back to you. >> sharon katsuda live this morning. u, sharon. >>> let's talk about the forecast and weather. we've been talking about air quality and certainly a lot of those people out of their homes right now. how is the air quality? >>> it's really bad. it's getting worse. we think about all the fires that we have burning statewide from the creek fire to the bear fire. we have new fires burning to the west of redding and, of course, the three fires we have in parts of the north bay this morning. so all of this smoke is just being blown around by variable winds that have been at times gusty but we can see just how much over the past 24 hours as we look at the smoke and pollution in the upper levels of the atmosphere covering the north bay right now. it's moving into the rest of the bay area. as we wake up and get ready to head out to work limit your time outside today. we're back into the unhealthy category looking at our air quality in the north bay moving over to the east bay and down to the santa clara valley. with the variable wi

reporting live, i'm sharon katsuda, "today in the bay." >>> sharon, thank you. 6:46.morning the man once known as president trump's fixer is making explosive new allegations about their relationship. president trump's former personal lawyer michael cohen, now a convicted felon, calls his former boss a cult leader in a new book. "today in the bay's" tracie potts is live in washington with a first look at an exclusive sitdown with nbc's lester holt. tracie. these revelations come as cohen is trying to sell this book. >> reporter: absolutely. and while cohen says he never heard the president use racial slurs, he does describe in the book what he calls racial interactions with the president. for example, he says one time they were driving through a chicago neighborhood that'spred said, quote, only the blacks could live this way. and he speaks about the president's hatred for former president obama claiming it's all rooted in the fact president obama was the first black president. all of this detailed in this book that's coming out today called "disloyal: a memoir." cohen

reporting live at sonoma raceway i'm sharon katsuda. back to you. >> thank you, sharon. right now at 6:10 let's get a look at all of the smoke we have drifting into the bay area and the numerous fires burning across the state and that's going to cause a lot of issues for just getting outside today. unhealthy air quality continues for all of our microclimates. it's going to be especially bad in the north bay in those fire zones. unhealthy air quality today and we're going to see that once again continuing into the end of the week. but we also have some really hot temperatures continuing today coming down a few degrees in yesterday where we set some records. where we will feel the difference will be near the immediate coastline as well as san francisco reaching into the upper 70s with some upper 90s in the valleys. we'll track that with another update in a few minutes, marcus and laura. >> thanks so much, kari. keeping our eyes on the wildfires. they come amid the pandemic that we're in. next on "today in the bay" at 6:25 this morning, an

in martinez, sharon katsuda, nbc bay area news. >> all right, sharon, thank you. >>> just in, we are learning new details about plans to remember the late justice. justice ginsburg's body will lie in repose wednesday and thursday at the supreme court building in washington d.c. her coffin is expected to arrive there just before 6:30 wednesday morning when a private ceremony will be held. the public will be able to participate in outdoor viewing. this is during those days. she will lie in state at the capitol building. this is on friday where another private ceremony will be held. ginsburg's family revealed that they plan to hold a priva burial next week at arlington national cemetery. >>> local members are also really being getting a part of this. those memorials are popping up throughout the bay area as well for supreme court justice. that celebration was held at oakland's lake mere. many believe this is not time for politics. >> i don't want it to be about other sides. this is about humanity. this is about justice. this is about all of us having rights, and that is what the notorio

"today in the bay" sharon katsuda joins us outside one school that is preparing for in-person classes. goodern moing, sharon. >> good morning, laura. yes, very excited here in menlo park. they aric looing forward to opening for in-person classes and a lot of schools throughout the bay area are starting to get waivers from the counties. last friday the state announced a shift from its monitoring list to a color coded four-tier blue print for a safer economy. since many counties are in the purple tier, schools are not permitted to open for in-person learning until covid-19 conditions improve and move into the next tier, red, for 14 days. move into the red tier and the county case rate would need to be between four to seven new cases per day per 100,000 county residents and testing positivity of between 5% to 8%. in the purple tier, counties may accept waivers to allow in-person learning for elementary schools. as part of the waiver application process schools and districts in alameda county, for example, would need to develop a reopening plan that addresses categories that include disin

reporting live, i'm sharon katsuda "today in the bay." >> thank you very much, sharon.team has looked into the california unemployment department. head to nbcbayarea.com/responds to check out the investigation. the best way to get benefits if you do need them. >> as for new bay area cases, santa clara county added the most yesterday. >>> and happening today we are expecting new details on exte extending quarantine to 15 cities for those who are homeless or condition isolate at home. since june the program provided motel rooms for hundreds of people exposed to coronavirus. a rally is set for this morning as thousands of san francisco's renters tried to make it in the bay. demanding the city stop evictions for those who are out of work who can't support themselves during the pandemic. the rally will start at 8:30 at the courthouse and then turn into a car caravan going from the courthouse. >>> to the fires burning statewide, nearly 30 major wildfires continue to burn. among them the el dorado fire in san bernardino and riverside counties. that's the one that was started d

our sharon katsuda is there talking to evacuees. we'll have that when we return. this election, all californians will be able to vote safely from home. every active, registered voter will receive a vote-by-mail ballot with a unique barcode. you can track it using where's my ballot? and you'll receive automatic notifications by text, email or to let you know the status of your ballo drop it off at your polling place or at a drop box. vote by mail ballots. simple, safe, secure. counted. learn more at vote.ca.gov >>> right now at 5:44 we monitor the relative monument and when it gets below 30% and we have some winds fires can spread rapidly. take a look at these numbers now. we're down to 8% relative humidity, critically dry conditions and still breezy. we'll talk about our fire conditions and the fires coming up in a few minutes. >>> kari, the rest of the bay area as well we look at the bay bridge toll plaza, metering lights were turned on with no backup at first. things have gradually built over at the toll plaza side. the maps will outline areas we're talking thre

"today in the bay" sharon katsuda joins us now outside one of the schools>> school distric schools and here in menlo park are getting waivers from the county. last friday the state announced a shift from its monitoring list to a color coded four-tier. since many counties are in the purple tier, schools are not permitted to open for in-person learning until covid conditions improve. to move into the red tier, the county's case rate needs to be between four to seven per 100,000 residents and a testing positivity of 1 to 5%. as part of the waiver application process, schools and districts in alameda county, for example, would need to develop a reopening plan that addresses categories that include disinfectants, cohorting, health training, contact tracing and testing of all staff. many schools that are asking for waivers are those that have students with special needs and find it difficult to conduct online learning. now, check out the list of schools that are applying for these waivers and the list is very long and the county health departments are going through them one by one. reporting

sharon katsuda is live at the sonoma race way where that's where a lot of people are going. there's more room out there, sharon. >> reporter: that's right, laura. this is nice if you have the transportation to get here. you can see there's about ten vehicles, taking advantage of this space. now evacuees are welcome here. i spoke with one evacuee who showed us in st. helena. that's why his family fled even without the nixle alert. his family stood in line with hundreds of other evacuees. as of 7:00 p.m. last night they still had not received any information from the red cross or the church. they were heading back home even when they knew they had no power there and downed power lines and risk of active fire. i texted him back but haven't heard his status of his family and if they went home or were stopped before getting there. so far if you can get the transportation down here this area is open to 2,000 vehicles, less than a dozen here using this space. hopefully they will have some resources to provide you. pretty limited. i'm hearing only restrooms and possibly some water a

nbc bay area's sharon katsuda joins us live from napa county this morning trying to get some answers for us. sharon? >> reporter: laura, i have to tell you we are surrounded by wineries here. and it is such a tense situation. let me show you why. we have flare-ups everywhere. just up the road here we saw firefighters putting out a flare-up, up the road. and you can see a lot of the smoke, the remnants from that. you can see power is out in this area from the spotlights here at this intersection at deer park road. and then just on the corner of this property here we can show this tree. that went up in flames while we were setting up to do our live shot. so we had to actually move locations, and luckily firefighters put that out quickly. just about five minutes away from here we saw active flames along the road and had to turn around because some power poles were still on fire, and there were downed powerlines. and then not too far away from that we saw a very sad sight, glass mountain inn bed and breakfast burned to the ground. pretty much just a chimney and fountain left standing ther

sharon katsuda live for us this morning. >>> we are talking about thousands of people evacuated here. let's check in with "today in the bay's" bob redell this morning. he's also live out there in numerous neighborhoods that have just gone up in flames. bob? >> reporter: in east santa rosa alone 6,500 people have already been evacuated and when we spoke with the fire department public information officer they were telling us a lot of people took the warning and left because they remembered 2017. they remember last year. the problem with 2017 was a good thing but the problem now this area, specific area i'm at didn't burn. that's why it's burning now. we're in this neighborhood on malita place glenn in east santa rosa. we talked down here to the cul-de-sac. you see all these homes that didn't burn except for this one at the end, at the very end. sadly it caught fire probably about an hour now. the fire department was here shortly after it caught fire and in spite of their efforts the home looks like it's going to be a loss. he

. >> reporter: i'm sharon katsuda at sonoma raceway where they are welcoming evacuees from the glass, and they are expecting many more evacuees. this lot, 50 acres, holds up to 2,000 vehicles. when you arrive here, evacuees will be given snacks, water. they'll provide services such as showers and restrooms. >>> you know, bob mentioned that the temperatures out there are a little cooler. that should help today with the firefight, kari. >>> yes, especially this morning. we are still going to have a hot afternoon and we're going to see a light, variable wind today bringing in some of the smoke into the rest of the bay area. but for napa today we're reaching up to 92 degrees and some upper 90s for the inland east bay. san jose and palo alto will reach 90 degrees and san francisco in the upper 70s. our air quality will be unhealthy especially close by those fires in the north bay and even going to the end of the week all of our microclimates will have a spare the air alert and some drifts of smoke coming in. our temperatures over the next few days will most likely be in the triple digits

. >> reporter: i'm sharon katsuda with a quick update from the marin county health department.r plan to move to tier two which would have loosened restrictions for many businesses in the county including opening up to indoor dining and movie theaters. they're saying the state wants to review the data, and they'll have an update by late they are week. >> reporter: i'm cierra johnson in downtown calistoga. all morning we've been in communication with pg&e and we can confirm that everyone that was scheduled to have their power shut off it's completed. if you're wondering why the lights are on in downtown calistoga, they've had a micro grid that would restore power for as many as 600 customers. for those without power, what's next? pg&e says they're going to work to check out some of the de-energized lines and work to have the power restored within 12 daylight hours. >>> some good news, thanks, cierra. let's go over to kari and check your weather. >>> we're still going to have very smoky conditions today. look at the air quality that we're seeing over san francisco right now. and y

"today in the bay's" sharon katsuda is live to explain what's happening between now and then that may those people stretched even more thin, sharon. >> reporter: that's right, marcus. this will be frustrating for so many people. now if you lost your job due to the pandemic and you filed your claim already then that's a good thing, but if you procrastinated or haven't done it yet you'll have to wait even longer. more than 591,000 californians are still waiting after filing claims more than three weeks ago. this woman filed june 7th and has still not received a check or a response. she was counting on about $400 per week. >> just knowing that extra money is something i paid into and should be available to me and make life a little bit easier for us. >> reporter: the website says from september 20th through october 4 edd will not accept new on line applications. it says it will improve to identify and cut down on fraud. the governor's strike team recommended a two-week hold. people are suffering because of the backlog. >> the calls we have received from constituents who are hanging by a