the vice president, kamala harris, heading to the bay area just one day before former president trump will be here. we have the details. also, more university workers walking off the job today. they're upset about the uk's response to those campus protests over the

israel-hamas war. plus, is crime really going down in san francisco and oakland? our investigative unit is digging into the numbers. and will women's basketball succeed in the bay area? today's late announcement from the valkyries about fan support. good evening. this is nbc bay area news tonight. i'm raj mathai. it's going to get hot this week. jeff is going to join us with the summerlike forecast a bit later, but we want to start with some of the headlines we are watching at this hour. follow the money. vice president kamala harris and former president trump are scheduled to be in san francisco next week, both here for big money fundraisers. let's start with the vice president. according to the invite, the fundraiser is wednesday, june 5th, so that's next wednesday at a large venue. not determined yet, at least not announced near manny's cafe in the mission district. the owner, manny, you could tell is listed as one of the hosts of this event. tickets

range from 500 bucks to 25,000 bucks and will benefit the biden victory fund. we reached out to the white house for more information, but have yet to heard hear back. as for president trump, he's scheduled to be here as well. thursday, june 6th. that fundraiser, hosted by investors david sachs and chamath palihapitiya. they're co-hosts of the popular all in podcast. tickets for the trump fundraiser are 50,000 bucks and higher. another headline that we are watching a string of purse snatching in the east bay. berkeley police say there have been at least five incidents in the past five days, most of them at gas stations. so be aware here, take a look. this is new video just into our newsroom showing one of the crimes. you can see a black car right there. drive up on the left side of your screen. someone gets out, grabs the purse, and then gets away with it right as the victim realizes what's going on. this crime happened at the chevron on telegraph and ashby. it happened

on sunday. similar crimes happening at a shell station on university. this is also surveillance video. it's in the parking lot and we have another one at the parking lot of the berkeley bowl west 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. sadly that is the reality. police are urging people just to be aware of their surroundings, lock their car doors while gassing up, and don't leave your belongings on the passenger seat because those guys are out to get it right there. well, school is almost out for so many schools for the summer, but workers are still on strike. hundreds more academic workers walked off the job today. it's over the uc system and its response to protests

over the israel-hamas war. today workers at ucla and uc davis walked off the job. they joined grad students and other academic employees at uc santa cruz. they walked off the job. they walked off. starting may 20th, nbc's marianne favro joins us now from uc santa cruz with the new details. about 2000 academic workers here at uc santa cruz are striking. they began walking off the job on may 20th, and you can see they are still out here. now over here. this is a new development. these boards just went up today blocking the main entrance to the campus. earlier, we saw about 200 people carrying signs and protesting here in front of this university. the ucs office of the president calls the strike illegal, saying that the contract with the union has a no strike provision. but the union disagrees. 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. the students say that the union has agreed to continue this strike through june 30th. and that means after the grading deadline. so they told me it is possible that this strike could impact students getting their grades, but they also tell me that they are very encouraged that both uc davis and ucla academic workers have now joined the strike, and they anticipate even more uc campuses will do the same back to you, maria. thank you. let's move on. now, here's the big question. is crime really going down in san francisco and oakland? sfpd and opd are reporting a drop in crime this year. so our investigative unit dug into the numbers. tonight. we're looking at stolen cars. we saw a spike in car thefts following the pandemic. take a look. in san francisco, car thefts hit an all

time high high in july of last year. you see it july 2023, an all time high. but since then they've been on the decline, down about 50. and back to pre-pandemic levels. what about in oakland? car thefts sharply rising and pico boulevard as well. but since then, declining. that's the good news, but not as low as the pre-pandemic levels. so what are the police departments doing to reduce these car thefts? sfpd is putting more officers on the streets and conducting more operations in hot spots, where those crimes typically happen. in oakland, the chp is helping out crime analysts say staffing is also a huge hurdle, especially with the staffing issues that they're experiencing right now. it's very difficult to implement more foot patrols for the kind of prevent possible prevention aspects of foot patrols could do. joining us now is nbc investigative producer sean myers. sean, nice to have you back on the program. we saw a huge spike in car thefts after

the pandemic. why at that point? that's correct. i think the straight answer there is that there are more opportunities than ever. you think back to how few cars were on the road. you drive down a street, more parked cars than ever. for thieves, that's more opportunity. at the same time, you had more people locked in more time than ever to go out and get into trouble. and we know from the research that these tend to be younger groups that steal cars. you had things like that tiktok challenge, if you remember stealing hyundais and kias, so a multitude of factors here that could have contributed to the rise. sean, you crunched the numbers and we just saw it. they are encouraging. we're seeing a reduction in car thefts. is there more to be done or is sfpd and opd consider this a victory here. certainly more to be done in oakland where we see sure they're down this year, but there's plenty more work to do there to get it down to where it was pre-pandemic. important thing that i learned along the way here. talking to our expert is that, you know, car thefts

are tied to a lot of other thefts themselves. so when we think about crime being up, generally, we can sort of then extend the crime would be up for car thefts. those are the getaway cars that you're going to hop into to get away from that crime. yeah, almost like a gateway crime here, final question for you. analysts expect stolen car numbers to continue to go down. why are they so optimistic? technology could be a solution here, right. this is about deterring criminals. so even something like seeing a car wheel bar may be enough to deter someone. think about all the cameras. now that people have tied up into their cars, they can get this crime on footage and report it right to police. so it's technology works its way into our cars. experts say they expect this trend to come down over the long run. that's a very good point. sean myers with our investigative unit. thank you sean. another issue in this post pandemic era empty storefronts and sluggish downtowns, it's not just san francisco. the bay area's biggest city. also feeling the pinch, the latest

numbers in downtown san jose, about 36% of offices are empty. how bad is it? well, this is the j. paul building, also known as 200 park. all of its 1,000,000ft■!s of office space s empty. a few blocks down the road, construction of the platform 16 office building that's halted another project of more than 1,000,000ft■!s. so wih all that empty office space, there is plenty of retail space available. here's the silver lining vacancy rates for retailers aren't as bad. in fact, small business owners tell us landlords are now desperate enough to offer deep discounts on rents. joining us now is mauricio mejia, another longtime businessman in owner, and sit downtown san jose who runs punch king fitness. mauricio also used to run a lot of popular nightclubs. nice to see you, mauricio. hope things are going well for you. yeah absolutely. how empty is downtown right now? is this the worst you've seen? and you've been around for a little while? yeah. no, it's.

it's unfortunate. yeah, it's been, it's the emptiest that we've seen it, can san jose rebound? i mean, what's it going to take from your perspective here? absolutely. everything is going to, you know, has its lows and its ups, i think we are in a rebound right now. i think that there's a lot of active landlords that are actively looking to get creative, to lure business, small businesses and entrepreneurs back into the heart of silicon valley, downtown san jose. you talk about that landlords. what kind of discounted rent offers are you seeing? are you hearing for businesses downtown? well, first things i think that, business owners need to get proactive. they can't just sit around and wait for these opportunities to happen. they have to make it happen. so you're seeing some landlords willing to do a complete t, which is a tenant improvement just to bring, businesses into their empty spaces, because at the end of the day, empty spaces devalue buildings and, you know, banks, right now are, are making sure that their assets have value. do do club promoters want to get back into downtown san jose? you used to be in that world. i mean, is there a market for it

anymore, you know, the nightlife is a whole different world now, you know, ever since social media took over, everyone is more of a social media influencer, nightlife. it definitely is going to rebound, you're seeing a lot of big festivals, have some big turnouts, just like concerts, smaller venues, a little bit on the struggle. and let's have a niche market. would you consider leaving downtown san jose and going somewhere else in the bay area or beyond? you know, my heart is in san jose, and i'm not planning to go anywhere. i'm definitely working with some big groups, to do some big investments and some big, big, big things here in downtown. so we're hyper focused and we believe in our downtown and we know that things are going to turn around just like everything else has in the past. we love your enthusiasm. final question for you. if you had a conversation with the mayor mehan, what would you say? a message to him. you know, i mean, matt may mayhem is doing a great job right now. i think that he, as long as he continues to, fold up his sleeves and hit the streets and really talk to

the small business owners and understand that, you know, everyone is hurting right now and that there's if, if there's any ways that they can negotiate and work with other landlords, big landlords in the downtown core, specifically, i think that we definitely are going to have a big shift. the narrative has to change, and i think that it's changing now. mauricio mejia from san jose, appreciate your your insight and good luck with future endeavors. thank you. thank you. i appreciate that. so what's the city of san jose actually doing about all this empty office space? is the mayor helping those small businesses downtown tomorrow we will ask him directly. mayor matt mahan will join us on this program in studio. we'll ask him also what the city services, what city services he plans to cut because of the budget deficit that's looming in san jose. up next, cancer concerns involving the uniforms that our firefighters wear, the new push to ban these uniforms and find safer alternatives statewide. also from our bay area, proud series special story here. a woman doesn't stop helping others

despite falling on hard times herself. we'll introduce you to

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for months. a california lawmaker is now pushing to ban a certain type of uniforms that firefighters use statewide. the reason the uniforms may be causing cancer. the new bill is backed by assembly member matt

haney of san francisco. the issue is with the uniform jacket and pants. our investigative unit found that the jacket and pants contain chemicals known as pfas. those chemicals are supposed to help the clothing repel flammable liquids and resist extreme heat. however research has shown that absorbing those compounds through your skin can be dangerous. the proposed legislation would ban the uniforms as long as the safer alternative is available. if passed, it would follow a similar move made two weeks ago by san francisco, when san francisco became the first city in the country to ban pfas in their firefighter uniforms. well, it's known as the most dangerous railroad crossing in california, but now a project to make it safer might be delayed. and you could blame the state budget deficit for that. we're talking right in our own backyard. the broadway crossing in burlingame. in the past ten years, there have been 22 reports of trains smashing into cars or people right there in

burlingame. caltrans said its long awaited project to fix the problem is ready to go, but it would build a bridge to allow the train to pass above while drivers cross safely below. this is similar along the peninsula. lawmakers say the $70 million from the state to help pay for it is on the chopping block. drivers say the issue needs to be fixed asap. it is very scary. you have to follow the instructions all the time. traffic signal. a railroad track and a traffic signal. it's all very tight together, so you have to be pretty observant of what's going on. you have to be observant. it's confusing. and yes, there's a lot of traffic right there at that burlingame crossing. lawmakers are pushing for governor newsom to add this money back into the state budget. if he does, caltrain says the project will break ground next year. if not, it could trigger the loss of federal dollars that have already been secured and delay this project for years. let's

move on now. it's wonderful to be generous when you have a lot of wealth, and it's amazing to be generous when you have almost nothing. we want to share with you a story of sharon alexander. last year, after years of feeding people living under that 980 freeway in oakland every week, sharon found herself homeless as well. but sharon is so passionate about helping others, even though she no longer had a kitchen, she asked friends to use their kitchens to continue making and giving out food. we fast forward now one year and sharon no longer has to borrow someone else's kitchen. i'm not homeless anymore. i'm not homeless anymore, you know. but home is where your heart is, right? so when i was going out there, even when i was unsheltered, it made me feel like i had a i had a home because it was right here. amazing. and that smile can light up a room. let's bring in our garvin thomas who shared

sharon's story with us last year , part of your bay area proud series. so let me follow this. she was doing it helping the homeless, and then all of a sudden she became homeless. do we care to ask there? yeah. no, no, she's she's she's open to sharing the whole story. and thanks for asking because everybody, you know, as you do these stories, everybody's story is different. so she had a longtime partner who basically took care of the bills. yeah. and he passed away. and then she found herself not long after that, she lost the place that they lived in for many years. and it's a story we hear so often, like one bad break or two bad breaks, and people are on the street around here. we're just 1 or 2 breaks away from that stuff. that was that was sharon's story. but she was living in her car. but as i said, she still kept going out there and helping to feed people because that was like that fueled her and that gave her the will to go on. her message is don't give up hope. and so she got out there, she got a job. she's now a outreach worker for a nonprofit, actually working with unsheltered people. then she got a home. she's now has an apartment in pittsburgh with that kitchen you saw. so she can

now make food for the other. we see it right there. her smile lights up a room. you can also you can almost feel her hug through the tv screen. how did she get doing this in the first place? so she just one day said, i'm going to start helping people. yeah. i mean, you know, it was it was a funny story because she said, you know, we all do it. we all drive by homeless encampments almost every day. and then one day, probably about four years ago, sharon just said, i'm going to stop and see if people need something to eat. she went to kentucky fried chicken and just bought some chicken. bought some chicken, but like enough food for 30 people and brought it back. and everybody was so appreciative and so happy that she says, this is, this is me. this is what i got to do. she does it all and it reminded her of her mom. and she does all this in memory of her, her mom, in fact, her mission, sharon's mission is called arthur jean safe place, which is named after her mom. and so that's what she said. her mom would do this kind of stuff. that's what she wants to do. and now that she's back on her feet and she has her own place to live now, she wants a place for her organization as

well. that's that's very. she wants to keep growing. what's she cooking, by the way? oh, is a stew. beef stew, i love it. beef stew and cornbread. and getting back to her mom, she says her mom's recipe when she grew up in oklahoma learned how to make it. so. that is special. i mean, we talked to you said in the beginning, it's wonderful to give if you're generous. it's amazing to give. if you have nothing. it's amazing to give somebody some really good food. i mean, we're happy if people give out anything, but this is a real home cooked stuff. we've been working together for more than ten years now. we've been doing very proud for 12. okay. you find these great stories. if someone's watching right now, they say, wait a second. i know someone in my community. can you remind us how to get hold of you? absolutely they can. they can reach you or me on social media. let us know. and they often do. but the best way to do it is send me an email. you can send it to bay area proud at nbcbayarea.com. there it is, right up there on your screen again, all the social media you can find us bay area proud at nbcbayarea.com and raj. you said we've been doing this for years. you know what i say, if somebody is doing something good for someone else. yeah, that's a bay

area proud story. yeah. let us know. all it has to be. we often get we often get local news. you guys always focus on the negative. actually, you don't know. we don't. so there's a lot of positives. thank you garvin. great.

golden state valkyries are off to an amazing start late today, the team announced it's already hit more than 12,000 season ticket deposits, almost going to

sell out 4500 of those since the team's brand launched just two weeks ago. the valkyries, by the way, will begin playing next year at chase center. and just in case you didn't hear a couple of weeks ago, valkyries mean female warriors. oh, man, i it seems like, you know, from what you've been saying to this team, it's like the tipping point where we're going to start to see it just feels like it just the surge of women's basketball. it's going to be awesome. it's going to be ground zero here. yeah, and at chase center too. man, that whole area is just it's awesome. if you haven't been down there lately, temperatures right now. i wanted you to see here up towards the north bay. we're running 9 to 17 degrees hotter compared to this time yesterday. and that's a sign of some warming that's on the way for us. let me show you more right now on that microclimate forecast. and the reason why we're going to be under this warmer weather is this area of high pressure across the pacific. it gets a little bit stronger for tomorrow, keeping the cold air well to the north. so that allows this warm air to move in

from the desert southwest. so as we start for tomorrow morning, we're not really expecting any kind of fog here. mostly sunny start and temperatures in the 50s. look at the afternoon. highs 4 to 8 degrees hotter. that's going to put us up to 85 in napa, 86 concord, 80 in san jose. and i got you even at 70 here in san francisco. so if you're traveling another update on this severe weather from the dakotas down to colorado springs. also more thunderstorms possible in dallas and maybe a little bit here from pittsburgh over to new york city. on the 7-day forecast, we'll go to 90 on thursday, low 80s this weekend. and then we'll eventually go back up a little bit more as we head through next week. that 90 on thursday. raj we haven't seen weather that warm in over seven months. way back on last last october. that's amazing. we like it. thank you jeff mario lopez just getting started right now with access hollywood mario. well, tonight we've got the stories of two hollywood tragedies that happened 30 years apart. we begin with the sisters of nicole brown simpson breaking their

silence. three decades after the murder of nicole. their goal is to help everyone know what their sister was like as a person. going far beyond the devastating headline of her death. but they also opened up about the horrific abuse nicole suffered at the hands of o.j. long before her murder. then we've got new developments on the murder of general hospital star johnny wactor over the weekend, shot as thieves were attempting to steal the catalytic converter from his car, johnny's family have revealed he was a hero, sacrificing his own life by shielding a coworker from the gunfire. and now his friends and family have even more to share. it's all just moments away on access hollywood. back to you, mario. thank you. that's going to do it for us here at 7:00, for everyone here at

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tonight on "access hollywood" -- >> the pain doesn't go away. it doesn't subside. it doesn't get easier. >> nearly 30 years since her brutal murder, nicolero