Live from the kgotv Broadcast Center this is abc7 a stunning announcement today, 85yearold Pope Benedict will resign in two weeks from now saying his health is the reason. Good morning, i am kristen sze. Pope benedict was elected in 2005 at the age of 78, the oldest pope chosen in 300 years. He plans to spend the rest of his life living in a monastery in a life of prayer. We have Team Coverage with abc7 News Reporter filled with local reaction and our reporter is joining us live from washington, dc, with the latest. Karen . Good afternoon. The news was a surprise to the popes closest aides but Officials Say they noticed he had grown weaker. The first pope to resign in 600 years but Pope Benedict says he made the decision freely. It was a stunning announcement. Delivered in latin. At the end of a meeting of cardinals in rome. Pope benedict xvi will step down at the end of the month for health reasons. The 85yearold said the strength deteriorateed to the extent i have to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry. He feels he carried the cross to the point he can and is calm and said now i will pass it on. For the 1 billion catholics around the world the news came out of nowhere. That is the best thing to do yes. Elected in 2005 Pope Benedict was the favorite to fill the big shoes left by the beloveed Pope Juan Paul ii, he never veered from his beliefs, condemning gay marriage, ordaining women and allowing priests to marry. The eight year tenure was one of the shortest in history, but it was not without controversy. The vatican continued to face scathing criticism for the accusations of sexual abuse by priests. In 2008 the pope said the scandal in the United States made him feel deeply ashamed. During a visit he met privately with victims of pedophile priests. In words of man could describe the pain. Catholic cardinals will gather in rome in march to elect the new pope. It is likely his successor could be in place by easter sunday. Many betting firms are placing odds on who will be the next pope. Right now, Cardinal Peter turkson of ghana is the favorite. He is 65 and would be the first black pope. He is head of the vatican justice and peace bureau. Other favorites include someone from nigeria. The shockwaves reached to the bay area. We are joined live with that part of the story. A lost catholics wonder of the timing of the announcement. Two days before lent, very holy time for the catholic church, but a spokesman at the diocese thinks it shows great humility he recognized he could not do the job. Catholics attending mass this morning at st. Marys cathedral say it was a surprise to hear that Pope Benedict xvi resigned. The announcement came at 2 00 a. M. Local time so they heard about it from the priest who said mass this only. Shock, really. He is an old man. Looking forward to have a young pope. Parish owners were not alone. The Church Leadership at the archdiocese was stunned. Shocked. Shocked. Pope benedict said he is resigning because of his age and deteriorating health but he is the first pope to do so in 600 years and one questions whether this was the right move. He should not leave even if he does not have good health. It is a valid opinion and that is what john paul ii did but i think if my opinion this is really an act of boldness on the part of this pope and, also, an act of great humility. The church will turn its attention to the successor, and a bay area man will be part of that decision. The cardinal will be in voting on the next pope. A lot of times someone who is appointed a cardinal which 10 great thing in itself never gets to vote for a pope so this is a big deal. The archbishop of San Francisco released a written statement praising the pope for his service and the archdiocese says parishes will pray for the pope and his successor. A clergyman from california will vote even for the next pope, although he is banned from public duties because of the way he handle the sexual abuse cases. Cardinal mahony headed the archdiocese of los angeles and the current archbishop banished him from duties after he found out he dismissed sexual abuse cases of priests. After the resignation on february 28, a secret group of cardinals begins in 15 to 20 days in manner. The vatican hopes to have a new pope by march 31, easter, of this year. We will have continuing coverage on the resignation of Pope Benedict xvi. You can fine the newest information on abc7news. Com. Concord police want to find vandal would slashed the tires on dozens of cars over the weekend in the Valley District between saturday night and sunday morning, all four tires were slashed on the damage cars. Anyone with information about the vandalism should call the police. You can remain anonymous. Copper thieves are contributing to the bay area traffic jams tearing out copper wiring that powers traffic signals. They have stolen copper from 359 meters in the bay area. The cost to replace each is 35,000 and caltran is fighting back and is using aluminum wire rather than copper which is less lucrative. The ship pilot for the Worst Oil Spill in to decades is suing the coast guard to get his license back. Our media partner reports that the captain has filed a lawsuit against the u. S. Department of Homeland Security claiming his civil rights were violated when he was not allowed to renew his license. The board found him at fault for crashing a cargo ship into a tower of the bay bridge in 2007. 53,000 gallons of thick fuel spilled into the bay. It has been a busy to days for Specialized Team in the fire department. They are trained for precise urban rescues but rarely get a chance to perform. Now we are live in san jose with this story you will see only on abc7 news. The San Jose Fire Department rescue team was behind me an hour ago rescuing a man who was trapped in a tree 30 above the river. They trained for these type of searchandrescue operations but theyrarely perform them. In the last 24 hours alone they have made two of these rescues. It took 20 men to pull this man to safety after he was clinging to a tree branch for five hours 30 over the river in san jose. He was running from people when he jumped over the bridge to safety but landed 6 down in a tree below. He called 911 around 4 00 a. M. And they looked for him and could not find him. It was 3 1 2 hours later he called 911 again and they discovered him yelling, losing grasp on the limb and realized they needed to call for backup. In came the urban searchandrescue company. We did have hauling systems we could use to lower people down and attach a harness and lift him. This crew is a unique and liely skilled company trained for these time of high ankle rescues but it is rare they get calls to use that specific expertise. In the last two days, they have had two of these type of rescues. Yesterday, this crash occurred 150 down an embankment and it took 25 personnel, two hours to rescue the trapped driver. On a largescale, these are infrequent, but our crews are highly trained in this and this is what they do and why we have them in the city. The victim was taken to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries and hypothermia after sitting here for more than five hours dangling in the tree. It is up to the Police Department to question him and figure out how he ended up in that position. Major tornado damage in the south but no deaths. What mississippis governor thinks of the efforts to keep everyone safe. The widow of joe paterno [ female announcer ] this is a special message from at t. [ male announcer ] its no secret that the price of things just keeps going up. [ female announcer ] but we have some good news. Its our bundle price promise. [ male announcer ] a price you can definitely count on for two whole years. From at t. Call to get uverse tv starting at just 19 a month with our tripleplay bundle. Get the same great price for two years. Plus now two times the Internet Speed than before. [ female announcer ] switch today and get a total home dvr included for life. [ male announcer ] you get reliable highspeed internet on our advanced digital network. Choose from speeds up to 24 megs. [ female announcer ] and with uverse tv, you can record four shows at once on your total home dvr and play them back in any room. [ male announcer ] so call now. Uverse tv starts at 19 a month with our tripleplay bundle, with the same great price for two years. Plus now get two times the Internet Speed than before. Its a tripleplay bundle thats hard to beat same great price, two whole years, price promise. [ female announcer ] that has a nice ring to it. [ male announcer ] only from at t. People in mississippi and alabama are cleaning up after 15 separate tornadoes hit the states. Hundreds of homes and buildings were left mangled including on the university of mississippi miss campus with 60 people hurt. The governor says no one was killed in part because people were given enough warning a tornado was headed their way. Southern california is on education over the massive manhunt for an excop wanted in the murders of three people. A 1 million reward is offered for information leading to christopher dorners capture. Police have responded to several tips but there have been no confirmed sightings. He has been on the run since vowing revenge on the lapd last week. Authorities are trying to trace a phone call, a man claiming to be dorner called the father of a victim to taunt him. And a former f. B. I. Director supported the thoughts that penn state con vealed top abuse allegations against jerry sandusky. And today, sue paterno tells katie how she felt about the accusations. I was looking forward to the report, to be honest with you. I thought, we will get the truth, the right answers. Then, we will know why everything occurred, that occurred. Unfortunately, i wanted it alone and he went through his report, he did not know joe. Thissent what the man i knew. This isnt the man anyone knew. I was totally devastated. You can watch the exclusive interview with sue paterno today at 3 00 only on abc7. Mike nicco will be with us coming up to look at forecast but right now it is warm and dry, sunny out there, will there be a change in the pattern in. The new plan to ban repeat offenders from riding bart and how you can weigh in on that proposal today. They are getting washed, dried, fluffed and exercised, a dried, fluffed and exercised, a look at the people are stuck in very old habits of using toothpaste to clean a denture. But dentures are very different to real teeth. Theyre about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can grow and multiply. Polident is specifically designed to clean dentures daily. Its unique microclean formula kills 99. 99 of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains, cleaning in a better way than brushing with toothpaste. Thats why dentists recommend polident. [ male announcer ] polident. Cleaner, fresher, brighter every day. Cupertino, concord, wine country and all the bay area this is abc7 news. A rocket with an earth observation satellite blasted off from the Central California coast an hour ago. The at last 5 has a satellite which is on a mission to keep a continuous eye on the earths resources. It will track glaciers, forest fires and crops and coastline. And now the busy bart stations commute could be easier. This is embarcardero station possibly in five years. There is a major expansion on project they are trying to include, with new elevators and stairs and you could exit on both sides of the train. The proposed 900 million expansion is in response to increased ridership. Changes to the montgomery street station are also in the work. Bart will hold the first of Community Meetings tonight to talk about whether to ban repeat offenders from the trains. A new law allows the agency to file restraining orders against vandals, cheaters and protesters who are cited three or more times in 60 days. The high profile web Company Godaddy is opening the new office today, in sunnyvale, to try to attract more hightech talent. Godaddy is leasing more than 89,000 square feet at the Office Complex known for their racy super bowl commercials plans to fill 40 positions locally. We posted the information on our website at abc7news. Com under oh spree see it on tv. Mike, how is it looking . Looking at the models for 14 or 15 days there is no strong storm to break the drought rainwise or snow in the sierra, which is getting smaller and smaller, and that includes the entire year we are having issues at 78 percent to this date. We need a lot more. The rain, you can see it is long gone. A lot of sunshine as we look from Mount Tamalpais to the ocean beach, and beautiful picture there, and i will show you what it look like from south beach across the bay bridge to oakland and berkeley and how clear the air is. Check out the fiveday spare the air forecast and not supposed to have any. So no threat of worry about working in it or being outside. Now, it is dry outside, and the lack of cloud cover, also. The temperatures show we were freezing this morning. Sonoma, napa, livermore, pretty close in fairfield and concord at 33 and a lot of mid30s to upper 30s to the coast, and San Francisco is the odd number out there at 46 degrees. Now, a look at what is going on right now temperatures are soaring in the north bay with a down sloping wind from Higher Elevation to lower elevation, it compresses and heats and you are in the 60s while we are in the 50s. To the monterey bay and inland from 48 in santa cruz to 55 in monterey. The he lights include sunny and mild this afternoon. Clean and clear and chilly tonight and a few isolated areas could see frost inland. There you go, no strong storms for the next seven days is how far we will go. Napa is three degrees warmer than average, livermore, too, oakland, and redwood city and San Francisco, all where we should be in the lowtomid 60s. To the coast, we should hit the low 60s today with that land breeze, the offshore wind, chasing the clouds in the cooler weather away from us of the monterey with a few spots in the 50s and 357, the rest of bay inland, lowtomid 60s. Checking out the state, lowtomid 60s through the central valley, 39 and sunshine at talk show, and cooler san diego, 58, and lowtomid 60s and palm springs. Tonight, mid30s again and 44 in San Francisco for the warm spot. Watch the wind pushing the clouds away from the coast as the High Pressure takes over and it is mild to warm land breeze we will have all week in the forecast. Each day we go up one or two degrees compared to the day before, so, lowtomid 60s tomorrow, and lowtoupper 60s thursday and near 70 on friday. We pull back a little bit on saturday and sunday but still at average if not a little bit above. Great weather for valentines day. The super bowl of dog shows is whatting today and former in new york city. The westminster kennel dog show with the best stuff and the judges start with hounds, toy and herding breeds and best in show is awarded tomorrow. Speaking of awards, still ahead, the big winners at the grammys. Breakup call me, i love before copd. I took my son fishing every year. We had a great spot, not easy to find, but worth it. But with copd making it hard to breathe, i thought those days might be over. So my doctor prescribed symbicort. It helps significantly improve my lung function starting within five minutes. Symbicort doesnt replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. With symbicort, today im breathing better. And that means. Fish on symbicort is for copd including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. It should not be taken more than twice a day. Symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. Tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high Blood Pressure before taking it. With copd, i thought id miss our family tradition. Now symbicort significantly improves my lung function, starting within 5 minutes. And that makes a difference in my breathing. Today, were ready for whatever swims our way. Ask your doctor about symbicort. I got my first prescription free. Call or click to learn more. [ male announcer ] if you cant afford your medication, at 3 00 on katie the first interview with the widow of former penn state coach joe paterno, speaks out for the first time sin the shocking sex abuse scandal rocked penn states legendary football program. Then on abc7 news at 4, San Franciscos rare river otto is getting too popular and now all the attention is a problem. A story you will only see on abc7, insight into the Kevin Collins missing child case to a woman wrote was good friends with the man now considered the main suspect. The Music Industry celebrated its own with a night of powerful performances at the grammys. I say i hate you we break up you call me and the first performance was we are never ever ever ever ever getting back together. And best artist, that went to [ female announcer ] this is a special message from at t. [ male announcer ] its no secret that the price of things just keeps going up. [ female announcer ] but we have some good news. Its our bundle price promise. [ male announcer ] a price you can definitely count on for two whole years. From at t. Call to get uverse tv starting at just 19 a month with our tripleplay bundle. Get the same great price for two years. Plus now two times the Internet Speed than before. [ female announcer ] switch today and get a total home dvr included for life