bystanders. the fire department tells us they were able to find one woman in her 40s, still not identified. there are two other victims still in the plane in six feet of water at the lagoon. one said to be the pilot, the other thought to be a 91-year-old man who started a steel company in east palo alto more than 50 years ago. this kind of plane can hold up to eight people. he saw the plane just after takeoff and quickly knew it was in trouble. i noticed the aircraft pitch up abruptly to a very high angle of attack, then appeared to level off and appeared as if he was stalling and then recovered, and i thought good recovery. and then he made a right turn, and the bank continued to increase well past 60 degrees. and just after he did that he pitched over, did a complete

role and then nosedived into the surface. >> oh, yeah? >> the national transportation safety board is joining in the search this evening. crews tell us they've been hampered most of the afternoon by among other things, oil that has leaked in the water from the plane. we will continue to bring you up to date on progress in the search mission. we'll have more tonight at 6:00, including what some local residents at redwood shores say they saw and heard this afternoon as the plane went down. reporting live in redwood shores, scott bud man, nbc bay area news. >> we will see you at 6:00, scott. thank you. police are working some new angles tonight in an east bay killing spree that has baffled them. five people are dead in a rampage that spanned three cities. the suspect was shot and killed by police. he is one of the dead at this point one man remains missing. we have team coverage tonight. we begin with jodi hernandez live in vallejo where police are having a tough time answering

some of the key questions in this case. jodi? >> reporter: police are trying to piece this all together tonight, what i can tell you is that the coroner's office has completed the autopsy of the woman whose body was found in the backyard of this yellow house you see behind me. the coroner also started the autopsy of the second woman who was found dead inside the house late this afternoon. we are told it will take a couple weeks to get the results of those autopsies. we are also learning more about the chemicals police found inside the house. investigators have confirmed they removed a box labelled depleted uranium from inside the home. the atf is analyzing the contents of that box tonight to determine what was inside. meanwhile, those who knew the victims of the killing spree are grieving tonight. a steady stream of cards and flowers are pouring in to the vallejo salon where jenny worked

and police believe she was taken against her will by her boyfriend. >> great gal. really sweet, really loving gal. it's so tragic, i hope that people realize she was such a wonderful person and that -- just to snatch her away like that is so sad. >> i just can't believe that somebody so evil could do something like what he did. >> reporter: her beaten and strangled body was found in the car he was driving tuesday night, that ended in a high speed chase with officers shooting and killing them. the man who often hung out at the salon, many can't believe he turned out to be so violent. >> he would sweep up, and when she was done, they'd go. >> reporter: he's responsible for bludgeoning to death a hercules man who worked as a security guard a few doors down

from the salon. they believe he may be connected to the killings of two women whose bodies police discovered in the vallejo home where she lived off and on for years. >> it's a puzzle we're trying to put together. and not all the pieces are there. so we have to continue working on it, and hopefully we can come up with the answers. >> my question is, how this kind of person was just out there? and then finding out what he did, what he was all about, it's unbelievable. >> reporter: now, charles rittenhouse, the man who lived in this house with his wife who is believed to be one of the victims is still in custody tonight. he will be arraigned tomorrow in court on charges of possessing explosive chemicals. police are still trying to figure out if he had anything to do with the two dead women who were found here. reporting live in vallejo, jodi

hernandez, nbc bay area news. >> hercules police say the violence may have been sparked by some sort of altercation between frederick sallas, his father and edward valdamarro. nbc bay area's traci grant is live in san pablo to tell us more about the man police are desperately trying to find. tracy? >> reporter: we're live here outside the medical center in san pablo where sallas works. a statement from the hospital says that it is against hospital policy -- >> we're having audio problems, we'll try to get back to tracy later. stay with us for continuing coverage on this story. and you can find out the latest updates on our website, n nbcbayarea.com. we are in the oven, are we not? let's check in with jeff ranieri to find out what's coming next, jeff?

>> we're looking at warm weather, and then eventually some unseasonably cool weather for part of your labor day weekend. let's get a look at the heat right now outside. we're near some records for our inland spots. 101 in livermore, 94 in san jose, 96 in sunnyvale. plenty of heat in the north bay as well with temperatures to 90 and near 100. sunnyvale at 98 and los gatos coming in at 98 degrees. high pressure has been keeping this heat with ush the last 36 hours. we're going to focus on the cooling happening in the pacific. that's going to durp temperatures down over the labor day weekend. we'll see slight differences as we go toward tonight. generally mild at 11:00 p.m., mid to upper 60s. then 6:00 a.m., a little bit aa er costart, with mid and upper 60s as the fog will be returning to the bay area.

it will be warm tomorrow, so we'll see another spare the air friday.ffect for we'll talk more about the weekend cooling coming newspaper minutes. >> thanks a lot, jeff. a rocky morning in san pablo as a magnitude 3.3 earthquake rumbled through that area. it mapp happened about 9:30, ced two miles from downtown. bar bart briefly shut down service to check out the tracks. an appeals court has rejected an effort to make the state of california defend proposition 8. the third direct court in sacramento denied a conservative legal group request that the governor and attorney general to appeal the ruling that overturned the state's ban on gay marriage. a district judge struck down prop 8 last month. they have until september 11th to challenge that ruling. both jerry brown and the governor don't plan to appeal. the san carlos city council

will hold a special meeting an hour from now to discuss contracting out the city's police services to the san mateo sheriff's department. it would save the city about $2 million a year, police officers would not lose their jobs, they would transfer to the sheriff's office. the san carlos police building would become a substation and it would be managed by the police chief who would become a sheriff's captain. the alameda fire chief who was photographed filling up his personal car with city gasoline last month today was placed on administrative leave. city leaders are not saying why, and whether the gasoline issue played a role at the time chief david kapler said he was essentially on call 24 hours a day, so the gas was part of his compensation agreement. alameda's mayor and city manager will say only that it's a personnel issue. kapler was the subject of a no confidence vote by firefighters last year. still ahead at 5:00, how

clean is your kitchen? the surprising dish on where you cook. plenty of shoppers like to go the organic route. are they getting what they're paying for? the smart meter controversy heats up with a new report, pointing the finger at one of pg&e's departments. and another explosion on an oil platform in the gulf. we'll have the latest on the situation there. i'm jeff ranieri, hot in the east bay today with plenty of upper 90s and triple digits. warm tonight 11:00 p up we'll talou.moming up we'll talk about cooling for everyone. [ female announcer ] we know jerry brown was mayor of oakland,

but what were the results? fact: brown promised to improve schools. but the drop out rate increased 50%, and the state had to take over the schools. fact: the city controller found employees paid for 22,000 hours... they never worked. fact: brown promised to cut crime. but murders doubled, making oakland the 4th most dangerous city in america. jerry brown. he just can't deliver the results california needs now.

deja vu in the gulf tonight as another oil platform explosion rattled nerves, less than five months after one of the largest oil spills in u.s. history. it took place about 200 miles west of the bp disaster. kirk gregory has the latest. >> reporter: fire broke out at this offshore oil platform at approximately 9:00 this morning. the oil production platform is owned by houston based mariner energy incorporated and is not a drilling facility. it was producing under 59,000 gallons of oil per day. >> we don't know exactly what happened yet. there appears to be a fire at the uppermost level of facility. because the crew was not able to contain it, they evacuated the facility. >> reporter: three firefighting ships were dispatched to the fire. no one was killed and all 13 people aboard the platform were rescued in nearby waters wearing

survival outfits. >> the fire is out, and coast guard helicopters on scene and vessels o snne have no reports of a visible sheen in the water. >> extinguishing the fire and carrying for the rescued workers were the initial priorities. >> this was not a blowout, it doesn't appear to be a spill. and there don't appear to be any injuries. >> the wells on the platform were shut down shortly after the fire broke out. the facility is located in about 340 feet of water, approximately 100 miles south of vermillion bay on the central louisiana coast. kirk gregory, nbc news. >> the coast guard initially reported an oil sheen about a mile long near the site of the explosion, but later crews could not find any evidence of a spill. despite thousands of angry complaints, a five-month audit of pg&e's smart readers show they are accurate.

the report was printed at today's meeting on the public utilities commission. >> to date, out of 6.6 million we found ten meters that different measure accurately and we've removed those. >> smart meters are mostly sold in households in the central valley and bay area. a promising sign on unemployment. new applications for unemployment benefits dropped for the second straight week after rising the previous three. new claims fell by 6,000 last week to finish at 472,000 but even with that drop, economists say the claims are at much higher levels than they should be in a good economy. the labor department says productivity fell in the spring by the largest amount in four years. that indicates companies may have reached the limit for squeezing more work out of fewer employees. on wall street, the jobs report and better than expected

retail sales helped the markets finish up for the day. the dow was head by more than 50 points on the layed day surge. the nasdaq was positive by more than 20 points. we have some developing news on the east coast where hurricane earl is barrelling toward the carolinas tonight. just minutes ago the storm weakened from a category 3 hurricane which means winds of at least 115 miles per hour. to a category 2 storm. nonetheless, the surf is growing as the outer bands begin to close in and people are boarding up and packing up all the way up the east coast. at least a lot of them are. as we know in hurricanes, some people just decide they're going to stay put. >> yeah, it sure is. you know from covering storms in the past two, we're tracking this right now as well. for those of you that live here, in case you have family that way, maybe traveling that way. let's get a look right now of the radar, and fully, as we just

mentioned, now dune it a category two, some of these outer bands interacting with the land right now, having some impacts on the storm system, and helping it to weaken at the current moment, winds at 110 miles per hour in the center of the storm. while it's weakened a strong category two storm that right now is producing winds 50 to 60 miles per hour in these outer banks, and these wind whipped rain bands that are pushing in as well could drop anywhere between 3 to 6 inches of rainfall. and also spawn tornados. the good thing right now, the center of the storm, the compact center, where some of the strongest winds, still looks to stay offshore on its current track as we head throughout the night. the latest update, winds at 110, category 2 storm, computers are taking a minute to catch up. let's look at the track here, wider by 11:00 a.m. tomorrow going parallel to washington, d.c., with impacts felt in washington with some of these outer bands. and then as we head throughout

friday, midday and evening, anywhere from new york city to boston being impacted by the storm, is it still expected to hold up to category one strength as it nears and potentially goes over the cape there in massachusetts. a lot of wide reaching effects there in the east coast. back here at home it's been all about the heat, the past 36 hours. it's not record setting, it's been sweltering out there for a lot of you in the north bay. upper 90s to near 100 in movado. still holding on to triple digits in livermore. a warm day from san francisco down into sunnyvale. a look tonight will show the fog slowly starting to build back at the coastline. that's going to start some cooling tomorrow, only for the coast. it's going to stay pretty hot inland. overall here as we head into the labor day weekend. cooling expected for everyone. here's the fog that's been building offshore today. we'll see some of those effects for tomorrow in the forecast. and then the second thing that's going to cool us down as we head into the labor day weekend is a

cool front situated out here, by sunday that's when we'll really notice it in the air, until then high pressure is still going to keep it warm here across the bay area for friday and also saturday inland with plenty of 80s expected. and then by sunday and monday, we'll be looking at those cooler changes for most of the bay area with even 70s coming back to some our inland spots. up again and then back down again. 6:00 a.m. tomorrow in the east bay, a little more of a comfortable start in the mid-60s. instead of the upper 80s, we'll be talking about low 80s. still warm, but not too bad. low 60s in the east bay to south bay to start the morning off on your friday. let's get a look at our zones from the south bay right into the east bay, we'll look at 90 in gillr rry roy, 91 in evergre. going down about 5 to 7 degrees tomorrow, as we start to see the onshore cooling back. san francisco still expected to hold on to 70s tomorrow, 77 in

oakland, 90 in orinda. 89 in napa. areas in the north bay expecting those low 90s, upper 80s. more any time on the weather channel on cable. the cool front will bring imp t impacts by sunday and monday with inland spots going from the 90s to the upper 70s. it's not bad. we haven't had too much heat this summer, but when we get it, we cool off right away. >> it's almost predictable, the hotter it is -- >> it was stifling hot today. especially if you're running in this kind of weather. >> i was going to say no running outside. >> sorry. >> it's an oven out there . >> be careful. let's talk about organic, watsonville strawberries were the test subjects are the organic proceed deuce. the verdict, it's tastier, and

has a longer shelf life, only half a day. but it was a surprise. they analyzed food over several seasons and found that organic berries had higher counsel concentrations of anti-oxidants. also, dna analysis showed that organic soil had had more kinds of microbes, an indication the ecosystem was more resilient. the tests did not examine pesticide content. still ahead at 5:00, the one bay area city with drivers ranked among the best in the nation. also coming up, dirty dining might be closer to home than you think. why your kitchen might not be as clean as you like it to be. what more and more people say they're doing when it coris. this droid has evolved to do even more.

now it integrates your work e-mail, so you can be hooked up to everything you need to do. now it does 1 ghz speed on a more intuitive keyboard.

turning you into an instrument of efficiency. introducing the new droid 2 by motorola. part of the next generation of does. over the last decade, the number of americans young and

old taking prescription drugs has been on the rise. and many are on at least five different medications. erica edwards has the story. >> reporter: one of these, a couple of those. more and more americans are taking multiple prescription drugs. >> the number of people using five or more medications has increased by 70%. >> reporter: a new report finds prescription drug use has risen for all age groups in the past decade. they're not surprised. >> it confirms what we see every day in practice. >> reporter: many pharmacists will tell you they have seen the increase in prescription drug use every year. >> reporter: accord together report, more than half of all americans have taken a prescription drug in the last month, asthma drugs more common for children. anti-depressants were given to middle aged adults, and 90% of older americans over age 6 o were on a prescription usually

cholesterol drug. what the study did not look at is the use of overthe count er drugs. problems can range from dangerous interactions to overdoses if the same ingredients are found in more than one drug. at a time when many medications are picked up at a drive through window, the best prescription for drug safety is to get out of the car and consult with the experts directly. erica edwards, nbc news. dining at hom could be riskier than going out. most kitchens would flunk the same test a restaurant has to pass. in a small study, l.a. conti health officials found that at least one in seven home kitchens would flunk. compare that to 98% of l.a. county restaurants that regularly get scores of a or b. while the study is believed to be the first widespread assessment of home food safety, it was not comprehensive,

because it was done as an internet quiz, not through in person inspections. we'll be rht back with the best drivers in the bay area. e

a major insurance company has done the math and determined the best drivers in the bay area are in santa rosa. santa rosa ranked number two in california. all state insurance counted the number of accidents its cuts racked up in a ten-year period. heyward, number 26, san jose number 29 ahead of oakland at 37. san francisco number 43. while the average driver has a collision every ten years, santa rosa drivers average 10.2 years

without a crash. >> all right then, the next time i apply for insurance i'm going to write down santa rosa's zip code. >> i don't think it will work. >> coming up next, "nightly news." >> we'll see you at 6:00. [ female announcer ] we know jerry brown was mayor of oakland,

but what were the results? fact: brown promised to improve schools. but the drop out rate increased 50%, and the state had to take over the schools. fact: the city controller found employees paid for 22,000 hours... they never worked. fact: brown promised to cut crime. but murders doubled, making oakland the 4th most dangerous city in america. jerry brown. he just can't deliver the results california needs now.