mourning the death of four students in the past week. good thursday morning to you. we are tracking some showers right now. we have thunderstorms on the way. we're going to give you all the details for your microclimate in just moments. and a car fire in the north bay, car crash in the tri-valley. we'll follow your commute. live look outside this thursday morning. may 14th, this is "today in the bay." >> this is "today in the bay." >> a very good morning to you. thanks for joining us. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> i'm sam brock. we have breaking news. at least one american is among the victim os of a taliban attack in high end hotel in afghanistan keys capital city overnight. 14 people are confirmed dead including 9 foreigners. after gunmen opened fire at the restaurant of the park plaza hotel in kabul. that hotel was hosting a party for foreigners at the time. 54 other hostages were rescued in the hours long siege.

5:00. back here at home, get ready for the rain. that's a look at our realtime doppler radar on the left. you can see that rain is offshore right now. looks dry in san jose on the right. a little dark. don't be deceived. clouds are out there. that rain is coming. keeping track of it all, meteorologist christina loren. at weather system you're tracking. >> it is a little bit odd. just in terms of the actual track and the late part of this season that we're getting it in. let me tell you what to expect for today. that spring storm is moving in as we speak. grab your umbrella. make sure the little ones are prepared for this as well as they head off to school for the final weeks before getting out for summertime. that's why this is so unusual because this storm system is coming in just week away frsumm. we're expecting snowfall out of it as well. but for right now mostly dry across the bay area. what you will notice is we're starting to get more activity over our local mountain, the

western-facing slope surrounding san jose. bulk of the moisture is still offshore but getting closer and closer as the minutes draw on this morning to the peninsula. also to the north bay coast and we'll get some of that inland activity as we head throughout the next couple hours. just make sure you're prepared for that. we will keep you update to. right now, back to you, laura and sam. coming up in eight minutes we are going to check in with mike inouye. he's been monitoring the roads ahead of the morning commute. let's wide the scope right now to the very latest developments nationally and locally it turns out on the deadly philadelphia train crash. the amtrak engineer at the controls used to work here in the bay area with caltrain. >> "today in the bay" stephanie chuang live in san francisco with more. good morning. >> reporter: laura and sam, a caltrain has confirmed the engineer, 32-year-old brandon bostian, did work as a contract employee back in 2010 and 2011. first as a conductor and then an engineer. technically worked for amtrak. now, bostian has yet to formally

speak to investigators but he has hired a lawyer. cording to his linkedin profile he was an amtrak engineer for 4 1/2 years and conductor for 4 years before that. there are questions this morning on why bostian was going so fast. data from the critical black box suggested the train heading from washington to new york was traveling twice the posted speed limit when it went off the track. 106-mile-per-hour miles an hour. >> shortly after he entered the curve he placed the train into basically put the emergency brakes on the train. >> slams on the brakes. >> slam on the brakes. >> so it was too late? >> the train derailed at that point so i would say it was too late. >> reporter: so far bostian is refusing to talk to investigators who say he will be given a few days to recover before they question him. the crash killed 7 people and injured more than 200 others. there are still people missing. the hopes are those people never made it onboard in the first

place. live in san francisco, stephanie chuang, "today in the bay." the deadly derailment appears to be another crash that didn't have to happen. >> kris sanchez is here with the safety technology that could prevent human error and why the money might not be there to make it happen. >> amtrak has until the end of this year to install what is called positive train control, a system to avoid human error. it's not cheap. just hours after that disaster in philadelphia congress voted to cut amtrak's budget by half. looking live at the disaster scene in philadelphia from the air you can see the work continuing to repair that rail line this morning. president obama's budget earmarked more than $2 billion to improve amtrak's aging infrom structure and also provide fund that would have helped amtrak meet that requirement to install that positive train control, that ptc, by the end of this year. let's talk about that because you're going to be hearing about that. positive train control uses gps, wireless radio, and computers to track where trains are on the track. it could automatically brake if

excessive speed or a possible collision was detected. and according to the national transportation safety board, positive train control could have prevented 40% of train crashes that happened because of human error. the ntsb says that's 29 passenger and freight crashes that could have been avoided since 2004. >> this is exactly the type of incident that ptc is designed to prevent. so we have seen this before, and we will continue to see it again until ptc is installed. >> the budget argument on capitol hill falls along party lines. democratic leaders saying it's time to invest in safety and infrastructure and republicans saying that money isn't really always the solution. the chairman of the transportation committee will visit the amtrak crash site in philadelphia this morning. by the way, we checked with our local folks here and caltrain says their positive train

control, that ptc that we're going to keep hearing act, their system is nearly complete. sam and laura? >> thank you, kris. think all those families affected knowing the technology could have been put into place. very difficult pill to swallow there. we are updating this story across all of our dim tall platforms. go to nbcbayarea.com or download the free app. a lot of heartache in the south bay as well with graduation around the corner. south bay high school students with dealing with a tragedy. three students killed in a late night car crash in gilroy. >> "today in the bay's" bob redell is live where two students have died in just less than a span of a week. >> reporter: sam and laura, students here at christopher high and gilroy are getting ready for another vigil. the second one this week. earlier this week they had a memorial for natalia salcido. a classmate killed in a clar crash on saturday. within the past 36 hours they lost another classmate,

18-year-old sara jean williams, a senior about to graduate. she died tuesday night in a crash in gilroy that also killed yescnia mendoza-pena. both students at nearby mt. what doen that high. >> tragic is an understatement for us. we've lost four students in five days. in our history, that's never happened. >> reporter: tuesday night's crash also killed a fourth person, joseph daniel. he was 24 years old. the 23-year-old driver anthony, he survived with major injuries but is expected to live. chp has arrested him for driving under the influence. the school district will be talking to students in the coming weeks about the importance or not drinking and driving, about designating a driver or calling a cab. recording live in gilroy, bob

redell, "today in the bay." >> thank you very much. it is 5:07. more than 48 hours and counting crews are back searching by air and by ground for military he'll continue their vanish nepal. the chopper disappeared tuesday during aid mission to deliver food and water to the victim os this week's earthquake. the chopper pilot lost contact after radioing in that the helicopter was having fuel problems. eight people were onboard chlktsz many survivors of nepal's second major earthquake are trapped right now in their villages. that's because the shaking led to roadblocking landslides. some areas are hard to reach are very remote even by helicopter. people in larger cities are camping out on the streets right now. many afraid the buildings still standing could collapse if another aftershock were to hit. at least 96 people have died in this week's quake. more than 8,000 died in last month's quake. obviously resources continuing to pour in and just such a sad situation there. >> prayers will help.

it is 5:08. check in with meteorologist christina loren. a look at the forecast. the rain is coming? >> it certainly is. we have been praying for this. it's a good story to tell for this morning. hopefully you are as excited about the weekend a we are here at nbc bay area and the good news is a lot of this is going to clear out just in time for you're out door plans and a lot of graduations happening this weekend. spring storm moving in as we speak. let me show you the radar, what you can expect as we head throughout the next couple of ors. what you will notice here. we stock the clock. this is the realtime doppler radar. showers are getting closer to the area. and this storm does have an interesting track associated with it. so it looks like it's going to come up from the south. we head throughout the morning hours. we stop that clock for you at 7:00 a.m., shower activity working its way up and down the coastline. we take you deeper into the morning. stop that clock again for you at 10:00 a.m. and look at this, getting some brief heavy downpours in san jose, river more, concord, and up and down the peninsula. as we progress further into the

day, stop that again for you at 1:00 p.m. rich moisture passing over the east bay hills. a place where we really need it to go, hopefully, that will keep things nice and moist and postpone what could be a very dangerous time in terms of our fire season, which is now year round because of the drought. we have a year-round fire season. otherwise, temperatures for today are looking good. we're going to be at 64 degrees on the peninsula. 61 degrees for the east bay today. and 65 degrees in the north bay. overall, you you will need your jacket. you'll need your umbrella. we're going to talk about thunderstorms coming up in my next report. that's something that perks up people's ears. but right now not too bad when it comes to the morning drive. good morning. >> good morning. looking over here, yes, to a dry bay bridge toll plaza. lanes all clear as folks move over toward that toll plaza and the metering lights off right now. typical pattern. let's look at your map and approach to the bay bridge in the entire east bay. take us a wide look. there is one problem for the north bay. we just got word they shut down the westbound direction of

highway 37. this is at the highway because of a car fire. i told you it was on the side of the road. now reports the car is fully engulfed in flames. the crews are there and there's nothing in that car. they do have to take care of this. we'll track it. this is a big reroute. stick it out for a few minutes and we'll give you an update. that is the only way thousand that particular section. as we look over toward the tri-valley, no big issue. over here, grant line road. earlier crash should have cleared. a little slowing there. rest of the bay, no problem. foster city with your drive. all lanes open eastbound. back to you. you know what, do you remember the good old days for your degree check on the job, experience, check, think that all it takes to get a job these days? think again. the one thing more than half of employers look for when they want to hire someone new. scott mcgrew, the head of a major airline could have used that advice. >> because he's looking for a job, sam. why? we'll tell you coming up after the break.

a very good morning to you. it's 5:14 right now. this is a live look at the golden gate bridge. not a lot of traffic to talk about but we are keeping our eye on the radar this morning. some rain headed our way. it will affect your morning commute. it is 5:14. tweet this, the easiest way to boost your job chances is by

jumping into social media. not having a professional online presence can hurt your shot for a new job. that's according to career builders annual social media recruitment survey. it found more than half employers are using social networking sites like linkedin. in 2013 it was below 20%. one-third of employers say they're less likely to interview candidates that they just can't find on line. so have a presence but a good one. be mindful. >> careful of your reputation. >> yeah, leave what happens in vegas in vegas. >> unless it's pg. okay. a list of airlines you were reporting on wednesday talking about reputations. least on time, most complaints. >> and frontier airlines topped many of them. >> yeah. it's not a list you want to be on. frontier, took one look at that list and looked at the cea and didn't say anything but the ceo said he's leaving for personal reasons, which is a huge coincidence. david siegel is brought in to help turn frontier from a low

cost carrier to what the industry calls an ultra low cost carrier and he succeeded at that part. but he also managed to make it the most complained about airline in the nation, worse even than us airways which actually is where siegel came from. virgin america meanwhile last month was rated the best airline in america for the third year in a row by airline quality report. virgin is not rated on every list because it's so small it doesn't always qualify in every category. its pilots this week became -- began the process to vote on membership with the airline pilots association. right now the flight attendants are unionized but the pilots are not. let's check your news before the bell. landon dowdy is live at cnbc world headquarters. good morning. >> hey, scoot, good morning. the markets are look to brace their mini losing streak today as the dow fell on thursday. the longest stretch since late march. investors reacting to

disappointing economic data, held back spending on many things last month. unemployment and producer price inflation. the dow slipping 17 points to 18060. the nasdaq riding 5 to 4981. scott? >> landon, thank you. landon mentioned consumers holding back. she was just being polite. the latest retail sales numbers are terrible. the hope, the expectation was that we would recover from a few months of bad sales and those bad sales were created by the port shut down and the winter weather most of the u.s. experienced. except the port shutdown is over. it's spring and the numbers are not getting much better. this is one of those factors driving down our previously strong dollar or pushing up foreign currencies. euro now worth $1.14. it was close to $1 a couple weeks ago. the ruble is on a rocket ship. the gist of it here is now it's 15% more expensive than it was just last month and it's getting

more expensive. >> still a heck of a lot cheaper than a year or two ago. open your windows. >> now you're on the uptick here. >> all right. better go while you can then. >> get it in there, that exotic trip to paris. right now, 5:18 if fire is out but the investigation is far from over. officials want to know how this fire in sacramento started yesterday. firefighters had to take precious drinking water from a nearby reservoir to stop the fire as it was creeping towards homes. that strategy worked. crews put the fire out before any homes were actually damaged. >> they had to do what they had to do. it is so tough as we're in the drought. rain headed our way though finally. it's off right now? >> yes. it is. 5:18,000. we need these late spring storms. obviously every single drop in the bucket will help. good morning to you, my friends. we just did a story about social media. i love engaging with you on social media, especially when it comes to rain coming in. if you have questioning, if you you have pictures we like to

share that with the entire bay area. feel free to follow us on twitter and facebook and we'll keep the conversation going. even after the show ends. 585 degrees right now. good morning to you on the peninsula. we're going to be in the low 60s for today. so maybe a 10-degree temperature spread at best for today. 63 is the high for the south bay. you will be at 60 degrees in san francisco. 65 in the north bay. so here's the deal. here's our storm system. as you can see, every time we get back together here, every ten minutes or so, maybe sometimes 15 minutes between our breaks, it does look like the storm system is getting closer and closer. we're timing this thing out. we have our models in full affect this morning. this is what you can expect as you head out that front door. we stop that clock for you at 7:00 a.m. showers work in our way. marin county and san francisco, getting activity at that point along the western-facing slope surrounding san jose. we bring you into the 11:00 hour as we bring you the midday

broadcast. at that point things will be active across the bay area. do keep that in mind. keep your umbrella handy for today and that will continue in the afternoon hours. embed within this green, yellow and red. expecting some thunderstorms to develop. and that will provide some richer moisture. so here's the deal when it comes to those thunderstorms. the best bet is going to be over the higher elevations, especially up in tahoe. we could measure a foot of snowfall. when it comes to us, watch out for that. high elevations in the north bay, the east bay, and right here in the south bay as well. that's going to continual the way through your friday morning. then as we get into your weekend and you are so close to that weekend now. temperatures look good to be in the mid 60s. just about everywhere for your saturday. meanwhile, we will be in the 60s and 70s for your sunday. looks like a dryer pattern. that's going to be the best day for you're out door plans. so overall, rain, heavy stuff at least for now. still holding off.

let's see how your drive is shaping up. here's mike inouye. >> good morning. for a time being things are calm but as that rain comes in christina is talking about we'll watch the affects on your drive. west 580, no problem. the crash at grant line is in the center divide. no injuries but that's a distraction. a little more slowing there. livermore and tri-valley, rest of the tri-valley looking good right now. easy build. same thing for antioch. a little slowing building. typical pattern approaching the bay bridge, no problems. or at the toll plaza itself. the north bay, highway 101 is fine but at westbound 37 better news. that car fire at lakeville only one lane blocked now. you still get by. it is still light. we'll track that as fire crews are on scene. meanwhile, out to the san mateo bridge. south of there looks clear. westbound across 912 is moving smoothly to the peninsula without any delays for 101 in either direction. 101 itself, speak of the devil, no problems northbound just shows a tiny build. typical about this time right around 101 and 680. back to you. >> mike, thank you very much.

at 5:21, the time is ticking on new england patriots star quarterback tom brady. he needs to act quickly to appeal deflategate suspension. brady has a deadline of 2:00 pacific time to file that appeal. the nfl on monday suspended him for the first four games of next season. an investigator found that brady probably knew team assistants cheated by deflating game balls in the afc championship game. fresh off of their dominant game five victory the golden state warriors are going to board a plane to memphis this morning in graceland. likely not in the plans for this trip. the sellout crowd at oracle was roaring last night as the warriors crushed the grizz. 3-2 lead in the playoff series. pivotal game five last night. you know what, steph curry only hit six of them but those are 18 points the warriors needed. >> you feel the energy of the crowd and it was getting some clean looks. so you make a couple, keep being

aggressive. >> the warriors can win that series with a victory in memphis tomorrow night. if they lose, they do have home court advantage, so series would be headed back to oracle for game seven on sunday. but the numbers right now are on the dub's side. teams that win game five go on to win the series 80% of the time. laura, the data doesn't lie. >> that's right. that's proof in the data. big ball and it was all caught on camera. it happened in the middle of san francisco at justin herman plaza. skateboarders against vendors but it didn't start out that way.

welcome back. 5:25. swedish tourist is recovering this morning after helicopter kroos plucked her off a coastal cliff where she spent the night clinging to a rock.

coast guard crews were called just south of the organ border. they found her 150 feet up a vertical cliff. there she is reaching out for help smep told rescuer she's had spent 14 hours holding on to that one rock waiting to be rescued. how the woman reached that height or why she did it remain as mystery. >> wow, lucky. 5:26. san francisco police want to hear from you if you know any people involved in a brawl in the city. it broke out last week in justin herman plaza. it was a fight between skateboarders and vendors with a lot of terrified witnesses. artist jennifer martinez was there. she posted video of the fight on youtube. she says it started when two groups of skateboarders got into a fight that moved on to the plaza. that's when vendors tried to break it up. she said the skaters turned on the artists and it took a community just to restore calm. >> the cab guy got off his and he started pulling skateboards

out of people's hands. my friend we have a stick at the booth and he grabbed that and used that to pull people off of the vendors. just to separate them. you know. all that de-escalation. >> police are investigating. de-escalating about the swings. okay. he says he doesn't remember a thing but the black back tells at least part of the story. why was the amtrak train that crashed in philadelphia going way too fast? we've learned new information about the man behind the controls of the train and his ties to the bay area.

and lives lost, far too young. a memorial takes shape for a south bay high school student killed in a crash. and good thursday morn to you. we have rain on the way as we head throughout the day today. a lot of this coming through during your morning drive. before all is said and done, single storm produces the month's average rainfall.

details how muchy where you live in moments. north bay for a car fire and whatever else we can find for you, folks. the morning commute. >> live look outside roit now, christina, on her toes tracking that storm system. that is the bay bridge. it is thursday, may 14th. you are watching "today in the bay." from nbc bay area, this is "today in the bay." >> good thursday morning. thank you for joining us. i'm sam brock. >> i'm laura garcia-cannon. we begin with the latest developments in the deadly philadelphia train crash. the engineer behind the controls used to work in the bay area. >> local ties. "today in the bay's" stephanie chuang joining us live in san francisco with that side of the story. good morning, steph. >> sam and laura, caltrain confirmed 32-year-old brandon bostian worked as a contract employee here in 2010 and 2011 but at the time the agency was contracting with amtrak so bostian technically an amtrak employee. according to his profile he's

been working out of new york as a amtrak passenger engineer for 4 1/2 years, after spending 4 years as an amtrak conductor. data though from the critical black box suggests the train heading from washington to new york was traveling twice the posted speed limit when it went off the track, 106 miles an hour before hitting the curve with 0 50-mile-per-hour zone. >> shortly after he entered the curve, he placed the train into basically put the emergency brakes on the train. >> slams on the brakes. >> slams on the brakes. >> but it's too late? >> well, the train derailed at that point so i would say it was too late. >> now, in one media interview bostian's attorney said the 32-year-old remembers driving the train and going into that general area but has no recollection of the incident. that crash killing seven people and injuring more than 200 others. federal investigators will question him and the train crew in the coming days but they're not make anything judgments until the investigation is complete. live in san francisco, stephanie chuang, "today in the bay." >> thank you, steph.

and now people are asking could this tragedy have been prevented and the answer is now a definite yes. safety technology exists to prevent human error. >> congress has set deadlines to get that technology in place. "today in the bay's" kris sanchez is joining us with that side of the story, the fight for funding, kris. within 24 hours of this crash house republicans actually slashing money to amtrak. >> yeah, we're talking about a house panel. and they immediately hours after this was already part of the discussion, they slashed that funding, sam, and still there is the -- there is still the push to install what is called the positive train control tool to reduce human error. looking at the disaster from the air, you can see the work to repair that rail line there continues this morning. now, let's go back to that funding issue, sam. president obama's budget earmarked more than $2 billion to improve amtrak's aging infrastructure and also provide

the funding to help amtrak meet that requirement to install that so-called positive train control by tend of this year. that positive train control uses gps, wireless radio, and computers to track where those trains are. the graphic for you. it could automatically brake if excessive speed or a possible collision is detected. according to the national transportation safety board, positive train control could prevent 40% of the train crashes that happen because of human error. ntsb says that means 29 passenger and freight crashes could have been avoided since 2004. >> this is exactly the type of incident that ptc is designed to prevent. and so we have seen this before and we will continue to see it again until ptc is installed. >> now, the budget argument on capitol hill is not a done deal but it is falling along party lines in that house panel.

republicans saying money isn't always a solution to a problem like this. democrats saying it's time to invest in infrastructure. again, this is just a preliminary vote. it has to go before the full house and then, of course, before the full senate but with all of these images fresh in people's minds it's a wonlder that the vote went that way and we have to wonder if the vote will continue when it gets before the full house. we checked with caltrain, they're positive train control system is nearly complete. sam and laura? >> don't want this to happen again. thank you. >> reporter: much. updating the story across all of our digital platforms. head to nbcbayarea.com or download our free app. right now it's graduation for so many high school students just around corner. some south bay high school students are dealing with tragedy. three students killed in a late night car crash in gilroy. >> very sad. "today in the bay's" bob redell is live where two students have now died in less than a week.

that certainly affects students. >> reporter: laura and sam, the school district says the call is tragic would be an understatement because they lost four students this week, two at mt. madonna high, two more her at christopher high also in gilroy. earlier this week students here at christopher high were mourning the loss of natalia salcido killed in a car crash saturday. then yesterday morning came the news that they also lost 18-year-old classmate sara jean williams. williams died tuesday nith in an alleged drunk driving accident in gilroy. that not only killed her but three other passengers. williams, a senior getting ready of graduate was considered an a avid artist who loves to -- >> she stayed close to the people who she trusted and, you know, she was very loyal friend. >> i saw her yesterday. her smile was so beautiful. >> reporter: tuesday night's crash also killed yescnia

mendoza-pena. both 18 years of age. both students at mt. madonna high. along with joseph daniel vasquez, 24 years old. the 23-year-old driver anthony survived with major injuries. is expected to live. chp has arrested him for driving under the influence. report live here in gilroy, bob redell, "today in the bay." >> so much tragedy to have to deal with this morning. thank you, bob. mountain view police officer recovering after being struck by a suspect's car. this mapped last night at the grant park plaza near el camino and highway 237 yesterday. the officer was responding to a call about attempted fraud and was not seriously injured. several suspects were detained but it's not clear if any arrests were actually made. no bad apple. investigators ruling out foul play from a package that sickened workers and triggered v evacuations. it happened yesterday at

monterrey. a package delivered to the store made some employees dizzy and nauseous. four people were hospitalized. three stores evacuated. firefighters now say an unknown substance leaked into a package in transit. >> we're in the business of course of telling stories. a good story to tell on the weather front as we see this spring storm coming through. let's check in with christina. >> good morning. we are watching this showers as as they work their way along the line. the showers have arrived in bodega bay. it's just a couple hours away before wide spread activity works its way across the bay area. we're able to pinpoint this activity to your doorstep. expecting a 7:23 arrival of the heavier rain in san mateo. half-moon bay. as we continue on through the morning, that shower activity will make its way all of the way inland. take a look at your temperatures this morning. we have a blanket of low clouds overhead. disbursed across the bay area. you can see that reflected here

with temperatures close to 60 degrees in many cities. 57 to wake up p in san francisco, only going to climb by three degrees between now and the warmest point of the day. so let me take you through your day park forecast. showers and thunderstorms, that's the weather story of the day. we take you into your lunch hour. make sure you give yourself a little extra time to get back to the office after having that delicious lunch because we do have showers on the way and that tends to slow things down on the roads. you will be at 62 degrees. grab that jacket as well at noon on the peninsula. 61 degrees meanwhile in the north bay. 63 degrees in the tri-valley. highs come in, the warmest point of the day at 4:00 p.m., maybe you're headed home from work, picking up the kids from school. temps will still be on the cool side. 64 degrees for today on the peninsula. 63 degrees in the south bay. the high for today in wine country is 65 degrees. so we have some thunderstorms working their way toward the bay area as well. we give you the timing for that. show you who has the best opportunity to see that activity

as we get into this afternoon. we're going to keep that chance going through friday as well. right now want to check your drive. still looking pretty good. no showers. the heavy stuff, anyway, mike. >> that's good news. we need the heavy stuff. supposed to say that as well. looking over here towards the rest of the bay. looking at traffic. that's not heavy at all. light volume around the bay. we'll call that a few crashes. one at each section of the bay. the south bay, we do have a crash north 87 at sky port. three or four vehicles involved here. the center divide. you may need brakes to get over to the shoulder. light traffic, not a lot of slowing except right at skyway. the tri-valley, no problems at the dublin interchange. crash with activity toward the center divide. there's a motorcycle involved. someone standing around with their bike might be more of a distraction. still slowing. no problem through livermore or over toward dublin. easy drive for highway 4 approaching the bay bridge. we'll show you the toll plaza as we talk about this and the backup and the metering lights that have just turned on.

back to you. it's 5:39. it's a low-tech way to detect a common disease. a handshake. could it save your life? we've told you about the engineer of the train that crashed and its ties to the bay area. now we focus on the clean-up at the crash site. a lab report from philadelphia and 15 minutes of nonstop news, traffic, and weather after the break.

it 5:42. we're going to get to that story about an american killed in afghanistan in a second. a live look out this morning from if san bruno mountain. sures are making their way toward the bay area. christina will have much more on that. update now to breaking news. at least one american is among the victims of a taliban attack at a high end hotel in afghanistan's capital city overnight. 14 people are confirmed dead including nine foreigners after gunmen opened fire at the restaurant of the park plaza hotel in kabul.

that hotel was hosting a party for foreigners at the time. 54 other hostages were rescued in an hours long siege. now to the latest developments on the deadly amtrak derailment. questions are mounting about why the train took a dangerous curve at more than double the speed limit. "today in the bay's" chris pallone with the investigation for us. >> sam and laura, you know, the investigators believe they have an idea of what happened with the train on tuesday night. the big question here is why did it happen. that's what they're trying to figure out at this point. it came out yesterday after that after analyzing the black box and the train, the data recorder, that the train was going 106 miles per hour in a 50 mooil per her zone. it was heading into a curve and that's clearly what sent the train shooting off the track. focus is turning on to the engineer on this train. his name is brandon bostian. he's from new york.

he's 32 years old. he's been a conductor -- an engineer for amtrak for five years now. the question is, what was going on in that cab? was there a mechanical problem? did he have some sort of medical problem, a lapse in attention, wasn't a paying attention, something like that. that's what investigators are trying to figure out. he gave a blood sample and also turned over his phone. but the ntsb hasn't talked to him yet. they say that they plan to talk to him perhaps today, maybe tomorrow after he has a little bit of time to recover from his injuries. that's really the focus right here. investigatoring continue picking up the debris and collecting evidence, trying to move that debris off the track so they can reopen the section of track between philadelphia and new york. live in philadelphia, i'm chris pallone. this is the latest incident raises questions about health and future of america's railway

infrastructure. members of a house panel voted to cut amtrak's budget. if that vote holds it will lower the budget to $1 billion. that's less than half of what the white house wanted. >> there are expensive infrastructure upgrades that could be made to benefit the traveling public. >> one potential upgrade involves satellite technology that could remotely stop or slow down an amtrak train. but the money to cover that technology remains in limbo. the doppler technology this morning is being put to use. >> fired up. >> good workers being seen on the radar and starting to see the rain activity reach the shore. >> as the years go by, that doppler technology just gets better and better. pretty high tech here at nbc bay area. we can get right to the street level, do some backyard forecasting. when that rain arrives. it's not here just yet for most of us. as you can see we got a little bit of green located right over

bodega bay. good morning to you up there. that's a welcome sign. get a little shower activity. it's nice and refreshing as you head outdoors. not too cold. we do have winter like temperatures in the forecast for today as your highs. here is the main event. still lurking offshore. this is going to slowly push inland as we head throughout your morning drive. then by about 11:00 a.m. we're expecting wide spread activity across the bay area. i'm going to show you that on your future cast in just a moment. you can see the showers are intensifying now in bodega bay. all the activity headed towards santa rosa. as we head through the next half hour or so you will get your first showers up there. we take it right to your future cast. we stop the clock for you at 8:00 a.m. this morning. and you will notice at that point a lot of green on the radar expected from livermore all of the way south through san jose down 101 into san martin and gilroy and also getting some pretty good shower activity at that point at the immediate coast and up and down the peninsula. then i take you into the 11:00 hour and it's not just the green that we're talking a at this

point. we've got some red, yellow, even some orange in there. that's nod rate to heavy rainfall embedded within that green and isolated thunderstorms as well. that will continue as we head throughout about 2:00. that's where we're expecting the heavy stuff to start to wind down. as you make your way home from work between 4:00 and 6:00 things really start to quiet down. although we are going to keep light showers in the forecast for the first part of your friday. and that unsettled pattern will continue through saturday as well. let's talk thunderstorms. that's going to be over the higher elevations. as we head three it the day today, santa cruz mountains, up and down the peninsula you can see thunderstorm activity and up in the north bay we are expecting at least one to two isolated thunderstorms to develop as with head throughout the day. this pattern is very unsettled. there's a lot of instability with this storm. that's going to lead to that thunderstorm development. by tomorrow, more of the same. not when it comes to the heavy stuff. just light activity and then we will see a little bit on saturday morning.

clearing you out just in time for your all important weekend. good looking weekend to get outdoors. good air quality. lower pollen courtesy of this storm system. let's check on your drive. is it a good time to lit the road, mike? that's the question. >> it's better now than later. look at this beautiful view even though the clouds christina talked about are rolling through. we have the backup. the left approach is an easier drive. we'll show you the maps. no problems toward the bay bridge or the richmond-san rafael bridge. over on the shoulder and blocking youn slow lane, now the brunt of the frask from vallejo and that vot a. we news to west 580 and the crash still on the shoulder there over at the north flynn. no other problems west of there. smooth drive toward oakland for 880 and the san mateo bridge for 92 across the bay. we're showing that northbound 87 now slows toward sky port.

crash still blocks the left lane. that's the only problem for the south bay. it's 5:48. more than 48 hours and kouchbting crews are back for military helicopter that vanished in nepal. the u.s. marine corps chopper disappeared tuesday during an aid mission to deliver food and water to the victims of this week's latest earthquake. the chopp eper pilot lost conta after he radioed in they were having fuel problems. many survivors of nepal's second major quake are trapped in their villages. that's because the shaking led to roadblocking landslides. some areas hard to reach even by helicopter. people in larger cities are camping out on the streets. many afraid to return to the buildings that are still standing because they could collapse if another aftershock were to hit. at least 96 people now have died in this week's quake. more than 8,000 lost their lives in last month's earthquake.

at 5:49. publicly pg&e has worked to build confidence in commitment to safety and security especially when it comes to securing the power grid. internal pg&e memo obtained by the investigative unit reveals contradictions between what pg&e has said in front of our camera and what is being said behind closed doors. they interviewed stephanie douglas also august. he is the company's director of corporate security. in the interview douglas said pg&e has high-level security at critical electric substations in northern and central california. but just 12 days later she wrote a memo to the president of pg&e saying the company are years ago from a healthy security plan. state senator jerry hill says the memo caused pg&e's integrity into question. >> the memo clearly states that pg&e has not done and hasn't had the resources to do what was necessary to provide the security of the infrastructure. so it clearly says that she did

not tell us the facts of the situation. >> pg&e denied interview requests that said it's added more funding and staffing for security since the august memo. ton at 11:00 the investigative unit will show us what is inside the internal memo and you will hear from senator hill has to say to the pg&e insiders who wanted that information out. if you have a tip for investigative unit give us a call or send us an e-mail. so many beachgoers boiled at the lack of access to a local beach. now the state of california is join that legal battle to stop a bay area billionaire from restricting public access to a popular beach. he owns a piece of land near martins beach in half-moon bay. modern law says he has to allow access to that beach but coastal claims the property came with rights that date back to the time to the treaty with mexico and untder those law he can blok

access to the beach. a bay area man wants to start a class action suit against wells fargo. the campbell man asked the federal court to certify the lawsuit yesterday. it mirrors accusations in a suit filed last week by the city of los angeles. both complaints claim the bank encourages employees to fraudulently open new customer accounts with the culture of high pressure sales. wells fargo denies the allegations. it's not just good manners, a firm handshake may be a good indicator of heart health. weak grip strength could be an indicator of heart attack or stroke of death. every ten pound decline was linked to a higher percent of death of cardiovascular disease within four years. the risk of any early death by any cause rose by 16%. >> sweaty palms, not really good. >> turnoff, big time.

the house last night passed a bill to prohibit the nsa from collecting phone call data. >> the house passed bit but that idea unlikely to get through the senate. >> that's right. the senate is controlled by republicans but we are seeing an interesting split between the more libertarian republicans who think we think might vote for the usa freet come act. the lawyer talking about in the more conservative republicans who most likely won't. we do know the house pasted it. the paact would disallow the ma collection of american's data something the courts last week already said was illegal but now there's a proposed law to make it extra obvious to it nsa it should not do that. today is mark zuckerberg's birthday, 31 years old. employers say he's just old. when he was in his early 20s zuckerberg said, yoet, i want to stress the importance of being young and technical when hiring young people are just smarter.

why are most chess masters under 30 years old? happy birthday, mark. we'll be running this quote again next year. follow up for you, secretary of transportation anthony foxx was in mountain view yesterday at delphi, hardware that makes the google self-driving cars self driving. he's going to speed up a timetable by the government to make cars talk to each other. things like, lookout, i'm in your blind spot. and things like i'm i see you're exiting the highway on an on rafr that has 35 mirls hurn speed limit, you're going 70. at least sets off an alarm. this is very similar to the positive train control that chris has been talking about all morning. they're doing to set standards by the end of the year. >> utilizing that technology. the only talking car of i know of from today is kit from "knight rider." >> i think my dad had one in the '80s. a datsun, your door is open. ahead of its time. >> thank you, scott.

fresh off the dominant game five victory the warriors will board a plane to memphis this morning. graceland not in the plans. >> the sellout crowd was roaring after the warriors crushed the grizzlies 98-78. taking a 3-2 lead in the playoff series. the dubs were deadly last night from three-point range. here's steph curry. 18 points. all of them tre balls. >> feel the energy of the crowd and getting some clean looks. you make a couple, keep being aggressive. >> six threes for steph. the warriors can win the series with a victory in memphis tomorrow. if they were to lose, comes back to oracle for game seven on sunday. the numbers are on the dub's side. teams that win game five go on to win the series more than 80% of the time. >> wouldn't that be great? >> wouldn't it be? it's gonna be great because they're coming back. we deal with science and numbers. that is right up your alley.

you'ring traing the numbers. good morning. >> good morning. happy to see the showers that we forecast are here. they have arrived. you know what, the bulk of the moisture is still on its way to the bay area. the storm system is taking its sweet time but you can see what's happened over the past three hours. here we go. we set it back. we stop it now. you can see that moisture is intensifying. expecting that activity to room right over the bay area mostly during your morning drive. 50s to start. 60s to finish. grab your jacket. grab your umbrella. let's see if you need to pack that patience with mike inouye. >> we have two unexpected spots for slowing. one in san jose and sky 4 the crash is still blocked the fast lane. they need three flatbed tow trucks. that is a lot of slowing from downtown. the rest of the bay is moving relatively smoothly. the north bay it's west 37 where we are stem down to one lane because of an earlier car fire. the fire is out. one lane there. back to you. there's a bird in tracy that has come people covering their ors.

. >> hey, baby. >> the problem is this parrot, the bird tends to say its own name but the neighbor says she has proof rula says the word meaning prostitute in spanish which is a little similar sounding if you look it up. animal control is involved. officers have responded to more than a dozen plants complaints and they can't confirm the bird is cursing even if it is ruffling some faeer thises. >> rula sounds luke he would be a rapper. required vaccination or not? why today is such a crucial one for a bill looking to force all school kids to get vaccinated.

right now at 6:00, it didn't have to happen. the technology experts say could have prevented this deadly derailment. >> lives lost far too young. memorial taking shape for students killed in a crash. good thursday morning to

you. grab your umbrella before you leave the house today. we're talking about ample moisture and unusual storm track and the risk for thunderstorms as we head throughout your thursday. details in your microclimate coming your way. >> as your morning commute is kicking in, if you're heading toward 101 in the north bay. >> from nbc bay area, this is "today in the bay." >> very good thursday morning to you. thanks so much for joining us. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> i'm sam brock as they say, bring on the rain. a welcome site this late in spring and of course during the historic drought. right now our realtime doppler radar show that green activity off shoir. wet weather making its way over the bay area. an area that could see the most action, the south bay. >> this is interesting. meteorologist christina loren joins us now. christina, while some may see rain, thunder and hail, others won't see anything at all? >> no, i think everybody is going to get a lit b