- - - - good saturday morning to you. it is 7:00 on the dot on this november 24th. rainy look outside at christmas in the park which opened officially last night in downtown san jose. thanks so much for joining us. i'm kira klapper. meteorologist rob mayeda is in for vianey arana and you have a look at our microclimate forecast and you have a little bit of everything today. >> we got fog, misty skies,

light showers as you saw there around christmas in the park, an interesting view above the clouds. how about that? a blanket of clouds. >> pretty. >> its kept our temperatures up. you see san francisco underneath what we'll call hair spay rain. a light mist out there. 57 degrees in san jose and san francisco. cloudy with a few showers right near dounlt. you can see our radar, nothing like yesterday, but just enough to keep an umbrella on standby for those morning walks as you can see with the clouds sticking around for the morning. we'll see graduateual clearing as we head toward the afternoon and evening, partly cloudy skies and a dry day tomorrow. highs today in the low 60s, a few showers early and then the seven-day forecast brings in another series of storms, three, in fact. >> and we need it and it'll be nice to get a break in between. we'll see you in 15, rob. thanks. this morning one person is

dead and three others seriously injured following a rollover crash on 280 in san jose. the california highway patrol and san jose fire responded around 2:00 a.m. to find all four people trapped inside this damaged white mercedes. it took crews 15 minutes to cut them from the car. the four victims were transferred to the hospital as trauma patients. one died about an hour later. another is being treated for life-threatening injuries. speed, alcohol and drugs have not yet been ruled out by the chp warns all of us that wet roads likely contributed to the crash as it was raining during the rescue. >> oh, my gosh! >> no! oh, boy, a startling moment in san francisco when this commuter ferry crashed into the dock at the ferry building. it sent people on the pier running and jolted customers inside the slanted door restaurant. an investigation into what caused the crash is under way. take a look at the video again. the ms san francisco bounced off

the landing berth and launched toward the dock. the golden gate bridge district says 53 people and five crew members were on board. two people were treated for minor injuries. one passenger spoke to us telling us what happened before the crash. >> there was no indication from the captain that we were in trouble. we just noticed that we bounced off the first part of the dock and then we kept going and we thought, oh, no, we're going in way too fast. >> the impact left the dock and railing damaged and look at that, ripped two holes in the front of the vessel. crew members will be tested for drugs and alcohol, which is standard procedure. the u.s. coast guard will be interviewing them and looking at navigation equipment on board to try to figure out what happened. meanwhile, investigators say the vessel will be towed today so they can take a closer look at it. and a home surrounded by flames, no one was hurt, but the house is a total loss.

this happened on fairmont avenue not far from richardson park. the fire sparked around 8:30 last night. firefighters were able to put out the flames in about 30 minutes. the cause of that fire is under investigation. some much needed rainfall in butte county is helping firefighters battling the camp fire. the great news is containment is now at 95%, but the wet weather also is presenting difficulties making it tough for crews searching for human remains. what once was sifting through dirt and soil is now sifting through mud. the death toll stands at 84 with 475 people still unaccounted for. flames scorched more than 153,000 acres and flattened more than 13,000 homes. the downpour, some people tell us -- some people tell us they wished the downpour had come sooner. >> i really wish it would have came before the fire and we probably wouldn't have lot all

of our homes. >> so far no reports of any mudslides nor flooding in those burn zones. police are calling it a miracle. a man was rescued after plummeting off a hillside. he was reported missing thanksgiving night when he never returned home. san mateo sheriff's deputy searched. once the sun came up they noticed a damaged tree and hidden behind it, the man escarpment car upside down at the bottom off a 30 foot drop. deputies rescued the man and transported him to the hospital. his family tells us they're grateful for the first responders who saved his life. people in an east san jose neighborhood are back in their homes this morning after they were forced to evacuate because of a nearby shootout with police. police tell us a man opened fire at san jose officers and then barricaded himself inside a home. at least one officer fired back hitting that suspect. officers arrested him and took him to the hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries. chief garcia plans to release

more details at a news conference on monday. take a look at these photos. do you recognize this van? walnut creek police are asking for help finding a man who stole a boy's cell phone. it happened last sunday. a boy was riding his scooter on park side drive near 680. a man got out of his van and grabbed the boy. the man then took the boy's cell phone and got away. police are asking that you call if you know anything about the car or the crime. an update to a story we first brought you yesterday morning, the gunman responsible for a shooting inside an alabama mall on thanksgiving night remains at large. initial reports were that the gunman was dead, stopped in his tracks by a hoover alabama police officer working security inside the mall. as it turns out, the officer may have shot and killed the wrong person. police now believe that man was not the person who pulled the trigger. the shooter remains on the

loose. the alabama law enforcement agency is now taking over the investigation. meanwhile, an 18-year-old and 12-year-old victim were taken to the hospital to be treated. the white house released a new report detailing how global warming is getting worse. more than a dozen government agencies wrote the report. it says the earth's climate is changing faster than ever before. scientists say we're already seeing the impact. climate change stoked california's wildfire and powerful hurricanes in the south. they added that climate change will cost the u.s. billions by the end of the century. climate experts say doing something could help our nation's economy. >> solving climate change will create jobs and it will create jobs in areas where the u.s. is a leader, so it builds on the u.s. economy. >> the report predicts unless action is taken, weather extremes will only intensify. it is 7:07. we have much more ahead on "today in the bay." a close call for steph curry.

the warrior star is safe after two crashes on a wet bay area freeway. the message he isn't to his family, friends and fans. and let there be light. a holiday tradition kicking off in the south bay. how one family out of paradise enhanced the magic at christmas in the park.

welcome back. thank you so much for joining us on your saturday morning. it is 7:10. here's a look outside. fog covering emeryville and a similar scenario across the bay area. temperatures are about 60 right now and they'll stay that way the rest of the day. meteorologist rob mayeda has a dry sunday on the forecast. some anxious moments for warrior star seth curry when his car was hit by two different cars. "today in the bay" was at the arena last night where they took

on the portland trail blazers. >> reporter: instead of curry's porch is banged up and the two time league m.v.p. is no worse for the wear after walking away from this crash on highway 24. a wreck that had fans concerned after pictures and video spread across social media, but who had faith steph would be just fine. >> he's a man of steel, baby. >> they said he was okay, so i felt good about it. >> reporter: curry was driving from his home to the warriors oakland training facility just after 9:00 a.m. when a silver lexus lost control and struck his poesh. as he stood in the median waiting for help to arrive, another car hit his empty vehicle. coach kerr was ready to clear the air of concern surrounding his player before tonight's game. >> he's fine, yea.

he was a little shaken up like anybody would be getting into a car accident, but thankfully nobody -- nobody was hurt and steph's doing fine. i think he has another car that he can drive, too. its going to be okay. >> his father was on the scene shortly after the crash and off-camera he assured melissa colorado, steph is okay. curry was also quick to reassure his fans that he came out unscathed. taking time for selfies with a few of the responding chp officers. tom jensen, nbc bay area news. >> happy ending, indeed. we have much more ahead on "today in the bay." its a wirnd wonderland for some and a source of frustration for others. the mess the snow is causing for the drive to tahoe this weekend. and snow and a sea of low clouds looking back toward san francisco. still seeing some showers around the bay area. how long these will last around

san jose and our forecast in just a few minutes.

welcome back. its shy of 7:15 on your saturday morning. beautiful look towards san francisco probably under that cloud cover some where as we look from our tower cam. the good news is, we have a dry majority of a dry saturday on the way and a dry sunday as well. meteorologist rob mayeda tells us rain is returning this week. three, two, one, light it up! there she is. a bittersweet holiday to remember for one family that survived the camp fire in paradi paradise. the smith family lost everything they had but they helped light the christmas tree in san jose last night and got the gift of community support. "today in the bay" was there and spoke with the family. >> reporter: as santa rode in on a fire truck, the smiths came out on stage to a warm welcome

from the audience. just before tonight's tree lighting, you talked with them about being special guests here. >> this is really uplifting and nice for them to invite us. >> reporter: on the night of the fire, they say it took hours to get out of paradise because the main road in and out was jammed with traffic. they haven't been able to return home since but they don't have much to return to. >> all of our homes are gone. >> reporter: they lost three homes in the fire. on stage tonight, surrounded by the celebration of christmas in the park, they were able to forget about the devastation for the night. >> three, two, one, light it up! >> for me i feel like its a real big honor for the entire family to be here to represent our community. >> reporter: and as representatives of their community, 19-year-old jared had a special message for his fellow residents of paradise. >> have hope. have hope. this weekend christmas in the park is collecting donation

that's will go to help residents in paradise rebuild and a quarter of those donations will go just to the smith family. we're also getting into the spirit of giving along with telemundo 48 and the united way. we're hosting an all-day telethon. we will be answering your calls next tuesday from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. its giving tuesday. the money will go to camp fire victims to help them find housing and cover other costs. if you'd like to find out more information, go to our website, nbcbayarea.com. and back to the weather, the rain we're getting means snow in the sierra. traffic going to the mountains on i-80 was bumper to bumper in some spots making it a frustr e frustrating day for travelers. some families pulled over at the first sign of snow to play a little bit for turning around and driving home. caltrans even had to halt traffic for a time because of all the spinouts. nothing new there.

let's check in with meteorologist rob mayeda with a look at our weekend forecast. we see that every winter, right, but it seems like winter would never come. >> we're seeing a very different looking view from the south to north. we'll take you outside toward yosemite this morning. take a quick look at that and what you'll see is, of course, we got the snow there across the high sierra. >> that's beautiful. >> top of half dome there. got a fresh coating of snow. let's take you to the north. 31 degrees. they got snow there. they got 12 to 18 inches of snow. if you're going to travel to the sierra, notice still the -- the end of the holiday weekend, trending dry. next storm coming in as we get into about tuesday. so back to the bay area right now. you can see the clouds around the tower there, underneath the clouds, we got misty skies in

san francisco about 66 degrees in to livermore and the tri-valley 58 and a few light showers still around san jose at 59 degrees. high temperatures not too far off from the numbers we're starting off this morning. low 60s and sun by mid-afternoon and into the evening. you're seeing some of that there. a few sprinkles closer to san francisco, but things will be drying out as we head into the afternoon. a rainfall projection today may be just enough briefly to wet the ground around the south bay but the trend hour by hour not only shuts the showers down as we head through the afternoon but also passing lunchtime more partly cloudy skies and dryer winds pick up out of the north. if later today all the way through monday looks dry. as you can see here, tuesday is the first storm that will come riding on in followed up by another storm developing for thursday and then round three taking shape as we get into friday night and saturday and these storms packing a pretty

big punch in terms of rainfall coming up could see double the rainfall totals we saw in just the last two to three days. seven-day forecast looks dryer tomorrow with the recent rain, watch out for some patchy thick fog. could be an issue for tomorrow morning for flights into the bay area. you'll want to watch out for that. monday we see more clouds, and then you see the storm door still open tuesday into thursday, another storm on saturday. a closer look at how much rain and how much more sierra snow will be on the way coming up around 7:45. back to you. >> nice to finally have some fresh air, rob. thanks. still ahead on "today in the bay," a local woman with no family to celebrate thanksgiving opened her home to reddit users. now years later the guest list has grown to bring 100 strangers to give thanks. its a story that will make you "bay area proud."

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choice to share thanksgivi welcome back. for many of us family and friends are our first choice to spend thanksgiving with but that isn't always possible. this woman is opening her home up to strangers. we'll show you how her unique tradition began. >> reporter: she doesn't have a page stocked with entertaining ideas, what she does have is a keen sense of community. and a reddit account. >> so total we have 11 pies. >> reporter: at a time when there's so much talk in the country about trying to bring people together, sarah scott hitchens has a novel idea, its called bringing people together. >> last year we stopped at 2:00 a.m. >> reporter: as in the 100 strangers she's hosting for thanksgiving. >> it started so small. it started with me realizing i

had nowhere to go on thanksgiving. >> reporter: it was 2014 when sarah had that realization. her response was to post an invitation in the bay area subgup of ret did, anyone who didn't have a place to go was welcome at her place. sarah clearly not the type to be worried about strangers in her home. >> i don't think so. i think i was more nervous the day of wondering if anybody was actually going to show of. >> reporter: four people did, including a guy with a guitar and a good time was had by all. >> so i posted again, i say, hey, everybody, thanksgiving year two. i've already done it, proved i'm not a murderer. who wants to come and the second time 30 people showed up and that's when i was like, this is actually really cool. >> reporter: the following year, 50 came out and sarah is now busy buying food for twice that many. >> 21.65 pounds. that's a winner. i really enjoy talking to people

and getting their stories and finding out where they came from and how they ended up in my house. i have like eight pounds of butter in the fridge. >> reporter: her annual ret dit's giving confirmation for her that no matter what you see on the internet people are mostly good and sometimes in the right hands, the internet, can even bring out the best in us. >> so the kind of -- just someone who's willing to take a risk on other people, i think. >> reporter: don't worry. sarah does not tackle this all on her own. her husband helps out. he's primarily in the kitchen while she's in charge of entertaining the guests. garvin thomas, nbc bay area news. >> that's generosity. wow. it is 7:25. we have much more ahead on "today in the bay." forget the alarm clock and just listen for the mailhan. how early in the morning the u.s. postal service they could be delivering mail to you and how soon that may start?

and a shopping surprise. this little boy taking a nap left inside the store. the explanation being given by his parents. this little home of mine, ♪ i'm gonna let it shine. ♪ it's energy saving time, ♪ i'm gonna reduce mine. ♪ californians all align

♪ to let our great state shine. ♪ let it shine, ♪ the power's ours to let it shine! ♪

here is a live look outside - christm good saturday morning to you. it is 7:28 on this november 24th. a live look outside at christmas in the park. it officially opened last night in downtown san jose. thanks so much for joining us. i'm kira klapper. meteorologist rob mayeda is in for vianey with a look at our microclimate forecast. a little drizzly out there in san jose. >> still seeing some light showers around the south bay and a little bit of mist and fog around san francisco as we can take you outside. there's a view of some of the sun breaking through the clouds there from downtown san francisco just outside at&t

park. 56 degrees is all that extra moisture in the air and the clouds keeping our temperatures up this morning. 59 in san jose and there's a little of that light rain we're seeing around downtown on the radar, you're also seeing some low cloud cover for you this morning. hour by hour starting to clear things out. south bay may actually be the last to clear today. you begin to see the partly cloudy skies, showers starting to away and what's left of the showers, again, mid-day should be tapering off. santa cruz mountains may have a sprinkling. but a very busy seven-day forecast with some impressive rain and snow totals ahead. we'll see you in 15 minutes. >> thanks. this morning we have news that one person was killed and three others were seriously injured in a rollover crash on 280 in san jose. the california highway patrol and san jose fire responded

around 2:00 a.m. to find all four people trapped inside this white mercedes. it took crews 15 minutes to cut them from the mangled car. the four victims were transported to the hospital as trauma patients, one died about an hour later. another is being treated for life-threatening injuries. we're told speed, alcohol and drugs have not yet been ruled out. but the chp has a warning for everyone that wet roads likely contributed to the crash as it was raining during this rescue. oh, my gosh! >> no! >> and a startling moment in san francisco where this commuter ferry crashed into the dock at the ferry building. it sent people on the pier running and jolted customers inside the slanted door restaurant. an investigation into what caused the crash is under way. if you want to see the video again, it bounced off the landing berth and launched toward the dock. the golden gate bridge district says 53 people and five crew

members were on board. fortunately only two people had to be treated for minor injuries. one passenger says it sounded like something was wrong with the engine. >> there was no indication from the captain that we were in trouble. we just noticed that we bounced off the first part of the dock and then we kept going and we thought, oh, no, we're going in way too fast. >> the impact left the dock and railing damaged and ripped two holes into the front of the vessel. crew members will be tested for drugs and alcohol, which is standard procedure. the u.s. coast guard will be interviewing them and looking at navigation equipment on board to try to figure out what went wrong. investigators will tow the vessel to larksburg today so they can take a closer look at it. and a home just being torn apart by flames. miraculously no one was hurt but the home is a total loss. this happened on fairmont avenue

not far from the richardson parked. fire crews were able to put out the flames in just about 30 minutes. the cause of that fire is under investigation. some much needed rainfall here and in butte county is helping firefighters battling the camp fire. good news is containment now stands at 95%. but the wet weather is also presenting difficulties making it tough for crews who are searching for human remains. what once was sifting through dirt and soot is now digging through mud. crews didn't recover any remains friday. the death toll stands at 84 with 475 people still unaccounted for. the flames scorched more than 153,000 acres and flattened nearly 14,000 homes. evacuees tell us they wished the downpour had come sooner. >> i really wish it would've came before the fire and we probably wouldn't have lost all of our homes. >> so far no reports of any mudslides nor flooding in the burn zone.

a wine country wildfire survivor spent thanksgiving putting up a christmas tree at one of the main intersections in paradise burned by the camp fire. as you know, much of the town was destroyed. ronny duvall is from santa rosa which you likely know was ravaged by its own wildfire last year. duvall along with some government workers traveled to butte county yesterday to spread their own holiday cheer. >> the thing is, you can burn an entire neighborhood down or development down, but you can't take our christmas spirit, holiday spirit. >> workers also flagged down some chp officers who helped put up the tree. its now sitting at the intersection of skyway and neil road. you may start getting an early wake-up call from the mailman starting now, postal workers will begin to deliver mail as early as 5:30 in the morning. the early move is to help keep up with all the holiday mail and packages. the busiest week being the week

before christmas when 3 billion pieces of mail get processed. the early schedule will last through the holidays, so be prepared. depending on how you feel about black friday, you either think these people are crazy or right now you're wondering how cheap are those tvs. the folks at a walmart in south carolina and here in the bay area we had our own crowds. we have video of what it looked like at the great mall in mill petus yesterday. the crowds seemed smaller than usual. shoppers noticed that there weren't as many of those big door busters deals that often bring out the masses. >> i think those days of having the $99 tvs -- its a thing of the past. >> many shoppers decided to skip the malls all together and shop at home from their phone or computer. according to a report, online

sales totalled $3.7 billion on thanksgiving alone. that's up 28% from one year ago. if you missed your chance at the deals, don't worry, cyber monday is just around the corner and today is small business saturday. forget about black friday in oakland, its all about plaid friday. instead of converging on a mall, its a way of locals to support their own. mayor libby schaaf was proud to be the booster in chief for the event as she browsed stores on lake shore avenue. >> just promoting the incredible shops in oakland, all these incredible local business owners that live right here. these are your community members. these are your neighbors. support them. don't support some big corporation way off in new york city. come on! >> right? if you couldn't make it yesterday for the plaid friday walk, the mayor wants to remind all of us that today is small business saturday, like i just said. last year in the u.s. shoppers spent nearly $13 billion on

small business saturday, and hey, its not raining so hopefully you can get out and enjoy the day. how did these parents forget their son? sheriff deputies in ohio found that toddler sleeping by himself in a store just after midnight. quincy went to jcpenney with his family last night for black friday shopping. the family split up, on the way home and each group thought the other had quincy, turns out no one knew he was missing until they saw posts on social media. i would know i forgot my son because my house would be too quiet. plus the stanford grad named tiger playing a tournament with a $9 million prize. sports is next. host the sacramt

oracle arena. tip- tonight the warriors will host the kings at oracle arena. tip-off at 5:30.

the warriors returned to the court trying to break a losing streak. in the second quarter the warriors went on a 35-13 run against the trail blazers. kevin durant with the slam and the foul. the dubs were in complete control from the game winning 125-97. good to see them back. and the sharks got off to a fast start against the canucks scoring with nine minutes left in the first period. defensiveman eric carlson scored his second goal from the season giving the sharks a 3-0 lead. the sharks went on to win the game 4-0. it was a high lie anticipated pay-per-view match-up. tiger woods versus phil mickelson. did you see it? after months of build-up, the two went head to head for 18 holes. arguably the two best golfers of their generation, 123 pga tour wins between them. so who won it on the 22nd and fourth playoff hole, phil

mickelson sank the birdie putt to win the $9 million prize and if i'm not mistaken, all that money is going to charity. there is much more ahead on "today in the bay" coming up. trip into marriage. we investigate a law meant to protect immigrants but its been used to gain the system. still picking up some areas of light rain around san jose and close to san francisco. a bit of a break on the way for the afternoon for the next series of storms, we'll have a closer look at that in our forecast when we come right back.

7:42 this saturday morning. let's talk rainfall recovery. these are the averages as of before thanksgiving, 26% of average around santa rosa down to 2% in san jose, 3% in oakland but look at what the last three days have done, now up to 73% of average in santa rosa. 23% of average in oakland and what we have to make up from here to recover the rainfall

now, only one to two inches of rain, i say only, because we may go above and beyond that as we head toward next weekend. the view from the tower. you see the areas of low clouds, some clearing above and misty skies around san francisco. you see the sunshine around. 56 degrees. we'll take you over to the tri-valley. sun and low clouds, 57. all the cloud cover and moisture in the air really keeping our temperatures up in san jose. we got light rain and 59 degrees and eventually for the afternoon it'll be the south bay clearly out we think the latest during the day, moving from north to south. highs today in the low 60s pretty much from santa rosa all the way down into san jose, closer to 60 in san francisco. and on or stormranger mobile doppler radar, most of the clouds right now in the foothills, downtown san jose seeing a little bit of showers a bit earlier and there you see san francisco with a few sprinkles there or misty skies

at times. today as we go through the afternoon, we'll see skies starting to clear on out. not much more rain expected. just enough to wet the ground at times around fremont and san jose and you'll see the trend here is going from the low clouds to partly cloudy skies passing lunchtime and into the afternoon and evening, you see how the showers begin to shut down. that trend will take us into sunday. it should hold through monday and then some changes coming up. the first of three storms, tuesday, coming on in. similar to what we just saw. snow levels may be relatively high, close to 6,000 or 7,000 feet and a stronger storm taking shape as we get into thursday. that will bring snow levels down a little bit. we'll also have more wind to deal with in the bay area on thursday. friday a brief break and the next storm in the series, maybe the biggest punch of the three coming in next saturday into the beginning of next weekend. so here is a look at some of the rainfall projections, a couple of long range weather models, you see all the fuchsia pink and white, that would be almost three to five inches of rain in

that ten day outlook. another long range model looking at the same time frame also has a similar look at those rainfall totals pretty high across portions of the north coast and north bay. for the sierra, this pattern plays out next ten days. we could be adding up snow by the foot as we head toward next weekend. so for this holiday weekend, pretty good timing as we begin to clear things out but with the recent rain look out for patchy, thick fog as the winds turn light. heading into tomorrow and monday, next storm rolls in on tuesday with another storm due in on thursday. starting to look more like late november and december there. >> thanks. still ahead on "today in the bay," partners in marriage? perhaps not. we investigate how people are taking advantage of a law meant to protect immigrants from spousal abuse.

. is a federal law designed to protect immigrants from abuse being misused by some to keep them from getting deported? its a debate raging here in the bay area and across the country. at the center of it all are foreign spouses alleging domestic abuse, but investigative reporter liz wagner found a growing number of american are saying its the law that's being abused. >> reporter: nearly half a million immigrants marry american each year but sham marriages can offer an open door into the u.s. you're about to hear from a bay area man who says a well

intentioned law stopping violence against women is being used to gain the immigration system. >> it was supposed to be a typical love story. >> reporter: a love story that started a world away in ukraine. it was there in 2012 on break from a military contracting job in afghan where this man met a blonde bombshell. they hit it off and started dating long distance. >> and looking for that lerm relationship that someone to share life with once i get out of where i was. >> reporter: a year later he proposed and brought her home to the north bay where they got married but the ink on their marriage license was barely dry when he says all intimacy stopped within a week, his wife moved out of the bedroom and wanted access to his bank accounts. he says he smelled a scam. >> it was horrible. it was having to come to the

realization that oh, no, its not only your dream not coming true the nightmare's beginning. >> reporter: he believes his ukrainian bride used him for a green card. marriage is one of the shortest path to citizenship and he thinks she knew it. just three months after they tied the night, she filed for divorce. his ex-wife left the state but he later learned she cited abuse by a spouse on a petition to stay in the country. >> reporter: did you ever abuse your wife? >> never touched her in a violent or aggressive manner, never. >> reporter: emotionally? >> never happened. >> reporter: its what's been told on the east coast. they worry about that by claiming abuse some immigrants are gaining the system to remain in the u.s. they point to a law called the violence against women act. its set up to help abused immigrants petition for a green card without their spouse. a fraud investigator believes many people are exploiting that

law and filing false claims. >> yes, i see it almost on a daily basis. it gets ridiculous. >> reporter: sampson spent 37 years working in federal immigration now he's a private investigator and says he's been contacted by 2,000 people. the thorough investigation would involve talking to both sides but that doesn't happen. since the claims are confidential, american spouses don't have a say. >> powerless to stop it, defend it or even submit evidence that would exonerate him. >> reporter: government data shows immigration denied 33% of petitions filed in the past ten years and while a congressional report found its difficult to quantify marriage fraud, attempted fraud through the womens act remains ongoing. >> its absolutely not the case. >> reporter: eleanor is a senior staff attorney with the institute of the bay area which provides legal services to immigrants. the nonprofit has helped

hundreds of foreign spouses file petitions. >> this is not one little application and a little letter and then its all good. its a very, very serious and thorough process for the applicant and also on the immigration side. >> reporter: she says immigrants must show credible evidence of abuse and as to concerned american can't tell their side of the story, they don't need to. they're not on trial. bottom line she says, vulnerable immigrants need a way to file and flee without alerting their abusers. >> domestic violence can be very serious and can be a threat to the victims' life. >> reporter: he believes he has evidence his ex-wife scammed him and the u.s. a private investigator found a woman he identified as his ex-wife on a sex worker website a month before they met. she marked no on an immigration form asking if she'd been a prostitute. >> the scam continues.

>> reporter: and now he's on the hook financially. a federal judge says he's still required to support her after she sued. attorneys for the ex-wife declined the comment citing pending litigation. its unclear what her legal status is now but public record says she's still living in the u.s. >> there's an emotional toll that i'm having to relive, which is just intangible but its harsh. >> the violence against women's act is up for reauthorization in just two weeks. it originally passed in 1994 with overwhelming bipartisan support. now u.s. citizenship and immigration services tells us it ad jude indicates all petitions fairly to determine if they meet standards required by law. back to you. >> liz wagner for us this morning. if you have a story for our investigative unit, give us a call at 1-888-996-tips or visit our website,

nbcbayarea.com/investigations. it is 7:53 as you might know. we still have much more ahead on "today in the bay." coming up its the clear the shelter segments featuring or pets in need. we will reintroduce you to jessica next. i am a family man. i am a techie dad. i believe the best technology should feel effortless. like magic. at comcast, it's my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. my name is mike, i'm in product development at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome.

with our friends from pets in need. welcome back. it is time for our clear the shelters segments featuring our friends from pets in need. we're here with jessica. you may remember we had jessica on before. she was one of your dogs who needed special attention. >> right. >> she had some sort of, like, blood restriction. >> correct. it wasn't -- the blood wasn't getting to her leg which was -- she was limping, so we did surgery and she's recovering. she's in physical thaerapy. she takes swimming. so she's up for adoption, ready to go. still needs therapy and its

expensive. >> and its expensive. >> and the way you're able to give it to her, you've had generous donors and we mentioned this before. you have this thing called the second chance fund. you guys already to really wonderful work and you take care of all the animals you take in. you make them perfect before they're available for adoption, in addition to that you do spaying, neutering, microchiping, flea collars, everything. you have this second chance fund which helps animals like jessica that need that extra step. and so if someone were to adopt her, you'd still take care of that? >> correct. >> wow. >> but you wouldn't be able to do that without donations. >> yea. >> we did mention this before, there's, you know, black friday, there's cyber monday, we're all taking care of ourselves and our loved ones, but there's this thing called giving tuesday and if you're looking for some where to give back, maybe consider the second chance fund is what you'll hear to say. >> global giving day and reach

out. we do wonderful stuff. check us out on the website, come and visit. adopt. but we're doing good things and these animals need all the care we can give them. >> and she looks perfect. >> she is perfect. >> quickly, what kind of home would be good for her? >> i think any home. she gets along with children. she gets along with other dogs. >> she's super mellow. >> she's super chill. she likes to get dressed up, which is a big plus for me. >> i love to dress them up. >> yea. if you're interested in jessica and interested in donating on giving tuesday to the second chance fund, find out more at petsinneed.org. thanks so much for coming in and being such a good sport. you mean, my son would never let me dress him up like that. >> i don't know. >> it is 7:58. thanks so much again for making us apart of your morning. we'll have more local news for you to tonight and all day on nbcbayarea.com. i will see you back here

tomorrow. hope you have a great morning and enjoy the clear weather we're getting this weekend. . symbol you know you're

watching television that's educational and informational the more you know on nbc. josh: today on the voyager, i have an unforgettable encounter in the jungles of belize. hey, hi, nice to meet you. i get a taste of the local culture in cozumel. viva mexico! but first, i visit roatan where i dig in and get my hands dirty. let me see your muscles. whoa! mmm, come on! my name is josh garcia. ever since i was a kid i've dreamt about travelling the world by ship, immersing myself in new cultures,