let's bring in jodi hernandez who broke the story on twitter. right now we're going to take a short commercial break and be right back. stay with us. california's public schools rank 44th in the nation. 44th. i'm marshall tuck, i'm a public-school parent, and i know we can do better. in the public schools i led, we got more funding into our classrooms, supported our teachers, and we raised graduation rates by 60%. that's why president obama's education secretary endorses me. we've done it before. now, let's do it for every public-school student in california. i'm marshall tuck. i'm running for state superintendent. >>> want to get back to both of our top stories tonight. the evacuations have been lifted in bay point and pittsburg and the list has been released of those catholic priests in the south bay. >> it was released by the diocese. only five are still alive. one used to work in the south bay. that's where we can find robert handa. live in el viso. >> reporter: there are a l of t priests did make pretty strong connections with their communi

we start with jodi hernandez. she's in calistoga where the lights are back on but many businesses are fired back up. jodi? >> reporter: that's right, janelle, the open signs are back on finally here in downtown calistoga but a block up from here the power is still off. there are a lot of people here who are very angry. it's a beautiful day in downtown calistoga, but the normally bustling tourist spot looks more like a ghost town most of today. empty sidewalks, deserted restaurants, after pg&e cut power last night because of extreme fire risk in the area. >> it's frustrating. i don't understand why we have to be shut down this long. >> reporter: christina st. clair is one of the few who opened anyway. customers shopped to buy flashlights. she made just a handful of sales. >> customers are leaving because they can't eat in town. they can't even get coffee. >> this is the new normal now for how we're going to approach wind conditions and dry weather conditions to shut the power down of entire communities. >> reporter:

a man at the lucky )s told nbc bay area )s jodi hernandez the victim is his 16-year-old nephew. happening today: sentencing for the man known as the gypsy hill killer. jurors last month convicted rodney halbower. he was tried in the murders of two teenage girls in san mateo county. both attacks went unsolved for decades. the girls died in 1976. authorities believe halblower is actually responsible for the murders of (6 young women in the mid 70 )s .. in northern california and reno. he is expected to be sentenced to life in prison. new this morning: san francisco school leaders have reportedly signed off on a new plan .. supporters say will bring more diversity to the city )s top academic high schoo. lowell high is an advanced placement school - one of the top ranked schools in the country. critics say for years .. the problem has been too few african-american students. the chronicle reports board members yesterday voted to open admissions for any qualified applicant from willie brown middle school .. which is predominantly black. lowell bases its admissions mostly on grades and

jodi hernandez joins us from bay point where the family is on a quest for answers. what do we have? >> reporter: that's right. her family has set up this makeshift memorial overlooking the canal where her body was found 12 weeks ago. they still don't have answers. and they're not going to stand for that. >> we obviously haven't even hit yet, i still expect for her to come home, and i know that's not going to happen. >> reporter: stacy eagleton's trying to come to grips with her daughter's sudden and mysterious death. she left their home for a walk on july 16 and never returned home. >> she went for normal walk which she did frequently, and the only difference is this time she didn't return home. preanna's body was found 11 miles from her houloing in a bay sig of trauma or foul play, but they also say it wasn't a open, and the autopsy is not yet complete, but investigators say it appears to be a drowning. >> there's no way in the world she's going to jump in no canal. this right here is mysterious and crazy to me. i think crazy. >> my daughter was murdered. >> reporter: her family is

jodi hernandez has been in sacramento all day. jodi, are agents still on scene? >> reporter: agents are not here any longer, but investigators tell me this was a very dangerous situation. it all came to a head in the back parking lot of this post office of the south sacramento post office. that's where bomb teams did what needed to be done to render the device safe after a very tense morning. local and federaltors converged on the scene of a south sacramento post office. just before 8:00 this morning, an alert postal worker noticed a package that looked alarmingly similar to a wave of packages sent across the country containing explosive devices. >> it was really good work by the postal employees here to identify packages they thought was suspicious. >> reporter: sheriffs investigators and sheriffs task force members went door to door, telling neighbors to shelter in place. then some five hours after the discovery, they confirmed indeed it's what they feared. >> we have determined that this device was in fact a legitimate device, and the federal bureau of investi

jody hernandez joins us live from the oakland diocese. >> reporter: jessica, priest abuse victims are once again outraged. though the oakland diocese here insists they're doing all they can to protect children, victims say it's priests they're really protecting. >> i was at salesian high school in richmond and i was repeatedly molested. >> reporter: joey piscitelli says father steve wheelen began molesting him when he was just 14 years old. >> this priest kind of destroyed my life as a teenager. >> reporter: now nearly 50 years later, whelan has resurfaced in the east bay once again. piscitelli found him listed in a catholic directory as working as a bookkeeper at berkeley's don bosco hall, an institute of salesian studies. >> i think most of the time these priests are being taken care of and the church knows darn well where they are. >> reporter: the revelation comes on the heels of another priest with a credible molestation accusation against him, recently being allowed to preside over a mass in san leandro. the oakland diocese has apologized for that, calling it unauthorized. but t

jody hernandez joins us at the martinez courthouse with what the family claims happened and the verdict the jury reached late today. >> reporter: raj, the details of this case are gruesome, gory, and disturbing. but while the jury ruled today that the crematorium was indeed negligent, the family says they have not gotten justice. >> he was a merchant marine. da. >> reporter: but thhis daughter can't look at a photo of him without breaking down. >> these horrific visions are never going to stop. and there's no way around that. and i don't know what to do about it. >> reporter: they say what happened at alta vista crematory in martinez left them sickened. the facility was supposed to cremate the 91-year-old after sending his body to the coroner for autopsy. his family was trying to determine if he died of mesothelioma. alta vista mistakenly began the cremation too soon. >> the simple error was made that's never been made before, hasn't been made since. >> reporter: they realized their mistake an hour later and pulled jarvis out of the cremation chamber halfway through the process. deliver

nbc bay area's jodi hernandez spoke to two firefighters who didn't hesitate to hit the fire lines, noatter what the personal cost. >> i would venture to say i will never see anything like that again. >> reporter: tony neil has been fighting fires for 21 years, but what happened last october is something he never imagined he'd be faced with. >> this wasn't just someone else's home that you feel bad for. it is your house, your entire street, your entire neighborhood. >> reporter: niel was asleep at home with his family when he was awakened by an automated phone call telling him to evacuate. >> all i could see was this massive wildfire coming down the road. >> reporter: niel and his wife immediately grabbed their two sons and their dog and drove out. >> we knew when we left our house that we weren't coming wa back to it. >> reporter: once his family was heading toward safety niel knew he had to stay behind. despite his children's pleas not to go. >> they said mommy, don't let daddy go, we don't want him to die. and my wife was crying and my boys were crying. i was tearing up. and i said,

nbc bay area's jodi hernandez joins us from the cal campus with the details. jodi? >> reporter: the university says the fbi contacted them at about 11:00 this morning. they wasted no time. and within a couple of hours, they had an alert out to the entire campus. uc berkley police are stepping up patrols on campus tonight. using bomb-sniffing dogs to inspect mail and buildings, after getting a heads up from the fbi, the campus was on the suspected mail bomber's radar. they say cesar sayoc did a google search about the campus that raised the red flag. >> at this time we don't have any information about any specific threats. it's just that there was an internet search with the actual term uc berkley library. >> reporter: aale alert was sen out asking everyone to be on alert. >> we have extra patrols. extra k-9s. >> reporter: students are on edge. some say they will avoid the libraries for a while. >> i saw the nixle alert. i'm aware of the situation and i will make sure if i'm in the library i'm keeping an eye out. >> it's always a great thing to keep everyone updated.

jodi hernandez joins us from the livermore police department with the very latest. jodi? >> reporter: that's right, raj, we just learned the identity of one of the victims, 18-year-old justin miles. justin's former stepfather, scott adams, the creator of the comic strip "dilbert" announced it on social media. his father and mother are heartbroken as they try to piece together what happened. >> we want people talking about it. if there's bad drugs out there, we don't want people taking them. >> reporter: that's warning police are sending out tonight after two livermore teenagers overdosed on what police believe were opioids. a 18-year-old boy died sunday and a 16-year-old girl died yesterday. >> we want to find the source and deal with it that way. >> it's really frightening, and it seems like, it seems very out of our control and really the only thing we have to do is communicate with with our kids. >> reporter: parents say they're scared that more kids could fall victim. >> my fear is that we are going to continue to have more dead students. my fear is that there's nothi

jodi hernandez was in court today for the closing arguments. >> jodi? >> reporter: the last of six suspects charged in a violent crime spree that left an off-duty paramedic dead is close to learning his fate. the first trial of the alleged triggerman ended in a hung jury. tonight the paramedic's family is hoping for a different outcome. >> it doesn't get easier until it's over. >> roger boyar and his family can't wait for justice for his son, quinn boyar. the 34-year-old santa clara county paramedic was shot in the oakland hills during an attempted carjacking in 2013. tonight the trial of the alleged triggerman, christian burton is about to go to the jury. >> it will make me feel better that he could never do this to another person. that would make me feel better. >> burton was just 16 when he and five other teens allegedly tried to carjack boyey. when boyer drive away, burton fired a single shot hitting boyer in the head. sending his car crashing down a hill where he died. the teens then went shopping at macy's. >> part of me understands that no matter

jodi hernandez has more from the silverado community that endured last year's fire. [ siren ] >> reporter: you're listening to the two european-style high-low siren that napa county residents will hear if another disaster strikes. all patrol cars are now equipped with the new sirens and will warn folks if there's a big emergency. >> the only time we will be using that siren is literally the case of an emergency. the d fire, first responders are announcing new tools they hope will help them better respond. tags they to help save first responders' valuable time. >> when we go by their residence and we see that posted we know they're safe and we can move on to the next residence. >> it's still hard to believe how it happened. >> reporter: he lost his grandparents. the elderly couple didn't have time to escape. ted and his own family barely made it out of their home. >> i think a siren type thing is the best thing i've heard in a while. you've got to create a lot of noise especially in the middle of the night to get people up and out. >> reporter: they're grateful changes are in the works. >>

nbc bay area's jodi hernandez is live in oakland. weeks before the archdiocese will publicly name problem priests. jodi? >> reporter: that's right. earlier this week, the oakland bishop promised to release the names of priests who have been credibly accused of sex abuse. but tonight, priest abuse victims say the church is really about enabling abusers and covering up. >> i was at a high school in richmond and in 1969 and 1970 i was repeatedly molested by father steve. >> joey miss ka tell i says the father began molesting him at high school when he was just 14 years old. >> this priest kind of destroyed my life as a teenager. >> now, nearly 50 years later, he's resurfaced in the east bay once again. he found him listed in a catholic directory as working as a bookkeeper at an institute of is he leashian studies. >> most of the team, these priests are being taken care of and the church knows darn well where they are. >> the revelation on the heels of another priest with a credible molestation action against him recently presiding over a

nbc bay area's jodi hernandez joins us in san leandro this evening. jodi, where did these secret recordings a4re7b8llegedly happ? >> reporter: raj, investigators say thodiseecs took place inside this sheriff's substation in san leandro back in march when four juvenile suspects were brought in for questioning. tonight it is a deputy who faces tough questions and felony charges. >> so usually we sit our suspect here. >> reporter: sergeant ray kelly shows us the interview room where prosecutors say a veteran alameda county sheriff's deputy secretly recorded juvenile suspects as they talked to their attorneys. conversations that by law are supposed to be confidential. >> we all know, all of us who work in the criminal justice system, that the attorney-client privilege is sacrosanct and it is a crime to violate that privilege. >> reporter: now the district attorney office has filed four felony eavesdropping charges against sergea russell. they say russell's own body camera video shows him telling his lieutenant he was recording the juveniles. >> well-p if w

nbc bay area jody hernandez joins us now with the very latest. jody? >> reporter: this south sacramento post office has reopened for busine completely different scene out here as the bomb squad, the atf and the fbi dealt with an explosive device. fbi and terrorism task force members went door to door asking residents to shelter in place after an alert postal worker discovered a suspicious package at the colonial station post office this morning. >> the outside packaging looks very similar to the other devices. >> after using robots to help render the device safe, investigators confirmed it was, indeed, what they had feared. >> we have determined that this device was, in fact, legitimate device and the federal bureau of investigation has taken over the investigation. we have now rendered the device safe. >> the package was addressed to senator harris. we do believe that the package is related to the nationwide investigation. >> senator kamala harris issued a statement saying she's enormously grateful to law enforcement for working hard to keep everyone

nbc bay area's jodi hernandez is live in walnut creek where the accusations of big business bullying are flying. jodi. >> reporter: they are, jessica. the jade garden restaurant has been located in this shopping center for more than three decades. whole foods a few doors down has been here two years. but it's this decades-old business whose days are numbered. >> the food is fantastic. the service is second to none. >> reporter: but folks who frequent walnut creek's jade garden restaurant won't be able to get a meal there much longer. after 31 years in business the restaurant's lease is not being renewed by regency centers, the owners of the encina grande shopping center. in a letter to jade garden regency says the whole foods lease prevents the space from being used as a restaurant once their current lease expires. >> i feel so lost. >> reporter: restaurant owner ying wang is heartbroken. she's been running the family business for the past three decades. she waits tables while her husband cooks. their trademark -- quality and consistency. >> my husband's the chef. so i don't think --

jodi hernandez, nbc bay area news. >>> breaking flus out of san francisco. district attorney george gascon is not running for reelection. he says his 90-year-old mother's weakening health was the determining factor to not run for a third term. >>> did you get wet? check out how slick it was. with the rain comes a lot of problems. we had downed trees in the fountain grove neighborhood in santa rosa. this is near the burn zone of last year's fires. we had a roof collapse. the home goods store and the big hole right there. we are getting a break as of now, but what about tonight? let's check in with jeff ranieri. we finally got the rain, what's coming up in the next few hours. >> through tonight and tomorrow some of the spots that were left out could pick up on a little bit more. let's move in and get a look at where the storm system is. it's still offshore, the center of it. but it's going to spin up more instability in our forecast. rainfall totals all over the place. gernville nearly two inches santa rosa over an inch. santa rosa to napa, not that far away,

jodi hernandez has more on this crime wave. >> reporter: these purse snatchings are happening in the most unlikely of places, including at intersections. the bad guys wait for traffic to stop at a red light and then strike. you're looking at a bold purse snatching, caught on camera. dropped off by a get away car, a hooded thief grabs an antioch shopper's purse in a grocery store parking lot full of unsuspecting people. >> our dispatch is noticing a trend of these sort of crimes and wanting people to be aware. >> reporter: but the thieves are getting bolder. the bad guys often aren't waiting for people to stop. >> they k

reporting live in oakland, i'm jodie hernandez, nbc bay area news. >>> a couple dozen people gathering outside san francisco city hall calling for the closure of the jail. it began just over an >> we have a housing and health crisis. and yet the status quo is to respond with law enforcement. >> building inspectors say the hall of justice and jail are os.fu the assistant district attorney office in the.a. has called for somethingo 've also been told t be an announcement about the building on wednesday. discover outside a home in the south bay. a poisoned owl was found on the doorstep. it's reigniting a debate about how to deal with unwanted wild life and prompting a push to create laws to better protect animals. robert handa joins us from morgan hill with the chain reaction that led to the bird's death. robert? >> reporter: that's right. morgan hill is part of this movement. we're in the area where the owl was discovered. in fact, wild life groups tell us owls the native in this area, so very common. the threat is generating social movements all over california to protect them and other

a man there told jodi hernandez that victim is his 16-year-old nephew. >>> a man is nearly beaten to death by a crowd of six people, including three women. it happened at a bar over the weekend at a venue neighbors say has a history of problems. jean elle joins us live. >> reporter: police tell us the 20-year-old man in the hospital have life threatening injuries. paramedics picked him off of a sidewalk outside of a bar, a bar that the city says has security problems. police and fire crews showed up outside club malibu after last call sunday morning. >> we heard sirens. but you always hear stuff from here. >> reporter: they live up the hill from club malibu. she says the venue has a history of noise and security issues. a crowd is shown outside of the bar on the sidewalk. it looks like something is happening behind that truck that's the same time six people, including three women, beat a 20-year-old man so severely, he has life threatening injuries. some in the neighborhood are surprised by the violence. >> maybe further up that way. this is i think the last stop on the route on miss

"today in the bay's" jodi hernandez spoke with two firefighters who didn't hesitate to hit the fire lines no matter the cost. >> i would venture to say i will never see anything like that again. >> reporter: tony neill has been figtding fires for 21 years but what happened last october is something he never imagined he'd be faced with. >> this wasn't just someone else's home that you feel bad for. it is your house, your entire street, your entire neighborhood. >> reporter: neill was asleep at home with his family when he was awakened by an automated phone call telling him to evacuate. >> all i could see was this massive wildfire coming down the road. >> reporter: neill and his wife immediately grabbed their two sons and their dog and drove out. >> we knew when we left our house that we weren't coming back to it. >> reporter: once his family was headed toward safety, neill knew he had to stay behind, despite his children's pleas not to go. >> they said mommy, don't let daddy go. we don't want him to die, and my wife was crying and my boys were crying, i was tearing up and i said, bubbas, i

jodi hernandez has more on this crime wave. >> reporter: these purse snatchings are happening in the most unlikely of places, including at intersections. the bad guys wait for traffic to stop at a red light and then strike. you're looking at a bold purse snatching, caught on camera. dropped off by a get away car, a hooded thief grabs an antioch shopper's purse in a grocery store parking lot full of unsuspecting people. >> our dispatch is noticing a trend of these sort of crimes and wanting people to be aware. >> reporter: but the thieves are getting bolder. the bad guys often aren't waiting for people to stop. >> they know you have a red light and you can't go anywhere. they open the door, take the property. what are you going to do? >> reporter: they say make sure bags and purses aren't ever visible inside your car whether you're inside or not. >> i didn't feel safe anymore. >> reporter: veronica ruiz has been on edge ever since hearing about the bold snatchings. she's now putting her purse under her driver's seat and putting herself on guard. >> i have to make sure there's no one w

. >> reporter: jodi hernandez, nbc bay area news. >>> new the ups store right next door also lost its lease. the county planning commission will discuss the plan at its meeting tonight, and jade garden owes current lease ends february 28th. >>> happening today, leaders in the cannabis industry are gathering in oakland to contemplate marijuana's future. it's a three-day summit that's happening at the marriott city center. leaders will talk about developments in the cannabis space from all kinds of angles, and the event also includes a job fair. >>> well works can forget when coyote creek flooded in february of last year leaving so many san jose homes unlivable. now san jose is teaming up with airbnb to make sure that people have housing options the next time a disaster hits. about 30 minutes ago the city and website announcing a new initiative. they are calling the host core that will offer temporary housing options that the city can quickly access. >> it's now been nearly ten days since saudi journalist jamal khashoggi disappeared and saudi arabia's crown prince has ordered all -- ord

our jodi hernandez spoke to two firefighters who lost their homes as they saved others. male: i wouldto say i will never see anything like that again. jodi: tony niel has been fighting fires for 21 years, but what happened last october is something he never imagined he'd be faced with. tony niel: this wasn't just someone else's home that you feel bad for. it is your house, your entire street, your entire neighborhood. jodi: niel was asleep at home with his family when he was awakened by an automated phone call telling him to evacuate. niel: all i could see was this massive wall of fire coming down mark west springs road. jodi: niel and his wife immediately grabbed their two sons and their dog and drove out. niel: we knew when we left our house that we weren't coming back to it. jodi: once his family was heading towards safety, niel knew he had to stay behind despite his children's pleas not to go. niel: they said, "mommy, don't let daddy go. we don't want him to die." and my wife was crying and my boys were crying. i was tearing up and i said, "i got to go. i'm not going to die." jodi