vandals strike again damaging more precious property. good evening i'm frank somerville. >> and i'm julie haener. spring has returned to golden gate park but so have vandals.

>> reporter: it would be very dark out here at dowe boy medow if it weren't for our light. under a canopy of redwood trees vandals struck sawing a bench in half. >> someone has come and take to this with a saw. >> reporter: but it didn't stop there, another bench was damaged and six trees knocked down. including six redwood trees. >> you can see the cut here. these trees, one, two, three. and we have a few more town that way. >> reporter: this latest

incident follows several others. every attack has taken place at night and no one has been arrested. >> you live right on fullton so when you see people going in at 8:00 or 9:00 you know it's that crowd. >> you shouldn't go in with them. >> reporter: you guys just stay out at night. >> yeah. >> reporter: police acknowledge that at nightfall it can provide cover for illegal activity. police say they've stepped up patrols but they say they need the help. >> the way you keep the park safe is by practicing safe park use. >> reporter: reporting live at golden gate park amber lee, ktvu channel 2 news. new information tonight about one of the men shot and

killed early yesterday morning at a restaurant and bar near oakland's jack lindon square. adam williams had ties to peralta middle school. >> i cannot think of the amount of times he had his arms around a kid or pumped a kid up. >> four other people were shot and wounded so far no arrests. san francisco general hospital is asking for help in identifying a mystery patient. the hospital sent us this photo taken today. the man was admitted two weeks ago but he is unable to tell doctors or nurses his name.

the hospital describes him as latino, 5'4" fall, 150 pounds. he is listed in fair condition tonight. if you know who he is you're asking to call san francisco general. police in roaner park say they want the question two people in this surveillance video about a homicide case. the body of 20-year-old kevin craft was found last friday morning in the parking lot of a best western hotel. this video was taken earlier at a near by convenience store. police say the woman in the video is kimberly monet christian. the man in red has not been identified. christian was seen driving a car that left a hotel parking lot. hundreds of pink slips are going out. ktvu's robert handa reports.

>> reporter: today truong got this pink slip saying he could lose his job in july. 350 other officers are scheduled to get lay off notices. >> i really haven't thought of it. so i don't know what i would do. >> reporter: other notices are going off as the city negotiates. >> i have never seen it so bad. i can't believe it. >> reporter: san jose plans to cut 400 positions on top of more than 200 positions cut last year. the union may have to wait until july to find out if concessions failed. >> i wouldn't say they were deep but the firefighters

worked very hard. >> i don't know how i'm going to tell my family. after july how am i going to pay my mortgage. how are we going to have food on the table. >> reporter: all the >> reporter: all the projected cuts total about 1 million. aaa announced today its northern california chapter is laying off about 100 employees as part of a reorganization. a company spokesperson said the lay offs will affect workers at the auto club. the auto club is separating. glooming news about home prices. prices dropped by 3.5% in san francisco year after year. in los angeles the drop was a bit more than 2% and in san diego nearly 2%.

in all the index showed drops in 19 out of the 20 cities surveys. more belt tightening at the state capital. governor jerry brown has issued an executive order he did so today banning nonessential travel for all state employees. the ban includes all meetings that could over wise be conducted by video conference. travel deemed essential such as an audit or collect revenue will have to be reviewed and approved. a southwest jet ran off a runway in chicago this afternoon coming to rest in a patch of mud. none of the 139 people on board was hurt. the federal aviation administration is looking into why the 737 drove off the driveway. powerful storms are

battering much of the midwest tonight, they come after a day of tornadoes and flooding. that warning sounded and the flood gates of a dam opened in branson missouri. the army corp. of engineers notified residents downstream that the release could cause flooding. flooding breeched the -- the water came up so fast that some residents barely had time to get to higher ground. 15inches of water has fallen there in the past five days. tornado ripped through parts of arkansas overnight. one path tore 3 miles long and 15 miles long north of little rock. at least 10 people were killed. officials say the number could have been higher if tornado warnings hadn 't sounded. 70 homes were demolishes. 50 others were damaged. here's our other view, we moved our storm tracker two to the west to give you a look at the sheer size of the system.

right now it covers at least a half dozen states. we now know the likely cause of today's explosion at a high tech company and the identity of a critically injured worker. the industrial accident forced the evacuation of agilent technologies. jana katsuyama has the story. >> reporter: the chemical explosion that set off fire alarms around 10:30 this morning. hazmat crews were called in and the company evacuated the building. about 100 employees were inside and many heard the last. >> very loud,. >> reporter: the explosion happened while two maintenance workers were cleaning lab equipment. a process that involved some eight chemicals. >> the equipment involved is used for production of

intergrated circuits. that equipment needs to be maintained and cleaned. >> reporter: those evacuated were taken to another part of campus and checked for contamination. >> getting vital sounds, heart pulse. >> i'm kind of shocked that something happened, really. >> reporter: some maintenance crews clean with phosphorous which they believe caused the blast. >> also they go in and like oxygen suits and they try to be real careful. >> reporter: tonight we learned that the employee injured was patrick brness. they try to decide at 10:00 tomorrow morning if this building is safe to reopen. jana katsuyama, ktvu channel 2 news. temperatures warmed up a bit. a little more sunshine. i'm back here in less than 10

minutes and i'm going to look at tomorrow's forecast. especially an area where you live. many of play station fans are upset they can't use their devices online. now there's word their credit card information may have been stolen. we'll have a live report. new at 10:00, a

crews in oakland are cleaning up tonight after a main break. a main broke earlier and shut off water to people near by. who are learning that life without water is not easy. >> we're going to have to get some water because she was down on a couple of doors down. that it's like some of the buildings they still have their water running. >> reporter: the main began leaking earlier and water flooded the streets. east bay mud said they had to wait for a company that knows the location of various pipes to arrive before they could begin making any repairs. why the main broke in the first place still have has not been determined. a hacking at sony. the compromised information includes names, user names, password, security questions and credit card numbers. ken wayne is live in san francisco to tell us how sony

is trying to control the damage, ken. >> reporter: julie, 77 million sony station fans around the world are suffering from a kind of entertainment black out. the sign on this video store sums it up. game stop. in this huge security breech could wind up costing sony millions of the dollars. >> definitely a wake up call. >> reporter: as editor in chief ricardo torrez knows everything there is to know about video games. >> we're kind of trains to know to protect our pcs and information you have there. but you don't really think to protect your video game console information or everyone think it can get out. >> reporter: play stations is used to download net flix but players also play against others online. and for the last several days, that function is shut down. >> i have to hear about how he can't shoot people. shoot people at night and

that's just something i know he really enjoys after getting off work. to just kind of release stress. >> reporter: this store still had plenty of traffic as customers wait for word on when play station will be up and running again. >> what do you do with all that extra time? >> get a new game. play alone. stay at home. >> reporter: who's behind the attack and what's the motive? no one knows for sure although some gamers point to a group called anonymous and this video on you tube. >> anonymous is currently targeting sony's website. >> reporter: sony says it has hired an outside firm to investigate. so far there's no credit card fraud. more details now, if credit card information was successfully stolen, this breech would count among the

biggest in recent years. in all hackers stole 30 million numbers. a breech of the company that owns ty max and marshals affected 100 million aaccounts. nintendo announced it plans to unveil a new wii console on may 7th. recently nintendo's profits and stock -z have been falling. the pane is not giving details on what the new wii will include but says they should not expect 3d consoles because 3d tvs are not very common yet. under a deal revealed today, the oakland coliseum will now be called overstock.com. half of that money will go to the raiders, the other half goes to the oakland alameda stadium authority.

the deal is considered one of the smallest for naming rights for an nfl stadium. at that time's plan to upgrade ran into opposition. the board of supervisors tabled the issue for another month. >> reporter: 726 that's how many of these four foot high metal cabinets at&t wants to install. at&t says it's a fiberoptic upgrade that will give customers another option. but some groups are battling the boxes, saying it will add to -- telephone cabinets are

already graffiti magnets and saying the new cabinets will likely become obsolete soon. >> with wireless technology upgrading by the minute, to put out these physical boxes does not seem the most effective way to produce competition. >> we've offered up opportunities to help soften up the esthetics by doing greenery, decorative signage. >> reporter: customers say they would welcome the offer for a new option. >> we would like to see more come competition, it's the american way. >> reporter: each box will require an individual permit. in san francisco, david stevenson, ktvu channel 2 news. strong words were exchanged

between defendant yusuf bey iv and the judge presiding over the trial. bey is on trial for the 2007 killings of bailey and two other people. there was an exchange between b ey and the judge during which bey asked if he had to be present for the rest of the trial. the judge answered by saying, when you go to law school and learn about the evidence code, get back to me. convenience recommended the program to be returned. the move would require approval from stanford's faculty center. president obama discussed

his call for congress to roll back tax breaks for oil and gas companies. >> the ceos of the oil companies themselves have said when oil gets above 50, $60 a barrel, they don't need any incentive for them to go search for oil. they're making tens of billions of the dollars of profits. >> today the president sent a letter to congress urging lawmakers to repeal what he called the outdated tax laws. he says such a roll back would add $400 million to coppers. president obama says he wants that money to go to clean energy research. and a beautiful sunshining day today in richmond. we go to richmond-san rafael bridge. we have winds gusting to about 50 miles per hour. we're looking for another nice day tomorrow. temperatures tomorrow easily going to make it into the 60s

and low 70s possible. the extended possibilities are dry. no rain in the forecast, but cloud cover will move in. tomorrow morning when you get going, you're going to notice some clouds streaming in from the north. a little bit of patchy coastal fog. that's at 10:00 a.m. on wednesday. further cloudiness when you get into about 4:00. partly cloudy, mostly cloudy. clouds back in the forecast. these clouds are going to trend temperatures down a little bit from what we saw today in some places. when i come back, more clouds in the forecast and a little bit of cooling as well. so we'll talk about that, i'll see you back here for a specific forecast for an area where you live. a b.a.r.t. board member says he wants to connect the coliseum to the

airport. it still needs about another $155 million. robert rayburn says the money can be spent on other more pressing needs. we're learning that one bay area city is turning to a new tactic to fight blithe with more than just a warning. you might not notice them on debit cards. but more pe

take a look at this surveillance video and you will understand why a motorcyclists is thankful to be alive. zack perez was rear ended on a dallas freeway last month and he went flying but managed to roll away from other cars despite being in intense pain. perez broke two ribs, four vertibre and lost his marine

but he is fine. the man named the human cannon ball has died. the man was fired 40 feet into the air but the safety net failed to open properly and the man fell as the crowd watched in horror. the man accused of attempting to bomb a shopping mall in colorado is in jail tonight. he is suspected of planting a pipe bomb in middleton, colorado last wednesday on the third anniversary of the columbine high school. back in 1999 two students there killed 13 people before killing themselves. the devices at the mall did not explode. these days it's pretty easy to spot a forclosed home. the grass isn't cut. there's weeds everywhere and the home just doesn't look like it's being kept up. the city of oakland is now

fighting blithe and telling whoever owns those homes to clean up their property or else. >> the city of oakland is looking at 12 vacant forclosed homes to determine if they are considered blithe. >> we need to do something about it. we need to keep it up, if not they run the neighborhood down. >> they become eyesores in neighborhoods and nobody, the banks are being totally irresponsible on this issue. >> reporter: if the city thinks the home is blithed they give the property owner 30 days to clean its up. if that doesn't happen, a $1,000 fine goes up e day. >> we put a lean on the property so that when it's sold we'll get our money on the transfer. >> reporter: often banks will allow the fees to go on to future homeowners. in h omeowners. but a law has yet to be

enforced until now. >> they drug their feet in implementing this ordnance. there's no reason we're this far behind. >> we don't need to go out and have coffee and tea and talk to the banks about it. we just need to impose the fines and collect the money. >> we have a property preservation group to make sure that properties is well maintained, cared for and cleaned. >> reporter: so far the city of oakland has not implemented the law but they plan to. they've already inspected 172 homes

san francisco mayor ed lee has apparently made his choice for a new police chief. the chronicles fs gate house says captain greg suhr will be sworn in tomorrow morning. he attended st. ignacious high and usf. his most recent command was the bay view district where the homicide rate has dropped. mayor lee told the chronicle that suhr rose through the ranks. the mayor also said suhr was the most popular choice at town hall meetings he held since taking office. one out of every 10 people in this state are now receiving food stamps. and here that number is going up. everyone people who could be

getting assistance are not. >> those foot stamps really look just like a credit card now. but whether it's the stigma or language barrier, advocates think about 50% of those eligible for benefits aren't getting them. that includes people who line up at places like this for food every day. kerry hernandez and her 2-year- old daughter could soon be among the growing number of by area residents getting foot stamps. she recently applied for the help because she's out of work. >> it's been about a year and a half. so yeah it's really tough. >> reporter: how do you keep food on the table? >> with help. >> reporter: the help for many often comes from the alameda county community food bank. >> we are serving one in six alameda county residents and almost half of those are children. this is also where staff helps people sign up for food stamps and the number of those getting assistance in california is up 14% from just a year ago. in january, more than 109,000 people in alameda county received food stamps that's

more than contra costa and even santa clara county which has a larger population. even more coming to places like the south hayward mission for food when food stamps aren't enough. >> when i come here, it take it home and it helps big time. >> reporter: this family says it gets $300 a month but that's not enough. >> that'll be gone tonight. with five kids and me and my girlfriend, that's not enough. >> reporter: the state has also tried to take some of that stigma away by changing the name from food stamps to cal fresh. marin county supervisors took steps to oppose the pg & e opt out program. the opt out program is too

costly, to opt out customers could either pay a fee of $135 plus $20 a month. low income customers would get a discount. belmont police were busy today writing tickets to distracted drivers. the minimum fine for that offense is $159 but a proposed new law would bump it up to more than $300. the crack down continues tomorrow. we have a developing story about a homicide in san jose this evening. police are at site today. officers were called there about 7:30 tonight. they say the roommates got into some sort of argument at this point they are not releasing the names of either individual. this is the 15th homicide in

san jose so far this year. new at 10:00, there is word out of sacramento that budget cuts have caused the highway patrol to halt their program until further notice. the next class of cadets has been put on hold indefinitely. the highway patrol says the shortage of cadets should not affect safety on the roads. >> strategically managing our resources to place them where we're needed. the chp is asking the state for a special exemption from the budget cuts to keep the cadet classes going. on wall street today the dough ended within striking distance of a three year high on news of strong earnings. the dow added 115 points, finishing at 12,525 and nasdaq was down 120 points. an expected decline in home prices for the month of january had little effect today on investors. one of those strong earnings

reports came from ford the detroit auto maker reported a $2.6 billion profit during the first quarter. that is up 22% from a year ago. and ford's over all sales were up 20% from last year. the cup of your morning joe could be going up. that's because the price of coffee beans has doubled in the last year. coffee shops may not have a choice but to pass those costs on to consumers. >> reporter: the price of wholesale coffee is the highest it has been in decades which mean that could soon trickle down to customers. couple that with the weakening dollar and you have record high prices. >> this row right here is

probably valued at about $200,000 right now. >> reporter: george bucas tax n told us as his prices go up, that cost is passed along to its clients. while most customers do expect price increases, some are willing to pay whatever it takes to get their cup of joe. >> i've raised prices twice in the past year and nobody complains about it. they come back every day. >> i'm going to have to redo my budget so i can afford it. >> it's a necessity for me. >> it's not like it's doubled or anything like that. so i can deal with it. cheaper is better. but does it impact me? not really. >> reporter: prices could go up any where from 85-cents per cup to a dollar or so per pound. sal castaneda, ktvu channel 2 news. new figures show a sharp

price in death associated with pregnant women in california. what could be part of the sharp increase. we have the

firefighters in the phoenix area are still on the scene of a stubborn fire at this hour at a paper recycling program. the fire started this morning gusting winds at over 25 miles per hour. people living down wind were told to stay indoors. right now crews are watching for flair ups and will be on the scene there through the

night. an update on a story we brought you last night at noon. the city council voted late last night now to fire a private company to provide fire fighting services for the city. instead the city plans to pursue a merger with the redwood city fire department. if the talks fail they will reconsider the the proposal. san carlos should have an approval by the time the san car lo fire department will resolve. in libya, rebels battled forces lo corral forces loyal to gadhafi forces. in syria, witnesses say government tanks and soldiers

killed more people in the city of daraa today. members of the opposition are posting video of the attacks on the web. foreign journalists are barred from syria. human rights groups estimate more than 400 people have died in the past month. and in chernobyl, they held a memorial. there has never been a definitive count on how many people were killed in the chemical spill. the report shows that in 2008 there were 14 deaths per 100,000 live births. in 1999 there were only eight deaths for the same number of

births. researchers say about 1/3 of the deaths can be acreditted to better tracking of the births. heart disease was the largest cause of death. just released census totals have -- we want to know how we fit into the cosmos. next in a live report, how study may be able to keep looking for intelligent life elsewhere. also our chief meteorologist bill ma

as we first reported last night it is the end of the line for the study institute here in the bay area. workers there devoted years to

looking for extra extraterrestrial life. >> reporter: have you ever gazed into the heavens above and wondered is there someone else out there? well for 26 years the study institute of mountain view, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence has been trying to answer the question. are we alone? 17 telescopes on u.s. land have been scanning the sky for possible signals from extraterrestrial. one light year is how far light will travel in one year. 6trillionmiles. >> there aren't any data coming from the antenna right now. >> reporter: that's because this month the study turned off the dishes and computers went back. there are not enough donations to continue the search. >> it takes money to keep it on

the air and that's what we would like the world to help us with. >> reporter: but it begs the question, is it worth it to search for aliens who may or may not exist. >> this telescope can become operational again, we can resume the search. that simply depends on the interest of the populos to do that. >> if there really is life out there, and we start poking around at them, that might disturb them. >> we want to know how we fit into this cosmos. this may be one way of finding that for $5 million it can continue to search for two more years but there are no guarantees that anything will be found. live in mountain view, lloyd lacuesta, ktvu channel 2 news. study is taking donations

through it's website. we posted a link through our website, just look for the right now tab. and the grand jury said the county's hybrids cost more than gas powered vehicles and the 200 hybrids make up about 2/3 of the fleet. the grand jury found the other vehicles cost less and still met the county's fuel economy standards. plus the hybrids depreciate more meaning their trade in values are less. state assemblywoman fiona moss wants to introduce new legislation tomorrow. moss offered the bill in response to a rave last year at the cal palace which resulted to the death of five people. others were hospitalized because of overdoses. san francisco supervisors are now on record opposing

restrictions on dogs at the golden gate national recreation area. the national park service wants to limit the areas where dogs can go off leash. the supervisors voted 10-1 against the plan. the city has no jurisdiction over the national park. and there's a little bit of wind out there tonight as we head toward springtime. we're in springtime. but as we head toward a more springtime weather. that's not what we're starting to see. we're starting to see winds kick up now. the winds are gusting 10 to 15. let's go to alameda, toward the naval station. much less. significant winds outside, temptures right now on the mild side -- temperatures right now on the mild side. overnight lows will be kind of cool. 41 in santa rosa, 43 in napa. some areas in the inland valley

this morning had a little bit of patchy fog on rooftops. so we could see some patchy fog in san helena those typical areas. pretty soon we're not going to see much of that fog. the satellite loop just shows everything heading north. it shows rain in the pacific northwest. an active pacific but the to trajectory of all that activity moving into northern california. so we're in good shape. it stays to the north. but it shifts out over the next 36 to 48 hours just a little bit. that's awful it takes to drop temperatures down. instead of 70s and mid-70s like we might see this time of year because of the proximity of the jet stream and the moisture of the cloud cover, looks like we'll see temp temperatures in the 60s the next couple of days. still very nice much like

today. the moisture is still going to move north. that's when temperatures will really start to increase. we'll see mid-70s. maybe some low 80s by the weekend. as you look at these temperatures note that we're going to be dealing with certainly increased pollen counts. we have noticed tree pollens are obviously trending medium to high. over the next couple of days they are really going to kick up in the livermore valley. toward morgan hill and leeroy. this is your wednesday forecast. your thursday forecast will be just about the same as we get into the weekend. there are temperatures increasing pretty rapidly by late in the weekend. but maybe near 80 on sunday. so no rain in the forecast. good news there and really just tree pollen to worry about in terms of anything that can give you grief. >> well that's the biggest of our problems that's not bad. thanks bill. >> katie couric confirms she is leaving the anchor chair at the

cbs evening news. couric was the first woman to lead a network evening news by herself. cbs is expected to appoint 60 minutes correspondent kelly as her successor possibly as soon as next week. when prince william and kate middleton walk down the aisle more than 100,000 security officers will be standing guard. london's metropolitan police say there'll be both uniformed and under cover officers. preparations are already under way for the big event at westminster abbey. cleaning crews are busy making the place shine both inside and out. tourism officials expect 600,000 people to come to

london for the bigday big day. and you can watch our coverage starting at

the fans of san francisco's ocean beach will undoubtedly fill with surf spectators. the window of competition is between november 1st and march 1. back to the business of victory. grand slams, bases loaded triples. they are nice but in baseball, you're always hearing about the little thingings. getting runners over, sacrifice flies. things of that nature. that was the giant's night. little things showing up big. it was the pirates bringing it. andrew mccuchen in center. one of the best in the business. tejada on second. two sacrifice flies, the giants go to the tenth. they try to pick him up.

he is in at third no problem and it gets even better for ford. you're thinking they're frustrated. a little hesitation and that man is gone. as you will see the replay. just taking advantage of a little hesitation and that's your game winning run. bryan wilson a sixth save and the giants do end a mini four game skid. trigger finger has to be twitching with the powers of the bee in oakland. it's early but hard to deny they look kind of flat on most nights lately. the a's have to bring somebody from triple-a. shake up the line up. not working. the angels have a kid they called up. he was hitting .455 in the minors. first major league at-bat, amarista. the a's come on with three in their third. conner jackson with his first of the year. 2-run shot. up briefly 3-2 is oakland.

the angels bounce right back. rookie catcher with an rbi single. they are up for good and the a's have lost four of their last six. there will be a new stanley cup champ. one of those that present the perfect case. play off hockey is just plain spectacular. it goes to overtime. in vancouver the canucks were up. 1-0 in the third. 1:56 left in regulation. shorthanded nonetheless. we go on to overtime. 5:22 in. alex burroughs and the second right there on that shot sending the canucks into round two. they'll play nashville it also means most importantly around here, they will host the sharks

in the second round. kobe pretty much leading the way. lakers are now up 3-2. the magic and the bulls were also victorious. the bulls putting away