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did you feel it? a minor earthquake and aftershocks off the coast of san francisco. what experts are saying about our chances for a bigger one. plus, firefighters are still scrambling to gain ground on those devastating southern california wildfires. we'll explain why changing weather conditions pose a challenging weekend ahead. and good morning to you. thanks for joining us for our midday newscast. i'm marcus washington. i'm chris chmura. laura garcia is off a 3.7 magnitude quake shook san francisco and parts of the peninsula this morning, and we just experienced another 3.0 aftershock just minutes before this newscast. so far, no damages or injuries reported. nbc bay area's ginger conejero saab is live for us in san francisco. and ginger, no doubt some of us here in the bay area know earthquakes well. that 3.7 and that 3.0 may not seem like a big deal. but we also know that

you never know what's on the other side of any of these smaller quakes. that's right marcus. and that is what an expert that we spoke with this morning said, you never know if something is a foreshock to something larger or down the road. nonetheless, it's also not uncommon for there to be a series of smaller earthquakes. now, this morning was a bit of a jolt, if you will, for many in san francisco. for those at least w felt it. usgs recording a 3.7 magnitude quake just past seven this morning. it hit off the coast a few miles near the san francisco zoo on the san andreas fault. now we know that fault to be more active, so smaller quakes throughout the day are not uncommon. as i just mentioned, we also checked out the zoo today where there were no reported damages or injururies o the actual zoo or the animals. so when you have one isolated earthquake like that, or even a

few within a few days, it's usually not a cause for concern. not all big earthquakes come with precursors and not small earthquakes are indicating of something else that's going to come. experts do say it is, however, important to remember the precautions we need to take in the middle of an earthquake. you must drop, hold and cover. have your emergency bags ready beforehand, and there are a number of resources online that really walk you through how much water, how many batteries, and the amount of clothes that you would want to bring in those emergency kits and emergency bags. those earthquake emergency bags are also useful as fire emergency bags, we're told. now, the new san francisco mayor, daniel lurie, said in a statement this morning in part, quote, as our hearts are with those across the state and the country dealing with natural disasters right now, we will always make sure san francisco

is ready. and that is an important message coming from the new san francisco mayor. you know, it is a bit of a jolt for us who have known and experienced earthquakes. well, the first one not as maybe not as jolting because because you know what they feel like. but my husband just moments ago texted me, even if it was a little bit of a lesser magnitude earthquake, saying was that just was that just a second one? what else is coming here? you know, so you can imagine that some people are a little bit more on edge. the more that they, the more that they occur. but we are told that a series of them is not uncommon. guys, back to you. yeah. ginger, i havave a frid who moved here from the south and hasn't been here that long and was like, it woke me up out of my bed and i was like, oh well, yeah, it happens. so it does. thanks, ginger. and you know, we have much more for you online at nbcbayarea.com com slash quake tracker. why don't you go there. you're going to be able to see the latest shaking. and you also can get some resources on things like what to

pack in that go bag that you need to have ready that you do. all right. now, the very latest about the firestorm raging in southern california. we're about to try to give you a live look at the ongoing inferno this midday. strong winds are forecast to return this weekend, complicating thousands of first responders ongoing fight to stop those relentless and destructive flames. ten people have died so far, and that number is expected to go up. as of today, 153,000 people remain under evacuation orders in the palisades fire. we know now that two people died when that fire ripped through nearly 20,000 acres and destroyed as many as 10,000 structures, aerial crews were key in gaining about 6% containment. but at one point, a firefighting plane hit a civilian drone. the fire crew had to safely land that plane in a hurry. the wing is now damaged and an investigation is underway. side note interfering with a fire fight is a crime, and flying a drone nearby. a fire fight is considered

interference. meanwhile, one man is in custody in connection with the kenneth fire. this is burning near west hills in calabasas in the san fernando valley. now, that fire started yesterday afternoon. authorities say bystanders detained that suspect after they say they saw him setting the fire. that blaze has now burned more than a thousand acres and is at 35% containment. all evacuation orders and warnings are lifted in that area. officials gave an update on the round the clock work they're performing to try to get the handle on all of these fires. all of us here are working urgently and around the clock to confront this ongoing firestorm. and when we are on the front lines, when we're in the command post, when we are in the emergency operations center, we carry with us our friends and neighbors. that is what this fight is all about. it's about those friends, neighbors, and loved ones who have fled their homes, those who have lost their homes, those who have lost their lives. to all angelenos, we are

fighting hard for each of you now. as to contain the massive wildfires in southern california, most of those deaths being reported are still out of the eaton fire. this is in altadena now. eight fatalities there have been reported in that one. authorities say they likely do not know the true death toll yet. nbc news correspondent gina kim is live on the fire lines this midday. gina. gusty winds have challenged firefighters for days now. so how's the wind right now? well, marcus and chris, we're happy to report that the conditions are actually improving for the first time in four days. we have a little bit of a respite today. having said that, a lot of areas like where am here in altadena, a little bit calmer. other areas expected to experience wind gusts of up to 70 miles an hour. so we are not out of the woods just yet. and as you mentioned, we're at one of the worst of these

wildfires. we're at the eaton fire, and behind me you can see just one of the locations that have been destroyed. this is a family owned chevron gas station that went up in flames. we are told that there are thousands of gallons of gas right underneath. so it's a little bit of an emergency situation. they're trying to get chevron out here so that this does not create yet another problem. but take a look at the house behind it. there's like an apartment complex right behind the chevron gas station that's intact. and presumably all the furniture inside is okay, too. so it's just the wild nature of this fire. you mentioned ten people confirmed dead. as you know, that number could and is likely expected to rise because now they're moving on from fire fighting to fire assessment and recovery. and as fire officials go into these zones, go home by home and look through the debris, they're not sure what they will find. and as you mentioned, we do have some santa ana wind events, at least three coming up in the next

week. so everybody is just kind of resetting today before the next onslaught. gina, thanks so very much. all right. meteorologist kari hall, of course. been monitoring it. look, this is the first day that we've seen a live report from that area, and we don't see the gusts of wind. right. it's such a big contrast from just even 24 hours ago, but definitely 48 hours ago, when we were at the peak of that wind event. and we do still have this red flag warning for all of these areas shaded in red until 6:00 this evening. so we are seeing those gusts calming down, and we're expecting the wind anywhere from about 15 to 25mph. for some of those areas where we see the largest wildfires burning. and then in the hills, we've seen about 30 mile per hour winds that are expected to continue to relax going into this evening. unfortunately, though, there's not a lot of time before we start to see the wind picking up again. this is 10:00 tomorrow morning and in santa clarita we could see the wind coming in

from the northeast at about 30mph and then continuing to stay quite breezy throughout the day, and even down to malibu, where at 7:00 tomorrow evening, we're looking at 33 mile per hour winds that could at times come up to 40 to closer to 45mph into the day on sunday. so this is a prolonged wind event that we're seeing, but it's also blowing a lot of the smoke right around inglewood and long beach. that's where the most unhealthy air quality has been. and that continues into the evening, with the wildfire smoke blowing across the region. and now we are getting word that the palisades fire is the third most destructive on record, according to cal fire. we know that the camp fire in 2018 was very destructive, and the tubbs fire was just a little bit worse than what we are seeing right now. but we know that this fire is not out, and unfortunately, we may see more of those structures destroyed. so we'll continue to monitor that throughout the day.

back to you. all right kerry, thank you. now, here in the bay to southern california, nowies doing her part to help more victims of the fire. ariel gordon macy is well known celebrity jeweler, jewelry designer. her business based in berkeley, but she lived in pacific palisades for years. she and her husband started their family there before moving here to the bay area. she says many of her friends have lost everything. i have friends who both lost their homes, as well as their businesses that have been in the palisades for over 15 years. some jewelry stores that i sell to, i have other friends whose children's schools burned down. i have other friends who were evacuating their home and had to abandon their cars in the middle of the street with their children and flee fires because the car in front of them exploded and they had to evacuate on foot. i mean, it's just full of apocalyptic

setting that you. it's every parent's worst nightmare. the macy is also helping organize corporate donations to help fire victims. more details on how to get involved you can visit today in the bay ginger conejero saab instagram page. that's ginger tracee. our coverage of the devastating wildfires continues on the air and on our streaming platforms today. our midday newscast is extended for a whole hour. we're also monitoring the wildfires in southern california online anytime. make sure you stay up to date by downloading our free nbc bay area app. also a programing note there will be an nbc news special tonight. it's called fire and ash devastation in l.a. right here on nbc bay area starting at 10:00 tonight. tiktok fights to survive. the supreme court hearing arguments today surrounding the looming ban. nine days from now, we are breaking down what we know about the impending decision. hey, scott. and hey there, president elect trump sentenced in a new

york courtroom. we'll have the very latest. and before we go to break football fans, nbc bay area is the place to be. this sunday, the commanders are set to take on the buccaneers in an all important wild card playoff matchup. that coverage is going

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it's a moment before the u.s. supreme court, as the social media giant fights a law that it says will shut it down in nine days if it's not sold by its chinese parent company. nbc bay area's kris sanchez joins us now from the newsroom with more on those arguments. well, hi there, marcus and chris. so as we have been reporting for months now, lawmakers gave the company a way to stay in business in the u.s, which has to divest from its chinese parent company. lawmakers were acting on concerns over tiktok's connections to china, national security issues and concernss over americans privacy. the arguments are counter to much of

the lighthearted content of the platform. the case centers on the april 2024 law ordering that tiktok exists independently from that chinese parent company i in order to deter content manipulation and unreasonable data collection. how quickly tiktok and content creators made arguments about free speech. tiktok's team argues that this is an unprecedented shutdown of a major media platform that will impact the free speech of 170 million users. here's a bit of the back and forth we've been talking about. connection between the regulation of tiktok and the burden on expressive conduct, and your basic position is that interfering with the ownership of tiktok constitutes a direct regulation of the expressive conduct of other, other people. but i think it's quite clear, though, that if you're saying to a company, you have to stop talking unless

somebody else does something and that's imposed by the force of law. it d directly fects that company's speech. now, both justice elena kagan and amy coney barrett argued that as a foreign company, tiktok doesn't really have the same free speech rights as a u.s. company, and that the company does have a way forward, a way to remain in business, and that is to comply with the law that was passed by a bipartisan body. the u.s. solicitor general argued the same thing. and i think congress expected we might see something like a game of chicken by dance, saying, we can't do it. china will never let us do it. but when push comes to shove and these restrictions take effect, i think it will fundamentally change the landscape with respect to what bytedance is willing to consider. and it might be just the jolt that congress expected the company would need to actually move forward with the divestiture process. tiktok says that without a ruling that is swift or a delay, it goes dark. on january 29th, they said at the very least, there should be a

delay because of the change in administration between january 19th and the 21st, which is the when the ban goes into effect. during the 2.5 hour hearing, it did appear that the majority of justices considered the ban a reasonable ask of a foreign company doing business in the u.s. unclear how soon we might see a decision and whether we get one before the deadline. marcus. all right. chris. continue to follow that. all right. take a look here. a live look for you in san francisco at mayor daniel lori is rounding out his team. you see lori to the back on the right next to him is that major appointment that he just made at city hall. the mayor naming battalion chief dean crispin as the city's new fire chief. crispin has served as san francisco fire for 34 years now. previously, he served as captain at stations in chinatown, north beach, and south of market neighborhood. mayor lori says that crispin was selected for that role due to

his exemplary leadership, where he put his life on the line for san francisco residents. now this all comes in the wake of his announcement just yesterday to freeze any new city hires. his decision comes with the city facing a massive budget shortfall. lori says that move is needed to bring spepending under control. in a statement, he says in part, our city is facing a major budget deficit and today the era of band aid solutions is over. we are committed to fiscal discipline, giving san franciscans the accountability they demand and focusing the government on doing the core things well. a felony fraud case involving donald trump is over. let's turn to scott mcgrew. the united states of america will soon have a felon in the white house for the very first time. undeniably, that is exactly what's happening. it's really kris exactly the label that donald trump was trying to avoid. felon. even making a last minute appeal to the supreme court. so to remind you, this is the hush

money case involving that adult film actress trump found guilty by a jury of 34 counts. and today was sentencing. the president elect appeared over zoom from his home in florida. the judge in the case has issued an unconditional discharge, meaning trump is guilty, but there will be no further action taken. here is trump once again saying he didn't commit the crime. the jury found him guilty of. it's audio only. it's been a politicacal witch hunt. it was done to damage my reputation so that i would lose the election. and obviously that didn't work. and the people of our country got to see this firsthand because they watched the case in your courtroom. they got to see this firsthand. and then they voted, and i won and got the largest number of votes by far, of any republican candidate in history. now, trump today made it sound as if he had won the case, writing on his truth. social quote the radical democrats have lost another pathetic, un-american witch hunt. i was given an

unconditional discharge. that result alone proves that, as all the legal scholars and experts have said, there is no case and there never was a case. and this is simply not true. he is guilty. an unconditional discharge is a way of the crimes. the courts rather saying, listen, a crime was committed, but we're not going to do anything. we're not going to follow through with any punishment. if somebody, for instance, was in jail for years awaiting trial and then was decided to be released with time served, that'd be another example of an unconditional discharge. p person is guilty bt not being punished further. is this the end? i think we'll hear more about this. he says he's going to appeal because he does not. it is true he is now a felon and we will have a felon in the white house. and he hates that label. so i think he will appeal and you'll be on it. yeah. scott. thanks. you appreciate it. all right. we'll take you a live look at the state capitol. now, state legislators are looking over the budget proposal just submitted by governor newsom this week. the governor laid out some of the highlights. he calls it a $322 billion budget that has no

deficit. the governor says it allocates money to develop the first statewide transitional kindergarten program anywhere in the u.s, and that would provide schooling to children starting at age four. about an hour ago, california's finance director shared some more details of the proposal. 500 million for literacy and mathematics coaches. this continues to build upon an existing program and adds mathematics coaches there. 378.6 million for learning recovery emergency block grant to help establish learning recovery programs through the 2728 fiscal year, and then the additional funding for teacher recruitment. last year, newsom reduced spending in almost all state departments, including childcare and social safety net programs. lawmakers say those cuts help solve deficits for this fiscal year. when i took the dog for a walk last night, i wore shorts. i admit it, it was great. and we're thinking, oh my goodness, january, january,

january. but marcus, have you talked to your family in memphis? yes, the first snowfall. my mom sent me pictures of it. it looked beautiful. and what about florida? they're bracing for the cold. yeah, yeah, it's going to be in the 40s. yeah. i mean, it's been actually a pretty different picture across the country compared to what we have here in the bay area. we're going to talk about that in just a bit as we take a look at our air quality. it has been fairly good. i mean, considering that there are so many fires burning not too far from the bay area and our air quality is moderate, a lot of the smoke that we've seen from southern california is blowing offshore and mostly away from the bay area, but still moderate today. just something to be mindful of if you are sensitive to a lot of particulate matter if you have breathing problems. but look at these temperatures. we're at 65 degrees. we haven't even made it to noon in san jose. while we are seeing a lot of upper 50s in parts of the north bay, it is 58 in oakland and 61 degrees in san francisco, and we are going to

see those temperatures going up a few more degrees into the afternoon tomorrow, just a touch cooler across the bay area as the wind picks up, but it's overall well above what's normal for this time of year. also, the wind advisory is coming back to the bay area starting tonight. some gusty winds expected coming in from the north and as we wake up tomorrow morning, we could see winds at about 35 to 40mph and a brisk wind throughout the day, with some very dry conditions. as of now, we're not concerned about a fire danger because we have had some rain, but we will have to be careful and we will see more whether dry conditions as we go into the next few days. we'll talk more about this

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(kaz) i got this. (ben) fargo, send kaz $145 dollars with zelle. (kaz) smooth. (vo) learn more at wellsfargo.com/getfargo. out of southern california, where those wildfires are continuing to burn this morning. right here, you have a live look at those conditions that crews are up against this midday. now, first responders are trying to

take advantage of the brief break they're getting in those intense winds expected to pick back up this weekend. the palisades fire continued to burn through pacific palisades overnight, destroying thousands of structures. many homes were simply engulfed in flames, with some of them collapsing completely. the fire scorched more than 20,000 acres, and there is no containment at this point. mandatory evacuation orders are still in place for residents near this dangerous wildfire. meantime, the eden fire and altadena also proving to be deadly and destructive. eight people are now confirmed dead in that fire, which has a majority of the ten people killed since fires broke out. now, very little containment here. only 3% evacuation orders and warnings remain in effect. we'll take you back to the fire lines when we come

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