we )ve issued a microclimate weather alert! our storm ranger working hard giving you the c friday morning, a live look at the radar as we issued a microclimate weather alert. our storm ranger working hard to give you the clearest view of that storm. we're tracking showers as we expect a very rainy weekend ahead. good morning to you and thanks so much for joining us. i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm marcus washington. mike will have a look at the commute for you in just a bit but first we want to start with meteorologist kari hall looking at that weather out there. rain is coming. >> rain is coming, only starts as sprinkles as you get ready to head out the door. this is storm ranger, we have it parked on san bruno mountain and the red scan you're seeing on the map with some light rain

moving into pacifica and the south city area. we're going to see more of this storm working its way into the bay area, with some heavier rounds of rain. this storm not particularly strong, but the ground is already wet, and it's going to add more wet weather on top of an already saturated ground that may cause some problems. we'll talk more about that coming up in a few minutes and mike, we should be back to our normal traffic flow. >> aside from the weather conditions we're talking about, we'll watch the changes with you, kari, but over here the golden gate bridge, we watched last night, as they were in the morning configuration. folks were coming across the golden gate bridge as one of the ways to avoid the closure or the actual big slowdown across that richmond-san rafael brimming. 580 is fully reopened since last night and everything flows smoothly. we should be back to normal for novato, highway 37 as well as the golden gate bridge and the bay bridge. that would mean a friday lighter commute. for now, back to you, marcus. >> thanks, mike. a developing story, repairs continue in san francisco, after that massive gas line explosion

and fire, and now the ntsb is on the scene. "today in the bay's" sharon katsuda is live for us in san francisco. sharon? >> reporter: good morning, marcus. you can see that the bright lights are still on out here. police are here directing traffic, making sure that the traffic is flowing smoothly through this intersection still and crews are underground working on this area. ntsb investigators arrived last night. they surveyed the area along parker and geary, where a construction crew cut a natural gas line wednesday, causing the explosion and fire. five nearby buildings were damaged as flames shot up in the air. many neighbors questioned why it took pg&e hours to turn off the gas to the area, but the company says it had to turn off the right gasline carefully by hand. ntsb investigators will look into all the facts. >> we'll be looking at everything from work hours to training of personnel, to what happened at the time of the

explosion, where the valves are. >> reporter: fortunately no one was injured by the explosion, and fire and investigators will hold a news conference later today. reporting live in san francisco, i'm sharon katsuda, "today in the bay." happening today on capitol hill the acting attorney general is set to testify after challenging a subpoena threat from congress. "today in the bay's" tracie potts joins us live in washington this morning with what to expect. tracie? >> hi, laura. expect him to answer questions, but what the answers will be, whether he'll answer all of their questions we don't know. in fact, we didn't know that whitaker would show up for this hearing until late yesterday after this subpoena threat was resolved. acting attorney general matt whitaker faces questions today from the house judiciary

committee. that committee was preparing a subpoena in case whitaker didn't show or didn't answer. >> without the threat of a subpoena i believe it would be difficult to hold mr. whitaker to the standard. >> reporter: the committee backed off after whitaker threatened to be a no show. he got the questions more than two weeks ago. he criticized the russia investigation before president trump wanted him to oversee. democrats want to ask was he asked or promised to impede special counsel robert mueller and why didn't whitaker recuse himself as an ethics officer recommended? the house intelligence committee is expanding its russia investigation to include the president's finances. mr. trump calls it presidential harassment. >> this would not be taking place if it were not a duly

elected president president in office. >> reporter: criticism that it's all just politics. tracie potts, nbc news, washington. it is 5:04. this morning, many are honoring john dingell who played a key role in landmark legislation. the 92-year-old died yesterday. the michigan democrat was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year. abortion rights groups are applauding a supreme court decision temporarily blocking a louisiana law that would close most abortion clinics. that law requires clinic doctors to have admitting privileges for nearby hospitals. justices struck down a similar law in texas in 2016, and yesterday's ruling conservative justice john roberts joined the liberal side in supporting the injunction. the court plans to hear the full case in its next term. a follow-up for you now, the case against the man accused of gunning down a newman police officer is on hold.

paulo mendoza appears in a stanislas steeror court. he underwent a mental health evaluati evaluation. the defense attorney asked the judge to seal the findings. he is accused of gunning down ronil singh the day after christmas. new this morning, refusing to help a law enforcement officer may soon no longer be a crime in california if one state lawmaker has his way. as it stands, any adult who refuses to assist law enforcement can receive a misdemeanor with a fine up to $1,000. the law goes back to the wild west days when there weren't a lot of deputies in california. now the "sacramento bee" reports bob hertzberg wants to repeal the law. he's asking for feedback. alameda county water can u.s. mer customers will have to pay more

next month. the first bump takes effect in march. the added revenues will cover infrastructure costs and salary increases. the board also approved drought related emergency pricing if the need arises. 5:07 and continuing coverage now of converting an apartment building in palo alto into a hotel. this morning, we're learning the owner of the president hotel has officially submitted plans for the conversion. that's according to the palo alto online. the six-story building is on university avenue and it has 75 apartment units and the new owner of that building from chicago is hoping to convert the units into 100 guest rooms. tenants are fighting plans and the city is yet to give its final approval. well, this was once the go-to theater in san francisco, but last night, the amc on van ness showed its last picture. it could seat up to 3,000

people. in recent years it took a downturn. customers took to yelp to complain about closed concession stands, filthy and unkempt conditions. no word on the future of the building. this weekend, dozens of people will be flocking to mayor island for the bay flyway festival. >> it will celebrate the return of more than 1 million shore birds as well as hundreds of thousands of ducks and geese, which migrate for the winter. that event is free and will include dozens of activities that includes a bird expo and guided nature walks. and as you try to view those birds, they'll be somewhere in a nest and kind of hunkering down from the rain. we are going to have some breaks in between, so maybe that's your opportunity to get out there, as we track it on storm ranger, we are starting out with some light showers right now, and we'll see more rain moving in. in terms of what we're expecting

with this storm, mostly looking about a quarter up to an inch of rain, and the flood risk will be low, because we are not going to see really intense rain. our wind speeds up to about 25 miles per hour, and there will also be an isolated risk of some thunderstorms, snow levels only at our highest peaks around the bay area at about 3500 feet, so i'll have more on the storm coming up, and mike, you're hearing about a fire. >> yes, a car fire over on the shoulder from what i understand, i'll get out of your way and show you green sensors, almost all over the bay, skyline stands out there, continues to work on the sink hole, so don't go there, north of highway 9 and of course little snow and ice registering on our road weather index. we'll watch as that rain comes in. the car fire reported here, it's eastbound 80, so it's counter commute, very light commute right now. around hilltop no slowing, we'll track that when chp arrives. your commute direction getting toward the bay bridge these travel times are all at their minimum. they're at speed, guys. back to you. >> thanks, mike. coming up, a trip to the play ground turns into a case of

a frightening crime. how a babysitter makes sure an alleged robber didn't get away. plus a really rough stock market this morning, and a terrible place for a teen to have a first date. i'll fill new, coming up in business and tech. but first, hey, if you're still not over your ex, a texas zoo wants your help, or wants to help you out. what they're offering up this valentine's day.

right now at 5:12, it's time

for the tahoe report, and we are going to see heavy snow getting going today at the base, we've got 175 inches, with the season total of 341. we're going to add some more snow to that, highs on saturday only reaching 18 degrees, and we are looking at heavy snow over the next several days, and the potential of a couple more feet. i'll talk more about this and also what's ahead for our rain this weekend, that's coming up in less than five minutes. right now our view of palo alto shows a smooth, drier roadway over here near university. headlights are going northbound, and we see a smooth drive throughout the north bay and no slowing either. we will point out a thing or too two-we have an our camera. good morning and happy well deserved friday to you. the markets fell thursday after the president said it was unlikely he would meet with chinese president xi before the next set of tariffs take effect. that's really kind of bad news. wells fargo had more trouble

yesterday as its computer networks went down. twitter said it made a profit, in fact it said several quarters in a row of profits, in that sense, twitter is doing well, but the trouble ahead, its expenses are up and it's losing users. when you measure them by monthly use, down 321, down two, i should say, 321 million from 326 million. the issue really becomes apparent when you compare it to facebook. facebook now has about eight times as many users as twitter. now, credit both services for getting ready of fake users though they still have work aed has of them. the san francisco business times says zynga plans to sell its south of market headquarters just south of the train station that could bring in $800 million for the gaming company. apple says it will pay a bug bounty to the teenager who found the problem with facetime, that allowed people to listen in on your phone without you knowing it. apple didn't disclose how much, but says it will also help with

the young man's education. you have been to that new movie theater in san jose's valley fair mall yet? it is luxurious, heat the seats, food servers, got a bar, but really strict rules about kids. everybody pays an adult ticket, and after 7:00 p.m., no teenagers without an adult accompanying them, that means high schoolers on a date are not welcome. >> we don't let anybody under 18 in, in the evening, past 7:00, unless they have an adult with them the entire time. >> so you are talking about two high school juniors out on a date don't come to your movie theater because neither one is old enough to accompany the other. >> that's probably correct. well, they can go but they got to go before -- >> the worst date ever. >> the parents. >> they have to go in the afternoon. >> okay. fair point. all right, so that's a controversy on yelp, the people are like, this is great. there are no kids here, and other people who bring their

kids, plenty annoyed. we're going to talk about obviously bigger stuff than just that, but the movie theater industry in general, why are they going to this luxury, is it to get people away from netflix and back to the theeteater? >> it's like full bars and everything. >> it's amazing. this one is like, the one that we're talking about was one step above that. >> really? >> it's really luxurious. >> which maybe that's why they don't want the kids there, too. alcohol and whatnot. keep it away. >> an adult night. >> yeah, it's nice, isn't it? >> chaperone. on a date night why dot do this, if the date went wrong. >> wait a minute, what? >> this is another valentine's day story but i kind of like this one a little bit for folks out there you're still mad at your ex. a zoo in texas in el paso are helping you take out that rage through facebook so it's pretty safe to do this. you can send the zoo the first and last initial of your ex. they will name a cockroach after

your ex and then they will feed that roach to other animals in the zoo. they say they really hope this will stop your ex from "bugging" you. >> oh, my gosh. you got to let it go. >> i say let it go, but -- >> let it go. >> if you can't, maybe that will help you. >> there you go. >> only look back to see how far you've come. that's what i say. >> i like that. >> move on. >> but if they are a roach, let them be eaten. >> let them eat roaches. >> all right. >> do you witness it happening as well? >> that's a good question. >> probably facebook live maybe. >> that's kind of gross though. all right, so this morning, as you get ready to head out the door, here is a live look outside in dublin, already busy on 580, at least there's no fog, and so far, no rain there, but we are going to start to see the rain moving in very soon, and it's another chilly morning, but hey, at least it's not freezing. we are making some progress here. here is a look at our temperatures that are now in the low to mid-40s ads you head os the door and on your way into

brentwood. we'll drop back into the upper 30s for a while and by 11:00 we're starting to see that rain coming in, looking at storm ranger, and where the showers are now, mostly moving through the peninsula, and just where we have storm ranger parked, but the larger part of the storm and all of the heavier rain will be here. after that morning commute in some spots, but as we time it out, we see by 10:00 to 11:00, even by noon, we start to see more widespread rain moving in, really intense with some bright reds there as initially it comes in and we'll see it more scattered coming into the afternoon to evening hours but this may change some of your friday night plans. still going to be raining off and on and it tapers off later on tonight into early tomorrow morning. this could be your break to get out there, get things done. the early bird gets the worm because later on, as we go throughout the day, it's going to be raining once again. here we are at 1:00, it's covering the north bay, and then also moving into the rest of the bay area for the afternoon. we're going to see the potential of some low elevation snow, as we go into sunday, but it

doesn't look as widespread as what we recently had, and another storm system will be moving in late on monday, and we are looking at the possibility for most of us getting an inch or maybe a little bit more in san francisco. it's going to stay cool over the seven-day forecast, and more rain for the middle of next week. and mike, you were saying that the roadways seem pretty calm right now. >> that's pretty traditional. we call it friday light, there's a lighter later start. midday and afternoons tend to build up fridays as folks make their way to their weekend activities and kari, that's where you are talking about the rain coming in so prepare for that, folks, maybe get an early start on friday, where you might normally calm it town. we're looking at green speed sensors around the maps. contra costa county, which is fine except for eastbound 80, there's a little bit of slowing, but the car fire reportedly out. it may be blocking part of your hilltop drive off-ramp there. no injuries. the car in fact was, there was no one in it, so maybe there was a joy rider overnight. we'll follow that if there was a story to tell. the richmond-san rafael bridge

is reopened after last night's reopening and looking at oakland, a good volume of traffic so this is well populated. the nimitz is pretty much always like that, and you'll notice that and walnut creek 680, 24, no delays. b.a.r.t. system no delays either but i have a note for that coming up, guys, back to you. >> 5:20. coming up, we know prices for homes in the bay area, some of the highest in the country. in this one bedroom and bathroom condo, no exception, just how much you'll have to shell out for a prime piece of real estate in san francisco. what's better than having fast, reliable wifi with coverage throughout your home? how about having internet that can help you save on wireless phone service? xfinity gives you the fastest speeds for all your devices. plus, now that xfinity mobile is included, you can switch your wireless carrier

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where a woman in coma welcome back, everyone. it is 5:22. the arizona health square facility where a woman in a coma gave birth is closing. you may recall this story, several weeks ago, a patient at the hacienda health care in phoenix went into labor, when the staff realized the woman was in a coma. she was pregnant.

later, a male nurse was arrested for rape after his dna matched the baby's. the board of directors decided to close that facility because they could not agree how to implement changes ordered by the state following the crime. the richest man in the world is fighting back. amazon ceo jeff bay zoez claims the national enquire iris trying to extort and blackmail him, threatening to publish revealing pictures of him if he doesn't call off private investigators looking into "the enquirer." last month hired investigators to find out how the tabloid got text messages. he wrote a lengther letter how "the enquirer" is trying to extort him. a 25-year-old who works as a nanny was pushing the baby in a stroller on monday, as she was walking, she says a man

approached her from behind. he reached into the stroller and grabbed her purse, and that's when she decided to chase after him. surveillance video shows the suspect pushing the woman off of him and fleeing that scene. she was not hurt, but the search is still on for that suspect. happening today, super bowl mvp and redwood city native julian edelman is stopping by "ellen." >> the new england patriots wide receiver opens up about what winning the title means to him and his family and also agrees, get this, to let ellen shave his head but in exchange for $10,000 -- >> his beard. >> oh, it was his beard, okay, for $10,000 donation to the boys and girls club of boston. >> are you nervous? >> not really. >> okay, good. >> kind of. are you? >> no. >> uh-oh, you have to wait. >> what happens next? >> ellen surprises edelman with a super bowl mvp trophy to take home. watch "ellen" at 4:00 and stay

tuned for "nbc bay area news" at 5:00, followed by "nightly news with lester holt" at 5:30. new this morning, fans of ariana grande probably saying thank you, because at midnight last night her new album dropped but not without a bit of grande sized grammy controversy. turns out the grammy producer going on the record saying he and grande talked about a live performance, but it was too late to bring something together. grande fired back on twitter calling it a lie. she says she offered up to three songs but the producers were trying to stifle her creativity and self-expression. grande is featured on some of the billboards promoting the show. also new this morning, a look inside one of san francisco's most expensive apartments. >> take a look at this, the four-bedroom full-floor penthouse cost, get this, $41 million. it's located inside the new avery building, which is located downtown in trans bay district. the unit comes with floor-to-ceiling windows, beautiful marble kitchen

counters, texture wood panels and oak wood flooring. several amenities are also included. i would hope so, for $41 million. calling all you shark fans. the san jose library is offering the first ever sharks themed library cards. >> that's cute. >> you could get the new cards with the team design and get this, it's for free! if you already have your library card, you can still go and replace it and get the new one. >> my kids will like that. coming up next, staying on top of several top story this is morning. a microclimate weather alert, get that umbrella ready. and as we eye that wet weekend, we are also keeping a close eye over the reservoirs. we're live with concerns this upcoming storm is bringing with it. plus traffic flowing again along the san rafael bridge after it was shut down for several hours yesterday. why a permanent fix is still not in place. we )ve issued a microc

weather. a live look outside at san francisco. ad lib live radar. it is friday morning for you. we've issued a microclimate weather alert. a live look outside fran right now. >> and look at what's coming our way. we're getting you prepared for the next round of rain that's going to hit later this morning. and good morning to you. thanks for joining us here on "today in the bay." i'm marcus washington. >> and i'm laura garcia. we are in that microclimate weather alert this morning, as that new storm system is moving in. in fact, let's take a live look. is that gorgeous? the golden gate bridge, nice and clear out there. >> beautiful. >> rain is going to start north of here, where is it headed next? check with kari. >> it will be later on this morning for much of our bay area microclimates, looking live right now in palo alto, so it is a dry start, and if you're up early, you are going to be ahead of it, as we check out when that

rain starts to move in here, it won't be until about 11:00 or noon when we start to see the rain approaching parts of the peninsula. we are seeing it very close to the coast and tracking it with storm ranger, going all throughout the morning, starting out with some light showers for some of the coastal areas, and also near san mateo. so we'll continue to monitor that, as the rain becomes more widespread later on this morning. heading over to mike, you are tracking how the commute is rolling right now. >> and you talked about the rain coming in a little later. we had a few sprinkles and some spritz overnight. we have a damp roadway just drying out over here for 580. the big news is 580 is open. this is the richmond-san rafael toll plaza. open last night, full service for 580, good news for this morning's commute. we had an earlier car fire but everything's out. it's affecting the el portal drive area. both sec. s of the east shore freeway in general are at speed. smaller incidents popping you

have moving to the shoulder quickly. it's a larger puddle reported 17 at the the katz and also around the summit, that was it, but then we know more rain is coming, of course, laura. back to you >> let's take another look at our radar this morning, that round of rain that's headed towards the bay area. this will actually have a lot of us looking at our local reservoirs, our nbc bay area sky ranger captured the uvas reservoir in the south bay, it was overflowing earlier this week and it's still not full and this isn't the only one. "today in the bay's" kris sanchez life at versona reservoir in los gatos which is almost full. heavy rain headed that way later today. >> reporter: like you said, we are here at one of the, not one of the biggest but one of the ones closest to capacity. let's give you a look what that looked like during the daylight hours. you could see some of that water going over the spillway which

the santa clara water says is normal this time of year same story at uvas reservoir where the thousand oaks campground was evacuated over precaution. there was no flooding imminent, there's a bridge that gets everywhelm there had. folks around almeden were treated to water at capacity. while others are below capacity, they're as full as they can be because of earthquake safety concerns. i have some brand new numbers for you this morning on the valley waters, ten reservoirs. overall the reservoirs are at 53% of total capacity, vasona is at 97% but one of the smaller runs, uvas is at 100% capacity, lexington is at 70%, that's the district third largest reservoir. anderson is at 65, but you might remember it cannot be filled up no matter how much rain we get because it is not seismically sound. with the rainfall that kari is

forecasting, we could see releases at six of the reservoirs, so as you get out and trying to walk the dog or maybe get some exercise, you may notice some spillways running and that would be the reason why. so we'll keep tracking those for you this morning. in los gatos, kris sanchez, "today in the bay." >> thanks so much. you can also track things with our free nbc bay area weather app. it's great. palm of your hand, you get the same radar that we show you on air so you can see when that storm is coming right towards you. this morning, the richmond-san rafael bridge back open. that bridge shut down for hours because of falling chunks of concrete. now for thousands of drivers who depend on it, the question, is it safe? cal trans says there's work to do, but the short term fix is done. "today in the bay's" bob redell live for us on the richmond side of that bridge with more on those repairs. bob? >> reporter: the short term tix

is simple. cal trans installed large metal plates on the upper deck of the richmond-san rafael bridge behind me where the concrete deteriorated and the transportation agency issued an emergency order to get a crew in there this weekend so they can do a permanent fix. chp showed us the area in question where you can see the concrete detached from the upper deck, which is the westbound direction and landed below onto the lower deck, which is the eastbound direction. the first chunks fell yesterday morning around 10:30, hit a mercedes, a car. that driver didn't stop. that person's okay. but they did call 911 to report major damage to their vehicle. about 45 minutes later, concreed chunks the size of a football and a golf ball dropped from the upper deck. chp eventually shut down the entire bridge in both directions, had to escort vehicles off the structure. then one lane in each direction was reopened in the afternoon, the entire bridge was shut down again as more concrete fell. cal trans temporarily fixed the

problem, reopened the entire bridge around 7:30 last night. you heard traffic behind me up and running for this friday commute. nbc bay area's investigative unit first reported the bridge was problematic, back in 2015, when we found it on a list of bridges engineers had issues with, even though it's not formally listed as a bridge with structural deficiencies but the ratings system showed it was close. the past couple of years, cal trans has been working to try to fix at least some of the structural problems with the richmond-san rafael bridge behind me. reporting live in richmond, bob redell, "today in the bay." >> hopefully there are no more pieces of the bridge that fall. thank you for the update. new details for you on an infamous san francisco dog mauling case. the panel has denied parole for the woman now serving 15 years to life. in 2001, marjorie knoller and her husband made national headlines when their dogs escaped their pacific heights apartment and killed their neighbor, 33-year-old diane

whipple. knoller's husband was not home at the time but served two years in prison for improper care of an attack dog. knoller received a harsher sentence because she did nothing to stop the attack. california commissioners yesterday denied her first shot at parole. new details involving last year's deadly butte county firestorm. the number of people unaccounted for has now dropped from three to two. this is after sacramento authorities located a man on the list who they say actually had an active warrant out for his arrest. also it now turns out that the remains of what authorities always believed was two separate people are actually from the same person. that puts the revised death toll at 85. 5:36, and this weekend, north bay musicians are coming together to try to save petaluma's phoenix theater. this is after receiving a notice from the city to comply with a fire sprinkle ordinance by april. the historical venue faces fines and potential closure if it can't make the needed

improvements. tomorrow night, a benefit concert is being held to try to raise the needed funds. three local bands will play. the cost of the tickets $15 each. it's 5:36 and happening this weekend, a chance to learn more about a very important event in black bay area history. >> tomorrow they'll mark the 75th anniversary of the mutiny trial surrounding the disaster at port chicago. in july of 1944, more than 300 people died in a massive explosion at the port near concord. many were young black sailors ordered to load and unload explosives with no training and inadequate equipment. that prompted 50 black sailors to refuse to go back to work. they're known as the port chicago 50. while they were eventually convicted of mutiny, they also paved the way for social justice improvements that followed. >> they were the precursor to the desegregation of the u.s. armed forces, and so at the time, it did not seem that their

work meant anything, but it was through their courage that we were able as a nation to finally see that the situation that happened at port chicago was a cause to begin to desegregate. >> port chicago story is another one of those threads of history that starts back in 1944, but continues into concerns of the future with black lives matter and colin kaepernick. >> the event starts at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow at the treasure island museum, and it's free. it will include a panel of speakers and clips from films covering the topic. bay area sports fans mourning the loss of a local baseball superstar who became a national legend. talking about hall of famer frank robinson. he died yesterday at 83, growing up in oakland, he started at mccleimons high school where he played basketball with robert russell as well.

he won most valuable player awards in national and american leagues. in 1975 he became a major league baseball's first black manager with the cleveland indians. he later managed the giants for four years, starting in 1981. what a history. >> his contributions continue, great. wonderful to remember such a great portion of giants history. over here the bay bridge we have traffic flowing and no metering lights. that's traditional for a friday. we tend to see those metering lights turn on a little bit later, so we're tracking this easy build, easy drive there. the rest of the bay shows a smooth flow of traffic, the conditions are great right now before the rain. we have a crash 680 southbound at 84, but it's out of lanes, it does appear and we are also looking over here toward the transit systems. no delays right now. remember, cal train will have the weekend electrification work and on monday, b.a.r.t. will start at 5:00 instead of earlier at 4:00, so there will be bus lines in place. >> that's right, then we'll cover that on monday morning as

well. that's a big change. all right, let's relax and get into the weekend. >> yes, but it's going to be a weekend you may be relaxing inside, because we are going to see some rounds of rain moving in. our saturday forecast does give us a break for some of the morning hours. you'll see a little bit less of that rain moving through, but it does start to ramp up for the afternoon, and it's going to still be cool with highs in the low 50s. on sunday, that rain looks pretty widespread all throughout the day, until late in the evening, and we're only looking at temperatures that will reach near 50 degrees, and of course, the pebble beach pro-am happening this weekend on sunday. once again, it's going to be wet, with those high temperatures only reaching the low 50s. or you may want to check out the tent festival as we celebrate the lunar new year at east ridge mall and once again the earlier you can get there, the better, but it starts at 11:00 a.m. you may see some showers moving in, and then we'll see that rain off and on into the evening. if you're headed to the sierra,

you have a few more hours to get there, before the heavier snow starts to come down, and we're looking at temperatures that will only reach into the mid-20s all throughout the weekend, and it still will be snowing on sunday so you may have a hard time getting back to the bay area. looking at russian river valley, scattered showers and highs only reaching into the upper 40s today. it will still be cool, and windy throughout the weekend, as we get more rounds of rain moving in, and i'm tracking all of that for you. we'll have a look at today's forecast, that's coming up in about three minutes. >> thanks, kari. looking forward to it. coming up, a truly disgusting problem for a city hall building in southern california. the persistent problem that has staff asking people to take the rugs out of the building. a big day in washington, as the democrats get their first big opportunity for q&a. we'll look when "today in the bay" continues.

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i like that new buick. me too. i was actually talking about that buick. i knew that. did you? buick's fresh new lineup is full of surprises. get great deals on our expectation-shattering lineup. pay no interest for 72 months on most buick models. happy friday. it is 5:44. we are in a microclimate weather alert, to give you a heads up about the next round of rain set to move in. right now, no showers in the south bay, as we get ready to head out the door in santa clara. a mix of sun and clouds, and it's still going to be a chilly start. we should see the rain moving in around 11:00, and getting heavier as we go into the afternoon. we'll talk about what's happening on storm ranger, and where we're already starting to see some of that rain, coming up in less than five minutes. and the traffic holding steady right here through oakland, the nimitz moves well. you've got company on this

friday. we're looking also at the slower drives, i have a new incident to report, it looks like something over on the east shore freeway. san francisco is gearing up for the 2020 u.s. census as "the chronicle" reports, the city is worried than undercount could mean san francisco will lose out on billions of dollars in federal funding. now to stop that from happening, san francisco is planning to pay a number of non-profits to convince residents to take part in the census. it will be the first online census. this is also raising concerns about those who have lack of online access. quarter to 6:00 right now. a disturbing story out of l.a. city hall. rats and fleas are scurrying between floors at the historic building. that's where workers are reporting the city council president says at least one woman was bitten by a flea, an employee infected with typhus. the council president says the vermin population is exploding. now the city is looking to remove all the rugs in the building. the downtown l.a. area where city hall is located is in the

midst of a typhus outbreak with several homeless people infected. >> 5:45. a former chp from vallejo is suing the agency for 20 years of alleged discrimination and harassment. he alleged he'd call for backup during investigations but his fellow officers would not respond. the lawsuit is one of several suits across the country, they all allege anti-gay workplace discrimination at law enforcement departments in recent years. for the first big face-off in congress since the democrats took power, starts today. >> scott mcgrew, lawmaker also question matt whitaker. >> that's right, whitaker is the interim attorney general. democrats want to know about some of the conversations that he's had with the president about the mueller investigation. remember, until we get the new ag, whitaker is mueller's boss. that hearing takes place today in the house, and those hearings are going to dominate the news. case in point, yesterday, the president, along with his daughter, ivanka, announced a

new women's empowerment initiative, but the questions were about the whitaker hearing. >> he's an outstanding person. i would say if he did testify, he'd do very well. he's an outstanding person, a very, very fine man. >> now, something to watch for. does whitaker today refuse to answer certain questions? he'd be right to refuse in certain cases, claiming executive privilege, because our government's branches of government are separate but equal. congress gets to ask questions of the executive, but the executive branch is allowed to keep some of its own secrets. left leaning democrats introduced a new plan they called the "new green deal" an intense plan to battle climate change, but it was quickly dismissed by nancy pelosi, who said "the green dream or whatever they call it, nobody know what it is." john dingell has died of cancer. he holds the record as the longest serving member of u.s. congress in history, representing michigan for 59 years. he quit congress in 2015.

dingell once said this about the unite the rally in virginia. "i signed up to fight nazis 73 years ago and i'll do it again if i have to. hatred, bigotry and fascism should have no place in this country." dingell was 93 years old. we'll watch the whitaker hearing this morning. follow me on twitter, i' i'm @scottmcgrew. if you haven't eaten breakfast here is an idea, how does a meatloaf sound? a baker in southern germany came up with an idea for festivale season in bavaria. it's taken off on social media. ingredients are simple, a doughnut, sweet mustard and big old slab what have they say is meatloaf, kind of looks like a big chunk of ham to us. spam perhaps? well, meatloaf is said to be more like bologna in that country, and less of something that grandma would make in this country >> see how different apparently

carnivale is in bavaria? >> in new orleans. >> yes. >> take that up, fry it, and put it on some bread with some mustard. we can make it work. >> true. >> hungry man over here. >> as you are making breakfast this morning and maybe it's something similar to that, we're going to see some chilly temperatures, as you get ready to head out the door, here is a live look at walnut creek, so before you step out, make sure you're nice and warm, and you'll stay warm, as we are going to see our temperatures in the low 40s. also, don't forget the umbrella, because we will see that rain moving in later on this morning. some of the showers won't move in until probably while you're at work, and then trying to head out for your lunch break, it's going to start to come down, with some of the showers getting heavier into the afternoon. it's still clear, dry in the south bay, so as you're looking out the window, getting dressed, you do still need a heavy coat, but trade out those leather boots for maybe some rain boots

today, because you'll need those later on. as we are already starting to see some of those showers approaching the coastal areas, and we could see it on storm ranger. it is close to where our mobile doppler radar is parked right now. some of the showers moving into pacifica and half moon bay, and then trying to make it over those santa cruz mountains, and then over toward san mateo, so i'll continue to monitor that, but we can see that the larger part of the storm is still well offshore, and it's making its way right into the bay area. so timing it out for you today, by 1:00, pretty much most of the bay area is seeing some rain, even some heavy downpours, where it's red and yellow, that indicates some really heavy rain, and if you do have the nbc bay area app, you'll be able to track it with the same tools that i use, as we look at where the rain is, and still looks pretty widespread for this evening. by tomorrow morning, we wake up to maybe even a little bit of sunshine, but we are not done with the rain. there will be more rounds of it going into saturday afternoon as well as sunday, and we're

looking at the possibility of getting most of us about an inch of rain, could be a little bit higher in some of our typical higher elevations, and where we normally see some of that higher amounts of rain, and there could be some low elevation snow, mostly at about 25 to 33,000 feet -- 2500 to 3,000 feet. a break in the rain monday and more showers for the middle of next week. mike you're getting us around parts of bait. >> you talk about scattered showers, that's not an issue until later. the scattered reports are not a big issue. most cleared the shoulder but there's enough commute out there folks are getting those reports in there, and then chp is able to clear things like this fire, where the car was engulfed in flames but no injuries. people got out of there fine. at the el portale off-ramp from eastbound 80. you see the green is enroars. an area changing over the last few. slowing westbound 80 toward central and it started to clear

up again. i believe that crash is cleared to the shoulder. 17 minutes from highway 4 to the bay bridge, where the backup is just starting to form on our toll plaza camera. i'll show thaw to you in the next report. i wanted to jump up to the north bay and show you a standard flow of traffic through san rafael. the richmond-san rafael bridge, remember, reopened last night. back to you. happening now, australia's leading security agency is investigating a breach of the country's federal computing network. this morning, there's sp speculation of hacking by the nation. there's no evidence the data had been accessed in the breach, however lawmakers and staff in the capitol changed their passwords on the system. all new, will he or won't he? what tom brady is saying about a possible trip to the white house to visit president trump. a big step for drug price transparency. the company that you've heard of, which is trying to pave the way, and how you'll be able to check on the cost, when "today in the bay" continues. 5:52. microclimate weather.

kari hall is tracking a new storm system right now. this morning we issued a microclimate weather alert. kari hall tracking a new storm system right now. here is a photo of the radar she tweeted out moments ago. she's timing out how long you need your umbrella coming up and you can get on the go updates following kari on twitte

twitter @karihallweather. a follow-up at 5:55 in a deadly lyft driver killing, this is the case in arizona, where a passenger fatally stabbed a pregnant driver, then stole her suv. he killed she and her little baby. the suspect pleaded not guilty, still in jail, his bond is $1 million. new today, we don't know if tom brady is planning to go to the white house. some sports teams, including the warriors, have avoided trips to meet president trump after championship wins. yesterday, brady avoided a question on that topic. >> tom, do you have plans on going to the white house for a celebration? >> ooh! >> yeah -- >> next question. i mean, guys. >> so far, no official invitation. brady, a san mateo native skipped a white house visit when president trump, with president trump in 2017. new this morning, a name change from major league baseball, don't call it the disabled list anymore. the league will rename it to the

injured list, according to "usa today." the paper says a new designation intends to reflect that injured players do not in fact have a disability. the change is just for the name, no rules are changing. mlb will maintain its current 10 and 60-day variations. good news if you are looking to buy a house this spring. >> mortgage rates are at their lowest level in ten months, according to freddie mac. the average rate on a benchmark, 30-year fixed rate mortgage fell 4.41%, the average rate for a 15-year fixed rate loan also dropped to 3.84%. however, rates are still above last year's levels. not everybody is using dating apps to find that love or date. >> apparently more and more people are using them to network or find just plutonic friendships. this morning we hear from a woman who is already engaged but still using bumble. the company says millenials are using it to make new friends. >> it's great for when you're moving to a new city or when

you're going to college. if you want to just expand your friend group and meet new people. people wanted to use it for friendship finding, so we thought why not make it a formal part of the app. >> it can be pretty hard as an adult to put yourself out there. i heard friends using bumble bff as a way to meet new people. it sounds cheesy but the more we hang out and make other friends, then the friend i made maybe she'll bring her bumble bff friend and maybe we can all hang out. >> you heard her mention it, bumble bff, the app based in texas has a biz feature for business networking. the fitness tracker that a lot of people wear on your wrist may be helpful at the hospital. >> researchers down in l.a. used fitbit to monitor patients activity after surgery. the more steps patients took in the days after surgery, the less time they spent in the hospital. data from activity trackers also helped doctors note if a patient was recovering well. for every 100 steps taken, the patient decreased their hospital

stay by 4%. >> they want to get you up and moving. 5:58 right now. new this morning, johnson & johnson will start listing prices of prescription drugs in television ads. it's the first drugmaker to take the big step. it will start with the blood thinner and show the list price and typical out-of-pocket costs. information will include a link to a site where people can enter their insurance data to get more specifics. the move follows a proposal by the trump administration to require drug pricing in ads. right now, tracking the storm. rain is on its way once again. nbc bay area issuing a microclimate weather alert that could go all weekend. the latest update on the timing. plus, repairs continue after that fiery gas line explosion in san francisco earlier this week. brand new, the impact it's having on one bay area nonprofit. also, all new, curtain call, a local movie theater that has a bad reputation, has shut down

for good. "today in the bay" continues right now. a very good morning to you, and thanks so much for joining us. we made it to friday! now just making it through. i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm marcus washington. mike's going to have a look at our commute in just a bit but first, we want to start with meteorologist kari hall. kari, that rain is starting to come down in some parts. >> it's coming down in the peninsula for now and we'll see this becoming more widespread and heavier as we go throughout the rest of the day. we are going to track this system moving in, but it is dry in the south bay, as you get ready to head out the door. looking at now our live picture and headed to willow glen, we have a few more hours to get things done before that rain starts to come down at noon. it's 51 degrees, and starting to see that heavy rain arriving. we are taking a look at storm ranger with some showers approaching the peninsula. we'll take a closer look at this and also what's ahead coming up and mike, there's one new issue about crossing the bay. >> that's right from oakland into san francisco, the bay bridge toll plaza, two thin