news tonight. a bizarre story here. a cult like local group connected to crimes across the country. what brought this group together and how so many of them ended up in jail? also, new details about the 15 year old boy stabbed to death in santana row. so far, no arrests. where investigators are now focusing their efforts tonight. and a san mateo startup showing off its flying car. we have more details

to our exclusive story. plus, the longest average commute in the country is right here in the bay area. the mayor of brentwood joins us to explain why. good evening. i'm raj mathai. let's start with the headlines that we are watching on this tuesday. still a lot of concern about that deadly stabbing at santana row, which happened on valentine's day. s.a.p.d. says it's actively looking for multiple people who ran from that scene. today, investigators talked about this case publicly for the first time. they say they found the 15 year old boy with at least one stab wound. they have not released any suspect descriptions or named the victim. a gofundme that appears to be created by the victim's loved ones says the 15 year old boy was on a valentine's date with his girlfriend when he was attacked by a group and stabbed in the heart. the initial call was about a report of multiple

involving multiple subjects in a fight. when officers did arrive, they located the victim, who was suffering from at least one stab wound. so the suspects had fled prior to police arrival. police also say the victim's girlfriend is cooperating with this investigation. also this evening, more cuts are coming to the entire csu system. declining enrollment is to blame. edsource reports that system wide enrollment is down almost 3% than a decade ago. to balance the books. csu will now have to make cuts statewide. that's even at campuses like san jose state, where enrollment is up. san jose state has already slashed about $58 million from its budget over the past two years, and now says more cuts are coming. we have not filled unfilled positions. we have cut back on sections of specific classes. we have eliminated some programs in which there weren't a lot of students. other campuses have taken even more drastic measures. that includes at sonoma state, where we've been

reporting that it's shutting down or planning to shut down its entire athletics program. a notable health update now from the pelosi family paul pelosi, husband of former house speaker nancy pelosi, is recovering after a kidney transplant. according to a statement released by pelosi's office, paul received the kidney at ucsf last friday and is recovering now at home in san francisco. the kidney was donated by the couple's daughter, jacqueline. he said he is endlessly grateful to her and thanked his medical team over at ucsf. well, here's a bizarre story about a cult like group and its transgender leader. prosecutors say the members refer to themselves as asians, and they believe evidence links them to the death of a vallejo man and at least three other murders. tonight, the visayans are getting national attention. the leader of this group is jack lassota, who previously lived in berkeley, vallejo, and half moon

bay. lassota was arrested over the weekend with two other former bay area residents in rural maryland. they were arrested for charges including trespassing and obstruction. lassota was arraigned today on gun charges and is being held without bail. according to nbc news, lassota is transgender and identifies as a woman. investigators believe that she and her associates are linked to a series of crimes, including the stabbing of a vallejo landlord in 2022. that man's name, curtis lindh, which left him partially blind. the stabbing did. lauren survived that attack but was killed last month in what prosecutors believe was a plot by los gatos associates to keep him from testifying about the earlier attack. a lot happening here. lassota has not been charged in connection with this killing. other c crimes, investigators believe, could be linked to the members of the group include the deadly shootout of a border patrol agent in vermont last month, and the murders of the

parents of another alleged group member. this is a complicated case. investigative reporter anna bauman with open vallejo has been following this group for months. open vallejo, by the way, is a nonprofit, independent newsroom. anna, thanks for being with us. a lot happening here. let's just start with this. is this a cult? is there an ideology that connects these people? i yeah, thank you so much for having me. we understand that, you know, it's sort of a loosely affiliated group of individuals and has been described as a cult. there's really a number of ideological beliefs that seem to have brought them togher. one of them being a devotion to extreme veganism. concerns about artificial intelligence and the threat that it might pose to humanity. and in general, members of the group have a number of characteristics in common that we've identified. you know, they appear to have met through the rationalism

community in berkeley. sort of a philosophical intellectual movement. where they originally met and came together. a lot of them are young people in their 20s and 30s. as you mentioned, some members of the group are transgender. many of them appear to be very intelligent, highly educated at top universities with degrees in computer science and related fields. and this is fascinating. we mentioned the bay area connections here. are they still somewhat based here in the bay area, even though they're arrested out in maryland? yeah, there are definitely connections to the bay area. i think it's fair to say that this group, although the violence has expanded across the country and as you mentioned, they were most recently some of them arrested in maryland. it really all got started in the bay area. as i mentioned, lasota and other members of the group originally met through the berkeley based

rationalist community. lasota, at different points lived on a boat in the bay area. at various addresses around the area. and ultimately ended up living. as you mentioned in vallejo, on a property owned by curtis linde. which is where this streak of violence ultimately got started. and what are we missing here? what's the motive for these alleged killings? is it money, religion? you talk about them being young, fairly educated, connected with the trans community. what's what's the motives here? we're still piecing that together and trying to understand. to be honest, i think there's a lot we don't know about what's motivating these killings. i can say about the vallejo homicide that happened in january. prosecutors in that case have alleged that the 22 year old charged with the killing, maximilian snyder from washington. they've accused him

of committing that homicide with the specific intent of preventing mr. linde from testifying in a case against his former tenants, who attacked him back in in 2022. the alleged head of this group. a final question here. jack lasota, never been charged with murder. what comes next for him? and if i can also add, do we know who's funding their legal fees yet? right. so lasota has been arraigned this morning in maryland on charges of obstruction. and some weapons charges. we'll see what happens next with that case. it will proceed from here in maryland. and we'll we'll go from there. a lot happening. keep us posted, anna, with this really nice reporting from you guys there in vallejo. appreciate your time tonight. thank you. let's move on now. some big changes for the hillsdale shopping center in san mateo. this is a legendary

shopping center. recently opened up part of the mall to outside strolling. now its owners are proposing an even bigger makeover. they want to demolish the enclosed part of the mall for a more open concept. that new design includes 2,000,000fts of retail, commercial and more than a thousand new homes. the northern part of that mall will remain as it is. the open concept is similar to stanford shopping center and santana row. our goal is to, you know, create a new kind of urban neighborhood, urban village, if you will, that will, you know, have retail and office and residential, all in a mix of, of uses. some big plans here. the final plans are expected to be submitted in april and have to be r reviewedy the san mateo city council. well, let's move on. being in the bay area, we tetend to see the future of technology first. a few years ago it was driverless cars. now we're talking flying cars. this

is an update to an exclusive story we did about two years ago. a bay area company is working on a car that could eventually hit the road. and you see it here, the skies. the company is called alev aeronautics, based in san mateo. they recently gave us an exclusive demo of the prototype. this is out in half moon bay. you can see the car coming off the ground and then flying over that suv. this is the mesh. this body is actually turning into a wing. it's a special wing shaped body. yeah. we first reported on alev aeronautics in 2022. that's when the company was unveiling its model a to investors and some vips. joining us now is nbc reporter steve patterson, who was in half moon bay for this latest demo. steve, thanks for being with us. take it away. you tell me you were there. what did you see firsthand and what were your initial thoughts? yeah. raj, thanks so much for having me. first of all, it's so cool to see something like this. and

look, i've been lucky enough to be at things like the consumer electronics show, where they often show these like air taxis, right? these vertical liftoff systems that you can get in that they say are going to be road ready and get you from point a to point b, but those are like like little ospreys or like giant drones that you sit in, which is still kind of cool. but to actually see like a jetsons style, marty mcfly style, like actual car that supposedly can drive on the road, and then you press a button and you take off in the air. really cool. i will say, first of all, the team really great, really smart people. so good to meet them. i will say we did have like a number of restrictions, which sort of dampened the excitement a little bit. i would have loved to have gotten inside the cockpit or the cabin of the car, but they just wouldn't let us do that. and so, you know, it took away from it a little bit, but to actually see it happen in person, to be standing in that field when that car went over the other car, you know, that's just cool stuff. hey, steve, why

did they keep you away from the cockpit or the driver's seat there? and why were you it looked like you were about 50 yards away. why the distance? yeah, they kept his back. they kept us away from it. and they wouldn't let us film certain aspects of it. the creator says basically that there's intellectual property. this thing hasn't hit market yet, right? i mean, it's been for a few select preorders to people who are really excited about the technology. but he says there's just so much proprietary tech inside something like this that he's worried about other people seeing it and copying it and then beating them to market before they go out with their big rollout. so they're worried about other people looking at the technology and saying, hey, we can take that, we can steal that, we can copy that. he didn't want that to happen. steve, we're looking at this video here. was it loud? was it smoky? what were your all electric man. so it's notno. super loud. i mean, it sounds like if there were like a collection of drones, which, you

know, it is like when you look inside the mesh, inside the chassis of the car, you can see sort of the propellers, right? so you can hear those when it takes off. but it's pretty quiet for what it is. i mean, for something that launches into the air, that actually intersects with for not to sound like a jet engine in a car, it was pretty quiet. okay, cool. so as we wrap it up, really a couple of quick hitters here, can the car drive? it seems like a silly question, but i see wheels. can it drive on the road? no. great question. it can drive. right now it's only road rated to 25mph because they have to crash test it before it hits the market. it should be able to go just like a normal car, faa and dmv clearance. i'm guessing we need both of that. what's the where are we i that process? faa and tsa, which is ke the faa of the ground. so yeah, it requires a lot of regulations. that's sort of where the rubber hits the sky, so to speak. the infrastructure just isn't there yet. and it takes a lot for

these things to obviously be safely rated in order for it to drive and fly. i think they have a long road to go before that's something that people are going to be seeing in the air. all right, next time, steve, me and you go up in that car, we'll take it for a test drive. i'm down man. steve patterson, steve patterson with nbc news. thank you steve. appreciate it. thanks. up next, people living in brentwood have the longest commute in the country. the mayor is with us to tell us why. plus, alameda county has a new da. what she said on her first day of the job.

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 firire. 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]

how far are you willing to commute to work? new census data shows people in brentwood. yes, our brentwood have the longest commute in the country. people in brentwood spend an average of 46 minutes a day driving to work. that's the highest average of any u.s. city. this is data from 2023. andhat's just the average. almost 40% of people in brentwood report a commute of an hour or longer. compare that to some other spots. we'll start first in contra costa county. in pittsburg, people in pittsburg spend an average of 41 minutes in the car. antioch. it's 40 minunutes. san francisco has an average commute time of 31 minutes. palo alto actually has the shortest average commute in the bay area, coming in at just 20 minutes. let's bring in brentwood mayor susana meyer. thanks for joining us, mr. mayor. why brentwood? were you

surprised here? i was surprised i knew it was bad. i'm in it myself. but considering our quality of life, it's worth it to me. i'm a commuter myself. yeah, yeah, i was going to say i'm a glass is half full guy, and i've been to brentwood. i think it's a great community. why are people willingo put up with that commute? what's the special sauce in brentwood? there's a lot of special sauce i want to say. we have a gorgeous downtown. our schools are some of the best school districts in the whole bay area. our homes are a little bit more affordable than some. i want to say over 100 parks. the homes are still reasonably, reasonably priced. we've got an educated workforce and our own community college. we've been working on getting even more diversity and more inclusion in the city. we've got a lot of people coming from other cities in the bay area that just make it more and more welcoming and diverse, and just it's a great city to live in. sure, we have a couple people here at nbc who commute from brentwood, and they say the same thing. have you spoken to many?

you've spoken to many people in your in your town, which i know you have. do they are they sick of it or are they cool with it? you know, people get tired of it. we have been working on trying to improve our our work, our excuse me, our job and house balance. it's out of balance right now. so we've got an innovation center. we're trying to bring in some good corporate businesses to employ our, you know, our residents a little bit more. we've got we've made some headway here. but we do have some work to do for sure. i just commuted today and it took almost an hour for me to get home from pleasant hill.l. yeah, it's a thing. in terms of housing. you talked about that it is relatively affordable, we'll s say. are there a lot of new developments coming up in your town as well? there are some new developments. i think for us it's a bit of a challenge because we really would like to keep this land for commercial development and bringing in new jobs. but, you know, sometimes the state wants to have a different plan for us and some of these commercial zones get rezoned, but we are doing our best to try and at least bring people a little bit closer to home and give them a way to stay

home and not have to commute so long. we do have some remote workers as well, but i would say in general we were very aware of that issue for us. all right. keep us posted on the progress. the mayor of brentwood, suzanne, and i appreciate your time. and i wouldn't mind a flying car, by the way, if those are being passed out. happy to take one off. they're not ready yet, but we'll let you know as soon as they are. thank you. have a good day. thank you. thanks for having me. raj. of course. a big day in alameda county. now, the new district attorney is on the job. job? judge ursula jones dixon was sworn into office. take a look. the ceremony happened during the board of supervisors meeting this afternoon. jones dixon spent 1 5 ars as a prosecutor before becoming a superior court judge in 2013. she now the county's top prosecutor, replacing the recall district attorney pamela price. before the ceremony, she said, it's time to get back to business. this is not tom orloff's office. it's not nancy o'malley's office. it's not pam price's office. it's the alameda county da's office. and i just happen to be leading it now. the goal is to

make sure that we have lawyers who can do the work and do it well, and can serve the community that i love and i live in. the new da wants this office to be more transparent and available to victims. jones dixon will serve as da until voters choose a new district attorney next year. so this is the interim spot here. she has said that she intends to run to keep the job in next year's election. let's take you outside on this beautiful tuesday night. a live look at the bay bridge. rob is going to join us next with our forecast. that could include a

a second or, you know, anyone with a birthday on march 2nd, you could send a free doctor seuss book to a child in need. for years, dtor seuss enterprises has been sending books to kids across the country with the march 2nd birthday all to honor the beloved author's birthday. now it's expanding that tradition, and anyone with the same birthday can register to send a free book to a kid in an underserved community. just register online and provide proof of your birthday. rob mayeda is here. apparently, jon bon jovi and luke combs have march 2nd birthdays. that's that's good. so those two gentlemen should register and send a book. a kid, a kid, a book. there you go. how are you doing, robbie? pretty good. it's easy to get distracted by the weather that's coming our way when you see 70 or warming

ahead. but let's not forget tomorrow we do have a chance of some rain returning to the bay area. as we take you into the microclimate forecast into tomorrow morning. rain starting off in the north bay early in the morning. commute 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. most of it should be north of san francisco, but that rain line is going to weaken as it marches southward from noon to about 3:00 in the afternoon. just a few scattered showers by the time it reaches san jose. highs tomorrow near 60 in san francisco and low to mid 60s around san jose into morgan hill. so compared to storms we've seen recently, not a lot out there. mainly scattered showers south of san francisco, but the north bay. pretty good coverage here. about a 10th of an inch of rain, maybe a quarter inch or so up near the higher hills, and the peak of those rain chances coming in right there around mid morning to mid afternoon, central bay into san jose. but as early as tomorrow evening skies should start to clear out, which will set the stage for high pressure to build in and warmer temperatures just around the corner. starting as early as friday, we could see highs in t upper 60s to low

70s. and right now that weekend forecast perfect timing could see low to mid 70s around san jose and staying there into early next week. next chance of showers likely staying to the then though. a taste of springe like temperatures ahead heading through the weekend. raj bailey like that 70 this weekend. thanks, rob. as we wrap up, mario lopez just getting started with access hollywood. so tonight it's yet another wrinkle in blake lively versus justin baldoni legal war did the joke made by blake's husband, ryan reynolds at the snl 50th anniversary celebration hurt her case against baldoni? we're going to break it all down for you, then a new announcement from duchess megan, who hasas reinvented herself yet again. we're going to tell you what's different about this new project, and that we're on the set of the groundbreaking new soap opera beyond the gates, getting a crash course on how to perfect the staple of the genre, the soap stair. it's all just moments away on access hollywood. back to you, mario. thank you. then we have new episodes coming up in prime time here on nbc tonight at 8:00,

saint denis medical at 830, night court, then a one hour. deal or no deal island, followed by the irrational at 10:00. and then our late news live and local at 11. 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, and we hope to see you back at 11.

funny or tone deaf? blake and ryan's snl appearance faces fallout. access hollywood starts now. >> was it a strategic mistake for blake's case against justin baldoni and more backlash. did d the pair stay r