in 1853, alcatraz was a gently sloping lump in the middle of the bay. by 1859 it was a military harbor defense post. and even then the first garrison of 86 men contained a contingent of military prisoners. also a u.s. army prison and by all accounts a nasty one at that. >> after the years of the civil war this room was converted from a gun room into jail cells for military prisoners. 14 wooden wall cells were in this space. back in here, this room which was an access into some rifle slots was converted into a solitary confinement cells. there were nine in this space. vertical. the men would have to stand inside these cells, it was just enough room for their knees to hit the door. >>> it's hard to imagine today that these idealing places on the bay giving so much to us visually and historically were once known as part of the triangle of death. the precidio was home to soldiers fighting on horse back. marching to ships waiting to carry them to war a vast ocean away. soldiers had faces of resignation, resolve and duty. they planted trees here, thousands of

. >> reporter: that's the ferry that takes people out to alcatraz.ands of people visit there every day. but after march 1st, those who go there will see a less well kept facility. bag pipes wailed in the golden gate area in san francisco. a nice complement and nice weather near the golden gate bridge. >> it was beautiful. it's scenic. >> reporter: but storm clouds are forming over all national parks because of the impending sequester. if it happens the parks would see an immediate 5% cut. >> that would come down to $1.4 million for the golden gate national recreational area. fort point national historic site. >> reporter: that would meanless maintenance. >> trash cans would be emptied less frequency, restrooms cleaned less frequently. trail work cut back. >> reporter: the marin head lands visitor center is an important way for learning about the region and its history. >> places such as this at least for high schools is very important. >> reporter: but that may mean the hours may be slashed the same goes for the historic site. that discourages visito

why have an alcatraz that is not really out the trash? -- it is not really alcatraz? we still have one of the have ot beautiful places. i am also investing in china sf, by the way. i want some of those companies from across the world to come and fell san francisco, the real san francisco, and make movies for people in china and japan and all over the world -- come to film san francisco. we have some interesting enticements' going on about how we can get them over here. and being the first chinese mayor, i'd better get some chinese filmmaker to come here. [laughter] otherwise, i miserably failed, because i would love san francisco to be shown at 2 1 billion people in china, to show them about our history. because there is a connection there. they need to learn that. there will be a lot. everything from documentary's do -- i think this is exciting. i am letting you know a little bit of my excitement when it comes to films, that i am very interested to make sure we have an enliven film industry here in our city. >> 20 years ago i read an essay about san francisco being a

sheerly is amazing woman and was at alcatraz and taught children and supported me as a single mother, took care of my child there and i think she's one of the amazing woman in the community and this is a long over due award for her and congratulations shirley. [applause] so now we're going to -- now we're going to have a video. >> my name is shirley cavara and work for oakland school district and early education and people come from san joaquin valley and my family is located in the area. the best thing about working here is meeting all the families, and connecting with the kids, and when it finally clicks to them "oh that's what that means". even if it's small steps with some kids it's a great feeling that you have made an accomplishment in their lives that they will remember, so here it started down at ice age and moved to second avenue because it got too big want there was a preschool there and out grew that area and we had three choice in oakland to have the child care center at and the parents chose this one and up in the hills and don't feel like you're in oakland and conducive

. >> when you hear prison island, you probably think of alcatraz of the san francisco coast or robin island in south africa. most of these places are museums today, but italy still has what you would call a traditional prison island. in our series "small world quarter may stories from europe's islands, -- "small world: stories from europe's islands, according we take you to a prison island where prisoners have more liberties then prisoners elsewhere, but it is always a big day when a boat arrives from the mainland. >> you cannot buy a ticket. it is home to a penal colony, so anyone wanting to visit needs a special permit. a prison police speed boat doctor twice a day, weather permitting -- a prison police speedboat docks here twice a day. the journey can get pretty turbulent. passengers need their sea legs. some 50 families used to live on gorgona. today, only prisoners live here. the connection to the mainland is too unreliable. in winter, the only passengers on the boat are prison staff. with occasional exceptions. this woman takes the day to visit her island. she does not mind its

mchenry where the star spanning amed banner was written, but compare that to the fisherman's wharf, alcatraz and the goalen gate bridge. san fran he's -- golden gate bridge. san fran easily takes this one. the ballparks, san francisco is home to candlestick park while baltimore has camden yards, but when it comes to those who left their mark on each field, barry bonds versus cal ripken, jr., let's just say cheaters never prosper. winner, ironman. it's hard to compete with cal ripken jr. of course, the only thing that matters is what happens this weekend this sunday super bowl xlvii, san fran going for title no. 6, baltimore for title no. 2. let's head over to andrea roane. >> reporter: the superdome is great, but nothing is better than this patron express railroad car, the way they traveled in luxury in the 1920s. franklin roosevelt, clark gable and the king fish himself huey p. long was in this railcar and slept in here. it's owned by these beautiful people, eloise and john paul degoria. the main thing here is you're helping support the st. bernard project. why is this so special to you? >>

. >> when you hear prison island, you probably think of alcatraz of the san francisco coast or robin island in south africa. most of these places are museums today, but italy still has what you would call a traditional prison island. in our series "small world quarter may stories from europe's islands, -- "small world: stories from europe's islands, according we take you to a prison island where prisoners have more liberties then prisoners elsewhere, but it is always a big day when a boat arrives from the mainland. >> you cannot buy a ticket. it is home to a penal colony, so anyone wanting to visit needs a special permit. a prison police speed boat doctor twice a day, weather permitting -- a prison police speedboat docks here twice a day. the journey can get pretty turbulent. passengers need their sea legs. some 50 families used to live on gorgona. today, only prisoners live here. the connection to the mainland is too unreliable. in winter, the only passengers on the boat are prison staff. with occasional exceptions. this woman takes the day to visit her island. she does not mind its

he was put in a special prison known as alcatraz, his two years in alcatraz were described by sam as, quote, hell on earth. end yote. -- end quote. 20 years after sam left alcatraz, i began my training to become a naval aviator. part of that training included prisoner of war school, also known as fear school -- sere school. for survive, evade, resist, escape. in sere school we were locked in a box, deprived of sleep, and exposed to interrogation techniques depicted in the move "zero dark thirty." the main lesson i learned in sere school was because of

buell, the new promenade extends 880 feet into the heart of fisherman's wharf, the historic pier and alcatraz and it's perfect for watching the america's cup in 2013. it involved stabilizing the sea wall and some of the import infrastructure below the promenade, it was funded the 2008 clean and neighborhood parks bond, there are some additional dollars that tha* the port is lining to be allocated to continue that along the historic arch, it's a great site and i encourage everybody to visit it. i want to give you a quick update on the pool building, you've read a couple of stories this week, it was damaged by a fire on december 1 and very sadly on december 7, the leaders from variety of city department, fire department, department of building inspection, department of public works met with architectural experts and they determined the building was unsaved, it's a sad and many respects to a very amazing chapter in city history, that site over the last -- although the building has really been closed and on the down side since the 70s, it had a very glorious period of time which welcomed olympic

taking a live look alcatraz, beautiful day shaping up. not a cloud in the sky. hard to find a cloud anywhere out there today. look at where your temperatures are at 11:00. already 63 degrees in novato. it's mild out there. we're headed towards temperatures in the mid to upper 60s in some cities today. not even close to the warmest day of the week. this continue s all the way through friday. another mild and sunny finish, then we get into the near record highs wednesday, thursday, friday. >> nice. >> holding on to it for saturday as well. >> music to the ears there. near record highs, 70s? >> i can do it in falsetto, if it would sound better. >> i would pay for that. all right, we'll look forward to that. thank you very much. >>> still ahead, we're one day away from the president's state of the union address. we'll have a preview on what you can expect to hear from president barack obama coming up. >>> our san francisco giants are headed for the desert. we'll take you to spring training in arizona where the orange and black will get ready to defend their world ch

it has spectacular coastline, includes muir wood, alcatraz, we get to tell the stories, stories about essentially what you and your predecessors did this this area. our headquarters, fort mason, was the fisherman's wharf area was the port of embarkation for the wars in the pacific. just this week we brought in a world war ii 16-inch bottle ship gun to the marine head lands to put it up at battery townsly which would have been the pinnacle of coastal artillery in world war ii. so, we now have a canon or artillery collection that spans in our park that spans from the civil war to the cold war, including a preserve 19-missile base. some of you also know that during the 1906 earthquake, the army assisted greatly in the response to the city's needs. and the public flocked to the open lands at golden gate park and at the presidio, the open areas that they had there. the army provided tents and food for them during that transition period. all of our planning indicates that that probably would happen again if we had a big one. they probably would be coming to the lands that we now manage. so,

. >>> bay area attractions such as mere weeds, fort point and alcatraz would see cuts and some employees could be furloughed for more than a month. here in the bay area, the golden gate national recreation area says its making plans for reductions but still hoping for a quick resolution. >>> wall street reversed a three day slide. the dow was up 119 points to close a fraction above 14,000. the nasdaq was up 30 points. strong earnings from several big companies drove the markets higher. one of those companies is palo alto's hewlett packard. its earnings report yesterday beat all expectations and today the stock was up 12%. chief checktive meg whitman has cut cost as the company tries to rebound. but analysts says hp still has more challenges to overcome. >>> in 90 seconds. >> we'll take you behind the scenes of chinese new year parade. and show you all the preparations that are under way tonight. >> plus -- >> i heard a woman screaming, he's got my >>> and we're live at union square where there's an awful will the of gold glitter. >> reporter: come over here i'm going to show you across t

. >>> bay area attractions such as mere weeds, fort point and alcatraz would see cuts and some employees could be furloughed for more than a month. here in the bay area, the golden gate national recreation area says its making plans for reductions but still hoping for a quick resolution. >>> wall street reversed a three day slide. the dow was up 119 points to close a fraction above 14,000. the nasdaq was up 30 points. strong earnings from several big companies drove the markets higher. one of those companies is palo alto's hewlett packard. its earnings report yesterday beat all expectations and today the stock was up 12%. chief checktive meg whitman has cut cost as the company tries to rebound. but analysts says hp still has more challenges to overcome. >>> in 90 seconds. >> we'll take you behind the scenes of chinese new year parade. and show you all the preparations that are under way tonight. >> plus -- >> i heard a woman screaming, he's got my purse. >> this off duty police officer jumped into action even though he was on his way to get a marriage license. what happened after that wa

officials say there could be cut backs at popular bay area sights such as muir point and alcatraz. there would be 5% cuts, some could be furloughed for more than a month. administrators at the golden gate area say they have started planning for it. >> the pentagon has grounded it's entire fleet of f-35's after finding a cracked engine blade on one plane. officials say that the problem came to light during a routine inspection at edward's air force base. the announcement as some members of congress have been questioning the cost of the f- 35 program. it's the pentagon's most expensive weapons program at almost $400 billion. >>> right now supporters of drake's oyster bay company are holding a vigil to try to keep the company from shutting down. people have been gathering since 6:45 last night at the sacred heart church and say they will stay there until 6:45 tonight. they say they are praying for the 31 employees who could loose their job if the company is forced to shut down. after the department refused to renew the lease that company took it to court and lawyers have just submitte

. >>> welcome back as we show you san francisco, you can see alcatraz there, just kind of bathing inunshine right now. the clouds moved on from san francisco. let's take you over to the east bay right now. sunol the roadway around 680 still a little damp from the light rain that fell and the sun breaking through and in san jose, things drying out but you can see the clouds off to the east around mt. hamilton. sun starting to reach the santa clara valley as we watch still a few sprinkles there east of san jose we'll show you that on the radar in a moment. right now 40s to near 50 outside. 50 in oakland, clearing skies north to south now as the winds pick up, this is going to bring in some drier air, help to clear out our skies but with that cool breeze out of the northwest, the thermometer may say 62 but may feel like it as we move through the afternoon. bit warmer towards tomorrow. right now east of san jose you saw the clouds there, those are the sprinkles and light rain showers, still happening around mt. hamilton but that's about it. after this morning we did have areas of lighter

and i don't know they probably think i am the bird man of alcatraz. maybe i'm mistaken because he had a shaved head too. >> miller was serving an eight year sentence for burglary when he proudly showed us his cell. a virtual shrine to his winged friends. >> ever since i have been here the birds come up to me like they know me. you know i got them landing on my shoulders and my hands. and you know different kinds of birds. not just pigeons. but i got, you know different kind of black birds. finch and the red wing landing on me. i think -- the birds is a good way of -- of releasing a lot of tension and anger. before i got arrested my girlfriend used to chase the birds away. she didn't want me around them. and so -- now i'm in here. i have a chance to mingle with the birds. and basically that's about the only friends that i got. i can't trust anybody else. >>> due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >>> msnbc takes you behind the walls of america's most notorious prisons into a world of chaos and danger. now, the scenes you've never s

374 other prisoners that had been in the hanoi hilton at one time, they all memorized the 11, the alcatraz gang, they memorized those names because they all expected they were going to escape and get back and be able to tell those families who had come into the camp. remarkable story. i now field to the gentleman from texas, mr. roger williams. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. williams: i'm honored to stand here today and say a few words about one of my personal heroes and friends and one of america's great yoss patriots, sam johnson. this month is cause for celebration as it marks 40 years, this nearly 600 american p.o.w.'s, including congressman johnson's set foot for soil after seven years. many of us could endure it for seven years, much less unbreakable strength, unpend ending faith in god, and constant hope this incredible man has. his captors named a die-hard, one of the few p.o.w.'s who refused to give in and cooperate with their anti-american propaganda. his fellow american prissness knew him as a leader, one whose spirit could not be broken whether he was

the city was overrun by mob crime and until capone was caught and shipped off to alcatraz.ow for the first time since prohibiti prohibition, chicago declared a new public enemy number one. mike tobin with that story. >> reporter: you can't afford that when you hear that title public enemy number one, it draws to mind the images of the chicago mob. al capone known for ruthlessness, and controlling the cops and the rum runners from canada. and elliott ness and taking him down. the chicago crime commission says there's a new public enemy number one, out of a cartel of mexico, described as vicious, evil, and powerful, the crime commission say that guzman and the cartel make al capone looks like an amateur. >> alone, over 90% of the marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and other synthetic drugs sold on the street have come from this cartel. >> reporter: you may know that chicago has a terrific problem with street gangs and violence. murders are part of the south and west side and the d.e.a. says they're linked. they've found willing business members in the street gangs.

you can see alcatraz and ripples on the water. we have wind out there to report.light winds at 5 miles per hour. 60 degrees in livermore today. beautiful conditions. 611 in gilroy. 60 degrees in san jose with rain on the way. we'll meet here tomorrow morning and will track showers on the radar with cold air behind it forcing temperature into the low 50s friday. lots of sunshine for the weekend. >>> for our "today" winter games, the coveted gold, bronze and silver medals. which team will take them? we'll have to wait and see. matt? >> all right, al. thank you very much. >>> one of the lasting images of the presidential campaign. clint eastwood talking to a chair at the republican national convention. so, whatever became of the prop that had the nation talking? nbc's luke russert has the answer. luke, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, matt. it was clint eastwood's prop, portraying president obama as a shadow leader that became the takeaway from the republican convention. so the question has to be asked, whatever happened to that empty chair? >> what do you wa

we have a rainbow over alcatraz this morning. gray sky and showers on the way.bulk of the moisture is a few hours away from san francisco. we expect the activity to come down between 11:00 and 2:00 p.m. we'll have to wait for the rain. watch out for slick conditions as you make your way out the front door. >> that's your latest weather. matt. >> a controversy raging at a prestigious university. was a fraternity party at duke racist. michelle kosinski on the campus in durham, north carolina. good morning. >> reporter: that's right. this is all over a fraternity party, many felt had an offensive, even racist theme from the invites on. it led to a student demonstration here and the suspension of the fraternity. these are the invites sent out by kappa sigma to a party called asia prime with misspelling marking english and kim jong-il. >> i was hurt and angry. >> the result furious students at duke university. >> when you wrote hero duke, you were not just mocking an accent, you were mocking an immigrant's struggle to make it in this nation. >> reporter: wore word of