welcome back at 7:13 on your saturday morning. cloudy skies on your walnut creek. we are expecting the skies to clear up today. cool, crisp and sunny, a great weekend to get out and enjoy some fresh air. happening today, almost will say their final good-byes to leader harry reed. president biden and nancy pelosi and chuck schumer are all in las vegas and will all deliver

remarks at the memorial service. former president barack obama will deliver reid's urology. the nation will remember sidney poitier who died. he was born in miami and raised inside the bahamas. he was the very first african-american to win the best actor oscar back in 1964. he continued transforming how black people were portrayed on screen with films like"to serve with love" and "guess who's coming to dinner." he was awarded the nation's highest civilian honor.

new information this morning on san francisco's troubled millennium tower. the tilting continues at three inches per year. engineer ron hamberger stressed the need to installing -- >> the building does continue to settle at a rate of about 1/2 inch per year. it's doing this whether we are conducting work at the site or not. the building remains safe but although the building remains safe, we need to complete this construction quickly. >> city is still considering a revised plan to install just 18

support piles while down from the original plan to drill deep holes to 52. the latest covid spike is causing more problems to public transportation in the bay area. muni says more than 100 staff members tested positive in the two weeks along. the agency is warning service disruptions will continue and likely get worse. the priority now trying to avoid cancellations all together or substituting bus service for rail service. ac transit issued a ride alert due to a spike and cases. doctors recommending you upgrade your masking as cases are running rapid. choosing a mask can be confusing. chris chmura has a look at our

choices. >> the california department public health gives us three main options. a cloth mask is good as long as it's three layers. a surgical mask is better especially when it's combined with a cloth mask on top. the best mask for preventing covid-19 is the n-95 and kn-95 and kf-95. before buying where you know of those masks, i would recommend to see if it's niosh approved. point your smartphone at this is qr code, it will take you to a huge list of approved masks and manufactures. the cdc said up to 60% of kn-95 masks are counterfeit. they are not niosh and not do what you expect to. we recommend shopping with

stores you know. if you are online, figure out who the seller is. make sure it's a business that's been in business for a while and it's not going to just vanish once they take your money. thank you, chris. and trending this morning a resurfaced clip of sesame street losing his cool goes viral. the puppet being frustrated after being denied his cookie. >> you can't have your cookie. >> after the clip went viral. elmo reassured fans there is no bad blood between zoe and him. it was clear elmo was still annoyed. have anyone seen a rock eating cookie?

elmo was just curious. now dwayne johnson tweeted into this. yes, this rock eats cookies and he devours cookies. move over and i am coming to "sesame street" to eat cookies. let's check in with meteorologist vianey arana who has a look at our full micro climate forecast. a good day to go outside and eat some cookcookies. >> it is. even as an adult you get hangry. feed me and i am happy. let's take a look at this beautiful shot at beautiful tahoe. when is it safe to go out there.

look how pretty it is right now. in tahoe is 50 degrees. it's very cold. a beautiful shot closer to home. golden gate bridge, not a lot of fog wrap around golden gate bridge. things are quiet overall. we had quick moving front that brought us shower activities. we are seeing some fog now and temperatures as you head out the door, nice range here we got about 37 degrees in novato and concord at 48. 50 down in san jose. depending where you are, you may be a little too cold. we'll get peaks of sunshine by the afternoon. for the first half of the day, a little bit of cloud cover temperatures in the 50s. the air quality is going to be good from the north bay down to the south bay.

we have high pressure rolling in, it will change to sunday more of a moderate air quality. take advantage of today, here is a look at your south bay hiking forecast, it will be a fantastic day for that. 49 degrees by 9:00 a.m. if you prefer more 50s if you want to wait until 11:00. we'll top off to the 50s and low 60s. looking to next week, sunday night offshore, you can see it there. the notice next friday, january 14th, there is a system that could bring us a chance of some showers by the middle of the week in towards next week. right now it looks like it's going to fall apart in just a bit. we'll know more as we inch closer. for now we'll keep the rain chances off the radar. over the seven-day forecast, by sunday, 56 degrees, notice the quiet pattern across the board. that's thanks to high pressure rolling in. it's going to warm us up in to the 60s. i am definitely going to take

this little guy out on a nice walk today. >> when he wakes up. he'll be excited about that. >> thanks vianey. >> we'll be right back after this, stick with us.

a man helping the bay area. today in the bay's garvin thomas shares this morning's bay area proud. >> now we are going to head up

to 236. >> reporter: in august of 2020 when ryan saw what the fire did to his hometown, he got on the plane to help. >> i felt a burning passion to get back here. >> reporter: at first ryan did not know what he was going to do but why the time he was done, he knew something he wanted to do for the rest of his life. find rescue and reunite pets lost during a natural disaster with owners desperate to find them. >> reporter: ryan was so motivated by his experience at the ccu fire, he started his own nonprofit, with dreams of providing services anywhere they were needed. and just last month, they were needed in kentucky. a tornado killed dozens and destroyed more than 1,000 homes separating who knows how many frighten pets from their owners.

>> skills are needed in natural disasters and fires and tornados and hurricanes. >> i want to give you an idea of what i am looking like. >> reporter: ryan flew to kentucky and teamed up with a drone pilot and using high-tech thermo imaging and set off into the cold kentucky night and do what they could. >> we are able to see these animals on the thermal imaging camera and illuminate them will led and mark their location. we literally just walk from that point and we see if we can get eyes on that animal. >> reporter: it turned out to be a successful strategy. >> we got jimmy. >> we have been here since last thursday and we have done, now

we are up to a total of 30 pets that we rescued from the streets of dawson springs and mayfield, kentucky. >> reporter: the only thing better than finding the animals is he's able to place one of them into the arms of a grateful family. >> it just gives me pure feeling that i am going to continue to strive to repeat for the rest of my life. >> reporter: if he succeeds from the ashes of a single disaster, hopefuls for victims of future ones. garvin thomas, nbc bay area news. that's beautiful. it's 7:27. we have much more for you on "today in the bay," a covid outbreak at a school district, their emergency responds come back. students and teachers were all infected.

i'm greg, i'm 68 years old. i do motivational speaking in addition to the substitute teaching. i honestly feel that that's my calling-- to give back to younger people. i think most adults will start realizing that they don't recall things as quickly as they used to or they don't remember things as vividly as they once did. i've been taking prevagen for about three years now. people say to me periodically, "man, you've got a memory like an elephant."

it's really, really helped me tremendously. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. it's january 8th, 7:30 as we take a live look outside, cloudy skies over san jose, a clear day ahead with plenty of sunshine for us all. thank you so much for starting your morning with us, i am kira klapper, we are broadcasting to your television and you can watch us live on roku and apple tv and our website on nbcbayarea.com, vianey arana

joins us with a quick check of our forecast. >> hey, vy. >> good morning, you saw a live look in downtown san jose is looking nice. our temperatures are mile, we are going to enjoy a lovely weekend ahead. we are not expecting any rain. 51 degrees right now in san jose. it's pretty mild in the south bay, there are some areas that are colder. let's take a look right now at the fog and visibilities. napa is down at a quart over a mile of visibility and novato. once that clears out, we are expecting mix of clouds. dublin at 46 degrees. we got high pressure rolling in that's going to bring us a warm up. i will give you our full details of our forecast. >> thanks, vianey arana. governor newsom deployed the national guard to testing sites.

plus, another bay area's school district is going back to online learning temporarily because of new infections. we have surpassed 59 million covid cases and more than 5 million of those are right here in california. right after 2022 began, schools reopened and some closed immediately. covid found its way on campuses forcing to distant learning in some schools. the entire school district going remote next week at hayward. >> reporter: the hayward school board is moving online classes for all students citing a spike of cases. milpitas parents and students are finding out next week's classes will be online. a ten-day district wide quarantine returning into person

tuesday the 18th, some parents say they are not surprised. >> my daughter told me the first day of school there were like 200 or 300 students that were out. >> reporter: the district making the change due to a number of positive students and staff cases. saying they had 167 substitute positions and 107 support staff positions unfilled as a result. adding families without wi-fi or child care can come to the physical campus to log onto virtual learning while social distancing. >> the school's administration is trying to look into the wellness of each student as covid cases go up. >> reporter: all of this comes after 500 teachers called in sick as part of a plan sick-out to highlight their covid concerns. that forced the district to cancel classes for the following 12 schools impacting more than 8,000 students. the district argues the sick-out

put students in riskier situations. >> it's something we feel not should be happening when we are talking about students. >> i had the opportunity to call 20 families last night to communicate with them about this action. every single parent i have talked to was 100% in support of us. remaining tests will be shipped to schools over the next two weeks. >> reporter: ian cull "today in the bay." health leaders are standing in solidarity to keep schools open. dr. sarah cody stressed the importance of having students go to school in person. cody says she's working with the county education office to ensure safety. >> a very central goal is to ensure that our kids get a some

solid education. we learned that in-person education is what they need and remote learning does not support their mental health and emotional health and academic well-being nearly the way in-person learning does. we are centraling our efforts ensuring our kids remain in school for learning. >> head to nbcbayarea.com and click on covid-19 dashboard. you will be able to see each school district at the top of our home page. governor newsom deployed the national guard to covid testing sites across the state. the goal is to help streamline the site and get more people tested. we had national guards arriving in antioch.

beginning monday on lone tree way, we'll be able to double the number of appointments. more than 200 personnels will be across 50 sites across the bay area. new data shows hospitalizations are on the rise nationwide for kids younger than five or who are too young to get vaccinated against covid. as of january 1st, more than than 4.3 of 100,000 kids were admitted. the director of cdc says even though kids still have the lowest rate of hospitalizations, pediatrics are at the highest

point compares to any other time of the pandemic. there is a wait time for anyone trying to get the moderna booster shot. the moderna booster is available for anyone 18 and older. the ceo of the company says it's likely everyone will need to get a fourth shot sometimes later in the fall. outdoor dining has been a lifeline for so many restaurants in the bay area during this pandemic. but for one city in the east bay, the deadline has come and gone to take down those outdoor parklets. this could not come at a worst time for employees and customers. cheryl hurd. >> reporter: restaurant owners i talked say it could not have

come at a worse time and putting their businesses at jeopardy. >> we could not bring ourselves to take it down. >> reporter: it happened earlier today, the results indoor dining only at oyo restaurant at pleasanton. >> 60% of our guests do not want to eat inside. people want outdoor seatings. >> reporter: city leaders have been discussing what to do with the park-lets. the city also plans to clean up the streets and trim the trees before allowing them back possibly in march. >> people started discussing and calling staff. >> reporter: the final fate of the restaurant's parklets was on the agenda this week.

counsel woman testa voted against it. >> what we have seen and what we have seen happening now with the biggest spike ever is bad timing. >> reporter: bad timing because of the recent omicron surge which is why some customers are unhappy to see the parklets go. >> i thought it was great. restaurants are half capacity. that barely made it through covid. >> reporter: the owner of the beer barron will dismantle the rest of his parklet tomorrow. he's worried of his future. >> if we went through it twice already, i don't know if i can take a third hit. >> we'll survive, we have to. failing is not an option. >> reporter: cheryl hurd, "today in the bay,". a live look in san francisco right now, beautiful, shadows and sunshine. this is the city where restaurants are anticipating another tough year because of the new omicron surge. some restaurants and bars are dealing with staffing shortages

because of sick employees while others the cost of keeping workers tested is costing thousands out of pocket. mayor london reed is calling to revitalize the surge. it had overwhelming demand and ran out of funds last july. another live look for you, this one in san jose where you can see the blue tarp is covering the poor house bistro, it's being moved. the building is being trucked slowly as you see a few blocks down little italy where it will be called home. the cajun restaurant was purchased by google for its plan for downtown campus. crew expected to arrive to its new location by 9:00 this

morning. if you are interested on being an onlooker, it's kind of like a parade with a band. covid forces bay area's figure skater alyssa lu to drop out of championship. she does have a chance to make it on team usa. we'll explain how, coming up. any parent will tell you the second you have a kid, which means you never, ever stop worrying. that's why we got health insurance and for way less than we thought was possible. the kids' doctor and dental check-ups are free, and i get screenings for my cholesterol and my blood pressure. don't get me wrong, i still worry. just a little less.

covered california. this way to health insurance. enrollment ends january 31st at coveredca.com

it's saturday morning, things are calm in the weather department. look how beautiful this shot is high above in san francisco, the golden gate bridge. we are expecting to see some clouds at least the first half of the morning. how stunning? a great weekend to head out outdoors. let's take a look right now in san jose, 51 degrees. depending where you are, some spots are colder than others and some spots are mild. satellite radar is showing pretty dense fog in through parts of novato. there was a dense fog advisory in place. look at novato about 37 degrees.

forecasted highs today, a lot of sunshine, temperatures will be mild in the upper 50s for san jose. 58 degrees. 55 in san francisco, 56 in oakland and take a look at your air quality. great day to go outside and really take advantage because from the north bay down to the south bay, we'll see good air quality, high pressure is rolling in so this could change tomorrow of a moderate air quality heading into sunday and monday as well because of the high pressure. a lot of folks were asking me about south lake tahoe. there are no advisory in effect. overall really nice weather, temperatures will be in the 40s, over night lows sipping down freezing into the 50 degrees market. as far as your sierra snow pack, statewide average brought 141% of statewide average, this is mixed up with all of the latest storms we have seen, it's always nice to see how our sierra snow

pack gets plenish during the winter storm. we are not worried of any rain this weekend, expect to see foggy nights and mornings continue into tonight and early sunday morning. looking way out ahead into next thursday, january 13th and next friday, there is an approaching system but for now we'll keep the seven-day forecast dry. 56 degrees heading into tomorrow for san francisco. temperatures warming up just a little bit because of the high pressure. it will be more noticeable for in land areas start to bump up in the 60s. we are monitoring our system heading into thursday. >> i love seeing all that sunshine, vianey, thanks, we'll be right back. stay with us.

welcome back, 7:49 on a heavenly saturday morning. we are taking a look at the golden gate bridge, a lot of clouds but still crisp and blue. a beautiful morning as we have a sunny day ahead as we approach the second weekend of the year. we are counting down the days until next month's winter games. it's an exciting time for our fremont native karen chen. the 22-year-old from the bay area is headed to beijing. this will be her second olympic games.

>> to be in an event where so many athletes is kind of overwhelming and i was not prepared for that. this time around i am much more prepared and know what to expect. chen is the first u.s. woman skater to compete back-to-back in the olympics since shasha cohen. covid is threatening another bay area championship team. alysa liu was forced to withdraw after testing positive for covid. the richmond native announced her positive results on her instagram. she still has a way to make the olympic team even it's typically made up from the top three of the championship games. the judges could choose her to be on the team based on her results.

liu's coach says she will petition to be apart of the winter team. the winter olympic begins here on the 3rd right here on nbc. a chance to get into the playoffs this sunday, 49ers take on the rams at sofi stadium. the question is who will be quarterback. jimmy garoppolo is trying to play with a torn ligament in his right thumb. he practiced all weeks with no setbacks. trey lance is a healthy option for the niners. coach shanahan is not revealing who'll start before tomorrow's game. if they lose, the falcons need to beat the saints for the niners to continue. the raiders are looking for a win to clinch their playoff spot, they play the chargers on sunday night football that's right here on nbc bay area.

the winner is in the playoffs, kickoff is at 5:20 tomorrow. just sigh at 7:52. up next quick stories we are following, another outbreak at an bay area's school district, we'll tell you their emergency response. when you have xfinity, you have entertainment built in. which is kind of nice. ah, what is happening. binge-watching is in the bag, when you find all your apps, all in one place. find live sports faster just by using your voice...

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what you can expect tomorrow morning on "sunday today" with

willie geist. >> good morning kira. tomorrow morning, we revisit our favorite conversations with comedy legend, steve martin and martin swharts. they were both nominated for their roles. the collaboration for the pair who met 35 years ago as three of the amigos and continues with "father of the bride." the latest news and another well lived when "sunday today" airs. if you are not up for us, just set up your dvr for us. kira. >> thank you.

hayward school district is turning remote this week. this comes as covid cases forced hundreds of kids and teachers to call off sick. they'll return to in-person learning on january the 18th. oakland teachers called in sick yesterday and a plan sick-out to highlight their concerns of covid. the district argues that sick-out put students at risk. california will shift more at home tests to schools over the next two weeks. governor newsom deployed national guards to covid testing sites across the street. the goal is to get people test faster. they arrived in antioch yesterday beginning monday this site at the community center on lone tree way will double the number of appointments it

offered everyday. more than 200 national guard personnels will be deployed. you can see on this map, sites in contra costa and napa county and alameda will all receive report. if you are having a hard time finding a testing site, we can help. go to nbcbayarea.com/covidtesting, we have a comprehensive list that's divided county by county. before we go, let's check in with our girl vianey arana for one last check of our forecast. >> hey there, i hope you get a chance to go outside today and enjoy the fresh air. the air quality is going to be good and we are also not expecting any rain, sunshine for your saturday, temperatures will be mild but comfortable in the mid and upper 50s. things are going to warm up just a little, we got high pressure

rolling in. a dense fog advisory is in effect. we are seeing limited visibility up to santa rosa and napa and novato. we are looking good heading into sunday. now we are monitoring the system that could come into play heading into the later part of friday but for now we are going to keep this stretch of sunshine and temperatures will dip down into the 30s tonight, it's going to be a cold chilly night and heading into sunday night. kira, great day to enjoy the outdoors. >> love that we are having some sunshine. thanks so much. thanks to you for make us apart of your saturday morning. we'll have local news for you tonight at 5:00, 6:00 and 7:00 and at 11:00. one last live look in san jose where the poor house bistro, san jose's cajun restaurant is being moved to little italy.

crew is expected to arrive at 9:00 this morning. they have a new orleans style band as the bay area moves. we hope to see you tomorrow morning.

. narrator: when you see this symbol you know you're watching television that is educational and informational. the more you know on nbc. dylan: hi, everybody, i'm dylan dreyer and this is "earth odyssey". today, we travel around the world to discover the oddest animals in the wild. we'll begin in russia where this strange looking antelope species knows how to stay safe. then we head to the coast of south africa where this master of camouflage really stands out. and later, it's a special delivery for these male seahorses. plus, this shocking symbiotic relationship keeps these species safe from predators and from each other.