up next, hospitals continue to be bombarded with the covid surge. bay area hospitals are filling up fast. relief on the way. one bay area school district promising to step up and keeping students and staff safe from the spread. the changes coming to campuses. we are working hard to increase the capacity for testing. >> we have an exclusive interview with the lieutenant governor, and we asked about the resources the state is providing to keep in-person learning safely, and whether or not that's enough. this is "today in the bay." if you are headed out on the cal train commute or headed to the gym, you can take us with you. we just don't broadcast on tv but on roku, apple and fire and

online as well. i am kris sanchez in for marcus. >> i am always here, in for a long time. vianey is in for kari this morning. you are tracking the visibility issues and forecast? >> yeah, it's foggy out there, especially in san francisco and the bay bridge toll plaza, throughout the entire bay area but especially in the south bay, look at this, down to quarter of a mile visibility. you are not imagining that fog if you are looking out the window in morgan hill and san josé. the oakland area, we're going to keep the fog lingering for the first half of the morning. the camera you see behind the temperature trend, it's supposed to be a look at san josé. notice the fog window is until about 9:00 to 10:00, and there are small breaks of sunshine through the afternoon. daytime highs similar to yesterday where we topped out in the low 60s. a couple possible low 60s in the

interior valleys, and all in all, we will continue to see the dry weather not just for today but also through the weekend. we will take you through the timing of all that coming up in a few minutes. back to you. >> thank you, vianey. we'll check back with you. united states seeing now more than 1 million new covid cases per day, and 63 million confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic. california has about 10% of that total with the positive testing rate currently over 20%. ucsf is making unusual requests asking everybody to avoid its emergency room if they are hoping to be tested for covid. for staff there the last few weeks have been challenging with more patients and more staff illnesses. they say more cases are showing less severe symptoms. getting your hands on a covid test kit can be difficult right now if you are only looking to confirm you have covid, tying up the resources at any emergency

room is not recommended. the white house is now trying to respond to the pressure of promising more free tests and masks, and military teams are now helping overwhelmed hospitals. alice barr is in washington with more. this comes as president biden after the defeat in court. >> yeah, the mandates for private companies with 100 or more workers, the supreme court blocked that. this comes as a time when we may finally be starting to see leveling off of the omicron surge, at least in some east coast cities, so across the country cases and hospitalizations remain high. >> with no end to the war on covid in sight, president biden

announcing new plans to arm americans with critical weapons promising details next week for making high quality masks available for free. >> i know we all wish that we could finally be done with wearing masks, i get it. but they are a really important tool to stop the spread of the highly transmissible omicron variant. >> he's ordering 500 million at-home test kits to send to americans doubling the total to 1 billion with the goal of eight free tests each month paid for by insurance. and more foot soldiers are headed to the front lines. the president deploying military teams to help overwhelmed hospitals in six states. >> as long as we have tens of millions of people who will not get vaccinated, we will have

full hospitals and needily deaths. >> president biden lost a major battle on that front and the supreme court blocking his mandate requiring vaccines or frequent testing with private companies with 100 or more workers, and some business owners celebrating. >> i saw this mandate from the very beginning as perhaps the greatest example of government overreach. >> the high court did uphold a vaccine mandate for health care workers at federally funded hospitals. questions about meeting demands for all the new rapid tests, president biden is ordering a persistent supply and insurance companies could end up passing those costs along to consumers. >> what about the timing for the president's plans to ship out the free tests and masks? >> certainly there's widespread agreement that this is the right thing to do, but as i mentioned,

we are hopefully getting close to, you know, a peak in potentially a drop-off at least in east coast cities and that will be staggered across the country depending on when omicron hits, and experts are saying we needed this a few weeks ago and what was the holdup in waiting until now to get it going. >> yeah, we knew it was going to come. thank you so much. and then more masks available for students and staff. weekly volunteer testing at school sites, n95 and kn-95 masks for teachers and students and 10 covid sick days for staff so they can stay home if they are sick. parents were already raising money to buy students high quality masks to wear in class. >> the parents decided to take it upon ourselves through our pta and raise money through one

of those sites where you can collectively raise money. we are already up to $8,000, and many parents have already made the orders. >> not all districts can do that. for now schools will have kn-95 masks for staff and surgical masks for students, but new agreement asked for the students' masks to be upgraded when possible. and there's a mad dash for testing for students still in the classroom. i spoke with the lieutenant governor and pressed her on what the state is doing to handle this ongoing frustrating issue? >> we know there have been so many people that wanted the test and could not get them skphrbgs i will give you an example of my child who had exposure and thankfully we were able to test through the district in a couple of days, and so what are you doing to make sure the tests get done in a timely matter, because

it doesn't matter if you can get a test seven days after the exposure? >> yeah, it's frustrating. the fact that you could test through your child's school is a testimony that the testing through the public schools in order to keep the public schools open. it is really, really important to be able to keep our schools open for all the reasons you know, that we know and that i just said, so we're working hard to be able to increase capacity of testing beyond the start of school. i encourage everybody looking for a test that can't find one, go to our website, it's super user friendly, and more resources are quickly becoming available. mobile testing sites are back out in the field. it should be getting more convenient and accessible to get

a test, and again, if you are talking about getting your child tested to go to school, work through your school district and that is a very effective way because we prioritized the resources there. >> based on how the omicron surge happened, we can predict what is going to happen here in california, and it peaked and then waned pretty fast. does it seem to you we are on the right track to see that decreasing toward the end of the month as the governor has said based on what the health professionals are telling him? >> government officials, we are doing our best to understand the science given to us by the california department of public health, epidemiologists that we consult, and it's good news that omicron, even though it's spreading and is more highly contagious than previous variants, and it also appears to be a milder case for those that

contract it, and it likely could be the last wave that will create this sort of overwhelming situation, and the governor put it this way, we don't know what we don't know, so we have to be continuing to be prepared for everything and get ready to live with covid-19 as something that is never entirely going to go away, and we have to take these lessons forward, but at the same time there's a great deal of hope that this is the last of the waves, and we are going to be back and into a new normal where we can really go about our lives again in the coming months. >> we appreciate your leadership and that of the governor as we try, try to get to that little bit of normal in the distance ahead. thank you so much, lieutenant governor, for joining us. we appreciate your time.

if you still have covid questions, be sure and check out our covid faq at nbcbayarea.com, and you can find it in the nbc bay area app, the ink is there at the top of the page. let's take a breather from covid, and let's go outside. that's san josé. it's foggy out there. vianey is keeping the visibility in miles. >> down to less than 0.1 of a mile in san josé, and less than that in morgan hill. san francisco is getting some of the fog as well up through novato, napa and the oakland area. the fog is going to linger and so are the clouds in through the afternoon. let's take a look right now at your forecast highs. daytime highs, 63 degrees in san josé. a quick check of traffic. the reason i want to show you this camera is because that's the bay bridge toll plaza. there's fog in san francisco, and it just depends on the view and where you are looking at the

fog from. slow it down out there. the metering lights are still off at the bay bridge toll plaza. back to you. >> thank you. still ahead at 6:25 on "today in the bay," a consumer team breaks down what you need to know to get your insurance company to foot the bill for covid tests. bad news waiting for the much-anticipated cyber truck. the production issues setting production back even longer. taking a live look. this is a look at the futures markets this morning. dow jones industrial average -- everything is down this morning. markets open in a little over 15 minutes. we'll check them then. it's 6:12 right now. here in front of the troubled millennium tower in snowfall, where we learned several weeks of critical data is now missing. you can watch our report on our digital platform.

good morning. it's 6:15. you are not going to miss the fog this morning because it's almost everywhere now, especially down to the south bay. less than a 0.1 in visibility. we are expecting a mild day and cloudy one ahead. i will have a closer look at what we can expect for our weekend forecast, and that should be fun, coming up in just

a few minutes. >> sounds good. wall street set to open higher after stocks slid yesterday. investors have been shifting out of growth and text stocks as higher yields on treasury bounds can eat into company's profits. nasdaq was the worst performer down 381 points. in focus today, reports on retail sales, import prices and consumer sentiment. the cryptocurrency deutsch coin is soaring today after tesla tweeted it is accepting it for some products. it has been one of the most volatile cryptocurrencies.

it was first started as a joke centering around a internet meme. it's still 2000% higher than a year ago. and then tesla delaying production of the cyber truck until early next year. it said it would start making the pickup truck later this year, but it has removed 2022 from the company website. it is making changes on the pickup to make it more compelling to competitors. the "today" show is celebrating 70 years on the air, and it all began with this. >> we will be with you every day for two hours in the morning, 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. >> viewers welcomed the "today" show into their homes and lives.

you see some fun there as well, and lifestyle features. to celebrate the big anniversary, the empire state building was lit up in orange last night. tune in to see some of the celebration and surprises as the "today" show turns 70. it gets under way right after "today in the bay." it's fun to take a look back, too. it's a nice long dog walk, if that's in your plans, the bay area is for you. >> take a look at this list, best cities to walk your dog. san francisco and oakland are number two and three on the list. las vegas, which is surprising.

>> cute outfit there. >> i love that guy. i do. >> i know. aren't dogs the best? they really are. >> can't wait to take a nap with him today. >> somebody took a selfie with binx, and they recognized him but did not recognize me. i was taking him out on a walk, and somebody said binx, and i looked up and i didn't know this person, and they watch "today in the bay," and he was living it up and he felt like a star. well, he is. we are foggy in san josé. look at the fog. it looks spooky. it will be a cloudy day today. from this shot it looks great, but if you are driving down into the bay bridge toll plaza, we are seeing areas of fog. down to less than 0.1 when it

comes to the fog. look at that. san josé, morgan hill area, really dense fog, and parts of novato as well. let's look at your current temperatures out the door because it's cold through novato, dipping into the 30s, 39 degrees, and satellite radar showing you what is going on with the over all picture. this is starting to weaken, and the storm stays to the north of this system. we have another system to our south. we could be seeing gusty winds, and it's going to be isolated to the mountain tops in the northeast. milpitas, 62 degrees. in through oakland, 61. martinez, 62. in through antioch, 62 degrees. around the peninsula, 61 for palo alto. if you are heading to the city, san francisco in the upper 50s for the forecast today.

ukiah, 64 in santa rosa. overall your high pressure here is lingering, so it's going to weaken thanks to a system to the north and south, and then it regains its strength heading into the start of the workweek. that will keep us dry for the next seven days in the outlook right now. here's what to expect when it comes to saturday and sunday. 62 in inland areas, and then we stay in the mild 50s with cold into sunday night and look. we are going to wake up, and that fog will be a factor late tonight into early tomorrow morning. i will have another look at your forecast coming up. >> yeah, that's it for you just for right now. >> yeah. next on "today in the bay," "nbc bay area responds." >> starting tomorrow health insurance companies are required to pay for some at-home covid-19 tests.

i am consumer investigator, chris chmura. we will show you how it's supposed to work, next. we are counting down the days to the winter olympics. you know who is getting ready? janelle lange. yeah, very exciting. she has been doing a lot of great interviews. you can keep up on the teams leading into the games on instagram, twitter and facebook. it's 6:22. you're watching "today in the bay."

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i didn't have health insurance, not because i didn't want it. i worried it was too expensive and i was having a hard time paying our other bills. but now for the first time in our lives, i can do both. covered california makes health insurance easier in every way with financial help for millions of us and free assistance to compare your options. covered california. this way to health insurance. enrollment ends january 31st. go to coveredca.com

a new $22 million effort to help the struggling to help make it in the bay. it will turn one santa clara hotel into housing for the homeless near the santa clara dmv. the home key initiative will provide money to open the interim housing. santa clara housing is contributing $3 million. a lot of people are wondering how the free covid tests will work. >> our consumer reporter, chris chmura, shows us how. >> if you want your health insurance company to pay for an at-home covid test, and the first thing to do is find out what the plan is. the company can either pick some

over-the-counter tests, or the insurance companies can let you choose the store yourself and pay for it and they reimburse you. keep your receipt and maybe the original packaging until you get paid back. if your plan sets up a network you don't have to buy from those stores and you can go out of network but the maximum reimbursement is $12 per test, and each person on the plan gets eight tests per month. you do not have to pay any cost sharing requirements. insurance companies are only required to cover tests bought january 15th and afterwards. you can ask them to cover tests bought before that but they don't have to cover it.

the tests must be cleared or approved by the fda. and then coming up, the changes that staff and students can see in oakland when they return to the classroom there. plus -- >> reporter: plus the santa clara sheriff headed to court. we break down the pay to play allegations she's facing.

the strict requirements employees can expect as california tries to combat the omicron surge. coming up in a live report, what we expect to hear in court this morning. we inspect safety concerns at one condo complex. what condo owners everywhere need to know? and who is responsible? hey, how are you watching us this morning? on television at home, but you can also watch us on roku, apple, fire and online. i am laura garcia.

>> i am watching live and in person, the studio audience. i am kris sanchez in for marcus. it was foggy this morning. >> yeah, it's so foggy. we are seeing the fog through san francisco now. it's 45 degrees right now in san josé. take a look at the temperature trend. it lingers to about 7:00, 8:00, 9:00 a.m. temperatures will remain in the 40s. notice we get a little sunshine, but even then we are still going to keep clouds in the forecast for today. it will be really slow to clear. right now in concord, it's 41 degrees. we are expecting to get a mix of sun and clouds, but mainly cloudy especially around the coastline. i will take you through the forecast highs today, and a look at your weekend weather and what to expect if you are traveling through southern california or parts of the lake tahoe area

coming up in my full forecast. >> sounds good. happening today, one of the bay area's longest tenured sheriffs is going to court. santa clara county sheriff is accused of corruption by a civil grand jury. >> cierra johnson is live to tell us about where the case stands right now. >> reporter: after serving for nearly 23 years, sheriff smith is finding herself on the other side of the law in relation of the allegations for the pay to play scheme. as it stands six of seven misconduct allegations are related to the pay to play scheme where smith with give permits out for donations to her campaign. she could face removal from

office. nbc bay area legal expected, dean johnson, weighs in. >> sheriff smith has three options. she could plead guilty, which she is not going to do. she could deny the charges, which is more likely. or her lawyers could object to the sufficiency of the accusations saying, look, even if everything that you said here is true, this is still not sufficient to sufficient a removal from office. >> it isn't just sheriff smith facing allegations. last year criminal indictments for alleged roles in the pay to play scandal. was of covid this hearing will take place over zoom. the legal expert we spoke with also says because of the long delays and backlogs and some of

the civil calendars and trial calendars, it will take several months before it goes to trial. we will keep you updated every step of the way. i am cierra johnson for "today in the bay". >> thank you. palo alto's police chief is looking to run to replace sheriff smith. he previously led menlo park police department and spent three decades in l.a. county's sheriff's department. four candidates are officially in the running to become sheriff so it's a crowded field. condos across the bay area are getting older. some need some major fixes. in san leandro, owners say water has been leaking through their walls for years. they contacted the investigative

reporter who joins us with what she found. good morning, candice. >> good morning, laura. thank you for having me on the show here. the owners reached out after trying to get answers from the homeowners association, which is the right thing to do, and the communication went sideways not just in months but after years with older owners there, and that's not uncommon. owners in several different places, legal experts say trust and transparency are becoming bigger issues between hoas and members and that could lead to some members with delaying important repairs. >> what is the hoa saying? >> well, our reported prompted quick action at the building as well as with the city, and the city's chief building official went over and saw the leaks you

saw the video there, and he pushed the hoa to hire a engineer for structural, and this structural engineer review is still under way. we visited the property multiple times and we wanted you to hear and see some of the people there that showed us constant water leaks, termites and mold. >> you could see all the way down, cracks in the cement and it goes unaddressed. >> there are some wings on the floor. i found one one day on top of my bed, i just made the bed. >> the black stuff, what is that? >> mold. >> wow, concerns, a lot of them there. they are visible. candice, who is responsible for making sure the buildings are safe? should the city get involved at all? >> right now there's no state legislation requiring cities to

inspect aging condos, although some cities like san francisco do regular inspections. ultimately it's the hoa's and the owner's responsibility to do inspections and keep their building safe. we found hoa's felt like their job was to keep costs low, but it's also to keep the building safe. >> yeah, low cost is one thing, and safety is the ultimate importance. thank you for being here and getting up early. she's with the investigative unit. catch the full story on nbcbayarea.com/investigations. don't forget, if you have a story for our investigative unit, give them a call. >> that's right. we will post that number and tweet it out for you. starting today there are new stricter workplace covid safety rules that go into effect across

the state. these are changes tied to testing and mask wearing. employees who are exposed to covid in the workplace can no longer use self at ministered or at home tests. instead those workers must take one at a testing site or they have to take one in front of a supervisor or health care representative. cal osha also tightening its definition of what is a face covering. they are required to wear one indoors, and it has to be a surgical or medical procedure mask. a respirator or a mask with at least two layers of fabric, and no cloth masks with a single ply will apply. today was a prescheduled day off for students in oakland.

the district received an order of 200,000 kn-95 masks yesterday. it is already sending them out to schools across the district. oakland unified said each staff member received 10 nk 95 masks last year, and they will start a weekly allocation of n95 masks starting next week. if you want to know what the numbers are in your child's school with regard to covid, go to nbcbayarea.com/covid dashboard. as we headed to work in the south bay this morning, it was so socked in with fog and i think i was driving ten miles below the speed limit. >> yeah, did allow extra time for safety. the sun will come up, and do you think it will burn it off? >> we are getting peeks of sunshine. if you have been enjoying the break from the series 6 storms

that we have saw, although they were beneficial to the state, you are going to enjoy the weekend. in the 60s for san francisco. if you are heading up to napa, similar conditions as well but notice the overnight lows will be getting pretty cold, dipping down into the 30s. temperatures will top out in the 60s. south lake tahoe will be stunning to head up there, because it's going to be nice. there are no winter weather advisories in place, and temperatures topping out in the 40s. for santa cruz, mid and upper 60s for saturday, but we will keep the cloud cover lingering a little longer on saturday. sunday, 65 degrees. we will stick to the low 60s if you are heading out to big sur. it's going to be a cloudy start on saturday as well, but temperatures will be pretty mild, 65 degrees. down in l.a., they are seeing above normal temperatures for this time of year, and they are expecting 70s in the forecast for today. they are also seeing a system that will drop the temperatures

into the 60s with overnight lows in the 50s. no matter where you are going, we will keep dry weather in the forecast at least for the next several days and maybe leading into february we will get another chance of seeing rain. i want to show you another shot in san francisco using our traffic cameras. this is the bay bridge toll plaza. look at the fog there. chp has actually issued a fog advisory for the bay bridge toll plaza because of the limited visibility. there are no heavy delays or backups, so we hope everybody is driving safe on the bridge and the metering lights are still off. let's get a check of your traffic overall. the yellow spots here, this is representing the fog. there are just a couple spots in san francisco waking up to the early morning fog and your bridge drive times right now, westbound 80 towards the bay bridge, it's slowing down, about nine minutes right now. and 92 towards the san mateo bridge, you are looking at about 12 minutes. it's foggy on the bay bridge.

i'll send it back to you. >> thank you. what could be a devastating setback for the biden administration is looming in its effort to boost voting rights. coming up next on "today in the bay," the new comments from the president as he faces unexpected roadblocks on capitol hill. plus, more problems for california's troubled employment development department. why thousands of claims are now on hold. stay with us. you're watching "today in the bay." we learn about covid-19,

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hello there. it's 6:44. the fog is what you will be encountering on your morning commute, especially down through san josé, morgan hill and the bay bridge toll plaza. there's a fog advisory in effect from the chp because it's dense out there, down to half a mile visibility. slow it down. keep a safe distance. we will have a look at your daytime highs coming up in my full forecast. >> thank you. and now dealing with a brand-new round of widespread fraud. the agency paid out billions in bogus claims at the start of the pandemic and now about 350,000 disability claims are being frozen. that's to verify the identity of thousands of doctors used to file the claims. it's believed organized crime may be behind the latest scam as

well. critics point out it's also likely some legitimate claim holders are getting caught up in the wash. it has been a rough 24 hours in washington for president biden's push for sweeping voting rights legislation. this morning it appears there's no real path forward after hitting another major stumbling block. kelly o'donnell takes us back through the setback. >> reporter: a real setback for president biden who is using some of the most valuable tools of his presidency, his time and political influence and he's being rebuffed by members of his own political party. two senate democrats, names we hear often, joe manchin and kyrsten sinema are not going along with the plan to change senate rules in order to move forward on a package of voting rights protections. president biden has gone to capitol hill and met with them in person and invited them to the white house late last night,

and officials say they had a respectful and candid meeting but no changes. where does that leave things? chuck schumer who runs the senate floor said nothing is going to happen until next week, in part because of an expected winter storm headed this way and in part, it's covid, not in general but specifically hawaii democrat tested positive and has to isolate, so democrats with their narrow majority don't even have their 50 senators available to vote. and they have got this divide within their party. they say they are going to try and move forward next week to consider voting rights legislation to try again to change the rules of the senate but so far it appears there's no visible path to get this done, and it's a setback for the president who says this is about protecting democracy and has put a lot of his political capital

into getting this done. >> thank you. new developments in the novak djokovic drama. the tennis star suddenly faces the possibility of being deported before the australia open begins but he remains in the country. the immigration minister canceled his visa for a second time. djokovic has been practicing in australia, but it's believed he's not vaccinated for covid. earlier in the day it looked like he had been cleared to play, and he can appeal the decision and the open starts in a little more than 48 hours, so the clock is ticking. some people are saying they are hitting a slump. last night in milwaukee, not a lot of good to talk about. the bucks were doubled up on the dubs. buzzer beater made it 74-38 at

the half. the second half not much better. the bucks beat the warriors and the warriors have now lost four of their last five games. meantime the raiders are getting ready to play their first post season game in five years. you can see it here on nbc bay area on saturday at 1:30. perfect, right? >> yeah, kick back. relax and enjoy it on nbc bay area. we're not talking about football dolphins, but we're talking about a real dolphin and a florida police officer who had to free one that was trapped in a net. >> yeah, he had to be pretty strong. this is a lot of back and forth. take a look. >> gotcha. yeah! >> what an accomplishment. miami-dade police posted that video showing a marine patrol freeing that young dolphin that was caught in a fishing net. he had to cut away the netting

and it was not easy as the scared dolphin was struggling. >> that looks as hard as getting a baby into a onesie. >> try three. >> i had two. >> just one. >> yeah. let's get to vianey arana. the fog has an interesting pattern this morning. >> yeah, it is, and i am so happy that dolphin got free. he must have been scared. for the most part, looks like there's no dog, but there is at the bay bridge toll plaza. i will show you that shot in a second. one camera that has not had a break from the fog is the downtown san josé camera. the camera is not broken. you are supposed to be able to see the building and city behind it, but it's about 43 degrees right now. how dense is the fog? >> fog visibility down to miles,

0.1 in san josé. morgan hill, down to quarter of a mile. we will keep the fog in the forecast through the first half of our morning, and then we have the high pressure, and it's starting to weaken a little bit and we have system to our north and to our south. none of the systems will impact us in a big way. the highest elevations, 20 to 30-mile-per-hour winds. in through the east bay, concord, 64 degrees. hayward, 60 degrees. around the peninsula, 58 degrees. redwood city, 60. downtown san josé also in the upper 50s, low 60s. clearlake, 65. santa rosa, 64. look at your air quality. because of the high pressure we have been seeing this moderate air quality from the north bay down to the south bay. that's going to remain through

today. in case you missed it yesterday, i did have a viewer ask me about the latest drought conditions, and we went from a good improvement, now less than 2% of the state of california is in extreme drought, and that's the red category, and now we are in the severe category, but still in the drought but a good improvement. we were at 6.6 last week, so significant there. on mlk day, on monday, temperatures in the 50s but we will wake up to 30s. san francisco, 64. let's get a look at how your traffic conditions are doing on the bay bridge. still no metering lights though, but the chp issued a fog advisory because of this. i want to give a look at your maps. it's stop and go commute, and it's normal to hit traffic

around this time. your bay bridge times right now, westbound 80 to bay bridge, ten minutes. and westbound 92 to san mateo bridge, 13 minutes. and westbound 84 to the dumbarton bridge, ten minutes. doing okay out on the roads. oh, it just switched to ten here. back to you. >> look at that. just like that. >> as it happens. >> thank you so much, vianey. happening now, more money is going to small businesses in the south bay impacted by covid. santa clara county received nearly $2.5 million from the state this week. the funding will provide $2,500 grants to about 875 businesses. to qualify for that funding those businesses must have had five or fewer employees in 2019 and 2020. up next, a look at the top stories, including sheriff smith

facing a judge for the first time. we will show you what is expected as she heads to court to face corruption charges. we have something really special on "synced in" this weekend. we got to sit down with the business reporter that has been following the theranos trial from the beginning. we got a chance to talk about the verdict that was announced last week, her sentencing and a whole lot more. check out that interview on our instagram page or on nbcbayarea.com.

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welcome back. good friday morning to you. here's a look at the top stories we are following here on "today in the bay." >> one of the bay area's longest tenured sheriffs is going to court. sheriff smith is going to court due to willful and corrupt misconduct in office. six of the seven counts are connected to allegations for trading permits for campaign contributions. if she denies the allegations, experts see this case going to trial. she has been the sheriff for 23 years. the case is being heard by a san mateo county judge. starting today san francisco schools will be more masks available for staff and students after a late-night deal with the unions to keep the classrooms

open. there's weekly and voluntary testing at school sites, and kn-95 and n95 masks for staff and students. the new agreement requires student masks be upgraded. there's a mad rush for testing for students still in the classrooms. today was already a prescheduled day off for students. the district received an order of 200,000 kn-95 masks yesterday and said it's already sending them out to schools across the district. oakland unified they had -- they will start receiving weekly allocations of n95 masks every

week. we posted a full interview online, and nbcbayarea.com is right on our home page. we want to get a look at the forecast that's foggy for this friday. >> it's so foggy. you know, it will be dry again today. temperatures in the 60s in the inland areas. we will keep the fog in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow. let's get a live look right now at the bay bridge toll plaza. there's a fog advisory in effect from chp, so keep your distance and be safe out there this morning. we will have another look coming up in the cut ins. >> yeah, we will be back at 7:25 with a cut-in, and we thank you for starting your day with us here on "today in the bay." join us for midday news, as

mentioned. the "today" show is coming up, and they are celebrating 70 years. >> a nice look back. >> have a great weekend, everybody. thanks for joining us. good morning, here it comes. a major winter storm on the move set to wreak havoc on the holiday weekend. 51 million people on alert. heavy snow expected from the midwest to new england, a dangerous blast of ice in the south. al has everything we need to know. blocked, the supreme court dismissing the white house's vaccine mandate for the work place. but this morning some major companies pushing back, announcing they still plan to making workers get that shot. so what does it mean for you?