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The Associated Press SANFRANCISCO It's shap- ing up as the biggest snow- storm to hit the central Si- erra in two years. The Sacramento Bee re- ports Thursday that the National Weather Ser- vice expects 2 to 3 feet of snow will fall on the highest peaks overlooking Lake Tahoe. At lake level, near Tahoe City, forecast- ers predict 8 to 16 inches of snow. California still needs a lot of snow and rain. After four years of drought, its reservoirs are dry: Folsom Lake last week hit its lowest point since record-keeping began 40 years ago. Still, the Sierra snowpack on Wednesday was at its highest point for this time of the year since 2012. It re- mains well below historical averages. "We've had storms about every seven to 10 days, but the duration of these events has been shorter," said state climatologist Michael An- derson, adding that it's not yet clear why that has oc- curred, or if it will continue. Thursday's storm looks to be a cold one with tem- peratures in Tahoe City fall- ing into the teens. Michelle Mead, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Sacramento, said the storm is expected to bring a lot of snow to the Coastal Range and Sierra, but not neces- sarily a lot of rain to the Central Valley. In the Sacramento Val- ley, forecasters are pre- dicting a quarter-inch to a half-inch of rain, with somewhat heavier rainfall farther north. With several major storms coming through the Yosemite area later this week, Yosemite National Park is closing Tioga Road for the season. The road re- opens when weather condi- tions permit in the spring. Rain is also pounding the San Francisco Bay Area, prompting driving warn- ings from the California Highway Patrol and flood advisories along the high- way. The National Weather service expected wind gusts to reach up to 45 miles an hour. Meteorologists said that Thursday evening could also bring thunder- storms and hail. A high surf warning was also in effect until 4 p.m. Friday. In Southern Califor- nia, commuters are being warned of potentially dan- gerous driving conditions on freeways after heavy fog descended on the region. The National Weather Service says a shallow but strong marine inversion has led to a dense fog ad- visory for Los Angeles and Orange counties Thursday morning. The poor visibility led to a six-hour ground stop- page at Los Angeles Inter- national Airport begin- ning Wednesday evening. Airport officials say dozens of arriving and departing flights were delayed or can- celed before the stoppage was lifted around 1 a.m. Some flights headed for LAX and Orange County's John Wayne Airport were diverted to Ontario Inter- national Airport in San Ber- nardino County. WEATHER St or m th at p ac ks s er io us s no w pr ed ic te d fo r Ta ho e pe ak s NORTHSTARCALIFORNIARESORT Skiers make their way down a run at the Northstar California Resort on Thursday in Truckee. By Paul Elias The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO San Fran- cisco is one of only two of the nation's largest cit- ies in the country that do not equip officers with stun guns, a situation the city's police chief wants to change after police fatally shot a knife-wielding stab- bing suspect last week. Police Chief Greg Suhr publicly renewed a call Wednesday night to add the weapon to his depart- ment's arsenal, exactly one week after five officers shot and killed 26-year-old Ma- rio Woods in the city's Bay- view neighborhood. The shooting was captured on video and circulated widely online, fueling community protests and calls for the chief's resignation. The police chief said the fatal shooting could have been avoided if the re- sponding officers had been equipped with Taser stun guns, which deliver 50,000 electrical volts and are de- signed to temporarily inca- pacitate suspects without killing them. Critics say the weapon sometimes kills suspects in poor health and officers can mistake it for a gun, with fatal consequences. Civil rights groups and commu- nity activists say that, in- stead of more equipment, police need additional training in crisis interven- tion and how to defuse con- frontations between police and armed suspects who sometimes are mentally disturbed or under the in- fluence of drugs or alcohol. Suhr and three of his pre- decessors previously failed to win the police commis- sion authorization for stun guns even as the vast ma- jority of the nation's law enforcement agencies have been outfitting officers with the weapon, which is shaped like a handgun and often is holstered on the officer's gun belt. Previ- ous police commissions re- jected use of the Taser, say- ing they were concerned the weapon could kill and maim suspects, especially those with heart conditions. Some law enforcement experts say Tasers cannot prevent all use of deadly force by police but are use- ful in some circumstances. "It's a good tool," said Jay Wachtel, a criminologist at California State University, Fullerton. "The problem is that they don't practice enough with them." Wachtel said stun guns are designed for the situa- tion— a man with a knife surrounded in close quar- ters by police officer — that led to the fatal shooting of Woods. In the Dec. 2 shooting, Suhr said the Taser proba- bly would have been an ef- fective tool in disarming Woods without gun fire. Police encountered Woods less than an hour later on a street carrying a knife. Police said Woods ig- nored demands to drop the knife he was carrying, even after he was pepper sprayed and shot with bean bags full of lead pellets. Suhr said police with guns drawn opened fire when it appeared Woods was raising the knife and approaching one of the of- ficers. The five officers who fired their guns have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of three investigations into the shooting, which was captured by video by at least two witnesses. The shooting of Woods, who is black, has led to a series of protests and meet- ings calling in Suhr to re- sign. The chief hasn't di- rectly address the calls for his resignation. Suhr appeared at a po- lice commission meeting Wednesday and publicly renewed his call for po- lice officers to be equipped with Tasers and said that a group is reviewing the department's use-of-force policies and should have a draft ready by January. The seven member board, which is appointed by the mayor and the city's board of su- pervisors, disciplines offi- cers and sets policy. Commissioner Petra DeJesus said stun guns often "open up a lot more problems than they solve," when officers misuse the weapon. DeJesus called for a review and revision of the police department's use-of- force policies and proce- dures. Hundreds of people out- side the City Hall meet- ing demanded Suhr's res- ignation and lit candles in Woods' memory. Woods' cousin, Jeff Stew- art, echoed the protesters' calls for Suhr to resign and said the family also wants the five officers who fired their guns to be charged. "He was a person. He deserves to be breathing," Stewart shouted during the hours-long, emotional meeting that was at times interrupted by chants of "Fire Chief Suhr! Fire Chief Suhr!" The family is asking that the police department pay for Woods' funeral and that federal authorities investi- gate the case, Stewart said. LAW ENFORCEMENT SF police chief urges stun gun use a er shooting MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Demonstrators yell at police officers blocking the entrance to a crowded police commission hearing at city hall on Wednesday in San Francisco. By Elliot Spagat The Associated Press SAN DIEGO Nearly half of the people living in the U.S. illegallyarebelievedtohave entered the country legally and stayed on expired vi- sas.Tocombattheproblem, the federal government on Thursday is launching one ofitsmostambitiousefforts to track them. U.S. Customs and Bor- der Protection will begin capturing facial and eye scans of foreigners enter- ing the country at San Di- ego's Otay Mesa port of en- try on foot. By February, foreigners going to Mexico on foot through the check- point will get scanned. The trial run, which lasts through the end of June, will help determine if authorities expand bio- metric screening to for- eigners at all land cross- ings on the 1,954-mile border with Mexico. Au- thorities will look at the accuracy of the cameras. For more than two de- cades, Congress has de- manded biometric screen- ing such as fingerprints, facial images or eye scans from people leaving the country, but the task has presented enormous fi- nancial and logistical chal- lenges.Thereisnocheckout system at land crossings. Marc Rosenblum, dep- uty director of U.S. immi- gration policy at the Mi- gration Policy Institute, said the attempt to capture biometrics from people leaving the country would fix "the biggest deficiency in the whole system." "It's a huge deal," Rosen- blum said. "What they likely hope is this could be a fast exit check that won't be terribly expen- sive or time-consuming to implement." Biometric screening has raised objections from pri- vacy advocates who worry that authorities may mis- use the information or make it vulnerable to iden- tity theft. It also has raised concerns among busi- nesses and travelers who fear bottlenecks at already congested land crossings. "We have historically controlled our borders coming in but not out," said Jim Williams, a for- mer Department of Home- land Security official who oversaw efforts to intro- duce biometric screening at border crossings from 2003 to 2006. "It's been a lack of infrastructure and lack of investment." A 2006 study by the Pew Hispanic Center estimated that between 40 percent and 50 percent of people in the country illegally overstayed their visas — a figure that is widely ac- cepted by immigration ex- perts but notoriously diffi- cult to pin down. Otay Mesa was the na- tion's fourth-busiest bor- der crossing last year, with 14.8 million motorists and pedestrians entering the country there from Ti- juana, Mexico. 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