thank you, scott budman. we'll see you tomorrow as well. >>> up next here, it's not just twitter making deep cuts. meta also prepping for major layoffs, and it could happen asap. we'll explain. >>> and we know the odds are bad, but that doesn't stop you and stop us from dreaming about being a millionaire. we're talking to a stanford doctor about the psychology doctor about the psychology behi playing the powerbalndl. this is what voting yes on prop 31 means. yes on 31 ends the sale of candy flavored tobacco products. yes, stops big tobacco from targeting our kids. yes, protects kids from nicotine addiction. vote yes on 31. this is what voting yes on prop 31 means. yes on 31 ends the sale of candy flavored tobacco products. yes, stops big tobacco from targeting our kids. yes, protects kids from nicotine addiction. vote yes on 31. >>> welcome back to nbc bay area news tonight. first it was twitter, and now facebook. parent company meta is reportedly on the verge of thousands of layoffs. it's something that's ne

. >> let's bring in our business and tech reporter scott budman.ou are covering this every second of the day. in simple terms now, we can talk about the rates going up. in layman's terms, what is going up? prices of groceries? chipotle, mcdonald's? what's going up? >> all of those. think of that. we dade lot of spending coming out of the pandemic. we started to travel again. we've seen airline costs go up. we've gone out to dinner. restaurants are packed again. they're spending more. our groceries are costing more. we're right in the teeth of inflation. that's what the fed is trying to battle here. they figure by raising interest rate, maybe we'll spend less and prices will come down. it just hasn't happened again. >> it's a gamble. we have to spend less. therefore everything cools down. i know people are pinching pennies, but the holidays are here. >> that's a big concern. we're heading into a season where we often spend even beyond our means. >> sure. >> my kid wants a bike you do it. you figure it out later. >> and all of the businesses know tha

. >> reporter: our tech and business reporter scott budman is here now. scott, what kind of hit is the city taking from these empty offices? this isn't just a few kpz. this is widespread. >> reporter: i think the city is going to take a pretty big hit. after all, you just said yourself, people were told to stay home. those office buildings were empty for about 2 1/2 years. just when things are getting back to the office, now we have a wave of layoffs. but really you said also the people that are really going to get hit instantly are those small businesses. they were really counting on the foot traffic from techies, and they'll miss a lot of that. >> are we going to keep seeing this in the next three to six months in terms of whether you have layoffs or consolidations? >> reporter: yeah, because typically when you have layoffs, companies get nervous about adding jobs for a little bit. they want to turn things around and wait until the results get better and their stock prices get better and the economy gets better. so even if meta did just enough or if amaz

our scott budman asked him what he thinks of holmes' sentence. >> it's a stiff sentence. that said, you know, this was a brazen fraud, and it was a case where not only were investors defrauded but patients were put in harm's way. and i think that that's the most outrageous part of this whole story, even if she wasn't found technically guilty on the patient fraud counts, i think the impact on patients and the way -- the way her actions and sunny balwani's actions jeopardized the public's health were a huge part of this. >> cameras were not allowed inside the courtroom, but our scott budman was, and he was live tweeting during the proceedings. be sure to follow him for updates on the theranos cases including balwani's sentencing on december 7th. his handle @scottbudman. >>> new this morning, authorities are looking for the driver who crashed into a building in the east bay and ran away. it happened around 3:30 this morning on 20th street in oakland. crews say when they arrived, they found that car inside the building, but the driver was nowhere to be found. oakland police a

we also have our scott budman inside the courthouse as we speak keeping us up to date on what exactly is happening inside. no cameras are allowed in there so he is pretty of our eyes and ears this morning -- afternoon i should say. >> it has been very surprising the amount of time this is taking. her family seated behind her, he

scott budman was in the courtroom when elizabeth holmes was sentenced. he is back in our newsroom and will join us in a minute. >>> the latest surrounding twitter. employees get locked out of the office. now elon musk makes a declaration. >>> this truck drives straight through a home in the south bay. we are talking to police and neighbors about how this all went down. >>> it's a talk at school. rsv and other colds are going around. ian cole is talking to experts about what we should know and do heading into the holidays. >>> let's start with the season tensing grabbing the attention of silicon valley and beyond. i'm talking about elizabeth holmes. she's going to prison.

our business and tech reporter, scott budman, has been on top of the story for days now. scott, thank you so much for joining us again about this. yesterday and the past few days you've been mentioning maybe we're going to have to start paying for the blue checkmarks. is that the case now? >> it seems to be, audrey. like we said yesterday, every 24 hours something changes. yesterday we were talking, you and i, about possibly $20 a month. today musk says the blue checkmarks will cost $8 a month. after a huge backlash on, where else, twitter, he seems to have lowered the price. it's the one on our site. some of us have the blue checkmarks. it's something that for now we don't pay for, and there you are, and that shows if i listen to something and see a tweet from audrey asistio on the nbc bay area site or an nbc news site, i verified that this is something from a real journalist. you've been verified. our station actually took care of that because it's important that what we tweet out is verified news. you get a little priority on things like video and text mess messaging.

scott budman has the lates on silicon valley's ongoing soap opera. >> reporter: after a surprise closure last week, twitter headquarters is open again with no shortage of drama going on inside. growing revenue concerns as advertisers hit pause and more layoffs as new owner elon musk cuts costs. >> he was actually shooting himself in the foot. >> reporter: bans are being lifted. president trump's account has been reinstated, along with kanye west. and some of the thousands of laid-off employees say they're now being asked to come back. >> it's a little bit like being on an airplane where your pilot is announcing as you're going along that i think we can fly without two engines, let's try one engine. the plane dips and then he says, oops, maybe we need to bring another engine back on. >> reporter: much of what we're learning about the chaos, we're learning on twitter itself, with accounts like best of dying twitter tracking all of it minute by minute. >> twitter is a huge platform. and with a lot of power comes a lot of responsibility irks. >> reporter: isa watson says musk is putting twit

from users to political endorsements, and our business reporter scott budman is tracking all of it for us, keeping us up to date. and scott, so for today, i guess i want to start off with the layoffs. where do they stand right now? >> they've gotten crazy. we thought we were done with them. we have thousands of people laid

in san francisco, scott budman, nbc bay area news. >> okay, now this. a handful of now former twitter employees are already fighting back. a lawsuit was filed last night in anticipation of today's layoffs. it claims elon musk and twitter violated employment laws. they're specifically talking about what's called the warn acts, the federal and state laws that require large companies to give employees along with public officials 60 days notice before a large layoff. the suit argues musk didn't do that. today we spoke with the plaintiffs attorney who also filed a similar suit against tesla earlier this year. >> we filed this case last night preemptively to make sure that twitter and elon musk follow the law. musk has a history of violating the law. we are warning employees not to sign that release, not to sign away their rights until we know more about what's going on. >> now, nbc news talked with multiple former employees and reviewed the e-mail sent to layoff employees. it says their last day working at the company is today but they'll continue to be paid

our business and tech reporter scott budman will join us with the deals we all can expect. >>> let'sstart with the oakland mayor's race. mayor-elect shang tao will be the first conceded this morning. as of last night there were about682 votes separating the two candidates. taylor said there was no way for him to close that gap under oakland's rank choice voting system. >> a significant number of people whose voices were not factors into the final decision of who would be oakland's next mayor. that 15% of those ballots would have counted if we had a regular primary and election. >> taylor also thanked his staff and volunteers for a hard-fought campaign. he also said he isn't seeking a recount, though tao winning by nearly 700 votes does mean that others can explore it if they want to. mayor-elect shangá÷ tao said sh spoke with taylor this morning and promised to work together with him to build an oakland for everyone. >> i'm really confident that i can bring everyone to the table to work together. because at the end of the day, we all want the same thing. our north star is to create,

scott budman breaks down when we expect prices to drop. the news at 6:00 starts now. thanks for joining us on this wednesday. i'm raj mathai. >> i'm jessica aguirre. it is not what you want to hear. interest rate are going up again. that means everything from your credit card debt to the price of a home mortgage is about to go up as well. why the fed says it needs to raise those rates again. >> let's put it simply, jessica. we're still shopping. businesses are still spending, the economy is still hot, and that means inflation is still high. the government's still trying to slow things down to curb inflation by raising rates. >> it's going to be 14.20. >> reporter: walk into a restaurant and ask anysmall business owner, they'll tell you inflation is still a big problem, sending prices sky high. >> thank you. >> paper products have quadrupled. meats have quadrupled. it's very hard for small businesses to stay alive nowadays. >> reporter: the same goes for shoppers getting groceries and drivers getting gas. >> everything is definitely more expensive. >> reporter: which i