bagel breakfast sandwiches with bacon or sausage. whoa, mark. jack hired me! i got a contract. you mean like this one? why choose one when you can have two? my 2 for $5 bagel breakfast sandwiches. right now at 4:30, another south bay hospital dealing with numerous covid cases. could it be linked to an outbreak at the san jose kaiser facility? plus, one win for democrats in georgia. the count under way in the second race. the very latest from georgia's crucial senate run-off elections overnight and the fireworks we expect on capitol hill as congress meets to count the electoral college votes. and taking a live look outside wet weather heading into the bay area once again this week. meteorologist kari hall timing it all out in our forecast. "today in the bay" starts right now.

good wednesday morning to you. thanks so much for starting your day with us. i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm scott mcgrew. marcus washington has the day off. what a day for politics and the pandemic. so much to get to. and we have rain on the way as well. good morning, kari. good morning. and not all of us will see that rain. it's mostly a north bay event. we have storm ranger powered up ready to track that rain as it approaches. it's still well to the north of us, and we won't see it until mainly this afternoon. as it moves in we are going to see some of those scattered showers once again first in the north bay and a lot of the rain falls apart as it moves into the rest of the bay area for this afternoon. i'll track that with more timing. that's coming up in a few minutes. how is it looking for early morning commuters? right now, kari, the sensors are green pretty much everywhere. look at the bay bridge toll plaza camera, not the traffic going westbound but the traffic getting off the bay bridge

heading over into oakland past 880. reports of a fire. i don't see it here but reportedly you can see that. some of the drivers are calling in to chp. marked on the map with a circle. the only issue going on of note. not as tough as yesterday but similar spots along 101. that's it for now, scott. back to you. history made overnight in georgia. that state has elected its first ever black senator. the second race still too close to call. we do know democratic candidate rafael warnock will go to washington. he defeated senator kelly loeffler in a narrow victory. meanwhile, take a look at this, even closer, as of right now jon ossoff has a nice edge lead against republican incumbent david perdue. only about 16,000 votes separate the two. all of this is playing out amid the presidential transition. more protests as congress prepares to certify joe biden's

presidential victory. we have a live look at washington, d.c., this morning. president trump speaks at a save america rally as lawmakers gather to certify the presidential election with vice president pence deciding. the president tweeted falsely that if vice president mike pence comes through for us, we will win the presidency. pence only announces results. he can't change them. the vice president says he'll follow the law. 13 senators and dozens in the house plan to object. ahead of the rallies there have already been arrests including the leader of the proud boys. he's been banned from the d.c. event. let's talk about the pandemic. a second hospital reporting a surge of infections within the emergency room. the hospital in gilroy says 10% of the e.r. staff have now tested positive. this is over the last week. it comes on the heels of the outside break at kaiser's emergency department. that grew to 60 staff members. "today in the bay's" terry mcsweeney reports on what we

know now. >> reporter: st. louis hospital in gilroy confirming eight of its 80 emergency room staff have tested positive for coronavirus over the past week. a spokeswoman says personnel in the emergency department are being tested more frequently, at least every three days, as a result of these recent cases. we will also be implementing daily rapid testing of emergency department personnel before their shift begins. over the weekend nbc bay area learned of an outbreak at kaiser's san jose emergency department. on christmas day an employee wearing an air-powered tree costume walked the hallways of the emergency department. kaiser says that costume likely is responsible for 60 employees getting covid including a registration clerk who died sunday. some nurses question whether kaiser could have done more to keep them safe. they say before the outbreak they were not tested regularly. >> i feel that this could have been either prevented or really minimized had test iing been do

prior. >> reporter: some say people may be surprised. >> health care workers have not been tested routinely. i think that's a misconception by the public that we are getting routine testing like teachers who have gone back to the work place have. >> reporter: kaiser says it is testing all emergency department workers as part of the investigation of the outbreak. a nurse who did not want to go on camera tells nbc bay area some of the health care workers at kaiser during the outbreak also worked at st. louise hospital. she says she is not aware of any connection. terry mcsweeney, "today in the bay." statewide our numbers continue to climb. california is reporting more than 31,000 new cases in total. there are nearly 3 million cases and over 27,000 deaths. a live look in los angeles this morning where the covid crush is so intense, at least one hospital is counting more

covid patients than its maximum normal capacity. martin luther king jr. hospital has 135 covid patients and another 80 patients with other medical issues. normal bed space there maxs out at 131. now across l.a. county it's believed one in 17 people now infected. the state health department is asking neighboring counties to help ease the overload. governor newsom is requesting federal medical personnel be deployed. >> the national guard, which has membership from the northern california as well as southern california is an obvious thing to be deployed, it's already happened. active duty service personnel that we could put into play. >> bay area bed capacity is marginally better across the region. it's just under 6%. some believe the holiday related surge has not yet peaked. our coverage for the race

for a vaccine turns to the east bay. frontline health care workers there will once again roll up their sleeves. doctors and nurses at concord medical health center will get their second shot of the pfizer vaccine. we were there on december 16th when some of the roughly 200 frontline workers got their first injection. remember, health experts say pfizer's vaccine needs two injections to become 95% effective at protecting against covid-19. the state committee that decides who gets the vaccine next will meet today. the governor says the next phase will be broken into two tiers that includes people over the age of 75 as well as teachers, child care employees, emergency workers and food workers. tier two expand vaccine availability to people who are 65 and older, transportation workers, people who work in sheltering services, prisoners and the homeless. who is on the list for 1c is being discussed. the governor wants to target 50

and older, those with underlying medical conditions, water and waste management, financial services. the committee will iron out the details on 1c which is expected to happen at today's meeting. are you wondering where you are in that vaccine line? if you have your camera point it to that qr code in the bottom left of your screen. it will take you right to our interactive tool. within a minute you'll get a rough estimate of your place in line. again, you just point your phone right there, your camera, to that qr code in the bottom left of your screen. we'll try to put it up later in the newscast as well if you don't have your phone handy just yet f. you're just waking up. in the meantime, let's point our attention at kari and mike. okay. we're trying to see what's going on in the north bay because the fog is so thick this morning, once again a foggy morning where

in some spots it's all clear and then you're driving and suddenly you hit a patch of fog. that's what we're seeing up around santa rosa right now. it's mainly clear in napa. we'll see the fog drifting around and we've seen clear visibility in the tri-valley but also tracking some rain. more on that coming up in a few minutes. mike, you have a traffic alert going on. i do, kari, and it's in the tri-valley. you showed the dublin camera, a clear you view. over here the sig alert, a traffic alert issued by chp is here for highway 84. just minutes ago we went from all lanes closed to one-way traffic control. this is just east of the 680 interchange. for most folks for the commute folks coming westbound 84 and heading to little valley road. it's a head-on crash. no reports of major injuries, but there's major damage to the car. you'll have to use the dublin interchange out of the altamont pass. and that's not as many people today right now. back to you, laura.

>> thanks so much. behind bars, still ahead on "today in the bay." the arrest made in connection to the state's unemployment fraud scandal. the growing number of macy's locations set to close down and the flagship store on that list. i'm made to move.

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right now at 4:42 we have a weakening storm system approaching the bay area.

we'll bring in some light rain for parts of the north bay. we'll track it with storm ranger with the time line and talk about the outlook for rain in the next month. that's coming up in a few minutes. and we have breaking news over in the tri-valley for folks heading through sunol into fremont. highway 84 over my shoulder has traffic restriction down to hundred-way traffic control if you're heading to fremont toward 680. 880 moves smoothly. we'll track the shift you'll have to make and the impact coming up. good morning. i'm josh lipton from cnbc. wall street is set to open lower this morning as investors watch the results of the georgia run-off election. some traders worry the senate controlled by the democrats could lead to higher taxes and tougher regulations on companies which may weigh on the broader market, but that outcome could lead to additional stimulus and give a boost to companies hit hardest by the pandemic. stocks are coming off a solid

session yesterday which the dow, nasdaq and s&p 500 climbed back from steep losses. reports on factory orders and hiring in the private sector. macy's will close another 45 stores this year as part of the ongoing restructuring plan. the plan calls for shuttering of 125 stores over three years. macy's hasn't said which stores will close in the coming months or how many jobs will be affected. the "chicago tribune" reports the flagship store on the magnificent mile is among those closing its doors. your flip phone is safe for now. verizon is delaying the shutdown of its 3g network indefinitely pushing back an original plan to shutter the network at the end of last year. the decision only affects customers who are still using your existing 3g devices. verizon no longer lets customers activate new 3g phones and doesn't offer prepaid 3g service. upgrade to new plans. scott and laura, back to you.

>> well, there goes my sidekick. thanks much. >> that could be me this morning. 4:44 right now. searching for the next top cop. next on "today in the bay," the trouble san jose is having finding a new police chief and the deadline extension now in place. you're watching "today in the bay."

well, good morning to you.

a pretty look out at san francisco as we wake up for another day. the embarcadero center all lit up. the sales force tower as well. it is a lovely, lovely day out there. let's get a check with kari this morning. yes, it starts out nice and dry but we're going to see some spots getting some rain today which is also a welcome sight in the forecast. let's get a look at storm ranger, our mobile doppler radar. we have it parked on san bruno mountain and it's scanning around the bay area. as you can see with the red scan there it is all dry for the start of your day. if you're going to be gone for a long time for the afternoon, make sure you have the umbrella especially in the north bay. i'm stopping it right here at 3:00 this afternoon. this is right ahead of the evening commute and the north bay is already seeing that rain pushing on through and then as it moves into parts of the east bay look at how much the rain falls apart so there's not as much energy across the rest of

the bay area to sustain that rain and that line of showers. so most of us won't see any rain today. but there will be another shot. i'm looking for some of that rain to fall on my gardens. and we're looking at another chance early on friday morning as it moves in. this looks to weaken significantly. so i'm hoping that between these two chances of rain we can get a little bit of something out of this. it's mostly for the north bay anywhere from a tenth to a quarter of an inch and the further north you go the rainfall totals will be a lot higher as we look at parts of the east bay, the peninsula, san francisco down to the south bay we're not looking at a whole lot here. it may be a few trace amounts of rain unless you're along the immediate coastline where we will see a little bit more of that rain but the outlook does show that we could see above average rainfall for the next month which would be some really good news. i'll be keeping you up to date on that. over to mike who now has breaking news.

that's right, kari. over in the tri-valley highway 84. word of a head-on collision. the crash there, the details only talk about the damage to the vehicles not for injuries. that's good news. we're just waiting for tow trucks. highway 84 bad news for folks cutting westbound out of livermore to sunol. there's one-way traffic control which means you have to stop because they're only letting one lane by. you can use the dublin interchange as an alternate out of livermore. do not cut through 84. the rest of the bay looks really light right now. back to you. thanks, mike. hey, new overnight, did you feel it? a small earthquake causing some shaking in the east bay? the magnitude 2.7 quake hit slightly northwest of concord, just east of buchanan field about 11:45 last night. most of us were sleeping. on social media, however, people say they felt it as par away as oakland. no reports of any damage.

sad news to continue reporting, still no sign of a brother and sister swept out to sea in sonoma county. this story just breaks my heart. anna wyman and brother john wyman were on a family trip to blind beach sunday when the water just overtook them. the father was pulled from the ocean. he was trying to save them. he didn't survive. the searchers continue to look for the siblings. they have set up a scholarship fund in the children's honor. the nation's tenth largest city is widening its search for a police chief. san jose extending its deadline to january 14th. the city hopes to name a new chief by the end of february. former chief eddie garcia announced his retirement in august and late last month took a job as the dallas police chief. we're learning more about the company that recently donated half a million dollars to a recall effort against governor newsom. prov, we believe is short for

proverbs 39 says the donor is a man who believes pandemic restrictions on indoor worship violates religious freedom. they say the company funds charitable works using his proceeds. a former u.s. election official is alleging that company is simply a pass through designed to hide the source of donations. meanwhile, the petition to recall the governor has a million signatures. organizers need 1.8 million valid signatures by mid-march to qualify for a recall election. a florida man doing 20 years for murder is among the thousands of inmates who received millions of stimulus dollars from california's employment development department. that is according to the "l.a. times." a scathing new report on the edd's widespread fraud. some $4 billion intended for workers left jobless by the pandemic may have been siphoned. a small fraction of that, about $40 million, is believed to have made it to thousands of inmates in jails and prisons outside the

state. the edd did not respond to the "l.a. times." legendary players, next on "today in the bay." the former nfl stars from the bay area topping the hall of fame finalist list. plus, are you feeling lucky? the growing jackpot for the powerball drawing. the winning ticket worth over $2 million that was sold in california. yikes. happening now a uk court has denied julian assange's bail days after the same court dec e decided the wikileaks founder cannot be extradited to the united states. assange published classified military documents and diplomatic messages back in 2010. the united states wants to charge him with espionage. you're watching "today in the bay." ♪

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well, the bowl game beatdown by ball state wouldn't beat enough some members of the traveling party still have not returned from the game in arizona. according to "the mercury news" that's because some have covid, some were exposed to covid. not clear how many people were infected, but the school says some staff members also stayed on hand to provide support. and the spartans lost on new year's eve after an undefeated season. the list of finalists is out for this year's pro football hall of fame. the headliner for one spot living legend peyton manning. former raiders great charles woodson son the list along withstandout john lynch, who is now the gm. he played in denver. patrick willis and bryant young did not make the final cut. they will be inducted one day

before the super bowl. check your tickets. no jackpot winner in last night's mega millions drawing, but the winning ticket for a $2.3 million win was sold in brentwood. someone is waking up with that. they have to be happy. here are the numbers, 20-43-51-55-57 and the mega ball is 4. now since no one won the jackpot it goes up to $490 million. another huge jackpot that's big, too, powerball, $400 million. well, history was made in georgia overnoit with the first black candidate for senate winning there. the future of the senate now boils down to the other contest between ossoff and perdue. the latest vote totals next on "today in the bay." plus, the race for a vaccine. the bay area frontline workers set to get vaccines today and who is next in line. we'll be right back.

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spread of covid. the frontline workers set to receive vaccines in the bay area today and a live report on the decision made over who is next in line. and a look at the radar this morning. some rain moving into the bay area. sky ranger tracking it all. meteorologist kari hall will have your hour by hour forecast. "today in the bay" continues right now. it's 5:00 right now. good morning to you. thanks so much for joining us. i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm scott mcgrew. marcus washington has the week off. a look at traffic and weather starting with kari. good morning. good morning. we've powered up storm ranger and can see the red scan as it's showing us it's a dry start to your morning. the rain set to move in as it is well to the north of us. the north bay getting in on the heaviest amount of rain.