of a characteristic you have not only a due process violation but an equal protection violation and ultimately that's the decision i like to see this court issue. >> reporter: today's hearing came after a federal judge ruled prop 8 the 2008 ballot measure that banned same sex marriage was unconstitutional. when voters approved the ban same sex weddings came to a halt even though 18,000 same sex couples were already legally married. >> discrimination hurts everyone and discrimination against gays and lesbians hurts everyone in this country. >> the constitutional question is not whether people are harmed but whether people made a rationale decision. >> reporter: the other major question facing the panel is whether the same sex marriage site has legal standing to appeal. more on that at 6:00. a ruling on today's hearing could be months away. the losing side is expected to appeal either to the full ninth circuit or the u.s. supreme court. reporting live in san francisco, rob roth, ktvu channel 2 news. from rob let's go to paul chambers who has been gathering to reaction to today's proceedings. paul. >> reporter: we are here in the castro which is home to the gay movement and to many in the gay community. people living here say they believe gay same sex marriage is their right while other people on the opposite side the opposite. >> god has divorced you. >> reporter: for several hours today people for and against proposition 8 were outside the courthouse expressing their feelings about a highly controversial subject. >> this is probably the most important issue in my life certainly, making sure i have the right to marry when i fall in love. >> counterfeit marriages cheapen the real deal. marriage has always been between a man and woman. >> reporter: he and his fiance drove from san francisco to show their support. he says although proposition 8 is discriminatory he says other laws most people embrace are doing the exact same thing. >> you can't have polygamy, marriage with multiple people and we uphold that as discrimination and a valid law. >> reporter: with ample police officers at the ready, both sides were able to openly express their feelings about same sex marriage and for the most part the often lively debate between the protesters ended up in a yelling match. >> i am not a fake. get out of my face. >> reporter: this is just too far. as a christian, homosexual marriage is just -- it's taking it too far and i'll stand against it. >> our sacred scriptures do preach tolerance and acceptance for all people. that is why we are here to give an alternative voice to these other protesters. >> reporter: reverend rowland string fellow and other religious local leaders came out to stand up and show their support for same sex marriage. stringfellow says although protesters display signs with biblical scriptures, in his eyes those words were taken out of context. >> i don't believe that the bible verse dollars they are using to -- verses they are using to condemn and hate people speak that way. >> if a person wants to live that way, they have every right to do whatever they want to do and they will stand before god when they give an account. >> reporter: people on both sides say today is just a continuation of the fight. they both plan to continue for and against same sex marriage. paul chambers, ktvu channel 2 news. >> you can follow this unfolding legal story anytime by going to our website, ktvu.com, and clicking on the prop 8 tab. a stanislaus county judge sentenced three people who admitted to torturing a tracy teenager to prison terms as as long as 34 years. it comes two years after the boy, then 16, escaped his captors and stumbled into a health club almost naked with a chain shackled to his ankle. the judge sentenced karenramirez to 34 years, liao to 33 years and michael schumacher to 30 years. a fourth defendant faces life in prison after being found guilty by a jury. a mentally ill registered sex offender is accused of sexually assaulting a 2-year- old girl in a union city store last week made a court appearance this morning. 36-year-old eugene ramas did not enter a plea. is he said his -- they said his attorney requested a bail reduction and the plea hearing moved to wednesday. he was diagnosed as a secrets 47 nick after -- schizophrenic after pleading guilty to an attack on a 7-year-old back in 2003. more than an hour ago president obama announced a tax cut compromise. the deal will extend all bush era tax cuts for two years, extend jobless benefits and cut workers' social security taxes. the president asks for now -- says for now it's the right to do -- the right thing to do. >> the right thing to do for middle class, for business and for our economy. >> reporter: democrats wanted the cuts to expire for individuals making $200,000 a year and married couples making more than $250,000 a year. republicans wanted them extended for everyone. late today the president announced an agreement to extend expiring tax cuts for all americans, renew jobless benefits and grant a one-year reduction in social security taxes for millions. this agreement also includes tax breaks for businesses. it's a package that the president said would contribute to the economy's recovery from the worst recession in eight decades. >> i have no doubt that everyone will find something in this compromise that they don't like. in fact, there are things in here that i don't like, namely the extension of the tax cuts for the wealth yesterday americans -- wealthiest americans and the wealthiest estates. >> reporter: an early reaction from the left is less than enthusiastic. the president didn't mention it, top congressional democrats objected to the proposal earlier in the day on grounds that it was too generous to the wealthy. new information tonight shows more bay area residents plan to keep working and will put off retirement compared to other americans. a financial services company surveyed workers in 30 american metroplex -- metropolitan regions. san francisco, san jose, oakland area ranked 12th. more than 36% of bay area employees plan to postpone retirement compared to 26% nationwide. and 35% say they have given a lot of thought to where they will live after retiring more than half said they will stay right here in the bay area. stocks held steady and ended the day mixed. market analysts say stocks were held in check by worries over europe's debt crisis. the dow finished down nearly 20 points, while the nasdaq closed up three points. a benefit is set for tonight in san francisco to raise funds for the release of 2uc berkeley graduates in prison in iran. shane bauer and josh fatale were arrested near the iraq- iran border. it will include readings by daniel handler and girls in trucks author katie crouch, set to start at 7:30 tonight at the verde club on mariposa street. alameda county sheriff's investigators say a parolee in intensive care tonight. he is suffered -- he suffered a serious injury after crashing a stolen car into one police car and then another. it happened near grand and b street in hayward. the deputies began chasing the man after they figured out the honda civic he was in had been stolen from the castro valley bart station and that he slammed it into a sheriff's patrol car that dried to block him in a driveway. then a short distance away he crashed into a bart police car not involved in the chase. the 38-year-old bart officer in that car has minor injuries and was hospitalized overnight for observation. a massive fire ripped through a large vacant building in walnut creek today. flames engulfed the 9000 square foot structure on oak grove road and sent sparks billowing into the night's sky. the building once housed a restaurant but had been vacant for more than 20 years. once crews managed to put out the fire, they found evidence that someone had been inside recently. >> when i was inside the limited area i could go in, i saw a lot of graffiti, a lot of evidence of transient behavior, empty drink containers, trash, chip packets, things like that. >> fire officials do not know how this fire got started. no one was hurt but the fire destroyed the building which was valued at about $1 million. the death of a child in a crash devastates north bay city. police know who did it and they think they know how. more showers in the forecast. i'm going to show you which days are going to be wet this day and -- this week and which cities will be the wettest. it happened in an instant in front of a stunned witness. a north bay toddler crossing the street with her mother was hit and killed by a driver that we've learned may have been breaking the law right before the crash. ktvu john sasaki live in rona park with more. >> reporter: across the street is a growing memorial for a little girl who died just weeks shy of her third birthday. stuffed animals, angels and flowers are piling up here at sunrise park for young calee murray. calee and her mother were leaving sun rise park around dusk last evening. they were walking when a driver ran into them. another driver watched the whole thing. >> she watched the mom and daughter step off the curb and saw the impact and saw the two get thrown based on the impact. >> reporter: a picture of young calee sits among the flowers and one flier says her birthday was christmas day, 2007. the driver was a woman with an equally bright future, 18-year- old sonoma state freshman volleyball player caitlin dunaway. >> devastated with what has taken place. she was in complete pieces at the scene and has been in complete pieces since. >> reporter: as for how it happened, police believe that dunaway was using her cell phone at the time possibly texinging and -- texting and didn't see calee and her mother. she could face criminal charges. these three young people told me they are dunnaway's friends and now is an extremely difficult time. it's been a terrible time for friends and family of the murrays as well. >> my family is part of her family so i wanted to show my respect. i came last night for the vigil and it's just really sad and senseless. >> reporter: people stopped by the memorial all day and some complained that this intersection is dangerous. >> i think it's a very bad intersection, yeah. i do. there are kids all the time crossing here because of the park and there are people that live there and there are apartments there so it's a really bad interception -- intersection. >> reporter: across from a park is a day care center where managers have been calling for changes to the intersection for some time now. calee's mother, 40-year-old ling murray has been in a medically induced coma with major injuries and as if to illustrate this entire point, we just watched about 20 seconds ago that silver car over there just rear end the car in front of it. that just happened as we were standing here waiting to come back live. i'm john sasaki, ktvu channel 2 news. a u.s. airways flight from newark, new jersey to phoenix arizona was diverted to pittsburgh, pennsylvania this morning after a small dog got loose on board and bit two people. an airline spokesman says despite being told not to, the dog's owner let it out of a carrier that fit underneath a seat. the dog described as a 12-pound manchester terrier bit a passenger and a flight attendant before it was eventually corralled. the pilot decided to divert the flight as a precaution. the dog and its owner were removed, the bite victims were treated and the flight continued onto phoenix. the dog and its owner were eventually allowed to take a later flight. california's attorney general jerry brown today announced a deal settling a dispute between environmentalists and wind -- turbine owner. they will replace 2400 turbines with newer units that kill fewer birds, shut off all existing turbines by 2013 and pay 2 1/2 million dollars to be split between the state and east park regional district. weather blew across midwest and southern united states today. in chicago the wind chill pushed low temperatures to 13 below zero early this morning, highs were expected to top out at about 22 degrees fahrenheit. freezing temperatures were also forecast across the south and into central florida. some areas such as minnesota and west virginia braced for 12 to 14 inches of snow. here in the bay area, a lot of us gave our umbrellas a break today. here's our chief meteorologist bill martin to let us know if we should have them on stand by this week. >> yes. coming up on official winter and dealing with wet weather. wet this weekend especially yesterday. rainfall accumulations up to an inch and a half in the heaviest locations. roll through the next couple of days we are going to be okay and then something kind of tease up as we get into wednesday afternoon and thursday. so we go outside. just want to show you the rain is well north of the area up towards crescent city. throw in the satellite image here and we can take a peek and see where the clouds are, where the most cloud cover is well to the north. when i pull out a little bit you're going to see this area here. this is basically a frontal bound but the focus this way. behind it up in here, yeah, you can see that, this one is going to roll in and swing through the area as we get into wednesday and that means more rain in the forecast so when you look at the satellite, loop, you get a look like this as i put it in motion and you can see it streamlined. that's the jet stream just taking everything north. there's rain up in eureka and del norte county. wednesday the clouds increase and we question into -- get into showers around here. quite a -- kind of a wet pattern. snow up in the mountains. the amount of early snow at lake level and up on donner pass, i haven't seen it like this. i have been looking at weather patterns for 30 years and haven't seen that. dry pattern as we go into tomorrow. that's tuesday. wednesday and thursday the clouds come in and rain. and the showers will be numerous throughout t bay area and have impacts on your commutes. forecast tomorrow morning, it's been kind of mild because of the cloud cover and that's nice. we went through a very, very cold spell patch there a few weeks where it was 28, 29, 30 degrees every morning. we are a little warmer now because of the rain. the clouds, the moisture actually heat things up. when it rains, actually when condensation when you get a rain drop, it actually releases late heat into the atmosphere so when it starts to rain, typically the atmosphere warms. same with snow. snow actually gets condensation and begins to warm the atmosphere. dry pattern tomorrow, this high pressure barely hanging on and then look for partly cloudy skies. here's what i'm tracking out here and we pointed to it earlier. there's your showers wednesday and thursday and it's got energy with it so look for gusty winds as well, so boy it does feel like winter around here but i got to tell you we are getting rain in the places we need it and we are getting snow up in the mountains. when i come back i'm going to show you the latest commuter model. i'm going to dial in this wednesday, thursday event for you. roseville police are investigating a strange taste from friday night in which a worker at a boston market drive-through was badly burned when a customer at the drive- through window threw a container of hot span match at -- spinach at him. the teenage customer didn't say anything. there were three other teens in the car and that the incident might be similar to a prank in which people recorded video of themselves throwing food at fast food workers. a student scientist from palo alto high school won high honors and a $20,000 scholarship in washington, d.c. today. andrew lu is a national finalist in the simmons math, science and technology competition. he spent 600 hours on his project which compared data from organ transplants that worked and transplants that were rejected. >> if we can treat rejection, we can save organs that other people can use and also make sure the patients with organs can live longer. >> lu, who is a senior at henry gun high school in palo alto is also a winner of the intel excellence in computer science awards. we have learned late this afternoon that the health of elizabeth edwards, former wife of john edwards has taken a turn. we will have the latest on her condition. also the dramatic move the university of california is considering because of its current cash crunch. and the u.s. attorney general is speaking out tonight about the website wikileaks. what he says he plans to do, put it out of business. a university of california commission has come out with suggestions to control raising -- rising costs at uc campuses. it calls for cutting down on staff by creating online classes and issuing more third year degrees to transfer students. the report also recommends admitting more out-of-state students who pay higher fees than california residents. the report says if uc's finances get worse, the university should consider cutting enrollment, raising tuition, reducing financial aid and downsizing the workforce. elizabeth edwards, the estranged wife of former presidential candidate john edwards is said to be gravely ill tonight. edwards, who is 61 years old has been battling breast cancer for six years. her family issued a statement saying doctors told mrs. edwards that any further treatment would be unproductive and that she has just a few months left to live. a family friend said today that john edwards, the couple's three children and other relatives are at mrs. edwards' side in their chapel hill, north carolina home. today the u.s. attorney general condemned wikileaks and vowed to chase down those responsible and possibly charge them with espionage for leaking secret documents. >> we have a very serious active ongoing investigation that is criminal in nature. >> at a news conference, attorney general eric holder vowed to quote get to the bottom of the wikileaks scandal. he says his investigation is well underway and that the release of classified documents is more than just an embarrassment to the state department. >> national security of the united states has been put at risk. the lives of people who work for the american people has been put at risk. the american people themselves have been put at risk. >> meanwhile, wikileaks is facing some financial and operating challenges. officials in switzerland today shut down bank accounts belonging to wikileaks founder julian assange. postal authorities claim assange lied about being a swiss resident, a requirement for opening the account. in a posting today, wikileaks responded that the swiss fund contained $31,000 euros or 41,000 u.s. dollars, that was meant as a defense fund for the nonprofit website. internet giant google today launched its online electronic book service. it's called e-books and google says it will make millions of books available to readers. users can read the books on gadgets including ipads and iphones, sony's e-reader and on any computer browser compatible with java script. e-books will not be available on the amazon kindle. millions of books can be made possible again if it -- a key investor in borders bookstore says he wants to acquire barnes & noble. the investor owned 37% of borders. he filed paperwork for a $16 a share purchase of barnes & noble. it's almost 21% more than barnes & noble's closing price on friday. borders stock surged almost 30% closing at $1.39 a share. the governor declares a special emergency, fiscal emergency and calls the new ledge tour into -- legislature into special session but is anybody listening? what a federal government is threatening to do when it comes to pot farm plants in the city of oakland. lightning fast. lightning strong. verizon 4g lte. rule the air on the most advanced 4g network in the world. complete b