explanation as to why some cases are considered to be priorities as why others are not. >> tonight our investigative unit goes behind the scenes and talks to the people impacted by this backlog. we also breakdown the numbers and see how the problem is delaying justes the for tens of thousand of people. all of that is tonight right after the olympics on nbc bay area. if you have a tip, give us a call at 888-996-tips or just send us an e-mail to theunit@nbcbayarea.com. right now at 6:00 we continue to track a wildfire raging through our south. desperate race to save tens of thuss of homes. coming up in a live report from the front lines which you're seeing live. pete suratos in millbrae where a middle schoolteacher has been arrested for having an on going relationship with a minor. we'll have all those details coming up in a live report. and it is not the competition stealing the headlines in rio. but conflicting stories and

accounts about a robbery surrounding ryan lochte and other u.s. swimmers. the overnight developments from brazil coming up right now on "today in the bay." good morning. thanks for joining us. i'm kris sanchez in for laura garcia-cannon. >> i'm sam brock. some good news for folks have been dealing with a lot of heat here the last few days and weeks. a cooldown head into the weekend. >> temperatures will come out of the 90s into the 80s for the tri-valley. that has been baking. and the good news, air quality will start to improve. today not so much p. it is the "spare the air" alert day. you may want to carpool or use mass transit. bike into work. here's a shot from san jose. beautiful sun rise over the mountains. there are the clouds off across the foothills. we have some clouds in parts of the bay area and the inner bay and the coastline. 50s and 60s to get going this morning. later on this afternoon, good mix of 60s and 70s for the coastline. 70s around the inner bay and 80s and 90s today for the inland

valley. let's toss things over to mike. >> it's looking standard except for the south bay where we have a shift. maybe that ripple effect going on right now. we'll show you the south bay, northbound route starting to build for san jose. and at mckee we had the earlier dereported and flat tire. over on the shoulder. that distraction causes a little slowing. no lanes blocked. look at the backup starting at tully road. clearing by the time you get to oakland road. king is an option for you. you can't get back on until that same oakland road on-ramp. that may cause folks to shift over for 280 and 87 or 680. we'll watch so far the standard traffic flow here. and bay bridge toll plaza, metering lights are on. back to you, kris. we are tracking the latest developments out of southern california. this is a live look from the chopper overhead. that fire, the blue cut fire which is raging out of control. and the flames are so fierce that fchs say it is unlike anything that they have ever seen before. "today in the bay's" cheryl hurd is live near the fire lines not

far from san bernardino. cheryl, how is it looking at this hour? we see a lot of smoke behind you. >> there is a lot of smoke behind me. but right now, kris i want to show you that the trucks are lined up right here. truck drivers tell me if they have dirt inside of these trucks because they're going to go up the road on highway 15 and repair a bridge that was burned in this fire. now, last night the blue cut fire sliced through parts of san bernardino county, reducing hills and homes to ash. it was an unbelievable sight. the fire is still, as you can see from the chopper shots, going strong. and what's even more scary, no word yet on how many homes have been destroyed. 82,000 people evacuated. 5,000 from the right wood communi community. >> it's out of control. you know? it's just hot spot here, hot spot and then taking off.

>> reporter: it is still going strop strong. over my shoulder you can see the smoke coming from the fire. the fire hop scotched all over this area. you might be able to see the burned out hills here and you saw the smoke coming from over there. now, this fire is making rapid pace throughout the hills. and it's really unbelievable that they have no idea how many homes have been destroyed so far. as far as we know it's only 4% contained. we'll have an update on this fire coming up later in the newscast. reporting live in san bernardino county, i'm cheryl hurd. back to you guys in the studio. >> cheryl, thank you. those firefighters no doubt doing the best job they can to contain the fire and there have been firing all over the state of california. now back home to northern california where the clayton fire is 50% contained. as for the man accuse of setting it, damin pashilk was in court

yesterday to be charged. dpart withes have surveillance footage that puts pashilk near the clayton fire and several other fires. firefighters are helping to clean up downtown lower lake and bri bringing the town's fire chief to tears in the process. >> sweeping with brooms and shovels and washing things down and i couldn't believe it. i was so impressed, man. i was so impressed and thankful. >> all those folks in from cal fire helping rally that community. emotional time for lower lake. that fire has destroyed 175 homes. new this morning, five people are out of their homes in concord after a fire ripped through their duplex. not a wild fire, just house fire which started before 3:00 this morning on glen brook court. firefighters say it started in the kitchen of one of the unit there's. everyone did make it out safely. while investigators know where the fire started, they're still looking to find out why and how.

and now to much sunnier news, the olympic games where competitions are captivating but still the world is talking about possible scandal and questions surrounding several team usa swimmers. >> we did learn late last night two of them were taken off of a plane heading to the u.s. and detained. all of this stemming from an alleged robbery they say happened last weekend. >> nbc bay area anchor jessica aguirre is in rio where authorities say the athletes' stories just don't add up. >> kris an sam i'm here at copacabana beach. behind me is the "today" show set. matt lauer spoke to ryan lochte. while lochte is sticking to his story they were robbed, he has tweaked some of the details. telling lawyer that they weren't stopped by a group of men but rather they were robbed at a gas station. and also saying that the robbers didn't actually point a gun to his head but rather in his direction. either way, brazilian

authorities want to know more. >> were you guys robbed? >> after being pulled home american swimmers jack conger and gunnar bentz is expected to answer more questions later today. teammate jimmy feigen also cooperating with investigators who say their inconsistencies in the swimmers stories about being robbed at gun point by men posing as police early sunday morning in rio. police hoped to also talk with ryan lochte who was involved in that incident. buts he's already back in the u.s. lochte is denying that there's any sort of a cover-up. he told matt lauer that brazilian police are not questioning his truthfulness at all, rather that they congratulated him on his performance in the pool and thanked him for being part of that investigation. kris and sam? >> thanks, jess. the investigation is causing plenty of distractions in rio but there were some very important competitions for bay area athletes last night as well. like south bay's own kerri walsh jennings. she and her teammate april ross

beat out the brazilian duo of larissa and talita to bring out the bronze medal for team usa. this is walsh jennings' fourth olympic medal. our own jessica aguirre just spoke where the bay area olympian just moments ago. she's going to bring us her exclusive interview coming up at 6:45. just wanted to hit the hard news first. >> her gold medal streak might be unbroken but still bringing home hardware from rio. new this morning, one person is in custody after a car smashed into a store in san mateo. you see the result there. glass everywhere. this was the scene just after 3:00 this morning at the precoc home fitness store. the car smashed through the window spending ellipticals flying into the air. police say the driver of that car suffered only minor injuries. officers later arrested the driver on suspicion of driving under the influence. a middle schoolteacher is behind bars accuse of having an inappropriate relationship with

a young girl. "today in the bay's" pete suratos is live at taylor middle school in millbrae with the details. pete, this comes just before the start of the school year. the kids do not need this distraction as they head back to class next week. >> reporter: yes, kris, you know school starts here a week from today. it's heather amanda butts. she's a teacher here at taylor middle. she has been arrested for what authorities are calling inappropriate relationship with a minor. we can pull up that mug shot picture when she was booked yesterday. it all started on monday when san bruno police got a call about butts and minor having an inappropriate relationship in a parked car and after further investigation they determined that this relationship had been ongoing. an arrest warrant was issued and arrested at her millbrae home. she faces lewd acts with a mine. >> narrator:. now school starts a week from today as this investigation continues. if you have any information that can help with in case, contact san bruno police. live in millbrae, pete suratos for "today in the bay."

>> we've been talking a lot about the wildfires, the skies behind us though are reflecting some of that smoke that's coming into the area. >> air quality an issue today, anthony . >> we do have a "spare the air" aler alert. keep that in mind. you can see from san jose waking up to sunshine. fog out there as well. some low clouds across the foothills. 62 degrees right now. in san francisco, there's the fog. mostly cloudy skies right now at 58 degrees. we are expecting this fog to burn off rather quickly today as these winds out of the south will continue to bring in a lot of that smoke sprt soberanes fire and the rest of the smoke in the air is just going to make our air quality unhealthy through the rest of the day. air quality does improve but here's your forecast for today. again, still hot for the inland valleys. 93 for the tri-valley. 88 for the south bay. comfortable a and cool at the coastline. 65 degrees for san francisco. we'll talk about that weekend forecast coming up in a bit. but mike, you're concerned about the south bay. what's going on? >> right about now is when we

start to see a lot more traffic volume around the south bay freeways. seeing additional slowing because of that crash we talked about 101 down here. look, the rest of your bay moves well except for out of antioch and in toward pittsburg. westbound highway 4 jammed as well. north 101 at mckee. this crash addressing flat tires on the shoulder. that's enough of a distraction. it looks like traffic is starting to move better. backing up just before you get to story road. still tracking that and asking chp for the latest update. the live camera shows us quite a bit of traffic jamming up 680. haven't seen this live shot show improvement but again, the sensors do show traffic is starting to improve south of here. we'll track this trend, guys. back to you. >> thank you, mike. 6:11. up next on "today in the bay," a major step forward for the lgbtq community. the changes happening today at thousands of federal buildings across the country. epi pen we'll tell what changes there, too. >> absolutely. also talk about the cuts at

cisco. not as bad as we thought in the south bay but still bad. we'll take a look coming up. ♪ ♪keep on the sunny side ♪always on the sunny side ♪keep on the sunny side of life♪

♪keep on the sunny side ♪always on the sunny side ♪keep on the sunny side of life♪

coming up on 6:15 on your thursday morning. every federal building in united states must allow transgender

employees to use bathrooms that match their gender identity. the agency that overseas thousands of the buildings issued a notice on that yesterday. this applies to 9,000 buildings and offices in more than 2,000 different cities. the agency says the discrimination on the basis of gender identity is prohibited. lawmakers this week approved a bill to eliminate sales tax on diapers. this is a measure that applies to diapers size 3 and under. it is now sitting on governor brown's desk awaiting approval. a similar bill to eliminate tax for feminine hygiene products is also working its way through legislature. a device doctor say can save a child's life now costs five times as much as it did just seven years ago. that has parents outraged with some saying they can no longer afford to buy those epi pens. the epi pen can stop a potentially deadly aler jek reaction in its track. in 2009 it cost $100.

now it's about $600. the high cost has some cash strapped parents opting out and just rolling the dice. mylan says the cost has changed over time because it reflects product changes. another medical cost that has spiktd recently. the drugs you'ded by aids patients has been disinvited from speaking at a conference. >> he had been invited, kris, to speak at a life sciences shkrel. while he was ceo he raised the price from $13.50 a pill to $750. i don't know why he's moving so fast. but he was arrested on securities fraud charges. scientists at the conference asked that he be uninvited. you recall elizabeth holmes,

ceo of theranos. some scientists were so incensed by her presence they quit their membership of the american association for clinical chemistry. cisco says it will cut 5500 employees, far fewer than the 14,000 we wering looking at this time yesterday. but one important point, cisco based in san jose can announce more layoffs any time it wants. there's nothing stopping it from adding to that number later this year. that said, rather, it does look like 5500. cisco makes the stuff that makes the internet go. the servers and switchers and other hardware. the problem is american business is moving away from making stuff in favor of services and software. stuff is a difficult business. kris and sam, the poster child for not making stuff is gopro. it makes a camera. it's a marvelous camera. everybody likes a gopro. but it's easily copyable. anybody can make it. probably cheaper than gopro can.

analysts roger kay told reuter, quote, hardware engineers are now probably the least attractive skill set manageable in the valley. that's got to be hard to wake up to if you're a hardware engineer. >> no kidding. if you have kids going to college and you're trying to help them pick their major, no, don't be an engineer. >> don't be a hardware. don't make stuff. don't make stuff that's in a box. make ideas. >> that's a good sell. >> innovation. thank you, scott. the children's discovery museum planted a one of a kind tree this week. that's not actually the tree yet. but that's what it will look like. it's a genetically modified tree that its creator believes may one day grow up to 40 different so-called stone fruit or frights with seeds. i've got your attention. the museum is showing off a picture of what it's expected to hook like at some point in the future. a lot of colors there. >> we had a grass of two stone fruits in our yard at one point. apricot and neck maritarine.

i'm a serious gardener, sort of serious. my husband does the gardening. >> serious truth shall set you free. very serious about the school date forecast here. a lot of kids going back to the first day today. >> the first full week for most as we get into the next week it's going to cool down. while it's been hot over the past couple of days we are on the cooling end tr side as we get into the next few days. today you will notice temperatures a little bit cooler but not by much. you will feel it probably by this weekend. you can see clouds rolling in to san jose this morning. that's indicative of a cooler day for again most of us. 58 in san francisco. as we get going through the day, another warm day as highs climb back into the 80s and 90s. look at our winds today. directly out of the south blowing to the north so this soberanes fire to our south is going to bring smoke into the bay area across the south bay and the east bay. so we have moderate to unhealthy

air quality for the next 24 hours. it is the "spare the air" alert day. keep that in mind if you can carpool or use mass transit. cool in san francisco. a good mix of low to mid 60s. napa, you will be up to 84 this afternoon. santa rosa, 83. concord, 93. pleasanton, mid 90s for the tri-valley. look at ur winds around it. coming out of the east, directly out of the east. that is an off shore wind. what that's going to mean is warm temperatures and fire concern over the next couple days as that trough slides down the coastline. we will cool off by saturday and sunday back in the 80s and same for next week looking nice and cool. 60s staying put at the coastline. mike, how is that morning commute shaping up? >> i got better news for the south bay. we should see improvement. sensors are showing a plitt bit of that in san jose. the rest of the bay looks good for this thursday.

as schools come online and especially in san jose state, san francisco state, cal berkeley, as they all come online we're going the see more commuting at different times. we'll track those changes. 101 with improvement as all activity now cleared from 101 north at mckee. some slowing for 87 and some folks may have shifted over k-sexpressway. watch this trend here. the live look shows you we do see that the headlights are moving much better than ten minutes ago. san mateo bridge westbound 92 moves slower with as more volume of traffic. no major problems. 880 getting here. slow off of 238. hayward and down past hayward in toward tennison and union city and fremont. that's the trend. back to you. coming up next, we are joined with another one of our viewers problems solved. >> yes, we like it when they're solved. good morning. the cable bill suddenly spikes in this case at a cost of nearly

two grand over the next two years. so we got to tackle this one. nbc bay area responds next. good morning from rio. coming up on a thursday here on "today ", four u.s. swimmers including ryan lochte. two of his teammates detained at the airport overnight. what lochte had to say in a conversation we had on the phone. also ahead, kerri walsh jennings and april ross stop by after their big win in beach volleyball, bronze medal match. a hard fought one there. >> and the most dominant women's gymnastics team ever. what's next for the final five after taking rio by storm? we'll find out when they all join us live. >> we're going to get rt stead just in a little bit right here on "today." comfort food...

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to a hayward man who needed help with his cable bill. ==sam/ nbc bay area responds to a hayward man who needed help with his cable bill. >> consumer investigator investigator chris chmura is here to show us how he saved him money after bundling gone wrong. >> bupd of frustration. good morning. let me show you what happened. it's michael emerson who called us. he said he's signed up for a bundle that offered him cable from directv plus internet and phone from at&t. he said he verbally agreed to pay $126 a month when he signed up over the phone. $126 plus tax per month for two years. after installation in july his statement was at $165 plus tax. the internet and phone had jumped he said.

adding almost a thousand dollars to what he expected to pay over the next two years. he says he got nowhere with at&t so he called us. well, after two weeks of research, they got back to us with a new price. they responded with $111 per month. not a bad deal. at&t ultimately ended up apologizing in a statement, it said that it wants its customers to have an effortless experience and it's happy it could identify a special promotion for michael. qualified for $111 a month. not bad. if you have a consumer complaint contact us. call 888-996-tips or visit nbcbayarea.com/responds. click the yellow submit tips bar. you can share information, photos, documents, and videos. so we can investigate your case. this is the trouble with that auto payment. you just set to it auto pay, you don't think about it. luckily michael was savvy enough to check the statement, compare

it against what he had written down when he signed up and, boom, saved himself a grand. >> i was at a barbecue not long ago and they were like, okay, this is a nationwide consumer investigator. he's never really going to answer our questions. i said, no, i've met him in person, had lunch with him. you're here. >> you're here. we're here to help. >> holding the powerful accountable. >> have a great day. future of transportation in san francisco is under brown. the city meets its future head-on. new city sponsored website called con net sf will launch today. it helps to refine plans in the city designing new underground transportation. the chronicle reports public input is encouraged. you can go to the website and provide your own ideasn't where future subways should go. it is hoped the website would help prioritize long-term projects. coming up, gunfire erupt on a busy east bay street. surveillance image of the gunman police want you to see.

i'm bob redell. live in the south bay. update you on the condition of a baby delivered after its teenage mom was killed in a horrific car crash. that story is coming up. we are live in san bernardino county. and we'll have the latest on that blue cut fire. =kris/4shot=

good morning - and thanks for joining us. i'm kris sanchez... in for laura garcia cannon. =sam/4shot= and i'm br good morning. thanks for joining us. i'm kris sanchez in today for sanjay gup laura garcia-cannon. >> i'm sam brock. we've been seeing 90s inland. take those, get rid of them. exchange them for 80s. >> finally cooler weather. i know. in fact, for the school -- back to schoolers we're going to look at cooler weather, especially

next week. yes, it may put a smile on your face. especially if you don't have air conditioning. it's been well centering. natural ac is kicking in. san francisco completely fogged in. all thanks to mother nature. you can see another shot from san jose. the fog didn't make its way inland but a good mix of sun and clouds across the south bay as well. 50s and 60s. later on this afternoon we'll see a wide spread in temperatures. 60 in half-moon bay. 95 in livermore. just drive 15 minutes and you know the deal, if you don't like the weather, drive 15 minutes and you may like it. let's talk to mike tracking commuters driving 15 minutes. >> you can get farther in 15 minutes now for highway 101 because traffic is moving better. look at your map. it's not that bad. a little build though out of hayward off of 880 and across the san mateo bridge. 101 northbound that was the problem. earlier debris and crash and flat tires repair work. all cleared from mckee. seeing smooth there drive. slow from capital expressway to oakland road where you're clear

again. 87 capital and curtner. we haven't seen much more shift. that ripple effect i was worried about. that's better news. over here in the tri-valley, smooth flow of traffic. lighter for hayward. we're looking toward the bay bridge toll plaza with the backup and metering lights. can't get away from that. back to you. >> thank you. we are tracking the latest developments out of southern california where the so-called blue cut fire is still raging out of control. the flames so fierce firefighters say it is unlike anything that they have seen before. >> here are the latest numbers. 80,000 people remain under evacuation orders. 1500 firefighters are now on the front lines and more than 25,000 acres charred. "today in the bay's" cher hurd is live right near the fire lines. cheryl, are you seeing any let-up at this hour? >> reporter: no, not at all, sam. i am live here at cajon pass. if you're familiar with this area you know that i am right above highway 15. as you can see, northbound 15 is

open and that's a good thing because it's a major highway for commuters and the road to las vegas. now, above the highway you can see -- no, coming from that blue cut fire, it moves quickly overnight. look at these flames. we captured with our camera overnight. this wildfire is ferocious. as you said, 25,000 acres burned and still growing. 1500 weary firefighters on the ground, on the front line. only 4% contained. now the small community is a ghost town right now. the sheriff's department standing by making sure looters don't take advantage of an already bad situation. >> police and communicating with people off the hill that had to leave and letting them know that, you know, it's still standing. you're all right. it's comfort to some of them off the hill already. >> reporter: now, the sad part about it all, no official word

on how many homes have been destroyed. as i said earlier, only 4% contained. now, we will be here all day long to bring you the latest on our newscast at 5:00 and 6:00 this evening. reporting live from san bernardino county, i'm cheryl hurd, "today in the bay." >> certainly urgent situation there, cheryl. thank you very much. 6:34. we are learning more about the man accused of setting a devastating fire in northern california at the clayton fire just to our north in lake county. cal fire says former inmate firefighter damin pashilk is aer is use arsonist. the ex-con made his first appearance in court yesterday. he did not enter a plea. he's facing several felony charges accused of setting seven fires in northern california in july and all august of last year and then ten more in july and august of this year. cal fire just provided us with another update. the fire is now 55% contained, up from 50%. and now to a heartbreaking

story in the south bay where a horrific crash took the life of a young pregnant woman. bob redell is live in medical center in san jose. the family taking a small bit of comfort in the fact the baby did survive. >> reporter: you are correct. good morning, kris. at last report that baby is still in critical condition here at valley med. behind me sadly the 18-year-old oh stow the baby's mother, 18-year-old woman, did not survive the crash yesterday on highway 101. even though initially it appeared that her injuries were minor. so this was yesterday morning at 2:00 in the morning. a man driving a honda civic with his pregnant passenger somehow swerved into the back of a bmw that was parked along the tight shoulder of southbound 101. both cars were totaled. 20-year-old driver of the honda and 22-year-old driver of the beamer both taken to the hospital for complaints of pain. the pregnant woman who officers

first said onlied a minor injuries were also taken to valley med because her legs hurt. as it turned out she had major internal injuries and died a few hours later in the operating room. her baby as i mentioned was saved, is in critical condition. a source telling nbc bay area news they are now more optimistic that the baby will survive. the chp does not believe the driver of the pregnant teen to have been under the influence but officers did arrest the driver of the bmw for dui. they're still trying to figure out why he pulled his car over to the shoulder in the first place. reporting live here in san jose, bob redell, "today in the bay." >> bob, thank you. continuing coverage now on pretrial motions for the man accuse of killing sierra lamar. bitter fight continues over where her accused killer is going to be tried. defense attorneys for garcia torres argued that media coverage makes it impossible to find an impartial jury in santa clara county. the judge allowed a new defense

expert expected to support that argument p the judge must still decide whether to throw out statements that garcia torres made to deputies when he was first questioned. both sides are expected to be back this court later today. also a pretrial hearing is scheduled today for the man accuse of bizarre vallejo kidnapping. matthew mueller is charged with kidnapping denise huskins last year and drugging her boyfriend. it garnered national attention when the police initially called the story a hoax. but then they lichked him to the kidnapping. mueller pleaed not guilty. the gunfire ear rubted in emeryville after two men were chasing down another car. look at the picture. this is a surveillance photo of one of the gunmen. you see him hanging out the window with a weapon. police say another shooter not photographed was also in that white sedan. all of this happened on adeline

street between 45th and 47 streets yesterday. you know how busy the area. the men appeared to be following another car when they sprayed a number of bullets into the neighborhood. >> right now we're looking for a person in a white vehicle. appears to be a black male adult. second black male adult that's a shooter in the vehicle also. >> police say no one was hurt during this shooting. amazingly. but they are asking for help in identifying these men and that car. it has been hot and dry conditions for a while in the bay area. but some changes in the works right now. let's send it over to anthony slaughter in for kari. >> we've been looking at temperatures in the 90s. finally going to start to see a cooling trend in the weekend. if you're making plans for any outdoor activity this weekend it's not going to be as hot. but still, good beach weather if you're headed to the beach. 58 in san francisco. 56 in the tri-valley. 62 in the south bay. we've got sunshine. same deal for the tri-valley. where we have the sun right now is where we are going to see warm temperatures.

93 degrees for the tri-valley today. 88 for the south bay. and 65 nice and cool in san francisco. our winds today are out of the south and that's going to bring in a lot of smoke from the soberanes fire burning still actively. we do have a "spare the air" alert for today. most unhealthy air quality will be across the east bay and the south bay. we'll talk about the weekend forecast and this cooldown headed our way. in the meantime, let's talk to mike who has been tracking the south bay but you're going to take us to the peninsula right now. >> want to show folks the peninsula looks great. low clouds and some fog. so keep that in mind. golden gate bridge may be across the bay bridge. the speeds are fine along the coast. looking north of the san mateo bridge. there's nothing really unusual. just the bay bridge toll plaza with the metering lights on. again, that's not unusual. looking anywhere south of there and we were concentrated on 101 right here northbound toward mckee where there was an earlier crash. over on the shoulder. that's where they're still recovering. 897 from capital, 101 as well from capital up in towards 280. typical slow direction.

there and 85 starting to slow gown from 17. clearing by the time you get to saratoga. in that congestion we do see more slowing built up over the last ten minutes. i think that's just more volume of traffic but i'm moving the camera just to make sure. >> as many cameras. mike, thank you very much. coming up next on the "today in the bay," a couple drops their dog off with a sitter only to find out later that that doc is dead. the popular app being linged to that pet owner's nightmare. it looks as if the mack of the nsa is far worse than we thought. i have a whole list of bad news for you. let's look at the big board. dow off ever so slightly. i'm jessica aguirre live from copacabana beach where it's been a car paid of athlete iing coming up, i'll tell you what simone biles and kerri walsh jennings had to pell me about their olympic run.

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from us crystal geyser. always bottled at the mountain source. ==kris/cu== it's a pet owner's worst nightmare. a bay area couple dropped their our next story is a pet owner's worst nightmare. a bay area couple dropped their dog off with a sitter and less than 12 hours later their dog was dead. oakland couple say they used the pet boarding app dog vacay and just after they left the silter called them and said their 6-year-old dog pippen died along with another dog after being

left in a hot car outside a park. nbc bay area tried to talk with that sitter but no luck. this while the owner is left looking for answers and wondering how something like this could happen. >> he meant everything. we've had him since he was, you know, 8 weeks old. >> we did reach out to the app maker dog vacay. the company save us a statement with condolences and said it banned that sitter from the app. we are coming up on a quarter to 7:00 on you were thursday morning. it is looking more and more as if the alleged hack of the national security agency is legitimate. >> let's take you to scott mcgrew. this the very bad news. >> such bad news, i have literally made a list of bad news things. i'm going to show you my bad news list in a minute. to remind you what's going on hackers say they stole the software that the nsa uses to hack other countries' computers. the bad guys then posted samples

of the spy tool s online and thy say they will sell that software to the highest bidder. cisco systems makes the sort of computer servers people might want to hack. the company took a look at the samples hackers posted and said, yep, they could be used to hack cisco routers. cisco posted a security update to the problem. from that we can conclude that not only did the u.s. government figure out how to hack u.s. made computers, it didn't tell cisco it could do that. the government's been encouraging silicon valley companies to share the so-called zer voe day hack so it can be fixed but apparently the government doesn't share. edward snowden, formally nsa engineer, now the guest of russia, said in a tweet, circumstantial evidence and conventional wisdom indicates russian responsibility. which is pretty brave when you live in russia. so sam and kris, he's your list of bad news. assuming the hack is real and the russians did it, that would mean russia a already accused of trying to affect our elections

have the best hacking software ahead of our own presidential elections. they could give it to criminals who can use tools against our banking systems and other sensitive industries and what might be worst of all, once the world knows what our skeleton keys look like we can't use them because they have the equivalent of a digital fingerprint so it would identify us as the attacker. we can't use our own nsa tools against other countries because it would be obvious that it came from the americas. >> two-prong effect. a, we're vulnerable now and we can't fight back. >> it's our own gun, we can't use it but can be used against us. >> wow. >> more than just a pickle. >> you're right. this is bad news. back to our coverage from rio. more bad news. not the competition itself that everyone is talking about this morning. it is the latest twist in the debate over what really happened to ryan lochte and several other swimmers who say they were robbed at gun point. late l.a. night two u.s. swimmers were removed from their

flight headed home just moments after takeoff. they must have been removed right before takeoff. jack conger and gunnar bentz are expected to answer more questions. today their passports have been confiscated. teammate jimmy feigen is also said to be cooperating with the authorities. brazilian officials say there are inconsistencies in the swimmer aes stories about being robbed at gun point by men posing as police early sunday morning in rio. surveillance video obtained by "the daily mail" in uk show the swimmers clearing security at the athletes village hours after the incident. the judge noting the swimmers appear to be joking and unshaken. "today" show's matt lauer spoke with ryan lochte by phone who is already back in the u.s. >> he said that's when the guy pointed the gun in my direction and cocked it. i said to him, you said before it was placed on your forehead and cocked. he said, no, that's not exactly what happened. i think he feels it was more of

a traumatic mischaracterization. >> legal analyst say if the men lied they could face charges equivalent to a misdemeanor. >> all right. that story obviously we will continue to follow. now back to the games where it was big bounce back on the sand for south bay native kerri walsh generalings. >> jessica aguirre is live at the famed copacabana beach. jez, it's so nice to see you. i've been following you on instagram and twitter. you just spoke with two of the best known olympians. >> not only two of the best known olympians. i've had a par rid of olympians here, kris and sam. this is cope a beacabana beach. it's been a parade of athletes here. yes, we spoke to all five members of the final five. we talked to the team u.s. hurdlers that swept gold, silver, and bronze. talked to matt lauer and hoda and kerri walsh jennings about what happened here right behind me in the sand there. walsh said she got the bronze, that it is not bittersweet

because she worked hard to get that bronze. even though she's always wanted gold before, she and her teammate april ross had to dig deep to get this medal. >> it was just an ugly bound of passing the night before. usually we overcome it and offset errors like that. it didn't happen the night before. as an athlete those things happen. obviously you don't want to have them in the semifinals of the olympics. that was new for me and that was pretty devastating. with that big said, i'm a big girl and i signed up for this and i made my own bed. i had those words and i was talking tough but it took me a while to start actually feeling tough because it was really, really devastating for me. >> what do you feel when people tell you you are the best gymnast in the world? >> i guess i don't think anything of it because it still hasn't hit me yet. but it's a huge accomplishment and to share it with the girls is -- it's like none other. >> yes, that's the real simone biles, the gold medalist.

she was right here along with her teammate aly raisman and the rest of the girls talking about how they're not done yet. they've got all these attribute, won all of these medals and now going on a 36-city tour to do more gymnastics but they are ecstat ecstatic. can't wait to go back and share with it their friends. they're going to have a big pizza party when they go back. kerri walsh tells us she miss her family and the south bay. she is a north cal girl at heart. at the last olympics when she left in 2012 shortly after she announced she was pregnant. i asked her, are you pregnant now by any chance? he said, no, no, no. but she didn't rule out the possibility of a fourth baby. she's thinking about it and thinking about whether she will come back for another round and another try at gold again. but you know what? all around, everybody here very happy day here at copacabana beach. >> pregnancy seems to help her in her gold efforts. that's for sure. thank you, jess. >> copacabana beach looks good on jessica.

>> working so hard. i am so happy to hear kerri walsh say i was devastated. >> yes. >> i had to get over it and i came back. that is what you want to hear. how do they cope with it. >> good lesson for the kids, too. >> trained athletes. they're not trained to stand up in front of the media and talk about heartbreak in their field. she did it really nicely there. nice start to our thursday morning. and things are going to cool down. >> we got a cooldown headed for the weekend. if you're getting back to school over the next couple days. if you're already back to school, looking at cooler weather into next week as well. it's been a hot week across the bay area. here's the indicative thing we look at here. here's the fog. yes. natural ac that rolls on through and cools our air down. we are looking at slightly cooler conditions today. even in san jose, 85. mostly cloudy skies. a lot of fog didn't actually push all of the way in south san jose. we got sunshine. later on this afternoon we'll have full sun. hot and hazy. the smoke burning to -- the fire burning to our south will bring the smoke in the bay area.

unhealthy air quality for today. weekend air quality improved. temperatures back off. next week is not as hot. getting rid of the 90s. right now in the 50s and 60s for the most part. 57 in palo alto. 58 in santa cruz. same in san francisco. winds coming out of the south. gotting to blow the smoke into the south bay and the east bay. that's where we have the most unhealthy air quality for today. here's the forecast for your thursday. 85 for san jose. 64 today for pacifica. 73 for san mateo. comfortable in palo alto, up to 79. 73 for oakland. meanwhile, the tri-valley will still see very hot temperatures we're talking mid 90s for dublin. pleasanton, livermore. and concord. 93 there as well. we do have a trough making its way down the coastline and that's going to continue to meander. around it you get those counter clock wise winds. we're going to be looking at is winds offshore over the next couple of days and that is a very dry warm wind and indicative of fire danger as well. so we will see temperatures cool off back into the 80s for this weekend and same deal for next week. so comfortable.

even at the coastline we will see temperatures not as hot. nice beach weather headed our way this weekend. mid to upper 60s. close to 70. mike, tracking issues for b.a.r.t. >> a warning for b.a.r.t. riders because just like yesterday and continuing through september 9th during the day. weekdays 10:00 to 2:00, delays single tracking hayward to fremont. doing track maintenance. yesterday 30-minute delays. may see the same today. meanwhile, tracking commute and northbound routes now smoothing out. 101 and 87 both slow from capital expressway heading up toward 280. over here at mckee, smoothed out. much better than we saw ten minutes ago. now seeing a typical pattern throughout the rest of the south bay. moving up for 85 and saratoga. clear knot of there and cupertino and sunnyvale. nowing looking over toward the les rest of your commute. highway 4 recovers out of antioch. crash in pittsburg that cleared from railroad and getting over toward the bay bridge. no longer a problem through that area. we'll show you fremont. showing traffic flow southbound

880. nice easy drive down in toward milpitas and over toward 237. back to you. >> thank you very much. coming up, what we're learning about a destructive early morning fire in the east bay. not a wildfire. left several people without a place to live. first, happening right now. two days be fr the i think are ling brothers circus begins a series of shows in oakland, two city council members and animal rights activists say they're very glad the circus decided to stop using elephants in performances sooner than planned. more on that story on nbcbayarea.com. plus, olympic coverage in rio continues right now on our facebook page. get a glimpse of life in the olympic city as we take you on a tour of a local marketplace.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ one journey. two teams. united for over 35 years.

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learned that it has burned more than 31,000 acres, which is up from 25,000 yesterday. all of it happening near the cajon pass. about 60 miles east of los angeles. so far no word on the number of homes and structures destroyed because the firefighters are so busy fighting the fire they can't even count it but they do tell us they expect that number will be high. some 80,000 residents are under evacuation orders. in the meantime, at least five people are out of their homes in concord this morning after a fire ripped through their duplex. this broke out just before 3:00 on glen brook court. firefighters say it started in the kitchen in one of those units. everyone did make it out safely. while investigators know where the fire began they're still looking into how it actually started. one person is in custody after hitting gym literally. a car smashed into a fitness store in san mateo. this was the scene just after 3:00 this morning at a precor home fitness place at fourth avenue and el camino. the car sent ellipticals flying

into the air. police say the driver of the car suffered minor injuries and was later arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. good thing it happened while there was no one inside of the actual gym. >> yeah. >> 6:59. as we said we've been following multiple fire situations. southern cal, clayton fire. dry, hot conditions for the most part. >> we do have a "spare the air" alert today. a lot of the smoke from the fire burning to our south and move into the south and east bay today. 80s anoints inland. 70s around the bay. 60s along the coastline. i was worried. look at your map. overall the bay looks good. san jose, we were worried because northbound 101 earlier issue at mckee. we see some slowing. a little extra than you might expect. but that incident has cleared. that ripple effect hasn't effected the rest of the silicon valley. slowing now through hayward for southbound 880 moving in toward union city. a typical pattern making its way toward the dumbarton bridge. >> more kids heading back to school so be careful. that glare is brutal this time of day.

>> reminder we will see you again in half an hour with another local live news update. >> and olympic coverage starts at 10:00 right after "today." this morning a clean swept of of gold, silver and bronze in the hurdles. plus, rallies in a dramatic fashion in bronze in beach volleyball. and hot water? two of ryan's teammates pulled from a team as they were on there way home from rio. officials now questioning the accounts of four swimmers that say that they were victims of a robbery. does the story hold up. what ryan