save up to 60%. ikea. the life improvement store. the blizzard that shut down airports on the east coast for the secretary day is affecting flights across the country. >> at least a thousand flights have been cancelled. fad rally aviation administration says newark and j.f.k. is not expected to open 3:00 this afternoon our time. the new york took a beating from the storm with more than two feet of snow. this is times square, people can't get home to go to work.

terry? >> thousands of people here in the bay area impacted by the flight cancellations, here are the latest numbers at sfo. 17 departing flights cancelled. 30 incoming flights cancelled. you add to that 35 flights diverted from san francisco. add it up you have some very unhappy holidays. >> this is toe tapping for -- i'm waiting. this woman had a basketball practice to get to in upstate new york. >> i'm just trying to get back to the east coast. >> what time is practice? >> 4:00 p.m., i'm not going to make that. >> they couldn't get a straight answer on the phone or on the internet about their cancelled flight to new york. >> if i don't get a flight by

tonight or tomorrow i'll go to another airline. >> after they reopened, passengers trying to rebook will have a hard time finding open seats, one, they are scarce and fewer seats due to fewer flights because of the down economy. a flight on friday, he has already paid big money for a tour of india. his connecting flight in new york was cancelled. >> everything has been pushed off for days and if i push my time off, i have to figure out what i tell my boss. >> at least through in morning, things are getting worse. >> american airlines cancelled their departures. united airlines has cancelled most of their dpavt urs. >> reporter: the fog is also causing three hour long delays,

so the latest information on cancellations and delays, go to www.abc7.com and check out flight tracker. it has all the latest information. terry mcsweeney, "abc 7 news." air travel isn't the only nightmare, four subway cars in new york stranded nearly 500 for nine hours. they were finally rescued this morning just after sunrise. one passenger pulled apart the doors on one of the trapped trains to talk about the ordeal. >> there is no heat. there is no heat, no nothing. we're not going nowhere. >> bus service was also affected. dozens of passengers spent the night at the greyhound station and amtrak resumed limited service after shutting down all operations yesterday because of the blizzard. switching gears, the 49ers will hold a news conference at noon at santa clara headquarters to discuss the firing of head

coach mike singletary. he was let go after the team's loss to the st. louis rams. that loss ended any hopes the niners had of making playoffs. after last night, he was fired and singletary took the blame for the disappointing season. fans said it was about time the team made a change. >> i think it's great. i think it's what they needed for at least this season. definitely the coach. >> i'm surprised it happened earlier. he should have been fired before the bye week. >> i am the head coach of this team and i felt that we could do better. there are some obvious question marks that i had hoped would be answered as the season went on. i'm not going to do go into that right now, but obviously were

not answered. you know, when that happens you and up out of the playoffs. >> after the firing was officially announced, singletary released a statement, one of the greatest experiences of my life was having the opportunity to coach the 49ers. he said he was thankful for the faithful fans and sorry he couldn't give them more to cheer for. officials are expected to announce that defensive line coach will be the interim coach. crime prevention program that offers monetary awards has been extremely successful in solving crimes in oakland. crime stoppers program has resulted in hundreds of arrests over the past 20 years. the oakland tribune says crime stoppers has solved 79 cases this year, up from 62 last year. it's determined by the crime stoppers board, a five member panel of unpaid oakland residents.

>> new laws will take effect this year, including a new rating system for nursing homes. the federal ratings give nursing facilities one to five stars depending on quality of care, similar to restaurant letter grades. it should make it easier for patients and families to identify possible issues with the facilities. nursing facilities that fail to take part of the new rating system will face fine is. >> a scenario leland lee is behind several of the laws taking effect. the bill allows courts to seize property affected by human trafficking. starting saturday, solo drivers in the latest generation of low emission hybrid and electric vehicles will be able to use high occupancy vehicle lane. san francisco brokerage founder charles schwab is

resting comfortably have a surgery. it took place on friday and he may be able to go home in just a few days. he first opened the discount brokerage that bears his name in 1974. today the company has 300 offices and handles 1.5 trillion dollars in client assets. >> officials are expected to decide today whether to euthanize a california sea lion that was found shot in the head. he was discovered earlier this month on sausalito beach by officials, they took him back to the center for treatment. veterinarians say if the sea lion is blind, he will likely have to be put to sleep. he was probably shut shot by a fisherman. >> the government considers new rules to stop those hidden fees on your cell phone bill. >> plus, new details on what

apple is working on. >> and major phone company joins the nationwide fight against

>> closed captioning brought to you by mancini sleepworld. apple is working on a new antenna design for the iphone. it's currently antenna, many users complain that it makes the

calls to be dropped. documents also show apple was recently granted for a patent or a new type of screen that makes three dimensional images that you won't need special glasses to see. >> it appears facebook has hit a new milestone. new numbers show the giant is third largest website in the world. facebook had nearly 650 million users last month, that is about 20 million more than yahoo. federal communication commission is considering new rule for cell phone user to amass extra charges. the proposal would require all wireless carriers to send customers to send a text alert

when they are about to exceed their text limit. many users says there is no warning when they are nearing their limit. the new rules could be approved by early next year. >> a major phone kane is launching a new awareness campaign today about the dangers of texting and driving. at&t is releasing a new documentary featuring stories from individuals whose lives have been changed while texting while driving. >> you are 23 times more likely to get into an accident when you are texting and driving. >> we don't want anyone to use the technology unless they are safe. >> transportation secretary says distracted driving is an epidemic. 5500 people were killed last year because of distraktsd driving. largest number of fatalities

occurred from young people under the age of 18. >> the average price of a gallon of gas is now 3.28,. it's expected to get worse. experts estimate the average price of a gallon of gas will reach 3.50 by summer. are you cheered up now? >> thanks a lot. >> i guess we won't be driving. the sun is having a hard time breaking through. but there is some sun out there. we'll tell you when to expect more rain in the accu-weather forecast. >> and new idea that could have you returning unwanted gifts even before you get them. >> and a look back at hollywood in 2010, the stories that had

all of us talking. [honking] they were having a sale! announcer: the ikea sale. i'm going back for more!

announcer: december 26th through january 9th. save up to 60%. ikea. the life improvement store. and a lot of people, when they get a denture, they think the best way to clean it is by brushing it with toothpaste. toothpaste contains abrasives that scratch dentures, leaving microscopic crevices where bacteria can grow, and bacteria can cause bad breath. the best way to go is to soak them in polident. only polident is proven to clean without scratching and kills 99.9% of odor-causing bacteria. i recommend using polident and soak every day. it's the right way to go. today, we gather to recognize the selfless decision

of one of the most influential women of our time. the woman who, after having one too many drinks, chose not to drive home buzzed. here today to honor rachel is the family whose lives she spared.

next christmas, you may be able to intercept those loud sweaters before they get to your home. amazon.com has patented a process to allow people to quietly return gifts from the website before they ever arrive. under the plan, recipients would get an e-mail from amazon telling them a gift is on the way. you can reject a single gift or choose to reject any gift from a particular person. critics call the idea impolite and uncouth. it would reduce the time to return gifts. >> also eliminates re-gifting. >> and rewrapping.

>> talking about all the problems in new york. >> my gosh, everything that starts here goes that direction. so it's just the timing has really hit. this is downtown manhattan, it is 27 degrees, seeing one to two feet of snow, eric, you and i talked, people were? snow drifts. that is how deep it is. manhattan needless to say, a live picture and it's starting to improve. we will see much improvement as the week progresses but that doesn't help you today tod. san francisco, three-hour delays for arriving flights and not only because of the snow back east but because we've had fog form here. all the sunshine we're starting to see around the area from

vollmer peak, look at this beautiful picture, looking east. mount diablo and a live picture in hd. most of us are buried underneath cloud cover. that will give way to sun. this is the winter sun so very low angle. let's take a look at this sunlight image, as the storm system winds up on shore to continue pulling the air out of the northeast. this system is in place for another six to 12 hours and then left off to the northeast and we'll see improving conditions. lots of fog this morning. dense fog advisories in effect. another storm system producing wet weather in the north bay by this time tomorrow. by tomorrow afternoon and wednesday, very powerful storm, look like the storm we had on

saturday. then we got some northwest winds that will bring in colder air. as you can see, its chilly start to the day. we had some low 40s but some areas still socked in with fog. napa valley, 47 and 47 in oakland. just a brief, brief ridge of high pressure that steering this storm system to the north but it's stalling the system and continue to pick up tropical moisture. it's a very wet storm that will arrive here by tomorrow. so if you are enjoying the sunshine above the fog, reading in the 50s but that heavy rain and all the way from hawaiian islands. this is brief time lapse of what we can expect by tomorrow. we start to see the heavier rain in the afternoon into wednesday. we have some breaks and then into the south bay and colder air even into the mountains and

lake county. here is the monday forecast. partly sunny skies, clouds will give way to some sun around the bay and temperatures will be in the mid to upper 50s. seven-day forecast shows that wintry weather, all the way through the rest of the year. [ laughter ] >> we're closing in on the end. >> speaking of that, it is coming to an end very quickly and hollywood, some laughs and drama. now a look back on the year in entertain am. >> 2010 got off to a bang at the movies. 3-d adventure avatar earned 2.8 billion dollars at the box office. it went on to win three academy awards.

drama dominated late night, nbc decided to move jay leno from prime time as host of the tonight show. c o'o'protested but eventually agreed to a $45 million deal to hand his time slot over to leno. it was a year of problems for tv star brett michaels. first he underwent an emergency appendectomy and then underwent more surgery. weeks later he had what they called a warning stroke and was diagnosed with a hole in his heart. she expected to undergo heart surgery early in 2011. >> i'm not taking this as a joke. >> lindsay lohan was sentenced to 90 days in jail for violating her probation. the actress spent only 13 days

behind bars before she was freed but in september. she was sentenced to a month behind bars for failing a drug test. the actress is out on bail after a mere 14 hours. she is in court ordered rehab until january. >> a bitter custody dispute between mel gibson and ex-girlfriend goes from bad to ugly. she filed a restraining order against the actor alleging assault. gibson had denied claims of dispute. facebook fans petitioned to get the actress a hosting spot on saturday night live and it worked. she earned her sixth emmy for her appearance. no award show stunt through more attention than lady gaga's dress. she accepted her award in a dress made of raw meat, saying búbúbúbúgtoaoaoñ

today on oprah at 4:00, a reunion for the cast of sound of music. then at 5:00, a woman takes issue with united airlines after she says they refused to keep her baby in an infant carrier through most of the flight. and what is next for the san francisco 49ers now that they fired mike singletary. we'll have those stories more and later. >> it's great except for all the fog we saw this morning. a live look, does it matter?

you can see the fog at the embarcadero and a little bit of sun. earlier we had a picture of vollmer peak where you could see mount diablo. there is sun and that means a dry day but rain increasing over the area and dusting of snow by friday morning. we still have a stormy week left in december. >> we trust you. >> thanks. >> thanks for joining us. "who wants to be a millionaire" is next. >> have a great day and be careful in the fog. >> bye-bye.