here is cheryl hurd. >> this moment is important. we need to recognize michelle's life. >> reporter: many people who came here didn't know michelle go. they felt it was important to be here. >> the fact she did graduate from the high school my kids went and she grew up in fremont. it makes it closer to home. >> reporter: she moved to new york many years ago establishing a career and volunteering and focusing on people with mental health problems. this past weekend someone pushed her in front of a subway train in times square. >> michelle does not deserve this and especially with the last two years of asians hate crime rising. >> when we see this happening time and time again, we need to speak up against this. >> reporter: it is unclear why the person turned themselves in for the crime allegedly attacked go. the suspect has a record of mental health problem from new york to san francisco. people have been coming together to remember go. >> my comments are personal. this is personal. >> reporter: dr. steven chang was her doctor as a ch

cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >>> millions of dollars worth of ppe left out in the rain. san mateo leaders are saying extra safety equipment and cleaning supplies for the pandemic were moved outside of their event center a few months back and the storms hit. supplies include face shields, goggles, gowns, cleaning product like bleach. it's all worth about $7 million. in a statement the san mateo county manager says "we deeply regret this occurred and are hiring an investigator to identify all facts related in the damage and make recommendations to avoid future incidents." ism free covid tests for all americans. the biden administration is hoping a new website will provide access to at-home covid test starting this wednesday you will be able to log on covidtests.gov and place your order. the white house says it also will set up a phone number so americans who don't have internet access can still place their orders. >>> hospitalizations are still skyrocketing in california. state health leaders expect to see this trend for the next few weeks. the blue line shows the number o

don't know how long that will take. >> reporter: cheryl hurd, "today in the bay." >>> the head of theloyment development department of california has resigned after just about one year on the job. rita saenz took over the edd in late 2020 as the department was dealing with a record number of unemployment claims and unprecedented fraud claims. the edd has been heavily criticized throughout the pandemic. the governor appointed the current director of external affairs to take over. she will be sworn in on tuesday. the leadership change comes as the edd tries to sort through pandemic-related fraud claims. more than 1 million californians who received unemployment during the pandemic are being told to prove they were entitled to the benefits or pay them back. >>> turning now to our coronavirus coverage, the u.s. has now hit more than 74 million covid cases. that's according to an nbc news tally. more than 7 million of those cases are right here in california with about 76,000 new daily cases. now state health leaders confirmed more cases of that new omicron subvariant have been detected he

nbc bay area news' cheryl hurd. >> one day in school, next day you're not, in limbo. >> reporter: the mother of montero middle schooler is reacting to sick outs over covid safety. >> i understand, all schools may not have purifiers. >> reporter: at least a dozen schools in oakland were forced to close after more than 500 teachers called out sick. today staff at academy of language called in sick and wil. close to 1,000 students threatening to cut class next tuesday after holiday weekend unless the district moves in-person learning to online instruction and provides kn95 and n95 masks for every student. school board spokesperson flint says school districts all over the state are braekt breaking point. >> they're de facto public health agencies, stretched beyond their capacity of education. i think the federal government needs to do more. >> reporter: in response to the sick outs, oakland unified released a statement saying in part being unable to come to school does a disservice to students and families. everyone on the campuses is masked. schools have excellent ventilation and air pur

cheryl hurd reporting from the east bay. >>> i was looking for the milk. it is very hard to find. >> reporter: and this east bay mom says that's not all. >> toilet paper. the cleaning supplies. >> reporter: everything from milk to medicine gone. grocery stores, drugstores, empty shelves all over the bay area and across the country. san jose state economist robert chapman wood who specializeness strategic management says the supply problem can be blamed on the omicron variant. >> we have millions and millions of people who got covid and what are they going to do? they stay home. they're not moving food. >> reporter: shoppers noticing the change and dealing with it. because they've been through it before. >> that's the way times are now. >> reporter: investors are seeing the pressure it's putting on companies and bracing for high costs for labor. >> there's a problem with getting ships to unload things in port. >> reporter: covid cases and hospitalizations have hit record highs in the u.s. as the highly contagious variant spreads. there's a lot going on. i a

cheryl hurd from the richmond side with the latest. how did this happen tonight?reporter: as of 10:15, chp tells me the bridge has been deemed safe. only one lane open but at 10:40 cars starting flowing, 3 1/2 hours after this deadly crash. >> oh, my gosh, we can't go. we can't go. >> couldn't really back up. it's scary to be stuck behind a car engulfed in flames. >> reporter: so menacing that amelia got out her cell phone and posted them on social media. >> the flames got so high they were touching the top of the bridge, really, really on fire. >> reporter: happening just before 7:00 tonight on the eastbound side of the bridge. at one point amelia and her mom felt their lives were in danger. >> there was span of ten minutes in which he was us and the truck in front of us, wasn't a fire crew, wasn't anything really there to put it out, not even a police officer yet. >> reporter: cause of the crash still unknown. cars were backed up for miles. chp opened up one lane for a short time to escort cars off the bridge. >> detours are still in place tonight, probably will

cheryl hurd. >> reporter: may have gotten flooded with texts and emails from friends telling you how to get your free covid-19 test kit. sandra was excited, tried to order hers today. >> went online, registered. when i put in my information it said the test kit was already going to be delivered to that address. >> reporter: rents a room in home in east bay. >> i thought okay, this could be a problem. >> reporter: a problem americans are facing. hours after the launch, social media was flooded with complaints about people struggling to place orders to homes or apartment buildings where other tenants placed an order. >> every launch comes with risks. can't guarantee there's not a bug or two. >> reporter: what can you do if your order is not going through? tonight, you can email the postal service, call the help desk 1-800-ask-usps. most aren't reporting problems. often getting confirmation within seconds of checking out. who can order tests? available for every residential address in the u.s., including u.s. territories and overseas military, diplomatic addresses. post office boxes inc

in antioch, cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >>> students in hayward unified schools started at home, back to virtual learning now. school district says the problem is staff shortages caused by covid cases. will stay virtual through end of the week and return to in-person learning january 18th after martin luther king jr. holiday. in milpitas, the students are back after district reversed decision to start remote, county urged them to stay open. offered remote if families prefer it. parents noting a stark break. >> brought him in, looked like full campus and lot of traffic. this is night and day from last week. >> originally planned a quarantine to close for ten days. >>> students in oakland continue to protest how the district is handling covid. nearly 700 students signed petition threatening to walk out. among the demands, kn95 masks for every student and covered outdoor spaces to eat in bad weather. gave a deadline of 17th. and spokesperson says we're meeting or in the process of meeting most of the demands noted in the petition and will continue to work towards fulfilling the rest

cheryl hurd has more. ♪♪ >> reporter: the family singing a song of hope for their loved ones and theiring they survived the volcanic eruption in tonga. they got news that their family is alive. >> i am so scared because the little house they stayed on is not a good house. it is not a big house like what we have here. >> reporter: if you are just getting a firsthand look of what this volcanic eruption left behind. you can see homes levelled and piles of rubble covering the street. volcanic ash everywhere. >> i was looking at my family. they were standing and watching the waves and i write down on facebook, run! run! stop doing that. go find a hill. >> reporter: the people there are dealing with a lack of shelter and contaminated water. that's what tom moala is telling his family tonight. >> they need water supply and food. i know there is a food shortage. >> reporter: supplies from new zealand and austria are just arriving. more of what's needed are leaving the port of portland tomorrow. >> it is estimated of 42 pounds of water and food. pretty remarkable for us to get this all together

cheryl hurd reports from the east bay. >> i was looking for milk.oticed that the milk is very hard to find. >> reporter: this east bay mom says that's not all. >> toilet paper, cleaning supplies. >> reporter: everything from milk to medicine, gone. grocery stores, drug stores, empty shelves, all over the bay area and across the country. san jose state's economist robert chapman wood who specializes in strategic management says, the supply problem can be blamed on the omicron variant. >> we have millions and millions of people who got covid and what are they going to do? they stay home, right? if they stay home, they're not moving the food off the pallets and not putting the food on the shelves. >> reporter: shoppers sifting through empty shelves, noticing the change and dealing with it because they've been through it before. investors are seeing the pressure it is putting on customers and bracing for high costs for labor, transportation, and of course, food. >> there is a big problem still with getting ships to unload things in port because things b

cheryl hurd spoke to his sister and best fleenld are remembering the young recruit as a man with a passionor giving. >> it really hurts to lose someone like him. >> reporter: a sad yet strong statement from barbara nguyen who took time out to talk about her big brother david. >> it is very unfortunate that it had to happen to anyone. >> reporter: the nguyen family tonight trying to figure out who shot and killed him tuesday around 4:30 p.m. as he was heading toward the bay bridge. a 28-year-old who had a passion for law enforcement, a former california national guardman and a man on his way to becoming an alameda county sheriff. a dream ended with a bullet. >> seeing his body in that body bag. it was -- i can't even describe the feeling. it's just very unfortunate. just the reality of this. >> reporter: nguyen posted pictures of his reality on facebook like the one showing him guarding the state capitol last january following the january 6th attack in washington, d.c. today the chp giving us details on what has happened to him on tuesday. >> the bullet did strike the right front window of

failing is not an option. >> reporter: cheryl hurd, "today in the bay,". >>> a live look in san francisco right now, beautiful, shadows and sunshine. this is the city where restaurants are anticipating another tough year because of the new omicron surge. some restaurants and bars are dealing with staffing shortages because of sick employees while others the cost of keeping workers tested is costing thousands out of pocket. mayor london reed is calling to revitalize the surge. it had overwhelming demand and ran out of funds last july. >>> another live look for you, this one in san jose where you can see the blue tarp is covering the poor house bistro, it's being moved. the building is being trucked slowly as you see a few blocks down little italy where it will be called home. the cajun restaurant was purchased by google for its plan for downtown campus. crew expected to arrive to its new location by 9:00 this morning. if you are interested on being an onlooker, it's kind of like a parade with a band. >>> covid forces bay area's figure skater alyssa lu to drop out of championship. she does

reporting live in santa clara, cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >> thank you, cheryl.m has been tweeting updates all night long. twitter page is great resource. @nbcbayarea. >>> shake-up in sacramento, head of the employment development department has resigned after year on the job. took over in 2020 as the department was dealing with record number of unemployment claims and fraud claims. edd has been heavily criticized. governor newsom appointed the deputy director of consumer affairs to take over. as the edd tries to sort through pandemic related fraud claims. more than 1 million californians who received unemployment in pandemic are being told to prove they were entitled to the benefits or pay them back. >>> covid headlines, list is growing. late this evening state health officials confirmed more case of the omicron subvariant. now 26 confirmed cases of ba.2. also eye-opening research shows that the subvariant is 1 1/2 times more contagious than the original omicron and circulating in almost half of the u.s. good news, cdc says there's no evidence it's more severe t

here's today in the bay's cheryl hurd. >> the restaurant here in walnut creek had a full staff and theaid he has a reliable team, but getting good workers has been a struggle during the pandemic. >> they don't show up at the interview, but then if you interview and you hire them they don't show up for the work. >> the problem is bay area wide. according to a spokesperson for the golden gate restaurant association, many businesses, including restaurants, are struggling with staffing shortages due to the omicron surge. he says some restaurants are having to close. >> people are sick and they are not coming to work. >> san josÉ state global strategic manager says there's a work shortage because people have options. >> the government has printed up quite a lot of money, and that means that there's a lot of money sloshing around and people have a choice of what job they are going to take. a lot of people are nervous about going into restaurants. >> that also means party and convention cancelations are happening a lot, and there's another problem. some restaurants owners say this variant sur

cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >>> court records show 52-year-old of have been charge four federal offenses, including disorderly misconduct and -- armstrong was identified. he was arrested yesterday zpl now out on $10,000 bond. >>> we have the new detail of if nationwide covid test company. it is closing its door in definitely. that including three bay area oceans, san jose, south ramon. >> reporter: people across the countries and failed to deliver inaccurate results. simply delivering results when people were not tested. the company caused this operation last week. the site were to row open tomorrow. tl company announced today, all of its locations will stay closed. >>> all right, you are ready for the cold? not just the players but a lot of 49ers fans are head. game temperatures anywhere from 0 to 10 degrees. here is tom jensen. >> the bill bar is one of those spots bay area where you can find optimistic 49 fans. >> they are going to win. i know it, i feel it in my heart. >> reporter: the sports bar has a long tradition to support. >> mayhem last week but absolute chaos. we pulled it ou

reporting live, cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >> super stressful for the people who live there. >>>fire outside a shopping mall on the peninsula. investigation under way after shooting in the hillsdale mall parking lot in san mateo, unfolding around 5:30 this evening. officers arrived, someone had been shot, no word what led to the shooting. told that victim is in stable condition. >>> where is michael o'dell, a nurse who left job mid shift stanford, not seen since. they're focusing efforts not far from where chp found his car. jean elle. >> reporter: search and rescue crews walked open space in fremont looking for 27-year-old michael o'dell. >> it's not like him to stop messaging. >> reporter: san francisco roommate says the traveling nurse was last heard from in overnight shift at stanford hospital. >> left work abruptly to go to car to get something, never came back. >> reporter: video shows his car leaving 4:30 tuesday morning but won't say if o'dell was behind the wheel. after not hearing from him, he checked his phone location, dunn barton bridge, eastbound, approaching fremon

cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >>> take a look. in new york city the average daily case rate has dropped by by 50% in two weeks. counts falling in new jersey, rhode island and connecticut. here in california our case count isn't dropping, least not yet. there are signs of hope in our positivity rate. over the past few days, it has starred to level off. are we about to peak here? >> there was a paper just published today that essentially showed us that once you get omicron in your region, it takes about 30 to 40 days, it's very starred and to peak and then come down. so we're at that point now. second is our waste water. i know people have never before in their life thought they'd be looking at waste water to this degree, waste water will tell us the amount of covid in the environment because we excrete it in our stool and our waste water has already peaked and come down with covid. that means our cases should peak the next couple days and take about three, four weeks to come down at the most. >> there are answers in the sewage. the

cheryl hurd. >> reporter: restaurant in walnut creek had a full staff tonight. owner now has a reliable team but getting good workers has been a struggle in this pandemic, he says. >> don't show up at interview, if you hire them, don't show up for work. >> reporter: the problem is bay area wide. according to spokesperson for golden gate restaurant association, many businesses including restaurants are struggling with staffing shortages due to the omicron surge, some having to close. >> people are sick, not coming to work. >> reporter: san jose state global strategic development manager wood says there's a work shortage because people have options. >> government's printed up quite a lot of money, that means there's a lot of money sloshing around. people have a choice of what job they're going to take. lot of people are nervous about going into restaurants. >> reporter: also means party and convention cancellations are happening a lot. and there's another problem. some restaurant owners say this variant surge means some people want to sit outside. when there's a s

cheryl hurd, today in the bay. >>> back to school for students in the east bay. more than 1,200 students are planning a boycott and demanding better covid safety protocols. this is being organized by three sophomore students at met west high school, that's a small school downtown oakland. the petition was signed by more than 1,200 students from various schools, and the students say they want the district to move classes to online instruction. they are also asking for pcr and rapid testing twice a week as well as kn95 masks and n95 masks for all students. the district released a settlement saying we are already meeting or in the process of meeting most of the demands noted in this petition. we will continue to work towards fulfilling the rest in the coming weeks. we thank our students for staying in front of these issues and bringing their concerns to district lineup. late last night we learned staff members at three other oakland elementary schools will be participating in a sickout including accord woodland, bridges academy and united for success academy. >> als

cheryl hurd. nbc bay area news. >>> an update to an attack in oakland's chinatown.say they arrested a man caught on camera shoving a woman to the ground. this happened on january 10th. you see him walk up behind a 70-year-old woman. knocks her down and walks off. today oakland pd say they were able to track down the man. he has not been identified. he's charged with assault and cruelty to an elderly adult. >> if you want to carry a gun, you could soon need insurance. san jose is the first city in the nation to make that rule. the city council is set to vote on it tomorrow. the proposal from mayor liccardo would not only require liability insurance but gun owners to pay an annual fee of somewhere between $25 and $35. those funds would go to programs ranging from domestic violence prevention to mental health and suicide prevention. >> more than 200 san josans every single year suffer death or serious injury because of firearms. we must do everything we can within our power to prevent another family experiencing a devastating loss. >> it attacks legal gun owners, it at

. >> reporter: cheryl hurd. nbc bay area news. >>> a live look at san francisco.estaurants bracing for another tough year because of this surge. restaurants and bars are dealing with staffing shortages. another said, the cost of keeping them and having them and making sure they're vaccinated and tested. they said they're spending thousands out of pocket. mayor breed called on congress to refund the pandemic program that helped restaurants during last year's surge. >> a list of 25 mayors asking congress to please sign additional funding to make these people that are just deserve for the funding that they need so desperately to survive. >> if you remember, there was an offer of forgivable funds to help. it ran out of funds in july. this latest covid spike causing more problems to public transportation in the bay area. muni announced today that more than 100 staff members have tested positive in the last three weeks. they said service disruptions will keep going and it will probably get worse. the priority now, trying to avoid routes. there was a rider alert due to a

reporting live in oakland, i'm cheryl hurd. >> after weeks of cases spiking and worry mounting, it appears we're starting to get on the other side of the omicron surge. let's take a look at some of the numbers. right now, california's positivity rate is, yeah, 20.9%. right? but that's still, yes, it's high, but it's more than 2% lower than it was last week at this time. locally hospitalizations still a big concern. right now, the bay area has more than 1800 people in the hospital. and yes, that is a high number, but we saw more than 2200 people in the hospital during the peak of last year's winter surge. it's not just the numbers offering hope. local tech companies are giving us some new clues about where omicron may go from here. tonight, our business and tech reporter scott budman checks in with phones and thermometers and asks what they're telling us about this variant. >> check a local restaurant, a nearby gym, or a movie theater. four square did. >> people are more comfortable being out and about. >> and we are out. four square born in 2009 to help us find friends and businesses is st