deadly storms ravaging towns and cities with tremendous force new details just coming into our nbc newsroom mplgs and the omicron variant of covid gaining traction some forced to quarantine or bench many star players and personnel. >>> it started as a dash-for-cash student at the hockey game for teachers but the payoff turned out to be humiliating and nothing like they planned >>> pets in need, following the deadly tornado in nine states. many dogs and cats are now in need of new homes. nbc news' tim furlong shares their stories. >>> the boss may have sold his entire music catalogue for a record breaking half a billion, yes, with a "b." not too shabby for a guy from the swamp in new jersey. "early today" starts right now. >> good morning, thanks for joining us i'm steven romo in for frances >> i'm phillip mena. >>> a power. and fast storm brought snow and dangerous wind gusts up to 107 miles per hour in colorado that system has not spun up a tornado or two in minnesota. >> it's crazy. like my mom went upstairs to get a flashlight it felt like a train going through. but it didn't last very l

and "newsroom" nbc, rachel madieu preparing to leave.gned off in december without a warning. >> for the first time in 62 years my biggest worry is for my country. >> over at fox, a different departure, lou dodd out, after a defamation lawsuit. at the end of the year, chris wallace announced that he's leaving fox on his own terms. number 8, oprah's bombshell interview with prince harry and meghan markle. with the duchess of sussex citing concerns about the baby's skin color. >> i just can't want to be alive anymore. >> fallout from the interview rippled across social media when a co-worker called out piers morgan for his anti-meagen rants he stormed off. >> you continued to trash her. >> no, no. >> sorry. >> no, no -- >> see you later, sorry, can't do this. >> absolutely diabolical behavior. >> he then left the network. as for harry and meagen, they're making podcasts and tv shows which leads me to number 7, giants trying to get even bigger investing more in streaming to keep you subscribed. streaming to spin off warnermedia including cnn

nbc bay area. >> going to the newsroom listening to that. thanks for joining us tonight.e a great day tomorrow. >> bye-bye. >>> tonight, new york city announcing the strictest vaccine mandate in the country as the omicron variant spreads. new york city's first in the nation mandate requiring all private sector workers to get vaccinated by december 27th it comes as omicron is now confirmed in 20 states, while the delta variant drives a surge in hospitalizations our exclusive inside the icu being pushed to 200% capacity. >>> also tonight jussie smollett taking the stand at his trial. what the actor told the jury about the brothers he's accused of paying to stage a hate crime attack on himself. >>> plus, new details about the parents of the alleged michigan school shooter what we're learning about their time on the run. police interviewing the person of interest whose art studio is where they were arrested. >>> the diplomatic boycott of the 2022 beijing olympics as tensions rise with china. >>> president biden set to hold a high stakes call with president putin. can the pres

nbc bay area. >> going to the newsroom listening to that. thanks for joining us tonight.-bye. [ cheers and applause ♪ >> steve: from studio 6b in rockefeller center, in the

newsroom tonight. we have a new member of our nbc family. look at this gem. hazel is the daughter of our photo journalist, she was born saturday night, hazel and mom are doing well, and robbie, the proud dad tells us it's only a matter of time before hazel gets out on skis threading the slopes. that family is all about -- >> they are dedicated. >> snow skiing, water-skiing, everything. mom and dad, big-time. congratulations to all of you. we're so happy. >> we were. and we have good news for robbie. >> the hazel forecast. >> we've got quite a bit of snow across the sierra. good news for the drought, and primarily early next week we're looking at two to four feet of snow for the sierra, from a more powerful storm system. we'll see the same thing at 11:00 p.m. tomorrow morning, yes, we start off with more cloud cover, but there are signs we could see breaks of sun as we head through tomorrow afternoon. we are going to start off in the 40s. lots of upper 50s and low 60s throughout the bay. a few more spotty shower chances wednesday, thursday, dry saturday and su

nbc bay area. >> going to the newsroom listening to that. thanks for joining us tonight.e a great day tomorrow. >> bye-bye. [ cheers and applause ♪ >> steve: from studio 6b in rockefeller center, in the heart of new york city, it's "the tonight show" starring jimmy fallon tonight join jimmy and his guests - jonah hill tig notaro musical guest dan anshay and featuring the legendary roots crew >> questlove: 1565 >> steve: and now here is jimmy fallon ♪ [ cheers and applause [ cheers and applause ♪ >> jimmy: oh my goodness wow, thank you please enjoy yourselves. welcome, everybody welcome, welcome, welcome to "the tonight show. thank you for watching [ cheers and applause well, guys, let's get to some news here. today, the biden administration announce a diplomatic boycott of the beijing winter olympics over human rights concerns in china. that's right u.s. athletes are still competing but the politicians will not be there. [ laughter ] [ applause ] nothing will convince china to change their ways like not sending the secretary of agriculture to the olympics. [ laughter ] wh

nbc bay area's kris sanchez joining us now. what do we need to know. >> santa clara county public health officials are going to start talking about this case right now. we are monitoring that in the newsroom. but they say it really was just a matter of time before that fast-spreading omicron variant was de10thed here in the bay area and here in santa clara county in particular. they are doing the introductions right now and we'll be listening in for when they start with the real meat and potatoes of information we want to know. we're expecting dr. sarah cody any moment, and here she is. let's listen in. >> -- brisk december morning. so i want to share with you updates regarding omicron here in santa clara county. i have two related updates and then i'm going to turn it over to the doctor to talk bhoer vaccination and boosting. so yesterday we received our first report of a resident of santa clara county with the omicron variant. this person was fully vaccinated, but not yet boosted. they first had some symptoms on november 30th. got tested on december 1st, and we received the sequencing results yesterday that confirmed that they have the omicron variant. they had very mild symptoms, which

nbc bay area news. i'm terry mcsweeney. >> and i am audrey asistio. we desperately need it and it has arrived. take a look at this video just into our newsroom.s is along highway 17 near los gatos. you can see, it's really coming down. >> live look outside across the bay area now, and you can see there is rain on some lenses and rain on all the streets. this is video from earlier-this evening now from highway 101 in san francisco. rain coming down. >> look at that. we do have live team coverage tonight. sergio quintana is in marin county. and marianne favro is in the south bay. but first, let's go ahead and get straight to meteorologist rob mayeda. so, rob, this is just the beginning of the storm? >> yeah, the beginning of the storm really impacting primarily the north bay for most of the day. and you can see the top rain totals up there towards marin county and sonoma county. san rafael, more than 3 inches of rain. actually, approaching about a half foot of rain atop mt. tam right now. san francisco crossing half inch of rain but a lot less in the rain-shadowed santa clara valley. san jose not seeing much but the santa cruz mountains going o