live in san francisco, lyanne melendez, abc7 news. >> thank you very much. >>> more news now. a big scare at virginia tech university this morning. the university went in to lockdown after three children attending a summer catch on campus reported seeing a man with a gun. the children said they saw a man walking quickly with what may have been a handgun covered with a cloth. police posted a warning on the university website and began notifying students by e-mail and phone and began an extensive search of the campus. >> the alert that went out asked people to go inside and secure themselveses with further notice. that's what they are asking people to do. again, it will be their individual decisions but you have the information that we have. they need to make their own decisions. >> so far, police found nothing. you probably remember back in 2007 when a gunman stormed virginia tech and killed 33 people in worst school shooting in u.s. history. in march, federal authorities fined the school for waiting too long to notify students about the initial shooting in april of 2007. >>> i

live in san francisco, lyanne melendez, abc7 news. >> thank you very much. >>> more news now. a big scare at virginia tech university this morning. the university went in to lockdown after three children attending a summer catch on campus reported seeing a man with a gun. the children said they saw a man walking quickly with what may have been a handgun covered with a cloth. police posted a warning on the university website and began notifying students by e-mail and phone and began an extensive search of the campus. >> the alert that went out asked people to go inside and secure themselveses with further notice. that's what they are asking people to do. again, it will be their individual decisions but you have the information that we have. they need to make their own decisions. >> so far, police found nothing. you probably remember back in 2007 when a gunman stormed virginia tech and killed 33 people in worst school shooting in u.s. history. in march, federal authorities fined the school for waiting too long to notify students about the initial shooting in april of 2007. >>> i

so yeah, it's tough. >> lyanne melendez, "abc 7 news." >>> here comes hurricane irene.oming up we'll track the storm's progress and rush to get ready on the eastern seaboard. >> rebel forces in libya claim control most of the capital of tripoli. where is moammar khadafy? i'll have details coming up. >> also, airline passengers have new rights starting today.3q spots again. detergent alone doesn't fully dry your dishes. it leaves spots and residue behind. add finish jet-dry and they dry two times better. and they're shiny. that is shiny. sweetie i think you need a little extra fiber in your diet. fiber makes me sad. oh common. i dare you to taste one hint of ber in fiber one. oh, i'd be able to tell. why don't i just eat this bag? and how can you talk to me about fiber you enjoy that. i am. [ male announcer ] fiber beyond recognition. ber one. against scrubbing on their hands and knees. they're using new resolve easy clean to deep clean their carpets. its upright brush with activating trigger removes three times more dirt than vacuuming alone. it's just one, two, three e

lyanne melendez.ews." >>> if you are interested in buying a state owned vehicle now is your chance and you could get a pretty good deal on it. governor brown has asked all unnecessary cars be auctioned off negligence month. there are about 3800 of them. the department of general services controls these cars and at a monthly auction at days everything is open to the public. from what we understand it's fairly straightforward. >> you come and pay a registration fee. if you don't buy anything you get your money back. >> this could save the state more than $11 million and the auction could bring in an additional $35 million. >>> an important test in eiwl for candidates seeking the gop nomination for president. a tradition the iowa straw poll offers a glimpse how candidates are performing in that state that will kick off the 2012 election. in advance of tomorrow's vote a few of the candidates went on the attack. >> tomorrow in iowa an important test for the people seeking the republican nomination for pres

lyanne melendez reports the university says it's not due to the state budget cuts. >> reporter: thesetudents is seeing a university that is transforming itself because of severe budget cuts. for example this is the first time incomes from tuition will surpass state funding. it has increased to $12,000 a year. swearing wearing this sweatshirt that cal is no longer affordable to many families. >> i'm hungry, i'm broke. >> that says it all. >> higher tuition should guarantee them the classes they need, but in fact a cal says a portion of this money of this tuition increase is being used to add courses but not everyone says they are getting their acquired required classes klass. >> she can't take this class until she has this class. >> there is waiting going on but those that have back-up classes. >> it's a common process we have for students, oftentimes week one or week two, students are finalizing their schedule. >> many students have yet to experience that and already thinking of summer school. >> i may have to consider taking summer school in order to be able to graduate on time. >> t

the stor story tonight from abs lyanne melendez. >> this has gotten too far. >> reporter: are that was the president of the bart officers association after hearing sensitive information was stolen from their website by none other than the international group of latin americas called anonymous. they assumed -- group of hackers called anonymous. >> the site was hacknd and the information was the officers addresses and e-mail addresses were posted out and the password to log on to the website was published. >> reporter: the fbi is investigating the matter. bart officers have been told to notify law enforcement where they live. today, deputy chief benson farrell said officers will not be intimidated by this latest incident. >> it is not going to change how we respond to any incidents that follow this. >> reporter: on sunday the group managed to get into a bart customer service website and post the the personal information of some 2500 bart customers. the group has claimed responsibility for the attacks after bart decided to shut off self-service last thursday when they feared a protest was

lyanne melendez is live in san bruno with that part of the story. >> reporter: terry said that 8 peopleied and you have to remember 38 homes were destroyed by this explosion. you know, people here say when you have this kind of disaster yoreally want answers and residents feel like they haven't gotten those answers. as you recall they had their lives turned upside-down and it's been nearly a year and many people feel that pg&e hasn't come clean. it's especially hurtful for many when had he hear that opportunities were missed that could have prevented this kind of tragedy. they are aware of the ntsb's final report will be made without those critical records of the pipeline. pg&e has never come forward with the documents that verify the origin of that section of pipe involved in this explosion. >> i don't understand why they don't have records. i don't believe that i believe they have records. i don't know if they are hiding them but i think they may have not produced them to the public or to n.t.s.b. but believe they have something. >> reporter: as is left a huge crater which has not bee

in oakland, lyanne melendez, abc 7 news. >>> much more to get to this wednesday night. coming up, they are running out of room on this east bay hillside. new perspective on the growing number of u.s. war casualties. >>> targeting the taliban. the pentagon's kill mission against the men who killed 30 american troops. >>> i'm spencer christian in the accuweather forecast center with a change in our weather pattern. the cooling has regun. but for how long? find out in my accuweather forecast, coming up. >>> also here tonight a partnership that will make it easier to harness the power of the sun to charge your new plugin car. the our planes start flying when i it's dark. and they don't stop flying until it's dark again. flying all day, every day. you deserve our best. that's why there's so many flight options. [ webber ] southwest airlines has seven daily nonstop flights from the bay area to chicago midway to fit your schedule. ♪ hey, we're on your schedule, not ours. there will be another one back here in a second, just watch. what did i tell you -- there's another one. [

lyanne melendez tells us why the numbers are up despite recent budget cuts. >> nearly 95% of students of the class of 2011 passed the exit exam. schools like burton in san francisco have had a strategy in place to make is your more of their students pass the test. >> at burton we have been able to configure schedules so the best and brightest teachers actually work with the most verbal kids. >> they must pass both sections not to get a diploma. they can start taking the exam in tenth grade and have several more chances to pass. those making steady increases were african-americans and latinos. among african-americans, 83% passed the exam. come their to today, 90%. hispanics, 85% of itself class of 2006 passed the test, compared to 92%. >> 98% of graduating white students pass the exit exam but there is still an achievement gap between latinos and african-americans and white counterparts but it's getting small are. >> despite budget cuts have seen an improvement. >> they think what we're seeing is teachers and peer professionals in school sites are doubling down on the work and talk abo

lyanne melendez is live in san bruno with that part of the story. >> reporter: terry said that 8 peopleied and you have to remember 38 homes were destroyed by this explosion. you know people here say when you have this kind of disaster you really want answers and residents feel like they haven't gotten those answers. as you recall they had their lives turned upside-down and it's been nearly a year and many people feel that pg&e hasn't come clean. it's especially hurtful for many when had he hear that opportunities were missed that could have prevented this kind of tragedy. they are aware of the ntsb's final report will be made without those critical records of the pipeline. pg&e has never come forward with the documents that verify the origin of that section of pipe involved in this explosion. >> i don't understand why they don't have records. i don't believe that i believe they have records. i don't know if they are hiding them but i think they may have not produced them to the public or to n.t.s.b. but believe they have something. >> reporter: as is left a huge crater which has not be

department of public instruction released results of the state's standardized tests and lyanne melendez has a look at what they revealed. >> here are the numbers that prove california students have steadily improved their performance over the past eight years. in 2003, 35% were proficient in english language arts. it's gone up to 54%. in math, 35% were proficient eight years ago, rising to 50% today. >> instead press conference about more tests and what can't be done, we're here today to emphasize the positive. >> so why did the numbers increase despite the cuts to education? >> they are working harder with less. it could be lots of things. it could be that there is more community improvement in the process. there could be clearly the use of data. >> that data is being collected to identify the areas each kid needs to work on. in san francisco's case, over the years the district has put more pressure on parents to keep kids in school. >> ankle lot of our test score improvement is because we're improving attendance in the district and more we can do that and parents need to help us. >> t

lyanne melendez, "abc 7 news." >>> bank of america tonight, the bank will slash 3500 jobs across the board by the end of september. the bank is also working on a broader restructuring that could eliminate as many as 10,000 jobs. that is about 3.5% of the work force. bank of america shares are down 47% so far this year including a slide of 6% today. >>> hewlett packard says it plans to spin off the computer manufacturing business and stop making smart phones and tablets altogether. officials confirm they are in talks with a british software company whose headquarters to take over the p.c. business. they are hoping to transform itself into a technology services economy like i.b.m. has. the stock was down 6% today. >>> one expert says investors are reacting first and asking questions later. another big down day for the dow. tonight stocks in asia are following suit. stocks were down more than 2%. dow jones fell more than 500 points in the first half-hour of trading and ended date below 11,400. they were spooked by reports from morgan stanley that we are dangerously close to following in

here is lyanne melendez tells us why the numbers are up despite recent budget cuts. >> nearly 95% of students of the class of 2011 passed the exit exam. schools like burton in san francisco have had a strategy in place to make sure more of their students pass the test. >> burton, we've been able to configure figure teacher schedules that best and brightest teachers work with the most vulnerable kids. >> they must pass the english and math portions in order to get a diploma. they can start taking the exam in the tenth grade and have several more chances to pass. those making steady increases were african-americans and latinos. among african-americans, 83% of the class of 2006 passed the exam, compare that with today, more than 90%. among hispanics, 85% of the class of 2006 passed the test compare that with today's numbers, more than 92%. >> 98% of graduating white students pass the exit exam but there is still an achievement gap but it's getting smaller. >> despite budget cuts, many schools have seen an improvement. >> i think what we're seeing, teachers and professionals and administ

here a lyanne melendez with a report. >> silicon valley teachers are learning new computer skills, facebookt one of them. >> there is stuff that i put up there, that i wouldn't want my students to say, things about my kids and family. >> months lawmakers agreed making it illegal for them to interact with any student under the age of 18 on facebook or any other social networking site including twitter. the former ceo of sun microsystems says that is wrong. it's hope inful that will change. >> i'm comfortable longer term lonely long distance education will be an important parted in the education process. >> none of the surveillance interact through facebook. but none of them says she sees nothing wrong with teachers and students communicating through facebook. >> it's important for us to extend our learning communities and to solidify them as one community. >> many silicon valley school districts forbid them from friending students on facebook. >> mofo is one website they do allow. it's remarkably similar to facebook but this website is there for students and their teachers to discuss and lea

in the newsroom, lyanne melendez, abc 7 news. >>> now, you the incredible lengths police went to so bust a child predator. a child molestor from elk grove offered enough clues in his photograph to lead to his arrest and conviction. reporter george warren has the story. >> reporter: pedophiles often their share garbage on the internet and the garbage shared by one pedophile in particular included dozens of images of a single child and one image of an actual garbage container from elk grove, california. >> we steve the pictures from the national center for missing and exploited children and then found online from another country receiving the pictures all we know is that it happened in elk grove and from there we had to try and use every other detail we could to narrow it down. >> the detective organized a canvas of every elementary school in elk grove and even neighboring communities but nobody recognized the girl in the pictures. so he began looking at the houses in the pictures for any distinctive architecture or other unique markers. he drove around this community of track homes essent

here is abc reporter lyanne melendez with more. >> san francisco was the first to out law plastic grocery of cloud amend fog rolling in, there is sunshine as well. definitely will be a cool day in most areas. i'll have the forecast coming up and talking about warmer weather in the seven-day forecast. >> also ahead giving locally. how you can pick and choose who is on the receiving end of your chchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchc