and as nbc bay area's brian mooar reports, that's forcing washington to try find solutions. >> reporter: washington is facing mounting political pressure to do something that may include tapping america's strategic oil reserve to bring down prices. >> we're looking at options. the issue of the reserves is one we're considering. it is something that only is done and has been done in very rare occasions. >> reporter: pump prices are topping $4 in some areas. we've all seen the cause, the unrest and upheaval rippling through libya and the middle east. and we're all feeling the effects, that sudden surge at the pumps. it is threatening to increase the cost of everything, from food to air travel. and that's bad news for the economy. the last time prices spiked like this, the answer seemed simple. >> drill, baby, drill. >> reporter: but even drilling proponents realize energy is a long-term problem. >> i'm buying an electric car tomorrow, and that's going give me the patriotic pleasure of plugging in and not sending money overseas to people trying to blow us up. >> reporter: rising prices and anxiety that go far beyond the pumps. brian mooar, nbc news, washington. >> of course, if you went outside at all today, you noticed the dreary weather out there. plenty of rain today, but a bit of a change tomorrow. let's get a check of the weather with meteorologist rob mayeda. hello, rob. >> hi there, diane. we're starting to see some of the changes in san jose. we've got the winds picking up now south at 13 miles per hour. 60 degrees, not much rain around san jose. but san francisco has been a little bit of a different story, as you can see there. a drizzly drive across the golden gate drive. south wind at 13 miles per hour. in terms of rainfall, not a whole lot in the south bay. generally a tenth of an inch or less around san jose. as we come up to san francisco and san ramon, close to a half inch of rain. a lot of that fell earlier this morning and caused problems on the morning drive around the bay area. right now you can see some rain showing up around napa, pretty good cells from from yountville into napa county. a few more showers on the santa cruz mountains. we've got this system moving ashore tonight that at least temporarily i think will throttle the rain back up, as we head towards midnight tonight. we'll call for showers on the increase midnight. and then showers shutting down towards tomorrow morning. but look at the wind speeds. those will be picking up tomorrow. a little gusty around our hilltops. we'll talk about the windier conditions for monday, plus 70-degree temperatures showing up in your seven-day forecast. a look at that coming up in a few minutes. diane? >> all right, thank you, rob. the corruption case in the east bay involving a private investigator and two law enforcement officers seems to be growing. and tonight we're learning more about the p.i. i cuesed of orchestrating the scheme to sell drugs from crime labs and falsify reports. stephen tanabe was arrested on friday and is accused of conspireing with the private investigator named christopher butler, seen right here in this court footage. butler is accused of selling stolen drugs from the police departments. in addition to the drug charges, in tanabe's case, prosecutors say butler paid tanabe to arrest men for drunk driving. we just spoke to a private investigator who knows butler, and he told he is surprise how'd this scandal is unfolding. he adds that butler has always been professional with him, and points out butler has not been convicted of a crime. many bay area women are celebrating the 100th anniversary of international women's day. ♪ well, the actual day is tuesday, march 8th, organizers and supporters gathereded this afternoon in san francisco. not only where they celebrating 100 years of women's progress, they're pushing a domestic worker's bill of rights in california. employers of housekeepers, nannies, caregivers and their families also gathered during the event. >> domestic workers, the work that is done to take care of our homes and our children and our loved ones is so important. it's often done by women. and yet it isn't really respected and valued by our society. >> the domestic bill of rights would guarantee privately employed domestic workers paid leave, overtime, and the right to sleep eight hours for live-in workers. new york lawmakers by the way recently passed similar legislation there. two years ago, a teenager, a farm worker died while working in a central valley field. and tomorrow a group of san jose state university students and teachers are launching a call for justice on her behalf. 17-year-old maria jimenez was working in a lodi vineyard in 2008 when she started feeling sick. she died later of heatstroke. the contractor and the farm safety officer face charges in this case, but cut a deal for probation and community service in return for guilty pleas. tomorrow the group of san jose students and educators plan to hold an e-mail rally to voice their opposition to the plea deal. all day they'll send e-mails to the san joaquin county district attorney in the case. the defendants in the case are set to appear in court on wednesday for sentencing. coming up next at 5:00, there is new information available on just how much government workers make in your city or county. $900,000 tops the list, but there are surprises on the lower end of the spectrum as well. closer scrutiny of wikileaks cable shows a questionable picture of how the united states dealt with allegations of torture. we'll have that. and an oakland boy, paralyzed by a stray bullet back in 2008 has made a striking recovery. we'll have his dethelsaiad a.l as the battle goes on over government workers and salaries and benefits, there is now a wealth of information here in california on just how much those workers really make. the numbers can be surprising on both ends of the spectrum. the top of the list? for the entire state is a woman who has made the top spot for several years. her name is nancy farber, and she is the chief executive at washington hospital in fremont. and she received almost $900,000 in 2009 in salary. four other executives at that hospital made the top 15 highest paid as well in the state. the hospital insists the numbers are misleading, saying that the hospital is a public entity, but is not funded by any tax sources. a statement on their website reads while washington hospital is a public entity, the hospital competes for its employees and executive leadership from the same labor pool as for-profit and large corporate health care providers. as a result, the hospital must pay market rate salaries to recruit and to retain top quality professional staff. also high on the list, firefighters and police officers with about 65% of them in the bay area making more than $100,000 a year. on the other end of the spectrum, the average pay for a teacher in the bay area is about $70,000 a year. and to search for more information about workers in your city, you can always go to the state controller's website to get that database. two new wikileaks revelations have many in europe furious with obama and the administration. wikileaks cable shows in 2009 spanish officials were warned about what affect a criminal investigation into six bush administration lawyers would do to that country's relationship with the u.s. four spanishmen claim they were tortured by american interrogators at guantanamo bay before being returned to spain free of charges. a judge wanted to investigate whether the bush administration lawyers, which included uc berkeley's john yu had approved the use of torture in the case of those four. well, in another case, wikileaks cable show that german leaders were warned against pursuing the arrest of 13 cia agents in 2007. the agents allegedly arrested a german man in 2003, mistaking him for a terrorist with the same name. he claims he was tortured for five months before being abandoned in a remote area of albanian. still to come at 5:00 -- >> i just want to say thank you for all being here. it's hard for me to talk about it. but thank you. >> a california th'sis msing s for his missing son hal al the father of a missing san diego state university student flew to madrid this weekend to search for his son. 22-year-old austin bice was last seen at a nightclub in the spanish capital more than a week ago. nbc's kyra simmons has the latest on his puzzling disappearance. >> reporter: missing, the poster says. austin bice disappeared more than a week ago, his family desperate for news. the san diego student was in spain as part of an exchange program. his father has flown to the country to help the search near the madrid nightclub where his son was last seen in the early hours of the morning. >> i just want the say thank you for you all being here. it's hard or the me to talk about it, but thank you. >> reporter: the 22-year-old left america to look for more experiences. he was writing a blog about his adventures. it talks about school and life in spain. it should be a fun night, he says. that was the evening he vanished. >> the friends decided to go into the discotheque. it was a little late. he decided to go back home, and he decided that he was going to walk home. and that was the last time that he was seen, heading north. >> reporter: he had been drinking and was on his own. he had been in spain for just a few months. >> translator: he was very calm, very sociable one of his new spanish friends says. >> no one hears rumors, either with good clues or bad clues says another. thousands have joined a facebook page as part of an effort to find him. a europe-wide police alert has been issued for the student. his father says he will stay in spain for as listening as it takes to find his son. his family just now wants to know he is safe. one particularly mysterious aspect is that some friends apparently say his mobile phone was still ringing after he disappeared. tomorrow night, there will be a candle-lit vigil at his university, san diego state university with people desperately hoping this mystery solved soon. back to you. well, the march 10th deadline to get tax extensions on the june ballot draws near. governor jerry brown may have to wait a little longer than expect ed willie brown says the governor has an uphill battle when it comes to passing the extensions to help close the $26 billion budget gap. he says public employee unions will have to step up and help. we're also hearing from our own political analyst larry gerston who tells us the senate gop may push the vote back for the ballot measure until after the republican state convention in two weeks. >> what some republicans would like to do is delay that vote two weeks. get past the state convention so that they can tamp down some of the pressure and animus, then go forward with the vote and perhaps peel off a number of them, enough of them to get this proposal on. >> if as larry mentioned republicans get their way and delay the vote for a few weeks, it would push back the tax extensions measure to a june 21st ballot. and take a look at this. one san francisco street was particularly wet early this morning, and it was not due to the rain, obviously. just before 1:00 this morning, a car crashed into a fire hydrant, sending up this geyser of water. the accident happened on first street near natoma. the driver of the car was questioned by police as okay. it's not yet clear if alcohol played a role in that crash. right now we want to check in with meteorologist rob my ada on the weather. >> can't blame that one on the weather. but it did cause some problems on some of our roadways a bit earlier this morning around the bay bridge we had a big rig that had problems. a temporary jackknife of that big rig earlier this morning as some of the rain came downful right now in oakland, 57 degrees. 59 in san jose. notice the winds are starting to pick up. south wind at 15 miles per hour. and you can see the windshield wipers going on the cars as cross the bridge, right wind. southeast wind at close to 6 miles per hour. right now we're in the 50s all around the bay area right now. and as we show you the wind speeds, notice in san jose south of 15, southeast winds coming through fairfield as a surface low crosses the coast. this is cranking up the winds. it's also going the add a little more lift to the moisture over the bay area. i think between now and midnight, we will see the showers, at least temporarily back on the increase. we're seeing some of that around napa. a few more showers south of livermore and east of sunol. across the santa cruz mountains you can see a few showers there. behind it we're going to see some gusty winds picking up as we get our way in to tomorrow morning. so tonight we have some showers. tomorrow breezy and cool. we'll see winds 15 to 35 miles per hour. but i think most of monday is going to be dry until monday night and tuesday. we'll see another chance of showers dropping on in. and high temperatures on tuesday starting to come up a little bit. and we'll see those temperatures increasing a little bit more come wednesday. so the futurecast shows the showers for this evening. mainly dry monday, except for maybe a hilltop showers or two. and then for the north bay by monday evening into tuesday morning, you see some areas of light rain. and then we dry out by lunch time on tuesday. and temperatures start to come back up. as we head towards the middle part of the week. tonight lows mid cooler. we'll see some 40s out there. a little rain to start and windy conditions, taking you into your monday morning commute. and for the afternoon tomorrow, a little blustery and cool. we'll see temperatures in the 50s to near 60 in maybe some of the warmer spots. 59 around fremont. and mid- to upper 50s along the coast around san francisco and pacifica, and into the north bay. you'll see temperatures in the 50s to near 60. the good news here about your seven-day forecast for your outdoor plans, i think today was the wettest day we will see for the next seven days. we'll get a little more showers in here for early tuesday morning. 70s possible on wednesday. and then for the weekend, look at those temperatures staying in the 60s. but the real headline may be the time change as we lose the hour of sleep this time next sunday. it's already come up on us. >> really? that was quick! >> it starts earlier, and runs longer now. >> all right. thank you, rob. check in with justin allen and a little hoops action. >> warriors on the road, the longest road trip of the season, looking to get the season become on track in philly. >> okay. >> of course giants fans have been waiting for this as charlie sheen, the beard, spring training debut th at s spring training detobuthatry sry up ng ext.in california should be proud. we were the first to ban smoking on airplanes. the first to have smoke-free bars and restaurants. all while saving over $86 billion in health care costs... and over a million lives. we've done a good job. but even if you were born today, you'd still grow up in a world where tobacco kills more people... than aids, drugs, alcohol, murder and car crashes... combined. we have a lot more work to do. and now xfinity sports desk on nbc bay area news. >> spring training rolls along. and today giants ace tim lincecum facing his home-town team, the seattle mariners. he has never gone up against the m's in the regular season. has a few times in spring. today was just smoking guys left and right through a shut-out for 3 2/3 innings. struck out seven. a great day for timmy. the bats were alive today as well. miguel tejada with a cut there, sends that baby to deep center field. the triple scores two. the giants have 3-zip. and look who made his spring debut. the beard is back. brian wilson came in the fifth, rung up a couple guys in a perfect inning. bottom of 5, buster posey gets into the act knocked to the right. it would put the g-men up 6-0. they take it 6-1. ace splitting up the squad today, taking on the brewers here where gonzalez had a nice day on the mound, threw three shut-out innings. did not give up a hit, and fanned five at the plate as the a's take it, 5-4. and the other game, san diego edges the a's, 7-6. josh outman's bid for the sixth starter spot didn't go so well today. five up five hits, four runs. kurt suzuki. just win for the warriors in their longest road trip of the season. so with three games left, a chance of coming home with a winning edge. taking on the sixers. and not a good start from the guys. thaddeus young going to drop the short jumper here as monta ellis getting warmed up for game. young drops it in as philly would go up 18 in the first half. but guys not giving up on this sunday. mid fourth, monta ellis with a nice hook shot there as the warriors could go on the take the lead. and final seconds of the game, it may tie it up, 106-106. it's in overtime. so the warriors still have a chance for the win. we'll let you know at 6:00 what happens in that game. the clash of the titans in miami. bulls versus heat. dwyane wade working his magic in the fourth. goes baseline. does a 360 layup. doesn't get it. that's okay and puts it in any way. final seconds, lebron. but air balls it. wade with a final crack at it, and no. heat are hurting. they lose their fourth straight, 87-86. the west coast conference tourney resumes tonight. three bay area teams have a shot of the title. santa clara takes on st. mary's, and usf faces gonzaga. jeff gordon ended his winless drought last week. today not so lucky. gets a flat tire with 72 laps to go. hits the wall. he would go on to limp in to pit lane. carl edwards benefitted from a tony stewart pit stop with 23 to go. he takes the lead and would hang on the rest of the way. he racks up his first win of the season. and yes, going to show off his gymnastics moves, as he does every win. >> we got to get this in. the back flip, he going to pull it off? >> come on, let's go, let's go. >> heart attack every time. >> exactly that. >> scares me. >> after he is flying around the thing. all right. thank you, justin. still ahead at 5:00, an oakland boy's inspjog irurney from the hospital bed to the basketball court. this is great. we'll be right back. you might remember the story back in 2008 of that 10-year-old boy who was playing piano in oakland when a stray bullet hit him in the spleen and paralyzed him? we have an incredible update on his remarkable recovery. christopher was told ten davis the shooting at the music school in oakland that he would likely never walk again. he had just started playing basketball, and according to the chronicle, he was crushed at that news. well, in the past three years, he has taken up the game of basketball from his