thom jensen, nbc bay area news. >>> your pg&e bill, californians have been getting eye popping natural gas bills and governor newsom is calling for an investigation why. asking to assess the prices, if they're determined by market or anticompetitive behavior. >>> the president will have the state of the union address tomorrow. a white house official tells us the tone will be optimistic, will talk about the economy, focusing on legislative wins and give examples of how americans are starting to benefit from them, like rebuilding of roads and bridges and lowering of costs of prescription drugs. it's not all rosy though, inflation is still a four decade high. three people from the bay area will be in the audience. two female scientists from the livermore lab, the director and a physicist. they announced a breakthrough in fusion energy which would be a first step in weaning the world off fossil fuels. also a business owner, the owner of pizza my heart, the restaurant that suffered severe storm damage last month and is one of the businesses the president visited when he came to california.

thom jensen, "today in the bay." >>> we have another follow-up out of oakland, a story we covered all morning long on "today in the bay," the historic fame church now faces a full rebuild following the devastating early morning fire that happened. the first african methodist episcopal church is the coldest in the east bay and was established in 1858 and moved to its current location in 1954. investigators still have not determined the cause, but at this time they are not calling it suspicious. the pastor tells us the church must rebuild for oakland. >> it's not about me or our members, it's really about the community. fame is a family church, a community church, and we're just so grateful that people have come from all over showing love, spreading love, and asking how they can help. >> the church has already started a gofundme account to raise money for new construction. you can find a link on our website, nbcbayarea.com. >>> in oakland there's mounting pressure as more supporters call for the reinstatement of fired oakland police chief leronne armstrong. the city's naacp leaders held

"today in the bay's" thom jensen has more on fresh memories from some people living in that area. >> reporter: the fire started just after 4:00 p.m. in the rear of this house in the 6800 block of aitken drive. it was engulfed in flames and started spreading. this boy was doing homework when he heard a lot of commotion and saw the house behind his home was in flames and burning fast. >> i was really scared because it looked very close and just huge plumes of black smoke. i immediately called my father and told him. >> aidan and his friend were too young who have witness today 1991 oakland hills fire but they know the story. 25 people died and nearly 3,000 homes were destroyed. >> fires around here really puts us in shock a little bit because our house survived the '91 fires. >> reporter: they say they were relieved to see the fire contained. oakland fire station 6 is just a half mile from the scene and firefighters were here in a couple of minutes. >> we certainly never get complacent. we always take every incident in the city very seriously, but more so incidents involving the high f

thom jensen, nbc bay area news.ther memphis police officer has been fired in the wake of tyre nichols' death. the department announced today preston hemphill violated multiple department policies. nichols died last month after being pulled over for a traffic stop and beaten. he died three days later. five other memphis police officers have been fired and criminally charged with second degree murder and other counts. >>> billionaire elon musk won't to have pay a cent. late today a jury in san francisco said musk did not defraud investors. a vindicated musk took to twitter where this all started moments after that verdict came down. here's nbc bay area's gia vang. >> reporter: elon musk was found not liable in a class action suit. in 2018 musk tweeted he was considering taking tesla private and secured funding. shareholders filed a class action lawsuit claiming security fraud because they bought shares of tesla stock based on that tweet and claim they lost significant amounts of money. here's one of their lawyers afte

thom jensen, "today in the bay." >>> the mask mandate is over for some students in the south bay. san jose's alum rock school district has been one of the last holdouts in all of california. kids have been wearing masks in the classroom for months. with california's covid state of emergency set to expire at the end of the month, the mandate is lifting. educators felt an extended mask requirement was necessary. the district is in an area with the highest covid contagion rates and lowest vaccination rates. >>> it is 7:11 right now. we have much more ahead on "today in the bay." coming up, if you have a sweet tooth, today is the day to indulge. how you can participate in eat ice cream for breakfast day. and how it is bringing awareness to a great cause. when i was his age, we had to be inside to watch live sports. but with xfinity, we get the fastest mobile service and can stream down the street or around the block! hey, can you be less sister, more car? all right, let's get this over with. switch to xfinity mobile and get the best price for 2 lines of unlimited. just $30 a line per

"today in the bay's" thom jensen explores whether the temporary solution is working. >> reporter: these are the barricades that went up this morning. they're temporary, and neighbors said they wanted something heavier. we were here for a minute, and somebody moved in barricade. neighbors said they'd like the big plastic ones that are filled with water so they're more difficult to move. >> these barricades represent the extent of the resources the city will put to the mission. >> reporter: brian has an office in the neighborhood where he says he practically lives. the sex work traffic in the mostly residential area has gone up a lot the past two years. but he's not necessarily a fan of these roadblocks. >> i'd like to see the neighbors around here not complaining about what's on their street and helping out on the street. we can't push this to a different district or push it over a street. >> reporter: the supervisor requested the blockades after receiving complaints from residents. >> the goal of this operation is to really get the sex trade off of the residential street. cap street is

thom jensen. >> we have been following fire throughout the evening.e issued a breaking news alert when we learned about it. make sure to download the app to get breaking news and weather alerts sent straight to your phone. >>> things weren't too dry there and firefighters in oakland are thankful for the recent wet weather. more rain is hours away. you can see all that green. let's bring in jeff. jeff, we are talking soon in a couple of hours we will start to see that rain. >> that's right. you can see it on mobile doppler radar. that rain is developing just off shore. it it is part of this cold front. as that marches over the bay area that rainfall is going to hit us. also some heavier pockets. 2:00 in the morning it's over gur nville. watch how fast it moves over to the east bay, south bay, peninsula by 5 arm. here is a.m. wind gusts 15 to 35. second storm arrives saturday night and then sierra snow in the forecast that could close roads this weekend. i have my updated timeline in about ten minutes. >>> new video of thieves getting away with a half a