in fremont. >> good evening. it's thursday, may 31st . this is bay area news at 7:00. it's a decision that's being cheered by neighbors fighting for a better quality of life. the bay area judge has ordered two motels to close down for one year. john live in oakland and tells us the problem here is prostitution. john? >> no prostitution here at the economy inn but the judge says it's not ready to keep the area crime free. so she's ordering the motels to shutdown. >> reporter: the economy inn is one of two motels ordered to shut down. >> it's horrifying seeing the

women and children. >> reporter: for years city officials say they've tried to wipe out prostitution here. >> there are victims who are brought in to this, many of whom who lose their lives or their livelihood. >> reporter: she's been helping lead the fight against neighborhood prostitution. >> worst than a blight. a blight would be like an empty house. this is like a holocaust. >> reporter: this week the judge issued the rulings saying each motel must close for one year starting on july 1st. attorney represents both properties. >> i disagreed with the judge. i told her very clearly they haven't had a single act of prosecution since late last year. >> it wasn't until we got a preliminary injunction that they began to pay attention. but because we explained to the

court to have them shut them down to have a change of heart and mind. >> reporter: both businesses were quiet today, exactly what residents said they wanted to hear. >> we don't want that. people are trying to raise kids and live decent lives here. >> reporter: the attorney says he'll repeal and next week plans to ask for a stay of the closure orders. >> coverage of the attack on brian stowe. today prosecutors continued to lay out their case with witness testimony at a preliminary hearing. the two men charged with beating stowe, morwood and sanchez. one woman said she saw a man punch brian stowe in the head after the opening day game. >> i heard brian hit the pavement. the parking lot. >> can you describe the noise you heard?

>> it sounded like a thud, like someone's head was bashing against the pavement on the parking lot. >> the witness described seeing the man kick brian stowe in the head, then raise his fist as if in victory. prosecutors say stowe has permanent brain injuries and will need lifelong care. the wife of a bay area homicide victim made an emotional plea today. >> please, please, somebody, if anybody knows anything, if anybody heard anything, please just come forward and give this information out. please. >> reporter: someone shot and killed 30-year-old ronnie kidd around 5:30 sunday morning as he sat in his car at a traffic light at market and 7th street. he was a family man with three children who worked hard says the family. the person who shot him might have been in a dark newer model audi, maybe an a4

with tinted windows. in a video today, he shows his arm to a neighbor. >> this happened yesterday and [ inaudible ]. >> eliana lopez went on to say she made the recording because he threatened to take custody of their young son. lopez said releasing the video is quote far worse than anything her husband is accused for. >> the politics of introduction i think at its worst. they're exploiting eliana and frankly her son to get to me.

>> the ethics commission is expect today review the tape and make a decision about whether he should keep his job as sheriff. the proposed budget calls for hiring dozens of new police officers and firefighters. they say things are looking up for san francisco's economy with the latest report showing $122 million more than projected. a house fire in san jose is bringing new attention to concerns over budget cuts. yesterday's fire gutted one home and damaged another. one truck was left unmanned to save money and they say it should have responded. san jose is the nation's 10th largest city but has the fewest firefighters per capita. a new poll shows california

californians still prefer obama. voters prefer mr. obama over romney 48% to 32%. the undecided voters have grown from 10% back then to 17% now. president obama's support is evenly split between men and women at 48% each. 36% of romney's backers. 23% of women say they're undecided. romney made a surprise stop here in the bay area today. >> this is silndra. earlier this month we gave you this exclusive look inside the failed

solar panel company. >> it's also a symbol of gross waste. >> reporter: presidential candidate mitt romney pulled up in his campaign bus to take a peak at it from the inside. >> this ought to be a big story. and i think there are a number of people among the president's team that don't want that team to get out. >> how's he doing? you've heard of solindra. >> a new attack ad highlights the department's loan, taxpayer money used to pay this state-of-the-art building still for sale. santa clara university professor. >> i think the important thing he's doing is you want to take the strength of a particular leader and use that against him. >> reporter: he says the campaign strategy both ways. >> obama is trying to attack romney in his leadership as a business leader and use that against him. saying he laid people off and made money for

investors and stock holders. >> reporter: today the president's campaign assistant said both republican and democratic administrations advance solindra's application. romney fired back saying it was obama's >> president obama put politics aside today welcoming former president george w. bush and his wife laura back for the white house for their unveiling of their official portrait. following the event, president obama hosted a private lunch for the bush family. several weeks on even keel, the labor department says the jobless claims rose 10,000 to its seasonally adjusted 383,000. the less volatile 4-week address increased to 374,000, the first

increase in a month. the numbers will figure in to a may unemployment report due tomorrow. the dow saw triple digit losses before recovering. in the end the dow closed 26 points lower. nasdaq lost 10. wall street's first lose --losing month since last september and saw the largest month of decline in two years. facebook had a winning day. stocks settled below 27 $27. facebook closed at $29.60 a share, below its price of $38 a share two weeks ago. a franchise is doubling up on its plan to expand. togo's wants to roll out 150 new restaurants by the year 2015. they currently list about 250 locations. the first one opened in 1971 near san jose state

university. a federal appeals court today struck down part of the federal defense of marriage act. the boston court ruled one section of the law which declared marriage as a woman between a man and woman is unconstitutional. the court did not rule on whether gays have the right to marry. >> john and i pay thousands of dollars extra in taxes because we're a same sex couple. that's because we're not treated equally under federal tax law. >> the conservative alliance defense fund called the ruling, quote, a dangerous decision that could ultimately threaten your religious freedom and the democratic process. a 12-hour closure of a collector on a busy free way was finally lifted this afternoon. they were repairing a guard rail

that was damaged when a cement truck overturned on 280 and northbound highway 85 in cupertino. the truck carrying 80,000 pounds of cement hit the rail at about 3:30 this morning. the truck driver says his truck might have had a mechanical problem. it caused more of a spectacle than a headache. the driver of a car steered off. you see the geyser that resulted. no one was hurt here. authorities say the driver took off in the car after it happened and has not been found. for decades a santa rosa man has acted as a caretaker for a large white cross on a hillside but no more. the 94 year old says his heart is broken. he spent 31 years white washing the rocks and clearing weeds from the cross. it sits on a hill behind st. francis acres and sky hawk residential development. the owner says he

worried about his safety and told him he has to stop. >> surprises today at the arraignment of the sierra lamar case. >> john edwards reacts to the verdict in his campaign corruption case. what happened next. >> a big warmup today across most of the bay area. fog developing just offshore. coming up, the temperature change you can expect for tomorrow and the coolest day of the upcoming week. ♪

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>> a gas smell prompted the evacuation of two schools late this morning. news chopper 2 was ahead at about 11:45 as students gathered at woodrow wilson elementary.

someone reported smelling gas near the two schools. crews checked the area but didn't find any leaks. students were back in class by noon. police are looking for three people wanted in an attempted robbery that ended with a death. the golden treasures jewelry store remains closed today. people went in to the store yesterday and one of them had a gun. they say the store owner also had a gun and shot one of the with-be robbers. he's identified as 18-year-old caron barou of heyward. new develop ments today in the arraignment of the man under arrest for the murder of missing teenager, sierra lamar. today's developments could make a big difference in a legal trial. >> reporter: the suspect, 21-year-old antolin torres. one count of murder, one count of

kidnapping. now there's a single charge of murder with a special circumstance of kidnapping. >> there is no second count of kidnapping. that sends the signal that they believe they have a strong case for murder. >> reporter: the focus on murder. >> we have not found her body, but in my heart i feel she's still alive and is somewhere. >> reporter: garcia-torres was scheduled to enter a police but ken mandel was granted six more weeks to look at the evidence. many were struck by a change in the defendant's attitude. >> his demeanor in court was important. he took this matter very seriously. he responded to the judge. he was engaged with his lawyer. he wasn't looking around at the crowd. he has to make a first impression on this community. >> reporter: some of the suspect's family members were at

the arraignment. he's scheduled to return to court. in san jose. >> microsoft is almost done with an overhaul. they released their final test version as windows 8. available in 14 languages and include several improvements from an earlier version released three months ago. microsoft hasn't announced when windows 8 will go on sale. analysts expect it will hit the market in accept or october. from yosemite to the french palace of versailles, google is offering tours of the greatest places online. they provide virtual tours of 132 famous sites in 18 countries. the mountain view tech giant says the goal is to preserve historic places around the world and bring them to a wider audience. environmentalists try to

find out how much debris from the 2011 japanese tsunami is headed for the coast. they washed 10 million tons of debris in to the ocean. to find out, environmentalists will look. prosecutors are unlikely to retry edwards in the campaign corruption case. jonathan reports on this dramatic day in court and the judge's decision that leaves edwards a free man. >> jurors in the john edwards trial reaching a verdict on only one of six counts. they found him not guilty on one account. the jury could not reach a verdict on the other five counts leading judge catherine eagles to declare a mistrial. >> thank goodness we live in a country that has the kind of

country we have. i think those jurors were an exemplar for what juries are supposed to do in this country. >> reporter: it was an eventful afternoon after apparent confusion in the courthouse. they were under the impression a verdict had been reached on all six counts. he was facing count 1 for conspiracy, counts 2 through 5 for allegations. defense attorneys say edwards did not knowingly break campaign finance laws. >> i did an awful, awful lie. that was wrong. there is no one else responsible for my sins. none of the people who came to

court and testified are responsible. nobody working for the government is responsible. i am responsible. >> john edwards now says he wants to shift his focus in life to being a good father and helping impoverished children throughout the united states and the world. in greensboro, north carolina, k tv u channel 2 news. >> tonight bright young people competed in the national spelling bee and it all came down to two young ladies from florida and california. they went through 13 rounds and just about 45 minutes ago, 14-year-old of san diego catches the title of the best speller in the united states. san jose's 13-year-old made it all the way to the 5th round. some young birds are making big headlines at a bay area zoo. we'll see you where you can see them for a limited time. parts of the bay area hit 90 today.

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>> it left the international space station just six hours

earlier, bringing back trash and other items. the unmanned capsule parachuted in to the ocean. spacex, the california company that sent the capsule to the space station said the mission was a success. it hopes to carry astronauts in a few years. here on earth we were roasting in some parts of the day. >> some locations easily in to the 90s. a few changes are developing for tomorrow. we have a fog bank developing and with that a temperature change for friday. especially by the bay area weekend. right now as you can see, the maps on live storm tracker 2 we have mostly clear skies. a closer inspection with the mapping you can see the fog bank. primarily for the coastal areas, early friday morning. as far as highs from today, how warm did it get? you could feel the 90s toward

santa rosa. the hot spot, about 96 degrees. san jose topped 86 and pacifica around 97. mostly clear skies and fog developing. our cool begins for tomorrow. hot numbers in lnd --inland around the 90 degree mark. temperatures cool off saturday and sunday. overnight lows, first thing friday morning, coolest locations around the 50-degree mark for santa rosa. so for the next few hours, we'll have a stronger onshore breeze and with that the cooling begins. still around 90 degrees inland. temperatures tomorrow on average about 3 to 6 degrees cooler than today. you could see the trend as this area's low pressure moves in from the north. by saturday we'll cool things off and by sunday, warmest location inland in the mid 70s.

cooling continues to monday of next week. the red contour links up with the 90-degree mark. we'll see a few low 90s out toward antioch. san jose tops out about 83. san francisco around 64. here's your 5-day forecast. here's the cooling trend the saturday and by sunday. more clouds by monday >> it's pretty easy to have a soft spot for the latest generation of penguins at the san francisco zoo. the chicks are living it up in the penguin island habitat. in june, the newbies will attend fish school where they'll be taught how to swim. they'll rejoin the rest of the band in july. thank you for trusting ktvu channel 2 news. our coverage continues with the 10:00 news and tonight,

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