district attorney, it's been a whirl wind weekend for the police chief. he was asked to take the job saturday afternoon. he turn to his wife for advice. >> she immediately says, follow your heart? >> replacing kamala harris was gavin newsom0s last decision as mayor. he says gascon epermanented as the top pick after gascon approached him asking him for advice on the new da. >> as i was listening to him, it became clear to me that he was the choice. he didn't know that. he was giving me some good advice. he didn't know how good the advice was. >> reporter: the mayor hopes the appointment of gascon will bring a level of cooperation between the da's office and the police department that hasn't been seen in decades. gascon has a law agreeing from done degree from western state university. >> i believe i have the organizational skills and i have the understanding of the criminal justice system, not only today but where we need to be in the future, and i believe i'm uniquely quad during qualified to bring it together. >> the jeff godown is acting chief. one more note. george gascon is san francisco regs first latino district attorney. live at city hall, lillian kim, abc-7 news. >> alan: surgeons gave their prognosis for congresswoman gabrielle giffords today, and they believe she is going to make it. the arizona democrat was shot point blank in the head yesterday. jared loughner was charmed with attempted assassination of a member of congress, and investigators seized evidence suggesting loughner planned his attack. and members of congress met to discuss security issues. for more on the shooting, here's t.j.winnick. >> reporter: representative gabrielle giffords is in a medically drug induced coma, her prognosis still unclear. many are calling it a miracle she even survived the point blank gush shot to her head. >> if this is off by an inch ', it could have been a very different scenario. >> reporter: of the 14 survivors shot, giffords remains in critical can. six victims lost their lives, including federal judge john roll, giffords' aide, gabe zimmerman, and kristine greene. 9-1-1 tapes released paint a picture of the sheer chaos at the time of the shooting. the suspect, 22-year-old jared loughner, remains in fbi custody as investigators probe possible connections to extremist groups. loughner bought the murder weapon, a glock 19-millimeter handgun at the sportsmen warehouse in tucson. he was only stopped on saturday when three bystanders enter veeped. >> fortunate the spring in the magazine failed, and the two gentlemen war able to get it away from him and subdue him. >> reporter: authorities had been looking for a person of interest who they thought may have helped loughner with the shootings. turns out he was just a cab driver who dropped loughner off but had no idea what was about to happen. >> alan: we still don't know the exact motive for the sheeting in arizona, but the congresswoman had recently addressed threats against her. now lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say the political rhetoric has gotten out of hand. here's more on that part of the story. >> reporter: members of congress from both parties are calling for civility, but while some say the political culture in the country has become way too heated, others say it's to early to blame rhetoric. >> the group of code pink protestors was louder than it was large. the san francisco police were on standby any. if there was more security than normal a day after agun man killed six people in arizona, no one here would say. >> the politicians might find us annoying but they know we're not here to do any harm. >> reporter: the protestors want to show their support for wikileaks. that feinstein wasn't home didn't seem to matter. the say the arizona shooting shows the tone of political discourse in the country needs to change. >> the shootings have been a terrible reminder we have to deal with our political differences in a way that is civil and peaceful. >> just because somebody disagrees with you doesn't mean they're evil. >> reporter: the dean of the goldman school of public policy, says polarizing rhetoric is far too prevalent in washington and around the country, and says the media, with rage-filled cable talk shows are partly to blame. >> we're left with the people who are most different, most divisive, most of emphasizing rhetoric over good sense. >> tone down the political rhetoric. >> reporter: conservative radio host barbara simpson says the far right is not to blame. what rhetoric to some is simply opinion to others. >> i think we're entitled as americans to say this politician is the best or the worst. we're not calling for nip to do anything to them. we don't like their politics. >> reporter: some politicians and political analysts have been talking about possible ties between thegun man and tea party matter but there's no evidence of a political connection. >> alan: patients like giffords, who suffer guckshot wounds to the brain, often face a lifetime of hardship. dr. jeffrey manly heads the neurosurgery department as -- at san francisco. surgeons removed part of giffords' skull to relieve the pressure on her brain. >> is it like any other injury, you have swelling so what they've done is they have essentially removed a large portion of bone here to allow the brain to swell. >> alan: military surgeons have used that same procedure to save he lives of troops injured in combat, and they also performed bun on bob woodruff after he was wounded by a roadside bomb in rake. you can see the rest of this very informative interview on our web site. go to abc7news.com and look under "see it on tv". there's much more still ahead, including an unusual weekend of violence in san jose. police investigate several instant dents, including three people killed in a popular nightclub. details in the san bruno gas pipeline blast. the move that may have made the pipe more vulnerable. >> leigh: i'm leigh glaser. take a look. it was a great day, wasn't it? we actually saw the sunshine. we'll take a look at the accuweather seven-day forecast. >> alan: san jose police believe there may be a link between the shooting deaths of two men at a nightclub and another man found in a nearby area. it was at the mexicali restaurant at 8:30 last night. police hope someone can help them find three or four men seen leaving the nightclub. this morning officers discovered the body of a fourth man shot inside an suv on 12th street a few blocks from the nightclub. >> this has been a very violent weekend for us. we will aggressively investigate these cases. we do believe that this is out of the norm. >> alan: san jose police need your help. also capturing a hit-and-run driver who critically injured a 15-year-old girl at south bascom and camden avenue. witnesses say the girl was in the crosswalk with her boyfriend early saturday morning when she was hit by a gray or silver japanese car. >> alan: two years before the tragic san bruno explosion took eight lives, pg&e briefly raised the pressure on its doomed gas pipeline to its maximum legal. he that's according to the san francisco chronicle, which reported they increased the pressure for two hours in december of 2008. experts call that a, quote, huge gamble and point out another spike in pressure could make the pipeline more vulnerable to failure even if the pressure ills at a lower level. just ahead, snow in the south. southern states get hit with a blast of wintry weather. a look at the problems it's causing. and it's not going to be as wet as we thought it would be here in the bay area. we'll let leigh glaser explain. medicare. it doesn't cover everything. and what it doesn't cover can cost you some money. that's why you should consider an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan... insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. all medicare supplement insurance plans can help pay... some of what medicare doesn't, so you could save... thousands of 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arkansas, georgia, louisiana, and alabama, have declare emergencies and some places are expecting as much as seven inches of snow. we have more from atlanta, where people are getting ready for it. >> north carolina is still digging out from friday's storm, and more snow is on the way. it's great news for skiers. not so great for drivers. >> keep your distance from other cars. judge the hills you're on. and judge your momentum because you basically have no braking power. >> the system is drawing moisture from the gulf of mexico, and is expected to blast of mix and snow and eyes from texas, straight across to the carolinas. plenty of snow is expected across the southeast. this storm will bring up to a half a foot of snow to areas of the deep south. in northeast texas, people are stocking up on groceries. >> a lot of bread, produce, lunch meat, hot dogs. >> reporter: the local hardware stores, heaters and generators are flying off the shelves. >> faucet cover, pipe insulation, batteries, duct tape. >> reporter: in atlanta, the big concern is the roads. the depression of transportation has brought in 50 extra trucks, 100 additional workers, and hundreds of tons of material to thaw the streets when the ice comes. >> there's not a question of running out. it's just getting the material where it it's needed. >> reporter: if you're traveling today or tomorrow, you could be affected. hartfield jackson is the busiest airport in the world with a lot of connecting flight, and the airlines are warning passengers to expect delays. >> alan: back here in paradise, leigh glaser has pretty good news. >> leigh: we had some sun today. we saw the fog lift and move out of here. here's a beautiful shot of a setting sun from the high definition east bay cam. a delightful day. temperatures nose dip a few degrees in most locations. temperatures in the 40s. 47, san francisco, antioch, 44. 43 in livermore, 46 in san jose, and we will go with some clear skies tonight, and definitely going to translate to colder temperatures tonight, maybe even some frost expected in the north and east bay locations. a little fog out there as well, and then we'll bring in a chance of showers heading into tuesday. all i can say, it was nice clearing for a change. we actually had the sunshine, most of the central valley fog scoured out as the cold front moved over is in the last 24 hours. it's going to get cold tonight. with the clear sky, all the heat from the day is going radiate away. so get ready for the possibility of frost. 30 tonight for napa. in the east bay, antioch, 34. probably still see some fog out towards the delta area. 42 for san francisco, and 35 tonight for san jose. so, here's pretty much the setup. yesterday we had the cold front to the north, and it moved on towards the east, and that allowed higher pressure to build. it will be with us one more day, so expect sunshine tomorrow to the west, the, pretty nice looking cold front setting up and this is going to thicken our clouds on monday night, bringing us the return of showers on tuesday. here's a look at the time frame on this next system. you'll notice tonight mainly clear skies. a little valley fog developing here and there. much of tomorrow should be nice and sunny. the clouds thicken up overnight, and by tuesday morning, that's when the showers should start to move in as the secondary system moves in across the bay area. looks like most of the precipitation will stay to the north of the golden gate bridge. in fact, our forecast models aren't quite sure what they want to do with wednesday, thursday, and friday. today they're saying keep most of the moisture to the north. tomorrow, temperatures come up. 55 in san jose and campbell. 51 for pacific camp redwood city, 54 degrees. san francisco, 53 with sun and clouds there. in the north bay, 52 for petaluma, and napa. 51 for vallejo. 54 for oakland. san leandro, 53 degrees. a little fog towards antioch ask brentwood. you'll make it into the low 50s there, with antioch 51. 52 for concord. 56 for santa cruz as well as gilroy. the accuweather seven-day forecast, a lot of rain in the forecast models yesterday on wednesday, thursday, friday. now they want to keep all that to at the north so rain possible in the north bay on those days. the rest of shoes remain dry. definitely look for a few showers developing on tuesday. tomorrow, the forecast may have the jet stream over all of us and we'll have to change it again. >> alan: on to shu. a very proud man because he is 44,. >> mike: i sat on the bench a lot watching these games so i know what to expect. two more teams advancing to round two of the nfl postseason. chiefs could not get over the @ñ@ñ@ñ@ñ@ñ@ñ@ñbt, and the ravens >> mike: probably the best matchup of wild card weekend was in filly -- -- philly hosting te packers. aaron rodgers escaping trouble. the form san jose guard, james jones, 14-0 packers. in the third, eagles rally. vick to avant, cuts the packer lead to four. rodgers to jackson, who we'ves -- weaves through traffic. now in the fourth. same score, reliable david acres yanks one right from 44 yards out. second miss of the game. those six points would be huge because the eagles need a touchdown. williams picks off the throw, and the packers win 21-16. and face the falcons next week in the afc, chiefs hosting the ravens. first quarter, 3-0 baltimore. charles changes that. a quick cut. he is a sprinter and he's gone. six points. with under a minute to go in the half, ravens respond. flacco to rice. baltimore up 10-7 at the half. rave veps defense dominated the second half. this fumble one of five chiefs turnovers. later in the third, after a matt cassel pit, bold inin the back of the end zone. a 30-7 victory for the ravens. on the home front, raider quarterback is officially a free agent. his contract has been voided because he didn't meet certain stipulations in his deal. for instance, he played fewer plays than in 2001. he did not have a pick, sack, or fumble recovery. neither the raiders or the player voided the deal. the language in the contract did. >> the warriors always seem to play up or down to the level of the team they're facing. today in l.a., they went way down in a loss to the clippers. the three-game win streak was on the line. davis, mid-court alley-oop to the beat blake griffin. wright, the only warrior who came to play. 15 of his game-high 20. now in the third, warriors down 13. ellis through the lane. finishes with a flash. 13. later in the third. that's pretty. but an ugly loss to the clippers. 105-91 the final in college hoops, stanford and arizona, a moment of silence for the victims of the shooting in tucson. then arizona up 11 at the half. second half. cardinal rally. stanford within nine, but arizona too much. jones driving, finishing and the foul. stanford suffers it first pac-10 loss, 67-57. >> we hear from the winners in the nfl playoffs at 6:00. >> alan: thank you very much. facebook fights a straining -- strange internet >> alan: coming up at 6:00, governor jerry brown is making a promise about his big announcement,. join us at 6:00. finally, palo alto based facebook is battling what says is a growing rumor that the site is shutting down for good on march 15th. the hoax appears to have been generated on the weekly world news. facebook says it's entirely false but the rumor has been gaining ground and has become one of the top searches on google. some facebook users have stopped started a petition to stop the