our tech reporter scott budman reported this at 2:00 p.m. dow futures fall more than 300 points on concern about russian escalation at the border of ukraine. by 4:00, that number had grown to 400. >>> here in the bay area, those changes are being watched with a concern and outright fear. as scott budman explains, soviet families and experts worry that we're now on the brink of war. others say it's already begun. >> reporter: with russian plt vladimir putin formally recognizing the independence of two breakaway regions of eastern ukraine and reportedly ordering russian peacekeeping troops into those areas, local experts say the situation is dire. >> if they tried to take kyiv, it could be tens of thousands of people who would die. >> reporter: dr. katherine stoner, director of stanford's center on democracy, says damage to ukraine, the second largest country in europe and a huge source of agriculture, could have worldwide implications. >> in a sense i would just say that the invasion in a way has begun in terms of economic damage that is bein

in menlo park, scott budman, nbc bay area news. >> thank you, scott. >>> up next, stepping up safety. the new plan to protect the asian community in san francisco. >>> his cruise is canceled because of the pandemic, so why can't he get his money back? i'm consumer investigator chris chmura, nbc responds next. >>> we're seeing a lot of clouds in san francisco, not a lot of rain chances moving forward. when 70s make a comeback in our seven-day forecast when we come right back. everyone celebrates the finish line, but what about the starting line? i went through 12 treatments of chemotherapy. ♪ i am african american and i am surrounded by people who aren't. ♪ i didn't become a snowboarder until after i became an amputee. we all win when everyone can get to their starting line. ♪ >>> as the year of the tiger kicks off, there are new efforts to make our streets safer for asian-americans. today a san francisco supervisor and community groups outlined their plan for the sunset district. here is nbc bay area's christie smith. >> reporter: residents in san francisco's sunset district can expec

our business and tech reporter scott budman explains she didn't think apply, he's posting her rÉsumÉn a place where the company is sure to see it. a bay area art student is >> i'm willing to do anything to get my shot. >> it means showing up right in front of pixar headquarters to show them what she can do. >> i kind of just try to come here and get used to drawing every day at my dream studios. >> reporter: using chalk art to show her skills, drawing characters made famous in pixar movies. she may still be waiting for the company to call, but she's already a huge hit on tiktok with more than 4 million views so far. >> it's really cool connecting with that many people, but the only opinions that matter to me are the professional artists here. >> reporter: and pixar employees have already noticed her and her work. >> one of the art directors kind of -- he was riding his bike and he stopped in the middle of the road and he said i found you, it's you, you're the one who's been doing it. yeah, that's me. >> reporter: she appreciates the feedback she's been getting from actual pixar emplo

nbc bay area's scott budman explains the concern now.e season. >> reporter: yeah, the latest warning comes from the people here at valley water who tell us despite a solid december full of rain, we're facing, yet again, drought conditions and an early fire season unless we get more rain soon. the good news, december rain pumped a lot of water into our reservoirs and turned the hills we see every day green along with a big bump for our snow pack. but -- >> we have had backsliding in the sense of a horrible january, one of the worst januarys on record. february, to date, no rain. >> reporter: and valley water says the optimism we felt just a month ago is waning as our plants and hills once again dry out. >> but it actually wasn't that much net precipitation to us because the ground was so dry, we didn't get as much runoff as we wanted. >> reporter: which means even though it's february, climate watchers are already starting to worry about fire risk. >> it's the fuel moisture we really worry about because if plants are really moist, they do

let's bring in scott budman who joins us on the campus awaiting for the former vice president. well, good evening, raj. things are quiet outside the hall on the stanford campus, we are a few hours ahead as mike pence talking to people. as well as stanford, the folks tell us they appreciate that the former vice president came to talk even may disagree of what he had to say. >> reporter: writing things like love and not hate outside the field hall where pence is scheduled to speak tonight. >> the stanford students really lean liberal so to say they're going to go simply because of the vice president and want to see him in person but they don't care to hear much about what he has to say. >> reporter: his topic is how to save america from the woke left. >> we know stanford is a cesspool of liberalism. >> our goal is to have them come and participate in the q&a. get an intellectual debate which is what college is all about. >> reporter: students and professors say they welcome pence even if they don't agree with him. >> i think it is terrific. i won't say it is terrific because it im

she is aus struck, exactly what you hope to see in your kid. >> reporter: scott budman, nbc bay area news. >>> we have much more ahead. coming up, we take you live to washington, d.c. for our weekly interview with chuck todd, who has a preview of this week's "meet the press." in new york city, ♪ ♪ there's always something new to discover. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ come be a part of it. plan your next vacation at iloveny.com >>> welcome back. it is time now for our weekly discussion with chuck todd, nbc news political director and moderator of "meet the press." hi, chuck. as always, good to see you. >> good morning, kira. >> in the last 24 hours we saw russia test launch ballistic cruise missiles while still denying any plan to attack ukraine. you have two guests speaking to what is unfolding in this crisis. is an attack really going to happen? >> well, there are more signs that seem to be pointing to it. the biggest one this morning is the fact that, if you recall a week ago, russia claimed that the military exercises that were taking place in belarus, which borders ukraine, were just that, milita

. >> i'm scott budman. concern in ukraine leading to cyber concerns here at home. just ahead, how to protect yourself, your gadgets and your private data. >>> also detectives say he's tied to more than 50 cases in the south bay. how they finally tracked down this burglar. the news at 6:00 starts right now. thanks for being with us on this wednesday. i'm raj mathai. >> i'm jessica aguirre. too cold to stay outside. that is the warning. temperatures are going to begin dropping again tonight and san francisco firefighters are concerned about the city's homeless. just last night, a fire at a homeless encampment killed a woman and left three men hurt. there's going to be changes with the firefighters going out actually to see where people are. >> reporter: yeah, there's a bunch of volunteers and staff members that give a lot of support to the homeless services here. there is a head count starting here tonight. it comes as the cold snap is creating dangerous situations for the people who are living in the streets. here in the city they are opening up three different site

only on nbc bay area, scott budman says she records after she works. >> reporter: jesse wants a job at pixar. she shows the animation studio a little of her work up close. >> i am the animation society president at my school, and i take animation really seriously. >> reporter: drawing characters from their movies in chalk right outside pixar headquarters. >> i kind of just try to come here and get used to drawing every day at my dream stewed. >> reporter: she dreams of walking through the gates as an actual pixar animator. she's already getting feedback from the source about her work. >> one of the art directors kind of -- he was riding his bike and he stopped in the middle of the road and he said i found you, it's you, you're the one who's been doing it. yeah, that's me. >> reporter: while she's still waiting for the call from the studio -- ♪♪ -- she's getting plenty of attention for her tiktoks, which have racked up 4 million views. jesse says she appreciates the feedback she's been getting from actual pixar employees, but it says she also took the time to send in an actual applicati

scott budman, "today in the bay." >> how cool is that. way to go, jesse. >> 4:52 for you. make it in the bay. tens of thousands of places are vacant in san francisco right now, so a new report done by the city shows that more than 40,000 housing units are empty, about 10% of the available housing in the city. for the majority not affordable. well, the city now considering what vancouver did to address the problem. >> they passed an empty home tax, and when vancouver did that, they actually saw the vacancy rates in the city by drop by over 20% once they instituted that tax, so we think that's the strongest thing that the city could do is to incentivize these owners to either rent out the property or sell it to someone who wants to live there. >> most housing advocates believe a tax would help solve the problem. >> teeing o.still ahead, a preview of the highly anticipated pebble beach pro-am and the famous faces expected to be spotted out on the green. >> after years of delays, it's finally open. starting this morning you can cross the pedestrian bridge that was originally d

nbc bay area's scott budman explains the concern now. fire season.

scott budman, nbc biden administration news. >> still such a heart breaker. athletes are undergoing a lot of testing just to be at the winter olympics. before you even get to china, they had to take two covid tests, then another one once they arrived at the airport. once inside that closed loop, athletes are given a daily pcr test. and if a result comes back positive, like it did for zhou, they are tested again. if the second test comes back positive, they head to isolation. if the athlete has no symptoms, they are allowed to leave isolation once they get two consecutive negative pcr tests 24 hours apart. now, from podium mishaps to a skier having to ajust after losing her ski, we have all those olympic moments you missed, the good and the bad coming up in about 12 minutes, garvin thomas is going to join us to give us perspective and talk about what we're all talking about this olympics. >> have your vaccine card handy if you're going to berkeley. the city is tightening some of its rules for workers and customers r if you work at a restaurant, a theater or a

here is scott budman with the reaction to the newest delay for bart to the south bay. >> reporter: i am here at the train station, one of the planned stops for bart when it gets to san jose. but a new report says it could take until 2034 to get here. the federal transit administration says the plan to bring bart to san jose could now be $4 billion over vta's original budget and take four years longer. describing vta's plans to bring bart here as, quote, optimistic. but vta says it's still making progress and is good with fta's goals. >> over the next two years in advancing your design and as you do that demonstrate to us and present a more cost certain and schedule certain project. >> reporter: this is not the first time we've heard about bart delays. >> there is no question that this project is going to cost more and it's going to take longer. >> reporter: san jose mayor sam la cart a points out the fta helping to fund the extension, but warns that discussions about changing the way the tunnels are built will only make things take longer. >> so adding three years and hundreds of mil

our own scott budman was along the parade route, and gives us a look. >> reporter: yeah, huge night here in san francisco for the chinese new year parade. people tell us the best thing is that they can get outside and take it all in. it got loud in san francisco. with lots of dancers, lots of lions, and big crowds lining the streets able to, once again, enjoy the city's famed-chinese new year parade in person, and celebrate the resiliency of the local aapi community that is endured a pandemic and rise in hate crime. >> it's great to see all the communities in san francisco come together. and i know for us, like i haven't been able to celebrate this holiday with my family for a long time. so, this has been really great. >> just reminds you of why san francisco is great. and the things we missed out on earlier in the pandemic. >> reporter: a pandemic that kept this family home last year. >> we have been coming since she was three. so, it's a family tradition. >> did you mits last year? >> yes, we watched on tv and it wasn't the same. >> my parents [ inaudible ]. >> but this year, sidewalks

eventually they man to sell it for about $200,000. >> not bad. >> reporter: in los altos, scott budmanews. >> pretty cool. >>> have you noticed now what's happening at the winter olympics? not much winter. the snow you see there, the hardly any snow you see is all fake. they had to spend about $60 million to create enough of the fake snow. at the mountain venue outside beijing, the area only gets an average of just over an inch of snow in february and global warming may be to blame. a new study found the past 70 years, beijing has warmed up about nine degrees in february. >> not the experience, or the sort of feel that you're used no in competing in a winter destination. i think they're seeing firm conditions so that's positive in some ways. they're not seeing deteriorating conditions. the temperatures are still cold in beijing. >> they're cold but not much snow. you see rob mayeda doing the interview this. by the end of this century, only one of the 21 winter olympic host cities would be suitable for the winter olympics. that city, sapporo, japan. you can watch the full conversation o

scott budman breaks it down. >> reporter: trains, phones and automobiles all affected bit by the shutdown of the 3g network. if you have a really old phone like that flip phone. >> it is a stupid phone. >> reporter: it's time to upgrade, which even roger admits makes sense in this modern era. >> there are parts of san francisco where if i left my apartment stark naked in the morning i would get less attention than i would using a flip phone. people point at you, and they laugh. >> reporter: but check your kindl, your home alarm system and maybe even your car. a new faster system for sending data over wireless network has taken over, meaning some of your older tech won't work. >> this is the technology that will empower cities. slowly we're doing away with 3g. and then we'll have 5g which makes everything faster. >> reporter: muni says it hopes to update these systems by the end of the month. for now you'll need to get the data online. this shift affects a whole lot of us. >> we're talking about alarm symptoms, personal emergency response systems, those things that seniors rely on to live

scott budman has specific information for all of us who use a mart phone or a computer. >> reporter: they're not as loud but cyber hacks, as we know, can be extremely damaging. bay area cyber security experts say russia is likely planning several. >> the challenge that cyber brings to conventional warfare is you can hit offshore without deploying physical resources. >> reporter: casey ellis, founder of san francisco bay security company bug crowd says targets are likely to include big businesses both in ukraine and here. >> anyone from a financial services or oil and gas, electricity critical infrastructure standpoint. putting shields up is a good idea. >> reporter: all connected to our personal devices. think about how we bank, pay bills and interact with businesses from our phones. >> the phone is such a place for attacks. >> reporter: which is why christy edward, president of privacy code says it's essential to boost our own security so our private data stays private. >> we haven't gone and done our latest update on our phone, our os, our lap tops and desktops. when was the last t

. >> i'm scott budman. concern in ukraine leading to cyber concerns here at home. just ahead, how to protect yourself, your gadgets and your private data. >>> also detectives say he's tied to more than 50 cases in the south bay. how they finally tracked down this burglar. the news at 6:00 starts right now. thanks for being with us on this wednesday. i'm raj mathai. >> i'm jessica aguirre. too cold to stay outside. that is the warning. temperatures are going to begin dropping again tonight and san francisco firefighters are concerned about the city's homeless. just last night, a fire at a homeless encampment killed a woman and left three men hurt. there's going to be changes with the firefighters going out actually to see where

scott budman, nbc bay area news. >>> not only president's day holiday, this is winter break for many schools across the bay area, and many bay area families are in the sierra, or at least trying to get there. if you're traveling up to the mountains or coming back, be safe. a lot of people are on the roads. it is snowing in lake tahoe as we speak, also sonoma. this is a look at mt. rose. i know jeff is smiling. we finally get some snow. we're getting rain in the bay area as well, jeff. >> it's february. we should be getting this, right? i tallied it up for you, guys. 45 days until we had our last measurable rain or significant system moving across the bay area, and that snow, if you traveled up there, we saw the winter conditions we're dealing with through the next 24 hours. what you really want to be on the lookout for is those early conditions. we're talking about low snow in placerville, over to kirkwood 20 inches. a good hit of some snow, especially for those resorts. back here in the bay area, it also finally felt like winter out here from this low pressure system that's dropping

our business and tech reporter scott budman joins us. you spent the day in a company looking for cyber threats. what are they looking for? >> they are worried what russia is doing to ukraine might encourage other hackers to attack us and our banks, our businesses and our government. inside cybersecurity company barracuda networks, they refer to this area as the war room. >> we want to be on the forefront. detect something and stop the attack at the beginning. >> the chief technical officer says they are tracking chaos. the moves not of russian ground troops but cyberattacks. attacks against ukrainian government agencies, companies and social networks. >> they could do things that basically in the real world they cannot do. move faster, more invasive. very highly technical and very hard to defend. >> defend is job one here. trying to thwart the attacks if they target the u.s. and our institutions. silicon valley companies will tell you, this virtual world is a very real battleground. >> the intent is destructive. get in there and destroy

let's bring in our business and tech reporter scott budman. i don't think they can go higher, but now people are saying they could. how high? what are we thinking here? >> they can go higher. it was 2008 when oil was $50 higher than today. they can go higher. russia is the big producer of oil and natural gas, not only for the rest of europe, but a lot of that is going to be felt here in the u.s. the east coast needs the heat. we need the gas. it hits commuters. it also hits transportation. that's why we will see higher prices at the grocery store and goods that needs to be transported because they all need gas. >> this is what impacts every day people. we are driving to work, driving on vacation, this is what hits. >> here in the silicon valley, what now? we heard professor mcfaul talk about the thousands of tech workers in ukraine. what about the materials coming from ukraine? >> there are precious metals used in computer chips in russia and ukraine. there is already a chip shortage. that's causing car price to go go up. that's causing even m

our business and tech reporter scott budman spent the day in a company that's tracking cyberattacks and joins us live with what they're doing and what we're doing also. scott? >> reporter: they work in least one cybersecurity company refers to as the war room. we want to take you inside the headquarters of bare cuda networks in campbell. it's quiet, but they're constantly searching for rogue cyberattacks or hackers trying to take advantage of a chaotic situation, playing defense, they say is the main goal here, trying to thwart the attacks to our banks and apps. silicon valley companies will tell you this is the new battleground. >> they could do things that basically in the real world they cannot do. move faster, more evasive and hard to defend. >> let's talk about the issue of misinformation. this is one of the key things they keep talking about. we've seen already some of this in the last 24 hours. how can you trust what you see on the internet now? >> it's a great question, jessica. really, you shouldn't trust much you see on the internet right now. tiktok and twitter have been wond

scott budman tells us what we can do to protect ourselves. >> the merging of crypto currency and football didn't just happen during sunday's super bowl ads. the 49ers were hit by a ransomware attack by a group of cyber criminals claiming to have gotten access to private information stored on the team's it network. >> i don't think it's a coincidence this happened around the super bowl. >> ralph is president of a cybersecurity company. trackers will tell you sports teams and events are frequent targets of cyber criminals. they're high profile, often have lots of money, and treasure-troves of personal financial information on fans and ticketholders. >> what a criminal would try to do is take your social security, your address and open up an account or some kind of a, could be credit card, an account somewhere elsewhere they could monetize it. >> now for how crypto plays into this, the group claiming credit for the attack is set to be part of a ransomware gang known to attack networks. holding data hostage until they get paid. their ransom of choice these days, crypto currency like bitcoin,

our business tech reporter scott budman joins us now. the last time your paid check bought as little as it does today, et topped the hollywood box office and "physical" by olivia newton john was billboard's number one song. as inflation rises, your dollar simply does not go as far. for every $100 you spent last year you have to spend $1,750 for the same stuff today. used car costs largely this year because there is no used cars. furniture up 17%. a lot of food items up more than 10% making every trip to the grocery stores more expensive and causing more to use electricity. some higher prices are expected after all the government stimulated the economy pumping more money to help us get through covid and salaries are been rising. that's good news but except when consumer price rise at a faster phase. >> any number of people switched jobs are saying it is really hard to feel so i am ahead of the game primarily because i am seeing higher prices and i am having to adjust to that. >> dr. hudson points out this is hitting hardest for here in th

. >>> i'm scott budman.ing up, what they're looking for and the tools they're using to protect us. >>> here's a question a lot of people are asking. why exactly is the russian invasion driving up our gas prices? even though california does not get oil from russia? we have some answers. >>> the news at 6:00 starts right now. good evening. i'm raj mathai. >> and i'm jessica aguirre. all eyes on eastern europe as the world watches the invasion of ukraine. it has been 24 hours since fierce fighting began. the situation developing by the hour. let's look at kyiv where it's now 4:00 friday morning. you can see it's still dark. people are in the city taking shelter in subway stations. these pictures taken inside a downtown station in that capital city. russian forces are attacking by land, air, and sea. ukrainian president zelenskyy says at least 137 soldiers have been killed and more than 300 wounded. today u.s. president biden announced new sanctions against russia. those sanctions will target russian banks, garc

our business and tech reporter scott budman went inside one local company that is watching out for thoseer threats. >> reporter: we're at the headquarters here at barracuda networks a silicon valley cyber security company. even they refer to this as their war room these days. they track cyber threats 24/7, 365 days a year, but say now that we've seen the incursion into ukraine by russia not just with troops but with cyber attacks, that things are really on high alert right now. what are they looking to protect? they're using their scanning tools to make sure that government targets are okay and big companies like amazon or social net works. what can we do to help? they say while we may not as individuals be targets the companies we buy from and the banks we store our money could very well be targets. we can protect ourselves. use two factor authentication on your phone and be especially wary of misinformation. during time of war you'll see a lot of that. check your e-mails. make sure you trust the source before you click a link. just ask yourself, do i really need to be on this web page

joining me now with our business and tech reporter, scott budman, we knew there was a chance this couldpen. the markets knew there was a chance this could happen. now that it is here, what can we expect tomorrow? how bad will it be when the markets open? >> it is likely to be very rocky. as soon as we had reports bombs were falling in ukraine, the stock market futures which give an indication, instantly dropped by about 500 points. and the price of oil very closely tied to what russia does, jumped extremely high. the markets are uncertain and the biggest enemy of stock gains is uncertainty. and in the days ahead, we'll have a lot of that. >> so what will it look like for the average person like you and me, what do we look at in terms of the impact this could have? is it mostly in stocks? in gas? what will we see on the ground? >> first it will be those two things. it is likely the praise of gas will shoot up. again because of uncertainty dealing with what's going on in europe and russia. as for stocks, it is likely to be very ugly for a while. the markets have been trading down for week

let's bring in our business and tech reporter scott budman. who are the hackers targeting? specifically ukrainians, russians, or people in the united states? >> from what we hear so far, they're targeting ukrainian infrastructure. after all, they want to knock out as much as possible, and eventually they're going to try to target our devices. it is said in war truth is the first casualty. these devices we keep up with every second are not only subject to misinformation, but we have to protect them from any kind of hacking that the russians might try on these big businesses. >> what can we do? we got a note from our nbc i.t. saying be aware. what can we do? >> we can be protective of our own devices. two factor authentication on your phones. >> i'm not a total tech geek. can i do this? >> you can do it yourself. go on the laptop, any patch for any piece of software, any gadget you have likely has a homepage you can download a patch. we can also could want on big businesses, amazon, facebook, twitter, tiktok. a lot of these companies are often targeted as well. and if we're g

scott budman, "today in the bay." >> wow, air traffic controllers are going to be going crazy. >>> 4:h tradition ahead on "today in the bay," the familiar face that will be among the thousands at sofi stadium and how he makes sure the field is good to go ahead of every super bowl. >> and happening now, fire crews have a new base in the north bay that's aimed at response times. sonoma county just signed off on a deal with cal fire for employees to use the lows gullicos campus. the new site will be there, the first there in sonoma county since the 1990s. we'll be right back. care coalition, it's so good to see you all! alright! let's brainstorm. any ideas for new members? i'd like to nominate alaska airlines. this neck pillow i'm dating says great things! a caring airline?! wait, those exist?! it says here they were the first airline to switch from plastic bottles to boxed water. they also hire a lot of people from caring professions. i'm seeing former teachers and nurses. it's settled! alaska airlines is officially in the running! round of applause! since i left for college, my dad has

. >> reporter: i'm scott budman a huge thumbs down for facebook.>> let the games begin. we're live in beijing as competition gets under way before tomorrow's opening ceremony. >>> the news at 4:00 starts right now. thanks for joining us for this olympic edition of nbc bay air gentleman news. >> this is our new 4:00 time slot during these olympics. we go live to beijing in just a few minutes. we start at home with the brutal beating of a 49ers fan. he was attacked during last weekend's game down in los angeles. his name is daniel luna, and the story is eerily reminiscent of brian stone, the giants fan who was attacked many years ago. today luna's neighbors, customers and the 49er faithful are praying for the best. here i

our reporter scott budman tried out the simulator. the company's founder says once it's available, you may live further away from the bay area hustle and bustle. >> the cost of living is much lower and better quality of life, and you can fly here within 20, 30 minutes. >> aska is hoping its flying car makes it into production by 2026. they're actually making pre-orders now. the price tag, though, $790,000. they're hoping to eventually get the price down to the $200,000 range, i think. >> ouch either way. >>> 6:00 for you this morning. record inflation. prices keep soaring across the country and it's only expected to get worse. we have live team coverage this morning breaking down the increase in prices at the pump and grocery store. scott mcgrew dives into the numbers to show us where we can save. >> plus, winter games are heating up. we've got a live look at beijing where team usa is celebrating an overnight victory. a local olympian is getting a chance at gold after testing positive for covid. we're live from the games covering it a