breaking news, this has been going on for hours. a man barricaded in a home in berkeley with a gun, but it doesn't end peacefully this morning. i'm christie smith, details are coming up in a live report. plus, cops, corruption and dirty divorces. the real-life court drama unfolding in the east bay challenging law and order. and a community pays tribute to let sandra cantu. it is a foggy 880 on this tuesday, march 8. this is "today in the east bay."

good morning, everyone. i'm scott mcgrew. it is 4:30. christina loren is ready to go with fog on 880 i saw. we have fog so dense out there this morning, mr. mcgrew, that it is creating a drizzle. be careful out there. you will find slick conditions in the east bay this morning. but the showers are well off to our north, so you may think to yourself, it is raining. it is not raining, it is just such dense low cloud cover it is creating a drizzle effect. this morning we are picking up on the radar in the south bay, if you are headed from the east bay to the south, take it easy. we'll find slick conditions. everything changes heading into this afternoon. i'm take you through your complete forecast coming up, but let's get you to work on time early risers with mike inouye. good morning, early risers. a nice drive through the maze right now, but slippery conditions continue as you talk about the fog, mist and drizzle so thick that from time to time you have to use windshield wipers. i did from fremont to san jose this morning. we have construction going on, folks are working in the drizzle

conditions at2 92 over to 880 eastbound. you may have to use hisperian coming to the maze. back to you. you saw it off the top, breaking news out of berkeley. we'll go right to christie smith with what's going on there. >> reporter: good morning to you, scott. i just spoke with berkeley police and they are telling me that within the last 15 minutes or so this has come to an end, but it has not ended peacefully. we are standing at marin and the alameda in berkeley. if you know the area it is near the marin circle. they are telling me that it started with a man barricaded in a home. he had been in the area since about 7:30 last night. that's when this started, a man with a gun, that was the first call. then they heard shots fired inside that home. immediate neighbors were

evacuated for safety reasons. then negotiators came in. and they made contact with the man inside the home. also oakland police called in to help berkeley police. again, this has been going on for quite some time. finally they tell me within the last 20 minutes or so they decided to make entry into that home. unfortunately, they found the man inside deceased from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. that's the latest from here, reporting live in berkeley, christie smith, "today in the east bay." >> there were shots earlfully the night, but he didn't shoot anyone then? there was no one else in the house? >> reporter: no, we asked if the gunfire came towards anyone outside, they said no, it appeared to be going on inside. the homes are old, close to the and wanted to get immediate neighbors out for safety reasons. it appeared everything that

happened was inside the home. thank you. she would have turned 10 today, but instead of a partisan dra cantu's family is holding a memorial. her body was stuffed into a suitcase. after an exhausting search, melissa huckabee is serving a life sentence for cantu's murder. we have much more on the memorial in traci, go to nbcbayarea.com. california may have a special election in june if the statehouse agrees to it. oakland wants to take an item on to the special ballot. the city is facing a $46 million budget deficit. mayor jean quan wants to ask for a temporary parcel tax to cover city costs. last night five city council members agreed to place the proposed tax on the june ballot if we end up having a june ballot. the governor has to get that idea past lawmakers in

sacramento. in east contra costa county fire districts will be asking voters to pay $96 more each year for fire and rescue. a consultant says that would generate $4 million a year. the east contra costa county fire district figures it will be broke by the end of the nest fiscal year. music teachers could be singing the blues in mount diablo district if they go ahead with costs. the school board will discuss laying off librarians and music teachers to save them $22 million. now the board is covering its bets. trustees are expecting the governor's proposed tax extensions won't make it to the june ballot or will fail. 180 credentialed teachers and administrators will also lose their jobs if state funding goes through. trustees vote on march 15th. charges of corrupt cops

still erupt in the east bay. >> reporter: another cop has been arrested, this time in danville. we spoke to many inside well-known bars here and everyone knew exactly who the officer was. they saw him making dui arrests on the streets often. now the question is what will happen after he's been arrested himself. >> he got me down diablo road. >> reporter: not wanting to show his face because of embarrassment -- >> they showed me the breathalyzer at the time. i blew a.009 and on the police report it said i blew.10. >> reporter: this man plans to fight his ticket after the contra costa deputy was arrested on friday. >> i can say i'm not guilty of this. >> reporter: the 47-year-old is now implicated in the widening investigation of the drug task force teach norm welsh and chris butler. all three are charged with

conspiring to obtain and sell drugs. and it is alleged butler listed tenabe and other officers in an e rab late dui scheme to arrest men for drunk driving to tarnish their reputations in nasty divorce cases. >> these kind of tactics aren't foreign to him. >> reporter: long-time divorce attorney casey cummins is involved in a case with butler. he's not surprised by the allegations that butler would hire women to get men drunk and try to get them arrests for dui to build his client's case. >> it is a matter of child custody. >> reporter: cummins believes many divorce cases will be re-examined. >> i would say that if it can be shown that the officer that was doing the arresting was tied to butler, that certainly could be ground for a modification of custody, but it doesn't change the fact that the officer got

the guy and he was under the influence. >> reporter: and this morning there are reports that more arrests could be coming in other bay area police departments. meanwhile, a miles per hour case investigated by norm welsh is going to court today. defense attorneys are likely to ask for that case and others to be dismissed. in danville, alise care sh ner, "today in the bay." a widow was preparing for a memorial service in alameda on saturday afternoon when tremendous mains were stolen. the backpack was missing about 1:30 in the afternoon. >> kathy turned to me and said, eleanor, where are the ashes? >> completely surreal. you know, it is the -- you showing up to your father's memorial service and the last thing you expect to hear is someone made away with the ashes. and at the time all you can

really do is laugh because going the other direction just takes you to kind of a dark place and you really don't want to go there. >> his family doesn't think the thief knew what was inside or the value the backpack held emotionally. they do not care who took the remains or why, but they simply want them returned. christina is talking about a foggy start this morning. >> good morning, scott. we have a foggy start, and we are seeing a little bit of a drizzle effect because of the dense clouds out there. we have really dense clouds, and it looks like as we head throughout the morning that will be a problem. right now we are looking pretty good. the richest moisture-laden area is the south bay. if you are headed for the north bay or east bay down south, take it easy. the east buy temperatures this morning are pretty mild. you may not need the heavy jacket this morning. 49 in livermore. and you certainly won't need one later this afternoon when our

temperatures climb into the mid-60s. ten miles of visibility in santa rosa, but as you can see here, as you head closer to the bay we have reduced visibility. and we'll continue to see the reduced visibilities getting closer and closer to sunrise this morning. take it easy out there. give yourself extra time to reach your destination in safe conditions. 65 degrees in oakland. 63 in concord. it is a little slick out there, but we'll see if we have problems because of the slick conditions with mike inouye. good morning, christina. you talked about the lower visibility down to four miles in some spots throughout the east bay, hayward and concord. keep that in mind, that will change over the course of the morning. so will highway 4 itself, and 67 near verizon lane. that's where the slowdown kicks off in an hour. a smooth drive down to the walnut creek interchange. the cartinas and venetian bridges are moving smoothly, but the fog drifts over the water as well. watch for that to intensify as the morning continues. the bay bridge, no problems on

the approach through the maze. the freeways are moving nicely. the water on the lens is leftover from overnight. drizzle and mist throughout the area. the san mateo bridge is moving smoothly, but we have construction. look at that, you can barely make out the taillights from the lens atop the toll plaza. that's an indication of moisture in the air and fog here. it is thick along the peninsula and along the coast of highway 101. b.a.r.t. has a special code word for something on its seats. they call it hot lunch. finish your breakfast now, we'll talk about it after the break. plus, the movie "up" comes to life. how many balloons did it take to lift a house? we'll tell you. and there's a new number one restaurant in america, and that answer may surprise you. you are looking at a live picture of the bay bridge. it is foggy out there, it is slick. slow down. 3q

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good morning, everyone. it is 4:44. this is actually what it looks like out there. it is kind of foggy, it is slick and misty. so slow down, be careful out there. you probably heard about this even if you don't take b.a.r.t. mold and fecal matter found festering in b.a.r.t.'s seat

cushions. vicky nguyen takes us in depth. >> reporter: with 350,000 daily b.a.r.t. riders, this is what you see. and this is what you don't. millions of microbes stowed away in the cushions of b.a.r.t.'s 669 cars. >> it makes me think twice of what i'm seat ied on. >> last week i smelled on a seat that smelled like urnie urine. it is gross. >> reporter: they cleaned a b.a.r.t. seat with an alcohol swab and fell over. >> the big mold, the colorful bacterias, it was disgusting. >> reporter: they fold mold, fecal matter and anti-bacterial

strains similar to mrsa, a deadly bug with those with weak immune systems. while b.a.r.t. signs tell people not to eat or drink and public decency dictates not to go number one or two, people do. b.a.r.t. police received 245 complaints of urinating and defecating. that's not all. >> 82 complaints about indecent exposure, and that includes masturbation. they were certainly sitting on the seats. >> reporter: don't accuse b.a.r.t. leaders of being in the dark. bob franklin spent an overnight shift cleaning the cloth seats himself. >> i had to clean a couple, we call it hot lunches. you just do it and clean it and get it ready for the public next day. >> reporter: hot lunches? what is that? >> that's when somebody throws up, basically. but it is called a hot lunch. >> reporter: and you clean that yourself? >> yes, i had to clean two of them. it was after a giants game.

>> reporter: when b.a.r.t. first launched these seats back in 1972, the patted cushion seats were a huge part of the public campaign to get people out of their cars and on to public transit. >> people actually like them. people say crazy things like this is like disney land, it is comfortable. i love it. it did appeal to people. >> reporter: fast forward 40 years and b.a.r.t. is the nation's oldest public transit fleet. the agency plans to replace all the cars starting in 2017 so the results of these tests could play a big part in the seat selection. especially since a similar test on muni found the plastic seats held very little bacteria. and after being wiped with alcohol the muni seats came up clean. riders say there's no contest. these days they choose clean seats over comfortable ones. would you give up comfort for cleanability? >> certainly would. >> reporter: or maybe they can have both as b.a.r.t. moves to

the fleet of future. they are looking for its cake and the way to eat it, too, just not on the train. vicky nguyen, nbc bay area news. >> it is not just b.a.r.t., many of the microbes found on b.a.r.t. seats are found in other public places. new cloth seats are being installed while riders decide on the chairs they want in the future. if you missed any portion of that report, you can see it again on nbcbayarea.com. search for the key word b.a.r.t. do you know your rights when it comes to retirement? one woman thought she was getting a sweet deal but ended up owing tens of thousands of dollars. we'll show you why it could happen to you tonight at 11:00. as libya slides closer to civil war tonight, renewed concern over rising gas prices. for more on that and other news before the bell, it is courtney reagan live at cnbc headquarters. >> reporter: futures are up slightly before that opening bell rings. and this is a day after worries of rising oil prices dragged down the major indices.

oil futures seemed to pull back from the 20-month high. we are trading below $105 a barrel after reports that opec members are increasing oil output to hold down prices. the european markets are trading higher on the back of asian market gains. the dow did lose 80 points to start trading today at 12,909. the nasdaq lost 39 points to 2746. well, subway is the world's biggest restaurant chain blowing past mcdonald's with the most stores. the sandwich chain had 33,749 restaurants worldwide compared to mcdonald's 32,737. high unemployment in the u.s. and an uncertain economic recovery, subway is growing in asia. but mcdonald's is still number one when it comes to sales. they reported $24 billion in revenue just last year. the rate of airline cancellations is going up. new federal figures show u.s. airlines canceled 4% of flights

in january up from 3.7% in the previous month. that makes january's cancellation rate the 13th highest on record. winter storms shuttered key hub airports across the nation but airlines are also blaming a federal rule that penalizes them for long tarmac delays. so instead of delaying it looks like they are just flat-out canceling. i don't know which one is worse. >> at least you get off the plane. thank you, courtney. there could be delays at sfo today. we are looking at a lot of mist and fog. good morning, christina. >> yeah, sometimes you don't need the mist and fog for delays at sfo, but this morning, yeah, probably going to be a factor as we head through the next couple of hours. we have a really moisture-rich atmosphere out there, and as high pressure builds in and compresses the moisture fog will be a factor this morning. we are seeing a few early showers because the fog is so dense creating a drizzling effect. slick conditions all across the bay area. for today, a cloudy start. then the sun will make a few

breaks heading throughout the day today. we are not expecting a lot of sunshine, but enough to warm us into the mid-60s. then we have another round of rain in store for us until late thursday when the next system arrives. we'll have a spring-like day today and tomorrow as we transition closer and closer to spring. it will start to feel like that around here. watch out for slick conditions headed from the east bay to the south bay this morning because that's where we are seeing the densest fog. usually we don't see fog this dense in the south bay, so if you are waking up in places like san jose or gilroy you want to take it easy out there. the east bay residents, it is not that bad for you right now. and temperatures are pretty calm and comfortable out there as well. we don't have heavy winds, so we don't have a windchill factor to deal with like yesterday morning. 63 in concord, 65 in fremont. heading throughout the afternoon you will like the change from yesterday. we'll be 5 degrees warmer today. then we'll add an extra 5, closer to 70 for tomorrow. looks pretty good, but today is one of those decisions to make, is it partly cloudy or partly

sunny. >> i know you, it is partly sunny. >> that's why i get paid the big bucks, to make those decisions. up, up and away. how many real balloons it took to lift a real house. you are looking at a live picture of, yeah, that's the san mateo bridge. so be careful out there. and also as we get you going through oakland, 580 is moving smoothly through the city streets out of san leandro, but ent thrgh the tri-valley. i'll show you what and where coming up. t

it is 4:55. you are looking at a live picture of the bay bridge. we are talking about the mist and slickness out there. slow down. if you ever wished your life was like a movie, national geographic channel released this real-life version of the film "up." a team of scientists, engineers and two world-class balloon pilots successfully launched a house. that's a real house. it was an especially built house, but still a house. using 300 weather balloons it set a world record for largest balloon cluster ever attempted. the house reached an altitude of more than 10,000 feet and flew with people inside for about an hour. meanwhile, we'll check in with laura. we talked earlier about what's happening in berkeley.

i think you have an update. >> of course, we'll continue to follow the standoff that happened in berkeley this morning. we are going to bring you the latest developments there in a live report. plus, a local company may have the answer to rising gas prices. their car, they claim, can go 300 miles on a single charge. we'll have more on the company, the car and what that car will cost you. the. and it is fat tuesday. bob redell is joining us live from new orleans as the city prepares for a party tonight, kind of all day. plus, we'll have fun castian cuisine. all that and more. looking at the maze, we are looking nice. approaching the bay bridge, a lot of folks focus on this portion of the commute, but it doesn't slow down until later on. a lot of folks coming out of the altamont pass. that's a point of big concern

right now. you can see all the slowing coming off the 205/580 merge into livermore out of the altamont pass. an accident reported on the eastbound side, scott, but the westbound side is what is showing the slowdown. we are watching for that. it involves a semitruck. we'll watch for an accident with two lanes blocked there. we'll let conditions continue there as you tell people to be careful out there. coming up, the scramble to save the proposed 49ers stadium in the south bay. why the money could get snatched up by the state.

new this morning, some streets in berkeley are still shut down at this hour after a man barricades himself inside his home. there were shots fired. we'll tell you how it ended coming up in a live report. cities all over the bay area are racing to shore up