. you're going to have a lot of questions. it's important for parents to sit down and really talk to their kids after school. >> right now at 4:30, moving you forward. could wearing masks throughout this pandemic be having an effect on children's speech and development? we talk to an expert. and pain at the pump. relief may be on the way for californians. breaking the bank to fill up. the way governor newsom plans to get money back in your pocket. >> what president biden is expected to say at the emergency nateors meeting and the all new

action that the u.s. is taking to he have ukranian refugees. this is "today in the bay." >> good morning, thursday. thanks so much for making us a part of your, mo. i'm marcus washington. >> and i'm laura garcia. you with watch us live on roku, amazon fire, apple tv and, of course, an line. >> a look at that commute coming up in a bit. vianey is looking at that but first let's talk about that forecast. rob, how is it looking out there? >> pretty warm later on today. a little bit of patchy fog that we'll be watching out for. a little bit there around the golden gate bridge. visibility which my weekend counterpart is going to be looking at, too, in the north bay. visibilities down to less than three miles in santa rosa. we'll see some patchy coastal fog at times, but notice our temperatures for the afternoon still mid to upper 70s inland so a nice day inland east bay. santa clara valley, 60s bayside from san francisco over to oakland and for a check of your thursday morning commute here's vianey. >> hey, rob. yesterday the fog was definitely wrapping itself around the

golden gate bridge. not as foggy this morning here particularly but there are some spots as you saw rob mentioned. you could encounter fog. be aware of that. it's pretty heavy out there. noish us a or any delays through the area and we're looking green which means we're good to go. the no slowdowns. drive times from 580 towards the richmond bridge eight minutes and towards the bay bridge seven minutes and towards the san matteo bridge about 12 minutes. i'll have a closer look at how the rest of your drive times are doing throughout the rest of the bay area coming up. >> thanks, vianey. >> right now, nato world leaders, they are gathering in brussels. president biden is taking part in a series of high-stakes meetings aimed at helping ukraine amid the russian invasion. now all eyes also on ukranian president volodymyr zelenskyy who is expected to address the world leaders today. this is new video of president

biden arriving in brussels for that summit today, and he is expected to announce further sanctions aimed at punishing russia. nato is also expected to add more troops in surrounding countries of ukraine and discuss countering a possible or chemical or nuclear attack from russia. a source also now confirming to the nbc news that the u.s. is expected to announce plans to welcome up to 100,000 ukranian refugees into the country. and coming up for you this morning, the "today" show will have live team coverage from brussels. lester hold and kristen welker will lead nbc news coverage as president biden and the biden administration joins the international effort to form a united front against russia. that begins at 7:00 a.m. right after "today in the bay." >> and this morning help could soon be on the way for those trying to make it in the bay. in fact, $400 could soon go back into your pocket. that's what governor newsom is planning for californian drivers to ease the pain at the pump when it comes to the high gas

prices. now this all comes in the form of a relief package that would cost the state $11 billion. each driver will get a $400 debit card for each car, up to two cars. even people who drive electric cars will get one. >> anything will help at this point because the $10 and $20 here that used to take us a lot further takes me like a mile down the street. >> governor newsom will meet with the state legislature in the coming days. this is to negotiate the proposal f.approved, drivers would get that debit card in july. there's relief for those who don't own a car as well. the package includes $750 million so all public transit could be free for three months. >> our team is moving you forward as mask-wearing for students at public schools across the state is now optional. it's, of course, depending on the school district. throughout the pandemic there's been a lot of debate about how masks could affect speech and language development in children. i spoke to a speech language

pathologist marsha pinto to find out more. >> spore speech and linguistics, obviously being able to visualize the mouth and facial expressions have helped children learn different sounds and also the social cues, but using the mask previously we've also learned the importance of the eyes in social communication so sometimes, you know, the phrase you can smile with your eyes is true, and this is something that students have learned during the mask mandates being on and now they have learned to use both their eyes and their face to communicate with others, so it's been a positive all around. >> what advice do you have for parents nor regards to trying to help their kids along? >> so parents obviously, you know, there's going to be a lot of behaviors from our younger children. they are going to cry. they are going to be anxious. they are going to wonder what's going on when they see other children and the adults in their

lives not wearing masks outside the grocery store, especially at school. they will have a lot of questions so it's important for parents to sit down and really talk to their kids after school and ask them what they saw and how they feel and also like i said use social stories with puppets or toys or dolls. maybe even books where you can draw masks on the characters and make a story of the characters taking off their masks, and, you know, the teacher is telling them that they don't have to wear the masks anymore. >> you can watch the full interview on roku, apple tv or amazon fire. download our nbc bay area streaming app and you can find it under the must-see play list. >> 4:36 and the prosecution quickly moving as they try to establish close ties between former theranos executive ball wanny and disgraced founder elizabeth holmes. yesterday the first full day of testimony in the fraud trial, the first witness, former employee and whistle-blower

erica chong who also took the stand first in the holmes' trial. chung became emotional talking about being followed and harassed after leaving the company. one legal expert believes there's a lot of weight on the shoulders of a repeat witness. >> for people who testified at the elizabeth holmes trial, after having lived through the train wreck that was theranos and now have to rehash it again in the sonny ball wanny part of the trial, you're going to see emotional reactions. it's very emotional. >> balwani was the company's chief operating overs and formerly holmes' boyfriend. she is now waiting sentencing. that's holmes. testimony in his trial, balwani's trial, now takes a break until next tuesday. >> 4:37 right now. easing the load. still ahead on "today in the bay," the new help instacart will start offering to help grocery stores get in on the delivery game. >> also caught on video. take a look at this. our cameras capture a brutal

attack on a bay-area cab driver. why police are calling it a road rage incident. stay with us. much more ahead this morning on "today in the bay."

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we have a lot in common. live like a gigillionaire with at&t fiber. now with speeds up to 5-gigs. limited availability. good morning, wall mutt krege. you're waking up to temperature in the upper 40s. later on today, highs into the 70s with a little bit of that hazy sunshine. vianey? >> a pretty smooth commute from southbound 580, about ten

minutes to vargas road and no issues on 580 or 880. you're look at ten minutes elsewhere. let's check in with "business & tech." good morning. the wall street is set to open higher after the markets took a breather yesterday. rising oil and commodity prices and the likelihood of bigger interest rate hikes from the fed creating some uncertainty for investors about the outlook for the economy later this year. the dow dropping about 450 points or more than 1%. the s&p 500 and nasdaq also falling more than 1%. in focus today, reports on new files for unemployment and demand for durable goods. google will allow spotify to use its own payment system in the android app as part of a pilot program. users who download spotify from the google play store will have the choice to pay with either spotify systems or google play

billing. developers have long complained about having to use google and apple's payment systems and the fees they collect for each transaction. instacart wants to help grocery stores get in on the super fast delivery game. it's announcing several new services for its retail partners, including many fulfillment warehouses. they are designed to help supermarkets build the infrastructure to support 15-minute delivery. the new service will start with some publix stores in miami and atlanta in the next month. >> now we're talking fast. >> 15 minutes. let me listen up on this one. >> that's great because it changes my dinner recipes or reservations. >> now i'll have to bring it. >> exactly. >> thanks, silvana. >> eliminating standardized testing. coming up next on "today in the bay," a new testing-free admissions process that one

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a very good now thursday morning to you. taking a live look at downtown san jose illuminated. now we're just waiting for the sun's arrival later today. you know, this past woke we've had a little winter, a little spring, a little summer. no fall in sight though. >> exactly. a little bit of everything. seven-day forecast has a little

combination of that, too. warm temperatures today and rain chances coming back possibly for your weekend forecast. outside right now, probably the top concern would be patchy fog which both myself and vianey are watching that for you this morning. 50 in san jose and 48 degrees currently in dublin. light winds and in walnut creek continuing the trend of 40s and back towards san francisco if you look closely the george washington bridge is sleeping underneath a fog blanket this, mo. 49 degrees. wind coming across the bay at west northwest at seven miles per hour. visibility north bay valleys, look out for that. some of the roadways, closer to santa rosa. been seeing that drop off to less than a mile at times. see the coastal clouds and fog and inland a few high clouds as we head towards afternoon and a pretty nice forecast with 40s to start. if you're going to head outside for lunch outdoors in the east bay pretty good. upper 60s around noon, mid-60s in san jose and south of san jose, down towards morgan hill,

san martin, mid-to upper 70s. santa rosa in the 70s but mainly 60s around the inner bay, so let's talk about that weekend forecast. saturday we've got increasing clouds. late sunday evening into sunday night comes that chance of rain. it looks like we should get through most of the weekend without the rain chances and getting into monday the storm will actually move through central and southern california so the better odds of rain may end up being around the south bay as we head into monday, so saturday it will be the warmer of your two weekend days if you have weekend plans. should be fine for any soccer practice or anything like that outdoors on saturday. sunday more clouds, trending cooler and as we head towards monday comes a chance of seeing some much-needed rain across the bay area. now a check of your seven-day forecast shows temperatures climbing a little bit as we get into sunday. you can see the numbers staying in the mid to upper 60s. we should see 70s as we reach and head into friday and saturday, and then by monday cooling changes, a chance of some rain and following up that

we may see some dry north winds which will have to head towards the middle of next week. watching that closely. an early summer preview into friday and saturday and trending cooler for next week. now a check to see how the patchy fog is affecting your morning commute. >> nice to hang out with my weekend pal on a weekday morning. got definitely a couple of areas for fog and one thing you always want to remember when you encounter the fog is not turn on the high beams, use your regular high beams or keep it safe. if you use your high beams, it will reflect off the fog and become more blinding. will oakland, northbound and southbound lanes, pretty business and standard around this hour. 4:48. did i check to see if there's any delays on the traffic report. no major delays and no impacts on the south bay either. northbound 101 to highway 101, 18 minutes and northbound 28010 minutes.

tri-valley a little slowing from 580 to grant line road to 680. looking at 22 minutes. i'll talk more about how the rest of our bay-area commute is doing in a couple of minutes. back to you. >> thanks so much, vianey. now to a story you'll see only here on nbc bay area. a brutal attack on a san francisco taxi driver. now this all happened after a honk of his horn turned violent. a passenger from another car pummeled that driver. our cameras caught this entire altercation, and a warning to you some of this video is hard to watch. "today in the bay" spoke with the driver. >> reporter: you're watching the moment that changed a san francisco taxi driver easily. watch as the man on the left walks up to a flywheel cab and punches its 66-year-old driver at a stoplight. an nbc bay area photojournalist was in san francisco filming for another project when his camera caught the assault and stopped motion. the assault which police are describing as road rage happened near the intersection of jones

and ellis. hi, is this ahmad? we reached the taxi driver who asked that we use only his name. he says he was taking passengers to an airplane when a car backing out of a parking spot nearly hit him. i honked just to say be careful. that's when the man got out of the cab, began yelling and walked over to the open window and punched him in the head repeatedly. >> reporter: with his eyes swollen shut and blood streaming down his face ahmad was taken to the e.r. by ambulance. he learned his nose was broken and he would need surgery. the blocks happened two blocks from the sfpd substation and within minutes they arrested a suspect, 25-year-old raquon bush. >> i don't know him. he doesn't know me. i don't know what got into him that he wanted to do bodily harm on him.

>> reporter: ahmad says this is the first time something like this has happened to him in 40 years driving cabs. this was his first week driving again after taking a break during the pandemic and with his injuries he won't be back behind the wheel any time soon. >> alyssa was saying that that suspect has been arrested and booked in jail on assault charges. had's set to make his first court appearance later today. >> the csu system is palling the s.a.t. and a.c.t. tests from the admissions process that will help level the playing field from backgrounds. critics have long argued that standardized testing puts minority students at a disadvantage. >> now to new video a shipwreck discovered almost 200 years under the sea. researchers discovered that wreckage of the ship called industry. it was found at the bottom of

the gulf of mexico. that ship was built in 1815, and the crew was largely made of a cans who were enslaved and native americans. after taking pictures and consulting with experts, the researchers believed that it was the missing "industry" which was lost at sea in may of 1836. >> lightening the load on our ecosystem. coming up next on "today in the barracks" the simple step you can make to light up your life and fight our climate in crisis. >> and mental health and homeless services are san leandro area's most at-risk residents. san leandro is focusing its efforts on using more trained health advocates rather than sending only officers to help with 911 calls. we'll be right back.

welcome back. it's 5:54. sweet 16 making a stop in the bay area today. march madness is in san francisco for the first time in more than 80 years. ncaa tournament means a big boost to businesses. restaurants getting ready for an extra busy week. the games trip off at the chase center. the businesses say the timing couldn't be better, especially after the past two years of so many challenges during the pandemic. >> this type of event for san francisco in march is going to be sort of the catalyst, the launching pad for the city to get back up on its feet and for the energy to really come back. >> so there will be two games tonight at chase center and then the winners of those games will play each other on saturday. should be a lot of fun.

>> well, fighting climate in crisis, the lighter versus matches debate. it may be never ending, lighters versus matches. which ones work for the planet? >> meteorologist vianey arana is helping us break down some of the planet-friendly alternatives here. >> i love lighting some of my favorite candles rain or shine, but a lot of these plastic lighters that a lot of us use could be doing some harm to our planet. here's the problem. the average lighter is supposed to burn for around an hour. once they run out of fuel, they get tossed and end up in the landfill where it will take hundreds of years to break down so are matches a better option? in some ways, yes, because they are biodegradable but they are also made of wood or paper which means in order to make matches we have to cut down trees. hey, vianey, it's time for your

climate hack. let's go the rechargeable route the next time you want to light your candles. these lighters come with a usb port so you can use it a couple hundred times. you plug it into the port, recharge it and use it over and over again. so what's the payoff in it's estimated more than 500 billion matches are used in the u.s. each year. if we stopped using matches we could save some 500,000 trees each year just in the u.s. alone. that's a lot of trees. >> now for more climate hacks like this visit our website nbcbayarea.com and click on climate in crisis. we have a tab for that. well, it is 4:57 right now. cutting back on water. still ahead this morning on "today in the bay, the new surcharge set to take effect for thousand of bay-area residents. >> and a live look outside in san jose. it's been a warm woke across the bay area.

rob is tracking the weekend forecast. we can say thursday because it's thursday. friday eve. 4:57. we'll be right back.

right now at 5:00, president biden joins nato leaders for an emergency summit on russia's invasion of ukraine. it's happening at this house, and we're live in washington as well with a look at the new push to hit back russia's economy.

>> and gas will cost you $6 for an unleaded gallon, but there is relieve coming down the pike. we'll show you what it could look like and why the alternatives might not fly. >> also, major bay area water provider renews its calls to conserve water. the added charge its customers can expect to start paying in just a matter of days. this is "today in the bay." here we go, thursday morning, 5:00. thanks so much for starting your day with us. i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm marcus washington. we've got you covered. live on roku, amazon fire, apple tv and online. >> we're inching closer to the weekend which is always nice. meteorologist rob meada is in this morning. 49 degrees in san jose.

patchy fog. we're seeing some of that around santa rosa. pretty n