covered in snow. hundreds of thousands are without power as the deep freeze grips the country. in the first major storm of 2025. although it's causing some probls, those in saint louis are taking advantage of this winter wonderland. you can see thousands of people, lots of kids gathered at a local park to sleigh sled down this hill after inches of snow dropped overnight. schools across the country have closed due to the stormy weather. kids are probably very thankful for that. don't forget, you can watch our newscast 24 seven on roku and other streaming platforms. jessica aguirre joins us now with what's coming up next at 530. yeah. right now at 530 at contra costa county, city is working hard to improve its image and to learn from its

past. there's new leadership in place in antioch, as the police department is now under the watchful eye of federal oversight. the changnges being promised, meta announces major changes for its platforms, including instagram and facebook. why? some are worried about the impact it will have on young people, while others claim it will encourage more free speech. and getting ready for a new mayor. final preparations underway right now as san francisco is set to inaugurate daniel lurie. the news at 530 starts right now. thanks so much for joining us. i'm janelle wang. and i'm jessica aguirre. a better antioch is on the way. that is the pledge from the city's new leadership tonight, as federal oversight of the police department begins. as nbc bay area's jodi hernandez shows us, antioch leaders say they are ready for this new chapter. today, i'm pleased to announce that i've appointed captain joe vigil as the acting chief of police for the antioch police

department, effectivehis friday. antioch city manager announced a new acting police chief this morning. captain joe vigil will take the reins of the city's police department when chief brian addington retires on friday. i'm looking forward to working with the department of justice and making the police department better in every aspect possible. the change comes as new federal oversight of the department begins. a-p-d has agreed to be monitored by the u.s. department of justice for up to five years. in the wake of the department's racist text messaging scandal. there's still work to do, but my message today is one of hope. we will reach full staffing. we will build a reputation as a professional constitutional police department, and we will put this dark chapter behind us. the city will now have a completely new leadership team, a new chief, city manager and mayor as it works to revamp and reform the department. we want our community to know that we

are taking measurable steps in the right direction to address past abuses, bring the necessary leadership training, accountability and transparency needed to heal our community. catherine wade's son was one of the people referenced in those police texts. she says she trusts the new leadership and welcomes the federal oversight. i'm happy somebody is overseeing antioch police department. i'm happy for that. i'm really happy for that because they were running this department the way they wanted to, and they were victimizing the community. the new approach comes amid a violent start to the new year. the city's first homicide happened yesterday morning, when a 26 year old man was gunned down as he left his home. police call it a targeted attack. then yesterday afternoon, a man was robbed and shot in gentry town park. he is said to be in critical condition. city leaders acknowledge crime remains a huge challenge, but insists antioch is headed in the right

direction. i'm hopeful and i'm optimistic about our city's future, and i ask our community for your continued support as we work to create a greater antioch. in antioch. jody hernandez, nbc, bay area news. san francisco police hit a milestone in its efforts to reform its department. today, the department officially left state oversight after seeing a decline in its use of force. you may remember the department requested a federal review of its policies back in 2016 after a string of scandals. it got a list of 272 recommendations to implement. san francisco police doubled down on the effort by entering monitoring with the california attorney general's office in 2018 to help track the progress. today, attorney general rob bonta says sfpd has successfully implemented nearly all of those recommendations and has seen a significant drop in use of force incidents, especially among black people. the ag says the handful of remaining recommendations are in progress and being phased in over time. we are continuing to

follow a very active and terrifying situation down in l.a. county. the santa ana winds fueling a large wildfire near the coast. this is in the neighborhood of pacific palisades, home to many famous and wealthy people. some homes have already been consumed by flames. unknown. how many have been damaged at this point? the fire ignited around 1030 this morning and has exploded to more than 1200 acres. so far, no injuries, fortunately, but some 30,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes, and this new video shows the aftermath of that mad rush to get people out. dozens of people just had to abandon their cars and run away because traffic was gridlocked. cal fire then used this dozer to move the cars out of the way and clear the road for emergency vehicles. and we're going to take a live look. it's a nice sunset, but the fire is putting off smoke. fortunately, it's moving toward the coast and into

the pacific ocean. but those santa ana winds are still strong and fierce. they're not even expected to peak until 10:00 tonight. we're going to follow this wildfire and the situation as more information comes into our newsroom. well, it turns out he rode a bicycle around new orleans to plan the attack, and he left coolers behind, which had bombs and nails for maximum harm. investigators tonight releasing new details into that new orleans attackers plans. the fbi says the attacker planted two bombs inside these coolers before he went on his truck ramming attack that killed 14 people. nbc news has obtained a photo. inside one of the coolers, you can see rolls of nails in addition to the bomb components. now, police believe he was killed by officers before he could detonate these devices. questions have also been raised about the city's security protocol after it failed to deploy the anti-vehicle barriers that had been owned for years. i think that things are going to be they are going to be done

differently in this city. i would expect that to happen because we can't ignore what happened and pretend like it didn't happen, or that it was just a one off event. this city is a known target for terrorist attacks. fbi also releasing this photo photo today of the suspect just riding through the french quarter on a bicycle on october 31st, months before the deadly attack. president elect trump is still set to be sentenced in his hush money case. a new york appeals court judge swiftly rejected his second attempt to get it called off. trump was found guilty last may on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. it's related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress stormy daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election. he was found guilty and is set to be sentenced this friday. yesterday, mr. trump's attorney asked for a delay. he claimed trump's constitutional rights would be violated if he were to be sentenced before he is due to be sworn in for his second term.

the judge said no. and then today, an appeals court also denied that request. meantime, the federal judge who oversaw the classified documents case against mr. trump has blocked the release of special counsel jack smith's report on the investigation. the order remains in place until three days after the 11th circuit court of appeals makes a decision about how to move forward. mr. trump was first charged in the classified documents case back in june of 2023. he was accused of illegally keeping hundreds of classified documents at his home at the mar-a-lago estate and trying to withhold them from government officials. the case was dismissed in july on grounds that jack smith's appointment was unlawful. okay. a big shakeup in what you'll soon see on social media. a tech giant made a major move today that some believe is politically motivated. we want to bring in our business and tech reporter scott budman and mark zuckerberg taking a position today with this company that a lot of people say is in anticipation of the new administration. yeah, we're looking at a lot of things

here, jessica. you're right. mark zuckerberg recently in the spotlight when president elect trump called him out for allegedly censoring conservative voices on facebook and instagram, suggesting zuckerberg should be in jail. today, it appears zuckerberg is responding to the accusations by making a turn ay from content moderation to what he says is more free speech. big changes coming to instagram and facebook announced by mark zuckerberg himself. first, we're going to get rid of fact checkers and replace them with community notes. community notes from users like what you see on x instead of meta's previous third party fact checkers. but the fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the us. it's a move criticized by consumer groups, who say those who use social media are vulnerable to misinformation. so this is a pathetic and nakedly transparent effort by zuckerberg to cozy up to the new leadership

in washington. common sense media believes young users will be especially vulnerable. meta's announcement will have a devastating impact on young people in particular, who are widely exposed to misinformation and disinformation and all sorts of unmoderated content on platforms like instagram and facebook. but some meta watchers say misinformation has been rampant on social media for years. they say change is a good idea. maybe people who normally wouldn't spend time there because they're upset by what they feel is misinformation will now be interested to go because they feel like they have a voice to push back on, that it might lead to a much more robust and complete debate on a lot of issues. it also should be said that meta itself had the last word in who or what was removed from the sites when president elect trump was asked today if zuckerberg's action was in response to a threat he made against him and meta in the past, mr. trump said yes, it probably was. janelle. thank you

scott. a change of leadership in san francisco as a new mayor takes office. daniel lurie will be sworn in tomorrow, but the celebrations begin tonight in about an hour from now. lurie will be at an interfaith unity service at congregation emanuel, while the official inauguration begins tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. in civic center plaza. lurie is then hosting a party in chinatown afterward around 530, along with the chinatown night market. we will have special coverage of the mayoral inauguration starting at 1130 tomorrow morning, as well as on all of our streaming platforms including roku, pluto and nbcbayarea.com. scammers are continuing to blow up people's cell phones, so viewers are blowing up our inbox. i'm consumer investigator chris chmura with a warning next. i'm chief meteorologist jeff ranieri with more checks on the wind and what i think will help to get rid of any kind of wind here as we move

pete g. writes, "my tween wants a new phone. how do i not break the bank?" we got you, pete. xfinity mobile was designed to save you money and gives you access to wifi speeds up to a gig. so you get high speeds for low prices. better than getting low speeds for high prices. right, bruce? -jealous? yeah, look at that. -honestly. someone get a helmet on this guy. xfinity internet customers, ask how to get an unlimited line free for a year, plus a free 5g phone.

they're also not alone. so now the attorney general is getting involved. so as consumer investigator chris kamara's team, if you watch us every day. thank you. but i must apologize to our most loyal viewers because i'm about to repeat myself this text message right here that claims to be from fastrack. it's a scam. and this is now the third time we've told you that, most recently, just this past week, where a broken record. because even after our broadcast, we continue to hear from folks like frank, mary, cynthia, bridget, jenny, joe and others, a couple people every day, all saying ththey got the text that threatens legal action if they don't pay their fast track toll bill. like ed and his wife. and she got two of them. and i was like, it's got to be scam. he's right, and he's far from alone. fast track says it

logged 3000 calls about it. the attorney general's office just posted a bulletin saying there's a significant increase in these texts. the ag's office said this scam is designed to deceive drivers into entering banking or credit card information into a website. and once scammers have that, they can go to town running up credit card charges or draining your debit card. so please don't click the link. do what ed did. i didn't respond, i reported it as i took a picture of the text, and then i deleted it and reported it as junk. bottom line, this text message is a scam. hopefully saying it a third time is a charm, but let's work on that together. please tell your friends spread the word so you don't have to hear me issue the warning a fourth time. frank, mary, cynthia, bridget, jenny, joe and others contacted us online. you can to snap the qr code on screen right now to fill out our consumer complaint form online. okay.

thank you very much, chris. okay, let's talk about our weather. we had that wind advisory kicked in yesterday. it's still in effect until tomorrow. until tomorrow morning. and then i really think we're going to be in the clear from any kind of wind out here across the bay area as we head through tomorrow's forecast. i did want to start off, though, and get you a look here at the satellite radar picture, because while we are talking a lot about southern california and those wind gusts that have got up close to 100mph, and the fire in the palisades, what you're seeing moving over our sky tonight, that's actually cloud cover from a system out here off shore. there's no rainfall with it. but again, it's just some clouds. so no concern for our air quality out here across the bay area. and when it comes to our winds overall for the lower elevations, we've seen it get to 20 30mph. but it's not extremely gusty here at the lower elevations. right now, we're anywhere between 5 to 24mph in san francisco. that would be our top at the lower elevations. and then we still have mount saint

helena. dry northeast winds to 45, mount diablo coming out of the north here at 46. but the thing that i really, at this point is think is going to get rid of all of these wind chances, certainly through the bay area tomorrow and eventually southern california by late tomorrow night, is the area of low pressure that's helping to really drive this windy pattern. it's going to be moving well down towards mexico, so the more that gets out of here, the better our situation is going to be. and i think that's going to be far enough away from us tomorrow that we'll just see this area of high pressure that's going to keep the weather dry and also mix in some sunshine. so through tonight, still some wind gusts here, generally 15 to about 35 coming out of the north and the east. some of our mountains between 40 and 50. then watch this as we roll through tomorrow morning's forecast. look at that. wind just shrinks down and we're only 5 to 18 tomorrow for the wind gusts. and then by tomorrow afternoon and evening gets even calmer than that. so eventually

here we're going to get on the better side of things. and thankfully for us, it is a relatively short event as we roll through tomorrow morning's forecast. looking pretty good here. 46 make sure to have the jacket. mostly sunny skies and 42 the sunglasses as well. down here to san francisco 49 and for the east bay 45. temperatures through the day tomorrow going to be above average. we still have some of that drier air moving in and that always helps to heat temperatures up. we'll be at 65 here in san jose right across the east bay. got you to 64 in martinez and 64 in pleasanton. out here to daly city, 63 down to palo alto, 65 san francisco, mid 60s downtown to the mission. and for the north bay 64 in napa. okay. we have talked about southern california. i did want to show you this time lapse here, the palisades fire, and you can see how the flames and the smoke just grew so rapidly from this morning into the early afternoon. we're going to get you more looks on the southern

california conditions coming up in about 15 minutes. so when it comes to our weather back here across the bay area, san francisco, some 60s through the next seven days, same thing here for the inland valleys. yeah, those gusts downhere, this will be extremely dangerous all the way through tonight. and again, more checks coming up. it's terrifying down there okay. thank you so much jeff. all right. the giants making moves adding a future hall of famer to the team. the deal they've reached with justin verlander i don't think i said that right you did

of the last generation. you know the one with theodel? yes. kate upton, multiple reports out say the giants will sign right hander justin verlander to a one year contract. the deal is pending a physical. the future hall of famer is entering his 20th season and turns 42 next month, and he is looking to rebound his 2024 run with the astros was mired by injuries, leading to one of the worst seasons of his career. still, the veteran pitcher has been productive the past few years, winning his third cy young award in 2022. and meantime, changes are already underway in santa clara as the 49ers look to fix what went wrong this season. special teams coach brian schneider has been fired. we'll see what moves are made next. here's our 49ers insider, donte whitner, with some ideas on what needs to happen in the off season. thank god the 49ers season is over. what an

horrendous season by the 49ers. they had championship aspirations. the one thing that they learned this year is that success is rented and it's never owned. now we waited all season long for the 49ers to flick the switch. to go into that accustom championship mode, run off a number of wins in a row and it never happened. they ran out of gas. they had no juice, they had no depth. which takes me into this off season. this is the most critical offseason for kyle shanahan and john lynch. they must revitalize, revamp this roster. he was wrapped in free agency for next year. they will be sitting at home during playoff time again next year. all right. you can get all the 49ers offseason news and updates by downloading the 49ers talk podcast. we have a lot more news after the break, including a

powerful earthquake that hit tibet, killing more than 100 people so far. the race against dave's been very excited about saving big with the comcast business 5-year price lock guarantee. five years? -five years. and he's not alone. -high five. it's five years of reliable gig speed internet. five years of advanced securit. five years of a great rate that won't change. it's back. but only for a limited time. high five. five years? -nope. comcast business 5-year price lock guarantee. powering five years of savings. powering possibilities. comcast business.

after a powerful earthquake, magnitude 6.8 quake hit the himalayas today near the one of tibet's holiest cities, home to nearly 60,000 people. at least 126 people have died and hundreds more hurt. rescuers say

those numbers are expected to climb as they push deeper into the quake zone. many homes near the epicenter have collapsed, trapping people inside. chinese authorities have sent more than 3500 firefighters and military personnel to the area, and that includes hundreds of medics and vehicles equipped with search and rescue gear. a deadly security breach in the skies. two bodies found in theanding gear compartment of a jetblue plane. it happened late last night after the plane landed at the fort lauderdale hollywood airport in florida. jetblue says the bodies were found during a routine post-flight maintenance inspection. the local sheriff's office responded and pronounced both people dead at the scene. the plane had just flown from jamaica, making stops in salt lake city and new york's jfk airport, so it is unknown where or when they got into the wheel well. investigators are still working to id the bodies and determine how they died. founding member of the 1960s folk group peter, paul and mary has died. peter yarrow died this

morning at his home in new york city after a four year battle with cancer. yarrow, along with paul stookey and mary travers, began performing as a group in 1961. he's best known for writing the song puff the magic dragon. the trio's biggest hit was their 1969 recording of leaving on a jet plane. yarrow was 86 years old. we have a lot more news ahead. garvin thomas joins us now with what's coming up next at 6:00. right now at 6:00, dangerous, explosive and fast moving. hundreds of fire personnel are tackling the palisades fire burning in southern california. and the worst is yet to come. we're tracking the latest on the gusty winds fueling that fire, as some 30,000 people have been ordered to evacuate. our jeff ranieri is tracking the conditions making for a potentially deadly situation down south. we've also seen some wind gusts here in the bay area. nothing like soc, but we'll still talk about that with our microclimate forecast and an encouraging update out of san francisco. new numbers show the city's crime rate is the lowest it's been in 23 years.

the categories that are seeing the biggest drop. the news at six starts right now. thanks for joining us. i'm jessica aguirre. and i'm garvin thomas. it is the stuff nightmares are made of. we're continuing our breaking news coverage of that wind driven wildfire racing across parts of southern california. yeah, we're talking about the palisades fire. it's burned more than 1200 acres so far. just within a matter of hours. it's burning in the pacific palisades. that's an affluent neighborhood in the santa monica mountains. so it really sits right between santa monica and malibu. thousands of people in the fire's path, along with more than 10,000 homes. firefighters working to douse homes in water. as that fire just continues to spread down pch. and there's another challenge for the firefighters abandoned cars. you see, traffic was so bad heading out of the fire zone, people decided walking was their safest bet. check out this video from the pacific palisades showing lines of abandoned cars on highway one, now closed because

of the fir several dozen cars were also abandoned on sunset boulevard. check this out. bulldozers at one point had to be brought in to clear the cars from the roadway for fire trucks. some 30,000 people are now under evacuation orders. firefighters, you see that? that's a bad combination right there. that wind, it's because of dry conditions and those powerful santa ana winds which are expected to gain strength overnight. millions of people across california are under a red flag warning right now. the governor is in southern california, one of many leaders warning that the dangerous conditions are still dramatically ahead. we were here not too long ago. the franklin fire a few weeks prior to that. the mountain fire. november. december. now. january. there's no fire season. it's fire year. it's year round. and it's incredibly important that we heed the warnings, the calls