thousands of ac transit drivers. plus date area scientists announced a major game changer for the future of solar power. >> complete bay area news coverage starts right now this is bay area news at 7:00. good evening, it is monday, august 2nd. ibm maureen naylor. a judge ruled in favor of the transit union by issuing an injunction and that defense a labor contract that ac transit imposed and the judge agreed with the unions and the agency should not have unilaterally imposed the cost-cutting measure and means that ac transit will have to honor the

old contracts with the union and in beijing by ending arbitration. >> this 300,000 plus a week that we will have to add back into it all ready $56 million deficit to further jeopardize the services of our public. >> ac transit still has the opportunity to negotiate and not wait until they 35 and that means the restoration of the service will be put back. >> this issue had caused delays for riders and the ac transit board is holding a closed-door meeting at this hour. tomorrow san francisco transit officials will meet to discuss a mandated rates for muni riders and boost wages they can only discussed the increase and has no authority to deny the wage hike.

they guaranteed muni drivers and equasalary and an initiative would end that guarantee and forced muni drivers to negotiate their wages. the father of johannes mehserle spoke out publicly today. about two dozen people gathered in san jose for the rally which just ended about one hour ago. a jury convicted johannes mehserle of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of oscar grant. he was a police officer at the time of the shooting and today his brother said his son is doing okay behind bars in los angeles. >> i am out here today to support my son and all law enforcement because it is a very slippery slope when we start to send people to work with guns and not only sully convict them but criminally. >> unlike the rally last month there was no opposition today but at least one man peacefully debated the case with mehserle

supporters. a multimillion-dollar makeover is underway and crevice in a big impact on the city aker economy for years to come. followed by attracting a bigger chunk of the couple did convention code. christian is live tonight with details. >> reporter: the convention center is getting a $55 million face lift in the two older of the convention wings. >> crews are touching up the south building but it will be more than just a fresh coat of paint. >> they have did and expectations, anything from the high tech cabling to digital displays. >> visitors say there is room for improvement. >> it was pretty good, probably

made of eight -- more people court and back in. >> reporter: the bathrooms and escalators will be getting an update and also beginning a new luck. >> if you were to drop somebody in that building and take off the blindfold they would not know where they are so one of the things you want to do is and use the buildings. >> reporter: they're also working on updating the building's high tech infrastructure. >> better access to technology would help so i can pop open a laptop, there are parts in here that are not accessible. >> visitors bureaus are reporting that its future convention bookings are down 20% all the more recent san francisco's business perrot calls the pricetag the cost of doing business. >> in order to for san

francisco to remain competitive, we have plenty of competition. we have plenty of convention competition out there. >> reporter: renovations are expected to take it around for years, right around the industry is forecasting a return to pre recession levels. live in san francisco. christian kaplan, ktvu channel 2 news. final preparations are underway for the temporary terminals and the closure of the old terminals this saturday. the new facility is on main street between howard and pull something it will be a hub for the area transit until a new one is built the public is invited to open house tomorrow from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. police say crime: san francisco at's muni system is down but a handful of pilot tex calls for action discussing --

of violent attacks calls for action. david stephenson reports that. >> reporter: the public safety committee took up a plan to take fines for troublemakers. >> people want to feel safe. >> reporter: increase the fine from 502 mec $1,000 for harassing and would the wild carrying a concealed weapon. >> we want to send the message that aggressive pursuit, harassment on muni is something that we cannot tolerate. >> the proposal comes in the wake of three violent attacks earlier this year and last week's stabbing of a man near a train platform. activists say her survey of the cetacean users we deals daily acts of harassment. >> sometimes they are provoked. speaking at them or trying to block them from leaving the

bus. >> police working the muni lines a few cases involve the aggressive pursuit and that is before our call monthly crime rate has dropped by 45%. >> statistically the crimes are low but if the perception is there it does not matter what the numbers say. >> reporter: penalties for troublemakers should be tight. >> once it starts a could be more, i don't know. >> the proposal calls for a vote tomorrow and if approved the higher fines could be implemented in about 30 days. >> reporter: david stevenson, ktvu channel 2 news. uc-berkeley student newspapers are reporting that a victim of a plane crash in pakistan. this boy appears on the facebook page that her fans created. the daily californian reports that the software was a rising software start. she was traveling in her home

country of pakistan when the air blue jet crashed of, killing all 152 people on board. a big area musician was killed shortly after 5:00 this morning. police say the driver of the van lost control when he fell asleep and was carrying members of two bay area metal bands, funeral pyre and early grave. the vocalist was killed. police say he was not wearing a seat belt and the driver has been identified by the guitarist justin garcia. he and a passenger were hurt. their injuries are not life- threatening. we are learning more to net about the background of a danville man arrested yesterday after his car hit a bicyclist. the 23-year-old was convicted of drunken driving when he was

17 years old. he is the younger brother of sam and scope giants out fielder nate shierfold. no details are available of the circumstances. they say he was intoxicated and driving with expired license. we have a slide show posted online with more images. to view it, click on the link on our homepage ktvu.com. health care workers are walking the picket line tonight. >> nurses, cooks, maintenance and laundry workers started a five day strike at the nursing home. american baptist housing of the west owns the facility and has been in negotiations since february. they are at odds over benefits such as sick leave and health- care. >> we have a great plant and it would thank you, for example,

it go to the doctor and pakistan the hospital overnight the deductible is $3,000 -- dr. overnight the deductible is $3,000. >> they will hire replacement workers to fill in during the five day strike. the latest proposal by the firefighters union is too little too late. the offer includes an increase in the retirement age and changes for the retirement pay structure. 49 firefighters were let go because of the city's budget crunch and an official says the department is smaller and the savings were not enough. president obama said u.s. troops will be pulling out of iraq as promised and then schedule be there said to be out of the country by the end of this month and all non- combat groups will be on by the end of the big european right now there are 70,000 troops in iraq and a the end of august

there will be 50,000. in october 2007 there were 170,000 as of today there have been at least 4,413 u.s. military deaths in iraq. >> the hard truth is we have not seen the end of american sacrifice in iraq. but make a mistake, our commitment in iraq is changing from a military effort led by our troops to a civilian efforts led by our diplomats. >> the troops will be conditional forced to train iraqis. two huge cranes are on their way to the port of boston be they no longer need the cranes and are not as tall as some predict reviews because of safety issues because of its proximity to logan international airport. boston is covering the $50 million cost of the month-long move and they say giving the

cranes away will save a half million dollars. that is what official estimates it would cost to dismantle the cranes. the battle for smartphones sales appears to be even harder. coming up on bay area news at 7:00, apple iphone's loses ground. >> a tiny chip, a new idea and from the celebratory what could be a revolution in solar energy still ahead -- from this lavatory what could be a revolution in the solar energy still ahead. >> i will let you know the details of the forecast coming not still ahead. what this droid does will change how you do movies.

with blockbuster on demand, this does hit films on a 4.3-inch screen so big, the way you see them will never be the same. introducing the new droid x. pre-loaded with blockbuster. the next generation of does. >> woman was killed and the four others injured when a home built airplane crash today. it is unclear if those on board were related. investigators say the pilot

radioed the tower that the plane's door was opened. the victim's identities have not been released but the plan is registered to demand in recent, arizona. the faa is investigating the crash. actor charlie sheen pleaded guilty in the domestic abuse case. he entered the plea in aspen colorado when he was arrested christmas day. prosecutors dropped a criminal mischief charge and exchange board. >> copley and the judge sentenced him to 30 days in the california rehabilitation center, and 30 days rehabilitation, and 36 hours aker management. the $30 million renovation project is in polls bring and featured some researchers have discovered a trove of artifacts that have been buried for decades.

the archaeologist who started mapping the area say they're not surprised that some interesting things have been discovered but while they are not considered findings, they are former running placements between the oil giant and christmas field at least one of which was buried with the golden gate bridge was built. >> a detour around 1900, 1896. it was buried and cut in half. >> reporter: win the project is completed, they will be open to the public and so far they have also undergone a lot of cobblestones years back in the day when they were on horseback and a column from what was originally the gate for the national cemetery. the artifacts were dug up by crews executing one of two tunnels. >> it is exciting because it's tied to the landscape and

history. >> reporter: some of the treasures include eight german coin minted in world war ii and a loss of military buttons. >> there have been lots happening here. >> reporter: there was an old treasure discovered, and indian site dating back maybe a hundred years but it's not ready for viewing yet. jim vargas, ktvu channel 2 news. the federal reserve chairman sounded cautiously upbeat about the economy. >> private payrolls expanded at about an average of $400,000 per month, an improvement but still lipase insufficient to reduce the unemployment rate. >> bernanke said it would take significant time to replace the 8.5 million jobs that were lost during to dozen aides back into does nothing. encouraging manufacturers over

the seas have a strong rally on wall street and the dow had a 40% increase. android phones are becoming popular around the world and a selling apple's iphone. 24% purchased a android phone while 23% bonds and iphone and they find android support phone sales worldwide are up more than a hundred% from one year ago. apple's sales grew 61%. it is being hailed as a major breakthrough. stanford researchers have developed what they say is an entirely new way to create electricity that one day soon could be far cheaper to produce than using fossil fuels. health and science editor john fowler reports. >> reporter: the son is an unlimited but compared to

fossil fuels, so powers converting sunlight to a lead to deep remains to expensive. >> hopefully somebody will figure out how to make more with this. >> at stanford university that somebody is this site is professor this chip may hold the solar's future. >> what we have shown here is a new physical process that is different from the normal way that you convert the energy. >> reporter: what is holding back its lack of efficiency. only about 20% of the energy is converted to electricity. the rest is wasted as thank you. by combining heat and light researchers say they can have a game changer. >> a 50% increase will drop the cost and make it highly competitive or better than natural-gas. >> reporter: experiments confirm that inexpensive chips

with special coding, make electricity at 1100 degrees. solar reflectors could focus light and heat on the chip, making electricity while heeding a steam turbine. >> this would replace a lot of the energy generated by natural- gas. >> reporter: the energy could be available in five years. at&t says it has no plans selling a building in san jose. the site is located among luck montgomery street and an at&t spokesman told ktvu that houses a working facility for more than 100 employees and tomorrow the san jose city council will endorse an effort to bring the case to san jose. coming up on bay area news at 7:00, you are not alone if you spend a lot of time

maintaining your facebook page. we will give you the latest proof on the total networking site. and mark cole, summer whether -- and more, summer weather is in the forecast this week. we are streaming live on the web at ktvu.com.

>> california state fair trading eutectic this year. the fare is wrapped up and started a month -- state fair tried a new tactic this year. organizers say attendance was up 10% to just more than 741,000 visitors a. that is a sign of summer but not much summer around here. it is good for firefighters. >> it is cool and all along the coast it is a foggy. temperatures are in the '90s and the long debate is in the 70's and low 80s. the fog is shooting across the valley and ending up over here by the ballparks. the fog is pretty much where was this morning or where it will be tomorrow morning. it will be a repeat. fog and low clouds with daytime highs that will look a lot like

these. low to mid '80s where there should be '90s. it is just been a cool summer pre there is a high pressure centered that is not where it's supposed to be paid this is the feature that brought us deep cooler weather and below average temperatures painterly you are getting a break on the utility's if you are not clean your house is up there. some other side bars. with an average weather. tomorrow i would expect 92 degrees out there in concord. out towards oakley and be in a vista you can touch on 87. if you drive 10 miles further east you will hit 90 and mid- 90s to the upper 90s. 80 degrees in clear lake tomorrow. their temperatures mimic the

inland temperatures. forecast ties with fog and low clouds when you wake up did a pretty rapid burnouts. daytime highs will not have much of an opportunity to recover so 75 in menlo park with a consistent a fog bank. a little bit of sunshine out toward santa cruz and towards the beach today as well but that fog is billing and rapidly and is a repeat tomorrow, we had today. there is your five day forecast and quite frankly, maureen, there is a repeat each date paid nothing big team jeanne. i was you tonight at 10:00. >> thank you, bill. the amount of time that people have spent checking social networking side have increased. americans spend nearly a quarter on their time on line on social networking sites. that is up 43% from last year.

kemper said its games, 8% reading and writing e-mails which is down 12% from last year. that is our report tonight appeared i am maureen naylor paid our coverage continues online at ktvu.com and with our 10:00 news on ktvu channel 2. tmz is up next right here on tv36.