in san jose, scott budman, nbc, bay area news. the gifts were given, but, well, some of them missed the mark. now tons of merchandise is returning to the store. i'm consumer investigator cis chmura with a revealing look at returns by the truckload and how they might score you a deal down the road. that's next. i'm chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. we'll get a check here of the long range forecast. and what's happening with those rain chances, plus some wind on the way. we'll (vo) with fargo, your virtual assistant from wells fargo, you can pick up the tab, even when you forget your wallet. (kaz) i got this. (ben) fargo, send kaz $145 dollars with zelle. (kaz) smooth. (vo) learn more at wellsfargo.com/getfargo. pete g. writes, "my tween wants a new phone. how do i not break the bank?" we got you, pete. xfinity mobile was designed to save you money and gives you access to wifi speeds up to a gig. so you get high speeds for low prices. better than getting low speeds for high prices. right, bruce? -jealous? yeah, look at that. -honest

a preliminary decision is expected in the coming days, and scott budman will rejoin us, and he will have more details on today's proceedings coming up in our 6:00 newscast. meanwhile, facebook's parent company meta announced it's ending a number of diversity, equity and inclusion programs. in a memo to employees, meta said it is ending internal programs enacted to increase the company's hiring of diverse candidates. it also announced its chief diversity officer will move into a new role. in its memo, meta said it continues to value diversity, and it still has a principle of serving everyone. our meteorologist, rob mayeda is here and the weekend is also here. what a nice week it's been. it's actually really unseasonably warm lately. the highs should be in the 50s. we hit mid 60s again today. sunshine. one thing to watch though will be the wind. we've got wind advisories returning as we head into tonight into saturday morning north and east bay hills. gusty conditions setting the stage for some chilly nights and mornings ahead. a look at that coming up in the extended forecast, but for now

let's bring in our business and tech reporter scott budman. you've been tracking this story for months. you listened to the hearing today, right? the whole thing. all right. so any idea which side you think the justices are leaning toward? it's hard to say. kris. it's a little early, and the justices have not so far made their decision public. but, you know, guessing from some of the questions, they seemed a little skeptical about tiktok's claim that this harms the first amendment rights of its users. and that's really the argument that tiktok is putting forward. so we don't know how it will go. but most of those who listen to that are far more experienced in legal matters than me seem to think they were leaning in a direction that is not pro tiktok, but instead would support the ban. okay, and we're about ten days away from this going into effect, right? ten would be the 19th of january. yes. okay. so could president elect trump step in? could the company consider selling part of itself or something to avoid the ban? what do you think? two gr

scott budman, nbc, bay area news. well, with so many people still in peril, the wildfires still raging, the oscars is making a change again. today, the academy said it extended the voting period for nominations to friday, and it pushed the nomination announcements back for a second time to next thursday. the academy also caeled next month's nominees luncheon. however, the ceremony itself is still at this point, scheduled for march 2nd at the dolby theater in hollywood. the future of san jose's regional medical center is finally looking more certain and stable. santa clara county and hca. hca health care announced today a formal agreement for the county to buy regional med for $150 million. the deal, which is subject to certain closing conditions and regulatory approval, is expected to close april 1st. over the years, due to budget issues and low profit margins, hca has downgraded regional med's trauma level and its comprehensive stroke and other cardiac services. the county says once it assumes hospital operations, it

so we sent our business and tech reporter scott budman in search of some answers. and hey, look, scott is here bearing those answers for you. scott, you know, everybody wants to know what do things look like in 25? it's hard to say. you know, everyone says, is it a seller's market? and with prices being as they are in the bay area, it's been a seller's market for a long time, but sellers haven't really wanted to sell for a while because they've been sitting on very low interest rates that they're paying about 3 to 3.5%. and as we know, the current interest rate has been about 6.5% for a year now. it's been steady. the question is, are buyers willing to pony up the money at that interest rate? many real estate agents say they are that the prevailing feeling is okay. this is how interest rates are going to be for a while. and if they dip, we can refinance. but we do want to get into some homes. i do have to say, scott, i've interviewed enough real estate agents to know the answer is always it's a good market when you're entering, when you're asking the real estate ag

let's bring in our business and tech reporter scott budman. scott, if i recall, these two were promising to fight each other recently, and now they're just dancing to the same tune. that's a great way of putting it. they went from cage match to let's get together and make a whole lot of money. and that is why trump and zuckerberg seem to be on the same page now. yes. okay, so tell us about what the what facebook announced they are doing today. so facebook says they are going to end their third party. in other words, independent outside content moderation as in letting outside content moderators decide if something is too racist or sexist or something like that in some way violent or disturbing. and they said, you know, they're not going to do that. they're essentially bowing to pressure, largely from conservatives who say too many of these decisions have come down against the right and are essentially policing and censoring right wing posts. so now mark zuckerberg saying he's going to do this community policing, which is kind of what elon musk

let's bring in our business and tech reporter scott budman. okay, scott, go ahead and tell us about red note. yeah, the more things change, audrey, apparently the more they stay the same. r red note, interestingly enough, owned by a chinese company just like tiktok. and so that's part of the problem. but also part of the interest. apparently people are going on red note and they're subtitling their their posts, which is thoughtful to people on the other end who may not speak either mandarin chinese or english. and there's a lot of back and forth, and it's very much like tiktok in terms of good feelings dances, but also, you know, giving our data to a chinese company and that has people worried. obviously, this is happening in the overall shadow of the supreme court deciding whether or not to let tiktok live here in the united states. okay, so i know you got to speak with the texas tech expert about all of this today. what are they telling you? well, so. right. you know, they point out that the same concerns that america has about tiktok. and r

we'll get more on that from our business and tech reporter scott budman.l, janelle, like pretty much everything related to ai, the ability here to help firefighters is promising, but is just starting to be used in the real world. for example, here in northernalifornia, a plume of smoke can now be spotted and tracked with ai. in fact, the tech can both spot fires before people can then send that data directly to cal fire for analysis. i'll get an email that will tell me that an anomaly has been detected. i'll click on that email. it'll give me an approximate location. machine learning, developed by companies like annette, based in los angeles. so as soon as we've identified with the sensor, there's something going on. there's heat. they can take an image and send that image confirmation right away to the fire department. and that fire department can then choose whether to send aircraft or a drone to help in the fire fight. how great it would be if we could deploy a drone or even a robot, you know, sniffer that can whatever can get there quickly and say, yep

scott budman joins us with why the new app many are jumping to, and why it may face some of the same potential issues. also, a teenager in the south bay is helping the fire relief down in southern california from a computer in cupertino. his new website creating a one stop shop for fire victims looking for help. and i'll have a look at that red flag fire warning in the wind forecast. plus, what's happening back here across the bay area. i'll get you all reaey for the weekend. coming up in just a few minutes. hello from azadi square in tehran. i am in the iranian capital for an exclusive interview with the president of this country. among the many topics to discuss donald trump and his return of maximum pressure on this country. also the status of the nuclear weapons program in iran and the question of sanctions, what iran might be willing to do to get out from under sanctions from the west. it's all bounced from one doctor to the next. did they even send my lab work...? wait, was i supposed to bring that? then there's the forms. the bills. the 'not a bills.' the.... ”press 4 to repea

let's bring in our business and tech reporter scott budman. hey, scott. well, candace, we're hearing from several companies involved in the firefight, from robotics to research to the now number one app in the apple app store, helping people get to safety. what you're seeing is the fire perimeter. the forecasted wind speed and the smoke concentrations at the surface as it blows across the ground. a computer simulation of the fire as it spread. designed to give insight to crew on the scene. created by the san jose state university wildfire research center. within the center here, we have lots of research looking at how to better model fire spread in urban environments and tree canopies and different conditions and complex terrain and mountains. among the most checked sites these days belongs to watch duty, a nonprofit whose free app sends live updates to users about both active fires and the crews fighting them. getting that information out early is what makes the difference. an app that's been downloaded 1.5 million times over the last two days, providing

let's bring in our business and tech reporter scott budman with that part of the story. scott, it seems there is nothing tech isn't touching. it's true. kiera. and we are hearing today from tech companies both in southern california and northern california, using ai and drones to detect flare ups and then to try to reach the fires as quickly as possible. they're among the newest weapons in the wildfire fight drones, bringing necessary equipment into a fire zone and getting closer to flames than humans would be able to safely. drones can also map the firefight, along with satellites dubbed eyes in the sky by nasa, especially with the satellites that measure the whole planet and can observe the whole planet over long periods of time. some of the folks here at ames are using the suborbital assets to study more closely and with better spatial resolution. the fires. the tech is often pointed towards flames by companies like annette, based in los angeles, fighting fires with ai powered hardware and software that can detect smoke from massive distances and determine whether it's

our scott budman talked with some of them today. scott, let's go ahead and start with the donation drive in livermore. yeah, this makes sense. audrey, we here in the newsroom, so many people asking how to help the people, how to help the firefighters. and you can do it on a local level. we saw some people in livermore today filling up a u-haul. you'd be surprised at how many people are filling up vans with supplies, with clothes, baby things. this is litally one woman's effort. she has a friend in the fire zone who lost her home and she was just inspired to help out. got neighbors to donate clothing. they bought a lot of new goods, and this is the kind of thing we've seen day by day. they then drove this u-haul down to los angeles to obviously help those who need so many things right now. it's amazing to see so many people helping out. i don't know if you saw the ending of nightly news, but the guy was reunited with his dog. i couldn't help but cry because it's not just about the people, right? it's about the pets too. yeah, and actu

i want to bring in our business and tech reporter, scott budman to talk about it. good year. yeah, it really was. i mean, new year's eve. and here we are looking back on a banner year for stocks, jessica. especially stocks based here in silicon valley. not only did the broad market do very well this year, leading to gains in your 401 k, the s&p 500 index up more than 20% for the second straight year. that's pretty rare. and once again, as we mentioned, silicon valley led the way higher. ai hype. of course we talked about that all year. it was everywhere. it brought in trillions of dollars in new wealth to the stock market, leading to gains in just about all sectors of our economy. and chances are your 401 k plan, even if you're not directly invested in ai stocks, saw strong gains over the last 12 months. what we take particular pride in is that our innovation ecosystem, right. our leading tech companies have driven these tremendous gains. so it's incredibly exciting. and our region, silicon valley is really at the center of it all. good point. but let's also point out that pi

let's bring in our business and tech reporter scott budman. so quick question here. why would people jump to another chinese app? wouldn't they just jump to instagram or something else? yeah, it's funny to me. roger that. they call it the chinese tiktok. that's really what we're talking about here is tiktok's identity. yes, most of them will jump to places like instagram, but a lot of people are saying, hey, we want to try another chinese app. not really aware that that is the one reason that tiktok might go away. and as we learned, red note would go away for the same reason at the same time as tiktok. that is what the law says. okay, where do we stand on tiktok's chances now surviving in america past january 19th? so that's in a few days from now. that's before the inauguration, which is monday, january 19th, is this sunday. two things that we'll know probably tomorrow, because wednesday is when the supreme court releases its decisions. do they uphold the law that would ban tiktok on the 19th? if so, the only thing that could get in the way would be a company steppi

joining me now is business and tech reporter scott budman. not exactly a great, you know, positive for chatgpt that it's used in this way, obviously, but it does reinforce the whole complexity around artificial intelligence and the fact that it can be used for good or for bad. right? exactly. for good and for bad. jessica, as you said, there is an inevitability to this. remember when the internet took off and we were finding so many new things via search engine, people would look up good and they would look up bad, and they might look up how to build a bomb or something like that. and it became kind of a thing that ultimately officers used. when they would arrest someone for a crime. they would say, let's look at the search results. and now perhaps ai is next to be looked at. okay, so we saw that before, where people were a little astonished that people were planning things and looking up, oh, how do i get rid of a body? how do i dismember somebody? and, you know, police were finding that they had a search. did anything come of that? yeah. se

let's bring in let's bring in our business and tech reporter scott budman to hear more about the year in stocks and the year in your retirement account. yeah, which is what a lot of us track irvine. and, you know, stocks did broadly well this year. you mentioned a few, but really an overall good year for the market. likely an overall good year for your 401 k plan. the s&p 500 you mentioned up more than 20%. this is the second straight year that that's happened. pretty rare. once again silicon valley leading the way. ai hype as we talked about was everywhere. it brought trillions of dollars in wealth to the stock market. that led to gains in just about all sectors of our economy this year. and chances are your 401 k plan, even if you're not directly invested in ai, saw strong gains over the last 12 months. what we take partiticular pride in is tt our innovation ecosystem, right, our leading tech companies have driven these tremendous gains. so it's incredibly exciting. and our region, silicon valley, is really at the center of it all. yes. but as we've learned, tech can go either way.

our business tech reporter scott budman joins me now with a bit of advice. and treasury department, that's really interesting that it would be that. do we know what they were looking for? not yet. jessica, this is still early, but the fact that they did get in is very worrisome. treasury department officials say hackers, they think from a chinese intelligence agency, managed to get into their computers. and they did so via the workstations of government employees. they got access to documents. it's a breach that shows us how vulnerable we are when we, either as individuals or giant government agencies, use outside companies known as third parties. that's how the hackers got in in this case. it's also how criminals often try to get our private data by going through third party software and apps that we use on our phones and laptops every day. look at all the different things that you may have connected to your email, to your browser. you know, even simple things like, you know, it's tax time coming up. you know, you're going to connect your, you know, your ta

we want to bring in our business and tech reporter scott budman and mark zuckerberg taking a position today with this company that a lot of people say is in anticipation of the new administration. yeah, we're looking at a lot of things here, jessica. you're right. mark zuckerberg recently in the spotlight when president elect trump called him out for allegedly censoring conservative voices on facebook and instagram, suggesting zuckerberg should be in jail. today, it appears zuckerberg is responding to the accusations by making a turn ay from content moderation to what he says is more free speech. big changes coming to instagram and facebook announced by mark zuckerberg himself. first, we're going to get rid of fact checkers and replace them with community notes. community notes from users like what you see on x instead of meta's previous third party fact checkers. but the fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the us. it's a move criticized by consumer groups, who say those who use social media are vulnerab

well, from one superstar beyonce to another, our business and tech reporter, scott budman, he's going to take a look back on the year in stocks and the impact it has had on your 401 k. spoiler alert it's been good. it's been good okay. that's good. but scott's going to use more words. got it. yeah he's a superstar with that stuff. so all right garvin thank you so much. we'll see you in a little bit. you got it. all right. still to come top trending story as voted by you on my instagram survey. also they already had a balloon drop. we're going to take you to the place on the peninsula that rang in 2025. this afternoon. hear that? that's the sound of your life. perfectly imperfect. but every time you drive after drinking, the music gets drowned out. your lif un pretty great. don't let a buzz ruin it. buzzed driving is drunk driving. don't drive buzzed. dr. graham survey some serious monkey business. chp officers found a baby monkey inside a rolls royce after they stopped the driver for speeding. officers say they first stopped the driver for going over the speed limit on highway 99 in m

our business and tech reporter following the story, scott budman, you were listening in, what is the latest? you know, it's interesting. no decision yet from the high court on what happens next with tiktok. but barring a last second stay, this could be the company's last stand before its parent company has to make a decision to sell to an american company or be banned from american app stores. on january 19th, just nine days away, here's how we got to this point. congress approved that ban due to concerns that tiktok is a national security risk. that's because it's owned by a chinese company, bytedance, which they believe is susceptible to the influence of the chinese government. today, tiktok argued that such a ban would violate the first amendment rights of its millions of users, but it faces the rare combination of both democrats and republicans favoring a ban. court watchers say the questions from the justices today hint that they're leaning toward leaving that ban in place. here's a little of that. what happens after january 19th if you lose this case? can you just spell that ou