right now at 3:00, teachers are taking a stand, the drastic measures that some took to protest the potential school closures in oakland. nathan chen made olympic history, what he is saying after his dazzling performance on the ice. >> mu mask rules, what you need to know about ditching the mask and some doctors say now is the time to do it. the news at 3:00 starts now. we begin with breaking news out of the east bay. police are looking for a castro valley mother who failed to comply with the custody exchange of her 5-year-old son. the 41-year-old mother and her

son ryan paulis jr., last seen on january 31st, she was supposed to do a custody exchange and it did not happen, she stopped answering her phone and they don't know where she is and she was recently evicted from her home. her car was seen, it's a ma roon toyota rav-4, there is a photo of ryan. last seen wearing an orange shirt that says later gator, dark red pants and black shoes. lacy 5'9", 140 pounds with blonde hair and brown eyes. >> the other top story, the state's mask mandate is set to expire in six days. the end of the state requirement

will not mean an end to the debate, you cannot leave the mask behind just yet. as nbc bay area reports, the move put new pressure on bay area counties to decide if they will lift their mask rulings. contra costa county is still considering to drop the mask mandate. the state is saying it's safe for vaccinated people to take the mask off, but not everyone is convinced, free n-95 masks are available at cvs stores across the bay area, courtesy of the federal government. but soon, many may not need them as often. the state plans to lift the mask mandate for vaccinated californians next thursday. >> i think the timing is appropriate. we have seen a 70% decline since the peak of omicron wave on january 14th. >> ucsf epidemiologist george rutherford said it's the right

time to let vaccinated people take their face coverings off, but we should be ready to ramp up if needed. >> we are reasonably comfortable with omicron as a less severe, more transmissable virus. but you know, the next variant we see may be something completely different. >> it will be up to the counties to make the final decision about whether the mask mandate will be lifted locally. they tell nbc bay area that they plan to follow the state's recommendations. the other counties are still on the fence. contra costa is planning to make data available later in the week. >> i think we should get rid of them. >> many are ready to say goodbye to the mask, others think the county county should play it safe. these women say they will continue to wear their mask in doors no matter what the county decides. >> i probably will wear my mask

because i feel safer that way. >> i feel it's safe to keep a mask on. you know, and i agree with that. it would be a great idea, under the new safe guidelines. deeply 8.8% a week ago, the positivity rate was at 22%. while the area counties review the state mask rules, child vaccination rates are climbing and broke down the percentages of children ages 5-11 who are vaccinated in three counties. let's start can santa clara county, 50% of the children in the gauge group are fully vaccinated. and 49% of 5-11 year olds have gotten the shot and other counties are similar, 47%

vaccinated there. the johnson & johnson vaccine has been halted in production. the factory is making a different more profitable vaccine that is not tied to covid. it could reduce the supply of j and j's covid vaccine by hundreds of millions doses. the spokes person did not talk about the switch, but said they are focused on ensuring the vaccine is available where are people are in need. adding that we quote have millions doses of our covid-19 vaccine in inventory. now from vaccine mandates to mask rules we are here of course to help you keep track of the ever changing guidance. go to nbc bay area.com, click on covid-19faq, we put together a commonly asked questions list and you can find out what you need to find out to move forward. a count down to closures in oakland, in two hours they will begin deciding whether to close or merge 15 schools. it's a move to get its finances

in order. the family and teachers are hoping last minute bail-out great the state. they are taking drastic steps to stop the closures and are holding a hunger strike to protest the district's move. we spoke to a teacher who had to be hospitalized because of his protest. >> my babies are -- my babies -- that's why i'm here and that's why i'm doing what i'm doing because i love these kids. >> frail. gaunt, and committed to the cause. maurice and moses are the two oakland educators on a hunger strike. it's been eight days since they have had any food. >> our demands are straight forward. no closures, gavin newsom, come to oakland, just like you did with the photo-ops, come to oakland when they are closing our schools t doctors that have been evaluaing the educators

say the two have underlying conditions that will worsen as they move forward with the protest. >> there's possible for convulsions and damage to vital organs. >> teachers should not have to do this to bring attention to the resources that are needed for the kids. >> reporter: they will discuss closing and merging up to 15 schools in the next two years. the district said that enrollment is dropping and facing pressure from the alameda county office of education to fix its budget shortfall. this afternoon, community schools manager moses amalade was taken to the hospital so he could be properly monitored. when asked if he would continue his hunger strike if tonight's school board vote does not go his way, this was his response. >> the hunger strike doesn't stop. >> in oakland, bay area news. up next, gubernatorial

elections are under way. dahle is going to run as a republican against gavin newsom, his district is all or portions of 11 counties. he has been elected to the assembly four times. to the senate in 2019. former mayor kevin falconer is considering running again this year as well. and now to olympic coverage. u.s. figure skater, nathan chen made history with a dazzling performance. he broke a world record for the highest short program sore in figure skating history. his score of 113.97 is about two points higher than previous record. the performance nearly flawless. it included two quadruple jumps and a tripel-axel, and it felt

like redemption. >> i learned a lot from 2019, getting another chance, i didn't want to make the same error again. i'm just really happy to be here. i'm so happy with the way the program went. >> and he should be. chen is now in prime position to clinch the gold medal avenue the free skate competitioning later this week. >> well, a san francisco born olympian won so big she temporarily crashed the internet today. take a look here, it's the skier, she claimed big air gold. you see, she was born in the u.s. and skying for china. after the big victory all the online praise shut down a popular chinese platform. >> okay, what happened during olympic competition is of courses what the games is all about. sometimes it really is the moments that surround the games that we remember the most. right? >> yeah, and we are keeping an eye out on the games for just

these moments. one featuring the skier that we talked about. >> that's right. terry and jess. when we talk about moments outside of the competition. this one takes place literally seconds after ilene secured the gold. >> the youngest free style gold medalist in olympic history. the moment she realized she won, that is when he is the ledeux realizes she has not. and she sinks to the snow with tears. and they rushed over to console her. the kind of moment when compassion is called for instead of celebration and clearly both women knew it. >> olympic moment. >> now, brace yourself, we are going from heartwarming to stomach churning. this is a picture, put on instagram by russian agent leelt -- russian athletes and she said this is the meal she has gotten for five straight takes.

the parts that are identifiable appear unappetizing to say the least. she said that she lost weight in quarantine, has black circles under her eyes. and cried every day. terry, jess, we have been promising you, promising you, and following the story of the buy athlete, and his wife was expecting. and drum roll please, here you are. dad was understandably thrilled and understandably distracted in his latest race. >> it was hard to be honest. yeah, i was just thinking about my family in the warm-up and brought tears to my eyes. and yeah, unfortunately i didn't produce good results on the race today. but you know, i think it's a win no matter what for the home

life. >> it's a gold medal dad right there. you see, he got to meet his daughter via facetime. he has a couple more on competitions still ahead of him before he races home to meet her in person. so, with that, the biathlete news desk is closed. the biathlete baby news dpesk is closed, everyone stand down. >> okay, thanks a lot. >> still ahead a message to taxpayers from the biden administration, how you and your family can cash in on the child tax credit only if you do one thing. >> and then shedding light on a shrinking community, they are fighting to keep black voices heard in the city. >> and outside, sunshine and mostly warm. how warm it will get in the forecast when we come back. right now, the stunning letter from former pope bene

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you bring these little humans into the world. and you only have so much time with them, you just got to use it well. i love that about travel.

the biden administration want families to know there's money waiting for them they just need to file to take their share. there was a virtual event encouraing people to file their taxes early, especially those with lower incomes. >> our message today is simple. if you are eligible for the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit, we want you to get those credits. and you know, why working families working families sdrve a break. >> biden increased the tax credit as part of the coronavirus relief package.

former vice president mike pence is coming to stanford next week. he is hosted at an event of how to save america from the woke left. february 17th, next thursday comes less than a week after making a break from trump. he rebuked his former boss for trying to overturn the 2020 election. he is focused on motivating the next generation of americans. the city announcing today that they brought in 100 new workers from mental health and drug treatment. the part of the state of emergency plan. city says the hiring process usually takes six months, but instead, it took two. city said that it plans to hiring an additional hundred workers soon, tripling the original staff. february marks the july celebration of black history as part of the celebration, we continue to shine a light on the contributions of the bay area's

african-american community. census numbers show the black community is disappearing in san francisco, creating the threat of a cultural violate. we talk about how the soberering statistics gave birth to an art group. >> reporter: there's a great many of metaphors woven in to his art. broken ceramic. zip ties. >> they may reference the police in that they use zip ties as stand-ins forehand cuffs. >> reporter: and fabric. >> my mother made quilts and my grandmother and great-grnd mother. they expressed the creativity, anger, and world view. >> he is expressing himself through his art. >> for me, they are a stand in for my feelings and what it's like to be black and queer. >> reporter: he is among two

communities, artists and african-americans, who have increasingly been priced out of san francisco in response, he and other black san francisco artists formed a 3.9 collective. >> we use or work as way of raising awareness about the dwindling number of blacks in san francisco. >> reporter: it refers to do a newspaper article that predicted that the black population would fall to 3.9%. in actuality it has fallen to below 6% from 1970 when african-americans made up 13% of the city's population. >> the collective retains the name to speak about this exodus and in some ways the invisiblity of black americans in san francisco. >> reporter: writer and art history professor is another of the collective members. she said the group holds work shops and exhibits bringing wisdom and encouragement to younger black artists.

>> we all want to link arms and create art. >> the group reflects the challenges that they face. >> our collective at one time was 20 strong and we are four and we are always looking. >> i mean, it's the earliest form of photography, this is my hand. >> he uses his old technique to explain current affairs in san francisco's traditionally black neighborhood. >> i use elements like water, because the black population moves there in response to job opportunities at the shipyard. it's a way to have a discussion about the disappearance and the decline of black people in san francisco. >> reporter: the 3.9 collective stresses the importance of black voices in the art world and

creating art that reflects the community. >> if we don't have the voices we are edited and removed from the narrative and it's a lie. >> it's a re-election -- it's a reflection of his own art, showing something beautiful and resilient. >> we are still fighting. >> reporter: nbc bay area news. >> we have more stories celebrating black history month in our streaming app, you can download the app for you on apple tv, for your apple tv, for roku, amazon fire and you can watch the story about a black business owner and small business advocate who explains why your support is so crucial. >> and you can find it in our must-see playlist. >> it's february, it really is. right, rob? >> the calendar says so. yeah, you said, it's a different story. instead of tracking rain we will be watching record high temperatures. perhaps around the bay area,

right now, about 73 degrees in san ho. sunny skies and northwest wind at 6 miles an hour. more 70s now toward the inland east bay. tri-valley at the 70 degrees. you see the off shore wind. and notice the common theme developing. we have 70s across the board now. even san francisco, to 70 degrees. without much wind, obviously no fog and as we head in to the day tomorrow, the numbers to beat for santa rosa and oakland will be low enough that we could see new record highs tomorrow. the forecast coming up to 79 and 75 in oakland, those sites would be break new record highs tomorrow and it's just day one of, i think, of four days we could see new record high temperatures here around the bay area. for tomorrow morning. it starts off more mild. no 30s and rather 40s to near 50 to start and then by lunchtime we are climbing in the low 70s for areas around the santa cruz mountains. and then by 3:00 now, you are in

the upper 70s to near 80 around santa rosa, you see mid 70s in san jose, the warming trend that is just getting starts does not have rain chances moving forward. just high clouds at times during the day tomorrow and it's the band of high clouds that may prevent seeing more record highs at least for wednesday. now, with more sunshine, as we get in to thursday and friday. those are the days that you will see the most records fall for high temperatures and as we head in to the weekend, we see a system that doesn't bring us rain but may bring us wind as we see here, high pressure off to the west, lower pressure dropping in to east of the sierra, and that occasionally gets us in the patterns of just the dry off shore winds, which is what we are watching early next week as we go in to monday and tuesday of next week, we could see another round of dry breezy conditions and unfortunately as we take the long-range forecast, all the way up to the 18th, still no signs of any rain.

you know, at least through the middle part of the month. high pressure will be holding on and temperatures will be staying of above average. mid 70s thursday and friday. and some valleys could be close to 80, trending cooler with wind in to early next week. and still no signs of any rain in the forecast, we will be seeing record highs next week but the wind is something we have to watch as day 32 without measurable rainfall. >> when you say that, 32 days without rain. >> does no goodythought. thanks, rob. >> coming up, oscar nominations are out, which films racked up multiple nods, we will share it with you coming up.

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this is video from yesterday, they rescued two other fisherman and the search continued day along the shore, searchers have not released any names. >> well, help is on the way. the small businesses are eligible for grants up to 2500 dollars, they used to be only eligible before 2020, and now it's not. power of the dog had 12 nominations. the real life married couple, it's among the ten films.

coda, belfast, don't look ng e >> coming up, chloe kim and shaun white hit the snow.

that is less sweet and high in protein since 2005. now we're doing the same for plant based.

still rich and creamy. plant-based siggi's: more protein and less sugar than leading yogurt alternatives. 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. let's take you live to beijing outside the bird nest. plenty of events scheduled for tonight, snow border chloe kim hitting the snow tonight at 7:30 and then shaun white an hour later for men's half pipe.

>> coming up on nightly news with lester holt, the factory where are workers are trying to restore and modernize soviet tanks. nightly news with lester holt begins right now. massachusetts pass test . tonight, the amazing performance. american nathan chen shattering records on the ice in beijing. the superstar figure skating halfway to his gold medal as he seeks redemption after disappointment in 2018. tonight the return of usa snowboarders cloe ae kim and shawn white. one one-on-one. why he says this is his last ride. and as california grows the