funding to a program that pays attorneys who represent immigrant children living in this country without their parents. nbc bay area sergio quintana has that story. at legal services for children in downtown san francisco, there's a mural on their lobby wall that was done by teenage artists. this is a team that services some of the most at-risk youth in the bay area. it's a lot of young people who are particularly vulnerable, who have been abused, exploited. yesterday they got a notice from the federal government to stop work on their contract to provide legal services to their young clients. in fact, one of their attorneys was in immigration court yesterday with one of their clients. when that work stop order from the administration was issued and the attorney had to continue with the proceeding because the attorneys are legally obligated to. the executive director of legal services for children says the federal government is also required to pay for their services. if the federal government is going to detain children by themselves, they

have to provide them with legal services and other services to help find their families, to identify their needs and make sure that they are being taken care of. that's because of a bipartisan law passed in 2023, which was partially in response to the trump administration's actions during his first term, when immigrant children were separated from their parents. so while the organization considers taking legal action, this office and others across the state are trying to figure out what to do right now with the massive cut in funding. the amount of people that this whole stop work order has impacted is in the thousands, like it's thousands of people like we work with within a network of multiple legal service providers. they will continue representing their current clients whose cases are circulating through immigration courts pro bono, for as long as possible. they're also reaching out to generous financial supporters who have helped over the years. but they realize those donors are also being stretched thin because of so many other groups facing funding cuts. in san francisco. sergio quintana, nbc, bay area news.

also tonight, hundreds of alameda county court employees are upset with their pay. that led to a county wide strike. the strike caused court security to turn people away this morning, and forced a crew of administrators to step in to do the work of hundreds of employees who you see here were striking. courtrooms were delayed and there were delays in filings as well. everything from traffic cases to divorces and adoptions were impacted. the union's president says 99% of the 400 workers approved the strike. they're demanding better pay and better training, and an ongoing contract dispute. administrators are doing your job today. yes. pretty much. there's nobody else in there doing it. so we had to come out here and strike for our rights. well, basically getting poorer every year. no cost of living. but the inflation is still going up and our pay is not going up. a superior court spokesperson says training and staffing have not been the union's focus during negotiations, and that

the courts have done their best to retain workers in the face of a nearly $4.5 million budget cut. the court says the judicial council of california crunched the numbers and found, based on the current caseload, alameda county courts are actually overstaffed by more than 100 employees. the union says the data is outdated and based on the number of cases filed, but not the number of people it takes to process those cases. the strike is scheduled to continue tomorrow. well, pg&e says it's making. it's working to make major changes in the south bay. pg&e wants to fix the power system near the high fire risk areas to prevent repeated power outages to thousands of customers. pg&e has safety triggers on its power lines in high wildfire risk areas. so when a branch or tree hits them, the power cuts off immediately. it started four years ago in san jose's almaden valley, but neighbors say their home, their homes go dark multiple times a year as a result. pg&e is trying

to solve that problem in the area by putting more than a mile of power lines underground. well, it used to be blackouts all the time. you know, we lost power consistently. so with this work, we are obviously continuing to improve wildfire safety as well as reliability for our customers in south san jose. the project is expected to help nearly 10,000 customers when it's completed in june. the company has plans for nine more projects like it in san jose. we asked pg&e if the project is funded by current rates, or if it will need a separate rate hike in the future to pay for all this. we're waiting to hear back. well, it is a sobering sedrick subject. how much of your income is going toward paying your mortgage? that turns out here in the bay area, it's likely a lot. there are some new data released tonight. let's bring in our business and tech reporter, scott budman. what do you got, scott? well, raj wages are among the highest in the nation here. but as we talk about a lot, so are housing

costs. and nowhere do people spend more of their income on housing than san jose. patricia smith, like a lot of people in silicon valley, makes a solid living. i make good income. but says high prices, high mortgage rates and multiple bids have kept her from buying a home here. and i have a group of friends, you know, all women single. and we've talked about moving somewhere and buying a house together. it might be a good idea to buy as a group, because it takes a surprising percentage of our income to afford a home. today, according to data from casa. san jose homeowner spend on average, almost eight out of every $10 they make on housing. compare that to san francisco and los angeles, and to the conventional wisdom that we should spend 30% of our income on housing, with experts saying they expect mortgage rates to stay high. people start realizing, maybe we won't get back to that 3% that we had in 2020. and insurance

costs adding to the already expensive ownership calculation. insurance premiums have been rising, and that's one of the concerns that i think moving forward, something some people have to. homebuyers have to take into consideration because obviouslye continue to see some wildfires. we continue to see insurance costs go up. scott is here now. we just said this is why so many people rent. it's just stunning when you look at those numbers, right? i mean, the down payment alone intimidates a lot of renters from becoming homebuyers. and these are people that are making good money. yeah. what's the turnaround? what's the fix here? is there a quick fix or it just more housing like no fix. i mean, there's no quick fix and more housing is the overall fix. we did see last spring and we talked about this. more homes went on the market. a lot of people said, hey, it's time to move to put my kids in schools. whatever reason people move, that opened things up. and so we did see a bit of a dip in prices. but right, more than anything, we need more housing out there so that there's just

not this huge demand without the supply. but that's a long term plan. there's no immediate relief. no, there's no immediate relief. and that's why the home market has been for years now, all but paralyzed. it's hard if you're thinking about a one and a half, $2 million home to even think of the down payment, not to mention paying a mortgage with a 7% mortgage rate right now. so there's a lot of big dollar figures being thrown around here. thank you scott. all right. you can get weekly updates on the housing market right to your inbox. sign up for our housing deconstructed newsletter. check it out nbcbayarea.com. newsletter new issue sent out every thursday. okay, it's about to be a little harder to visit a san francisco landmark. the khoi tower parking lot will soon be shut down for repaving. located at the base of coit tower, the parking lot sits at the end of telegraph hill boulevard. now, the city is planning to repair and repave both the street and the lot. the project is going to temporarily eliminate dozens of parking spots and cause lots of disruptions to the muni bus line. shutdown starts march 3rd.

it's expected to take six weeks to complete. new at six tonight. an expansion of health care options in the east bay. sutter health just announced plans to build a new medical center in emeryville. it's going to cost more than $1 billion to build the new hospital campus. sky ranger flew over the lot at horton and 53rd before workers break ground. it will be a new hospital with over 200 beds and other advanced centers for neurology and urgent care. now you can see the empty lot where the hospital will be built. sutter health is also renovating two nearby buildings into medical clinics. those are expected to open in the next three years. groundbreaking, though for the hospital has yet to be set, but sutter health says it's aiming for the hospital to be complete by 2033. we continue to report on this. bird flu cases are rising nationwide. it's impacting more than just birds. it's threatening the balance of our ecosystem. coming up on nightly news, a look inside of a lab that's ramping its fight against this virus. why should people

care? we should care about wild birds because they are. they play an important role in our ecosystem. they they do a lot of what's called ecosystem services for us. yeah. so the services can be everything from, you know, the pleasure of feeding, seeing a bird at your bird feeder or flying in the sky to cleaning up our environment. vultures play a really critical role in our ecosystem, with cleaning up carcasses and things out on the landscape. to watch this full report, including what you need to know to keep your pets safe, this story is coming up in about 20 minutes on nightly news at 630. well, up next, a program that's meant to support local families in need is now missing. accused of missing more than $100,000 of federal funding. we first broke the story months ago. we have an update now on a new report revealing how much was spent. and a new prototype for a house on wheels. take a look at that. it's called a transformer home. we're going to give you an inside look. a beautiful sunset

live look right n now in san francisco. that cold front brought some light rain for most of us. but the cloud cover will continue into tonight. however, we're tracking a warm up on t

pensive endeavor. living in rvs is, for some, a more affordable choice. the creators of a new high tech rv are hoping that their prototype will bring a new solution for the housing crisis in california. now, we spotted this futuristic rv outside the posh rosewood hotel in menlo park. it turns out a southern california company called ac future is showing off the prototype for the eco friendly motorhome. it's electric, partially self-powered because the solar panels on the roof. ac future says it's also going to make one that is not on wheels, so you could actually pop it in your backyard. we call it the transformer home because it really transforms from 190ft■!so

400ft■!s. as you can see, this unit is bigger than some apartments in san francisco or new york. the price? 98 grand for the backyard version and 300 grand if you want it on wheels. certainly not cheap, but for sure less than a bay area home. ac future says it plans to build 10,000 transformer homes starting this year to help solve california's housing shortage. if you want to check it out, you can check out the prototype. it's on display at rosewood all week. new tonight the results of a federal review into allegations of local misuse of public money. the review finds mismanagement at a federally funded head start program in santa clara county that helps at-risk children. our investigative unit broke this story last year. hilda gutierrez joins us now with these new developments. hilda. hi. the review by federal monitors found that santa clara county office of education misused head start funds, delayed actions to correct the problem, and rejected oversight, among other things. what it's really

providing is the foundation for learning allegations of the misuse of funds intended for the head start program, which helps at-risk and low income children, have been brewing since last spring. finding a misuse of funds for staff that wasn't even a part of the head start program. they were being paid, triggered by a whistleblower complaint. our investigative unit broke the story and was there when federal auditors arrived at the santa clara county office of education. the result of their visit are detailed in a report by the administration for children and families. it highlights five areas of noncompliance in the office of education's head start program in the program's management. eligibility and selection criteria. there's a lot of relief, i think, to finally see it in black and white, written kind of. it's no longerer conjecture. it's kind f substantiated with evidence. mercedes hill is an office specialist for the program. she says she first started sounding

the alarm when a non head start manager requested an order from her. more than $135,000 in head start funds were used to pay for a non head start staff and credit card expenses, according to the review. heather hutt was essentially used as like an atm. so you know, because it has a lot of money. the review also found administrators waited months to address the misappropriation after it was brought to their attention, and the review found scc failed to establish selection criteria that prioritize participants based on their community needs, like low income or special education. it's shocking. it's heartbreaking because there were prioritizing another site, which is educare prioritizing other families, other students based off of zip codes, which for us was like, wow. stephanie gomez

is a head start parent and member of the program's policy council, the group of parents and community members who are supposed to help make decisions about the program. according to the review, they were ignored. she says the misappropriated funds could have gone to school supplies that teachers so desperately need. in a news release, the office of education's new interim superintendent, doctor charles hinman, said we remain committed to completing our own investigations so we can fully understand how these things happened and ensure they never happen again. the review is giving the office 120 days to correct the problems in their release. the santa clara county office of education also said it's taking immediate action to address the findings and ensure complete compliance with all federal regulations moving forward. i'm hilda gutierrez, nbc bay area. we investigate. all right. thank you very much, hilda. if you have a story for hilda or anyone in the investigative unit, you can call 888996 tips. or you can visit

our website nbcbayarea.com. all right. let's take you outside a beautiful. this is kind of cool. look at that sunset with the clouds there, looking across the bay bridge into san francisco on this wednesday night. vianey arana is here to talk about with some nice rain today. nothing heavy, at least where i was just kind of some sprinkling. yeah, really quick moving. now that's making its full exit. but the cooler air is what's leaving us these nice gorgeous colors. the colors are gorgeous. gorgeous right. so again as always, if you take a photo share it with me. i love to see your sunrise and sunset photos. all right so let's talk about the temperatures. what's ahead. because we do change in the weather pattern. and we're not going to be seeing big rain chances up ahead. but i'll get to that in a second. i want to talk about the current temperatures 58 degrees right now in san jose. look at oakland, 55 walnut creek, also in the 50s. and san francisco is at about 55 degrees now. we did, of course, see a couple hundredths of an inch of rain move through. but since then that kind of cold front, very weak, has now pushed out of the area will continue to weaken as

it moves out. it did bring some wintry mix up to the sierra. also a lake wind advisory remains for that stretch, so travel conditions could still be tricky if you're heading up to the sierra, but everywhere else will be dry for the rest of tonight. you will notice, though, some cloud cover lingering around and also some fog starting to develop. notice around the coastline. so we're really going to see that into the early morning hours as well. but we're also going to stretch into some of the interior areas. and that includes even maybe down through the south bay as well for the early morning hours. it's not going to last all day. we're going to get a nice mix of sun and clouds, and here where your temperatures will look like starting at 7 a.m. no frost advisories, no freeze warnings. we'll see some areas dip into the 30s, but that's further up north everywhere else, mostly 40s. and that's going to make way for a lovely afternoon right around noon. here's what we can expect. we start to warm up into the upper 50s. it will be breezy to windy tomorrow at times, especially around the coast, but even stretching down to the south, we're talking 15 to 20. no major gusty conditions that would, you know, be below that wind criteria. as far as advisories. 3 p.m. we're going to start to max out in thos

upper 60s. look at san jose 68 degrees. and i mentioned the wind gusts. again. it's going to be more than likely noticeable. but around the coastline. and also notice san jose at around 230 tomorrow. very similar to what we saw today as far as the breezy winds, long range outlook right now, what can we expect? well, as that high pressure builds in, that's what's going to help warm us up. but it's also going to keep us safe from any rain, at least for the next couple of days. notice it blocks any systems just to our north and that's going to provide the warm up. but i do want to give you a look ahead at the outlook from the cpc. now this is a ten day stretch. keep in mind this is not a forecast. this is a probability. but if you notice, the temperatures are expected to be well above average for a lot of the west coast, not just california. you'll also notice in the 7-day forecast something to look forward to will be the warm up starts tomorrow, but really ramps it up heading into saturday and sunday where we start to see 70s. and that's going to lead us into a nice dry and warm start to monday. we're monitoring those storms to the north, but again, that high pressure is doing a really nice job of keeping us dry and also

sunny heading into tomorrow. so enjoy the lovely evening that you have tonight. you don't have to worry about wet roads, which i think is one of the scariest parts. we see you snuck in a 74 next week. now getting warmer. nice. thanks. vianey. well, up next, the warriors just added two new players as we begin the second half of the season, we're going to tell you who they are coming up next. i guess what i'm looking for from you is, i mean, i know how the fire affected me, and there's always a constant fear that who's to say something like that won't happen again?

that's fair. we committed to underground, 10,000 miles of electric line. you look back at where we were 10 years ago and we are in a completely different place today, and it's because of how we need to care for our communities and our customers. i hope that's true. [j] that's my commitment. [ambient noise]

this friday night against the

kings. today, the team added two new players from the santa cruz warriors. take a look. these are ten day contracts. this is kevin knox. he's a 25 year old who played for the knicks, hawks, pistons and blazers. he averaged 25 points a game in santa cruz. yuri collins is a point guard who played summer league for the warriors the last couple of years. both these players again, are on ten day contracts, which could convert into longer term deals if it works out for them. well, from worst to first. that's what the earthquakes are trying to pull off this year. the team kicks off its mls season this weekend in san jose. the quakes were busy in the off season. they hired high profile head coach bruce arena. the u.s. soccer coaching legend takes over a team that had just six wins in 34 matches last season. team also made a lot of changes to the roster, adding a few international stars who can put the ball in the back of the net. it's always exciting to start a season with a team and especially a new team, so i've

been with a lot of teams that have been in last place, and we've taken on that challenge to try to make them better, and that's the that's the case here as well. so it'll be interesting to see. and i'm i'm excited. when you turn the rear lights on on saturday how these guys can perform. yep. the real lights come on saturday at pay pal park 40 or 49ers earthquakes against real salt lake. more financial woes for forever 21. the fast fashion retailer has been looking for a buyer to try to stay afloat, but a source close to the matter tells cnbc that forever 21 is in talks with liquidators. that's a possible sign that the retailer is struggling to find a buyer, as it considers a second bankruptcy filing. forever 21 first filed bankruptcy in 2019, closing 178 locations, including more than six stores here in the bay area. its latest financial woes come as the company continues to struggle to adapt to new competition posed by online fast fashion brands sheen and temu.

all right, let's show you this new video of an unusual rescue. firefighters in orange county had to airlift a horse to safety. yep, that's a horse in a harness. this is in san juan capistrano last night. the horse named deuce and its rider fell down a ravine and got stuck. deuce was a bit stubborn, so firefighters had to sedate him, then airlift him out. luckily, both the horse and the rider got to safety. and believe it or not, deuce is fine. up next, the chance to be a background actor in green day's new movie. that's kind of cool. we'll tell you how. and let's give you a look inside the control room at rockefeller center. lester holt preparing for nightly news. one of the top stories. federal funding cuts and freezes impacting american farmers. nightly news is digging into the numbers as thousands of farms remain in for all those making it big out there... ...shouldn't your mobile service be able to keep up with you?

get wifi speeds up to a gig at home and on the go. introducing powerboost, only from xfinity mobile. now that's big. xfinity internet customers, cut your mobile bill in half vs. t-mobile, verizon, and at&t for your first year. plus, ask how to get the new samsung galaxy s25+ on us.

sounds nice finding stories between the notes. as we continue to honor black history month, we hear from pianist tammy lynn hall. she took up the piano at the age of four. her career in the bay area began when she enrolled inin the prestigious mills college music program in oakland in the late 80s. she moved to brussels for a couple of years, where she played solo gigs and performed with her band. over the last few decades, she's become a mainstay on bandstands around the bay area and worldwide. you can

watch her full story along with all of our others from our celebrating black heritage series. just go to our website nbcbayarea.com. okay. would you like to be in green bay's new movie? the bay area band is looking for extras for its upcoming film, new year's eve. it's a coming of age comedy inspired by the trio's early touring experiences. casting agents are looking for alternative and rocker young adults between the ages of 18 and 30. you and i are out raj. the four day shoot is scheduled for february 24th in oklahoma city area. tonight at seven, the legendary paul simon is heading back on the road despite suffering from severe hearing loss. home. my thoughts escaping home where my music's playing. yeah. this announcement comes just days after his snl performance right there a few nights ago. how a team of elite stanford doctors made this all possible. that story and more coming up on our 7:00 news. up next on nightly news, new details about an international burglary ring targeting pro

athletes. lester holt joins us from new york right now. tonight, 50 tonight, escalating tensions between the u.s. and ukraine. president trump calling president zelenskyy a dictator. blaming ukraine for the russian invasion. the ukrainian leader slamming him for disinformation. the rapidly deteriorating relationship between once key allies and what it all means for the war. richard engel is on the frontlines. single engine planes collided. charred debris on the runway. what we are learning about the latest fatal aviation accident. doge employees working inside the