cheryl hurd is in oakland with a sensitive story. >> reporter: you said the right word, raj. there's only one way to describe this story for mark action. a detailed account of the extortion plot. the victim is warriors head coach, mark jackson. he told the fbi he had an extra marital affair six years ago with a former stripper. he says the affair lasted less than a year. the complaint says jackson sent adams pictures, some of them with no clothes. and some focusing on his private parts. the document says, when it became clear he was not going to leave his wife, he was approached by a man named marcus shaw, in tennessee, wanting $500 for those pictures. >> because they're paid off initially doesn't mean it's going to end at that point. >> reporter: the smoking gun broke the extortion story on its website this morning. jackson says shaw sent e-mails and called his wife, making threats and demanding money. he paid him $5,000. >> the people who do this know they've got somebody in a situation where they can continue to ask for money. >> reporter: later, he told authorities he was

reporting live in downtown oakland, i'll cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >> thanks, cheryl. we want everybody to know that ac transit is free today, so a little bit of good news there. >>> let's check on the commute in san francisco with nbc bay area's monte francis. he's live at the embarcadero b.a.r.t. station with commuters trying to get back to the east bay. monte. >> reporter: good evening. it's not just commuters who are trying to get out of the city. you have fans leaving the giants game at at&t park and also the u.s. open is happening at the olympic club. so you add those people to the 184,000 commuters that use the transbay tube every day and you have quite a mess. this is the situation right now. this was the scene just a short time ago before 4:00 here at the embarcadero station as the first train with passengers rolled through the transbay tube. b.a.r.t. is now running what's called limited double track service. that means trains are running in both directions, but slower than usual, and there should be residual delays all night long. also ac trilt is running eme

reporting live in brentwood, cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >> thank you, cheryl. it's been more than three years since bernie madoff admitted to running a financial scheme that swind swindled thousands out of billions. in exchange, peter madoff has agreed to a ten-year prison term you can according to court documents filed today. paying $143 billion is also part of peter madoff's plea deal. it's a promise he will unlikely be able to keep. the sentence is much lighter than the 150 years handed down to his brother bernie. >>> the controversial public safety program was based on wrong information. a public announcement group challenged city hall earlier this month, claiming the crime numbers didn't add up. the theory is that 90% of oakland shootings and homicides occur on the same 100 streets. the city would not identify those areas or release the raw data, prompting further criticism and shrouding the plan in secrecy. the mayor gee fended the plan. >> many of the neighborhoods have for decades dealing with violence and homicide rates. that's the issue we're trying t

cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >> tee time is 9:15. >>> sierra lamar went missing in morgan hill. in less than an hour, the search for her will continue. the reward to find her is at $35,000. her family hopes a bigger reward will prompt someone to come forward with information regarding her where abouts. a man is charges with killing her even though her body has not been found. >>> one of the most notorious kidnapping cases in u.s. history. a group of masked men took a bus of school children hostage and hid them in. >> they were young. they had no ia the impact that would be on the families, you know, the kids themselves and their families. >> reporter: after spending 35 years behind bars for committing one of the most high profile kidnappings, this 57-year-old is about to go free. he, his older brother and a friend kidnapped 26 children and their bus driver in 1976. then buried them alive in a livermore rock quarry. they planned a $5 million ransom. the children escaped before they could carry out their plan. >> 35 meters. nobody was hurt in the case. i think he's done his time.

there's certain steps that need to be taken. >> and that was cheryl hurd reporting. this is the statement from alta bathes medical center. the medical center immediately conducted a thorough investigation and ultimately completed performance, improvement plans in our processes to prevent an event like this one from happening again. >>> the first of july done get as much attention as the fourth of july but it is the start of a new this in kel year for the state of california. a b.a.r.t. tack passed in 2008 means santa clara county's sales tax increase from 8.25% to 8.37%. a mandate that public schools create plans to deal with pulleyipulle pulleyipullebully complaints. tats too parlors have to meet standards. the first day of controversial fau grois ban. self-bay area restaurants are holding last-minute parties to give fans of the expense everybody dish one more chance to get it legally. >>> riding a bus or parking in san francisco you might want to bring extra change. starting tomorrow muni fares increase by bone dollar. if you park illegally expect to pay $62 depend

cheryl hurd joins us from richmond tonight. what happened? >> reporter: council meetings here in richmond are always lively. two weeks ago, one man's opinion created outrage in this community. personally, i don't like gays. >> reporter: mark wasburg made that clear on may 22nd. his controversial comments during a discussion on gay pride was uploaded on youtube. >> i think it's funny. >> reporter: he is heard laughing after someone spoke about a gay teenager committing suicide. his reaction prompted so much shock and outrage, about 100 people showed up to tonight's meeting. >> show us who we can be, when we stand as one richmond, undivided, with love for each and every one of us. >> we know that hate speech is a distraction to divide our community, when really, we're supposed to be coming together. >> reporter: and come together, they did. the majority of the young people are members of rise, a community organization that supports the lgbt youth. they come to the council meeting to accept a proclamation. instead, they were greeded by wasburg.

cheryl hurd joins us from west oakland tonight. >> reporter: we know that atf officials have been asked to come in by oakland fire, to help with this investigation. that means that this fire is suspicious and that oakland fire needs help. meanwhile, this building has been red-tagged. and security guards are here, making sure no one tamps with possible evidence. >> one of our missions is to investigate arson. >> reporter: atf special agent helen dunkle says, it's too early to tell if someone intentionally set this fire in oakland. but oakland fire crews felt the blaze was suspicious enough to have the feds come in to investigate. >> the fire was about a city-long block. and due to the dollar loss and that b.a.r.t. was shut down and such. >> reporter: atf agents have access to resources that can accurately determine what started the fire. >> we have access to accelerant detection canines should we need them. we have access to a team of individuals within atf that have worked fire scenes. >> reporter: just after 2:00 a.m. thursday morning, flames ripped through the senior center under cons

cheryl hurd joins us outside antioch police headquarters. >> reporter: i spoke to the victim in this case. he assures me he does not trying to be a hero. in fact, he says he gave up his wallet. but that wasn't enough. he was shaken up tonight and didn't want to talk on camera. but his neighbors did. and his neighbor may be the one who saved his life. eric gilbert can't believe he is alive. the man you see here robbed him at gunpoint in his driveway in antioch. it was all caught on tape. >> i heard someone say get the gun out of his face and i recognized eric's voice. >> he pulled the trigger on him in the car. okay? didn't go off. he pulled the trigger as he's pushing him towards his house. my daughters are in there. he's not going to open the door. the guy opens the trigger again, he better open the door. >> reporter: he watched the surveillance video on our laptop computer. >> eric went to the door. at the time he went, i opened the garage door and started making noise. the guy heard it. looks around. and eric seized the time. he got his key in and slammed the door in. >> reporter:

cheryl hurd sat down with the woman known as mrs. kbuds en. >> ruth's outfits are not complete without a hat. hats are her life. >> i always wore hats. i just started wearing hats. >> her journey to san francisco is a colorful one. born in paris, texas, she is the youngest of 10 children. at age 16, she ran away from home, moved to los angeles to live with her sifter and worked for a telephone tuchl. she decided san francisco would be a good home for her and selling hats would be a good business. stormer san francisco mayor willie brown was good friends with her over the years. >> being the person she is, a genius at marketing, she saw a niche that needed to be filled in san francisco. >> she believed that the city needed a hab dashry and found a good spot to set up spot. nearly 40 years later because of failing health and a recession, she was forced to close her doors on april 29th. >> i'm a little depressed about the shop. but that was my baby. here i am. stuck in the middle. >> she is in the middle of a personal fight to keep her

cheryl hurd is there on the scene. a tense situation for cops. >> reporter: a very tense situation. the s.w.a.t. team and hostage team is here. we are a couple of blocks away. what we're told, this all started as an alameda county deputy sheriff spotted a stolen car around 8:00 this evening. there was a short chase. police say one of the suspects inside the car fired at the officer. but fortunately, no one was hurt. there were apparently three suspects inside the car. at least one of them went inside the home. and took a family hostage. a mother, a child,nd a father. let's listen in now to oakland police officer, johnna watson. >> at that time, he entered the vehicle. a house, a residence in the 500 block of hyde street. there's a woman, a child and a man inside the home. they have left the home and currently have a hostage situation. the hostage situation is, one suspect, we're considering him to be armed and dangerous. did shoot at the alameda county deputies this evening. he is in the home with another adult. we're having communication and dialogue with the suspect. >> reporter:

here's nbc bay area's cheryl hurd from the olympic club. >> here at the u.s.eople seem to be fascinated with the number 8. for some it's lucky and for others, it is not. on top of the hill to get a glimpse of the best golfers in the world is not easy. this is why. careful, careful. we are getting there. coops. >> i was slipping down and can't breathe now. i'm out of breath. i don't know how the guys are doing it. it's very tough. the hilliest course i have ever seen. >> they figured out the best way to tackle the hill. she took her shoes off and others didn't know what to do to make it to the top. >> a lot of people are falling down the hill. everyone is wiping out. the ones that are impressed don't have the drinks. >> surprised if you got to the top is a glimpse of your favorite golfer. tiger woods, phil mickelson and bubba are the fan favorites at the u.s. open. >> we're have been following them and we are driving back and hitting the night. >> you want to see your favorite players and there is only so much space you can get to. it's a beautiful day and we a

reporting live in east oakland, cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >> firefighters got lucky today. >> 24there will be off shore and humidity will be lower. the fire is only two acres but in that heavily populated region. here's what is going to happen. hot spots expected for saturday. with the winds anywhere from 15 to 25 miles per hour it's not going to be extreme. but it's just enough that we could see more fires sparked here as we head into the upcoming weekend with the offshore wind developing not only for the oakland hills but for a good section of california. we'll have more details on the red flag fire warning and 90-degree heat coming up. >> thanks, jeff. >>> new tonight at 11:00, family and friends of bryan stow are hopeful justice will be served after learning the two men accused of beating the man will stand trial. after six days of testimony the judge says there is enough evidence to proceed for louie sanchez and marvin norwood's trial. prosecutors played a secret jailhouse recording of the suspect in which they admitted to the attack and discussed how to defend themselves in

she went public with her story last month and talked with our own cheryl hurd about her three years of sexual abuse by a middle school p.e. teacher. she had planned to hold a clinic, but the board of directors deciding this week to cancel that event. she believes the board is just concerned about the country club's ties to that school district. >>> 4:37. another key meeting on plans for -- a final public hearing will be held at the san francisco bay conservation and development commission. officials could also vote on whether to approve permits for construction along the water front. meeting is at 1:00 p.m. at the ferry building. >> looks like might be a nice day to go out and do a little sailing. >> wouldn't that be nice? >> bring that sunshine back. >> bring back that sunshine is exactly right. good morning to you. we are bringing it back right off the bat this morning. we don't have low clouds at this point. we could see some develop. watching that golden gate bridge live shot. we have winds that are strong enough to keep that fog from settling right to the surface. >> good weather

reporting live in oakland, i'm cheryl hurd. >>> two fires, one that destroyed a los gatos home could be a relationship breakup. police arrested brandon kramer. he is accused of setting fire to his ex-girlfriend oes home twice. kramer posted a $500,000 bail and is out of jail tonight. the girl's family has renovated the home. and the mother says she is relieved an arrest is being made. >>> officials from the allem rock school district got an earful from hundreds of people worried about their children. >> good evening. parents say there's a disparity between a handful of charter schools and others in terms of performance. they packed this community center tonight to help level the playing field. karen martinez says she knows the difference between a high and low-performing school in the allem rock school district. >> my heartaches as a community person is that the fact that my neighbor will get different education that my children are getting. >> reporter: martinez says the district failed her first five children. but her two youngest who are enrolled in charter schools are thriving. o

reporting live in oakland, i'm cheryl hurd. >> that fire in october of 1991 is what caused firefighters to respond toe so quickly to today's fire and in large numbers. what started as a small grass fire turned into one of the deadliest fires in california histo history killing 25 people and destroying some 4,000 homes and apartment units. old, narrow streets stopplowed access to the flames. incompatible radio frequencies prevented some first responders from talking with each other, and fire hoses that weren't compatible with some hydrants. that deadly fire sparked changes and was a learning tool to firefighters not only in the bay area but across the country. and in today's brush fire, firefighters were not the only heroes. kimberly tere has the story of one man who manage d to pull a complete stranger out of arm's way. kimberly. >> reporter: this hayward man just jumped into action going to where there was need for where we are. you can see the scorched hillside where the fire burned just under two acres now. when gary came upon it, he says the fire was only about three feet wide but,