right now at 4:30, breaking news. a dire situation unfolding in marin county. hospitals say no more icu beds are available. what health officials say needs to be done to stop the surge. plus -- >> science shows kids in school with appropriate precautions are not creating an environment to spread the virus. >> any of our staff communicated with me directly and have shared that they don't feel safe right now. >> the difficult decision one local school district is now making and why it's not too late for parents to weigh in on the return plan. and working to help those

struggling to make it in the bay. the steps one city is taking to help those in need as "today in the bay" starts right now. first, storm ranger this morning scanning the skies. we have a live look outside where it's clear for now, but meteorologist kari hall is tracking when another round of rain is set to arrive in the bay area. it's already wednesday morning. thanks so much for joining us. i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm marcus washington. we'll get to that commute in just a bit. kari, how is it looking? can we expect the rain to come our way? yes, it's going to be later on tonight but as we once again have storm ranger powered up and ready to go it will be tracking the rain as it moves from north to south. right now we are all dry. as we look at what's going on here we are seeing the storm system still well to the north of us. as that rain comes in it will be moving through, and we've also been tracking what's happening for the east coast with that big winter storm headed that way, that nor'easter. we'll talk more about all of this and what we're expecting

coming up in the forecast. mike, how is it looking for the roads early this morning? it's looking great right now, kari. you talk about changes by this time tomorrow. the view of san rafael with those taillights away from us on this camera shot we have shows a nice drive. a good volume of traffic but no problems here or on the maps. an easy flow. sometimes we see slowing just to the north of the golden gate bridge. the crew near spencer not showing any slowing this morning. the same thing for oakland and the rest of the bay at speeds. we'll check the altamont coming up. back to you. right now marin county the first in the bay area to run out of available icu beds for covid patients. health leaders say they knew it was coming. plans are already in place for help from other nearby counties. the bed shortage not much better in some parts of the bay area. this map shows you just how close other counties are in this really critical stage. we'll show it to you. santa clara, solano now below the 15% threshold. san mateo county is just

teetering at the edge. as for the bay area region it's now just sitting above the 15% threshold meaning any surge in patients would trigger a region wide at-home order. most bay area counties have already enacted strict measures. >> for many the vaccine cannot come soon enough and for very few that vaccine taking effect. workers at zuckerberg in contra costa regional medical center were among the first in the bay area to get the vaccine yesterday after treating covid patients for ten months. they say they are ready. it offers a peace of mind in terms of safety for my family and for everyone in my life as well as my patients here and my fellow staff. >> some bay area facilities won't receive their first batch of the vaccine until the end of the week. the general public likely won't see any vaccinations until next spring at the earliest. facebook coo is opening up about her father receiving

pfizer's covid-19 vaccine. she shared on instagram he had tears in his eyes and urged people to get a vaccination once it becomes available. he is a doctor in nor floor. now to some more details for you. governor newsom actually says the next phase consists of about 8 million people. that group will likely include teachers, farmworkers and grocery store employees. but the state's so-called community advisory committee will ultimately decide who goes next. it's holding an open forum today where you can give your input. well, happening today, parents and teachers in contra costa county will meet to discuss the change to keep students at home for even longer. san ramon decided not to start in-person learning on january 5th. they will remove instruction until the county moves out of that purple tier and into the red. emotional comments from both sides were read at the virtual meeting. >> what constitutes placing the lives of our educational

community at-large and greater risk at the height of this pandemic. with all of our many safety protocols in place which life are we willing to sacrifice to achieve this hybrid plan? science shows kids in schools with precautions are not creating an environment that spreads the virus. >> those in favor of in-person learning say the lack of -- >> -- the lack of interaction was causing grades to drop. so up to the north bay, we want to tell you about a similar debate for santa rosa schools. the hope of reopening in january, well, that's now gone. the earliest return date for kids is march 2021. and new action from san francisco leaders, this is to help people struggling to make it in the bay. supervisors have reportedly approved two measures. one would put rent cams on the city's supportive housing units. the city has 2,800 or so

subsidized units for people. advocates say are living one step from being homeless. rents for those units will not exceed 30% of the tenant's income. supervisors also voted to extend the city's emergency homeless hotel room program. homeless people are being placed in about 30 hotels to limit the spread of the virus during the pandemic. and this morning nbc bay area storm ranger busy scanning the skies for us. we'll take a live look outside for you. you can see fremont and san jose where it is clear for you right now. but that rain heading our way into the bay area. meteorologist kari hall has been timing out what we can expect. you say we should be okay for the daytime but later this evening? yeah, you can pretty much leave the umbrellas at home unless you're going to be out really late tonight. for most of the day we're just going to see the clouds coming in with the rain starting in the north bay late this evening. for tomorrow the sunshine will return, and we go back to our dry weather as we go into the

weekend with some temperatures that will reach into the upper 50s. that's what we'll see today with a high of 60 degrees at antioch while most of the rest of the bay area will be in the upper 50s and then for the north bay we'll have some mid-50s as that rain comes in later today. i'll be tracking that with a time line. mike, how is it looking now for the commute? not so bad. there will be changes in the next 24 hours with the weather you talk about. we're looking at dry roads and the peninsula right now. the map shows you one incident and there's some slowing there. reports of 280 northbound just in the wood side area, a crash. apparently a car went off the roadway. they call it a roll over but i believe it went on its side and wheels. no major injuries. a little slowing. we'll track the peninsula side with that. way out in the altamont on the right side, look at that, there's no slowing out of the altamont pass. that's a light drive right now as we expect to see as we head to mid and late december. back to you.

transticianing into his white house role. still ahead for you on "today in the bay," our washington insider breaks down the new position president-elect biden is filling on his team. and the bay area connection one appointee has. plus, resolve. the major issues google just fixed and the problems that plagued some of its top services. you're watching "today in the bay." ever since you've been hanging out with jack there's something... different about you. ♪

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right now at 4:40 the king tides are easing but we're still going to have some high breakers along the coastline up to 20 feet, plus watch out for the rogue and sneaker waves that may come up along the coastline. we're watching this as well as an incoming storm that's going to bring us more rain. more on that coming up in a few minutes. and we're looking at the san mateo bridge with a smooth drive. as we take a look at the taillights going away from us heading west over the high rise into the peninsula without delay, without any problems. a crash on 280 on the peninsula. and then heading to the east we'll check in with our friend dominic. good morning. i am dominic chu. wall street is set to open with modest gains following yesterday's rally. the dow rising more than 300 points while the s&p 500 and nasdaq both ended up more than 1%. the nasdaq closing in, by the way, at a new record high yet

again. investors are cheering developments in washington, d.c., over a potential new stimulus package to help americans impacted by the fallout economically from the covid pandemic. also in focus today a report on november retail sales and the federal reserve wraps up its final policy meeting of the year with an interest rate decision due later this afternoon. google says it's resolved issues with its g mail. some users reported various problems yesterday such as getting a bounceback notification after sending an email message. now this comes just a day after a global outage affected gmail, youtube and other google services for roughly an hour. gmail is one of the most popular email platforms worldwide with 1.5 billion users. and starbucks is pausing one of its very popular buy one get one free promotions as covid cases rise across the country. the coffee giant is canceling happy hour events for this month and early january as well to help prevent crowds from gathering in stores.

starbucks previously paused happy hours back in march. they brought them back in june. it's still, though, giving away free coffee to frontline workers. it's running its annual starbucks for life contest through january 4th. so, marcus, i don't know about you. i can always use coffee. starbucks doing its part to try to minimize crowds this season. back over to you. >> do what you can. it's always good to see giving the frontline workers those free coffees. something else i need to tell you about this morning, the deadline is now set for wal-mart shoppers to take and make those online ordere ers for pick yuup. on mon dday at 2:00 for next da delivery. you need to order by next wednesday at 4:00 p.m. for in-store pickup on christmas eve. i hope you got all of that. all right, the price you pay next on "today in the bay," the

bay area county that is now set to cap those extra food delivery fees. we'll be right back.

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tires, brakes-and headlight bulbs, too. sylvania's lighting experts know that if you wait until burnout... you'll lose up to 50 feet of visibility. that's from here... to here... ...in darkness. switch to a new pair of sylvania bulbs today, and see better tonight. here we go. hump day wednesday for you. taking a live look out at san rafael. you see a few cars getting started with the day and so are we. mike will have a look at the commute coming up in just a bit. first, we want to talk about the forecast because, kari, you have been telling us about this all

week, that rain coming our way. i know there's a lot of work going into tracking that. what have you got for us? i'm just really excited we are getting another round of rain and for most people it won't impact your plans. it will come most likely while you're sleeping and out of here before you wake up tomorrow morning. as we track it with storm range earp it is dry as you get ready to head out. as we look at the wide view we can see the rain that will be moving closer. still some of it well off the far northwestern california coast. so as it moves in later this evening we will see it first starting out in the north bay and then rolling through the rest of the bay area. let's take a look at the time line. 10:00, 11:00 we are seeing some of the orange and yellows indicating heavier rain making it into northern sonoma county. as we go into late tonight and a

lot of the rain lighter as it moves to the east bay and the peninsula. so we're not going to get as much rain as the north bay elsewhere but we are definitely glad to see at least something here as we look at how much possible rain we can get out of this system. it shows the possibility that the north bay could get over half an inch of rain. for the east bay looking more like half an inch of rain in san francisco as well and then down to the south bay a little bit less in some spots. we look at how much rain we've measured, looking at the percent of normal in san jose. oakland, 19%. livermore has only made 26% of the normal amount of rain. and so as we look at the past couple of months, the average amount and how much we've measured in orange. it hasn't really been enough. and so as we go into the next couple of weeks homefully starting winter with a decent amount of rain coming in. after that back to our dry

weather. i will be watching another system early next week. mike, the roads are dry. how is the commute? overall rolling nicely. we're talking about southbound 280, got the location updated to chp. it's a distraction. some may know that as one of the exits. through the north bay an easy drive. how easy, too easy -- well, not too easy. back to you. >> thank you, mike. joe biden won the presidential election. probably no surprise to many of you but "today in the bay's" tracie potts is reporting on capitol hill plus another vaccine on the way.

>> reporter: nbc confirms president-elect joe biden will tap pete buttigieg. former michigan governor jennifer grantholn and gina mccarthy to lead climate efforts at the white house. this as the senate's top republican says for the first time -- >> i want to congratulate president-elect joe biden. >> i'm looking forward to working with him. >> reporter: president trump tweeting overnight, too soon. >> the president is still involved in ongoing litigation. >> reporter: biden and democrats are focused on electing two georgia democrats. on january 5th giving $5 million to run-offs that could tip the balance of power in the senate. >> you voted as if your life depended on it. well, guess what, now you're going to have to do it again. >> reporter: in washington lawmakers are closing in on covid financial relief. >> we're not leaving here without a covid package. not going to happen. >> reporter: and the fda is preparing to approve moderna's

vaccine as soon as friday. >> those vaccines will be shipped as of 24 hours after approval. >> reporter: nearly 6 million more doses targeting health care workers, long-term care facilities and nursing homes. president-elect biden saying he'll get the vaccine sooner rather than later and will do it publicly. the white house says president trump will get the vaccine as soon as his medical team says it's okay. tracie potts, nbc news. money and saving money will be among the hot topics at today's metropolitan transportation meeting. the ij says the unions representing transit agencies have asked mtc to set aside $1 million. they want the money to be used for salaries instead if transit money evaporates. every transit agency is struggling. many are considering job cuts. now to a follow-up in the south bay. santa clara county and san jose

leaders are moving forward with a new cap on food delivery fees. supervisors approving that new 15% cap on fees charged by delivery services like doordash, gruber eats and when restaurants can reopen at full capacity. one south bay city is spreading the holiday cheer for those in need. sunnyvale community services was holding a drive-thru holiday meal event where they will give out food and holiday gift cards. it starts at 8:00 a.m. always nice to see. and an easy way you can help those in need is through our nourishing neighbors food drive. the next time you're at a safeway store make a $10 donation or more and that will go to local food banks and our drive goes through december 29th. how about something good this morning, marcus? a glimmer of hope in the pandemic. a southern california mother finally gets to hold her baby in

her arms one month after giving birth. >> she gave birth to the baby boy in november. she was suffering from covid-19 at the time and as a result never got to hold her baby. he is recovering in the nicu. she beat the disease and was released from the hospital just yesterday and was finally reunited with her baby boy. >> that moment you hold your baby is like nothing else. working to recover. coming up next on "today in the bay," two warriors that will likely be sidelined for tomorrow's big season opener. plus, the highest paid celebrities of 2020. first happening now for you a new survey reveals the surge in teen vaping leveling off but still remains high. 34% of high school seniors had recently used e-cigarettes. the number was doubling from 2017 to 2019. researchers also found daily

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well, it now looks like james wiseman won't ever see the floor until the games matter. coach kerr says he and draymond green will likely both be kept out of the last preseason game tomorrow, each is coming back from positive covid tests. without them last night in sacramento the warriors lost to the kings 114-113. trending for you that morning if you're a fan of podcasts, like me, your play list may get a bit more royal. >> no, say it, because i think

it sounds nice with your accent. >> wow. prince harry and meghan markle signed an exclusive deal with spotify to host and produce podcasts. the new venture is named after the pair's son archie. the pair's first podcast will be a holiday special featuring, quote, inspirational guests, set to pro-meemiere later this mont. do you think they didn't know the mic was on. "forbes" is releasing the list of the highest paid. kiley jenner brought in $590 million just in year. brother-in-law kanye west second with $170 million. third place was tennis star roger federer. wow, a big gap between one and two. wow. 4:57 for you this morning. getting the green light. next on "today in the bay," the

new rapid at-home covid test that just gained approval from the fda and how it works. plus, they picked the wrong car. a would-be car thief takes a very dangerous turn in willow glen. we talked to the victim whose instincts kicked in as he donnell dodged bullets. ladies... check it out.

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news to tell you about. out of room. an alarming revelation from marin county as it reveals hospitals have run out of icu beds. plus -- >> when it comes to vaccinations and the pandemic in general, this is a marathon. it's not a sprint. >> a new shot of hope. the next round of health care workers are set to receive covid vaccines today. how it's looking for a second vaccine candidate set to gain fda approval perhaps in a matter of days. and sky ranger is clear now. meteorologist kari hall is tracking when another round of rain is set to arrive. "today in the bay" starts now. thank you for joining us. i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm marcus washington. first we have to talk about that incoming rain. meteorologist kari hall is tracking that. >> we are seeing showers still off the coast.