san francisco. same sex marriage, the story coming up in a live report. >> leaders go into special session at the capitol today to hear the governor's proposal for ugly cuts. >> here's a live look from downtown san francisco. a little breezy this morning and a few showers still showing up on live doppler 7 hd. i'll show you where they are, where they're going and more rain in the forecast. >> with the wet roads this morning, we've seen numerous spinouts and look out for ponding as you make your way towards the bay bridge toll plaza. i'll have an update and the slower spots coming up. >> heard about that ponding. >> you've done that this morning. >> thanks for joining us. i'm eric thomas.

>> i'm jenelle wang. a showdown over the debate of same sex marriage takes place four hours from now. both face off at the highest legal level yet. terry mcsweeney is live in front of the 9th circuit court of appeals with more. >> number one, supporters have to discuss with the three-member panel whether they in fact have standing to represent yes on this issue and, number two, whether judge vaughan walker's overturning is legal. you can follow this issue every step along its legal path ever since approved in 2008. state supreme court upheld it, judge vaughan walker said it violated due process and equal protection. a handful of people are in line already to be in that courtroom for the arguments. one we spoke with said this is history. >> well, i -- i think it's an

important issue. i'm kind of a passionate court-watcher. arguments for lower profile cases than this. thought it was important to be here and witness history today. >> before schwarzenegger and attorney general jerry brown are refusing to defend the voter-approved member. that's why there's a question which group can technically represent the voters on this topic. prop 8 supporters say judge walker strayed from his duties and ventured into policy making when he declared it unconstitutional some time ago and today the next phase in this court case and everyone agreeing it's going to wind up in front of the united states supreme court possibly two years from now. terry mcsweeney, abc 7 news. >> terry, thank you. for analysis where joined by legal analyst dean johnson. thank you for waking up early and joining us this morning.

appreciate it. dean, first up, a lot of legal talent. ted olson, david boyce as you've seen nationally. what sort of effect could that have? >> it's going to make for a landmark argument. certainly some of the best legal arguments we've seen in any case in decades. but whether it affects the judges personally, i don't think so. these are judges used to having the best legal talent in america in front of them and hearing the very finally honed legal arguments of the best lawyers of our generation. it will be a good argument but these judges are used to hearing good arguments. >> can you tell us about these three judges. >> what i said they're sort of like a mini version of the supreme court. we have judge reinhard who would be a very liberal judge. we have judge smith on the other end who is a fairly new judge but we think is going to be very conservative given his

background and judge hawkins in the middle playing the anthony kennedy role of the moderate swing vote on this particular panel. >> this is not the end, right? how long until we see an answer from the three-judge panel and what would be the next step after that? >> i think it would be two to three months before this opinion is issued and the next stage would be for the loser in this particular argument to demand review before the entire 9th circuit court of appeal. >> quickly here at the end, we were talking about just a couple minutes ago the legal precedence for arguing standing in a case like this. what will the lawyers be looking at. >> standing is a federal limitation on the ability of somebody to bring a lawsuit. the precedence for this type of case really around clear. what we'll hear today is a lot of discussion of a case called arizona english only in which the united states supreme court said victim, kind of a

throw-away line. we seriously doubt the standing of proponents of the proposition to argue in front of federal court. that argument has to be made by the state itself by the attorney general or the governor. >> the ironic thing, the current governor and future governor neither want to defend this. exactly. that's why standing became so important. at the end of the trial. the state of california, both the attorney general and the governor said we're fine with this. we think same sex marriage ought to go ahead and we're convinced with judge walker's opinion. >> you're going to stick around, right? i have questions for you as an attorney. >> i will be here to listen to the arguments and respond to your questions. >> thanks, dean. >> i want you to know the proposition 8 proceedings will be carried live this morning. dean and i will be hosting streaming webcast coverage at 10

a.m. on abc7news.com. >> governor schwarzenegger will call the legislature into an emergency special session this morning to deal with california's latest budget deficit. the governor will propose cuts to a budget that is now $6 billion in the red. he says lawmakers need to tackle the problem now, not when governor he will length jerry brown takes office next month. they expect deep cuts to education. >> this morning a bart police officer is recovering in the hospital after his vehicle was struck during a late-night pursuit in hayward. the alameda county sheriff's department says the suspect was driving a stolen car. the deputies were pursuing the suspects who first ran a red light then rammed a patrol car before hitting the bart officer vehicle not involved in the pursuit. the bart officer is in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. the suspect in intensive care with head injuries. the suspect is a 23-year-old man

on patrol for stolen vehicles. the stolen car he was driving at this time was taken from the bart station a week ago. oakland's police department is shrinking so fast it doesn't have enough officers to cover some patrols. the san francisco chronicle reports 21 officers have retired. a dozen others have left for other departments and five have simply quit. that leaves the department with only 670 officers when the chief says 925 are what he needs to get the job done. there are now five cops investigating everything from auto thefts to burglaries and six of the city's 33 patrol car beats are not being covered. >> san francisco supervisors are considering a measure that would impose a strict new hiring requirement on contractors working on city construction projects. the board is expected to vote tomorrow on that proposal that

would require at least 50% of workers hired by those companies to be san francisco residents. if approved the new rules would be phased in over six years. during the first year employers would be required to hire 25%. that would increase until the 50% mark is reached. if you're looking for work you want to check out our next hire event job fair. it's tomorrow at the windham hotel in san jose. >> if you are looking for work, taking an umbrella with you might not be a bad idea because you want to put your best foot forward and soggy foot. >> good morning to you. here we are monday still watching showers. you can see scattered radar returns throughout the east bay valleys into the diablo range. that's where we'll find the best rain now.

a little drizzle hanging around and definitely damp this morning with plenty of wet weather on the roadways. temperatures mild thanks to the southerly flow. we have mid to upper 50s. oakland and san francisco 57. los gatos a little cooler 48. temperatures warmer than yesterday everywhere except los gatos and half moon bay 3 degrees cooler. the clouds open up. see a little sunshine. temperatures climb upper 50s to low 60s. a little wrap-around moisture maybe lifted by the north bay mountains. you may be a little wet this afternoon. all of us dry on tuesday but until tuesday look at wednesday. we have a chance of rain on wednesday and another system barrels through and thursday we have showers and then that mild flow continues friday, saturday and sunday. looks like a dry weekend right now with temperatures above

average every day except wednesday and thursday. frances following many accidents this morning. good morning. >> chp caltran's warning drivers about the windy conditions across the bay bridge. not a big delay at the toll plaza but you see the typical puddles on your way to work this morning. there are a few spinouts in solano county. westbound 81 at green valley road has the green valley off-ramp closed now and then a spinout westbound 80 to southbound 680. look out for that. here's some of the slowest spots. westbound 580 sluggish from 205 to 680. about a half hour. pretty slow is westbound 4 out of antioch. lone tree way to 242 is now 25 minutes but mass transit system so far reporting no delays. eric, jenelle. >> frances, thank you so much. time now 6:10. >> just ahead new legislation in

sacramento that bartenders statewide are going to love. >> we'll tell you about the new effort to -- tell you about the new law, the effort to erase an old law that dates back to the prohibition era. >> gas prices headin

♪ >> good morning, everyone. it is 6:14 on the abc 7 morning news. live high definition from our rooftop cameras through the embarcadero there. it is wet. the bay bridge behind it is wet as well and frances has been telling us about spinouts this morning. you want to be careful as you're driving in this morning. watch for those high winds as the bridge as well. a new survey finds the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline has jumped almost 4 cents in the last two weeks. the latest survey pegs the pump

price as $2.91 nationwide. denver had the lowest average priced among cities surveyed at $2.61 a gallon. long island, new york, was highest at $3.21. i bet we could beat that here in california. the average price was $3.14 a gallon. >> you may be able to get flavor-infused alcoholic drinks in your favorite bar and restaurant. clearing up a post-prohibition legal code. they say they cannot infuse alcohol with different flavors. leno's bill would allow bars and restaurants to flavor small amounts of liquor with fruits, vegetables and spices. >> in australia major roads are closed as residents and emergency officials deal with major flooding in new south wales. half the state is affected by the floods and warnings remain in effect for 13 of its rivers.

crews responded to 13 calls for assistance and that was just sunday. hundreds of people have been evacuated from their homes. farmers in the area believe nearly a million dollars could be wiped off the value of the state's crops because of that flooding. >> i was there in that flooding and it rained every day while we were there except one. they said it was the worst spring in over a century. >> they're coming off a drought, too. that much worse. >> all my pictures are like rain, fogged up. i don't know if i have any pictures salvageable from that. >> gotta find something positive. >> if you get those pictures you can send them to youreport. >> we can show off the pictures. there's one, me and a koala that's so cute and if it's not there, i'll be devastated! >> how about the weather

forecast. >> let's move on and talk about the weather here getting drier at 6:17 this morning. even the koala looks very nice. i hope you can find it. here looking from ballmer peak to san francisco. live doppler 7 hd is showing the radar trends weakening, de-intensifying if you will. moving away. still scattered sprinkles this morning and mild conditions. mid to upper 50s until you get up to the hills. monterey bay and inland low to mid-50s. monterey a little warmer at 57. three things you wanna know. the morning rain is tapering. becoming partly cloudy in most neighborhoods this afternoon. drier, brighter and warmer tomorrow. on the heels of that more wet weather for wednesday and thursday. for today mid to upper 50s with 60s oakland, fremont, palo alto, san jose. here we could have that stray

shower in the north bay with that wrap-around moisture from the north and east. 60 santa rosa, the warmer spot up there. monterey bay, see a little more sum here. upper 50s for santa cruz, low 60s for everybody else. tonight patchy fog, especially the north bay valleys. mid to upper 40s for the rest of us. while we were sleeping, a couple waves of wet weather roll through. now you can see a definite drying trend to our south and west. that's where the prevailing flow is coming in. coming right from here and that's going to keep us dry today. a little dry sandwich before the next system in the gulf of alaska rolls in for wednesday. watch these radar returns just shrivel and shrink and gone. right before the sun sets 4:50 this afternoon. overnight you see the fog starting to form, especially our deepest valleys in the north bay. tomorrow we start with sunshine. high clouds move in late in the

afternoon out ahead of the next system which moves into the north bay by 7:00. cough commute for you wednesday morning. the rest of us get it through the mid-afternoon hours and tapers to scattered showers and those showers hang around through thursday. notice the temperatures. a lot of low to mid-60s just about every day except wednesday and thursday. we're in a mild pattern and one that is actually dry on the weekend. of course, it's only monday. here's frances. >> you can't drive through those puddles very fast because metering lights are now on and traffic is starting to back up towards west grand. look out for those windy conditions across the span. on interstate 80 in berkeley, it's been a pretty good ride. just the normal crowding as you make your way westbound through university and it's a little sluggish on the westbound 80 connector to southbound 6080 because of an earlier crash. let's check out the san mateo

bridge next. you'll find things pretty normal here. roads still a little wet. be extra careful. so far no trouble on 880 through hayward or 101 in san mateo. heading towards sfo, it's looking good on 101 through millbrae. north bound into san francisco, no delays southbound either. also 101 in san rafael. still light right now as you make your way from novato down to the golden gate bridge. no major problems at all in the south bay. you can get the latest traffic anytime by going to abc7news.com. it's under the bay area traffic link. eric, jenelle, i don't know which is cuter, jenelle or a koala. >> the koala for sure! >> the cutest? that's get them both in the same picture. >> it's you, eric. >> you're so cuddly. >> no! >> time now 6:20. (laughter) >> i'm gonna go home. thanks to our text bite reports,

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yeah. amazing. believe it. with points from chase sapphire, you can book airline tickets with no blackout dates or restrictions. >> in today's tech bytes, user profiles feature friends and divide them into groups. facebook.com says the new layout will give users opportunities to share interests in activities. it hopes the changes will be available by early next year. a project to build an i-pod nanowristwatch is getting a big boost. pledging $500,000. the money going to a design firm called minimal working on a wristwatch that the nanocan be incorporated into. google's latest deal could mon advances in voice technology.

taylors human speech for computers. it let's users speak their web searches. the technology could lead to computers speaking their answers. those are your tech bytes. i'm rob nelson. >> welcome back. it's 6:25 now. >> five of the most influential people in the arts and entertainment world were honored last night at the kennedy center. >> include talk show host opens, paul mccartney of beatles fame, merle haggard, jerry herman who composed hello dolly, maim and. >> not just as americans but as human beings. ♪ you're lookin' swell, jerry. ♪ we with tell, jerry. >> a bay area favorites carol

channing starred in hello dolly on broadway in the 1960s. the honorees will be brought december 28th. >> the weekend death of an infant in oakland being investigated as a homicide. >> a police chase in hayward ended in a serious collision sending the suspect and police officer to the hospital. >> i'm terry mcsweeney live in san francisco. those people behind me say they want to witness history as the issue of same sex marriage goes before the 9th circuit court of appeals. >> the windy, wet weather delivers rain, snow and power outages to northern california. >> flights at sfo nearly an hour and flight departure delays out of washington and baltimore. our flight tracker waiting for you at abc7news.com. save $523! 16 minutes could save you 16%!

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>> closed captioning brought to you by mancini sleepworld. as the trading day begins on wall street, last night's televised interview with fed chairman ben bernanke is expected to influence stock prices. he said that the economy is still struggling to become self-sustaining without government help. i also said it could take another four to five years for employment levels to get back to normal. overnight trading slipped 22 points. >> take you about there about 15 minutes for a look at the opening numbers on wall street. 6:30 right now. in just a few hours some of america's best legal minds will argue the pros and cons of the same sex marriage ban in the courtroom here in san francisco. opponents are trying to convince the judges to reinstate

proposition 8. that's the state's ban on gay marriage. terry mcsweeney is live at the courthouse with a preview. terry? >> i'm not alone here at the courthouse. you've got about nine people waiting to get in to be part of history as the justices -- a couple different arguments really. one is do the pro-prop 8 people have legal standing to be in that courtroom today. that's one question. another is should same sex marriage be legal. this is an issue that has had protestors following every step of the way since approved in 2008. judge vaughan walker says it is unconstitutional. one person we spoke with came all the way to san diego to witness history. >> yeah. just to hear it, be a part of it. i've been driving up. i used to live in reno. so i used to drive up during many of the proceedings. any of the rulings.

and i just didn't want to miss out in this one, also. >> now you're in san diego. >> i'm in san diego, yeah. >> this gentleman was out here before 5:00 this morning. attorneys opposed say supporters have to show their lives are being harmed by judge walker's decision and prop 8 backers say judge walker should stick to legal matters and not get into the area of policy making which they say he did when he ruled prop 8 unconstitutional. terry mcsweeney, abc 7 news. >> terry, thank you so much. >> abc 7's legal analyst dean johnson joins us now. terry mentioned something interesting which is the plaintiffs in this appeal have to prove they're being harmed in some way by this. how do you go about proving that? >> it's fairly easy in this case. you have two same sex couples that wanted to be married. one couple, kristen perry and

her spouse went to the alameda county marriage licensing office and a male couple went to the los angeles county office and they were both denied. so they argue that is an injury, a legal injury caused by proposition 8. >> i'm sorry. when i said plaintiffs, i meant the proposition 8 supporters who are arguing this appeal, how do they prove they've been harmed by this? >> what they would say is they were interveners in the original trial, parties of the case so they're bound by judge walker's decision. they would say that harms them because they were the supporters of prop 8. they believe it's good policy. they put their money and time and effort into it and they think it's good for the state. and that's the problem. because standing requires something more particular than just a strong belief that something is good policy. you have to show that you have some particularize the harm that's directed to you that you're ordered to do or not do

subpoenaing by the court in order to have standing by the defendant. >> so the panel listening to arguments today and come back with a decision in -- >> we think a couple months. >> when they do, does that mean their ruling goes into effect right away, their decision? >> no. we think the stay on same sex marriage will remain in effect through the final resolution which we believe will be the united states ultimate decision. they don't want to the create that problem of having same sex marriage go forward and then have a higher court reverse the decision so those marriages taking place in the interim time will be aborted. >> what's the point if it's not going to go into effect and move into the higher courts anyway. >> welcome to the legal system! (laughter) >> the short answer is that's the way we do it. you start before a three-judge panel. the loser in that decision has the option to ask the entire

court to hear the case before they go to the supreme court but the court can say no. in this case since it's such an important, novel issue i think the entire court will say yes so we'll have a hearing before the entire 9th circuit before we get to the supreme court. >> this would seem to be a quintessential state's right case where the state is not supporting it. >> you would think. and that's probably the position that a lot of the judges on the supreme court would take, which is this is a cultural issue, a difficult policy issue. and the best place for this kind of issue to be disentangled is the legislature. let the individual legislatures take care of the constitutional right. it's hard to make a

generalization. what we can say is that federal courts are very reluctant to interfere with expressions of state policy. right now the state policy is exexpress lanesed by the governor and the attorney general that same sex marriage is a good idea. >> so through the supreme court, how much longer, years? >> probably a couple years. >> thanks for joining us this morning. >> my pleasure. >> our legal analyst dean johnson. the court is allowing proceedings to be broadcast live. the hearings begin at 10:00 this morning. we will stream it live abc7news.com. dean and i will be the ones there helping you through the broadcast. >> governor schwarzenegger will call the legislature into an emergency special session this morning to deal with california's latest budget deficit. the governor will propose cuts to a budget now $6 billion in the red. he said lawmakers need to tackle the problem now, not when governor elect jerry brown takes office next month.

the governor is expected to propose deep cuts to legislation. >> a man recovering after his vehicle was struck in hayward. the alameda county sheriff's department says the suspect was driving a stolen car. the deputies were in pursuit after the man first ran a red light. he then rammed an alameda county sheriff's department patrol car before striking the bart officer's vehicle not even involved in the pursuit. the bart officer is in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. a 23-year-old man who was on parole for stolen vehicles. the car he was driving was stolen from a bart station last week. firefighters from walnut creek are looking into the cause of a fire at oak grove road. our media partner, the contra costa times reports that fire began around 1:20. when firefighters arrived a few

minutes later the structure that once housed a restaurant and office building was engulfed in flames. there are no injuries. >> the oakland police department is investigating the apparent suffocation of a four-month-old baby. he was suffocated then brought back to life by cpr just after 1:00 sunday morning. the infant was transported to the hospital but pronounced dead later that morning. police are investigateings this death as a homicide. no word on any arrests. the man charged with sexually assaulting a two-year-old girl is expected to be back in court this morning. eugene ramos is expected to enter a plea from charges in an incident last week in a union city dollar store. ramos assaulted the toddler after she wandered off from her family. the grandmother's screams alerted other shoppers. two held him until police arrived. ramos is a registered sex offender with a prior conviction for assaulting a seven-year-old

hayward girl back in 2003. >> the storm that hit the bay area yesterday has moved on east and turned to snow in the higher elevations of the sierra. but the roads were wet as you can see in this caltran's picture at truckee. chains are still required on vehicles that don't have snow tires over both donor and echo summit. >> we want to check in with meteorologist mike nicco. we can put our umbrellas to the side a little bit. >> you can holster that rascal but have it ready to draw. >> exactly. one day to let it dry before we need it against wednesday. live doppler 7 hd. good monday morning to you. the bulk of the wet weather is definitely over. pockets of drizzle out there also as we have a moist and relatively warm southerly flow around our neighborhoods that's keeping us in the 50s right now.

a third of an inch dublin, milpitas. more than that in san francisco. two-thirds in napa, nearly an inch in petaluma over the last 24 hours. that will lead to clouds this afternoon. even fog tonight. 8:00 this morning still the low to mid-50s in all our neighborhoods. by noon more sunshine. look for clouds mixed with sunshine during the afternoon hours of stray showers possible in the north bay and some of the moisture gets wrapped around the back side of this. it is lifted up the back side of the mountain. the rest of us mid to upper 50s with a partially sunny sky. forecast, dry for all of us tomorrow but then wednesday a storm system moves in. we have rain and then thursday we have showers and then friday, saturday and sunday it looks to be dry. yeah, naturally dry weekend on tap. temperatures low to mid-60s for

high. here's frances. >> a look at the bay bridge toll plaza backed up to the 880 overcrossing. we have a windy drive as you make your way in and out of san francisco. interstate 80 in berkeley. kind of a normal slowing here as you make your way westbound. there is sluggish traffic. it's slow before you get here on westbound 80 out of fairfield. we'll show you that from highway 12 down to 680. there's parts where it's yellow so traffic is moving upped 40 mph and slow through the 680 connector because of an earlier crash as well. we'll check out the south bay for you now. it's still been pretty good despite the wet weather and wet roads down here. here's a look at 101. that's 880 right across your screen. also 280 and 17 fine now through san jose with another live shot. headlights are northbound 280. no major problems reported

object the peninsula. >> frances, thank you so much. time now 6:41. trading underway on wall street. we'll have a live report from the new york stock exchange straight ahead but right now a live look at the big board. the dow currently off about 28 points. >> e-mail may never be the same now that facebook.com is changing its messages format. >> and a woman who went six days in the santa cruz mountains without food was

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♪ and that rain that's plaguing us this morning is moving to the east through the central valley and up into the sierra. in fact, we do have a winter weather advisory until 7:00 with a snow level to around 5,000 feet. see that area highlighted in purple or shaded in purple if you will. for the rest of us we're looking at sunshine in southern

california. mid to upper 60s. fresno 63 degrees with sunshine. you see the showers around chico, sacramento low 60s. eureka 55. high tahoe 43. here's jenelle. >> time now 6:46. 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 on saturday. she had been walking on an unmarked trail when she fell into a ravine and hurt her ankle. the man who found her is a neighbor. his wife encouraged her to search for collins after strange news. >> my friend whose a psychic friend. she called and her psychic friend said i don't see any violence involved. and i see her leaning against a tree. >> collins suffered from hypothermia and has been treated

at the hospital 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 at a fund-raiser at a club in the mission district. the three were arrested in july of last year while hiking near the iran/iraq border. shored was released in september for health reasons. their families are in need of financial help because of legal fees, travel expenses and other needs. several family members quit their jobs as they dedicated their selves to fight for freedom of their loved once. >> founder of wikileaks may request asylum in switzerland. it jumped to a swedish web serve as it struggles to stay online. it had hacker attacks and booted by u.s. companies including palo alto-based paypal. all after the site released

thousands of u.s. diplomatic cables. now assange is wanted in sweden on sexual assault allegations. he told a spanish newspaper he has been receiving hundreds of death threats. >> facebook.com revamping to make more emphasis on photos. the website said in a blog posted sunday, the changes are to make it easier to tell their story, who they are, where they work and the important people in their lives. the changes include a new bio section that includes not just where you are and where you live but recent photos your friends have tagged you with. >> next time you're thinking of calling in sick to get the day off work, you better be careful! >> jane king is live at the new york stock exchange with our "moneyscope" report. good monday morning to you. >> hi, jane. >> hello eric and jenelle.

your employer may be spying on you. companies are hiring private detectives to see just how sick employees really are. riding theme park roller-coasters and going to baseball games instead. companies are playing technology like gps tracking systems to keep track what employees are really doing and using what's called a liar car. it uses voice analysis to determine whether an employee is being dishonest. about 60% of salaried employees take sick days when they're not sick. a 20% increase compared to a couple years ago and attribute that to prospects during this recession. those of us working here today and are healthy, looking at lower stocks trading this morning. ben bernanke over the weekend, he aired on "60 minutes." he said high unemployment may be a problem in the u.s. for the

next five years. may have reached 25% if the fed hadn't stepped in during the financial crisis. my goodness. there's how the dow and s & p and nasdaq look. the silicon valley index trading up about 2 points or so. and google shares. keeping an eye on those. they are higher. google's efforts to buy gone ongone. he's worried it would stop employing morale and alienate the business client. groupon plans to make a decision next year whether to go for an ipo or not. i'm jane king, bloomberg news. >> jane, thank you so much. see you tomorrow. >> okay. >> more news at 6:50. a deal in the works on capitol hill this morning to extend the bush era tax cuts and restore

benefits to those out of work a long time. but his compromised plan to add trillions to the national debt. it's not a matter of the bush air -- or if the bush era tax cuts are extended 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 breaks. >> they're demanding that the wealthiest americans get a tax cut that is 1,000 times the size of the average american. >> i think it's pretty clear now taxes are not going up on anybody in the middle of this recession. >> if tax cuts are extended to the richest americans, unemployment benefits should be extended to millions out of work. >> let's get a check of our forecast with meteorologist mike nicco. good morning. >> good morning. looking better and better if you don't like the rain or like to puddle jump in your car. >> i don't know what you mean.

>> i have no idea. >> car surfing. eric? >> me! >> do you drive a beetle? (laughter) >> good morning to you. 6:52. yeah, you have some residual wets waiting for you. the clouds thinning already. flight arrival delays nearly an hour. the flight tracker may come in handy. look a live doppler 7 hd. the radar returns few and far between and they are moving away as we speak. but that moist, warm flow kept our temperatures mid to upper 50s in most neighborhoods. pretty close to the average highs this time of year. monterey bay and inland low to mid-50s. your highlights, the morning rain tapers, becomes partly cloudy in most neighborhoods this afternoon. drier, brighter, warmer tomorrow and wet again for all of us wednesday and a lesser extent on

thursday. today may see a stray shower up in the north bay. a little moisture backing its way in from the northeast hitting the mountains, the lift creates a shower maybe. temperatures upper 60s there. more sunshine as we head deeper to the south like the monterey bay with upper 50s to low 60s. tonight patchy fog. low to mid-40s there. the rest of us partly cloudy. as far as what happened while you were sleeping, two waves of wet weather rolled through. the second just about out of here. we'll still have a moderately warm flow out of the southwest that will bring us a little dry weather before that next system rolls in starting wednesday. for today you see the clouds developing or i should say dissipating and then the fog developing overnight. we'll start with sunshine on tuesday and high clouds will roll in. by about 7:00 wednesday morning look for rain in the north bay headed to the south across the rest of the bay during the

midmorning and mid afternoon hours. temperatures mild even when it rains wednesday and thursday. looking dry for the weekend with temperatures above average in the low to mid-60s. over the weekend we had rain and even a few rainbows. this is how it looked in pleasanton. you can almost see a double rainbow underneath it. if the picture could only be clear. that darn cellphone. if you'd like to share, upload them or e-mail them. a lot of incidents this morning. >> a couple more. a new accident just reported near the car delia junction. westbound 80 at the scales. it is blocking a lane. traffic slows once again out of fairfield. the toll plaza to the 880 overcrossing. a new crash in the south bay. northbound 17 at laurel. we'll go to maps and show you that so you can see traffic is heavy out of santa cruz towards

summit road. it is blocking one of the lanes. a tree down highway 84 at skyline boulevard. another tree down north in the santa rosa area, porter creek rode closed now at calistoga road. go to our website at abc7news.com. it's all under the bay area traffic link. eric, jenelle. >> time 6:55. >> recapping our top stories. the latest in a showdown in the battle over same sex marriage takes place this morning in a federal courtroom in san francisco. >> abc 7's terry mcsweeney is live with more. >> the people on the steps want to be inside that courtroom when the justices hear arguments on both sides of the same sex marriage issue. protestors followed this issue wherever it's been heard. protestors out here later today. attorney general jerry brown refused to defend proposition 8

when it was ruled unconstitutional last august. there's question of the standing in favor of proposition 8. do they truly represent the people of california? should they be allowed to argue in favor of prop 8. that's one of the decisions. the other on the legal issue themselves about same sex marriage. no matter what happens, a couple years from now in front of the supreme court. terry mcsweeney, abc 7 news. >> terry, we'll be following. thanks for the update. >> final check on weather and traffic. >> live doppler 7 hd, you can see it there, things getting clearer outside. i think you can put the umbrella away for a while other than a string r -- sprinkle here or there. a lot of cloud cover tomorrow but high cloud cover in the

afternoon. before then upper 50s in the coast, low to mid-60s the bay and inland. look for rain wednesday morning into the early afternoon hours as it moves from north to south across the bay. scattered showers behind it as a secondary system moves in. because the flow is from the south, temperatures above average with sunshine and clouds. here's frances. >> mike, final check of the bay bridge toll plaza. not that bad. backed up to the 880 overcrossing. better news out of fairfield. westbound 80 at the scalesier. injury accident cleared from the lane. might see slowing getting there. also sluggish on interstate 80 through berkeley. the drive time half an hour from the carquinez bridge to the maze. i'm glad the rain tapered off. didn't have any major hot spots this morning. >> thank you, frances. >> thank you for joining us for the abc 7 morning news. back with a local update at ñcññ