right now at 5:00, ready to fly. millions of americans seem to be with some airports nearing pre-pandemic levels. why the cdc recommends you stay grounded even if you're vaccinated. the rampage at three massage parlors. this as comments by a spokesman sparked new outrage. >> plus rain on the radar. just how wet this morning commute is expected to get. "today in the bay" continues right now. a very good thursday morning to you. thanks so much for joining us. i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm marcus washington. a look at the forecast for you today. meteorologist kari hall letting

us know rain is in our path. yes, we've powered up storm ranger and we're ready to track this rain will that be coming in waves today. we've seen the first passing by and the heavier rain through the east bay and the tri-valley as you get ready to head out the door. a heads-up that we have a steady rain falling and those roads are wet. we'll be tracking this throughout the day. i'll have another update in a few minutes. kari, thank you. a live look at sfo this morning. things have not been this busy there in a year. air travel finally taking off. but should you? "today in the bay's" bob redell is at oakland international airport. a travel surge there as well. >> reporter: correct, marcus, especially with people who have already been vaccinated. the tsa says that the number of screenings has surged. they have screened more people the past week than any other

week this past year. new numbers just released shows seven straight days of over a million screenings each day. this bump in the number of air passengers comes as restrictions loosen across the country. the cdc, it should be noted, is still advising against leisure travel. one san francisco travel consultant says the top three places tahiti, mexico and hawaii. >> we're getting a lot of people calling saying i've been vaccinated, i want to go, i'm ready. >> it was nice to get away after spending a year in our home. >> reporter: that was allen. he and his wife went to hawaii once they were fully vaccinated. u.s. passenger levels are still down 57% from two years ago. because there are far fewer flights passengers are now

arriving in waves at their destination. united airlines expect it will be a couple years before they see a full recovery at their main hub at chicago o'hare. reporting live at oakland international, bob redell, "today in the bay." thanks, bob. the white house lit up in green for st. patrick's day. president biden held a sitdown dinner with the irish prime minister. lawmakers dealing with a trio of conditions including the surge in anti-asian hate crime. tracie potts live from washington. lawmakers once again have a busy day ahead. >> reporter: well, they certainly do. a number of things on their flats today. let's start with immigration. not only the situation at the border but the two issues democrats are bringing up for a vote today. two immigration bills are up for a vote in the house of representatives today. legal status for farmworkers and

citizenship for dreamers as the biden administration scrambles to help 4,000 unaccompanied minors at the border. the homeland security secretary says it's not a crisis. >> a crisis is when a nation is willing to rip a 9-year-old child out of the hands of his or her parents. >> reporter: 40 republican senators wrote the government accountability office complaining about president biden's freezing border security funding. >> we don't believe they're following the law. this is money we appropriated for border security including the border wall. >> reporter: a house hearing on hate against asian-americans after eight people including six asian women were shot at atlanta-area spas. >> there is bigotry in the land and far too much of it. >> reporter: as authorities investigate whether this was a hate crime, the nation's first southeast asian vice president is speaking out. >> we also want to speak out in

solidarity with them and acknowledge none of us should be silent in the form of any type of hate. >> reporter: an update on covid and vaccines. >> we have recently seen reductions in cases and deaths. we must remain cautious. >> reporter: the cdc will issue new guidance whether students in the classroom should be three or six feet apart. tracie potts, nbc news. 5:05. developing right now the suspect in the massage parlor shootings outside of atlanta is expected to make his first court appearance. the 21-year-old, robert aaron long, shot and killed eight people in three atlanta-area massage parlors tuesday night and is now apparently talking to investigators, sharing his motives. at this point they're not calling this a hate crime. >> he claims that these -- and as the chief said, it's still early -- but he claims it was not racially motivated.

he has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction, and sees these locations as something that allows him to go to these places and a temptation he wanted to eliminate. >> police say once everything is out on the table it's possible hate crime charges will still be considered. also, that same atlanta sheriff's office spokesman is under fire this morning for other comments he made yesterday. at one point in the same news conference he says that the suspect understood the gravity of the situation and here's how he actually went on to explain. >> he was pretty much fed up and at the end of his rope and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did. >> now that comment by captain baker outraged people for being inappropriate and insensitive. at the end of the day people on social media posted what appeared to be a previous facebook post promoting anti-asian t-shirts tied to

covid-19. that facebook page has since been deleted and baker did not respond to requests for comment. the "today" show will have more on today's developments. a busy first day for the solano county fairgrounds. the first in the bay area to expand the age to 50, and thousands took advantage. county health leaders fear only 60% of the population will ever receive a vaccine. they worry myths about the vaccine dangers or allergic reactions are contributing. only had a couple of them here in solano county and close to 140,000 doses and neither was a serious allergic reaction. >> holdouts tend to have a general distrust of science or government or both, health leaders point out the vaccine myths on its website. if you're looking for information on where and how to get your shot, put in your state, age, occupation and it

will pull up your eligibility. despite fewer cars on the road, california still led the world last year when it come to the worst air quality by united nations measuring firm temperature wasn't from car emissions but all the smoke due to the record setting wildfires. in fact, most of the 106 nations surveyed improved their air quality except those impacted by major wildfires. we know just how bad it was here, remember that orange glow. >> storm ranger working hard for you and look at all that green across the bay area right now. the radar working hard for you. the storm moving into the bay area. that is good news. we need a lot of this rain. kari, is this going to be a significant amount of rain? it doesn't look like it's going to be that significant, but we're definitely happy to

see it nonetheless because we've seen it coming in waves. and right now some spots in the bay area are taking a break. we're going to see off and on showers as we go hour by hour. at 10:00 we see the next wave of rain coming in mostly for the north bay and across the peninsula and the south "today in the bay" this afternoon and going into this evening still a chance of some rain before it tapers off into early tomorrow morning. we'll see some snow in the sierra. we'll talk more about that coming up. mike, any problems right now for the commute? >> not a significant impact yet for the commute either, kari. we've seen that rain over the course of the last few weeks. still issues there 580 instead of 880. that's oakland as well but eastbound getting away from the bay bridge. the crash should be out of lanes quickly. the nimitz, that earlier crash did clear to an off ramp.

the green highlighting in the east bay, the tri-valley, that recent rain. back to you. >> thanks so much, mike. 5:09 right now. fighting back. still ahead, kobe bryant's widow after the judge gave her the okay. a character from an old commercial is back but he's switching sides. we'll tell but it coming up. plus, you have your iphone, your ipad, your ear buds. apple is a way of life for some people. the bay area based company that is reportedly looking to expand it. hint, it's something you wear every day. we'll be right back with that.

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right now at 5:12 we are under a microclimate weather alert as the sierra gets some snow. if you're going to squaw valley and alpine meadows have the tire chains ready to go. we're going to see the potential several inches of snow between today and tomorrow but it does clear out on saturday. we'll talk about how much rain the bay area will see as well as our climate in crisis which focuses on sierra snow coming up in a few minutes. and we're looking over here to the san mateo bridge. a live look out there and see

how the traffic moves across the span. in the headlights eastbound you do see that sheen on the roadways. the rain traveled over the water. scott? good morning, happy thursday to you. first-time jobless claims here in just a few minutes. in the meantime the national highway and traffic safety administration investigating another tesla crash, the second in a week. it hit a state trooper patrol car that was pulled over to the side of the road. it's one of two crashes the yhtsa is looking into this week alone. ford says 30,000 of its employees can work at home or in a hybrid situation. obviously not the people working on the assembly line but the

designers and other support staff. ford is one of many companies calling a partial quit to the office. meantime the fed absolutely delighting investors by saying it would not raise interest rates not just this year but not next year as well. the dow skyrocketed above 33,000 as a result. in fact, the move between 32,000 and 33,000 was the fastest 1,000-point move in stock mark history. a hot market and low rates makes people worry about inflation but data showing that's just not been a program so far. >> hello, just a real person doing a real comparison between masks and pcs. these are pcs? >> you may remember justin long from i'm a mac commercials. he's promoting intel powered pcs instead of apple laptops

pointing out they come in two colors. gray and gray. >> let's see over here. so these are the newer macs? >> yes. >> so gray and grayer. >> i used to love those commercials. it was i'm a mac, i'm a pc. just excellent commercials. switching sides. >> we saw that from the verizon guy, too. remember when he switched over? >> he switched sides, too. funny. >> thanks, scott. >> can you hear me now? new this morning apple has smart phones, smart watches, and maybe soon smart footwear. the website patiently apple first bought it, or patently apple, a new patent won by apple for smart footwear that sends signals to virtual reality gamers. the device in a shoe or a sock would use electromagnets to deliver sensations like hot and

cold. it is rumored to become part of the new vr headset costing about $1,000. apple so far not commenting on it, though. >> also this morning, feeling fatigued or tired during the work day these days? listen to this because north carolina state researchers say that micro breaks may be the best and most important break of all. by that they say five-minute breaks throughout the day. the studies found a lot of people go pretty much full bore with one big lunch break and then they say the smaller breaks are the smaller things that help like making a cup of coffee or playing a quick goal, helps you relax and improve your mood. i can say that actually works because when i had covid i had a game i started playing and every now and then throughout the day i played the game and smoothed things out. >> a little break.

okay. well, you can get your little game out for a couple minutes here. we're going to check in with mike, though. in the meantime people have to get to work. you're getting a break right now, too, many parts of the bay are getting a break from the rain. the rain does affect the east bay, the tri-valley. that's where we're seeing the change from green sensors to the orange and yellow. nothing major. even coming through that windy section that recent rain and folks are taking it easier. the big view, the east bay, you see the diablo range has gotten range. the richmond-san rafael bridge shows you light traffic starting to build. that rain, it's light rain. it doesn't look like it has a significant impact. what have we seen? yeah, we've seen it now moving over to parts of the east bay. so at least it has a chance to

soak into the ground and maybe give the roads a chance to dry out in other spots. we can see the green, even some yellows indicating slightly heavier rain has shifted to eastern contra costa county as well as discovery bay. it will continue to push off to the east. give it a few more minutes and take a break there as well. we are going to see more waves of rain as the storm system brings us much-needed wet weather. by 10:00 our next wave of showers coming through especially for the north bay and then very spotty rain that's going to be off and on as we go into the rest of the day even for the evening commute we'll still see some rain chances in here. it looks to taper off tonight. we will see this rain clearing out in time for friday during the afternoon. most of us will see rainfall totals at about a quarter to

half an inch of rain and then as we go into the rest of the forecast temperatures very cool to start but, of course, this weekend the first day of spring starts early in the morning and we'll see sunshine throughout the day on saturday, reaching 60 degrees inland. slightly warmer as we go into sunday and we can see the warming trend that continues into the middle of next week with our valleys reaching 70 degrees. san francisco will see some mid-50s reaching into the mid-60s going into early next week with sunshine. it's going to be a nice start to spring. and now as we get a look at climate in crisis, we've been focusing on this. and today we're getting a look at what could happen in the sierra. let's look back at what we have seen over the past several years. and from 2002 to 2011 we only made our 100% of the sierra snowpack 60% of the time. as we look at those numbers

really dismal to see the decline of the sierra snowpack and then we look at how many times we've made it to the normal amount of snow or what was the normal amount of snow, and we've only in the past ten years made it twice. as we look at the drought that's been on going especially earlier in the century we saw very low amounts but we do remember that recovery in 2019. so as we look at the numbers overall it's been very dry and some of the warmest temperatures have all happened within the past ten years. as we look at the future in 2100 noaa climate scientists say in the year 2100 most of the precipitation in the sierra will fall as rain. that is not good. if we do continue on this trend we are going to say good-bye to

sierra snow. we've been talking about this and things we can do to help out our climate in crisis. you can see more of these stories as well as look back on the stories that we've done over the past several months. i'll have another update in the forecast coming up in a few minutes. marcus and laura? >> all right, thanks, kari. the latest bay area rain is nothing like what parts of the south are seeing right now. overnight storms are causing havoc. the latest on the damage and where the system is headed now. but first, all weeklong we've been sharing stories of resilience, looking forward and ways to emerge from the pandemic. we're also looking back at some of the last photos taken before the covid shutdowns began. heidi took this at the richmond shipyard, the doors locked and chained shut. little did she know at that time the entire state would look down just days later.

be sure to share your photos and videos with us on social media. nbc bay area responds is up next. we'll be right back.

>> reporter: when the product you're renting stops working, california's rent-to-own law says the company must repair it or replace it and quickly. by the end of the second

business day after you report it. they require them to maintain your items in good working order and they can't charge you any fee for maintenance. if you feel you paid an improper fee or a repair has been denied, contact the department of consumer affairs. we have a link on our website nbcbayarea.com/responds. you can call us 888-996-tips. new video to show you, the aftermath in alabama after severe storms ripped through the state. the area close to montgomery is under a tornado watch. families are searching for belongings after several homes and buildings were ripped apart by a tornado. and in the northern part of the state heavy flooding. so far police say heavy rain and rising floodwaters swamped homes. no reports of injuries.

storms are on the move to the carolinas and parts of virginia today. the names of the l.a. county deputies who shared photos of kobe bryant's crash site are out in the open and bryant's widow did the outing. legal briefs tied to her lawsuit against the department over the sharing of those graphic images. a judge ruled the deputies' named should be unsealed. last night there was a tweet they would not play the case out in the media saying their hearts go out to the family. coming up, top stories we're following including new calls for action from bay area asian american leaders, their new demand from the governor's office in the wake of even more violence. plus, once you're vaccinated will you ever need a booster shot? we speak to an expert next.

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let's get to the forecast this morning. meteorologist kari hall tracking that rain moving into our area. kari? good morning. we've seen some of the showers off and on. storm ranger tracking it for us and we are going to see some breaks in between. this is the kind of weather pattern we'll see throughout the day as the rain will be off and on but right now continues to move through spots like discovery bay, just now starting to clear. brentwood is moving out and off to the east. we'll keep an eye on this as well as what's ahead in the forecast today. another update in a few minutes. thanks so much, kari. the spike in anti-asian violence prompting new calls for action from california's asian american leaders. and it comes with a top leadership position likely to open up in a few days. cierra johnson with a look at what advocates are saying. good morning.

>> reporter: several asian-american lawmakers say now is the best time to have someone of asian descents the state's top cop as there are a number of crimes against asian-americans. that attorney general position possibly vacated. the attorney general was advanced and a final approval is expected in the next few days that would leave his state position vacant. leaders mentioned they have a pick of a filipino american to replace becerra. vying for the potentially open position congressman adam schiff. schiff served as the lead prosecutor in donald trump's first impeachment trial and was

elected to the state senate in '96. as lawmakers work to search for the top cop, they are upping patrols in response to crime against asian americans. san francisco mayor london breed has asked sfpd to patrol areas with a high number of residents and businesses with the police chief also saying they're working with aa and pi organizations to increase patrols. >> now we need to understand not only what was going on and why those attacks occurred because in some cases they didn't include any robbery or thefts, but how do we get to the root causes of what's happening and how do we make changes? >> reporter: and mayor london breed did note while several arrests have been made there's a lot of work to be done. as for xavier becerra, we'll update you if that becomes

official. we'll keep you updated on the search for a new attorney general. cierra johnson for "today in the bay." >> thanks so much. part of the movement against these attacks is not to stay silent. a growing number of organizations are taking a stand against anti-asian hate violence. the giants have this on their scoreboard reading stop asian hate. >> violent attacks against the asian community will be the focus of race in america, the conversation. best-selling author amy tan will be one of our guests tonight. jessica aguirre recently met with tan at her home and she says racism isn't new. >> i think the racism has always been there. since chinese people, for example, first came to this country or the anti-asian sentiment that is out there now.

and it's frightening because it's not just the sentiment. it's the violence that is happening. >> we have much more for you tonight. basketball star jeremy lin and educator will also join the conversation for our 11th episode of "race in america the conversation" tonight at 6:30. you can find more details on the most recent san francisco attacks at our website, nbcbayarea.com. to the pandemic and a new case of the covid variant first discovered in south africa has been detected in the south bay. health leaders say this is the second such case there. it's believed to have been spread through communal contact not travel. four cases with the variant have been found in california. 24 other states have also seen this variant including nevada, texas and florida. as other covid variants pop

up, people question if we'll need a booster every year like a flu shot. we spoke with ucsf infectious disease specialist about the possibility and he says only time will tell. >> experts are pretty much divided on the topic right now. in the most extreme way probably see a booster once a year depending on what's going on around the world. if we continue to have dominance by varieties we can take care of by the original vaccine that immunity will probably last for several years and we may not need a booster shot. >> another question, will you have to pay for a booster shot? the ceo of pfizer talk about that on a news documentary series on hbo and says the curran vaccine costs less than $20 a dose. it's not clear who would pay for the booster shot but did say once it is sold on the open market the price could change.

haywood leaders have approved -- a lawsuit side to a deadly police shooting. in november of 2018, 29-year-old gonzalez died. officers later determined they mistook a razor blade for a knife. they were cleared of any wrongdoing but yesterday councilmembers approved a $3.3 million payout to benefit his children. it does not admit any wrongdoing. >> this is pretty heart stopping. a cliff rescue. firefight, say two teenagers got stuck on the cliff yesterday. you can see them walking them down safely. it's not clear how they got stuck but they are okay this morning. and happening today our over touch of disney is reopening. the walt disney museum in san

francisco will open at 10:00 a.m. today it's open to members, and tomorrow it will be open to the public. looks like we have some outings to plan for. a live look around the bay area. things calm right now but the rain may make things soggy which is why we've issued the microclimate weather alert. kari hall, we're not talking about a big, juicy storm for the entire bay area, though, right? we'll see off and on waves. we've seen a couple waves of rain already passing by and some of us taking a break as we get ready for the next chance of rain. as you get ready to head out the door make sure you have that umbrella handy. you will see the showers passing by and temperatures holding steady in the upper 40s. a cool day. mack sure you're wearing

something nice and warm. we'll talk about the forecast in a few minutes. mike, how is the commute rolling across the bay area? it's rolling pretty well. the damp roadways is what kari is talking about. i did get a call about an issue here, an exit at the embarcadero. there may be one vehicle on the shoulder. if that's your exit, heads-up. more recent rain over here in the east bay and a little build out of livermore into sunol. damp roadways here. traffic is pretty light. back to you. i feel like i know my kids better now than i might have known them the last couple of years because we were so busy. >> after a year of living under

restrictions, families find a new appreciation for each other and siicon valley technology. it looks like america will reach the goal of 100 million vaccines today. plus, do you remember this guy right here? went viral drinking cranberry juice on a skateboard. he is trying to cash in on his fame once again. six figures. we'll tell you what he's offering up when we come back.

good thursday morning. we are under a microclimate weather alert right now at 5:42. the pollen has been really high but the rain moving through will help wash some of the pollen out of air. more about the rain and how much you can expect coming up in a few minutes. nature's air filter. let's see how the air filter is affecting the roadways. the toll plaza is getting drier. it's not a major issue and neither is the volume. where things are changing on the sensors coming up. thanks so much, mike. breaking now the latest weekly jobs numbers out. last week 770,000 americans filed first-time claims. that's up 45,000 from the week prior and the most since

mid-february. 4.1 million americans file continuing claims. that number was mostly unchanged from last week. also, new overnight a man is hospitalized with severe burns after a fire at a home deep in the san jose foothills. new video from the scene south of mckeon. fire investigators tell us the dog was, sadly, killed when the fire broke out. another dog and cat are still missing. new this morning residents are warned about a possible mountain lion attack. authorities arriving to an area in wood side. they found a deceased dog with injuries that appeared to show it was mauled by a big cat. it's not clear how authorities were alerted or if the dog was family owned. president biden promised 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days in office.

he's ahead of schedule. scott mcgrew, america will probably reach that goal today. yeah, well, we were at 98 million yesterday. we're running north of 2 million a day so that sounds about right. today is the 57th day. he promised it in the first 100. the president cannot take full credit for the nationwide effort but an achievement nonetheless. america has push drug makers to send more doses. we have astrazeneca doses we're holding on to though the u.s. has not approved them for use. the european union leaders this morning warning they may push to stop drug makers in europe from sending america more doses. if europeans don't have enough. the u.s. and china will meet for the first time since biden took office. china is expected to ask some of the trade restrictions be removed, but it's very unlikely that will happen.

worry over unfair trade practices is a bipartisan concern. u.s. trade representative has been approved by the senate. she was confirmed unanimously. the first asian-american to take the job as america's top trade negotiator. president biden's special envoy for the environment john kerry getting heat for this picture where his mask is hanging on by one strap. kerry says on twitter the mask slipped. and the inspector general for the u.s. postal service says she has completed investigation noose her claim postal supervisors discussed manipulating ballots in pennsylvania. it concluded it never happened. the final report says the postal worker who claimed he overheard his supervisors has recanted his story. the claim avs key part of donald trump's claim ballots were invalid. the report says the postal

worker, whose name is redacted, claims he had not heard a conversation about ballots at all. he saw the postmaster and supervisor having a discussion and assumed it was about fraudulent ballot back dating. we're following everything that's happening in washington. we're doing it all on twitter. i'm @scottmcgrew. >> thank you, scott. for a year we had to turn inward, the people in our immediate homes and families. for some families that getting together meant getting to know each other a little bit better. >> kris sanchez is live with how silicon valley technology helped us keep moving, connected, even when we were staying at home. kris? >> reporter: it is still really hard to believe we started learning from home and working from home basically overnight. we went home with what we had and started doing that from home.

silicon valley technology had a lot to do with that and families learned to work it out and we learned what some of the limitations were as well. >> it's a lot of togetherness in some of the best ways and some of the more stressful ways. >> reporter: in their east san jose home, the kids are distance learning in the family room. dad is teaching high school from the bedroom. mom has a corner office in the garage. >> i think it's really around not finding a balance, honestly, but figuring out how we work better as a team. >> the children were able to learn to cook for themselves, clean up a little bit more, like do the laundry, clean the restrooms. >> reporter: family teamwork, employee flexibility and silicon valley are powering this pivot. sales of zoom spiked by 325% as we began distance learning in 2020. santa clara service manages digital work flow saw 32%

subscription increase. revenue for san francisco-based doordash surged when we couldn't go out. san jose pay pal saw a 141% increase in new users and our need to destress boosted the electronics art sale by 163%. the digital divide was glaring, cutting some communities off from technology that kept others afloat. going forward they are hoping for a more inclusive future. >> this pandemic has shed light on our ability to do it and now it's just a matter of our will. >> reporter: one thing this family did and so many others did was to get outside more, to get the fresh air because we couldn't do much else. we'll show you tomorrow just how many people used our parks and preserves to make sure minds and bodies are healthy.

kris sanchez, "today in the bay." >> the perspective of what's been going on. good job, kris. thanks. trending this morning, one small step for astronauts, one giant leap for women. one russian cosmonaut making history. "daily mail" reports anna has a barbie doll inspired after her. part of a russian campaign to be strong and shoot for the stars. only four russian cosmonauts have been women. >> trending this morning this guy went viral with fleetwood mac's "dreams." he's trying to cash in with an nft. take a look. ♪♪

>> you know the clip. millions viewed it last fall and now dog face on tiktok selling the encrypted nft. that means ownership of the original file. it starts at half a million dollars. i guess your dreams can come true if that's how you want to spend your money. >> i don't know. what do you do with it? >> i hope you get the skateboard with it. >> it's nonfungible. you can't fung it. i don't know what that means. >> oh, mike. >> kari, take it away. all right, we're starting out with some rain moving through. it's been off and on. some breaks in between but also very unsettled. we powered up storm ranger and are tracking it right now as we

go to the north bay seeing some of the showers moving through spots like clover dale. we've seen some of the showers moving through lake port. watch out for that rain right now starting out fairly light. enough to make the roads wet this morning as you head out the door. now we're going to see the waves of rain continue as the storm system passes us by and we'll see much of the rainfall totals fairly light but still keep the umbrella close by today as well as something nice and warm to wear. we look at our hour-by-hour forecast. even going into the evening commute still some off and on showers moving through and it may be heavy at times. still a chance of rain further to the north for tomorrow but the rest of the bay area will have a chance to dry out and we'll start to see sunshine returning. rainfall totals at this point looks like most of us could see

about a quarter up to half of an inch. some of those higher rainfall totals in the north bay. take a look at the deficits that we have at this point. in santa rosa over 11 inches of rain. we need another 18 inches to catch up to normal in the water year. it is just not enough and as we head to the north bay where you see the red, that's where we do have an extreme drought that continues even with these storm systems passing by. they haven't been heavy enough to bring us the much-needed rain that we are used to seeing at this point in the water year. we start spring on saturday and we go back to some dry weather into the start of next week. mike, any problems with the rain falling and the commute this morning? no, kari. precipitation and i also know what fungible means because of scott mcgrew, just to clarify.

the roadways are moving smoothly. an incident to report on the peninsula. the green highlighting, some of the peninsula roads are getting drier. we have a crash southbound side:getting through the bay bridge toll plaza, more slowing. traffic across the golden gate bridge has the damp roadways. do keep that in mind. >> thanks, mike. rapping now for you, the u.s. has issued 90 million stimulus checks. they started to go out last friday. the first round was sent to eligible taxpayers. totals $242 billion. additional payments will be made in the coming weeks. there is much more ahead on

this thursday morning including the end of the road for one bay area college. it will no longer take in new students. it's not closing entirely. we'll sort it all out next. plus, the future in focus for a popular film bay festival. how organizers are keeping this year's show going. we have it all. you're watching "today in the bay."

welcome back. you're watching "today in the bay." the end of an era in bay area higher education. mills college, the private women's college in oakland, fell victim to the pandemic. the school announced it will no longer grant degrees and will stop enrolling no first-year undergraduates. it will become an institute. >> we'll continue to be a space that cultivates critical thought and student success long cultivated. >> it will end a 169-year run for the college. alumni include congresswoman barbara lee. the college has struggled during the pandemic. it will likely hand out final

degrees in 2023. san jose will be virtual when it kicks off this week. much like everything else these days. they've had practice. the pandemic started in the middle of last year's festival. this year the death of the ladies man is one of a dozen. that means that viewers can actually enjoy question and answer. >> this is an exciting time. >> from 99 cents for short films to $3.99 for features and 11.99 for special spotlights. >> the festival starts saturday and runs through march 30th. it celebrates the work of hundreds of artists worldwide. the warriors have something to worry about despite looking good in last night's win and

centers around steph curry. two assistant coaches were out due to contact tracing. a beautiful long pass, the triple-double in the third quarter. curry shoots and you can see him fall backwards. probably coming up and will fall backwards. a metal riser. he ended up leaving the game. no word yet. i hope he's okay. the warriors beat the rockets 108-94. right now at 6:00, americans taking to the skies in numbers not seen in a year. brand-new data from the tsa. in a live report whether you should take the trip or stay grounded. congress takes on two immigration bill. a loiv report just ahead.