the mystery. right now at 6:00, there's a surge in covid cases. health officials sounding the alarm as new infections are on the rise in nearly every state. a live report on the bay area county bringing back mask mandates to some of its buildings starting today. >> burning out of control the work under way to stop wildfires from growing across the state and the evacuations now under way. >> all of this is designed to sow chaos and confusion and make it harder for people to vote. >> working to protect your voting rights. the growing debate on capitol hill over a proposal in texas and the democratic leaders now testing positive for covid-19 after taking private jets to washington, d.c. this is "today in the bay." thanks so much for starting out your workweek with us. good monday morning to you. i'm laura garcia. >> happy monday.

i'm cierra johnson. marcus washington has the morning off. we begin with breaking news this morning. a house fire sending flames and thick plumes of smoke into oakland. in fact, here's a live look at the smoke from our traffic camera as you can see there from a distance. the fire is burning near chester and ninth, about two blocks from the west oakland bart station. in fact, we've got new video of the flames just in to our newsroom. an nbc bay area viewer captured on the way to work. look at this, fire crews say the fire is now at three alarms this morning. this can certainly be a distraction to drivers out there, mike. >> especially i mean we appreciate the video, but be careful when throughout. this is off 880. we reference 880, 980. in west oakland, laura, you said about two blocks from the west oakland bart station. all of that smoke and flame visible from our camera up there in emeryville. imagine it will be visible from

folks approaching the bay bridge toll plaza. for 880 around the bend in either direction as well as folks cutting through on 980. this is between peralta and mandela parkway on ninth. some folks might not know where chester is. that is the issue. it's also close to seventh an exit there and also an important avenue getting over towards the port. this is in conjunction with this part of oakland. the rest of the area is clear as far as the roadways go. the fire near ninth and chester will be visible for this region as you head towards the bay bridge. back to you. >> thank you. breaking news from tokyo, one member of the u.s. women's gymnastics team has tested positive for covid-19. officials are not identifying the gymnast but say it is an alternate on the women's artistic team. the team which arrived in japan on thursday has only stayed at their acoming days and practice venues. another team member who was identified as a close contact of the gymnast has been placed on

standby. right now in tokyo our rank mathai under precautionary working quarantine, posting about his journey to get to the games, a six-hour wait at the airport after landing. following him on twitter. after declining for six months, covid-19 cases are once again on the rise because of the delta variant. according to the cdc, new cases are up by nearly 70%. hospitalizations are up by nearly 36%. this comes as at least one indoor mask mandate will be back in place in the bay area starting today. this follows the recent recommendations from several bay area counties to mask up again indoors. "today in the bay's" sharon katsuda joins us live trying to keep track of all of this. >> that's right, laura. you can see it this weekend if you were out and about. people wearing their masks

following that recommendation wearing the masks indoor again. in alameda county it will be required to wear masks indoors at the courthouse. many of the courtrooms and jury selection rooms around the bay area you'll notice don't have windows to allow fresh air from outside. the state will allow counties to decide whether to require masks indoor again. los angeles county last weekend announced the indoor mask mandate would begin again. it went into effect over the weekend. but the l.a. county sheriff won't enforce it because he says it goes against science and the cdc guidelines which is wear a mask indoors if you're unvaccinated, but it's optional if you're fully vaccinated. masks are still mandatory at certain locations such as public transit, schools and health offices. definitely the debate is once again building up and this is all as counties decide what to do with the rising number of

covid cases. reporting live in san jose, sharon katsuda, "today in the bay." >> thanks. a lot to keep track of there. well, two more democratic representatives from texas have tested positive for covid. they're part of the delegation who flew to washington in an attempt to block the passage of voter restrictions pushed by texas republicans. today they'll kick off voting rights conference in the nation's capitol. tracie potts has more with how they hope to move the issue forward. >> reporter: labor leader delores herd kicks off texas democrats voting rights conference today. >> we're fugitives for justice. >> reporter: they fled to washington to block new restrictions in texas and urge lawmakers to pass federal legislation making it easier for all americans to vote. the conference is largely virtual after five texas lawmakers tested positive for covid-19. >> me and my colleagues left behind children, sick loved ones, elderly parents.

they left behind their day jobs and took health risks. >> reporter: today's conference comes after a similar roundtable in georgia last weekend highlighting voters who stood in line for hours to cast a ballot. >> an hour and a half i might have -- may have -- hour and a half in i probably moved about ten paces forwarded. >> it becomes really inconvenient because you have to worry about things like child care. >> all of this is designed to sow chaos and confusion and make it harder for people to vote. >> these laws are targeted and they specifically have the intent to undermine participation by communities of color, by ts marginalized and disadvantaged and that is wrong. >> reporter: this week's focus comes just after the one-year anniversary of the death of congressman john lewis. the voting rights bill that carries his name is stuck in congress. >> he wants us to carry on. it is a battle that is a lifetime of struggle. >> reporter: a battle with renewed energy this week. tracie potts, nbc news.

6:06. happening today, britain is lifting its covid-19 lockdown after many months of restrictions. back in june, prime minister boris johnson extended the lockdown for another month because of the delta variant and vaccination rates. when things open up today, 88% of england will have received at least one dose of a vaccine. while the rest of the country will enjoy reopening, prime minister johnson will spend the next ten days in quarantine. on friday he met with britain's health secretary who later tested positive for covid-19, despite being fully vaccinated. >> i've been pinged, i've been asked to self-isolate by the test trace and isolate system after i have been in contact with somebody who has covid, in this case the health secretary. >> at first johnson's office said there was no need for him to self-isolate. the reversal came after backlash to that decision.

back here at home, a deadly shooting rocking a normally quiet neighborhood. it happened at 1:30 sunday morning in walnut creek. officers say they found four people wounded, one died at the scene. it happened on sos drive near north main street. this is the third homicide in the city so far this year. walnut creek had none last year and only one in 2019. well in a few hours, volunteers will be gathering to continue the search for a berkeley runner who disappeared in pleasanton ridge regional park. philip kreycik was seen on july 10th. yesterday marked the eighth day of that search. it was the largest search so far with 169 professional searchers and support staff as well as law enforcement. frustration is growing that the massive effort has not led to any clues. the 37-year-old long distance runner went for what should have been an hour run over a week ago but did not come home. kreycik is married with two young children. now to the extreme fire season. more than a dozen large fires

are burning across the state. you can see them all here on this map. the largest is the beckwourth complex. it's burning in the county near the california/nevada border. this morning it's burned more than 105,000 acres, containment now stands at 82%. and new video to show you from a wildfire camera that shows the dixie fire burning in butte county near the 2018 campfire. this morning there are new evacuation orders for people living near those fire lines. fire officials say the fire has spread. so far flames have burned 18,000 acres. containment is only at 15%. cal fire says one person has been hurt. >> oakland fire crews are hoping to reopen a fire station as soon as today. >> fire station 25 is closed due to a problem with the water heater. the station is near joaquin miller park which closes during red flag warning. fire union leaders say the timing is horrible.

>> the firefighters would love to be here, but it's uninhabitable. because there's no way for them to clean themselves after covid calls, calls where they're he can posed to blood, calls exposed to the carcinogens that come with fires. >> in a statement the oakland fire department responded, quote, the unexpected closure of station 25 is frustrating and concerning. it goes on to say the department is working to fix that problem immediately. in the meantime crews from the station are working over at fire station 24. we have some live looks out there at 6:10 of san jose. beautiful shot there. the sun kind of peeking through the clouds. >> not a bad start to our monday morning. >> beautiful start. >> kari has a look at our forecast for today. >> yeah. we've seen a beautiful sunrise this morning as is happening now in san francisco, all thanks to the high clouds moving by and the surge of the monsoonal moisture that's giving us that humidity as well as the cloudiness.

we've been watching to see if there's going to be a chance that we could see some thunderstorms nearby, but as of now the threat remains off towards the east as well as parts of the southern sierra. we've seen quite a few lightning strikes and that's what's caused a lot of the fires we see burning now and we'll continue to monitor for that as we go into today. mike you have breaking news for the commute? >> i do. the fire in oakland but also in the north bay another issue. i did want to make sure everybody got to see their commute. here's the big look at the bay and this map. anywhere south of the bay bridge, south of oakland, you're okay. in oakland we'll talk about that fire in a second. here i just learned that highway 37, another fire, a car fire, westbound. your commute direction, causes them to have to shut down highway 37 somewhere around mayor island, the stretch here. this critical stretch out of vallejo towards novato. may send more folks down the carquinez bridge. we are looking at the fire, ninth and chester, that will

affect mandela parkway. visible from the freeway, 880, 980, 580, and the bay bridge toll plaza. the toll plaza not totally stacked up. the plume much smaller last time you guys saw all that gray, dark smoke. it's starting to lighten up. multiple structures involved. ninth and chester in oakland. >> we're keeping our eye on that. thank you. driving more customers, next on "today in the bay," changes could be coming to your next lyft ride. the prepandemic policy making a return in some major u.s. cities. all systems go for jeff bezos and tomorrow's launch. we'll tell you why it's so important. the futures where the stock market is a mess because of the fears over the pandemic and inflation. plus -- >> you guys have played the game before? >> what is this? like a tournament of champions? >> banking on the box office, a film that came out on top over

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right now at 6:15, what we were worried about is unfolding right now in parts of the north bay, getting a new thunderstorm popping up just to the west of healdsburg. the rain is evaporating but there's lightning in the area that may spark a fire.

we'll talk about it coming up in a few minutes. >> i'm following this fire in oakland. you can see the smoke is starting to die down but in the foreground you see 880, also visible for 580 and the maze. the effect it's having on the commute here as well as another car fire closing down a freeway in the north bay. we'll show you that as well coming up. good morning. very happy monday to you as well. we have developing news this morning. the united states is going to publicly blame china for recent ransomware and e-mail hack attacks. until now our focus had been primarily on russia. the white house reportedly will be able to say with high confidence that china was behind a hack attack of microsoft's exchange e-mail systems that are used by many u.s. corporations. we expect details of that accusation later this morning. let's go out to the futures where the threat of inflation and covid hang on the market. friday's close gave us the first weekly loss for stocks in four

weeks. britain taking off the masks this morning as l.a. puts them back on. we are not out of this yet. jeff bezos goes into space tomorrow morning along with his brother and a teenager and an 82-year-old man. weather looks promising. now, as you watch the launch tomorrow, do keep in mind this is the very first time the new shepard rocket has carried people ever. this is the maiden flight and bezos is on it. now the media has made a lot of hay out of the race between bezos and virgin's richard branson. branson there on the left went into space earlier this month aboard a piloted rocket powered plane. bezos will be in an up piloted capsule. bezos will also go slightly higher than branson did. branson, this would not be to scale because i can't draw a dot that small, but they'll go about three quarters of a mile more than branson did. branson went to the edge of what nasa and the faa think of as

space. 53 miles up. new shepard will go farther than that. what's this high the dangers all the same. and neither of these flights compare to what spacex does absolutely routinely and that is put astronauts into orbit and cargo as well up to the international space station 250 miles up. in that sense, spacex has both bezos' company blue origin and virgin galactic well beaten. spacex is concentrating on bigger ideas than space tourism. bezos' flight will be straight up and down like a cannonball like the first american in space, alan shepard, for whom the new rocket is named. shepard took that flight in '61. again, it's amazing to think that any of these guys are going into space risking it. branson had several test pilots and several test flights of that ship go into space. bezos, it's his rocket and never

carried people ever. this is all tomorrow morning. >> we'll be watching here from planet earth. >> safely. >> some of us are just trying to get around, san francisco based lyft moving forward bringing back shared rides in some locations. the ride hailing company said users in philadelphia, chicago and denver can book a shared ride again starting today. that's, of course, when customers split a car going in the same direction. the option with a mask mandate and limited seating. it's the first time list has allowed ride sharing since the start of the pandemic. uber has not reintroduced its similar service. trending this morning, things look loony at the box office this weekend. >> yikes. >> classic. >> the movie is a classic. the new "space jam" starred lebron james took home the top spot. the sequel to the '90s classic

brought in $32 million, jumped past "black widow" which fell to the number two spot bringing in $26 million. the champions" rounds out the top three. king their kids to see looney tunes. i remember being little to see the movie. it's exciting. >> it is fun. nice to go back to the movies again. >> yes, it is. >> something about the experience of going there on the big screen. >> the popcorn. 6:20. the stomach ache two hours later. check in with kari who has a look at our forecast. today will be one to get outdoors. >> yeah, absolutely. you know, we were concerned about the potential that we could see some isolated thunderstorms popping up with the monsoonal moisture that's moving in and the chance of dry lightning. i am seeing that near sonoma lake in the parts of the north bay as we get a look at our radar right now.

we've seen some fairly quiet conditions, but in the past few minutes we have gotten a lightning strike up around just to the west of healdsburg, north of gurionville. we had one lightning strike and the possibility that that rain could be moving through. looks like once again that rain is evaporating before hitting the ground. looking at the wide view, we're still seeing some lightning strikes especially for parts of the southern sierra and this is going to be something we have to watch because even one lightning strike could spark a fire that could quickly get out of control. our temperatures today headed towards the low 80s for downtown san jose and some low to mid 90s for parts of the east bay and the warmer spots reaching 94 at concord, oakland reaching into the low 70s and some mid 70s for san mateo. san francisco reaching into the mid 60s. for the north bay we're going to see highs reaching 84 in sonoma and 69 in clearlake. we are going to see cooling

by midweek thanks to the return of our ocean breeze that gets even stronger. transports cooler air to the inland areas. we should see the threat of that dry lightning diminish. looking at our temperatures for the next few days, looking cooler by wednesday we're going to see our inland temperatures in the warmest spots only in the low 80s. mike, you've been watching a lot out there for the morning commute. what's going on now? >> eyes out here. this video also came in to our newsroom on the ground level here. you can see the fire not far away at ninth and chester, that area between peralta and mandela parkway over in west oakland. about two blocks away from the west oakland bart station. bart has not reported any delays but this fire had a huge plume of smoke visible from the emeryville camera. live out there right now, we've been watching the smoke dissipate throughout the area and there's haze in the air and the plume got smaller. it's more concentrated to the area just off ninth and chester.

this camera that we're looking from is over in emeryville and this is 880 coming down near the maze but not including the maze. so the distraction was a concern for me for drivers coming down out of berkeley. so far these freeways still show they're at speed. the bay bridge toll plaza has the backup forming. a little bit lighter flow of traffic. over here a problem for west 37 continued closure because of a car fire on westbound 37 past mare island. the may send folks to the richmond bridge. we'll continue to track that and i have word tow trucks are visible approaching that car as well. hopefully that will clear soon. next on "today in the bay," nbc bay area responds. >> she overpaid an ambulance bill and couldn't get a refund on her own. i'm consumer investigator chris chmura with help for her and a tip for you. when nbc bay area responds next.

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welcome back. 6:26. nbc bay area responds to an east bay family whose bill was causing hundreds of dollars worth of pain. chris chmura takes the case of a woman who felt ignored more than a month. kim in danville told us she made a mistake for a bill for an ambulance ride her daughter needed last summer. she says she overpaid transport 1 ambulance $650. kim says she called and was told the refund department would review her case.

more than a month later, still under review and still no money back. so kim contacted us for help. we called the company a few weeks later. $650 appeared in kim's bank account. we asked transport 1 what happened but didn't hear back. kim wrote us and said thanks again from the bottom of my heart. i am so happy. if you're having trouble with a company you can call our team, go to nbcbayarea.com, click the responds option from the main menu or call us, 888-996-tips. next, the top stories we're 6:26. coming up next the top stories we're following including even more water woes. the new restrictions that could be coming this week to the north bay. plus -- >> coming up in a live report from walnut creek, a new positive test from a u.s. olympic athlete. we've got all the details coming up next. and working to bounce back. the new strategy expected to be unveiled today as san francisco looks to lure back tourists. we'll be right back.

breaking now, clashing with covid at the games. an american olympian finding out she has contracted the virus. what we're learning about circumstances surrounding the gymnast. back at home the delta variant deepens the push bay area leaders are making for you to mask up and get people i vaccinated as soon as possible. ballot decision. the step being taken today ahead of september's recall election.

everything you need to know up to the minute. this is "today in the bay." a very good monday morning to you broadcasting live to your tv and streaming on nbcbayarea.com. thanks for joining us. i'm laura garcia. >> i'm cierra johnson. marcus washington has the morning off. a house fire sending flames and smoke into oakland. a live look from that smoke that's not dissipated quite a bit from our traffic cameras. we have new video of the fire. it was large. a viewer just posted this to twitter. the flames you can see from several blocks away. fire crews now say the fire is three alarms and they jumped on this rather quickly, mike, but you could see it from the bay area freeway. >> that's right, laura. you showed that plume of smoke, that big, dark plume of smoke and the flames that are visibled a the sun is coming up. the haze is blending in with the smoke. here's the freeway, 880, 980,

580. here it is chester and ninth, about two blocks away from the west oakland bart station. you see the freeways all surrounding it, they are moving smoothly. the bay bridge toll plaza does have a mild backup, but it's not because of the visibility of that smoke. the other camera towards downtown oakland. again the freeways are moving smoothly but i have another fire, a car fire, that has a closure on a north bay freeway coming up. back to you. >> thanks so much. we're following breaking news in tokyo. a bombshell overnight, covid concerns infiltrating the u.s. women's gymnastics team. >> thom jensen getting the latest reports from our olympic teams in japan. another scare for the games that are already under a lot of scrutiny. >> reporter: yes. a positive test of an athlete while training. her name has not been released. but she is an alternate on the

women's u.s. gymnastics artistic gymnastics team. team officials tell us the athletes have not been to their -- have only been to their accommodations and not the training facilities at the olympic village. they haven't visited the city yet. in fact, tokyo, u.s. gymnastics telling us two athletes have been moved to separate hotels, only telling us about one positive video test and will work out at a different training facility than the rest of the team as they prepare for the games. yesterday american tennis star coco gauff announced on twitter she's pulling out of the games after testing positive. she said, quote, i want to wish the team usa best of luck and have a safe games. the 17-year-old says she's disappointed and it's always been her dream to play in the olympics for team usa. live in walnut creek, thom jensen. our on raj mathai is in

tokyo tweeting about the breaking news as well. he posted this about an hour ago. follow him on twitter for the latest news. watch our specials from the bay area to tokyo. thursday at 4:00 and 7:00 and then friday at 1:00. back to san jose, issuing another plea to get vaccinated. the president of the city's planning commission rolando ben nita is holding an event at mexican heritage plaza in east san jose. the number of hospitalizations rise amid the delta variant. currently 76% of santa clara county residents 12 and older are fully vaccinated. despite rising concerns, city hall in san jose getting ready to reopen to the public. happening today you'll be able to schedule an in-person appointment. >> august 2nd, all floors and departments will be open with limited staffing, many first floor services will require an appointment. cdc guidelines will be followed which allow vaccinated visitors to go unmasked. people who have not been vaccinated will be required to wear a mask.

now to those crucial tourism dollars for the bay area. this is a live look over san francisco where mayor breed this afternoon is expected to be among the city leaders in chinatown. she'll shine the spotlight on the impact crime is having on tourism. san francisco's police chief is expected to outline a plan aimed at keeping tourists safe as the city continues to reopen. today's news conference comes as the city last week announced plans to redeploy officers to some of those tourism hot spots like fisherman's wharf amid a rise in gun violence. we know who is running against governor newsom in the recall election and today we'll find out the orderer of the names. the list of people challenging the governor was released saturday night. today the secretary of state's office will randomly draw each of the 41 candidate names to determine how they'll be listed on the ballot. the recall election is set for september 14th. we've posted the full list of candidates on our website nbcbayarea.com. off to ours east, a fire

still burning out of control right now south of lake tahoe. residents there remain out of their homes due to the tamarack fire that exploded in size over the weekend. people who live in that area were sent scrambling just to get out. as of this morning, the tamarack fire has scorched more than 18,000 acres with zero containment. now to our climate in crisis, the drought forcing many cities to crack down on water use. napa just one of the cities considering tighter restrictions. council members are set to vote on limiting most irrigation to two days a week and restrict the trucking of water out of the city. the goal is to cut community water use by 20% compared to last year. lake hennesy has received record low runoff for two years in a row. it is napa's primary source of water. in marin county a strategy to save water is drawing criticism. suspending new water service hookups could come at the expense of the poorest residents as it could impact supply to affordable housing projects.

the county's largest water supplier is considering exempting those projects from the restrictions. estimates indicate that move would equate to 1% of their total water demand for the county in the next year. it's 6:36 on your monday morning. hope you're coming off a great weekend. let's take a live look outside. nice start to our morning. >> very monday. >> i tell you, you have to ease into the workweek a little bit. kari, it looks nice out there but you were saying there was dry lightning concerns? >> yeah. that's really been a big concern and i've seen one lightning strike that was picked up on radar and then i looked at the cameras and i saw this. so you can see the rain near lake sonoma. that kind of comes out of the cloud an evaporates. that's been the threat that we could get lightning strikes out of these thunderstorms, but we don't get any rain with it. we are seeing some of that as we

look at areas near south of clover dale, to the west of healdsburg, north of gurionville, over the sonoma mountains. we're going to watch that very closely. we've seen numerous lightning strikes for the southern sierra. all it takes is one for us to get a fire going. we'll be watching this closely throughout the morning. >> didn't take a lightning strike, it was a car, a car fire, which has highway 37 closed right now. this is a critical connection in the north bay from vallejo towards novato. we had seen the slow down start up towards the island past the bridge. sound like there was a car fire which did cause them to close both westbound lanes. a tow truck reported in the area. no update since then. i don't see a problem on the carquinez bridge. with the fire in oakland and the closure of 37 i was concerned there might be more traffic flowing. 580 westbound starting to build. it's there. the bay bridge toll plaza in the last few minutes has shown the

lanes filling in. everything else is clear, guys. >> 6:38. will the oakland a's stay or sgo. the vote happening this week determining the future of the team and the impact on the city. i'm sharon katsuda live in the south bay. one bay area county says it will implement the mask mandate again. find out who is affected coming up. facebook reacting to the white house's accusations. this morning we'll take you out to the big board. sharon was talking about new masks and new covid threats. we're certainly seeing that on wall street. you're watching "today in the bay."

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heading out the door in novato, feeling humid but the sky is mostly clear and we've seen rain nearby. 57 degrees and there will be some high clouds moving by and a warm day ahead as we go from the upper 50s to the low to mid 80s. we'll get a look at all of our microclimates coming up. >> a few spots of big concern for drivers here. highway 37 continues to be closed because of a car fire heading out of the north bay or through the north bay. critical commute drive there. another highway closure as well as an update on the fire in oakland that we've been covering off the maze. thank you very much, mike. 6:42. covid-19 cases have been

plunging the last six months until now. now cases are on the rise as the delta variant tramples across the area including california. the cdc is saying new cases are up by nearly 70% and hospitalizations are up nearly 36%. >> this comes as one indoor mask mandate will be put back in the bay area starting today and after the recommendation from several bay area counties to mask up indoors. sharon katsuda is live in san jose and tracking it all. there's a lot of information changing quickly. >> there sure is, cierra and laura. i went to the shopping mall this weekend and saw more people following the new recommendation wearing their masks indoors again. in alameda county, it will be required again to wear masks indoors at the courthouse. many of the courtrooms and jury selection rooms around the bay area don't have windows to allow

fresh air from outside. the state will allow counties to decide whether to require masks indoors again due to the rise in delta variant cases. los angeles county last week announced the indoor mask mandate would begin again. it went into effect over the weekend but the l.a. county sheriff won't enforce it because it goes against, he says, science and the cdc guidelines which is wear a mask indoors if you're unvaccinated but optional if fully vaccinated. masks are still mandatory at certain locations such as public transit, schools and health offices. so right now, still a bay area recommendation by most counties. starting at courthouses, but this could change as we watch the covid numbers here in the bay area. reporting live in san jose, sharon katsuda, "today in the bay." the battle for britney spears over her conser toreship

continues today. a conference call of both sides is scheduled to take place. the decision will center around potential security for the temporary conservator who oversees' spears' medical care. the judge granted spears' request to higher a former federal prosecutor who now represents hollywood a-listers. spears vowed not to perform on any stages any time soon as long as her father jamie spears remains in control of her conservatorship. facebook is firing back after the white house accused it of contributing to the coronavirus death count. >> scott mcgrew, the president did not mince any words. >> he said they're killing people. talking about how facebook is one of the primary sources for people to learn incorrect information about vaccines, choose not to get vaccinated and die. 760 americans died over the weekend. this is a pandemic of the

unvaccinated. >> on closing misinformation what's your message to platforms like facebook? >> they're killing people. i mean, really, look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. they're killing people. >> now this is something the surgeon general had been saying. for several days. at a press conference last week, he pointed out a handful of facebook users were responsible for more than 65% of all the misinformation on facebook. here's murthy on the sunday shows. >> what i've said to them publicly and privately it's not enough. we're seeing a proliferation of misinformation online and we know that health misinformation harms people's health and costs them their lives. >> facebook says it's being treated like a scapegoat and

privately murthy praised them. he says that's true, he praises them when they do something good and criticizes facebook when they don't. facebook also published a blog response titled "moving past the finger pointing" saying vaccine acceptance among facebook users has increased which was not what the white house was accusing them of. other news, senate leader chuck schumer has started the process to put infrastructure bill on wednesday. senators haven't figured out how to pay for it. many republicans have rejected the idea of cracking down on tax cheats to raise the money saying it gives the irs too much power. we'll be watching what's happening in washington today, telling you the truth as best we know it on social media. you can follow me on twitter, i'm @scott mcgrew. >> thanks so much. 6:47 right now. happening today, members of the east oakland stadium alliance will hold another rally ahead of a vote on the future of the a's in the city. the city council is set to take a nonbinding vote on a term

sheet for building a waterfront ballpark for the a's. the alliance is pushing for city leaders to vote against it. oakland mayor libby schaaf released a statement saying the city and the a's were working in tandem towards making the howard terminal stadium a reality, but the a's president said in a recent interview he was open to negotiations, but the plan was not working. at the a's current home site a new tenant is one step closer to setting up shop in the arena next door. the oakland-based african-american sports and entertainment group plans to discuss today the unanimous vote by alameda county leaders to bring a wnba team to the site. members of the alameda county joint power authority board voted unanimously friday to approve lease negotiations. the group says its next step is unveiling a final proposal on an agreement. trending this morning, history making skateboarding at the x games. a 12-year-old from brazil is getting a lot of attention for pulling off not a 180 but a

1080. check this out, that is three full revolutions in the air. this was the first time this has ever been done in competition. he said he was, quote, super stoked and made him the youngest gold medallist in the x games history. he was congratulated later by legend tony hawk. >> so cool to see. >> i was a little bit older than 12. i had done a 900 and then i stopped playing the tony hawk video game. >> oh. >> everybody is a winner. >> i got a participation ribbon. >> hang it proudly. >> 6:49. let's check the forecast with kari. nice sunrise behind you. >> yes. it looks beautiful as we're starting out in san francisco with a live look outside. fog over the bay and high clouds. this is what we'll see throughout today. we've been watching this.

take a look at this view from lake sonoma. we have a rainbow this morning where we did have one lightning strike and the rain was evaporating before it hit the ground and as the sun is rising it's splitting the colors up. you can see the full rainbow there in that shot. very beautiful. we're also getting more of that rain this morning. a lot of this not hitting the ground. there is a chance we could see spotty showers around clover dale and on 101 as we watch this weather system moving through this surge of this high humidity and monsoonal moisture that also raised the threat of dry lightening across the bay area. that's the only area i'm seeing of concern right now as we widen out the view, lots of lightning strikes across the southern sierra and all it takes is one lightening strike to hit dry vegetation and you get a fire spreading quickly. that's what we have to watch for today. as our temperatures head from ea we are going to see the threat

of the monsoonal moisture moving away from us. more of an ocean breeze and cooler temperatures by the middle of the week and we'll go from seeing highs in the 90s to low 80s by the middle of the week for our inland areas and our warmest spots and warming up slightly going into the weekend. mike, you've been watching a lot of breaking news. what's the update? >> closure for highway 37, the critical north bay connecter out of vallejo. i haven't seen the backup kind of ripple out towards the vallejo city streets. folks will likely be getting by on the shoulder but i can't promise that. chp did not say that's the situation. tow trucks still arriving. the car fire that caused that closure, of course, any sort of fire even a car fire well especially a car fire might spark a secondary. we're concerned about that. over here in concord we have the continued closure for north 242 from 680 toward concord avenue. that will continue. it's counter commute but going to be an issue in a few minutes,

probably another hour we'll see slowing there. the bay bridge toll plaza has the backup there and the only other thing on the grid the fire in oakland. we got the update, three structures are involved in the fire at ninth and chester, but the smoke is pretty much blending in with the haze. can't see it from the freeway. back to you. >> pg&e saying about 700 people in that area without power this morning. 6:52. right now, happening now, we're just four days away from the early return of the famed gilroy garlic festival. it won't be the same. of course because of the pandemic. instead of the traditional event this year people can still get all the great food, but it's in a drive-through line. drive-through festival will run for the next two weekends as opposed to just the last weekend in july. you may recall organizers still haven't been able to hold a typical festival since the deadly shooting in 2019. next, a quick look at the top stories including breaking news from tokyo. what we're learning about an american athlete that just tested positive for covid-19

days before the summer games kick off. and burning out of control, the work under way to stop wildfires from growing across the state. also the evacuations now under way. we're back in two minutes. you're watching "today in the bay."

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welcome back. before you head out the door we are moving you forward with a look at the top stories on

"today in the bay." first breaking news that we've been following, a house fire sending flames and smoke into the air in oakland. we found out in the last ten minutes or so three homes you see here were damaged. this is new video of the fire on chester an ninth, about two blocks away from the west oakland bart station. the oakland fire department posting this pictures to twitter. crews are continuing to try to put out hot spots on the homes. no one was hurt in the fire. and breaking news in tokyo, a bombshell overnight, covid concerns infiltrating the u.s. women's gymnastics team. >> thom jensen getting the latest reports from our olympic teams in japan. thom? >> good morning. yes, we're told that one athlete, this is an alternate on the u.s. women's olympic gymnastics team, the artistic gymnastics team, has tested positive for covid-19 in narita while training. the team tells us the athletes

have not been to the olympic village, in fact, have not been to the city yet, but this athlete and one other athlete are being quarantined in a separate hotel from the other athletes. they will also be training in preparation for the olympics at a separate training facility. this comes one day after tennis standout, 17-year-old coco gauff, announced on twitter that she, too, tested positive. she had not traveled to japan yet, but tested positive and is pulling out of the games altogether. she said she was very disappointed on twitter. she said that it has always been her dream to play in the olympics and she wished team usa the best of luck moving forward. we're live in walnut creek, thom jensen, "today in the bay". right now in tokyo our raj mathai like journalists there are under precautionary working quarantine, posting about the journey to get to the games that included a six-hour wait at the airport just before landing.

you can follow raj on twitter at raj mathai. >> all this week the "today" show will be broadcasting live from japan ahead of the 2020 olympic games. you can catch savannah guthrie there every day at 7:00 a.m. we know who is running against governor newsom in the recall election and today we'll know the order the names will appear on the ballot. the secretary of state's office will randomly draw each of the 41 candidates' names to determine how they will be listed on the ballot. the election is set for september 14th. now to this extreme fire season, more than a dozen large fires are burning across the state. the largest is the beckwourth complex burning near the california/nevada border. this morning it's burning more than 105,000 acres and at 82% contained. new video from a wildfire camera shows the dixie fire burning in butte county near the site of the deadly 2018 campfire. this morning there are new evacuation orders for people living near the fire lines. so far flames have burned 18,000

acres. containment stands at 15%. one person was hurt. certainly dry conditions out there. want to check with kari. she has a look at the dry lightning strikes we should be concerned about too. >> yeah. we have to watch that. just to the north in the hills above lake sonoma we had a lightning strike there earlier. as of now i don't see anything going on but that's going to be the threat today with the monsoonal moisture moving in. we're also going to see our temperatures in the inland areas reaching into the low 90s and then we cool off over the next few days. one of the coolest days will be wednesday before the temperatures start to come up for the weekend. mike? >> kari, seconds ago, great news, reopened highway 37 and actually i expected the speed sensors to show more slowing so that does indicate lighter traffic. the roadway clearing after a car fire that was a concern for secondary fires as well. closure north 242 coming off of 680 through concord. no slowing yet but it will be an issue later on in the commute

and last until 10:00 a.m. and the oakland fire may be visible, mostly haze. >> keeping tabs on all of that. thank you for joining us as well. we're back at 7:25 with a live local news update. join us for nbc bay area news at 11:00. the "today" show is next. good morning. breaking news, olympic stunner. a member of the u.s. women's gymnastics team tests positive for covid. what we know and what it could mean for their chances in tokyo. savannah has the very latest from japan. summer spike. >> this surge is a lotaster and a lot meaner than last time. >> covid cases on the rise in every single state. president biden lashing out at social media for spreading misinformation. >> they're killing people. >> we are live with a new warning from health officials trying to slow the spread yet