>> it turned out to be one for youtube. ♪ i love the way you lie >> that's all for now. i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, thanks for joining us.

>> if you don't want a bag, how are you going to walk out of the store with your items, i mean, like if you have a lot? so you're subjected to having to pay so you can carry all your stuff out of the store. >> they said, do you need a bag? and i said, it would be nice. they said, it's 10 cents extra. surprise to me. >> i knew the store policy was going into effect today, that they wouldn't be giving out bags anymore, so i brought my own. >> the reason this ban is stricter than others is partly because the paper bags sold must be made out of 48% recycled

material, and partly because this ban affects all retailers rather than just large upscale stores. >> san francisco and san jose is among the others considering a ban on the bags. crews are work to go restore water service out of a main break in hercules. it ruptured at willow avenue and hawthorne drive and is the main line to two commercial properties, conocophillip and the c and h sugar factory. they said the break did not affect residential service, but the mayor told the times that a residential subdivision was without water until about noon. the cause of the rupture is still under investigation tonight. today friends, family and

activists gathered to remember oscar grant who was killed by a bar police officer three years ago today. the video shows officer johannes mehserle shooting grant in the back of the head. grant was unarmed at the time. they are trying to call it manslaughter rather than murder. they said grant's death will be in vain if they don't continue to speak out against police brutality. >> the only way change can come into effect is if we unite as one. one of the things that we have to come together and agree is that police brutality is unacceptable. >> about 100 people gathered in downtown oakland today for a martha ended at the fruit bart station. mehserle was convicted of manslaughter and served less than two years. he was released in june. it was a violent start to the new year in the san jose

bay. here's a map showing the locations of the separate incidents. police say a total of six stabbings and two shootings were reported between 10:00 last night and early this morning. in one incident around midnight, six people were hospitalized from stab wounds after a fight broke out on the 400 black of skall drive. no one was killed, but one shooting victim remains in critical condition tonight. also in san jose, a three-alarm fire destroyed a victorian home this morning. firefighters were able to keep it from spreading to other houses on north fifth street. their job was made more challenging, though, as resources were spread thin due to other fires in san jose. the cause of the fire is still under investigation. the house is a total loss. coming up next on nbc bay area news, two of the men portrayed in the clint eastwood movie "escape fromm alcatraz" my

still be alive. we'll have their story coming up. we have a spare the air alert as we get back to the work week, but we're also seeing a few changes offshore with increasing cloudshat will lead tie change in our temperatures tomorrow, but will they bring any rain? we'll have as look at thatn ihe stwecan e heomt cghri lback. it's the perfect time to find great deals

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back to our top story now. the fire in san francisco that burned three homes in the bay area. kimberly williams is there and joins us by phone. kimberly, what do you know? >> reporter: what i know is by 10:00 tonight, we saw several fire trucks pulling away from the scene. police still surround the area.

it's shut down to traffic between valor and frederick street. we do understand the fire started at a victorian home and then spread to other nearby homes who were then evacuated. police said the fire was reported about 8:00 tonight. a woman called them screaming for help. fire crews arrived to find flames coming out of the roof of a three-unit building. it took more than 100 firefighters and about an hour to get control of those flames, as we understand it. at least one person has been treated for shortness of breath. also animal control has been called in to help them house the ten displaced residents. police say the cause of the fire is under investigation, but we do know an arson investigator has been called in. back to you. >> thank you for the update. we'll check in with you later if you have anything new. in the race for the presidential nomination, the

focus right now is, of course, the iowa caucuses. the polls have showed three different front runners. this poll shows not only mitt romney and ron paul on top, but rick santorum is on top as well after months of campaigning there. >> reporter: at the evangelical covenant church in des moines this morning was sara hatop, who wants to vote tuesday for her kind of christian. she's happy rick santorum is surging. >> i want to take a closer look and just see what he is really truly about. >> reporter: santorum put faith in front of his trek in iowa. >> you can't have a strong economic plan unless you have strong families and moral values in this country. >> reporter: the new des moines register poll puts santorum third, but if you question them

polled on friday, it puts mitt romney at the top. ron paul has a pretty close score. newt gingrich is still pretty high in the polls. >> two out of every five caucus scores could change their mind between now and caucus day. >> reporter: and those in church admit they're turned off by romney's faith. >> he's mormon. he hasn't claimed to be a christian, he's claimed to be a mormon. >> reporter: but in two more days mitt romney or ron paul or rick santorum will call themselves a winner. i'm steve handelsman, nbc news, des moines. first things first. for a small group of athletes, that means swimming from alcatraz to san francisco to ring in the new year.

water temperature? a bracing 49 degrees. about 100 brave souls took the plunge for the annual new year's alcatraz swim. it is an annual for some people. ellen boeing can't even remember how many times she's won. >> the tides, currents, temperature and i love the challenge of the open water. >> there are some sea life out there. >> reporter: for the record, there was no encounter with sea life today but the currents were more challenging than they appear. as you know, long before people were swimming alcatraz for sports, that was the prison where many of the most notorious prisoners lived and often died. many tried to escape and their efforts were made famous in clint eastwood's movie "escape from alcatraz."

nbc bay area's ron kelly has this remarkable story. >> marie wagoner has a display by her door showing her love for two brothers. >> that's clarence and that's john. >> reporter: clarence and john england escaped from alcatraz prison in the san francisco bay, along with frank morris, the only men ever to escape the rock. some say they drowned in the escape attempt, but marie knows they made it and are still alive. >> we know they're okay. >> reporter: marie has hundreds of photos, paintings, letters and every newspaper article written about her brothers' story. in 1958, brothers clarence and john alfred robbed a bank with a toy gun. they were captured a f days later in cincinnati and given hard time. but john and clarence kept on trying to escape. >> the only reason they put them in alcatraz was because they could not keep them anywhere else they put them. they kept getting away, getting away. >> reporter: marie has many of

the items the brothers had in prison and used to mastermind their escape. the subject of many books and movies. >> largest manhunt ever, and i think they're still on the top ten most wanted, so they would love to have them back. but chances of that happening is real slim. >> reporter: marie's sons david and ken grew up used to fbi visits and their phones being bugged. and that continues today. the feds stopped by marie's house just months ago. >> how long will you be looking for my brothers? and he said, a hundred years from now. and i said, well, good luck. >> reporter: clarence england is now 81 years old and john 80. all is ready for the family to be at alcatraz for the 50th anniversary of their escape. >> when she knows she can look in those cells and knew they were actually living there at one time, laying on those beds. you know, it's a way of connecting back to them. >> they're not sure how to go

about celebrating something like that, but they know we're coming, and they know that that's why we're coming. >> reporter: marie with a wink in her eye says she knows what her brothers did was wrong, but she's not ready for them to spend their life behind bars. marie and five sisters plan to make a return trip to alcatraz to celebrate their brothers' freedom 50 years later. john kelly, abc news. >> they used a ventilator to make they're escape route at alcatr alcatraz. the family of that third inmate, frank morris, also claims he survived a swim from alcatraz but they say they do not know if he's alive today. that adds to that famous story,

and if you ever go to alcatraz, you can see the dummies in their cells as well. what's going on with the weather? >> it was a lovely day in terms of the south bay and san francisco coast. morgan hill, 77 degrees. close to 70 in sunnyvale. 60 degrees in san francisco, 68 in santa rosa where the northeast winds warmed up the air and dried it out as it dropped into santa rosa and there you see 61 in livermore. right now we're already in the 30s in fairfield and santa rosa. notice 40s and 50s in the inner bay. concord and napa for tomorrow morning. not much wind out there. the offshore winds are going to back off a little bit tomorrow as a sea breeze starts to pick back up which brings low clouds to the coast, and we're talking about patchy fog in the valleys.

north and east bay valleys for your monday morning commute will have fog. another no burn day tomorrow, and we could see more of these this week with the dry pattern in place. what we have here on the satellite in radar view is just some high clouds coming on in. we have a system offshore. it looks pretty impressive on the satellite view, so you take into account where it is headed. it is moved off to the north and away from the bay area in terms of the rain-producing part. this is going to head up towards oregon but it will spill some clouds our way and bring us a bit of a cooldown into monday. the storm track, al b al ba alb closer. as we go into the day monday

through tuesday, no rain; in fact, it won't be until wednesday and thursday that we see a chance of some showers. you can see the low clouds coming back to the coast in addition to the high clouds moving over the bay area tomorrow. it's not so late tomorrow into the evening that we'll see the clearing. so it's going to run a bit clearer with the sea breeze and the clouds, and tuesday winds turn offshore again, and we could very well see a pattern just like we saw today, those temperatures warming up maybe close to 70 again by wednesday. so for tomorrow morning, we'll see 30s and 40s, patchy low clouds and some fog. and unlike today, we'll have a few extra clouds lingering and maybe some drizzle on the coast as what's left of that front goes on by, but no rain in the forecast around the bay area. temperatures tomorrow, 50s to low to mid-60s. 70s off the board for tomorrow, but as it gets toward tuesday and wednesday, as those winds turn offshore again, it's going to be pretty warm by january standards. you know how that thursday system we thought originally that could bring us some showers

looks like north of santa rosa, which means north of lake tahoe as well, north interstate 80. we really need a pattern change. just don't see it in the cards next weekend. >> it's been dry cross country, right? >> it has. the jet stream has been far to the north. >> it was so warm in new york city last night as those people were in t-shirts. you know that squirrel monkey named banana sam? he was safely returned to they, san diego zoo this weekend, but what about that $5,000 reward? good evening. i'm laurence scott. tonight we look back at some favorites this past year, including a good sport helping someone learn tok again. coming up in just a bit. [ male announcer ] it's a rule of nature.

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banana sam, that monkey stolen from the san francisco zoo a few days ago, is back home tonight. someone stole the two-pound 17-year-old monkey from his exhibit saturday night. someone received a call from stone grove, a park about a mile from the zoo. the man who found him was able to coax the monkey into his backpack until the zoo keeper arrived. he was shivering and hungry and shaking but okay. the 5$500 reward offered for hi safe return was not paid out. we'll bet at the regular season games for the niners and the raiders and we'll hear from the players as well, next.

nfl playoff questions were answered today for both the niners and the raiders. the niners locked up the number two seat with a win over the rams. the raiders, not so much. here's nbc bay area's laurence scott. >> the raiders wrapped up their own destiny with denver also losing. the chargers run ago way with it and the raiders lose a heartbreaker, 38-26. >> it's like a bad dream for sure, but it's reality. i think the reality of it is we couldn't stop when we needed to. >> the moral of this season is we just got to finish. there were a certain number of games this year that we shouldn't have lost and we have to finish better. plain and simple. >> as for the 49ers, some tricks up their sleeves today holding off the rams to clinch the

playoffs, and no round of playoffs at candlestick, the niners getting the first round bye and will play host for the first playoff game weekend after next. coming up on sports sunday tonight, looking back at the year that was in sports. see you in a bit. as laurence scott just mentioned, sports sunday is up next. good night. happy 2012 and don't forget to follow me on twitter at diane dwy dwyer@nbc for breaking news and more. we'll see you next weekend.

we ended 2011 with news that budgets for higher education will get cut again. so we start 2012 with a plea. let's be smarter this year. i'm suzanne shaw. this year let's get more bang for our education dollar. 60% of the freshmen at cal state university are not ready. they need remedial english, remedial math or both. 60%. so let's spend what it takes to

get it right in preschool, elementary and high school and save college funds for college-level teaching. nbc bay area believes that money spent on early remediation pays big dividends later on, whether it's teaching english literacy earlier or giving a fourth grader extra math help. what we spend in keeping students engaged when they're young saves us a lot of dollars down the road. that's our view. share yours at nbceditorial.com.

we had the story of a paralyzed teacher learning to walk again and the help he gets from jim harbaugh of the 49ers. a rising woman nna store whose father is known for a galaxy far, far away. the year's best and we're just getting started. good evening and happy new year. i'm laurence scott. we've been talking for most of this past year about our new format here on sports sunday, our feature stories. we begin with one of our favorites of 2011, a story of perseverance, and how