right now at 3:00, it's getting harder to make it in the bay. we reveal new data that shows the ratio of buyers to homes in silicon valley. >> countdown to closure. open parents and students fighting to keep their schools open. when a final decision will be made. >> the bay area's vincent zhou out of the olympics after testing positive for covid-19. the figure skater posting an emotional message to his fans as he copes with the devastating loss. the news at 3:00 starts right now. thanks for being with us. i'm jessica aquirre. >> i'm terry mcsweeney.

the olympic flame still burning bright outside of the bird's nest in beijing. for one bay area skater, it's an olympic heart break. vincent zh to withdraw from competition after testing positive for covid. the 21-year-old grew up in palto alto, made an official instagram post this morning. scott budman explains how the bay area skating community is now reacting. >> not long after skating in the team competition in beijing, palo alto's vincent zhou took to instagram to deliver positive covid-19. >> saying he's feeling pain and isolation. >> lost count of the number of times i cried today. >> also talking about how proud he is of his earlier efforts and his teammates as they earned olympic medals. >> i'm happy to say that at least one of those times was happy tears.

that was when i found out that i became an olympic silver medalist. >> it's got to be so devastating for vincent right now. >> paulina edmonds, who a hauls represented the bay area as an olympic skater says everyone in beijing knows about the covid risk but says this still came as a devastating surprise. >> for this to happen to vincent a day before men's event, i can't imagine what he's going through, but i know he definitely is still in a state of shock. >> she says the whole team is likely feeling the pain and trying to manage the extra strain of competing in a pandemic. >> i think at this point, the only thing that the athletes can do is focus on their events and pray and expect that they're healthy because the extra nerves regarding all of this stuff with covid is just going to distract them and it's stress that they don't need right now. they have enough stress.

>> vincent also has a message for his olympic family. >> so thankful to each and every one of you. and i'm sorry that -- i'm sorry that i couldn't continue this journey with you guys any longer. >> vincent's olympic journey may be over for now, but his skating career certainly is not. he says he plans to be back and healthy for the world championships next month. he also plans to enroll at brown university in the fall. scott budman, nbc biden administration news. >> still such a heart breaker. athletes are undergoing a lot of testing just to be at the winter olympics. before you even get to china, they had to take two covid tests, then another one once they arrived at the airport. once inside that closed loop, athletes are given a daily pcr test. and if a result comes back positive, like it did for zhou, they are tested again. if the second test comes back positive, they head to isolation. if the athlete has no symptoms, they are allowed to leave

isolation once they get two consecutive negative pcr tests 24 hours apart. now, from podium mishaps to a skier having to ajust after losing her ski, we have all those olympic moments you missed, the good and the bad coming up in about 12 minutes, garvin thomas is going to join us to give us perspective and talk about what we're all talking about this olympics. >> have your vaccine card handy if you're going to berkeley. the city is tightening some of its rules for workers and customers r if you work at a restaurant, a theater or a gym, you now have to prove you have been both vaxed and boosted. the only exceptions, for medical or religious reasons. you'll also have to show your vaccine information before dining indoors or working out inside one of those gyms. if you're planning on attending a big event, maybe a cal game or concert, you have until march 14th to get fully vaccinated. a negative covid test will no longer be good enough. >> one school district on the peninsula is getting ready to ditch its mask rule outdoors.

starting next monday, kids in burling came can go maskless outside. masks will still be mandatory outside. some other school districts, they already have a similar policy in place. >> an even bigger change comes for schools in new jersey. today, the governor announced he is dropping the state-wide mandate, that means teachers and students can take off the mask both indoors and outdoors. the change starts next month. like california, new jersey has some of the strictest pandemic restrictions in the entire country. >> every time you think you have got this thing figured out, it humbles you. but we're confident that four weeks from now, we'll be able to be at the point with regard to the state-wide school mask mandate that we have announced. >> the governor also says school districts will still have the option to keep their own mask mandates in place and districts will not be allowed to ban masks altogether. just ahead on nbc nightly news, students tell gabe gutierrez why

they're happy with the decision to drop the mask mandates and he speaks to teachers and parents. watch on our streaming app how one bay area mother pivoted during the pandemic. after she got laid off, she started her own business. download our app to your apple tv, amazon fire, or roku to find the story under our investigations playlist. >> less than 24 hours from now, the oakland school board will decide whether to close or consolidate as many as 15 schools over the next two years. the district says that student enrollment numbers are way down, forcing it to spread too little money across too many schools. as nbc bay area's melissa colorado explains, families, teachers and at least one school board director says there's another far less painful solution. >> my daughter is terrified that her school is going to close. >> in a span of three years, this little girl went from celebrating her first day of kindergarten to taking part in a protest to save her oakland school. >> she doesn't know where she's

going to be. she doesn't know whether her friends are going to be with her. >> carl b. monk elementary could close in a matter of months if the school board votes to approve the district's money saving consolidation plan. the dropping and in chools willo merge, and grades at two schools will be cut. >> i have can stay in osusd. >> the district says while we do not deny these changes are difficult and painful for african american and latino families, we aim to build improvements in happened in less than a month. >> school phing back and said families did not get enough time to weigh in. >> we have seen a dip in enrollment in the two years of pandemic but so has every pandemic around the country. >> meanwhile, they have not

considered which school she's going to transfer her daughter to if the closure plan gets the green light tomorrow. >> i know that they are farther away from our school. i know that -- i think the closest one is almost double the travel time. >> opponents say they're holding out hope they can convince the mayor to fill the budget gap with surplus money. >> san francisco police are investigating another flash mob style attack and the goal of this one to vandalize every building they could. so-called flash mob tagging happened at 18th street between mission and cap friday night. residents say about 200 people showed up, paint cans in hand, started tagging the block. by this morning, several business owners have already painted over much of the vandalism. you can still see paint on the walls, the windows, and the parklets. officers are out in the neighborhood trying to figure out how this incident was organized and looking through video of the attack. >> video helps quite a bit. there's nothing like having really good video.

what we don't want people to do is put themselves in harm's way. >> local business and property owners say the attack is even worse because they have to foot the bill to clean it up. prior to the pandemic, the city actually fined businesses that didn't clean up graffiti quickly. a member of the small business commission says san francisco should get rid of those fines altogether. >> fire raced through a house in san jose killing one person. this happened yesterday just before 9:00 p.m. when the firefighters arrived, they found smoke and flames billowing out of that house that you can see. they also found the body of a person inside the home. at this point, we don't have an identity on the person and we don't know what started the fire. >> a battle is brewing on the peninsula over mountain lions and affordable housing. you might remember last week, the upscale town of woodside claimed it was except from creating new affordable housing because it's a sanctuary for mountain lions. after a threat from california's attorney general, the town is now changing its tune.

here's nbc bay area's robert handa. >> well, there's no doubt that the woodside area is prime mountain lion habitat, but so is almost all of the bay area, especially san mateo county. the town has backed off in declaring itself a sanctuary, but what comes next? this isn't an unusual sight in woodside. a mountain lion and its cubs wandering about in the natural habitat, which includes the town's homes. this is a 50-year resident and says he understands why the town tried to declare itself a mountain lion sanctuary to get around a state's new law requiring communities to build more affordable housing. >> we have had mountain lions i. and we recognize that they're a challenge. >> critics blasted the declaration, saying it was simply a rich community looking to keep out common people. then the and the state fish and wildlife department weighed in, saying an entire town could not be considered sanctuary and that

the town would be breaking the law. so the council began accepting applications for sb-9 projects this morning. the town hall is closed due to covid, so it was difficult to gauge what kind of response woodside is getting from developers, but the bay area puma project says it's concerned mountain lions will become a lower priority. >> i think it needs to be approached thoughtfully and with consideration to particular habitat that is used currently by mountain lions. and that should be avoided and/or a plan thought through on how to accommodate that. >> norris says he believes that will happen and that residents can live with it. >> i see the need, that there's a lot of pressure to have the low-cost housing. i'm not sure that this is the best way to deal with it, but it's one way that they're trying to. >> we did not hear back from woodside leaders, but a statement said the town has consistently exceeded state mandated affordable housing

commitments and will remain focused on helping to alleviate the regional problem. future planning, the puma project said the state is now considering categorizing mountain lionsendangered species. >> still ahead, spotify taking another stance on joe rogan and the controversy. the reason the ceo of the music streaming app says rogan's voice will not be silenced. >> new rules. australia shuts its borders as a covid protocol, but now it's making changes. what that means for travelers. >> right now, we're at 68 degrees in san jose. on our way to mid-70s and possibly some record breaking temperatures later this week. a closer look when we come right back. >> right now, as some states move to lift mask restrictions, we compare the experiences of two ohio schools. wrun with mandates, one without. and then dwindling car inventories changing the game about what to do with your car's

lease expires on nightly news.

joe rogan has again put spotify in a tough spot. the ceo of the streaming service apologized to employees over the weekend for rogan's use of racial slurs. but he also told them in a letter that silencing the podcaster is not the answer. spotify's chief executive acknowledged rogan's racist language was incredibly hurtful and he said it was rogan himself who removed dozens of past episodes of the joe rogan experience from the platform. it is just the latest rogan row with the music streaming site. issues with covid and vaccine misinformation led musician neil young and other artists to remove their music from spotify in protest. >> as tennis great novak djokovic found out last month, australia takes covid very seriously. now, two years after australia shuts its borders to most visitors, the country is finally reopening and shifting to a living with covid status.

prime minister says if you're double vaccinated, we look forward to welcoming you. starting february 21st. all the country is open to foreigners, individual states can impose flight caps or require quarantines. >> back to our olympic coverage. every day at this time, we like to take a moment to catch you up on some of the best moments you may have missed from the games. there have been so many over the past weekend. >> some were so heartbreaking. >> we topped off the show with the vincent zhou thing. garvin thomas has been looking for the funny, the touching, and sometimes painful moments. joining us with the latest gold he's uncovered. >> we marvel at the skill of these athletes. when they do what they have been training to do for years. but sometimes it's when things go wrong that we're even more impressed. that was the case with kelly silldora from estonia during women's big air qualifying. the freestyle skier, watch it on the landing, she loses her ski. and yet she doesn't fall. she made it down to the bottom of the jump. now, leaving equipment back on the hill does lower her score,

and she didn't advance, and while that may not have impressed the judges, i don't know about you, but that certainly impresses me. >> she was great. >> next is what could be my favorite clip from the olympics yet. russian olympic committee cross country skier alexander won the men's ski aethlon. how did he celebrate? he gets up on the podium, he jumps, and he breaks the podium. or at least the part where the olympic symbol. what makes it so great is then he reaches down and tries to fix it, realizes that's a lost cause, gets up and jumped on the podium again. there is no stopping his celebration. >> from the silly to the downright inspirational. you're looking at canadian snowboarder max parrot on the way to winning gold. max won the silver in 2018. but just months after that, he was diagnosed with cancer. hodgkins lymphoma. he had to put his snowboard away and went through 12 rounds of chemo before declaring himself cancer free in 2019. now, he's a gold medal winner.

max says after surviving cancer, he doesn't take life for grantte than it ever did before. >> i have to get you up to speed, last week, talking with raj and audrey, i was working the baby biathlete desk. leif nordegren, his wife is expecting their first child. i promised an update. nothing yet. >> i was expecting a baby picture. >> i was like, what? >> when i see it, you'll see it. >> good, good. so stand down. no baby yet. >> not yet. >> thanks. >> let's check in with rob, and you see the snow there in beijing. not much of it, and around here, it's like spring heading toward summer. >> this is one of the cooler days we'll see this week, and it's 68 degrees right now in san jose. hazy sunshine around the santa clara valley. this time tomorrow, we're expecting some low 70s here in february. right now, in livermore, 65.

more of the hazy sunshine around the east bay, which follows us into walnut creek where it's 66 and back towards san francisco, numbers right now in the mid 60s. high pressure building in, so we're likely to see more of those hazy skies. as we saw this morning, more patchy fog likely setting up around the inner bay, and some of the valleys. notice the temperature trend, still 30s and 40s for the morning. you may even have patchy frost for the morning and then climbing almost 30 to 40 degrees by the afternoon. more sunshine by lunch time tomorrow. by noon, we'll probably be warmer at noon tomorrow than the high temperatures we're seeing outside today. lots of upper 60s out there around noon tomorrow. and then our highs during the afternoon tomorrow, now mostly 70s around the santa clara valley, the tri-valley and north bay. check out santa rosa up to 78 degrees. downslope warming due to those offshore breezes will likely mean the north bay valleys will warm up the most tomorrow. and for the hills above 2,000 feet, dry and breezy conditions at times. wind speeds not expected to be

too strong. we're probably not goto see much in the lower elevations but elevations above 2,000 feet, freezing conditions at times. in terms of clouds, that's the patchy fog and more hazy sunshine heading into the afternoon and more of this trend will continue as we move you forward through the week. notice the high pressure is keeping the rain off to the north and speaking of that ridge of high pressure, it's about to get even stronger. i think you're really going to notice the change wednesday through friday as we get towards thursday now, this is probably our best bet for breaking some records around the bay area. you only have to be mid to upper 70s this time of year to do that. by thursday, santa rosa could be close to 80 degrees. 76 in concord and san jose likely to see mid tuper 70s later this week. good enough by february standards to be record breaking. look at san francisco. very close to 70 degrees from wednesday into the beginning of the weekend. you can see temperatures staying pretty mild. one thing to watch out of the weekend could be more wind at times. beginning tomorrow, we're in the

70s, and we're going to stay there for a while, all the way through the weekend, watching wind at times, dry conditions continue across the seven-day forecast, and hopefully after the next ten days we'll see high pressure weaken enough to get rain and maybe some sierra snow back in the picture. for now, spring like temperatures around the bay area as we go through the week. >> this would be the weekend to have an outdoor super bowl party because it's going to be so nice outside. >> absolutely, here and in southern california. l.a. could see highs near 90 on thursday. >> really? and what's it going to be like at the game? >> 80s. it of course, it's indoors, but outside, it could be one of the warmest super bowls ever outdoors if l.a. hangs on to mid 80s on sunday. >> when you look down the road, how far do you have to look to have any hope for anything? >> yeah, right now it looks like early march. we might see the big ridge of high pressure back off far enough away from the coast that might give us a chance at cooler air and at least some more moisture to come down the coast. right now, there high is acting

like a giant shield keeping all of the rain to the north. >> thanks very much. coming up, making it in the bay. it's getting crowded. new data out about house hunting that shows us not just you and a few others looking at the house. you and hundreds of others. the startling new numbers coming up next.

[rumbling] ♪ ♪ hoy te he mirado sin quererlo ♪ ♪ te he mirado a mi lado pasar ♪

♪ me tuve que tragar mis sentimientos ♪ ♪ no supe de tu aliento ♪ ♪ nomás te vi pasar ♪ bay area house hunters know the pain of losing out to all-cash offers. the national association of realtors is counting up the number of south bay households that can afford a home. and the numbers are startling. they conclude there's just one home for sale for every 1200 south bay households earning between $100,000 and $125,000 a year. you make $125,000 a year and there's 1200 houses on the marbt, you can afford one. amazing. blame that on the record high prices and record low inventory

going on right now. long term, experts say that could widen the gap between the middle class and the south bay's wealthiest residents. >> you cannot put a price on true love, but you can still wonder what everyone else is planning to do this valentine's day. turns out americans will spend an average of $175 to $210 this year. that's according to two recent surveys by lending tree and the national retail federation. spending plans most commonly include buying candy, greeting cards, flowers, and jewelry, terry. >> we're going to move on to the royal gun salute, which today marked the 70th anniversary of queen elizabeth ii on the throne. she is the first british monarch to reach her platinum jubilee. in her statement yesterday, the queen remembered the death of her father, king george vi, which elevated her to the throne, and she recalled the seven decades of extraordinary progress that her reign has spanned. the queen now 95 years of age, also renewed the pledge she made on her 21st birthday to devote

her entire life to the service of the uk and the commonwealth. >> did you hear the word platinum? jewelry? >> you're fixated on this. we're only spending between $175 and $210. >> what you need to watch tonight as the winter games continue. >> not going to be okay, it's go time. team usa on the largest gig-speed network. which means this mega fan never misses a second. it's gig-speed wifi that's “mikaela shiffrin” fast. ok, that's fast! speed's cool, but does yours block threats? yup, even for these upstairs all-nighters rocking wifi speeds faster than a gig. can your internet do that? learn more about gig-speed wifi, or get started with xfinity internet for $19.99 a month for 12 months. click, call, or visit a store today.

care coalition, it's so good to see you all! i would like to start with a quick roll call. funshine bear? care bear in the care chair! snuggie? hiiiii. nick cho. hi, i'm your korean dad! mother nature. here and everywhere. dog and grandma. here. alright! let's brainstorm. any ideas for new members? i'd like to nominate alaska airlines. this neck pillow i'm dating says great things! a caring airline?! wait, those exist?! well, we all believe in a talking sky bear. it says here they were the first airline to switch from plastic bottles to boxed water. wow! they also hire a lot of people from caring professions. i'm seeing former teachers and nurses. okay, i'm loving the sound of all of this. alaska airlines. the most caring airline. it's cute, right? we've never had an airline before. oooo, this is a lot of pressure! deep breaths, funshine bear, like we practiced. it's settled! alaska airlines is officially in the running! round of applause!

all right. let's give you a live look at the olympic flame in beijing. it's about 7:30 in the morning. china right now, but there are still several events scheduled for today. coming up in less than an hour on nbc bay area, men's figure skating again without palo alto's vincent zhou. alpine skiing, and san francisco's eileen gu will compete in the women's freestyle ski. so the question is, what's the temperature like? >> well, it's cold and windy up there. we have been watching that, but sw falling down

on the venues. here, it's the exact opposite. record breaking warm temperatures. and also very interesting to our south, southern california, super bowl held there this upcoming weekend. excessive heat watch around l.a. with 80s and 90s in the forecast. the warm temperatures we're seeing here extending into southern california with likely seeing 70s hanging on for our forecast even as we head into the weekend. back to you. >> all right, rob, thanks very much. coming up on nightly news with lester holt, president biden pushes germany's chancellor to step up and do more to deter russian aggression towards ukraine. sanctions both the u.s. and germany say they're ready to take against russia. nightly news with lester holt starts right now.

tonight, team usa looking to bounce back after a tough start at beiji. heartbreak on the slopes as mikaela shiffrin wipes out, and nina o'brien's scary crash. what the team is now saying about her condition. american figure skate ervin sent zou out with covid. also tonight, more schools rolling back mask mandates as cases plunge. and the state of emergency in canada. what authorities are doing about the protest that has paralyzed the capital. a deadly shooting at a supermarket in

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