exclusively by nbc bay area. once police arrested that man and two others on the assault charges, those arrests led them to the alleged shooter. investigators say this case is proof how the public and police working together can solve crimes. >> it's very important, just the fact that the citizens came forward opened up so many leads. and we've been working on those leads night and day. and you get results. >> police say the family of the victim, 25-year-old coyote foster is very relieved, was very relieved when they learned an arrest had been made. foster was a parolee and occupy oakland demonstrator. now, it's unclear when terrell will be returned to the bay area, could be days or weeks before he returns to oakland to face those murder charges. reporting live in oakland, jodi

her fan dez nbc day area news. to another story you'll see only on nbc bay area, new developments of the liquor store parking lot shooting in oakland that left a toddler critically injured. police are questioning several people tonight including an oakland woman in connection to monday night's shooting. investigators believe one of the three people captured by surveillance cameras shooting at the crowd was female. investigators are questioning the people, so far there is not any word on charges. a johaness m mehserle was c of using excessive force in another case. four officers punched and kicked and hogtied a man after he claimed his car was broken into. mehserle claimed he received caruthers raised a fist. the jury rejected caruthers

claim, deciding the officers acted appropriate ly. wind isn't just battering the bay area, it's also taking on the entire west coast and causing major damage. check out the scene in campbell where a giant chinese elm fell on to the house. people inside the house said they felt a jolt when the tree came down. >> i felt this big jolt, there's a lot of wind. i didn't go outside. he went outside a half hour later, he said, you need to call the tree service, there's an emergency out front. >> the family says they had part of the same treery moved in october. the rest came down last night. many crews were out all day cutting down tree branches littlering yards. crews in felton were repairing a downed power line, almost 25,000 households in santa cruz.

in the south bay, about 1,000 are still dark. the damage, though, much worse in southern california, where some areas saw up to 100 mile per hour winds. we have live team coverage for you tonight. jeff ranieri will be able to look at the conditions here. first, we begin with stephanie stanton, joining us live in pasadena. >> good evening to you, jessica, here in pass deeadena there's bn emergency declared. check out this 50 to 60-year-old oak tree. the wind whipping up the tree. this is what we're seeing all over pasadena. 42 homes have been red tagged due to damage, and more wind is on the way. >> reporter: the santa ana winds blasted through southern california with hurricane force winds, blowing down trees and power lines. first light revealed a trail of debris everywhere. >> it looks like a tornado hit it literally.

>> the national weather service recorded wind gusts up to 97 miles an hour in los angeles county. >> we were sitting in the living room, and all of a sudden you hear the wind howling. everything tossed in the backyard. >> it was enough to blow this giant tree down on the pumps at a pasadena gas station. and sent this tree crashing into a house in san marino. the powerful winds left some 300,000 los angeles area residents without power. los angeles international airport was also dark for about an hour. >> once we landed, we came into the airport, not five minutes and everything went black. >> at least 20 flights were diverted to nearby ontario airport due to dangerous cross winds. in utah, it was much the same scene, wind gusts up to 102 miles an hour were recorded. >> we were sitting there waiting and it sounded like an explosion of my window blowing up, i guess a rock went through my window

and got me in the eye. >> the high wind warnings and advisories remain in effect for parts of california, utah, nevada, arizona, new mexico and wyoming. a wild windy west that's expected to continue through friday. >> and again red flag warnses remain in effect through at least tomorrow here in southern california. as we know, that means the fire danger remains high as well. that's the latest high here in pasadena, stephanie stanton, nbc bay area news. >> we saw the conditions in the other state, certainly a lot worse than what we're seeing here. what's our status of the wind. >> right now, it's a long duration event. we're finding wind gusts topping 50 miles per hour at this time. i thought, this is an interesting look at how widespread there wind is here. over 5 miles of wind watches and warnings covering california and nevada. we're out of the wind warning criter criteria, we started to see things weakening a bit.

still expecting the worst to be in those hills about 1,000 feet tonight. some of the top wind gusts over 90 miles per hour in mt. hamilton. los gatos oakland and livermore winds in the 40 mile per hour area. for tonight, still breezy for the valleys, gusty in the hills, with winds that could top 40 miles per hour, and more power outages are likely. we'll have more on your bay area forecast coming up in minutes. >> thank you very much. four people are injured, two of them in critical condition after flames rip through a san francisco apartment complex early this morning. part of the roof chanced during the fight. fire fighters were able to put out the flames within an hour. one man jumped from the building, another had to be pulled out by firefighters. both of them are in critical condition tonight. two women who were also inside were treated for smoke inhalation. everyone who lived in the

complex is out of a place to live. governer jerry brown kept a low profile today. he's expected to unveil a multibillion dollar tax plan to cover the state's $13 billion shortfall. capital sources say he'll introduce the ballot initiative asking voters whether to decide to temporarily increase taxes on affluent californians. anyone making between 300,000 and $500,000 a year would be taxed an extra 1.5%. for those earning more fan half a million a year, a 2% increase. the governor says the hike coupled with the half percent increase in the state sales tax could raise $7 billion. one day after a huge gain and one day after a crucial job report, wall street a bit subdued. stocks closed mixed in quiet trade. holding fairly steady. tomorrow jobs report is expected to show that 125,000 new jobs

were added in november. the number of americans applying for jobless benefits rose over the past week. bart has approved a new cell phone policy that would allow them to jam cell signals in extraordinary circumstances. the board of directors approved the policy earlier this morning, the decision has free speech activists upset. the policy is needed for public safety. the policy was drafted after bart last shut off cell service to prevent a protest in august. the agency would only be able to type down the service in a 911 f ohepe of event where the publ is in danger. developing news right now, police and occupy protesters clashed for a few tense moments in justin herman plaza. demonstrators ignored an order to move out by noon. police have set up barricades just a few minutes ago, only to take them down during a clash. the city's department of public

works had offered an abandoned school as their position. they rejected the offer. people here in the bay area and around the world are wearing red ribbons. it's been 30 years since the first confirmed case of aids. president obama marked the occasion this morning in washington by setting new goals to fight the disease. obama is directing $50 million in new spending on treatments for the u.s. magic johnson announced he plans to open new clinics to help in the fight against hiv and aids. 20 years ago, he became one of the faces of the disease after announcing he was hiv positive and retiring from the nba. it's not drunk driving and it's not speeding. we'll show you what tops the list when it comes to distracted driving in california. how widespread the problem is. why one major carmaker is offering a buy back program to

anyone who's afraid its new model will put them in danger. a new social network for your neighborhood. how you can stay connected and safe 37. our sky camera network still shaking around here in downtown san francisco. as we head throughout tonight, we're going to stay breezy in the south bay. temperatures dropping in the 40s, we'll have more on our wind advisory, and when all this moves in a few mut ♪

okay, so who ordered the cereal that can help lower cholesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. that's yours. lower cholesterol. lower cholesterol. i'm yummy. lower cholesterol. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste? honey nut cheerios. want whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. it's a win win. good? [ crunching, sipping ] be happy. be healthy. can i try yours? it's the bay area's newest social network. the goals are a lot different than the network you probably check in with today. scott budman is here with something local. >> neighborhood networking.

how you can get to know each other, help each other and make your neighborhood a safer place. what do you do if you want to get social with the people next door. >> each home has a profile. >> he used next door, a san francisco start-up to hook up his neighborhood with their permissi permission, of course. now, he knows them better. >> it's actually just a tool that's a great tool that allows us as a neighborhooto communicate with one another in an efficient manner and privately. >> next door uses software to help neighbors meet, share information and answer questions online. it is private, oath letting you in if you can prove you live in the neighborhood. >> it's about all of the things you would talk with your neighbors about to solve real problems in your every day lives. >> even though it's called a social network, it's not necessarily about social, it's about being useful. it's about solving your problems

with the information your neighbors have all around you. >> technology has done a great job of putting us in contact with people who don't live close by. it hasn't done as great a job making it easier for us to communicate with people right next door. >> think of it as a social network, and security system rolled into one. a chance to reach out and keep things local. next door is free to join, you have to use your real name and prove it's really you living in your house much they plan to eventually partner with nearby merchants who can offer services to neighbors. california's biggest traffic safety problem is in the palm of your hand. california drivers think that using cell phones to talk or text is the most dangerous thing to do while you drive. even more dangerous than speeding or drunk driving. 39% of people say they think cell phone use is the biggest

problem on california roads. aggressive and speeding driving was the most dangerous. 13% thought drunk driving was the most dangerous zrivg behavior. gm says it will buy back volts from any customer who is afraid the car may catch fire. the company pledges to provide a rental car to any volt owners that do catch fire. the company is investigating whether there's something wrong with the lithium ion battery. if there is something wrong, they will recall the more than 6,000 volts on the road. apart from the wind, it would seem pretty sunny and a little warmer today? >> yeah, it was. the northerly wind that has been providing quite a bit of problems for us, and those power outages, the tree limbs down.

it's a drying weight. that's why we're so clear and sunny. if you didn't have too much in the way of wind, it was a spectacular day out here. clear right now, can you see the camera shaking around. 63, winds out of the northwest at 20 miles per hour. our fire danger is increased here, we're not seeing the humidity levels low enough to get a red flag warning issue. the worst above 1,000 feet. we've seen the advisory level back down. we're under a warning last night, again, the winds continue to decrease here, we are looking at improving conditions throughout late tonight and tomorrow. 15 to 20 mile an hour sustained winds, with the worst of it in the east bay. right now along 580, also livermore, president anton. we're finding conditions at about 20. the strongest gusts on my board, 57 mt. diablo. if you're headed up anywhere near the east bay, you need to

hold on with both hands on the steering wheel. winds are normal to above average. 70 degree reading right now at one of our santa rosa reporting sites due to the northerly direction of this wind. tomorrow night it stays breezy. we're still looking at the breezy areas, staying with us, plenty of sunshine. we'll stay with this unusual storm track into this weekend. let's get a look. satellite radar picture is clear across the bay area. right up into northern california, we're not expecting anything in the way of storm activity. high pressure will start to get out of this damaging wind as we head throughout tomorrow and 60s for the weekend it's going to be dry and sunny. let's get a look. for tonight, breezy in the valleys, gusty in the hills, could top 40. power outages are likely because this has been a long duration

event. we can't rule that out. for 11:00 a.m., looking at breezy conditions here for the valleys, by 6:00 p.m., everything continues to gradually go on the decrease, as we head into our late friday and weekend forecast, the dancing winds will be gone. as for tonight, 43 in santa rosa, 47 in san rafael, and plenty of mid-40s back into livermore, down into san jose and los gatos. it's sunny, clear, and winds begin to calm. over toward concord, pittsburgh and san rah mode, mid-60s. for the north bay, we'll find plenty of mid to upper 60s. power outages coming from the north bay, we know a lot of trees are down. 7-day forecast has cold nights coming back saturday and sunday with mid-60s and a little bit of cloud cover as we head throughout monday and tuesday. of all the years i've been forecasting weather, i don't

think i've mentioned wind as many times as i have in the last three days. it goes to show you how significant this event was to get all of this wind without any rainfall here across the bay area. >> you did such a great job of warni ining us, and i left the umbrella up. >> i'm just lucky -- >> still ahead, what happened on the pennsylvania freeway that gives new meaning to the term roads to riches. what has commuters making quick u-turns. the test that the majority of california schoolkids fame. why fixing the problem has nothing to do with books.

the iowa caucus is 33 days away. and the republican presidential

nomination is heating up. mitt romney said today he will fight head to head with newt gingrich who now leads there. newt gingrich has a double-digit lead. but the next month will be tough going for gingrich. he's just ramping up in iowa, and way behind in fund-raising. former iowa front-runner herman cain says he'll see his wife tomorrow for the first time since those new allegations of infidelity surfaced. only then he will decide if he'll stay in the race. two plump to pass. two thirds of california school children failed the physical fitness test. it's a problem that can't wait to be addressed. one out of three kids have so much body fat they're considered high risk for health problems. the test measured how well students performed in six different activities. two out of three kids failed at least one portion.

to be considered six, a 5'6"150 pound ninth grader would have to run a mile in nine minutes, do at least 16 push-ups and 15 situps. what would you do if you saw money flying out of a van? police in pennsylvania are looking for nearly $200,000 in cash after a bank currier door flapped open and dropped money on to the busy roadway. one of the drivers said as money reigned down, he did what most people would do, he made a u-turn. >> from 300 yards, to see all that money on the street. when i turned around and most of that money already gone was pretty amazing to begin with. >>ed money came from the back of a van. only $400 left on the road when police arrived. police are looking for two men

believed to have made off with some of that cash. >> and the currier driver is looking for a new job. >> yes, he is. the bay area ent for singles that combinings speed dating with skating. ♪ going to the bank without going to the bank... that's a step forward. with chase quickdeposit on your smartphone, you just snap a picture, hit send and done. chase quickdeposit. take a step forward and chase what matters. ♪ we just keep on keepin' on ♪ ♪ keep on

if you're looking for that special someone and you're having trouble breaking the ice, stop by san francisco tonight. >> the dating service is combining speed skating with speed dating. singles will get to skate around and mingle with other people, see what you like, as a bonus,

olympic gold medalist brian boitano will be on hand to meet the would-be couples, sign some autographs, maybe give a few lessons. >> i think you should go out there. because you like to do your hammel camel out there. >> i'm already dating somebody, so that may be a problem. >> everyone else can literally fall in love, though. >> and break a hip while you're at it many. >> how cold is it going to be tonight? >> we're looking at temperatures dropping down into the 50s. for this weekend, mid-60s with plenty of sunshine, these winds will begin to calm as we head throughout late tonight and gradually through tomorrow, hold on to your hats out there. >> good. >> thank you very much. nightly news is up next. we will be back here at 6:00 with more local news. >> bye-bye.

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