breaking at 5:00, closing in on south lake tahoe. the caldor fire sending thousands from their homes as it blows towards homes and the shoreline. "today in the bay" live on the frontlines following every step of the way. breaking this morning, an uncertain future for a woman's right to choose. a new abortion ban taking effect in texas overnight and why with the supreme court's response this may impact women nationwide. this is "today in the bay." and a good wednesday morning to you. thanks so much for making us a part of your morning. i'm marcus washington. >> i'm kris sanchez. laura has the day off. we begin with the desperate battle that firefighters are waging in south lake tahoe to try to save homes as that caldor fire moves in.

>> we sent "today in the bay's" bob redell to the caldor fire and, bob, i know we've talked about a lot of people exiting that area. how was drive up there? >> highway 50 once you got into the fire zone extremely smoky to the point where you had to really slow down and look for the lanes in the road. we found an area here on echo summit along highway 50 where we have some clear air and you can see the fire burning behind me. unfortunately the conditions for today are not good for the fire fight. there is a red flag warning in effect until 11:00 tonight which means the conditions are right for extreme fire behavior, and the fact that it also means that humidity levels are low and the fuels are extremely try and the winds will be gusty, forecast to be as high as 50 miles per hour. as the caldor fire spreads, authorities have issued evacuation orders for people living on the nevada side of lake tahoe now.

you can see the evacuation at the douglas county community center. it's full. the overflow crowds are being transferred to reno instead. one woman paid a taxicab driver $800 to get her out of south lake tahoe. >> [ inaudible ] the taxi cost $800 yesterday. >> just repeat that one more time. how much did you pay for a taxi? >> $800. >> how do you feel about paying $800 for a taxi? >> [ inaudible ]. >> back here live, again we're on echo summit looking down into a canyon where the fire is burning. you can see the smoke and fire. it's burning towards the left side of your tv screen. that is unfortunately in the direction of south lake tahoe. the fact that this fire has burned over echo summit and into

the tahoe basin is unprecedented. cal fire says a fire has never crested the sierra nevada in recorded history. not until this summer. the dixie fire did it first and the caldor fire has burned close to 200,000 acres has done it again behind me. reporting live on echo summit. bob redell, "today in the bay." >> seems like every year we're seeing the first and biggest when it comes to those fires. >> be safe out there, bob. we want to talk about the conditions that do continue in tahoe changing by the minute. meteorologist kari hall keeping busy. bob talked about that expectation that there would be more extreme fire danger. the fire itself starts to create its own weather too. >> it does. usually during the early morning hours we have higher humidity and lighter winds and prime time for the firefighters to really tackle this while conditions are more redictble. unfortunately we haven't seen that. winds are gusting through some of the areas and we're seeing

forward progress on the fires as they continue to move off towards the south and east. this is a network of fire detection sites and the yellow ones indicate where fire has already burned. the red ones indicate the sensors and where we have active fires right now. some of the more active fires are about three miles from south lake tahoe. look at that marker there. that's the airport that you drive by as you're going up highway 50 into the city. unfortunately we are seeing these fires getting very close as we are seeing low humidity this morning, lighter winds now but we are expecting the winds to pick up today as the red flag warning continues and hopefully we will get some better weather conditions over the next few days. we're watching all of this and we'll talk about what's clearing out the air in the bay area and what's head in the forecast in a few minutes. >> kari, thank you. the next story has been the topic of national discussion for decade these and also another breaking story from overnight. a new law with the most dramatic restrictions on abortion rights

in the u.s. in nearly 50 years. >> texas lawmakers banned abortions anywhere past about six weeks of pregnancy when the heartbeat of the fetus is first detected. however still before many women know they're even pregnant. "today in the bay's" tracie potts is live in washington. tracie, this is all despite a supreme court challenge, the supreme court just kind of let it go. >> right. they've yet to act on an emergency appeal by texas abortion providers, so that is outstanding. if this law is allowed to remain in place it would be the most dramatic restriction on abortion rights since roe versus wade, essentially legalizing abortion throughout the united states. pro about hibiting abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, for many before they even though they're pregnant. providers and abortion rights advocacy groups say this would affect 85% of abortions in the

state right now. here's what makes it different than other restriction laws in the u.s. texas's ban bars state officials from enforcing it and puts the onus on private citizens, anyone who drives a woman to a clinic, a lyft driver, uber driver, anyone with the argument that could be made they helped contribute to the abortion taking place. if those private citizens are successful in their lawsuits they would be entitled to at least $10,000. the opponents who wrote the law made it difficult to challenge it in court in part because it's really hard to know who to sue. >> to hear the person who drove a woman to the clinic could be targeted by a lawsuit is -- i have never heard of this before. we know that the supreme court has not intervened as yet, but could they still? >> well, it is certainly possible but the question is will they intervene?

abortion rights advocates providers, planned parenthood have filed an emergency appeal monday ahead of the new law taking effect. as of right now they have not acted on this, and it's important to note that at least 12 of the states have bans on early abortions, but again, this one is different because it puts the onus on private citizens to act in order to stop those abortions from taking place. >> something a lot of folks will be talking about today. thank you so much for helping us understand it. developing, a search crew off the san diego coast are looking for five people missing after a navy helicopter crashed. six people were on board. one has been rescued. their condition right now unknown. it happened about 4:30 yesterday afternoon 60 miles off the coast. the helicopter was assigned to "uss abraham lincoln"" based in

coronado and the navy says that it went down during routine flight operations. san francisco getting all sorts of attention this morning with an unusual answer to combatting crime. pay the potential criminals not to commit them. >> interesting right? "today in the bay's" sharon katsuda is live with a closer look at how this whole plan is going to work. sharon, walk us through this. this is an interesting one, indeed. >> that's right. kris and marcus, chosen ambassadors will be paid to not shoot people. the city is launching the pilot program in ogts paying people $300 a month to not commit crimes. the goal is to reduce gun violence and start with ten people who want to change their lives and become community ambassadors. participants will have to pass an interview. the human rights commission says the idea has been shown to be a cost-effective way to reduce gun crimes if other cities.

>> this isn't about cash for criminals. this is about supporting and valuing people's time and expertise who can help us think through how to address the problems and crisis of public safety. >> reporter: the payments come in the form of gift cards and the spending habits are tracked. oakland and richmond have similar anti-violence programs. reporting live i'm sharon katsuda, "today in the bay." >> again, another story we're going to be talking about all day long. >> wow. >> wild. san francisco police offering a $50,000 reward to track down the gunman who shot and killed a 16-year-old girl in the bayview district. this is jada tefano. they made a plea, her family, at city hall. the shooting happened july 30th on bertha lane. a 45-year-old victim was shot but survived. one of the contenders seeking to replace governor newsom is schedule to appear this morning here in the bay area. john cox plans to hold a news

conference outside of pg&e headquarters in san francisco. meanwhile, state election office is spending $16 million on a campaign to educate voters about the special election. critics argue that kind of thing most benefits a man already in office, but election leaders counter that. the campaign is targeting voters of all political parties. also this morning after much back and forth, governor newsom has signed an executive order allowing the firefighters on the wildfire frontlines to fill out provisional ballots. many may not be able to get back to vote in their home counties. as expected vallejo now the second city in solano county to require masks indoors once again. council members approved that mandate yesterday joining benicia in going against their county, solano county, which is now the only bay area county without an indoor mandate. during last night's hearing many criticized the county health officer for not having the

mandate in place. after six weeks the council will have the choice to extend it or end it. happening starting today, riding bart or caltrain will cost you half. this is all part of a promotion to get people back on public transportation. the half price fares applies to all riders using clipper cards and will be automatically credited to their fares. caltrains is offering half off on its monthly pass. >> mike might have less traffic to deal with. >> they'll still take you the whole way. >> kari, you have a lot on your plate this morning cleaning the weather that's so rough for the firefighters. >> it is rough. while the winds are picking up here it helps clear the smoke from the bay area may create those red flag conditions that we're seeing near the fires. even though it's nice today, we can get outside and enjoy fresher air, walnut creek, upper 50s to start and more sunshine

this afternoon. more of those blue skies as our temperatures head towards the upper 70s. this is cooler than normal for the first day of september, the first day of meteorological high. and some upper 70s for san it's about to heat up and we'll talk about that. mike, you're starting out with a look at highway 101. >> i was looking for the meteorological fall cards at the store. didn't find them. we're looking at the slowdown, a little slowdown through marin county. the crews have been cleared. the sensors lag a little bit for their computation of the average speeds. should be cleared right now. earlier car fire has completely been cleared from 580 around harrison. there's no more incidents for the east bay, south bay speeds are great and remind that are marcus told you about, we have a discount here for bart and for caltrain. if you use the clipper card and we have limited vta light rail service restored. back to you. >> thanks, mike. coming up, continuing

coverage of the caldor fire edging near south lake tahoe and evacuees outraged at lyft. residents claimed they were charged thousands of dollars to get out of tahoe. the ride share's reason. how about a job for $400,000 a year? and there are a lot of openings. >> a lot of openings. okay. and shoppers, fearing it's happening yet again. yep. toilet paper flying off the shelves at stores. the phenomena behind the new round of pandemic buying.

good wednesday morning. we're coming up on 5:16. stepping out the door in oakland, another nice day starting out with some clouds. temperatures in the mid 50s and a slow warmup as we get more sunshine and keeping the blue sky. we'll talk about air quality and hotter temperatures in our forecast coming up. >> most of the construction crews are picking up but on the other side of the bridge, the richmond side, in the other direction they have the bridge maintenance crew continuing as they typically do at 5:00 a.m. see how the patterns are, if they're normal. happy first of september. walmart already thinking about the christmas and holiday season hiring 20,000 seasonal employees, paying well, $20 an hour on average. walmart will have a special hiring event early next week. though if you want the big bucks

it's in travel nursing. the demand for short-term workers at hospitals is huge as so many quit or take a break during the enormous crush of patients. take a look at some of the job postings we found. a hospital in ohio has two pogs open that pay $8,000 a week. that is $416,000 a year. the chances are the best paid person in your hospital room isn't the doctor. it's the nurse. of course, the more they pay for travel nurses the more staff nurses quit, their jobs to become travel nurses, and there are more openings and a bigger need. a parent told me once when i say this word on tv their device responds and wakes the baby. amazon says it's going to adjust the voice volume of this word to make it louder in louder situations. so you're sure that this word heard you. funny thing is, these are called amazon echos but few people use that name to describe these. some down arrows on wall street.

don't let that distract you from the bigger story. wall street is doing very well. september traditionally a tough time on stocks. we'll see what's head. the bottom line is while everything seems to be coming unglued, afghanistan, fires, floods, hurricane, covid, the stock market is soaring because businesses are doing really, really well. their quarterly financial reports are blockbuster. normally when an economy does that well and heat up the fed steps in and ups interest rates and slows down the assistance to the economy, that dampens the mood on the stock market. the fed is not doing that. this like a win/win for investors, as i choke on my own excitement on this. on the economy. you have a quiet fed, great economy, nothing can go wrong on the stock market it seems. >> i can tell you a couple companies doing all right because americans are once again panic buying toilet paper. "wall street journal" reports the maker of charmin and bounty

paper towels are running factories 24 hours a day to try to keep up with the ongoing demand. have you seen this sight at your local market. empty shelves. latest rebound comes as the holiday variant drives covid-19 cases and deaths up across the u.s. trending this morning, this next story is for meteorologist kari hall specifically. we have something that is going to take her and maybe you, your pumpkin spice obsession to the next level. >> i don't know if kari necessarily drinks beer like that but bud lite launching pumpkin spice. a pumpkin spice hard seltzer. it's a blend of pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla flavors and if you need the autumn alcohol fix the set zer will be part of bud light's fall variety pack. that includes toasted marshmallow, >> no. >> that's a no. >> if you're interested and it's

a yes for you, they go on sale september 6th. >> those are all great flavors, but i don't know with bud light. >> supposed to be warm and cozy and kari is the biggest pumpkin spice fan. >> coffee, muffins, stuff like that. hard seltzer. i don't know. >> the best way to drink a pumpkin spice beer open it and pour it down the drain. >> there why you go. >> ouch. >> sorry bud light. >> today is the first day of meteorological fall and people look at me crazy if i'm walking around with a pumpkin spice. it's september. we've seen something a little bit more unusual a lot of rain in southern california as the remnants of a tropical system move through. here at home, nice, quiet. we're enjoying a nice breeze. it's helped to clear out the smoke and gave us those blue skies yesterday. most of us that will continue today as we see our temperatures headed towards the upper 70s. this is in our warmest spots in

the inland areas. mostly 60s across the bay area. the smoke will start to return for parts of the north bay but notice how clear it will be for other areas across the bay area. so moderate air quality north of santa rosa as we start to see some of that wildfire smoke creeping back in by tomorrow. the rest of the bay area will have a lot more smoke. this coming down from those northern california fires being basically brought in by the marine layer and we'll have hotter temperatures. ukiah, today reaching into the upper 80s and low 90 tomorrow. still a little bit warm, but look at how it's going to be for the labor day weekend reaching over 100 degrees for sunday and monday. while the rest of our inland temperatures will be heating up, we have a couple of more days of this cooler weather in the valleys reaching up to about 80 degrees and then you can see the trend upward to the mid 90s while san francisco for the most part stay in the mid to upper 60s. mike, you're saying for the

commute it's about the timing. >> it's all about the timing. you can stick around for a few more minutes and watch another one of kari's reports or mine. traffic volume looking good right now. the slowing for san jose won't start for another 20 minutes and heat just the first burst there. the tri-valley looks great. a little slowing out of the altamont, typical for 580 westbound. the general travel time overall look at that, not bad at all. vasco no slowing, nor for highway 4. back to you. >> thanks, mike. next here on "today in the bay," nbc bay area responds. >> an airline changes its schedule and totally throws off your vacation plans. you just have to accept it? you don't. you can fix it. i'm consumer investigator chris chmura. we'll show you how next.

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5:25. breaking this morning, live pictures of the caldor fire and this morning it's still advancing into south lake tahoe. evacuation orders are now extended to the nevada side of the lake. san francisco based lyft is being called out for its response to the caldor fire. customers claiming price gouging. they say yesterday morning one fare listing from heavenly to tahoe airport was showing between 1300 and $1500 for a ride that typically costs $200. lyft blames it on a conflict between nevada and california laws and says it turned off their surge pricing there. many frustrated families have turned to our consumer team for help with airlines. >> all of them hit some ticket

turbulence before they got to the airport. consumer investigator chris chmura is here with a silver lining in the dark cloud. >> here's a scenario. you booked a nonstop flight from sfo to hoon lulu. you plan accordingly. a month before your supposed to go the airline changed its schedule and now moved you to a connecting flight that doesn't land until 4:00 p.m. can they do that? yes, they can. do you have to just agree? no, you don't. >> many folks make the mistake of assuming when the airline sends you that airline that says you your schedule changed you have to accept it. >> here's the bottom line. when an airline changes its schedule and your ticket you can reject the automatic changes they've made and recommend your own. you might be able to change your time, your day, even your airport. if the schedule changes really lousy, you might be able to get a refund. >> any of those are fair game and you don't have to pay any penalty. >> the bigger the change the airline makes the more pull

you'll have to get what you want. even if the airlines only juggle you about a half hour or so no harm in asking tore what you want. here's how. call them. >> you can call them up say this new schedule won't work for me. >> but first research your options. go to the airline website and find the flights that best fit your schedule. then ask the airline to rebook you on them. be sure to tells the agent you have that schedule change e-mail. >> great advice. thanks. the giants get a bit of a challenge from another frontrunner in the pennant race. last night at oracle johnny cueto was back on the hill after flu-like symptoms the night before. the brewers hit him hard including lorenzo kane home run. the giants lose this 6-2. i don't like the sound of that. back on nbc bay area this friday battling the dodgers. our coverage will start at 6:30 p.m. and the a's meanwhile getting back on track in the pen nant race.

in detroit matt chapman hit two home runs to give oakland a's a 9-3 win. we like the sound of that. the a's are one game back in the wild card. back to our breaking news coverage. ahead on "today in the bay" we'll take you back live to the front lines of the voracious caldor fire. and that wildfire is continuing to burn close to south lake tahoe. the challenging weather conditions facing firefighters today. you're watching "today in the bay." .

breaking right now at 5:30, caldor fire raging with no end in sight. the flames inching closer to some 30,000 homes in the south lake tahoe city limits. this morning "today in the bay" is live on the frontlines to show you what's happening there right now. plus -- >> looking forward to telling your side of the story. >> do you have anything to say? >> day two of the criminal fraud case of former theranos founder elizabeth holmes. we take you inside the case as it moves forward. this is "today in the bay." and we're broadcasting on your television as you see right now and also streaming online at nbcbayarea.com. if you have to leave out you can take us with you. good morning to you and thanks for making us a part of your morning. i'm marcus washington. >> i'm kris sanchez in for laura garcia enjoying a little sleep

in this morning. we want to take you first to our east, to the fire fight in tahoe which so much at stake on what could be a pivotal day for firefighters. >> we sent "today in the bay's" bob redell to south lake tahoe and he is outside the city limits for us. bob, i know you have a good vantage point. talk to us about what's going on. >> we're along highway 50 at echo summit. if you're not familiar this is kind of the first place where you get a good view of lake tahoe as you're driving into south lake tahoe. we're about 15 minutes outside of the city of south lake tahoe. you can see behind me, there's the fire that's burning in this canyon below me. today is going to be not a great day in terms of weather, at least from what we see in the forecast. we're under a red flag warning until 11:00 tonight and the winds, they could be gusting anywhere from 20 to 50 miles an hour. those are not ideal conditions

for the firefighters. as you look there you can see the smoke is burning towards the left side of your screen unfortunately towards south lake tahoe. that gives you a sense of where the wind is blowing. south lake tahoe evacuated on monday and last night authorities issued new evacuation orders for the nevada side of the lake. the concern continues to be the direction of the fire and the fact that it could wind up on the backside of the popular heavenly ski resort which overlooks the lake. the people who are evacuate ready scared they might not have a home to go back to. >> it was nice to have one more night in our house and hopefully it will be here when we come back. >> there's lots of family and memories, and it's absolutely devastating. i don't know. we're all very close. >> we're just happy that we're all together and safe right now. >> the caldor fire to date has

burned around 200,000 acres, destroyed almost 500 homes, is threatening about 35,000 more structures that could include anything, homes, businesses, what not. containment right now just at 18%. reporting live here atop echo summit, bob redell, "today in the bay." >> thank you. earlier this morning about 4:30 we talked to the pio for the caldor fire and she was talking about they were expecting some really erratic fire conditions because of the wind. >> yeah. we are expecting the winds to pick up again today and usually these early morning hours is the best time for firefighters to try to get some more containment, but because of the erratic fire conditions, they're not able to do that. we take a look at all of our fire detection sensors here and the yellow dots indicate where the fires have already burned and we have some of these red sensors indicating some active fires, and so one of them just about three miles from south

lake tahoe and then you can see this little marker here that's the airport. unfortunately it's moving very close to going over mount heavenly and we've seen some of those flames on some of the cameras this morning very close by. this as the winds are expected to pick up today. red flag warnings continue through 11:00 this evening as we've seen those winds picking up and we may have those gusts anywhere from 20 to a possibly a few isolated gusts 50 miles per hour. very low humidity and the fuels are just ripe for this to continue to spread very quickly. if you're wondering how many acres have burned and how does this compare to normal, a usual fire season we get about 750,000 acres burned, but with climate change, we've seen this increasing every year and note that last year was a record year, 4.25 million acres burned across california. right now as we continue to go deeper into our wildfire season, we're at 1.8 million. it's just so devastating to see

this. we're going to talk more about those fire weather conditions and what's clearing out the air quality here in the bay area that's coming up in a few minutes. >> all right. kari, thank you. now new map showing you real-time destruction left behind by the caldor fire and it is created by kaf and shows the homes destroyed or damaged. we have a link at nbcbayarea.com. from silicon valley to wall street, what many consider a blockbuster trial just getting underway. we're talking about the fraud trial of elizabeth holmes, the founder of theranos. >> right now it's all about assembling a jury which could be a monumental challenge. sharon katsuda live at the federal courthouse in san jose with more on that. good morning sharon. >> good morning kris and marcus. holmes did not have comment for the media as she walked in the courtroom yesterday but we'll see if that changes.

the 37-year-old stanford dropout was met by a crush of media as she showed up to court. she's accused of defrauding investors and putting the lives of patients in danger. potential jurors were questioned. holmes is expected to testify her former boyfriend and fellow theranos executive ramesh balwani abused her leading to some of the company's issues. the silicon valley entrepreneur dreamed of changing the world with a simple blood test and turned that into a $9 billion company. here's holmes in an interview in 2016. >> i'm the founder and ceo of this company. anything that happens in this company is my responsibility at the end of the day and i hold myself responsible for that. >> i would say where she crossed the bright red line is in the fall of 2013 when she commercialized a product, a medical product, that she knew did not work. >> reporter: holmes and sunny balwani were indicted in 2018 on two charges of conspiracy to

commit wire fraud and multiple counts of wire fraud. both tee my all charges against them. the documents reveal her defense will likely present her as a victim claiming a decade's long abusive relationship with balwani her ex-boyfriend. balwani's attorneys kay shows comments were offensive to balwani. back to you. >> thank you very much, sharon. we know that's going to be ongoing today. the jury selection is tough, especially with the documentary out. >> yeah. there's a podcast and all kinds of content out there too. new details in santa cruz county where we learned yesterday that aptos high school was the scene of a crime. the school will be closed today and tomorrow so authorities can investigate a deadly stabbing that happened on campus. it happened yesterday on school grounds. the school immediately went into lockdown mode. 17-year-old boy who was stabbed later died. deputy arrested two students aged 14 and 17.

they also believe there may be video showing what happened. they're asking parents and students to examine forward. in the north bay an update on two new covid vaccine mandates. one takes place today for all sonoma county fire, law enforcement and emergency services personnel. the other just approved yesterday in santa rosa. this is for all city workers. starting october 1st, they must be fully vaccinated or do weekly testing. a new highly infectious covid variant is causing concern among world health leaders. a new report from the national institute for communicable diseases in south africa is detecting what's known as the c 12 variant. the c 12 variant officials say could be more infectious than any other covid mutation identified so far. it says that variant is not widespread at this point. something backed up by the world health organization. a ucsf infectious disease expert tells us that the variant has not yet been detected in the

u.s. least four deaths in the south are being attributed to the devastation from hurricane ida. right now people across louisiana are picking ups the pieces and we are learning at least some people are starting to get their power back. many more are still in the dark. new drone video of that devastation about one hour outside of new orleans shows the power of that storm. roadways were also flooded by heavy rain and storm surge and louisiana's governor is urging residents to stay put in the shelters where they are and to not go back to what is left of their homes until essential services can be restored. >> if you have already evacuated, do not return here or elsewhere in southeast louisiana until the office of emergency preparedness tells you it's ready to receive you. the schools are not open, the businesses are not open, the hospitals are slammed. there's not water in your home and not going to be electricity. >> the governor says he has activated the national guard and troops are headed to southeast

louisiana. we know that rain is tracking its way up to the northeast. i was speaking to a friend of mine in baltimore and she was saying they're preparing for all that rain headed their way. >> lots of rain even though it's still no longer a tropical system, it's still dumping heavy amounts of rain. i was checking some of the facebook posts and stuff from the people that i know who live in louisiana and they're still without power but doing okay and this system still causing a lot of problems as it moves through west virginia all the way through pennsylvania, new jersey and new york this morning. we're going to be watching that. here at home as you head out for work, nice and clear. fremont, temperatures in the upper '50s and clouds to start out our morning with a slow warmup but overall it's going to be a nice day. breezy winds and improved air quality. we'll talk about changes ahead. mike, you're seeing the volume picking up. >> we're watching things like this view of the bay bridge. look at this curve here. things are starting to slow down, cars more -- less spacing between the cars and more clusters around the bend there

and getting through treasure island a little bit of slowing showing up on the incline a tad bit in the last couple minutes. highway 37, this slowing started about 10 minutes ago getting out of vallejo towards novato. no surprises. oh, look, we see that little bit of slowing through pittsburgh and also in concord. highway 4 getting that volume coming up for the longer drive through contra costa county. a little slowing right on schedule like we said for san jose. back to you. coming up for you, pulling ahead, less than two weeks until the recall election and some optimistic signs for governor newsom. we're going to break down the latest poll numbers and which replacement candidate is leading the pack. president biden tells the military and the american public the focus should be on china and russia. and keeping tahoe blue. the caldor fire serving a reminder about our climate in crisis. we'll show you why experts are asking if the smoke could change the color of lake tahoe's famous blue water. good wednesday

morning. at 5:45 we continue to watch the fire weather conditions around the dixie and caldor fires this morning. red flag warning in effect until this evening and the same wind kicking up those fires clearing out the air in the bay area. we'll talk more about all of this in a few minutes. >> the roadways getting more crowds as we look through oakland. 880, taillights northbound, we

see much more traffic volume and how that affects the choke point coming up. breaking right now this update on the caldor fire that's threatening south lake tahoe. it's just a couple miles out of the city limits and tens of thousands of people are out of their homes. the fire has burned nearly 200,000 acres, or 311 miles. to put it in bay area terms, this is larger than san jose, oakland, san francisco and walnut creek combined. containment inched up to 18% overnight. at least 675 structures are destroyed, and evacuation orders are now in effect past the nevada state line. several resorts are also potentially in the fire's path. with less than two weeks until election day, new polling numbers are favoring governor gavin newsom in the recall push. the survey, u.s. poll, shows more than half plan to vote no on the recall and it's now 51% compared to 43% of those

supporters there as you can see right here, those numbers. four replacement contenders, larry elder the only republican tracking double digit support at 27%. john cox and democrat kevin paffrath are in second. if you have any questions about our recall ballot, we have some answers for you. scott mcgrew putting together that explainer to show you how to complete out that ballot. you can find it at nbcbayarea.com/recall or you can click on newsom recall in the trending bar at the top of our home page. president biden says that the u.s. military will turn its focus to russia and china. >> all this comes as the afghan war comes to an end. >> it's over. the president announcing that yesterday. we'll get to that speech in a moment, but as for china and particularly russia, as you mentioned, we're going to see evidence of that today as president biden meets with ukrainian president zelensky at the white house. ukraine, of course, in a shooting war with troops who say

they're not russian, but they're russians. russia has taken territory in ukraine. zelensky is the same person that president donald trump called to demand ukraine investigate joe biden and withheld military assistance until zelensky didn't do it. he didn't do it and trump got caught and impeached. for biden's speech about afghanistan he gave americans a long explanation of his thinking as to why we needed to end the war. >> to those asking for a third decade of war in afghanistan, i ask, what is the vital national interest? in my view we only have one, to make sure afghanistan can never be used again to launch an attack on our homeland. >> the president says we'll fight that terror in afghanistan with over the horizon warfare drones, we have hit a pew poll shows a majority of

americans support the ending of the war. that same poll, though, shows a player reality of americans think the white house's job of ending the war was poor. biden seems to be betting we're going to be happier with the ending than the way it ended. there's no question the first day or two of the evacuations were a disaster. we called it a catastrophe. the u.s. military says by the time it stopped, more than 100,000 people had been evacuated, like moving the entire town of sunnyvale or vacaville. every single man, woman and child to a new country. largest military evacuation in history. the panicked evacuation of saigon was 7,000 people. the texas legislature passed tough new voting restrictions. much of it aimed at houston developing new ways to make voting easier, 24-hour voting, drive-through voting. texas will not allow that once the governor signs the bill nor allow governments to promote mail-in balloting.

biden came close to winning texas and carried the houston area. other thing going on in texas that abortion bill we'll talk about that with tracie potts coming up in a half hour. >> scott, thanks. this just in, new developments in the usa gymnastics and larry nasir sexual abuse scandal. the organization reportedly reached a $425 million settlement with hundreds of women that claimed that nasir abused him. it was filed in u.s. bankruptcy court. survivors have been in mediation since the organization filed for bankruptcy in 2018. it is unclear at this point how much each survive are would receive from that settlement. now that proposal still has to be approved by the survivors and their creditors, usa gymnastics creditors. usa gymnastics believes the deal will be confirmed later this year. experts asking if lake tahoe's water clarity may be impacted by the climate in

crisis. some were asking this question before the devastating caldor fire. but now concerns are higher with smoke and ash clouding the lake's iconic blue waters. lake tahoe is one of the deepest in the world but more debris and sentiment is no doubt going to end up in that water before all is said and done. one uc davis tells "the examiner" he believes there's no chance for green lake water but the impact may be felt for several years. you were talking about what happens with the rain comes and all of that soot just pours into the basin of the lake. >> i don't think it's ever going to be clear again unfortunately with the fires burning this close and then you think about all of the sediment washing down, the trees hold that and keep it from running down into the lake. when the trees are gone it's going to be brown like the rest of our lakes around here. we'll talk about that. let's get a look at this camera. heavenly, we can see the flames coming up the hill and our live camera. we've been watching it. the cameras have been a great

resource for seeing what's going on within the fire zones. then we have some rain nearby just not far enough north to really make an impact. we've seen southern california dealing with the remnants of a tropical system moving over vegas and parts of arizona and the flash flood watches and warnings that are still up for that zone. as we take a look at what's going on here we have a strong westerly wind that's helped to clear out the air and also cool off our temperatures so some of our usual warm spots for the first day of september, it's only going to reach into the upper 70s today. mid 70s for martinez, 77 for a high in san jose and in san francisco, we're looking at a high of 64. mainly clear for much of the bay area but our smoke model shows that we could see some smoke returning for the north bay as early as this afternoon, but the rest of the bay area getting more of that smoke tomorrow. today is the day to enjoy a little bit more time outside before this smoke returns and our temperatures will be heating up. let's take a look at morgan

hill. today and tomorrow looking good with highs in the upper 70 but look at how those temperatures labor day weekend, hottest on sunday reaching the low 90s. some spots reaching into the mid to upper 90s for what's usually the last spike of really hot temperatures before we head deeper into fall. now looking at san francisco, temperatures mainly in the mid to upper 60s over the next few days. mike, you're seeing a delay getting out of san francisco. >> that's right. we're hearing from bart there is a ten-minute delay out of sf heading down the peninsula direction and that is an equipment problem. it shouldn't grow from what i can tell. we'll track that down the peninsula. we have a smooth drive expanded service for caltrain, the vta added the orange and green line for partial service. the bay bridge this is getting into the city a delay as well. because the build happens here and the slowdown off of the maze. not a problem through the maze. the east shore freeway showing a little build around golden gate field. highway 37, highway 4 showing

more slowing for our sensors. traditional pattern here. the backup heavier at the bay bridge as we approach 6:00 at the toll plaza. in san jose the little slowing from north 101, crash in fremont and over in livermore, on the shoulder. back to you. >> thanks, mike. happening now, santa clara county is moving forward with a first of its kind trauma recovery center. this will help survivors of violent crimes and other traumatic events. we're talking about wildfires and floods as well. this comes just three months after the mass shooting at the vta rail yard that left nine people dead. supervisors approved that proposal that provided immediate trauma related services to vta employees and their families. >> more ahead on "today in the bay," including grappling with unruly air passengers. a number of cases skyrocketing. we'll show you what flight attendants want done even as the busy labor day weekend proechs. progress in the pandemic, signs suggesting vaccine hesitancy is

starting to drop off. nbc bay area and telemundo 48 are honoring locally animal heros for the clear the shelters positively good award. go to nbcbaya more. you're watching "today in the bay." >> how much is that doggy in the window.

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welcome back. you're watching "today in the bay." new details on the exploding number of unruly passengers on airplanes and in airports. the faaore than 4,000 unruly passenger complaints filed this year alone. three fourths of them are related to wearing masks. typical amount in a year is around 150. many cases involve intoxicated passengers. flight attendants bearing the brunt of the problem and say something has to give. >> we need to coordinate as airports, airlines, local law enforcement, fbi and doj to take on this problem. >> the faa has adopted a zero tolerance policy for unruly passengers handing out more than $1 million in fines. they are also trying to get authorities to prosecute more cases. turning back to the pandemic, a georgia mobile

vaccination site had to be shut down after health care workers were threatened by anti-vaxxers. the head of georgia's public health department wants these type of issues to stop. meantime a new survey suggests that covid vaccine hesitancy is declining and that poll finds 70% have already gotten the vaccine and 8% plan to get it as well. the remaining 22% say they are unlikely to get vaccinated. that number is down 3% from two weeks ago. experts say the vaccine mandates are the biggest driver of the increase along with full fda approval and the spreading of the delta variant. setback for the rock band kiss their tour is postponed after gene simmons tested positive for covid, the second band member to be infected following paul stanley a few days ago. bonnaroo music festival officially canceled. not because of covid, but because of water logged festival

grounds. intense rainfall from hurricane ida flooded the campground so the four night event in tennessee is off for the second year in a row. >> always a big event right outside of nashville there. right now at 6:00 for you, closing in on south lake tahoe. the caldor fire sending thousands of people from their homes as it blows towards homes and resorts on the shoreline. "today in the bay" is live onlt frontline following it every step of the way. >> uncertain future for a woman's right to choose. a new abortion ban taking effect overnight in texas, but why this along with the supreme court response could impact women beyond the lone star state. this is "today in the bay." it's wednesday morning and a good morning to you. thanks so much for starting your morning with. i'm marcus washington. >> i'm kris sanchez in for laura today. now we begin right now with team coverage on the desperate battle firefighters