a prison guard and some inmates here at san quentin prison helped rescue a couple whose boat had capsized. we'll have details straight ahead. today president obama arrives in the bay area. what's on his agenda and what some opponents say is the real reason behind his visit. and an urgent warning for one local neighborhood after a woman describes a strange and scary confrontation. it's all ahead here on the ktvu

morning news. good morning. thank you for waking up with us. it is wednesday april 20th. i'm pam cook. what's the weather going to be like today? let's check in with mark who is in for steve paulson. hi, mark. hi, pam. good morning to you. we could be tracking a few rain drops for today. right now we have mostly cloudy skies across most of the bay area. temperatures this afternoon on the mild side. upper 50s to upper 6 0z. we have a chance of a few showers especially for tonight. we have more rain clouds to talk about in our five-day forecast. we'll have more on that in a few minutes. sal is standing by with an update on traffic. good morning, sal. good morning, mark. right now traffic moves well if you're on interstate 880. no major problems there. also the morning commute looks good if you're driving in san francisco along northbound 101 approaching the 80 split. it's 4:31. let's go back to the desk. we begin with overnight news this morning from the bay waters near san quentin prison. ktvu's tara moriarty is on the scene of a rescue that took place just a few hours ago. what happened, tara? >> reporter: well, a prison

guard and some inmates may be considered some heros this morning. happened less than four hours ago. a couple out on the bay their boat had capsized and they drifted here to shore. if you take a look behind me it's pretty dark, but that is where it happened on the bay right here where the land juts out at san quentin. again, a couple in a boat that flipped over. according to san quentin officials they left the dock earlier in the evening and started to have engine trouble. when the man tried to restart the engine he fell off the boat and it flipped over. the man and woman drifted in the cold waters for up to an hour and a half until they hit the shoreline here at san quentin. >> one of our officers was in one of our exterior towers heard sounds of someone calling for help. and actually observed two individuals out in the water. >> reporter: now there is a fire crew consistenting of inmates here. and they are the ones that got into the water along with the staff firefighter and pulled that man and woman out.

when paramedics arrived, they performed cpr on the man who had actually gone into cardiac arrest. he was taken to marin general and the woman was transported where she was treated for hypothermia. this incident was considered a breech of security but staff was well aware of the situation. they did a head count to make sure that none of their inmates had actually escaped. and they obviously knew that these people were in distress because that guard had heard their cries for help. all in all a very good positive story coming out here of san quentin. live at san quentin prison, i'm tara moriarty, ktvu channel 2 news. oakland police have issued an urgent crime alert for people living in the lake merit area. that's following an attempted assault on third avenue yesterday afternoon. investigators say a man followed a woman from a neighborhood store all the way into the gates of her home. he then ordered her to take off her clothes, but then ran away. police only have a vague description of the attacker. still not clear if this incident is tied to a series of

sexual assaults near lake merit earlier this year. there's also a warning for people in the lake merit area. police say there were six separate street robberies during a two hour period yesterday afternoon. investigators believe the same person is responsible. now he's described as an african-american man 25 to 30 years old. 5'9" between 180 and 200 pounds. he was spotted driving a light blue ford taurus. also in oakland, a woman is in custody this morning accused of shooting a man at a gas station on west grand avenue. now police say the motive behind the shooting may be a domestic dispute. the woman was reportedly heard making remarks suggesting that the man had been hitting her. she turned herself in shortly after the incident at a nearby church. the man was taken to the hospital, but police say he is expected to survive. well, there has been some sort of boating -- mishap that we've been talking about this morning.

but right now we want to talk about president obama because just about nine hours the president is scheduled to arrive in the bay area. after landing at sfo, the president will head straight to palo alto for that online town hall meeting at facebook headquarters. then it's onto san francisco where the president will appear at two fundraisers. local republicans say this visit is all about raising money. >> i think the town halls are simply a guise to appear to be connecting with normal americans. >> protesters from conservative and liberal groups are expected to be at the president's various stops today as well. and we're going to be tracking president obama's visit on our website at ktvu.com. here on channel 2 we're going to bring you live coverage of his arrival. that is scheduled for 1:00 at sfo. there's been another possible air traffic controller error. this time involving a plane carrying first lady michelle obama. the f.a.a. says mrs. obama's

plane came too close to a military cargo jet just before landing at andrews air force base in maryland on monday. the plane was ordered to abort the landing and circle the airport to give the military jet time to land first. the f.a.a. says the first lady was never in danger. the incident is under investigation. new rules today to protect the rights of airline passengers. the department of transportation will issue those new rules. coming up at 4:45 we're going to tell you what they are and how they will work in your favor. two richmond police officers will likely be fired. officers harris and thomas are accused of hiring young volunteers from the department for their private security firm and buying them guns. the two officers are also linked to a dui scam. officers thomas and harris are accused of hiring chris butler, a private investigator, to set up two of their recruits because the young officers had reported them to internal

affairs. he reportedly hired women to get the two recruits drunk and have them drive past another officer who would make a pre- arranged traffic stop. but one of the recruits was apparently tipped off. contra costa county prosecutors say butler is a former antioch police officer who works with law enforcement to set people up for arrest. san jose will drastically reduce the number of medical marijuana dispensaries. in a 6-5 vote last night the city council voted to limit the number of pot collected to ten. currently 110 are operating in the city. under the new regulations the collectors will be limited to commercial and industrial areas and they must grow their marijuana on site. >> that will only leave a very select hand few cooperative that have the physical space to be on site. luckily we're 6400 square feet so we will be able to accommodate that. >> the selection process for the ten collectives will be on a first come, first serve basis. applicants must pass a criminal background check and pay some

fees. the ten clubs could be chosen by the end of the year. 4:37 is the time right now. let's say good morning to sal. hello, sal. how's traffic? hello pam. good morning to you. pam is doing well and so is traffic. traffic is doing well. westbound 80 heading to the macarthur maze that traffic is looking good. no major problems here. you can see traffic also looks good at the bay bridge toll plaza coming into san francisco along that upper deck of the bay bridge. and if you are driving this morning in the south bay northbound 280 traffic is nice and light getting up to highway 17. here's another guy doing well. it's mr. mark. hi, sal. good morning to you. we're all happy this early wednesday morning. the clouds out there and for the most part it is dry right now. but a few light showers being detected on live storm tracker 2 radar. a lot of this not reaching the ground but we can't rule out a sprinkle at least in the short- term across the region. here's overall weather story for today. we have the clouds in place.

showers developing especially by late this afternoon into the evening hours. tomorrow some lingering drops out there but a sun-cloud mix. and into the weekend we have to re-introduce the possibility of a few showers especially as we head into saturday morning. as far as current numbers you can see most of the region in the 50s. it's fairly mild out there for santa rosa, oakland and san jose right now checking in at 55. here's the satellite. we have a weather system out here to our north and west. and this will be a factor for later on this afternoon. even right now it is a cloud producer. that's going to be part of our forecast for this morning at 8:00. mostly cloudy, 53 to 58 degrees. by 12:00 the chance of a shower 55 to right around 62 degrees. and then by 4:00 we bump up those shower chances across the bay area. so the commute on the way home as we do head into the late afternoon and in the evening hours we could have some wet roadways out there. as far as temperatures it will be a little cooler than yesterday. so the warmest locations in the 60s. coolest locations in the upper 50s coast side san jose we'll

go 67 degrees. and look ahead your five-day forecast a few lingering sprinkles into your thursday. scattered clouds for your friday. there we go, the weekend with a chance of a shower on saturday and even a slight chance of a few lingering sprinkles into easter sunday. mostly up in the north bay. we have our forecast model all ready to go. we'll show you the progression of the rainfall as it approaches the bay area for today. thank you, mark. this is clean up day in parts of missouri after a series of tornadoes touched down. three tornadoes rolled through the town of bolling green in less than an hour. one home had its roof ripped off as hail the size of baseballs fell on the town. in illinois high winds blew some train cars off the tracks. no serious injuries are reported from any of the severe midwestern weather so far. the ongoing problem of break downs in police radio communication finally getting a fix. but why some people are not happy about it. and former governor arnold schwarzenegger speaks out about

a move to reduce the sentence of the son of a fellow politician. the reason for the controversial decision. good morning. northbound -- i'm sorry westbound 24 traffic looks good on the way to oakland. we'll tell you more about the morning commute and have another check of the weather.

good wednesday morning. time now 4:43. today we are expecting partly to mostly cloudy skies.

we also bring in the chance of a few showers especially for one part of your wednesday. i'll have more on that in a few minutes. the department of transportation is issuing new sets of rules today to give more protections to airline passengers. international flights will now be prohibited from keeping passengers on the tarmac for more than four hours. it is already a three hour limit for flights within the u.s. airlines will also have to refund baggage fees if they lose the customers luggage. and they will have to pay passengers more if they get bumped from oversold flights. most of the new rules will take effect in four months. the japanese government is now considering banning access to a 12-mile area around the nuclear power plant. 78,000 people have homes in that area. now the aim is to limit the exposure of radiation to evacuees who want to return to their homes. the families will still be able to enter the restricted area to retrieve their belongings, but only with proper protection.

today marks the first anniversary of the explosion that started the bp oil spill in the gulf of mexico. thousands of people who lost their jobs and businesses to the disaster say they're still waiting for payments from the oil company. they filed claims and some say they have received small payments. but most believe they are owed more from the $20 billion that bp promised to pay out. many of the spill victims now say they are giving up hope. >> i expected them to follow through on that as time went on, i found out that isn't what was occurring. and i've become angry. >> now the man heading up the claims office says two-thirds of all claims have been processed in the last nine months. he also adds if people are still waiting for money, there must be something wrong with their claim. today's date marks the anniversary of another somber event. it was 12 years ago today that two students opened fire at

columbine high school. they killed 12 students and a teacher before turning the gun on themselves and committing suicide. a memorial to the victims will be open to the public today right next to the school. classes will not be held. extra security will be in place at a houston elementary school this morning where a gun discharged injuring three kindergarteners. police say it was a 6-year-old boy who brought the gun to school. they say the gun accidentally fired when it fell out of his pocket. the boy is one of the three children who were hurt. but all of the injuries are considered minor. police are now investigating how that boy got his hands on a loaded gun. former governor schwarzenegger says he was helping a friend when he commuted the sentence of the son of former state assembly speaker. schwarzenegger reduced the sentence from 16 years to 7 on the day before he left office in january. he pleaded guilty in the 2008

stabbing deaths of 22-year-old sans to from concord. sans to father says schwarzenegger's comments prove that his decision to commute the sentence was political. the san francisco police department is welcoming some new officers recruited from nearby cities. the 14 new hires are called laterals. officers that move from other law enforcement agencies because they have already experience they don't need extensive training. the department says it only takes two months to train the experienced officers compared to seven months for brand new recruits. >> in the hard economic times we can't afford to do full academy. if we can get them one, two, as many as we can at a time, we'll take them. >> the new hires are coming from cities such as oakland and vallejo which have been facing layoffs and cutbacks. and because of their experience, the new officers will start at a higher salary. just about $90,000 a year. 7,000 more new recruit -- that's about $7,000 more than new recruits make.

this class of laterals is expected to graduate in june. the 16-year-old daughter of a woman shot and killed in oakland is now speaking out about losing her mother and the hard lesson she has learned. >> i just want to say to all of the young girls that ain't looking up to their mama or just thinking they're too grown, not to. you don't know when you're going to lose her. and it hurts so bad. >> her mother was shot monday night while walking with a friend. police say it appears she was a victim of a drive-by shooting. two new radio towers but not everyone is happy about it. one tower is going up on city property behind fire station 25. people who live on butters drive say construction started late last week. they tell us here at ktvu that they're upset because they weren't notified before the work began. they also say the tower is an eyesore. >> i live right down the

street. i wasn't informed. heard nothing about it. >> reporter: what do you think of it? >> it's ugly. it's really ugly. >> the city says the approval process was fast tracked after several incidents involving public safety radio equipment failures. they hope to have the tower operating by the end of the summer. starting this summer music lovers will have to guess when is the best time to buy concert tickets. ticket master and its parent company live nation will start using dynamic pricing where prices rise and fall depending on demand. so far live nation is not saying how often it will change the prices. san francisco giants and oakland a's already use dynamic pricing for game tickets. cal students who are about to graduate are getting some early help with landing jobs this week. dozens of recruiters are expected on campus for a two day job fair starting today. now at least 1500 students are expected to hand out resumes and talk with recruiters from

the government, google, auto desk, microsoft and hewlett pack hard among other companies. economists say the job market remains competitive but there are more opportunities for graduates this year than in the past three years. tragedy in san francisco as a man gets caught in an escalator. why police are still treating the area as a crime scene. and thieves target muni buses. but why the suspects may be gambling with their lives. ;

well, it's still unclear exactly what killed a man who was caught in an escalator in downtown san francisco. now police say it appears that the man suffered some sort of medical emergency. he then fell and his jacket and hair got caught in that escalator. he was transported to a hospital where he later died.

police say they are treating the area as a crime scene until the exact cause of his death is determined. in san francisco copper thieves took their lives into their own hands by cutting some power lines that feed muni buses. it happened around 8:00 monday night on fullton between 11th and 12th avenues. thieves cut 600-volt power lines and managed to get away with more than 300 pounds of copper cable. commuters say they're shocked that someone would cut an electrified line just to steal copper. >> pretty desperate. yeah. but i've heard of it happening. i guess a lot of good money for copper. >> lines were replaced yesterday. and a muni agency spokesperson says impact to commuters was minimal and that diesel buses were substituted in. san tran will begin testing a new fair box system today. the agency is replacing old fare boxes on five of us buses running mostly in the north

county area of the peninsula. the new fare boxes are said to be state of the art models that accept cash, coin and paper tickets. they will be installed on the entire fleet of more than 300 buses by june 1st. coming up on 5:00. go back over to sal to check in on the commute. any problem, sal? it's doing pretty well, pam, right now. nothing -- well, i wouldn't say there's nothing major according to chp is what i should say. traffic is moving along pretty well at the bay bridge toll plaza. no major problems coming across the bridge into san francisco. there in san francisco it looks good coming up to the 80 split. and in the south bay we're off to a nice start here. you can see the south bay freeways. the maps change color when it's a little bit slower, but right now we see a lot of green which means traffic is moving well. at 4:54, let's go to mark. sal, good morning to you. good wednesday morning. we're starting with clouds and little activity on live storm tracker 2 radar. most not reaching the ground

but we could have a few sprinkles just offshore and cannot rule out the chance for this morning. as we head into the afternoon and especially the evening hours we will bump up the shower chances. this is not a major system moving in but could still produce wet roadways across parts of the bay area. some current numbers most areas starting out today in the 50s. pretty mild out there. concord 55. oakland 55 degrees. and mountain view 56. you can pick out our next system offshore with the circulation. that cold front at least for this morning we have mostly cloudy skies and off to that mild start like we showed you. things begin to change as we head into the afternoon hours. we'll have the higher clouds move in. and then into the evening hours more clouds and showers likely especially starting up in the north bay. gradually spreading to the south. those changes being picked up nicely with our forecast model. we're dry right now for the most part but just some clouds out there. put it into motion at 10:00 still some clouds. and then into the afternoon increasing clouds. we could have some breaks into the early portion of the afternoon. then look what happens by 10:00 tonight some light scattered showers across parts of the bay

area. and we're going to hold onto that chance into tomorrow morning. so by this time tomorrow morning we could be tracking some more rain drops out there. for this morning mostly cloudy and mild. temperatures upper 40s to 50s. by 12:00 we bring in a chance of a shower. temperatures in the upper 50s to lower 60s. and then by mid to late afternoon showers developing first up in the north bay gradually spreading to the south. and temperatures will be cooler than yesterday. upper 50s to the upper 60s for afternoon highs. and here is a look ahead. few lingering showers for your thursday morning. scattered clouds for friday. and we could be tracking more rain chances as we do head into the weekend. another forecast check just minutes away. well, the san jose sharks are celebrating one of the biggest comebacks ever in the nhl playoffs. it happened last night on the home ice of the l.a. kings. >> pass, scores. >> if you missed it, the sharks came back from a 4-0 second period deficit to then beat the kings 6-5 in overtime.

the sharks now lead the series 2-1. the teams stay in l.a. for game four tomorrow night. well, coming up next, a live update on the early morning rescue in the waters near the bay area's toughest prison. and the president will be in the bay area today chatting with millions of his facebook friends. also, the disturbing incident that's led to a crime alert in one bay area neighborhood.

inmates here at san quentin prison helped save a pair of boaters trapped in the water. we'll tell you about their daring rescue coming up. the police in oakland this morning getting the word out about a series of sexual assaults. the judge in the proposition 8 trial is in legal trouble. what he's showing from that case that has some people upset. also president obama looks for some friends here in the bay area today. where his first stop is and how you can check out all the action. it's all ahead on the ktvu morning news. good morning. thank you for joining us on this wednesday april 20th. i'm pam cook. a bran