tonight we are following our breaking news. another wildfire down in southern california. once again, we are seeing evacuations of thousands of

people. and right now parts of interstate five are shut down with those winds. there's only so much you can do when you can't get aircraft in there. we're talking to a bay area cal fire battalion chief who just got back from the fire lines down south. also, california's new 911 system put on hold. it happened after our investigative unit exposed major issues with the rollout. so what happened and when will the problems be resolved and arrested during a pro-palestinian protest while doing his job? we're joined by a stanford journalist who just learned what the university is doing with his case. good evening. this is nbc bay area news tonight. i'm raj mathai. our exclusive reporting about the state's new 911 system and the local college that just shut down all of its sports teams. we'll get to those stories just ahead. we start, though, with an update to our breaking news. another big wildfire down in

southern california. here's what we know at this minute. it's burning north of santa clarita in castaic. you can see the flames glowing here right behind me. interstate five at the grapevine is slowly reopening after the chp shut down the freeway for a couple hours as a precaution. let's take a live look. now, this is called the hughes fire. it sparked this morning around 10:30 a.m. it quickly grew to more than 9000 acres. this is a live look from one of our nbc choppers down south. this is near magic mountain, and so far there is zero containment. more than 31,000 people have been evacuated. that includes schools and even a nearby jail. the good news right now, though, no homes are threatened, but teams are making sure everyone stays clear of this burn zone. more than 4000 firefighters are right now on the fire lines. this area is under a red flag warning, meaning high winds are fanning these flames. it's a newer

incident and it's evolving. it's going to change. we're ready for just about anything, which, by the way, includes being prepared for any other incident that would break, god forbid, anywhere in the county of los angeles. and as we continue through these weather conditions, we recognize that it's not over yet. it is not over. and sadly, it might just be the beginning of all of this. this is another live look again from our nbc chopper. it's called the hughes fire near castaic. among the primary concerns is the wind, and we become all too familiar with these questions as we bring in jeff ranieri. jeff, as we look at these flames here, the first question for the firefighters and for forecasters is really, where is that wind going and how intense are those winds? and we're going to show you that right now. and you can see on this map perspective here we have los angeles well off towards the south. yeah. the palisades fire way down here then santa clarita off towards the north. so a closer view of this will show this is burning to the north of santa clarita. and it actually started right

around lake castaic. so it's been burning right around the lake now, as you just reported it. i have to say this is excellent news. they've started to open up interstate 5. they must have been able to keep some of those flames back from interstate five, because the biggest fear right now, with the way the wind is blowing, is that embers could jump the five, the fire jumps the five, and then you have all this open terrain here where that fire could continue to burn again. over 9000 acres has already burned today, so current wind gusts here 40 to 50 tomorrow, 50 to 70 under red flag fire warnings here until 10 p.m. on friday with winds 40 to 75. one last thing here. you can see the fire burn scar that's just been updated. the fire started around this location on the western side of lake castaic. and then you can see how the wind just rapidly pushed this up towards the lake. so the lake is also acting as a fire break right

now. so they must have been dropping lots of fire retardant right there in order to be able to open interstate 5 tonight. and i-5 not just for commuters. this is a main artery for business and commerce here in california. you talk about the wind there. of course, that's going to be pretty intense for the next couple of days. what about rain? we know that's coming. i believe it does look more promising for central and southern california to get in on some rainfall right back here across the bay area. we're only seeing a slight spotty chance trace amounts here on saturday, even into southern california on saturday. trace amounts. we're really putting all the, you know, hope in the forecast here as we head into sunday's forecast. that's where in southern california, a quarter inch some of the hills could get in on a half inch. and that's going to be excellent. to turn this fire danger around, they will have to watch out for maybe some landslides and some of the fire burn zones. but this rain, it is exactly what they need at this point. yeah. and the good news again, we should say no. homes are being threatened right now. right now it's just kind of a rural wildfire. thank you.

jeff. this is all happening as thousands of firefighters continue to battle the palisades and eaton fires. cal fire crews from san mateo county are still there. so many of our bay area crews remain on the front lines and are now or are now coming home. joining us now is cal fire battalion chief robert simmons. he and his crew just returned from the fire lines down in l.a. county. the chief is based in san mateo county. first of all, welcome home, and sorry to see this new fire. how severe can it be? right now we're already seeing interstate 5 parts of it closed down. well, yeah. you know, it has potential to get bad with the way the winds are going and the location of the fire. and to correct you, my crews are still out there that i was with. i just rotated back and rotated someone else in. you guys have been working around the clock. i do know that you were part of this firefight for a couple of weeks. how grueling was this, and is this assignment continuing? well, as you know, you know, it's very steep and rugged terrain out there. and with those winds, there's only

so much you can do when you can't get aircraft in there to hold down the big flames so you can get ground crews in. we getting the upper hand now, i know in palisades and eaton fire we are now we have this new fire. it just seems never ending here. yeah, i you know, i really couldn't say what caused this new fire or what's going on out there, but the crews i was with and some of the other units from our unit here in cal fire are on that new fire now. they are pushing a lot of resources down there. the biggest lesson for the bay area, and you're based here as we watch these fires down south, what's the takeaway for us? well, i think the biggest takeaway is make sure you do have the vegetation clearance around your homes and where possible, you can get communities together and get vegetation clearance around the communities. and as we wrap it up, how are your crews doing on the front lines? this has got to be a long, grueling assignment. as we talked about away from their families. do they get a break? are t they comg home soon? well, after three weeks, we'll we'll give them two days off to recover. and if still

needed, they will go back out to the fire line. it's amazing what you guys do. battalion chief robert simmons with cal fire. appreciate your time. have a good evening. all right. thank you. we want to get you caught up now on some of the other headlines that we are watching on this wednesday. sonoma state university is eliminating all of its athletics programs. this is part of a massive round of layoffs and program cuts. the university's interim president says sonoma state is facing a nearly $24 million deficit. as a result, they're cutting a total of 62 campus positions, six academic departments and its ncaa division two athletics. that's seven women's sports teams and four men's teams. the president says the university is speaking with those student athletes to help them decide if they want to stay on campus. any student who stays will remain eligible to receive scholarships. the president releasing this statement says in part, i am keenly aware of its human impact and how individuals, families, relationships and communities

are affected by such news. i understand that no amount of explanation or necessity makes any of us feel better. also tonight, new iormation about a deadly crash involving multiple cars, including a driverless waymo and a tesla. the san francisco da says she's holding off for now on charges. the crash happened on sunday night. several cars were sitting at a light when a black tesla slammed right into him. the driver of the tesla told investigators he tried stopping, but the brakes in his car didn't respond. that requires a significant vehicle inspection, generally done by the manufacturer of the vehicle. it requires accident reconstruction. we need to figure out how fast he was going. a download of the black box that's in the vehicle. the da's office is also waiting for the results of a toxicology report. also, we should add, the chp is trying to determine if that black tesla was involved in a hit and run crash. separately

from this crash on the 280 off ramp, moments before this deadly crash. now, today, the coroner identified the man killed in that crash as mikhail romanenko. he worked at the famed venture capital firm kleiner perkins. a colleague says they called him misha and said he was a talented software engineer on the kleiner perkins team. we have an update now on the story we exposed several weeks ago. this is about california's new 911 system. our investigative unit found the network isn't working as intended, and in some cases, it delayed life saving help. it's called next generation 911 or nextgen 911. it's supposed to bring our old landline based system into the digital age. but the rollout has been riddled with issues. and now, because of our reporting, the rollout is on hold. a state lawmaker is demanding answers. she sent a letter to cal os that's the state agency in charge of nextgen 911. she wants to know

what led to the project's pause and what the project's timeline is now. this is not just a senate district four issue, but i am leading on this because i believe in california and i believe on our ability to align on issues that really impact californians. so i call on my colleagues in the supermajority, as well as my colleagues in the republican caucus, to ensure that the office of emergency services hears loud and clear that we are watching and we are asking for accountability. they are watching loud and clear. let's bring in our investigative reporter, candice nguyen. i like to start, as you know, with the price tag, what are we dealing with for this entire project? so far, nearly a half billion dollars. and that price tag is growing. and to give you a sense of how much it might still grow right now with this project on hold right now, only about 5% of california's 901 centers have some version of this new system. so to get the whole state 100%, which is the goal that's going to cost a lot more. okay. 5 billion right now. oh, no a half. excuse me. sorry, sorry a

half, bill. nearly a half billion so far. a half a billion right now. still a big number. okay, remind us what the problems are with this. you said 5% right now. what's the problem? we're talking about misrouted calls. so this system is supposed to interconnect the entire four regions. it's broken the california into every 911 center is supposed to be interconnected to help out in an emergency. but what we're seeing is a lot of calls coming in from other places out of the county, out of state. and dispatchers are also telling us they'll see calls just disappear. we've also heard reports of extended 911 outages. we're talking six hours, 12 outages of the systems being down at some of the first nine one centers to get this new system, and having another agency help pick up adding to the delays. there's always bugs and new rollouts, but obviously people want some answers here. we mentioned that republican state senator from stanislaus county, i believe. what's your ultimate goal here? she's writing a letter. she's rattling some cages. what's her goal? i think it's what she said. she said, i want cal os, the state

agency, to know that state leaders are watching, that the public is watching. she says she doesn't want this to be some niche project that flies under the radar, and she submitted specific questions to the director of kohler os to get answered publicly. she's hoping to restore some public trust. you've been on this story for a couple of months exposing this. you've reached out to cal os, the state senators reached out to cal os. what's the response? or are we still getting nothing? no response just yet. even the senator herself. i just checked with her this afternoon. she has not heard back. she sent this letter on the 14th just over seven days ago. she says she is hopeful she will get a response. she knows they're very busy with the los angeles fires. of course we'll follow up as well as a state agency. they are required, are they not to answer, at least to the politicians? if not the journalists? we'll see. i got interview with cal os. they said at the last public meeting that they will answer these questions at a future meeting. that future meeting has been pushed, pushed to a further date, and now we're still waiting to see what

happens with these questions, that the state lawmakers will give them the ample amount of time and the opportunity to respond. thank you candice. up next, bay area politics spilling into washington, dc. get ready for a wild ride. the white house announcement pitting elon musk and san francisco's sam altman against each other. it's all about money and ai. also, we're joined by a stunt journalist arrested over the summer at stanford. he's finally getting some closure in his case. you're watching

i'm not happy with the way that pg&e handled the wildfires. yeah. yeah. i totally, totally understand. we're adding a ton of sensors. as soon as something comes in contact with the power line, it'll turn off so that there's not a risk that it's gonna fall to the ground and start a fire. okay. and i want you to be able to feel the improvements. we've been able to reduce wildfire risk from our equipment by over 90%. that's something i want to believe. [skateboard sounds]

musk in the trump orbit. this might be a four year soap opera. musk is undercutting one of president trump's first major announcements. it all stems from a years long feud that musk has with san francisco based openai. yesterday, you might recall, president trump highlighted the stargate project. it's a joint venture of tech giants openai, oracle and softbank. the heads of those companies, you see them right there were alongside the president, outlining a $500 billion pledge to build ai data centers over the next four years. here's openai's sam altman. i think this will be the most important project of this era. and as masai said, for agi to get built here, to create hundreds of thousands of jobs, to create a new industry centered here, we wouldn't be able to do this without you, mr. president, and i'm thrilled that we get to now, overnight, that

guy, elon musk, poured some cold water on it. he says softbank doesn't have the money. sam altman replied on twitter, calling musk's assessment quote, wrong. altman added i realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies. he's talking to elon musk here, but in your new role, i hope you'll mostly put america first. musk was an early investor in ai in openai and has pending legal challenges against sam altman's company. well, here's an interesting story from the stanford campus. the university is dropping its case against a student journalist who was arrested while covering a pro-palestinian rally. stanford confirming today that it will not take any action against that student. this all stems from an on campus pro-palestinian protest last july. dylan gorrell, who was covering it for the stanford daily, followed the protesters as they barricaded themselves in the president's office. those protesters were later arrested. now gorrell was

arrested with them, even t thouh he had his press pass. recently, advocacy group advocacy groups led by the first amendment coalition put pressure on stanford, urging the university to drop its case against him. today, stanford confirmed that gorrell will not face any disciplinary action. there's one more piece to all of this. stanford case is different from any potential criminal charges stemming from that protest. we reached out to the santa clara county district attorney's office. the communications director tells us the department is still waiting on additional information from stanford. and right now, it's not filing any charges in this case, but might do so in the future. joining us now is dylan gorrell from the stanford daily. dylan, nice to have you on the program. okay. tell me about it. the initial response from stanford when you said you were a reporter on assignment and then got arrested. what the university tell you? well, they told me that it didn't it didn't necessarily matter. it seemed that their initial response when i was initially arrested was that i had no legal right to be

there. you know that journalism, in their eyes, was a crime, and that reporting and being a journalist, you know, deserved being arrested, deserved having possibility of three felony charges. i'm welcoming this news this morning, and i'm really glad that stanford has now decided to drop the pending disciplinary charges. and i feel like a load has been lifted off my shoulders that has been on me for the last seven months. yeah, i'm sure it's been a long seven months. were you ticked off? dylan? confused about what happened? what were your emotions? well, i mean, i definitely was trying to go about this rationally and, you know, letting my judgment at the door. throughout all these seven months, i kept thinking to myself, you kno i was just doing my job. my job as a journalist and as a student journalist is to collect information, to report information and to keep our community updated, informed and aware. and it was definitely disheartening to see that my university was trying to label me as a felon and as a criminal, just for doing my job. these are really sensitive issues with not

just stanford, but so many universities, as you know, across america with the israel-hamas siion. are you concerned, aside from the university with the da, the santa clara county district attorney, possible charges might come your way. you know, my attorneys have affirmed throughout this entire process that, you know, it's very unlikely that the santa clara district attorney's office will come after me with these three felony charges that i was arrested under these three suspected felony charges. but throughout all this, it's still hanging over my head. and the statute of limitations, you know, can extend throughout years for felony charges. and so i don't want to be going through the next two years and two and a half years of my time here at stanford with the possibility that there's felony charges over my head solely for being a reporter and solely for doing my job and to keeping our, you know, community informed. what was that phone call to your family when you said you were arrested? oh my god, that was definitely a little scary. i was on the phone with my mom right when i was in jail. she was on

the phone, unfortunately in tears. but you know, throughout all this, i'm feeling so supported by my family and they really had my back throughout this as the community has had my back as well. so i'm really grateful for the support that i've had. dylan, keep up the good work. i'll read your byline on the stanford daily. appreciate it. appreciate it. thank you. let's take you outside now. on this wednesday, a live look at the bay bridge. it is beautiful, warm during the day and chilly right now. jeff is going to return with our forecast as we inch toward the

crazy. excuse me. crews and taffy. with the salinas fire department providing some much needed mental health support. that's prince harry, left side of your screen there. paying a visit to the disaster zones. the salinas fire department, emphasizing the importance of community and collaboration in the face of these challenges. and it just seems like these challenges continue with this third wildfire now near magic mountain. jeff returns with us with the forecast and seeing those dogs, you know, if you're going through all that, it's just going to be that extra thing you need to just maybe get you through at least that very second. now, back here across the bay area, we did have some very mild temperatures. san jose at 70, well above the average of 60, also well above the average of 58, in santa rosa at 67. let me get you more details on that microclimate forecast right now. and as we roll through tomorrow

morning, we're going to begin cold again with 30s and 40s and a frost advisory in effect. then as we head through the afternoon, what a difference. we're going to see these temperatures jump and fast. 70 in san jose, 72 in morgan hill feels more like spring out there, 67 in concord and 69 in santa rosa. we will see a system drop down this weekend. not a big rain chance for us. just a spotty chance here in the bay area. although in southern california, by the time we get to sunday, we could be in for a quarter to half inch. that does include the new fire that started in southern california. so on the 7-day forecast, sunday is going to be the better day to be outside. and so far we'll start it off dry as we head through next week's forecast. sounds good. thank you jeff. as we wrap up, mario lopez just getting started with access hollywood. all right. well kicking off tonight's access it's our katy perry exclusive sharing all about the incredible lineup. ready to go for next week's fire aid concert benefiting the thousands who lost everything in the

devastating l.a. wildfires. and then here we go again for another round in the blake lively versus justin baldoni. it ends with us legal battle. yesterday, baldoni released raw footage that he claims helps prove his point that he did not sexually harass lively. but today, blake fired back that the footage definitely corroborates her case. so what's appropriate and what's not while shooting a romantic scene? we're going to break it all down for you. add to that our career flashback with cameron diaz, which just may lead to a the mask sequel with jim carrey, it's all just moments away on access hollywood. back to you, mario. we'll see you in a second. that's going to do it for us here at 7:00, for everyone here at nbc bay area. thanks for joining us. we hope you enjoy your evening. we hope to see you back here at 11.

california girl katy perry steps up to help those impacted by the devastating l.a. wildfires.