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tv   NBC Bay Area News Tonight  NBC  January 21, 2025 7:00pm-7:30pm PST

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next on nbc bay area news tonight. if you're born here, does that mean you're automatically a u.s. citizen? president trump's new executive order is triggering legal action from california. state attorney general rob bonta tells us why he's fighting back. also, his legacy is more than just food. the culinary world is remembering charles fan how the legendary bay area chef touched so many lives and careers. plus, the san francisco center's
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biggest tenant is moving out. why? bloomingdale's is closing up shop and leaving the city. good evening. this is nbc bay area news tonight, i'm raj mathai. it is coming fast. the first 24 hours of the trump presidency likely to be a road map for his first 100 days. we'll bring in california's attorney general in just a few moments. but we want to start with an update in alameda county. it is the final stages of determining who's going to replace the recalled district attorney, pamela price. the board of supervisors holding a special meeting today to publicly interview the seven finalistsor this important role. safe. that's the group responsible for recall efforts against the former d.a. price is endorsing two of the seven candidates. alameda county superior court judge ursula jones dixon and contra costa county assistant d.a. annie esposito. all seven candidates
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made their final pitches t today before taking questions from the supervisors and the public. now, the recall group and families of victims say they want a da that's going to fight for them. i just hope that the board of supervisors really makes the right choice, and that they're really think about the people over politics, because this is something very serious. this is our lives. it's our lives and the lives of this whole community. and that's the most important thing, is the electability. after 2026, you have to do 2026. you got to do 2028. so you got to know what you're doing here. now they want a long term answer here. in addition to dixon and esposito, there are five other candidates. elgin lowe and jimmy wilson are the only candidates currently working in the da's office. venus johnson is the chief deputy attorney general for california and has been endorsed by a-g. rob bonta latricia lewis is deputy counsel for alameda county, and eben shen is the
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current city attorney for alameda. the board is set to make a decision next week. the new da will take office in february and serve through 2026. well, we are discovering in real time what happens in the oval office has a direct impact here in california. we know this. president trump will be visiting the southern california fire zone this friday. he'll also certainly comment on his sweeping immigration orders. and there will be pushback. 18 democratic state attorneys general filing lawsuits today to block the president's action to end birthright citizenship. this next order relates to the definition of birthright citizenship. you know, we'll see. we think we have very good grounds. people have wanted to do this for decades. you have the order signed by the president last night would limit the right to citizenship for people who have at least one parent who is a u.s. citizen or a permanent u.s. resident. california attorney general rob
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bonta, among the attorneys general to file the lawsuit, he had a blunt message for the president, quote, see you in court. joining me now is the attorney general of california, rob bonta. nice to have you back on the program. i guess it all comes down to this, at least in the public perception interpretation of the 14th amendment, all persons born or naturalized here are subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the u.s. does president trump's legal team have a case here? no. it's a clear violation of the u.s. constitution. never before has the united states or any court taken the position that they have taken. it is a fringe theory. it should be rejected outright. it is not the interpretation that the u.s. supreme court has given to the citizenship clause, and specifically birthright citizenship in the u.s. constitution for decades and over a century. this is well established law for over 125
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years. law, actually, that has a very much a california story and was established through a case that came right out of san francisco. and they do not have a case. and we should prevail in court. yes, of course, anything could change. but you put us in any court where there are fair and objective and review the facts and do a rigorous analysis of the law. we win. frankly, i hope the president of the united states follows the law, and if he does, we will have absolutely nothing to do. you might have seen this. over the weekend, a new york times poll found that 87% of americans who were polled supported deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have criminal records. what do you think californians want when it comes to immigration? i think californians rightfully want the criminal laws of the state of california to be enforced, and that's what our law is geared towards here in california, to
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enforce the laws when it comes to fentanyl, to enforce the laws when it comes to murder and rape and hate crimes and organized retail crime and human trafficking. and we have said through the laws of the state of california, the legislature has voted and the people have spoken through their legislatures, their elected representatives, that we want to focus our resources and our personnel on enforcing state criminal law, not civil immigration enforcement. there's a whole federal government apparatus to do that. so they can do that if they act lawfully. we're going to focus on cracking down on folks who are violating state criminal law. all right. as attorney general bonta just mentioned, the landmark decision that affirmed birthright citizenship happened in san francisco more than 120 years ago. in 1898, wong kim ark was born in san francisco to chinese parents living here legally. he left the country briefly to visit china and was blocked from coming back in, with officials
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citing the chinese exclusion act. his case made it to the supreme court, and he won, establishing precedent for birthright citizenship. today, his great grandson here in the bay area spoke to nbc news exclusively, calling the new executive order, quote, troubling. norman wong said, we can't build the country together and be against everybody. i think the best thing to do is for americans to actually be embracing americans. the trump administration did not respond to an nbc request for comment. so what's going to happen now with immigration? let's bring in our political analyst, larry gerston, and professor rory little with the ucsf law school. gentlemen, nice to have both of you on the program. professor little, we'll start with you. you heard attorney general bonta. he says there's more than 100 years of precedent here supporting birthright citizenship. how does the trump administration change that? well, they try by issuing an executive order that goes contrary to not just 130 years of precedent, but in 1898, in
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that case, you mentioned the wong kim ark case, that supreme court went back all the way to english common law in the 15th century and said, it is always been true that if you are born in a country and subject to their laws, you are a citizen, and that nothing in the 14th amendment was designed to change that and in fact applied, even though in that case mr. wong had no parents who were citizens in the united states. so, rob bonta, i've known him for a long time, and he's absolutely right. there's no case here, but there is a supreme court that has three justices appointed by president trump. so nothing is a lock when it gets there. yeah. as we've seen, anything can happen nowadays in this country. professor, with so many executive orders here in these last, what, 24 hours will many of them be challenged legally? and is that just a tactic to slow down the process? maybe a block the speed, so to speak?
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yeah. raj, i call it whack a mole. we've seen that game. whack a mole, put out as many of these orders as you can, and some of them may survive and others will not. there will be two solid years, at least, of litigation over these orders. starting today. birthright citizenship already has three lawsuits filed in different states around the country, and it's going to be a continual process of lower court decisions, appellate decisions, some supreme court review, and some will succeed. the president does have inherent authority to issue some executive orders, but they will not all succeed. larry gerston, let's bring you in here. is rob bonta politically here misreading the room? do californians want stricter immigration laws? and should he be in some ways partnering with president trump when it comes to immigration? hi raj, i don't think he's misreading the room at all. as a matter of fact, if you look back at public opinion polls, the few that we've had the public in california is very
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strong on immigration. almost seven out of ten in the most recent poll taken by the cic in late 2023, found that californians saying that immigration is good for california, good for california. latinos are more than 40% of the state, the largest portion of the states, if you look at them racially, 40%. that's a big, big group. and add to that the fact that over the years, the last 15 years, we've had californians support scholarships for native americans, immigrants. we've had them support school programs for, for non-americans. we've had them support a variety of health care. california health care program for immigrants. so you put it all together, and this state has had a real good bond with immigrants for years, and it's only getting stronger. larry, battling president trump might be a common theme for rob bonta. is he positioning? or i should say, how is he positioning himself for a run
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for governor? well, look, he's beyond the governor. the california attorney general is the second most powerful and best known person in state in the state of california as far as the state offices go. so he's at a very prominent position to begin with. add to that the fact that that he's been around for a long time, especially northern california, formerly the legislature, now ag big office. look, he represents the state, he represents the state. and in this case, he represents a state with the legislature. he's well connected. and the question is the question is will he be able to overcome the big elephant in the room? if you if we can say that about kamala harris, should she decide to run, that's going to be fascinating. final question goes to you, professor little. if this is granted, if birthright citizenship is ended like trump wants it to be, how enforceable is all this? well, i mean, if he were to succeed with this new definition of
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citizenship, which i really don't think he can do without a constitutional amendment, it is not a retroactive order. it is a prospective order. it applies to everybody who's born 30 days from the date of the order. it's enforceable in lots of ways. if states want to deny state citizenship to people that reside there, you know, states don't have to follow that rule. states do not have to follow whatever the president says on citizenship. states can grant citizenship of their own. it's federal citizenship is federal government. so passports would be affected, but states could still issue birth certificates. you could have a real fight here between states and federal government. that could be fascinating if that happens. professor. thank you, larry gerston. thank you as well. have a good evening to both of you. thank you. also today, this is worth noting the president partnering with some major high profile silicon valley bay area ai firms. he was flanked by
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oracle founder larry ellison and open ai ceo sam altman. you see sam there on the right side. they announced a new joint venture called stargate. it will grow ai infrastructure in the u.s. there's larry ellison. the companies, along wit tokyo based softbank, have plans to invest up to $500 billion in the coming years. stargate's first venture will be to construct data centers in the state of texas. larry ellison says that project is already underway. well, up next, we lost an iconic bay area chef. how charles fan changed the san francisco restaurant scene. you're watching nbc bay
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i don't ever see anyone coming out to maintenance anything, so it's very scary for me because i have everything i love in this home. so, we've now implemented drone technology. how is that safe for me? it enhances the inspection, so it allows us to see things faster. your safety is the most important, and if you're feeling unsafe, that's not okay. it doesn't feel like that in our hearts. i mean, it's worrisome. [dog barks] [dog barks]
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bloomingdales is the latest retailer to announce it's closing its location in san francisco's largest mall. the store, located in the san francisco center near union square, has been there for nearly two decades. the company, citing a shift in the retail landscape and evolving strategies for its future operations as reason for the closure. we've heard a lot of these reasons before. the san francisco center has seen a lot of high profile departures since the start of the pandemic. nordstrom flagship store shuttered in august of 2023, followed by the closure of the cinemark theater. major brands such as lego, adidas and hollister also left. bloomie's will remain open until the end of march. we have lost a
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legendary local chef, the man who helped change and liven up san francisco's food scene, charles phan, the groundbreaking chef of slanted door, has died. soy dressing for nearly 30 years, phan was a huge part of san francisco's food scene. most people know him because of the iconic slanted door restaurant, which he operated for years at the ferry building but closed during the pandemic. his reach stretched beyond san francisco. the slanted door in san ramon and napa remain open. he also opened a banh mi sandwich shop in the mission district called chuck's takeaway, which quickly became a neighborhood favorite. the first iteration of the slanted door actually opened on valencia street in the city, and phan had plans to return to that same site this spring. charles opened in what was not considered the hippest, coolest part of san francisco on valencia street in 1995 with, you know, really authentic vietnamese food, which nobody
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was really doing here. chef phan came to the united states from vietnam as a teenager. he graduated from mission high school in the city. he was a self-taught chef who won a james beard award in 2005. he also published two books on vietnamese cooking. in a statement, phan's family said he died of cardiac arrest. charles phan was 62 years old. chef michael mina says he was a trailblazer. and with us tonight, another acclaimed chef, chris cosentino, who knew charles phan well. chris, thanks for being with us. as you know, we have plenty of great chefs here in the bay area and in san francisco. what made charles so special? i think what was really special about charles is he never followed a trend. he set his own trend when he started slanted door and valencia street. he started by cooking his mother's food and continued to do that through his entire career, buying locally, supporting not only the farmers and the ranchers, but all the other chefs and his peers in the
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community. i mean, he was loved by everyone. this is not only a sad day for san francisco. this is a sad day for the culinary world around a really well said. i remember when the door first opened in the mid 90s. he made vietnamese food hip and the place to be. what was his special sauce? i mean, aside from the menu, what else did he do? it came from the heart. charles cooked from the heart, and i think. take your time. i know you're emotional about this. take your time. he was always positive. he always cared, and he always gave back. he never did anything other than cook the right way for the right reasons. he cooked because he loved cooking for people and he wanted to make people smile. he taught people how to be mentors. that's amazing. there's not many people that can continue to do that for so long. i mean, look at that restaurant. it went from valencia street. it had three locations before it ended up in the ferry building. that's
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really powerful. that says it has lasting power. people travel and book their whole vacations around coming to eat at the slanted door. he really set a precedent for all of us, and i'm really hoping, you know, that we can continue on with his legacy in san francisco and see his restaurants thrive. he firmly believed that, you know, high tides raise all ships. so he always worked to make sure that other chefs were succeeding. if you needed a hand, he was there. if you needed somebody to read a contract or talk about a lease, if your freezer broke, he was the first one to answer the phone. that's a really, really great friend, a really great peer. and i would say somebody that everybody should try to be like in their life. really heartfelt comments. we appreciate it. final question for you. this restaurant business has changed so much. i know you're opening a new restaurant out in hawaii where you are tonight. can you still make it as a chef today and make a difference? at least here in the bay area? i believe you can.
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it's definitely hard and it requires a lot of patience and energy, and you have to have a really resilience. and i think that's what charles had, was serious resilience. he was able to ebb and flow and move. and you know, it's kind of like football. you know, you're dodging and moving and hustling. but he did it in such a way that didn't affect the guest. it just continued to give excellent hospitality, excellent food by doing it all the right way. and to me that that is how success will happen in the bay area. chris cosentino i'm sure both of you benefited from your friendship. appreciate your time tonight. have a good evening. thank you very much for having me. it's been an honor to speak about charles. of course. let's take you outside now. on this tuesday evening, a live look in downtown san jose. it is chilly out there. jeff is going to join us next with our forecast. stay with us.
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and don't forget, it's an excellent source of calcium. ♪♪ wow! planet oat really has it all... you guys are so right! no you are. no you are. no you are. yeah, you are. ♪♪ that's bourbon street. the gulf coast getting historic snowfall. parts of louisiana seeing more than ten inches of snow. you see the stadium out there. the super bowl and mardi gras coming to new orleans in a few weeks jeff. they got to they got to get that snow out of there because that's not party weather necessarily. i mean, that's huge. once in a lifetime storm. record setting some areas i just have seen nothing like this.
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look at these totals. i had to get these on here for you tonight. lafayette, louisiana 9.5in the old record. 2.7in in 1963. new orleans eight inches beaumont, texas six. pensacola, that is florida five inches houston, texas. right there at four. now, as we roll through tomorrow, if you're doing any traveling, any kind of snow has moved out. but we've got some cold 20s and 30s from the northeast down to pensacola, florida. lots of 30s and 40s for the mid u.s, and california is going to be o of the warmest spots. let me get you more details on our forecast in your microclimate weather. and as we head through tomorrow morning, we're starting it off. chilly. frost advisories. freeze warnings in effect, the coldest up here towards napa and also santa rosa in the mid 30s. also coming in with some mid 30s around concord. san jose, 3940s near the coast. the payoff by the afternoon though, if you can get through that chilly weather in the morning, it's going to be worth it. look at this upper 60s for much of the bay area. 68 in
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san jose. 65 martinez, 68 in napa, 62 there in half moon bay. so all in all, a great day with those sunny skies. we'll see a slight chance of a spotty shower on saturday. trace amounts to about a 10th of an inch. i'd like to get on a plane and go to florida and stand in it right now. you grew up in florida just to go out there? thank you. jeff. all right. as we wrap up, mario lopez just getting started with access hollywood. so tonight, rihanna and asap rocky are a couple who seem to have it all, including two adorable young sons. but today, a crucial chapter determining asap's fate begins. he's on trial, facing two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, and a guilty verdict could mean up to 24 years in prison. we're going to break down the prosecution's evidence against him and the likely strategy of asap's defense team. speaking of evidence, the. it ends with us. justin baldoni versus blake lively. battle continues to rage on today, with baldoni's team releasing raw footage of a scene that had blake accusing justin of sexual harassment. but their
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behavior and words just may be contradicting her claims. you be the judge. it's all just moments away on access hollywood. back to you. mario. thank you. and then here's what's coming up in prime time here on nbc at 8:00. saint denis medical night court at 830. deal or no deal. island at nine. the irrational at ten. and then we'll be back with more news, live and local at 11:00. that's going to do it for us here at 7:00, for everyone here at nbc bay area, including our production assistant, michelle fong. thanks for joining us. we hope you enjoy your evening.
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asap rocky's trial starts today, with life as he knows it with rihanna and their two sons is on the line. "access hollywood" starts right now. facing two felony assault charges, "access" breaks down the prosecution's evidence against asap rocky and his own legal

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