it will. i don't think science knows, actually. >> right now 4:30, polar opposite. president trump denies climate change while biden calls him a climate arsonist. where does that bitter divide leave california? senator kamala harris visits fire zones today. plus, power problems. brand-new details on how pg&e's error cost people's power in the middle of a heat wave. and on the verge of reopening. the latest stores to get back to business in the east bay.

"today in the bay" starts right now. and a good tuesday morning to you. i'm marcus washington. >> and i'm laura garcia. we'll check in with mike in just a moment, but first changing weather conditions with kari. good morning. good morning. we are seeing some changes in our air quality in parts of the bay area. take a look at the numbers we're seeing right now. still unhealthy as you head to san francisco, the east bay down to the south bay. we are now seeing moderate air quality for parts of the north bay and even air quality that has improved to the point it's unhealthy for sensitive groups but for most other people it is fairly healthy. as we lookality where we're heading for the day our temperatures will reach into the mid-80s. san francisco will see those 67. i'll be tracking that air quality. what will change it ahead coming

up. mike, how is it looking for the morning commute? kari, we'll give folks the big view starting out with a lot of green sensors. that's what we like to see. what we don't like to hear about are deadly crashes. that's what happened in san jose overnight. green, slowing over the altamont. things clear to livermore. you might have heard about the deadly crash just after 1:00 this morning, north 101. lanes have cleared within the last hour and a half. the live look north of there, a light volume of traffic, so traffic was quickly able to restore the tully on ramp. we'll talk about what else is going on, marcus. back to you. senator kamala harris plans to visit the wildfire officials in fresno today. the visit comes about 24 hours after president trump toured the damage left behind by the wildfires. president trump heads back to pennsylvania today while joe biden hits another swing state,

florida. "today in the bay's" tracie potts has more as the debate over climate change is heating up on the campaign trail. >> reporter: with deadly fires raging in oregon and california sending toxic smoke across the western u.s., presidential candidates are at odds over whether climate change is to blame. >> it'll start getting cooler. you just watch. >> i wish science agreed with you. >> i don't think science knows actually. >> you give a climate arsonist four more years in the white house, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of america ablaze? >> reporter: president trump in california -- >> when you have years of leaves, dried leaves on the ground, it just sets it up as fuel for a fire. >> the west is literally on fire, and he blames the people whose homes and communities are burning. he says, quote, you've got to clean your floors. you've got to clean your forests. >> reporter: democratic running

mate kamala harris tours her state today as president trump talks with undecided voters in battleground pennsylvania, and joe biden heads to florida where hurricane sally is bearing down on the gulf coast forcing evacuations from alabama to louisiana. >> we pray sally doesn't do any harm but we must be prepared just in case. >> reporter: nature, fire and water threatening homes, lives, and politics. tracie potts, nbc news. now to a living look and a historic spare the air alert. today marks the 29th straight day for that alert. most people trapped inside their homes because of the pandemic and poor air quality. some people are desperate to get out and exercise but it's doing more harm than good. health experts say some people think exercising may outweigh the risk of exposure to bad air.

>> the equivalent of smoking a pack or a half a pack of cigarettes in a day, going out into this air right now. >> going outside means you're inhaling ultra fine particles in the air. n95 masks can block the majority from getting into your lungs. 5%, however, can still get through. pg&e is reportedly citing a misstep during the rolling blackouts in mid-august. now those blackouts never impacted the bay area thanks to efforts to conserve energy. "the chronicle" is reporting the utility mistakenly ordered a power plant near fresno to scale back. this is when it was meant to tell a smaller plant to wind up to full capacity. that misstep reduced power capacity by less than 1% at the highest point of that hughusage.

it was cleared up in less than a half hour. the san leandro police officer is due in court today to answer to charges tied to a deadly shooting at a walmart. two weeks ago prosecutors filed charges against officer jason fletcher in connection with the death of steven taylor in april. video shows fletcher holding a baseball bat in the store. investigators say less than 40 seconds passed from the time fletcher arrived to when he tased taylor and ultimately shot him. he will be arraigned on a charge of voluntary manslaughter. happening today san jose councilmembers discuss tense confrontations in the days after the death of george floyd. last friday the police department released new body camera video tied to those protests. and a new department report provided councilmembers -- provided to the councilmembers, rather, obtained by "the mercury news" cites officers' inexperience with large crowds

for the chaotic response. continuing our coronavirus coverage, some good news for you in the bay area. the number of new weekly cases is going down. according to "the chronicle" more than 1,400 cases a week were repor the peak of augu august. it's now down 64% compared to the numbers reported last week. hospitalization rates are also declining. contra costa county's restrictions are easing. right now the county is at the most restrictive purple level on the governor's four-tier system, and its current restrictions are tul actually more severe than what the state requires. the county will allow all businesses on the state's permit list to reopen, personal care salons and card rooms if they operate outdoors. once they head outdoors, kari, they're still going to have to deal with the air quality which is certainly unhealthy.

yeah, we've been talking about that and it's also slightly a cooler morning. we've had the cooler afternoons. we are going to warm up slightly after a morning start with our temperature in oakland at 64 degrees. we're at 51 right now in napa. so a wide range already to start out. then as we go into today we're going to see our winds picking up from the south that has hemmed he helped to clear things out with the winds picking up and some of those gusts picking up 15 to 20 miles per hour. we'll talk about another storm system rolling in. mike, how is it looking right now for the commute? kari, most of the sensors are agreeing, the speed sensors, of course, but also the yellow highlighted there which means there was some fog and lower visibility as you see over my shoulder and on the map in the north bay. southbound to 23rd and 29th,

there's a crash. a deer was hit. deer may be jumping across the roadway for the next few months in the area. everything else moving smoothly, laura. back to you. it's 4:38. the manhunt intensifies for the shooter who ambushed two southern california deputies. still ahead on "today in the bay," new concerns coming from the top of the sheriff's department. we have to talk about that exciting news brewing for today's big reveal from apple. the all new products being shown off today and the signature device left out of today's event. you're watching "today in the bay." ladies... check it out.

so strong. so... not ripped. what're we talkin about... that's the hefty ultra strong bag hefty! hefty! hefty! (whispers) gimme.

(confused) give me the bag? get hefty ultra strong at a low price

good tuesday morning. right now at 4:41 our microclimate weather alert continues due to unhealthy air quality. let's head to concord and look at our temperature trend that starts out with some upper 50s. we will still have a lot of smoke hanging in the air today as we go into afternoon we're going to see those temperatures trending more to the mid-80s today. we'll talk about this and what may help give us some improved air quality in the forecast coming up. and we do have activity but no major crashes. i want to talk about what's happening. take a look at fremont, 880. folks know there's a new h.o.t. lane that will open for

chargeable traffic that starts october 2nd. right now the lanes are free. i want to get back to our pandemic coverage. tenants rights groups say landlords are filing for more evictions across major cities. that data called the private equity stakeholder project found 900 new eviction cases in eight major u.s. cities. critics argue it's only a way to delay and not prevent evictions. they argue it also provides no unpaid rent relief. time is now running out for the added $300 in weekly benefits for those in california still waiting to find jobs. the president's lost wages assistance order expanded benefits for at least three and up to six weeks as long as congress cannot agree on a new

stimulus plan and the president does not extend the order, no more added benefits will come before november. californians who can verify they've lost jobs due to the pandemic and received at least $100 from their initial claim have priority. next for you here on "today in the bay," no relief for renters. the all new numbers showing a huge spike in evictions. and we're going to have much more ahead for you this morning here on "today in the bay."

hi, everybody. i'm brian sullivan. your cnbc morning business update, we are seeing futures higher across the board right now. we rose in the markets yesterday which is a turnaround. last week was the big week for the technology stocks, all the stocks based around you guys, since early march when the pandemic first hit. we will rise again tomorrow. you have some positive vaccine news. astrazeneca study paused for a couple weeks. they're going to resume trials on that. pfizer saying early vaccine could be ready late this year or early next year, assuming one is approved, or at least the federal reserve starting off the

two-day policy meeting. apple is going to host its virtual, of course everything is virtual now, launch event. it's not getting as much attention because there is no new iphone expected. that's always the big reveal, right? likely to get a new ipad, a new watch that can check your heart rate, your vitals. in this day and age we all want to know how we're doing and are expecting a new and improved apple watch and, by the way, despite the pandemic or because of it a new study shows that america's upper middle class and wealthy are going to spend more this holiday season. a study shows you can expect a 2% to 4% jump in online spending.

if you're blessed to have a good job, we're not traveling. so we're saving a lot of money. i guess we're going to put that back into online spending this holiday season. back to you. >> that's true. i will. but i won't say -- >> we might have to get creative this year in our secret santas. >> very much so. creativity in the works. look, you don't have to get too creative to talk about the forecast for today because we have seen what we're seeing today but, kari, there is a change coming to the bay area with the air quality. right. we've been talking about that. i wanted to first get to what we are seeing for the gulf coast states with an update on sally as the storm gets very close to

alabama, mississippi as well as just to the east of new orleans. and this is now a hurricane that will most likely make landfall as a category 1 and very slowly move to the north and east over the next couple of days. that slow movement will be a major problem in terms of how much rain they're going to see. so we're watching that as well as five other tropical systems out there in the atlantic basin. so it's very active at this point and you're going to see a lot of that in your news feed today and on your social media. let's get back home because we've been talking about how smoky it is and it's still unhealthy to be out there again this morning with these numbers measuring the particulate matter, how much of that smoke that's in the air that you will possibly breathe in if you're out there. we're looking at some of those numbers still unhealthy for everyone, for much of the bay area. as we go through the forecast we are expecting some improvement to the end of the week taking a

look at the different colors here for all of our microclimates. we see red, which is unhealthy. the orange, which means moderate, we'll see that tomorrow. and for the end of the week it's looking like it will be unhealthy for sensitive groups. so we are starting to see a shift in the wind. the wind direction coming in from the south, the wind speeds picking up to about 15 to 20 miles per hour. we know that we have fires burning in all directions, but then as we look at what's coming our way towards the end of the week this storm system as it arrives will bring in a strong westerly wind which will come in over the ocean and it will still bring in some smoke but it won't be as high of a concentration as we're seeing right now with either a north or a south wind. so that's some really good news we have in the forecast. slightly cooler for our inland areas between thursday and the weekend. we're going to see those highs in the upper 70s and lower 80s. mike, what's the update on the morning commute?

kari, it's looking pretty smooth as you would expect. over my shoulder, a crash getting off the san mateo bridge, east 92, the industrial off ramp may be affected by activity. a big rig got into a crash over there. no injuries reported and a smooth drive shows up on our sensors. we'll zoom over to the east bay. looking at southbound 880. the nimitz has overnight construction blocking you down to one lane between 23rd and 29th. as usual shows the most impact and that will clear before 6:00 if everything is on schedule. the rest of the bay and the approach moves nicely. a live look shows you what we couldn't show you yesterday, a clear view over here of the berkeley curve from emeryville. yesterday there was too much fog or stuff in the air. today we can see the traffic fle. become to you. >> thank you, mike. developing now the l.a. county sheriff fears more deputies will come under attack. this is after saturday's shocking ambush. surveillance video from a bus

station shows what happened after the deputies were shot. both are expected to survive. authorities are focusing the investigation on several nearby street gangs. the investigators are looking for two suspects, the reward has green grown to $175,000. in southern california firefighters are really having a tough time getting a handle on the bobcat fire. the fire has burned more than 38,000 acres since starting nine days ago in the angeles national forest. hundreds of homes are evacuated in the area surrounding santa anita. yesterday containment dropped from 6% to 3%. so far no homes have burned. put on pause. up next on "today in the bay," the reason l.a. county won't authorize any more business reopenings until at least the end of the month. plus, if you're looking forward to hitting the slopes this

winter, the changes all skiers can expect to see at tahoe resorts amid the pandemic. but happening now for you a trio of humpback whales make a wrong turn ending up in an australian tropical river. ecologists discovered the three whales on a fishing trip two weeks ago. in a facebook post they say it appears two of the three whales have since made their way out of the river, and this is the first for the tropical inland habitat. it may ring a bell in the bay area for those of you suddenly remembering the humpty the whale -- humphrey the whale back in 1985. this is when a humpback went all the way up the sacramento river. prop 19 helps california's most vulnerable.

it provides property tax fairness for disabled homeowners like cynde, stuck living with a broken elevator. nineteen helps wildfire victims, like ellie, one of 24,000 who've lost their homes to fire. and seniors like pam who need to move closer to family or medical care, without a tax penalty. prop 19 limits taxes on our most vulnerable. yes on 19. we know these are challenging times. rest assured, you are not alone. we've all had to adapt. and with summer here, your energy bills might go up with rising temperatures. together, we can save energy and money. try closing your shades during the day... setting your ac to 78° or higher... or cooling off with a fan when you can. united we are always stronger.

stay well, california, and keep it golden.

4:56. l.a. county says they're not going to allow any more businesses to reopen until the end of the month. the county is waiting to see if there will be a spike in cases after labor day weekend. health leaders say spikes happened after fourth of july and memorial day weekend. this morning with all the heat plaguing ting the bay area skiing may be the last thing on your mind. you'll have to plan more in advance for your ski trip. five major resorts are discontinuing all walk-up ticket sales. according to "the mercury news" squaw, heavenly, kirkwood and mammoth mountain all cite social distancing guidelines to limit the number of skiers on the

slopes. making progress next here on "today in the bay," today's push to fastr track help. plus, the impact felt from the haze and smoke. a live report on what you can expect from this year's wine grape harvest.

right now at 5:00 tainted by

smoke. as we wait for clearing skies, new long lasting impacts are starting to emerge from the onslaught of smoky skies. plus, more progress. crews make new gains in the fight against those wildfires in the area. others in the state continue to rage. kamala harris visits those fire zones. the very latest on the overnight firefight. and cover up or pay up, rules for covid rule breakers. live with a look at who the rules are meant to target the most. that's "today in the bay" right now. a very good tuesday morning to you. 5:00 right now. i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm marcus washington. i like to call this a terrific tuesday. hopefully we have a terrific commute. let's talk about the forecast first. kari, there is something