Of how long it would be closed. All theyll say right now is its going to be a while. They havent released any details yet on the driver. Their investigation is still under way. Live in richmond, Amy Hollyfield, abc 7 news. Amy, thank you. A check on the morning commute. Its definitely affecting you if you are going to be traveling through richmond. We are getting folks reporting bumper to bumper traffic. It looks like berkeley is also starting to slowdown significantly. Weve got plenty of red as you come out of East Richmond and towards el ser rcerrito. Traffic building up. Give yourself an early start. Right now we know the off ramp Central Avenue to westbound 80 going to be shut down until further notice. As we talk about drive time traffic, 101 slowing down into San Francisco. Across the golden gate, quite a few extra headlights in the southbound direction. Across the bay bridge, its actually going to be about 15 minutes now. Looks like more traffic is heading away from the maze across the san matteo bridge. That is a 15 minute commute. As we take a live look outside, heres a picture of the bay bridge tolls where you can see the cash paying lanes, they are currently loading up. Its going to be a cooler start to the day. As we talk about some weather, well, boy, oh, boy. Its been just going down and down and down. Those sweaters are going to have to get thicker and thicker as we head into thursday. Good news, looks like temperatures are going to start to increase. As we talk about some cloud cover as well, you can see live doppler 7 hd radar satellite bringing in those clouds from this low that is coming out of the pacific northwest. A live look from our exploratorium camera towards the transamerica building. See the cloud cover as it comes over the financial district in San Francisco. Thats going to dissipate later on. We do have a chilly start. Some isolated showers over mt. Hamilton. But snow will whiten the sierra. That is going to be at the 6,000 foot level starting at 9 00 a. M. This morning. More on that to come in swrus a little bit. Kristen and eric, over to you. To the b. A. R. T. Strike threat. The scenario bay area commuters fear could happen as early as midnight tomorrow. Abc 7 News Reporter matt keller is live in the fremontb. A. R. T. Station. A lot of nervous rider. Cooling off period is less than 48 hours away as many people are thinking how are they going to get to work if there is a strike. Last night about 200 Union Members and their supporters marched from Oakland City Hall to the cal trans building where negotiations are taking place. Both sides ended talks last night around 10 00. The unions did not issue a 72 hour strike notice monday night. But thats more of a courtesy for b. A. R. T. Riders than a requirement. Workers could still strike friday as b. A. R. T. Riders prepare for the worst. Does it make you nervous thinking there could be a strike . Oh, yeah. Most definitely. I wouldnt be able to get to work. Reporter what would you do . Probably take the bus. Or see if i can get a ride from a friend. I really dont know. Reporter the question is, can management and the unions reach an agreement before thursdays midnight deadline when the 60 day cooling off period comes to an end. Technically the two sides can negotiate beyond the deadline, but Union Leaders say its unlikely. The b. A. R. T. Board of directors is is scheduled to hold a special closed session meeting tonight to discuss labor negotiations. The unions and b. A. R. T. Management are set to hit the negotiating table again this morning at 9 30. Reporting live in fremont, matt keller, abc 7 news. A lot of nervous b. A. R. T. Riders this morning. The clock is ticking to tend. If theres a strike check out aa abc7news. Com. Find realtime traffic maps and our exclusive waze traffic app. Remember to follow us on twitter abc7newsbayarea. New details on the Government Shutdown. In the last hour we learned president obama plans to meet with House Democrats today. It comes as the president and House Speaker john boehner continue to refuse to make any rat cal changes in their positions. Boehner told reporters yesterday hes not drawing lines in the sand but hours later president obama said he absolutely would negotiate with republicans if Congress First sent him shortterm budget and debt limit measures. Here San Franciscos cliff house restaurant is closed r a second time since the shutdown began. The restaurant above ocean beach. It first closed last week. According to the San Francisco chronicle, the owners reopened it again on monday. The National ParkService Found out and ordered it closed again until the shutdown is over. First Lady Michelle obama has canceled a day of fundraising because of the shutdown. She was supposed to arrive in los angeles on friday and spend the weekend in the bay area. One event planned was a sunday brunch hosted by House Minority leader nancy pelosi. The Democratic Party says its not right to hold fundraisers while thousands of federal workers are furloughed. New this morning, a just released poll Shows Americans are blaming republicans for the Government Shutdown. The new a. P. Poll finds 62 of americans believe republicans hold almost all the responsibility for the shutdown. About half say democrats hold some responsibility. 6 06. Developing news. We could learn today if the body found at San FranciscoGeneral Hospital is that of a patient, a woman who vanished 2 1 2 weeks ago. A reliable source tells abc 7 news the body is that of 57yearold Lynne Spalding, a patient who was last seen september 21st. An employee found the body in an exterior fourth floor stairwell yesterday morning. Investigators are looking at Surveillance Video and talking to staff. Spalding disappeared two days after being admitted for an infection. The hospital says it plans to release an update on the investigation sometime today. Abc 7 News ReporterKatie Marzullo will have the latest in the next half hour. Investors are waiting to see whether tech giant hewlettpackard will announce further belt tightening today. Ceo meg whitman will give wall street an update on the Company Looking increasingly grim. Whitman already said the company wont grow next year. Its in the middle of cutting 29,000 jobs. Analysts believe more may be needed. The one time Silicon Valley leader was removed last month from the Dow Jones Industrial average. Hp haishares have fallen 17 ine last three months losing half the value since 2010. Oakland as return home to play a fifth and deciding game tomorrow evening in their divisional playoff series against the detroit tigers. The as lost game four in detroit yesterday. Now they took an early 30 lead with help from jed lowries homer. The tigers came roaring back to win, 84, and tie the best of five series at two games apiece. Tomorrows game at the coliseum begins at 5 00 and the winner will advance to the lead championship series against the boston red sox. Abc 7 news viewers continue to send us their fan photos. You can see this fan posing with the as mascot stomper. If you want to see rather we want to see your fan photos. They may end up right here on abc 7 news. Email your photos to us. You can also share them with us on facebook or twitter abc7newsbayarea. Lots of as. Check in with leyla gulen. Hopefully things are safer out there this morning. We do have a couple problems. Certainly that sig alert in effect in richmond thats causing quite a bit of slowing. The Central Avenue off ramp from westbound 80 is going to be shutdown until further notice. Just behind it we do have a report of tire treads blocking lanes. That is going to be stop and go certainly through san pablo. That is where youve got that heavy jam. If you do decide to take to the freeways, you want to give yourself some extra time. As far as mass transit goes, you are in the clear. Looks like muni, cal train, everything running on time. B. A. R. T. As well. Of course we do have that impending possible b. A. R. T. Strike on friday. Hopefully you have your contingent plans in place just in case they do strike. Telecommuting, car pooling, should all be an option. As far as options are concerned, which sweater shall we wear today . It is going to be a cooler one. We do have some clouds that are going to be making it into the bay area. Some moisture now being spotted over sacramento. Look at our live doppler 7 hd radar satellite where we do have the cloud cover that will come and visit the bay area. It will start to dissipate, though, in the afternoon hours. The sun will burn it off a bit. A look from our kgo roof camp towards the embarcadero and bay bridge. Looks like things are looking clear as you look towards the east bay. Currently temperatures, though, are going to be on the cooler side. About five to ten degrees cooler than yesterday. 53 degrees in San Francisco. Oakland just one degree warmer than about an hour ago. San carlos, san jose, all going to be in the lower 50s. Los gatos, mid40s. Cool temperatures in the north bay as well, mid to upper 40s are going to be the norm. Day planner for the next 12 hours. For breakfast its going to be 50 degrees inland. 64 degrees around the bay. 52 along the coast. Around lunchtime, though, its going to jump up about 10 to 16 degrees. Then it will start to get breezy as the sunsets and we head into the evening hours. Kristen, eric. 6 10. Ahead, the dietary supplement linked to a cluster of hepatitis. A beef concern leading one country to suspend u. S. Imports of meat. Starbucks reveals a sweet treat part doughnut, part muffin. Did the coffee giant steal the , we got a subaru. Its where she said her first word. little girl no saw her first day of school. little girl bye bye made a best friend forever. The back seat of my subaru is where she grew up. What . announcer the twothousandfourteen subaru forester. girl what . announcer built to be there for your family. Love. Its what makes a subaru, a subaru. Those whove been denied ewelcome to covered california. Now, you can no longer be denied coverage because of a preexisting condition. Enroll today at coveredca. Com. Good wednesday morning. 6 13. A live look on i80 traffic moving through berkeley. Its moderate. But just at the freeway there is a sig alert in richmond, in the Richmond El Cerrito area. Well get leyla gulen in here to talk more about that coming up. The father of the 9yearold minnesota boy who hopped a flight to las vegas without a ticket is speaking out about his sons behavioral issues. The boys dad who did not want to be identified says he thought his son was going to a friends house when he left their north minneapolis home last wednesday. He says he had no idea his son would ride light rail to the airport and somehow get past security and board a plane for las vegas. He admits his son has issues. I dont have the answer. Okay . I have a 9yearold, to me, hes got a behavior problem. I dont know what to do. I love my son. Im not giving up on my son. He just dad says hes reached out to agencies for help and has been told the child has done nothing significant enough to warrant special assistance. The boy will be sent back to mt. Minnesota where an investigation is under way. South korea is suspending u. S. Beef imports after a controversial additive was found in some meats. Its suspending beef imports from a Colorado Company because it was found with an additive used to add muscle weight to cattle. The additive the banned in asia and europe. South korea is asking u. S. Officials to address the issue. So far this year south korea has imported 75,000 tons of u. S. Beef. The salmonella outbreak linked to foster farms chicken is very complex and involves serious strains of the bacteria according to federal health officials. The centers for Disease Control and prevention now says the contamination involves seven strains of salmonella including some resistant to antibiotics. Its sickened 278 people in 18 states, most in california. 42 of the cases required hospitalization. Until inspectors find the exact source of the contamination, the chicken is still being sold in stores. Foster farms says the chicken is safe when you fully cook it. You can find out more information on our website, abc7news. Com. A Health Warning this morning about one of the hottest selling Weight Loss Products on the market. Health officials are urging consumers to stop using oxy elite pro. This dietary supplement has been linked to several cases of liver damage. Health officials are investigating dozens of cases of hepatitis, liver transplants and one death. Mostly in hawaii where the product is sold in stores. Its also sold online. So the warning is goipg out to consumers everywhere. The cdc could not be reached for comment because of the Government Shutdown. New this morning, the clothing retailer that recently fired its founder and long time tv pitch man is now being approached about a possible merger. Joseph a. Bank is offering 2. 3 billion to buy mens warehouse. Joseph a. Bank says mens warehouse is now reviewing this proposal. Mens warehouse is not commenting. Analysts tell the wall street journal a deal between joseph a. Bank and mens warehouse could help the two Companies Cut costs. Mens warehouse fired cofounder and long time spokesman George Zimmer back in june. Mens warehouse has offices in fremont. A food fight is now under way in the uk after allegations that starbucks stole a sweet treat. We told you about this pastry yesterday. Its called a duffin. A doughnut muffin hybrid stuffed with rasp berry jam and melted butter. Starbucks uk just started selling the pastries. Now a small london cafe chain claims its been serving the sweet treats for the past two years. Since starbucks has trademarked a duffin name the cafe is worried it might have to stop selling the pastries. Twitt ete eter duffingate h trending. Looks tasty. What better way to get to work than with a duffin in your hand. Oh, my goodness. That looks delicious. What is not quite as tasty is some parts of the bay area in terms of traffic. We do have plenty of it. Especially in richmond. Its all due to the sig alert, westbound side of 80. The Central Avenue off ramp currently shut down. No word yet as to when that is going to be reopened. But a serious accident involving a fatality there as you approach the hoffman split. Heavy backups. Eastbound traffic moving well out of el cerrito into East Richmond. Toward the maze we have a report of an accident at the toll plaza westbound side. See its just slow and go as you make that push towards treasure island. Lets take a live look outside. This is going to be the bay bridge tolls where we do have the lights turned on. We dont see where the accident is. Could very well have been pushed over to the shoulder out of our view. See traffic now really stacking up away from the maze. Its going to be slow and go as you head into San Francisco. Now as we talk about some slow and go, looks like the area of low pressure was slow to come into the bay area and now is picking up some pace as it makes its way into the eastern portion of the state. Its leaving us with some clouds in some of the areas. Radar satellite returns from our live doppler 7 hd also showing some moisture in sacramento. As we take a look from our explo exploe exploratorium camera, the transamerica building, cloud cover. It is going to burn off in the afternoon hours once the sun comes out. It should be all sunny skies. Heres a look at what this low is doing. Its coming in over the pacific northwest. This dry mass of air thats coming in is going to start making its way into the eastern portion of the state where its bringing snow to the sierra. Youre going to see about one to four inches of snow, in fact, at elevations above 6,000 feet. Wind gusts up to 20 miles per hour. Thats also going to leave us with some slippery roads. Especially if youre going to be traveling along highway 50, be very careful out there. But it starts at 9 00 a. M. This morning. That Winter Weather advisory. Until 8 00 p. M. This evening. For most of the bay area, though, its going to be on the cooler side. Albeit partly cloudy, mostly sunny skies. We do have 70 degrees in palo alto for our high today. Along the coast in the upper 60s. In santa cruz to the lower 60s at halfmoon bay. Our highest temperature 74 in antioch. Lows for tonight a brisk, chilly evening with some gusts expected as well. 54 degrees in oakland. Also a little bit of cloud cover there at santa cruz. Morgan hill, 49 degrees. 55 degrees in San Francisco. Heres a look at my accuweather sevenday forecast. That rain we were expecting tonight is going to be visiting mt. Hamilton, just a slight chance of drizzle there. It clears up by thursday. Another trough of low pressure coming in on friday bringing temperatures down ever so slightly, only to ramp back up for the weekend. Eric, kristen . Thank you so much, leyla. 6 21. Happening today, president obama is getting ready to reveal his nomination to head the Federal Reserve and its someone familiar with the bay area. Coming up at 6 30, Janet Yellens resume and the rea