and nobody can be denied because of a pre-existing condition. enroll now at coveredca.com or call 1-800-752-6631. now at noon -- the bay bridge is coming down. we'll take you onto the eastern span to see the work as it begins. flooding at a county building. how it's affecting an important part of the oakland police force. plus -- new plans for a new home for the golden state warriors. the changes and how it is still not making some people happy. bringing down the bridge. the long and laborious job of

taking down the old eastern span of the bay bridge begins today. good afternoon, i'm tori campbell. how is this for timing -- on this day, in 1936, the bay bridge opened to traffic. now, 77 years later, workers are bringing part of it down. happening now, the work has begun to get rid of the long- standing bridge. alex savidge got a closeup look at the work and joins us live. good afternoon, alex. >> reporter: good afternoon. i'm standing on the lower deck of the old eastern span. right now, up above us, there are crews busy at work and they are tearing apart a portion of the upper deck. while there's a lot of heavy machinery busy and working up there on the upper deck, drivers coming across the new bay bridge probably won't even notice what's going on. caltrans led a tour on the old eastern span of the bay bridge, where crews have started dismantling the 14-long foot

section of roadway. jack hammers, saws and excavators are removing concrete and rebar. this portion of the upper deck is between the two steel peaks. the work will take six weeks to complete. as they tear this apart, it's possible rebar and concrete could fall. but the contractors have put in place a containment system to catch all of the debris. >> obviously the bottom deck is there to catch anything that falls but also to avoid any of it could fall in the bay. >> reporter: clearing away this portion of the upper deck will allow contractors to bring in large, heavy equipment to eventually take apart of steel candy leaver he section of the -- cantilever section of the bridge. that work begins next year. crews working to dismantle this 77-year-old bridge. while this demolition work is going on, boats will not be allowed to pass under the cantilever section of the bridge as a precaution.

all of the concrete torn up during this project will be taken away by truck, taken off the bridge by truck and then recycled. we're live on the old eastern span of the bay bridge. alex savidge, ktvu channel 2 news. higher tolls could soon be becoming to the golden gate bridge. the district is thinking about increasing tolls to hold off a long-term bucket deficit today -- budget deficit today. district officials will explain some of the options they are considering. there are indications most board members favor a one- dollar toll increase. other options could include eliminating the fastrack discount or a smaller hike. right now it's $5 with fastrack. $6 without. the board will pick up the issue on friday. b.a.r.t. service has resumed after a pesh was killed on the -- person was killed on the tracks at the reller is retoe del norte station -- el cerrito/del

norte station. a person was hit on the tracks. it may have been a suicide. this caused long delays at the station and delays elsewhere in the system. new developments in the case of a san francisco police driving while drunk october 08th. he -- october 8th. etch entered not guilty pleas last month but today pleaded no contest. he was sentenced to three years probation and 30 days in a residential treatment program. he must also attend 90 aa meetings, complete 50 hours of community service and pay restitution to the owners of the cars he damaged. the oakland teen facing hate charges whack back in court today. 16-year-old richard thomas made

a brief appearance. his family was in attendance this morning as the judge put an attorney of record on the case. toms is set to return to court on friday and may enter a plea then. he's charged as an adult with aggrau vateed may -- agraw vateed 345eu -- aggravated mayhem. he used a lighter to set saw saw fleishman's skirt on fire. that individual suffered burns on his body. aldon smith may enter a plea after surrendering. his arrest was delayed because he had been in rehab following a dui arrest in september. the weapons charges stem from a house party hosted by smith last year where he was stabbed

and two others were shot. continuing coverage now of typhoon haiyan. officials today raised the confirmed death toll to over 1700 and officials say they fear it could end up being closer to 2500. the storm has also injured more than 2,000 people and with all of the homes that are damaged or destroyed, 660,000 people have been displaced. a richmond woman whose uncle was killed by the typhoon say the country is in chaos. >> he said it's getting scarier. they need food, water and medicine. >> the philippine government is reporting the two and a half million survivors need food and aide. there is a push going on right now to help get aid to the philippines. janine de la vega is live at san jose state with more on

project pearl. >> reporter: several student groups have set up here in front of the events center here at san jose state university. you can see people have already dropped off canned goods and items like toilet paper and baby formula. those are items desperately needed overseas. >> it hits home for a lot of us. so we are raising awareness and raising funds and collecting canned foods, dry foods, medicineses. any -- medicines. any items that would help toward recover. >> reporter: they organized this drive at san jose state. the student filipino club and several fraternities and sororities will be stationed outside of the events center today through thursday. items needed are canned food, soap, feminine products, baby items, such as diaper and wipe. there's also a great need for

medical supplies. so many people watching the coverage dropped off donations this morning. >> you never know when it will happen here with an earthquake or anything. a ka cass industry -- a catastrophe. we're fortunate enough to to be able to give back to other parts of the world. >> reporter: they are also accepting cash donations that will go to the philippine red cross. some funds will go to care packages to children traumatized by the disaster. that includes, crayons, a coloring book and cookies. if you would like to drop off donations here at the san jose state campus here in front of the events center, this drop off site will be here through thursday from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. reporting live from san jose, janine de la vega, ktvu channel 2 news.

>> thank you. and here's a perspective of just how big typhoon haiyan was when it hit the philippines on friday. this is a shot from the international space station. the astronauts could see the terrifying size of the massive storm. new at noon, officials say crews are cleaning up some kind of flood, at the alameda county -- flooding at the alameda county court building. we're told this is not related to the problems in june that shut down the oakland police headquarters on 7th street. however, today's flooding appears to be affecting the opd homicide unit which is housed nearby. there is a new plan for the possible new home for the golden state warriors in san francisco. while changes have been made to accommodate some critics, not everyone is happy about it. ktvu's sal castanedo joins us live with a look at the changes. good afternoon, sal. >> reporter: tori,. >> good afternoon. you are probably well aware -- >> reporter: tori, good afternoon.

you are probably well aware the plan is to put the arena here. we're getting a look at the arena plans just reviewed by the wart yers -- warriors. the team plans to build a basketball arena and complex. these new pictures released by the warriors show another modification of the plan, the height of the arena is lower, there's much more open space and the parking entrance has been moved among other changes. many say the revisions are in response to critics who call the arena design too big. some said it was ugly. today we spoke to the lead architect of the arena and asked how he came up with the changes. >> we're trying to make the design as efficient as possible and not use any more area than we need to to make it run properly and be comfortable for people. by moving the entrance to the parking facilities we've been able to create more safe pedestrian flow and bicycle

flow in and around the site. by reducing the height of some of the plazases, we've made them more accessible to different kinds of people. >> reporter: goenden state -- golden state has made it clear they want to move. it says it announced plans to play basketball in san francisco by the 2017/2018 season. the warriors want to build a new arena with private money but critics say the new arena is nothing more than a huge real estate deal and called the attention to the conkoes that are part of -- condos are part of the plan. >> it's controversial. but i think is one they should be able to work it out. >> but some are not so optimistic. they say nothing is easy in san francisco. some opponents of the arena say

they plan to fight it up into taking it and putting on the ballot. coming up at 5:00 this evening, my colleague will talk to one of the opponents of the arena. live in san francisco, sal castanedo, ktvu channel 2 news. >> thank you, sal. it's had its problems, people not being able to sign up. but that isn't the only issue. the secure risks and why the man in charge had no idea they exited -- existed. may have seen some sprinkles but not much. is there any rain in the seven- day forecast? steve will be here to let us know. and people jumping for their lives. you can see why. the one mistake one person made that had people scrambling for safety.

a quick-moving fire this morning forces two people to jump for their lives. the early-morning fire is believed to be accidental but 27 people have been forced from their holes. katie utehs spoke to one family who had to jump from the second floor to escape the flames. >> reporter: screams awoke dozens of people around 3:00 this morning at the whitman green apartments in hayward. >> i heard people screaming fire, fire. so i got up and came downstairs and the next thing i see is a

huge smoke. >> when she opened the door, like smoke filled up the whole at, and we made a -- apartment and we made a few attempts trying to go down the stairs. >> reporter: flames confronted this man and his family, as you can see in this video. his sister and 3-month-old daughter escaped the second- floor apartment through the front door. he and his brother-in-law, on the rear balcony. >> i didn't have a choice. the whole apartment was killed up with smoke. you couldn't see anything. you couldn't breathe. >> reporter: both men jumped to safety, narrowly escaping the flames. in the daylight you can see the extensive damage this fire caused. now investigators are turning their attention to the kitchen of the first floor unit where the apt fire started. the man who lives there may have turned on his oven and then fallen asleep. >> when he woke up, he smelled spoke and that's when the fire started. >> reporter: two apartments are gutted. smoke damaged several more.

>> see if there's any more people displaced. >> reporter: 27 people are displayed. one dog died. >> we tried to resuscitate the dog but it did die. >> reporter: the red cross is helping half of the people affected. others are staying with family, like this man and his sister and brother-in-law who left to purchase baby bottles because smoke damaged all of their belongings. in hayward, katie utehs, ktvu channel 2 news. a vicious attack on a homeless person in san francisco is now under investigation after a report we aired on friday. we first brought you the issue to light with the surveillance video of a man stamping on a -- stomping on a homeless person sleeping on sidewalk. a viewer contacted us and said he recognized the attacker but police couldn't take any action because they had no report of the incident. yesterday a sergeant paid us a visit and told us they now have a copy of the video and that an investigation is underway. tonight, the oakland city

council will debate a controversial plan for a curfew on teenagers. the supporters say it would reduce crimes but critics say it could lead to racial profiling. the proposal would require anyone under the age of 18 to be off the street from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. 7 days a week. the curfew would be in effect on school days from 8:30 in the morning to 1:30 in the afternoon. teens who violate the curfew could be cited or arrested and face fines up to $500. we're learning of new security risks with health care.gov and the man in charge of the website said he had no idea. henry chow testified for nine hours yesterday in advance of a hearing tomorrow. chow was asked about a memo that outlined potential security risks that could lead to identify tie theft among those buying insurance on the healthcare.gov website. chow said he never saw the memo and it was disturbing he had not been told of the potential

security risks. new at noon, groundbreaking on a new high rise on fremont to be built next door to san francisco's future transbay transit center. the developer says 181 fremont will rise 802 feet with 54 floors. the lower floors are slated for offices and retail the rest will house ultraluxy two and three bedroom condos. one will connect with a rooftop park. >> beautiful building. people who work here in the building will be able to just walk a few hundred feet away and then join right into the basement of the transbay center. >> the $500 million steel and glass tower is privately funded and is set to open in 2016. well, we don't usually talk

about any rain. that's because we haven't had much really in the last ten months. there was a little bit this morning. some of the forecast area never got anything. now we're starting to see a little bit of break in there. there's some partly sunny skies. very mild. 60s and 70s. most of that rain was confined to san francisco and south san francisco. over to oakland and then parts of the east bay, south bay nothing, very, very little. only a tiny bit. most of it was not measurable. just a trace. almost all of it is gone now. it was okay for a while on the north coast but then it started to fall apart. crescent city had about .05. had a little bit down towards big sur. we're on the back side of all of this. it's clearing out rapidly. at noon, sun and clouds. breezy for some. there will be slow clearing but we will get more sun. 60s and 70s. 66 san francisco.

oakland, 67. san jose, 66 under mostly cloudy skies. 62, 63 tahoe and re knee. everyone is -- reno. everyone is close on the temperatures. the system came up to the southwest. it is definitely falling apart now. so partly sunny, mild to warm. slow clearing but we're starting to see more sun than clouds. i think that's it. maybe until sunday and we may have to keep an eye on the system coming out of the north. highs today, 60s and 70s. maybe a little bit more cloud cover. there's some kind of a mild, muggy, i think afternoon, if you get some of the cloud cover holding on a little bit. a lot of moisture in the air. wasn't much rain. didn't really tip the old bucket. mostly sunny wednesday. warmer thursday. the wind picks up on friday and then windy and cooler. have to watch a strong system moving in just to the north and east of us on sunday. big changes coming it looks like by the weekend. >> any rain? >> maybe a little on sunday. but more colder and windy.

>> all right. flt thank you. the decision came down a little while ago. the tallest building in the u.s. it may be tuesday but wedding chapels are packed today. why the rush to tie the knot on this particular day?

stocks trading lower on

wall street. taking a live look at the big board, the dow is currently down 33. the nasdaq down 3. s&p down 4. and airline stocks are higher after the justice department cleared the way for the merger for american airlines and u.s. airways. the justice department called it a groundbreaking agreement. they will both give up takeoff and landing rights at washington and new york and turn over gates to other airports to low-cost carriers to offset the impact. we have 'contacted sfo to see if that airport will be affected. no word back yet. the legal battle between apple and samsung is heating up. jury selection begins in a new trial over the amount of damages that samsung owes apple for patent infringement. the judge reduced the amount

for $1 billion to -- from $1 billion. the trial begins in a few months over an alleged infringement by samsung. the world trade center is now officially the tallest country in the building. it was determined that the spire on the top could be counted as part of the height. that makes the official height of the building a symbolic 1,776 feet. this decision also bumped the willis tower, formerly known as the sears tower, as the tallest in the u.s. the willis tower is 1444 feet tall. wedding bells are ringing today because of the 11/12, 13 date. this date is unusual, possibly lucky or just easy to remember. many clerks say they are booked up by people who want to make this their special day. according to david's bridal survey, 3,320 couples are expected to get married across

the nation. that compares to 300 weddings on same tuesday of the month last year. coming up at 5:00, continuing coverage of the demolition on the old eastern span of the bridge. the deconstruction is underway. tom vacar is tracking the progress and the changes drivers can expect to see. thank you for making ktvu your choice for news. we'll see you the next time news breaks. we're always here for you at ktvu.com.

to thosuffered in silence... hoped... and lived in a state of fear... welcome to a new state... of health. welcome to covered california. the place to find quality, affordable coverage. financial help for those in need. and nobody can be denied because of a pre-existing condition. enroll now at coveredca.com or call 800-675-2607.

elizabeth stanton: voluntourism. that means traveling the world while giving back to local communities. that's me, elizabeth. and today, my friends and i are taking a very special tour to africa, vietnam, nicaragua and las vegas. we'll discover what life is like in different local communities and hang out with some awesome families. the girl who lives here is stephanie. hey! (mumbles) she live here with four of her siblings and her mother, and she helps her family out by picking berries and mint. then we'll spend some time giving back... bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop... ...to find out how special a voluntourism trip can be. and you're coming with us. we have several different continents to cover. so, if you're ready, it's time to voluntour.