>> is new at noon, the police bay area agency working together to solve six cold case murders from 1976. the action investigators plan to take now nearly four decades after the crimes were committed. an east bay teacher handcuffed in front of a student and accused of child sex abuse. what parents say about the arrest and the school district's admission about the teacher background check process. president obama speaking out today about the situation between ukraine and russia. what he claims could violate international law and the

action he's taking. >> i'm tori campbell. the fbi wrapped up a news conference where new information was revealed in a series of unsolved murders from the 1970s. there's a link in a case to one in nevada. live in redwood city to see what's been uncovered. good afternoon, janine >> reporter: good afternoon, tori. these cold cases involve 6 young women who were killed in the '70s. sources tell ktvu that recent dna evidence came back linking a murder case in reno to one or more cases here in the bay area and that's what's prompting the fbi to start a new task force to reopen all the cases.

the fbi along with several police departments from the peninsula announce they're performing the gypsy hill task force. they believe one person is responsible for a series of murders that happened 38 years. five young women in the bay area were stabbed to death in a four month time span from january to april of 1976. two of the victims were killed in pacifica, one in mil bray and two in daly city. they were known as the gypsy hill murder because that's where one was found. the fbi said a couple of months ago, law enforcement in reno discovered evidence from a woman there that connected to the gypsy in the bay area. we have reason to believe the deaths were based on forensics evidence between a number the cases. the message by the offender to commit these crimes. beginning next week, the members of the newly formed gypsy hill task force will ask the public for information

concerning any of the individual unsolved cases >> reporter: sources say the dna evidence found is from a male. they believe one person is responsible for the killings. he's glad it's been reopened. >> it will be closure. i know my victim's mother will be elated if we get this guy >> reporter: in the coming weeks, the task force will go through all the neighborhoods. and try to find people who remember these cases and may interview old suspects. they're encouraging people to call the fbi san francisco office if they have any information regarding these cold cases. live, ktvu channel 2 news. >> thank you.

counselors are there to speak with students after the arrest of a 7th grade teacher during class. 33-year-old ronald david gwynn toe was handcuffed and taken into custody yesterday. he's accused of more than a dozen child abuse charges while working at a teacher at the charter school ras year. the school district ran background checks but admits it was never ay ware of the investigation of ginto. we talked several parents this morning about the charges >> somebody dropped the ball and i think it was mayor vista. i mean, somebody needed to do their job, period. like, you put my daughter in danger. you put them in danger, my two kids. >> the school district emphasizes the child sex abuse charges are not tied to the short-term school and the district admits there is room for improvement when it comes to teacher background checks but so far, there's no word on whether they'll be making

changes in the process. thanks to social media, san mateo police say a child predator, posted this with a request of the public's help. police say the suspect's 41- year-old guadalupe approached at least three young girls and solicited them for sex. detectives say they were able to see who the suspect was after two 12-year-old girls saw the photo and identified him as the same man who approached them. richard thomas went before a judge in oakland where he waived his rights to a preliminary hearing. he took the transit bus in oakland in november. thomas, who pleaded not guilty, is being tried as an adult. the teen's attorney believes the district attorney is

considering what he calls alternative resolutions to the case. in san francisco, police are searching for a man in a wheelchair accused of sexual assaults on women near san francisco general hospital. the latest attack was 22nd street in patrero avenue where a woman was punched. the suspect is responsible for at least five assaults in the past week. he's described as having a partially amputated right leg to use the wheelchair through the streets at a high rate of speed the bay area is, again, drying out after a rainy night and wet early morning commute. this is a live look at conditions over the san francisco bay right now. you can see those gray clouds still lingering orr head over the bay bridge but it is nothing like the powerful storm cells we saw overnight. there were even reports of thunder and lightning in some areas causing thousands of people in contra kosta county to lose their power.

let's go now to ktvu's mark tamayo in the weather center. >> reporter: that was a narrow band of intense rainfall last night basically pushing out of the bay area. we have lingering clouds and scattered showers in most of the bay area drying out in the bay point camera with clouds out there. rainfall totals over the last 24 hours, you can see santa rosa, 0.37 and san francisco, just over 0.25 inches and san jose, just a couple hundredths of an inch not taking up as much rainfall. storm tracker, you can see clouds and scattered showers up to the north of the bay area. this afternoon, we hold on with scattered showers. in fact, you can see a few pop- up showers favoring parts of north bay with lingering clouds and look returning to 37 approaching sonoma and also out towards parts of the north bay. also approaching parts of lake county as well. we're not completely through with the shower activity but

still, a few scattered pockets for this afternoon. coming up at 12:20, we'll highlight warmest weekend day and we have another chance of showers. we'll have that coming up at 12:20 >> thank you, mark. a car hit and killed a pedestrian last night in san jose. it happened at 9:00 on amadin expressway. authorities have not released the name of the victim but appears to be a transient who was in his late 30s. the driver did stop and is cooperating with police. the speed limit there is 50 miles an hour and there is no crosswalk. meanwhile, san francisco today launched a new citywide campaign to make some of the most dangerous streets safer for pedestrians. it unveiled by mayor ed lee, and other city officials, is data driven using safety statistics and city maps to target the area, but have had the highest number of pedestrian collisions.

in light of the alarming number to also encourage drivers. of the surroundings. >> other than have years where all of us in office are saying that we're sorry for something to happen, we would rather be saying thank you for yielding, thank you for not running the red lights, thank you for not speeding. >> mayor lee said the city will commit $70 million the situation in ukraine. president obama is using executive powers to place new sanctions on russia and the house of representatives is looking at new legislation also designed to pressure. live to explain the sanctions. >> the new policies are designed to isolate russia

politicalically and economically according to a senior administration official. this is the executive order the president issued this morning. the order gives the u.s. government the authority to seize assets and impose economic restrictions on individuals identified to be involved in russia actions in crimea. the white house announced these are restrictions on a number of russia and crimean officials. there's a hearing on the latest in ukraine. they've asked the white house to go farther with sanctions >> there's efforts to impose a cost on russia and those responsible for the situation in crimea. they also give us the flexibility to adjust our response going forward based on the collective actions. >> gist moments ago; the house of representatives overwhelmingly passed an eight- package at ukraine valued a a billion dollars. the senate is expected to take

that up next week. live in washington, channel 2 news. >> the prayer this morning at the u.s. senate. >> it's tough. we send the message that proceeds our deeds. >> tweeted she found the prayer very inspirational. the tibetan buddhist monk. the tibetan buddhist. and it was upset last month when president obama met with the dali lama. san jose's legal battle over the possible relocation of the oakland a's and concerns over how school districts handle the sexual identity. the unique questions one bay area asked social security the students and why it's so

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looking into concerns over how school districts handle a student's sexual identity. there is only one school district in the state that actually asks its students if

they identify as transgender and as ktvu reports, that district is in the bay area. >> back in the unified school district, identify themselves as 150 high school students >> those who transgender are at risk for depression and isolation even compared to lgb. >> they asked about five years ago. how do its in your opinions compare with our districts? may be the only one who asks the question. >> i think what it shows is if san francisco is willing to ask the question of its students to find out who they are. the students, we're talking about a realty and we need to

catch up the district doesn't know the identify of the students but it's important to identify themselves. and identify what problems they might face. the district is now putting together a complete report about its 2013 surveys but 2 investigators got a look at key numbers and appears progress is made. in 2011, almost 63% of middle school students and 40% of high school students say they heard other students making harassing statements based on sexual orientation but in 2013, the middle school number drops and high school to 29%. >> not really a problem here. it's credit al at their school >> welcome in our commute >> the district says the survey is key because you can't make progress if you don't have a clear picture of your community >> our data drives the programming and making a difference because what we find from the data is what our

students need to know >> reporter: the district has gotten a head start. they're more than ever looking to san francisco for guidance. channel 2 news. >> the san francisco unified school district has interesting insight about the risk and dangers specifically facing transgender youth and we have the link to that report at ktvu.com. the 21st homicide of the year, a 24-year-old man was shot to death last night around 10:30 on 11th avenue and east 24th street. police have not yet released his identity but say he lived in another part of the city and is trying to determine why he was in the neighborhood where he was shot. the motive for the shooting is not known and no arrests have been made. police say this 19-year-old oakland man was arrested

yesterday morning after a home burglary. the suspect antonio march allegedly broke in the 1100 block of hyde street. police responded after the home's alarm went off. he was running from the house. filed the first brief with the federal appeals court in the long legal battle with major league baseball. san jose want it is oakland a's to move there but says major league has been illegally blocking the move. they want to block the move because they consider the south bay and the ninth circuit court to speed up the appeal. >> still a few lingering clouds out there and a few scattered showers and the trend will be

drying things up to saturday. here's a live camera at oakland in the distance handling ergering overcast at the bay south and live storm tracker 2. the main action focused up to the north of the bay area in terms of rain showers with snow showers towards the sierra. close look at the radar and can pick out the coverage. once again in parts of the north bay, we have a false rotation and let me get rid of that. you can see spotty light showers, not a big deal in parts of the north bay and parts of sonoma county to the north of st. helena outside heelsburg as well and mostly partly to sunny skies with dry conditions. san francisco, 61. santa roe say, 60 and mid 60s right now. >> mostly cloudy skies in the short-term in the bay bridge right now and partly cloudy observations in the afternoon.

tomorrow, patchy morning fog and the weekend, a split forecast. warm on saturday, more clouds on sunday and during the second half of the week we bring in once again shower chances. here's our forecast model in the short-term at 1:00 and 2:00 with a chance of pop-up showers in the north bay and then by late this afternoon, probably just partly cloudy skies and overnight, with the leftover most in place and patchy fog reformed. we expect more sunshine and here's what's happening basically in the pacific. we have the chance of a spotty shower for this afternoon and look what happened over the next few days. by friday into saturday, we are talking about a warming trend. warmest location right around the 70-degree mark and saturday will be the warmest day of the weekend. here's the forecast mall showing you not too much for tomorrow or your saturday as well. you can see a few high clouds approaching the region by the mid to late afternoon and then on sunday, more clouds will be tracking showers up north moving from the north and spreading to the south on

sunday. forecast highs this afternoon, mainly in the 60s to right around 70 degrees and here is a look ahead at your five-day forecast. some patchy morning fog and clearing skies saturday and sunday, there's a chance of the shower. don't forget, change of clocks springing forward on sunday. so that sunset, look at the way late at 7:11 p.m. on a sunday. we talk about more clouds and a chance of shower, especially by sunday night, that could last into sunday morning so weekend plans at this point and clear winner with lots of sunshine with some warm as well. >> always thinking weekend labs. thank you, mark. san diego woman is arrested after spending 15 hours stranded in monterey bay. the woman went out in a boat to watch tuesday's sunset over pacific grow when the motor fell off and fog swept in. she was stranded for 15 hours until someone in a fishing boat happened to see her and call for help. >> came last night and didn't know where she was or where to

go. >> the woman set off flares but no one saw them in a heavy fog. >> the invitation from a teacher to a popular actor and comedian that's gaining a lot of attention. safeway presents real big deals of the week. or how to get great deals the easy way. you do enough flying around. that's why we give you real big club card deals. right now, load up on your favorite coke products. 12 packs are just $2.77. brew up a great cup for less. folgers is only $6.88. and charmin is $8.99 for 9 mega rolls. real big deals this week and every week. only at safeway. ingredients for life.

[man] no one told her,right? [son]hi! [mom screams]

>> got mixed after the government reported the number of people filing for unemployment benefits fell last week to a three-month low but informs investors look ahead to the cold weather and snowstorms likely put a damper on hiring. a live look at the big board. dow sup 74. nasdaq is down 5. s&p up 4. google's mysterious barge is now at the port of stockton. it arrived a couple of hours ago and you can see it docking at the new home. earlier this morning, news chopper 2 flew over the barge at rio vista where it was under construction. the facility did not have the permits for the barge construction. google has said little about the project, only that it will be used to demonstrate new technology a teacher at danville's san ramone valley high school is making an unusual prom request to actor and comedian will

farrell. >> there might be a photo booth to take excellent pictures together. here's a picture of what i think the two of us will look like at the dance. we both have -- >> cochran said his wife cannot join him at the prom so he would like will farrell to help him chaperon. a video production teacher said some of the students helped make the video. we talked to him this morning and hopes farrell replies but would be very surprised if he accepts. >> i want him to chaperon with me at the senior ball, as we call it. and he can experience all the wonderful things that teachers get to do at a prom. >> cochran has posted the video on youtube. so far, it's received more than 4600 views. a new study is rebutting a common argument about ecigarettes. ucsf researchers say they are a gateway to actual cigarettes and not an alternative that help people quit smoking and a

particularly vulnerable group is hooked. why these devices are becoming more and more dangerous and who is getting hooked. that's coming up tonight at 5:00. thank you for making ktvu your choice for news. we're always here for you on ktvu.com. you can follow us on twitter and facebook. have a great day. ♪

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coming up next on "eco company" -- >> a new superhero. it's the green crusader, mr. eco ♪ this right here >> he's saving the planet one at a time. >> my mission as mr. eco is to turn everybody into eco heroes. they are all superheroes working for the planet. >> we catch up with the guy who is bringing his green message to kids with music. >> and this group of young activists has it all covered. >> i just became involved with this organization that was in my community called kids against pollution. >> i started a