>> have a great monday. in the news this monday morning a bart police officer is injureds after a vehicle was hit by a car. that car ended up smashing into a building. >> the bay area is mopping up after a powerful storm that pounded us with wind and rain. it flooded roads and knocked out power. >> here's a live look at downtown san francisco where we're seeing the rain taper. breezes still here. drier weather briefly. show you what's going on in tahoe. snow still falling there, also. >> you'll find some strong wind across the bay bridge. a wind advisory has been issued. there have been a few early morning accidents. take it easy and i'll show you where they are coming up. >> i'm terry mcsweeney live in

san francisco where the 9th circuit court of appeals today with arguments regarding same sex marriage. not one set of arguments but two. >> good morning, everyone. it's monday. it's 4:30 bright and early. >> gesh, it is! what am i doing here at 4:30. >> i'm not kristen sze. i'm jenelle wang. thanks for being with us. >> thank you for being in for kristen this morning. i'm eric thomas. crews will do mopup this morning following a rain storm that came down hard and fast last night. it created a sudden buildup of water on 880 south near the broadway exit in oakland. drivers had to slow down quickly to get through the huge puddles in the middle of the freeway. there was minor flooding in front of the oakland museum. city crews had to clear a storm drain that had backed up and san mateo county branchless crashed through power lines. that stopped electricity to a

few dozen homes for part of the day. mike is here with a look what to expect for today. >> live doppler 7 hd. good morning. south of 580 and the san mateo bridge, still health radar returns but still brief bouts of light to moderate rain over the next hour or so. the north bay, a radar return. that may just be the radar bouncing off some of the clouds there. but drizzle and light rain is still possible over the next couple hours. you can see over the last three hours the tapering of these showers and that will be the trend as all of this is moving into the central valley and into the sierra where we have a winter weather advisory until 7:00. snow levels down to 5,000 feet. you might need chains. >> you'll certainly need them if you're heading up there this morning. also you probably want to slow down and take it easy. look out for leftover puddles. here's a lift look at 680 in

walnut creek. so the roads are slick and there are a couple of spinouts. one is concord avenue and in san francisco there's one near the 101 and 280 interchange but neither are blocking. in the south bay we'll check out highway 280 at 17 so traffic is light but there is an accident northbound 85 blocking one of the lanes on the camden off-ramp right now. eric? >> frances, thank you very much. it's 4:43 now. this morning two people are in the hospital including the driver of a stolen car and a bart police officer. authorities say the suspect smashed into the officer's car during a late-night pursuit in hayward. the deputies were chasing the suspect who first ran a red light, then rammed an alameda county sheriff department patrol car. the bart officer is in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. the suspect is in intensive care with head injuries. the suspect is on parole for stealing vehicles. the stolen cash was taken from

the bart station a week ago. >> also this morning a showdown in the debate over same sex marriage takes place in less than five hours from now. both sides face off at the highest legal level yet. terry mcsweeney is live in front of the 9th circuit court of appeals with more what we can expect today. terry? >> we're going to be hearing actually two different arguments out here, one of course appealing judge vaughan walker's decision that proposition 8 defining marriage between a man and a woman is unconstitutional. before that we hear an argument whether the people in favor of prop 8 even have standing to be in court asking for an appeal. here is a preview of that argument. >> usually we only did allow somebody who has that sort of abstract p interest as opposed to a particularlized interest in a matter to pursue a federal lawsuit. they're going to have a difficult argument. >> the united states supreme court has recognized that where

a state court allows proponents to intervene, that the federal courts will do likewise. >> attorney general jerry brown decided not to defend prop 8 when judge walker ruled it unconstitutional last august. both sides of this case agree on one thing and that is it is headed eventually to the united states supreme court. hundreds of people are expected to be back out here this morning as they have been at a number of times as this case makes its way through the courts and the arguments begin at 10 a.m.. live in san francisco, terry mcsweeney, abc 7 news. >> all right, terry, thank you. the court is allowing the proceedings to be broadcast live and the hearing is set to begin at 10:00 this morning. we'll stream is live at our website at abc7news.com. in addition to the hearing, we'll have live commentary from legal analyst dean johnson, the gentleman you saw just a couple moments ago. again, that is abc7news.com starting at 10:00 this morning.

govern schwarzenegger will call the legislature into an emergency special session about the budget. the governor will send lawmakers a proposal what to do about a budget that's $6 billion in the red, a problem he says can't wait for a solution until governor elect jerry brown takes office. >> it is my responsibility to take action. i took an oath to serve california 2011, not until december. so why would i stop working in december? you gotta solve problems. let's be honest. that's not my style anyway. >> mr. schwarzenegger is warning that ugly cuts are on the table including more layoffs and less money for education. the budget cuts could mean bigger classes as well as a shorter school year and possible layoffs of non-academic personnel like counselors and athlete coaches. we'll follow the story and bring you more as it develops. >> a man charged with sexually

assaulting a two-year-old girl is back in court this morning. 36-year-old eugene ramos is set to enter a plea in alameda county superior court from charges in an incident last week in a union city dollar store. he assaulted the toddler. the screams alerted other shoppers. two blocked his exit and held him until police arrived. ramos is an arrested sex offender with a prior conviction back in 2003. >> three people who pleaded guilty in the torture of a tracy boy will be sentenced today. karen ramirez, kellie low and schumacher are expected to serve 30 years each for torturing a 16-year-old boy. the teen disappeared two years ago. ramirez, low and shoemaker

agreed to plea bargains. >> the deal of broken city parking meters is slightly less than a bargain. you have just an hour to park your car before getting a ticket. $55 downtown and $55 in the rest of the city. >> the storm that hit the bay area yesterday has moved on east and turned to snow in the higher elevations, the sierra. but the roads were wet as you can see in this caltran's picture at truckee. the snow wasn't sticking or near north star. chains are still required on vehicles that don't have snow tires over donor and echo summit. if you drove on the roads here you probably found some ponding if you drove through the bay

bridge and sprayed the other cars. >> the morning carwash. it seems to be tapering off. let's see how long it will stay away. let's check with meteorologist mike nicco this morning. >> that's a great question, jenelle. especially if you're living in alameda county and san mateo county down near santa clara, the south bay. that's where we have the best radar returns, where the heaviest rain is falling. this is all moving to the northeast about 30 mph. it's going to hang around about another couple of hours. light rain and possible drizzle that's not showing up on live doppler 7 hd. even that could cause a few problems during the morning hour. pretty much the morning commute at least early on is going to be wet and then residual wetness and soggy afterwards. mild, temperatures low to mid-50s to 48 los gatos. these are all warmer than yesterday except los gatos about 1 degree cooler. fairfield and half moon bay the same. under a mild and moist air mass and that's going to lead to

cloud cover this afternoon even once the rain ends. upper 50s to low 60s. most of the bay shore around 60 down into the santa clara valley. as far as tonight goes, we're going to see patchy fog develop. it could be especially thick in the mountains and valleys tomorrow morning. tomorrow will be our brief day of dry weather. rain back in the forecast for wednesday, thursday. but right now it looks like the weekend's going to be dry. good morning, frances. >> good morning, mike. a couple challenges if you're heading to the bay bridge this morning. the first one is the wind advisory that has been issued. it's going to be out there for the morning commute as mike told me. and as you see these cars approaching the tolls, look out for the ponding that eric encountered and getting splashed by some of the other cars. you see the water splashing as you make your way to the toll plaza. san mateo bridge looking good. no problems across the span. let's check out the south bay where we have some of those lingering showers. here traffic is light. headlights move northbound 101

but roads are still slick this morning so you'll definitely want to slow down a little bit. eric, jenelle. >> nicer the splasher, not the splashee. >> ahead, a global campaign to free graduates in iran. >> an injured hiker survived six days and nights in the santa cruz mountains. next the clue a neighbor credits for her rescue. >> the push in congress to a flight to hawaii using our points from chase sapphire. last minute... on christmas. and sitting next to us, chevy chase. and we really hit it off. we play golf, and then the luau. he's like da vinci with ice. and after, we help hang christmas decorations. wait, wait, wait. you flew last minute... on christmas... with points from chase sapphire? yeah. amazing.

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like he said... ♪ o yeah! i thought we'd eat at hey, you ghome. save some money. $200 bucks? that's not saving! [jacks voice] at my place i'm bringing back the bonus jack. two patties, melting cheese and my secret sauce plus fries and a drink for only $3.99. i get it. you can eat a lot cheaper atouar placthanoucóc]. but do have this? i have dessert. what about this? ohhh. ohhhhhh. jack. that's for max. an injured hiker who spent six freezing nights stranded with no food in the santa cruz mountains is expected to be released from the hospital today. a man and his son found 59-year-old deborah collins saturday.

she had been walking on an unmarked trail and fell into a ravine and hurt her ankle. the man who found her is a neighbor. his wife encouraged her to search for collins. >> a friend. it was crazy. but our friend. and psychic friends says i don't see any violence involved. i see her leaning against a tree. >> collins suffered from hypothermia and has been treated for frostbite on her toes. >> the campaign to free the u.c. hikers still imprisoned in iran moves to san francisco tonight. several authors will take part in a fund-raiser in the mission district. shane bauer, josh fattal and lisa shored were imprisoned last year. their families are in need of financial help because of legal fees, travel expenses and other

needs. several family members lost or quit their jobs as they dedicated themselves to fighting for the freedom of their loved ones. >> a bill will make it illegal for anyone to distribute or record images taken from full body scanners at the airport. the measure by senator chuck schumer calls for punishing anyone who misuses full body scan images with up to a year in prison. they could face fines up to $100,000. the security administration says it has safeguards in place so the images can't be stored, transmitted or printed. tsa officials say they're deleted after they're inspected by security screeners. >> it's 4:45. facebook.com users will begin noticing something different today. >> coming up on the abc 7 morning news, the new information your friends will see now on your profile page. >> high stakes in the fight against higher taxes.

all right. welcome back. it is almost 4:48 on this monday. i want to draw your attention to the great lakes and the east coast with the deep breeze. look at atlanta, high of 39. that's insane. d.c. and pretty close to new york and boston. 20 chicago, 29 st. louis and that's also where we see most of our activity and this lake-effect snow. we have rain here around l.a. and salt lake but no delays. if any develop, you know where to turn to, yeah, our flight tracker at abc7news.com. you can turn to eric for the news, also. here he is. >> thank you, mike. it's 4:48 now. facebook.com is resigning the profile pages of its 500 million plus subscribers to make it more a reflection what it calls users' real lives. facebook.com says that the changes are meant to make to make it easier to tell their stories of their lives.

it includes a new bio section that includes who you are and where you live. it will include a set of the most photos that your friends have tagged you with. >> a deal is in the works on capitol hill this morning to extent bush tax cuts to restore benefits for those out of work for a long time. the compromise plan could add trillions to the national dent. emily schmidt is in washington with the latest. in just 25 days the compromise push is sounding more like a promise. >> i think it's pretty clear now taxes are not going up on anybody in the middle of this recession. >> republican lead he recalls say it's not a matter if the bush era tax cuts are extended to cover everyone but how long they'll be in place. democrats don't like it. they tried and failed in the senate this weekend to exempt high earners from the tax break. >> they're demanding that the wealthiest americans get a tax cut that is 1,000 times the size

of the average american. >> if the cuts expire, someone making $62,000 a year would see taxes go up $2200 beginning next month. $10 million earners would pay an pa additional $450,000. republicans argue in this economy no one should pay more. >> we don't want no tax increases. that may be poor grammar but it's great economics. >> we need to we double our efforts to resolve this impasse in the next few days. >> something has to give so in return for extending tax cuts to the richest americans, democrats want extended unemployment benefits for millions of people. >> without unemployment benefits being extended personally this is a non-starter. mcconnell has had more conversations with president obama over the last two weeks than the last two years. the compromise deal could be worked out by the end of the week. emily schmidt, abc news washington. >> stanford will take on

virginia tech in the orange bowl on january 3rd. it's the first ever orange bowl appearance for the card and the first ever matchup for these two teams. the director made an offer to sweeten the coach's contract after they won 11 games for the first time in school history led by andrew luck. their only loss came against oregon who will be playing auburn for the national title kick off for the january 3rd orange bowl is at 5 p.m. on espn. i don't think we can pick one here because carolyn johnson is a stanford alum and joel bartlett. we get beat up either way. >> we don't have a dog in that fight. >> if we put a dog in that fight we can beat up. that's what i'm saying. >> just a shame they gotta go all the way to miami. after such a great season. this travel's going to be really expensive and hard to get that many people to go that far.

>> but they've got nice weather. >> of course. even warmer than ours. drier, too. show you what is going on at 4:52 this morning. good monday morning. looking at the ferry building still with the colors of the season. notice the flags are flying. a little breezy this morning, especially elevated surfaces like say bay bridge, possibly the san mateo bridge. we'll talk about temperatures out there. those winds keeping us rather mild, we have temperatures running in the low to mid-50s in most neighborhoods. we have a 48 over los gatos and that is one of the cooler spots. you head to the monterey bay we're looking at temperatures also running in the low to mid-50s there, too. so talk about some highlights. rain tapers. partly cloudy this afternoon. drier, brighter and warmer tomorrow. and it will be wet again for wednesday and thursday. all right. as far as what's going on this afternoon, we'll eventually have

a partly sunny sky, a stray shower may still make it into the north bay mountains with the wrap-around moisture and the ability of the mountains to lift that moisture that could create a shower. the rest of us see sunshine, temperatures low 60s. monterey bay and inland, temperatures 49, santa cruz 58. and low 60s for everybody else. as far as lows tonight, a little cooler than this morning. pretty close to some highs right now. low to mid-40s in most neighborhoods, especially the north bay valleys and mid to upper 40s for the rest of us. take a look what happened while you were sleeping. cool front just now starting to come through. stability that came through yesterday brought us the heaviest showers has moved away. pulling all this up to the north. so we get a quick push of dry air. you can see it coming in today with a little cloud cover. tonight we'll have some fog. it will be pretty thick in some areas.

tomorrow an increase in clouds as this next system approaches and wednesday morning into wednesday afternoon we'll have more rain and then some scattered showers on thursday. let's take a look at your accu-weather 7-day forecast. temperatures remain mild as these systems are coming from the ocean to our west and southwest instead of coming down from alaska. all that cold weather we dealt with last week, this week we get warmer than average weather. here's frances with a look at your traffic. good morning. >> good morning, mike. look out for those windy conditions. you can tell how windy it is across the bay bridge, at least get an idea with this live shot. it's shooting from emeryville towards the span. no trouble but look out for those puddles approaching the toll plaza. the north bay, a quiet ride. no problems for cars moving southbound on the 101 through san rafael to the golden gate bridge. but it's still pretty wet in the south bay although traffic is light at the 280 and 17 interchange. just be a little extra careful

for your ride to work. you can get the latest traffic information anytime by going to abc7news.com. it's under the bay area traffic linking. jenelle. >> thanks, frances. the chinese president discussed attentions on the peninsula in a phone call with president obama last night. chinese officials say president ho called for all sides to exercise restraint to prevent the situation from deteriorating. ho said china is concerned over the attention from the deadly artillery shelling of a south korean island by the north. it has been appreciated by the u.s. and others to use its influence to rein in the north. >> iran claims to have reached a new milestone in its nuclear program. the country has now gained the ability to enrich its own locally mined uranium. western officials are downplaying the announcement. they say irans do not have

enough raw uranium to support a large-scale program. they meet with six nations to talk about the nuclear issue. >> supporters of julianna assange moves to switzerland. wikileaks halls faced a variety of problems including hacker attacks. it's been booted by u.s. companies including palo alto-based paypal. this all comes after the site released thousands of classified u.s. diplomatic cables. now the founder is wanted in sweden on sexual assault allegations. he's received hundreds of death threats. he calls assange a terrorist. >> i think the man is a hi-tech terrorist. he's done enormous damage to our country. and i think he needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and if that becomes a

problem, we need to change the law. >> the supporters say they're creating what are called mirrors of the website meaning copies will stay on the internet even if the main website goes down. >> it's 4:57 now. next on abc 7 news at 5:00, san francisco considers a new law that could force city contractors to hire local. >> i'm terry mcsweeney live in san francisco. same sex marriage back in the spotlight today in front of the 9th circuit court of appeals. they're going to hear not one argument but two. the story coming up in a live report. >> in oakland, shrinking police force. why the city is struggling to a flight to hawaii

using our points from chase sapphire. last minute... on christmas. and sitting next to us, chevy chase. and we really hit it off. we play golf, and then the luau. he's like da vinci with ice. and after, we help hang christmas decorations. wait, wait, wait. you flew last minute... on christmas... with points from chase sapphire? yeah. amazing. believe it. with points from chase sapphire, you can book airline tickets with no blackout dates or restrictions.