starts right now. good evening. and thanks for being with us on this tuesday. i'm raj mathai and i'm audrey asistio o. the economic effects of covid are still rippling through storefronts and sky rises in silicon valley and retail space vacancies could be better, but office space is taking a real hit right now. entire buildings remain vacant. nbc bay area's damian trujillo is in downtown san jose with a look at how the problem could turn into an opportunity. well, across the valley, office space is taking a beating. projects halted, landlords trying to lure more tenants, and meanwhile the municipalities are losing that tax base. it's called the 200 park, the j. paul building rising several stories into the downtown skyline, 1,000,000ft■!s of office space. and it's empty. they are marketing that property really hard, not leased yet, but

i know they're talking to some folks across the street. new plans for park city plaza have come to a halt. the old morton steakhouse and scott's seafood moved out to make way for office space that hasn't arrived. they are just kind of waiting for the right time to press go on that as well. a few blocks down, construction of the platform 16 office building has also halted another project of more than 1,000,000ft■!s office space, vacancies in san jose are at a whopping 31. we do have an elevated vacancy vacancy rate of office space throughout silicon valley. and so i think developers are kind of watching that closely. there is also plenty of retail space available in downtown san jose. however, the vacancy rate is much lower at 7. but the challenge has also presented opportunities for some small business owners, like those at punch king fitness. building owners are significantly dropping their rents trying to lure new tenants. other retail spaces

that are out there are cutting big discounts. i mean, they're doing 60 to 70% discounts because they rather take something versus nothing, because what it's doing is affecting the values of the retail of their spaces. the owners of the building were punch king sits are now also offering to drop their tenants rent in order to keep them from moving. punch king says right now it's a win for small businesses, but not so much for developers. when these guys are trying to also either go get funding or refinances of their properties and the banks come out and they see all the empty spaces, they the banks also become uncertain with what's happening with the property. the city of san jose says it feels optimistic about a turnaround soon, with a few new shops moving in, punch, king says they've spent years struggling to keep up with high rents, and now they appreciate the chance to take advantage of the renters market in downtown san jose. damian trujillo, nbc, bay area news. after decades on the run, an east coast fugitive convicted

for a violent rape was arrested today in contra costa county. this is the mugshot of twan kit lee when he was first arrested back in 2005. lee then fled the state while being tried on rape charges. he was found guilty but remained on the run for more than 16 years. they were able to track him down today in diablo. these photos from the u.s. marshals showing the moment he was taken into custody with the help of danville police. the u.s. marshals say they hope his arrest brings closure to the victim's family. well, david depape has now been sentenced for a second time in less than a month. he's the man convicted of attacking the husband of congresswoman nancy pelosi and plotting to kidnap her. depape was not allowed to speak during his initial sentencing hearing, which was on may 17th. that was a violation of federal law, which triggered today's resentencing. in today's hearing, depape apologized for attacking paul pelosi and said he should have left when he found out nancy pelosi was not

there. she was back in dc. this was at their house in san francisco. he also said he wasn't doing well at the time of the attack. today, the judge apologized for her error in the last hearing, but ultimately resentenced apap to 30 years in prison, which was the same as he got initially opening arguments in a separate trial for a state charges begin tomorrow. a former pittsburgh police officer and the city's police department are now facing a lawsuit in connection with the 2022 police shooting. in his suit, the man police shot says that he was suffering a mental health crisis and needed help, but instead he was shot. happened in february of 2022. pittsburgh police were called to a hotel after ashton porter refused to leave his room and a federal lawsuit filed against four pittsburgh police officers, the department and the city. porter claims he was suffering a mental health crisis and told authorities that he was scared. people were out to get him and couldn't come out. after a 20 hour standoff, police shot porter. when they say he moved

toward officers with a knife. but porter's lawyers claim he was shielding himself after being hit by less lethal shots, and say that video shows that he had his hands up and was trying to surrender. my family called for help. i called out for help. i explained to him that i really didn't understand what was going on at the time, and i just wanted time to get some sleep, try to clear my mind in whatever way i could, and i just wanted good officers there that could help me get through it. porter was arrested, but charges were eventually dropped. former police officer ernesto mejia orozco, the officer accused of shooting porter, is also facing federal charges in a separate wire fraud scam. he was also involved in a prior in-custody death case that ended in a settlement. pittsburgh police and the city did not respond to our request for comment today. a worker strike at what started at

uc santa cruz last week is now expanding across the state. today, academic workers at ucla and uc davis walked off the job. it's over the uc system's handling of recent pro-palestinian protests on campus, and what they say are unfair labor practices. nbc bay area's marianne favro reports from uc santa cruz. about 2000 uc santa cruz academic workers walked off the job on may 20th, and you can see that they are still out here protesting unfair labor practices when workers are united, we cannot be divided. instead of teaching students inside the classroom, more than 200 uc santa cruz academic workers are outside walking the picket line, not for higher pay, but to have uc administrators change the way they treat protesting students on all uc campuses. we're out here on strike over the unfair labor practice charges that our union has filed against the uc for

unleashing the police on protesters down at ucla, uc irvine, uc san diego, palestine. this afternoon, some students put up boards to block one of the entrances to uc santa cruz, and now their call for change just got a lot louder as 12,000 more uc academic workers walked off the job at uc davis and here at ucla, we were the first campus here at santa cruz to stand up. last week, and we're very honored to do that in solidarity with, you know, workers around the state. and now i think we are also very happy to see that, you know, the workers at ucla and uc davis who've been raring to go are now also on strike with us. the ucs office of the president calls the strike illegal, saying the contract with the union has a no strike provision when the union disagrees. here at uc santa cruz, the striking workers include teaching assistants, researchers and graders. they say the strike is authorized

through june 30th and could impact students if the uc doesn't come to the table and resolve these unfair labor practices, you know, dropping charges, recognizing their violations, then it's possible that grades will be withheld. we reached out to uc santa cruz, which issued a statement saying our primary goal is to minimize the disruptive impact, especially given the many educational and research challenges that have affected students and researchers in recent years. but the university did not say exactly how it plans to minimize disruptions caused by the walkout. the striking workers say they anticipate even more academic workers from other uc campuses will join their protests starting next week at uc santa cruz, marianne favro, nbc bay area news. well, happening this week, state regulators could shoot down a plan to provide solar power incentives for low income earners. the state utilities

commissioners meet thursday. board members are taking up a decision that would end a program for community solar projects. the program incentivizes lower income customers who can't afford solar power panels by giving them credit to subscribe to use energy from small scale, battery powered facilities instead. last year, the commission significantly reduced incentives for schools, businesses and apartment buildings to install solar panels. the potential decision to cut back even more threatens solar incentive projects. moving forward, we will be tracking closely the results of thursday's meeting. well happening right now a special election in berkeley. four candidates are vying for a city council seat after the sudden resignation of kate harrison in january. that term runs through 2026. the election covers berkeley's fourth district solely. alpert currently serves on the berkeley rent stabilization board. ilana auerbach is community is a community organizer. ruben hernandez story is chief of

staff for fellow council member terry taplin and igor tregub works in climate policy. the polls close at 8:00 tonight, so you still have some time for this berkeley special election? well, it has been called the most dangerous railroad crossing in california. and now a project to make it safer might be be delayed by the state's budget deficit. tonight, peninsula lawmakers are pushing back against that delay, saying that this is a problem that cannot wait. here's nbc bay area's ian cull we saw it in a matter of minutes. drivers getting stuck between two traffic lights in burlingame, waiting in the danger zone on the train tracks. in the past ten years, there have been 22 reports of trains smashing into cars or people here. it's earned the broadway crossing the title as the most dangerous railroad crossing in the state. it is very scary. you have to follow the instructions all the time. it's all very tight together, so you have to be pretty observant of what's

going on and not spaz out and end up on the railroad tracks. caltrain says the long awaited project to fix the problem is ready to go. a grade separation like this would allow the train to pass above while drivers cross safely below. but now the state funds to pay for it and two other projects on the peninsula are on the chopping block. that money was allocated in the state budget last year. it was actually awarded to burlingame two, mountain view, two palo alto, and then was withdrawn in this current budget year. and so we are looking to restore that right now. state senator josh becker is working with local leaders in san mateo county to pressure sacramento to pay for what it promised, and it's really critical that it be funded now because we're leveraging federal funds. if the funding is restored, caltrans says the project is shovel ready and will break ground next year as scheduled. if not, it could trigger the loss of federal dollars that have been secured and delay the project for years.

in burlingame, ian cull. nbc, bay area news. ian, thank you. the school year is almost over, and while most students are excited for summer vacation, some parents are worried about to how feed their kids without the help of school meals. so starting next monday, san jose unified will provide breakfast and lunch for free to students enrolled in a summer learning program. the district will also offer free breakfast and lunch to any student or community member under age 18. but there are some rules, like students must eat the food at the school where they receive it. summer meal program lasts through june 28th. a heads up in san francisco, a three block stretch of northbound 19th avenue will be partially closed throughout the week between sloat and taraval. the two lane closures are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. tomorrow through friday. it's going to be a lot of traffic there. crews will be working on potholes. that's the good news. and repaving. and then next week, caltrans crews

will be striping the road. lane closures might happen next week as well. well, up next, a wave of purse snatching in the middle of the day. what police in berkeley are telling us about the string of robberies and the spots where they're happening, plus a bilingual brain implant. how ucsf scientists are helping a stroke patient speak again in two languages. i'm chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. as we head through tonight, plenty of 60s coming our way starts heating up tomorrow. even some 90s in my forecast. plus we'll have the national outlook and more severe weather coming up in just minutes ahead. for us, the bizarre showdown outside the courthouse where the jury in the trump trial was hearing closing arguments, and the new approach to reducing the rate of peanut allergies. we'll tell you about it when

five days, most of them at gas

stations. here's what we know. one woman was robbed at a shell station right there on university avenue. surveillance video shows a black sedan. you see it pulling up to her car. as she's pumping gas, they quietly open her passenger door, grab her belongings, and then take off. three of the crimes took place at gas stations. another one at an outdoor cafe and one in the parking lot of the berkeley bowl market. in all of these cases, it's a vehicle that's been described as a black sedan with two suspects who are masked. unfortunately we have to be on our p's and q's all the time, and it sucks to have to live like that, but that's just the reality of the situation. yeah, she said it. police are urging people just to be aware of your surroundings, lock your car doors while gassing up. yep. you got to do that and don't leave your belongings on your passenger seat because like these other victims, they break in and take it right there, well , using artificial intelligence

to help stroke survivors communicate, scientists at uc san francisco have developed a bilingual brain implant. it uses ai to help a stroke survivor communicate in spanish and english. he's identified as poncho, lost his ability to speak years ago. he's a native spanish speaker who learned english as an adult. in 2019, poncho received a neural implant. researchers used ai to train the implant to decode words based on the brain activity produced. by 2021, the technology had helped restore poncho's ability to communicate in english, and now scientists have used that research as a foundation to train the implant in both spanish and english, researchers say the tech has the potential to restore more natural communication among bilingual speakers with paralysis. the really smart at ucsf pretty smart for sure. yeah you know incredible. that is that's amazing. oh my god. here's an incredible look at downtown san jose right now on this tuesday evening jeff

ranieri is here to talk about a nice summer like week ahead of us. oh it's just going to get warmer here i know right? a lot of folks on board with that. after so much cool weather in chilly weather that just seemed to linger and linger, let's take it into that microclimate forecast right now, and we'll start off with a look at the highs today and how they compare to records. and you'll see in concord we got up to 81 degrees. not nearly not even close to the record here of 98 santa rosa 84. and the record that still stands is 93 san jose 76. and we would have had to get up to 97 for a record today. and now we are into some hotter 90s coming in the next 7-day forecast. i don't think it's going to be setting records, but certainly so much hotter weather. we have this area high pressure. this is what's pushing that storm track off to the north and allowing this warmer air to move in from the desert southwest and the other thing we're going to see tomorrow is a lot less in the

way of fog. i only see some patchy clouds near the coast and also the bay. so i think that's going to make it probably a little quicker for you to get out the door. you don't even have to contend with poor visibility temperatures here in the low to mid 50s through much of the bay area. that puts us to 53 here in the east bay. and if you're traveling to san francisco, 51 with just some patchy clouds, temperatures tomorrow, warm up another 4 to 8 degrees. so right here across south bay i've got you at 80 in cupertino over to east san jose, 82 and los gatos 83. we'll get a little bit of a breeze here. ten to about 15mph coming out of the north and the west. that brings us to a warmer 77 in oakland, vallejo 81, pleasanton 82. i have you at 62 and half moon bay, san mateo 74. get down to palo alto at 79 and look at san francisco. yes, this is going to be good for you. some low 70s in downtown and the mission and for the north bay 84 here in sonoma. now that area high pressure that i mentioned just a little bit ago, it's going to stay in the forecast kind of on and off on

its overall strength. all the way through this weekend, even into next week. so that's how we get into some of this hotter weather. we'll get up to 90 on thursday, go down a little bit cooler here on saturday and sunday, but still beautiful. some upper 70s up to 93 next wednesday and then lots of upper 80s after that. so with these 90s coming our way, i took a look back in the record, the histories last time we hit 90 and hotter way back on october the 19th. over seven months ago when we got up to 93 degrees. the average high this time of the year right now is 77. so yes, some 90s on the way that's going to feel real good. otherwise, if you're doing traveling, we do have more severe weather from the dakotas down towards colorado springs, maybe more thunderstorms over dallas, even here for parts of the northeast, right here on the 7-day forecast in san francisco, 70s coming in with that sunshine as we move through the next three days. then we drop it to 60s saturday and sunday. and for the inland valleys, we'll go to that 90 thursday and then dip it down to some upper 70s and low

80s this weekend. i don't know about you guys and everybody at home, but i mean, with the weather we had today, i had to remind myself for a second i'm like, wait, this is not the weekend. this is i know this is a work day. i wish it was the weekend. i know it's not. i like where your mind is. i know it's just that like classic california weather, it was like, wow, saturday. and i'm like, no, we can make it the weekend. okay. we take tomorrow off. that's very true. okay got to ask the bosses. they're going no, no, that's not totally not true. i'll be here tomorrow. yeah. thank you jeff okay, well, it's been nearly a year since the deadly implosion of the oceangate submersible. now, a real estate billionaire wants to take the same deep sea excursion to the titanic shipwreck. we'll have the details coming

witnesses today. mayor london breed appointed a director of the office of victim and witness rights. her name is ivy ivy lee. she is a civil rights attorney, was previously mayor breed's public safety and victims rights policy adviser. lee says that the state and feds are cutting programs to help victims, and the city needs to do more. this office will have one purpose, which is to try to make government work better for survivors and the people who serve them. the new office was

created by a ballot measure, which was approved by voters two years ago. a chilling warning from a pro isis group. it's targeting an upcoming cricket tournament next month. the international cricket council will host its world cup. it will take place at eisenhower stadium on long island in new york. authorities are now planning to work with the fbi to ramp up security for this event. today, law enforcement found this graphic this graphic posted by a pro isis group. you saw it. there the graphic showed the venue along with the words you wait for the matches and we wait for you. suffolk county police and all the other security agencies are going to do is they're going to focus on basically controlling everybody coming in and out. this comes as the fbi is also tracking other isis related threats to pride celebrations next month. well, nearly a year ago, the titan submersible imploded, killing five people. and now another billionaire is getting ready to make that same journey. according to the wall street

journal, larry connor, a real estate and tech billionaire from ohio, and patrick leahy, the founder and ceo of triton submarines, are planning to make that same expedition to the titanic wreckage. they say they're going to travel in a $20 million vessel built using cutting edge materials and tech. a date for that trip hasn't yet been set. you'll remember in june of last year, ocean gates titan submersible imploded on descent, killing everyone on board. the tragedy exposed the unregulated deep sea tourism industry. well, up next, microsoft getting hands on with a group of high school students the unique computer science program in a sanose classroom. a slow network is no network for business. that's why more choose comcast business. and now, we're introducing ultimate speed for business —our fastest plans yet. we're up to 12 times faster than verizon, at&t, and t-mobile. and existing customers could even get up to triple the speeds... at no additional cost. it's ultimate speed for ultimate business.

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to learn about computer science. it's called the teals program. it's an education program spearheaded by microsoft. these are students from yerue high school program is currently offered in six different bay area schools. volunteers from different tech companies come into the classrooms. they teach the students and teachers about computer science and if you know about computer science, you can also apply. we got good teachers around here. tonight at seven, vice president harris is heading to the bay area just one day before former president trump will be here. we have those details. also. is there really a drop in crime in san francisco and oakland? our investigative unit is digging into the data, those stories and more coming up on our 7:00 news. but up next on

nightly news drama outside the courtroom, the bizarre showdown outside court involving actor robert de niro as the jury and he trump>> tonight, the jury in donald trump's hush money trial on the verge of getting the case after hearing closing arguments. the former president back in court along with three of his children, as both sides made their final cases. the prosecution accusing mr. trump of trying to illegally influence the 2016 election by covering up a payment to adult film star stormy daniels. the defense attacking star witness michael cohen as, quote, the greatest liar of all time. and the chaos outside the court. actor robert de niro clashing with pro-trump protesters. also tonight, severe storms slamming texas. flash flooding on the highway in dallas. vehicles trapped. a church and homes possibly hit by lightning. hurrfo