holiday season comes to an end, a sign we're seeing more and more. live in mountain view with more, kimberly. >> reporter: the sears here in mountain view was shut down and demolished over the summer to make room for a brand new shopping complex. that's the problem with sears and k-mart according to retail experts, they just cannot compete with some of the newer stores and also the internet. as many as 120 sears and k-mart stores across the country will be closing. >> it's news to me. >> reporter: sears holding corporation made the announcement today citing a weak holiday season. some shopping outside oakland said they hope it isn't this one. >> it's been like a -- even my parents shopped at sears when i was a kid, sears, month comery wards, i just like sears. >> those that work in this area

will really be affected. i can run and pick up things on my way, lunchtime after work. i would really miss it. >> reporter: some retail experts say part of the problem is the economy has really impacted sears' core group of customers and the company hasn't put money into updating the stores. >> when you have this deep of a downturn this long, you certainly have businesses that are going to struggle. >> not everybody is going to be able to survive this. sears is an older store, a different model, they're competing with bigger, larger, newer stores. so i think they're taking a look at their business model and seeing what they can do to improve the situation. >> reporter: sears is just the latest retailer of many that have fallen on hard times. >> we saw montgomery wards go first, then mervins. >> sears, i think there's a plan we don't know. people want to buy stuff still. we're losing a lot to the internet.

it's sad. >> reporter: again, sears has not released the locations of the sears and the k-marts it intends to close. it has also not released any information on the number of jobs this might affect. live in mountain view tonight, kimberly tere, nbc bay area news. the news isn't much better when it comes to housing. experts say the slump will likely last to 2012 and beyond. the standard & poor's index shows prices dropped in the 19 of 20 cityies tracked. and even the low morg rates haven't helped lift and many are delayed because of a year-long investigation into morg lending practices. the bay area has seen a drop between 2010 and 2011, of 4.5%. nationally, prices are much worse, down 32% from the high in

2006. not one but two hit-and-run drivers are on the loose after hitting and killing a 56-year-old homeless man in fremont. it happened monday night just south of highway 84. police say the man was crossing the busy street when he was hit by a mid-size suv. then the second car behind the suv also ran over the man and also kept going. anyone with information is urged to call the police department. any found speeding on vasco road, between 580 and livermore and walmart drive in brentwood will be a double fine zone after several major accidents along the heavily traveled route. drivers we spoke to don't seem to mind the increase as long as it means safer roads. >> i think it would be a good idea to slow the speed on that road. >> double the fines if the

fatalities are going to reduce. otherwise, there' no point. >> the chp is warning drivers about the hefty penalty and posted speed limit signs in the area. emergency rooms across the bay area are gearing for what could be the busiest night of the year, new year's eve. the number of emergency calls in san francisco increased significantly last year and some doctors are expecting an even busier night this time. traci grant is live in san francisco with more. traci. >> reporter: garvin, a lot of people decide whether they're going to be partying on new year's eve and if so, how much, based on whether they have to go to work the next day. with new year's eve falling on a saturday this year, emergency rooms in hospitals like this are expected to be packed. more ambulance, more doctors and more nurses and administrative

staff are expected to work in emergency rooms across the bay area saturday night. the reason? new year's eve. >> the volume goes way up on holiday, particularly a weekend holiday. >> reporter: according to statistics from san francisco's department of emergency management, when new year's eve fell on a friday last year, the city had a 50% increase in emergency calls. dr. tom pike says california pacific medical center, which is responsible for up to 1/2 of all emergency visits in the city, expect even more people will be celebrating this saturday. that inevitably means more accidents and more need for emergency care. >> the biggest problem is alcohol, the second biggest problem is alcohol and the third biggest problem is alcohol related issues. >> reporter: alcohol is the widespread thing that links car accidents to alcohol poisoning. it never fails that several patients end up ringing in the new year in the er after falling

from rooftops after watching the city's annual fireworks. pike says it makes it tough for people who rushed in suffering strokes and heart attacks. >> you have to care for everybody while you have this extra volume related to alcohol that is preventable if people wouldn't overindulge. we would like to stress to people they will impact other people's care. >> reporter: now, several of the bay area's transit agencies are offering free rides on new year's eve, including the santa clara valley transportation authority and caltran. if there are less people behind the wheel on new year's eve, the possibility is there will be less people ending up here. live in san francisco, traci grant, nbc bay ar ea news. >> thanks so much. sarah shourd, one of three hikers freed from an iranian prison is speaking out and she says why she thanked iranian officials after being detained for over a year.

in an article, she said she thanked them so her fiance and shane bauer could be released. she said she was concerned about her comments being misinterpreted but instead received lots of support from iranians around the world and grateful her imprisonment brought international attention to the alleged human rights abuses in iran. fattal and bauer were both released after two years. the california dream act is going to cost five times more than expected giving more fuel to participants tryiopponents t enough signatures to stop it. the legislative analyst office puts the cost of the dream act at $65 million a year, much higher than earlier estimates. opponents have until the first week of january to get 500,000 signatures to get a repeal put on the november ballot. former assembly speaker fabio nunez says it is still necessar

necessary. >> they overcome obstacles, overcome adversity, straight a students, do extremely well in college and then realize some don't even know they're undocumented until they apply for college financial aid. >> the aol estimates about 6,000 students will qualify at four years schools while the benefit at community colleges will come in the form of a fee waiver. overall, $65 million is about 2% of the financial aid budget. we now know the cause of november's water main break at south san francisco that sent more than a million gallons of water shooting into the air flooding an entire neighborhood. it took them two hours to shut down a 60 inch pipeline to stop a rupture in a smaller line and caused in the design flaw of a couponling where two pipes are joined. >> the cupeling needed a restraint to make sure it couldn't move around and that was missing in this particular

design. there wasn't a restraint designed into it and couldn't make sure it would never come apart. >> they had the upc investigate all couplings but some pipes have not been installed yet and will be fitted with a safety device before being installeding undergrou underground. the city also had to remove several mudslides. facebook is raising the red flag to help prevent suicide by putting users in touch with a counselor through a chat feature. starting today, a new tool is available for friends worried about what other friends might be thinking of. >> reporter: rolando says it's not unusual to come across dark thoughts posted by facebook friends on his news feed. >> the comments to other friends that they hate their life, don't want to live anymore. >> reporter: many troubled people have posted their final thoughts on facebook.

tuesday, the company launched a new tool to allow users to connect with a counselor through its instant messaging feature once a friend flags its suicidal comments. >> i don't use the im as much as my daughter does and her friends do. that is great. >> reporter: here's how it works, if you spot an alarming comment, click the next to it, choose report as abuse, select violence or harmful behavior. in the drop-down menu, click on suicidal content. facebook then sends it to its partner, the national suicide prevention lifeline and e-mail to the user with invitation to start a confidential instant chat. >> talking to someone on the phone might be weird. so maybe an im can go through. >> it saves a life, i think it's all worthwhile. >> reporter: it's a softer tech savvy way of reaching out to a friend. >> i'll be unanimous and that way, i wouldn't feel i'm actually being a conflicted person in that person's life or

maybe intervening too much. >> reporter: marla taez, nbc bay area news. >> a new report shows networking sites including linked in accounts for 1 out of every minutes spent online. facebook is the leader with three-quarters of all social networking time on its website. twitter is gaining steam and posted an impressive growth rate of 59% over the past year. still ahead, b"bay area new at 5:00":00, blocking out the pain of giving birth without drugs, the method more and more women are using that is changing the childbirth experience. surviving a plane crash into the ocean and not even a hospital visit afterwards, the amazing story coming up. skies throughout the bay area cleared out. we've been seeing more smog than raindrops around the bay area in

oakland this afternoon. notice the radar dry for now but not too long. we have rain dropping around the coast. could our fortunes change? a look at our forecast, when we come back. un

one city is on the road to a greener future. the california city council approved guidelines of a public network of electrical vehicle charging stations and they recommended keeping the charging stations free, at least at first. city leaders are projecting between 3,000 and 10,000 electric cars will be cruising the streets of palo alto by the year 2020. speaking of green cars, you will see a new hybrid hit bay area streets soon, a vehicle that boasts 83.3 miles per gallon. toyota is unveiling its new aqua

hybrid to car buy eers in tokyo the fuel efficient car is being marketed as the 2013 prius c in the united states and be debuting during the detroit auto show january 14th. the starting price, just under $22,000. you can get around the bay area for free this new year's eve. muni and caltran will beoering free rides. b.a.r.t. will not be free but extend hours to 3:00. you can go to our ebbs to get the complete list of services and times for new year's eve. women who suffer from extreme stress in their second and third month of pregnancy are more likely to have babies born free maturely and it turns out baby boys are the most affected by the stress. a study annualized birth certificates of all babies born between the years of 2004 and 2006 in chili, a massive

earthquake hit there in 2005. researchers found pregnant women in their second and 30 months who experienced the quake were more likely to have a pre-term birth. the numbers of boys born during that time were down nearly 6%. experts say male fetuses are less likely to survive a stressful environment in the womb. >> if you are a pregnant mom, pain is just part of it. you won't hear pain anymore, pressure, instead of contractions, surges. women say they uses the sel self-hypnosis techniques to get through childbirth without any pain medication. >> when you're in a relaxed state, you have hormones called endorphins spilling through your body. >> it was really neat to actually experience the birth and actually feel her entering the world. >> the teacher reassures her

mothers that medication is an option if necessary. three people in florida walked away or in this case swam away from a plane crash with nothing more than minor bumps and bruises. take a look at this video shot by a man from a nearby boat. that's the tail of the plane that crashed in this florida keys. the passengers were able to get out and swim to shore. they were so unphased by the ordeal, they all refused a trip to the hospital. >> they were lucky. waves up to 16 feet high are bat eri battering thailand's coast right now. the waves are the highest in decades. several homes and other structures have been damaged and destroyed and experts say it's du to a monsoon in the area. >> we could use rain here. >> here with the weather forecast, we're approaching

record drives? >> right now, the record going back to 1876 and 1989, two years we did not see any rain for december. this is the driest going back to 1850. 40s and 50s outside. the skies cleared up. look earlier. this is the chamber of commerce piece of video. look at the golden gate bridge. look at that view. high clouds off to the north. no fog. we had dry winds higher up in the atmosphere, mixed it to sea level. looking across the golden gate. you look at that video, you don't see images like that. typically, we should be seeing clouds, not the case. still 57 degrees in san francisco. not that bad. 55 in san jose, we had a chilly start. as the sun broke through, most places saw highs in the mid 50s. still a little bit of sea

breeze. it pushes moisture off the ocean, just like we had this morning, we will see the fog forming as the temperatures cool down. 57 degrees, golden gate bridge, west wind at 3, the traffic moving, very slow drive. once the low clouds broke up, high clouds coming in from the north, that will not produce any rain. underneath this, warmer area loft, high pressure, cooler air below. trapped the snow particles. it's not a spare the air night officially, we're all asked to cut back on wood burning appliances. moderate air level tonight and probably the same tomorrow. if you have as ma thma or respiratory issues, you might feel it. we could start to see changes

headed our way tomorrow. the air is dry. just before 3:00 this afternoon, if you were around berkeley, a 2.2 earthquake no radar. the storm track will eventually start to slide to the south thursday. wednesday doesn't look like we will see anything. thursday to friday, our best opportunity for seeing showers, as high pressure holds its ground through the holiday weekend. dry conditions. you can see most showers will be off to the north bay, at least through thursday and friday morning stay tuned, areas north of san francisco could finally see shower activity as we get through the end of this week. tonight, lows 30s and 40s, tomorrow's highs in range of today although we will see extra high clouds for the north bay, close to 60 in san jose, 50s along the coastline. nice day, 57 in san francisco, where we are right now. east bay, 50s to low 60s and north bay, low numbers, 50s and

60s. the best chance for seeing rain the rest of the year, if you want to call it that, thursday and friday, pretty dry and hopefully things change as we get out through the weekend ahead. >> thanks. >> still ahead at 5:00, the suspected robber gets more than he bargained for. video you video you have to see of a storeowner fighting literally.

queen elizabeth's husband is out of the hospital tonight. 90-year-old prince philip had a heart procedure for a blocked coronary artery after being admitted to the hospital. he will continue his recovery away from the public eye. the prince makes more than 300 public appearance as year. his doctors say after this surgery, he may have to scale back a little to focus on his

health. armed with only a vicious left cross, a store clerk defended his business and is now and internet sensation. derek is the clerk behind the counter at this we buy gold store. when a masked bandit came in and demanded cash, a big fan of martial arts, he didn't call the cops, instead, as you see, he took matters into his own hands. >> i got the money. he had a bag out and started putting it right into the bag. i stick it out here, said, just take it, just take it. when he reached out, i took a step in and i cocked back, preloaded, i hit him hard, i hit him with everything i had. >> after knocking the suspect out, he had called 911 and took his gun. turns out the weapon was only a pellet gun. now, to add insult to injury, he said, as you see in this video, also made the would be robber clean up the blood spilled on the floor. >> i love that story. that's great.

i'm glad he knocked him out. tomorrow, you could be 206 million richer. the mega million excitement next.

mega millions mania is once again sweeping the bay area. >> the jack sppot stands at $20 million. we spoke to one hopeful who said what she would do. >> probably have a big party of some kind. i might even share it with you. >> wow, generous. lucky reporter. if you haven't bought your ticket, you better hurry, the drawing is at 8:00 p.m. i'm usually not a lotto player, i will admit, we're going out to get tickets. >> going out tonight. >> thanks for joining us. "nightly news" is next.