garcia-cannon. today, we've seen it all. hail, lightning, snow in the sierra mountains and this latest storm is bringing more of everything this morning. we've seen slick roadways as we take you to look outside of palo alto where raindrops are lingering for your morning commute. >> get you out safely from road conditions to where the storm is headed. we start right now with meteorologist kari hall and how long we can expect the wet weather for folks in san francisco. >> it will be going off and on throughout the day. look at where this storm system is now and we're still tracking more of that rain to the north of us. it will take a break at times and then we'll see it coming right back. and so another round of heavy rain approaching san jose at this point. and that will make things slippery, once again, as people head out the door. and a look at all the temperatures and the microclimates. in the mid to upper 40s. it will be a cool day with highs only in the mid to upper 50s for an afternoon high.

so, more of the rain, more of the breezy wind and more of the cool weather and we take a break tomorrow before the next round of rain moves in. i'll detail that and how much to expect coming up in a few minutes. let's see how it looks for the east bay drivers now with mike. >> yeah, kari, live look from our oakland camera where a couple minutes ago we saw a caravan of flashing lights and looked like oversize trailers and maybe moving portable buildings. that moved throughout without any problem. notice all this water kicking up on to the roadway and the car's windshield behind these folks and that is an issue for you, as well. the rain might not actively be falling and things are calming down for the north bay and looking at other areas where the water is kicking up and minor flooding east 580 through the downtown area and a number of cars involved in a crash and all clearing from the area just as the wet roadways are clearing from the oakland surface streets, as well. looking towards the south bay and looking at a drier commute and having southbound 101 at

capital expressway with an earlier crash. no word about any power outages and we're checking on that with pg&e, as well. slick roadways are the remnants of what did hit the roadways overnight. we did see heavy hail, as well as the rain. we've almost everything the last couple of hours and this is video we got. stephanie chuang joining us live from san francisco. still lingering showers there this morning and a lot of concern about ponding and water on the road. >> there is some concern, as there is always when there is wet weather, sam and kris. dry now but the rain started off and on. the last time we saw that happen. building up, of course, storm drains are clogged by leaves and other debris and water is starting to pool in some areas, even on the roadways. be careful driving out there, as usual. new video this morning from martinez where you can see

lightning overnight, as well as plenty of rain hitting neighborhood there. and then south of martinez, something else might have woken up some people. >> and there you can hear what surprised some people early this morning in orinda. check out jeff's video covering the hail. torrential rain and hail that did last a few minutes. i checked the chp logs and the reports started at 2:45 this morning from oakland up to marin and you heard mike to talk about that, as well. the message is the same, especially with the roads already wet and more rain to come. give yourself plenty of time. live here in san francisco, stephanie chuang, "today in the bay." >> more rain on the way. you can get your personalized neighborhood forecast 24/7. just download our free nbc bay area app.

now to a developing story what was supposed to be a ten-minute flight quickly turned into a long journey for answers. four people are dead after a medical helicopter crashed in the central valley. "today in the bay" bob redell joins us with the latest on the investigation. the most poignant part is how their fellow employees found out. >> dense fog and power lines may have contributed to this crash. this is a file image of the exact medical helicopter that went down last night killing all four people onboard. the pilot, nurse, paramedic and a critically ill patient. the crew was transporting the patient from a hospital in fresno to a different hospital in bakersfield. supposed to be just a ten-minute flight but around 7:00 last night air traffic control lost contact with the chopper about 30 minutes later search and rescue dispatched and eventually did find the crash site in a

field of orchards near the town of mcfarland. >> it took them close to 90 minutes to try to access that area due to immense fog. foggy conditions, as well as darkness. >> the company that runs this medical chau medic medical chopper service said the crew was safe and experienced. employees, incidentally, received the news about the crash during their annual christmas party. >> certainly heart break, especially right now. thank you very much, bob. new this morning, investigators are trying to sort out what led to a deadly head-on crash in san jose. this happened a little bit before midnight near kirk avenue. one car had four people inside. two of whom died. the chp says the other two passengers left the scene. they were later found at separate hospitals. the driver of the other truck, a pickup truck, suffered serious injuries. investigators don't believe that

wet roads played a factor here. they're still trying to figure out if the driver who died was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. happening today, a truck driver who pleaded no contest to a deadly crash on highway 17 will find out whether he will face jailtime. he was behind the wheel of a big rig that crashed in july of last year. he said his brakes failed and that's why he plowed into ten cars. one person died. seven others were hurt. singh pleaded no contest in october to a vehicular manslaughter death charma manslaughter charge. happening later today, the santa clara county sheriff will speak in the first public forum since racist e-mails by guards at the county jail first surfaced. civil rights group want an overhaul of the jail's operation. they say the e-mails by the deputies at the jail show "a racist subculture." sheriff lori smith will address

that issue at a forum in los gatos. we'll bring you a full report during our newscast at 11:00 this morning. last week's shooting death of an african-american man. going to be filed on behalf of the family of mario woods. the 26-year-old did not deserve to die. he was armed with a kitchen knife when officers shot him more than a dozen times. police say woods refused to put that knife down after repeated commands. then police shot him once with a bean bag gun. san francisco police do not carry tasers. woods' family attorney says he'll reveal new video evidence showing how woods was only trying to walk away when confronted by police. scary moments unfold at a south bay jewelry store. look at the surveillance video here. it shows four men in black hooded sweatshirts outside the store moments before they robbed it. police were called to martinez jewelry store on story road in east san jose just before 6:00

last night. the owner called police saying the men came to the store demanding money. one of the suspects was armed with a handgun, but so was the owner's daughter, who managed to scare those men away. police say they still made off with some jewelry and cash. >> all we know right now is that there are four male suspects. we don't know their ethnicity or anything. they were disguised and had some type of handkerchief or mask on their faces. >> no bullets were fired and no one was hurt and the suspects were seen leaving in a dark colored car. the jewelry store was closed when that robbery happened. we are heading now, finally, into the weekend. a wet end of our week. what is in store for the rest of the weekend? we check in now with kari hall. >> not time to put away the umbrella. more of the rain as we go throughout the day. still the snow coming down heavily in the sierra. a closer look at where we're tracking the heavier downpours

moving through the south bay ask parts of the east bay and that will continue to roll off to the east. the current temperatures, as you step out the door, in the mid up toer 40s. so, pretty cool. and as we go through the rest of the day, we still will see the spotty showers passing by and also some breaks with times of sunshine. but as we start to think, okay, maybe the rain has cleared, there will be more of that moving in early afternoon. i'll detail how much additional rain we can see and a look athead the weekend coming up. let's check in now with mike. >> we'll go back to the peninsula, folks, where we're looking at wet roadways. see the water kicking up here. south 101 from university will take you down and that is where there was a single car spinoff reported. that's where we're warning folks about. meanwhile, southbound 101 and the off ramp now is reportedly affected by that crash we told you about and a pole down there. no slowing past the scene, but watch the off ramp if that is

your exit. we zoom up and a new crash reported for dublin. check on san ramon and there's the bay bridge, it's also clear. back to you. >> thank you very much, mike. coming up, a gun control show down. the battle happening in congress as president obama considers taking action of his own. hover boards, man, we'll talk a lot about hover boards coming up in "business and tech."

gun control debate continuing taheat up at our

nation's capital. president obama could take action on his own. he want to ban people on the no-fly list from purchasing guns. >> tracie potts is live in washington. tracie, connecticut governor already taking a similar action. how is this going to play out? >> exactly. connecticut's governor says if washington won't act, he will. he wants to unilaterally ban people in connecticut who are on the no-fly list from buying guns there or revoke their gun permit, if they already purchased that gun and turns out they're on the no-fly list. he is ready to sign off on that. it still needs federal approval. meanwhile, here, democrats have been pushing this week to try to get this addressed. in fact, they tried to attach it to a texas land bill. that didn't work out. now, senior adviser valerie jared at the white house says the president is ready to take action on his own. republicans have accused him time after time again of going around congress.

this time he says we will hear he is working on an executive order to expand background checks. something congress has not done. the way he wants to do that is to raise the threshold of dealers who are considered high volume. this loophole in the law. if you're a high-valium dealer you have to do more background checks. you create more background checks for gun purchases and it will likely also set up a big fight with congress and with the nra. >> could set up a fight in court, too. thank you very much. appreciate that. the deadline to avoid a federal government shutdown comes down to today. congress needs to pass a spending bill within the next 24 hours to avoid the shutdown. but there is a possibility that won't happen and speaker paul ryan could move a bill to extend the deadline. kind of one of those stop map measures for a few days. >> congress keeps the days open, get a cnce to decide whether you should be taxed for your internet connection.

>> scott mcgcgrew, a tax on you monthly bill. >> taxes on the data connection not what you buy from amazon. right now a tax on your phone connection, check your bill. a tax on your cable but no tax on the internet part and it would appear the house would vote today to ban that tax forever. other news, more and more bans on hover boards. this is a fellow riding a hover board at the minneapolis airport. which just banned the devices. delta airlines says you can't take them on airplanes. why? well, because of that. the cheap ones seem to catch fire a lot. obviously, you don't want this on your christmas flight. all hover boards look pretty much the same. the expensive model is more than $1,000 and the airlines can't tell the difference between the $1,000. stick around, we'll show you a robbery on hover boards in just a moment. the last tech ipo and,

indeed, the last likely ipo of a year was a blockbuster success. atlassian jumped 30%. the founders in the center there are from australia. parents flew in from australia to surprise him at the nasdaq. landon dowdy is live at cnbc world headquarters. good morning. >> hey, there, scott. happy friday to you. the markets look to end on a down note and stocks breaking a three-day losing streak on thursday although oil prices continue to hover around nearly seven-year lows. inflation and consumer sentiment and the dow rising 82 points to 17574. the nasdaq up 22 to 5045. scott, back over to you. >> i promised you a hover board robbery. a fellow coming into a shop on a hover board and goes around the corner and grabs himself some energy drinks and heads out the door. here come the security guards. no.

don't go and off he goes and down the street and makes a clean get away and pretty smooth. actually want to get to the point where the hover board robbers are chased by police drones. >> why does he need the hover board if red bull gives you wings. >> give hover boards to the police officers so they could chase after the guy. >> we would cover that live with our helicopter. >> it would be amazing. >> all right. well, hover boarder probably shock you if you were out today because it is so rainy and wet. >> not the day for that. you need the umbrella and rain boots walking today. how about that. as we go into the rest of the afternoon. the rain off and on and, yes, we need this rain and already had a good soaking and taking a look at some of the rainfall totals we had also over the north bay. three inches san francisco. about half of an inch and as we

take a live look at the bay bridge, things are starting to quiet down. radar showing wet weather as this large area of low pressure continues to spin across the pacific northwest and slinging some rain down to the bay area. we're tracking some of the heavier rain as it moves into san jose and east bay hills and with that we will also have some of those chilly temperatures and that rain that will be off and on throughout the day. here's a look at the futurecast. it still shows some spotty showers for the north bay that will be moving to the south and then we have some breaks. by lunchtime, another round of rain moving in and it may create also some of those heavy downpours that we had over night. into the afternoon, during the evening commute, it looks like things start to quiet down, but still maybe some spotty light showers in and around the bay area. the next round of rain moves in on sunday and at least we get to enjoy a dry saturday. a look at all the microclimates

today. cool, highs in the mid up toer 50s and only a couple of spots hitting the low 60s today like brentwood and then in livermore, a high of 59 degrees. the additional rainfall we will see, once again, we've had over an inch in the north bay. and then about 0.5 to 0.75 farther to the south. we're looking at an additional, up to about 0.75 for the south bay. and then the north bay, another inch possibly two as we go into the weekend. and the sierra snow has been really coming down and we'll be seeing the snowfall reports as we go through the morning, possibly another two feet of snow and the weekend forecast brings us some weather that will be dry to start. at least for saturday. and then sunday, once again, looks wet, once again. let's check in with mike to see how the morning commute is going. >> so far it's all right. we're expecting december and friday light to combine. with that rain you'll have more time on the roadway because lighter traffic and slow it down a bit. i'll talk about exactly why

we're looking at and, obviously, the wet roadways. reports of flooding have kind of cleared from most of the north bay and you're going to watch that roadway on the edges of your freeway. meanwhile over here in the east bay, greensteri registering wet. an earlier crash and maybe some debris that they're clearing from the area. just that note. san francisco city streets looks like things have calmed down a little bit south 680 and sounds like everything is out of the lanes, as well. now, as we move our map down, a new report of a crash here and a spinout south of 680 right around the washington off ramp and another spinout reported here. no slowing past those scenes. here's a south bay and a live look at dublin. watch this car coming around. a puddle and slick roadway right where the road makes a turn. spinouts are more likely. that's why we warn you. back to you. >> all right. morning routine. thank you very much, mike. extreme rainfall now blamed

for the deaths of two people in oregon, which prompted states of emergency there and in washington state. in oregon, one woman drowned when her car got stuck in high water and another died after a tree fell on her portland home. storms spawned a tornado not far from the state line in washington and twister being rated with an ef-1 with winds between 86 and 110 miles per hour. all of this is part of a system that pummeled the pacific northwest all week. >> getting crushed out there. coming up next, a scary scene in boston. a commuter train suddenly takes off without a conductor. the investigation now under way to find out what happened here.

call it the boston ghost train. a commuter train barrelled through at least four stops without a conductor. an investigation under way right now into how it happened yesterday morning. riders say it certainly would have derailed had transit workers not taken emergency steps. they shut off electricity to the line as the train shot past stop after stop. >> everything looked dark and everything stopped and we were trying to open the doors and we couldn't and we were trying to press a button to the emergency room and nobody heard. and the people that were on the first car were trying to knock on the door of the conductor and that's when we discovered that there was nobody there.

>> they eventually tracked down the conductor. he'd been injured somehow, but there's no immediate word on why he was not at the controls of the train and how it apparently took off isown. chipotle's founder and ceo is stepping up to do more damage control. the company is working on strict new food practices like sanitizing some of the ingredients before shipping them to restaurants nationwide. also apologizing to customers who have gotten sick. all of this comes after an e. coli outbreak shut down dozens of chipotle restaurants across nine states, including california and now more than 140 boston college students got sick with a nori virus after heating at a chipotle there. >> we are going to be the safest place to eat. >> the chipotle in boston has been cited for three health care violation.

i have not heard of them sanitizing food before they ship it. >> maybe a new standard that they just decided to move in. coming up next, another wet morning for bay area drivers. we are tracking trouble spots as another round of rain making its way through the region. team coverage on everything that you need to know. and what was supposed to be a life-saving flight turns deadly. a medical helicopter comes crashing down in the central valley. what investigators say may have been a contributing factor. joining us. i'm sam brock.

=kris/2shot= and i'm kris sanchez -- in for laura garcia cannon. == good friday morning. thank you so much for joining us. i'm sam rock. >> i'm kris sanchez in for laura garcia-cannon. >> from hail to lightning to snow in the sierra mountains. this latest storm is bringing a little bit of everything this morning. we're seeing slick roadways, too. we'll take you live to palo alto where the raindrops are lingering for your morning commute. >> team coverage to get you out the door safely this morning from road conditions and mike is watching those very closely and also stephanie chuang out there telling us what is going on in san francisco. we start with kari hall at when we can expect the rain to pass through, kari. >> it will be coming in waves. we will take some breaks and then it comes back, again. we'll see that at least through early afternoon as the system continues to spin just to the north of us and pushing some waves of rain across bay area. and at times it has been heavy,

we are seeing the heaviest batch of rain now and now moving further to the south right now and then over to the east bay hills and south bay hills, as well. now our temperatures in the mid up toer 40s. so, a cool shower. and then a high today of 58 degrees in san francisco and the peninsula. and mid-50s for the east bay. once again, that rain continues off and on through early afternoon. i'll detail yet another round of rain in time for the weekend. that's coming up in a few minutes, but let's head to the bay bridge toll plaza now with mike. >> that's one of the focuses of the morning commute. this is not so bad. it's friday. it's december. december friday should be very light and the rain, that allows folks to slow down a bit without getting delayed to their work. look at that light back up on the right approach. no backup on the left approach. let's show you the map and look at the green highlighting here. that's where wet roadways and approaching 980 and the latest blocked two lanes and perhaps

three as you're heading up towards that interchange and see all the slowing that just popped up on the last report. meanwhile as we zoom out, rain traveled through the east bay hills and watch spinout for south 680. back to you. well, from slick roadways to hail, rain and lightning. we are seeing it all this morning. >> as is stephanie chuang first hand she joins us live now from san francisco with a look at the aftermath of the storm and how is it looking outside right now, steph? >> sam and kris, it's wet plenty on the roads and hasn't been raining for the last hour or so. around 4:00 this morning is the last time we saw the rain here in san francisco pick up steadily and video from that time and you can see that one concern, as always, is leaves and debris clogging storm drains causing water to build and sometimes. the bigger worry, of course, itens on popular roadways and becomes a problem as the morning commute picks up. now, take a look, we also have new video this morning from martinez where you can see lightning overnight and plenty

of rain hitting the neighborhood there, as well. south of martinez, something other than the sound of rain might have woken up some people. and this is video from orinda sent in by our chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. after a strong east bay thunderstorm produced rain and hail that lasted a few minutes. roadway flooding and, of course, chp telling us always that whenever there is rain you are almost guaranteed to get an update in problems and crashes and, of course, keep you updated on your commute here this morning. st stephanie chuang. a car on southbound 101 north of capital expressway caught fire this morning. it was on the off ramp and crashed into a power pole. the chp says the driver may have

been going too fast when the car spun out. weather may have been a factor in that crash. the driver was hurt and is now at the hospital. as always, when flood concerns surge, bay area residents have numerous options when it comes to free sandbags with literally dozens of locations. there are just three possibilities in the south bay the santa clara valley water district offers sandbags and in concord, 24-hour access at the corporation yard on gasoline alley. berkeley, meantime, usually distributes sandbags at its fire stations. more rain on the way, you can always get your personalized forecast 24/7. just download our free nbc bay area app. developing story now. four people are dead after a medical helicopter crashed in the central valley. "today in the bay" bob redell joining us on the latest investigation. it was foggy and rainy at the time of the crash. it did the rescue efforts here.

>> certainly part of the investigation, sam. this medical helicopter was transporting a critically ill patient from a hospital in fresno to another hospital in  bakersfield when it crashed around 7:00 last night dense fog into a field of orchards near the town of mcfarland. right now looking at a file image of that exact aircraft. it went down in an area known to have overhead fpower lines. not clear what role if any of those and all four people onboard were killed. a, paramedic, pilot and patient. there was no contact for about 30 minutes. only supposed to be about a ten-minute flight. they were relying on the last-known gps signal and took them another 90 minutes to find the crash site because of bad weather. >> we ran into fog and heavy rain trying to get in by foot and it took us quite some time to get there. >> the ntsb is now investigating the crash. incidentally the company that runs the medical chaupter service we've been talking about

this throughout the morning, they were holding their annual christmas party, sam and kris, when employees received the news. >> that just makes it even sadder. thank you very much, bob. dive teams will fin scouring the waters of a small lake in san bernardino this morning where there could be evidence linked to last week's shooting massacre. the fbi is still not revealing exactly what they're looking for in this small lake. but we do know that the hard drive from the suspect's home is still missing. the search is expected to take several days and there is no guarantee that they'll find anything. >> told you from day one that we will leave no stone unturned. the reason we're here searching this lake today is because we did have a lead that indicated that the subjects came into this area. >> meantime, federal agents are adding to the number of injured in the attack. authorities say 22 people are now confirmed injured in that attack. victim turned herself into the hospital or arrived at the

hospital several days after the attack. kris, south bay now in the process of testing white powder found in a letter that forced yesterday's evacuation of santa clara's muslim care center. hazmat teams evacuated the council on american islamic relations offices after workers discovered a letter containing white powder and a threatening message. three workers were taken to the hospital as a precaution. now, the letter sender only used the name infidel. a cair spokeswoman said acts like this one only fan the flames of hate. >> i am angry at a civil rights organization would be targeted by individuals seeking to silence it. seeking to repress the right to american muslims and further being a soviet in this country. >> the fbi is expected to investigate the scare along with a similar one yesterday at cair's headquarters in washington, d.c. preliminary test of the

substance in that letter showed nothing toxic. now, these are just the latest in a recent string of incidents suggesting a backlash from last week's mass shooting in san bernardino. some critics believe gop presidential candidate donald trump is leading the charge. his call to ban muslims from entering the u.s. continuing to stir up controversy even as many in the bay area say the message is off base. >> be the same if as americans started talking in terms of these people instead of one particular person. >> trump's idea is still striking a chord among some conservatives. one new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows 42% of republican voters support the idea to ban muslims. 75% of democrats, meantime, oppose trump's idea. we're going to be hearing more about that all day long and meantime hearing a lot about the rain, as well. kari, we know some folks heard

thunder overnight. >> that was just within the past three hours, especially from san francisco and farther to the south where some of the stronger downpours rolled on through. now, the lightning is tapering off and most of us not seeing the rain now, but the roads are still wet and then as you head from san jose to morgan hill and gilroy, that's where we have still some rain falling and the current temperatures in the upper 40s. and it will be cool. and showers that will be passing all across the bay area today. but there will be some breaks. here we are early afternoon with yet another round of heavy rain moving in and we may rack up an additional 0.25 in some spots. we've already had at least an inch of rain in the north bay and then the rest of the parts of the peninsula and the south and east bays getting anywhere from 0.25 to 0.75. we'll talk more about the totals and what we expect moving forward as we go into the weekend yet again another round

of rain. how is it looking out there on the roads, mike? >> slick conditions is why we warn folks to slow it down. in december and that's what we're seeing here. oakland glowing lights, moisture in the air and slick roadways past the column. north 880 good alternate to west 580 and look at the jam right now from the warren freeway on our maps over here towards 980. a couple crashes. the worst of them right near 980 blocking three of four of your lanes and hp cleared that from the report. a recovery from the wet roadways and approaching the maze. a burst of traffic will head towards the bay bridge toll plaza and we'll see the metering lights turned on a comminutes later than the rest of the week. 680 another crash causes a little bit of slowing as you see around the walnut creek interchange and that is moving from the roadway and the rest of the bay just wet roadways what we are reporting. still affected by an earlier crash from southbound 101. back to you. all this rain has taken its toll, mike. our recent rainfall causing a

huge concern among many folks in san francisco that raw sewage is flooding the streets, again. some neighbors are suing the city demanding reimbursements for repairs made for when rain caused sewage pipes to erupt into the streets a year ago. just this week they added an ament to their lawsuit to stop allowing sewage hookups in new homes until that sewage system is fixed. they fear a repeat of last year. >> just sitting here and i could smell the sewage. that's when i knew we had a problem. still have a problem. even with a very moderate rainfall. >> the public utilities commission says it could only design a system to a certain degree. it's offered $30,000 in rebursements to homeowners who had to make repairs after that flooding. coming up, up in arms over gun control. a battle is brewing in congress on who should be allowed to purchase weapons as president obama is responding. and in the midst of

destruction, christuous cheer shining through. the volunteer efforts that brought smiles to the faces of children devastated by the valley fire. got a tip for nbc bay area investigative unit? call 1-888-996-tips or e-mail theunit@nbcbayarea.com. nbc bay area, we investigate. it's a sign of the times.

instead of duck and cover-- students in san jose unified

were told to run, hide and if no doubt. it is a sign of the times. instead of duck and cover. students were told to run and hide if necessary, defend themselves during a school drill yesterday. the story you'll only on nbc bay area. all of this part of an active shooter drill. a drill they have been doing since the columbine shootings dating back to 1999 in colorado. students are now being told to defend themselves in a life or death situation. >> they said if they're trying to get one of the students, just try to jump on top of the man. >> the school district says for safety reasons, it won't talk about the defend part of the protocol adding that safety is their top priority. >> my kids students of that district and they do make it very realistic. so, with regard to gun sales, the governor of connecticut may be on the verge of making history. dan molloy plans on signing the first of its kind executive

order which would ban the sale of guns to people on the federal watchlist. many people in law enforcement say not having such a ban nationally represents a gaping hole in federal law. governor molloy says connecticut will have to go it alone and some california lawmakers are watching very closely. >> right now congress hasn't shown an ability and willingness to act on it. if that is the case, i think governors have to do everything they can to protect the people that they represent. >> governor brown has not said anything yet publicly what is happening in connecticut, but gun enthusiasts say banning the sale of weapons to the people on the no-fly list is unconstitutional. saying such a ban would violate the prince of being innocent until proven guilty. president obama's advisors right now finalizing bypassing congress in the process. the executive order is certain to anger the gun lobby and supporters on capitol hill.

one adviser said the president wants it on his desk as soon as possible. the president shares the pain and the frustration of those mourning pass shootings like those in san bernardino and connecticut. back with another season. >> scott mcgrew, we're talking about an overnight sensation. >> became so well-known, sam, they made fun of it "on saturday night live." a spinoff of this american life in 68 million people listen to the first series of episodes about a high schooler accused of murder. the podcast raised the possibility he was innocent. he is still in prison, but his case has attracted a lot of attention. the second series will be about accused desserter bowe bergdahl. released by the taliban during a prisoner exchange but in trouble for deserting his post in afghanistan. the first post is available for downloads now. a few minutes ali babba

said it's buying the newspaper based in hong kong. promises the paper will keep its independent editorial voice. congress, if it manages to keep the doors of government open willy vote on a ban of attacks on internet connections forever. right now you do pay a tax on your phone bill and a tax on your cable bill for your cable connection but not tax on internet connection and congress seems to want to keep it that way. and the "wall street journal" says u.p.s. is struggling to keep up with deliveries as we order more and more stuff online. pressed managers into service in warehouses andan anecdotally people are talk from amazon that their packages will be late. you still have time for christmas, but hawn is definitely running out. >> you have to plan ahead of time. tough thing to do. >> the toughest is the u.p.s.

driver. >> thank you. well, you may see more dead sea lions popping up along the california coast as you go for a walk this season. scientists with the national oceanic administration we call it noaa blaming it on water temperatures in the ocean. many sea pups were below their normal weight. the unprecedented changes in the ecosystem also linked with a lack of food and that has contributed to the decline of the sea lion population. marine biologists say more than 3,000 starving and dead sea lions were found at shore throughout california between january and may. if you see one on the beach, though, do not try to help it back into the water. well, the waters were rockier this week. we were talking about waves up to 20 feet high during the height of this storm. >> that is still going on. yes. the high waves, coastal flooding a concern and we not only have

that warm water across the california coast off shore, but also some of these storms moving through and that's what we call el nino. enhancing the storm that we're seeing rolling through right now and producing heavier amounts of rainfall. and it's still spinning across the northwest. the center of that low pressure and we're still catching waves of that rain right now and check out the heavy snow that's coming down in the sierra where they're expecting a few feet of snow the sierra along with some high wind gusts over 100 miles per hour there. for us, our winds have been at about 20 to 30 miles per hour. and we're still seeing some of that rain even a little bit of some lightning in the past few hours. but now the activity is winding down. and some of the heavier rain now proaching gilroy and you'll see that for a few minutes before that moves on. the current temperature now in the upper 40s and a strong onshore flow brings in those winds at about 25 miles per hour

sustained. it will start to relax as go into the morning. and then pick up, once again, later on this evening, with sustained winds up to 25 to 30 miles per hour. so, staying windy, staying cool and still more waves of rain moving through as you see on our future. the green is a moderate green but the yellows and reds indicate a heavier rain and possibly a fews. we will have the slight chance throughout the morning and even early afternoon. especially in the north bay and then as it moves to the south, a lot of this does weaken and at times the sun breaking out. so we will, once again, see it all just like yesterday. we did have some sunshine and then the rain rolled in, once again. we'll take a break on saturday and then there will be another system moving in on sunday to bring us more rain and sierra snow. highs today will be in the mid to to upper 50s. really kind of cool, especially with the breezy winds and the sun only peeking out every now and then. additional rainfall totals we could see between today and then

again on sunday, it looks like we could get an additional 0.75 in the south bay and over an inch in the north bay. so, our weather staying active heading into the start of next week. let's check in now with mike to see if you're slow. oh, look at that traffic. >> san jose, kari. we do have some slower spots. two of the slowest. this is north 101 and right now this is where the worst traffic is kicking in and a worst of traffic and wet roads. here it's not really a major issue. higher speeds exiting the off ramp that could be a factor. over here 101 the off ramp still affected by a car that hit the pole. it sounds like at least a couple lanes of the off ramp rufected. it was slick and i'm going to say that conditions are right that could have helped cause a spinout there. looking towards the northbound direction that's where we saw all the slowing. your typical pattern. nuthing to be surprised about. the green highlighted throughout the south bay and over here in the tri-valley and east bay. that's where your roads will be

wetter and still damp for all over the bay and slowing for hayward and 880 and 580 westbound recovers from earlier crashes and bay bridge toll plaza look similar and the metering lights are on at the bay bridge. back to you. >> thanks, mike. christmas cheer in middletown. the lake county town suffered a lot of losses during the fire when hundreds of homes were destroyed. but santa brought some happy moments and toys for children who lost everything in that fire. fire departments and other agencies throughout northern california donated hundreds of toys and the goal of this particular give away was to help make this christmas as normal as possible for those youngest fire victims. many of whom, by the way, still are not going home. people bonding together there. figuratively, here they did it literally. a guinness world record set this holiday season earlier in the week. about 3,600 people in portugal gathered with lights in hand to build the largest human christmas tree. you can even see they formed a

star on top. one dimensional, but still extremely impressive. this beat last year's record set by 3,000 people in honduras. >> looks like they're using their iphone flashlights. >> going to be a concert or something. coming up chipotle on damage control. what the chain restaurant is doing now to make sure customers don't get sick at their restaurant ever again.

today's the deadline.. and we it is 5:56. today is the deadline and we still do not have a federal budget. lawmakers are still negotiating a trillion dollar spending plan, but the talks are hung up over things like gun sales and abortion. the senate just passed a temporary spending bill and the house is expected to do the same later today. the measures will give them a bit more time to avoid a government shut down. it's 5:56 right now. call it the boston ghost train. a commuter train barreling through four stops without a conductor. an investigation under way into how this happened yesterday morning. riders say it certainly would have derailed had transit workers not taken emergency steps. they shut off electricity to the line as that train shot past

stop stop. >> everything would stop and we were trying to open up doors and we couldn't and we were trying to press a button to the emergency room and nobody heard. and the people that were in the first car were trying to knock on the door of the conductor and that's when we discovered that there was nobody there. >> emergency responders eventually tracked down the conductor. he'd been injured somehow, but no immediate word on why he was not at the controls and how the train apparently took off on its own. chipotle founder and ceo is stepping up to do more damage control. the company is working on strict new food safety practices like sanitizing some of those ingredients before they're shipped to restaurants nationwide. he's also saying sorry, apologizing to customers who have gotten sick. all of this comes after an e. coli outbreak shut down dozens of chipotle restaurants across nine states including here in california.

now, more than 140 boston college students are recovering after they got sick with the nori virus after eating at a chipotle restaurant near campus. >> the industries in place are so above industry norms that we're going to be the safest place to eat. >> cited for three health code violations and now closed for cleaning. switching the real deal to thwart thieves looking for a holiday steal as christmas is getting closer, police in california are using bait boxes to prevent thefts and actually catch the culprits from taking off with package deliveries. here's how it works. officers dress casually as they leave decoy packages on doorsteps filled with gps tracking and fake electronics. >> we want to put as much in there as we can so they look at it and say, yeah, there is a bunch of good stuff in here and i'm going to go ahead and take it. >> to help ensure your package arrives, make sure your ho're h on the expected delivery date.

ask them to hold the package and request it be sent with a signature requirement. right now at 6:00, new video just in to our newsroom, a car slams into a power pole and then bursts into flamps. the reason this car likely lost control in the first place. plus, wet weather a plenty this morning from heavy downpours to lightning and even some hail blanketing bay area roadways. our live team coverage is just moments away. face-to-face with four armed robbers inside her family's jewelry store. how she managed to scare them away. "today in the bay" starts right now. it is friday morning. thank you very much for joining us. i'm sam brock. >> i'm kris sanchez in for laura garcia-cannon. while you were sleeping or perhaps when you wering up wild weather rolling through the bay area and not over yet. not only rain, but we also heard thunder and hail, as well. >> could have woken you up as we

have live team coverage now of the storm this morning. let's get right to meteorologist kari hall and how much longer will the rain last? >> at least until early afternoon. we'll still see the waves of rain moving into the bay area and we've seen this off and on at times taking breaks. but you, as you take a look at the radar, you can still see some rain to the north and even some lightning off shore. so, with that all of this energy we will still be tracking more of wet weather and creating slick conditions as you head out. a look at the temperatures now and the low 40s in the east bay and upper 40s in the bay. cool all across the board and highs today reaching into the upper 50s with, once again, times of rain. but also times of sunshine, too. kind of like yesterday. i'll detail what else to expect as we head into the weekend. but let's see how the roads are moving with mike. >> take folks to the bay bridge. the tolla is full. that's not a surprise and it's friday, a lighter build. we're looking