobby remained closed as it has been since the shootings. but employees have been coming back to work, including patrols on the streets. cruz police officers went back on patrol this morning after two days of grieving for their fellow officers, detectives elizabeth butler and loran butch baker killed tuesday in the line of duty. some residents showed up to cheer on the troopers. >> it's all about the officers to support them, to let them know we love them and our hearts are just with them this morning. >> reporter: sheriffs deputies saluted the police officers' return, along with the california highway patrol. the sheriff's department has been handling the city's law enforcement duties. >> they have so cared for us. i can't say enough about that.

and we could never repay them for what they did. and then to honor us, to honor us the way they did this morning, that was pretty special. >> reporter: for the most part, many of the patrol seemed to deal with mainly routine incidents today. some people were concerned about the department's 94 officers returning to work so soon after such a personal loss. >> what do you do? and i want to just hug them all, make them feel somewhat better. so i'm just hoping they are okay out there. >> we've had some time to grieve. now we realize it's time to get back to work and protect our community. >> reporter: and investigators now say they are also looking for this 28-year-old local homeless woman, theresa johnson. she is an acquaintance of the suspect jerry muglay. she is wanted to provide information on the suspect. we'll have more on that at 6:00. live in santa cruz, robert handa, ktvu channel 2news. las vegas police are

looking at new video taken during last week's deadly chase and shooting that ended with three people dead. police obtained the video before 26-year-old ammar harris was arrested in los angeles. investigators say the video taken by taxi dashboard camera shows harris' range rover and a maserati weaving around each other on the vegas strip. harris fired at least five shots into the maserati, killing one man, then slamming into a taxi leading to an explosion that left two others dead. power is expected to be restored in two hours in a lafayette after after being knocked out because of a police chase and crash. the suspect car hit a power pole just before 3:00 a.m. on happy valley road. almost 1800 pg&e customers lost power. most had it restored within hours. police spotted the truck that hit the pole a few minutes before the crash, driving erratically on highway 24. officers say they stopped the truck, but then the driver took off and drove into the

neighborhood. the suspect has been identified as 38-year-old mark biancini of san francisco. the truck was reported stolen from castro valley several days ago. >> he was laying face-down into the mud and policemen were in back securing him and then got him up, brought him down the drive. >> the suspect was booked on several charges, including felony evasion, drug possession and resisting arrest. tonight, president obama is just hours away from signing an executive order that officially puts $85 billion in budget cuts into effect. and with sequestration about to become a reality, the president turned to the world of fantasy to express his frustration. >> reporter: failing to see eye to eye, the president and top four congressional leaders walked away from the negotiating table with no plan to avert or replace $85 billion in forced spending cuts set to kick in at midnight. >> we shouldn't be making a

series of dumb, arbitrary cuts to things that businesses depend on. >> it's about taking on the spending problem here in washington. >> reporter: the president and democrats want to close tax loopholes. >> we believe that we should build our economy from the middle class out, from the middle out. the republicans believe in trickle-down. >> reporter: but republicans refuse to raise taxes. >> the president got his tax hikes on january 1st. this discussion about revenue, m my view, is over. >> reporter: even with so many americans weary from all the sequestration talk, ears perked after the president mixed star wars and star trek to illustrate he can't force a solution. >> the fact that they don't take it means that i should somehow, you know, do a jedi mind meld with these folks and convince them to do what's right. >> reporter: government agencies are already taking steps to get in line with those

budget cuts. we have a few examples for you. the fda says there could be 2100 fewer food safety inspections because the agency would have to reign in spending to last year's levels. now, the transportation department says that the nation's busiest airports, including san francisco international airport, would see runway closures, which would likely lead to widespread delays and flight cancellation. finally, the coastguard says that the budget cuts could potentially restrict rescues, saying that it has to cut back the number of hours its aircraft will fly and cutters will patrol the sea. coming up at 5:30 tonight, the bay area stands to take a hit from those budget cuts, and not just at sfo. the critical services and major projects here that are going to be effected. california's average unemployment rate improved last year, but it was still higher than the national average. that's according to figures from the u.s. labor department. they show the 2012 average at 10.5% compared to 11.8% the year before. that's well above the national

average for 2012, of 8.1%. president obama today explained why his administration filed a brief, asking the supreme court to strike down california's proposition 8. >> the supreme court asks me, or my attorney general general, do we think that meets constitutional muster? i felt it was important for us to answer that question honestly. and the answer is no. >> the president said the brief did not call for making same- sex marriage legal nationwide, but was limited to california's ban on same-sex marriage, because that's what the supreme court asked about. police are investigating the owner of four sonoma county businesses that allegedly doubled as illegal gambling dens. investigators say they are consulting the da's office on whether or not to bring charges against 56-year-old andrew lee of roanoke park. the inquiry was prompted by several nuisance complaints surrounding one of lee's computer and video game businesses. investigators found computers at all four businesses that

appeared to be used primarily for playing card games and slots. four employees were cited. orange county sheriffs deputies found a suicide note on the computer of a man who fatally shot three people before killing himself. that was 10 days ago in the community of tuftton. the computer was taken from the bedroom of the man. police have not found any previous connection between sigh yid and his victims. last month, a parole board approved 70-year-old bruce davis' release, but ultimately left the final decision to the governor. davis has served more than 40 years of his life sentence. although he was not involved in the notorious sharon tate killings, he was convicted with manson and others in the murders of a musician and a stunt man. governor jerry brown blocked his appeal today.

47-year-old anna ayala and her son both pleaded not guilty. ayala is accused of being accessory to felony and filing false police report. her son is charged with falsely reporting a crime and being a felon in possession of a firearm. in 2005, ayala planted a severed human finger in a bowl of restaurant chili in an unsuccessful fraud scheme. cases of the flu across the country are slowly dying down. according to the latest report just released from the cdc today, there are now only 12 states still reporting widespread flu activity is california is not one of them, but the cdc is not officially declaring the end of flu season until the portion of those reporting flu-like symptoms is at 2.2%. it's currently at 2.7%. >> this was an egregious example of violating the public trust. >> serious charges a south bay politician now faces and what he did today in response. >> and developing news in the north bay. our news chopper 2 is over what we believe is the end of a

chase. we're making calls into the newsroom, gathering information. we will have an update for you, next. . >> and mid-70s today. it's going to be the warmest day of the week. temperatures trending down as we move towards your weekend and in the five-day, a chance of rain. didn't have u-verse.

growing up, we didn't have u-verse. we couldn't record four shows at the same time. in my day, you were lucky if you could record two shows. and if mom was recording her dumb show and dad was recording his dumb show then, by george, that's all we watched. and we liked it! today's kids got it so good. [ male announcer ] get u-verse tv for just $19 a month for 1 year when you bundle tv and internet. rethink possible.

. we're just getting word into the newsroom that the memorial services for the two police officers who were gunned down earlier this week, on tuesday, is being moved from santa cruz to the hp pavillion in san jose. it's supposed to happen on thursday, march 7th. we had heard earlier that there were so many people planning on attending that they had at least one overflow facility and were planning on maybe adding a second overflow facility, but now we hear it is moving to the hp pavillion, which holds 17,000 people. again this, memorial service for the two santa cruz officers killed will be held in san jose on march 7th. we'll keep you posted when we

get more information. a well known santa clara county politician faces criminal charges tonight. prosecutors filed several felony and misdemeanor charges against county supervisor george shirakawa. >> reporter: the devil was in the details in the downfall of santa clara county supervisor george shirakawa, revealed through poster burled displays how the long-time politician moved money for private use since 2006. >> let's say this was an egregious example of violating the public's trust. >> reporter: he is charged with four felony counts of perjury, one felony count of misappropriation of public funds and filing false statements, as well as seven misdemeanors for failing to file campaign reports. he resigned today and says he will plead guilty to all the charges at his court hearing march 18th. the da says he will be legally banned from elected office, be fined $50,000, and could face

jail time. >> we will ask for substantial jail term in this case, up to a year, and, you know, we believe that's appropriate for what his conduct was in this case. >> reporter: we went to shirakawa's san jose home, but no one answered the door. much of the money misused by him took place in casinos. in a statement of resignation, he said for years i have suffered from depression and gambling addiction, which went untreated for too long, which led to actions i deeply regret. >> hopefully this brings closure, not just to this chapter in what's happening with the supervisor, but also in terms of the public perception of the board of supervisors. >> reporter: the board now has 45 days from today to appoint a replacement for shirakawa or set a date for special election. matt keller, ktvu channel 2news. developing news, a man is now in custody after the

highway patrol was involved in a wild chase. it started on interstate 80. these are live pictures from news chopper 2. that's when highway patrol officers saw a vehicle hit a motorcycle and then drive away. the officers gave chase during which the driver then allegedly hit three more vehicles. at that point, the driver is said to have tried to car jack a motorcyclist and another vehicle. officers in a chp helicopter that had been following the chase landed on the freeway at the side of the road and arrested the driver. at this point, the amount of damage and extent of injuries is unknown and we are following this story and will keep you posted as we learn more. uc santa cruz has released the name of a student who fell to his death yesterday morning. 19-year-old tyler collins was found at the bottom of a 75- foot ravine not far from the student health center. he was air lifted to valley medical center in san jose, where he died. at this point, investigators are trying to determine how he fell, but say foul play was not involved. aurora colorado shooting

suspect lawyers say their client may plead not guilty by reason of insanity. his attorneys want the judge to declare portions of the state's insanity defense laws unconstitutional. they say it's because holmes waived his right to remain silent and revealed confidential medical information. he is charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder in the july shooting. a busy stretch of interstate 80 looked like a blood bath in a horror movie, but it wasn't blood. it's ketchup. a truck carrying heinz ketchup veered into the median of interstate 80 in reno yesterday. the trailer was ripped open and bottles, bags and cans of ketchup tumbled out, covering the roadway. creative cleanup crews used snow plows to push the condiment off the highway. david einhorn wants apple to issue shares of preferred stock with a hire dividend in order to put more of its cash

in the hands of shareholders. apple put the item on the aagain ga last week, requiring a shareholder vote on the idea. that's when einhorn sued. apple dropped the item and einhorn dropped the lawsuit. apple ceo said the suit was silly. the company is considering the preferred stock idea. the first day of retirement is in the books for pope benedict xvi, but at the vatican, cardinals are preparing to select his replacement. the dean of the college of cardinals officially invited all eligible cardinals to assemble in rome. the general congregation begins next week to discuss church issues. the conclave to choose the next pope must begin in the next 15 to 20 days, but could start sooner. an awesome kid. that's how former nba star dennis rodman described north korean dick indicator kim jong- un.

>> his country loves him. love him. not like him. love him. loveim. the guy is awesome. >> rodman and mr. kim attended a basketball game together during rodman's visit. governor jerry brown has issued a state of emergency for a san mateo county. the proclamation comes in the wake of flooding over the christmas period. that's when days of heavy rain caused a creek levee to fail. the county already declared a local emergency. the proclamation for the governor clears the way for the county to request federal aid to repair damaged property and roads. the fog has burned off in the south bay. and san jose airport is back to normal tonight. some flights were delayed or even canceled this morning. about 20 flights were grounded for about two hours after the faa imposed ground stop, prohibiting any flights to land or take off. that was lifted just before 8:30 a.m. this type of delay is rare at the airport. san jose usually only gets about five bad weather days a year. well, this is the opposite

of a bad weather day for so many people who like sunshine and calm weather. let's go now to chief meteorologist, and bill, you promised this was coming. >> started off at the airport, foggy, dense fog advisory early this morning. fog has since cleared, even cleared from the coastal sections, but i anticipate it comes back tonight. i don't think we'll see airport delays tomorrow like we did in san jose. highs from today, officially national weather service numbers, look at santa rosa at 74. napa, antioch, hot spots. now in, your backyard, you may have gone to 76 or 77. these are the official recording sites. but if you get in the right micro climate, you could have found upper 70s today. you see the focus is all to the north. that's where it was last night, too. that's all that moisture, a lot, too, look where it's coming from. it's subtropical moisture. this is really potentially heavy rain-producing stuff, but its focus is north, way in the pacific northwest. what we're seeing are high

clouds filtering overhead. they are going to cool things off the next couple of days. they will give us filtered sunshine as well. so it's not going to be vibrant sunshine. tomorrow will be hazy, mostly sunny, partly cloudy, one of those days. same with sunday. still warm out there. concord at 71. 70 in santa rosa. 71 in fairfield. so, wow, what a friday afternoon. hope you got a good weekend planned. weather does look great. going into tomorrow, though, look for some of that coastal fog. i mean, guess there could be a little valley fog. dynamics are stronger for the coastal stuff. on the great highway today, over twin peaks, pacifica, dense. there was a lot of it. took a while to burn off. i don't think they will have the same intensity, but still around patchy tomorrow morning. extended forecast, we got rain to talk about. it does look like it could be significant rain. i say significant, half inch of rain. but that's good. we could use that. these are the overnight lows forecast. 40 in santa rosa, 40 in napa, not as cold because of the

clouds overhead. but chilly. 45 in antioch. bay area saturday looks like this. overnight lows, mild. wake up, partly sunny, hazy sunshine. daytime highs, upper 60s, low 70s, yellows are 70s. today we had tons of 70s. tomorrow, mostly south bay and pockets of the east and the north bay. when i come back at 5:45, computer model, show you the rain. right into the bay area weekend, i'll show you when the rain comes, which day on the weekend will be the warmest and sunniest. i'll be back at 5:45. >> thank you, bill. an iconic single mom. the actress who became a star because of her role on "one day at a time" has died. more on the life of bonnie franklin. >> it may only be a rest room. so why are police paying particular attention to one in medications?

i don't know. last immunization shots? really? honey, what's my blood pressure medicine called? one time i took something and i blew up like a puffer fish. i'm probably allergic to that. at kaiser permanente, your medical information is available to you and your doctors. quickly. securely. no guesswork required. better information. better care. kaiserpermanente. thrive. ♪ i want a weed free season, that's how i roll ♪ ♪ so i reach for roundup extended control ♪ ♪ with the all-new, no pump, one-touch wand ♪ ♪ it kills weeds dead and keeps weeds gone ♪ [ whip cracks ] ♪ roundup extended control ♪ i just spray them weeds, then spray them cracks ♪ ♪ the weeds are gone, and they won't be back ♪

♪ driveway, patio, i just spray once ♪ ♪ and it's adios weeds for up to four sweet months ♪ [ whip cracks ] ♪ roundup extended control [ male announcer ] roundup extended control ♪ yeha with the new one-touch wand. [ whip cracks ] firefighters in southern california have stopped the spread of a wild brush fire that had threatened several homes. it started just before 5:00 last night at rancho reenchal park, east of los angeles. the fire is now 40% contained. wind gusts were as high as 25 miles an hour as flames came dangerously close to homes. no structures have been damaged. the cause of the fire is not yet known. police in san francisco say they are planning more crackdowns to curb persistent drug dealing problem in the outer sunset district. problem areas include a public rest room at the end of the

jude turnaround and 7-eleven. san francisco chronicle reports officers have conducted at least nine sting operations, but the issue persists. >> i haven't seen any drug dealing myself, but i'm not at all surprised it goes on, because people don't necessarily live here, but they visit here. so it's easy for them to do. >> some business owners and residents have suggested increasing patrols or even adding a police substation. great white sharks are one step closer tonight to becoming an endangered species in california. state officials voted unanimously to advance the species on the list for inclusion. the review starts today, given the great white the same protections as other animals already on the list. great white sharks already have international protection and cannot be targeted by fishermen. the additional state restrictions that start today ban incidental takes by net fishermen. "one day at a time" star bonnie franklin has died. the 69-year-old actress died at

her home in los angeles today, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. franklin starred alongside valerie bert nellie in the long- running sitcom. was considering- breaking. a private memorial is set for next week. sequestration could mean big cuts in california. how cuts in academia stand to affect everyone. >> confessions to numerous ncaa violations. how this catholic school is paying penance for its basketball team.

. it's just dumb and it's going to hurt. >> the president and

republicans blame each other for the huge budget cuts that will affect just about every american. those cuts will touch every federal department and have a ripple effect on states and counties, cities and towns. ktvu's david stepheson is live in san francisco with how the cuts will be felt in the city. >> reporter: san francisco estimates it could lose more than $25 million this year in sequestration cuts, but it's not the only entity here preparing for some big losses. ucsf is san francisco's second largest employer after the city government, but it stands to take a bigger hit than the city this year in federal sequestration cuts. >> for us, it would mean an immediate cut on the order of 28 or $30 million. >> reporter: ucsf is the nation's largest public recipient of national institutes of health funds and led breakthroughs in cancer and genetic research. school of medicine research say the cuts will be felt most in research. >> the impact it's having,

having a sudden cut of this sort is that experiments that are planned to be done won't get done. >> reporter: public health officials say that in the next seven months, 100 aids research grants will be cut. more than 700,000 will lose prescription coverage for hiv drugs, and almost half a million hiv tests will no longer be performed by public health departments. >> hiv rates start to go up, then they will notice. but they don't get it right now. >> reporter: the district faces nearly $4 million loss in federal funds that help pay for nutrition and head start programs. >> those are areas that we intend to protect and so when we're looking at our budget for next year, we'll actually be looking at what other services might need to be cut. >> reporter: and san francisco estimates a loss of an additional $20 million and 14,000 jobs due to a loss of cleanup services for former military bases such as treasure

island and hunter's point, all due to the sequester situation. reporting live in san francisco, david stevenson, ktvu channel 2news. more than 2000 illegal immigrants who were once facing deportation have been released in the past two weeks due to the looming budget cuts. the newly disclosed figures are significantly higher than what the white house acknowledged earlier this week as a few hundred. internal government budget documents show the department of homeland security planned to release 3000 more undocumented immigrants this month, but intense criticism led to a temporary shutdown of the plan. the defense department this afternoon laid out how sequestration will impact the nation's military. the pentagon says it will have to cut $46 billion between now and september 30th. new defense secretary chuck hagel says that will impact the army's readiness, cutting down on training. the air force will have to curb flying hours and the navy is already bringing ships ashore from sea duty. >> this uncertainty puts at risk our ability to effectively fulfill all of our missions. >> secretary hagel said civilians in the military will

be notified of furloughs later this month. he also said reduced spending will hurt military contractors. stocks were left slightly higher today. february auto sales showed unexpectedly solid gains overall. sales of new cars, trucks and crossovers were up 7%. ford report a sales increase of 9%. volkswagon had its best february in 40 years. industry analysts credit low finance rates and pent-up demand. alameda teachers appear to be closer to a new contract. the president of the teacher's union tells ktvu a tentative agreement was reached late last night. this comes after 10 months of negotiations. so far, the details of the contract are being withheld until the teachers have a chance to review it. the teachers are then scheduled to begin voting the week of march 11th. police documents now reveal the connection between murdered

millionaire -- he met fritz through a prostitution website. the two were said to have become close, with the millionaire inviting fritz to stay at his mansion for days at a time. fritz' familiarity of the mansion is one of the pillars of the murder charge against her. fritz is related to one of the other suspects in the murder. kumra was killed during a home invasion robbery october 30th. a st. mary's men's babble team is facing probation from the ncaa. john sasaki is live with how it all stems from free shoes for certain students. john? >> reporter: this school community is disappointed in today's news. it is all laid out in this report from the ncaa, which shows what the st. mary's basketball team did wrong and the punishment it faces. st. mary's college is a catholic school, which today confessed to committing ncaa

violations. >> i take full possibility for any, any missteps. >> reporter: the school announced that its basketball team has been sanctioned for the actions of a former assistant coach. >> we have been fully cooperating with the ncaa for over two years on this investigation. >> reporter: the athletic director explained the violations were committed by assistant coach keith moss, who resigned in 2009. >> arranging for housing and providing, you know, smaller benefits such as shoes and workout gear to a prospective student athlete. >> reporter: the school was also penalized for not monitoring the coach's actions closely enough. the penalties include the loss of two scholarships and head coach randy bennett will have to serve a five-game suspension next season. >> i will say that i thought the penalties were harsh. more so than like i said, most of the things in this, we agreed with the ncaa on. we've accepted responsibility. >> reporter: the violations

involved no players. we asked many of them to comment. they declined. other students were concerned. >> i hope it it doesn't detract from all the good things the school does. >> reporter: johnsa sachse, ktvu channel 2news. a new bid to keep the kings from moving to seattle. a bid was submitted to the nba today to buy the kings. today was the deadline set by the nba for sacramento to make a counteroffer to a $340 million bid from a seattle group. in the coming weeks, the team is expected to submit a proposal to build a new kings arena in downtown sacramento. swallowed up. a sinkhole opens up right underneath a man's home. what the victim's brother did to try to save him. >> 80 miles an hour through residential neighborhoods. the chase that lasted almost an

hour and what the suspects were wanted for.

. a tampa man is presumed dead after a sinkhole opened up under his house and swallowing him up. looking from the outside, the home appears to be unscathed. the fire officials say the

victim, 37-year-old jeff bush called out to his brother for help, but that his brother was unable to save him. >> all i seen was his bed and i told my father-in-law to grab a shovel so i could start digging. i just started digging and started digging and the cops showed up and pulled me out of the hole and told me the floor was still falling in. >> monitoring equipment lowered into the hole detected no sign of life. authorities say it's too dangerous to send search crews inside. they are concerned the hole was still growing and this home could collapse at any time. three people are in custody tonight after a dangerous high speed chase on los angeles streets. the pursuit reached speeds up to 80 miles an hour and lasted for an hour through residential downtown neighborhoods. the female driver and two passengers in the blue audi were wanted in connection with a burglary. when police were able to stop the car, everybody jumped out and started running. they were all caught within a few minutes after a short foot chase.

tonight, some party goers in san francisco are encouraging a little old fashioned face-to-face interaction, part of the celebration in the national day of unplugging. hundreds are expected to attend the technology-free party at broadway studios in san francisco's north beach. the free party includes a cell phone check-in station, board games, live music, and arts and crafts. it all starts at 7:00 tonight. federal communications commission says it may consider reviewing a recent law that prohibits consumers from unlocking their mobile phones. the ban, which went into effect in january, prompted outraged consumers to petition the white house. the practice of unlocking phones was common among customers who wanted to switch carriers. you can still buy unlocked phones, but they tend to cost a lot more than those locked into a carrier's plan. part of a space drama unfolding right now. i want you to stick around to meet some remarkable bay area

high school students. >> back in a few minutes, your weekend is here. we'll be talking about temperatures trending down and rain in the five-day.

. and liftoff of the falcon 9 rocket and dragon. >> the spacex commercial rocket carrying supplies to the international space station lifted off today, but things turned ugly minutes later. at least two thrusters

malfunctioned. flight controllers have now fixed the problem, but the unmanned dragon capsule will miss space station docking planned for tomorrow. engineers say the dragon can safely stay in orbit up to a movement the two vessels will hopefully get together long before then. bay area high school students realized months of work today as the dragon x launched experiments to the space station. ktvu's john fowler is live in san jose and talked with these young scientists. >> reporter: no one is watching the spacex drama more closely than these young scientists who have experiments on the space craft. and they are high school students right here. just after dawn at valley christian high school, the big moment. >> 4, 3, 2, 1! >> and liftoften of the falcon 9 rocket and dragon! [ applause ] >> wow, we actually made it! we made it into space! >> i am superexcited for it! actually, i can't believe it's up there.

>> mixed emotions, relief, anxiety, just kind of a little worried about it. >> reporter: 31 students had worked seven months, remarkably nasa selected four of their experiments. >> this isn't something every high school gets to do, so it's just really such an honor and a blessing. >> reporter: even more remarkably, each of these experiments had to fit into a box about the size of a chalkboard eraser. >> not only skills on how to do science, but they also learned life skills. they learned how to work as a team, learned how to make budgets. >> reporter: one experiment grows e. coli bacteria. >> when you shine uv light on it, it will glow a certain color, like a nice green fluorescent. >> reporter: another grows plants in micro gravity. this one will use the school's atomic microscope to solve a mystery from an experiment the students flew on the space station last year. >> there's always a mystery here. that's why we're sending you up there, because we're not quite sure what's going to happen. >> reporter: nasa's not sure what's going to happen with the

docking with the international space station. latest word is sunday. mentors here say they are actually training the next generation of silicon valley entreprenauers. live in san jose, john fowler, ktvu channel 2news. >> experiments by the mars rover curiosity are on hold tonight as engineers work on a problem with its computers. nasa discovered the glitch with curiosity's flash memory earlier this week and switched to its backup computer. a dating website has come up with a pretty unique way to get free publicity. it's offering the peninsula town of woodside nearly $12 million to change its name to that of the website. woodside officials just laughed at the offer. the website made a similar offer to a city in texas. in case you haven't noticed, we are not mentioning the name of the website. >> of course. facebook is expected to make a big announcement next week, which could concern what you see on the social network.

the menlo park-based company sent out invitations to a media event on thursday, at which it will showcase a new look for its news feed. although facebook has made some changes to its profile pages and search features in recent years, it has left the news feed largely untouched for quite sometime. a letter from a little girl is teaching a lesson in telling the truth and about doing the right thing. a girl named evie wrote the rangers at yosemite national park, after accidentally leaving the grounds with two sticks. you can see the sticks in the letter. in the letter, she writes, quote, i know i'm not supposed to take things from the park, so i am sending them back. please put them in nature. a ranger wrote evie and her parents back, telling her they were proud of her efforts to protect nature. the contra costa sheriff's department is asking for help in finding a missing bellle

island man. 30-year-old christopher faulkner was last seen february 5th at a contra costa medical center in martinez. this is a just-released photograph from bank surveillance camera shortly after faulkner left the hospital. investigators say he suffers from a medical condition and does not have his medication. some lucky people got a lot more than expect order a sight- seeing tour of the coast of california. >> this was happening tuesday at dana point in southern california. this is part of the ocean home to the dolphin stampede. the tour group got a real treat when they saw a mama dolphin with her young calf. even the tour guide said this is something you don't see every day. 30 miles north of dana point two, other dolphins are getting a lot of attention in huntington beach. the first dolphin was spotted in wetlands near the pacific coast highway. now another dolphin has joined in. marine mammal experts say the dolphins appear to be healthy

and not in distress. 80s in southern california area. nice here as well. >> i think i saw 85 at laguna beach, beautiful up here. nothing to sneeze at for early march. above average on the temperatures, mid-70s. even upper 70s in some neighborhoods. today was the peak. after that, temperatures cool down with the clouds streaming in. these clouds increase over the next 24 hours. by tomorrow in the afternoon, it's going to be mostly to partly cloudy. so look for a lot of cloud cover as these things stream in. there could even be a little sprinkle or drizzle that comes out of this tomorrow afternoon and evening. but it wouldn't be enough to shut your plans down. current temperatures, 71 in fairfield. 70 in antioch. warm out there right now. you knew that. rainfall, averages are falling because we haven't had rain. 85% in santa rosa. san jose, 70%. we got rain in the forecast tuesday night into wednesday. here's why. this system kind of chips away at this high pressure as we go into tonight and tomorrow.

so the clouds, clouds i showed you will fill in on saturday. a few less clouds on sunday, but cooling will have begun. sunday, slightly cooler. when i say cooler, we're still in the 60s. we're not cold. we're just cooler, because we've been in the mid-70s. but that opens the door for a chance of showers. here we are, tomorrow morning, partly cloudy, partly sunny. tomorrow afternoon, lot of clouds. it's going to be muggy and warm, mild. going to feel like southern california weather in terms of humidity levels because of the high clouds. watch late in the day. boom, now mostly cloudy in the afternoon hours. at this point, we could see a few light sprinkles fall from the sky. certainly in the hills, like santa cruz mountains. might be drizzle or something like that. don't change plans. going to be a nice looking weekend. forecast highs today, impressive still. i said it was cooling off, but so what. couple degrees? that's not bad. really nice weather. for the bay area weekend, we're looking for saturday, the warmest day. sunday, the sunniest day. but a little cooler. then there's that rain, which

i'm rooting on. looks like something on tuesday night into wednesday. looks like it might be significant. >> oh, good. >> maybe half inch, three quarters of an inch. kind of opens the door a little more than we've seen in sometime. >> hope it stays open. >> me, too. >> thank you, bill. back to afghanistan, u.s. troops make a return to the country, but their mission is not to head into combat. how they are preparing fellow service members for life after battle. you can't move the tv there. yuh-huh. we have a wireless receiver.

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. an autopsy has been done on the exhumed body of the lottery winner,. the chicago medical examiner says no cyanide was found in his body tissue, but that's probably because cyanide breaks down so quickly. in arrests have been made in the case, but it is still considered a homicide. tests done before he was buried indicate he had been poisoned. a program designed to help soldiers with their rehabilitation and recovery has begun in afghanistan. the troops tour parts of afghanistan and speak with other soldiers about their wounds. >> good for the injured service members to come back to where we have been injured. some of us have been injured in afghanistan. others have been injured in

iraq. it's important to get that closure. >> more than 50,000 americans have been wounded in battle in afghanistan or iraq. in afghanistan alone, 2178 have died in combat operations. taco bell is now the latest company to acknowledge that some of its ground beef in europe was actually horse meat. the fast food chain apologized to customers as it pulled ground beef products from its three british outlets. authorities say the fraudulent labeling poses no health risk, but many companies are pulling their products anyway. other affected businesses include burger king, nestle, and tesco. taco bell says its restaurants in the u.s. are not affected. mcdonald's is shrinking its menu, at least for now. the worldest largest fast food chain will stop selling the apple walnut salad and may discontinue the angus third pounder. there are reports mcdonald's is eliminating some of its less popular menu items to introduce new products for the spring and

summer. could the westminster dog show be at the center of a dog poisoning scandal? one of the dogs who competed in the show earlier this month, the owner says her dog died four days after the competition and says she doubts anyone deliberately poisoned him. she says he more likely found something, such as rat poison and ate it on his own. no necropsy was done, so it's unlikely anyone will pin down the cause of death for cruz. coming up in 2 minutes, what organizers are doing differently for oakland's first friday street fair, after a deadly shooting there last month. >> and a very special bay area blood donors gathered for a reunion today. we'll show you the young boy who brought them all together.